The Carrboro High School women’s ensemble, chamber choir and string orchestra will perform at the Carrboro High Arts Department’s inaugural concert on October 14.

The groups will perform a wide variety of music, from gentle lullabies from the British countryside to high-speed ragas from India and Brazilian dance music. The concert will be held at 3 p.m. at the Culbreth Middle School Auditorium.
The group has requested a donation of $5 for adults and $3 for students to cover concert costs.

The McDougle Elementary PTA will host a Fall Festival on October 27 from 10 a.m. to 2p.m.

The festival will feature potato sack races, miniature golf, a cake walk, craft tables and more. In addition, a French bistro will offer cookies, cakes and other baked goods, while lunch food will be available in the cafeteria.

Jump-rope team Skipsations will conduct a workshop and NC Quest Center will provide a martial arts demonstration. The festival will also feature a silent auction, which will include beach weekends, golf outings, restaurant dinners and more.

Before the festival, McDougle students will sell raffle tickets for $1. Raffle prizes include a Ninendo Wii, an iPod Nano, a $100 Best Buy gift certificate and a complete set of Harry Potter books.

The PTA Council and the League of Women Voters will host a Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education candidate forum on October 15.

All five candidates for the board plan to attend the forum. Members of the public may submit questions at the forum or in advance using a form available at www.ptacouncil.com.

The forum will be held in the Chapel Hill Town Council Chambers at the Chapel Hill Town Hall, from 7 to 9 p.m. It will be televised on Time Warner Cablevision channel 18.

Audio will be posted online after the event at www.ptacouncil.com.

Smith Middle School has been selected by NC Beautiful to take part in the 22nd annual Azalea Celebration.

The school will receive 20 azalea bushes to be used in its 2007 beautification projects. NC Beautiful’s Azalea Celebration rewards state community groups for improving their communities through creative landscape projects.

The sixth-grade science classes will plant the bushes in a courtyard between two wings of the school to provide a backdrop for two memorial trees that were planted to honor students who have passed away. The project will enable the students to learn about ecosystems, photosynthesis and soil quality.

The Azalea Celebration has awarded more than 200,000 plants to approximately 3,000 nonprofits. NC Beautiful focuses on merit-based programs that provide hands-on experience in preserving resources and promoting constructive action toward environmental stewardship.

The Recreation and Parks Department is offering several classes at the Century Center.

Female Self-Defense Training, October 20 and 27. 9:30-11:30 a.m. Ages 13-65. $80

Parent-Child Yoga, from October 30 to December 4. 3:15-4:15 p.m. Ages 3-5 and parent. $42

Children’s Yoga, from October 30 to December 4. 4:30-5:30 p.m. Ages 6-12. $42

Drawing, from October 31 to November 28. 4:30-5:30 p.m. Ages 6-11. $42

Contact Wendell Rogers at 918-7371.

Orange County Animal Services will host the fourth annual dog swim from 12 to 2 p.m. on Saturday at the Meadowmont Club and Pool in Chapel Hill.

Refreshments will be provided for dogs and people, and staff will award a “best-dressed” prize for the dog with the best outfit.

In addition, a local trainer will be on site to answer questions about dog behavior.

The event is sponsored by the Meadowmont Club and Pool and UNC’s Helping PAWS. Admission is $5 for dogs and free for people. Proceeds will benefit Animal Services’ Shelter Division.

To enter, dogs must be current on vaccinations, not in season and on a leash. For more information or directions, contact Sarah Fallin at 967-7383 or sfallin@co.orange.nc.us.

Special Events

• Oliver Rajamani Ensemble – Legendary Austin, TX act performs at the Bynum General Store, 950 Bynum Rd, Pittsboro. Fri, Oct 12, 7-9pm. Tickets $8 in advance, $10 at the door. Enjoy crepes, coffee tasting, culture and history. All ages welcome! For more info, call 542-0394 or email molly.matlock@chathamarts.org.
• CHICLE Cultural Program – A Home on the Field: How One Championship Team Inspires Hope for the Revival of Small Town America. Moving story of Siler City high school soccer team presented by Paul Cuadros. Free. Sunday, Oct 14 at 5pm. Chicle, 101 E Weaver St, 3rd floor, Carrboro. 933-0398, www.chi-cle.com.
• Friends of Bolin Creek Festival – Sat, Oct 20, 1-5pm at Umstead Park, Chapel Hill. Stream watch, info booths, kids’ activities, delicious food. Free! For more info, visit www.bolincreek.org.
• St. Paul A.M.E. Church 143rd Anniversary – Sun, Oct 21. Come celebrate this momentous occasion with us. The celebration begins with a Mr. St Paul Anniversary Coronation on Wed, Oct 17, at 7pm. Please join us for these very special dates. 101 N Merritt Mill Rd, Chapel Hill, 967-3961.
• Southern Ice – Acclaimed international flute soloist, recording artist and photographer highlights his trip to Antarctica in this visual, musical, and narrative presentation. Sun, Oct 28 at the Seymour Center, 3pm. 2551 Homestead Rd, Chapel Hill. For more info, contact Susan at sstrobel@nc.rr.com.

