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YOUR BALLOT MUST BE RETURNED TO THE VOLUSIA COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF ELECTIONS OFFICE ON OR BEFORE MAY 21 BY 7 P.M. TO BE COUNTED.
@DAYTONATIMES
MAY 2 - MAY 8, 2019
YEAR 44 NO. 18
www.daytonatimes.com
Clergy hosting sales-tax session You can bring your ballot to the May 6 meeting BY ANDREAS BUTLER DAYTONA TIMES
The ballots for the special election on a proposed countywide half-cent sales tax have been mailed. The tax is designed to raise funds for improvement projects such as roads, sidewalks, stormwater projects, flooding and bridges. Voters are to choose whether they are in favor or against the tax, then get their ballots back to the Supervisor of Elections office by 7 p.m. on Tuesday, May 21. Ballots, which were mailed out on Wednesday, can be mailed or
dropped off at Daytona Beach City Hall or at city halls in each of the county’s 16 municipalities.
Information session The Daytona Beach Black Clergy Alliance is hosting a forum Monday, May 6, to help residents who still want more information about the tax. It will be held at 6:30 p.m. at Allen Chapel A.M.E. Church in Daytona Beach. The goal is to inform and assist residents. City officials will be on hand at the event to discuss the tax and Daytona Beach projects it will cover. “It’s another information session. We want to inform churches and citizens. It’s for the public. The city meetings weren’t as well-attended. We want people See MEETING, Page 2
DUANE C. FERNANDEZ SR. / HARDNOTTSPHOTOGRAPHY.COM
Daytona Beach city staff held the last in a series of informational meetings on the half-cent sales tax on Tuesday at the Church of Christ on Beville Road.
DAYTONA TIMES / 40TH ANNIVERSARY
Lucas joins prosecutors; police brutality claimed
Crump, LeBlanc to address B-CU graduates on May 11 BY ANDREAS BUTLER DAYTONA TIMES
Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump and U.S. State Department strategist Johanna LeBlanc are the keynotes speakers at Bethune-Cookman University’s spring commencement on Saturday, May 11. Crump will speak at the 9 a.m. commencement service while LeBlanc will address graduates at the 3 p.m. service. Both ceremonies will be held at the Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Performing Arts Center, 698 International Speedway Blvd., Daytona Beach. Crump will speak to graduates of the College of Liberal Arts and the School of Nursing while LeBlanc will address graduates of the School of Graduate Studies, College of Health Science, School of Religion, School of Performing Arts & Communication, College of Business & Entrepreneurship, College of Education, College
Benjamin Crump
Johanna LeBlanc
of Science, Engineering & Math and School of Hospitality Management.
‘Enlighten and encourage’ “Attorney Crump is a nationally acclaimed attorney who has been involved in high-profile cases affecting modern-day civil rights concerns and has been a friend of the university for years,” See B-CU, Page 2
CHARLES W. CHERRY II / DAYTONA TIMES
Dr. Joyce Cusack (center, in white dress) stands with family and friends at the gala celebrating her life and accomplishments.
Twenty-five years ago in 1994, the Daytona Times reported on Daytona Beach native Sylvester Lucas becoming an investigator with the office of the local state attorney, and a pregnant woman who claimed she was brutalized by a Daytona Beach Police Department officer.
ALSO INSIDE
Hundreds celebrate Cusack’s activism and career
public service and community leadership. As a teenager, the New Smyrna Beach native organized sit-ins in segregated department stores in DeLand, where she grew up. In 2000, she became the first Black person to be elected from Volusia County to the Florida House of Representatives. She was reelected in 2002, 2004 and 2006.
BY THE DAYTONA TIMES STAFF
As a consequence of term limits, she left the Florida Legislature and then was elected to the at-large position on the Volusia County Council, where she served for eight years. She founded MEO as a way to link up Volusia County’s minority elected officials. Lynn Thompson hosted the
Dr. Joyce Cusack, one of Volusia County’s most experienced Black politicians, was the focus of the April 25 gala celebration of the Minority Elected Officials (MEO) of Volusia County at the Ocean Center. Cusack is a community organizer and elected official who has spent more than two decades in
To County Council
COMMUNITY NEWS: DAYTONA BEACH NCNW ANNOUNCES BRAIN BOWL WINNERS | PAGE 3 SPORTS: SPRING FOOTBALL PRACTICE WELL UNDERWAY FOR LOCAL HIGH SCHOOL TEAMS | PAGE 5
See CUSACK, Page 2