14 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(02/09/10 5:53am)
Shop owners at Meadowmont Village will be billed $1,056 for “background music” this year. The problem: Tenants said they’ve never heard a note outside their stores.The background music is one of several fees some tenants are calling erroneous and excessive, causing many of them to complain and others to consider leaving the development.The expenses, in part, are for services that the shopping center’s landlord, Developers Diversified Realty Corp., says it provided for the development’s grounds.Yet many tenants say they have not seen evidence of what they’ve paid for.Developers Diversified Realty, based in Ohio, owns about 660 shopping centers across the Americas. The company did not return multiple calls for comment.James White, president of the board of the Meadowmont Community Association, said the vast majority of merchants have issues with the realty corporation.“The fees are excessive compared with the previous two owners,” he said.Store owners are now contacting Chapel Hill town officials.A meeting between Developers Diversified Realty representatives and Chapel Hill Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt is in the works, said Dwight Bassett, the town economic development officer.A private tenants’ meeting is scheduled for Thursday to discuss the excess fees.Along with the background music, store owners are also being charged for awning repairs and snow removal that several tenants said never happened.Ruthann Thomas, owner of clothing store Scout and Molly’s, said she paid for the expenses out of her pocket. She said the fees can total tens of thousands of dollars annually, depending on the square footage of the tenant’s lease.“A lot of us are having to depend on ancillary funding,” she said.Annette Girman, co-owner of the Studio 91 art gallery and lounge, said she and her husband are moving their store from Meadowmont Village to Glen Lennox Shopping Center.She said the realty corporation has sent letters to tenants threatening eviction if they refuse to pay fees.“We felt like we needed to make a move, and it solely was due to what the landlord is doing to business owners,” she said. “My husband and I live here in Meadowmont, and when we moved here five years ago, we fell in love with this area. It was a hard decision to make.”Girman said the problems with the fees began two and a half years ago. Tenants tried to remedy the situation by contacting the company, but when they couldn’t negotiate a resolution, they hired a lawyer, she said.After initial success, she said, the problems returned.East West Partners president Roger Perry, whose company developed Meadowmont, said he has tried to buy the shopping center from the realty company, and would still like to, but they have been unresponsive to his propositions. He said he tried to tell the company that the development needs a lot of attention from its management.“I quickly figured out that it wasn’t going to get it,” he said.Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(02/02/10 5:52am)
The University might have delayed classes Monday morning, but town employees were working hard to clear the streets after the weekend’s snowstorm.The cleaning process included dozens of workers in overtime hours from at least four town departments.Members of the Street Maintenance division, who typically clean roads, operated the snow-clearing equipment.They got help from workers in the Parks and Recreation, Public Works, Solid Waste and Public Safety departments — most of whom have job descriptions not tailored to snow response.“It’s a team effort,” said Richard Terrell, operations manager of the Public Works department. “We utilize those with experience as drivers.”Thirty Parks and Recreation employees are working overtime and will continue through Wednesday, said Butch Kisiah, Parks and Recreation director.“Getting people to work wasn’t really a problem. Guys know that’s probably the job,” he said.“Some guys were so iced in, though, that we actually sent folks out to pick them up.”Parks and Recreation employees knew they were expected to work from Friday through the weekend, Kisiah said.Workers are using 10 snow plows, five motor graders and four box spreaders to clear the routes that were mapped as unsafe.The street-cleaning operation was primarily funded out of the streets division and was the biggest cost, with sidewalk clearing as secondary.Town spokeswoman Catherine Lazorko said funds are typically set aside from typical spending for situations such as employee overtime during snowstorms.Lazorko said department heads discuss snow-clearing procedures regularly.“There is a tremendous amount of coordination that occurs between departments,” she said.Nine car accidents occurred in Chapel Hill over the weekend — an amount Lazorko called relatively small considering the conditions.Nobody was injured in the accidents, she said.In case the snowstorm hit during peak traffic hours, Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt prepared a proclamation declaring a state of emergency in Chapel Hill.The proclamation, which was not officially put into effect, would have discouraged travel and prohibited it on roads with any major obstacles such as fallen trees or power lines.The town updated its Web site at least three times each day with road conditions and sent e-mail news releases through its listserv discouraging residents from driving.