Andy Kenney

News

Schools tackle obesity

By Andy Kenney | November 26

Fitness education isn't just for gym class anymore. Teachers in Chapel Hill and Carrboro schools, along with other schools across the state, are being given the tools to bring physical activity into their everyday curriculum. Nearly 100 percent of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools district's kindergarten through fifth-grade teachers and 50 percent of the district's middle school teachers received Fit Kids training.

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Council may extend area's moratorium

By Andy Kenney | November 13

CORRECTION: Due to a reporting error, the Tuesday pg. 4 article "Council may extend area's moratorium" incorrectly states that the Chapel Hill planning board recommended rezoning in the NW area. It was actually the planning department that made the recommendation. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the error. The Chapel Hill Town Council likely will extend its five-month-old development moratorium on a potential growth hot spot in the northern part of town, based on its members' comments at a Monday-night public hearing.

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Use of fast-burning pine straw restricted

By Andy Kenney | October 25

The Chapel Hill Town Council moved Monday to regulate a common landscaping material that has turned out to be an accomplice in a number of local blazes. Three separate apartment fires in Chapel Hill this year were caused by cigarettes discarded into pine straw, resulting in $72,000 of damage. A Bolinwood Apartments fire caused $50,000 in damage and temporarily displaced four families. In Raleigh, a February inferno that began in pine straw destroyed 32 town houses.

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Foy wants to keep trucking

By Andy Kenney | October 17

Kevin Foy is running for his fourth term as mayor of Chapel Hill. After 20 years living in the area and 10 years in town government, the Ohio native hopes to continue his past efforts to protect Chapel Hill's environment and character. "There are several things that we're in the middle of," Foy said. "Now doesn't seem like the right time to jump ship." Foy served as mayor for the past six years and was a member of the Chapel Hill Town Council for four years before that.

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Council talks library expansion

By Andy Kenney | September 25

The town's expansion plans for the Chapel Hill Public Library are making steady progress, as demonstrated at Monday's regular business meeting of the Chapel Hill Town Council. Kenneth Redfoot, of the design firm Corley Redfoot Zack, Inc., presented the schematic design for the library to the council. "I will say that we're on budget and on time at this point, which is really good news," said Mayor Pro Tem Bill Strom, a member of the Library Building Committee.

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Halloween crime goes unsolved

By Andy Kenney | September 21

Daniel Blythe and Ryan Minicozzi were walking away from the annual Franklin Street bash last Halloween when it happened. As the two UNC-Charlotte sophomores walked down Merritt Mill Road, two men and a woman approached them and asked to borrow a cell phone. "The next thing I knew somebody had tackled me and punched me," said Blythe, now a junior international business major at UNC-C. "When I looked up, (Minicozzi) had a gun to his head." When Minicozzi and Blythe told the muggers they didn't have their wallets, the suspects became upset.

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Residents divided on Coker Hills rezoning

By Andy Kenney | September 18

The Coker Hills Neighborhood Conservation District is intended to protect the neighborhood from encroaching development, but as the rezoning process draws to a close, some residents have described it as divisive. "Personally, I wish this thing had never occurred," Sylvia Clements said at a public hearing of the Chapel Hill Town Council on Monday night. Clements has lived in Coker Hills since 1962. "The problems it has caused, the ill feelings, the accusations, it's really torn parts of the neighborhood apart," she said.

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Mixed feelings on change plan

By Andy Kenney | September 14

Taz and his wife can be seen every day on the benches near the intersection of Franklin and South Columbia streets. They have a cardboard sign that reads, "Truly Homeless." "The shelters don't help you," said Taz, who declined to give his full name. He can't take his wife, who asked to remain unidentified, to the shelter because it is a men's shelter, and he said his wife sometimes faces harassment there.

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Police alcohol bust yields 51 citations

By Andy Kenney | September 14

CORRECTION: Due to a reporting error, Friday's pg. 7 story "Police alcohol bust yields 51 citations" incorrectly states the number of people cited during the bust. The correct number of people cited is 36. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the error. A joint action last Thursday between Chapel Hill and Carrboro police, as well as N.C. Alcohol Law Enforcement agents, netted a number of alcohol-related charges against local residents and businesses.

News

Commissioners differ on how to raise taxes

By Andy Kenney | August 30

The Orange County Board of Commissioners will touch on a hot-button tax issue at a budget work session tonight. The 7:30 p.m. meeting at the Southern Human Services Center on Homestead Road will include discussion of the county's proposed land-transfer tax, an idea that has drawn both fire and support from within the community. The proposed tax, made possible by state law, would attach a .4 percent transfer tax to property sales. A transfer tax is levied upon the seller when property is sold to provide funding for county infrastructure.