Today (Thursday) a company hired by OWASA will repave part of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Chapel Hill where OWASA recently repaired a water main. The work is expected to last from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. but weather and other factors may affect the schedule. Only one lane will be closed at a…
Category: News
News Brief: OWASA meets to discuss shortage
At its meeting tonight (Thursday), the OWASA board will discuss declaring a Stage Three Water Shortage, which would include additional restrictions and surcharges for water use. The meeting is at 7 p.m. at the Chapel Hill Town Hall and will be televised on local cable channel 18. Water reserves have steadily dwindled since last summer….
News Brief: Youth charged in shooting
The Chapel Hill Police Department on Monday charged 17-year-old David Earl Ellis Jr. with attempted first-degree murder in the shooting of a 16-year-old victim. Ellis is accused of shooting the victim on Johnson Street on Monday evening. He is being held in the Orange County jail under a $200,000 secured bond and appeared in court…
News Brief: Hillsborough drought workshop
Orange County will hold an informational workshop about ways to cope with the drought for well water users in rural areas on March 5 at 7 p.m. at Stanback Middle School in Hillsborough.
News Brief: School board member resigns
Orange County School Board member Dennis Whitling resigned last week following his arrest several days prior. Whitling, 52, was charged with embezzlement, false pretense, obstruction of justice and corporate malfeasance. He had served on the school board for almost four years.
Transfer tax OK’d for May ballot
By Susan Dickson Staff Writer The Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously on Tuesday to put a land transfer tax on the May ballot. Voters will decide whether property sellers will pay a 0.4 percent land transfer tax. If the measure passes, the county could begin collecting funds during the 2008-09 fiscal year.
Downtown growth has board wary of rezoning plan
By Kirk Ross Staff Writer Though separate items on its Tuesday night agenda, concerns about managing growth downtown have the Carrboro Board of Aldermen carefully considering next steps for traffic calming on Oak Avenue and a proposed rezoning on Center Street. The Center Street proposal brought by a group of owners led by Jane Hamborsky…
FEMA grant to help with fire department growth
By Kirk Ross Staff Writer Carrboro is not quite midway through an effort to add 15 firefighters, a move necessary to fully staff its new northern fire station. It’s been a costly effort and six new positions added in the past two years constituted a major portion of the town’s personnel cost increases. This year,…
Transfer station siting criteria examined
By Taylor Sisk Staff Writer The Board of County Commissioners reviewed site selection criteria for a solid-waste transfer station this week, settling on a process that starts by eliminating environmentally sensitive areas and that looks for sites close to major roads and heavy trash generation.
News Brief: Rabid raccoon found
A raccoon found in Efland tested positive for rabies on Monday at the State Laboratory of Public Health. Residents in the vicinity of Carrington Lane and Chestnut Ridge Church Road on Monday found their three dogs attacking the raccoon.
News Brief: Burning ban
The Orange County Fire Marshal has issued a countywide open-burning ban. The North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources issued an open-burning ban for all 100 counties in the state last week. The state ban prohibits all open burning 100 feet or more from an occupied dwelling. Orange County expanded the ban to all…
News Brief: Youth poetry contest
The Town of Carrboro is accepting submissions for the Carrboro Youth Poetry Contest. Participants must be 18 or younger, a resident of Carrboro and a poet. The contest will be divided into elementary, middle and high school levels, and each level will have one first-place winner and one honorable mention.
News Brief: UNC law school to relocate
The UNC School of Law plans to relocate to Carolina North by fall 2012, Jack Boger, dean of the law school, announced Friday. The decision to leave main campus came after architectural reports by the SmithGroup concluded that construction of a new building to facilitate growth within the law school would be more practical than…
Judicial race now a three-way contest
By Kirk Ross Staff Writer In an otherwise quiet week of candidate filings, the race for an open judicial seat for Orange and Chatham counties expanded to three names. Assistant District Attorney Lamar F. Proctor Jr. of Efland added his name to those seeking to succeed District Court Judge Patricia Devine, who has indicated she…
Local black history event this Friday at ArtsCenter
Hidden Voices, an ArtsCenter-based youth theater project debuts the result of a two-year collaboration between local students, university classes and the elders of the historic black neighborhoods of Chapel Hill and Carrboro. The first part of the project, entitled Because We’re Still Here (and Moving), opened last week with a photo and scrapbook show and…