RFP Staff
♦ Not a whole lot of debate went on this year in choosing the Rowan Free Press’s Man of the Year for 2016. For the first time in nearly a decade the Salisbury City Council had an individual on it who didn’t follow the script and actually stood up for the previously disenfranchised communities in Salisbury, N.C. We chose the “Conscience of Salisbury” a man with no qualms about speaking his mind: Salisbury City Councilman Kenny Hardin.
Salisbury City Councilman Kenny Hardin, the Rowan Free Press’s Man of Year for 2016:
Kenny Hardin’s track record in 2016 is an amazing display of public service beyond the call of duty. He is the voice that would not be silenced on City Council, meeting after meeting. Hardin is seen on the streets where shootings took place and on crime scenes being investigated in the early morning darkness. When there was trouble at Livingstone College he was there talking with students. Put his name in Rowan Free Press’s search engine and you will pull up many articles where he is making a difference in troubled Salisbury.
The Newsmaker of the Year was another easy choice. The violent crime in Salisbury absorbed a great deal of the news in 2017. Salisbury suffered 10 murders in 2017 and 7 of those are yet to be solved. Armed robberies, stabbings, shootings, street assaults, a child being murdered, home invasions, and carjacks dominated headlines in Salisbury.
Salisbury, N.C.’s Violent Crime, The Rowan Free Press’s Newsmaker of the Year 2016:
