Cynthia Chambers calls for "enjoyable and affordable" activities

BEACON - A call for more volunteers in Beacon youth programs and the fire department was made during the city’s first of four yearly public forums Saturday.

Much of the focus of the Beacon Town Hall Meeting, as city officials are dubbing it, leaned toward increasing youth activity efforts in the city and pumping up efforts to draw more city residents to volunteer with the fire department to help prevent it from going to a fulltime paid department.

Some residents expressed concerns for the “lack of activities” for youths in the city, and called for more effort from the city’s Recreation Commission to provide them with more sports and other activities, while some city officials feel that more parents have to get involved to get their children motivated.

City resident Cynthia Chambers asked for “enjoyable and affordable” activities for kids, mainly due to the “lack of coordination for recreation in the city” and the “high cost for those with multiple kids.”

Councilwoman Deanna Leake has similar concerns. “I think the biggest challenge with our youth is getting them interested in doing something with their time,” she said.   “You can have everything out there, but if they’re not interested in activities, they’re not going to do it.”

Fire Chief Timothy Joseph took the opportunity during the meeting to make known the need for more volunteer firefighters in the city due to increased population.

Mayor Steven Gold felt that the decrease in recruits is a product of the way of life in the city, and the different culture we live in.

“If we take the realities of how our neighborhoods are working, and the hours that people work, and the families that they have, and try to find ways in which that can be coordinated with the fire departments now in a less traditional but more flexible manner, then we may be able to fuse a new way that it can be done.”

The Beacon Town Hall Meeting is part of the city’s community outreach program, and will be held quarterly at the Veterans Memorial Building.