by Kirk Ross

Pardon the pun, but it didn’t take too long last Tuesday for the buzz downtown to get around.
Late Tuesday morning, calls and emails poured into The Citizen offices about a large number of bees swarming next to the Century Center, specifically in the Foster Holly (Ilex x attenuata) on the northeast corner of Main and Greensboro streets.
As thousands of honeybees swirled in and out of the bushes, onlookers did a bit of swarming as well.
“It was a pretty amazing sight,” said Brendan Moore, facilities administrator for the Century Center. He took in the spectacle and the rapid response of the local beekeeping community, but, he said, “I did it from afar.” More »

by Susan Dickson
Staff Writer
The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools district has requested a budget increase of more than $6.8 million this year, including more than $2.4 million to fund salary and benefit increases and other state mandates.
This would be a 12.5 percent increase over last year’s budget.
Based on last year’s state-mandated salary increases, school officials estimated salary increases for locally paid teachers to cost about $860,000, while the increase to the local supplement for state-paid teachers would total nearly $300,000. While teacher and staff salaries are paid by the state, the district funds additional teaching positions as well as a salary supplement for state-paid certified teachers.
Last year, the state increased salaries for certified teachers by 5 percent and pay for staff whose positions qualify by 4 percent. However, Gov. Mike Easley’s budget, released on Monday, includes a recommended 7 percent pay increase for public school teachers in order to bring the North Carolina average pay up to the national average.
While Easley proposed funding the teacher salary increase with a 20-cent-per-pack increase on the cigarette tax, locally funded positions and salary-supplement increases based on the state-mandated salary increase would be funded at the local level.
“We have to go to the county to request that money, and of course that means tax changes,” said Ruby Pittman, director of finance for Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. Pittman said she has not yet determined how much more a 7 percent salary increase would cost the district.
“The [cost of the] increase on the teachers’ side could be offset by the benefit rate,” Pittman said, explaining that the benefit increases could be less than projected. The district’s proposed budget includes more than $300,000 in employee benefit increases.
Other budget drivers for the school district this year include enrollment increases, opening Morris Grove Elementary School and adding a senior class at Carrboro High School.
Enrollment is expected to increase by 323 students, which is consistent with enrollment increases of the last few years, but more than the increases in prior years, according to Pittman.
“It looks like our enrollment is on the swing upward again,” Pittman said.
According to the district’s proposed budget, costs associated with enrollment increases, including the costs of opening Morris Grove Elementary and adding a senior class at Carrboro High, total more than $2.8 million.
Overall, about $6.2 million of the $6.8 million budget increase request would fund the continuation budget, while the remaining $600,000 would pay for new programs and services.
County staff will present a proposed county budget, including budgets for both public school districts, to the Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday. The commissioners will approve a county budget by the end of June.

Irina “Ira” Yarmolenko had a sunny spirit, a quick smile and friends everywhere she went. She wasn’t supposed to die at age 20. The UNC Charlotte sophomore was found Monday, May 5, 2008 next to her car on the banks of the Catawba River in Mount Holly.

Yarmolenko was born in the Ukraine but grew up in Chapel Hill. Her family moved to North Carolina in the 1990s as refugees and her parents found science jobs in Greensboro and later moved to Chapel Hill.
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Samuel Moyle Boone 89, of Chapel Hill, died Monday May 5th, 2008 at UNC Hospital.

Mr. Boone was a native of Gates County, NC, son of the late William Jordan and Minnie Belle Williams Boone. He was a U.S. Army Air Corps veteran of World War II. He was retired from UNC-CH Academic Affairs Library as librarian after 30 years of service, and went on to Duke University’s Perkins Library for 5 years.
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A lightning strike caused a fire to burn through the attic of a Carrboro home early Saturday, May 10, according to the Carrboro Fire-Rescue Department. No injuries were reported.

Emergency personnel were dispatched to the home at 1604 Pathway Dr. just after midnight and firefighters had controlled the fire after approximately 23 minutes. The home, owned by David and Adele Roth, received an estimated $200,000 in fire, smoke and water damage.
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Marvin Poythress, 78, passed away Saturday May 11, 2008 after several years of declining health. A Chapel Hill native, Marvin was the son of the late Ila and Furman Poythress. He was preceded in death by his loving wife of 50 years, Ann Phelps Poythress, and by his brothers Robert Poythress and Durrell Poythress.

