The Triangle Labor Council and North Carolina AFL-CIO have endorsed Mayor Bill Bell and City Councilwoman for re-election in this fall's municipal elections.

Bell is running for a sixth consecutive term, Catotti for a third.

Both were informed of the endorsements by letter. Labor Council President Michael Gravinese wrote that his group's policy is to leave announcement of its endorsements up to candidates.

Bell faces four challengers in a primary election Oct. 11. Besides Catotti, seven candidates are running for three at-large seats on the City Council.

Incumbent Diane Catotti and challenger Victoria Peterson filed as city council candidates today, joining Steve Schewel who filed Monday.

Both Catotti and Peterson had announced their intentions to run earlier. Catotti is running for re-election for a third term in the at-large seat she has held since 2003. Peterson has run for council three times, unsuccessfully.

Mayor Bill Bell has also filed for re-election.

The old Holiday Inn on Chapel Hill Street (more recently, Urban Merchant Center) and an old medical office a block away at 306 South Gregson have been vacant for for years and years and look it. And some city council members are tired of it.

"I've been talking about this for years," said Councilman Eugene Brown.

"You're looking at 15,000 to 18,000 cars a day going by those. It's an embarrassment to Durham," he said.

"That razor wire has driven me nuts for a long, long time," said Councilwoman Diane Catotti.

City Councilwoman Diane Catotti had a little correction to the minutes of the Joint City-County Planning Committee's last meeting.

A sentence should have read, she said, "Ms. Catotti's motion died for lack of second" -- instead of "Ms. Catotti died for lack of second."

The minutes were duly corrected.

After hearing a report on Durham's water needs in the future, City Council member Diane Catotti wanted to know about the here and now -- given the prolonged dry weather earlier this month.

"Are we moving toward drought?" she asked water director Don Greeley.

"Fifty-fity," he replied. "As they've said every year at this time."