In addition to being a fascinating drama, the John McCormick saga is also a cautionary tale for us. I never met the man, but I was long aware that something was not right with him. I knew for a fact that he was a slum lord with properties in my neighborhood, and I had also heard rumors that he was involved with the crack trade.
Now of course these were just rumors, and I was in no position to do anything about them. But if I knew a little, I have to think the Chapel Hill Carrboro Board of Education knew a lot more. It's hard to believe that this man, now known for shady real estate deals and thought to be living the life of a fugitive drug kingpin on the lam, was responsible for legally advising our school system. That concerns me. I always wondered why the school board did not take action to remove this questionable character. In hindsight I can now say they absolutely should have done something, and that they may have been putting our schools at risk by continuing to work with him for many years.
According to the Chapel Hill eNews, the NC Department of Transportation and the Town of Chapel Hill will share the cost of "rehabilitation and expansion of the traffic signal system serving Chapel Hill and Carrboro." Part of this project includes the replacement of old copper wire with fiber optic communication cable. This means hopefully sometime in 2011 we'll have a fiber network to deliver broadband Internet connections to people via wireless. Now we need to stop legislation built to prevent municipalities from building networks.
From the Town of Chapel Hill eNews: (subscribe here)
- Rehabilitation and Expansion of Traffic Signal System: The Council approved a plan for the rehabilitation and expansion of the traffic signal system serving Chapel Hill and Carrboro. The $5 million project with the NC Department of Transportation requires a local cost-share of $450,000.
Growth in the northwest part of town has been one of the most discussed issues in Chapel Hill during this Council business year.
I expect that the Council will approve a six month moratorium on development in this part of town at its meeting on Monday night. During this time the newly appointed Northern Area Task Force will craft a new vision for the area.
I am serving on this task force as are fellow OP'ers George Cianciolo, Marc ter Horst and Laurin Easthom. It is being ably chaired by Del Snow.
We had our first meeting last night, and I was pretty happy with it.
A few key goals that folks enumerated:
-Taking measures to make the area more friendly for bicycle and pedestrian uses.
-Ensuring that as redevelopment occures in this quadrant, folks are not priced out of town.
-Taking a direction with new development that emphasizes transit more.
The title of this post was Tuesday's Chapel Hill News headline. The News' quote from School Board member Lisa Stuckey speaks volumes:
"I think we're caught in a situation where our district continues to grow, the state continues to implement pay raises which are badly needed by teachers and other employees," said school board member Lisa Stuckey, who is serving on that committee.
"And it would be quite ironic if in meeting the demands of growth and in working to bring staff wages to appropriate levels we would then have to cut staff positions," she added. "And I see that as quite likely this year."
Read the whole story for more details. Or read the fine column recently published by Mark Peters.
There was also a column in Wednesday's paper by schools superintendent Neil Pedersen. I could not find a link to it online.
It's Bike-To-Work Week, and Meiling Arounnarath at the N&O points us to several related events going on this week. Unfortunately two of them were yesterday, but one remains:
“Bike-In Movie Nightâ€Â: 8 p.m. Friday, meet in the gravel lot behind Back Alley Bikes, 108 N. Graham St., Chapel Hill.
I'd love to participate, but it's hard to bike from my bedroom to my office down the hall. Are you biking to work this week?
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