Local teacher named cultural ambassador Helen Crompton, a British international-exchange teacher at Carrboro Elementary School, has been named outstanding cultural ambassador by the Visiting International Faculty (VIF) Program. VIF is the largest international-exchange program linking teachers and U.S. schools, sponsoring about 900 international teachers in the state. Crompton teaches fifth grade at Carrboro Elementary, where…
For the Record
Be safe This time of year, you hear the words teenager, excessive speed and alcohol mixed together in news stories all too much. School is almost out. It’s party season, and all the lectures, all the peer support and every effort to ask, plead and demand that our sons and daughters make responsible choices are…
Grading N.C.’s incentive policies
 By William Schweke Twenty years ago, North Carolina was not a player in the controversial national competition between states sometimes referred to as “the corporate incentives game.†Today, it’s a “leader†(at least in the eyes of the site location profession) and has set new precedents for how much a job is “worth†with its…
Stop chasing rabbits
By Al McSurely A favorite last-ditch tactic of the Big Lie is to send out high-ranking officials as rabbits to deflect attention and indictments from their sponsors. Our high-paid, blow-dried TV talking heads are suckers for this ploy. Chattering away, like they did when Cheney/Bush lied us into Iraq, the millionaire talking heads appear clueless…
Charrette for new northern fire station scheduled
Carrboro Fire Department officials have announced the date for a pubic design charrette for the town’s new fire station. The new station — dubbed fire station number two for now — is located at 1411 Homestead Road and will provide fire protection and medical response to the citizens in the Northern Transition Area.
Obituary – John W. Vadney
John W. Vadney, 84, of Mebane, died Monday at Duke University medical Center. A native of Albany, NY, he was a member of St. Thomas More Catholic Church and retired as a telephone repairman. A mass will be conducted at 11:00 Thursday at St. Thomas More Catholic Church. Burial will follow in the Union Grove…
Obituary – Frank Graham Umstead
Frank Graham Umstead, 91, of Chapel Hill, died April 28, 2007 after a long decline in health. He was born on June 9, 1915 in Greensboro to the late Sallie Reade and John Wesley Umstead, Jr., a fourteen-term N.C. legislator representing Orange County. He was the eldest of the Umstead’s four children and namesake of…
DSI Comedy names new theater manager
Carrboro’s DSI Comedy Theater has announced the hiring of Shane Hudson as its new theater manager. Hudson attended Emerson College, earning a BFA in arts management. He worked for 14 years in the Boston area as an arts administrator, where he was general manager for Blue Man Group Boston, theater manager for the Charles Playhouse…
Artwalk is Friday
 Tiles from Ali Sobel-Read at N.C. Crafts Gallery The 2nd Friday ArtWalk is this week, and there’s a special push on to walk Carrboro — and not just on Friday. The ArtWalk is a traditional time to take to the streets and view displays through the downtowns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro. Now a…
Orange/Chatham County Commissioners May 8 Agenda
The Board of County Commissioners meets with the Chatham County Commissioners for a joint meeting on Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Southern Human Services Center on Homestead Road. Here’s the agenda: 1.                         Welcome and Introductions (7:00-7:15) 2.                         Park Facilities Planning and Use (7:15-7:45) 3.                         Open Space Preservation Efforts(7:45-8:10) 4.                         Jordan Lake Macrosite Natural Heritage…
Subscriptions
A call for subscriptions We extend a hardy congratulations and humble thanks to the 123 people who have taken us up on our offer to become charter subscribers to The Carrboro Citizen. It’s been fun learning the routes and the neighborhoods and some nooks and crannies we never knew existed. One unexpected outcome of our…
Rain or shine, Sunday is Carrboro Day
Whether it’s held indoors at the Century Center or outside at Town Commons, Sunday May 6 is Carrboro Day — the annual toast to the town sponsored by the Carrboro Recreation & Parks Department. The music starts at 12:30 p.m. and runs along with the festivities until 6 p.m. In addition to music, storytelling and…
“It’s only paintâ€
A fictional account of the chartering of venable By Catherine DeVine The published histories of Carrboro’s establishment as a town apart from Chapel Hill place all of the action at the West End train station and the prosperous textile mill adjacent to it. We know that Julian Shakespeare Carr bought the mill from Thomas Lloyd,…
Let our medians bloom
Flowing hummocks of clover filling the highway median south of town. Photo by Ken Moore By Ken Moore “Grass is the most abused of all plants!†decried Steve Warner, a cherished older friend of mine, an Ohio landscape architect who many years ago retired down on a farm on the White Oak River near Swansboro….
Rites of Spring
Suzanne Kennedy (left) and Sara Beaman perform a sword dance while Amy-Jae Rignola Crawford looks on during “The Rite of Spring,†a performance at Forest Theater by the Devoted Bellydance Collective. The collective held two shows last weekend to benefit the Orange County Rape Crisis Center and the to aid the Arbor Day Foundation’s efforts…