A credible source

I was in a professional office recently for a check-up. While passing some time during the exam, one of the nurses asked if I had heard about microwaving meals releasing dioxin into food.
I wanted to ask her why the mainstream media hadn’t picked it up if it is true. She said that someone in the office had printed it off the internet. That was my first sign of trouble.
My wife had chastised me some time ago about forwarding things I had received off the internet without checking them out. A couple of years ago I had forwarded an email with a heartwarming message about a famous pianist. I got a scathing response from a friend, as the heartwarming message was a fraud.
A similar message on Denzel Washington proved to be a fraud – a half truth. I was disappointed. I like Denzel and wanted to believe the good things about him. (From what I understand, he is a pretty decent guy, even if that story wasn’t true.)
I don’t like being skeptical, but I won’t accept such stores off the internet now, at least until I check them out. Fortunately, some turn out to be true.
The nurse went on to say that the story also said frozen bottled water releases similar dioxin, and plastic wrap over food heated in a microwave releases dioxin.
According to www.truthorfiction.com, that claim is false or at least unproven. A doctor in Hawaii made the claim five years ago, but has yet to offer any proof.
There are some of us who are skeptical of the government and media, and want to believe that there is a mass conspiracy out there, that government and media is hiding the truth. “There really is something like this out there, and you can’t get verification because of the cover-up.” We buy into these sorts of things too easily.
The problem here is credibility. Unfortunately, anyone can say anything they want in an email, true or not, and a lot of times, even in heartwarming stories, it isn’t true.
The publisher of the Kenly News, Rick Stewart, for the last several years, has been teaching journalism and communications at Barton College. A few months ago he brought three of his students to a newspaper publishers meeting so they could offer some of their views on the newspaper industry and about youth tastes.
Unlike many of us older folk, they were not raised to read a newspaper every day. Many like reading papers off the internet.
We talked about bloggers who post to the internet, and they indicated they enjoyed reading blogs. We talked about responses to blogs, which they liked to post and read other responses.
Interesting to me, one of their comments was they expected newspapers to clean up the blogs on their site. They expect us not to allow just anyone to put whatever they want on our site. Let me assure you, there is plenty of garbage posted to our site from people overseas. All of it is filtered off.
There is a recent movie, which I haven’t seen yet, and I don’t think has played in the area, called “Resurrecting the Champ.” The story, which is mostly fiction, has the seed in a similar incident in which a reporter “discovers” a former boxing champion living on the streets of Denver, Colorado.
In the movie, the story has such appeal, the reporter runs with it, but as he starts checking his facts, he finds that the story is not adding up. It’s a really good heartwarming story, just not true.
With TV shows and fringe publications trying to capture the public interest, anything like this that has even a smudge of credibility gets some play in the media. I recently picked up some free distribution newspapers from Asheville and was amazed at some of the things that they found to publish. They weren’t stories that you will find in the Asheville daily paper, and for good reason.
Every newspaper reporter comes across stories that are good, stories that people want to read about, but in the final analysis, the facts don’t bear out. You will find stories that people will swear to you are true, and in some cases you believe them, but you can’t get independent verification that what they are saying is right. Sometimes you can’t get it because it isn’t right, for whatever reason, and sometimes you keep asking and finally find the right person to tell you the truth.
Are we ever wrong? Of course. But we try very hard to get it right on the front end.
You expect that, and I’m proud that you do. You hold us to a higher standard. And you should.

Sensationalizing the news

A couple of weeks ago, I got a compliment from a friend on how we handle news stories. In the same breath, he took a shot at WRAL-TV on their tendency to play up the negative aspects of their stories.
I didn’t say a lot at the time. I think we in the media sometimes take some unfair hits for what we do. I don’t personally support every person we cover. Yes, we do try to lift up people whom we believe make a positive difference in our communities, We also try to stand up for the little guy, and give him (or her) a chance to make their case in the community, even if we don’t agree with them.
The frequent complaint is “you are only printing that story to sell papers.”
Yes, selling newspapers is what we do. If we don’t sell papers, we don’t eat. If we don’t cover stories that people want to read, we don’t sell papers.
Yes, sometimes the news is hurtful. I don’t like covering some of the stories that come up. I don’t like hearing from people who say they were hurt by a story that was in the paper. I want to say I was just doing my job.
A fellow came in the office the other day to renew his subscription and he complimented my editorials. He thanked me for some of the stands I have taken. He said he agreed with me, at least most of the time, and he felt most people did.
The comment struck me. As of late, I have taken some pretty bold stands on some issues. I was quite certain that not everyone agreed with what I said. That’s all right.
Another friend (I swear I didn’t pay any of these people to say these things) made a positive comment a week or so ago. It resounded with me as well. It’s one of those quotes I kind of wish I could claim to have written, for it’s what I hope most people would say about us: “You write the news with a caring about the community.”

