Commissioners extend perpetual invitation to area youth | Eastern North Carolina Now

    The Beaufort County Board of Commissioners is now officially teen-friendly. At tonight’s meeting, the commissioners agreed to open future public meetings to the voices of those citizens who’d like to make a difference, yet can’t quite vote.

    The board’s chairman, Jerry Langley, was inspired to initiate this practice during the last North Carolina Association of County Commissioners meeting, where county representatives were encouraged to be more accessible to their area youth. As an NCACC district president, representing five area counties, Langley attended the meeting alongside Beaufort County Manager Paul Spruill, who was similarly moved.

    “Three weeks ago, the Cooperative Extension and 4-H made an excellent district-wide presentation on the efforts they are making to involve youth, being defined as (ballpark) between the ages of 12 and 18, and their ability to participate and have access to local government and community discussion about future policy initiatives,” said Spruill.

Miss Beaufort County Marcrissa Carswell addresses the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners at tonight's meeting in Washington.
    Langley invited the recently crowned 2010 Miss Beaufort County, 17-year-old Marcrissa Carswell, of Washington, to address the board during the public comments section of tonight’s meeting. She was prompted by Spruill to share her platform of concerns with the public.

    “Some of my concerns include the benefits and the welfare of the children in our community,” Carswell said. “I see a lot of children that are going around and they’re just running about the streets, like, it’d be like eleven o’clock at night, and you’ll see like nine and ten year olds running around.”

    Carswell said that, so far, she has taken it upon herself to make a difference by personally becoming involved in changing children’s lives.

    “I try to, you know, have youth programs and offer tutoring and whatever, like, advice, whatever they need," she said. "I’m like: ‘You can call me. You know—yes, I wear crowns sometimes during the day, but in the inside I’m just like you. You can call me for anything, it doesn’t matter what it is.’”

    Spruill commended her for sharing her viewpoint on such a topical issue.

    “I think that’s right on with a good deal of what the county commissioners deal with on an annual basis in terms of programming, in that regard. In fact, they had a meeting just this morning specific to addressing programming for Beaufort County’s youth, so thank you for bringing that up,” said Spruill.

    The board went on to extend a perpetual invitation to any young person with a civic interest, who would like to share, on an open mic, their perspective with the public, as well as with Beaufort County public officials.