Wendell News Outlet

Following is a Letter to the Editor of the East Wake News sent last week and posted here with permission of the author. Glenn Harris
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I attended the Town Board meeting on Monday, November 12, 2007, and was appalled by what transpired. I happened to be sitting amongst a group of Boy Scouts who were attending as part of a requirement for a merit badge. I assume they were learning about citizenship in their community. After hearing a plethora of reasons for not building a low-income, government subsidized apartment complex, Ronald Thompson, Buddy Scarboro, and Terry Hodges voted to approve the project. As soon as the motion was passed, one of the Boy Scouts, who could not have been more than 13 or 14 years old, turned around in disbelief and asked his leader, “Does that mean that they are going to let them build it?” When his leader nodded affirmatively, the boy asked, “Why?” The criteria to allow it was clearly not met, yet no explanation was offered to the citizens. If the Board had any legitimate reasons for voting this way, it seemed like they had ample opportunity to express it. All that the citizens heard was a lengthy presentation from an attorney, testimonies from several education entities about the potential negative impact, and various questions for Evergreen Construction that went unanswered.

This is not the first time these elected officials have shied away from doing what appears to be in the best interest of Wendell. After witnessing this, I couldn’t help but think how lucky I was not to be the Boy Scout leader having to explain to those young, impressionable boys what just happened. It also occurred to me how readily a young adult could grasp the implications for this community and yet these community leaders either could not or would not.

Denise Roy
Wendell