A weekly shout out

I would like to give kudos to Chatham County Fire Marshall Tom Bender for keeping angry (and often unruly) protesters somewhat at bay during Monday night's contentious Pittsboro Town Hall meeting on the proposed Pittsboro Place development.

It was no easy task, to be sure. He was fighting an endless battle all night long.

I even had a run-in with Bender just before the meeting. He was attempting to keep a mob of 100 or so concerned citizens out of a tiny room where the meeting was taking place, when I walked up. He said I couldn't go in, so used the standard "You can't keep me out of a public meeting" line all media members have memorized. After a little time, he agreed to let me through.

Later in the evening, I ran into him again and apologized for the incident, telling him I knew he had his hands full — which he did and then some. He reciprocated the apology.

Let me just say that I lived in Chapel Hill for three years. I consider myself somewhat left of center on most issues, including those pertaining to development in rural areas. And I understand the need to protest and rally against causes you don't agree with. But when in a public meeting, there is a certain decorum that "concerned citizens" should try to adhere to if they really want to be taken seriously.

A few people didn't do that. For people who appear to know a lot about politics and the world around them, a handful of them knew very little about the actual governing process. There is an order to meetings. It is not a free-form shouting match. The shouting matches are held on the lawn before the meetings. If you want to speak up, make sure you come early enough to sign up to speak during the public remarks portion of the evening. It is not the commission's fault that you spent your time in the shouting match, then came late to the meeting and didn't get a seat.

Most of the protestors actually conducted themselves fine at the rally outside before the meeting and throughout the evening. It is a shame that a handful of them couldn't do the same, instead opting to push their way into the meeting room, talk amongst themselves through the entire process, actually sit on the floor in front of the developers, make snide comments to the commissioners and developers loud enough to interrupt the process, and file in and out of the room the entire — way too long — evening.

Especially when the reporters that are there to publicize your plight are on strict deadlines. I actually had to phone in my story from the road because, thanks to both the protesters and Pittsboro Mayor Randy Voller, who, against the development himself, took every opportunity he could to grandstand and delay the process, when he knew all along the vote would come down as it eventually did.

Hopefully Mr. Bender gets to take a half-day today. As I probably will, since I worked 12 hours yesterday thanks to a 3 hour meeting that should have taken 30 minutes.