"Public must be involved in park plan"

From Sunday's Times-News editorial page:

The Henderson County Board of Commissioners is facing an uprising in Flat Rock over its plans to build a park and soccer complex — much of which could have been avoided had the county been more open about its plans to begin with.

A couple of weeks ago, we said commissioners showed foresight in their decision to buy the Highland Lake Golf Club to convert the property to a soccer complex and public park. Notwithstanding residents’ fears of change and the unknown, the deal provides a way to preserve 65 acres of green space and provide for quality fields that soccer enthusiasts have sought for years.

Unfortunately, commissioners caught Village of Flat Rock officials and residents by surprise in the way they went about making their decision.

They will face a crowd at their meeting Monday as opponents and supporters of the soccer fields turn out in force to make their feelings known....

Instead, commissioners voted 4-1 last month to spend $1.15 million on the golf course at the same meeting where the plan for a park and soccer fields was first announced. That was a month after they signed an option to purchase the Highland Lake Golf Club property and put down $5,000 earnest money on the deal.

Under North Carolina’s open meetings law, elected officials can discuss plans to purchase real estate in closed meetings. But in unveiling the plan as basically a done deal, commissioners damaged residents’ trust and made a lot of people angry. Commissioners should have made the plan public in August as soon the option was in place. If they had done that, and entertained public comment before the vote to spend the funds, residents would feel better about the deal....

Riddle has already said the Soccer Association has no plans to install outdoor lighting because of the high costs involved, and would be willing to work with neighbors if and when the fields are ever lighted in the future....

Read it all. I don't have time to go into it now, but this is an illogical, inconsistent, and somewhat incoherent editorial.