This week's Pamlico News printed an article about Oriental's Town Board meeting of January 5 concerning the town audit and other issues.
This completes the accounts available in Pamlico County news media to citizens who did not attend the meeting.
I did attend the meeting, and over the next few days I will offer some additional commentary.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Oriental's Future: a Vision
A little over a year ago, as the Long Range Planning Committee was nearing completion of its task, Dee Sage asked the members to each draft a vision of what the Town would be like in ten years. My response focused on how the town might grow, and what paths we might follow in economic development.
The final Long Range Plan didn't incorporate every element of my vision. I hope we can have a broader discussion about the future, including a discussion about the future of Pamlico County. To foster such a discussion, I thought it might be useful to share my vision. Over the next few weeks, I will flesh out the vision in more detail.
I would welcome comments.
Oriental in Ten Years
By David Cox
My vision of Oriental in ten years is as follows:
Population: increase to 1750, through a combination of migrants from elsewhere and annexation of neighboring developed land.
Principal economic activities: water dependent activities, including fishing, shrimping and crabbing, expansion of existing marinas to include more boat repair, maintenance and construction; marine trades in support of expanded use of ICW for commercial as well as recreational purposes; support for transiting recreational boats; provision of services in support of green power and improvement of water quality; tourism, with emphasis on outdoor activities associated with the water, including paddling, exploring of marshlands, birding and related activities; recreational fishing.
Public facilities: increased boating infrastructure facilities, including additional town dock at foot of South Avenue (after town wins its lawsuit), associated marine welcoming center, shower, laundry and head; municipal mooring fields in Smith Creek, Raccoon Creek, Neuse River, protected by additional breakwater, and with protected dinghy landing at one of our street ends – this has made Oriental a “must stop” for transiting boaters; additional wildlife boat ramp on Camp Creek in newly annexed part of town.
Businesses: increase in population and tourism and more frequent visits by transiting boaters provides expanded customer base for businesses, including a convenience store, pharmacy, car rental facility, boat rental, and one or more destination restaurants.
Housing: additional housing stock through infill (building on existing lots) in R-1 and R-2 areas and construction of multi family dwellings in R-3.
Demographics: Median age of population decreases due to influx of working age families.
Oriental will have developed greater cooperation with Pamlico County, especially in area of economic development.
The final Long Range Plan didn't incorporate every element of my vision. I hope we can have a broader discussion about the future, including a discussion about the future of Pamlico County. To foster such a discussion, I thought it might be useful to share my vision. Over the next few weeks, I will flesh out the vision in more detail.
I would welcome comments.
Oriental in Ten Years
By David Cox
My vision of Oriental in ten years is as follows:
Population: increase to 1750, through a combination of migrants from elsewhere and annexation of neighboring developed land.
Principal economic activities: water dependent activities, including fishing, shrimping and crabbing, expansion of existing marinas to include more boat repair, maintenance and construction; marine trades in support of expanded use of ICW for commercial as well as recreational purposes; support for transiting recreational boats; provision of services in support of green power and improvement of water quality; tourism, with emphasis on outdoor activities associated with the water, including paddling, exploring of marshlands, birding and related activities; recreational fishing.
Public facilities: increased boating infrastructure facilities, including additional town dock at foot of South Avenue (after town wins its lawsuit), associated marine welcoming center, shower, laundry and head; municipal mooring fields in Smith Creek, Raccoon Creek, Neuse River, protected by additional breakwater, and with protected dinghy landing at one of our street ends – this has made Oriental a “must stop” for transiting boaters; additional wildlife boat ramp on Camp Creek in newly annexed part of town.
Businesses: increase in population and tourism and more frequent visits by transiting boaters provides expanded customer base for businesses, including a convenience store, pharmacy, car rental facility, boat rental, and one or more destination restaurants.
Housing: additional housing stock through infill (building on existing lots) in R-1 and R-2 areas and construction of multi family dwellings in R-3.
