Longtime educators and community leaders R.D. and Euzelle Smith, for whom Smith Middle School is named, are just two of the individuals who contributed their stories for the Because We’re Still Here (and Moving) project. This portrait is one of dozens of community members photographed for the project. Photo by Titus Heagins.

Hidden Voices, an ArtsCenter-based youth theater project debuts the result of a two-year collaboration between local students, university classes and the elders of the historic black neighborhoods of Chapel Hill and Carrboro.

The first part of the project, entitled Because We’re Still Here (and Moving), opened last week with a photo and scrapbook show and the distribution of a walking map that details the landmarks of the neighborhoods.

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Update: We corrected the stormwater mitigation cost estimate for the lot behind the KFC on East Main Street to between $100,000 and $200,000.

By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer

While stopping short of calling outright for a Chapel Hill-style special taxation district for downtown, Mayor Mark Chilton and members of the Carrboro Board of Aldermen said maintaining plentiful, free parking downtown will be difficult if funded only by the town.

At a work session on parking at Town Hall Tuesday night, the board reviewed a parking study being conducted in conjunction with the town by university planning students. The study will examine the availability, use and future projections for downtown public and private lots, and town planners are hoping it will deliver some additional insights into solving an anticipated crunch for parking spaces as downtown develops.

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Red flowers of female Red Maple. Photo by Ken Moore.

By Ken Moore

In February, I love observing the daily swelling of buds, the bright coloring of stems and the flowering of tiny winter annuals on the ground and shrubs and trees above. Simultaneously, this constant assault of springtime awakenings makes me panic with the realization that well-intentioned chores and worthy projects set aside for the winter months are far from completed.

My moods of panic result in negative outbursts like “I hate spring!” and “spring is highly over-rated!” My annual vocal springtime pronouncements are by now expected by friends. My gardening friend, Sally, always thoughtfully reminds me that the word “hate” should be eliminated from one’s vocabulary and she offers sincere condolences that I find anything but joy with the re-awakenings of spring.

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Virginia and Milton Julian have laughed their way through the differences. Photo by Valarie Schwartz.

Some of life’s occurrences have a one-word explanation: Fate.

That’s how Milton and Virginia Julian have looked at life since meeting one spring day in 1945 after Milton knocked on the door of his brother Ira’s home and a delightful blonde responded.

“Who are you?” Virginia asked in her native Greensboro accent.

“Well, who are you?” Milton tossed back with a quickening heart. “Is Ira home?”

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Members of the black community share stories with Day McLaughlin’s fifth-grade class. Photo by Amy Thomas.

By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

On a Wednesday morning in Day McLaughlin’s fifth-grade classroom, the 10- and 11-year-old students are busy working on their first book, which will be published this summer.

For the book, each student is writing a story based on a memory told by a member of the black community. When asked what the hardest part about writing the story is, student Skylar Frisch expressed the struggles of many writers.

“You have to find a part where you can stop it,” she said.

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By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

More than 100 farmers, county officials and community members gathered on Tuesday to discuss the drought and the changing face of agriculture at the 10th annual Orange County Agricultural Summit.

Rep. David Price expressed his concerns regarding the drought to the crowd at the Orange Enterprises Building in Hillsborough, which is being considered as a possible site for a shared-use value-added food-processing center.

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By Taylor Sisk
Staff Writer

Citing insufficient funding from the state, Caring Family Network – the primary provider of mental health treatment in Orange, Person and Chatham counties – announced it will be discontinuing most of its services within the next month.

Caring Family Network is a private agency that contracts to provide mental health and substance abuse services through the OPC Area Program. OPC is a local government agency tasked with providing oversight and management of mental health, developmental disability and substance abuse services in the three counties. Prior to last spring, Caring Family Network had been serving approximately 1,000 clients in Orange County.

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The drop-out rate in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools in 2006-07 fell to 1.12 percent, the lowest drop-out rate of any school district in the state.

The number of drop-outs in the district fell to 41, from 57 students in 2005-06, a 28-percent improvement. In North Carolina, the overall drop-out rate rose to 5.24 percent, a slight increase from 2005-06.

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The 2008 Summer Reading Program Book Selection Committee at UNC has selected Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights by Kenji Yoshino.

As part of its summer reading program, UNC asks all first-year and incoming transfer students to read a book over the summer and participate in small group discussions led by faculty and staff once they arrive on campus.

Yoshino, the Guido Calabresi Professor of Law at Yale University, specializes in constitutional law, law and literature and Japanese law and society.

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The Chapel Hill Police Department have charged a Chapel Hill man with first-degree murder in connection with a shooting in the Northside neighborhood Tuesday afternoon.

William Albert Stroud, 27, of 222 Knolls St., was apprehended by police after he was located with his vehicle on Crest Drive. Police had received information that the suspect had fled the scene of the shooting, near Sykes Street and Gomains Avenue, in a burgundy Chevrolet Cavalier.

The victim, Marshall Ralph Brown, 51, was found by police lying on the ground with a gunshot wound to the back and died later at UNC Hospitals.

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The Town of Carrboro will end its annual loose-leaf collection on February 29. Loose-leaf collection is in residential areas only. Residents are requested to follow these collection service guidelines:

• Leaves may be raked curbside for collection
• Leaves must be free of all debris (leaves only)
• Leaves should not be placed in the street, drainage ditch, bike lane or on sidewalks
• Leaves may be bagged and placed curbside for collection (no more than eight plastic bags or
unlimited paper bags, weighing no more than 50 pounds each)

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Work will begin next week on a new electrical duct bank to upgrade the connection between the electrical substation on Cameron Avenue and the main campus of UNC. The work will cause some traffic delays and changes in on-street parking along McCauley Street and a small stretch of Pittsboro Street.

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The Drug and Alcohol Awareness Team and the Chapel Hill Police Department will sponsor a series of workshops on parent education awareness of teen alcohol and drug issues.

CHPD crisis counselor Matt Sullivan will lead the workshops, which will provide information on how to keep teens safe from the harmful consequences of substance use. All sessions will be held at 7 p.m. on the following dates:

• Feb. 20, McDougle Middle School;
• Mar. 6, Carrboro High School; and
• Mar. 11, Smith Middle School.

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The UNC Department of physics and astronomy will hold the 8th Annual Physics Demo Show, Energy All Around Us! On March 1 at 2 p.m.

The show will address questions such as: Why do we need energy? Where can we find energy? How can we conserve energy? Physics professors and graduate students will perform fun physics demonstrations.

The event is fun and educational and is suited for all ages. The show will be held in Room 215 of Phillips Hall on the UNC campus and is free and open to the public.
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The Alamance County man accused of killing a 16-year-old Mebane resident has been charged with felony death by vehicle, felony hit and run and driving while impaired.

Scott Steven Belling, 47, is being held in the Orange County Jail on $70,000 bond.

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