With Easter coming up Sunday, local and state government offices and other institutions have scheduled a holiday day off.
Good Friday is not a federal holiday, meaning that those offices and services will be operational on Friday. The U.S. Postal Service will also deliver mail on Friday.
Closings on Good Friday include:
• Rowan Public Library, Friday and Saturday. Normal hours resume 9 a.m. Monday.
• Rowan County offices.
• Rowan Transit.
• China Grove Town Hall.
• Cleveland Town Hall. Garbage pickup will occur as usual.
• Granite Quarry Town Hall. Garbage pickup will occur Friday as usual.
• Spencer Town Hall. Garbage pickup will not change.
• Landis Town Hall.
• The city of Salisbury will operate on the following schedule:
City office buildings, including the Salisbury Customer Service Center and all four recreation centers, will be closed. The Street Division will not offer limb or leaf collection.
Fibrant Technical Support will maintain regular hours. For assistance, call 704-216-7567.
Salisbury Rowan Utilities’ administrative offices will be closed. For water/sewer emergencies after hours or during the holiday, call 704-638-5339.
Closings on Easter Monday will include:
• Faith Town Hall, closed. Garbage pickup will occur as usual.
• Rowan County Housing Authority, 310 Long Meadow Drive, closed.
• East Spencer town hall will be closed, garbage pickup will not change.
While gasoline prices have climbed 36 cents a gallon since Christmas, they are still 5.6 cents a gallon less on average in North Carolina than they were last Easter.
Typically a family stay-at-home holiday, Easter gas prices always serve as precursor to higher prices due to the May 1 national deadline for refineries to start producing less-polluting summer-blend fuel. This transition pressures prices upward because supply becomes crimped.
North Carolina prices have been climbing since hitting a low of $3.28 on Feb. 8. Asheville is paying the highest average price at $3.647 a gallon and High Point the lowest at $3.486 a gallon.
Statewide the average is $3.59 a gallon compared to $3.646 last year at Easter.
Prices are expected to continue to inch upwards over the next few weeks but should remain slightly lower this year overall. Currently, North Carolina’s average gas price is the 25th most expensive in the nation and Georgia is 24th; South Carolina’s is fourth lowest nationally and Virginia seventh.
Livingstone College will hold a forum for congressional and local candidates running in this spring’s primary. The forum is Friday, April 25, starting at 9:45 a.m. in Tubman Little Theatre on the college campus, 701 W. Monroe St.
Here’s the schedule:
• 10 a.m. — Candidates for the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House (Districts 5 and 12
• 11:50 a.m. — Candidates for other offices may introduce themselves
• Noon — Candidates for Rowan County Commission
• 12:45 p.m. — Concluding remarks
Hearing to be held on still hunting zones on game lands
The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission will hold a public hearing on April 22 at its headquarters in Raleigh to accept public comments on a proposed temporary rule change authorizing the commission to establish still hunting zones on game lands.
Under the proposed rule, the use of dogs for taking deer and bear will be prohibited on portions of game land posted as “Still Hunting Zone.” This new game land designation will provide an additional mechanism for addressing trespass and safety concerns of adjacent private landowners.
Text of the proposed temporary rule may be viewed on the Office of Administrative Hearings website at http://www.ncoah.com/rules/.
If approved, the proposed temporary rule change will take effect July 1.
The public hearing will begin at 7 p.m. in the Auditorium Room 118 located on the 1st floor of the Wildlife Resources Commission headquarters at 1751 Varsity Drive on the Centennial Campus of N.C. State University in Raleigh.
Comments also may be submitted between April 16 and May 9, 2014, to regulations@ncwildlife.org or Kate Pipkin, 1722 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, N.C. 27699-1722.