Community Building takes many forms

On Tuesday, March 15, volunteers for the American Red Cross were manning phones at WIS-TV in Columbia, SC to help raise funds for the disaster in Japan. The phone lines were opened about 4:30 in the morning as WIS provided air time to help make viewers aware of both the need for funding and the opportunity of calling the phone bank based at the station. There was a strong outpouring of support. The Japanese Red Cross is a very strong organization and they requested help in the form of money because they did have the volunteers and supplies to help the devastated areas but the need for money becomes to fund this type of relief is great. The Japanese had come to the aid of the American Red Cross several times including September 11 and Katrina. Community outreach is often part of community building.

Mayor's State of the City Well Received

Mayor Mel Pennington gave a State of the City address to a crowd of close to 400 people (estimate) in the Watson Theater of the Coker College Performing Arts building on Monday, March 7. The audience was enthusiastic as the Mayor called on everyone to join hands to make this small city even greater than it is. I did see Harold Bledsoe recording the talk and that means you will be able to listen on his local Hartsville radio station.

The Mayor told those in attendance that he knew by their presence that they were interested in building an even better community and he said their efforts will be received with enthusiasm. The major thrust of his message was that a good needs everyone to pull together to become a great community and that is his vision for Hartsville. The Mayor told the audience that he thinks accountability like a State of the City is important and he wants to ensure the transparency of the city's activities as we embark on the vision of becoming a model not just for the Pee Dee but the entire state of South Carolina.

Following the Mayor's State of the City there was reception for citizens to welcome and meet Natalie Ziegler, the city manager. Those in attendance showed their appreciation for the Mayor's address with a standing ovation and many stayed around to discuss the event for sometime after the talk.

"It was just too ugly..."

On my way to the State of the City talk by Mayor Mel Pennington I happened to notice a woman at the side of the bike trail on Dunlap Road cleaning up a mess of plastic bags. Those bags had been there for a couple of days -- figured they came off a vehicle driving by. There were a lot of them and they were ugly. "I was sick this weekend so I could not get out and clean those things up. They were ugly and they filled up this entire bag (a very large trash bag.) I just couldn't stand them there," she said as she began walking back across the road to her home.

Okay, so what is the state of the city. Based on this one incident it is positive and moving up. Of course someone did dump a mess (and that is pretty darn negative, tacky and illegal) but there was a neighbor who took things into her own hands, cleaned the mess and said effectively -- NOT IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD. When Flossie Hopkins way Mayor of Hartsville, she would say we have a city where people do complain but they will then join forces to help solve the problem. We may hear more from Mayor Pennington about that in the Watson Theater on the Coker College campus,and as I headed to the talk, I was able to witness some very hard evidence of one person making a REAL difference. I appreciate her effort! Because that pile of trash was TOO UGLY.

State of the City (Hartsville) == ???

Mayor Mel Pennington is working to establish a new tradition for the city of Hartsville, an annual STATE OF THE CITY address by the Mayor. This seems like a really good idea from a community building and community thinking perspective.

1 -- It gives an opportunity for citizens to stop and contemplate the big question of what is the current STATE of the city.

2 -- It gives the Mayor an opportunity to focus on those areas that he or someday she consider most important for positive changes to the state of the City.

3 -- It provides an hour or so to concentrate on the bigger picture of the STATE of the city rather than on all those daily items that generally plague big-picture thinking because they have to be accomplished NOW.

As a blogger what I would like most to accomplish by a post like this is to get responses to the question -- What do you think is the state of the city?

** In a conversation this morning one business owner told me he gets a very real sense that the State of the City is turning in a positive direction. He is feeling like there is forward momentum.

** So, what is it that you are thinking when it comes to the current State of Hartsville?
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

You get an opportunity on Monday night, March 7 at 6 p.m. to hear Mayor Pennington discuss this question at the Performing Arts Center on the Coker College campus. Following that presentation there will be a reception for the new city manager, Natalie Ziegler.