Those of us referred to as ‘darn’ Yankees sort of get a kick out of seeing the true Southerners getting all excited when a so-called ‘snowstorm’ is approaching. We knowingly chuckle, like the seasoned veterans of major storms that we are, and joke about stocking up on milk and bread to survive the approaching ‘blizzard’. That being said, Friday night’s storm was a thing of beauty down on Main Street. The huge oaks, turned white, with the snow falling down among them was as pretty a sight as there is. I hope it was as enjoyable in your neighborhood as it was in ours.

This is the time of year when we begin to develop our priorities for the next year’s budget. As I mentioned last column, at our recent retreat, City Council developed a long list of ideas and initiatives that we would like to explore in order to try and improve the City’s future, especially the unemployment situation. Over the coming weeks, City Council and City Staff will be working together analyzing and prioritizing this list. Once that is completed, we will be having a citizen input session to hear what the citizens think of our ideas and to hear what ideas others have for the city, not only for the future, but how the city is currently functioning. We plan to make a concerted effort to make the citizen input session a worthwhile and, hopefully, well-attended event. Public opinion and citizen input is the ‘wind beneath the wings’ of change and action, so I sincerely hope Laurinburg citizens will not just ‘make an effort’ to attend but, rather, actually attend. There will be ample notice of the date of this citizen input session and we will try to lure you with the promise of refreshments, so I hope to see you there.

Unfortunately, the citizenry here does not seem to really care too much about what goes on, if one can judge by the attendance at public events. Last week was just another example of the embarrassingly low turnouts for events that concern the future of our community. The Chamber of Commerce had their second annual State of the County and City address at the Courthouse last Wednesday evening and there were, incredibly, only 50 citizens there (and half of them were elected officials). That may explain why people here tend to be so misinformed about important issues like why the tax rate is what it is, the school floor, why industry comes or leaves the County, to name a few. Some of these topics were covered nicely that night, but evidently the citizens would rather stay at home, which is certainly their right. But these same people will later complain that they don’t understand why things are the way they are.

Citizen apathy is, in no small measure, part of the reason Laurinburg is in the state it’s in. Since the 1960s there has been a steady decline in community involvement in America and, I suspect, in Laurinburg as well. The decline of involvement in civic organizations and community causes has been replaced by TV and personal and family concerns. We have come a long way from the memory of JFK’s challenge of ‘ask not what my country can do for me but what can I do for my country’. I mention this because I believe Laurinburg will not ever thrive again without an involved and engaged citizenry. The days of sending out a local warrior to bring back the big catch, so we can all feed off the spoils, are over. No, what is necessary, in my view, is a community-wide effort to improve things and to hold elected officials accountable for what they do or don’t do. If you hire someone to do a job, you would not let that person do as they pleased for 4 years and then show up and decide whether you wanted to hire them again or not, yet that’s what we do here with our elected officials when we do not stay involved with what is going on in our community.

So, if you’re questioning what is being done to improve things or have some idea that you think is worthwhile, or just want to sit and listen and have a refreshment, I hope you will come out and take part in our Citizen Input session. This City needs you to be involved.