As we observed a Waynesville attorney walking to the courthouse last week, the magnitude of the mistake Haywood County commissioners are making by building the new justice center on Ratcliffe Cove Road became overwhelmingly apparent. The decision made by a majority of the board flaunts nearly every characteristic that citizens count as valuable in their local leaders — fiscal austerity, adherence to constituent desires, knowledge and respect for local culture, the intelligence to understand complex problems, and simple trust.

The scene of the attorney shuffling along Main Street on one of those cold, snowy days was one that could have occurred 150 years ago. Downtown Waynesville has been the center of civic life in Haywood County for that long. All that is soon to change, though, because of misguided leaders making knee-jerk decisions based on opinion and not fact.

The importance of preserving the bridges to our past is not something some urban designer in a warm office in Boston or Seattle thought up. It is a truth to which every grandmother in Cruso, farmer on Fines Creek, bear hunter in Balsam and musician in Canton can attest. With one misguided decision, though, a key part of this connection for people raised in Haywood County is being severed. Once gone, it is irretrievable, like a satellite spinning mindlessly out of control into the far reaches of space.

As for doing right by taxpayers, well, this decision does the opposite. For one, it ignores the offer of $2 million by the town of Waynesville. No doubt that grandmother in Cruso on a fixed income would have appreciated someone thinking about her tax bill. Instead, commissioners will spend $2 million additional money on overpriced land. Commissioners derailed a referendum on a bond issue that could have saved another large chunk of money because they knew what would happen — overwhelming defeat. To top it off, they are proceeding with the purchase without even having an independent appraiser value the land to see what its market value truly is.

In addition to ignoring local history and wasting money, this decision is just plain ignorant (sorry, there is no nice way to say this). Commissioners Jim Stevens, Bill Noland and Wade Francis — who voted for the Ratcliffe Cove site — have refused to listen to a plethora of local citizens who have tried to make them see that they have been sold a bill of goods. First was the company doing the needs assessment, a plan which, if revised, could save millions. The second snow job was by the Florida architecture firm hired to design the new justice center. The truth is that the building can be put downtown (two local architects have now developed preliminary plans that do just that) and can be attractive without violating Waynesville ordinances. There is no reason to move to Ratcliffe Cove.

Let’s see, that is local culture, cost and smarts that have been tossed aside. What about the wishes of constituents? Well, aside from one or two letters in the local community newspaper, there has been a tidal wave of support for staying downtown. Others see what our elected leaders don’t.

It’s not that Ratcliffe Cove won’t work. It will satisfy the basic needs, but it is simply a poor choice that will waste money, fragment the community, and negatively affect the growth of Waynesville and Haywood County. Commissioners who have tried to rationalize it into the right decision have done a monumentally poor job.

The election filing season is under way now, and it seems the only way to right this Titanic-like blunder is going to be through the ballot box. Citizens need to devise a stalling tactic that will last until the election, and then the newly elected leaders can do what is right.