To be sure, school news makes up a lot of what we do every week. We try to maintain good relations with schools. We try to be a booster, a supporter.
There are times when the news media is seen rightly with the image of the old knock at the door and the “I’m Mike Wallace with 60 Minutes,” with the aggressive reporter and cameraman pushing their way in the door. Not surprisingly schools sometimes react with a siege mentality.
There have been allegations of misconduct by teachers in times past that schools have tried to handle internally. Certainly with the potential to end someone’s career, you want to handle things in a caring way.
The problem, like many others, is you get a rap for protecting your own and not taking proper action against someone. Schools I hope have learned that you’re better off dealing with things in an open manner. In trying to protect staff, they have at times not taken the proper actions on behalf of the students and parents. The liabilities are too great.
Still, it’s not too surprising when a principal won’t comment on allegations against one of his staff.
There is a public trust. It says that we in the media and the schools have to take it seriously when there are complaints. We have to respond. We can’t afford to dismiss complaints, saying they have no merit.
To do so violates that trust. That’s something we can’t afford.

Dollars and sense

It is a bad use of our tax money to pay to signalize the crossing at Center Street.
There is widespread understanding that many of us are hard-headed enough to say we don’t want to be inconvenienced, and will impose our will on municipal officials. It is understood that many merchants will say they don’t want to close any railroad crossing that might adversely affect their business. If the town board is pro business as they are suppose to be, the businesses will rationalize the town board needs to support them.
I know the fire department and rescue squad will be lobbying in support of keeping the Barden Street crossing open, as closing it will delay the response of emergency vehicles. It seems that decision has pretty well been cast, to close that intersection.
Let me put this on a basis that we all can relate to: dollars and sense.
Are we truly that inconvenienced by going a block one way or the other to cross the railroad? Is it worth that much to us to not have to go an extra block when we are going to the hardware or drug store? I suspect for most people it isn’t worth much of anything.
Let me be clear: the merchants on Center Street I consider friends and supporters of this paper. I wouldn’t propose the town do anything that I truly believed would hurt them.
I believe the emotions of the moment are overruling our dollars and sense.
Let me make an offer to both the emergency services and the Center St. merchants that makes dollars and sense to me. Rather than asking all the citizens of the town to pay part the town’s share of the costs of signalizing the two railroad crossings, why not pick up the cost yourselves.
Have the town set up a special tax district to cover the costs of maintaining the railroad crossing. Cover those businesses who believe their business would be adversely affected by closing the crossing, and through additional taxes, let them pay the annual costs. It is only about $2,500 per year, and it could be cut up based upon the tax value of the buildings in the Center St. area. While the larger businesses would pick up a larger share and smaller businesses would take a smaller bite, it would be around $350 each for maybe seven businesses. That sounds reasonable, it they truly believe closing the intersection will hurt their business.
Our fire department and rescue squad have a good bit of tax money they are bringing in. Is it worth forgoing purchase of some new equipment more often to keep Barden Street open? You could argue that it would still be all of our tax money that would be going to keep that intersection open, but is it significant enough for the two departments to maybe wait on getting some new equipment to pay that cost?
Our major problems that we want our taxes to pay for sometimes become relatively minor problems when we are asked to pay the costs directly. We freely want the taxpayers often to pay for things to benefit us, but when we are asked to pay the direct costs, perspectives change.
Our town board needs to make the decisions that are best for all the citizens of Princeton. If they are spending the tax dollars of all the citizens of Princeton, they need to keep all of the taxpayers in mind.
I don’t believe the future of the hardware store or the pharmacy will be jeopardized by the closing of Center St. I don’t believe closing Bardin Street will significantly impact emergency services.
One other factor that I’m not sure we are weighing is the changes in traffic patterns when the new elementary school opens.
Many correctly point out that Dr. Donnie Jones Boulevard is a mess when school is beginning and ending. A big percentage of that traffic is generated by the elementary school students.
When the new school opens, the old school will be a safer place, and mornings and afternoons will be better.
Of course, Holt’s Pond Road will be a different matter.
Fewer railroad crossings and faster trains through town will improve safety and ultimately will reduce delays.
The state is not trying to hurt Princeton. They are not the enemy. They are trying to encourage us to make the right decision. They are offering some financial encouragement to make the right decision.
The right decision for all the citizens of Princeton is to close both crossings. It makes dollars and sense.

