LU students influence City Council vote
Tiffany Nious, Assistant Editor
Issue date: 3/4/10 Section: Around Town
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Last Tuesday, Feb. 23, Lynchburg City Council voted unanimously against moving the Ward III polling location at Heritage Elementary to the Lynchburg First Church of the Nazarene on Wards Ferry Road, according to newsadvance.com.
The vote followed a three-hour debate, during which over 30 people spoke, including LU students and faculty. LU students who showed up at the meeting spoke about the safety and traffic concerns involved with moving the site, according to wset.com.
LU suggested two alternative polling places that were voted down by the city council in an earlier meeting, and LU Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. suggested that the new polling place on Wards Ferry Road was a ploy to stifle the LU student vote, according to newsadvance.com.
"It's obvious to me the goal was to discourage as many Ward III citizens from voting as possible," Falwell said, according to newsadvance.com. "You have to ask yourself what is the motive of the five Democrats on council in choosing a difficult-to-find church on a residential road that is not equipped to handle this kind of traffic."
The Council rejected the two sites, Thomas Road Baptist Church and the old Circuit City building in Chandlers Station Plaza, because they had previously discussed and rejected those sites before LU suggested them, according to newsadvance.com.
One of the sites LU suggested is adjacent to the school and the Council decided on a more centrally located site.
Lynchburg City Vice Mayor Bert Dodson, Jr. said that the city is not anti-LU and cares about the opinions and safety of all residents.
"To make accusation that Lynchburg City Council does not care about the safety of the students is completely unfounded and unconscionable," Dodson said, according to wset.com
Falwell and Mayor Joan Foster met Friday afternoon to discuss issues between the city and the school, including a zoning proposal that would stop LU from having to apply for conditional use permits and safety on Wards Road for LU pedestrians, according to wset.com.
Dodson said that the tension between the school and the city has always existed, but that nothing would get done if there was not teamwork on the part of both, according to wset.com.
"We got to represent all the citizens of Lynchburg and not just one part and I believe we need to work more together than against each other," Dodson said.
Lynchburg College is a part of Ward IV and votes at Memorial Christian Church. LC students, whose residence is LC, will not be affected by any decision of the Council for Ward III.
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