Environmental issues took center stage Tuesday when the Orange-Chatham Sierra Club hosted a forum for candidates running for Chapel Hill Town Council.
One of the central themes of the night was how to deal with the increasing congestion of the town's roads.
Candidate Matt Czajkowski said that one of the best ways to improve transit in Chapel Hill is through increasing bicycle ridership as a major way to alleviate traffic.
He said he would ride or walk to every single town council meeting and challenged other members of the council to do the same.
"It would have a profound effect on Chapel Hill overall and provide national leadership," Czajkowski said.
Incumbent Sally Greene saw public transit as the best way to keep people out of cars.
She said that Chapel Hill would be passing an ordinance to allow the town to ask developers to contribute money to the bus system, calling it a "fair and helpful way" to increase funding.
Carbon emissions were another traffic-related issue the candidates touched on.
Jim Ward, who is running for re-election, said Chapel Hill has to "give people incentives to have buildings that make their own energy."
Czajkowski said that while he supports looking into alternative energies like solar power, those options are still expensive. The best way to reduce carbon emissions is to monitor our own personal energy consumption, he said.
"What we all can do - and of course are all doing, but need to do more of - is conserve," Czajkowski said.
The group was also asked how the city should deal with the drought.
Council candidate Penny Rich said that during the 2002 drought people were "hoping someone would do a dance on the roof" for more rain, and that since then, year-round conservation measures have served the community well.
Council incumbent Cam Hill agreed that Orange County was doing a good job of water management but that there were still ways to improve.
"I personally manage to water my garden out of two rain barrels that drain off the roof of my shed," Hill said. "There's a lot of water we're not using."
Hill also spoke of a University and Orange Water and Sewer Authority partnership to recycle water. He saw use of this wash water as a great source for conservation.
Candidate Will Raymond said it's important for the city to have clear goals in its water conservation efforts and to do more than just talk.
Chapel Hill needs to "set specific goals and measure if we're achieving those goals," he said. He wanted specific criteria to be met to provide proof of actual progress in conservation.
The seven people running for the four available town council seats were in attendance along with Mayor Kevin Foy. Mayoral candidate Kevin Wolff was not in attendance.
Bernadette Pelissier, chairwoman of the Orange-Chatham Sierra Club, said the forum was held for both her organization and the general public.
She said that the local chapter would report back to the N.C. chapter and that the state would issue its endorsements at the end of the first week of October.
Incumbent Bill Strom, summing up what many candidates expressed at the forum, said, "Environmental stewardship, in fact, has worked its way into the fabric of the town."
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