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The economy may be picking up, but no upswing is reflected in the building permits issued in the first two months of the year.

Monthly building permit summaries from the Code Enforcement Division of the Moore County Planning Department show the number of permits down by 28 percent in January and down 13 percent in February, when compared with 2003 statistics.

However, estimated values of those buildings climbed for both months.

The code enforcement division summaries show numbers for each month, with a cumulative total for the year to date with comparison figures for the same period in the previous year.

UP, DOWN — In January, the agency issued 36 building permits, including 20 for residences, 14 for alterations and additions, one each for multifamily units and commercial. The number of residential permits was down more than 23 percent when compared with January of last year.

Values climbed by 21.4 percent in the same period, but that reflects a whopping 286.3 percent increase in that one commercial permit. Residential values were down 7 percent.

Total values for January were estimated at $6.8 million, of which $1.8 million was attributed to the commercial project, a permit for a clubhouse and amenities at the Little River Farms development. Although down 7 percent, residential values were estimated at $4.2 million.

In February, 44 building permits were issued. Of that number, 26 were for residences, 17 for alterations and additions, and one for a commercial building.

Values increased by 19.6 percent, again reflecting a big increase in commercial, which climbed 283 percent. This percentage increase is based on the accumulated total from January, not on the value of the one retail building, estimated at $100,000, for which a permit was issued in February.

Total February values exceeded $4.8 million, of which $4.4 million, an increase of 9.2 percent, was attributed to residential permits.

The number of other permits was also down both months, with increases reflected only in issuance of electrical permits for commercial projects.

MORGAN — House Co-Speaker Richard Morgan toured the campus of the University of North Carolina at Asheville Tuesday. He visited with students and faculty in the multimedia program, the physics department and the math department, as well as students of the Center for Creative Retirement.

“I am so impressed with the dedication of the faculty and administration in providing a quality education to the students here at UNC-A,” Morgan said in a news release. “Chancellor Mullen is enthusiastic about every student and every program. That kind of excitement is contagious. I thoroughly enjoyed my time on campus.”

The speaker talked with students about the importance of public service. He learned that UNC-A students have devoted more than 7,000 hours in the past year to community service, especially as mentors in local schools.

Morgan said he was impressed with the older students at the Center for Creative Retirement, where such classes as art, contemporary issues, and computers are available to retirees in the Asheville area. These students are also incorporated into the undergraduate curriculum as guest speakers and mentors.

Morgan, the Republican representing most of Moore County in the state House of Representatives, shares speakership duties with Democratic Rep. Jim Black of Mecklenburg County.

HEALTH CARE — More than 1.6 million North Carolinians lack access to basic health care, according to a new report by the National Association of Community Health Centers.

The report caught the attention of U.S. Sen. John Edwards, a North Carolina Democrat, who noted that one in five North Carolinians lacks access to medical providers. The report shows that the Tar Heel State ranks eighth among states with the greatest number of people without health care.

“When it comes to universal coverage, my view is simple: children first,” Edwards said in a news release.

Edwards said he advocates doubling resources for health clinics to take pressure off overcrowded hospitals and emergency rooms.

“I want clinics to be able to keep longer hours so they can serve working families,” the senator said. “They need to be in convenient locations: next to schools and shopping malls so parents can use them. And I want to offer mobile clinics that come to the isolated and rural communities too often forgotten by our health care system.”