Comments on: De-annexation bill underlines concerns

By: Mark Gill

Mark Gill — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 15:12:39 +0000

I would offer that Mayor Chilton’s response is indeed fitting facts to his opinion - for which he indicates a dislike.

Nearly a year and a half have passed while annexees have done without the services noted above. Yet the town has reaped millions of dollars in tax revenue from citizens.

The annexation was also timed to prevent annexed citizens from voting in the most recent election cycle.

What Mayor Chilton has failed to reveal to readers is when the annexees will have their roads cared for by the town, or when the fire station will actually go into operation, or when the Highlands will have sidewalks for children to use to get to school. Readers may be quite shocked to find out just how much longer the annexees have to wait to see any real benefit of their tax dollars.

Mayor Chilton owes it to the citizens of Carrboro to provide the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

By: Katrina R

Katrina R — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 02:24:58 +0000

I appreciate the mayor’s commenting on the issues that are of concern to my neighbors. He and other BOA members have often stated that it is customary not to annex the roads….” I guess I’d like to point out that it is customary for Corporate executives to build in golden parachutes ( large cash compensation packages) for themselves as they bankrupt public companies. Does that make it right ?
When I spoke to Moses Carey about the issue of not annexing the roads, he laughed. He said he’d never heard of that. When I spoke to Chuck Edwards at the DOT as soon as we found out our roads would not be annexed, he said that they could not force the town to accept the roads, but in most cases roads were annexed in the same calendar year as the properties adjacent to those roads.

It is a loophole in the annexation law, one that Carrboro made very good use of, and for the ingenuity, I applaud the town manager and attorney for drafting such an annexation plan. It is still wrong.

And, make no mistake, the BOA had no intention of building sidewalks on Rogers Rd. before Sharon Cook and I went through the town’s selection criteria and found that Rogers Road she be at the very top of the list based on their own criteria. The other sidewalk being built in the area is a DOT project, not a Carrboro project.

And BTW, we still have no mention of progress toward the northern fire station, do we ?

By: Mark Chilton

Mark Chilton — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 12:12:50 +0000

The Town has annexed the streets in the Highlands per the same procedure that municipalities use all over North Carolina, which is a phased transition from NCDOT to Town maintenance. The Town is also moving ahead full speed with the design of the station and construction will begin as soon as is feasible.

While some folks are seeking to make the facts fit their opinion, the truth is that Carrboro has been working hard to bring as-good (or better) municipal services to northeast Carrboro as we have anywhere else in town.

Shared ride feeder bus service began last year and we will soon have a regular bus route on Rogers Road. The town has dropped plans for numerous other sidewalks in favor of building sidewalks leading to the Highlands neighborhood.

The Citizen owes it to its readers to seek out more than one point of view on a topic of this kind. No one at the Town of Carrboro was given any opportunity to respond to the assertions contained in your article.