Thumbs up, thumbs down

Eagle Editorial
Published: May 29, 2008

Thumbs up to county officials’ idea to block access to the county’s shooting range to non-Madison County law enforcement officers. Madison officers do need a close-by range to practice shooting – and so do taxpayers, who would be hit with added expense if they have to keep paying hefty mileage fees for Madison deputies to use ranges in other counties. But letting outside agencies over-run the Shelby range apparently inflicted a good bit of unneeded misery for folks living nearby. The outsiders overwhelmed the facility, forcing expanded hours and even creating traffic problems as users sped to and from the site (we’re assuming the out-of-county lawmen were the ones reportedly speeding, since hometown “Madison Pride” likely keeps Madison lawmen more neighborly than outside ones).

Thumbs down to Madison County taxpayers possibly being forced to pay for Sheriff Erik Weaver’s appeal of his conviction for violating open records laws. If — as the sheriff has reportedly suggested in previous interviews — he did not release information because of “incorrect information” he received from a previous attorney, then why not just clearly acknowledge that, pay the $250 one-time fine and be done with it? If the appeal is a maneuver to force this publicly unnamed “previous attorney” to come forward and reveal him or herself, why do this on the backs of taxpayers? Such a move will likely quickly balloon into many thousands of dollars as the legal bills for the sheriff’s appeal defense add up (as it stands now, a judge ordered the county to pay the sheriff’s upcoming $250 per hour legal fees).

Thumbs down to the rogue motorcyclist who honked as he drove his roaring Harley-Davidson down Main Street Monday past the community Memorial Day ceremony at the War Memorial Park. Let’s hope it was an out-of-towner having a knee-jerk reaction to the big assembled crowd, someone who didn’t realize what kind of gathering it was – one that called for solemnity. To be out and about on such a sunny, glorious spring holiday as Monday was, one can see the motorcycle rider’s exuberance, but horn tooting has no place at such a solemn occasion as a ceremony honoring the sacrifices of Madison’s servicemen and servicewomen, just as it wouldn’t at a funeral.

Thumbs up to the Madison County Board of Supervisors for joining many other counties across the commonwealth in deciding to scrap those pesky vehicle windshield decals. The move should save mailing costs, but perhaps of even greater significance, will remove drivers’ unwelcome annual annoyance of having to scrape off that darned old sticker. Details still apparently have to be worked out in terms of how sticker-free residents can do things such as show transfer station operators they are entitled to free entry. Still, that doesn’t seem to be an overly monumental task. OK, town of Madison, now it’s your turn to dump the decals.