Marvin graduated from the old Chapel Hill High School, located at that time on Franklin St. Though big in stature, he had a soft heart and was affectionately called “Teddy Bear” by his friends. As a lifelong active member of Damascus Church he served as treasurer and enjoyed singing in the choir. Marvin retired from UNC Hospitals after 33 years of service in 1983. After retirement, he continued working with UNC Athletics, where he began as a young man selling buckets of iced drinks up and down the bleachers. He then progressed from usher to supervising operations on Kenan Stadium’s southside. He enjoyed his many years working with basketball operations as well, especially enjoying the championship victories. After 50 years of working at Kenan Stadium, Marvin retired in 1999. The UNC Athletic Department established The Poythress Service Award presented to the volunteer staff member who most exemplifies Marvin’s work ethic, dedication and attitude. He loved his God, his family, his country and his Tar Heels.
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by Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education is expected to approve a plan tonight (Thursday) that will create a walk zone around Chapel Hill High School and eliminate bus stops for 66 students.

A sidewalk network on Homestead, High School and Seawell School roads was completed in December, allowing students to safely walk to Chapel Hill High. District officials have said most students already use the sidewalk, drive to school or are dropped off at school by their parents, so very few students use the bus stops in the potential walk-zone area.
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A steady rain that began shortly before the 9:30 a.m. Sunday start of Carolina’s commencement celebration in Kenan Stadium shortened the ceremony.

Outgoing Chancellor James Moeser conferred the degrees of the undergraduates, who were led in the traditional turning of their mortarboard tassels by Senior Class President Ashley Shores, who gave remarks as planned.
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As The Citizen was going to press, ABC News was reporting that John Edwards is expected to endorse Barack Obama on Wednesday, May 14 at a nighttime event in Grand Rapids, Mich. Sen. Hillary Clinton, Obama’s opponent in the nationwide primary race, defeated Obama in West Virginia’s primary by 41 points on Tuesday. The endorsement is more bad news for the Clinton campaign, which, despite recent victories, remains behind that of the Illinois senator.

UNC’s Finley Golf Course will host the Third Annual Dre’ Bly Celebrity Golf Classic on Saturday, May 17, starting at 11 a.m. The event is open to the public and admission is $5 for adults, free for children 12 and under.
Dre’ Bly will host and be joined by Phil Ford, Marshall Faulk, Torry Holt, Alge Crumpler, Butch Davis and others. Proceeds benefit the Dre’ Bly Foundation, which awards sports-related scholarships, and CarolinaPros, a public service organization of former Carolina athletes.

Dani Martinez-Moore, immigration network coordinator for the NC Justice Center, will discuss her work with various organizations providing assistance to immigrants in their struggles against unjust treatment, in a presentation entitled “How are Immigrant Rights Addressed in North Carolina?” The talk is at 7 p.m., May 22 at the Chapel Hill Public Library, 100 Library Drive. For information, call 942-2535.

The District 2 Board of County Commissioners seat is up in the air after primary candidate Leo Allison submitted a request for a runoff against Steve Yuhasz about four hours before the board of elections deadline.

Yuhasz won 37.23 percent of the votes, Allison took second with 27.72 percent. Because the winning total is below 40 percent, Allison is entitled to a runoff election.
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Debra Dihoff, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness-North Carolina, will be the keynote speaker at Club Nova’s 10th Annual Employers’ Reception on Thursday, May 22.

The event will be held to celebrate Club Nova’s Transitional and Independent Employment program and the local businesses that have provided jobs for the program this year. Those to receive awards include the Mental Health Association of Orange County, UNC School of Social Work, Staples and Open Eye Cafe.
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Carrboro

The ArtsCenter
Center Gallery—community photography contest
East End Gallery
ELEMENTS—the fifth annual Community Art Project through May 28

The Beehive Salon
Sincerely Yours—works depicting life in Chapel Hill by Washington Capps

Caffe Driade
Bridget Walsh—acrylic paintings
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The ArtsCenter will host a benefit for Hidden Voices May 16 at 8 p.m. The event includes a slideshow of past projects by Hidden Voices. Broadway performer John Feitch emcees. Authors Clyde Edgerton, Allan Gurganus, Jaki Shelton Green and Nancy Peacock share from their writings. Christen Campbell will perform jazz. The evening will end with a preview of the new Hidden Voices project, “Speaking Without Tongues,” which explores violence and survival in history and folklore of women around the world.

Hidden Voices creates artistic projects to share the voices of the disadvantaged.