Penny-wise or Penny foolish?

I had mentally packed Penny Rich away in mothballs after she took the county commissioner job, figuring I’d have to find new material for drama. But she hasn’t been gone even a month when here she is turning up like a bad –

No, she’s heard all those jokes since grade school. Let me take a moment to grow up and start again.

Here’s what I know:

Del Snow addressed the Orange County commissioners at their Dec. 11 board meeting during the public comment period to urge commissioners to delay implementing the half-cent sales tax for transportation that Chapel Hill-Carrboro voters approved (and, hence, the county, as Chapel Hill-Carrboro voters outnumber voters in the rest of the county). She twice noted that she was chair of Chapel Hill’s planning board, and though she didn’t say she was speaking for the board, that was the implication. Her remarks were limited to why the planning board voted unanimously against the MPO 2040 plan, and she wanted the problems with the plan fixed before the county started collecting money to fund it. Town Council had voted to support the MPO 2040 plan, albeit grudgingly.

On Dec. 29, Rich sent a letter to Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt calling for Snow’s resignation from the planning board. Rich said it was “highly unusual for the Planning Board chair of one governing body to come and speak in front of another governing body unless asked to do so by council.” Rich signed the letter as “Commissioner Penny Rich, Orange County Board of Commissioners,” making it an official government letter and thus a public matter.

Commissioners chair Barry Jacobs said Rich’s letter represents the feelings of one commissioner and that the commissioners have never discussed whether it was appropriate for a town advisory board member to speak at the commissioners meeting. Nor did he advise Snow, when she called him before the meeting to ask for more time as she was speaking for the board, to speak only as a private citizen.

Tallying up the wrongs on both sides, here’s my score:

Snow could have told all planning board members beforehand (instead of afterward) that she was going to speak on their behalf to see whether anyone raised a caution flag.

As the town and county have some “history” (think library money and landfill fees), Snow could have told the mayor her plans to speak in the role of advisory board member; he could have told her how that might muddy ongoing negotiations with county officials.

Rich could have called the mayor to ask him to talk to Snow, if he felt Snow had overstepped her bounds.

Rich could have spoken up at the commissioners’ meeting to say she thought Snow was inappropriate, or she could have talked to Snow privately later. But that wouldn’t have been as much fun as flamboyant outrage and a public demand for Snow’s head.

Methinks Rich is finding Hillsborough a little too quiet.
– Nancy Oates

by on January 7, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in County business, Taxes, Transportation
Tagged ,
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 7, 2013

https://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/01/07/penny-wise-of-penny-foolish/

A sense of place

Bonnie Hauser, president of the grassroots organization Orange County Voice, sends this holiday greeting from New England:

This year, and every year, I spend Christmas in western Massachusetts (“the Berkshires seem dreamlike on account of their frosting…”). A few inches of snow, a little sun, and a brisk 30 degrees – warm for the area, just right for my North Carolina tolerance.

This year, more than ever, I found myself struck by how settled my surroundings truly were. Stodgy? No. Simply a place that seemed to know exactly who it was and to be content with it all.

Small, even tiny town centers surrounded by New England clapboard houses with shutters and holiday candles in windows. The towns had lights, restaurants, small shops. Everyone knows everyone, and the feeling everywhere is that “we’re in this together.”

I couldn’t help but notice the lack of ancillary town centers. No Meadowmonts or Southern Villages or Obey Creeks to cannibalize downtown goings on. Why would there be? After all, people went downtown regularly for the change of scenery and to learn what was going on locally. We were amazed to learn that an incapacitating flat tire, which forced us to abandon our car, made the morning news cycle.

The area is marked by a stark lack of ambition. In addition to their own self-interest, everyone seems committed to serve their neighbors, the town, the community. Yes, it’s stressful, because the commitment carries an obligation to your own friends and families and to be worthy of a community that will certainly transcend your meager lifetime. I saw the stress in my friends who were planning a local concert to raise money for much-needed improvements to the town hall.

There was no soaring rhetoric about economic development or buying locally. No massive developers or major interest in massive development. (Yes, there’s a buzz about a few condominiums going on the back of the Card Lake Inn.) The locals trust their planning boards – after all, they know who serves, and there is widespread agreement about their shared future. Local businesses are essential to the vitality of the community, so no one needs to be reminded to support them. And it all comes with a spirit of respect and belonging.

So I start the new year wondering if Chapel Hill and Orange County will ever settle into our own clarity of self. Who will hold the vision? And will our leaders and our communities – rather than developers – work together to assure that the vision remains sustainable for the long haul?

