Hawkins Votes Against Spending $600 To Keep $1 Million Grant

July 7, 2010

Century Town Council member Henry Hawkins has voted against spending $600 so that a $1.1 million grant drainage project could move forward — the second time he has voted against spending a few hundred dollars on the project.

At Monday night’s council meeting, Mayor Freddie McCall told the council that the town’s engineer needed $600 to have to parcels appraised so they could be purchased for the FEMA project.

“Without that piece of property, we are going to lose a million dollar grant,” McCall said.

Hawkins cast the lone vote against the $600 appraisal this week. In March, he also voted against a $900 appraisal so the project could move forward. In that same meeting, he voted with the rest o the council to spend $550 to purchase a full page ad with the council’s picture in the Tri-City Ledger.

“I got a call last week that FEMA’s going to pull the money because we can’t get our ducks in a row,” McCall said.

The town is in the middle of a Federal Emergency Management Agency review to receive $1.1 million to improve drainage off Highway 29 in the north part of town. The project includes purchasing all or part of five parcels of property. In order to receive the grant, the town must provide FEMA with a fair estimate of the cost to purchase the property.

Pictured: Century Council member Henry Hawkins reviews documents at the last meeting of the Century Town Council. NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.

Comments

23 Responses to “Hawkins Votes Against Spending $600 To Keep $1 Million Grant”

  1. David Huie Green on July 9th, 2010 6:21 pm

    or maybe it’s “North”

  2. David Huie Green on July 9th, 2010 6:21 pm

    since it’s FEMA I assume it is with the intent of avoiding flooding on US 29 (aka Norht Century BLVD) in case the road is needed for an evacuation. Avoiding flooding should be worh some money for the people of the town and seems to be worth quite a bit of money to the people wishing to be able to get out of the way of a disaster so they aren’t stuck in Century.

    David for freedom of travel

  3. Century girl on July 8th, 2010 11:08 pm

    Some things are not a good deal at any price. Should the town be in the real estate business? Continuing to buy land when it owns so much that so little is being done with .. For what? Maybe there is a reason why this grant is not good for the town, did anyone ask that?

  4. David Huie Green on July 8th, 2010 10:48 pm

    you do understand the motion to pay carried, don’t you?

  5. Kevin Stead on July 8th, 2010 10:28 pm

    One could easily come to the conclusion that Mr. Hawkins is playing his own personal game of power trip. Whether or not that be the case, what I believe that he and most others clouded by the insensability of the matter seem to forget is…the power of the people. We care about our community and the property of our citizens that will benefit from this project. I move that we, the people, excercise and little initiative and pay the engineer ourselves. 600 people spending one buck will lay this matter to rest. I’ll give the first dollar.

  6. Jim on July 8th, 2010 5:02 pm

    I do not know what his reasoning was to vote against the allocation of money. But, it sure seems to me he is taking Micro Manageing to a whole new level!

  7. digusted on July 8th, 2010 3:59 pm

    GET RID OF HENRY HAWKINS AT ELECTION TIME !!!!!!!!!!!

  8. aubrey king on July 8th, 2010 12:15 pm

    How did this man get in office?

  9. Know your neighbor on July 7th, 2010 9:39 pm

    When will he be up for election, please post of all of Century to see. Mr. Hawkins is proving he is a bigger fool than those who elected him.

  10. mary c on July 7th, 2010 9:33 pm

    I think this is soooo petty. Come on now, all this time i thought he was working 4 us, How could we let him fool us this long , Apparently he’s not 1 of us How did we let him slide N here and N take one of our seats. Where is He from mr Hawkins (not century) .A lot of folks gonna remember this come next electoins.

  11. David Huie Green on July 7th, 2010 9:30 pm

    REGARDING:
    “In that same meeting, he voted with the rest o the council to spend $550 to purchase a full page ad with the council’s picture in the Tri-City Ledger.”

    And he got his picture posted HERE for free.

    Huckleberry Finn said, “It didn’t cost nothin’ and it was worth it.”

    Still one sometimes wonders why the town council needs to advertise. How does the town benefi–other than beautification of the paper with their lovely and/or handsome faces?

    Reasonable or not, I’m just tickled they found something for which he could vote.

    David for careful spending

  12. Willene on July 7th, 2010 8:30 pm

    Amen to what Angela had to say !!!

  13. Bumfuzzled :) on July 7th, 2010 6:19 pm

    OK…..you know there are two sides to every story, so lets invited Mr. Hawkins to post his side of the story here on North Escambia. Does he have a reason for this vote? I”d like to know the answer.

  14. huh on July 7th, 2010 4:55 pm

    How about charge a $600 fine for those people with trash in their yard , then use the money to pay for the grant, problem solved

  15. Century Resident on July 7th, 2010 2:31 pm

    What it boils down to is Mr. Hawkins got mad at the all of us a long time ago and he is doing this just to show us he can. I am not sure he realizes what a mess he has made as councilman, maybe so, and now he knows it’s to late to change things. I think he is voting negative on purpose. We need to remember this if he runs for his seat next time.

  16. willie c on July 7th, 2010 1:05 pm

    its agood thing century is not trying 2 get a shoppihg center or hotels here to give century some kind of room 2 come up its 2 for behind now because of people like that lookin 1 way his way

  17. Disgusted on July 7th, 2010 10:33 am

    As long as he is the lone vote , the motion should carry. Hawkins has been a thorn in Century’s side for too long. VOTE HIM OUT !!!!

  18. Angela on July 7th, 2010 9:21 am

    That’s about right……Mr. Hawkins doesn’t care about anyone or Century….only his appearance. What a shame. I hope the town folks remember all this when election for his seat comes up…..This guy is not doing what he was elected for. He is SUPPOSED to be there to help all of us, but it seems like all he wants is to be in the news and in the paper….Well, he should have a really great scrapbook–hope he prints off some of these little notes to go with the pictures…

  19. Bob on July 7th, 2010 8:15 am

    Just an outsider looking in, but it seems to me he is one of those people that are anti-anything. Maybe this is the only way he can gain recognition. At any rate he is not good for the advancement of Century.

  20. North resident on July 7th, 2010 7:35 am

    I will pay $600 hundred to get 1million in every opportunity offered to me.

  21. JP on July 7th, 2010 7:18 am

    Dollar wait’in on a dime!

  22. Terri Sanders on July 7th, 2010 6:50 am

    Seems to me Mr.Hawkins would rather get his picture in the paper than help get grant money to improve our community.Way to go Mr.Hawkins,at least you are being consistantly inconsitant when it comes to how you vote to spend money.When is your seat up again?

  23. nudo on July 7th, 2010 6:43 am

    Obviously he’s playing politics there’s something that he wants. That’s to bad, 600 dollars for 1.1 million is a no brainer.