A Call To Order at Blue Ridge City Council Meeting

On July 26, 2017, City Council member Rhonda Thomas went live on Facebook to show one of the city’s roads that is badly in need of repair. The video quickly garnered a lot of attention and has had over 5,000 views.

In this video Thomas directly asks fellow Council members Angie Arp, Rodney Kendall, and Bruce Pack why Davis Street was taken off the city’s list of roads to repair. Thomas goes further to speculate as to some of the possible reasons, questioning if it involves a past lawsuit between the City and Ada Street, LLC.

Arp and Pack called a special meeting this week, and while not on the agenda, Arp felt this video needed to be viewed and addressed. Kendall was prepared for this motion and presented the video to the room via his phone. Conversation became heated as this unannounced item was brought to the table.

Thomas stood firmly by her actions to go live on the video and wanted Arp to answer the question, “Why did you take this road off the list to be paved?”

Arp read a prepared statement in response to the video. In this statement, she addressed the issue of Davis Street with the explanation that “we decided to get the bid cost for all the relatively minor street repairs first, and wait till after we found out what their cost was before we started on the streets that would require more extensive work.”

Discussions intensified with both Arp and Thomas accusing the other of lying. Mayor Donna Whitener had to regain composure of the room by calling a Point of Order, effectively ending the dialogue about the video.

This all was a lead in to an item that was actually on the agenda, approval of bids on paving of city streets. Thirteen items were quoted on the list of streets for repair.  Johnson Paving won the bid with a quote of $232,000 for all repairs.