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4 rrhe Daily Tar Heel/Thursday, July 8, 1993 Holiday travel reduces county accident count By TJ Hemlinger Staff Writer Because many Orange County resi dents traveled during the Fourth of July holiday weekend, police officials reported fewer traffic accidents locally than in other counties in the state. Orange County Sheriff Lindy Pendergrass said he thought it was a good Fourth of July weekend because there were no murders and no one was shot. “We’re fortunate in that a larger part of Orange County vacates on holi days,” he said. “People go to the beach and so forth. We had a lot of houses to check is all.” Chapel Hill police officers use di rected patrol and are assigned to spe cific areas in town to enforce traffic laws where problems have occurred in the past. “We know there’s a pattern based on officer assessments, citizens’ com plaints and history,” said Jane Cous ins, Chapel Hill police spokeswoman. But-through the Fourth of July week end in Guilford County, 23 people were killed in car accidents, compared to a total of 19 in all of 1992. If acci dents continue at that rate, the fatalities for 1993 will have increased 142 per cent. First Sgt. R.P. Simon, of the N.C. State Police, is coordinating Opera tion Eagle in Guilford and Rockingham counties to crack down on motorists who drive while impaired, with re voked licenses or without wearing seat belts. “We feel those are the areas where people are in danger of injuring them selves,” he said. “We are going into problem areas and taking vigorous enforcement actions to protect life and property.” Across the state, Operation Eagle began June 4 and will continue through Sept. 11. The program supplements the patrols of the state, county' and local police. “We’re not really seeking press cov erage,” Simon said. “We will try to target areas to make people comply with state laws.” Crook’s Corner jL eliwwt Franklin Street Chapel Hill, North Carolina WaNNas welcome. Reservations accepted. Call 929-7643 Mean changes flatly PaHo wtMftfto? HE’S NOT IffißE on the Village Green presents ... Bro Street • Fricky, July 9 Patty Costs BancJ • SaturcJay, July 10 KARAoke SiNq Alonq every SuNdAy NiqhT and don't forget oar Tuesday Specials! $2.00 BLUE CUPS ■ 942-7939 FINE • LINES: % and gold tracing \ fashion 1 patterns I TboV ' University Square Chapel Hill 967-8935 Pohce officers are giving up week ends off to increase patrolling, he said. “We’re asking troopers to get one less weekend off to build the forces up, and we’re canceling days off.” Although Operation Eagle is not run in Orange County, Simon said the county was not being ignored. “Orange County has not been spe cifically mandated forthis operation,” Simon said. “This is a special, in addition operation to regular patrols, but Orange County is not being over looked. There could be additional op erations there.” Cousins said Chapel Hill did not need to participate in an added pro gram to keep its roads safe. “One reason we didn’t participate in Operation Eagle on the Fourth of July is because in Chapel Hill, it’s not a particular problem,” she said. “People leave town on that weekend, and it’s not a time we felt it was worth to put an effort into. “The peak (driving while intoxi cated) risks are when students come back to town in August and September and at the end of the school year.” Capt. John Butler, of the Carrboro Police Department, said the depart ment runs a traffic program with the help of the Jim Crisp Insurance Agency. “We pass out literature he provides, such as a checklist for safe teenage driving,” Butler said. “Crisp also do nated a hand-held breath detector to take passive readings.” Butler said Carrboro police officers made “two or three” DWI arrests dur ing the holiday weekend. “We like not to have to make ar rests, but if people are foolish enough to drive drunk, we’ll arrest them,” Butler said. Pendergrass said the sheriffs de partment didn’t have enough person nel or equipment to specialize in pur suing DWI arrests. “We only have enough people to patrol certain zones,” he said. “We really help the highway patrol by get ting behind a DWI (suspect) and pull ing him over and then getting the troop ers to take over.” Police to rehabilitate drug offenders Byjada Overton Staff Writer Beginning in the fall, the Chapel Hill Police Department will use rehabilita tion instead of prosecution to treat first time drug offenders. Project Turnaround will be a year long intensive supervision program for first-time drug offenders and for resi dents who commit property crimes to buy drugs. “The project will be an alternative to prosecution,” said Jane Cousins, Chapel Hill police spokeswoman. Cousins said Project Turnaround will function as part of the law enforcement crisis unit, while the Violent Crime Task Force will serve as an advisory commit- Airport made available for that purpose at this point.” John Sanders, chairman of the Build ings and Grounds Committee, said the University had advertised for a consult ing firm to study the site. In the next few weeks, the committee will recommend to Chancellor Paul Hardin the top three qualified firms. Hardin then will pass his recommendation to the Board of Trustees, probably by its July meeting. Because the airport only occupies one-fourth of the available land, Sand ers said, it would be interesting to study ways to develop the land even before the University resolves where to move the airport. “We cannot sell that land,” he said. “It was given to us by a person who said it had to stay with the Univer sity forever.” Jones said the University would in volve the town council and residents who live near the airport to determine the best use for the facility. If the Uni Housing the newer Tandler subdivision. The Tandler homes each sold for about SBO,OOO between 1987 and 1992, while the older Pine Knolls homes cost be tween $60,000 and $70,000, he said. “Not any of the people who lived in Pine Knolls qualified for Tandler homes,” he said. Russell said the town granted the Pine Knolls Development Association a $90,000 rotating loan to fund im provements to two of the area’s homes. Meanwhile, the Pine Knolls Devel opment Association is developing a pro posal to build 25 affordable units scat tered throughout the community. The goal is to provide housing that truly is affordable to low-income households. “We want to attract strong commu nity-oriented families that will commit to the furtherance of development.” The neighborhood is trying to attract families who will invest in the community’s future, he said. “(Students) can afford to pay more than any family, black or white, can afford,” Parrish said. “The neighbor hood is being overrun by students, who are driving out families. “Students are good people. However, they are transient and it’s rare for them to get involved with the neighborhood where they live.” But Parrish said some University stu dents had been active in the Pine Knolls 2%0 Copies July 