In a recurring series of appearances over the past few months, another High Point Road resident expressed her concerns May 16 to the Union City Council. Sylvia Floyd said she was concerned about Union City’s lack of community activities, especially the absence of recreational activities for youth. That concern were paired with others, including area crime and fast moving vehicles along High Point Road.

“One of my concerns is having something for our youth,” Floyd said. “I know you hear it over and over and over, but something’s got to be done. Maybe there is an abandoned facility that can be fixed up and somebody could contact the Boys and Girls Club headquarters to see if we can have a Boys and Girls Club facility in Union City or something. Something needs to be done with the youth, especially with the teenagers, because they’re running around and breaking into houses. My house has been broken into twice. It’s gotten outrageous.”

Later in the meeting, Mayor Ralph Moore addressed Floyd’s concern about recreation. He agreed that a deficit existed in the city’s recreational offerings. He cited the city’s history of providing such programs and the lack of participation that occurred.

“At one time this body had spent close to a $1.5-2 million on recreation over several years. We had what I considered a very lax participation, not only by those who were most concerned with, the children, but also a severe non-participation by parents, which is probably the bedrock of any recreation program,” Moore said.

Moore continued, referencing the significant cost of providing recreation facilities, with those costs reaching $700,000 to $1 million. And he went further, suggesting the possible formation of a voter-approved Recreation Authority with the power to levy taxes for city programs. Moore also challenged parents to become involved in the effort.

“And on the other side of the equation there is a capital cost of any program. So I’m going to ask my council to consider and get more detail and possibly to be presented to the voters for their consideration, the development of a Recreation Authority that would have the powers to have a direct assessment to homeowners for, not only a recreation program, but for needed facilities,” Moore said. “So it’s going to have to be an issue, (stated) in a more proverbial manner, where the ball is in the court of the taxpayers, whether or not they feel that a recreation program is a little more worthy of them to dig into their pockets for their children. So as time moves ahead there will be a lot more discussion and what I’m hoping, because of the desire of the council to see this happen, that one of the council people will take this by the horns and take the lead on this. Parents need to understand that they need to organize also. The most successful athletic programs are steered and headed by parent athletic associations.”

Also in the meeting, Floyd also addressed vehicles speeding along various parts of High Point Road. Her concern was that someone, whether a vehicle occupant or a pedestrian, will be seriously injured or killed as a result of the speeding.

Toward the end of the meeting, Moore asked Police Chief Mike Isome about the speeding concerns. Isome said there are serious traffic control issues on High Point Road and in other areas. Isome said his department is researching a variety of measures designed to get a handle on speeding vehicles.

After the meeting, Floyd remained adamant about her concerns over crime along High Point Road. She said police failed to check for fingerprints after her back door was kicked in during a January incident.

“I came home to see my back door completely kicked in,” Floyd. “They didn’t take fingerprints. They just asked me what was missing and wrote up a report, gave it to me and went on about their business. Then they charged me $5 to get a copy of the report.”

Though not uncommon for residents of any city to address concerns at a council meeting, Floyd was the latest in a steadily growing number of Union City residents in recent months to continue to press for answers to crime, recreation and other issues. Like Aishah Ayers and Taleah Howard who addressed the same issues in April and received no answers, Floyd said she will not back off from the problem.

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