What an idiotic idea!

Bad enough that county commissioners can’t seem to grasp the notion that public business be conducted in public, not behind closed doors.

Some of the their other ideas are so silly they deserve to have doors closed on them before there’s any chance they might be enacted.

Abandoning the beautiful, native stone 1889 Bowron Building and purchasing instead a non-descript, stuccoed 1975 concrete block structure a third as large is the type of decision that would merit a “throw the rascals out” vote in 2018.

Yes, the office that a chiropractor no longer wants is 80 steps closer to the courthouse, but there’s no sidewalk and no crosswalk for most of those steps.

Yes, the county needs to spend money fixing Bowron, but it’s had the building for 24 years, and in 24 years anyone with half a brain knows you have to do things like replace roofs and air-conditioners..

If the best advice from the chairman of the county’s new economic development bureaucracy is so short-sighted to suggest a “chew it up and spit it” strategy like dumping Bowron, we’d suggest redirecting half of the $1.2 million set aside for his bureaucracy over the next five years and investing it instead in a $500,000 complete renovation that would not just fix urgent problems but make Bowron a modern showplace steeped in history.

The county doesn’t even need to rob one project to pay for another to fix Bowron. It already has nearly $2 million in a fund voters approved solely for building improvements. Instead of trying to divert that fund to something else, perhaps commissioners should listen to what voters said.

Just three commissioners stand between salvation and damnation for the Bowron Building. Make sure they know what you think. They meet every Monday. If their door is closed, ask them to open it.

— ERIC MEYER