Colin Rumbley, a UNC student from Charlotte, operates the cutting station on the job site of Chatham County Habitat for Humanity’s new energy saving home project.

Chatham Habitat for Humanity sets a brisk pace

Home Store doing well, but the group needs more volunteers for projects

By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer

PITTSBORO — In a little neighborhood not far from George Moses Horton Middle School, the sounds of the weekend include hammers and circular saws. Last weekend there also were the sounds of music, speeches and cheers.

That’s because Chatham County Habitat for Humanity turned the keys over to new homeowners Javier and Alma Benítez. There were balloons for the kids, plenty of food on the grill and a lot of smiles. And around the corner the work kept going.

The Cornwallis Road neighborhood off of U.S. 15-501 has been one of Chatham Habitat’s longest running efforts. The organization has dedicated more than a dozen homes there in the last decade.

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By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer

The Carrboro Board of Aldermen approved a six-month development moratorium by a vote of 5-2, Tuesday night, putting a temporary hold on future development of roughly 3,700 acres while the town considers new rules for the area.

After roughly an hour and a half of public comment followed by debate by the board, the majority agreed that the relatively low density of projects proposed in the area in recent years along with the lack of commercial development necessitated a timeout to find ways to encourage developments with those goals.

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By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

In a decision that pleased no one, questions are raised about sending waste out of county

The Orange County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously on Tuesday to develop a solid waste transfer station at the Eubanks Road landfill.

The board considered three transfer station sites, including two sites off U.S. 70 in the Eno Economic Development District and the Eubanks Road landfill. The landfill will reach capacity in 2010, and the county plans to build the transfer station in order to transfer its solid waste out of the county.

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By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer

Three new words have entered the lexicon in the saga of Carolina North. So get ready for the definition and the ensuing conversation about Centers, Interwoven and Grid.

University planners revealed three initial plans—the preferred term is scenarios—for Carolina North at the first of a series of public meetings on the possibilities for the 963-acre parcel.

Jack Evans, executive director of the university’s Carolina North effort, said the scenarios are each meant to emphasize a design strategy. They’re intended to start a discussion about the different approaches.

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By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

It’s that time of year again. A familiar yellow dust has settled on cars, houses and anything left outside, leaving a trail of sneezing and sniffling victims behind.

But contrary to popular belief, the yellow stuff we can see isn’t what makes allergy patients feel so terrible this time of year.

According to Teresa Tarrant, assistant professor in the Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology at UNC’s School of Medicine, the plant pollens we inhale can’t be seen with the naked eye. The visible yellow dust is part of the plant pollenation process, but is too big for inhalation.

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By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer

CHAPEL HILL—The Chapel Hill Town Council agreed to participate in an effort by the university to set up two pilot neighborhood committees, a move similar to a system looked at during a recent town-gown trip to Madison, Wis.

In response to a request from Chancellor James Moeser, the council agreed at its meeting Monday night to ask the town’s planning board for help in finding volunteers to participate in committees reviewing two university projects.

Moeser suggested a pilot program focused on the two projects in a letter sent to the council on Feb. 28.

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UNC News Services

Services have been scheduled for Jason Ray, a member of UNC’s cheerleading team who died this week.

Ray, 21, died this Monday at Hackensack University Medical Center. Ray, a UNC senior, was injured in a pedestrian/vehicle accident in Fort Lee, NJ, before the UNC Men’s basketball team game on Friday. He was pronounced dead by doctors at 8:38 a.m.

The family will hold a viewing and visitation from 6 to 9 p.m. on Friday, March 30, at Concord First Assembly in Concord. The funeral service is Saturday at 11 a.m., also at Concord First Assembly.

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By Taylor Sisk
Staff Writer

Chapel Hill criminal-defense attorney J. Kirk Osborn died in the early hours of Sunday morning. He suffered a massive heart attack on Friday and had been admitted to UNC Hospitals. He was 64.

Osborne was known for keeping a remarkably low profile given the extraordinarily high visibility of several of the cases in which he served as defense attorney. He was equally known for his tenacity in the courtroom.

“I’ve heard him described [since his death] as a ‘warrior for justice,’” said Superior Court judge and former district attorney Carl Fox, “and certainly he was that. But he was a lot more.”

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Police seek suspect in RBC robbery attempt

An unidentified black male attempted to rob the RBC Centura Bank at 300 Weaver St. at 9:45 a.m. on Wednesday.

