Speakers praise city funeral honors and outline community assessment program for monthly reports to council

Two residents used the public comment period at Thursday’s North Charleston City Council meeting to thank city staff and to describe a community assessment program.

Meredith Dart, 1126 East Montague Avenue, thanked the city and the police department for the funeral and official honors conducted at Midland Park United Methodist Church for Kenneth Frederick Skipper Jr. Dart said, “we greatly appreciate how professionally done it was” and thanked the city and police for their role.

Lydia Cotton, 2544 Bangle Road, described a new RPATH community‑to‑community assessment program that she said will share findings with agencies and organizations and provide monthly reports to Councilwoman Rhonda Jerome. Cotton said the program grew out of community work and coordination with ARPA initiatives and emphasized that local leadership should come from residents: “we learned that the mothers, fathers, and families are our best leaders to lead us all.” She added that the effort aims to prepare community members to take leadership roles and to duplicate local leaders.

Cotton said the group will report monthly in the presence of community leaders so they can continue to grow and maintain relationships with city agencies. The transcript records her statement, “We must revolt,” in the context of urging community responsibility and leadership development; she framed the comment as calling for renewed local organization and accountability rather than violent action. The transcript does not record any formal city response or a council directive arising from the comments.

The public comment period also included a brief mayoral announcement about National Public Works Week and procedural remarks about the upcoming special election and certification process for newly elected council members.