“The public really seemed to listen to those warnings,” Lazorko said.While main roads are mostly cleared, some back roads still need to have snow and ice removed, Lazorko said.The full cost of the snow clearing operation and closures has yet to be calculated, Terrell said.The town will know by the end of the week.But with another winter storm forecasted to hit Thursday, the town will have to re-evaluate the numbers. Freezing rain is also predicted for tonight.There might be more overtime and more emergency response expenses to come.Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(01/21/10 6:17am)
Although recent pleas temporarily boosted their supplies, local blood centers are still in the midst of a donation shortage.The local chapters of the American Red Cross announced Jan. 10 they had only one day’s supply of blood — about 1,600 pints — available for hospitals in a region that includes Charlotte, Greensboro and the Triangle.Since then, the supply has increased to roughly 2,200 pints, said Orange County Red Cross blood service coordinator Wilma Palmer.But she said donation centers are still lacking in their blood supply.To remedy the shortage, Palmer said the region’s blood donation centers have extended their operating hours.“It has been critically low the last 10 days,” Palmer said. “This particular year, it has gone a little lower than in normally does.”Palmer said the blood supply typically drops during flu season because sick people cannot donate. But she blames fear of catching the H1N1 virus from giving blood and the closing of donation centers due to winter weather for abnormally low donations.“This is a very serious situation,” said Scott Madry, disaster action team captain for Orange County Red Cross. “We’re on the edge of managing the daily requirements for the local area.”He said if a serious incident like a bus wreck were to occur and large amounts of blood were needed, local authorities could have a crisis on their hands.Caroline Allison, Carolinas region Red Cross donor recruitment representative, said the Red Cross is intensifying efforts to attract donors by handing out fliers and releasing information through the media.“We are trying to get the word out as much as possible,” she said. “Blood is needed now more than ever.”And one way to increase the limited supplies is by tapping into the UNC community.“Organizations like fraternities, sororities and university departments can organize drives themselves,” Madry said.Student Matt Conte said he was unaware of the blood shortage and hasn’t donated in a year.“I’m definitely willing to give blood,” he said, adding that the men’s lacrosse team he plays for is planning a blood drive for later in the semester.Darryl Young, a public safety officer at Ackland Art Museum, said he has never donated blood but has no fear about the risks associated with it.“I’ve had about five or six tattoos,” Young said. “I’m used to needles by now.”Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu
(01/14/10 6:03am)
A record-setting cold snap has deprived Chapel Hill farmer John Soehner of his cabbage, collards and brussels sprout crops.“It’s the coldest winter I’ve seen,” Soehner said. “My collards never freeze. It’s a couple of weeks making no money.”He and other N.C. farmers have had to adjust to a particularly cold start to the winter, but the state has escaped much of the pain other southern states have endured.During the week of Dec. 28, average temperatures in N.C. cities were five to nine degrees colder than normal, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service report.In some areas of the country, damage to farms was drastic. In Florida, an estimated 30 percent of crops were destroyed by a 10-day cold snap, which might raise produce prices nationally, said Terence McElroy, the Florida Department of Agriculture spokesman.But due to timing, the cold has had a limited impact on N.C. farmers this winter, said Brian Long, spokesman for the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. “What would really concern us is if we were having a cold snap like this in late March or early April,” he said, because a spring freeze would affect many more crops.Darian Sturdivant of D&L Farms, Inc. said his strawberry crop is healthy. Although the recent temperatures nearly damaged the crop, he said he and other strawberry farmers have decided not to cover them with tarps to protect them from the cold. “We might have done the wrong thing. We’re right on the border line,” he said.Soehner wanted to cover his crops — it might have saved them — but the covers he ordered didn’t come in the mail on time.“(The crops are) all fried. It looks like someone torched them,” he said.Carl A. Matyac, Wake County agricultural extension agent, said the cold was nothing compared to destruction by rampant wildlife.“There’s more damage from deer than from the recent cold snap we’ve been having,” he said.But some farmers have still had to overcome obstacles presented by low temperatures.