Benton County Mayor Brett Lashlee said he is steadily keeping the promises that he made during his campaign for the office that he now holds and one of those ways is bringing town hall meetings to smaller areas of the county.
The first such meeting will be held on Tuesday, October 30, 6 p.m. at the Big Sandy School. In addition, future meetings will be held the last Tuesday of February, April, June, August and October in the cafeteria of the Big Sandy School.
Holladay will also have town halls under the new administration. Lashlee said that with November and December being booked for the holiday festivities, meetings for Holladay will begin in the new year on January 29, and then the last Tuesday of March, May, July and September.
Lashlee said he hopes the meetings will “begin bringing better two-way communication between the citizens and their government. “Right now,” he continued, “the radio and newspaper do a good job with ‘after’ communications, but my desire is to improve the ‘before’ communications. If successful it will begin creating a behavior and expectation that benefits the citizen and their elected officials.”
Lashlee sent out requests Friday to county commissioners, including those who represent Big Sandy and Holladay districts, asking them to attend town halls and help “bring government to the people of Benton County.”
The mayor said in addition to local government leaders, he also invited Federal, State and City officials. The public is encouraged to attend and bring their points of discussion to the meetings to address the representatives present. He said that he hopes to gather the needed resources to educate, inform, or alleviate citizen concerns and curiosities.
“I want us to begin building a teamwork focus on prospering and serving the citizens of this great county. This is our duty to those that elected us and I look forward to each town hall meeting,” Lashlee concluded.
