Price to propose banning car use by cell phoners ... but maybe not.

Earlier today, we rolled our eyes as Steve Price glanced in the general direction of the public interest, then just as hurriedly climbed down from his previous stance of being tepidly in favor of it, at least in the narrowest possible sense of safety pertaining to banning the use of cell phones (primarily texting) while driving.

Scolded by his council colleague, Pat McLaughlin, for not paying heed to statistics (no mention of lies and damned lies), and seemingly terrified of the implications of even the most minimal life of ideas, Price told the Tribune, “I don’t know if this is the time to do that (cell phones) with the budget.”

Well, at least there's some consistency to this position.

When times were good monetarily, he was against public safety expenditures, and now that times are hard, he's still against it. He's even more against it now that he very nearly was exposed as being for it, thanks to the germ of an idea that is, by Price's exceedingly low standards, very nearly sensible.

It isn't clear which is more dangerous: Texting while driving, or nickle-and-diming public safety. At least we see clearly where Price stands on the matter. Add it to the list for 2011, will you?

North Annex: Either a strip mine or pawn shop mentality on the part of Floyd County's officialdom.

Interconnectivity in today's Tribune:

Sekula pushing for local historic preservation group (Daniel Suddeath)

Appraisals for North Annex lowered (Chris Morris)

While Greg Sekula rallies the preservationists, elected officials like Larry McAllister and Ted Heavrin (both county councilmen, and evidently registered as "Democrat" in that peculiar local "well, not really" sort of way) rarely make it through a news cycle without providing more evidence for the need to rally the preservationists.

So, how much is the North Annex (as a historic structure) and the open land around it really worth?

Heavrin and his ilk say that greenbacks are the only determining factor, but of course they lack the simple courage to fairly consider, much less implement, a LOIT tax, one that might relieve the immediate need to sell off what few assets remain available to them before it can be determined whether the building and property might be worth even more as an adaptive reuse that incorporates the surrounding green space in some fashion that approximates 2009, not their preferred milieu of 1947.

Sekula's troops obviously disagree, and I tend to side with them. Some people see a tree as something to be felled and sold, while others view the woods as a place worth something in and of itself. Same goes for a building. The biggest considerations in the future of the North Annex site are how proposed development pertains to environmental matters (i.e., run-off from the asphalt twinkling in Heavrin's eyes) and the relationship of the site to Community Park.

Sell off the North Annex property and the money's gone. We'll be back to where we started, and still without a revenue stream for future needs. Use it to enhance the quality of life, and it may provide what amounts to an annuity. Accordingly, Morris quotes Heavrin: “But like everything it comes down to money.”

Wrong.

There are times when it comes down to creativity and thinking outside the box, and Heavrin stands as a prime example of how our county council fails that test.