Reference no: EM132370194

Lead: HARKENSVILLE, MD- On Monday, Harkensville city council voted 5-2 to ban relocation of an ancient cemetery for construction of new supermarket.

Body: The owner of Erskine & Sons Properties, Flint Erskine, believes relocating the graveyard to 2800 block of Forbes Street to install a new supermarket "will be good for the neighborhood and good for the city" due to other supermarkets being 1.5 miles away. However, this idea has drawn pushback from audience members due to the graveyard's vast history.

Ending: Why is the audience against this? Many said it would cause too much noise while others stated that there were other places to shop at. A male named Draper stated that the city had been fighting this decision for two years in the hope that the council would make a wise decision by considering the impact placed on the neighborhood rather than traffic patterns. Thus, the final decision was to leave the cemetery as is, meaning no market development and happy neighborhood.

Meeting Story Practice Exercise10

Question

Edit and assemble these facts into a summary news story of 300-350 words. Assume Harkensville is in your home state and that your story will be published in print the day after these events transpired. Make all necessary grammar, punctuation and AP style edits.

Reading

The Harkensville City Council met Monday night for its regular monthly public meeting.

The first item of business was a report from the city's Zoning Board. Bobby Bills, who is chairman, said the zoning board met a week earlier to consider a request by a local developer to move a cemetery so that he can build a supermarket.

The interim city manager, Wesley Davitt, said the developer's name is Flint Erskine. He owns Erskine & Sons Properties in Maston.

The cemetery Erskine wants to move is located in the 2800 block of Forbes Street, much of which is zoned for commercial purposes now.

Erskine told the city council at the meeting that he will pay all the costs of having the graves relocated to Gate of Heaven Cemetery, which is located about a mile away from the other cemetery.

"I think rezoning will be good for the neighborhood and good for the city," Erskine said. "There's not another supermarket for at least a mile and a half in any direction."

Davitt said the planning board has studied the traffic patterns along Forbes Street. "They don't believe the supermarket will cause any problems." After several more questions by various council members, the mayor asked for any questions or comments from those in the audience. About twenty people spoke, and all but two of them were against the rezoning. It took about an hour. Here are some of the comments:

Everett Nichols, 122 Forbes Street: "This thing is going to destroy our neighborhood. It's pretty quiet there now, but if you get this thing in there, it's going to turn noisy."

Jim O'Connor, 1417 Golf Road: "Nobody on my street wants the supermarket. We have plenty of places to shop. We don't need this. Besides,  some of those graves are pretty old, and I don't think it's right you move ‘em."

Sandy Yeats, 11 Foxglove Road: "I just can't believe you'd do this. Anybody who'd do this would steal the dimes off a dead man's eyes."

Len Draper, 667 Forbes Street and president of the Forbes Street Residents Association: "We've been fighting this thing for two years now. All the zoning board did was study the traffic patterns. They didn't consider what it would do to the neighborhood. I can promise you that we will mount a campaign to recall any council member who votes for this thing." (That comment drew lots of applause from other attendees at the meeting.)

Rose Nixon, 663 Forbes Street: "You can't be serious about this. That cemetery holds some of the oldest graves in the city. Some of these people helped found this city. I'm sure if you tried to move some of those stones, they'd crumble in your hands."

Harry Bent, 610 Forbes Street: "I'm afraid Len is flat-out wrong. I think our neighborhood needs a supermarket. Len's one of these people who's against anything that's progress. He just wants some publicity for hisself." When the speakers were done, the council voted 5-2 against the rezoning petition. At that the crowd cheered, and most of them filed out, leaving a small audience of about 35 or 40 people.
Councilman Richard Peck, from Danville, reported on the recreation department's plans for a series of spring outdoor hikes.

The first hike is April 25 in Jamestown Park. The rest of the hikes are listed on the rec department's website, harkensvillecityrecdept dot com.

The hikes will be held every other Saturday at 9 a.m. They're each 2 or 3 miles long.

The rec department expects them to last between an hour and two.

He said they're intended for the educable and trainable mentally disabled, age 6 years and older, whose physical disabilities do not impair their ability to do physical activities.

The fee for each hike is $3.50. Peck said registration is through the website. The council also voted for a couple of resolutions for the garden club, the youngsters of Boy Scout troop 772, and the hospital's Candy Stripers. 

Attachment:- Meeting Story Exercise Video.rar