During the next few weeks, county store owners will be gearing up for a campaign to transfer money from local pockets to local checkbooks. The Orange County Chamber of Commerce recently worked with the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce to create the Buy Local campaign, which will encourage Orange County residents to only shop at county businesses.
West Franklin Street already is reaping the benefits of a changing Chapel Hill downtown. An upscale fashion boutique and a police substation recently opened at University Square on West Franklin Street, and this weekend, a sports bar is expected to open down the road. Shorty's Bar and Grill, located at 504 W. Franklin St., will take the place of the North Carolina Sports Bar and Grill. "It was a sports bar before, and we're kind of going for the same thing," said Tony Cash, an owner.
Local police are expanding their services in the community, and getting a little more elbow room in the process. Several Chapel Hill residents joined members of the Chapel Hill Police Department on Tuesday for the grand opening of a police substation at Southern Village. Chapel Hill Police Chief Gregg Jarvies opened the ceremony by addressing the crowd.
In an attempt to address the needs of a rapidly growing Latino population, area health officials will sponsor a Spanish-language immersion program in Carrboro this weekend. The Chapel Hill Institute for Cultural and Language Education and the Orange-Person-Chatham Foundation for Mental Health together will provide a crash course in Spanish, said CHICLE Program Director Miriam Palacio. “The dramatic increase in Spanish-speaking people in the community has created a need for more organizations to hire bilingual staffs,” Palacio said.
Before the Hillsborough Planning Board allows homeless shelters inside town limits, town officials want to tour other shelters to understand their inner workings. Members of the board did just that Tuesday night with the help of Inter-Faith Council Executive Director Chris Moran, who gave the group a tour of the IFC’s community kitchen and men’s shelter at 100 W. Rosemary St. “It’s difficult to make a decision on anything when you don’t have a point of reference,” said board Chairman Paul Newton.
A local company will get its 15 minutes of fame Thursday when a popular TV show features one of its high-tech products. 3rdTech Inc., located at 119 E. Franklin St., will have its high-precision laser range finder and 3-D scene digitizer featured on Thursday’s episode of “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.” Doug Schiff, the company’s vice president, said the exposure will help enlarge his small company, which manufactures hardware and software.
Kindergarten students at McDougle Elementary School found that $1 could go a long way Tuesday, as it bought anything from a checkup to pet food. Too bad the doctors were a little short of completing medical school. The kindergartners showed off their skills as business leaders Tuesday while getting a crash course in economics at McDougle’s “Bunnyville.”
In an effort to bring people together and promote cultural diversity, Carrboro will celebrate its eighth annual community dinner Sunday. The event is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. in the cafeteria of McDougle Middle School, located at 900 Old Fayetteville Road. Nerys Levy, chairwoman of the community dinner committee, said the event will feature an array of attractions. Mama Dip’s Kitchen will provide the food, and a variety of culturally diverse musical acts, including a Latin band and Greek dance group, will perform on stage as locals dine.
For the first time in the organization’s history, the Orange Water and Sewer Authority is moving closer to allowing hunting on some of its land. OWASA and the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission will hold a public hearing March 8 to give county residents a chance to voice their opinions about permitting hunting on a 500-acre site near the Cane Creek watershed between Martin and Mount Willing roads in western Orange County.
By this August, Orange County residents will have access to more parts of the county via a new bus route that will run between Hillsborough and Chapel Hill. The Orange County Board of Commissioners instructed the Triangle Transit Authority on Tuesday night to present plans for implementing the new route to its Operations and Finance Committee on March 3.
