Categories
Miscellany

Small wonders and moments long remembered

By Frank Heath

You wake up on a beautiful Tuesday morning, but the power remains out in half of Chapel Hill, and 33 people are still dead on the campus of Virginia Tech.

Sometimes we make sports out to be as important as the things that go on in real life; but they’re not. Sports become like wallpaper on a day like Monday, April 16th.

What’s funny is that when sports fade a bit from our focus, that’s when they may actually provide a more meaningful framework for understanding the significant events and relationships of our lives.

Categories
Miscellany

NRC needs to act on Harris fire safety issues

By Jim Warren

Power company influence – including suppression of criticism and public relations smokescreens – continues to damage our democratic process and threaten regional safety.

Last fall, NC WARN, the Union of Concerned Scientists and others began legal action to compel the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to enforce its rules after allowing Shearon Harris to violate fire safety regulations since 1992.

Since that time, Harris owner Progress Energy has repeatedly misled public officials and media about its fire protection status. A recent letter by Harris VP Bob Duncan disparaging NC WARN would be amusing if fire wasn’t a leading risk factor for a severe nuclear accident.

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Miscellany

Carrbon challenge

Mayor Mark Chilton posts an invitation on Orange Politics to reduce your carbon footprint. From the mayor:

Now, in collaboration with the UNC Institute for the Environment, I am inviting area residents to participate in project based on my personal experience. Here’s my proposal: If your family would like to sign up for the Mayor’s Carbon Challenge, send me an email at mark@markchilton.org – I will send you free tools for analyzing your household energy usage and CO2 output. Using the CO2 audit and in consultation with the Institute for the Environment, you can assess a variety of cost-effective changes that you can put to work to reduce your family’s carbon footprint.

Categories
Weather

Wind warnings

Hazardous weather today:

Wind and wet ground leads to downed trees. Lots of power glitches. Downtown went out for a moment when I passed the stoplights at N. Greensboro and Weaver Street.

windgust4_rah.png

Categories
Miscellany

9D

Posted this update from Susan Dickson on last night’s school board vote.

UPDATE:

After more than three hours of public comment and discussion, the school board voted to revise plan 9D and remove all other plans from consideration. Board members Mike Kelley, Lisa Stuckey and Jean Hamilton will work with Steve Scroggs, superintendent for support services, to tweak plan 9D and address some of the issues raised by the public at the meeting.

The board will consider the revised plan 9D at their regular meeting on April 19.

The full map and breakdown of what neighborhoods are going where under the proposal are in this week’s paper.

Here’s the link to the official redistricting site. There’s also a good bit of discussion going on over at Orange Politics.

Also, coverage in the DTH, N&O and Herald-Sun

Here’s the Map and breakdown as it stands now:

9D

Segments moved under 9D include:

