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So what made Site H the top contender for a new UNC-led airport in that consultant's study three years ago?

We got a copy of the 2005 T&B study this week. It helped me understand what many residents have been telling us since we began reporting about the airport authority recently.

The consultants assigned points in 11 categories. They included a site being within 25 minutes drive time of UNC Hospital, a site being within 30 minutes of a regional airport, appropriate zoning, social and environmental impacts, and room for expansion, among other criteria. The maximum possible score was 78.

Site H, in White Cross, scored 60. The study said it was 11 miles west of UNC, just outside the 30 minute travel time from Burlington-Alamance Regional Airport, 15 minutes from UNC Hospitals and had room for an expanded runway and terminal in the future.

(The study also said its zoning would allow an airport with a special use permit -- we'll have to call county Planning Director Craig Benedict back again Monday. In interviewing him for our story tomorrow, he told me some of the rules have changed since a failed 1982 airport project and that he and the county attorney are now researching what existing zoning categories an airport might be able to fit into)

The next highest-scoring sites were an upgraded Horace Williams Airport with 57 points (UNC says keeping Horace Williams is not an option with Carollina North), followed by Site 9, near Site H, with 53 points.

But the top scorer? Raleigh-Durham International Airport with 68 points.

We asked to speak with Chancellor Holden Thorp this week about the airport issue. He was out of town and unavailable, a spokesman said. We'll try again next week.

Here's a look at some of the top stories in tomorrow's edition:

AIRPORT PETITION: The folks in the White Cross area of southwest Orange County are mobilizing against a potential airport. A group called Preserve Rural Orange is collecting signatures on a petition they plan to give the county commissioners Tuesday night. Read about that and more on the airport issue in our story and in a special page of letters to the editor.

MAIN STREET UPDATE: The developers of 300 East Main Street had told the Carrboro Board of Aldermen they needed an answer, yes or no. On Tuesday night the board approved the project, one of the largest redevelopment projects in the town's history. Now read why one of the developers says the project could be delayed.  

CHURCH SERVICE: The United Church of Chapel Hill began welcoming gay and lesbians into its ministry in 1993, and since then membership has grown. Read about a special speaker coming to deliver Sunday's sermon to mark the 15th anniversary of the congregation's adoption of a church covenenant reaching out to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.

NOT EASY BEING GREEN: The next Chapel Hill elementary school could be the greenest yet in terms of energy efficiency. So why are members of the Northside Community Garden worried? Read our story on Thursday's night's school board meeting to find out.

Thanks for reading,

Mark 

Many years ago, UNC Chapel Hill considered an offer from a Qatari foundation to establish an undergraduate business program in the oil-rich middle eastern nation. It was, at the time, an unusual proposal and caused some heartburn in North Carolina coming on the heels of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

It was fascinating public conversation that brewed for more than a year before the university decided against taking part in the venture, an attempt by Qatar to boost higher education in its country through the use of American universities. 

While UNC said no, plenty of other universities have said yes. The latest is Northwestern, which will take its well-regarded journalism program to Qatar.  

Cornell, Virginia Commonwealth, Georgetown and Texas A & M are among other American universities to take the plunge there, according to the story. 

UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp is on a weeklong tour of the state.

He's also summarizing his experiences on his new blog.

Check it out. 

Sen. Kerr called back again just a few minutes ago. He said he was was incorrect yesterday when he said the bill authorizing the creation of an UNC-led aiport authoroty was a blank bill. The airport authority was part of an omnibus bill authorizing a long list of UNC system spending projects.

Kerr introduced the omnibus bill, which is why his name was on it. He said he has been handling the  bill for 15 or 20 years. This year, he was retiring, so he asked Sen. Richard Stevens of Raleigh to handle the bill in the legislature. The bill was reviewed by at least  two committees in the House and Senate, Kerr said.

"Nobody was against it," Kerr said. "Nobody spoke aganst it."  

Kerr said he has empathy for Orange County residents concerned the airport might go on a site in White Cross,  a southwestern part of the county.

"I'm sorry about people who lose their land but we have a procedure of just compensation," he said.  

