HIT: To the Cayuga County Arts Council and Auburn Public Theater, for the ARTini fundraising event Thursday night.

The council organized the event, and APT supplied the venue. It was especially encouraging to see the council reach out to the public in its efforts to raise funding, and we hope to see significant dollars devoted to its ongoing Schine Theater restoration. And APT's encouragement of the arts by providing venues for events such as these is a true blessing for this community.

Now we'd love to see a fundraiser devoted exclusively to the Schine some time this year.

MISS: Tournament officials should not have waited so long to change the venue for Jordan-Elbridge's state playoff softball game Wednesday.

After having traveled three hours to a rainy field in Clifton Park, the team was forced to wait through hours of delays before the game was finally played after 8 p.m.

And the decision to utilize an indoor facility wasn't fair to either team, and since the final tournament games were scheduled for Saturday, the game could have been postponed to either Thursday or Friday.

The Eagles had a great season, and all the players and staff should be proud of their accomplishments. Coach Joe Ryan showed a great deal of class after the team's 1-0 loss to Mechanicville and did not use Wednesday's events as an excuse, but that doesn't excuse tournament officials from their mistakes.

HIT: Volunteers scoured the county Wednesday to count the number of homeless they could locate to try to get a clearer picture of the problem.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires a count when considering grants to fund projects helping those in need.

As hard is it may be to believe, the last count - in January 2005 - showed 135 people in this area with no permanent place to stay.