Demographics: Median age of population decreases due to influx of working age families.
Oriental will have developed greater cooperation with Pamlico County, especially in area of economic development.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Haiti's Agony
Forty years ago, my ship, USS W.S. Sims, pulled into Port au Prince, Haiti, for the weekend.
My wife and one of the other officer's wives surprised us by meeting us at the pier. They had flown down from Mayport, Florida to join us. There had been soldiers with machine guns on the roof of the air terminal. It was the last year of the notoriously corrupt and brutal regime of Papa Doc Duvalier.
The amount of poverty was startling. I had seen crushing poverty in rural Holmes County, Mississippi and in rural areas of the Philippines, but nothing to compare to Haiti. Still, we found the Haitians on the street to be friendly and welcoming.
We stayed in a lovely old hotel run by an expatriate German couple. The place was reminiscent of the setting of a Graham Green novel.
We rented a run-down VW and drove up into the mountains. There were still trees on the mountainsides then, and the view was spectacular. The roads were full of boulders with sharp edges. One of them punctured a bald tire. I checked under the hood and found the jack and spare tire, but there was no tool to get the hub cap off. Soon a Haitian farmer happened along. The only tool he had was a machete. He applied it to the hub cap and had it off in a jiffy. We thanked him and changed the tire. He smiled, waving and walked on up the mountain. We decided it was best to head on back to the hotel.
Back in Port au Prince, we explored the streets and were fascinated by the outpouring of art. Many of the paintings would have been classified as primitive art - flat perspective, simple primary colors. But there were other paintings of the highest quality painted with a complex palette, that would have been at home in major art galleries.
It was only a brief visit, but it left us with a strong impression of a wonderful people. We can only wish them well.
My wife and one of the other officer's wives surprised us by meeting us at the pier. They had flown down from Mayport, Florida to join us. There had been soldiers with machine guns on the roof of the air terminal. It was the last year of the notoriously corrupt and brutal regime of Papa Doc Duvalier.
The amount of poverty was startling. I had seen crushing poverty in rural Holmes County, Mississippi and in rural areas of the Philippines, but nothing to compare to Haiti. Still, we found the Haitians on the street to be friendly and welcoming.
We stayed in a lovely old hotel run by an expatriate German couple. The place was reminiscent of the setting of a Graham Green novel.
We rented a run-down VW and drove up into the mountains. There were still trees on the mountainsides then, and the view was spectacular. The roads were full of boulders with sharp edges. One of them punctured a bald tire. I checked under the hood and found the jack and spare tire, but there was no tool to get the hub cap off. Soon a Haitian farmer happened along. The only tool he had was a machete. He applied it to the hub cap and had it off in a jiffy. We thanked him and changed the tire. He smiled, waving and walked on up the mountain. We decided it was best to head on back to the hotel.
Back in Port au Prince, we explored the streets and were fascinated by the outpouring of art. Many of the paintings would have been classified as primitive art - flat perspective, simple primary colors. But there were other paintings of the highest quality painted with a complex palette, that would have been at home in major art galleries.
It was only a brief visit, but it left us with a strong impression of a wonderful people. We can only wish them well.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Martin Luther King, Jr.
I never met Martin Luther King, Jr. But I knew about him as early as 1955.
1955 was a busy year. It was my second year at the University of Mississippi ("Ole Miss"). That August, Emmett Till, a fourteen year old from Chicago visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi was brutally lynched. In December, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama.
We heard more and more about the young, charismatic minister who led the bus boycott in Montgomery, and organized the Southern Christian Leadership Council.
I only knew one person who had personal contact with the Reverend King: Will D. Campbell, a Baptist minister who was Director of Religious Life at Ole Miss from 1954 to 1956. Will was an avuncular, pipe-smoking man of Scotch-Irish background who had first been a preacher as a teen in Amite, Mississippi. He ran afoul of the University administration in a series of events, including the kerfluffle over the Reverend Al Kershaw and an incident when the Assistant Registrar, suspected of being an agent for the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, discovered Will playing ping pong in the campus Y building with the minister of the Second Baptist Church in Oxford. "We were separated by a net and using separate but equal paddles," Will explained to the Chancellor.
