What voters need to know ahead of primary election in May <\/a><\/p>\nMembers of the city board of directors supported the ordinance, which would allow residents to take part in protests, rallies, and parades. 59News spoke with city representatives who said the ordinance is about securing the rights of local citizens. They explained that community safety is their top priority.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of our main concerns is we want to make sure that everybody has the right to express their opinion,\u201d said City of Bluefield Clerk and Assistant City Attorney, Anthony Heltzel. \u201cWe want to protect first amendment rights. We also want to make sure that it\u2019s done in a safe manner and maintain safety.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heltzel pointed out that there previously was not sufficient previously to support these types of public assemblies. The demolition of the 400 block, along with other city projects, created sufficient space for larger public gatherings. Board members are expected to hear the ordinance for a second reading in the coming weeks<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WVNS. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BLUEFIELD, WV (WVNS) \u2013 A new ordinance would allow Bluefield residents to assemble the downtown area. What voters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188324,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[83985,83986,83983,83984,2696,128,130,129,83987],"class_list":["post-188323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-anthony-heltzel","tag-bluefield","tag-city-representatives","tag-new-ordinance","tag-ordinance","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-wv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}