By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

This budget season’s back-and-forth is not just another year of budget negotiations, Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools Superintendent Neil Pedersen told parents at a budget meeting on Tuesday.

Pedersen outlined a number of potential budget cuts the schools could face if the district does not receive its requested budget, and stressed the importance of a tax rate increase.

“When we look at the magnitude of the shortfall this year, there’s no way to make reductions that don’t impact the children,” Pedersen said.

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By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education named Ephesus Elementary School principal Susan Wells as principal of Culbreth Middle School last week.

Before joining the Chapel-Hill Carrboro school district in 2004, Wells was assistant principal of Hawfields Middle School in the Burlington-Alamance school system.

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After nearly a week on the run, Bill Clinton, a local pet emu, was caught by Carrboro Animal Control last week and died after reportedly injuring itself during capture.

Former director of the Orange County Animal Shelter Pat Sanford owned the emu. Sanford has about 30 birds, including another emu named Janet Reno.

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CHHS students bike for cancer research
Seven high school students from Chapel Hill will bicycle 3,700 miles across the country this summer to raise funds for cancer research at UNC.

The students will ride with the Washington or Bust Cycle Tour, which starts in Maryland on June 10 and ends 10 weeks later in Washington.

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PTA Thrift Shops recognized its volunteers at the organization’s annual volunteer appreciation day. From left: Volunteers Donald Cooper, Kelly Bennett, Dorothy Horton, Karen Trocke-Kandah and Sheryl Emch. Photo by Barbara Jesse Black

By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

With volunteers contributing more than 14,000 hours in 2006, it’s no surprise that the PTA Thrift Shops’ annual volunteer appreciation day last week drew a crowd.
More than 70 people turned out for the event, which was held at the Chapel Hill Museum.

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Project Graduation co-chairs Emily Leadon (left) and Lindsay Clendaniel have been working since September to ensure this year’s celebration is a success. Photo by Susan Dickson

By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

After graduation on June 9, seniors from Chapel Hill High School and East Chapel Hill High School will gather for one last hurrah.

Thanks to “Project Graduation” student chairs Lindsay Clendaniel and Emily Leadon and their 55 committee members, this year’s graduates will certainly go out in style.

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Schools receive grants to fund projects

Two Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools have received grants to fund school projects.

Carrboro High School received a $5,950 grant from the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. Science teacher Robin Bulleri applied for the grant to fund a
biotechnology project at Carrboro High.

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The following is a statement from Speaker Joe Hackney on the House budget.

Just months before the start of this decade, Hurricane Floyd slowly pushed through eastern North Carolina. The storm pulled heavy rains along with it, but at first appeared to be nothing more than another relatively anonymous hurricane.

The truth proved to be far different. In the coming days, rivers spilled over their banks. Widespread flooding destroyed homes, businesses, communities and ways of life. About that same time, recession hit North Carolina and the nation. As we spent millions of dollars in savings to help hurricane victims, our thriving economy stalled, leaving us at times with more than a billion-dollar deficit.

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 By Adam Searing

North Carolina Medicaid is the state health program that covers almost one million children from very low-income families. It also covers another 600,000 people, but only if they fit into very specific categories such as lower-income pregnant women, parents in poverty, very low-income elderly folks and poor people with serious disabilities. In fact, about 70 percent of the money North Carolina spends for Medicaid goes to help the elderly and disabled. If someone who needs health care doesn’t fit into one of these categories it doesn’t matter how poor they are – they won’t qualify for Medicaid.

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By Kirk Ross

After a long weekend of negotiation between my conscience and my palate, I’ve finalized an internal agreement to give up corporate pork.

I know, I know, it seems impossible given the general pervasiveness of wonderful barbecue — not to mention that we are at the dawn of another grilling season. But based on a long-running concern about the economic and environmental consequences of massive hog operations and after spending a good deal of time of late hanging with farmers and the evangelicals of the Slow Food movement, I’m convinced that the price I’m paying for what’s coming from the packing houses of Smithfield, Hormel and others is far too high.

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Thank you for reporting on the situtation with the Caring Family Network consolidation of services in Orange County. This is a disturbing development, and you did a service to the general public by bringing this to our attention. I think it’s important to add a few key points to your coverage, however.

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Jock Lauterer

By Jock Lauterer

Look, I’ll be straight up with y’all: this ain’t spin.

While I have no financial capital invested in this paper, I do have a vested interest in the well-being of The Carrboro Citizen. Because I was present at the moment of conception and birth, if you will, I consider myself this paper’s Fairy Godfather (think: Disney’s “Cinderella”).

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Holly tree that is located at Carrboro’s future fire station site is estimated to be 200 years old. Photo by Ken Moore

By Ken Moore

Please Note: In my enthusiasm last week for “hugging” that 200-year-old Persimmon tree on the university campus, I failed to credit Betsy Green Moyer, photographer and co-editor of Paul Green’s Plant Book, for the image of that grand old specimen. (Betsy Moyer’s photo of the seldom-noticed tiny Persimmon flower appears on The Citizen website.)

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Linda Hazel Rickman Comer, age 66, died Sunday, May 20, 2007, in Chapel Hill, NC, from complications related to Alzheimer’s Disease.  Linda was born August 14, 1940, in Durham, NC.  Her parents were Aylor Louis Rickman and Hazel Dowdee Rickman.  She was a graduate of Durham High School and Watts School of Nursing.  She was retired from UNC Hospitals.

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Joe Patillo didn’t know he was part of an unauthorized painting crew that destroyed a community mural. Patillo says he was duped and, to top it off, didn’t even get paid. Photo by Kirk Ross

By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer

A bizarre chain of events Tuesday erased a mural painted five years ago by scores of residents as a community-building event — an act that has many outraged and wondering why someone would do such a thing.

“It’s really, really strange,” Francis Chan, owner of Jade Palace, said about the mid-day painting over of the community mural on the West side of his restaurant. “Why would somebody do this? It’s insane.”

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