— Bonnie Hauser

Contact Bonnie at bonnie@OrangeCountyVoice.org.

by on January 1, 2013  •  Permalink
Posted in Economic development, Land Use, Lifestyle
Posted by Nancy Oates on January 1, 2013

https://chapelhillwatch.com/2013/01/01/a-sense-of-place/

Partyless

Good thing I got my very own set of Bananagram tiles for Christmas this year. Looks like that’s what I’ll be doing New Year’s Eve, unless I want to leave Chapel Hill to celebrate. Perhaps befitting a college town, Chapel Hill has no New Year’s Eve events other than going to a bar.

Ever since I moved to Chapel Hill, I’ve spent New Year’s Eve at home, playing games with the kids. We’d make chex mix and play Battleship, Chinese checkers and blackjack (it taught them to add and subtract in their head) when they were young, and Yahtzee, Scrabble and Quiddler in later years. One year we tried playing 24, but my son who, I swear, could calculate the square root of your phone number in a matter of seconds, won every round instantly, so the rest of us turned over the Scrabble tiles and surreptitiously started a round of Bananagram on the side.

At midnight, we’d turn on the TV to watch the ball drop in Times Square, and we’d toast the New Year with sparkling white grape juice. We’d yell “Happy New Year!” out the door, pull some poppers and, weather permitting, run around the yard with some sparklers left over from Fourth of July. Then we’d turn out the lights and go to bed.

Now the kids are grown, and the lead-in to the ball drop reminds me I’m counting down the number of years I have left on this planet. I wanted to do something different this year. I googled to find what’s out there to do and came up empty. Durham and Raleigh had things going on, but not Chapel Hill.

So a question for those of you who have lives: What do you do on New Year’s Eve in Chapel Hill? Is it as much fun as Bananagram and chex mix?
– Nancy Oates

by on December 31, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Lifestyle
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 31, 2012

https://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/12/31/partyless/

Too lucky?

Council members must count how many of their colleagues attend an event lest enough of them gather in one place that they violate open meeting laws. Must they also count how many door prizes they win?

The Friends of Downtown, at its holiday meeting on Dec. 6, gave out door prizes donated by downtown merchants. FOD focuses on economic growth, job creation and co-marketing opportunities for downtown businesses, as well as increasing influence with local government, according to its website. Downtown businesses gave generously to the December meeting, so that the 50 or so meeting participants were in line to share the 50 gift certificates to be given away by drawing numbers from a bowl.

To add drama to the drawing, chair Pat Evans announced that winning numbers would be put back in the bowl with a chance to win again, but that number holders had to be present to win. Those who left early were out of luck. Ed Harrison, who hit the road for a regional transportation meeting in Cary as soon as guest speaker Brian Chacos, Nonprofit Spotlight writer for Chapelboro, wrapped up his presentation, was not there to collect a prize when his number was called.

One of the first prizes went to Meg McGurk, executive director of the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership. When a short time later, her number was called again, she gave one of her gift certificates to Lee Storrow, sitting next to her. Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt won a gift from Studio 135 and, moments later, a gift from Sugarland. When his number was called a third time, he turned down the prize and asked that his number be removed from the bowl. That prompted a rule change, and the numbers of two-time winners were tossed.

Then Storrow’s number was called for the first time. Technically, he already had a gift, so I chided him to give one away, but all of us for rows around him already had a gift. Just as I was kibitzing to former council candidate Carl Schuler that too many people had two prizes, my number was called a second time. Moral dilemma: I really, really wanted both the gift from Fine Feathers and from Pepper’s Pizza. Storrow helped me find a way out: “Maybe you could take someone out to Pepper’s and share.”

As the gift-laden crowd dissipated at the end of the meeting, Storrow noted: “Everybody leaves a winner. That doesn’t always happen in real life, but it does at the Friends of Downtown meeting.”

The Friends of Downtown meet next on Jan. 31, 2013, at the Franklin Hotel. Networking begins at 9:30 a.m., and the speaker takes the mike at 10 a.m. All are welcome, and parking in the hotel lot is free while spaces last.
– Nancy Oates

by on December 24, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Business, Council Members, Downtown Chapel Hill, Economic development
Tagged
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 24, 2012

https://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/12/24/too-lucky/

Give them the business

From the way businesses have sprung up downtown, you’d never know that we’ve been through four years of a down economy started by a financial meltdown and we’re teetering on the edge of a fiscal cliff. Here’s a by no means exhaustive list of businesses that have opened downtown in the past year:

Sweet Frog Premium Frozen Yogurt opened in December of 2011, but not until after all the students left town for winter break, so we’ll count it as a 2012 business. Located at 105 E. Franklin St., it offers a dozen flavors of self-serve frozen yogurt and a rotating list of 50 toppings.

