County and municipal officials lined up along side well-wishers and citizens of Richmond County for the opportunity to embrace the hand and borrow the ear of U.S. Representative Larry Kissell Monday evening at his district office in downtown Rockingham.

"Today is a day that they can meet with and tell their concerns to Larry," Kissell staff member Brianna Atkins said. "That's what Larry wants. When we're in Washington he misses his friends and family, and if it was up to him he'd shake the hand of everybody in Richmond County."

Standing outside the office doors, Rockingham Mayor Gene McLaurin, Richmond County Manager Jim Haynes and Economic Development Director Rick Sago discussed their conversations with Kissell.

"I just mentioned to Larry that in these smaller communities, we don't have the same kind of staff that the big cities do, so it's been more of a challenge to identify projects to be funded by the stimulus bill," McLaurin said.

He pointed out Rockingham identified two potential projects - the recreation complex and water and sewer expansion.

"One of my concerns is that the money is beginning to flow through Raleigh, and we don't want to be left out," he said. "I think Larry understands that. His home is in Montgomery County, and he knows what challenges we face."

"We basically said ‘Don't leave us out,'" Haynes said. "We got a lot of encouragement that he will make sure our needs are known."

"Being from a rural area, this guy understands what we're doing, and he's seen the impact of the demise of the textile industry in his own county," Sago said.

"We talked about the construction bond funds that got cut out of the stimulus package by the Senate," Richmond County Board of Education member Ed Ormsby said. "We really hate that, because we had some good projects we could have put the juice to with that money."

He said he also discussed Title I and exceptional education funds anticipated to be included in the final bill with Kissell and one of Kissell's caseworkers, as well as the impact of No Child Left Behind on education.

"It's good to have a former educator in there, who understands what our needs are," Ormsby said.

As Melissa Leamon, Crystal Cheek and Lisa Lisk of Monarch NC, a nonprofit mental health provider, spoke with Kissell, he stood shuffling a stack of business cards in his hand and nodding his head while he listened.

"We were expressing our concerns over recent budget cuts to the mental health LME's (local management entities) from the state and federal level," Cheek said.

"He said it was something that he wasn't as familiar with as his wife, so he said he was going to talk to her and see what he could do," Lisk said.

Not everyone who met with Kissell represented an interest, however.

The vast majority of those present sought a chance to meet with their congressman, wish him well, and in some cases even get a hug.

Ron Murray said he wished to discuss an article he'd read about New York City purchasing Nissans instead of an American-made car.

"It looks like to me, if they're going to loan all that money to the car industry, there ought to be some loyalty there," he said. "I've been around Congress, and I know how it works - it's you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours, so I want him to talk to some of those New York representatives."

Laurinburg City Council Member Curtis Leak said he wanted to welcome Kissell to the community and wish him well.

"I just came by to see him," Ray Cobb said. "I helped him out on his campaign, and he's a good man. He already took care of my problem - Robin Hayes is out of office."