Citizen Will

Category: ChapelHill

  • Think Blue: Baldwin Park Bolin Creek Restoration Commemoration

    Though the day was grey, this morning’s formal commemoration of the end of the current phase of Baldwin Park’s stream restoration project was well attended by local pols: Carrboro Alderman Randee Haven-O’Donnel, Lydia Lavelle, Sammy Slade, Chapel Hill’s Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt and Council member Donna Bell (who lives a few steps away from the park) […]

  • Think Blue: Four Toes in the Creek

    Local environmentalist and incredible photographer Mary Sonis has made a stunning discovery in her backyard. Below is a rare 4 toed salamander, “a species of special concern in North Carolina” (to quote her excited announcement). Mary contacted an expert at the North Carolina Museum of Life and Sciences who said he had never seen one […]

  • Think Blue: Earth Action Day Apr. 9th, 2011

    Bolin Creek Restoration Project from Town of Chapel Hill, NC Our community spends a lot of time talking “green”. We’ve encouraged developers and policy makers alike to commit, with some success, to an environmentally sustainable future. Most of the effort has been put into conserving energy, lowering the impact of development, preserving green-space and securing […]

  • Trash Talk: The Neverending Story…Ends?

    [UPDATE:] WCHL’s Elizabeth Friend has a great summation here. Over a decade ago, just as I was beginning to get involved in local issues, I heard then local NAACP President Fred Black and Roger Road resident Rev. Robert Campbell brief Council on the fairly extensive list of negative impacts our landfill was having on the […]

  • No Green For Greenbridge

    Looks like the rumors I’ve been hearing for the last few months are true, the much touted Greenbridge project is in deep financial trouble. The high-density development (which has saved Downtown according to the local Chamber of Commerce director Aaron Nelson) hasn’t been able to sell units and pay its construction bills according to today’s […]

  • OWASA: Penalizing Conservation

    The Carrboro Citizen has another report on Carrboro’s BOA’s decision not to amend the inter-local agreement governing access to Lake Jordan water. I was bothered by this passage: Board member Joal Hall Broun said the issue was not the lake water, but freeing up OWASA in the event of emergencies and allowing the utility to […]

  • Water, Water, Everywhere? Carrboro Holds The Line

    [UPDATE] WCHL’s newest reporter Freda Kahen-Kashi has the story – Mayor Mark Chilton Finds Faults With OWASA Plan. [UPDATE 2] Further information on the meeting from the Daily Tar Heel. They quote Gordon Merklein, OWASA Chair and UNC’s Director of Real Estate as saying “Jordan Lake is essential because the other water supplies cannot meet […]

  • Water, Water, Everywhere…

    After a very long day and a very long evening. I finally got a chance to ask Council to take a more measured approach to approving OWASA’s proposed modifications to the agreement controlling access Lake Jordan’s water. The proposal might have appeared technical in nature but, at the heart of it, had policy ramifications impacting […]

  • Zoned Out

    Spent a tad more than 5 hours discussing zoning and zoning related issues today. Had an incredible work session with UNC’s Counter-Cartographies Collective (www.countercartographies.org), who “seek to create collaborations for engaged research and cartography — transforming the conditions of how we think, write and map and the conditions about which we think, write and map.” […]

  • Clark/Bigelow: Fateful Due Process

    As Anita Badrock kept reminding us this evening, the Personnel Appeals Committee doesn’t operate like a court – loose evidentiary rules, committee questions and witnesses, multiple cross-examinations, commentary from both parties. If tonight’s hearing was cast as a made-for-television movie, the writers had a ready made character in Chapel Hill government’s own Voldemort. “He who […]

  • Personnel Appeals Hearing Clyde Clark: Evidence and Process

    Tonight’s Personnel Appeals hearing for Clyde Clark is more sparsely attended than last week’s for Kerry Bigelow (Personnel Appeals Hearing Kerry Bigelow: Evidence and Process). Roughly 40 folks in attendance, 5 from the local press (Elizabeth [WCHL], Katelyn [Chapel Hill News], Greg [HeraldSun], Don and Nancy [Chapel Hill Watch]). About 2/3rd’s are clearly supporters of […]

  • Personnel Appeals Hearing Kerry Bigelow: Conclusion, Short Edition

    Some quick thoughts on tonight’s hearing (Personnel Appeals Hearing Kerry Bigelow: Evidence and Process). Was there clarity? No. Are some issues more understandable? Yes. Both the Town and Mr. Bigelow agree that he was a solid worker with a “good attitude”. Both agree that something changed when Mr. Bigelow filed an EEOC complaint when he […]

  • Personnel Appeals Hearing Kerry Bigelow: Evidence and Process

    It’s interesting to see the Librsary Meeting Room set up for tonight’s hearing on Clyde Clark’s personnel appeals hearing. There are 87 seats prepared for the public, four police cars in the front parking lot (one unmarked), six uniformed officers downstairs,me and fellow local activist Terri Buckner. Folks are trickling in – as of 6:40pm […]

  • Comprehensive Plan Refresh, A New Toolbox

    Probably the best Council comment during Monday’s Comprehensive Plan discussion came from Ed Harrison. Ed, who often relates how his neighborhood straddles the Orange/Durham county border, explained how Durham has newly integrated a set of tools in its comprehensive plan to guide both developers and staff. The effort was spurred, Ed said, primarily by the […]

  • AAA Bond Rating: Don’t Bet Against Clemson

    Chapel Hill’s AAA bond rating is noteworthy. The care our elected folks have taken to maintain it over a decade laudable. But is it fair to say, as Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt did yesterday, “it is almost, but not quite, as rare for a town our size to have a AAA rating by Standard & Poor’s […]