Citizens interested in serving out Ward 3 City Councilman Mike Woodard's term have until noon Nov. 30 to make applications.

Woodard won election to the state Senate in Tuesday's election and has resigned from the City Council effective Dec. 31. He leaves with 11 months remaining on his term.

Woodard is not allowed to take part in choosing his replacement.

The six remaining council members will appoint a successor after an application and interview process. They have not set a date for making the appointment, but will pick finalists at a special meeting Dec. 20.

Application information and forms are available from the City Clerk's office: 919-560-4166 or ann.gray@durhamnc.gov.
 

After winning the District 22 state Senate seat last week, Mike Woodard (right) resigned his City Council seat at Thursday's council work session.

After congratulatory applause, Councilman Eugene Brown handed Woodard a bottle of red wine.

"Based upon the current makeup of the state Senate, you may need a little more of this," he said.

Woodard, a Democrat going into the Republican-dominated legislature, looked at the label.

"Based on the current makeup," Woodard said, "this says it's only 13.5 percent alcohol."

Woodard's resignation is effective Dec. 31. The remaining council members will elect a successor to serve out the last year of his term in January.
 

You can find all the election results on www.newsobserver.com. Here's a look at what else we have this morning.

NO EVICTIONS YET: Still no official word from management, but tenants at Lincoln Apartments say they have another six weeks to find new places to live. Jim Wise has been following the story for us. 

SISTERS SEIZE THE DAY: Monica Chen reports how sisters Wendy and Jessica Clark have built a cleaning service into a million dollar business. Read how they're giving back to their employees and the community in her story.

LUCHADORAS4! Those masked female wrestlers are back. You can catch them this Saturday at noon at the Durham Armory for five bucks. This is trainer Jeff Shaw throwing La Abandonada to themat with a hip toss at a practice session I attended two weeks ago.

Kifu Faruq is back with her second My View column, Sean O'Brien wonders how his wife does it, and Bonitta Best says Central will miss Dominique. All that plus Flo Johnston's Faith notes, Dave Hart's ArtsWeek and a wrap up of Friday night football (not a good night).

What's on your mind? Send a letter to editor@newsobserver.com. And thanks for reading,

Mark 

You can find all the election results, including Orange County approving a half-cent sales tax for light rail and improved bus service, on www.chapelhillnews.com and www.newsobserver.com.

Here's a look at what else we have today:

TRASH TALK: Looks like Orange County (Chapel Hill, anyway) could get a transfer station after all, and it appears heading to Millhouse Road not far from where former CH Mayor Kevin Foy proposed it some years back. Get the details here.

BOYS AND GIRLS: Eight years in the making and $250,000 later, supporters of a Boys and Girls Club broke ground this weekend on the project site in the Pine Knolls neighborhood. That's Jaylin Sanders taking a turn on the ceremonial shovel. Read my story and see more photos here.

RENT PROTEST: Collins Crossing, formerly Abbey Court and before that Old Well, is home to some of our community's newest residents, Latino and ethnic Karen refugees from Myanmar (Burma). Now a new owner is making changes. Find out why some are worried their days at the complex could be numbered in Sarah Mansur's story here. 

Viv Taylor finds a church in today's My View, Debbie Meyer looks at the Preservation Society's look back, and a group of UNC biologists says Weaver Street Market is feeding the hype against genetically modified plants. All that and letters from Pittsboro to Cedar Grove. 

Now is a good time to send letters. With the elections and  transit vote over, the mailbag is nearly empty. Tell us what's on your mind -- Obey Creek? the transfer station? -- at editor@newsobserver.com.

Thanks for reading,

Mark

"A stunning river system. "

That's how Hildegard Ryals described New Hope Creek in a 1994 story, five years after helping to found Friends of the New Hope to protect the creek and its tributaries from growth.

"The birds, the fish, the furry creatures: they can move from the top of the creek all the way down, along the connected river system," Ryals said. "We need a firm political will to stand up against inappropriate development."

I can't remember where I met Ryals, a regal lady who never let attention on herself take precedence over her cause; and she had many.  In 1985-86 she was part of a group that led to the Durham County Inventory of Natural and Cultural Resources used by city planners and developers. She served on the Durham Open Space Commission, a group that works to protect habitats for rare and endangered plants and animals. And of course she was a member of the Friends of the Eno. 

In an email, Chapel Hill Town Council Ed Harrison says Ryals died Thursday. She was 81. A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Dec. 15 at St, Philips Episcopal Chuch in downtown Durham. All are invited.

"Hildegard was a force of nature on behalf of the environment, in particular for lands deserving protection," harrison writes. "She led the first New Hope Creek corridor preservation efforts, and corralled any number of us to help. I recall that Hildegard could sometimes be hard on the younger me, but I knew she wanted me to do the best that could be done.

"Hildegard Ryals was, simply put, a superb role model for those who need to practice persistence in the face of obstacles, which would include all of us."

Fresh off our story on the "Build a Better Block with Tootie" comes word that Durham is a finalist for the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Mayors Challenge. The competition inspires cities to generate innovative ideas that improve city life – and that ultimately can be shared with other cities across the nation.
 