  • Dairyland Road area, Crescent Ridge, Spring Vista, Union Grove Church Road, the west side of Old N.C. 86, Hickory Forest, Oxbow Crossing, Morris Grove Heights, Old N.C. 86 from Britton Drive to Hickory Forest and Eubanks Road from Rogers Road to Old N.C. 86, from McDougle to the new school;
  • Rollingwood subdivision, Crestwood Mobile Home Park, Fairoaks duplexes and the neighborhoods around Bethel Hickory Grove Church Road, from McDougle to the new school;
  • Neville Road area, from Frank Porter Graham to McDougle;
  • Old Greensboro Highway from Jones Ferry Road to Sesame Road, Sturbridge, Salem Lane, PhilÕs Creek and Johnson’s Mobile Home Park, from Frank Porter Graham to McDougle;
  • Sesame Road and Pineview Estates, from Frank Porter Graham to McDougle;
  • Bowden Road area, McLennan’s farm, Quailview and Winningham, Frank Porter Graham to Carrboro;
  • ones Ferry Road from Damascus Church Road to Bingham Township line, Nine Gates, Mel Oaks and Carolina Forest, from Frank Porter Graham to Carrboro;
  • Damascus Church Road from Jones Ferry Road to Meacham Road, Ridgewood, Springhill Forest, Wolf’s Pond and Preston Springs, from Frank Porter Graham to McDougle;
  • Jones Ferry Road from Old Fayetteville Road to Old School Road, Moon Ridge and Hairston Road, from Frank Porter Graham to McDougle;
  • Hogan Farms, including the east side of Old N.C. 86 from Dairyland Road to Britton Drive, Drew Lane and Homestead Mobile Home Park, from Carrboro to the new school;
  • Tally Ho Trail area, from Seawell to the new school;
  • Rogers Road area, Meadow Run, Eubanks Road from Rogers Road to the railroad tracks, Homestead Road from Strafford Drive east to railroad tracks, Billabong Lane and Piney Mt. Mobile Home Park, from Seawell to the new school;
  • Hilltop Mobile Home Park and N.C. 86 from Eubanks Road north to the school district boundary, from Seawell to the new school;
  • Berryhill, Sterlingbrook and Poplar Place Apartments, from Carrboro to McDougle;
  • South Greensboro Street from Main Street to Rocky Brook Mobile Home Park, Maple Avenue, Old Pittsboro Road and Roberson Place, from Frank Porter Graham to Carrboro;
  • Prince Street/Barnes Street area, from Frank Porter Graham to Carrboro;
  • BPW Club Road, The Bluffs, Highland Hills and The Villages Apartments, from Scroggs to Frank Porter Graham;
  • Stoneridge and the north side of Whitfield Road from N.C. 86 to Sunrise Road, from Ephesus to the new school;
  • Sedgefield and the south side of Whitfield Road, from N.C. 86 to Sunrise Road, North Hills and Creekwood, from Ephesus to the new school;
  • North side of Weaver Dairy Road from N.C. 86 to Sunrise Road, including Kensington Trace, Weatherstone, Essex and Lakeview Mobile Home Park, from Ephesus to the new school;
  • Chandlers Green, from Rashkis to Ephesus;
  • Silver Creek, from Rashkis to Ephesus;
  • Chesley Phase I and II, from Rashkis to Ephesus;
  • Glen Lennox area, including Glen Lennox Apartments, from Rashkis to Glenwood;
  • Colonial Heights, from Seawell to Carrboro;
  • Umstead Drive area from Wesley Drive to Estes Drive Extension, Bolinwood Apartments and Village West, from Glenwood to Seawell;
  • Church Street area, West Rosemary Street from North Columbia Street to Mitchell Lane, Caldwell Street and McMasters Street, from Glenwood to Seawell;
  • Broad Street, Fowler Street, Hill Street, Lloyd Street and Starlite Drive, from Carrboro to Rashkis;
  • West Cameron Street area, Westwood, Cameron Glen and McCauley Street, from Glenwood to Carrboro;
  • Woodcrest Drive, Ray Road and Smith Level Road from Damascus Church Road to Rock Haven Apartments, from Scroggs to Frank Porter Graham;
  • The Reserve, from Scroggs to Frank Porter Graham;
  • Beechridge, Bayberry Drive, Arboretum Drive, Poinsett Drive and Grey Bluff, from Scroggs to Frank Porter Graham;
  • Hunters’ Ridge and Edgewood Drive area, from Scroggs to Frank Porter Graham;
  • the older section of Northwood and Eubanks Road from the UPS facility to N.C. 86, from Seawell to the new school; and
  • Old Fayetteville Road, including Autumn Woods Apartments and Ram’s Gate Apartments, from Carrboro to McDougle.
Categories
Miscellany

Schools ready to pick plan

Redistricting Plan 9D

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board is scheduled to settle on a redistricting plan Thursday that would move roughly more than 1,000 elementary students.


The plan (above), 9D, has been recommended to the board by school officials. Click the map for a larger image.

