One man’s art is a another man’s graffiti

I’ve attached some photos I took recently of a few of the newly painted fire hydrants in Pilot Mountain, which interestingly enough were the source of a complaint at this week’s town board meeting. The concerned resident, Shane Hawks, is upset that creative hydrant designs could make it difficult for fire departments to determine the [...]

Read Full Post »

A scratch off ticket by any other name …

In the interest of balance, time to take a look at a legislative bill from Don East (who represents Surry County in the state senate) after examining one from Rep. Jim Harrell III in the last blog post.
Thing is, East hasn’t been the primary sponsor for any new legislation not already requested by city officials. [...]

Read Full Post »

Supporting the troops … by paying their tuition

The Memorial Day weekend provides an ample backdrop for politicians to tout their support for veterans. Thus we’re now seeing debate on competing versions of a new G.I. Bill to help pay for veterans’ college education.
Closer to home, there’s a new bill in the N.C. General Assembly (sponsored by local Rep. Jim Harrell III) that [...]

Read Full Post »

A Simple Plea for Justice

An open letter to the Honorable Sarah Parker, chief justice, North Carolina Supreme Court.
Dear Justice Parker:
The people of Surry and Stokes counties need your help. Now. 
Without immediate action by you we will continue to have inflicted upon us a quality of justice that not only is an embarrassment to the local legal community, but raises [...]

Read Full Post »

Taking an extra drag off a smoker’s budget

Gov. Mike Easley’s final budget proposal is out. His spending priorities (Easley staples such as teacher pay and higher education along with the hot button issues of mental health) are perhaps less interesting than the plan to help pay for it all through tax increases to cigarettes and alcohol. The cigarette tax hike can be [...]

Read Full Post »

Decline of the campaign sign?

Interesting little side trend from Tuesday’s local primary results. For once, the number of signs didn’t have a positive correlation to number of votes. Obama signs outnumbered Clinton’s (with the local campaign office ensuring that) but the Illinois Senator didn’t win Surry County. County commissioner challenger Jerry Fore trumped Jimmy Miller in the sign department [...]

Read Full Post »

Tabulating Cross Creek’s addition

The Cross Creek annexation in July 1 will boost the city’s tax base by about 15 percent.
One of the interesting tidbits in the budget is a breakdown on how much the city will bring in from the annexation. The figure stands at just under $130 million, which increases the overall tax base from about $879.5 [...]

Read Full Post »

Welcome to budget season

The Mount Airy city budget is up on ready to view online. It will take at least a weekend to dissect it all, but the bottom line is a water fee increase of 8 percent and a tax increase to boot. The water rate increase is especially dicy, given outrage over last year’s 45 percent [...]

Read Full Post »

Get Him Off The bench

Barring something happening quickly, Surry County will be in the unenviable position next week of having a known liar presiding over a courtroom in Dobson.
The two-month suspension of District Court Judge Mark Badgett expires Tuesday. At that point he can be reassigned to hold criminal, civil or juvenile courts in Surry and Stokes counties.
And that [...]

Read Full Post »