Ben & Jerry’s, at 102 W. Franklin St., added an Auntie Anne’s Pretzels component in January.

He’s Not Here, at 112½ W. Franklin St., found new buyers within a matter of days of putting itself up for sale last January. The Cave, at 452½ W. Franklin St., took longer to sell, but by fall, it too had new owners.

Franklin Street Pizza and Pasta, at 163 E. Franklin St., sold to Tomato Jake’s in March, but by year’s end was back in business, this time in Carrboro, under the name Carrboro Pizza Oven, in Carr Mill Mall.

Hot Dogs & Brews fired up its grill at 169 E. Franklin St. in July, doing a soft opening before students returned in August. Select from a variety of hot dogs (even vegetarian) smothered in any sort of topping you can think of.

Clothes Hound unleashed its inventory at a brick-and-mortar store at 145 E. Franklin St. Formerly an online-only vendor, the owner opened a store in Raleigh last year and ventured to Chapel Hill in August. It sells clothing and accessories that appeal to young women.

TRU Deli + Wine opened its no-cash, no-tips sandwich shop and bar at 114 Henderson St. in August. You pick the ingredients. Order your sandwich in person or by iPhone.

Mei Asian welcomed diners to its restaurant at 143 E. Franklin St. in September. The menu includes dishes from Canton, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore.

TOPO Distillery, in The Chapel Hill Booze Building at 505 W. Franklin St., sent its first batch of vodka to ABC stores in September, followed by Age-Your-Own-Whiskey kits in November. The nation’s first Green-Plus Certified distillery now is expanding its line to gin and sorghum rum. Call for a tour.

– Nancy Oates

by on December 17, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Business, Downtown Chapel Hill, Economic development
Tagged
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 17, 2012

https://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/12/17/give-them-the-business/

Who chooses?

The Central West Focus Area steering committee starts work next week, on Dec. 19. Only 16 members will gather in the first-floor conference room at Town Hall that night at 6 p.m. Seventeen people were recommended for appointment, but a little political gerrymandering went awry, and council members, in a vote by secret ballot, approved only 16 people to serve.

A council committee with Matt Czajkowski, Ed Harrison and Jim Ward met Nov. 19 and chose members from among those who had filled out an application and formally applied. The committee operated under certain restrictions – it had to appoint four business owners, focus area land owners or nonprofit representatives; one renter; and seven residents from the planning or impact area (out of 20 who applied); and state a preference for a representative of the Bike and Pedestrian Board or the Greenways Commission. A representative each from UNC, the school system, the planning board and the transportation board would complete the committee.

For one of the resident seats, the council committee selected Rudy Juliano, a pharmacy school professor who has long been active in town government advisory boards. But shortly before the Dec. 3 Town Council meeting started, council members received an email from Juliano stating that he thought former council member Julie McClintock would be better suited to serve in his stead. During the public comment phase that night, a couple people spoke endorsing McClintock for the seat. Whit Rummel, who owns an unimproved 14-acre parcel along Estes Drive near the MLK intersection, spoke against appointing McClintock; he had found her to be a roadblock in meeting with neighboring property owners about his development plans. Rummel was appointed to the Central West steering committee in a landowner seat.

The notion of appointed representatives swapping out their seat didn’t sit well with council members, especially the three who took the time to sift through the applications and piece together a group with diverse viewpoints and skills. Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt called for a ballot vote by the entire council on whom to seat. When the votes were tallied, council members had opted to go forward with a committee of 16, rather than appoint a replacement for Juliano.

Next month, council will appoint someone to finish out the remaining term of the vacancy created when Penny Rich left. A few people with lengthy resumes of service to the community indicated their interest. But when former council member Sally Greene tossed her hat in the ring, George Cianciolo and Jason Baker backed out.

From council’s response to staffing the Central West committee, I’d say council members would not want any potential candidates serving up another in their stead. Cianciolo and Baker, and everyone else with the desire to serve and a tolerance for PowerPoint presentations, should formally apply, regardless of who else joins the candidate pool.
– Nancy Oates

by on December 10, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Council Members, Elections
Tagged
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 10, 2012

https://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/12/10/who-chooses/

Peace on the dais

Talk about your lions lying down with your lambs. Council members at Monday night’s meeting demonstrated a collegiality I haven’t seen, even going back to those councils that rubber-stamped every vote, 9-0.

