LEWISBURG W.Va. (WVDN) – At the start of the Lewisburg City Council Meeting for September, a special guest presented an award to Mayor Beverly White. This presentation was given by Travis Blosser, Executive Director of the West Virginia Municipal League.
Travis said, “At the Municipal League we give awards every year. We give Mayor of the Year, Clerk of the Year, lots of awards for merit. This year we gave one of the most prestigious awards, the Lydia Main Breaking Ground Award. It recognizes the leadership qualities of a woman leader in her community, not always a mayor. We presented it at our annual conference to your mayor, Mayor Beverly White.”
Also, having over 20 years of experience in municipal office, Mayor White was inducted into the Municipal Hall of Fame.
To add more greatness to the council meeting, the award given by the West Virginia Human Rights Commission was also shared with the group gathered there. It is a civil rights award for her consistent work. The Governor’s Civil Rights Day plaque, medallion and Certificate of Recognition all celebrated Beverly’s battle for absolute equality and civil rights.
When she received the awards initially this past year, she was incredibly moved. Her life’s work was part of her qualifications, not just what she has been able to do as a mayor. She said in response to the group of friends and supporters at this recreation during the council meeting, “I encourage everyone to watch the movie the 16-19 Project before the next election.” This series is on Hulu presently.
Regular invoices on the water system improvements were presented, totaling $1,354,669.83 paid from the USDA and $96,499.54 from WDA-EEG. Then, engineer Greg Belcher of Chapman Technical spoke via Zoom link to bring the project progress into focus.
Belcher said, “Typically there are 4-5 engineers like me on the site and today’s meeting showed the goals are being met and hopefully by Nov. 1 our work will be away from any residential or public areas.”
He said the project as a whole is about 80% complete. 91% of the lines through communities have been laid, flushing and testing must be completed yet, then the asphalt can be laid on those roads. The intake is 70% complete, the freshwater line to Ythe ates tank is 98% complete, the new tank installation at Yates location is 48% complete, and just started is a new tank at Ruffner. The last part of the tank upgrade will be painting the tanks and then a demo of the old ones.
The next topic during the council meeting was an Annual Report by the Visitor and Convention Bureau. President/CEO Kara Dense gave her figures for the year, which showed an increase in tourism and a great track record of dollars exchanged. The cost of advertising, being $1, achieved a return of $18.50 in one isolated program that was carefully tracked.
Upcoming opportunities to shine will be during a conference of American Travel Writers, where 18 professional writers will be experiencing the Greenbrier Valley region. Another opportunity will be a Southern Living conference at The Greenbrier.
Her area of concern in the near future is “It’s hard for international travelers to book trips to our area. We are trying to make sure we are available through the agencies they plan their trips through.”
In news for Lewisburg residents, Lafayette Street sidewalk construction will begin in just a few weeks. Many residents in that area will be pleased to know.
Just launched is the My Lewisburg App for smartphones and home computers. Not every citizen is a Facebook user, so this new app will be able to download on your device and be a direct link with the city, water advisories, upcoming road work, meetings, snow emergencies, and good and bad news about your city. There will be no comment section, it is just an information stream from the city manager.
To upload this app onto your phone you can go to City Hall, or if you see a card or banner carrying the QR code, users can scan it from there.