“The cold weather slows down activity,” said Sarah Blacklin, the Carrboro Farmers’ Market manager. “There’s not that much that can be done with the ground.”Harder ground prevents planting and delays the beginning of certain crop seasons, she said. Winter is a season in which farmers don’t have much of their income at stake, Blacklin said. They can take advantage of the lapse in outdoor work to do taxes, order seeds or plan for the year.Instead of harvesting his frosted greens, Soehner and his employees at Chapel Hill’s Eco Farm are collecting and selling wood dried out by the cold as firewood.Soehner has also used his extra time to prepare a shiitake mushroom crop, drilling dime-sized holes into logs, implanting them with fungi spores and sealing them with hot wax daily. In the fall, he’ll be able to sell one pound for about $10, he said.“I’m not going to cry about the weather. This could be beneficial,” he said. “I’m going have a lot of shiitake mushrooms in the fall.”Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(12/01/09 5:40am)
One of Chapel Hill’s main shopping destinations is getting a multi-million dollar makeover.Improvements to University Mall, which include the addition of tables and comfortable seating as well as physical enhancement of the mall’s exterior, will be completed by summer, said Paul Harnett, the senior vice president of Madison Marquette.The Washington, D.C.-based company that operates mixed-use real estate bought the mall in 2007.Harnett said his company is also trying to make the mall’s offerings more eclectic.“We haven’t been doing the best that we can at serving local needs,” he said. “We’re not only interested in Chapel Hill residents. There’s a huge void in attracting the students.”Harnett said he also hopes to attract patrons who live outside nearby communities.The first phase of the renovation, which Harnett said is largely complete, aimed to add indoor space for socializing and relaxing.Couches and tables have already been placed in at least four locations throughout the mall. There also is a stage for performances.Shirley Morris, who shopped at the mall Monday, said she noticed the improvements immediately.“Everything looks really good,” she said.The second renovation phase, which consists of updating the building’s exterior to look more modern, is set to begin by March.“The mall has kind of just made a more attractive place for customers to come,” said John O’Neil, owner of O’Neils Clothing, located in University Mall.Harnett would not say the exact cost of the renovations but estimated the price tag at “millions upon millions.”The most expensive component of the project is not the physical overhaul but the money needed to change the mall’s variety of stores.Some businesses seeking a location in the mall are still in negotiations with Madison Marquette, Harnett said.But one mall employee said the mall lacks the appeal of other malls.“If you were to compare this to Southpoint or Northgate, there’s definitely no comparison,” said Steve Cizek, a purchase order agent at A Southern Season.But Harnett said University Mall is looking to be different from The Streets at Southpoint by focusing more on full-service dining and women’s apparel.“We believe by reworking our mix we are going to attract people,” Harnett said. “And we want to do that.”Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(11/24/09 5:56am)
Despite the poor economy, the town of Chapel Hill government is doing well financially, Town Manager Roger Stancil said.The town has a surplus of $1.4 million for the 2009 fiscal year, Stancil said at Monday’s Town Council business meeting. During his summary of the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, Stancil said the town reduced expenditures and avoided long-term commitments to help create the surplus.“It demonstrates amazing management of the town’s fiscal resources,” Mayor Kevin Foy said.For the fiscal year, which ended June 30, town management assumed the economy would begin making a recovery in spring 2010 and that good town employees would need to be retained, Stancil said.Shane Fox of Martin Starnes and Associates, the town’s external auditor, answered the council’s questions at the meeting.“We have zero bad news to give the town this year,” he said.The full report becomes available on the town’s Web site today.Parks plans approvedThe council also approved two plans to improve the condition Chapel Hill’s parks and trails. Members approved a plan for capital development and the creation of a new master plan.Parks and Recreation director Butch Kisiah presented key points from the town’s 2008 Parks and Trails Assessment.Kisiah said implementing the capital development plan would cost between $6 million and $10 million.“If we follow through with the capital project we have a good opportunity to keep community parks in the condition they’re in,” Parks and Recreation Commission Chairman Neal Bench said.Town officials would begin work on both in 2010.Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(11/10/09 5:26am)
