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Chapel Hill will erect a monument in front of the post office on Franklin Street to commemorate local civil justice activists. At a meeting Monday night, the Chapel Hill Town Council approved the construction of a five-foot tall square granite monument that will be built at the base of the flagpole. The council named the space in front of the post office the "Peace and Justice Plaza" in June 2006. The marker will be engraved with the title "Peace and Justice Plaza" and a quotation from Ben Franklin: "There was never a good war or a bad peace." The names of three local political activists, Charlotte Adams, Joe Straley and Lucy Straley, also will appear on the monument. Chapel Hill Town Council member Sally Greene presented the plan to the board. She said the monument also commemorates University and high-school students who fought for integration in the 1960s. "This is a simple, elegant, powerful reminder to future generations of Chapel Hill's historical - and I hope continuing - spirit of social justice," Greene said. The Straleys came to Chapel Hill in the 1940s and were appalled by the racial issues they saw in town, Greene said. They later became involved in protesting the Vietnam War. Adams and Lucy Straley both were involved in the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Adams protested every week in front of the post office from the late 1960s to 1973, about the time the Vietnam War ended. "We're honoring Adams and the Straleys, but there have been many protests that have happened there," Greene said. In 1963 and 1964, UNC students and Chapel Hill High School students demonstrated in front of the post office for the town to be integrated. During Easter week of 1964, students sat outside of the post office night and day for a week. Chapel Hill residents have had mixed responses to the news of the monument. "It's unfair to a lot of struggles that are going on now and that have gone on," said Laura Bickford, a UNC student who was arrested last February for her involvement in a sit-in at the Chapel Hill office of Rep. David Price, D-Orange. "It's unfair for this one moment 40 years ago to be memorialized when there are a lot of other struggles that are going on," she said. The monument initially will only bear the names of the three activists, but there is room to add more. Bickford said that the quotation on the monument is fitting for the marker itself but that it simplifies the issues Adams and the Straleys protested. ROTC Lt. Col. Monte Yoder, who is a professor in military science at UNC, said that war is a last-resort option and that the monument is a reflection of people's opinions on war and peace. "I don't believe anyone goes out looking for a war," he said. "Peace is a wonderful thing, especially from a soldier's perspective." Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.
A Chapel Hill rehabilitation center has big expansion plans. Freedom House Recovery Center has plans to add two additional buildings this fall to house its detox and crisis services center and its outpatient services center. Freedom House provides an array of services for people struggling with substance abuse and addiction, said Joslyn Ogden, assistant to the executive director. The recovery center currently includes two halfway houses where patients stay from three to six months to start rebuilding their lives while sober. These are Chapel Hill's only halfway houses. Participants at the recovery center regularly attend local Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings. The center works closely with Orange County Vocational Rehabilitation and encourages participants to get jobs by offering job skill training, Ogden said. The center also offers outpatient services so participants who don't stay at the center can meet regularly for group discussions. Freedom House's outpatient, detox and crisis services all will be relocated when the expansion is brought to fruition. "The current building with detox and crisis services is 50 years old and made of cinder blocks," Ogden said. "It's too small - it's just an old building and it wasn't designed as a detox and crisis center." The new outpatient services building will house groups that cater to both English- and Spanish-speaking patients. It also will expand community support for more vulnerable clients who need transportation and reminders about upcoming meetings, Ogden said. The additional space will accommodate a 24-hour nurse service and psychiatrists, who are on site every day. Ogden said she hopes construction will break ground this fall. The project will cost $2.8 million, and the center has raised about $1.2 million from foundations and individuals. The center's first community fundraiser is a fish fry from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at Freedom House at 104 New Stateside Drive. Residents can donate money by contacting the center to get a pledge card. Local organizations are helping with the expansion. Habitat for Humanity has offered to finish work on the buildings such as installing drywall and painting. Resolute Builders and Laura Moore Designs landscaping also are donating their services to the project. Chapel Hill Town Council member Mark Kleinschmidt said the Freedom House expansion means that those in need in Chapel Hill will continue to be provided with high-quality rehabilitation services. "The Freedom House is an important institution that provides services for people who are in especially hard times," he said. "We're not a community that forgets its members, ignores its members who are suffering." Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.