
{"id":6193,"date":"2009-06-15T06:14:52","date_gmt":"2009-06-15T14:14:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=6193"},"modified":"2009-06-15T06:14:52","modified_gmt":"2009-06-15T14:14:52","slug":"harvesting-the-facts-in-carrboro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2009\/06\/15\/harvesting-the-facts-in-carrboro\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvesting the facts in Carrboro"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Mark Chilton<br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\nResidents keep asking me: Could it be true? Could the home of the area\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s best farmers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 market be out to destroy the few remaining farms in its jurisdiction? Of course, the answer is a resounding \u00e2\u20ac\u0153No!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d As mayor, I am highly committed to local farming and, as I told a group of farmers last month, my door is open to them any time. <\/p>\n<p>The board of aldermen and I have helped the farmers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 market expand, worked with Agricultural Extension to be more responsive to farmers and helped create the Carrboro Community Garden. I have also implemented a program for kids to learn healthy eating habits by growing their own vegetables. Currently, I am working to make in-town farming easier and advocating to conserve farms in the Northern Transition Area. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never publicized these things, but a politically motivated disinformation campaign compels me to speak up.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nThis all started with Ms. Marilyn Kille, who presented town inspectors with plans for a workshop, but instead surreptitiously built a rental apartment. Most folks who want to build an apartment would get the proper building permit, get the appropriate land-use permit, have the residence inspected, pay the school impact fee and pay the proper tax bill. But Ms. Kille did none of that; instead, she built a workshop and covertly converted it into an apartment. <\/p>\n<p>A while back, the town received a complaint about Ms. Kille\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s property and began enforcement proceedings to have the property brought into compliance. But Ms. Kille refused to comply. <\/p>\n<p>Eventually, the Orange County courts found Ms. Kille in violation of the Carrboro Land Use Ordinance and ordered her to come into compliance. But she defies the court order. Worse yet, Ms. Kille recently came to the Carrboro Planning Department and allegedly altered documents in her file, attempting to fabricate evidence. So she now faces criminal charges for altering public documents as well.<\/p>\n<p>Ms. Kille\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s explanation for her behavior is to attack the town as purportedly \u00e2\u20ac\u0153anti-farm.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Her cause has been taken up by Sharon Cook, an unsuccessful alderman candidate from 2007. The two of them have succeeded in making a lot of sound and fury.<\/p>\n<p>You may have seen Ms. Kille collecting petition signatures in front of the farmers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 market. She will tell you all about the importance of caretaker apartments on farms, but she won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tell you that her apartment was built illegally in the University Lake watershed. She won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tell you that her apartment is an investment, not a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153caretaker\u00e2\u20ac\u009d apartment. She won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tell you that her proposal is to allow even more new apartments in the watershed \u00e2\u20ac\u201d resulting in more septic systems, automobiles and parking lots draining into your water supply. She won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tell you that any farm in Carrboro\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s jurisdiction can build a caretaker apartment \u00e2\u20ac\u201d as long as it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t drain into University Lake.<\/p>\n<p>Ms. Cook and Ms. Kille continually disparage the town in the newspapers, claiming Carrboro is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153anti-farm.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s be clear: This campaign has been fabricated to justify Ms. Kille\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actions and to provide Ms. Cook with campaign fodder for her next campaign. It weaves together half-truths, omissions and disinformation to confuse the people of Carrboro. Cook\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s recent quotes and letter to the editor had so many errors of fact and implication that it warranted correction by the town attorney. And Ms. Kille\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fabrications have gotten to the point of her having to face the district attorney.<\/p>\n<p>I want you to know the truth. Having grown up on my family\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s farm, I am 100 percent pro-farm. The board of aldermen and I have worked on lots of pro-farming issues:<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 changing the animal-control ordinance to make farming in town easier;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 conserving farmland in the Northern Transition Area;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 extending hours and parking for the Carrboro Farmers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Market;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 allowing the Carrboro Community Garden to use MLK park;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 partnering with Cooperative Extension to get farmer input and;<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 teaching kids healthy eating through growing their own vegetables<\/p>\n<p>Let me close by saying to the farmers in and near Carrboro: The board of aldermen and I appreciate and value your work. If you have a problem, please call me on my cell phone at 636-0371. The aldermen will be meeting June 16 at 7:30 at Town Hall to discuss farming issues further. Let us know your needs and concerns. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll do our best to support your farms.<\/p>\n<p><em>Mark Chilton is mayor of the Town of Carrboro.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mark Chilton Residents keep asking me: Could it be true? Could the home of the area\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s best farmers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 market be out to destroy the few remaining farms in its jurisdiction? Of course, the answer is a resounding \u00e2\u20ac\u0153No!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d As mayor, I am highly committed to local farming and, as I told a group of farmers&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6193"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6194,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6193\/revisions\/6194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}