7A SUN- Public meeting preview
By Staff Reports
Published in News on January 11, 2009 2:00 AM
Wayne County residents will get a chance Thursday to tell the board of trustees of the old Community Building what should be done with land the board owns on the corner of William and Walnut streets.
The public meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at the Wayne County Public Library in the Weil Auditorium to discuss the site where the old Community Building used to stand.
Board Chairman Ed Borden said the building was, and the land still is, owned by the citizens of Wayne County because they are the ones who gave the money to build the former Community Building in 1925.
"The money came from every corner of the county. ... We have quite an obligation to let people say what they want us to do with it," he said. "We want to get as much input as we can from all of our constituents -- the Wayne County commissioners, the Goldsboro City Council, the civic and social groups, the citizens."
The board has heard several options for the land. Some want to sell it to a private company and add it back into the tax base. Others want to keep it and make the space a memorial area. And still others wish to do part of both by using the corner as a memorial and selling the rest.
But Borden and the board want to hear from county residents who may have other suggestions for the land.
"I would hate to go through with some project that we think is a good one, and some part of the county didn't think it was such a good idea," he said.
The Community Building burned in May 2004. It was a memorial for Wayne County soldiers who fought in World War I and subsequent wars.