That was the stealthiest hotel opening I’ve every seen Friday.

One would think that with more than $20 million invested, years of often harsh criticism and the impact we’ve been told the Hilton Garden Inn & Suffolk Conference Center would have on our community, a little more publicity would have been sought on the opening.

The first we heard about it here was in a 4 p.m. press release Friday, the day of the opening, which included a photo of Mayor Bobby Ralph registering as the first guest.

I for one am glad it has opened and wish the operators nothing but the best. It will be great to have a first-class place for folks to stay.

We have people coming in on business from time to time and I routinely am forced to set them up in hotels out of town, forcing me to have to drive them there and back. It will be nice not to have to do that any longer.

Grand opening activities will likely go on through April, the first of which will be a ribbon cutting ceremony on Wednesday.

City crews appear to have done a fine job on Constance Road. The road reopened over the weekend, finally. Now I can avoid being held up every morning by people at the day care center on Pinner Street unloading children and stopping traffic during rush hour. If that’s an indication of the quality work they can do, I feel comfortable with the city taking control of road maintenance. A vote on the proposal is expected at Wednesday’s city council meeting.