Categories
Miscellany

FYI: Rain

Keeping track of what kind of recharge we get from this kind of rain — the several days nice and slow kind. This is a particularly good kind of rain when the soil is so parched.

Streaming streamwatch on Morgan Creek and Cane Creek and the Eno River and the Haw River

OWASA.org, NC Droughtwatch

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If you haven’t already, now would be a good time to get your buckets out.

Categories
Weather

Stop using so much water

This means you mr. and ms. water waster

Just got this note from OWASA:

DROUGHT AND WATER CONSERVATION UPDATE
FOR OWASA CUSTOMERS

Additional water conservation is needed due to the continuing severe drought. OWASA has several months of water supply on hand, but we need to conserve now in case the drought continues into 2008 and our lakes are not replenished by next spring.

Water supply and demand data (as of October 12, 2007)

· Our Cane Creek Reservoir and University Lake are about 53% full.

· The community’s average water demand from October 4 to 11 was 9.7 million gallons per day, which is substantially higher than the target of 8.3 million gallons per day for October during a Stage One water shortage. (emphasis mine)

· Based on projected demands, and with about 1.8 billion gallons of water in our two primary reservoirs, we have enough water in storage to last 5 to 6 months without additional rainfall.

· Our reservoirs have received no water flow since early August from the creeks and streams that normally feed them.

· Rainfall to date in October has totaled only about 0.1 of an inch, compared to the historical average of 4 inches in October. Rainfall has been more than 7 inches below normal in the past 12 months. October and November are normally the two driest months of the year in our area.

· The NC Drought Monitoring Council recently redesignated the drought conditions for our area as “exceptional,” a more severe rating than the previous “extreme” drought level.

Stage One Water Shortage; Water Use Restrictions

On September 27th, the OWASA Board of Directors formally declared a Stage One Water Shortage with the goal of reducing the community’s water demand by at least 10%.

The Stage One mandatory water use restrictions listed below are in effect for OWASA drinking water until further notice.

Categories
Miscellany

Memories of Home

By Shirley Jones Mallard 

Charred timbers mark the spot today where once stood the home of the Carney Andrews family. They were the first to own the house, followed by Isaac and Bessie Mae Hardy (1938-1945), Percy and Lucille Perry Vickers (1945-1956) and Susan Barnett (1999-present). This is the story of the home at 507 North Greensboro Street in Carrboro which burned beyond repair on October 1, 2000.

Categories
Miscellany

Pirates and Gypsies

This month is always active for shows and this year is no exception. But this is always a big month for pirates as well. Halloween comes to mind, of course, but so does Blackbeard, who prowled the waters off our coast and had about the most punk flag ever hoisted.

The old pirate gets his annual honor this month when The Cave presents Blackbeard’s Lost Weekend. The three-day festival is always one of the best ways to catch a fleet of locals in one harbor (OK, I’ll stop). This year’s lineup features the scruffy likes (hey, they really are scruffy) of Spider Bags, The Gondoliers, Coffin Bound and Adult Film Makers.

Categories
Miscellany

Theater & Comedy Calendar

ArtsCenter
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Friday October 19 7pm
$7 (presented by Bright Star Children’s Theatre)

Hedwig and the Angry Inch: A postpunk glamrock musical
Friday October 12 8pm
Saturday October 13 8pm and 11:30pm
$15, $7 students

Categories
Miscellany

Art Walking and otherwise

Carrboro
Archer Graphics
206 E. Main St. 929-7522.
House artists Ronnie Parks, Mary Mendell, Jenifer Padilla, Trey Mainwaring. Mixed Media: New images from House Artists.

ArtsCenter
300-G E. Main Street 929-2787.
Works by Hunter Levinsohn in the East End Gallery. Annual Faculty Show runs through Oct. 10.

Carrboro Massage Therapy
102 Ashe Street
Opening Oct. 7 for a show of  photos by Mark Terry, along with the paintings of Jenifer Padilla, jewelry by Roberta Marasca, pottery by Mark Terry, paintings by Malik Wagenseil and original art by Sarah Stainback.

Categories
Miscellany

In search of angels

As it looks to a new era, The ArtsCenter wants help seeing its future

By Kirk Ross, Staff Writer 

Wanted: Dreams. Specifically, dream up an ArtsCenter. Then, bring your visions, ideas and imaginings to 300 East Main Street on Oct. 21.

That’s the task The ArtsCenter is asking anyone in the community to take up as part of the center’s effort to get the discussion rolling about how best to build a bigger and better center for the arts.

Anyone who has spent time around The ArtsCenter director Jon Wilner knows he can be quite animated when he’s talking about strengthening the connections between the center and the community. Picture that in overdrive, because that’s the gear that he and the staff at The ArtsCenter are in right now.

Categories
Miscellany

A sort of introduction

Welcome to MILL, the new monthly arts, music and literature publication of The Carrboro Citizen. This publication is a response to our desire and your urging for better coverage of local arts and music.