Durham was selected based on its idea to create entrepreneurship hubs in three distressed neighborhoods "to positively impact job creation, family stability, workforce training, and overall economic growth in those areas," according to a news release. Submitted by the City’s Neighborhood Improvement Services Department’s Urban Innovation Center, the proposed project will now compete against 19 other cities across the country for a $5 million grand prize as well as one of four additional prizes of $1 million each.
 
The Innovation Center partners with residents to creatively meet community challenges, just like project manager Wanona Satcher is doing with the folks in East Durham on "Build a Better Block" (left). The program is sprucing up the corner of Angier Avenue and Drive Street -- painting trash cans, planting a garden and building a bus shelter -- and offering businesses a free month's rent in the hope that some of them will stay and attract others. 

“This project presents Durham with an exciting opportunity,” Mayor Bill Bell says of the Bloomberg competition. “To be selected as a finalist from more than 300 submissions across the country speaks volumes about the potential value of this project to Durham and to other cities.”
 
A team from Durham will attend the Bloomberg Ideas Camp, a two-day gathering in New York City this month, to further refine its ideas. Coming out of the Camp, the Durham team will have access to additional technical support to prepare its ideas for final submission. Winners will be announced in spring 2013, with a total of $9 million going to five cities to jumpstart implementation of their ideas.
 
 

The Durham Police Department and Performance Bicycle will distribute 300 safety whistles and train volunteers to help police the American Tobacco Trail during an "Our Trails, Our Town" event Saturday.

From 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., Performance Bicycle will hand out safety whistles to trail users at the Southpoint Crossings and Morehead Avenue trailhead entrances to the American Tobacco Trail.

Beginning at 11 a.m., the Durham Police Department will train 15 volunteers, who have already been pre-screened, at the Morehead Avenue trailhead entrance to the American Tobacco Trail. As part of this training, safety vests and whistles will also be provided to these volunteers.

Recent attacks have roused calls for the city to improve trail security. There have been at least nine incidents -- assaults, robberies and a sexual offense -- on the popular greenway since mid-May. Police have made three arrests, increased patrols, investigated installing video cameras and bought three utility terrain vehicles for trail use.

Durham County's early-voting polls are going to be open until 3 p.m. Saturday, two hours longer than originally scheduled.

The county Board of Elections voted for the extension Tuesday, after the state board asked counties to consider longer hours. Their decision has no effect on other counties.

Elections Director Michael Perry said he preferred sticking with the original 1 p.m. closing to allow his staff plenty of time to prepare for Tuesday's polling, and Elections Board Member Bill Brian said he saw no compelling reason for adding hours on Saturday.

Board Chairwoman Carol Anderson, though, said the state could issue a last-minute order for local boards to keep voting open and it would be easier to go ahead with the extension. The board's third member, Dawn Baxton, said she had no objection to extra voting hours.

Legally, early voting could have been extended until 5 p.m. The 3 p.m. cutoff was a compromise, since extension required a unanimous vote.

Anyone in line to vote at 3 p.m. will be allowed to cast a ballot, though elections officials said that could keep poll workers occupied as long as an hour and a half after closing if last-day turnout is heavy. Voters have been coming early in record numbers this election.

Bob Wilson, our Sunday columnist and former editorial page editor of The Herald-Sun. does not shy from taking the politically incorrect view. In recent weeks he has come out against affirmative action, the Ninth Street panhandlers and now the Magic Johnson academy for DPS dropouts. Or more precisely naming the school for the former NBA superstar (left), who he notes got HIV from having lots of sex with lots of women.

"Johnson today is accorded the status of an American icon, and no doubt he deserves much of the acclaim showered on him for good works.

Yet, consider this: In today’s multicultural, excruciatingly politically correct society, it is a point of pride to name an alternative school for a sexual profligate such as Magic Johnson, but not for, say, the thoroughly admirable George Henry White.

Yes, that George Henry White, the black congressman from North Carolina that you’ve never heard of. He served in the House of Representatives from 1897 to 1901. His mother was born a slave."

Wilson's column (Read the whole essay here.) drew a strong rebuke from Durham nurse Mary Few, who says Wilson's column made her sad and that he has forgotten the courage it took for Johnson to go public about his HIV status.

"Announcing you had this virus was the modern day version of being a leper!  Magic Johnson put a recognizable, heterosexual face on the virus. He helped to bridge that gap of fear and bring in a culture of understanding. Magic Johnson has done more than most to atone for his sins and frankly he doesn't owe ANY of us any atonement. None of us are his God or his jury. Why can't we just celebrate his victories instead of focusing on his faults?"

Look for Few's whole letter coming Sunday in The Durham News. Tell us what you think at editor@newsobserver.com

By Virginia Bridges

South Durham residents fighting a planned cell tower that would be disguised as a pine tree will have another chance to make their case after the Board of Adjustment returned the case to a review panel Tuesday.

An application for the controversial 120-foot-tall tower, which would be located by St. Barbara Greek Orthodox Church at 8306 N.C. 751, was submitted on behalf of an engineer who would be developing the tower for the Sprint Nextel Corp.

In general, land-use rules in the city and the county require applications for freestanding concealed towers to be complete and demonstrate that the structure would be compatible with adjacent structures and landscapes.  The Development Review Board, an internal review board that approves such towers, determined in June that the application met all the requirements by an 8-1 vote.