Skip to content
The Archive of The Carrboro Citizen
Menu
  • Home
  • News
  • Community
  • Schools
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Obituaries
  • Sports
  • Mill
  • Flora
  • Print Archive
  • About
Menu

Voller returned to office in Pittsboro

Posted on November 12, 2009 by Staff

By Taylor Sisk, Staff Writer

PITTSBORO – Randy Voller won a third term as mayor of Pittsboro Tuesday night, saying a burgeoning diversity in the community makes this a pivotal moment in defining the town’s future, one that he hopes to shape with smart growth and inclusion.
Voller received 392 votes to challenger Bill Crawford’s 328, a 54.14 percent to 45.30 percent margin.

In the race for two open seats on the Town of Pittsboro Board of Commissioners, incumbent Pamela Baldwin finished first, receiving 461 votes, while challengers Michael Fiocco and Andrew Allden went neck and neck, with Fiocco prevailing, 345 votes to 337.

Significant changes have taken place in Pittsboro since he was first elected four years ago, Voller said Tuesday night, as friends and supporters gathered at his Chatham Forest home to celebrate. He referred to the “dynamic of diversity of the community” that has brought a considerable Latino population and new arrivals from a number of other countries – including Jamaica, India and Pakistan – and from the northeast and, increasingly, other communities within the Triangle.

“It used to be that people were coming to Pittsboro because it was less expensive to live here vis-a-vis Cary or Chapel Hill,” Voller said. “Now people are coming here and staying here, because they want to live here.”

Voller said people choose Pittsboro because it offers a welcoming environment to a “unique mix” of artists, entrepreneurs, “folks who are interested in things like sustainability, organic farming, biofuels – along with other folks who are working jobs in RTP and UNC, and retired folks who see Pittsboro as a safe, interesting, eclectic community to live in.”

Voller points to express bus service to Chapel Hill as a key achievement from his last term that helps put Pittsboro “on the map.”

“Starting with that link means we’ll get a link to Sanford and Southern Pines and Siler City and back to Raleigh,” he said, “and [Triangle Transit] will probably someday come in here and start running some of these buses.”

Two years from now, Voller hopes to see Pittsboro having successfully dealt with its waste-water treatment plant issues and, he said, “I think our water quality will have improved tremendously.”

Also: “I think we’re going to have a lot more development of small businesses downtown.” Now that the town can offer mixed beverages – the introduction of which Voller championed in his last term – he hopes those businesses will include more bars and live-music venues.

As for 10 years from now, “That’s a tricky question,” he said.
Proposed development could bring as many as 20,000 more residents to the community, Voller said. “We have a chance to do something great, or repeat some of the mistakes of the past.”

It’s not a matter of “if we grow,” Voller said, “but how we grow.”
“And in the ‘how’ part of the equation, we need to discuss energy, sustainability, transit, how we build properties, how we design things.”

These issues, Voller said, are “ultimately why these elections really matter. Because people really need to be paying attention to who they’re putting in office and the kinds of values that they’re going to take forward.

“That’s why local elections make a difference.”

Web Archive

© 2025 The Archive of The Carrboro Citizen | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme