ldhintz's blog
Thursday I attended a Sierra Club meeting in Pittsboro and learned more about the water issues associated with the huge Chatham Park development. The local goverment of Pittsboro will be deciding what happens there. First the area watershed has rare or endangered species of fresh water mussels and tiny fish called shiners. Of course it drains into Jordan Lake which is already impaired. The state government has delayed the Jordan Lake water protection rules and has created a weird situation where if communities want to have better environmental rules they will have to enact them this year with a 100% agreement vote. Also the state has reduced funding and resources for the state agencies that monitor and protect our water. Originally after hearing the Triangle Realtor presentation last summer I thought Chatham Park (for 55,000 people) was a done deal. I
think there are a lot of reasons for believing it can not be that big.
Much of land has streams and steep elevation and if logical stream
buffers and slope rules are used that would limit what can be developed.
The original proposal would result in population density and percentage
Today there was a 2 hour delay for the public schools because of the cold weather. Carl got up at the usual time and walked to Southern Village to see a friend. I biked to the UNC campus and visited the Science Library Annex in Wilson. It's been a while since I have been there. The departamental libraries (Botany, Zoology, Chemistry, Geology etc.) have been combined. A number of books are now in storage including many of the tropical birds books by Alexander Skutch. I was sad to see that many of the paper jounals are gone: the bound volumes of the classical ornithology journals have been discarded. I can't dojournal browsing anymore. (Since I am not a UNC student, I can't access the electronic journals.) I then explored the new eating places on Franklin (and overheard one conversation: room is locked, don't have the key, room mate isn't back with key due to cancelled flights.) The bike ride home was nice and cold. Hope the freeze kills the ticks and zancudos.
Last night the Town Council postponed their discussion of the new Advisory Boards until tonight 11/26 after the Central West Plan which begins at 6PM. I've emailed my suggestions but hope others will attend or write comments.
I came in 6th in almost all precincts. I came in 2nd in the precinct where Sally Greene and I live. It looks like the write-ins for town council were very minimal. Today I have been busy collecting yard signs and taking them to Cedar Falls Park. While I was there sorting the signs, a woman came by and talked. She did not vote yesterday first because she could not find information about the election and secondly because she thought she could vote on Tuesday at the Senior Center. In terms of signs Maria Palmer and I have the union label on the signs and Sally Greene had the name of a local company on hers. About half of us used plastic and half used paper. (Two candidates had no signs.)At the polling sites George, Maria, James, Ignacio and I had the most signs. Amy and Sally managed to include their Daily Tar Heel endorsement (given early election day morning) on some of their signs. Maria listed her Indy Endorsement and George listed all of his. I had my AFL-CIO and Sierra Club endorsements on my precinct signs. My son Carl told me he had never heard of the AFL-CIO until I mentioned to him my endorsement from them in September.
The North Carolina Association of Educators just sent out a fact sheet about the NC legislature's action against teachers removing career status. Not only did they eliminate career status but they are eliminating due process to appeal decisions about the new evaluation instrument, length of contract, dismisal and bonus. I'm glad that I retired from teaching this year. It looks like the new rules will really mess up schools in North Carolina. One interesting suggestion is the idea that local school boards can create due process rules and better contracts. I hope CHCCS will do that. Loren
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