A year of big changes, fading hopes
By Kirk Ross, Staff Writer
Early on in January 2009, many in these towns were still focused on the changing of the guard in Washington, D.C.
With close to 72 percent of Orange County voters pulling the lever for Barack Obama, the election of the first black president was still the big buzz, and a major — by Carolina standards — snowstorm contributed to collecting around TV sets and radios on Inauguration Day.
Prior to taking office, the president lost one ardent supporter, though, as Rebecca Clark a towering figure in the black community and the chief marshal of its political clout, passed away on the first Saturday in January.
She was followed in death a month later by another official town treasure and one of her early political rivals — newspaperman and former Chapel Hill alderman Roland Giduz.
In early 2009, the effect of another changing of the guard was being felt in town and especially on campus as new UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp pulled the plug on a search for a new airport site in Orange County.
A few months later, the Chapel Hill Town Council finally opened official hearings on the first phase of Carolina North. Approval of the university’s plan and the town’s new zoning rules for the 975-acre Horace Williams tract quickly followed.
While politics were a pre-occupation early on, it was clear by the end of January, when a variety of economic reports and budget projections were released, that the market woes and housing downturn that had started in the previous fall were going to have a profound impact on the year ahead.
State and local governments, already implementing hiring freezes and squeezing their budgets, cut further, and reports from social service agencies and local food pantries showed a quick climb in the need for the basics. The unemployment rate in the state would rise from 5 percent in April, 2008 to 11.2 in June of 2009. It fell a bit in the latest round of numbers but is not expected to its 2008 levels until well into 2011.
In Orange County, which has traditionally posted one of the lowest rates in the state, unemployment climbed from 3.2 percent to 7 percent over the same period.
Economic anxiety and a highly unpopular property revaluation helped fuel outrage and tax protests that turned out hundreds to rallies organized by the local chapter of FreedomWorks, a group led by former U.S. House majority leader Dick Armey.
That put the focus on Orange County commissioners, who were faced with not just a tax rebellion, but a rapidly expanding deficit and a fight over proposals for a solid waste transfer station.
While all this was happening, Roy Williams and the UNC men’s basketball team brought home another national title. On his way to that triumph, starting forward Tyler Hansbrough became the leading scorer in Atlantic Coast Conference history.
As various budget-cutting and waste transfer station scenarios were trotted out, commission meetings became the scene of rotating mass turnouts as groups such as those pushing for a halt to the transfer station, parents and students asking the county to move ahead on the Carrboro High arts wing and library supporters reeling over the proposed closure of the Carrboro Branch at McDougle schools lined up to plead their cases.
By the time it was all over, the wing was approved, the construction of the Northside Elementary School was postponed, money was found to keep the libraries open and, after being rebuffed over a plan to reorganize the county, Orange County manager Laura Blackmon resigned.
In Chapel Hill and Carrboro, the heat and light generated over the budgets had barely faded when the filing season for municipal elections generated intense interest and what turned out to be a marathon campaign. In Chapel Hill, the announcement by Mayor Kevin Foy that he would not seek re-election led to a four-way race for mayor that included two sitting council members. Mark Kleinschmidt and Matt Czajkowski went toe-to-toe for several long months of forums, debates and neighborhood gatherings. Kleinschmidt prevailed, but just barely.
A school board race, also on the ballot, promised change when two of the three incumbents whose terms were expiring opted not to run.
In Carrboro, a three-way race for mayor proved lackluster, but a robust six way race for three seats on the board of aldermen provided at least a modicum of suspense.
The council race in Chapel Hill featured an equally crowded field and was complicated by the abrupt resignation and departure of long-time council member Bill Strom, who announced he was leaving after the filing period closed. The timing irritated an already prickly electorate and embroiled the council in a debate over when and how to name his replacement.
Over the objection of Foy, who wanted the sitting council to name Strom’s replacement, the decision was put off until after the election and the new council was seated.
Before heading off on winter break, the new council did so, naming Northside resident Donna Bell to serve the remaining two years of Strom’s term.