Category: Quick hits

While watching Hurricane Wilma bear down on the Yucatan, with Florida then in her sights, we’re struck by two things. First, is it possible that the Maya civilization was ruined by a hurricane, a series of hurricanes or a succession of particularly harsh hurricane seasons? Second, and more important in the grand scheme of things, is it possible that the next hurricane this year, now slated to be Hurricane Alpha, could instead be named after a pseudonymous online columnist? It …

It’s VOICE day in Henderson, the last meeting of the full Vance Organization to Implement Community Excellence before the final Weed and Seed application must be e-mailed to the U.S. Justice Department by Oct. 30. The meeting is at 10:30 a.m. at the Aycock Recreation Complex. For those of us who can’t make the meeting, well, we have an open line for discussion.

It’s a bit overdue, but we’d like to thank and congratulate the city of Henderson for making good use of its Web site by posting the proposed Time Warner Cable franchise agreement online here. That’s open government in action. And by the way, not to change the topic from endless anonymous attacks on the fire chief, but please be safe in Henderson today. There’s a decent chance that Albert Pujols’ game-winning home run from last night could plunge out of …

The Henderson-Vance application for federal Weed and Seed recognition is in the hands of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and is two weeks away from being sent to Washington. Whether or not we get the label and the related grants, the process in preparing the application should prepare the city and county to better drive out and prevent crime. Until then, the floor is open for discussion.

Sorry for the delay in posting this. It’s obnoxious how the paying job can intrude on the more important tasks of maintaining this site! We’d still like to see some discussion about what people hope the new council will do. We know the new members of the council are active readers of this site, so your suggestions could make a difference.

We were remiss in failing to mark some significant holidays here in recent days. Thursday was Yom Kippur, completing the 10-day High Holiday period for Jews with a day of fasting. Speaking of fasting, the holy month of Ramadan, during which Muslims don’t eat during the day, began last week. And this week brought us Columbus Day, celebrated Monday although the actual day was Wednesday. So to all Jews, Muslims, Italians, postal workers and any others who celebrated any of …

It’s the day after, and the reality sets in. For the second consecutive election, Henderson has voted in several new faces to the City Council. Come December, the city will have three rookie council members (Lynn Harper, Bobby Gupton and Garry Daeke), two second-termers (Elissa Yount and Mary Emma Evans), three veterans (Bernard Alston, Lonnie Davis and Ranger Wilkerson) and a second-term mayor (Clem Seifert), assuming that Miles Gloriosus doesn’t launch the first bag-head coup d’etat. So what should we …

We can’t think of anything more appropriate than a final chance for folks to make their arguments for particular candidates in Tuesday’s elections. All we ask is that you try to argue FOR someone, rather than AGAINST someone else. We’d like to think that everyone can find positive reasons to vote for their candidates of choice. But this is an open line, so feel free to mourn the Braves’ annual playoff loss or chat about anything else.

The Vance County Board of Education will meet at 7 tonight at the school system’s headquarters on Graham Avenue, and normally its planned adoption of the 2005-06 budget as part of its monthly agenda would be enough to grab our attention. But not when the City Council is meeting for the final time before Tuesday’s elections, especially when the Fire Department figures to be center stage with three separate items on a crowded agenda: a life safety award, a grant …

It’s the last weekend for the City Council candidates to hunt for votes around Henderson. And through a coincidence of scheduling, the council will meet Monday night, election eve, with a last chance for the incumbents to impress us with their statesmanship and knowledge. So let’s set the proper tone here, if only for one weekend, by keeping the discourse out of the gutter.

Congratulations to the Braves and to John Smoltz, who thoroughly dominated Tropical Storm Tammy, the Astros and Roger Clemens, who’s only the best pitcher of our time and arguably the best since World War II. Smoltz needed only nine pitches, nine pitches, 10 pitches and 10 pitches to get through his final four innings. In victory, though, the Braves put together one of the strangest innings we’ve ever seen: In the bottom of the seventh, Atlanta sent six batters to …

As you can see below, we have posted the responses to our candidate questionnaire. Six of the 12 candidates responded, including both in the most highly anticipated race, Elissa Yount vs. John Wester for the Ward 3 at-large seat. You can click on any of the page numbers listed with that post to jump to a particular one of the 17 questions and see all six responses. If other candidates respond, we’ll add them in the appropriate places. We’ll move …

Entering the homestretch of its bid to gain federal Weed and Seed status for Henderson and Vance County, the Vance Organization to Implement Community Excellence meets this morning at 10:30 at the Aycock Recreation Complex. VOICE has nine days to get a draft of its 50-page application to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Raleigh. Here’s the list of the nearly 50 people tapped to serve on the Weed and Seed steering committee. And with that public service announcement complete, the …

Many people have expressed concerns about and/or interest in the city proposal to set up a fund to pay rent for “good tenants” who run into temporary trouble. We cannot add the question to our candidate questionnaire at this point, but we’ll throw the topic out there for any City Council candidates or anyone else to address. Do you support this proposal? Why?

It’s probably just a coincidence, but we’re pleased to report that after all of the discussion on this site about Henderson publicizing its meetings, we recieved an e-mail from City Clerk Dianne White on Monday that covered the schedule of meetings in the city government this week. The least we can do is pass along that information, so here it is in full. The focus today is on committee meetings: Public Works at 10 a.m.; Human Resources and Journal at …

At popular request (it only takes one in the blogging world), we’ll throw out a particular item for discussion today: the library vs. The Daily Dispatch. Tem Blackburn, who happens to head the state Library Commission and serves as a trustee of the H. Leslie Perry Mermorial Library when he isn’t juggling legal matters for Variety Wholesalers, wrote a passionate letter in Sunday’s Dispatch to defend the library board, the library administration and the library expansion from what he perceives …

We’re entering the homestretch of the election season and, coincidentally, the period of the Jewish High Holy Days, which start Monday night. It’s a good time for honest reflection on the past year and on the year to come, which fits perfectly with the answers City Council candidates are submitting to some questions we sent them. We’ll post the responses during the next week. Meanwhile, chat away.

Well, we were disappointed to hear that few observers turned out at the library Thursday for the meeting of the Henderson-Vance Economic Partnership: two representatives of the media and two others. Kudos to City Council member Mary Emma Evans for being the only elected official not on the partnership board to attend the meeting. For the rest of us, who couldn’t be bothered to spend an hour at the library, the floor is open for semi-informed discussion.

Sometimes it seems as if the Henderson and Vance County governments operate in separate worlds. Then the two sides confront each other at an event such as Wednesday’s intergovernmental forum, and they’re like people attending a family reunion. They catch up on what they’ve been up to, then start saying the same things they said a year earlier. For example, the idea of uniting the two governments comes up every now and then (it certainly has been discussed many times …