Lee Storrow is inagurated as youngest member of the Chapel Hill Town Council

Three Chapel Hill Town Council incumbents, Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt and newcomer Lee Storrow were sworn in yesterday during an emotional town council meeting.

The ceremony highlights a changing dynamic within the council as Sally Greene retires and Storrow takes her spot.

“I’m going to miss her like crazy although I’m looking forward to what Lee Storrow is going to bring to the council,” Kleinschmidt said. “Just one new person on the council can change it completely.”

Storrow, a 22-year-old 2011 graduate of UNC, said he is ready for the position and plans to champion students in the council as the youngest elected official in the state.

“I think my election is really part of a broader excitement that students and young people are feeling in our community about engaging really fully in the Town of Chapel Hill,” Storrow said.

He was given the oath of office by Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton and stood beside Gerry Cohen — who both won office in their early 20s.
Council member Ed Harrison was chosen by the council as the new Mayor Pro Tem.

During the ceremony, council members Matt Czajkowski and Jim Ward also took oaths of office.

Lauren Hovis, a junior who knows Storrow from UNC Young Democrats and supported him for the election, said involving young people is important to town and University relations.

“I think it makes for an easier connection between the town and the University,” Hovis said. “At times there is a separation.”

Storrow said he will look into ways to grow the town’s Good Neighbor Initiative, which encourages off-campus students to meet their neighbors.

He said working with student leaders is a good place to start.
“I think Mary Cooper, the student body president, has invested more in town gown relations than former student body presidents,” Storrow said.

During the ceremony Kleinschmidt said he was amazed that Chapel Hill is the tenth largest city in the world to have an openly gay mayor and even more impressed that the town elected Storrow to join him as an openly gay council member.

“It wasn’t a subject that was brought up during the campaign, but wow, that is amazing,” Kleinschmidt said.

Donna Bell, an incumbent appointed two years ago and elected this year, said while she looks forward to Storrow’s fresh input, the re-election of three incumbents affirms the council’s recent agenda.

“There’s a certain way that people are pleased or happy in the direction we’re currently going in,” Bell said. “We also now have Lee who’s going to help us think with a new and different perspective.”

Bell is the council’s only black member, but she said her election shows she appeals to many groups.

“To get the acknowledgment of such a diverse group of folks was pretty affirming,” she said.

The council passed a resolution of appreciation for the retiring Greene, who members said found her niche by being well researched and thorough.

“The level of engagement when you work with Sally on something is incomparable,” Kleinschmidt said.

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