Articles by Chrissy Mickler

Expensive child care in the area coupled with the economic downturn has led local assistance organizations to loosen the requirements for subsidized care.

But with more people qualifying, the budgets for those programs are coming up short.

Annie and Jack Herman awoke Oct. 22 to the sounds of a student banging on doors and screaming.

“I heard ‘Wake up! There’s a fire,’” Annie Herman said.

The Hermans are residents of SunStone Apartments, where last month, 34 renters were evacuated around 4:30 a.m. from a 24-unit apartment complex that had caught fire.

Carrboro High School’s choir and orchestra concert this month took place in the school’s foyer.

The school is still waiting for funding for an arts wing addition.

Kay Johnson, Carrboro High’s music teacher, said not having an arts wing has created inconveniences.

“For the concert we had to move a heavy piano, bleachers, and we could hear people everywhere,” she said.

The county is looking for vendors to support the construction project, which will include an auditorium and drama and art classrooms.

This year’s Halloween celebrations will have the same restrictions as last year’s — a midnight curfew, a downsized crowd and more police patrol.

Chapel Hill officials said last year’s new rules were successful in creating a safer environment during the festivities, which are not sponsored by the town.

Following the town’s “Homegrown Halloween” plan, the crowd size shrank from about 80,000 people in 2007 to about 45,000 last year, and police made fewer arrests.