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Voters in Greenville will now cast ballots at a single centralized location following a unanimous decision by the Greenville City Council on May 12. Ordinance 2025-07 amends the city code to consolidate all voting districts to the Lurleen B. Wallace Wendell Mitchell Conference Center.

“This should help eliminate confusion between county and city voting locations,” said Councilmember Bryan Reynolds during the discussion. Councilmember Jae Ques Brown inquired about the number of machines, and City Clerk-Treasurer Dee Blackmon said, “There will likely be two or three machines,” though final logistics are still being determined.

Mayor Dexter McLendon asked whether the change would affect poll worker staffing. Blackmon confirmed that fewer workers will be needed with the centralized site. Councilmember James West moved for final passage of the ordinance and Councilmember Boris Thigpen seconded the motion which passed with a unanimous roll-call vote.

In other business, the council approved Ordinance 2025-06, which rezones property located at 912 East Commerce Street from C-3 (Highway Commercial District) to R-3 (Multifamily Residential District). The rezoning request was submitted by Rolonda Guzman to allow construction of apartments similar to those on Milner Street.

A public hearing was held at 5:25 p.m. ahead of the regular meeting to invite public opinion, but no comments were made for or against the proposal. 

“All right, so this is the rezoning,” McLendon said. “They’ve gone through all the details and done the same thing they did on Milner Street, same developer, same everything. This is a piece of property that we started cleaning up several years ago and then we had an opportunity to finance somebody to come in and build some apartments. He’s done a great job over there with the other ones, so I see no reason for us not to do it again.”

The ordinance was adopted unanimously following a motion by Councilmember Reynolds and a second by Councilmember Ed Sims.

The council also approved a budgeted expenditure of $10,185.54 to CivicPlus for a mass notification system that includes NOAA weather alerts. Mayor McLendon introduced the item and asked Assistant City Clerk Nicki Hunt to provide additional details. 

“It’s our notification system for all of the bad weather that goes out,” Hunt said. “And then when we have cancellations on games, that’s what’s notifying you.  We do it for safety meetings. We also do it for accidents and things like that.”

With no questions or comments from the council, Councilmember Jae Ques Brown made a motion to approve the expenditure. Councilmember Ed Sims seconded, and the motion passed unanimously.

Mayor McLendon announced that the next regular council meeting will be held on Monday, May 19, due to the Memorial Day holiday.