Invest in students, not a new office
Whatever happened to putting our kids first? At a time when there is a funding crisis, every loose dime is seemingly being snatched out of the county’s required fund balance to now pay for a shiny new central office building for school administration.
Taxpayers are reassured that no new funds will be allocated to the classrooms next year ó not comforting. How will our teachers ever bring Rowan County’s kids up to state average in reading and math if the tools they need are sent instead to build a new central office?
School officials claim the current Long Street office building is unsafe and have stated the storage balcony might fall. Why not remove the balcony and relocate the storage items?
As our state and county continue to lose jobs and revenue, now is not the time for commissioners to take a leap of faith with the taxpayers’ hard-earned savings by building a new central office. The school system can take the necessary steps to address safety issues at the Long Street office. The top priority, however, must always remain in the classroom with the teachers and their students. Rowan County will not have much of a future if kids do not keep up with reading and math in grades 3-8.
When Rowan County is at such a critical juncture, why is the focus away from our kids?
ó David N. Hall
Mt. Ulla
Shelter should use lethal injection
The use of humane lethal injection in animal shelters must be passed. I had a dog and cat that I had to have put to sleep. I can’t imagine putting an animal in a gas chamber. I agree with Dr. Ashley Oliphant’s letter in the March 5 Salisbury Post. House Bill No. 6 must be passed. Please contact our state representatives.
Read the quote below, which is an excerpt from a tribute to pets from a newspaper clipping that I have kept for many years.
“… Feed me clean food, that I may stay well, to romp and play and do your bidding, to walk by your side, and stand ready, willing and able to protect you with my life, should your life be in danger.
“And, my friend, when I am very old, if God sees fit to deprive me of my health and sight, do not turn me away from you. Rather, see that my trusting life is taken gently, only by our Lord, and I shall leave knowing with the last breath I draw that my fate was always safest in your hands.”
ó Bob Wood
Granite Quarry
Right decision on euthanasia
Ken Deal and the Rowan County Commissioners made the right decision to oppose the two animal euthanasia bills currently introduced in Raleigh. They made their decision based not only on economics but science as well. The study by the American Humane Association is very inaccurate. They fail to address the additional personnel required, and they incorporate the actual cost of the gas chambers, which are already paid for. Should this ridiculous legislation pass, those expensive and paid-for gas chambers become scrap metal! A more accurate cost analysis of euthanasia by carbon monoxide (CO) and lethal injection has been provided our legislature in Raleigh, and it clearly shows CO as the most cost effective method in the 30-plus N.C. counties currently using it.
Dr. Oliphant’s description of CO euthanasia is a summary of of PETA’s 14-year-old video from the Yadkin County Animal Shelter, an animal shelter that has long since been torn down and replaced by a new facility. It is not an accurate description of current facilities or methods, but rather another animal rights publicity stunt.
The “humane” organizations that Dr. Oliphant says supports passage of these bills are actually radical animal rights groups. This is just a step in their strategy of incremental legislation to remove the right to own, raise and eat animals.
For objective informed opinions on this subject, look to the American Veterinary Medical Association, which does not consider CO inhumane. Or the N.C. Veterinary Medical Association, N.C. Responsible Animal Owners Alliance, N.C. Association of Local Health Directors or Rowan County Board of Commissioners all of which have issued statements opposing these bills.
Rowan County might just be in the progressive majority when it comes to standing up to bogus, unnecessary special-interest groups!
ó Jerry Dobbins
Mt. Ulla
School board taking family time away
The school board plans to meet Monday to decide what needs to be done about the snow make-up days this week.
One of the choices is to use Memorial Day for a makeup. If they take this day, this will be the second time they have revised the school calendar for snow make-up days and taken a day that was not an original make-up day (Jan. 22). I feel as a parent there should be some consistency in this school calendar. As a parent, I make family plans around the days the students are out, taking into consideration the planned snow days on the calendar. Memorial Day was not an original makeup day.
This is what is stated at the bottom of the calendar: “Snow make-up plan: All of the following days are subject to being used for snow or inclement weather make-up. The following days on which school is not scheduled for students are NOT GUARANTEED as student holidays. Saturdays in the week event occurs; Nov. 4, Nov. 26, Jan. 2, Jan. 23, Feb. 16, April 6-9. Please take this fact into consideration when planning vacations, travel or making reservations, etc. These may be school days!”
Memorial Day is not one of these days. Therefore, taking Memorial Day from these kids is like saying we do not care about our veterans that have served our country. I feel other parents may also have made plans for Memorial Day weekend and need to be aware of this change that may occur.
ó Lynn Pinkston
Salisbury
Higher exemption will help citizens
I have to applaud Jon Barber and the county commissioners for increasing the Homestead Exemption for senior citizens and disabled veterans.
What better time to increase the exemptions than during a recession when the seniors are having a difficult time with daily burdens? Quite often, the county commissioners, past and present, have tended to overlook the most important assets of this county, which are the citizens. Many decisions made for corporations, land preservation and schools do not affect all of the citizens, but taxes do.
Mr. Barber’s decision to help those who need it the most deserves respect. He put together a 13-page document showing why it was needed, and when he presented it to his fellow commissioners, it was accepted hands down.
President Obama wants to spread the wealth and put this country in further debt, but our commissioners have decided that our wealth is the citizens who live here, and they deserve this tax break. Thanks to all of our county commissioners.
ó Rodney Cress
Salisbury