Berlin officials will begin the third phase of the town’s strategic planning process following council approval this week.
File photo
By Charlene Sharpe, Associate Editor
Berlin officials will advance the third phase of the town’s strategic planning process following council approval this week.
Council members voted unanimously on Feb. 26 to authorize Salisbury University’s BEACON team to begin the work after Director John Hickman presented the results of two community listening sessions.
“This is great, thank you,” Councilman Jack Orris said in response to the presentation.
During the last three months, BEACON gathered a variety of input from Berlin residents and staff, according to Hickman. The group met with town staff in the fall and followed that up with two community listening sessions. There was good participation from residents and Hickman’s group put together findings of both to draft a vision and mission statement during a stakeholders committee meeting at the end of January. Community values, such as heritage, culture, resiliency, inclusivity, well-being and vibrancy were agreed upon and an analysis of the town’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats was completed. While things like the town’s heritage and safety were listed among its strength, opportunities for improvement included diversified town events and more affordable housing. Threats identified included affordability and overdevelopment.
Councilman Dean Burrell said he felt his neighborhood had been developed enough.
“If we’re going to look to multifamily dwellings, we need to look somewhere other than my neighborhood,” he said. “We also talked about … affordability. When it comes to affordability, through the presentation I noticed affordability related to rent. Yes, I think that is an important aspect but we also need to look at affordability related to single family dwellings.”
Hickman said the stakeholder committee discussed driving strategies as well as a tactical action plan. He said that if the council approved moving forward with phase three of the strategic planning process, the group would be meetings again to continue the discussion of action steps for the town. Hickman said the council would have a finalized plan to review and vote on in April.
“That’s something that can be in your rulings by the time next (fiscal) year starts July 1,” he said.
Orris said that while he’d had a lot of questions for BEACON during the last presentation he’d been impressed by the listening sessions and stakeholder committee meetings. A motion to move forward with phase three passed unanimously.
As the council prepared to move on to the next item on the agenda, resident Gabe Purnell asked why officials weren’t soliciting feedback from those in the audience, as they did with other agenda items.
“It seems like you went right by us,” Purnell said. “It don’t sound like you’re playing a fair game in here tonight.”
Mayor Zack Tyndall said that was not the intention. He said comments hadn’t been requested because the item was a presentation. Tyndall apologized for the mistake.
Purnell went on to talk about a citizen-led effort to address community concerns from his neighborhood.
“We have a very serious issue going on,” he said. “Maybe some of you know it some of you don’t. We know it, the ones that live on the east side and hopefully our two representatives know it. What we need to do , I’d like to invite our two representatives to work with the committee of citizens on the east side at some point so we can be on the same page.”
He said he felt two different languages were being spoken based on what he’d heard the council say during Monday’s meeting.
“We’ve got to come together or else we’re going to all perish together as Black folk,” he said. “That’s it.”
Purnell said he needed the help of the representatives from the east side, Councilwoman Shaneka Nichols and Councilman Dean Burrell. Nichols said this was the first she’d heard of a committee. Burrell said if they were advised when to attend they’d be present.
“As a community we just can’t do nothing,” Burrell said.