Kenansville swears in elected officials

KENANSVILLE — Commissioners Milta King, Nelson Baker and Crystal Strickland were sworn in on Tuesday, Dec. 5 at the Kenansville town hall building during the monthly meeting.

The first item on the agenda was a public hearing to permanently change the monthly meeting to the first Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m. There were no public comments and the motion to make the change permanent was approved unanimously.

Commissioner King presented commissioners Eddie Hobbs and Brent Brown with certificates for exemplary service, thanking each for their time with the board. Hobbs, a Vietnam-era veteran, served as town commissioner with Kenansville for eight years and Commissioner Brown served for nearly four years.

After the official swearing in of the three elected commissioners the Board elected Commissioner King to serve as Mayor Pro Tem and soon after the floor opened for public comment.

Hobbs took to the floor and thanked the board. The Vietnam-era veteran opened his speech talking about his early days and how he met Commissioner King.

“She had to stand on a box behind the counter because she couldn’t see over the counter,” Hobbs joked. “She cashed my very first paycheck and I fell in love, but let me say this Milta, thank God for unanswered prayers.”

The room was filled with laughter as the 77-year-old veteran joked and offered thoughtful advice.

“Crystal, you are climbing the ladder to success… In the fire service we are taught to hold on with one hand and one foot at all times. Be careful as you climb that ladder, the one you are holding onto may be slippery or may break. The one that is below you may have somebody else’s hands on it. Don’t step on it, be careful how you climb the ladder. I have climbed the ladder before, and I know what it is like. Nelson, you are here because of me, I talked you into doing it. You can handle it. You are a lot tougher and a lot younger than I am… I encourage you to be strong,” Hobbs said, as he proceeded to address each member of the board.

After his speech, Anna West, Town Manager gave the monthly report.

West shared she has various meetings with county officials on the works as the Town of Kenansville is in the process of identifying needs and how grant funding will be used once those needs are identified.

West also shared that the audit report has gone out and the board will have the formal audit report at the January meeting.

Kenansville Police Chief Jackie Benton, reported there were no major crimes last month. He also shared that the new body cameras have arrived, and the new radios and laptop computers will be ordered once the department can start invoicing.

“The cars that we ordered, I was told last week, they had to be shipped from the factory on the 20th of December, so we should have them here, hopefully by the middle of January,” said the police chief. He also shared that they would have a new officer starting tentatively in January.

The town manager shared with the board that they will start keeping the bathrooms at the park’s playground locked because it keeps getting vandalized.

West explained that they had to clean up “human waste smeared all over the bathrooms” several times, almost on a weekly basis, adding that on Monday morning after cleaning they reached out to other municipalities to learn what they do with their bathrooms.

West shared that she was told by other municipalities they no longer leave their bathrooms unlocked, unless there is someone utilizing the facility, because of vandalism.

The Parks and Recreation Department reported that basketball season is getting ready to start and they have two 8U boys’ basketball teams. He added that they did not have enough girls to sign up for a team, and 10U also didn’t have enough kids for a team.

Before going into a closed session, the board discussed the need to have someone maintain their Facebook page for a nominal fee, as they would like to see more activity.