ldhintz's blog
This announcement about bike and ped safety was posted by the town of Chapel Hill this weekend. Unfortunately recently there was another cyclist fatality near MLK and Hillsborough. This occurred where I was hit by a car while biking to work a decade ago. One suggestion I had back then was to have the reminder sign about" sharing the road with cyclist" be moved from uphill going towards downtown to place it going downhill closer to the corner gas station. I was told several times this was going to happen but it was never done. The chronic problem of warning signs being hidden by vegetation needs to be addressed. I know that the sign in that area was hidden by vegetation. It sounds from this memo that more attention will be given to this. When I ran for town council this is one of the things I meant by the town being more proactive rather than complaint driven. (Don't wait for someone to complain that a sign is hidden, have bus drivers or other employees notice and report it.) Having visible to drivers signs showing where a bike or greenway trail feeds into a street is a great idea and I hope the sign for the Bolin Creek Greenway and MLK is placed there quickly.
This morning I attending a training session for members of town boards. (I was appointed to the Board of Adjustment last summer.) About 40 people were there. I thought it was a good session. We were reminded that local governments are limited by the state legislature; the rules about open meeting and public access to information; the new flow for development projects and the general purpose of the boards. Just a bit of trivia of about the attendees: most were white, I don't think any Asian-Americans or Latinos attended with perhaps three African Americans participating; about 10 had gray hair (only my beard is graying so I didn't count myself); even male: female ratio and about 1/3 wear glasses.
I just returned home from a three plus hour meeting about Obey Creek. This was the last meeting before Chapel Hill decides to enter a development agreement negotiation. Phase I the Compass Committee ended last winter, Phase II addional information gathering has been during the last six months and phase III negotiations will probably begin soon. The first hour was a repeat of the traffic analysis presentation that was given last month at the library. More data will be obtained from additional studies but the analysis incorporates 1.2% traffic growth rate as the back ground increase in traffic. It projects 10% of the Obey Creek development traffic to be carried by mass transit. The next two hours were devoted to the general Obey Creek plan, modifications and potential points for negotiation. The general plan would allocate 50 acres for green space ( part of which could become come a school if needed) and 30acres developed near 15-501. At the end Roger stood up and stated that if Council permitted less than 1,000,000 square feet he would use current zoning for creating 120 homes on the 85 acres.
This spring I have been going to a lot of high school events. My son graduates from Carrboro High School and former students at Chapel Hill HS are graduating. Last weekend in Winson Salem the state Ultimate playoffs occurred. This is a sport which requires almost no equipment: a frisbee and a field. Teams are low key, they don't have practice everyday. Carolina Friends won first place. CHHS 2nd, Carrboro 3rd and ECHHS 4th in the state! I've been impressed by the high school plays and concerts this year. As funding for school declines students are concerned that their favorite courses will be cut. Historically our district has funded the cultural arts. I hope that even the "smaller" classes will be allowed to continue. Students at Carrboro were worried about losing some of the chorus classes. Today Carrboro had their senior assembly. Students put in an impressive number of volunteer hours, earned many scholarships and spoke up for diversity and social justice. We have a lot of talent in our schools.
Loren
Last evening my son and I attended a forum at Culbreth Middle School about teacher pay. There were a number of panels. First teachers spoke (including one of my son's teachers from Carrboro High School). They shared stories about how hard it was to make it on teacher pay especially since their salaries have been frozen at the same pay scale step since 2007. State statistics show that an unusually high number of teachers are leaving for other states or are quitting the profession. High school and middle school students talked about their teachers and how sad it was that many of their teachers have decided to leave. Aaron Nelson spoke for the local business community. He mentioned the positive impact a good school system has on the economy and that they support paying more for education. Finally the local superintendent, 3 state reps and 1 state senator spoke about the budgets and politics. A pleasant surprise was that one rep was a Republican from Guilford/ Greensboro who supports increased pay for all teachers.
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