As you might have noticed, I was MIA from the blog last week.

No trips to England this time around, just a quiet week at home living the frugal life.

On any given day, you might have spotted me:

By Sarah Mansur

The Board of Aldermen added four new sites Tuesday night to the list of potential locations for Carrboro’s future library.

The Orange County commissioners will consider the former Butler Garage behind Cat’s Cradle, the 300 East Main Street project, the recently purchased public parking lot at 203 S. Greensboro St. across from the Open Eye Café, and the 201 N. Greensboro St. site targeted by CVS developers.

The board ended up not discussing eminent domain last night. The issue won't reach the board's agenda until April 23.

The four new sites are in addition to the three locations that the board recommended to county commissioners last November: 401 Fidelity St., 1128 Hillsborough St. and Carrboro Town Hall at 301 W. Main St.

A former Carrboro library branch manager will return to the area in May to lead the newly expanded Chapel Hill Public Library, town officials announced Monday.

Susan Brown will start her new job May 20. She currently is the marketing director for the Lawrence Public Library in Kansas, where she also worked as the adult services librarian. Previously, she managed the Carrboro Cybrary, was a reference librarian at the Cameron Village Regional Library in Raleigh, and a library assistant Virginia Commonwealth University's Cabell Library and the Library of Virginia in Richmond.

“We can expect to see a new library director who will be creating new connections and partnerships across the community for engagement as our library transforms for the digital age and as a center for civic communication,” Town Manager Roger Stancil said in a news release Monday.

Brown is a UNC aluma with a master's degree in library science. She also has a bachelor's degree in history from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.

Interim Library Director Mark Bayles has led the library since September, when former library Director Kathy Thompson retired. He is now overseeing the library’s move back from University Mall to its renovated 63,000-square-foot space off Estes Drive. The $16.2 million library will open in a few weeks.

What’s in a name?

Apparently, much confusion about where Orange County wants to put a new library.

Before voting last week on the final criteria for siting a Southwestern Branch Library, county officials announced a name change.

The library will be called the Southern Branch Library instead, Library Director Lucinda Munger said.

“We wanted to reflect the area that this library will serve, making sure it is an inclusive place that serves the needs of the entire community,” she said.

County planner Michael Harvey said calling it the Southwestern Branch Library could lead residents to believe it would be built to serve only that area.

So county planners divided the county into four quadrants. Then they plotted a diagonal line through the middle. The result was a location near Orange Grove and Dairyland roads in the Bingham Township.

Meanwhile, library planning is slowly moving ahead. Carrboro officials have been looking at seven or eight possible sites with space for a one-story library with parking, at least 20,000 square feet and future expansion space, and accessibility by foot, bicycle and bus.

The county has budgeted roughly $6 million to $7 million for land and construction.

Two events that may not be on your radar for the weekend:

• Counter Culture Coffee is hosting a free event from 7-9 p.m. Saturday featuring 2012 U.S. Barista Champion Katie Carguilo. The topic is "Fruit Bombs & Fermentation." Attendees will taste exotic and experimental Ethiopian coffees along with Carguilo's award-winning fermentation-inspired signature beverage that helped her win. The event is at 4911 S. Alston Ave., Durham. For more information, go HERE.
• Durham's Southwest Regional Library is hosting a Southern food cultures panel discussion at 3 p.m. Sunday. The panel will be moderated by N.C. barbecue expert Bob Garner and the panelists include chef Ben Barker of Durham's now closed-Magnolia Grill, chef Billy Cotter of Toast in Durham, chef Amy Tornquist of Watts Grocery and Hummingbird Bakery, both in Durham, and chef Walter Royal of Raleigh's Angus Barn.

Chapel Hill has accepted an agreement to get more money from Orange County for its library.

The council approved the agreement 6-3 with Easthom, Czajkowski and Bell dissenting.

In December, the Orange County commissioners approved the agreement, in which the county increases its contribution to the Chapel Hill library by 3 percent each year, until the allocation reaches 30 percent of the county's total library operations budget by June 20, 2015.

