Local leaders will gather virtually May 21 to bring residents of Hartselle an update on the city, chamber, school system and more.  

Missy Evans, Executive Director of the Hartselle Area Chamber of Commerce, along with Mayor Randy Garrison, Superintendent Dr. Dee Dee Jones and Hartselle Utilities general manager Bob Sittason will hold live question and answer sessions that will broadcast on Facebook May 21 at 4 p.m. The Q&As will follow 10-minute presentations from each of the participants.  

Evans said the original intent of the event was to give the leaders a platform to speak to the community about progress, setbacks and the vision for the future.  

“We had not hosted both the State of the City, usually hosted in January, or the State of the Schools, usually hosted in October,” Evans said. “They didn’t happen and we thought this was a perfect time to update the community since many have gotten pretty comfortable with using virtual platforms.”  

Life Church will host the event and helping the Chamber film and broadcast the presentations.  

According to Evans, who joined the Chamber as its director in January, the goal of the event is to create a sense of connectivity between the community and its leaders and to allow the public to hear more about the plans for now and the future.  

“I really hope this will continue because one of the things we need to do as a community is raise the civic IQ of those who live here,” Evans said.  

“Having these types of events can help Hartselle understand the flow of information and who is doing what and understand more about things that are impacting our community.”  

“We want to have a two-way conversation instead of us just talking all the time and the community being spectators,” she added.  

“We want that back and forth because we want to be known as people, what our values are and what motivates us and the decisions we make.”  

Evans added similar events for communities in Morgan County, including Falkville, Eva and Somerville are in the early stages of planning.