THEIR VIEWS

Fire department diversification

a welcome development

Rock Hill’s effort to diversify its fire department has produced welcome results. The newest graduating class of nine recruits contained a women and three black men. ...

The department, before the addition of the current class, had some work to do to achieve that goal. The 104-member department had only three women, seven blacks, one American Indian and no Latinos.

The city, however, has a black population of 37 percent, a Latino population of 2 percent (and growing) and a 54 percent majority of women. The city hopes to reach out to potential recruits through black churches, civic groups and schools to diversify the ranks made up largely of white men.

Why is this important? ...

Firefighters — and police, meter readers, building inspectors and others in official positions — are the public face of the city, the ambassadors of City Hall. In the case of both firefighters and police especially, they are figures of authority, people entrusted with protecting the safety and welfare of residents of this community. And they are role models to younger residents.

Finally, these are coveted jobs, entailing hard work and danger but also glamour and adventure, not to mention decent pay and benefits. Those jobs should not go exclusively to white males.

Not long ago, it was the natural assumption that they would. Times change, in this case, we think, for the better.

The (Rock Hill) Herald

Bundle up and dig

deeper into your wallet

South Carolinians should hope for a warm winter because the cost of natural gas to heat homes will continue to increase.

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have affected a region that accounts for more than 20 percent of U.S. natural gas production. Guy F. Caruso, administrator of the U.S. Energy Information Administration, said he thinks gas prices might spike as high as $13 per thousand cubic feet, almost twice the price before Katrina hit. ...

The cost of natural gas will hit South Carolinians, whose wages are considerably lower than the average for the United States, particularly hard.

The rising price of natural gas and the promise of $12 billion in royalties over two decades has South Carolina and federal lawmakers actively advocating drilling in federally controlled waters off the U.S. Coast. ...

An Interior Department survey indicates that there could be as much as 327 trillion cubic feet of natural gas off the U.S. coast in areas under federal control, a supply that could last a decade and a half.

But no one knows how much gas is off the S.C. coast or in any particular state.

As the cost of heating a home increases this winter, the effort to go after natural gas also increases.

It’s a subject that deserves considerable discussion because the drilling could affect South Carolina’s $14-billion-a-year tourism industry.

The Beaufort Gazette