Extended excerpts of our conversatin  with District 1 County Commissioner candidate Penny Rich.

Here's a look at today's local headlines:

HOTEL, APARTMENTS PROPOSED: A developer will bring a plan to the Town Council later this month for a hotel and student apartments at the corner of Estes Drive and MLK Boulevard across from Amity Church. The change would require a rezoning and appears aimed at serving the future Carolina North campus planned for across the boulevard.

UNPAID SCHOOL LUNCH TAB: The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education wants to forgive about $45K in unpaid lunch tabs. In some cases, parents owe more than $600. Tom Hartwell reports the board voted 4-2 against sending the unpaid bills to a collection agency.

BRUSHSTROKES: BEIJING: In this month's visual arts column Debbie Meyer interviews Barbara Tyroler about her exhibit opening this month at the FedEx center on the UNC campus. Debbie has also started a monthly arts feature in our sister publication, The Durham News.

Former Mayor Ken Broun responds to Chas Gaertner's downtown criticism in today's letters (Broun has bought a unit in 140 West and says the project is a sign of good things to come). Also in today's letters, writer Judy Hogan says poet Jacki Shelton Green needs your help.

And in other news today, look for a report later today on last night's meeting of the Chapel Hill Community Policing Commitee (lots of talk there about what defines a "critical incident" and how to respone to one), and we'll get opening arguments in the first trial associated with the nine accused killers of Josh Bailey four years ago. Tammy Grubb is in the courtroom.

And tonight, Dave Hart will be in Carrboro for a forum for candidates for the Orange County Board of Commissioners District 1 seat: incumbent Pam Hemminger, Chapel Hill Town Council member Penny Rich and former Carrboro Alderman Mark Dorosin are seeking two seats.

Thanks for reading,

Mark

A new student housing development is not what Homestead Road needs or  what the students at UNC want.

That was largely the message of the council and residents Monday night, after  developers unveiled plans for a new student housing development at 2801 Homestead Road.

Landmark Properties, based in Atlanta, presented their concept plan for the Retreat, a student housing complex with 180 town homes and single family houses, and 809 parking spaces on 39.5 acres on Homestead Road, adjacent to Homestead Villiage and north of Carolina North.

Chapel Hill’s cell-phone debate got put on hold Monday night when a proposed ban on calls while driving fell two votes short.

To pass on a first reading, the ban needed six votes. The council deadlocked 4-4, with member Ed Harrison absent because he was representing the town at a regional transit meeting. The issue will come back for a second reading March 26, when it will only need five votes.

The town has discussed the issue for two years. Another yes vote for a full ban next time could make Chapel Hill the first in the nation to enact such a ban, according to the town attorney. Evanston, Ill., which has had a local ban on hand-held calls, is considering adding hands-free calls to its ban.

The town’s proposal calls for banning either hands-held cell phone calls or all cell-phone calls while driving in town limits. It would make such calls a secondary offense, punishable by a $25 fine, when police stop someone for another violation such as speeding.

Early filings for political races show contests shaping up for the Orange County Board of Commissioners.

Four of the county board’s seven seats are up this fall. There are two seats available in District 1, representing more populous Chapel Hill-Carrboro; one seat in District 2, representing Hillsborough and the county’s rural areas, and one at large-seat available.

The filing period ends at noon Feb. 29. Here is a rundown of those who have filed so far.

In District 1, incumbent Pam Hemminger and Penny Rich, both Democrats, have filed. Hemminger, the board’s current vice chairwoman, is seeking her second term. She previously served on the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board, where she was appointed and then elected in 2004. Rich is a current member of the Chapel Hill Town Council, midway through her first term after being elected in November of 2009. She is a small business owner of a personal chef-catering service, writes a food blog and teaches classes on healthy menu planning. Current Commissioner Valerie Foushee is not seeking re-election so that she can run for State House District 50.

In District 2, incumbent Steve Yuhasz will face a primary challenge from at least fellow Democrat Renee Price. Yuhasz is seeking his second term and served as the board’s vice chairman last year. Price narrowly lost to current Commissioner Earl McKee in the 2010 Democratic primary. The winner of the May primary will face a Republican in November. So far, one Republican, Chris Weaver has filed.

In the at large race, current board Chairwoman Bernadette Pelissier is seeking her second term. Republican Mary Carter has also filed for the seat.

