Dara BioSciences, a small Raleigh drug company, said in public filings it has enough money left to continue operating for 10 months at most as it burns through $388,000 a month.

The six-employee drug development company has raised $16 million from private investors in the past two years and now down to $3.4 million it will have to do another round of financing, said CEO Richard Franco. One of its treatments would be the first to control the agonizing pain triggered by chemotherapy.

In recent years the 9-year-old company narrowly avoided getting delisted from the NASDAQ exchange for being underfunded and because its stock price dipped below $1 per share. Shares are down 22 percent for the year and closed at $2.33 Tuesday.

Dara's business strategy is to develop and license drugs that are discovered by others. Dara is developing two drugs -- one for diabetes and and the other for cancer -- that the company plans to sell off before the drugs enter Phase III clinical trials, which are the final stage of drug-testing on patients.

Councilwoman Laurin Easthom wanted to plan for a non-resident library user fee starting next July, and colleague Matt Czajkowski wanted to start even sooner than that, but the rest of the Town Council decided Monday to give the Orange County commissioners a chance to increase their funding to the Chapel Hill Public Library next fiscal year.

The town has been complaining for years that county residents from outside Chapel Hill borrow 40 percent of the library’s materials but the county pays only about 10 percent of the library’s budget – not even accounting for what Chapel Hill residents pay toward the county’s own libraries in Hillsborough and Carrboro. But commissioners recently decided they couldn’t pay any more than their standard $250,000 for the fiscal year beginning next month.

Easthom suggested forfeiting that money and charging county residents an annual fee just like the library charges patrons from outside Orange County. The council has not considered a specific fee proposal, but non-county residents pay $60 per year to use the town’s library.

Orange County library director Lucinda Munger recently visited the county's Skills Development Center on West Franklin Street, a possible site for a new library branch, and liked what she saw.

"It would be a good location and size (13,000 square feet) to serve both the residents of Chapel Hill and Carrboro," Munger wrote in an e-mail to other county officials. "I could see the materials/computers from the (McDougle library) fitting in the space -- if that is what is decided, or some other collection."

Orange Commissioner Barry Jacobs, who proposed using the Skills Development Center for a library, said existing services might be able to transfer to the Hillsborough campus of Durham Community Technical College. As the county considers increasing its contribution to the Chapel Hill Public Library, Jacobs said it might not have to climb as high if some patrons are diverted to a new branch on the west side of town.

Commissioner Mike Nelson has proposed increasing the county's funding of the Chapel Hill Public Library by $10,000 this year, with approximately $200,000 in annual increases in the three years following, to bring the county's share to $900,000 by July 2013. That would come close to 40 percent of the library's budget, matching the ratio of library patrons who come from the county but outside Chapel Hill.

The Orange County commissioners may have lost a little leverage in their negotiation with the Chapel Hill Town Council on how much the county will contribute to the Chapel Hill Public Library's budget. The county currently contributes $250,000, yet non-Chapel Hill residents of the county use 40 percent of the library's resources, the equivalent of  $950,000 on the library budget.

At an Assembly of Governments meeting in December, county commissioners demanded a seat on the library's Board of Trustees as part of any renegotiation of funding. The thing is, the county already has a seat on the board, filled by Evelyn Daniel of Carrboro.

"That may be our fault that we have representatives on boards that don't report to us," said Commissioner Barry Jacobs as he sat down with town officials Thursday night to hammer out a new agreement. "We didn't even know we had one."

Jacobs and Commissioner Mike Nelson agreed with Town Council members Sally Greene and Gene Pease that the county's contribution ought to be tied to the ratio of usage by county residents, rather than the county's level of funding for its own library. County Manager Frank Clifton had suggested paying Chapel Hill 48 percent of the county's own library funding, or about $500,000. That percentage is based on what the county paid when the library was built in the 1990s.

The county had proposed raising its share in phases over three or more years, but the town is asking for something closer to $1 million. The county plans to prepare a specific proposal after Clifton releases his proposed 2010-2011 budget in mid-May and before the Town Council votes on whether to expand the library on May 24, according to Jacobs.

It looks like lobbying efforts by supporters of Project Enlightenment have failed to spare the program from major Wake County school budget cuts.

As noted in today's article, Project Enlightenment lost all nine of its parent counselors as part of the school system's layoff Tuesday night of 68 employees. The program, which has 47 employees, also saw three of its four secretaries be transferred to other programs.

The cuts mean the elimination of the program's parent counseling services. This means no more telephone call line, parental workshops or parental counseling sessions.

Next week, the Orange County Board of Commissioners is scheduled for another Assembly of Governments meeting with the Carrboro Aldermen and the Chapel Hill Town Council. Last time around, former Mayor Kevin Foy and Town Council members berated commissioners for not increasing the county's share of funding for the Chapel Hill Public Library.

Commissioners want no part of that next Thursday. They voted Tuesday directing County Manager Frank Clifton to negotiate with town management to set the new contribution level.

"There's some emotion attached to this issue, and it'll be resolved quicker with negotiations by the manager," said Commissioner Mike Nelson.

After years of pressure from the Chapel Hill Town Council, the Orange County commissioners acknowledge that county residents aren't paying their fair share to fund the town library that serves them. County Manager Frank Clifton suggested a potential doubling of the county's contribution toward operating expenses, which would tally about $500,000, approximately 22 percent of the library's annual cost. Clifton will work with Town staff to bring back a specific proposal by the end of January, but it's not likely to include a county capital contribution to the town's $16 million library expansion plan.

"We just don't have that flexibility," Commissioner Mike Nelson told the Assembly of Governments, which brought together elected officials from Chapel Hill, Carrboro and the county tonight. "I don't want anybody to leave the room with false hope."

About 40 percent of registered patrons at the Chapel Hill Public Library live in Carrboro or other parts of Orange County outside Chapel Hill. 

"This is just more of the same," said Town Council member Jim Ward. "It has been the same discussion for the better part of two decades."

His colleague Matt Czajkowski said the town may need to start charging non-Chapel Hill residents $100 a year in order to offset the costs of serving them. 

"That's the decision we're going to have to make if we're going to decide to go forward with the expansion this spring," he said. 

Putting your saltwater license money to work

The hiring uncertainty with the terminating-contract employees is having an impact on high school athletics as well.

As noted in today's article by Tim Stevens, quite a few athletic directors and coaches are on terminating contracts. They, like all 1,496 terminating-contract employees, don't know if they'll be rehired after their contracts expire June 30.

"No one knows. Everyone has questions, but no one has many answers," said Bob Catapano, Sanderson High's athletic director and a person on a terminating contract, in today's article.

Because the county is not hiring new teachers, some athletic directors wonder where next year's coaches will come from if any current coaches decide to not coach.