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Hillsborough has a new mayor! It's nice to see the incumbent wasn't bitter about being ousted. Ooops:
Stevens, in his first run for public office, defeated Joe Phelps, the two-term incumbent, in the November election.
Phelps, in remarks to the board, said he thought the issue of adding more sidewalks to town was a "deciding factor" in this year's election.
"Mr. Stevens promoted this idea of having sidewalks all over town time and again," Phelps said. "Everyone wants sidewalks, but how to pay for them has always been the real issue."
Phelps said he'd be paying attention at budget time to see how the issue of sidewalks is addressed, "to make sure that campaign promises don't turn into campaign rhetoric."
- heraldsun.com: Mayor sworn in, leads 1st meeting, 12/13/05
It's just a name and not such a big deal… or is it?
This coming Thursday the city school board will discuss the naming of the third high school. The naming committee has narrowed the choices down to three: Carrboro High School, South Chapel Hill High School, and Howard and Lillian Lee High School. These names seem all rather boring, given that there were 69 other names that could have generated lots more controversy.
Community members suggested such names as: Charles Darwin High School, Cesar Chavez High School, Robert E. Lee High School, Edith Wiggins High School, Rockin' Ravens High School, and on and on. I personally got a laugh out of 'The Insufferable Chapel Hill High School of the South". What name would you choose and why?
Kudos to the Daily Tarheel for running an article today in both English and Spanish. Unfortunately the Spanish version is online-only which is probably not the best way to reach all those Latino workers on campus, who might actually be interested in the subject matter: one woman's story how she became an immigrant and eventually a citizen.
Attending Carrboro's swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday reminded me how important John Herrerra's (re)election is to the Latino community. The event was attended by visible state-wide leaders like Matty Lazo-Chadderton (Director of Hispanic/Latino Affairs in the N.C. Senate's Office of the President Pro Tempore) and I spent at least a third of my evening practicing my rusty Spanish. It was a great feeling to know what a good example a small town like Carrboro can be to the rest of the state. And also a reminder that yo necesito practicar hablando español!
According to news reports, Mayors Foy and Chilton pledged to do their holiday shopping locally:
"We really feel that it is very important for Orange County residents ... to buy local and to help reinvest the money we spend in our holiday shopping season here in Orange County," Chilton said, just a day after being sworn in as Carrboro's new mayor.
The potential impact, according to the Chamber:
a 1 percent increase in Orange County retail sales, assuming the money would not be spent in another county anyway, would generate nearly $360,000 in extra revenue. That's roughly enough to hire nine new police officers or sheriff's deputies.
Last Saturday, Aaron Nelson took advantage of the holiday parade to hand out "Buy Local" decals to a captive, holiday-primed audience.
The benefits of shopping locally are pretty clear, as are the additional benefits of supporting locally-owned businesses.
Kudos to Chilton, Foy, and Nelson for taking advantage of the holiday season to promote this awareness.
In an effort to bring a free public WiFi network to Chapel Hill and to let our elected representatives know how we feel I've created an online petition.
To: Chapel Hill Town Council
The time has come for the Town of Chapel Hill to build a free, community-owned, public municipal network. The network should have wireless access and provide an open, unfiltered, and unmonitored connection to the Internet available to ALL people. It must be maintained by a local nonprofit for the people of Chapel Hill. Not by a private business or corporation.
We request that the Chapel Hill Town Council act swiftly to bring this service to the people.
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
It will be presented to the Town Council as soon as posible. If you are a citizen of Chapel Hill please go to http://www.petitiononline.com/chwifi/petition.html and sign it. Thank you!
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