Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce wants to write letters to the churches. 

Chamber member Martin McCall said the group wants to develop open lines of communication with citizens through faith-based organizations.

“We want everybody in the county who has a church congregation to send us their contact information, so that when we have information about things happening in the county we can send them a letter about it,” said McCall. 

During the group’s April 14 meeting, chamber members discussed: preserving historical resources, providing health care options in Lowndes County, a special viewing of a documentary about Lowndes County, and holding a planned workshop on heir property.

The guest presenter was Lionel Smith, president of the E.M. Brown Community Center in Dallas County. Smith seeks support to transform the former Emanuel Brown Training School in Selma into a museum and resource center. The training school closed in 1972, and it dates back to 1920.

Chamber president Ozell Hubert told members about a planned showing of a movie titled “Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power.”  Hubert said the Friends of the Civil Rights Movement will show the film on April 22, at Jackson Steele Community Center located at 590 Freedom Road in White Hall from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Chamber members also discussed health care issues. 

“We can have our own rural health care clinic; we can have ambulance service. All of those things we need in Lowndes County,” Hubert stated. 

Hubert said Lowndes County must establish a healthcare authority just as Escambia and Monroe Counties have done. He said those counties are eligible to receive federal funds because they have a healthcare authority. 

“In Lowndes County, we are outsourcing 61 million dollars a year to health care facilities in Greenville, Selma, and Montgomery,” Hubert stated.

The agenda included finalizing plans for an heirs property forum being planned for late May. According to alabamalegalhep.org, heirs property is a term used to describe property that is passed between generations without a legally designated owner and being divided among all living family. 

Anyone who would like to have a faith-based group added to the chamber’s mailing list should write Pastor McCall, P.O. Box 651, Hayneville, AL 36040.

The Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce meets on the second Friday of each month at Mary Bell’s Restaurant in Hayneville. For more information regarding chamber events, contact Hubert at (251) 387-0357 or dochubert7@gmail.com.