Tonight, the Chapel Hill Town Council is expected to enact fees on users of their park and ride lots. This fee is in response to UNC’s decision to start charging at their own park and ride lots. Leaving Town-owned park and ride lots free would create a traffic nightmare, so the Town is trying to start their own permit program. I’m sure that the extra revenue that will be generated from this fee is also a consideration, especially in a tight budget year.
While most people (75% by CHT estimates) who use the park and ride lots are affiliated with UNC, there is a sizable minority who do not use the park and ride to travel to campus. UNC students and employees will pay for their permit through UNC (because of taxing and payroll deduction issues), and that money will then be given to the Town. Non-affiliated users will purchase their permits directly from the Town. The resolution being considered tonight sets the fee at $250/year, or about $1/weekday.
I understand the importance of implementing the fee, but there are two major issues that have not been addressed:
A WRAL report on a recent study out of the University of Wisconsin has Wake County as the healthiest county in the state.
Orange County placed a respectable second overall with first place finishes in the categories of health behaviors, clinical care, and social and economic factors and second place finishes in morbidity and mortality. Unfortunately, our overall score was depressed by an eighth-place finish in physical environment. I guess we know where we have our work cut out for us.
The Orange County scores are at: http://www.countyhealthrankings.org/app/north-carolina/2013/orange/county/outcomes/overall/snapshot/by-rank
If you live in Carrboro, you will be selecting your newest member of the Board of Aldermen today. Now, it's true you only have one option, but it's a really good one!
For the rest of us, there's not much to do but speculate about the turnout and celebrate Damon's victory. How many voters do you think will cast ballots today?
As Terri Buckner describes in her commentary in yesterday's Chapel Hill News, we could be seeing the end, as we know it, of our very successful recycling program in Orange County.
Some will say that since the county has already privatized recycling
in the urban areas, this proposed expansion to county residents should
not create any concerns. But if all recycling in Orange County is
privatized, the current system is effectually dead, including all the
outreach and education, the goodwill recycling and composting at public
events like Hog Day, the dedicated staff constantly seeking new markets,
and the service to both school systems that has always been handled by
the county. In other words, we'll be left with the same kind of
recycling program that everyone else in the state has.
In 1997 as
part of the state's required plan, we adopted a goal of 61 percent
waste reduction. We're just a smidgeon away from achieving that goal (59
percent). We've accomplished something amazing, something worth
fighting to protect.
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