Whem did communication between BLC and F&M end?
During a subsequent phone call with Charles Walsh, councilman Matt Rinker, who was not authorized to represent in the city on the call and instead was speaking on his own behalf, and school board president Joel Sieren, Brown and BLC Vice President Merquiche Lewis learned the bank already had created the scholarships and that they were earmarked for minority students, not specifically Black students. A phone call between the Black Leadership Council, F&M, a member of the Burlington City Council and the Burlington School Board took place Jan. 19, 2021, Charles Walsh read from a statement he had prepared for the work session. At this time, the Black Leadership Council asked for $125,000 to be paid to the Black Leadership Council. If this amount wasn t feasible, then $95,000 would be adequate. This is when communication between F&M and the Black Leadership Council began to end.
Locals look toward unity under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris
The Hawk Eye
The historic inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday left many locals cautiously optimistic for a restored sense of unity following four years of Donald Trump s oftentimes divisive presidency.
Ryan Osbourne, a government teacher at Burlington High School, said divisions between the country s two main political parties are nothing new, especially around elections, but the U.S. has a long history of overcoming those differences and forging ahead. The country is divided right now, Osbourne said. But we ve seen division before, and I think that we are in a situation where division is going to happen because that s the way democracy works and sometimes that division gets exacerbated, it gets a little messy and chaotic even, but at least to this point in our history, we ve shown the ability to overcome it. . Our institutions have held up and
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School officials meet with F&M Bank CEO and Black Leadership Council representatives
The president of F&M Bank and Trust met Wednesday with school officials and representatives of the Burlington Black Leadership Council to discuss how to resolve damage done by a vice president s words.
The Hawk Eye
Burlington School Board members serving on a joint committee met Wednesday with the president of Farmers and Merchants Bank and Trust to learn what progress the bank has made in mending relations with minority communities.
The committee, made up of members of the district s business and community relations committees, was established in November in response to a social media comment posted by Lisa Walsh, a vice president of F&M Bank, that targeted then-vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris and was perceived by many as racist and sexist.
The Hawk Eye
The president of the Black Leadership Council on Monday called on the Burlington City Council to sever ties with a local bank over a racist Facebook post made in November by one of the bank s vice presidents.
Addressing city council during its regular meeting, the Rev. Rob Brown, pastor of the Hope Temple Christian Church and president of the 16-member council that formed about two months ago in the hopes of making Burlington a better community for their children, expressed his frustration over the city s continued business with Farmers & Merchants Bank & Trust after one of the bank s vice presidents, Lisa Walsh, called Vice President-elect Kamala Harris a minority slut in a Facebook post in early November.
Local churches makes Christmas brighter
USDA, Calvary Baptist Church and Hope Temple Christian Church to give away food Saturday.
Bob Saar
Calvary Baptist Church Pastor Simeon Counterman doesn t just preach the gospel, he follows it.
Counterman s church gave away 1,200 boxes of food on Halloween, the Saturday before Thanksgiving and will do so again Saturday.
Counterman has been pastor for just more than 10 years at Calvary Baptist Church, 2710 West Ave., in Burlington, where Saturday s event will occur. He said the October giveaway lasted almost five hours, but it took half as long in November. We ended up having to cone off the driveway to help discourage people from continuing to come, Counterman said.