Carrboro alderman special election wastes money

Carrboro’s insistence on filling the vacancy on its Board of Aldermen through a special election has long been confusing.

Every other municipality in North Carolina fills vacancies such as the current one through appointment — as did Carrboro until 2007.

The fact that the special election will cost the town about $11,000 is even more ludicrous now that only one candidate, Damon Seils, has filed to run for the seat.

The town will now be paying all that money for an election that the board itself could have filled at virtually no additional cost to the taxpayers.

That $11,000 could have been better spent in a variety of areas, including:

• Pay the entire renovation fee for two units at Collins Crossing Apartments.

*? Pay for the vast majority of the operating costs of the town’s Advisory Boards and Commissions.

?* Sponsor 32 poor Haitian children for a year.

?* Pay for a Carrboro resident to attend UNC for a semester at no charge.

?* Buy two gumballs for every man, woman and child in the town of Carrboro.

?* Pay 2 Live Crew to play a show, with money left over for a popcorn machine to feed hungry concertgoers.

?* Or invite Marty Balin of 70s psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane if that’s more your style.

?* Rename 550 stars in space. No need to be creative, just name them all Starrboro.

?* Buy a Fudgie the Whale ice cream cake for 500 lucky Carrboro residents.

?* Purchase 176,000 pingpong balls. Just for fun.

?* Buy a ‘92 Cadillac El Dorado and then spend the remaining $9,500 on free-range, organic, no-cage, locally grown kale for a town kale cook-off. Wait, this idea might actually take off…