By Mark Zimmerman

Orange County has always prided itself on being a progressive community that strives for fairness. When the Orange County Commissioners chose to add a referendum to the May 6 primary election ballot imposing a new sales tax on property, known as the transfer tax, it abandoned those principles.

The transfer tax is a regressive tax that will disproportionately impact lower-income homeowners, place an unnecessary burden on affordable housing and nonprofit organizations and unfairly concentrate our taxes on a minority of our fellow citizens. The way it works is that when you sell your home or some land, Orange County will take 0.4 percent of your selling price before giving you the rest of your proceeds.

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Editor’s note: Following is the statement by Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy regarding the death of Student Body President Eve Carson delivered on behalf of the Town Council at the start of Monday’s council meeting.

We begin this evening’s meeting by acknowledging the grief and pain that we are suffering at the loss of our colleague and friend, Eve Carson.

Eve was the president of Carolina’s student body, which is how many of us came to know her. But the more we got to know her, the more we understood what an extraordinary person she was, and how broadly and deeply she touched the lives of people in Chapel Hill and beyond.

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The Orange County Human Resources Commission recently announced the winners of the Human Relations Month essay contest.

Tristin VanOrd won first place, while Alex Cecil and Jenny Jin both won third place. The winners, selected from 170 entries, are all taught by Nancy Kindem of McDougle Middle School. The students read their essays at the Pauli Murray Human Relations Awards.

Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools students recently took part in the 2008 North Carolina Eastern Regional High School Orchestra.

Students selected for the orchestra include: Taylor Marlow and Margaret Neville, Carrboro High School; Audrey Baron, Rebecca Clemens, Caitlin Collins, Paula Espinosa, Grace Haaland, Susan Lee, Irene Li, Nick Lloyd, Jenny Lu, Will Myers, Sara Outing, Fei Fei Wang and Trevor Wignall, Chapel Hill High School; and Isabel Blue, Emelie Chen, Dian Chen, Mary Hu, Young-Eun Hyun, Matthew Lee, Abigail Lin, Rachel Naylor, Wehwa Oh, Emer O’Reilly, Yang Pan, Whin-Hae Yoon, Angela Yu and Lucia Yu, East Chapel Hill High School.

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McDougle Middle School’s North Carolina History Bowl team won the regional competition at the Charlotte Hawkins Brown Historic Site on Feb. 20.

Team members include Chris Chiesa, William Knapp, Chris Rupert and Hugo Sowder. They will compete in the North Carolina History Bowl State Competition on May 14.

The team is coached by Louise Peters and Cissy O’Neal.

The Chapel Hill High School annual Tiger Open Golf Classic fundraiser will be held April 5 at the Challenge Golf Club in Graham.

The 18-hole scramble tournament will include novelty contests, a raffle, prizes and food.

Proceeds from the event will help fund a major upgrade of the school’s conference and state championship trophy display cabinets.

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Haesu Jin, a senior violist from Chapel Hill High School, performed Feb. 29 in Albuquerque, N.M., as a member of the National Honors Orchestra.

Jin joined 120 other students from around the country. She is a private viola student of Petra Beranyi and plays in the Chapel Hill High School Orchestra directed by Barbara Smith.

6th Grade

A Honor Roll List:

Alec Arshavsky, Karianne Askevold, Mackenzie Bright, Anna Broome Melissa Carroll, Carolyn Chang, Rohil Chekuri, Wanjing Cui, George De Castro, Jordan Donnelly, Samuel Dunson, Sarah Dwyer, Kyle Eng, Sarah Fordam, Joshua George, Ben Goldstein, Elianna Goldstein, Geni Gualtieri, Carina Guerra, Thomas Guest, Ori Hashmonay, Carly Hendricks, George Hito, Grant Holub-Moorman, Kenya Inoue, Amber Johnson, Samuel Killenberg, Jinhong Kim, Ka Yun Kim, Youngju Kim, Ayaka Kitamura, Hannah Kraut, More »

By Frank Heath
Sports Columnist

Bravo, Heels!

Following Tywon Lawson’s severe ankle injury early in February, there were a lot more questions about this UNC basketball team than answers. Sure, the Tar Heels still possessed the talent — as they very often do — to compete against top opposition on any given night.

But when North Carolina looked in the mirror after losing to Duke in Chapel Hill on Feb. 6, all the Tar Heels could say to themselves was, “We gotta do better than this.” If what Carolina sought from that moment was the best opportunity to attain our goals, to meet its expectations and to fulfill its - and our — hopes, the Tar Heels would need to figure out ways to improve their defense, sharpen their half-court offense and solidify their overall focus.

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Carrboro High
Women’s Soccer

March 10
(via Tony Blanford)

Carrboro defeated Raleigh Charter, 2-1, after two periods of extra time.
Raleigh goal by C. Morgan, assist H. Deters.
Carrboro goals V. Aldana , M. Cranfill.
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Terry Sturdivant has been a lifelong baseball fan — and a Yankees fan, at that — an act he admits was a bit of rebellion against his father, a Red Sox loyalist.

So when Sturdivant Tire and Auto at White Cross decided to focus its philanthropy, helping local baseball seemed pretty natural.
Sturdivant reports that the annual fundraiser in which he donates 10 percent of new tire sales for high school baseball programs is in full swing with a promised goal of $500 for each school. “We’re doing really well,” he said.

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(via Linda Thomason)

Carrboro High School’s men’s golf team played in their first-ever Mid-State conference golf match Monday 3/10 at Hillandale Golf Course. The Jaguars finished second out of 8 teams competing. Cardinal Gibbons finished first with a score of 147, followed by Carrboro HS (162) and Graham HS (164). The next Mid-State match is Monday 3/17 at Occoneechee Golf Club.

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LAKE LEVELS

University Lake: 0‘ .25” below full
Cane Creek Reservoir: 12‘ 1.25” below full

PRECIPITATION THIS MONTH

Jones Ferry Water Treatment Plant:  3.53”
Cane Creek Reservoir: 2.99”

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