Government

UNC ignores town committee

I loved this article in the DTH last week. It says that UNC administrators will not review or respond to any of the reports of the Chapel Hill's Horace Williams Citizens Committee. The HWCC (of which I am a member) is the Town's opportunity to develop our own vision fo rthe prpoerty that will someday be the home of Carolina North. We just finished laboring over a point-by-point analysis of the latest hints we have from UNC (they have not submitted a plan to the Town). We compared UNC's concepts to our previous report (PDF), which laid out the Town's objectives for the Horace Williams property in great detail.

Memo to the Chapel Hill Town Council

Your new microphones have MUTE buttons on them. They also make a very unpleasant amplified noise when you swing them back and forth from your mouth. If you use one, you won't have to do the other. Those of us playing along at home thank you.

Who'll Win the Superior Court Judge Lottery?

Will Joe Buckner not have to wait until Wade Barbour retires before getting a seat on the Superior Court bench? Conventional wisdom has been that Buckner, our local Chief District Court Judge, would be a strong candidate to replace Barbour sometime in the future; but the General Assembly might have given him an early chance at it if Easley is willing to appoint him to the newly-created seat in the Orange-Chatham Judicial District.

Adam Stein, Steve Bernholz, and Jill Cheek have other ideas.

A New Superior Court Judge!

In the newly ratified version of the state appropriations bill, the Orange-Chatham Judicial District (15B) is slated to get a new, second superior court judge. Here's the language:

"The Governor shall appoint a superior court judge for the additional judgeship in Superior Court District 15B as authorized by subsection (b) of this section to serve until December 31, 2006. The successor to that judge shall be elected in the 2006 election to serve an eight-year term."

The way I've seen it interpreted, this means that the governor has to make an appointment quickly. Rumors are, of course, flying around the courthouses in Orange and Chatham. Who will want this new job? My unscientific poll leads me to the conclusion that, by general agreement, there are three leading contenders and one dark horse:

Leading contenders:

1. Joe Buckner
2. Joe Hackney
3. Lunsford Long

And, as disturbing as this might be, the dark horse:

1. Jill Cheek

Tuesday Night Live

7:41 pm: Here is some live, during meeting coverage of the May 18, 2004 Carrboro Board of Aldermen by me, Alderman Mark Chilton.

Hopefully this account will be more interesting than being present in person!

The meeting began with some introductory remarks from Bo Lozoff - the man who is starting a job-training bio-diesel production facility in Orange County. The Mayor referred him to the Public Works director to discuss the town purchasing bio-diesel from his new facility.

Now we are on the Consent Agenda. This is usually an amalgam of non-controversial items. Scheduling issues, minutes, two contract awards (engineering and health insurance). We are also changing the speed limit on part of Homestead Road.

I will report more in a few minutes.

8:19 pm: Now we are talking about adopting new parking standards downtown. We are considering giving developers the ability to pay the town in lieu of creating parking for their buildings.

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