Letters to the editor - Sunday (1-29-2012)

School office funding is step toward long-sought project

The Board of Commissioners has voted to fund a new, consolidated central office for Rowan-Salisbury Schools. I look forward to helping this project become a reality. It is long overdue.

This investment reflects the value our community places on education in our county and the need to plan for our future. While there is still much work to be done by our community to see this project to completion, at least we have a budget figure to start the process.

Speaking of budgets, the challenges faced by the Board of Commissioners for the next budget are daunting. Consider the following:

• Start-up operational costs for the new jail (approximately $1 million).

• Building the new unfunded airport hangar (approximately $1.3 million).

• Continued funding for Rowan-Cabarrus Community College bond projects ($500,000).

• Consolidation of 911 operations with the City of Salisbury (cost to be determined).

• Staying within budget for the new 911 Center (cost to be determined).

All of this — and we still need to reward county employees for their efforts and preserve classroom instruction.

We can now stop treading water on a consolidated central office. It is time to move upstream to develop our vision for what kind of community we want. In the meantime, let’s address the challenges the next budget will present while working together with other elected bodies to focus on what our citizens need most — jobs.

— Jon Barber

Mt. Ulla

Jon Barber is a member of the Rowan County Board of Commissioners.

Too many loads of litter

Recently someone wrote about people leaving shopping carts in parking spaces. What kind of an example were they setting for young children, just leaving these carts where they had unloaded them?

Well, let me tell you this is not the only bad example people are giving the younger generation. As an owner of real estate in eastern Rowan County, I have had to pick up trash along the highway beside my property, a large wheelbarrow full, each and every month. Why do people throw their trash out along highways? Who they they think will pick it up?

I have picked up all kinds of trash, from tin cans to old furniture, along with cigarettes and Styrofoam containers.

I have thought about adopting a highway, but I would have to get a bigger wheelbarrow or maybe a pickup truck.

Once in a while, I see where someone has emptied an ashtray in the middle of the highway at an intersection. What a lesson for a young person. Do they have complete disregard for the rights of others when it comes to throwing trash on other people’s property? Do they do it under cover of darkness or during the day? I see it being done at all hours of the day and night. Where will this end?

I have a solution for the shopping carts. Let’s have a return system where you put a quarter in a slot to get a cart and get the quarter back when the cart is returned. Then we would not see carts all over the place. That’s a better way of dealing with them.

— Hugh Martin

Salisbury