While working as a sailor in the Mediterranean and Caribbean seas in the late 1990s, Sammy Slade was longing to right the ship to the United States.He said he felt a responsibility to come back and become politically active.“America is an empire. A lot of people don’t have a say in the empire,” Slade said.Slade, a carpenter and chairman of Carrboro’s local living economy task force, was the only newcomer elected to the Carrboro Board of Alderman last Tuesday.He earned the second highest number of votes of five candidates, according to unofficial results.Slade might join the board as soon as tonight’s meeting. Since John Herrera resigned in August, the board can appoint Slade for the remainder of his term, which would have ended in December.Mayor Mark Chilton indicated to him he would likely be appointed.Slade, who is half Colombian, will take over for Herrera as the only Latino voice on the board.“Sammy represents the values of the people of Carrboro,” Herrera said. Herrera, who was alderman for eight years, said Latinos are an important minority that needs to be represented.“It sends a message that we know how to participate actively in government,” Herrera said.Maria Camargo, a Latina woman employed in Carrboro, said Slade’s election proves to Latinos that they can be involved in government.“It shows that dreams can come true sometimes,” she said.Slade campaigned by knocking on doors and rode a wave of endorsements from organizations, publications and endorsements from politicians like Herrera.Slade co-founded environmentally conscious organizations like Carrboro Greenspace and the Carrboro Community Garden Coalition.As he walked around the garden Sunday, he picked off plant leaves and tasted them.“There are a lot of people that value the environment, and I think I’m one of them,” he said.He also helped create the Carrboro ‘LocalMotive’ business group, which encourages a stronger local economy.He said that politics are most representative of people’s interests on the municipal level.Politics are more sincere when leaders are able to interact with constituents, Slade said.Ilana Dubester, interim director of El Centro Latino, said she liked Slade’s interest in making Carrboro more of a participatory democracy.When he was a sailor, it was too easy to disengage with normal society, Slade said. Now that he’s an activist, he said he’ll have to adjust to be a politician.“When people tell me congratulations, I tell them congratulations, too,” he said. “I’m your servant now.”Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(11/04/09 4:31am)
Jobs might be slowly returning to Chapel Hill.Chapel Hill’s unemployment rate was 5.2 percent in September, down from a year high of 5.8 percent in June and July, according to the latest estimates by the N.C. Employment Security Commission.“5.2 percent is about where the national economy sits where it operates prosperously,” economics professor Ralph Byrns said.Chapel Hill’s numbers are better than the 9.8 percent national rate and the 10.8 percent North Carolina unemployment rate.Because the town mostly has service-sector jobs such as teaching and research, it typically has a low unemployment percentage compared to the state and national rates, said Pamela Rich, the manager of the Employment Security Commission’s Chapel Hill branch.Basil Aljuaithen, a 2009 DePaul University graduate, is looking for a job as a business analyst in Chapel Hill or Chicago.“The supply of jobs is much less than demand,” he said. “Students are looking for jobs, paid or unpaid.”Lauren Coker, regional manager for staffing firm Robert Half International, said there are signs the local job market is improving.“We are seeing companies hiring on a temporary basis because they need extra help to cover their higher workload,” Coker said.She said companies favor hiring temporary employees for fear that their work ethic won’t last, and they might have reason to be cautious.The improvement in the unemployment numbers from July to September is typical of year?to?year trends in Chapel Hill. In 2008, the unemployment rate declined 1.3 percentage points during the two-month period.Byrns said students might be making the job market more competitive in the summer, driving down the unemployment rate as the school year starts up again.In September 2008, the unemployment rate in Chapel Hill was 3.3 percent, almost two percentage points better than this year’s rate.The University, one of the town’s biggest employers, hired 64 new employees — not counting professors or administrators — this September compared to 107 in the same month last year.Rich said she has seen only a steady decline in the job market.“I’ve not seen anything perk up,” she said, referring to the town’s employment sectors.Aljuaithen wasn’t optimistic about finding a job in the United States, but he has planned ahead.“I have a job waiting for me back home in Saudi Arabia,” he said. Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(10/16/09 3:36am)
Correction (Nov. 6, 2009):Due to a reporting error, and earlier version of this story misstated that Eileen Nixon chose to move Citrine Salon to the development. Nixon actually opened a new salon. The story has been changed to reflect the correction. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the error.
