Mark Kleinschmidt edged Matt Czajkowski by 99 votes, and there could be more than that many provisional ballots left to be counted. There are 78 in Orange County, and the county Board of Elections will meet no later than Nov. 10 to decide whether they're valid ballots. Orange elections director Tracy Reams is still waiting to learn how many provisional ballots came out of the tiny portion of Chapel Hill that's in Durham County.

It's not likely very many, but Czajkowski nearly doubled up Kleinschmidt, 287-146, in that section of town, so it could make a difference, at least in narrowing the gap between the two men. If it closes to less than 1 percent of the total -- probably somewhere between 85 and 90 votes, depending on the total of provisionals -- Czajkowski would have the right to demand a recount. That will only take a difference of a dozen or so votes in the provisional ballots.

Czajkowski won election in 2007 after the Board of Elections denied a recount request from incumbent Cam Hill, who lost by about 60 votes.

UPDATE: Durham County has nine provisional ballots for the Town of Chapel Hill, making for 87 total -- not enough to change the outcome but perhaps enough to allow a possible recount. Czajkowski did not return a phone call inquiring whether he was considering asking for a recount.

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If you're one of 60,000 football fans heading to Chapel Hill for the Florida State game this evening, remember these words: park and ride.

Most Carolina football fans are familiar with all the places around town where you can leave your car and board a Tar Heel Express bus that will deliver you to Kenan Stadium for the 8pm kickoff.

The bus makes your ride easier, and it cuts down on traffic hassles for everybody else.

And the combination of football and rush hour guarantees that there will be traffic delays this evening.

Carolina is hosting Florida State in Kenan Stadium Thursday night, so we can expect the usual evening traffic hassle to be ten times worse around Chapel Hill and on I-40 in Durham County.

Chapel Hill isn't such an awful place on football Saturdays. They know how to do park-and-ride in that town.

But the roads will have lots of extra traffic Thursday evening, and university employees will have to knock off work early to clear out all those parking spaces for football fans.

Kickoff is a little after 8 p.m.

Last week I wrote how a reader asked what public process led to the men's homeless shelter moving to MLK by Homestead Road. I wrote how I told her there was no public process. Mayor Foy, then Chancellor Moeser and IFC head Chris Moran just announced it one morning.

Carlo Robustelli, the mayor's aide, called after that column ran. He wanted us to know that the mayor had recently responded to some residents who had the same question. He sent me the letter, which spelled out the town's special use permit process.

The only town meeting has been at the Design Review Commission, which met June 17. The Town Council was supposed to get its early look at the project last week, but that has been delayed to Oct. 19.

When I told the caller last week there had been no public process in choosing the location, I didn't mean to imply there would be no public process from this point on. So here are some points from the mayor's letter.

Once the IFC applies for a special-use permit, neighbors within 1,000 feet will be invited to a public information meeting. The neighbors will get another letter when the permit application goes before the planning board. Between the information meeting, the meetings of various town advisory boards, the planning board and finally the Town Council, the public will have many chances to comment on the proposed men’s shelter.

In fact, this is how most development occurs. Someone buys a property or buys an option, makes a proposal and it either goes forward or goes nowhere. Some current candidates also think it goes on for too long, without any assurance that developers or the town get what they want in the end. Council incumbent Ed Harison called the SUP process a “crap shoot” at last week’s NRG forum. Challenger Gene Pease said it flat out doesn’t work and needs an overhaul.

I'll have more on this in tomorrow's Editor's Desk column in The Chapel Hill News.

I thought the guy's name was familiar. Mark Whitacre, who is played by Matt Damon in the new movie "The Informant!,"
came up on our radar more than 12 years ago when he was running a company in Chapel Hill. I had been business editor for six months.

Here's a story written by David Ranii that I pulled from the archives.

The Town Council declined to take a vote on whether to appoint the fifth-place finisher in November's election to complete the two years left on Bill Strom's seat.

Mayoral candidate and sitting council member Matt Czajkowski called for a straw vote to give the voters "clarity" about the council's intentions, but other council members opted not to bind the newly elected council to a particular approach.

Mayoral rival Mark Kleinschmidt called Czajkowski's plan a "political stunt."

"It's also a fiction," Kleinschmidt said. "What if the fifth-place person doesn't, in fact, apply [for appointment?] It's a meaningless exercise." 

Over two hundred students, staff and friends attend a 45 minute memorial service for UNC junior and Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity president ... more

Summer is winding down and the start of the traditional school year is
approaching, so recreational athletes around the Triangle are taking
advantage of their final summer sports camp opportunities.

Among the camps are the annual Bouncing Bulldogs Jump Rope Camps
conducted by the Chapel Hill-based organization that has won numerous
national and international championships. The Bulldogs recently
returned from a 17-day tour of England, Denmark and Sweden.

The quick-footed Bulldogs' final camps of the summer run Aug. 10-14 and
Aug. 17-21. Would-be rope-skippers can participate for a day ($40) or
for a full week ($200). Call 919-493-7992 or go to
www.bouncingbulldogs.org.

See a gallery of some of the UNC administrators who have received "retreat rights" agreements.

Incumbent Town Council member Laurin Easthom says the current council should decide on a process for replacing Bill Strom soon and that process should include appointing the fifth-place finisher in November's election. If she happens to finish fifth out of eight candidates, though, she wouldn't seek appointment.

"I would want to be elected because I've done it before, so for me, it would be a loss if I wasn't in the top four," she said. "If there are not five seats on the ballot, then in my opinion, I didn't win my seat back on the council, and I don't think that the council should turn around and appoint me."