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Jacksonville News - May 21, 2008
Town hall meetings draw to a close
by Jennifer Bacchus
News Staff Writer

May 13 saw the final town hall meeting for Jacksonville's Alabama Communities of Excellence program. Held at New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, it was by far the best-attended meeting. Several ideas came out of the meeting, among them Veronica Glenn's suggestion that the quality of life committee and the city look into the creation of a cultural arts center.

"I don't know how many of you have been to the cultural arts center in Gadsden, but it is really nice and there are a lot of opportunities for all ages there. I know we have JSU and it gives music lessons and things of that nature, but they have dance all the way from ballet, jazz, tap, hip-hop. They have a great auditorium there and they do plays," said Glenn. "People may say when they come into the community 'Where can my child go to get violin lessons' or to get whatever kind of instrumental lessons or to get dance classes and cultural arts centers are things that families look for when they move into an area."

Several of the other participants latched onto the idea and discussed the wealth of talent Jacksonville has between its citizens and the resources of Jacksonville State University and how to begin working on a project. Mayor Johnny Smith mentioned that the building blocks for a center exist in the community if the city starts small and builds the program slowly.

Ed Lomax noted a need he sees for recreation in Jacksonville to extend beyond the community center and encompass not only the needs of the city's children, but the adults as well.

"We're lacking that very bad in this town because we don't have any of that at all. We have a community center and that's it," said Lomax. "We talk about all the time that we are a college town, we always say that, but, if we are a college town, we have college students here. They would also like to have things to enjoy, so you have to also think about them."

Becca Turner agreed, saying she would like to see parks near all the city's residential areas and bicycle paths through the community.

"I think it would be nice if all of the neighborhoods had a park close by, therefore kids would have a place to go and parents would have a place to take their kids," said Turner. "I think that might help our children stay out of trouble."

The church's sanctuary was filled with comments when the need for a nice, sit-down restaurant was brought up. Smith told the group he hoped to see a nice chain restaurant as a result of the development around Hampton Inn, which is slated for construction near CVS on the southern end of town.

As the meeting drew to a close, Mindy Poe, the ACE coordinator for Jacksonville, opened an invitation for anyone in the community who feels strongly about a particular issue or area for improvement to contact her and join a committee. She can be reached via e-mail at mindyp@cableone.net.

Now that the town hall meetings have concluded, Poe will take the suggestions from the meetings into account when re-wording the ACE five-year plan. She intends to have the plan re-printed and circulated throughout Jacksonville.