(10/02/09 4:53am)
Hasan Abdullah’s bicycle was stolen on campus two years ago. And now, he wants to ensure other local bicycle owners don’t suffer the same fate.With WeCycles, the company he founded, Abdullah hopes to create a bike rental service on campus and around Chapel Hill and Carrboro.Abdullah said the program, if approved, would use 24-hour electronic kiosks where customers could swipe their One Cards or credit cards to rent bikes at an hourly fee. Yearly memberships would also be available. The prices aren’t set, but WeCycles director Ibraheem Khalifa said the hourly rate will be less than a cup of coffee.“We can’t tell you if it’s a large cup or a small cup,” Khalifa said. Abdullah, a Chapel Hill native who graduated from UNC last year, said he has always wanted to help the town grow. The idea for WeCycles came to him during the summer of 2008. The following fall, Abdullah enrolled in Kenan-Flagler Business School’s Launching the Venture program, in which students and professors help aspiring entrepreneurs formulate a business plan and learn how to lure investors.Khalifa, an engineer, teamed up with Abdullah in March with hopes to design the company’s kiosks. At a Sept. 14 business meeting, Abdullah and Khalifa proposed their idea to members of the Chapel Hill Town Council. They need the town’s help in placing the rental kiosks near bus stops, greenways and bike lanes. The council referred the proposal to the town’s planning department.Mayor pro tem Jim Ward asked the two how their proposal would involve the Blue Urban Bike program, which already loans bikes in Chapel Hill and Carrboro and is run by the ReCYCLEry.Although Abdullah hasn’t contacted ReCYCLEry director Chris Richmond about collaborating, Richmond said he is interested.“If we could strike a partnership that gets more folks riding, that’s going to improve funding for infrastructure — more greenways, bike lanes and better signage,” he said.Council member Jim Merritt said the board won’t vote on WeCycles until it has more details from the planning department.But that won’t discourage Abdullah and Khalifa, who said they already hope to expand WeCycles to Raleigh.“There is no time of day when I’m not thinking about this project,” Khalifa said. Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(09/24/09 4:33am)
A Chapel Hill 12-year-old studied Chinese culture, history and geography three days a week with her classmates and more with her mother at home.“She made me study how deep the lakes are,” Caroline Liu said of her mother.All of that hard work paid off. After scoring near perfect on a national test, Liu has earned the right to represent the United States in an international competition held in China next month.Liu, a seventh grader at Smith Middle School, took the 100-question test in February 2008 when she was in the fifth grade. Out of the 218 test-takers nationwide who earned a passing score, Liu was selected for one of three spots on the U.S. team.The test was given in eight other countries and administered in Mandarin Chinese.The students in Liu’s class studied 300 questions after school for two months. Liu was rewarded with a free trip to Chengdu, China for the World Chinese Culture Contest Final.She will tour cultural sites for a week, then compete for more than a week.“I think it’s pretty cool to go by myself,” Liu said of her trip.Her parents, originally from the Hunan province of China, aren’t going, but nine international teams are expected to attend.“It will be really nice to experience this with other kids who are good at Chinese,” Liu said. “Maybe I could learn something from them.”Xiaoyu Liu, Caroline’s mother, said the family speaks Chinese at home. She said her daughter was also enrolled in a Mandarin-English dual language program while at Glenwood Elementary School. Liu began the dual language classes when she started kindergarten. It was the program’s first year.“We feel Chinese study for her is very important,” said Xiaoyu Liu. “The world changes so much, you never know; you may have to go back to China and work there.”Dual language classes are taught for half of the day in English and half of the day in Mandarin, beginning in kindergarten. José Nambo, the dual language program coordinator for Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, said Glenwood’s program began with a federal grant in 2002 and has been funded by the district since 2005.Liu’s fifth grade teacher, Judy Ouyang, asked her class to participate in the test.“I’m just so proud,” Ouyang said. “At first I thought she wouldn’t be able to make it because she’s not a high school student.”Two others, an eighth grader and a ninth grader, both from Texas, also qualified for the U.S. team. This was the first year students from Glenwood attempted the test.Liu, who has been to China five times, said her favorite thing to learn about Chinese history was the greed and violence of the Chinese emperors. “It’s important for them to learn something, not just get a high score,” Xiaoyu Liu said.Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(09/14/09 5:04am)