Will left the University and went to work for the National Council of Churches Department of Racial and Cultural Relations and other organizations in Nashville. He was very impressed with Dr. King. "The man is a saint," he told me during a visit to Ole Miss in 1958.
I knew Will well enough to know he wasn't describing King as a "goody-goody," but as someone both committed and effective. He was especially impressed with King's dedication to Gandhi's concept of nonviolence. The most impressive fact about Gandhi's nonviolence is that this wizened little man in a loincloth carrying a walking stick and no weapons other than an iron will had brought down the world's greatest empire of the day.
A few years ago my wife and I visited the Martin Luther King Jr. museum in Atlanta. In the bookstore was a well-illustrated book on the civil rights movement. On the cover, a headline declared that Martin Luther King Jr. had worked to insure freedom for African Americans. I disagree. He worked to achieve freedom for Americans.
1955 was a busy year. It was my second year at the University of Mississippi ("Ole Miss"). That August, Emmett Till, a fourteen year old from Chicago visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi was brutally lynched. In December, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man on a public bus in Montgomery, Alabama.
We heard more and more about the young, charismatic minister who led the bus boycott in Montgomery, and organized the Southern Christian Leadership Council.
I only knew one person who had personal contact with the Reverend King: Will D. Campbell, a Baptist minister who was Director of Religious Life at Ole Miss from 1954 to 1956. Will was an avuncular, pipe-smoking man of Scotch-Irish background who had first been a preacher as a teen in Amite, Mississippi. He ran afoul of the University administration in a series of events, including the kerfluffle over the Reverend Al Kershaw and an incident when the Assistant Registrar, suspected of being an agent for the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, discovered Will playing ping pong in the campus Y building with the minister of the Second Baptist Church in Oxford. "We were separated by a net and using separate but equal paddles," Will explained to the Chancellor.
Will left the University and went to work for the National Council of Churches Department of Racial and Cultural Relations and other organizations in Nashville. He was very impressed with Dr. King. "The man is a saint," he told me during a visit to Ole Miss in 1958.
I knew Will well enough to know he wasn't describing King as a "goody-goody," but as someone both committed and effective. He was especially impressed with King's dedication to Gandhi's concept of nonviolence. The most impressive fact about Gandhi's nonviolence is that this wizened little man in a loincloth carrying a walking stick and no weapons other than an iron will had brought down the world's greatest empire of the day.
A few years ago my wife and I visited the Martin Luther King Jr. museum in Atlanta. In the bookstore was a well-illustrated book on the civil rights movement. On the cover, a headline declared that Martin Luther King Jr. had worked to insure freedom for African Americans. I disagree. He worked to achieve freedom for Americans.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
LOng RAnge Navigation (LORAN)
We just learned that the Coast Guard will cease transmitting LORAN-C signals at midnight zulu February 8, 2010. This will bring to an end almost seventy years of development and operation by the US of a very valuable hyperbolic radio navigation system.
I personally never owned a LORAN-C set. I used LORAN-C in the navy, but never liked it. Maybe I disliked it because the set I used was a klunky converter to a LORAN-A set.
I liked LORAN-A. I was introduced to LORAN-A operation on a WWII-vintage DAS-3 LORAN-A receiver, during midshipman training cruise on USS Macon the summer of 1957. It took a little while to get the hang of it, but it gave the operator a lot of control. I used a DAS-4, a slightly improved model, on USS Cabildo and USS Higbee.
The system was intended to provide a fix by plotting time differences from two pairs of stations arranged as a chain, with the master station between two slave stations. The geometry of the arrangement would cause lines of position to cross each other at an angle that resulted in an acceptable fix. A single LORAN line could also be crossed with a sun line. That often came in handy.
