The Chapel Hill Town Council isn't the only town rethinking food truck rules.

The council will get a report Wednesday night that recommends lowering fees to attract more trucks. More than the one that's taken out a permit, that is. Look for more on that in tomorrow's CHN.

The Hillsborough Town Board, is now considering allowing food trucks on private property within the Historic District on a regular basis rather than just for special events, according to a town news release.

The owners of Maggie’s Hot Tin Roof, a bar locating in the former Hillsborough Plumbing building on West Margaret Lane, requested that the town ordinance be changed to allow food trucks to operate in the Historic District provided they:

- Are located on private property.
- Do not use any additional signage beyond what is affixed to the truck.
- Provide waste disposal.
- Minimize noise via a quiet generator or an electrical plug-in to the adjacent building
- Pay all applicable fees and charges.

The bar’s owners explained that their location can easily fit a food truck and that their business model relies on provision of food from a variety of trucks in lieu of a kitchen.

The Town Board decided to research the issue, identify options and hold a public hearing on any proposed changes developed, according to the release The board also asked Alliance for Historic Hillsborough Executive Director Sarah DeGennaro, the town’s support staff to the Hillsborough Tourism Board, to coordinate obtaining feedback from downtown merchants. The issue likely will be a discussion item at the Tourism Board’s next meeting. Town planning staff also will begin drafting an ordinance amendment.

For more information, contact Hillsborough Planning Director Margaret Hauth by phone at 919-732-1270 Ext. 86 or by email. Or contact DeGennaro with the Alliance for Historic Hillsborough by phone at 919-732-7741 or by email at sarah@historichillsborough.org.

By Sarah Mansur

The Carrboro Board of Aldermen will consider the question of using eminent domain tonight

Last week Alderman Sammy Slade requested information from town staff on the legal feasibility and the potential costs of eminent domain, which empowers local governments to take private property for public use. Mayor Mark Chilton said the topic is not listed as an agenda item for tonight, but residents should expect to hear a conversation about it. The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. in Carrboro Town Hall, 301 W. Main St.

Former Alderman Dan Coleman first raised the possibility of using eminent domain to acquire the Collins Crossing apartment complex on Jones Ferry Road.

Collins Crossing has a large population of Hispanic day laborers and Burmese immigrants. Massachusetts-based management company Aspen Square Management purchased Collins Crossing, formerly known as Abbey Court, in June 2012. Since then, rent increases have forced some residents to find cheaper housing elsewhere.

Board members and community activists worry that the complex is the last affordable housing complex in town.

NOTE: If you'd like to reach Sarah Mansur regarding this story, please contact her at sarah.mansur91@gmail.com

Journalists Frank Bruni of the New York Times and Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post and MSNBC will discuss the future of LGBT rights in America at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Nelson Mandela Auditorium at UNC's FedEx Global Education Center, at the corner of Pittsboro and McCauley streets.

Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt, Chapel Hill’s first and only openly gay mayor, will introduce Bruni and Capehart. They'll discuss marriage equality, homophobia in schools and workplaces, military service and actions taken by LGBT politicians and advocates, according to a news release. The conversation will be moderated by Janie Long, director of Duke’s Center for LGBT Life and an affiliated faculty member with the programs in women’s studies and sexuality studies.

Bruni, a UNC alumnus, joined the Times in 1995, holding his most recent position as op-ed columnist since June 2011. Before that, Bruni was the Times’ chief restaurant critic from June 2004 through August 2009 and Rome bureau chief from 2002 to 2004. He is also the author of the memoir “Born Round,” and “Ambling Into History,” a chronicle of George W. Bush's campaign for the presidency.

Capehart is a member of the Post editorial board and writes about politics and social issues for the PostPartisan blog. He is also an MSNBC contributor, appearing regularly on “Morning Joe” and other dayside programs. Before joining The Post in 2007, Capehart was the deputy editor of New York Daily News editorial page from 2002 to 2005. He worked as a policy adviser to Michael Bloomberg in his successful campaign for mayor of New York City.

Cat’s Cradle will present Carrboro Block Party, a free concert in its parking lot at 300 East Main Street on Sunday, May 5, featuring Lost in the Trees, The Love Language, and Loamlands.

In addition to the main stage entertainment, the community festival will include additional live music inside Cat’s Cradle and The ArtsCenter, food trucks, beer and fun, according to a news release. The gates open at 4 p.m. and the music begins at 4:30 p.m.

While the event is free to the general public, vouchers guaranteeing entry will be available starting April 9 at www.carrboroblockparty.com. There is a limit of two vouchers per person and the voucher guarantees entry to its holder before 6 p.m.

"Carrboro Block Party features some of the areas most popular and critically acclaimed bands," the release says. "Lost in the Trees will conclude a short Northeast tour with the show and are soon heading into the studio to record their fourth album. The Love Language will release their second record on Merge in 2013 and the newly formed Loamlands features members of Midtown Dickens and Megafaun."

“Don’t let me hear you say life’s taking you nowhere, angel”

If you’re looking at your golden years and feeling a little like Bowie in 1975 – heck, if you can ever remember 1975 – Bolton Anthony is ready to serve up some dessert.