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Greetings, Carrboro Citizen readers. Here’s a little bit about what’s going on in Chatham County this month.
The campaign for the November election is heating up. Countywide, there is a referendum on whether or not to enact the land transfer tax, which is stirring up passion on both sides of the issue. In Pittsboro, Mayor Randy Voller is running for re-election along with three challengers to incumbent Pittsboro commissioners. Michelle Berger, Jim Hinkley and Gary Simpson seek to oust incumbents Gene Brooks and Clinton Bryan. Max Cotten, another incumbent commissioner, is challenging Voller.

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Senate race is on
Elizabeth Dole – recently spotted hobnobbing, fundraising and campaigning in the mountains with her man – has a challenger now that Jim Neal has made it official.

Neal, a Greensboro native who now lives in Chapel Hill, had been looking at the race for a while. Since he’s worked out of state for much of his career as an investment banker and financial advisor, he’s not a household name among Dems at the local level.

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Sports fan

Hold on a second… Your paper has been doing a great job covering local news and sports, especially what’s happening in our middle schools. But you seem to be a little biased toward some of the schools. For example, in the most recent issue, the piece about recent tennis and track matches between McDougle and Smith Middle Schools, instead of starting the piece with who won, Smith, you chose your headline to reflect who lost, McDougle. Shouldn’t your coverage be a little more neutral?

Janet Whitesides
Mom of Smith Middle 6th grader

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Mark your calendars

This newspaper has been running notices of late for a meeting on November 5 at the Carrboro High School Commons. The subject of the meeting should be of particular interest to anyone who regularly travels Smith Level Road, because from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. the state Department of Transportation will have on display plans for the long-awaited widening of Smith Level Road.

The meeting is billed as an “informal workshop,” and there will be town officials and DOT engineers and project managers on hand to walk you through the designs and take written comments on the plan.

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Incumbent support

I am in enthusiastic agreement with the Sierra Club in supporting Mayor Mark Chilton for mayor of Carrboro, and Alderman Dan Coleman, Alderman Joal Hall Broun and candidate Lydia Lavelle for the Carrboro Board of Aldermen.

Mayor Chilton has enjoyed great success in his first term as mayor. He has been an effective and distinguished ambassador for Carrboro in working with other governments. He has also demonstrated his skill in leading the board and in managing board processes. Mayor Chilton is an effective communicator and negotiator as evidenced by his success in convincing NCDOT to add pedestrian and bicycle facilities on Estes Drive and Smith Level Road. He remains committed to diversifying Carrboro’s tax base and has consistently advocated for diversity in our housing stock.

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Supporting Broun

We encourage the re-election of Alderman Joal Broun to the Carrboro Board of Aldermen. Joal is a long-time resident of Carrboro and she has worked in Carrboro as a public defender. Joal has volunteered and served the community as a former member of the OWASA Board and the Orange County Dispute Settlement Center.

Joal posseses a keen awareness of both the long-term and short-term needs of the community for balanced and sustainable development. She has pushed tirelessly to double the amount of commercial space in Carrboro as a whole, not just downtown, in order to alleviate the burden on residential taxpayers. She has worked to develop infrastructure improvements, such as sidewalks and the purchase of the future public works facility. Joal pushed for the purchase of the Adams Tract, Martin Luther King Jr. Park and for the lease of the land to build the new fire station.

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Lavelle and Coleman
I worked with Carrboro Board of Aldermen candidates Lydia Lavelle and Dan Coleman for a year on the New Horizons Task Force, which was created to strengthen communication between the board of aldermen and residents of the newly annexed areas of Carrboro. Dan was one of the alderman liaisons and Lydia, who lives in the annexed area, chaired the committee.

I found both Lydia and Dan to take their work very seriously and to be respectful, active listeners. Dan was very helpful in finding ways for us to navigate the Carrboro town government. Lydia’s leadership kept us on task and encouraged all task force members to participate. I have confidence that Dan and Lydia exemplify the type of thoughtful, balanced stewardship we need in Carrboro and would like to encourage my fellow citizens to vote for them in November.

Laura Wenzel
Chapel Hill

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By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer

Last year, in one of the more dramatic shifts in agricultural land use, Cedar Grove farmer Joe Thompson hauled in his first harvest of freshwater prawns, on land that had for generations yielded tobacco.

Thompson settled on prawns after hip surgery as a less labor-intensive crop. A tired but pleased Thompson phoned The Citizen to report another bumper crop of the crustaceans out of his pair of two-acre growing ponds.

“It’s looking pretty good,” Thomspon said. “We’ve got around 1,500 pounds.” The first batch, harvested in late September, was running in the seven-count range, he said. The second, brought in last weekend, was more in the 10 to 11-count range.

Thompson has distributed the prawns to local restaurants and sent a total of 250 pounds to Weaver Street Market, which has them on sale for $12.99 a pound. The taste is a little sweeter and less “fishy” than shrimp and their larger size makes them suitable for grilling and roasting.

A few prawn facts and a couple of tips for preparing them:

• Until recently, people used prawns and shrimp interchangeably, but now that prawn aquaculture has taken off, the term prawn gradually is being applied exclusively to freshwater varieties of Palaemonidae.
• They are sold head-on and their spines are a good bit stiffer, so handle with care.
• To avoid overcooking, remove from heat once the prawns turn orange and curl up.
• Save the heads for an excellent stock for gumbo or seafood stew.

For more about Thompson’s efforts to convert to prawn aquaculture along with recipes, prawn facts and photos, visit thompsonprawnfarm.com.