Today is day two of Sunshine Week, an annual celebration of government openness and public access to public records. Across the country — and throughout North Carolina — activists, journalists and otherwise-interested citizens are assessing the levels of disclosure and secrecy that regulate access to official documents.
Here at Mountain Xpress, we’re marking Sunshine Week with the debut of The Xpress Files, an online archive of papers from all levels of government. And each day this week, we’ll focus on one extraordinary Document of the Day.
Today’s entry is a letter from state Rep. Susan Fisher, who represents Buncombe County in the General Assembly, to the Buncombe County Board of Adjustment, regarding a proposed concrete plant on Murphy Hill Road in north Buncombe.
“I am very concerned about the impact of the concrete plant,” Fisher wrote, citing safety, health and environmental issues. She added that her constituents are alarmed by the proposal.
Many local residents came out for the board’s March 12 meeting about the proposal, but most were not able to enter the hearing, due to the small size of the meeting room. And once the hearing was underway, it was cut short due to the discovery that insufficiently advanced notice was given.
More coverage of the hearing, which has not yet been rescheduled, will appear in the March 19 Xpress.
Click here to read Fisher’s letter. And check back tomorrow for another Sunshine Week offering from The Xpress Files.
— Jon Elliston, managing editor
