The departure of Beda Johnson as director of Columbia County’s Convention and Visitors Bureau was painful and uncomfortable.

Painful, because she was the only director the fledgling organization has known, and because she was such a tirelessly enthusiastic booster of Columbia County. And it was uncomfortable, because everyone involved remained so tight-lipped, at least publicly, about the philosophical differences that led to her departure. It’s difficult to fix problems if they’re kept secret.

There’s something a little disappointing about the notice for Thursday’s Augusta Regional Transportation Study, or ARTS, meeting:

Far down in the announcement is a sentence that the plan is “an update to the ARTS Regional Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan adopted in 2003.”

We haven’t exactly been overwhelmed with the results from that previous plan. So who’s to say this update won’t simply gather another nine years of dust?

Actually, it’s the citizens and taxpayers who can decide.

It’s difficult to be an honest person in today’s General Assembly.

One of the lawmakers who has learned that is Rep. Jay Powell, R-Camilla, an attorney who had the radical idea that the Legislature should actually spend the taxpayers’ money as state law says it should be spent.

Powell tried to make the General Assembly be honest about the way it spends money when he introduced HB 811. This bill would have ended the practice of taking funds that are collected to pay for a specific government program and using those dollars for an entirely different purpose.