Light at end of sewer pipe

You couldn’t help but feel for Eureka Town Board members who were wringing their hands over the massive sewer bills. There seemed to be no solution.
As some had suggested, maybe the town should go away, dissolve itself, and maybe somehow the debt would go away. Like declaring personal bankruptcy, yeah, that’s the ticket.
To their credit, the board members didn’t run away, or crawl away to a hole, curl up and die. They accepted the responsibility, and while some may want to complain, and they probably will, the town is on the road back.
I also praise the League of Municipalities. They stepped in and helped the town board to feel better about their situation. They pointed out that while the town might feel they are incapable of dealing with the debt the town was in, Eureka was in better shape than most towns.
I appreciate the willingness of the state to allow Fremont to re-open their spray field.
With recurring problems with small municipal sewer treatment plant spills, the state had adopted a policy of pushing regional treatment of sewer. With larger, more dependable and better financed systems and employees, there would be fewer problems to monitor and fewer spilling systems to try to get fixed.
The state has had some genuine compassion for both Fremont and Eureka with the high bills they are facing from the Goldsboro system. There was some discussion sometime back of trying to act on the smaller towns’ behalf in negotiating lower rates.
When the Fremont spray field is opened, the state has offered to act on Eureka’s behalf to negotiate a rate reduction for Eureka based upon Fremont’s lower cost for treating sewer sent to the field as opposed to the rates paid Goldsboro.
From another perspective, Fremont has been working through their sewer problems for a long time. There have been a number of mayors, town boards, and administrators. There have been a lot of grants along the way, but the town citizens have put many sewer dollars as well as tax dollars into trying to fix a deep down problem.
While the costs of repaying the bond issues will continue for some time to come, Fremont is nearing a time when most of their problems will be behind them. The seeming never ending repairs and rehabilitation of sewer lines will never be completely over, but the big stuff is behind us.
The town has suffered through big sewer bills and the complaints that generated, and the discouragement to new businesses and residents coming to the town. Struggling to have enough sewer capacity to handle their leaky system, with rainwater and ground water flowing into the system, there was little capacity left for growth.
Fremont’s sewer hole is significantly deeper, and the town has had to work through it for a longer period of time. In some ways, it may have seemed just as dark to Fremont as Eureka’s has to its town board.
Today there is some light at the end of that sewer line, too. There are brighter days ahead.
It won’t come too soon for many of us.

The News Leader is making a change in our sports focus. While coverage of Aycock will continue to be our primary focus with our sports coverage, and with the number of sports teams fielded at Aycock, that will be no small undertaking, we will be moving up coverage of Norwayne as our secondary sports focus.
Sarah Wise, our Wayne-Wilson News Leader reporter, and I met with the Norwayne coaching staff recently to announce the change and to ask their help. I think it is fair to say they were most enthusiastic in their response.
Let me confess that this has been a change that has been urged from the inside. As most of you know, we have been offering some coverage of Norwayne over the years, but now we will be increasing the numbers and length of stories, and the number of photos. One of our local sports cheerleaders and long-time office manager, Rosie Colvin, has been urging for years that we offer more coverage of Norwayne sports.
We hope you enjoy some of the sports spotlight being shifted to some of our younger athletes.