By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

Nearly 500 Chapel Hill-Carrboro elementary school students, mostly from the northwestern corner of the school district, will move to a new elementary school when it opens in the fall of 2008.

On Thursday, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education is expected to approve one of four redistricting plans to move students to the new school. Under the plan recommended by school officials, 1,095 students would be moved to different elementary schools, including 481 to the new school, which has yet to be named but has been dubbed Elementary No. 10 by school officials. The new school will be located at the corner of Dromoland Road and Eubanks Road.

Categories
Miscellany

The story. . .on ice

Orange County Secret Clown Dick Gordon refuses to take another loss to heart–playing the game is about building community. Photo by Isaac Sandlin

By Taylor Sisk
Staff Writer

Whether Dick Gordon is a different guy when outfitted in hockey gear seems to be a matter of debate. According to at least one associate, in everyday life he never shies away from contact and is ever a competitive guy. That’s certainly reflected on the ice. By his own assessment, though, he is different: “Yeah, I’m even slower and less coordinated than I imagine.”

Granted, Gordon isn’t quite as graceful on the ice as he is on the air. And his aggressiveness in the hockey rink might seem at odds with the nice-guy image that’s enticed so many of his guests to lay before him their often very personal stories.

Categories
Miscellany

Organizers gear up for Carrboro Day

This year’s plan for annual town festival: Don’t change a thing

By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer

If you need help remembering what day Carrboro Day is, take a glance at the calendar and check out the first Sunday in May. That’s the day, this year and every year.

“That date is chiseled in stone. Then we don’t have to change the yard signs,” Catherine DeVine, co-chair of this year’s festivities said in a recent interview.

The event, sponsored by the town’s Recreation & Parks Department, is Sunday, May 6 from 12:30 to 7 p.m. at the Town Commons. The rain location is the Century Center.

The only change to expect this year, DeVine said, is the music lineup, and that’s the intent.
“We wanted to change nothing,” DeVine said. “Carrboro Day is charmed, I believe.”

Categories
Miscellany

Board studies OWASA fee hike

By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer

Members of the Carrboro Board of Aldermen offered a courteous but thorough grilling of OWASA officials Tuesday night at Town Hall over the utility’s plan to raise service access fees this year.

OWASA is planning a comprehensive rate restructuring including a jump in some accessibility fees by more than 40 percent. The fees are a one-time payment customers make to connect to the system.

The rate structure has yet to be decided, but OWASA finance director Kevin Ray said this week that plans call for an average 11 percent hike in accessibility fees for water, and a 40 percent average hike in sewer access fees is expected.

Categories
Miscellany

New senior center will expand weekend schedule

By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

When it opens in less than three weeks, the new Robert and Pearl Seymour Senior Center will have more than just more space.

The Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday approved staff positions for the new Seymour Center for seniors in Chapel Hill, enabling the center to provide expanded evening and weekend services when it opens May 1.

The 25,000-square-foot center, which is located on Homestead Road, will serve seniors 55 to 105. It replaces the Chapel Hill Senior Center on South Elliott Road and the Northside Senior Center on Caldwell Street.

Categories
Miscellany

Town faces Lot 5 cleanup

Source: ECS Carolinas / Citizen Graphic by Michelle Langston

By Taylor Sisk
Staff Writer

The Town of Chapel Hill has released the results of an environmental assessment on downtown Parking Lot 5, along with an initial estimated cost of cleanup for the site of $232,000.

A Phase II Environmental Site Assessment and Limited Soil Delineation study was conducted last month by ECS Carolinas LLP. According to ECS’s cover letter to the 100-page assessment, “Based on approximate measurements of the property boundary and sample locations, ECS has estimated that approximately 8,600 cubic yards (~13,000 tons assuming 1.5 tons per cubic yard) of petroleum-impacted soil may be present at the site. This is a preliminary estimate only; the actual quantity of potentially impacted soils may vary based on conditions observed during soil excavation.”