
{"id":8174,"date":"2009-11-26T10:02:00","date_gmt":"2009-11-26T18:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=8174"},"modified":"2009-11-28T14:38:17","modified_gmt":"2009-11-28T22:38:17","slug":"town-and-schools-argue-billing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2009\/11\/26\/town-and-schools-argue-billing\/","title":{"rendered":"Town and schools argue billing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By KIRK ROSS, Staff Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CHAPEL HILL \u00e2\u20ac\u201d The Town Council plans to examine the cost to the town for services provided to local schools, such as aquatic center use, grounds maintenance and other arrangements.<\/p>\n<p>The decision came during a meeting Monday night at Town Hall after several council members bristled over a past-due $60,000 bill from the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools for use of Lincoln Gymnasium. The fee covers the past two years\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rent on the gym. The town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 30-year, $1-per-year agreement with the schools on use of the facility expired in 2007, and the district now wants the town to pay up for use since then.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Butch Kisiah, head of the Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation Department, said the gym is heavily used, but that in many cases rents on town facilities, such as use of the Homestead Road Aquatics Center by school swim teams, are not billed. During negotiations with school officials, Kisiah stressed that the town preferred not to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153swap checks\u00e2\u20ac\u009d with the school system.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We were using the argument that it was all public money, and when it comes down to it it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the taxpayers who are paying the bills,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Kisiah said.<\/p>\n<p>Council member Matt Czajkowski objected to the bill from the schools.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It seems as though the Town of Chapel Hill is always being asked to endure additional costs when we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not given recognition for the services we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re providing,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Czajkowski said.<\/p>\n<p>Mayor Kevin Foy agreed that the charge was unfair. He said he talked to school officials and was told bluntly that the school board felt the town was stonewalling on the bill and should pay up.<\/p>\n<p>Council member Jim Ward said the town should get a better handle on the costs of services because it might give taxpayers and policy-makers more clarity.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It will help everybody see more clearly where the give and where the take is,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The council approved a budget amendment to cover the cost of rent and asked for a report on the costs for services and uses provided to the schools.<\/p>\n<p>In other action, the council heard complaints from residents and received a petition objecting to a request from Greenbridge Partners to temporarily change Graham Street and Merritt Mill Road to one-way around the development.<\/p>\n<p>Council member Ed Harrison said he was concerned that the state Department of Transportation and the town should have informed the residents of the change rather than the developer.<\/p>\n<p>Under a plan approved by the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s transportation department, the streets will convert to one-way around the development with one lane to be used for deliveries to the development.<\/p>\n<p>The council also received several petitions including:<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 a request from the Campus to Campus Bike Group asking the town to identify a mostly off-roadway bike route from the main campus to Carolina North;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 a request that the town provide a veterans memorial; and<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 a request for a public forum and a town review of a potential urban archery program to cull<br \/>\nthe town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s deer population.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By KIRK ROSS, Staff Writer CHAPEL HILL \u00e2\u20ac\u201d The Town Council plans to examine the cost to the town for services provided to local schools, such as aquatic center use, grounds maintenance and other arrangements. The decision came during a meeting Monday night at Town Hall after several council members bristled over a past-due $60,000&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8174","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=8174"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8179,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8174\/revisions\/8179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}