Government

Bill Strom wins Goodmon Award

Today's DTH reports that Bill Strom is the 2005 winner of the Jim Goodmon Award for regional leadership by an elected official in the triangle.

The award will be presented by Leadership Triangle at a luncheon next week.

Bill has been a strong leader on the TTA Board of Directors, helped broker the purchase of Erwin Trace, and has worked on regional affordable housing initiatives with the Triangle J Council of Governments.

Bill is the first elected official from Orange County to receive this honor.

It's nice to see folks from around the triangle recognize the quality of one of our own elected officials!

UNC loans land to Carrboro

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:

Cumulative voting for Orange County?

Chapel Hill Herald, Saturday November 05, 2005

Back in March, Moses Carey articulated an accurate argument against district representation for the County Commissioners.

"Any model that promotes or encourages parochialism will be dysfunctional in this county," Carey said. "Problems don't stop at district lines. Water flows across district lines; economic development doesn't occur all in one district. Narrowing the focus and encouraging people to care only about what happens within the lines of their district is just the opposite of what we need to be encouraging elected officials to do, which is to think more broadly and make decisions that are more broadly based."

But, it turns out that Carey was not arguing against districts per se. He was arguing for a system of districts in which the candidates must live within a district but would be elected by the entire county.

This solution, not surprisingly, does not satisfy residents of the rural sections of the county who feel that the current at-large system does not provide them with adequate representation.

Peace vigil tonight at 6:30

Guest Post by Steve Sherman

There will be a vigil tonight at the Franklin St Post Office to commemorate the death of 2000 American military personnel. To end the ongoing bloodshed, American troops need to be withdrawn from Iraq. Let's not have to have a vigil for the 3,000th serviceperson fallen. Apologies for the MoveOn boilerplate:

2000 Too Many Have Died
Not One More Death. Not One More Dollar.
Join a Vigil to Remember the Fallen and the Living--Support the
Troops, Bring Them Home Now!

Wednesday, Oct. 26, 6:30pm
Franklin St. Post Office
(Please Bring Candles)

There will be over 400 events in 49 states.

We have just received word that the moment we have been dreading has arrived: 2,000 U.S. servicepeople have now died in Iraq. We grieve for these two thousand men and women, killed in the prime of their lives, for a war based on lies, and we grieve for the tens of thousands of Iraqis who have also died in the chaos and carnage the Bush Administration has brought to their country.

Thinking Globally...

Monday night, Jim Protzman, Mark Marcoplos, and I will present the following resolution to the Town Council. We plan to bring it subsequently to Carrboro and Orange County.

A Resolution Calling for New Federal Priorities

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