Ben Massey hosts community listening sessions

LANSING — On July 11 at The Barn in Lansing, Candidate Ben Massey held his first listening session. Approximately 20 Ashe County citizens attended to ask questions and express their concerns over the issues they care about in the upcoming election. Massey, who is running for state representative for District 93, serving Ashe, Alleghany, and Watauga counties, is vitally interested in hearing from the folks he hopes to represent in Raleigh.

Issues that were brought up as concerns focused on a number of topics including party affiliation in school board elections, Ashe County’s affordable housing shortage and how to solve it, the lack of available childcare and eldercare, the overall need for assistance to pregnant mothers, the desire for agencies to work together to solve all these problems without worrying about turf, and the necessity of utilizing grants to assist in funding these efforts.

Massey feels that it is vitally important for him, as a candidate, to be aware of the concerns of the citizens of Ashe County in order to truly serve his constituents as a representative. The meeting closed with this thought: “There is no hope if there is no vote.”

Massey’s next listening session is scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 8 8 from 6:30-8 p.m., at the Todd Mercantile Store in Todd. All are welcome to attend and express their concerns.