Sales, a student at East Chapel Hill High School, recently ran to his second straight national championship in the 200 meters at the USA Track and Field Nationals in Baltimore.

His triumph this year was even more impressive than last year's, because this year he had to move up an age division, to the Young Men's class. Sales, 17, was one of the youngest runners in the field, but he left all those 18-year old geezers in his wake on his way to another national crown.

That title came less than two months after Sales became the only high school athlete to earn a spot, as an alternate, on the Junior National 200-meter team.

All of this, by the way, comes after a back injury he suffered in a car wreck knocked him out of the state meet last spring. Under the careful tutelage of coach Carlton Allen, Sales began slowly easing his way back into competition shape.

Judging by his performance in Baltimore, he's made it.

Roses to the Fearrington House Country Inn and Restaurant, which has proved once again that you don't have to roam the world for first-class accommodations -- you can find them smack in the rural Chatham County countryside.

Travel & Leisure magazine recently ranked Fearrington House No. 14 in the world for overnight accommodations costing less than $250 per night. The magazine rated Fearrington House No. 62 in the continental U.S. overall. The inn and restaurant is the only North Carolina property to receive both the AAA Five Diamond and Five Mobil Star awards.

Few of us around here have ever enjoyed those famous accommodations. We live here and are seldom in need of hotel rooms in our own back yard, of course, and a lot of people are on budgets more suited to, say, Motel 6 anyway.

But it's still nice to have one of our own recognized for excellence.

Raspberries to the Chatham County Commissioners, for locking in a clause in the county manager's contract that could cost the county hundreds of thousands of dollars if it should decide to replace him.

Manager Charlie Horne's four-year contract says that if during that time he is ever fired or asked to resign, the county would owe him a lump sum equal to his remaining salary, car allowance, accrued vacation, sick leave and other benefits. That could add up to more than $500,000.

That's a mighty sweet deal at taxpayers' expense. Talk about job security.

Horne has been manager for 10 years -- without a contract, until now -- and so you might conclude that the odds of his being replaced are low. But there's been a significant shift on the board of commissioners, with three new members taking seats this December, and it's not unusual for a new board with new ideas to want new staff.

Here's the really startling thing: the commissioners unanimously approved the contract, although at least some of them -- including Mike Cross, who wrote it along with Horne and the human resources department -- apparently didn't understand what they were approving.

Cross, to his credit, acknowledged that he'd made a mistake. He said he thought the contract included only a 90-day buyout clause, and he said he never would have agreed to a contract with a four-year one. He has apologized to constituents, and he deserves praise for accepting responsibility and acknowledging error. When's the last time you heard a politician do that?

But everybody on the board voted to approve the contract -- either after reading it carefully and understanding it or not; Chairman Bunky Morgan said he knew what it said and "didn't have any problem" with it. Either way, it was a bad call.