And, like our newspaper and websites, developing this new section is an organic process that needs your thoughts and suggestions.

We know that part of the task is getting people to performances and openings, giving readers the where and when and, if possible, describing the what. But we want this to be a bit more than a few feature stories and a set of monthly calendars with appropriate photos and graphics. We also want to be a place where art and literature happen — a point of direct contact between those creating works and the thousands of people who read our paper. Discovery is a part of it all, for the artist and the observer. So along with the stories about artists, you’ll find a regular feature — MILLWork — about the objects themselves.

Categories
Community

Photos from the 2007 Carrboro Music Festival

All photos by Maciek Krzysztoforki

 

Categories
Miscellany

Shoppes at Jones Ferry not going forward

Just saw a letter to the town saying that the Shoppes at Jones Ferry won’t be happening due to the lack of an entrance off of Barnes Street.

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Categories
Miscellany

Rogers Road presentation

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Just got the statement from Neloa Jones on behalf of the Roger Road Coalition. As follows:

The Rogers-Eubanks “Coalition to End Environmental Racism” (CEER)

Background
For nearly one hundred and fifty years, African-American families have lived in what is now known as the Rogers-Eubanks Community. In the late 1800s, Rogers Road was a wagon-track through black-owned family farmland and sawmills that stretched from Homestead to Eubanks and Millhouse Roads. There was once a school on Eubanks Road, Morris Grove, founded by a former slave, for black children not allowed to attend school elsewhere. As decades passed, this land was passed down to children, to grandchildren, to great-grandchildren, and in some cases, to great-great grandchildren. Some land was lost to debt, some simply sold. However, African Americans continued migrating to this community; they purchased land and established homes. Today, this community is a predominantly low-income neighborhood, but it remains socially cohesive and culturally rich in spite of the solid waste facilities that have worked to destroy it.
In 1972, when the Town of Chapel Hill decided to use 120 acres of land on Eubanks Road for the first landfill—this was a thriving community, and it was strongly opposed to having a landfill near them. However, Mayor Howard Lee convinced this community to accept the landfill for ten years, promising that afterwards no other landfills would be opened near them and a park and other basic amenities would be provided when the landfill closed.

That was 35 years ago.
And inspite of the fact that Orange County prides itself on being aggressively opposed to social and environmental injustice, it has refused to honor decades of broken promises made to the Rogers-Eubanks Community. Local governments continue to expand solid waste facilities in this area: since 1972, two municipal solid waste landfills have been opened; two industrial waste landfills have been opened. We have yard and hazardous waste collection sites, recycling and garbage drop-off centers, a Materials Recovery landfill (MRF), and let’s not forget about that toxic, smelly leachate pond (1/3 of an acre) right next to Mrs. Gertrude Nunn’s property. The newest proposed addition to these ever-expanding solid waste facilities is the transfer station. And even though some people believe that closing the landfill and building a transfer station will improve conditions in the community, WE contend that it will not. Along with the transfer station, garbage collection trucks, and 18-wheelers we will still have the vermin, the stench, more air pollutants, and more noise. We will also have increased traffic that poses increased danger to our children and other citizens.

So our question tonight is this: why are low-income communities and communities where people of color live always the most vulnerable to solid waste facilities?
The National Environmental Justice Advisory Council has concluded that “WTS are sited disproportionately in areas adjacent to poor communities and communities of color.” The New York Times recently reported that “low-income communities . . . shelter most of America’s polluting facilities”; African Americans are “79 percent more likely than whites to live in areas where air-pollution levels pose health risks.” Professor Robert Bullard of Clark Atlanta University contends that “the people who live closest” to waste facilities are those “who have the fewest resources,” but that “doesn’t mean [they] should be dumped on.”
On March 3, 2006, the Solid Waste Advisory Board (SWAB) passed a resolution recommending that the transfer station be located on Eubanks Road. Why? Because Eubanks Road is convenient, because the County can put the transfer station here cheaply, because the County will be saved the hassle of having to search for another site, AND because there was a GOOD chance that THIS community that has been dumped on for 35 years would not object TOO LOUDLY. On March 27, 2007, the Orange County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to accept this recommendation from SWAB to locate the transfer station on Eubanks Road.

What we are asking for tonight?
This community wants Orange County to stop dumping garbage and toxic waste in their backyard.
The Rogers-Eubanks “Coalition to End Environmental Racism” (CEER) supports this community in its demands for environmental justice. And these are our demands:

• We want you to eliminate immediately the Rogers-Eubanks Road Community as a site for the proposed solid waste transfer station.
• We want you to halt all solid waste activities in this community no later than November 2009.
• We want you to honor the promises made to this community over the past 35 years for having endured the negative impacts of having garbage dumped in our backyard.
• We want you to address quality of life issues immediately by providing this community with municipal water and sewer services and other community enhancements to ensure the health and safety of the residents.
All of us here tonight have a lot of work to do, and we are certain that having heard us tonight, you will do what’s right and bring environmental justice to the Rogers-Eubanks Community. Thank you.

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