The Chapel Hill resident and activist is organizing a workshop April 11-14 at the Friday Center that will ask older people to create a new vision for the next stage of their lives.
At a time when many begin thinking about slowing down, Anthony wants to put 60 Baby Boomers in a room for three days to reinvent how we look at “the second half of life.”

Anthony is the founder of Second Journey, which has put out “Aging the Community.” The book talks with people who are creating a new paradigm, or way of thinking, that keeps older people a vital part of society, rather than farming them out to golf courses and nursing homes.

Part of the book looks at new models like cohousing in which people live in cooperative communities with shared activities and facilities. A local group that recently broke ground on one such a project, the 24-unit Durham Central Park Cohousing Community, advertises “aging in place” and already has a waiting list.

But Anthony says the gathering will be about more than that. “What the Boomers are doing to housing is what they did to ice cream: The three flavors are now 1,000,” he says. “I’m as equally interested in a different vision of aging. It can be a transformative experience for individuals.”

Interested? Go to www.secondjourney.org/VC.htm for more information and to register.

The effect that “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” will have won’t end when the curtain falls or the box office banks its profits.

Chapel Hill actor Augustus Cho, who plays a North Korean leader in the movie, is spearheading a star-studded benefit Saturday for the USO of North Carolina and the U.S. Veterans Corps, a nonprofit community service group.

Cho also has released a public service announcement to raise awareness of the USO’s work and promote the fund-raising event - http://youtu.be/WZk39Ybr8mA.

“Paramount has really, really come through on this. They were very generous to give us this kind of support. This is highly unusual,” Cho said.

The Military Appreciation Day event will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at The Streets at Southpoint in Durham.

Connie Inggs, director of the USO-NC’s Raleigh-Durham International Airport Center, said she expects the event to have a major impact. The nonprofit organization relied on donations to serve 651,000 service members and families last year.

“There is a great burden on us right now to do operations, and we need community support,” she said.

A group of ministers and supporters plan to protest Durham' panhandling restrictions at 5 p.m. Monday at the intersection of U.S. 15-501 and Mt. Moriah Road near New Hope Commons.

“I am not willing to have my community transformed into a place where beggars are criminalized and pushed out of communal sight,” the Rev. Sarah Jobe of Watts Street Baptist Church says in a news release.

The new local rules outlaw public begging on roadsides and medians where panhandlers usually ask for help. Jobe is one of six local ministers who plan to publicly violate the new ordinance as an act of spiritual solidarity and public witness during Holy Week.

“Lent is the season when we call God’s people to pray, fast, and give to the poor. Giving has been difficult in Durham this year because it’s been illegal to beg,” says Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, an Associate Minister at St. Johns Missionary Baptist Church.

Wilson-Hartgrove helped to organize a public meeting at Duke Memorial United Methodist Church on Thursday evening this week, where nearly 200 community members heard stories of people who have been affected by the new ordinance.

Event organizers say two people have already gone to jail for begging in violation of the new ordinance.

The ministers and their supporters have asked the City Council to rescind the ordinance and reconsider how to address safety concerns for motorists without harming panhandlers. They have also encouraged the council to work closely with homelessness service providers and the faith community as they develop a new ordinance.

When asked why they have chosen to not only challenge the law, but also to break it, Matt Gates of the Rutba House community said, “Jesus was a beggar, and they ticketed him, too. If anything, I think the question should be, ‘Why have we waited this long?’”

Alderwoman Jacquie Gist says she never thought she's get so excited about parking.

But Gist is very excited now that the Town of Carrboro has bought the former Andrew-Riggsbee Hardware Store property at 203 S. Greensboro St. for $600,000. The town will continue using the 0.88-acre site for free parking. It has about 90, two-hour spaces.

The town has been leasing the gravel lot, which fell into foreclosure within the past six months, Mayor Mark Chilton saiys The town’s sealed bid was the highest of a handful of bidders, he says.

'The minute we started renting that parking lot, it filled," Gist told us Monday as the town prepared to close on the deal. "And the (nearby) businesses were really happy we were renting it."

The town's purchase wasn't unanimous. We'll have more on this story and hear from the dissenter in tomorrow's Chapel Hill News.

Read more in our full story, now online at http://www.chapelhillnews.com/2013/03/19/75538/carrboro-buys-former-hardware.html

N.C. Transportation Secretary Tony Tata today named former Durham Mayor Nick Tennyson Chief Deputy Secretary of Support.

“Nick has a proven ability to build close working relationships and manage large-scale initiatives,” Tata said in a news release. “These will be key attributes as we carry out Governor McCrory’s directive to establish a long-range plan for North Carolina that builds on the department’s previous efforts to leverage our infrastructure for greater economic investment and growth.”

One of Tennyson’s key responsibilities will be to lead the development and implementation of a 25-year transportation infrastructure plan. He will oversee five business functions: the Division of Motor Vehicles, strategic planning, information technology, fiscal, and intergovernmental affairs and budget coordination. Tennyson will collaborate closely with Chief Deputy Secretary of Operations Jim Trogdon.

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.