Meggs: School decision hurt ‘Coast Guard City’ effort

Meggs: School board always opposed to request

The local school board’s recent decision not to add a Coast Guard representative to its ranks could make it difficult for Elizabeth City to earn the much-coveted “Coast Guard City” status from the US Coast Guard, a city councilwoman said last week.

Councilwoman Betty Meggs told fellow city councilors last week that establishing a Coast Guard ex-officio member for the school board was important to earning the designation “Coast Guard City,” a goal established about three years ago by the Community Image Committee of the Albemarle Economic Development Commission.

Meggs noted the image panel had also worked to become a “Tree City.” The Tree City USA designation was earned earlier this year.

“They were our two projects,” Meggs told The Daily Advance in an interview Friday.

She said that when Community Image members asked the Coast Guard what the city could do to become a Coast Guard City, the officers said the ex-officio member on the school board was the most important thing.

Capt. Carol Bennett, commander of Base Support Unit Elizabeth City, in fact sent members of the Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Board of Education a formal request seeking the ex officio member. But by a 6-1 vote, the school board voted several weeks ago to reject the request. The board agreed the Coast Guard could provide input to the schools through other avenues.

Meggs said the school board had been resistant to the idea of an ex officio member from the beginning.

She said supporters of the effort had done a number of things to promote the request, including passing out stickers for cars and putting up a banner downtown recognizing Coast Guard Week.

“We tried to get them on as many cars as we could,” she said of the auto decals proclaiming the city’s love for the Coast Guard.

“They bring a lot to this community,” Meggs said of the Coast Guard. “I don’t think the school board really thought this thing through.”

Earning Coast Guard City status will likely now be hampered by the school board’s decision, she said.

“I think it will be awfully, awfully difficult to get (Coast Guard City status) knowing that the schools turned them down for something like an ex-officio member,” Meggs said. “This was just a way to show we appreciate our Coast Guard. They have saved a lot of people in this area as well as up and down the coast.”

In another matter last week, City Council upheld the decision of the city Police Department to deny to Anita R. Figgs a permit to drive a taxicab in the city. The decision was based on misdemeanor convictions and traffic violations.

Councilman Kirk Rivers cast the lone dissenting vote.

Council also voted unanimously to approve an inter-local agreement on the transfer of property at the Aviation Research and Commerce Development Park from Elizabeth City and Pasquotank County to the Airport Authority.