Jim Ward and Ed Harrison backed Matt Czajkowski more than once. Lee Storrow softened his position to avoid a deadlock on the controversial bus ad issue. Council spoke as one voice in declining to weigh in on U.S. foreign policy. Council members disagreed with one another, but nobody got smacked down.

Lest you think that council meetings won’t be any fun anymore without all that squabbling and sniping, there was still plenty of passion. Czajokowski almost levitated with ire, so incensed was he that staff had not provided information needed in the stormwater runoff discussion, though he had requested it at three previous meetings.

The change in the dynamic among council members came early on in the meeting. A petitioner had asked council to support a resolution about women’s right to access reproductive health information. Rather than ask council to receive and refer the petition, as is traditional, Storrow suggested council approve the resolution on the spot, as it was only symbolic.

Czajkowski balked at a cursory approval if it had no meaning, saying that spewing forth symbolic resolutions diminishes council in the eyes of state legislators, who would dismiss the resolution as “Chapel Hill being Chapel Hill.” He wanted to know the impact of the resolution and urged following the receive-and-refer protocol so the issue would get full attention in a public hearing.

Jim Ward bristled and pushed back. Then Donna Bell turned on her mike. If one council member wants more time, she said, let’s take more time; there’s no deadline.

And just like that, council members seemed to realize they could exhale. Laurin Easthom agreed to wait for a public hearing in January. Harrison conceded that January would still allow time to get any resolutions the town approved on the General Assembly’s agenda. Storrow backtracked, and the motion to receive and refer passed unanimously.

Czajkowski thanked his colleagues, and you could feel smiles in the air.

But council was still council. The meeting lasted until nearly midnight.
– Nancy Oates

by on December 5, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Council Members, Politics
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 5, 2012

https://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/12/05/peace-on-the-dais/

On the road

As many of us sweat a dive off the impending fiscal cliff and recession that likely will follow, the Town of Chapel Hill has stirred a little economic stimulus in the Public Works Department. Tucked unobtrusively in the consent agenda for tonight’s Town Council meeting is a resolution to haul our trash to a Durham transfer station beginning in April. The Orange County landfill doesn’t close until the end of June 2013, but when the plan to truck to Durham was presented last May, council members warmed to the idea of commencing the use of the Durham facility before the landfill closed because it would save the town money. Council members gave short shrift to Orange County officials’ irritation at the prospect of losing at least two months of tipping fees.

So now that the plan has taken the form of a resolution, why must the town add $358,600 to its budget to cover the extra expense of implementing the plan? Apparently, just as painting the living room calls attention to the need for a new couch, now that our trash will be shipped to Durham, we’ll need new trucks and, of course, personnel to operate them, not to mention extra fuel and maintenance.

Let’s hope the person council appoints to fill its vacant seat understands finances, asks questions about concomitant expenses, and knows how to evaluate how much a bargain costs.

Council plans to fill that vacant seat on Jan. 14. Interested parties have until 5 p.m. on Jan. 7 to file an application with the town clerk. Start working on your 500-word essay, “Why Chapel Hill Needs Me on Council,” and clear your calendar to make a personal presentation (no PowerPoints, please) to council at its Jan. 14 meeting.

Also tonight, council will decide what to do about its bus ad policy. (For what it’s worth, Carrboro’s Board of Aldermen voted unanimously in support of Chapel Hill Transit being a public forum.) Town attorney Ralph Karpinos has laid out five options and will present a recent ruling in Seattle that allowed the city to pull bus ads as a matter of public safety, out of fear that people protesting the ads might riot.

Let’s hope that Chapel Hill’s highly educated citizenry knows to “use words, not hands.” Whatever council decides will leave some people disappointed or angry. There may likely be some backlash, but as came out in the response to the Yates Building takeover, we pride ourselves on being peaceful and civil. If protests over the bus ad policy turn violent, that would be a low point to put us all to shame.
– Nancy Oates

by on December 3, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Council Members, Public Works, Transportation
Tagged ,
Posted by Nancy Oates on December 3, 2012

https://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/12/03/on-the-road-2/

It’s wonderful — and tax deductible

Every time I see a long line of Chapel Hill residents queued up at Town Council meetings to give an impassioned speech about some project or issue dear to their hearts, I’m reminded of what an overall pretty good place Chapel Hill is to live. All of those people wouldn’t be spending their discretionary time waiting in line at council meetings if they didn’t care so much about the town.

