tuesday's joint schools/county commissioners meeting

Orange County and Chapel Hill/Carrboro City schools met Tuesday with the Orange County Board of Commissioners to present their proposed budgets for the next fiscal year.

Chair Steve Halkiotis compared the current recession and budget cycle to the Depression, saying the last time public school funding was cut was during that era.

Superintendent Patrick Rhodes gave the budget presentation, saying funding cuts from the county and state would be "a serious double whammy."

The district's fund balance is down significantly from several years ago, and rested at just a little more than $1 million, at the time of the last audit. Rhodes said the district is committed to not spending that money to make up for any shortfalls.

The cuts made during the 2008-2009 school year combined with the cuts the district may have to make to survive this budget cycle amount to 10 percent, Rhodes said.

For that and other reasons, Rhodes asked the commissioners to cut the per pupil by $139 instead of the $189 commissioners proposed. Board of Education members decided to go this route at their last work session, Friday, April 24.

Rhodes said the district has tried to make cuts that wouldn't affect the classroom, but decreasing the per pupil allotment by $189 would force them to make those cuts.

He said the district is facing, among other things, cuts in state at-risk funds, which would hurt children and families who need help the most.

Board member Eddie Eubanks said he hoped commissioners would be able to make up for that loss.

"I think it's not appropriate to balance the budgets on the backs of those least able to withstand it," he said.

Halkiotis said he hoped commissioners would be able to help the district.

"Help us any way you can because we're not going to get help from Raleigh," he said. "I'm not looking to the east anymore. I'm looking right at home."

Chapel Hill/Carrboro City Schools, meanwhile, also presented their budget. Their big issues were whether or not Elementary No. 11 and the arts wing addition to Carrboro High Schools would be built as originally planned. BOCC Chair Valerie Foushee said that was "uncertain."

For more, see Wednesday's News of Orange County.

Hillsborough's next poet laureate?

We receive many, many e-mails in our general-use inbox each day. Many of them are online newsletters for a wide range of political causes and syndicated political columns or PR story pitches from Texas. That is why my Wednesdays go something like: post content to Web site, sort through e-mails, file stories, maybe a phone call or two.

We also occasionally receive spontaneous, themed poems from readers. Here's one from Tim Langford about tonight's Ladies Night Out event:

"Broads Abroad"
by Tim Langford

“Broads Abroad!,” my paper reads,
“Hillsborough is under siege,
Lock your doors, cut out your lights,
Prepare for unspeakable deeds!”

From there and here the “birds” flutter in,
Bringing scandal, shock and fear,
Surely my mother won’t find out,
Oh my! I think she’s here!

For hundreds of years this town has stood,
Upon this very spot,
But now its future is in doubt,
It’s Hillsborough’s “Ladies Night Out!”

Have a good Thursday.

More things not in print; what's upcoming

An addendum to a post I made a few weeks ago — the blue and yellow button on the front page of the Web site (www.newsoforange.com) will link you to our MyNewsPhotos page, which is a place we can post pictures from events we've covered and other stock footage from stories that have run. It allows us to show a wider range of images from events and, if you like them, you can purchase professionally printed copies. I am in the midst of uploading several weeks' worth of photos, so there will be many more images online by the end of this week.

Here's an item not in print in this week's edition — cheap rabies shots this weekend, courtesy of Orange County's animal services department:

Orange County's Animal Services Department is offering $5 rabies vaccination clinics in April and May to ensure that cats and dogs are current on their vaccinations. Authorized by North Carolina State law, such clinics provide pet owners with substantial savings on rabies vaccinations.
The next clinic will be held from noon to 5 p.m. at Orange County's Animal
Shelter, 1081 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in Chapel Hill. This clinic
is for 1-year rabies vaccinations only.
The vaccination fee must be paid in cash. Owners wishing to receive a 3-year vaccination should bring their pet's most recent vaccination certificate. Dogs must be on leashes and cats must be in carriers. Animals that may be nervous or unsettled should be kept in a vehicle for their vaccination. Call 245-2075 for further information about the clinic.

