Once a month, town meetings are being held in various Washington County towns to address economic issues, civic pride, race relations, i.e., things of relevance to that particular town. These meetings, the first of which was held at the Washington County Convention Center in Greenville this past April, are designed to allow interaction among interested citizens and community fathers. The results have been and will continue to be impressive, according to the movement’s founder.

“We feel like, at the rate we’re going, we will see some incredibly fruitful results from our meetings,” Al Rankins says of his idea. “This is very exciting for us because we see others who are visibly excited, as well. Usually, with economic developers and political leaders, the citizens find out activities or results only after the fact, in a newspaper or on television,” Rankins explains. “These meetings represent really the first time we’ve involved the whole community in what we do.”

“The community meetings are the most exciting developments I’ve seen in quite a long time,” adds Tommy Hart, Executive Director for the Industrial Foundation of Washington County. “Because of the citizen involvement and the added increase of involvement in development initiatives we discuss, it adds so much to the effort of economic improvement and job creation.”

At the first meeting in Greenville, material was gathered from the attendees regarding issues and suggestions deemed critical. Then, objectives were voted on and put into separate categories to be focused on in subsequent meetings. They were: economic development, community pride, existing industries, and education/workforce training. From that, committees were set up for each one of these categories and team leaders were chosen to head them. About 25 people comprise each group.

“That initial meeting drew over 100 people,” Rankins says. “There was a wide representation of people from all sectors including religious leaders, educators, business people and so forth. Later meetings in Metcalfe, Hollandale and Leland were extremely successful, as well,” Rankins adds, “drawing the same type of people.”

“We’re in an economic tailspin and that is on everybody’s mind,” Rankins goes on to say. “When we got this ball rolling back in March, Mayor Paul Artman of Greenville and the City Council sat down with the Washington County Board of Supervisors and began laying out the groundwork for these meetings. We decided to go on the road to each community in the County as opposed to having everyone come to Greenville. Obviously that was a good decision based on what we’ve seen.”

“At each meeting, the community leaders have shared with attendees their accomplishments, future plans and concerns,” Hart says. “This is a large, broad-based group of people and we are really hearing things said that we never have before. We encourage openness and honesty in these meetings and that is what we’re getting.”

Hart believes that, with the diversity of people who attend and their desire to make a difference, these Washington County meetings can only help him in his job of recruiting business to the county and helping existing businesses grow.

“The lines of communication have been opened like never before and folks are listening,” he says. “This alone represents a tremendous effort by Washington County leaders to involve the entire community in decisions that will have enormous repercussions for them and for the Delta.” DBJ