LOng RAnge was a bit of a misnomer. The system was designed to use a ground wave radio path, and the maximum distance the signal would reach was about 900 miles during the day and maybe 1600 miles at night. That wasn't enough to reach across the wide Pacific.
A skilled operator could use the system over greater distances by measuring the time difference of sky waves - as long as they were one-hop waves off the E-layer of the ionosphere. If you were really skilled, when operating in the Western Pacific, it was often possible to match the ground wave of a master station with the sky wave of a slave station, apply a time difference correction from a special table, and plot an accurate line of position.
A key skill requirement was the ability to distinguish a sky wave from a ground wave. That took a bit of time and patience. Sky waves were less stable than ground waves, but they could appear fairly stable for a short period. If the operator inadvertently matched a ground wave with a sky wave, the resulting time difference could plot very far away from the ship's actual location. I believe that is what happened when USS Frank Knox ran aground on Pratas Reef in the South China Sea in 1965.
I never trusted LORAN-C because there were too many automatic features. I wanted to see the actual wave form to see what I was dealing with. And I preferred to plot the line of position myself on a piece of paper.
I personally never owned a LORAN-C set. I used LORAN-C in the navy, but never liked it. Maybe I disliked it because the set I used was a klunky converter to a LORAN-A set.
I liked LORAN-A. I was introduced to LORAN-A operation on a WWII-vintage DAS-3 LORAN-A receiver, during midshipman training cruise on USS Macon the summer of 1957. It took a little while to get the hang of it, but it gave the operator a lot of control. I used a DAS-4, a slightly improved model, on USS Cabildo and USS Higbee.
The system was intended to provide a fix by plotting time differences from two pairs of stations arranged as a chain, with the master station between two slave stations. The geometry of the arrangement would cause lines of position to cross each other at an angle that resulted in an acceptable fix. A single LORAN line could also be crossed with a sun line. That often came in handy.
LOng RAnge was a bit of a misnomer. The system was designed to use a ground wave radio path, and the maximum distance the signal would reach was about 900 miles during the day and maybe 1600 miles at night. That wasn't enough to reach across the wide Pacific.
A skilled operator could use the system over greater distances by measuring the time difference of sky waves - as long as they were one-hop waves off the E-layer of the ionosphere. If you were really skilled, when operating in the Western Pacific, it was often possible to match the ground wave of a master station with the sky wave of a slave station, apply a time difference correction from a special table, and plot an accurate line of position.
A key skill requirement was the ability to distinguish a sky wave from a ground wave. That took a bit of time and patience. Sky waves were less stable than ground waves, but they could appear fairly stable for a short period. If the operator inadvertently matched a ground wave with a sky wave, the resulting time difference could plot very far away from the ship's actual location. I believe that is what happened when USS Frank Knox ran aground on Pratas Reef in the South China Sea in 1965.
I never trusted LORAN-C because there were too many automatic features. I wanted to see the actual wave form to see what I was dealing with. And I preferred to plot the line of position myself on a piece of paper.
Utility Billing Information as Public Record
North Carolina General Statutes section 132-1.1(c) explicitly provides that “billing information compiled and maintained by a city or county or other public entity providing utility services in connection with the ownership or operation of a public enterprise, excluding airports, is not a public record as defined in G.S. 132-1.”
Does this mean the city may not disclose billing information? Not exactly, according to a recent post by Kara Millonzi of the School of Government on the NC Local Government Law blog. She postulates a number of scenarios under which the disclosure of billing information may be legal under G.S. 132-1.1(c). She suggests, however, that the decision to make such a disclosure should be pursuant to a decision made by the governing board, and the municipality should apply any governing board directive consistently.
In any event, G.S. 132-1.10 prohibits a local government or public authority from intentionally communicating or otherwise making available to the general public certain identifying information, including Social Security or employer taxpayer identification numbers; driver’s license, state identification card, or passport numbers; checking or savings account numbers; credit or debit card numbers; digital signatures; personal identification code numbers; biometric data (such as eye scans, voice scans, and DNA); fingerprints; or passwords. Furthermore, G.S. 132-1.2(2) prohibits a local unit or authority from revealing an account number used for electronic payment (defined as payment by charge card, credit card, debit card, or by electronic funds transfer).
