For every story we publish in this newspaper that is bad news, we publish at least the same number of stories that are good news.

There’s not a mathematical formula for it, but the truth of the matter is, there’s more going on in our communities that is good than bad.

Conspiracy theorists will argue that we’ve missed the big story hiding behind the closed doors at town hall, or the questionable back-scratching that goes on when people aren’t looking.

But I think they would be hard-pressed to look around eastern Wake County and suggest that the place is going to hell in a hand basket.

This week’s issue includes a pair of stories that I think highlight some of the good that’s going on in our communties.

In Zebulon, Tim Cooke is a grandfather who got into Cub Scouting because no one else in his grandson’s den stepped up to serve as a den parent.

Though his own Scouting career was relatively short, Cooke has found a new avocation.

He readily admits that he got into Scouting both for his grandson and for himself.

Spend a few minutes talking to him, as I did last weekend, and you can hear the excitement he’s found in volunteering with young people.

As he speaks, he sounds like a posterchild for Scouting. Meet him and you know in an instant, he’s no PR flak.

His interest is genuine and the boys he worked with this year — and those he will lead in the future — are sure to benefit from spending time with him.

The same can be said of Sam Epps, who retired earlier this year after 38 years working for the town of Wendell and the City of Raleigh in the water department.

Epps is a big man with a hearty laugh. He has a steel trap memory and, judging by the spread his co-workers laid out for him at a retirement lunch last month, it’s clear he is well-thought of by the people he has worked with for nearly four decades.

Sam Epps had one of those jobs most of us wouldn’t want under any circumstances. He was the guy who had to respond when water pipes broke in town.

He’s seen Wendell run dry when a large line burst between Wendell and Zebulon. And he’s found himself diving underwater to fix waterlines buried in standing pools of water.

He answered the call during the work day, at night, on holidays, in storms and in the heat of summer.

We don’t often think of people like Epps until we have a problem and he doesn’t seem to mind that too much. He’s working on a honey-do list in retirement, but he was willing to put that list on hold just a little while longer when his co-workers asked for some time to honor him.

My understanding is that not everyone who retires from the Public Utilities Department in Raleigh gets quite the send off Sam Epps got.

His co-workers paid out of their pocket for the steaks they grilled at the new shop on Lizard Lick Road the other day.

I suspect there are plenty of stories out there that generate raised eyebrows among the people who hear about them.

We will write those stories, too. But for everyone of them, I would argue there are 10 stories like Tim Cooke and Sam Epps. They are part of what makes eastern Wake County the place it is, despite our pre-disposition to feeling dumped on by the policy-makers in Raleigh.