When a new Lawrence County Commission — albeit with two of the current members still in place — takes office in January, we hope they keep one thing in place from the former board: Evening meetings.

Out-going Lawrence County Commissioner Tanner Heaberlin was the one who pushed hard for the office’s weekly meetings to be after business hours at 6 p.m. The commission changed that to 4 p.m. in October to accommodate some other scheduling conflicts.

Right now, those meetings are still at 4 p.m., but we hope to see the new commissioners — Les Boggs, Jason Stephens and Doug Malone — change the times back to the evening meetings because this best accommodates the public and those who work during the day.

Holding the meetings during the day limits the ability of the public to attend and limits the accessibility to the leaders Lawrence County voters chose to guide the local government.

Is it more inconvenient for the commissioners to meet late in the evening like this? Sure, but it is important to remember that these individuals — and the office holders from the other county agencies — are paid very well, so a little inconvenience is a small price to pay for providing the best service possible for the taxpayers.

Some opponents of this plan will be quick to point out that the evening meetings weren’t highly attended when the change was made a few months ago.

But that point is irrelevant and simply doesn’t hold water.

The public wasn’t given enough time to adjust and make the changes needed to start attending. Plus, the central point is that at least now they have an opportunity to attend, even if they decide not to do so.

It is impossible to predict when the need will arise and it is up to the commissioners to be accessible.

We hope this new commission follows in at least this one trend established by the former board and keeps the option for the “public” in its public meetings.