Government

The most important issue facing local government administrations in Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Orange County during the past year and in the months ahead is certainly the Covid-19 pandemic…

At the March 5 meeting of the Council Committee on Economic Sustainability, town staff presented Town Council with a proposal for a pilot program to regulate short-term rentals conducted through sites like Airbnb and VRBO in Chapel Hill. 

Chris Atack will be the new chief of the Carrboro Police Department. Atack, a captain who is a 22-year veteran of the department, will begin his new position effective Feb. 15  

Chapel Hill became the third North Carolina municipality — and third in Orange County — to enact an LGBTQ nondiscrimination ordinance Wednesday night.

Orange County governing boards will consider adopting new safeguards against LGBTQ discrimination this month, following the expiration of a three-year state ban blocking those protections.

The new headquarters for the Chapel Hill Police Department may still turn out to be the present headquarters. While reviewing a concept plan this week for a proposed municipal services center on Weaver Dairy Road Extension that would include the headquarters, the Chapel Hill Town Council decided to explore what it would cost to redevelop the current, centrally located site and remediate safety concerns there.

The Chapel Hill Town Council will review the latest concept plan for a municipal services center and new police headquarters Wednesday and once again will be faced with competing interests to balance.

Is the Carrboro Town Council fiddling while the town burns from global warming? This month, council members approved by a 6-1 vote the schematic design of a nearly $26 million library, civic and performance space and parking deck to be built on the town parking lot at 203 South Greensboro Street between Roberson and Carr streets.

Significant reform of Orange County bail practices this year has led to a major reduction in how many people have been detained pretrial, according to a local group monitoring the changes.

“This can’t just be a talking group,” said Delores Bailey, a member of the town of Chapel Hill’s new Re-Imagining Community Safety Task Force. “I feel like my participation [in the task force] will help my community if this group can honestly name three of the policing problems and then solve them … we’ve got to name it and fix it.”

Carrboro moved closer toward reparations for Black residents last week when its town council approved a resolution that lays out next steps along the path to making amends for hundreds of years of injustice.

The resolution before the Orange County Board of Commissioners at its Sept. 15 meeting called for the support of legalizing marijuana. But that wasn’t clear from the title: “A Resolution Supporting the Decriminalization of Marijuana.”

The agenda item on Carrboro Town Council’s Sept. 2 meeting called for a discussion on tree distribution disparity in historically Black neighborhoods, perhaps as a way to tiptoe in to the topic of reparations. But the council never got to the trees.

Twenty-five years ago, market researcher Diane Bloom conducted focus groups on the then-emerging technology of telemedicine. As a community advocate and Chapel Hill resident, she also spent many evenings at Town Hall, waiting for her turn to speak to the town council.

As the November elections approach against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, Orange County officials are preparing for an election like no other.

The Chapel Hill Public Library dodged a bullet when a budget amendment proposed by Orange County Commissioner Chair Penny Rich to cut $568,139 in county funding to the library failed by a 2-5 vote.