While some candidates have already announced their intentions to run, their efforts won’t become official until they make the trip to the county board of elections office in Hillsborough to sign on the dotted line and pay their filing fees.

That all starts Monday at 8 a.m. Candidates have from then until noon on Friday, July 17 to sign-up to run for town offices and school board races.

This week saw another announcement ahead of the opening of the filing period, with incumbent Carrboro Board of Aldermen member Randee Haven-O’Donnell telling supporters gathered at Carrboro Town Commons for a solar power workshop that she intends to seek another term. She said her choice of venue wasn’t a coincidence and cited her interest in seeing the town become a center for green jobs.

“As a science teacher and environmental educator, this appealed to my interest in new, green technologies to reduce our collective carbon footprint. As an environmental advocate, it was a clear way to begin to encourage clean power production and promote sustainability through local power generation,” she told supporters.

Haven-O’Donnell’s is the second official entry in the race for three seats on the board of aldermen that are up this year. She joins Sammy Slade who announced last week. Alderman Jacquie Gist has also said she is going to run for another term. Alderman John Herrera announced last week that he would not seek re-election.

Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton is also expected to seek another term, but has not announced he is doing so.

In all, the terms of 18 incumbents are up in Carrboro, Chapel Hill, Pittsboro and Hillsborough and on the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board.

Also on the ballot this fall are three seats on the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education. Those seats are held by Jean Hamilton, Gregory McElveen and Lisa Stuckey. Stuckey, the current chair of the school board, and Hamilton have said they are going to not seek re-election.

In Chapel Hill, Kevin Foy’s decision not to seek another term has touched off at least a three-way race for mayor between transportation board chair Augustus Cho and town council members Matt Czajkowski and Mark Kleinschmidt.

In the race for three seats on the Chapel Hill Town Council, Penny Rich has announced and council member Ed Harrison has indicated he is likely to do so, as well. Council member Jim Merritt, who was named to replace the late Bill Thorpe, has yet to announce his intention.

In Hillsborough, Mayor Tom Stevens has announced he will seek re-election. Seats up this year on the town board are held by Frances Dancy and Michael Gering.

In Pittsboro, the terms of Mayor Randy Voller and town commissioners Pamela Baldwin and Christopher Walker expire this year.

The Orange County Board of Elections website will keep track of candidates as they file at co.orange.nc.us/elect/2009CandidateFilings.asp

Carrboro Board of Aldermen member Dan Coleman sent a letter to U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan on behalf of the board and Mayor Mark Chilton asking her to support including a public option in health care reform legislation.

The letter reads:
“I am writing on behalf of the Mayor and Alderman of the Town of Carrboro Board to urge you to give your full backing to the public option for health insurance sought by President Obama.

“Municipal governments in North Carolina are struggling with double-digit annual increases in health insurance costs while county social services are hard-pressed to meet the needs of the uninsured and under-insured. We desperately need your help to achieve needed reform.

“It is our belief that the health care crisis in the United States will ultimately only be solved by a single-payer national system. We encourage you, for the sake of the citizens of North Carolina and the nation, to do all you can to achieve such a system.”

Hagan is a member of the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee and is one of two Democrats on the committee who has not yet endorsed a public option as part the reform legislation. Groups pushing for the public option say they are worried that Hagan’s stance could strengthen the position of health insurance companies who are lobbying against having a lower cost, public plan as part of the options available to consumers under the new legislation.

Responding to an editorial last week in this newspaper, Hagan’s communications director Stephanie Allen said the senator could support a public option, but was unwilling to do so without first seeing the specifics of the plan. A Hagan aide familiar with the discussions in the HELP committee said there are several ideas being worked on but that details of a proposed public option have not been settled.

“This is a business decision, a bottom-line decision. The numbers currently don’t support the continuation of both theaters as viable enterprises,” said Stone, who also owns the Chelsea Theater in Timberlyne. “The Varsity especially has been struggling for over two years, with no prospect of an upturn any time soon.”

Stone said that many of the Varsity’s struggles are tied to traffic and parking concerns in the Franklin Street area.

“We have been in the Varsity for nine challenging but enjoyable years,” he said. “Our landlord has been understanding and supportive throughout our tenure. We of course regret this development but recognize that this change is entirely necessary.”

Stone plans to continue operating the Chelsea.

More patio please
If you’ve strayed near the corner of Rosemary Street and Pritchard Avenue of late on a weekend night, you may have noticed that the patio at La Residence is considerably more lively than it was when the place was known more for its fine-dining experience inside.

La Rez owners are clearly enjoying the success and have set about making improvements.

Sculpture watch
Not sure just when the “temporary” wood sculpture next to Spanky’s will hit the woodpile, but since we wrote about it a couple of weeks ago, more reviews have poured in. We imagine the town is hearing the same things we are, which boil down to (and we’re putting this politely) “nice try.”

As of Tuesday, the market was number three in the country with 1,009 votes. Durham ranks number one with 1,068 votes.

The winner of the Love Your Farmers Market contest gets a reward of $5,000. Blacklin says the money could help the market with new projects or possibly be used to help purchase an EBT (food stamp) machine.

Last week, farmers handed out bright-neon slips asking customers to “Vote for Carrboro!” as they exchanged money and produce.

To vote, go to the Carrboro Farmers’ Market website at carrborofarmersmarket.com and fill out the voting form on the homepage.

The markets’ hours will run from 7-10 a.m.

The town’s Parking Services Division began issuing Courtesy Tickets on July 1.

The town will continue to offer online payment options, including bills for recreation programs.

The website was revamped with help from Vision Internet, a California-based company that specializes in municipal websites. Staff from the town’s Communications and Public Affairs Department organized community meetings to receive input from local residents on how the town could best change the site for improvement.

Web visitors are urged to contact the town to offer feedback or report technical errors. Visit townofchapelhill.org or contact the Communications and Public Affairs Department at 968-2743 or publicaffairs@townofchapelhill.org

She was a finalist for the Poet Laureate Award and won the first-place Joanna Scott Award and an honorable-mention Thomas H. McDill Award.

Team members are Allison Blalock, Kaetetai Farrington, Erica Geer, Katherine Holcomb, Abriana Johnson, Alice Keith, Carlissa Purefoy, Della Purefoy, Essence Smith, Jasmine Thompson, Ayanna Wade, Tiaunna Weaver and Patrice Womble. The team is coached by Vanessa Diggs and Tahvyea Rains.

Raccoons are a host species to rabies in the Orange County area and the region. The other species that are most susceptible to getting rabies from raccoons are dogs and cats, groundhogs, skunks and foxes.

The other host species of rabies of concern in this region and others is bats.