Bottom line: the town does not have to disclose any of this information to the public. It may under certain circumstances, but better be very careful.
Does this mean the city may not disclose billing information? Not exactly, according to a recent post by Kara Millonzi of the School of Government on the NC Local Government Law blog. She postulates a number of scenarios under which the disclosure of billing information may be legal under G.S. 132-1.1(c). She suggests, however, that the decision to make such a disclosure should be pursuant to a decision made by the governing board, and the municipality should apply any governing board directive consistently.
In any event, G.S. 132-1.10 prohibits a local government or public authority from intentionally communicating or otherwise making available to the general public certain identifying information, including Social Security or employer taxpayer identification numbers; driver’s license, state identification card, or passport numbers; checking or savings account numbers; credit or debit card numbers; digital signatures; personal identification code numbers; biometric data (such as eye scans, voice scans, and DNA); fingerprints; or passwords. Furthermore, G.S. 132-1.2(2) prohibits a local unit or authority from revealing an account number used for electronic payment (defined as payment by charge card, credit card, debit card, or by electronic funds transfer).
Bottom line: the town does not have to disclose any of this information to the public. It may under certain circumstances, but better be very careful.
Oddities: 2 - Prodigal Documents
Late last summer I raised the issue of closed session minutes. We discussed the issue at the Town Board meeting September 1, 2009 and agreed to proceed with efforts to open minutes no longer required to be closed.
At the Town Board meeting of October 6, it was revealed that the book containing the minutes could not be located. At the November 10 meeting, commissioners were given a packet of closed minutes to review. I noted that minutes of some closed sessions seemed to be missing. The town staff conducted a search of computer records and were able to reprint most of the missing minutes, but signed copies were still not found.
At the Town Board meeting of December 1, the outgoing board opened some of the formerly closed minutes to the public. The missing signed copies had still not been found.
After Christmas weekend of 2009, I learned, the missing notebook reappeared in the office. The fixed asset ledger which couldn't be found during the audit has also reappeared.
Whoever knows where the documents had gone and how they were returned hasn't disclosed the information, to the best of my knowledge. Why would anyone remove the notebooks from Town Hall? I don't have any idea. The documents themselves remain silent.
Another odd event.
At the Town Board meeting of October 6, it was revealed that the book containing the minutes could not be located. At the November 10 meeting, commissioners were given a packet of closed minutes to review. I noted that minutes of some closed sessions seemed to be missing. The town staff conducted a search of computer records and were able to reprint most of the missing minutes, but signed copies were still not found.
At the Town Board meeting of December 1, the outgoing board opened some of the formerly closed minutes to the public. The missing signed copies had still not been found.
After Christmas weekend of 2009, I learned, the missing notebook reappeared in the office. The fixed asset ledger which couldn't be found during the audit has also reappeared.
Whoever knows where the documents had gone and how they were returned hasn't disclosed the information, to the best of my knowledge. Why would anyone remove the notebooks from Town Hall? I don't have any idea. The documents themselves remain silent.
Another odd event.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Pogo
I checked the calendar this morning and noticed that Friday the thirteenth came on Wednesday this month.
That observation betrays something about my age. I am of that fortunate generation blessed with the chance to read the late Walt Kelly's daily comic strip, "Pogo." Not only that, I was old enough to mostly understand it.
Pogo most famously observed, "We have met the enemy and he is us."
Where is Walt Kelly when we need him?
That observation betrays something about my age. I am of that fortunate generation blessed with the chance to read the late Walt Kelly's daily comic strip, "Pogo." Not only that, I was old enough to mostly understand it.
Pogo most famously observed, "We have met the enemy and he is us."
Where is Walt Kelly when we need him?
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