This week, I am hopefully going to finish some stories I am have been holding on for a few weeks because the story load has exceeded our space. Among them:

• Local architect Tim Watson wants to spread the use of eco-restorative design on homes and businesses, and he also wants to certify young people for the green job revolution. Read more about his vision next week.

• The ongoing discussion on what, if anything, the town of Hillsborough should charge event organizers for town services has been put off for another year. Town officials are mulling a hotel occupancy tax to help them earn some money from all of the visitors coming to town.

• Orange County has some of the cleanest air in the state, according to the American Lung Association. More on that next week, too.

One final thing: We occasionally host local class trips or Boy Scout troops at the office and show them what we do here. Since our design is done electronically and our press is located off-site, there aren't any fresh-off-the-press paper hats I remember from when I was younger.

Anyways, I told a group from yesterday, all from New Hope Elementary, that we would put their picture online. Also, somebody (I'm assuming it was a Scout) left us a great stick figure ninja drawing. Thanks for that.

OCS calendar

Due to space constraints, the Orange County Schools calendar got pushed out. So, here's what's going on May 1-5:

May 1
Partnership Academy: 2 p.m. Artist in Residence Program
Cedar Ridge: 7 p.m. School musical- Evita
Gravelly Hill: Sixth-grade field trip (Opera – The Barber of Seville)

May 2
Cedar Ridge: 7 p.m. School musical- Evita
District: All day State Jazz Festival at OHS
Orange High: Scholastic Aptitude Test

May 4
Partnership Academy: 2 p.m. Artist in Residence Program
C. W. Stanford: 6 p.m. Athletic Boosters/ Parent Sports Information Night
A. L. Stanback: 7 p.m. Chorus concert
Cedar Ridge: 7 p.m. REMS Parent Information Meeting
Orange High: 7 p.m. National Achievers Inductions (in the Media Center)
Gravelly Hill: 8th Grade AVID Field Trip UNC-Wilmington

May 5
A. L. Stanback: 12:30 p.m. Voices Together performance
C. W. Stanford: 5 p.m. REMS Grant Parent Information Night
Gravelly Hill: 8:30 a.m. 7th Grade Career Fair
C. W. Stanford: All Day Teacher Appreciation Day

the real mccoy: post 100

One hundred posts and more than 1,100 page views. Good for us, and thanks for reading.

Onto the real stuff.

Here's what I've got coming up. It'll be a bit of a lighter week (so far!), but that could easily change.

• Orange County Schools (and Chapel Hill/Carrboro City Schools) presented their budget requests to the Board of County Commissioners on Monday, and I'll have something on that. It was an interesting meeting, to say the least.

• Pathways Elementary went up against Seawell Elementary in Chapel Hill for Battle of the Books. To find out what happened with that, read this week's paper. It was definitely a great competition, and the students all did an excellent job.

• Central Elementary School is hosting a science day all day tomorrow.

• Ladies Night Out is tomorrow, so I'll be snapping pictures of that.

That's it for now. We'll see what else develops as the week goes on. As always, if you know of anything, give me a ring or drop me a line at v.shortley@newsoforange.com.

What got squeezed out

Ed. note: Thanks to Vanessa, who noticed this was only post number 99. My apologies. - Josh

In preparation of several items being squeezed out of the paper (I am attending a town board work session but don't see having the space to run anything this week; it's very, very tight), here's a picture and information sent to us by Tom Hurtgen, of Hurtgen Meadows Farm, from last weekend's grand opening of the Eno River Farmers' Market (formerly the county-operated entity in the Public Market House on Margaret Lane; it's now a privately-operated market).

"The Eno River Farmers’ Market held its Grand Opening for the 2009 growing season last Saturday at the Public Market House on East Margaret Lane in downtown Hillsborough. The festive occasion featured 17 farmers and artisans and hundreds of local citizens seeking fresh produce, plants, crafts, baked goods, eggs and meat. The event featured drawings for vendor coupon books and a reading of the locally inspired book, 'Polly and the Forbidden
House.' Hillsborough Mayor Tom Stevens captivated his audience with the reading and the illustrator, Chris Kanoy, autographed the books."

