The city of Danville has lost a great man and public servant. Lyle Lacy helped SouthsideCentral start up our governmental coverage and we’ll always owe him that debt of gratitude.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Lyle Lacy died on Wednesday afternoon at his home after a battle with illness. He was appointed Danville City Manager since March 1, 2009 after being Deputy and Interim City Manager for over 10 years. You can read that information anywhere, but I’ve got my own story to tell about Lyle.<\/p>\n
When I decided that SouthsideCentral could be another voice of the media that covers governmental activities (back in the days of HalifaxCentral), I decided to attend my first City Council meeting. I sat back in the citizen’s area and observed how things happened. I noticed Denice Thibodeau (R&B) & Chuck Vipperman (WBTM) sitting in front of the rail taking notes and I realized that with a laptop computer, SouthsideCentral could offer LIVE! coverage of City Council meetings.<\/p>\n
I went home after that meeting and decided to email the City Manager’s office to ask about the media credentialing rules for covering meetings. Within 15 minutes, I got a phone call from Lyle Lacy himself. He told me everything I needed to know and invited me to stop by his office anytime. Well, I did just that a few days later. In our conversation, I mentioned that it would be nice for the city to open up their internet access for the media, which would allow LIVE! commentary on meetings. He thought about it then picked up his phone, called the IT department and made it happen in less than 30 seconds. He looked at me, smiled, then said “Anything else that I can do to help you?” <\/p>\n
Quite frankly, I was shocked at the speed that my first idea was granted that I stumbled while asking about the councilmembers packets that they have every meeting. He explained to me that they consist of the night’s council business along with all documentation and an executive summary. I asked how could I get one of those packets if I needed it for SouthsideCentral purposes. Lyle said “Just call my office and we’ll have one prepared for you within a few minutes. Anything else that I can do for you?”<\/p>\n
I stammered a bit and said “You’ve done more than I would have guessed already.” He smiled and said “That’s why we’re here.” We talked a few more minutes about SouthsideCentral and he was very enthusiastic at the potential I was talking about. We shook hands and I walked out of his office as one very amazed man.<\/p>\n
Simply put, Lyle Lacy “got it”. Danville has lost one of the best City Managers ever, and the City of Danville has lost one of their best citizens. Rest well, Lyle Lacy. You’ll be missed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The city of Danville has lost a great man and public servant. Lyle Lacy helped SouthsideCentral start up our governmental coverage and we’ll always owe him that debt of gratitude.<\/p>\n
[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[58,20,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-danville","category-newscentral","category-opinioncentral","odd"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pwqFk-1GT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6878,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2010\/05\/06\/breaking-joe-king-named-danville-city-manager\/","url_meta":{"origin":6503,"position":0},"title":"BREAKING: Joe King named Danville City Manager","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"May 6, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Tonight, Danville City Council named Joe King as City Manager. After a dinner meeting in closed session, the Danville City Council named Joe King as Danville City Manager. King was serving as Interim City Manager following the death of then-City Manager Lyle Lacy. King was previously Deputy City Manager under\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Breaking News"","block_context":{"text":"Breaking News","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/newscentral\/breaking-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6509,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2010\/03\/05\/joe-king-named-danvilles-interim-city-manager\/","url_meta":{"origin":6503,"position":1},"title":"Joe King named Danville’s Interim City Manager","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"March 5, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Today, Danville City Council appointed Joe King as Interim City Manager after the death of Lyle Lacy. We've got some photos from today's activities. Danville City Council starts their meeting. Vice Mayor Wayne Oakes (L) & Mayor Sherman Saunders (R) congratulate Interim City Manager Joe King (C) on his appointment\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Danville"","block_context":{"text":"Danville","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/locations\/danville\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6163,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2010\/01\/10\/danvilles-making-a-move-for-labcorp\/","url_meta":{"origin":6503,"position":2},"title":"Danville’s making a move for LabCorp?","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"January 10, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a story that's made no news in the Southside VA area... yet. (Guilford) County OKs LabCorp incentives Notice this part of the story... The amount the Board of Commissioners approved Thursday is less than the requested figure from the Burlington-based company, which hopes to consolidate its billing operations from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "BusinessCentral"","block_context":{"text":"BusinessCentral","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/businesscentral\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6413,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2010\/02\/13\/thumbs-213-edition\/","url_meta":{"origin":6503,"position":3},"title":"Thumbs! (2\/13 edition)","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"February 13, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"It's time to use our Thumbs! Shall we get the Thumbs! started? You betcha! Thumbs UP! to Danville City Manager Lyle Lacy for a refreshing bit of honesty and candor. At the last Danville City Council meeting, Lacy admitted that he made some wrong decisions in the snow removal operations\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "OpinionCentral"","block_context":{"text":"OpinionCentral","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/opinioncentral\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5806,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2009\/11\/11\/adam-tomers-letter-to-danvilles-city-attorney\/","url_meta":{"origin":6503,"position":4},"title":"Adam Tomer’s letter to Danville’s City Attorney","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"November 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"We've been talking about Adam Tomer's issue with the mystery payment to the Coleman Marketplace developers. Let's take a look at what Tomer has written to Danville's City Attorney. 11-9-09 To: W. Clarke Whitfield, City Attorney Re: Additional Coleman Marketplace Utility Expenses At the November 5th City Council meeting I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Danville"","block_context":{"text":"Danville","link":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/category\/locations\/danville\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14123,"url":"https:\/\/www.southsidecentral.com\/wordpress\/2015\/09\/29\/oddsmakers-92915\/","url_meta":{"origin":6503,"position":5},"title":"OddsMakers! (9\/29\/15)","author":"SouthsideCentral","date":"September 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The door has been locked over at the SouthsideCentral writers' room for the past two days, so that means that those evil people were putting something devious together. That means it's OddsMakers time, where we take a look at the chances that certain things will happen. 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