Chapel Hill Herald
Saturday, December 11, 2004
On Monday night the Chapel Hill Town Council once again grabbed division from the jaws of unity. As was the case with the Airport Road renaming six months ago, the council seemed largely in agreement about the repairs that are needed for the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery. Disagreements arose on how to schedule and pay for them. Somehow, once again, a 5-4 vote resulted.
Political observers who make a fetish of looking for divisions on the council tend to overlook the fact that this council usually operates near consensus. Monday night, after the cemetery vote, they went on to consider a number of issues including some potentially thorny questions regarding the university. The votes were unanimous.
Those fostering incivility, name-calling, and divisiveness on the council should have been called on it by Mayor Kevin Foy. The mayor is supposed to run the meetings in an effective, inclusive, and deliberative manner. Usually, he does a better job.
According to the right, liberals love to throw money at things. This is just what Dorothy Verkerk and Edith Wiggins did with the cemetery repair issue last Monday night. There was controversy over how to spend the $150,000 allocated to the repairs, so they came up with the idea of spending another $70,000. And, thanks to Mayor Foy's readiness to bang the gavel, a $40,000 cost savings proposed by Cam Hill was not even discussed.
Here's how Cam Hill described the problem in a letter to Foy:
I had met with Gaines Steer (of the Last Unicorn) and Bill Wyatt (an associated welder) and they had assured me of two things:
#1. That the Di/Phi fences are in no immediate danger of irredeemable deterioration. We need not be in any hurry to restore these fences; we can explore all possible options.
#2. There are lower cost alternatives to the proposed $52,000 restoration proposal.
The Chapel Hill Town Council finally bit the bullet and made this name change. Seems like this was not a great process no matter how you slice it. Next question: What should they rename Martin Luther King Street over off of Legion Road?
I'm serious. The previous MLK Street in the Public Housing neighborhood off Legion Road will need to be renamed now that Airport Road is to have the MLK moniker. I have a suggestion, though some might feel that it fails to get away from our history of naming Public Housing streets after African Americans: How about naming the street for late Councilmember Barbara Booth Powell.
Many of you may not remember Councilmember Powell, but she served in the mid 1990's until her untimely death from cancer. Barbara served on the Council with me and was an outstanding advocate for affordable housing and public housing. Her leadership was critical to the development of the Rainbow Heights public housing in Chapel Hill. Her career was spent working for the state of North Carolina in the Department of Commerce investing in affordable housing and economic development projects across North Carolina.
Guest Post by Janeen Gingrich
In response to the November 29th domestic violence homicide of
Shennel McKendall, 37, on UNC's campus, the Family Violence Prevention
Center of Orange County and Family Violence & Rape Crisis of
Chatham County are hosting a vigil tonight at 5:30pm at the Franklin
Street Post Office. For further details about the homicide, please see
the Raleigh News and Observer articles entitled “Man kills wife,
self†from November 30th, 2004 and “Murder-suicide prompts
focus on prevention†on December 2nd, 2004.
In light of these events, please join us in sending the message that domestic violence will not be tolerated in our community.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE COMMUNITY VIGIL
Tuesday, December 7, 2004
5:30 p.m. – Rain or Shine
Franklin Street Post Office, Chapel Hill
For additional information, please call (919) 929-3872.
Organized by the Family Violence Prevention Center of Orange County and Family Violence and Rape Crisis of Chatham County
Guest Post by Steven Sherman
On Saturday, December 4th, community members heard powerful, disturbing testimony about why North Carolina needs collective bargaining for public sector workers. The context was a public hearing (the third in the state) held by the International Worker Justice Campaign at the Chapel Hill Public Library.
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