By Taylor Sisk
Staff Writer

Beulah Hobby eloped.

You see, she’d been busy all summer and hadn’t yet told her mother about that boy, Bryant Hackney. She’d forever kept busy; so busy, in fact, through high school – what with being captain of the basketball team and all – that she’d had no time to take notice of the boy himself till that May – May of ’35.

“I didn’t date him till we finished high school in May,” Beulah Hackney recalls today, sitting in the living room of her Oak Street home, three days shy of her 90th birthday.

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By Ken Moore

As the pink-colored redbuds are now giving way to the pure-white dogwoods, your eye may catch some yellow tints produced by another native tree that flowers before the emergence of its leaves.

Sassafras, Sassafras albidum, common throughout eastern North America, has a really special plant heritage. As Paul Green describes in Paul Green’s Plant Book, “It was especially fancied in late Elizabethan England because of Sir Walter Raleigh’s colonists on Roanoke Island sending back sassafras bark and roots to be used medicinally.”

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By Rich Fowler
Staff Writer

Pros and cons of a proposed 0.4 percent land transfer tax got an airing last week at a forum sponsored by seven Orange County Democratic Party precincts.

The forum, held Thursday at the Homestead Community Center, featured Sen. Ellie Kinnaird and County Commissioner Mike Nelson in support of the transfer tax, and Mark Zimmerman, vice president of the Chapel Hill Board of Realtors and a spokesperson for Citizens for a Better Orange County, a group aligned against the tax.

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With one group already formed and actively campaigning against the proposed transfer tax, a new group in support of the bonds was scheduled to hold an organizational meeting Wednesday evening.

Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton is one of the organizers of the group, tentatively called Citizens for Schools and Parks.
Once formed, the organization must register with the county Board of Elections to actively campaign for the passage of the referendum.

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Request for Center Street property leads to quest for broader changes

By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer

On paper, a request to alter the zoning on a 65-by-135-foot lot downtown is termed a minor modification. But after a lengthy discussion Tuesday night at Town Hall of the implications, it was determined it could have a major impact since the property in question on Center Street straddles an almost invisible line between commercial and residential.

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UNC students protest the Iraq War on March 20. This month marks the five-year anniversary of the war and subsequent occupation of Iraq.

By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

The Rogers Road neighborhood could see major changes over the next several years, with the possible addition of a church, affordable housing, recreation areas and an elementary school.

St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church has purchased more than 20 acres of land on the corner of Rogers and Purefoy roads and is planning to build not only new worship facilities but housing, athletic facilities and a wellness center.

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Thursday March 27

Blue Horn Lounge: John Craige 10pm
Cat’s Cradle: Badfish, Scotty Don’t, High And Mighties. 8pm. $18
The Cave: EARLY: Shame Train LATE: Atlantic Crossing, $5
General Store Café: Jazz with Bo Lankenau 8pm
Local 506: The Moaners, Bellafew, Bibis Ellison. 9pm
Nightlight: Remora, M Coast, Diplomat, Keith John Adams. 9:30pm. $6
Reservoir: Thunderlip, Young Livers, Worn In Red

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Betty June Hayes, former Orange County Register of Deeds, passed early Wednesday morning at the Duke In-Patient Care Facility hospice in Hillsborough.

She was born in Wink, TX, May 27, 1929, to Hardee Boyett and Annie Robbie Plott Boyett. Betty June came to Hillsborough with her mother when Mrs. Boyett returned to help her aged father, Thomas J. Plott. Mrs. Plott Boyett later divorced Mr. Boyett and subsequently married Paul Hayes of Hillsborough.

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“Ellie Fest 2008” is a celebration of state Sen. Eleanor Kinnaird’s contributions to the state of North Carolina and a rally for her re-election campaign. It will be held on Sunday, April 6 from 2 to 5 pm at the Carrboro Town Commons. Music will be provided by Tim Stambaugh, Jimmy Magoo and Saludos Compay. Paperhand Puppet Intervention will entertain and state Sen. Janet Cowell will be the featured speaker. Refreshments will be provided by Open Eye Café.

The Orange County Democratic Women will sponsor a County Commissioners’ Forum at the Chapel Hill Museum, at 523 East Franklin St. on Thursday, March 27 at 7:30 p.m. Orange County Commissioner Alice Gordon will explain the role and responsibility of the county commissioner and the voting changes made in electing each one. After she speaks, candidates will speak individually about their goals and entertain questions from those attending. The public is welcome to attend. Contact Betsy Russell at 644-0869 with any questions.

The UNC Horizons program will present its fifth annual conference from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 17 at the William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education in Chapel Hill. The conference is titled, “Breaking the Bonds of Addiction and Trauma: Implications and Treatment for Women and Their Children.” The conference is designed to help service providers empower clients to overcome the impact of addiction and trauma.

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Free screenings for head and neck cancer will be offered in the Ear, Nose and Throat Clinic at UNC Hospitals from 1 to 4 p.m., Wednesday, April 23 as part of Oral, Head & Neck Cancer Awareness Week, which is sponsored by the Yul Brynner Head and Neck Cancer Foundation. The screenings are offered on a first-come, first-served basis. No appointments are required.

For more information, contact Laura Lyndon Miller at 966-9717 or LLyndon@unch.unc.edu

Olver, Inc., on behalf of the Board of County Commissioners, will hold two transfer station siting public-information sessions over the next two weeks.

Olver is the consulting firm hired by the county to establish criteria, conduct the search and advise the commissioners on the selection of a site.

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The Town of Carrboro will hold a public meeting to collect input on a comprehensive bicycle plan that will guide future bicycle improvements in Carrboro from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. on April 10.

The meeting will be held in the Carrboro Elementary School cafeteria, at 400 Shelton St. The town asks that community members stop by any time during the meeting to learn about the project, talk to town staff and project consultants and provide input.

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