Follow-Up

There are 521 posts filed in Follow-Up (this is page 41 of 53).

Ah, the price of fame

After making my list of highlights of my community service from the past year I have to mention a strange new phenomenon of late: lots of people now know me and I don’t always know them.

I’ve went down to the municipal building for something earlier this year and gave my name to one of the staffers I had just met. “Oh, so you’re Mark Turner! We’ve heard all about you,” came the cheerful reply. Some treat me like some kind of celebrity. Even cops. City staffers have told me they read my blog on a regular basis, too. It’s a little unnerving knowing that people are talking about me, even if it’s good stuff. (At least, I hope it is!)
Continue reading →

Smoking in Parks interviews


As I mentioned yesterday, I did two interviews for the Smoking in Parks (in addition to the News and Observer’s).

The News 14 interview with Jessica Cervantez was posted yesterday afternoon and came out nice with the exception that my name was not mentioned during the interview.

The WPTF interview came out well, too. The interviewer took perhaps 3 minutes of my time to discuss the issue and didn’t ask any biased questions. I spoke calmly and with authority, which I think conveyed that this issue is no big deal. I was even impressed that our Voice over IP phone connection sounded fantastic. The clip aired during their next top-of-the-hour news update, where their newscaster repeated nearly everything I had said verbatim before playing the clip of the rest of what I said.

I laughed when the newscaster twice referred to me as “Councilman Turner” on the air. I admit I liked how it sounded, though!

City council considers smoking ban in parks

The Raleigh City Council is considering a recommendation from the Parks board to ban smoking in city parks. Ray Martin of the News and Observer wrote a story about it that ran today.

My quote:

Mark Turner, vice chairman of the board who presided over that meeting, said littering was the board’s chief concern.

“We don’t have the resources to clean up all the cigarettes,” Turner said. “If people can’t be responsible, this has to take effect.

“I think there’s also a big health benefit of the ban, but I’m the kind of guy who does not like making health decisions for other people.”

Considering the circumstances I’m pleased with the interview. Ray caught me literally minutes before we walked out of the house for our New Year’s trip. I was racing around to find last minute items as I talked with him. I’m surprised I sounded somewhat coherent.

One thing I would like to point out is that for this issue it was about litter for me. Other board members might have different concerns but for me it was litter. Ray writes that “littering is the board’s chief concern,” but I don’t know that to be the case. I was only speaking for myself and I tried to make that clear.

Since the story ran today I’ve spoken with News14 Carolina and WPTF. We’ll see how those turn out.

Making a list, checking it twice

I’ve put together my list for my Highlights of 2010 blog posts. Often that’s the toughest part: just picking a handful of events that tell the story of the year. Because I blog I’ve got built-in material, so telling the story of these events is easy.

Look for things to kick off tomorrow!

Snowfall totals

The National Weather Service’s Raleigh office collected unofficial spotter reports for snowfall totals after yesterday’s snowstorm. I wanted to post this before it disappeared from the net (the report for Raleigh is mine, by the way).

000
NOUS42 KRAH 262059
PNSRAH
NCZ007>011-021>028-038>043-073>078-083>086-088-089-270859-

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
SPOTTER REPORTS
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RALEIGH NC
359 PM EST SUN DEC 26 2010

THE FOLLOWING ARE UNOFFICIAL OBSERVATIONS TAKEN DURING THE PAST 8 HOURS FOR THE STORM THAT HAS BEEN AFFECTING OUR REGION. APPRECIATION IS EXTENDED TO HIGHWAY DEPARTMENTS…COOPERATIVE OBSERVERS…SKYWARN SPOTTERS AND MEDIA FOR THESE REPORTS. THIS SUMMARY IS ALSO AVAILABLE ON OUR HOME PAGE AT WEATHER.GOV/RALEIGH.

********************STORM TOTAL SNOWFALL********************
Continue reading →

Storm crews did great job

I should also say that the state and local officials did a great job managing today’s storm. Salt brine was on the roads days earlier, making the snow that fell very easy to plow. Streets in my neighborhood were wet but clear by mid-day, which is no mean feat for a storm this size.

I give the government crews an A for their efforts. The state missed getting an A+ from me only because the governor neglected to publicize on the state websites the state of emergency she declared. Fortunately most people already knew there was snow on the way so it wasn’t a big deal.

Overall, I’m impressed. A huge swath of the state received snow and I think it was managed effectively.

Update on potential weekend snow

With the latest forecast models out, the weather geeks are now saying this weekend snow is looking more to be on the lighter side. This is good news for travelers, not so good news for sledders!

…LATEST MODEL GUIDANCE IS TRENDING TOWARD A LESS SIGNIFICANT WINTER STORM FOR CENTRAL NORTH CAROLINA ON SATURDAY THROUGH SUNDAY…. TWO DIFFERENT MECHANISMS ARE EXPECTED TO PRODUCE SOME WINTRY PRECIPITATION ACROSS CENTRAL NORTH CAROLINA THROUGH SUNDAY. THE FIRST AND WEAKER SYSTEM IS A MID LEVEL DISTURBANCE ASSOCIATED WITH A SHORT WAVE IN THE NORTHERN STREAM THAT MOVES INTO THE OHIO VALLEY/SOUTH APPALACHIANS ON SATURDAY. THE OTHER AND POTENTIALLY MORE SIGNIFICANT SYSTEM IS A SURFACE LOW THAT DEVELOPS IN THE GULF OF MEXICO ON SATURDAY AND THEM MOVES UP THE EAST COAST SATURDAY NIGHT/SUNDAY.

via National Weather Service Text Product Display.

Gerry Reid gave the gift of life

On WTVD’s evening newscast tonight my friend Mandy Reid talked about the organ donations of her husband and my friend, Gerry Reid. It was a reminder of all the lives that were powerfully changed by his passing. It was tough watching it but it really is a story that must be shared.

I am an organ donor and so is Kelly. I hope those of you reading this will also choose to become an organ donor. One day you, too, could become a hero like Gerry.

Santa’s not bringing Google Fiber this year

It turns out that Santa’s backhoe won’t be making the rounds this year, after all. Google announced today that they are delaying their site selections for Google Fiber until next year. According to Milo Medin, Google’s new Vice President of Access Services, the overwhelming response received from communities has added to the time needed to evaluate all proposals.

Hey, Google, I hear Google Fiber makes a great birthday present (hint, hint).