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Hey everyone,
Honored to be posting for the first time on Orange Politics. Here's an update as to where the IFC is at with regards to finalizing a location for FoodFirst.
Following the November 2015 Board of Alderman meeting, Inter-Faith Council (IFC) renewed its search for possible appropriate alternative sites for its FoodFirst project. Joining IFC's senior staff and board president in this process were representatives from the Carrboro business community, Gordon Merklein, Executive Director of real estate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Aaron Nelson, President, Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce. The group met on December 18, January 8 and February 5. The search considered a variety of factors such as topography, site restrictions, access to transportation, availability, space for programs, and room for growth. Of primary concern was how each site positively or negatively affected FoodFirst programming.
IFC analyzed ten sites besides 110 West Main. None of the ten sites was feasible for a variety of factors most notably, availability and site restraints.
{Cross posted from Chapel Hill News}
Last summer, Carrboro closed East Weaver Street in front of Weaver Street Market one Sunday a month to open it up for people to commune, linger, meet old friends and make new ones, and use the street for physical activities like yoga, cycling and soccer. In addition, Carrboro just held its fourth Open Streets event in April.
Carrboro is just one of many communities across the country and world that have recognized the power and benefits of these Open Streets (or Summer Streets, for the summer months) events.
Orange County, via both public and private employers, has been making significant strides in extending living wages to people who work in our communities. Here's the latest:
- Orange County Board of Commissioners approves policy encouraging contractors to pay a living wage.
- While the North Carolina General Assembly's House Bill 74 made it illegal for municipalities to require vendors/contractors to pay a living wage, and the recently passed House Bill 2 reinforced that ban, the county commissioners approved a policy to encourage vendors and contractors with the county to pay a living wage. While a living wage cannot be required, vendors and contractors will be required to "submit a statement indicating whether the employees who will perform work on the Orange County contract are paid at least the living wage amount. If such employees do not make at least $12.76 per hour, the contractor or vendor will be asked to indicate in the statement the actual amount paid to such employees. For bid projects, this statement would be submitted as part of the bid packet."
Last night marked the beginning of a new phase for proponents of the Mountain To Seat Trail (MST) in Orange County. After several years of silence, the Orange County Department of Environment, Agriculture, Parks and Recreation (DEAPR) held a meeting at the Cane Creek Community Center on Orange Grove road, inviting all landowners touched by the "planning corridor" from Occoneechee Mountain to the Haw River, mostly following Cane Creek from its headwaters to the Haw River confluence. Around 275 people were invited and around 75 were in attendance.
See the planning corridor map here: http://www.orangecountync.gov/document_center/DEAPR/MST_thru_Orange_Co.pdf
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