The commissioners’ primary duties are adopting an annual budget, setting the property tax rate, appointing various officials and representatives to advisory boards, planning for county needs and enacting local ordinances. The board also has the authority to call bond referendums, such as the half-cent sales tax referendum for mass transit the county expects to put on the ballot in November.

There are no municipal races on the ballot this fall.

Candidates continue to file for state and local races in Orange County this week.

Current Chapel Hill Town Council member Penny Rich filed to run for county commissioner Dist. 1 seat, challenging incumbent Pam Hemminger.

State Sen. Ellie Kinnaird filed to run for reelection.

Republican W. Lewis Hannah Jr. filed to run against Commissioner Valerie Foushee  and Republican Rod Chaney for the N.C House of Representatives Dist. 50 seat.

Republican Mary Carter filed to run against Commissioner Chairwoman Bernadette Pelissier for the at-large county commissioner seat.

Current Board of Education member Tony McKnight joined incumbent Stephen Halklotis and Lawrence Sanders to run for the Orange County Board of Education.

Today's Phillips story already has prompted a new letter, our sixth, from a parent saying there is too a problem and he's tired of seeing it swept under the rug. We'll bring that to you later.

Here are our local headlines:

BULLYING PROMPTS REVIEW: Superintendent Neil Pedersen says the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school district has reviewed bullying complaints at Phillips and found enough to merit a review of procedures there before school reopen this August. Lana Douglas has the story.

COLONY APARTMENTS UPDATE: Town Council members Penny Rich and Sally Greene had said they were worried the sale of Colony Apartments on Ephesus Church Road might remove affordable housing stock from Chapel Hill (Greene has called the apartments "organically affordable" because they're old and cheap.) Well, they were partly right. Read my story today.

MASTER CLASS: Lois Winkler is a new writer for The CHN, and a good one. She has a story today on a program that puts therapy dogs into some Orange County Schools classrooms, where they help children with autism and other special needs learn to read and de-stress. Chris Seward took our photos.

We have a page of your letters on the bullying complaints at Phillips, columns on growth and development, more on that shooting at a sheriff's deputy (a near miss; a bullet hit his radio belt), and much more. If your letter did not get in today, please look for it this coming week. And look online and in Wednesday's paper for photos from this weekend's high school graduations.

Thanks for reading,

Mark 

From correspondent Lynda-Marie Taurasi:

Chapel Hill Town Council member Penny Rich will ask her colleagues Wednesday night to formally oppose the county commissioners’ decision to close the county dental clinic in Car Mill Mall.  

Last month, the commissioners voted 5-2 to consolidate dental services in Hillsborough, saving the county’s budget $65,000.  Commissioners Alice Gordon and Mike Nelson voted against closing the Carrboro clinic.

Rich said the decision stunned her.

“Maybe I am naïve, but I didn’t think it would happen,” she said. “This is not the way we take care of people in our county.”

The county is proposing a voucher system, for those who qualify, to cover the $4 bus trip to Hillsborough. The trip requires taking a Chapel Hill Transit bus to catch the 420 bus to Hillsborough, and then walking several blocks west to the Hillsborough Clinic in the Whitted Building. The voucher system will cost the county $8,000 a year.

Orange County Commissioner Steve Yuhasz serves as a liaison to the Orange County Board of Health. He says the decision to consolidate services has been considered since 2008.  

Yuhasz says the board was reluctant to close the Car Mill location but concluded the county could best serve citizens through a full-time dental clinic in a single location.

Since the Hillsborough location already existed and would be much more easily and economically converted into a full-time clinic, that was the recommendation, he said.

Town Council member Lauren Easthom, who is a dentist, plans to support Rich’s resolution. ‘We’re talking about health care. Their decision was reducing easy access to health care for some of the poorest citizens in our county. We all have tight budgets.”

Look for more on this story in tomorrow's Chapel Hill News.

Jim Merritt started a landslide of campaign slogans at the League of Women Voters forum Monday.

"Remember," he said in his closing statement,"Chapel Hill has Merritt."

Next in line was Matt Pohlman: "I don't have any catchy phrases. Pohlman is limiting."

Ed Harrison revived his slogan from 2005: "Common Sense for an Uncommon Town."

Laurin Easthom deconstructed the whole endeavor: "Chapel Hill Has Merritt. Everybody Votes Raymond. For Pease in a Pod. DeHart of Chapel Hill. All I ask is to just, 'Vote Easthom'. I can't think of anything."