JEERS: The center turning lanes in the city have been there long enough that all drivers should know the following: do not enter the center lane a great distance from your intended turn; do not allow your vehicle to be outside of the parallel center lane, but keep your car straight and facing ahead alongside moving traffic; use your turn signal; again, do not allow your vehicle to be in any position other than straight and within the turning lane's painted lines. This means not diagonally across painted lines. Simple, yes, but improper use of this lane is the norm by the greatest number of drivers, and this causes moving lanes to divert into another lane or wait for you to make your move.

JEERS: to the City of Plattsburgh for a lackluster notification of a boil-water order for a 15-family area on Catherine Street between Boynton and Riley avenues over several days. Affected households were warned in a note affixed to their doors not to drink the water. However, as several days elapsed, residents weren't given updates. At least one resident made several calls to the Health Department and the city's Public Works Department before finally finding out after the weekend that the order had been lifted. Usually, those notices are in the paper and on the radio. A communications gap prevailed in this case.

CHEERS: to improved transfer of information via signs on our streets and roads. It used to be that either there was a stop sign or there wasn't. Then, four-way stops began to become the standard, especially in cities. In Plattsburgh, many intersections require stops in all directions. At some of the intersections where stops are required from only two facing directions, signs now appear warning drivers, bikers and pedestrians that traffic in the other two directions aren't required to stop. That is helpful for people approaching those intersections, perhaps believing drivers on their right or left will have to stop, when, in fact, they don't. That's one of those small enhancements to public safety that is not measurable but may very well have spared people aggravation -- or worse.

CHEERS: To Brian and Candy Major, commissioner and president respectively of Plattsburgh PAL Football, for their hard work, enthusiasm, energy and passion in ensuring that the North Country's future high school football stars have an instructional, fun and competitive experience in learning a game near and dear to this area. A visit to the Oval at PARC these days will find hundreds of kids going through drills, running and scrimmaging almost every day, even those as young as five years old who will compete in flag-football games in the coming week with teams from the areas of Ausable, Saranac, Saranac Lake, Tupper Lake and Moriah. Their dedication is unequaled.