Dr. Neil Pedersen, superintendent of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools, is in the running for a state education leadership award.

The Public School Forum, an education policy group, said Friday that Pedersen is one of three finalists for the annual Jay Robinson Leadership Award.

The award is given to those who have made outstanding contributions to education. It is named after the late Jay Robinson, who served as superintendent of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools, as a vice president of the UNC system, and as chairman of the state Board of Education.

The recipient of the award will be announced on June 8th. The other finalists are Dr. Dudley Flood, an education consultant, and Dr. Shirley Prince, superintendent of the Scotland County schools.

On Saturday, March 21st, University Lake and the Cane Creek Reservoir
in Orange County reopened for boating, fishing, picnicking, sunbathing
and other recreation. Both lakes are full due to winter rains. The
lakes are operated by Orange Water and Sewer Authority (OWASA).

Valerie Foushee, chairwoman of the Orange County Board of Commissioners, responded to our transfer station question (about whether the county might revisit the Eubanks Road landfill as a possible site.)

"At present, the county has not changed its course of action regarding the siting of the transfer station," she writes. "That is not to say that during the course of budget discussions for FY 2009-10, the costs for the siting, construction, and the cost of transporting solid waste out of the county will not lead to a revisiting of sites that were previously ruled out."

About 50 residents attended a meeting with solid waste director Gayle Wilson Sunday night in White Cross. Read a report on the meeting in tomorrow's Chapel Hill News.

Fifty people attended last night's solid waste transfer station meeting in White Cross. Five times as many crammed the Recreation Center for airport meetings. But it was cold and rainy, and there was basketball.

Several residents asked why the county was choosing to haul its future trash, a less sustainable practice than building a new landfill. They also asked why, if a transfer station is being pursued, the county is looking far from where the trash is generated, again less sustainable (in terms of energy costs).

The answer in both cases, solid waste director Gayle Wilson said, is politics. The county was unable to find a landfill site in the 1990s and decided not to put a transfer station on Eubanks Road -- land it owns close to where most of the trash is generated -- because it would have saddled the Rogers Road community with decades of more garbage.

"Been there, done that," Wilson said. "You can definitely make the argument it's not sustainable to haul your waste to another county and another state. But we tried the sustainable approach, and here we are."

So we asked some of the commissioners today whether, in light of the economy especially, they wanted to reconsider Eubanks Road.

COMMISSIONER MIKE NELSON: "I believe the Board's intent was clear, not to reconsider the Eubanks Road site."

COMMISSIONER BERNADETTE PELISSIER: "I know that folks do keep bringing up Eubanks Road as a waste transfer site. But recall that two of us three new commissioners did vote for the sites on Hwy 54. We are waiting for a report on other options in response to questions raised by community members and commissioners. I can't say what we will do until we review additional information."

COMMISSIONER PAM HEMMINGER: "I am fairly confident that the Eubanks site will not be reconsidered. The BOCC has already been down that road."

You can read more about Sunday night's meeting in Wednesday's Chapel Hill News. In the meantime, what do you think the county should do with its trash? If we get enough responses (with your full name and town or township), we'll print some of them in Sunday's paper. Thanks.

County Commissioner Mike Nelson wants to save the Cybrary.

On his blog, Leading from the Left, the former Carrboro mayor says he's also hoping a group forms to keep the Cedar Grove Library open as well.

Both are on the very long list of possible cuts the commissioners began reviewing last week to help plug an anticipated $8.7 million revenue shortfall in the fiscal year beginning July 1. Nelson lists some other potential cuts on his blog as well.

"Folks are fired up and ready to go," Nelson says. "Most seem to agree that closing two branch libraries is excessive, even in a recession. Cutting hours because of a constrained budget is to be expected, but shutting down two entire branch operations?! It's particulary troubling because these branches serve very unique populations."

Closing the two libraries would save about $30,000 as the county plans to open a new main county library in downtown Hillsborough.

And of course, Chapel Hill continues to seek more county money for the Chapel Hill Public Library to help compensate it for all the residents from outside the town who use that facility.

By now you have probably heard I gave notice to the BOCC on Friday that my husband and I have decided to leave the area and move to Tennessee.  My last day on the job will be June 30, 2009.  I know the timing of this announcement is not good, but my employment agreement with the county requires I give 90 day notice and I was running out of time.  By the end of June I will have been here over 2 ? years.  This is not as long as I had originally thought I would stay, but life isn’t always as we plan it.

Orange County Manager Laura Blackmon is resigning at the end of June.

Blackmon will be moving to Tennessee, she said in a letter to employees.

"I know the timing of this announcement is not good, but my employment agreement with the county requires I give 90 day notice and I was running out of time," she wrote. "By the end of June I will have been here over 2 1/2 years.  This is not as long as I had originally thought I would stay, but life isn’t always as we plan it."

