The most important issue of the past two weeks is in the water department. In a rare local triple play, the County Commissioners, City Council and the public at large (if the Exchange editorials can be used as proxy for general sentiment) are in agreement that the water plant in Wagram is a very important asset and not one to give away to Pinehurst, unless there is no better option. To begin to grapple with this complex issue, The City Manager and I travelled to Charlotte for a meeting with a large consulting firm with expertise in water systems. The trip was well worth it, not because we were able to take in the Steelers-Panthers game while there, but because we were able to begin to understand some of the elements necessary to make an informed decision. Basically, we need to know what is our water situation here in Scotland County over the next 50 years, or so, and what is the water situation in the neighboring municipalities, particularly those within Moore County, over the same time period and will the final analysis indicate that it is worth it for us to buy the 5.5 million dollar plant to keep it in our hands. Because if we are not going to buy it, someone else likely will. For those of you who might think that we don’t see the importance of this asset, I assure you we do. Many say ‘water is tomorrow’s gold’ and ‘those who control their water control their destiny’ and other catchy phrases like those. We agree, but there are other sayings I would call to your attention such as ‘only fools rush in’. So, over the next 90 days, the City and County will be working furiously to arrive at the best decision.

Next up is recreation. There is a widespread feeling here in Laurinubrg that we need a centrally-located recreation/community center for the youth and adults of the City . Later this month we will have the initial meeting of the Laurinburg Recreation Center Committee which will consist of locally elected officials from city, county and schools. The committee hopefully will move forward on coming up with a plan of what it should consist of and where it should be. The City of Rockingham, a city smaller than ours and with a similar socio-economic profile, is about to embark on the construction of a 10-15 million dollar recreation amenity. Surely, the great City of Laurinburg, with some help from the State and County, should be able to build a nice recreation/community center at a fraction of that cost.

Our City Manager has been hard at work. We promised him we would give him 3-6 months to ‘get his feet wet’ before asking him to begin any major changes or improvements and that is only fair and appropriate. That has not stopped him from already making an impact. He has obtained funding from Electricities to redo our charming but dated City of Laurinburg website. As he likes to say, in the modern world, prospective industries are more likely to ‘drive through’ a city’s website than actually drive through town in a car, so a city’s website is important on many levels. He also promised me there would be a link on the webpage that would allow viewers to click to the latest installment of the ‘Mayor‘s Message’. He would like to improve our City Council broadcast on the public access channel to make it more appealing and improve the sound and visuals. Perhaps even getting a second camera for close-ups when things get heated. We might call this the ‘Curtis-cam’ and be able to show, in split screen format, shots of Councilmembers holding forth and simultaneous crowd reaction (just kidding). The City Manager has also been hard at work with the streets department working towards an improved way of maintaining the streets and curbs to keep them looking good and I think citizens will soon begin to notice a difference. He has been working with the Police Chief on more community policing and I think citizens already are seeing a difference there, and he’s been re-evaluating our customer service policies to see what improvements can be made there. There are many, many other things in the works as well. I will say, having witnessed his first 2 months on the job, that running a city, particularly this city, is not for the faint of heart.