The Walgreens contingent of lawyers, designers and architects walked away from the Town Council meeting Monday night with broad smiles on their faces. Who could blame them? The drug-store project proposed for the corner of Estes Drive and East Franklin Street looks classy, definitely upgrades a piece of property that has seen better days and […]

By the end of June, Chapel Hill pedestrians can expect to make a trip to the islands — seven of them dotting main thoroughfares around town — and the federal government is footing most of the bill. Years ago, the Town Council approved the construction of crosswalks or pedestrian islands to aid people crossing busy […]

In the next week or two, every household in the U.S. should receive in the mail a 2010 census form — that’s the plan, at least. The standard census form has nine questions that pertain to how many people live in the household and who they are — name, age, gender, race and ethnicity — […]

A couple of days ago, we received a water bill in the amount of $186.01 covering the 13,000 gallons of water OWASA claimed we had run through in the past 32 days, far more than the 3,000 to 4,000 gallons we normally use. Immediately, we suspected Bill Strom. But first we called OWASA. We explained […]

Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt has access to the town’s credit card for less than three months, and it’s already burning a hole in his pocket. The man who confessed to relying on his personal credit card for daily living expenses seems quite enthusiastic about maxing out the town’s credit limit. He wants to push ahead on […]

Can anyone out there come up with one compelling reason to vote for the incumbent county commissioners this year? I need some reassurance here, because I’m looking for a reason not to cast a blanket vote against the incumbents. I need to have faith in their ability to lead the county through what is shaping […]

Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt and Chris Moran, the executive director of the Inter-Faith Council for Social Services, sure make it sound as if the vote has already been cast on the new shelter planned for the corner of Homestead Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Through the public hearings on the issue as well as […]

Chapel Hill police were out in force yesterday along MLK Jr. Boulevard, raking in revenue by ticketing speeders. Though on most days cars roar by me going 50 mph at least, yesterday was a different story. As soon as drivers saw a police car, they braked immediately, making it that much more difficult for police […]

The town might have the oddest definition of “tree canopy” I’ve ever heard, if I understand the discussion that came out of the Town Council meeting Monday night about modifications to the tree protection ordinance. To my mind, tree canopy would be tall trees with lots of leaves forming, well, a canopy – an umbrella-like […]

The biggest roadblock to a townwide ban on motorists using cell phones while driving seems to be the issue of enforcement. The Town Council learned Monday night that any cell phone law it passed would be very difficult to enforce. It’s not just that an officer would have to see someone using a cell phone […]