Commissioners of old accomplished quite a bit

The writer is responding to a story in Friday’s Post, “McCombs honored in highway dedication.”

I would like to add to the recent article about Gene McCombs and Charlie Walters to embellish what they, along with the three other Rowan County commissioners who were elected with them, accomplished.

They, along with R. B. McKinney, Lewis Sowers and Harry Welch, Sr., were all elected the first time together if my memory serves me correctly in 1966. They deemed it difficult for five commissioners all elected the first time to know the ins and outs of county government, so they initiated the staggering of terms for county commissioners.   

They hired the first county manager, Seth Murdoch. Also, they accepted the property that became Dan Nicholas Park from Mr. Nicholas, renovated the old courthouse that’s now the Rowan Museum, and constructed the present county office building on North Main Street.

Rufus Honeycutt was elected in the next term along with four of the above named.

The commissioners were considering hiring an architect to design a building for the county. With respect to one of the architects being considered, Rufus told me that my dad, Lewis Sowers, said, “If we hire that architect to design an outhouse, he would build it two stories high.”

— Charles L. Sowers

Salisbury