When Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt adjourned last night’s meeting, he bade council members goodbye until January 2011. Presumably, the business meeting scheduled for Dec. 20 is off the calendar. And a good thing, too. Council members present – Gene Pease and Laurin Easthom were absent – looked like they could use a break. Those on the […]

The big news for tonight’s Town Council business meeting could be the town’s financial/economic update, presented by town manager Roger Stancil. It holds the No. 1 spot on the agenda, with no accompanying documentation to give us a clue as to what the presentation will reveal. Our prediction? The address will be short, as in, […]

I spent last week at my brother’s house, on an acreage on the edge of the Iowa town where I grew up. He lives at the end of a narrow tarmac road that barely allows two cars to pass one another and still keep all eight wheels on impervious surface. The population of the town […]

I never thought I’d quote Richard Nixon, but let me make one thing perfectly clear: UNC at Chapel Hill Foundation does not own the land all the way back to Cameron Avenue. John McColl, executive vice president at Cousins Properties, the company redeveloping University Square, repeatedly told council members during his concept plan presentation Monday […]

The Cottages of Chapel Hill are back on the agenda for tonight’s Town Council meeting. In May, Capstone Co. of Birmingham, Ala., proposed a complex of townhomes and apartments along the south side of Homestead Road, near the intersection with Weaver Dairy Extension. The original plan, given a thumbs down by council members, consisted of […]

It boils down to trust, Gene Pease said. And bless their hearts, the other members of Town Council came around. Two items on last night’s council meeting agenda dealt with Obey Creek. First, the town’s Economic Development Committee asked for $30,000 to guide the developer in coming up with a plan for Obey Creek. Then […]

At various times in my life, I’ve been comforted to remember that most of the problems I’ve faced so far have been ones that could be solved by money. The Town of Chapel Hill, on the other hand, seems comforted by the thought that, no matter the problem, it can be solved by consultants. Which, […]

Assessing property often requires a judgment call, especially when selecting comps, deciding how the properties measure up against one another and evaluating condition. What frustrates me as a taxpayer is that the county assessors always err in the county’s favor. According to the property tax office, the assessed value should reflect 100 percent of the […]