HAMLET — City Councilman Eddie Martin got a surprise at Tuesday night’s meeting when he was honored with a scholarship in his name.
Richmond Community College President Dale McInnis and Vice President of Development Hal Shuler were at the meeting to deliver the news to the former Rockingham police chief.
Shuler said the scholarship was established by the Richmond Community College foundation to honor Martin, a “lifelong public servant” and Hamlet native whose career has included a stint in the U.S. Marine Corps, serving with Charlotte and Rockingham police departments and working as a magistrate before being elected to the Hamlet City Council.
“Chief Martin has mentored, guided and forever touched countless lives throughout his five decades of public service and has created a lasting legacy throughout the law enforcement field in Richmond County,” Shuler said. “It is with that same spirit of passion, dedication and patriotism that this scholarship was founded, in order to assist future leaders in law enforcement to follow the unparallelled example set by (Martin).”
McInnis said the college was approached by some of Martin’s friends to establish the scholarship in his honor.
The $1,000 Eddie R. Martin Law Enforcement Leadership Scholarship will be divided between two students in the college’s criminal justice program.
“I certainly do appreciate it … it caught me by surprise,” Martin said. “I had no idea, absolutely no idea.
In other business, Police Chief Tommy McMasters said his department has had 15 calls so far this month concerning dogs running loose within the city limits. All of these calls, he said, are a burden to the department in several ways.
When a call comes in, the officer has to go back to the department to get equipment to handle the dogs so these calls take more time and take time and manpower away from more important police calls, he said.
Councilman Jesse McQueen suggested using funds from vacant positions in the department to pay off-duty officers to handle the calls and recommended training to help teach the officers handle the dogs.
In his report, City Manager Jonathan Blanton said new playground equipment for Hamlet City Lake will soon be purchased thanks to a grant from Game Time/Cunningham Recreation. This is the latest in the many recent improvements to the lake area.
Blanton also said the repaving of the Senior Center parking lot has been completed and TRG Signs will be installing two more city entrance signs before the end of the year.
Basketball registration is going on at City Hall Nov. 4–Dec. 6 with late registration running Dec. 9 – 13.
City offices will be closed for Thanksgiving both Nov. 28-29, although garbage, normally picked up on Thursday, will be collected that Friday.
The Christmas tree lighting will be 5:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 2 and the Christmas parade will be at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 5.
