Seeing the neon lights of the Pines Theater again made a lot of old-timers happy Saturday night. We hope the work — and money — the city has put into the facility will be well worth it for the generation to come.

Cheers to the city for its progress on the project so far. The official lighting ceremony Saturday night, to show off the exterior of the theater that was built in 1925, was a big hit to a crowd of people who attended. The inside of the Pines has been gutted (as it needed to be), and the city is awaiting direction from its citizens before progressing with the interior improvements.

The city spent less than half of the $500,000 it budgeted to refurbish the outside of the theater, so it has money to use on the inside. We encourage everyone to take the Pines Theater survey at www.cityoflufkin.com to let the city know how you'd like to see the facility used once its renovations are complete. The options: live music/concerts, classic movies, current movies, plays/theatrical productions, dinner theater, recitals, meetings/lectures, community events and children's programs. All of those ideas, with the possible exception of current movies, sound great to us, and we would love to see the theater be available for the public to rent. It would be a fun place for a wedding, if the refurbished interior looks as nice as the refurbished exterior.

Kudos to the city for the job done so far. We agree with others who have complained that a million-dollar price tag on the Pines renovations was an inappropriate use of taxpayer funds, but we could see the lower-cost project paying off — especially if it helps revitalize downtown Lufkin.

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A settlement in the dispute over a planned biomass plant in Lufkin appears to have ended a small uproar that caused major headache and cost for the developers.

Aspen Power has agreed to improve its emissions technology on the alternative energy plant it can now resume building off Kurth Drive, inside Loop 287. The company had to put the brakes on its project earlier in the year after a handful of North Lufkin residents formally protested it; the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality now says the construction can go forward again. An investigation by our local Texas Ranger into forged documents provided to the TCEQ continues, however.

There is a lot we still do not know about the saga — who forged what, and what the confidential settlement between Aspen Power and its protestors entails — but we do know the politics of the North Lufkin standoff have been embarrassing to watch. Roasts to the ones responsible, even if we don't yet know who that is.