These are the decisions I hate having to make at a community newspaper — what can make it in, and what goes to the blog or straight online. We honestly do want to get everything in the paper in some form, and we're at a point in the year where picture-worthy events are inundating the inbox. Back Wednesday, most likely ...

marsville link-up

So, one of the things I did today was head over to Grady A. Brown Elementary School to take some photos of their Marsville Link-up.

Here are a couple for your enjoyment:


Here's a picture of Grady A. Brown students deflating their Marsville habitat.


A sign on Grady Brown's door lets people know they're entering a strange new world.

For more information on the project, you'll have to catch Wednesday's News of Orange.

This weekend and assorted other notes

As has become our custom, here's a rundown of a few of this weekend's events in greater Orange County. It's supposed to be in the high 80s or low 90s for much of the weekend; I mention this because here's what reader (and former sportswriter) Joe Zaengle sent us Monday:

That's his son, Jeff, showing some of the hail that hit the northern part of the county earlier this week. Just another strange juxtaposition with the summertime temperatures expected tomorrow.

Anyways, here's a sample of Saturday and Sunday (Last Fridays is, well, in a few hours outside of our office and all over downtown):

• The Orange County District's Boy Scout Camporee will be held from 2 p.m. Friday until late Sunday at Vista Wood Bison Ranch north of Hillsborough. This is expected to draw several hundred local scouts.

• The Eno River Farmers Market on Margaret Lane is having is official grand opening of the season from 8 a.m. to noon. For more information, visit www.enoriverfarmersmarket.org.

• The Chamber of Commerce is holding its inaugural Battle of the Bands to determine who will perform at this year's Hog Days. It will begin at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Moose Lodge Family Center at 202 Holiday Park Road. Children younger than 10 years old are admitted free. For more information, call 732-8156 or visit www.hillsboroughchamber.com/battle.

• The Larry Talley Memorial Softball Tournament will be held at the Cedar Grove Ruritan Club’s softball field, 6116 Efland-Cedar Grove Road. There is a team entry fee, and proceeds will sponsor the Larry Talley Memorial Agriculture Scholarship Fund. For more information, call Shannon Talley-Bradsher at 451-1829 or e-mail shannontbradsher@hotmail.com.

• Pops in the Park, the annual performance by the Durham Symphony behind Cameron Park Elementary and the board of education building on Cameron Steet, will be held at 3 p.m. Sunday. It's free. For more information, visit www.durhamsymphony.org or call 491-6576.

• A Walk for Hunger, an Orange Congregations in Mission fundraiser, will begin at 1:30 p.m. Sunday at Little River Park in Rougemont. For more information, call OCIM at 732-6194, Ext. 10.

Not quite all on the same page ...

Well, nobody on the Board of County Commissioners is advocating pulling the Howell site out of consideration. That much, we know.

Commissioners Tuesday learned plenty of new developments, voted one out contingency plan almost immediately, and determined that all of their sources of information may not be on the same page.

Pam Hemminger and Bernadette Pelissier both asked that a work session be set so that commissioners could settle some lingering questions about cost projections, plans in case they can't build a transfer station by the landfill's capacity date and what exactly they're going to be building out on N.C. 54 if they approve the station site.

As other commissioners pointed out, three new commissioners — the aforementioned Hemminger and Pelissier, as well as Steve Yuhasz, faced a vote on the transfer station site in December as one of their first acts on the job. Pelissier said that she has been seeing so many numbers and spreadsheets that she's not sure what to make of sometimes conflicting claims.

There is a large cost difference in the conclusions made by consultant Olver and by Orange County Voice, a resident advocacy group. Also, commissioners learned Tuesday the landfill has at least an extra year of capacity then originally thought (part of that attributed to the "no cardboard" rule instituted this year, Solid Waste Director Gayle Wilson said).

What that means, commissioners said, is they have more time to vet the Howell site, but nobody is walking away from it yet. Read next week's edition for more on these issues, including the short-lived Eubanks Road temporary transfer station option.