Photo by Dave Otto. Green lynx spider with black wasp prey on cluster of Eupatorium rotundifolium disc flowers.

From time to time, I have the use of the visual images of local nature photographer Dave Otto. In his continual pursuit to learn and photograph new wildflowers, he has noted more and more close-up encounters of insect dramas on the flowers. Many of these encounters, caught in his camera lens, depict a fatal end for one of the insect participants. While sharing with me a recent wildflower image, he expressed that these unexpected encounters seemed like a type of bioterrorism. His observation continues to circulate around in my imagination.
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By Rich Fowler
Staff Writer

The developers of Southern Village met with residents on Monday and Tuesday nights to discuss building a five-story hotel or condominium in the center of the community.

Southern Village developer D.R. Bryan said that the plan would be to put in either a 90-to-110-room hotel or condominiums on the site, along with a two-level parking deck and around 5,000 square feet of ground-level retail. Bryan said that a local hotel group has already expressed interest in the site.
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Photo by Ava Barlow. Nicholas Stratas advocates for a unified approach to mental health care.

This story is the second about mental health care in North Carolina.
[Breakdown series main page]

As the mental health care system in North Carolina began unraveling, many critics focused on the new private providers, arguing that most of them are in the business foremost for the money. John Mader, who worked as a mental health therapist for 18 years for the OPC Area Program prior to privatization, disagrees. While a vocal critic of the state’s reform measures, he says he believes that most providers genuinely want to provide quality services.
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Ladd

The power of a group of women can hardly be described to someone who has not felt it.

Monday afternoon, I spent some time talking to Stephanie Ladd about the workshops and women’s groups she hopes to get started soon, and the healing power that comes from a group of women meeting regularly. A few hours later I sat amid 22 other women on the screened porch of a neighbor as we discussed expanding our neighborhood book club to form a second group. The fact that these women, upon invitation, would venture out of their cocoons to seek closer community spoke loudly of our innate need to form bonds.
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By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

The Carrboro Board of Aldermen grappled on Tuesday with long-term transportation plans for Carrboro and the surrounding areas, including the possibility of highway, fixed guideway, bike path and other improvements, as well as how to pay for them.
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Thursday Sept 11
Blue Bayou Club: John Saylor. 8:30pm
Blue Horn Lounge: Jamo & Susie Hicks. 9pm
Cat’s Cradle: Silver Jews, Monotonix. 9:30pm, $12-15
The Cave: EARLY: Cab Calagari. LATE: Dexter Romweber & Stu Cole
General Store Café: Jazz with Club Boheme. 8pm
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By Rich Fowler
Staff Writer

The Chapel Hill Town Council kicked off its fall term without longtime council member Bill Thorpe Monday night. Thorpe is taking some time off from the council for health reasons. The council dealt with a number of planning issues, including:
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photo by Ava Barlow. Kathryn Young, a UNC junior, asks Sen. Bill Bradley to sign her copy of his book, The New American Story, after he spoke to a group of about 70 people on the university campus Monday afternoon.

Gotcha!
Campus Police have begun handing out written citations for smoking in non-designated areas, i.e. anywhere besides the flagpole in Polk Place, apparently the only place on campus 100 feet away from any building in accordance with the ban. Spokesperson for the Department of Public Safety, Randy Young, said the written warnings will give way to citations with a $25 fine along with a court fee — a bit steeper than the price of a pack of cigarettes. Whether or not the citations will finally purge UNC of smokers or foster rebellion, we’ll know soon enough.
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The Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization will hold a final public workshop on the proposed long-range regional transportation alternatives today from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Durham County Main Library.

The plan includes options for future transportation projects, including highways, bus transit, light rail, bicycles, pedestrian traffic and other transportation projects that would be undertaken through the year 2035.

To submit public comments, send written comments to Andy Henry, City of Durham, Transportation Division, 101 City Hall Plaza, Durham, NC, 27701 or andy.henry@durhamnc.gov by Oct. 1. Comments can also be submitted via phone at 560-4366.

The Northside, Pine Knolls and McCauley-Cameron neighborhoods will celebrate the Good Neighbor Initiative with a block party on Saturday from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Hargraves Center.
UNC, the Chapel Hill Police Department, Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation and EmPOWERment Inc. will host the block party to encourage students and permanent residents to meet and get to know one another. The event will feature food, music and games. Before the party from 2 to 4 p.m., more than 100 UNC students will do a trash clean up in the neighborhoods.

Public employees from Orange County towns will become the eyes and ears of law enforcement in a new partnership between Carrboro, Chapel Hill, Hillsborough and OWASA entitled the Community Safety Partnership.

The partnership will train public workers already traveling through town on the job to watch out for infractions like car accidents, reckless driving, illegal parking and others.

UNC Health Care urologists will offer free prostate examinations to members of the public at the UNC Hospitals Urology Clinic Sept. 17 and 18 from 1 to 7 p.m.

Appointments are not required but those interested are encouraged to make an appointment by calling 966-1316. The urology clinic is located on the second floor of N.C. Memorial Hospital.

The examinations are being conducted as part of National Prostate Cancer Awareness Week, Sept. 14-20.

The Orange County Board of Commissioners will hold a transfer station siting work session to receive site recommendations for further evaluation and hear public comment on Tuesday from 5:30 to 7:15 p.m. at the Southern Human Services Center on Homestead Road.
The board will discuss sites recommended for community-specific criteria evaluation, including 11 sites recommended by Olver, Inc., the consulting firm hired to conduct the search.

The board will also hear public comment on the sites recommended for preliminary community-specific criteria evaluation. For a detailed report or more information, visit www.co.orange.nc.us and click the “Meeting Agendas” tab.

Fin de semana

El fin de semana pasado vio la fiesta del Pueblo y el festival internacional en Raleigh, esta semana no tiene tanto para hacer, pero hay unas opciones para las personas quienes les gustan la música y el arte. Por ejemplo, el viernes hay música en el Carolina Inn de 5 a 7p.m. y hay el Artwalk en Carrboro y Chapel Hill de 6 a 9p.m. En el Artwalk varios sitios como el ArtsCenter exponen artes, unos sitios tienen música también. El sábado y domingo por la tarde puede ver artes y artisanías en Arts at the Meadow en Meadowmont. Y el domingo hay música jazz en Weaver Street Market, de 11a.m. a 1p.m.

Educación y inmigración

Paul Cuadros habla de los dos lados del debate sobre la inmigración y el acceso a educación universitaria. En inglés. El domingo, el 14 de septiembre, 5p.m. CHICLE, 101 E. Weaver Street, Suite G1 (tercer piso). 933-0398.

Comentarios, sugerencias y preguntas al betsy@carrborocitizen.com

Wayne Alexander Bowers, 89, died peacefully at his Chapel Hill home on Thursday, Aug. 28, following a period of declining health. Wayne was born on March 1, 1919, in Bilbao, Spain. He spent his childhood in small towns in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia, as his minister father moved the family from parish to parish. He graduated from Wadsworth (Ohio) High School in 1934 at age fifteen and from Oberlin College as Phi Beta Kappa in 1938. He received his Ph.D. in Theoretical Solid State Physics from Cornell University in 1943 and joined the Theoretical Division of the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos in 1944.
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