Unfortunately yesterday’s Meet Me In The Street was cancelled due to weather threats. By the time 5:00pm rolled around it seemed pretty clear, but lunch time and early afternoon Thursday it was very windy and rainy. We’ll update when we get information about the reschedule.
April is National Landscape Architecture Month, and today marks the birthday of the man known as the father of American landscape design — Frederick Law Olmstead. Not only was he a talented designer, but he helped to define the idea of a public park, accessible to everyone. Among his famous commissions are New York’s Central Park, the grounds of the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, and dozens of college campuses, including Stanford and Cornell. Today, about one-in-four U.S. households are actively engaged in landscaping their yards. Close to 30 percent enjoy flower gardening and 12 percent have ponds or other water features. You can find these and more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau, online at www.census.gov.
There’s a few events this weekend on our calendar, have you checked out our calendar page this month?
Discuss and more on the Open Lines!
Did you read the letters to the Editor in the Sunday edition of the Daily Dispatch? I liked the one where ex-commissioner scott hughes said that his children could run the county better than current commissioner eddie wright. He also says that wright is running unopposed! Why is that? Are people with great ideas and the time/energy to really make a difference in Vance County given up on it? Seems that way….I remember one commissioner’s meeting that I attended when a Mr. Bobbitt had repeatedly complained about the fact that current county commissioner eddie wright hadn’t paid his property taxes. Eddie called up a gentleman whom he thought was Mr. Bobbitt and tried to show him a paper of some sort before he was told that he had the “WRONG” Mr. Bobbitt. I think Michael Bobbitt who does a lil’ reporting for this site can better explain it than I can since he was one of the “bobbitt’s” that were involved. It showed just how ‘smart…..or not’ some people who hold elected offices are. What will eddie’s response to ex-commissioner hughes’ comments be? I’m sure he will call into WIZS 1450 Town Talk and mumble something. We will listen this week to see if he does indeed call into the show. In the meantime….as one of my favorite bloggers used to say:”You are getting……………….what you deserve” or something along those lines.
Deception,
First issue:
Anyone interested in opposing Mr. Wright in the general election needs to present petitions with the signatures of at least 10% of the registered voters in Mr. Wright’s district before June 22 or 25, 2012. Also the candidate must live within Mr. Wright’s district. This is the executive summary and I may have some details missing. I presume Mr. Hughes is aware that an undeclared candidate for office can get on the ballot with enough signatures on petitions.
The City’s and County’s affirmation of the recent redistricting ensnares the County residence with the results of a 40 year old voters’ rights law suit that denies county residence at large county commissioners. At large county commissioners were the norm before that law suit. Having district and at large commissioners would change the balance of political power.
Second issue:
Back in the day the local paper printed the names of property tax ‘deadbeats’ along with the amounts in arrears. In May of 2008, Mr. Wright’s name was on the list of those in arrears on property tax. He was not alone, either. I recall the name of city council member, a school board member, and a State representative on the roll of property tax deadbeats. Yes, I did propose that those serving in public office forfeited their right to office when being in arrears on property tax. I wrote a letter to the paper that was published on the editorial page expressing my discontent with elected property tax deadbeats.
After making my presentation to the County Commissioners, I was contacted by a Commissioner and told the public information on property tax deadbeats was incorrect and Mr. Wright was not in arrears. I was embarrassed. I called Mr. Wright to apologize for my error that was based on inaccurate public information. Mr. Wright accepted my apology. There the matter ended as far as I was concerned and as far as I am aware for Mr. Wright. As an aside, I did submit an apology to Mr. Wright for publication on the editor page. The paper did not publish that apology.
Mr. or Ms. Deception, I hope I have clarified the details of that long ago event. As for the rest of your recollection I suggest we use Socrates’ triple filter test.