“I don’t have to tell you that it was love at first sight. That building is spectacular.”

— Billy Hughes, principal developer, describing the Empire Hotel

“The bar is going to be raised and this board’s going to have to do it or the public perception of this town will never, ever get back where it needs to be.”

— Jim Gobbel, Spencer mayor, discussing the need for landlords  to maintain their property

“Well, I don’t agree with anything you guys have said today, so it looks like we’re not going to be unanimous.”

— John Hudson, member, Rowan Board of Elections, 

when other members proposed discontinuing early voting at Rowan Public Library

“You can never under-estimate the power you have to change a life that may change the world.”

— Nancy Goodnight, Rowan-Salisbury Teacher of the Year,

speaking to new teachers at a breakfast sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce

“As soon as I start working with one code enforcer he’s gone and another’s there. And I start working with him, and then he’s gone.”

— Cynthia Stanfield, on trouble getting action on an overgrown yard next door

“I cannot work for a department and an administration that deliberately misleads the public.”

— Megan Davies, state epidemiologist, on debate over safe levels of certain metals in drinking water near coal ash ponds