So last Wednesday evening, a dozen or so N&O news staff and executives met over coffee and brownies with 20 readers from Apex, Holly Springs, Fuquay-Varina, Morrisville and Cary. Their message was mixed: The N&O is a parrot for the Wake County school board, some readers said, but we're also a great source of information, especially for government and political news. I thought readers who weren't there would like a report.

We chose the Apex Community Center for the forum because that area is ground zero for growth and the attendant problems. Apex, Holly Springs, Fuquay and Morrisville were the fastest-growing towns in Wake County over the period 2000-2003, averaging population increases of 10 percent a year. Among the big issues there: clogged roads, locating a new landfill in Holly Springs, building a sewage treatment plant in New Hill.

And schools. Four of the six elementary and middle schools in Apex will be converted to year-round to relieve overcrowding. That prospect fueled sentiment against the $970 million Wake County school bond referendum that passed last month, and some of our guests the other night were still holding it against the newspaper. The N&O supported the bonds editorially and the company made a donation to the pro-bond campaign.

"It just seemed to me that The N&O fell in lockstep with the Wake County schools," said Kelly Parsons of Apex. "I'm concerned that because The N&O has gone in the direction that it has, enough pressure hasn't been put on the Wake County schools."

Dawn Graff said she questions the school system's assertions that use of year-round schools increases a school's capacity by 30 percent. "I would like to see more of that information challenged" by the newspaper.

Executive editor Melanie Sill noted that one bond supporter told her before the election that The N&O "put a stake in the heart" of the bond campaign with a story on the cost of school renovations. "I don't think people in the schools administration would agree with you that we just put it out the way they say it."

At least a couple of people at the meeting agreed. Ron Margiotta, a school board member from Apex, said the paper's coverage of the bond campaign was fair. Brian Beachum of Apex said that, given the emotions over the issue, there was no way the paper could satisfy a deeply split readership. "In our neighborhood, we have people who used to like each other who don't like each other anymore," he said. "It seems to me you guys were damned if you do and damned if you don't"

And Rhonda Lowe of Holly Springs said she wanted less coverage of the bond issue, as well as all things school-related. A self-described SINC -- "single individual, no children" -- she'd like to see more coverage of the issues that concern her -- animal protection, her horrible commute on I-40 and her perception that the Triangle is a miserable scene for singles.

"I felt like all I was seeing was about the bond campaign and year-round schools," she said.

There were other concerns, and some good suggestions. Several readers felt that Southwest Wake is a distinct enough place that it merits more attention from the regional newspaper. Why couldn't The N&O publish a separate publication for Apex and/or Fuquay-Varina, as it does now for North Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Eastern Wake County, Smithfield and Cary? (Answer: probably not enough critical population mass there yet, despite the growth; The Cary News does provide some Apex coverage).

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