Condemnation is necessary

I appreciate the Fremont Town Board's willingness to condemn properties in town. As reflected in the discussion last week, it is never easy to condemn someone’s property, and Harold Cuddington’s questions are some I think we all have asked at one time or another.
The sorry truth is that the American dream of home ownership fades into a harsh reality: once you buy a home, you not only have to pay for it. but you have to pay to keep it up. Plenty of homes in eastern North Carolina have long been paid for, but no one has kept them up. And some, the owner can’t afford to pay for or keep up.
To be sure, plenty of homeowners do a good job maintaining their properties, but plenty also don’t. And no one wants one of those who don’t, beside theirs.
It doesn’t seem right that them that do right would have to pay for those who don’t, but as long as people can get easy credit, there will be people who will buy houses they can’t afford to keep up.
Not to mention the older retired couple whose money is nearly run out, just trying to keep food in the house and the lights on. The paint on the exterior or the new roof will go lacking on that home.
It used to be that the kids wouldn’t let their older parents go without, but a lot of them have moved away and they don’t have to face the neighbors.
No, it doesn’t seem that should be the town’s problem, but if the property owner won’t address it, and heaven knows the town has given them every opportunity, who is going to do it?
While the town can continue to attach the deed with bills for repairs or out and out demolition of property and sell the property to try to recover their expenses, in some cases they will never get their money back.
Spending public money on a park in the middle of town makes some sense, but spending public money on an individual’s house, and one that usually is not occupied or fit to occupy, doesn’t. What makes sense is for the owner either to fix it so someone can live in it or to take it down so something else can go up in its place. What happens too often is nothing, even when you threaten.
Some owners who should do something, will not do anything. Following through on condemnations, fixing up properties and attaching them, and demolitions will encourage some who can, to take action before the town does.
As happened with one home last week, the owners promised if they just had some more time they would address the problems, but they didn’t.
Condemnations are yucky business. I can’t blame Fremont town board members for not wanting to be in it. I’m just glad they are willing to clean up the town for the rest of us.

Planning for growth

I’m not too young to remember when county-wide zoning was debated in this county. “I don’t want anyone to tell me what I can do with my land” was the common cry. Fortunately, enough people realized it wasn’t so much what you couldn’t do, but keeping your neighbors from doing something to hurt you.
“We want to preserve the rural nature of the county” has been the recent cry heard. That sounds real good until a farmer realizes that if we maintain the rural nature of the county, he can’t sell his farm to someone who wants to put in a subdivision. “That’s my retirement you’re messing with.”
I met with several people over the past week to discuss some of the growth issues facing the county. One of the articles that relates is in this week’s News Leader, relating to the quarry projects outside Princeton.
One of the concerns is having the infrastructure, the roads, the utilities, the schools, and the police and fire protection to serve growing areas. If growth is allowed and encouraged everywhere, it becomes unmanageable. If it is encouraged where it makes sense, where it is planned for, and where it is reasonable to serve, then we can do a better job of getting services to people.
The one big determining factor is sewer. If you have sewer service, you can build more lots in an area. If you are on septic tanks, if the land will permit septic tanks, you have to be on a bigger lot.
(Remember that Princeton recently moved their new sewer lift station that will serve the new school to allow new service to a several-mile radius.)
The emphasis on growth comes as the county has recently accepted the recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Committee the commissioners appointed earlier this year. That follows several initiatives to try to address growth issues in the county.
Some argue since the county has county-wide zoning in place, we have a comprehensive land use plan for the county. Others quickly point out that 90 of the 100 counties in the state have a comprehensive land use plan, and those who don’t have it, other than Johnston, are hopelessly rural.
One of those who I met with last week was Don Johnson, the former mayor of Benson, who now works with Johnston Community College. Mr. Johnson said most of us in Johnston County still prefer to do business with government one-on-one, button-holing them at the store or on the street and asking for our commissioner’s help.
He related a zoning request in Benson. At a main intersection in town, with businesses on three corners, and the old house on the other corner badly in need of repair, a request to put a business on that fourth corner was tabled after neighbors said they didn’t want a business there. “Legally, they don’t have a leg to stand on,” Mr. Johnson offered.
A comprehensive land use plan puts priorities into place. It suggests where growth is likely to occur, and it plans to provide the services necessary to serve that new population. You can’t sway it and you can depend on it being the same tomorrow as it is today. That’s putting growth on a business-like footing.
As was acknowledged at the recent Blue Ribbon Committee presentation to county commissioners, whatever the county adopts will require some hard decisions. It will be an easier path for the county to avoid any decision.
Clearly the reason we don’t have a comprehensive land use plan in place is because it’s a hard issue to deal with. Still, most understand the need.
At least some on county commissioners are behind this effort, or the committee would not have been appointed. We encourage them to press on and get this road map to the future on the books.



There has been an acknowledgement by the county that they need to do a better job providing in many areas, though I and many would acknowledge that they are trying. One of those areas is recreation.
When the old quarry is filled with water, it could be a wonderful recreation area for many in this county. It is one of the most beautiful areas of Johnston County.
While it is doubtful as it looks now that the county will have a recreation program up and running in seven years, perhaps Princeton could operate a recreation area at the quarry. Perhaps the town and the county could work together to help make that happen. We call on town leaders to have the vision and energy to help make that happen.
It would be a shame if such a wonderful natural resource was not utilized and appreciated.