Jonaki stood hesitantly at the edge of the pool.When her owner, graduate student Darpan Biswas, waded toward the middle of the community center pool, the yellow Labrador flopped from the side into the water and swam to him.At the sixth annual Orange County dog swim Sunday, Biswas gave Jonaki a piggy-back ride in the pool, surrounded by about 50 other pairs of dogs and their owners.“She loves the water and the beach,” Biswas said. The Chapel Hill Community Center event was sponsored by Orange County Animal Services and the Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation. The event allowed dogs to swim in the indoor pool and run in a fenced-in area. Frisbees and tennis balls rolled everywhere throughout the three-hour event.Orange County Animal Services Program Coordinator Sarah Fallin said the swim usually draws about 75 dogs.Admission was $5 for each dog and humans were free. The proceeds will be split between the sponsoring organizations. Fallin said the money raised was of small significance. The event’s purpose was to raise awareness about the animal shelter and to have a good time. A big Labrador named Hopkins tirelessly chased tennis balls thrown by his owner Charles Pamplin. “He loves to play fetch,” said Pamplin’s wife, Charlotte.Sophomore Miranda Jones volunteered at the event with Helping Paws, a Campus Y organization whose volunteers’ role was to clean up messes and to ensure dogs’ safety. They also handed out literature about good dog ownership practices.“I hope people will learn a lot about the shelter,” Jones said. Dogs were screened beforehand to ensure they had current vaccinations and they were not in heat. The pool’s annual cleaning will be this week, which allowed for the event to happen today, said Edward Bauer V, a Chapel Hill Parks and Recreation employee.Fallin said she provided bags in case any excrement contaminated the water.Still, many owners, like Biswas, swam with their dogs. “It’s a good opportunity for dogs to see if they are water dogs,” Orange County Animal Control Officer Ashley Miller said. “Some take to the water naturally.”She said dogs aren’t especially afraid of water. “Some have an easier time than others. Dogs are about like people,” she said. “They’re just the four-legged kind, I reckon.”Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
(09/09/09 3:47am)
The Chapel Hill Public Library is finishing a year-long celebration of its 50th birthday. But it’s still waiting on a present — a drastic expansion.According to a 2003 report, the library needs about 75,500 square feet total. It currently has only about 27,300 square feet.“The bookshelves now are almost to the ceiling,” said Martha Brunstein, president of Friends of the Chapel Hill Public Library, a local group that raises money for the library. “We need to expand our collection to have what people want.”Later in 2003 Chapel Hill residents approved a $16.23 million bond to expand the library.But the Town Council still needs to approve the funds before the bond is issued, Brunstein said.The town has considered purchasing a site of 70,000 square feet on the north side of Weaver Dairy Road, owned by Redwing Land, LLC.If the library moved, it would ideally only move temporarily as expansion is taking place, then move back to its site off North Estes Drive, said Virginia Powell, who has been a library volunteer for almost all 50 years.The need for expansion money comes in part from high traffic.A 2007 Institute of Museum and Library Services survey showed the library circulated 16.46 items per resident that year.The library also sees more than 1,000 visitors a day, Brumstein said.“I think it’s pleasant and quaint, but I can almost never find what I set out to find,” Chapel Hill resident Amy Witsil said of the library. “It’s either checked out or they just don’t have it.”Change would be nothing new to the library.Former reference librarian Jane Dyer said that in 1958, the library operated out of a small wood-frame house on Franklin Street. The director’s office was the kitchen, and the biography section was in the bathroom, Powell said.Seven years later, the town moved it to a bigger but still homey location, where one of Dyer’s jobs was to light a fire in the library’s signature fireplace. The space is now the Chapel Hill Museum on Franklin Street.In 1986, a growing demand for more books and space led citizens to approve a $4 million bond for the current library site.The demand for books hasn’t stopped since then.The library already has sold out of hundreds of tickets to a community-wide anniversary celebration event Sunday, called Long Story Short, which will feature live music and fiction reading.Powell now helps coordinate quarterly book sales that raise about $10,000 for the library. She said that Chapel Hill’s residents donate thousands of boxes of books, and that many are collections residents have left to the library after death.But part of the reason they have so many books to sell is the building’s limited space.“We knew the new library was too small when we moved into it,” said Virginia Young, who served on the library’s board of trustees.Contact the City Editorat citydesk@unc.edu.
(09/01/09 3:15am)
Correction: The following story has been revised to correct an error that identified Thommy Owens as homeless. Although homeless in the past, Owens is no longer homeless.