The county will give $342,986, up from $250,000, to Chapel Hill for its library for the next fiscal year, which is 21 percent of the county's library operating budget, according to the agreement.

From correspondent Tammy Grubb

The Carrboro Board of Aldermen voted 6-1 Tuesday night to rezone a 2.69-acre parcel at 210 Hillsborough Road for the county’s new southwest branch library.

Alderman Jacqueline Gist said she could not support the rezoning, because she thinks the site is in a residential and not a transitional commercial district. No one is opposed to a library, she said, but the process feels rushed, with little transparency or cooperation between the county and town.

“The citizens of Carrboro for generations have been paying the same taxes as everybody in Orange County,” Gist said. “It is very disconcerting that all of a sudden, after 24 years, it’s hurry up and pass this, and it’s all this or nothing.”

Mayor Mark Chilton disagreed, saying that while he’s not convinced the site is the best, the move would be “a show of good faith from town government” that Carrboro and the county could work together to resolve the concerns and talk about other viable sites.

“There’s plenty of reason for suspicion, but I hope this project is going to be an opportunity to change what our relationship with the county has been in the past,” Chilton said.

From correspondent Tammy Grubb:

The Board of Aldermen could vote tonight on whether to rezone a 2.69-acre parcel on Hillsborough Road for the county’s new southwest branch library.

Although the vote originally was scheduled for April 19, it was moved up a week to accommodate the county’s need to have a decision before its contract to buy the property expires. If the county misses the deadline, it has to pay $10,000 to retain its interest in the 210 Hillsborough Road site for another 90 days.

County officials notified the aldermen about the misunderstanding a few days after a March 22 public hearing on the 20,000-square-foot, one-story project. Previously, the county told Carrboro officials they needed a decision before April 21. The aldermen voted last Tuesday night to confirm the date change.

The Board of Aldermen meet at 7:30 p.m. in the Carrboro Town Hall boardroom.
 

Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton is losing patience with the discussion over how Chapel Hill is going to pay for its library.

The library is the most heavily used, per capita, in the state. But an expansion is on hold until Chapel Hill figures out how to pay additional operating costs that could raise taxpayers annual town tax bills $30 a year.

The problem? Forty percent of items circulated go outside Chapel Hill, but Orange County government contributes only 11 percent of operating costs. Chapel Hill has tried to get the county to pony up and even floated the idea of asking Carrboro for money.

Now Chapel Hill Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt, stuck on county negotiations, wants a meeting with Carrboro.    

“I suppose we have to, although I do not look forward to it,” Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton replied in an e-mail.

Libraries are a county function and that’s where Chapel Hill needs to solve its problem, the mayor said.   

“I am no way – no how – never going to vote to put Carrboro into the same dysfunctional relationsip with either the County or Chapel Hill that the two of them already have with each other,” he wrote.

In an interview, Chilton said Carrboro is a small town and can't afford to pay for using Chapel Hill's library.  In his e-mail he says Chapel Hill and Orange County should open a branch downtown instead of expand, putting library services in walking distance of much of the population, including low-incom people of color who might have difficult getting to libraries farther out.   

Candidates split this week on how to pay for the Chapel Hill Public Library. The library costs $2.5 million a year to operate, rising to $4 million when the expansion is built. Yet, 40 percent of users live outside town, and Orange County's contribution remains just $250,00 a year.

Mark Kleinschmidt said he will draw relationships built over eight years on the Town Council to get more money from the county. He called charging out-of-county users "an unworkable idea. ... I'm not going to support charging a Carrboro student coming to the Chapel Hill library to check out books." 

Matt Czajkowski said Mayor Kevin Foy has relationships too and they have not helped the library's bottom line. [Foy has suggested charging out of town users for a library card.] "What's not discussed is the town of Carrboro," Czajkowski said. "It is flat out unfair for residents of Chapel Hill to be effectively paying for them to use our library." 

Augustus Cho said he would support a minimal fee for people living outside Chapel Hill.

Kevin Wolff did not comment on fees for out-of-town users. He said the town needs to be as proud of its library as its fare-free bus service and that the council needs to prioritize its spending. "It's our public library; we need to pay for it," he said.