Elections in Chapel Hill are when the esse meets the videri. The election filing period opened in Orange County last Friday, and residents have until next Friday to register their intent to run for public office. Chapel Hill will elect four Town Council members and a mayor in November. Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt has filed for […]
To be rather than to seem
Posted by Nancy Oates on July 8, 2013
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/07/08/to-be-rather-than-to-seem/
Who can we blame now?
Chalk up what I’m about to say to jealousy, pure and simple. I’ve irritated a lot of people in my lifetime, but no one has ever agreed to pay me to stop. So when I learned that Orange County manager Frank Clifton walked away from his previous job as manager of Onslow County with $121,000 […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on July 1, 2013
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/07/01/1614/
Sue me
Let’s say your boss is doing something that impedes your ability to do your job well. How receptive do you think he or she would be to learning about it from you? Let’s say your boss is town manager Roger Stancil, and if he didn’t like your critique, or if you were a union member […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on June 24, 2013
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/06/24/sue-me/
Business as usual?
Bonnie Hauser, the president of Orange County Voice, sheds light on Orange County Commissioners’ budget deliberations. Here’s what she has to say about the commissioners’ season finale: On Tuesday, the BoCC will approve increased taxes and fees for 2013-14. On top of Chapel Hill’s 2 cent tax increase, the county will add 2 cents for […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on June 17, 2013
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/06/17/business-as-usual-2/
Budget busters
The town can’t afford to keep the larger library open as many hours a week as the pre-renovated space without raising taxes or cutting other services. From the beginning the plan for funding the increased operating costs was to raise taxes, but the economy hasn’t exactly bounced back. Now state laws are hitting some of […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on June 10, 2013
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/06/10/budget-busters/
Price vs. value
When I heard about the 120 or so taxpayers who showed up at the County Commissioners meeting on May 23 pleading to pay more in taxes to fully fund the schools budget, I recalled a scene from Crocodile Dundee wherein New York City street thugs brandish a switchblade in an attempt to rob the protagonist […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on June 3, 2013
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/06/03/price-vs-value/
Putting the priority in budgeting
My husband has wanted a new couch for years. And I agree we could use one. But something always elbows ahead of it on our priority list. An immediate emergency – the washing machine breaks and the estimate for the repair equals the cost of a new one. A capital improvement – our very expensive […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on May 27, 2013
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/05/27/putting-the-priority-in-budgeting/
Feature presentation
We’ve gotten spoiled. With Town Council’s newfound determination to end council meetings before midnight, and breaking out council discussions in midweek work sessions at the library (which are not on TV nor videoed and accessible by computer), the regular Monday night meetings end two to three hours after they begin. Tonight may be an exception. […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on May 20, 2013
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/05/20/feature-presentation/
Obey Creek: From Outreach to Inclusion
Southern Area resident Jeanne Brown has this to say about the evolving community engagement process for Obey Creek: Three years after Town Council members asked to know what a Development Agreement for Obey Creek would look like, a long-awaited public engagement process is beginning to take shape – thanks to council suggestion that staff, East […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on May 13, 2013
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/05/13/obey-creek-from-outreach-to-inclusion/
The bleaching of Chapel Hill
Last week I walked along MLK Jr. Boulevard to go from my house off Piney Mountain Road to Harrington Bank. Schools had a delayed opening that day, and I passed several groups of high school students waiting along MLK for the school bus. Presumably they lived in the modest rentals and mobile homes in the […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on May 6, 2013
https://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/05/06/the-bleaching-of-chapel-hill/