Darts and laurels

Laurels to Commissioner Chad Mitchell for speaking up Monday when it appeared the Rowan County Board of Commissioners was about to severely limit citizen input at its meetings, without room for exceptions. The board voted this week to cut the citizen comment time from 30 minutes to 15. The board also spelled out requirements for speakers to sign up in the 30 minutes before the meeting and keep individual comments to three minutes or less. That sounds like an effort to avoid public comment, but Chairman Carl Ford says it's all a big misunderstanding. The board changed the practice a couple of years ago but just never took official action, he says. Still, we're glad Mitchell spoke up for keeping a provision that would allow citizen comment to go on longer if the board and chairman approve. If commissioners are on such a tight schedule that they can't listen to citizens, something is wrong.

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Dart to the winter chill, which has worn out its welcome just nine days into January. According to the Farmer's Almanac, this winter will be colder than normal for about three-quarters of the nation, with "numbingly cold temperatures" in the middle of the country, between the Continental Divide and the Appalachians. The West Coast and East Coast should experience close-to-normal temperatures, according to the almanac, but we beg to differ. So far the East has had its share of cold, too, with night temperatures in the teens. But it has been colder. One local resident, retired blacksmith George Basinger, remembers a record low of -11 degrees — yes, 11 degrees below zero — when he was a boy. The old house his family lived in at the time on Mooresville Road was not exactly air-tight. "You could have thrown a cat through the crack in the wall," he says. And they depended on a fireplace and the kitchen stove — fueled with wood — to keep them warm. It's easier to stay warm now, but no easier to control the extremes Mother Nature throws our way.

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Laurels to Our State magazine's proclamation of 2010 as "The Year of the North Carolina Vacation." Amen to that. A lot of North Carolinians have been vacationing closer to home since the recession set in, but necessity does not necessarily mean sacrifice. The state offers enough variety to suit many tastes — mountains, beaches, wineries, potteries, museums, big cities, quaint villages and so on. To support the state's economy, let's hope this is indeed the year of the North Carolina vacation — for people from outside the state as well as within.