Good evening, everyone! Happy Friday!
This has been such a busy news week that I couldn’t keep my days straight. But I’m sure glad the weekend is here. And I’m looking forward to a relaxing Saturday visiting the Floyd Winter Market tomorrow. If you’ve never been, I recommend it. You can find it in the warehouse behind Farmers Supply.
The Floyd Town Council had a pretty quick and straightforward meeting planned last night, before it was interrupted by “Zoom bombers.” I was also heartened that two people submitted public comments, and another two Floydians joined the meeting via Zoom. Community engagement is good! That’s part of what I’m trying to foster here.
As always, if you have comments, questions or news tips, you can reach me here.
-Ashley
Council considers opening prayer, grant funding for local organizations
What should have been a brief and uneventful Town Council meeting Thursday night hit a snag when the meeting’s livestream on Zoom was interrupted by hackers. Several unauthorized people joined the Zoom meeting shortly after it began. They started making screeching noises and shouting obscenities and racial epithets, but Town Clerk Katie Holfield shut down the feed in less than a minute.
Then, the Council took a short break from its agenda while Holfield set up a new Zoom meeting and updated the public-facing meeting links on the town’s website. Holfield also reinvited reporters and citizens who had been streaming the meeting back into the room. Council members discussed the hack for a couple of minutes after the meeting recommenced, but Mayor Will Griffin seemed unconvinced anything could have been done to prevent the interruption. No Council members had suggestions about how the hackers could be caught or face consequences, either.
So-called “Zoom-bombing” was a common problem especially earlier in the pandemic. Since then, tech journalists have shared tips for how to avoid the hacks, such as adjusting the joining and privacy settings of a meeting.
The Council quickly moved through its scheduled business after that. At the last meeting on Jan. 7, Councilman David Whitaker asked his colleagues to consider a proposal to add an invocation at the beginning of each meeting. Two citizens submitted public comments in response to Whitaker’s proposal.
Alan Graf opposed the idea of an invocation, citing his own Jewish faith and the fact that his grandparents were murdered at Auschwitz. Graf said the United States is founded on a strong principle of religious freedom—a value that’s especially important to him given his family’s history with religious persecution.
Whitaker defended his suggestion of adding a prayer to Council meetings by pointing out that the Floyd County Board of Supervisors begins its meetings by praying. Graf said he often attends Supervisors meetings. “I still feel uncomfortable and excluded,” he said, hearing Supervisors pray to a deity that he “respects and honors, but does not worship.”
Linda LePlante said she favored the idea of an invocation—but only if it is nondenominational. “I sincerely feel God’s love during time with Christian friends and family,” LePlante said in her public comment. But she added that if she is at a public event and is asked to bow her head in prayer, she feels “duped, embarrassed and discriminated upon” if the prayer ends in Jesus’ name. “I do not believe our country is solely a Christian nation,” she said.
At the Jan. 7 meeting, Council asked Town Attorney Jim Shortt to investigate the lawfulness of adding a prayer to the meeting. “Basically, nothing has changed recently in Supreme Court law,” Shortt told the Council Thursday. “The bottom line conclusion is, yes, the meeting can open with a prayer,” as long as that prayer doesn’t denigrate people of a particular faith, seek to convert people, or discriminate against any potential prayer-giver, he said. Whitaker moved to table the issue until the next meeting on Feb. 4, and that motion passed.
Griffin and Town Manager Kayla Cox also offered an update on the Town’s financials. Review of the financials was deemed a prerequisite to implementing any further financial relief measures for local business owners.
When Griffin, Councilman Chris Bond and Cox reviewed the budget last week, Griffin explained, the town had already collected 90% of its budgeted meal taxes for the Fiscal Year—in the first six months. The town is also right on track with lodging taxes, Griffin said. In the first six months of the fiscal year (July-December 2020), 50% of the budgeted target had been collected.
All told, the town was projecting about $60,000 more in profits than originally planned. Some of that money has already been allocated. At its last meeting, Town Council approved a $30,000 expenditure for a feasibility study on renovating Town Hall. The Town also approved a $25,000 contribution to the PSA’s water meter replacement project.
Cox raised for the Council’s reconsideration a matching grant usually given to the Floyd Center for the Arts and the Old Church Gallery each year. The Town successfully applied for the grant again this year, but must decide by Feb. 1 whether it’s willing to provide the matching funds. The $9,000 grant would require a $4,500 contribution from the town. This year, Floyd Creative Studios has also requested some of the funding, which is typically split only two ways.
Cox suggested that the Council approve the grant funding and allocate it like so: with $1,750 going to both the Arts Center and the Old Church Gallery, and $1,000 going to Floyd Creative Studios.
The reason for her suggestion, Cox said, is that the first two organizations “have been participating in this program for years and didn’t really have any warning that another organization was trying to get a piece of the pie.” Financially, she said, “they had no opportunity to plan for it.”
Cox said she reached out to all three organizations and they’ve all continued to work on projects throughout the pandemic.
The Council approved the matching funds as Cox described.
Finally, after it had been established that the town could afford such a proposal, Whitaker moved to forgive the 2021 business license fee of $30 for any existing business in Floyd. The business must be up-to-date on its taxes. He also moved that the business tax due date be deferred from March 1, 2021 to May 1. Both motions passed.
The Town Council next meets on Thursday, Feb. 4 at 5:30 p.m.