Opinion

THORNS & ROSES: Thanks, Mike, for 40 years of service

Fire Chief Dorian Flowers thanks Mike Edney for his service to Hendersonville.

By Bill Moss, Published: August 11, 2012

Rose — To Mike Edney, who served the Hendersonville Fire Department as a volunteer for 40 years.

Edney recalled the first time he worked a fire, at age 16. The Lance lumber company had caught fire. "My dad said, come on, let's go. They need some help," he told a room filled with friends and family last week at the Hendersonville City Council. "It's what I've tried to do." Edney carried on a long family tradition of public safety service. His father, Vernon, served 36 years with the city fire department and his grandfather, Clarence, served as both police chief and fire chief. As Fire Chief Dorian Flowers observed, it's rare now for anyone to serve in a public job so long and rarer still for someone to serve that long on a volunteer basis. Edney, by the way, is also a county Rescue Squad member.

Thorn — To the careless proofreading that stuck us with the Henderson Tourism Development Authority, instead of the Henderson County Tourism Development Authority. Goodness knows the community's got enough trouble with this new board without having to deal with confusion with that little town near Kerr Lake. The name of our tourism agency is the Henderson Tourism Development Authority, because that's now in the law. The Legislature, as soon as it's able, ought to deal fix this scrivener's error and put the County back in the county agency.

Rose —(and a few good books and a carton of yogurt) to state Sen. Tom Apodaca, for coming through open-heart surgery in characteristic good humor. Apodaca underwent heart surgery on Aug. 2 at Mission hospitals after doctors discovered three artery blockages. "In a few months I'll be back, looking like George Clooney, ready to give everyone grief again," he quipped in a news release. "For now, I'm just looking forward to wearing clothing that opens in the front." Unselfishly, the fifth-term senator used his own scare to sound the alarm for others. "I'm only 54 years old and while I could stand to lose a few pounds, I'm in pretty good shape," he said in a news release. "Hopefully my story will encourage people not to ignore warning signs from our bodies and to seek the advice of medical professionals." Here's to that advice, and here's to a quick and full recovery.