Black History Month forums with Muncie mayor opportunity for dialogue about city, community

Community members voiced their questions and concerns in Muncie Mayor Dennis Tyler’s first community forum during Black History Month.

The forum took place at Mt. Zion Baptist Church on Feb. 2, the first of four to take place during the month.

“We chose to host these public forms during this month to call out to the African American community,” Julius Anderson, a Muncie city councilman, said. “They are given the chance to speak out and voice their concerns in a respected and calm environment. These are people who may not be able to go to the city office to have their voices heard. Having these forums during this month and in churches gives a personal touch to the community.”

The forum began with prayer and basic introduction of all the forum panelists, and Tyler gave a brief overview of the city and community.

“I’m very proud of our administration — the way that they have been able to work with the city councilmen on foundations that have made differences within our community and business,” Tyler said. “I tell people all the time that if [the City of Muncie] didn’t have the partnerships that we do today, we would be about five years behind.”

Tyler discussed the items that need to be improved upon within the community. One, of course, was potholes. 

“This is the pothole season, and there is nothing we can do about that,” Tyler said.

This issue is one the entire state has been dealing with because of weather conditions, Tyler said. Muncie Street Department has been working on improving the streets.

To help further improve street conditions, the City of Muncie has created a twitter account called "Muncie Potholes" where people can take a picture of a pothole and report it to the account. Within 24 hours of the post, someone from the account will notify the sender letting them know they received it and will give an estimated timeline of when action will be taken to fix it.

As for successes in the community, Tyler mentioned the kick-off of non-profit organization Inside Out’s Hot Meal program.

Inside Out’s mission is to empower vulnerable people at our community's core by focusing on transforming lives through food-related programs, according to insideoutmuncie.com. Through the Hot Meal program, more than 1,000 kids were provided with hot, nutritious meals after school.

After Tyler and the board talked about all the negative and positive highlights, the forum was then turned to community members to ask questions and voice their concerns.

Though some forums in the past have sparked heated debate, Anderson said, this one was rather calm.

Many of the people who volunteered to speak gave thanks to the mayor and the cabinet for their work and dedication in the community.

There were, however, some who had questions. One was the question of Muncie’s one-way streets being changed to two-way streets.

“The most discouraging communication we get from out-of-towners coming in is how difficult Muncie is to navigate with all the one-way streets,” Tyler said. “We are going back to a lot of two way streets and proper signage.”

Though the first forum turnout was small and most comments shared were compliments, Tyler said these forums are what bring change.

“I have seen significant change come out of hosting these forums,” Tyler said. “When we first started in 2012, there were only small groups of people and little was being changed. The people you see here today actually care about what’s going on. Many of these people were born and grew up in these neighborhoods and have been here all their lives and want what’s best for the community.”

If you have a question or concern you would like  the mayor or any of his cabinet to hear, attend the next public forum from 6-7:30 p.m. Feb. 9 at the Prayer House of Deliverance. 

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