After some confusion on Orange County's position, plans for the light-rail line between Chapel Hill and Durham got unanimous approval this morning from a bi-county transportation committee.

Today's vote for a "Locally Preferred Alternative" route keeps the project on schedule to apply for a federal grant this year. It also moves the project along to another round of public hearings, on environmental effects, in the spring.

By Tammy Grubb

The Carrboro Board of Aldermen has named a municipal budget and management veteran from Arizona to fill the town’s vacant manager post starting March 15.

David Andrews, 51, is a native of Freeport, Texas, and the youngest of nine children raised in Tyler, Texas. Carrboro’s Assistant Town Manager Matt Efird, also a finalist for the job, has filled the position since Steve Stewart retired in August and will help with the transition.

Alderwoman Randee Haven-O’Donnell said the board made its “carefully deliberated” decision after a long process that included reviewing phone interviews with 15 candidates and holding face-to-face meetings with three finalists. Richmond, Va.-based Springsted Inc. was hired to lead the search, which cost the town more than $15,000.

Orange County commissioners approved preliminary plans to bring more bus service and light rail to the county, giving the local transit authority the go-ahead to apply for federal funding for the project.

Commissioners voted 5-2 Tuesday night to approve a "locally preferred alternative" for a rail and bus plan that would connect Orange County to Durham County.

The preliminary plan includes a rail line that would run along N.C. 54, connecting UNC Hospitals to Alston Avenue near Duke University and downtown Durham.

The commissioners' vote will inform the the transportation committee of the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization during their meeting Wednesday morning.

Commissioner Alice Gordon will represent Orange County commissioners at that meeting, and was advised to inform transit advisers on the vote and express a preference for a route that would not go through Meadowmont on N.C. 54.

Commissioners Earl McKee and Steve Yuhasz voted against moving ahead with the rail and bus options, both saying light rail would not benefit the whole county.

"My no vote is not again transit, it is a no vote against this particular technology in this particular corridor," Yuhasz said,

A group of demonstrators that briefly occupied a building at 201 N. Greensboro St. Saturday say they'll plant a garden on the property to protest a CVS store planned for the site.

The group called Carrboro Commune includes members of the local anarchist community and Occupy Chapel Hill-Carrboro movements. On Monday, Occupy said it did not endorse the building takeover, which ended when police ordered the demonstrators out or said they would arrest them. (Read that story here.) 

On Sunday, demonstrators huddled in the cold outside the building and decided to plant the garden as the next step in their protest against the 24-hour drug store, which would replace the CVS across the street in the Carr Mill Mall shopping center. They plan to announce the "guerilla gardening" project at a meeting with developers at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Town Hall.  The developers plan to present the latest version of their plans for the store at the meeting.

We have received two letters so far on Sunday's extended interviews with Chapel Hill Town Manager Roger Stancil and Police Chief Chris Blue on the Yates Motor raid:

From A. Carter Linstead: "Perhaps the questions the CHN interviewer posed could be characterized as 'asking the hard questions.' But to me the interview appeared to reflect an apparent strong bias on the part of the reporter. Virtually every question sounded more like an accusation."

From Niklaus Steiner: "Thank you for the excellent interview with Town Manager Roger Stancil and Police Chief Chris Blue. Thanks to probing questions from the interviewer and honest answers from Stancil and Blue, I am now assured that they acknowledge mistakes around these concerns and are taking necessary steps to address them." 

Tell us what you think about these interviews, the police raid or anything else about our coverage of local issues at editor@newsobserver.com.

Over the weekend Chapel Hill Town Manager Roger Stancil released a 14-page report responding to the questions in the Community Police Advisory Committee petition to hire a private investigator to review the Yates raid. The entire report is attached below.

Documents:

In case you're getting a late start on your Super Bowl Sunday paper ...

NO VOTE FRUSTRATES CRITICS: It wasn't Aydan Court, but some say last week's Chapel Hill Town Council vote against Charterwood isn't the first time the town's elected officials haven't listened to the town's appointed officials. The council has a different role to play, of course. Read katelyn Ferral's stor and tell us what you think.

REFUGEES DISCUSS NEEDS: I was driving down Main Street when I saw three Burmese people squatting in a circle on the sidewalk talking. I thought that was interesting, perhaps the way they talked in the refugee camps they came from. I learned a lot when I got to meet soem of the immigrants at the Chapel Hill 2020 meeting at Carrboro Elementary School.

STANCIL, BLUE INTERVIEWS: I want to thank Town Manager Roger Stancil and Police Chief Blue for their candor during last week's interviews about the Yates raid. We have received two letters: one saying I was too hard on the men and one saying I asked good questions. 

New My View columnist Julie Moore discovers UNC's women's gymnastics (they're not all skinny teenagers), Aaron Nelson invites you to his state of the community address at noon today in Chapel Hill Town Hall, and letter writer Sam Schanfarber says there's a drug problem at East Chapel Hill and asks why.

Thanks for reading, and remember you can join us on Twitter (@chapelhillnews1), where we're up to 1,200 followers ) and on my Facebook page, as 800 of you already have. You'll find more news, more photographs (see Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton and the masked anarchist) and more ways for you to share what you think.   

Mark       

NOTE: You can now see a new photo from last night on my Facebook page. Tell us what you think about this story here or on the FB comments thread or in a letter to editor@newsobserver.com

A group of anti-capitalist activists briefly occupied a building at the site of a planned CVS drug store in downtown Carrboro today but left about four hours when police told them to leave or they would be arrested.

Mayor Mark Chilton entered the building at 201 N. Greensboro St. across from Carr Mill Mall early this evening.  "I asked them not to damage the property and asked them to leave," he said in an interview. "They asked me to leave."

"I asked them what their plans were. They asked me what my plan was. One of them suggested ice cream. I said I'd be glad to get them ice cream if they wanted to eat it on the sidewalk." 

Demonstrators, many wearing bandanas to cover their faces, heckled the mayor as he stood before television cameras and reporters in the building lobby. They asked Chilton if he was breaking the law by being in the building too. A giant sign hung on the wall that said "Under capitalism we're all under gunpoint."

"Please leave this property," the mayor said in a loud voice at about 7 p.m. "You're trespassing, and there may be other crimes you're committing as well. The time has come for you to leave this building."