Residents of the First District will soon get the chance to weigh in on issues and make their voices heard at a special town hall meeting this weekend.
Robert Acuff, Willie Campbell and Buford Peters, who serve as the district’s three representatives on the Carter County Commission, are hosting the town hall meeting on Saturday morning at Unaka High School beginning at 9 a.m.
“The purpose of the meetings is to give voters and citizens of the District an opportunity to voice their opinions relating to the County Commission and issues that are in deliberation,” Acuff said. “These include the status of the Carter County EMS and Rescue Squad, budget issues, and other items folks want to talk about or gain information. We will be there to listen and answer questions.”
This event will be the third town hall meeting hosted by the trio of commissioners. In August, Acuff, Campbell and Peters held a pair of meetings for district, one on a Friday evening and one the following Saturday morning. About a dozen residents attended the August meetings.
At those meetings, much of the focus was on the Carter County Rescue Squad’s request for additional funding from the county and the City of Elizabethton during the 2015-16 budget year. Other topics discussed during those meetings included job recruitment for the county, tourism and the county’s lawsuit against it’s economic development partnership Carter County Tomorrow.
Since the August meetings, a special Emergency Management System Task Force Committee was put together to work with the Rescue Squad in partnership with the City of Elizabethton to seek a permanent solution to the agency’s funding issues.