The Town of Chapel Hill has installed 13 new recycling bins along Franklin Street to collect cans and bottles that were previously thrown in the trash, and another four bins will be placed in Southern Village's central business area.

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.

The Orange County Board of Commissioners adopted a resolution on Tuesday opposing a North Carolina constitutional amendment to appear on the May 8, 2012 ballot. The ballot will offer voters the option to vote “for” or “against” a “Constitutional amendment to provide that marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State."
The full text of the BOCC resolution is printed below.
 
ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
 
A RESOLUTION IN OPPOSITION TO AMENDMENT #1 THAT WILL APPEAR ON THE MAY 8, 2012 NORTH CAROLINA STATE PRIMARY BALLOT
 
 
WHEREAS, Amendment #1 will appear on the May 8, 2012 primary ballot asking voters to decide for or against a North Carolina constitutional amendment that provides that “marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State”; and
WHEREAS, Orange County adopted social justice goals of which one goal is to foster a community culture that rejects oppression and inequity, thus the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race or color, religion or philosophical beliefs; sex, gender or sexual orientation; national origin or ethnic background; age, military services; disability; and familial, residential, or economic status; and
WHEREAS, Orange County along with its local municipalities has adopted the Orange County Civil Rights Ordinance with the purpose and policy to promote the equal treatment of all individuals; prohibits discrimination in Orange County based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, familial status, and veteran status; to protect residents’ lawful interests and their personal dignity so as to make available to the County their full productive and creative capacities, and to prevent public and domestic strife, crime, and unrest within Orange County; and
WHEREAS, Amendment #1, if approved by the voters, would prohibit marriage between people of the same gender, and further prohibit the recognition of any other form of domestic legal union; and
WHEREAS, Amendment #1, if approved by the voters, would be inconsistent with Orange County’s commitment to equal rights and opportunities for its residents and employees and would impact the County’s and its local municipalities’ domestic partner registry and benefits;
NOW, THEREFORE IT RESOLVED, that the Orange County Board of County Commissioners re-affirms its commitment to social justice, equal rights and equal opportunity for all residents of Orange County.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Orange County Board of County Commissioners opposes the proposed Amendment #1 that will appear on the May 8, 2012 North Carolina primary ballot.
This the 24h day of January, 2012.
 

Orange County is still looking for the best short-term solution for its garbage.

And so far, there’s snags in all the possibilities.

County leaders have decided to close its landfill and possibly truck its solid waste to Durham, but Chapel Hill and Carrboro say its too expensive.

The State Board of Education will revisit nine charter school applications next month; one of those is the Howard and Lillian Lee Scholars Charter school proposed for Orange County.

The application is a part of the "fast track" process, said Joel Medley, director of the North Carolina Office of Charter Schools. It will go to the state board for discussion in Febuary, and a decision will be made in March, he said.

The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools opposed the school, and sent a letter to the state board last year, pointing out what it called factual errors in the school's application.

The Orange County commissioners closed the discussion on a possible Orange County waste transfer station two years ago.

Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton wants to reopen it.

Chilton has proposed keeping the Orange County Landfill on Eubanks Road operating longer and building a solid waste transfer station on the northwestern corner of the Interstate 40/N.C. 86 intersection. A transfer station is typically an enclosed warehouse where trucks bring trash to be loaded onto larger trucks for disposal in a landfill in another county or state.

The county plans to close the landfill in 2013 and truck its waste to a transfer station in Durham. But building a station here would save money, reduce pollution and give Orange County more control of its garbage as it explores longer-term options such as mass composting and waste-to-energy technologies, the mayor said.

“Thus far I have not heard any elected officials say, ‘No way,’” Chilton said in an interview. “What I have heard is they want to think about the issues.”

The governments of Carrboro, Chapel Hill, Hillsborough and Orange County are scheduled to meet Thursday, Jan. 26, to discuss solid-waste issues.

What do you think about Chilton's idea? Tell us here (with your name and town or township, please) or in a letter to the editor at editor@nando.com. We'll print your responses in a future issue of The Chapel Hil News.
 

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.

Light-rail lovers may be disappointed, but fiscal realists seem more likely to approve of a simple decision by Wake County Manager David Cooke to separate the region's ambitious bus-and-train plan into two packages: "core transit" and "extended transit" (see today's Road Worrier column, with reader discussion).

Wake commissioners had a good chat about this at a meeting in Raleigh Monday. Tonight in Chapel Hill, the Orange County commissioners will follow suit. Both counties are considering whether to hold a half-cent sales tax referendum in November 2012, like the one approved by Durham voters last week.

Wake can afford to promise voters that a proposed half-cent sales tax would make possible a big "core transit" package, Cooke said. Bus service would nearly double in five years, and Wake and Durham could get new rush-hour commuter trains rolling within eight years.

Light rail? Not so much. ... [MORE]

So the sales tax passed, but was it really because of higher municipal voter turnout?

Turns out, no.

Voter turnout was actually slightly higher in the rural precincts that did not have a municipal race on the ballot. Turnout in those 10 precincts was 14.7 percent compared with municipal  turnout of 12.8 percent.

Among rural precincts, 65 percent of voters opposed the tax, 35 percent supported it. The numbers were nearly flipped in the Carrboro, Chapel Hill and Hillsborough precincts, with 66 percent supporting it and 34 percent against it.

So what do you make of this? What does this say about  the ideological and cultural differences between rural Orange County and Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough?

Read more analysis on the referendum in Sunday's Chapel Hill News.

Chapel Hill withstood the 239 yards rushing mounted by South Granville's Josh Bailey and opened the season with a 19-13 win Friday night on the road. In other games involving area teams, both played in-county, Carrboro out-lasted Central Davidson 47-36 and Orange looked strong in downing Person 42-14. East Chapel Hill lost to East Wake 28-21. Northwood was stung by East Duplin, 56-6, and Cedar Ridge fell 57-37 at Eastern Alamance.