Returning Hamlet City Council members sworn in

HAMLET — The Hamlet City Council has officially secured another term with the same faces representing the city.

Mayor Bill Bayless, Mayor Pro Tem Jesse McQueen, and Councilman Eddie Martin each ran unopposed in the November 2021 election and were sworn in Tuesday evening. It was a relaxed meeting, partly due to it being catered by Chick-Fil-A, which is operating a temporary drive-thru in the parking lot of Dunham’s Sports from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday – Saturday until Dec. 31.

“We didn’t have any opposition, maybe that’s a good thing — maybe nobody wanted this job, I don’t know,” Martin joked. “Either way, I appreciate the opportunity to serve the citizens of Hamlet for another term.”

Councilwoman Abbie Covington welcomed her colleagues back saying she was glad they were back to “full staff.”

“Some things just don’t need to change,” she said.

Bayless touted the Council’s united front opposing the Board of Commissioners’ decision to change the sales tax distribution method last year and pushing for the municipalities to get some of their money back by opening up lines of communication with the new commissioners. The city, as are the other municipalities, is in the process of reaching out to the state’s Local Government Commission to ask to be removed from the unit assistance list, which they were added to in summer 2020 after losing that sales tax revenue.

“Working with this council the last couple years has just been great, it’s a good Council,” Bayless said. “We ran into the situation with the money and they brought this thing around, along with the help of [City Manager Matt Christian] and [Finance Officer Jill Dickens], they’ve managed to bring some of the money back and we’re about to get ourselves on stable ground and hopefully out from under Raleigh looking at us over our shoulder.”

McQueen pointed out how rare it is to have a Council that can work together effectively.

“Everybody up here works with everybody and that’s a great thing, does not always happen and it’s wonderful whenever that does happen,” he said. “We may not agree on everything but you don’t want a group of six people up here that agree on everything, you want to have dialogue and conversation and come to an amicable solution.”

McQueen was unanimously re-elected as Mayor Pro Tem, Councilman Maurice Stuart was re-elected to represent the Council on the ABC Board and with the Lumber River Council of Governments, with Councilman Oscar Sellars as the alternate.