Rich Fowler
The Chapel Hill Town Council held a business meeting Monday night, at which it discussed the process for filling the late Bill Thorpe’s seat and passed a resolution concerning long-term oil consumption.
Candidates for the open council seat will have until Friday at 5 p.m. to apply for the seat. Then at 7 p.m. on Monday, they will give a statement and answer questions from the council. Each candidate will be given approximately five to 10 minutes with the council, depending on the number of applicants.
Mayor Kevin Foy said he wanted to make sure that everyone understood the ground rules for campaigning for the open council seat. He said there is no prohibition on talking with any council member, that council members can reach out to any of the candidates to talk with them and that council members can talk with any citizen about that citizen’s perspective on a potential candidate.
“We want to hear from citizens, we want to know what people think, we want to get lobbied on this both by candidates and by citizens in the best sense of lobbying,†Foy said, “which is to buttonhole us and tell us what your opinion is.
“People who have other ideas or questions or concerns about this process [should] let us know now so that we have time to make
adjustments if they seem warranted.â€
The council also passed a resolution recognizing the problems that peak oil will present to the town and its residents in the future. Peak oil is defined as the time when half of the world’s oil supply is used up and oil production will start to decrease. Peak oil could cause supply shortages and wild price swings in oil and oil-related products. The council recognizes with this resolution that the town will have to consider peak oil as an important factor in future policymaking.
“It’s not just greening our fleet sort of, or it’s not just buying hybrid-electric buses. It’s going to be an issue that’s going to impact the quality of life and the cost of life in everything that we do,†Mayor Pro Tem Jim Ward said.