City Commission is on the right track, but will they right a long-standing wrong?

Last week we pub­lished a sto­ry writ­ten by a long­time res­i­dent of the Poynterville neigh­bor­hood in Winchester. Reed Hampton alleged that the city of Winchester failed to deliv­er on a promise to the Hampton fam­i­ly 36 years ago involv­ing a drainage ditch con­struct­ed in their back­yard. After read­ing the sto­ry, I asked Reed for a per­son­al meet­ing to view the area and get a pho­to or two to accom­pa­ny his story. 

Upon meet­ing the Hamptons and tak­ing a dri­ving tour of the neigh­bor­hood with them, I came away con­vinced that they had a legit­i­mate issue with the city. 

It has been 36 years since that promise was made. While the Hamptons are very unhap­py that their con­cerns have appar­ent­ly been ignored by many city offi­cials through the years, my hope is that with a new may­or, city man­ag­er, and com­mis­sion mem­bers, some­one may be will­ing to revis­it the issue. 

Let’s be hon­est. Poynterville was found­ed by and for black res­i­dents in the ante­bel­lum era, and the neigh­bor­hood remains pre­dom­i­nant­ly minor­i­ty-owned and occu­pied. It also appears to my eyes to not be receiv­ing the same lev­el of atten­tion from the city as some oth­er neighborhoods. 

This is a chance to redress at least one long­stand­ing sore spot and show the cit­i­zens of this town that every neigh­bor­hood matters. 

That Winchester is for everyone. 

Speaking of which, I must also applaud the cur­rent city admin­is­tra­tion for two deci­sions made at the most recent city com­mis­sion meeting. 

Some com­mu­ni­ty orga­niz­ers are work­ing on a new event to be held on Oct. 21. I don’t know the details. Still, the event title is telling: Winchester Pride and Inclusion Fest. 

This sounds like some­thing to empha­size that “Winchester is for every­one,” which has become a ral­ly­ing cry for those who feel exclud­ed in some way, name­ly the LGBTQ+ com­mu­ni­ty and its allies.

I was told that the orga­niz­ers feared some push­back from the city on their request to close Depot Street for the event, but the com­mis­sion approved the pro­pos­al, accord­ing to The Winchester Sun. 

Considering the con­tro­ver­sy over the “Winchester is for every­one” T‑shirts, this must have come as a relief. Yet the fact that it was even an issue says much. Still, the city com­mis­sion is to be applaud­ed for doing the right thing. There will no doubt be some res­i­dents who will not like it. 

The oth­er deci­sion pro­vides some redress for anoth­er project that has been on the back burn­er for far too long: Winchester will final­ly get a memo­r­i­al to ser­vice mem­bers killed dur­ing World War II and the Korean conflict. 

WinCity Voices co-founder and advi­so­ry board mem­ber Chuck Witt has long cham­pi­oned this cause. While there are memo­ri­als to the fall­en of oth­er wars, these two con­flicts have yet to be so hon­ored. A retired archi­tect, Chuck has writ­ten about the issue and even pro­vid­ed its design.

He and oth­er Clark County Veterans Council mem­bers had yet to secure a location. 

But with the trag­ic loss of a busi­ness to flood­ing on E. Broadway and expen­sive site reha­bil­i­ta­tion, a per­fect vacant space now exists in the heart of down­town, which is the spot the city com­mis­sion has approved for the new memorial. 

If you’re keep­ing score at home, that’s two steps for­ward and one step back (or at least at a stand­still). Here’s hop­ing the Poynterville mis­take will be rec­ti­fied soon, bring­ing the commission’s bat­ting aver­age up to 1.000.