It is a privilege to call Chapel Hill home, and it shouldn’t be a privilege granted only to the wealthy. For the past dozen years, Community Home Trust has been saving a place for people on the way up who have not quite arrived. By selling houses and condos from 20 to 50 percent below market value, CHT makes sure responsible people have a nice place to live, even if they don’t make the kind of money some of their new neighbors do.

Spurred by the town’s Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance, CHT has been able to acquire a stock of nearly 200 homes in various communities around town. The homes are sold to buyers with solid credit ratings who earn no more than 80 percent of the Area Median Income determined by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. (Buyers of certain properties can earn as much as 115 percent of HUD’s AMI.) CHT serves as real estate agent and property manager, as well as educator for those new to homeownership.

Handling the sales transactions, keeping up the properties, marketing the homes, conducting new homebuyer classes, subsidizing some sales – all of it takes money. CHT receives money from the town, grants from other government entities and – here’s where you come in – private donations. CHT is a registered 501(c)(3), so your contributions, this year at least, are tax deductible.

This Friday, Nov. 30, CHT is giving away free tickets to the 6:45 p.m. showing of “It’s a Wonderful Life” at the Varsity Theater on Franklin Street. Investors Title Insurance Company and Harrington Bank are picking up the tab, which should inspire you to chip in a few bucks, too, to support the much-needed service CHT provides. To reserve your free tickets, call CHT’s Jenna Graber at 919-967-1545 ext. 310, or send an email to her at jgraber@communityhometrust.org.

Bring your checkbook this Friday night and give abundantly this year, while you can still write off your generosity on your taxes. If we go off the fiscal cliff, charitable contributions you make in 2013 may cost ya.
– Nancy Oates

by on November 28, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Housing, Uncategorized
Tagged
Posted by Nancy Oates on November 28, 2012

https://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/11/28/its-wonderful-and-tax-deductible/

Preferred by whom?

After running roughshod over the preference of voters out in the county by voting for the transit tax, Chapel Hill residents got a taste at the Nov. 19 Town Council meeting of what it felt like to be dismissed. Rural and urban voters differed sharply on whether to approve a tax that the bulk of which would fund a light rail arm to connect the medical centers in Chapel Hill and Durham, an incredibly lavish goodwill gesture on Orange County’s part to prevent Durham’s light rail from going nowhere. (Wake County has not yet bought in to the plan.) There being more voters in Chapel Hill than in the rest of the county, the transit tax on the Nov. 6 ballot was approved.

At the Nov. 19 Town Council meeting, David Bonk, the town’s long-range and transportation planning manager, asked council to back the Preferred Option set forth by the 2040 Metropolitan Transportation Plan, which lays out transportation projects to implement in the next 25 years or so. However, the plan, which covers priorities for Durham, Chapel Hill and Carrboro, had little to offer Chapel Hill. Council members showed a marked lack of enthusiasm for endorsing it.

Council members raised concerns of getting a feasibility study done quickly to emphasize Chapel Hill priorities, fixing the I-40/N.C. 54 interchange, considering asphalt vs. concrete, and looking at pros and cons of superstreets and U.S. 15-501 travel lanes.

Ed Harrison objected to the MLK Bus Rapid Transit plan being postponed until 2026. Matt Czajkowski and Jim Ward joined forces in questioning the projected population and employment figures that showed Chapel Hill adding 1,000 jobs a year and were reluctant to endorse a plan based on specious projections. Without adding commensurate housing, Czajkowski said, we are certain to increase traffic. Endorsing the Preferred Option, he said, was endorsing widening roads for Chatham County residents to drive through Chapel Hill on their way to Research Triangle Park, delaying improved bus service, and increasing without increasing housing. “Who’s in charge of our destiny?” he asked. “We should be making these choices.”

Gene Pease took a practical approach. He supported the option because it provides funding to help with traffic on U.S. 15-501.

Bonk also proposed forming a work group to identify, propose and lobby for projects that serve Chapel Hill better. Pease, part of a group aiming to reduce the number of advisory boards and committees, pushed back, asking why the existing Transportation Board couldn’t handle the task. Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt explained that the Transportation Board advises on in-town projects, whereas the proposed work group would prioritize inter-community projects. The current situation of Kleinschmidt and Harrison attending the Metropolitan Planning Organization meetings doesn’t allow enough time for the town to give feedback on projects that should be a higher priority. Forming a work group that very night would send a message to the MPO that the town wants to “call some shots,” town manager Roger Stancil said.

Council agreed, unanimously endorsing the Preferred Option and forming a work group.
– Nancy Oates

by on November 26, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Transportation
Posted by Nancy Oates on November 26, 2012

https://chapelhillwatch.com/2012/11/26/preferred-by-whom/

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