According to police reports, the suspect showed the teller a black handgun, but the teller did not give him any money and he left the bank on foot. The suspect is still at large.

Witnesses described the suspect as having a dark complexion, approximately 180 pounds, medium build, between 5 feet 11 inches and 6 feet tall, in his 30s, with long corn rows or braids and a mustache. He was wearing a hooded grey sweatshirt with a logo on the back and dark colored pants.

Anyone with information related to the attempted robbery should contact Investigator Horton at the Carrboro Police Department at (919)918-7397 or (919)918-7408.

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Moratoriums are, as Planning Board chair James Carnahan put it, “a crude tool.” Crude, but effective. And, sometimes, entirely necessary to give a local government time to adjust to meet a demand not anticipated.

They are also all the rage this spring in Orange County. Carrboro signed on to the idea on Tuesday and, should the Board of County Commissioners agree, the six-month clock would start ticking in mid-April.

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By Adam Searing
N.C. Justice Center’s Health Access Coalition

Nearly $190 million. That’s the just-released annual “profit” of “nonprofit” NC Blue Cross Blue Shield, NC’s largest health insurer. $3.1 million. That’s the latest annual compensation for Blue Cross CEO Bob Greczyn. In fact, when you add in this year’s nearly $600,000 raise, Mr. Greczyn has seen a 261 percent rise in his income at Blue Cross since the year 2000. The typical North Carolina worker, whose premiums make Mr. Greczyn’s outsize salary and profits possible, has seen a 1.7 percent drop in yearly wages over the same period of time.

NC Blue is hardly acting like a nonprofit organization anymore. Compare Mr. Greczyn’s pay with three much larger for-profit companies: Whirlpool, UPS and GlaxoSmithKline. NC Blue Cross operates only in North Carolina and employs about 4,500, mostly in Chapel Hill and Durham. Whirlpool, the global manufacturer of home appliances, had sales of $19 billion and employs 80,000 people worldwide. Whirlpool CEO Jeff Fettig made $3.2 million in 2005. UPS made $42.6 billion delivering packages in 2005 and employs 427,700 people worldwide. UPS CEO Michael Eskew made $3.1 million in 2005.

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You can take the boy out of the paper, but …
The confessions of a once-and-future paperboy

By Jock Lauterer

As veteran Chapel Hill journalist Roland Giduz reminded me last week, I began my newspaper career by hawking his short-lived but zesty Chapel Hill News Leader around town at the tender age of 8. (The irony is, the News Leader was published out of the present location of Sid’s Surplus, right there in Carrboro! Feels like déjà vu all over again.)

As I grew older and stronger, able to tote more papers, so grew my paper route. By the time I “retired” at age 15, I had three paper routes — prompting legendary Chapel Hill Weekly editor Jim Shumaker to quip memorably, “Jock, you’re making more money than my reporters!” (which was probably truer than I suspected at the time.)

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By Frank Heath
Sports Columnist

It’s that week again, one of the most difficult times of the year for a Carolina fan. You know the week: the one after the UNC men’s basketball team plays and loses its final game of the season. Much more often than not, that’s what’s happened; not every year can bring an NCAA title to Franklin Street. And for some reason—maybe it’s just me, but—don’t the Tar Heels always seem to save the most creatively depressing manner of losing for last? Can there be a worse ending than Sunday’s 2-for-21 shooting (or whatever it was) over the final 11 minutes of the game? Ouch.

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By Chris Fitzsimon

Governor Mike Easley has had better months, and the way he responds to a recent flurry of bad news may define his last two years in office. Easley presented his budget to state lawmakers in late February, touting his proposal to remove more than half a million of the state’s poorest taxpayers from the tax rolls and to reduce taxes for another 600,000 people.

But a report from the N.C. Justice Center found that Easley’s plan would actually eliminate state income taxes for 71,000 people, not the 500,000 the governor suggested. Easley’s staff mounted a semantic defense in the media, saying his plan would cover that “universe of people.” The controversy has subsided for now, but is likely to return when the legislative staff analyzes Easley’s plan as lawmakers debate it.

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By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

It’s an area they know fairly well, so it made sense to let Frank Porter Graham Elementary School students lead visitors in an exploration of the frogs, fish and other stream creatures to be found in a newly preserved section of Morgan Creek tucked off of Fordham Boulevard.

Thanks to a conservation agreement announced at a ceremony Monday by the Chapel Hill Town Council and the Botanical Foundation, those children—and their children—will be able to enjoy the creek for years to come.

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