Riders who board Chapel Hill Transit buses this week and are offered passenger surveys should think long and hard about filling out those forms – they may be a ticket to ride less. CHT is conducting an on-board passenger survey designed to cover such topics as convenience of routes, service levels and availability of information. […]
Ticket to ride less
Posted by Don Evans on May 18, 2010
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2010/05/18/ticket-to-ride-less/
Counting up the savings
There’s one way the U.S. Census is saving money – on office space. At least, that’s what’s happening in Chapel Hill. On Thursday, I met up with a crew leader, one of the folks who coordinate the actions of a group of enumerators, who is using the last three rows of tables at a Burger […]
Posted by Don Evans on May 14, 2010
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2010/05/14/counting-up-the-savings/
Book fees
Town Manager Roger Stancil was quick to point out at the Town Council meeting Monday night that going ahead with issuing library renovation bonds would not increase taxes this year. But there is not a single soul sitting on the council dais who believes that renovating the library will not increase taxes. It will; it […]
Posted by Don Evans on May 12, 2010
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2010/05/12/book-fees/
Budget clock is ticking
Time is running out on resident input on the town budget for fiscal 2011. A public forum in April was scheduled by the staff without providing any budget details, which pretty much negated any discussion. Then the Town Council canceled a budget work session planned for May 5. The council has three other work sessions […]
Posted by Don Evans on May 11, 2010
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2010/05/11/budget-clock-is-ticking/
Toward a more perfect census
We sat in the large civics room of a local newspaper, 12 of us and an instructor. The group included a former newspaper editor, a scientist, a woman who had just received a doctorate, a former milkman, a retiree, a student, an artist and several IT professionals. We were all there to learn how to […]
Posted by Don Evans on May 10, 2010
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2010/05/10/toward-a-more-perfect-census/
Primary colors
Three of the Orange County commissioner races will be decided today as voters head to the polls for the primary. That’s because two of the races are uncontested – the winner of the primary faces no opposition in the fall. In fact there are a lot of candidates who are running unopposed. Maybe we shouldn’t […]
Posted by Don Evans on May 4, 2010
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2010/05/04/primary-colors/
Readers deserve better
I always hate to see a journalist embarrass himself, but Jesse DeConto has done it again. That’s how I figure it after reading his piece on the Orange County sheriff race in The Chapel Hill News. He seems to be having a bad journalism year, which began with the Chapel Hill election campaign last fall. […]
Posted by Don Evans on April 30, 2010
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2010/04/30/readers-deserve-better/
A more costly census
Next week I will begin training to be a U.S. Census enumerator. Yes, I will be one of those folks who go from dwelling to dwelling to gather information to complete the decannual count. The Census expects to hire 870,000 temporary workers such as myself to go around and knock on doors – as many […]
Posted by Don Evans on April 29, 2010
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2010/04/29/a-more-costly-census/
Keeping tabs on the neighbors
Two neighborhoods in Chapel Hill are proceeding with Neighborhood Conservation District applications. The town has six NCDs already and has spent tens of thousands of dollars on consultants to help with the process. So who’s in charge of making sure that land owners in and residents of NCDs comply with the ordinance? Nobody. That was […]
Posted by Don Evans on April 28, 2010
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2010/04/28/keeping-tabs-on-the-neighbors/
What we can do without
In a comment to my post “Keep the taxman busy” from Thursday, Terri Buckner asked what I would give up in county services. That got me to thinking, which often gets me into trouble. But I came up with a number of items from the fiscal 2010 budget that I believe could be trimmed or […]
Posted by Don Evans on April 26, 2010
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2010/04/26/what-we-can-do-without/