News About Town:  The Board of Commissioners will hold three special meetings to begin the 2019-2021 term. The first meeting, tonight at Town Hall from 6:00 to 9:00 pm, the Board of Commissioners will learn about the basics of a Council-Manager form of government, as well as receive brief overviews of various town departments. The second and third meetings, January 29 and February 12, will cover topics including current projects and initiatives as well as capital improvement needs and prioritization. Read the agenda here.

News Around Town: Last year, the Mecklenburg Board of Elections approved new voting machines manufactured by Election Systems and Software, or ES&S.  The machines were approved after the General Assembly passed a law requiring voter machines to produce a paper ballot. The ES&S machines will produce a summary showing the voter’s choices, which will be fed into another machine for tabulation. The paper ballot is a precautionary measure against hacking. Want to see how these new machines work? They'll be at the Matthews library on Tuesday, January 28 from 2:30 - 6:30 pm.

One Good Thing: The 2020 Point-in-Time Count is coming up on January 29. The event takes place on one night to survey each person experiencing sheltered or unsheltered homelessness. The results also detail temporary and permanent housing capacity and inventory throughout Mecklenburg County. The data accumulated is required for the county to receive federal homelessness funding assistance from the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD). Read the 2019 report here.