Valdese quotebook

Notable quotes from the May meeting of the Valdese Town Council:

Council member Glenn Harvey on expanding the hours of operation for the Old Rock School, recreation center, and tourism office:

“I adamantly take the position that this is indeed a town council responsibility to have town facilities that citizens who elected us are funding, open to those citizens.”

Council member Melinda Zimmerman, who differed with Harvey on that point:

“If we need to think about opening other days or having the tourism office open during a particular summer month, maybe when tourism is a little higher, that may be appropriate. But I agree that I think it should be the town manager reviewing that.”

Sandra Walker, speaking on behalf of the town’s Merchants Advisory Committee, about local response to a planned bingo fundraiser:

“I’ll have 30 businesses in Valdese that are part of this. I’m so pleased with the participation and excitement that the businesses have expressed in being part of this event, and hopefully down the road, we hope we can do some more things to involve the businesses, and I sure hope that council, this is what you wanted our committee to do.”

Harvey, discussing the budget interim town manager Bo Weichel brought before the board at its April workshop:

“The budget that our interim manager and chief financial officer brought to us at our April workshop was a budget that was not only balanced, but it made a positive contribution to the town’s reserves. So, we want to stay there, and we want to assure our citizens we want to stay there.”

Council member Heather Ward on her visit to the N.C. League of Municipalities CityVision Conference in Greenville earlier this month, which brought together civic leaders from all over the state:

“I love to learn, especially about municipality things, but I want to encourage all the council members next year, please go with me. It was really a great experience, and I look forward to sharing what I learned with everybody on the council.”

— MQ