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OBSERVATIONS
November 14, 2019 |
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 Wingate Lassiter |
New school-board speaking rules:
easier to sign up, for three minutes!
Limiting the time citizens are allowed to speak before our local governing boards might be a practical thing to do if there are dozens of folks waiting in line to have their say.
But three minutes is all you're gonna get out of a two-to-three-hour monthly meeting of the Johnston County Board of Education.
The board adopted a revised policy this week that includes such a limit, although the new policy eliminate a previous requirement that you sign up to speak at least 48 "business hours" prior to a meeting. From now on, you can sign up as late as the start of a board session.
But you'll still have to provide a copy of your prepared remarks, or at least a statement about the content of your "public comment."
It's not a situation where the school board has been overwhelmed by citizens wanting to speak. Since I began covering the board last January, I don't recall more than two or possibly three speakers asking for time to speak at any one session.
Meanwhile, neither the County Commissioners nor the Smithfield Town Council have such restrictions. Neither of those boards requires a speaker to sign up, and neither enforces a time limit on what one has to say. That's the way it ought to be.
Democracy often requires that kind of patience.
Councilman Barbour sounds the alarm
Apparently a speeding drunken driver is to blame for the fatal collision that occurred late last Sunday night at the intersection of Wilson's Mills Road and Durwood Stephenson Highway. The driver of a minivan and a 15-year-old passenger were fatally injured when their vehicle was rear-ended.
David Barbour, who represents West Smithfield on the Town Council, took a moment at the end of Tuesday night's monthly meeting to make a timely plea:
"DON'T LET THEM DO IT!" he exclaimed, referring to motorists who get behind the wheel of an automobile while intoxicated.
And, we would add:
WATCH YOUR SPEED! Especially when it's dark and you're approaching another vehicle --- or a bicyclist or pedestrian.
What's the old adage? "Haste makes waste." And that can be tragic.
THIS WEEK'S FALL COLOR CHAMP
And the winner is: the dogwood! Earlier in the season it appeared our dogwoods were headed toward an "off" year, many of them falling short of the brilliant red hue we usually see. But after the sun returned on Wednesday, dogwoods like this little specimen beside Church Street across from First Presbyterian delivered the goods.
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