Blackmon will remain through the current budget cycle. The county anticipates an $8.7 million revenue shortfall, and Blackmon has told staff to anticipate 10 percent cuts in their department budgets. The county began reviewing possible program cuts last week.

Orange County faces an $8.7 million revenue shortfall next year, the Orange County commissioners heard last night.

The shortfall is about 5 percent of this year's $183 million general fund revenue and represents about 7 cents on the county property tax rate. (If memory serves, each penny on the current 99.8 cent per $100 valuation tax rate generates about $1.3 million.)

"This is not unexpected,' Commissioner Mike Nelson said. "It's still pretty stunning."

One immediate consequence: Service cuts. The county began reviewing proposed spending cuts last night. County Manager Laura Blackmon said the 10 percent cuts she ordered will not be enough. She also said not all departments will have to cut their spending the same. Some provide more mandated services than others, and some have revenue streams that help pay for the programs they deliver.

But it looks like Chapel Hill-Carrboro Schools Superintendent Neil Pedersen may have to revise his recommended budget. He has proposed nearly $1 million in cuts, assuming the distric would get the same funding as this year. (It was the first time in his 17 year he had submitted a plan without a spending increase.)

But Thursday night, county staff suggested a decrease in per pupil funding to the county's two school districts. A report prepared for the meeting shows what it would cost to fund the school system's with 48.1 percent of the county's anticipated general fund revenue. The county has a goal of spending at least 48.1 percent of the budget on education, but in fact has spent slightly above that.

If the county holds school funding to the minium goal, the per pupil appropriation would drop from $3,200 this year to $3,011 next year.

Revenue from sales and property taxes would largely offset the costs local governments would incur providing services to UNC Chapel Hill’s proposed Carolina North campus, according to a new study.

A fiscal impact analysis by economic planning consultant TischlerBise examined the direct and indirect financial affects that a first-phase, 15-year development of Carolina North would have on Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Orange County, the three local governments that would have to provide services to the new campus.

The direct impact on the town of Chapel Hill would be the most significant — a $12 million loss over 15 years — due to a new fire station needed in the ninth year of the plan.

But the direct and indirect impacts on the other governments are largely a wash, the report concludes. The findings help the university’s case, since a key component to the planning of the new campus was to make sure Carolina North was a revenue-neutral enterprise.

“This [report] says it shouldn’t be terribly difficult to make this fiscally neutral,” said Jack Evans, the Carolina North project’s executive director.

While university functions aren’t taxed, the project expects to incorporate tax-paying private enterprise as well.

Reached late this afternoon, Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy said he had not yet had time to synthesize but he was pleased to have it.

"It gives us something to work from; it's information," Foy said. "We're going to have to look at it in some depth and come to some conclusions on how to proceed."

The 70-page report is heavy on data and detail; its table of contents stretches to three full pages.  All fiscal impacts are examined under two development scenarios. Under one, the lion’s share of housing is developed early in the 15-year plan. In the other scenario, more corporate office space is built early on.

A few highlights:

• The report assumes the university would provide its own police coverage and pick up its own trash and recycling, but Chapel Hill would provide fire coverage.

• Orange County would would do well financially under either scenario, netting a surplus of $13.8 million under the housing-first scenario and $16.4 million if office space is developed earlier.

• The study assumes a project start date of 2011.

Click on this blog post's attachment to read the report.

Documents:

U.S. Rep. David Price, a Democrat who represents the 4th Congressional District, discussed in a Q&A how the stimulus plan could benefit his district, which is composed of Orange, Durham, and parts of Wake and Chatham counties. Here's an excerpt from my interview with Price. We talked on the day that the $787 billion plan was signed into law. The full interview will run this Wednesday in The Chapel Hill News. Price said specific projects in the district were not named in the bill. He said Congress decided not to allow the use of so-called earmarks to designate how the money would be spent.

Q: How will the money get from Washington to the Triangle?

PRICE:  In a number of ways. Some of the money will come directly to individuals. For example, extended unemployment insurance, expanded Pell grants, food stamps, small busines loans, premium subsidies for health insurance between jobs - COBRA health insurance. So that's one way - through individuals.

A lot of the money will come through established channels by formulas, to the states or to localities. For example, the Medicaid support for the states will go out to the states according to a formula which incorporates the number of Medicaid beneficiaries. The highway infrastructure money for the states will go out according to the regular formula. School construction money will go to individual school districts according to their Title 1 allocations. So either localities or states by formula.

And then finally some money will go out by a competitive process where agencies will evaluate applications. For example, there is some additional money in here for National Institutes of Health research, for National Science Foundation research, for building out of broadband. Those are examples of programs where there will be no entitlement, but a competitive process to see what proposals have the greatest merit.