In this week’s edition of The Carrboro Citizen you’ll find:
• Aldermen to reconsider road connectivity policy
• Recycling market crash hits county budget
• County considers long-term waste alternatives
• Council OK’s Innovation Center
• Flora: Winter green, but not evergreen

In Opinion:
• A hospital visit amid troubling news
• For real mental health reform, listen to the consumers
• The real state health plan crisis

By Ken Moore

Winter in the woods is the best time to appreciate land contours, the striking differences of tree bark, the stature of individual specimens and the leaves of evergreen wildflowers.

It’s also the best opportunity to locate two obscure native orchids. Of the two, cranefly orchid, Tipularia discolor, is the more common. Most often you’ll spy a single leaf or two here and there, sometimes an informal line of them and infrequently a loose mat of them. The one-and-a-half-to-three-plus-inch-long ovate, or egg-shaped, leaves are evident now. The leaf is green on the upper surface and burgundy below, sometimes almost purple on both surfaces.
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By Vicki Smith

One media exposé after another has highlighted the flawed implementation of North Carolina’s much ballyhooed 2001 effort at mental health reform. These exposés have given many state officials heartburn as they picked up their morning papers or watched the evening news.

The media’s descriptions of the mental health/developmental disabilities/substance abuse (MH/DD/SA) service delivery system grabbed the attention of the general public and politicians alike. The plight of individuals with disabilities has become part of discussions in living rooms across the state. The media coverage has helped elevate the failures of the reform effort to such a degree that politicians were challenged to address it in their campaigns – and promises were made. More »

By Chris Fitzsimon

Gov. Beverly Perdue has generally received good reviews for her first two weeks in office and deserves them, particularly for her executive orders on transportation and transparency, staying on top of the state’s budget woes and making a number of public appearances that reinforce her commitment to be an available, hands-on governor.

Perdue also dropped in on troubled Cherry Hospital in Goldsboro Friday (Jan. 23, 2009), part of her campaign pledge to make unannounced visits to state institutions as one way to increase accountability in the state mental health system.

But other news from the mental health front was a troubling reminder of the extent of the problems Perdue faces and how much credibility state officials have lost with the communities they’re supposed to serve. More »

To paraphrase Samuel Clemens, reports of the death of newspapers have been greatly exaggerated.

In our opinion, there has been all too much gnashing of teeth and lamenting over the fix that some papers find themselves in. The word “some” in the last sentence being all-important. Most papers are much more like the one you have in your hands — a small weekly with local or regional ownership. And although the economy has not been kind to them, most are in decent shape and many are downright profitable.

What is dying – or, more accurately, unraveling – is the business model that drove media consolidation. The movement, which rolled many privately owned small and mid-sized metro dailies into ever-growing newspaper chains, may have made sense on the upside, but there has been hell to pay on the downside. More »

By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

After hearing from concerned residents about a proposed connector road between a proposed addition to the Claremont development and the Wexford neighborhood, the Carrboro Board of Aldermen voted on Tuesday to revisit the town’s connector road policy.

The board heard from residents in a public hearing regarding Phases IV and V of Claremont, across from the development’s first three phases on Homestead Road.
“We really need to go back and examine our connector road policy and see if it’s meeting our needs,” board member Jackie Gist said. “I think that the things we thought were wrong with it are coming up again.” More »

By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer

The Chapel Hill Town Council unanimously approved a special-use permit for the three-story, 80,745-square-foot Innovations Center, the university’s first project at Carolina North.

The vote came after several months of negotiations between the town, UNC and Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc., the university’s partner in the project who will build, own and operate the center.

University officials said they were eager to get on with the project, especially since they have a partner willing to move forward even in light of the slowing economy. Since it will not be owned by the university, the center will be added to the town’s tax rolls. More »

By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

The Orange County Board of Commissioners voted last week to explore long-term alternatives for solid-waste disposal as a parallel tract to siting a solid-waste transfer station.

The board also voted to create a community advisory group composed of residents living in the vicinity of the transfer station that would directly connect the impacted community with the county and Solid Waste Management.

Commissioner Barry Jacobs said he would like to investigate possible alternatives for solid-waste disposal – such as a collaboration with Chatham County, outsourcing solid-waste management to vendors or using solid waste to help power UNC’s cogeneration facility – while continuing to proceed with siting the transfer station. More »

By Rich Fowler
Staff Writer

Thanks in part to its recycling programs, Orange County residents lead the state in waste reduction. They now throw away half of what they threw away in 1991, and things were going so well until recently that the county was making money by selling the materials it collected.

But when the recycling markets crashed last October amid the declining global economy, what was once a growing source of income for the county suddenly became a new expense. More »

Both the Town of Carrboro and the South Orange Fire District received new insurance ratings effective Jan. 1.

The new ratings – 3 for the Town of Carrboro and 5 for the South Orange Fire District – are an improvement over the previous 4 for the town and 9S for South Orange. The North Carolina Response Rating System ranges from 1 (best) to 10 (not recognized as a certified fire department). The ratings are based on inspections of proper staffing levels, sufficient apparatus, proper maintenance of equipment, communications capabilities and availability of water sources.

Better ratings can significantly lower property insurance rates and Carrboro Fire Chief Travis Crabtree recommends that property owners served by Carrboro contact their insurance providers and advise them of the improved ratings.

The 11th Annual Orange County Agricultural Summit will be held Feb. 9 from 8:30 a.m. until lunchtime at the former Orange Enterprise site on Valley Forge Rd. in Hillsborough.

The featured speaker is North Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture Steve Troxler. Topics of discussion will include youth in agriculture, farm diversification, energy conservation and how to enhance farm income with hunting leases.

A lunch of locally grown agricultural products will be served. Registration is $5. To register or for additional information, contact the Orange County office of the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service at 245-2050 by Feb. 5.

Rep. Joe Hackney, who represents Chatham County and part of southern Orange County, won a second term as speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives Wednesday. Upon his election, Hackney, who has served 28 years in the House, encouraged legislators to rise to the challenge and work to reinvigorate the state’s economy and continue to improve education.

The Orange County 9-1-1 Call Center moved to the new Orange County Emergency Services Building on Meadowland Drive in Hillsborough on Tuesday.
The new facility has new equipment and more space that will allow for improved service and future growth.

Those calling 911 should see no change in service. However, if callers with an emergency have any problems connecting to 911, they should call 732-5063.

Chapel Hill High School principal Jacqueline Boyd Ellis announced her resignation on Friday. Ellis resigned in order to serve as the assistant superintendent for human resource services in Durham Public Schools. She was principal at Chapel Hill High for the past two years and will continue as principal until March 20.

An interim principal will be appointed to finish the school year while the district searches for a replacement to begin the 2009-10 school year.

Two Smith Middle School students placed in the Future Business Leaders of America Middle Grades Chapter Triad Regional Competition on Jan. 17 at Southern High School in Durham.

Eighth-grader Ranjitha Anathan won first place in public speaking, while seventh-grader Rob Byerly won third place in business math. They will both advance to the state competition in April.

More than 100 students representing 18 schools took part in the competition.