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Sparse turnout reported for virtual town hall
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Liberty County’s first virtual town hall had a small turnout, but it was a start.

Starting at 10 a.m. Tuesday, the county’s department heads answered questions on the county’s official Facebook page for an hour about a range of topics, including business licenses, the Justice Center and Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.

Thirteen questions were asked by a total of six people, three of whom were Liberty County employees.

“There’s nothing wrong with county people participating, and that was good,” Assistant County Administrator Bob Sprinkel said. “And the questions they asked were questions that we get asked all the time.”

Sprinkel said that in between answering questions, the department heads discussed future ways to meet and conduct virtual town halls. Some ideas he mentioned included having county officials working from their offices instead of meeting in one room holding meetings in the evening and having officials participate from their homes.

“And I think we’ve got to learn to crawl before we walk, so to speak,” Sprinkel said about working to better disseminate information to the public.

“So maybe this first time, we’ll leave those questions and answers posted. So maybe other people will go there and look at what was asked, and maybe that will generate some interest the next time that we do this.”

The county plans to hold a virtual town hall at least once per quarter, according to Sprinkel, but officials haven’t yet set the exact date for the next one.

“We want (residents) to ask questions, and we want them to get a good feel of their county government,” Sprinkel said of future town halls.

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