There goes the neighborhood, and it looks like it’s due, if not to the hand of God, at least an arm of the Catholic church. John Stone, a resident of the St. James neighborhood, situated next door to St. Thomas More Church, petitioned Town Council Monday night for help. He said that when council approved […]
St. James vs. St. Thomas More
Posted by Nancy Oates on May 13, 2010
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2010/05/13/st-james-vs-st-thomas-more/
Ethics
On Monday night, Town Attorney Ralph Karpinos will present a proposed code of ethics for Town Council and others in town government to live by. The timing of it, nearly a year after the Bill Strom shenanigans, strikes me as locking the barn door after the cow has wandered off. But it seems the proposal […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on May 7, 2010
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2010/05/07/ethics/
Playing hardball
County commissioner and sports writer Barry Jacobs could title his next book Getting to No, a negotiating how-to. He could lead with the discussions over how much Orange County will contribute toward operating expenses for the Cadillac library Chapel Hill hankers for, even though the expansion would max out the town’s debt limit. The town, […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on May 6, 2010
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2010/05/06/playing-hardball/
Poll dancing
I handed out campaign literature at the polls yesterday, which gave me a glimpse of the rarefied people who vote in Chapel Hill. Voter turnout across the county averaged about 15 percent, nothing to be proud of to be sure, but it would have been a lot lower without the nearly 30 percent turnout of […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on May 5, 2010
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2010/05/05/poll-dancing/
Development nestles in
Marketing is everything, especially when it comes to easing development through the town’s approval process. Witness The Cottages at Homestead. The name evokes images of cozy little clapboard-sided single-story abodes, flowers in the window boxes, snuggled together in a clearing. But look at the specs: The 1,175 parking spaces is your first indication that “cozy” […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on May 3, 2010
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2010/05/03/development-nestles-in/
Moving meetings along
Council members Laurin Easthom and Penny Rich were chatting at the snack table in council chambers Monday night when, at 7 p.m. sharp, Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt shooed them to their seats. “We want to end on time tonight,” he said, making a veiled reference to a petition Easthom put on the agenda. With two council […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on April 27, 2010
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2010/04/27/moving-meetings-along/
Salty language
More than 35 years after women marched around with “Government: Get your hands off my body” signs, I may have to print up a new batch. In the early 1970s, the signs were to stand up for a newly pregnant woman’s right to choose what to do with her body. We won that fight. On […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on April 23, 2010
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2010/04/23/salty-language/
Bridgepoint
It’s hard enough to make council members happy with a new development project, even more so as the clock moves toward midnight on a night that council members already had listened for more than three hours to impassioned citizens making their cases for or against urban archery, followed by an hour and a half of […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on April 21, 2010
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2010/04/21/bridgepoint/
Deer-B-Gone
First on the agenda at tonight’s public forum is the topic of urban archery. We don’t know which way the council is leaning, with the exception of Sally “No-way-no-how” Greene, but in the interim, we have some ideas to try that may work to keep deer out of your garden. Deer repellant spray: A […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on April 19, 2010
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2010/04/19/deer-b-gone/
A small request
Chapel Hill Museum director Traci Davenport learned the timing perils of giving a presentation while a slide show flashes photos in the background. Davenport was making a serious pitch to Town Council about renegotiating the terms of the museum’s lease to cover $34,000 annually in utilities and maintenance costs, as well as an additional $15,000 […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on April 16, 2010
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2010/04/16/a-small-request/