"Nobody is going to like everythiing, but I assure you if you look at my history of eminent domain, it's a fair deal." 

When the Chapel Hill Tigers face off tonight against their archrival
East Chapel Hill Wildcats, the two teams agree that they're really
fighting for the same cause. The two teams are dedicating the game to
the fight against breast cancer, with October being Cancer Awareness
Month. Both teams will be wearing pink headbands and wrist bands; the
field hockey game balls will be pink, and proceeds for concessions will
be dedicated to the Susan Komen Foundation.
Game time is 7:30 p.m. Oct. 1 for the varsity game. The JVs start at 6 p.m.

State Sen. John Kerr called back today. He's listed as the primary sponsor on the bill that allowed UNC to establish an airport authority to locate and operate a general aviation airport in Orange County.

Only Kerr says he doesn't remember writing it.

"I guess they took a blank bill and flipped it out," Kerr said this afternoon. I have only a vague understanding of blank bills -- they are submitted with placeholder language to be replaced later -- and will try to learn more tomorrow. (If any OrangeChat readers can explain how blank bills work please fill me in.)

Kerr, who is retiring from the legislature, says he went to UNC seven years and supports what the university is doing. He just can't take credit for it.

"It's a bad thing to do," he said of the blank bill practice. "I'm not making the rules, but that's the way it is."

He says he doesn't know who put in the authority language, but added, "It'd be interesting to know."

I'll try to find that out too.

Here is a look at some of the stories in Wednesday's paper

AIRPORT STUDY: A UNC consultant's study projects a new general aviation airport in Orange County could pump  $40 million to $53 million a year into the local economy, four times what Horace  Williams generates. Good news, right? So why is Orange County Commissioner Barry Jacobs not happy?

THORPE: Bill Thorpe was a character. At one of his last meetings this spring, he turned to the Town Hall television camera, looked into the lens and ended his remarks with "And this is Bill Thorpe!" The veteran Town Council member pursued his politics with passion. Read what friends and colleagues are saying in staff writer Matt Dees' story.  

PRINCESSES AND PIRATES: And assassins, shipwrecks and exotic locales are just some of what you'll find in PlayMakers' season opener, "Pericles." Producing artistic director Joseph Haj says it's all about man's place in the universe -- and how little control we have over it. Hmmm...

We have much more, including a guest column by UNC's Holden Thorp and Bill Roper (they don't have an airport site), correspondent Debbie Meyer's Brush Strokes arts column (gives new meaning to the term basket case), and another look at last week's reunion of early NASCAR drivers at the Orange County Speedway (the original one).

Thanks for reading,

Mark 

In hiring Holden Thorp to be its chancellor, folks at UNC Chapel Hill had a pretty good idea who they were getting, given that Thorp is a native son, alum and had risen through campus system.

But what if he hadn't? What if he'd been from somewhere else, like, say, Amherst, Mass., or, oh, I dunno, Lincoln, Neb.?

Leadership at the University of Wisconsin learned the hard way that maybe punching a name into Google is worth the 20-second time investment.

UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp kicked off a weeklong tour of the state today by hanging out with some students in an honors science research class at Chapel Hill High School.

Though in a suit and Carolina blue tie, Thorp was a bit overdressed for a high school class where even the teacher, Tom Herndon, wore a T-shirt and shorts, Carolina's new boss eased into things by asking students about their ongoing science experiments and talking up the university. He hit on a number of UNC's signature programs, espousing the virtues of study abroad, the hard sciences and undergraduate research.

And he distributed Carolina T-shirts to the eight class members and to Herndon, an N.C. State grad who made the sour milk face when Thorp plopped the baby blue tee in front of him. Thorp even tried to goad the teacher into making a friendly wager with the students on this fall's UNC/NCSU football game, where Herndon would have to wear the UNC shirt if Carolina won.

Herndon was having none of it.

"My wife's a [UNC] grad so I can share it with her," he said. "I don't know if I can wear it, though."

Thorp fielded a few questions from students. One asked what motivates him.

"Our institution is the one that created public higher education," he responded. "You know those bumper stickers that say 'Think globally, act locally'? We've been doing that for 219 years.

Follow this link for more info on Thorp's tour.