Letters to the editor — Sunday (9-14-14)

Published 12:00 am Sunday, September 14, 2014

Aaron Church is great choice for Rowan County manager
Rowan County commissioners have made a great choice in their selection of Mr. Aaron Church as the new county manager. I had the privilege to work with him as a consultant on the Yadkin County Detention Center project a few years ago. I found him to be exceptionally competent and cognizant of the will of the citizens of Yadkin County. I was impressed with his reliance on objective data and research, and his willingness to consider alternatives without single-mindedness and bias.
Mr. Church demonstrated his ability to undertake great and necessary accomplishments in his former assignment in Yadkin County. Among them was the Hood-Chamberlain Dam that led to the creation of Lake Hampton and the construction of the much-needed new county detention center. Mr. Church is known for his transparency in government, high ethical standards, and his ability to unify and move commissioners collectively to accomplish significant goals. I hope that each Rowan County resident will welcome him and his family with open arms as he undertakes the management of Rowan County’s diverse assets.
— Tim Bost
Salisbury

Let’s reform elections
In column dated Sept. 7 (“Gerrymandering: The next ice bucket challenge?” by Tom Campbell), you mention the race for 50 of 170 General Assembly seats (79 uncontested in November) ended when only one person ran for that seat and the filing deadline was up.
Here is a common-sense solution to this dilemma: All of those 50/79 seats should be dissolved and combined into bigger areas. I.e., Carl Ford’s seat — dissolve it and merge it into a neighboring seat and have Carl and the elected person from the other merged seat have a run-off election. The winner represents both areas.
That then stops “county history/good ol’ boy/connections from coming into play like it does now. The elected person would have to consult and represent both seats and not “favor their home seat.”
This would solve many problems in one. One hundred seventy is a ridiculous number when we only have a 100 counties in North Carolina, so 100 seats is plenty.
This is a common-sense solution — say, one like the so called “Tea Party” is supposed to espouse, promote and advance. This applies federally one Senator and one House of Representatives member per state. So, 50 in Senate and 50 in the House in Washington, D.C.
Simple common sense solutions. Anybody know where we can find a “True Patriots” third party for our country? The TEA was spoiled and corrupted in the brewing (Republican Party merger) process. Otherwise, this type of solution would be in place.
Common sense says, also, all elected offices, state and federal, only serve one term and then are out for at least two cycles. We need to amend the Constitution on this ASAP.
— Ed Miller Jr.
China Grove
Keep reporting on police
Salisbury Post, you did great job reporting on Salisbury Police and Salisbury and Rowan County government employment numbers. Please do follow up on items below for Salisbury Police and the Rowan Sheriff’s Office:
• What are police and sheriff department traffic and arrest stops by race? Then check by zip code.
• Will the police, sheriff and local government employment numbers ever reflect the local population?
• What are the employment break down numbers for the sheriff’s department?
— Leo Smith Jr.
Salisbury