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It's certainly good news for current and future residents of northern Carrboro that UNC will be leasing land to the town for $1/year. The town will be able to build a fire station for the newly-annexed area for about $2.5 million.
But I have to wonder if Carrboro noticed what happened to Chapel Hill's similarly sweet deal. For decades, the town leased space for it's public works facilities from UNC, also for $1/year. A few years ago UNC decided it needed the land back (to build Carolina North) and Chapel Hill scrambled to find a location to build a new Town Operations Center which is costing the town millions of dollars (but which will rock - although it's not very conveniently located unless you live at the landfill).
Wouldn't it have made sense for Carrboro to build a station on land owned by the town, instead of borrowed? What if UNC decides it needs the land back to build a Carolina NorthWest in 2020?
And is Carrboro going to respond to this gesture the way UNC Assistant Vice Chancellor Bruce Runberg hopes they will:
The Question for Chapel Hill: More pollution and greenhouse gas emissions or More use of solar power and energy efficiency at UNC?
WHAT: Chapel Hill Town Council public hearing and probable vote on upgrading the UNC coal plant.
WHEN: Monday evening, November 21st. 7 PM
WHERE: Chapel Hill Town Hall, 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd (formerly Airport Rd.)
WHY BE THERE: UNC is asking the Chapel Hill Town Council to permit the "upgrade of their power generation capabilities" at its coal plant. While UNC's co-generation plant is more efficient than most coal-burning power plants, the university admits that it expects to burn more coal at the plant than it does now. Burning more coal will produce more pollution and greenhouse gases. The university has not presented data on whether it could better meet its electricity demand by increasing the energy efficiency of UNC buildings and increasing its use of solar energy.
WHAT ELSE YOU CAN DO:
So, the idea for an Orange County "encyclopedia" (a wiki, if you're sufficiently savvy) isn't my own. It somewhat grew out of a suggestion a friend made here on OP. I started collecting information for my own purposes for a research project I'm doing to analyze the 2005 elections, and storing it in a wiki just made sense. But the true power of a wiki is that anyone and everyone is welcome to contribute, and it would be a shame to not put this power to work!
Orangepedia is a collection of public domain information thrown together from various sources and hyperlinked together. It's not finished, and won't ever be, but that's where you come in. Please, help me fill in the basics and then add whatever knowledge of local politics you might want. To link to another page, all you have to do is put a word or phrase inside [[double brackets]]. And I'm moderating, so please keep things clean - the same decency rules that you'll find on OrangePolitics.org transfer nicely.
Let's see... tuition keeps going up... staff and faculty need raises... and the fattest cats on campus get raises based on a bigger percentage of their bigger salaries!
Raspberries to the General Assembly and UNC Board of Governors, for handing out raises to top university officials as if they had already won the lottery.
Raise your hand if you're accustomed to raises of up to 16 percent from one year to the next. That's what we thought.
The UNC Board of Governors approved raises for system presidents of 8 percent to 16 percent. James Moeser, chancellor of UNC Chapel Hill, got a 13 percent hike.
The board said the increases were necessary to keep the state system competitive with other universities nationwide. But it's an all-too-familiar slap to regular folks, including state employees with titles less lofty than chancellor, who are told the budget can't handle more than a 2 percent raise.
- Chapel Hill News, Roses & Raspberries, 11/16/05
Of course, when I said "final" last week it was just a figure of speech. ;-)
Orange County now has the final and official tallies for the 2005 election. Check out the results by precinct as well.
Sorry I don't have time to format it all pretty this time...
Chapel Hill Mayor
Candidate Votes Percent
Kevin C. Foy 4289 77.78%
Kevin A. Wolff 1178 21.36%
Write-In 47 0.85%
Chapel Hill Town Council (4 seats available)
Candidate Votes Percent
Jason Baker 1240 6.52%
Robin Cutson 1625 8.54%
Laurin Easthom 3788 19.91%
Ed Harrison 3106 16.33%
Mark Kleinschmidt 3772 19.83%
Will Raymond 2336 12.28%
Walker Rutherfurd (WITHDRAWN) 0 0.00%
Bill Thorpe 3040 15.98%
Write-In 114 0.60%
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