Coburn sworn in as member of board of health
Apr. 21—PRINCETON — A Bluefield restaurant owner was sworn in Tuesday as the new member of the Mercer County Board of Health during a special Mercer County Commission meeting.
The appointment of Nicole Coburn, owner of the Blue Spoon Cafe in Bluefield, was approved by the county commission.
"I have a large background of working with the public, working with the community and community service, so I'm hoping to serve this board and establish professional relationships with people in health and also in our community," Coburn said later. "I will sit on the board to help make decisions, to impact our community hopefully in a positive way and I bring to the table food and health safety with being in the restaurant industry."
Coburn said that she wanted to work for the county's residents.
"I just love where we live," she stated. "I love our community and I want to see us being the very best that we can be, and I hope that I can add to that board with my professionalism and history, and even learn along the way."
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is one of the issues Coburn faces when she sits down on the board of health.
"The pandemic I think has been a rollercoaster for everybody. It's impacted everybody differently depending in business on where you work and where you live," Coburn said. "I'm proud to see our community coming through this with such great positivity with a stride to hopefully get our lives back and get on a roll."
Coburn urged Mercer County's residents to support their local businesses.
"Restaurants, construction, stores, anything that you can local in the county and the surrounding counties," she said. "We definitely need that now and always."
The commissioners said that Coburn would be an asset for the board of health.
"I just want to say, Nicole, you're a valuable asset to our community, truly. The work that you've done for Bluefield is superlative," Commissioner Greg Puckett stated. "We really can't thank you enough for all the efforts you're trying to do to make our community healthy, the things you've done at the Blue Spoon, really opening up the doors during the pandemic, especially, so thank you so much for that."
"The thing is when we get the nominations, we want to make sure want to make sure that we have as much public health knowledge as possible," Puckett said. "I understand you're coming into this sort of a newbie to that world, but I also think that you're going to bring a unique perspective in terms of bringing a woman's perspective into our public health arena that has been a male-dominated area for so long. I do believe your perspective is going to be welcome."
Puckett said that he hoped the county commission could tap into more of the county's talent.
"I would say we do need to be cautious and we do need to be really open to accepting additional sort of opportunities for different community members. You certainly bring that and I do think we need to do that for all of our boards, you know, opening it up when there's a position open and really advertising it in our community to find out what talents our community has," he said. "Far too often, we get in where we make nominations based on who we know, but we don't always know everyone in the community, and so I would like to see this commission reach out when we do have an opportunity for diversity or inclusion that we really open it up to the community more and advertise for these positions."
County Commission President Gene Buckner also welcomed Coburn to the board of health.
"I agree with Mr. Puckett that Nicole is a great nominee and I'm glad to be part of the people who put her in there for the simple reason that our board of health, the restaurant population is a great part of the board of health," Buckner said. "We have people who go around each restaurant and check for cleanliness and different things, and she can be a big part of it. She can bring a lot to the table for the people who go out and do that kind of work, so I'm sure Nicole is going to be a great asset to the county and the board of health."
— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com
