Blogs

,Well, it always amused me that the first thing the town/gown/merchant committee took up, while thinking about how to organize the effort to create a nonprofit downtown development entity, was whether to drop the downtown special tax. Oh, so that's the problem! Forget about the empty storefronts and buildings kept empty by landlords who have driven up rents beyond what's reasonable on Franklin Street, and who won't countenance the idea that the market has changed, that with the explosion of retail space in the Triangle, the rents they enjoyed in the 1990s (adjusted for inflation) are no longer fair market rents. No no! It's a levy of 6.2 cents per $100 that's killing commerce downtown!

Wheww. It appears they've found the barrels of toxic waste that went missing in January from the demolition of the University's Medical Science Research Building. This hasn't assuaged the concerns of subcontractor Southern Site & Environmental Corporation, who apparently took the barrels away to test them, after having their complaints about the presence of toxic waste at the site rebuffed. According the firm's lawyer, they found mercury and arsenic after being assured that the site was safe. The company believes the University has broken state law by exposing its workers to the toxic waste; the University says the waste was well-contained and that workers had been instructed to stay away from it. The state Department of Environment and Natural Resources is investigating.

[The subcontractor] expressed their concerns last Thursday in a letter to Doug Holyfield, director of compliance for the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

The Chapel Hill Town Council asked for more time to adequately review proposals. They asked for concept plans before receiving the official modification request. What was UNC's response? F--k you.

"We did take a serious look at that request," said Nancy Suttenfield, UNC vice chancellor for finance and administration. "But it's neither fiscally responsible nor practical."- Daily Tarheel, 3/16/04

(More on the specific changes proposed in today's Chapel Hill Herald.)

Coming through loud and clear, Nancy. Just don't be suprised if the Town Council doesn't have enough time in your 90-day lighting review to get the information it needs in to make a responsible decision and has to turn the application down. What you seem to think is cheaper, could end up costing UNC (and the state/taxpayers) a lot more.