1-31, 1993 Good on all plain white § 8 1/2xll autofeed and self-service copies. J|_ C.O. COPIES Open 7 Days A Week 169 E. Franklin St. • Near the Post Office k 967-6633 „ LSAT MCAT GMAT GRE Classes Starting Soon 493-5000 KAPLAN Th answer to tho tost question. CITY tee. The program, which will begin Sept. 1, is being funded by a two-year grant through Gov. Jim Hunt’s Crime Com mission. Cousins said the commission stipu lated that Chapel Hill come up with 25 percent of the funding. The Chapel Hill Town Council approved its 1993-94 budget Monday, which included $64,900 for the project. The budget estimates a $48,675 return in revenue. “These people have agreed to have real close supervision and to drug coun seling and treatment,” she said. To be eligible for the program, the offender must be 16 years or older and must have not used a weapon when committing the crime, Cousins said. versity were to build affordable hous ing for the University community, it could free up housing in town for non- University residents, he added. “(Affordable housing) would be a long-term objective,” Jones said. “How soon and to what extent is a question.” The University will have to study what role housing availability plays in a prospective employee’s decision whether to work in Chapel Hill, Jones said. Boulton said he had worked with the Orange County Housing Corporation and the Triangle Housing Authority to determine the region ’ s affordable hous ing needs. He said the town and the University had not yet been able to provide its residents with truly afford able housing. “The best we have been able to find is a unit that costs something around $93,000,” Boulton said. He said part of the problem was that Community Center’s after-school tuto rial program. The community center is located at 107 Johnson St. “When there’s lots of transients around, many people feel like it’s some one else’s problem to solve the prob lems,” he said. Parrish said the town of Chapel Hill has not kept up the Pine Knolls neigh borhood as well as it has kept up more wealthy neighborhoods. “The town has never, ever provided recreational re sources for our kids over here,” he said. The community center has been open since 1968, when the neighborhood fought the war on poverty. The center holds after-school pro grams, community meetings and will act as a satellite police station to make the area safer at night, Parrish said. “If we had not been doing these things, drug traffic would have taken over this community,” he said. Problem unsolved Though the town in some cases has been able to make living in the Southern Part of Heaven more affordable, many still are unable to afford living in town. Affordable housing units are geared toward residents who earn below $27,600, or 60 percent of Chapel Hill’s median income. The problem is that there are not enough units, so officials are left to watch the gap grow between low salaries and high land prices. Linda Shaw, executive director of the Raleigh-based Low-Income Hous ing Coalition, said the group was ere )£> Dragon’s % w/jk Garden Relax in our beautiful atmosphere while you enjoy our delicious food, or call us for a hot delicious meal delivered right to your door! Free Delivery* 407 W. 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Crime Prevention Officer Jim Huegerich, who supervises the crisis unit, said the program was designed to show the community that drug offend ers do not pose a problem for the police. “We need the aid of prevention, treat ment and law enforcement to help solve the problem,” he said. Cousins said that if the offender com pleted the program, the drug charges would be dropped. She added that if the person failed to complete the program, the offender would be taken back to the court system to be prosecuted. Huegerich said that, during the first land in Chapel Hill was so costly. He said building housing facilities on the Horace Williams tract made sense be cause the University already owns it. The development would be different from Odum Village, UNC’s married student facilities off Manning Drive, because University-related residents would have to demonstrate a financial need to live on the property. UNC built Odum Village in the late 1960s for married students who wanted to live on campus. Underthe plan, the University would grant the resident a mortgage to help the household save money. By helping to reduce monthly mortgage payments, the resident eventually would have enough saved to “sell” the property back to the University and buy his own home. “It isn’t the town’s fault the land is so high-priced here,” Boulton said. Hardin said building affordable hous ing on the site is a possibility that has ated in 1987 to study the state’s housing needs and educate policy-makers about ways to ameliorate the problem. “Housing costs are continuing to rise,” Shaw said. “The affordable gap remains real serious. The supply has not been there.” The coalition works with local gov ernments across the state to advocate plans for providing more affordable housing, she said. “I think it’s definitely cost benefi cial,” she said. “Building housing and rehabilitating housing creates jobs, which is an economic incentive.” Chapel Hill Town Council member Alan Rimer said that although the mayor and the council were interested in af fordable housing, they had yet to de velop a long-term set of goals. “I think we would like to have more affordable housing,” he said. “They’re euphemisms at this point. The town has to stand up and be counted.” Salary increases for town employees are not the answer to the town’s housing question, Rimer said. The town should try to provide more opportunities for its employees so that they could have more of a choice about whether to live in Chapel Hill, he added. Chapel Hill Mayor Ken Broun, who has announced his plans to run for re election in November, said he would discuss affordable housing strategies as part of his campaign. “We decided to aim our affordable housing to the lower end of the afford able housing range, which is 60 percent year, the program probably only would have 15 participants. He added that once the program got started, about 25 of fenders would participate in the pro gram. “We’re only going to look for folks who are going to benefit from the pro gram,” he said. “We want to help give some people a second chance.” The police department plans to hire a case manager and a part-time case man ager for the project, Huegerich said. “The person must be able to develop their own programs, have a good liaison with the community and be able to deal with a broad base of folks,” he said. “We don’t want a rescuer,” Huegerich added. “We want someone who knows how to work the system.” from page 1 been widely discussed. “A lot of con versation is taking place at the Univer sity and in the town,” he said. “Afford able housing is a concern of ours. “I have a subjective feeling that there is a need that probably needs to be studied before we invest millions of dollars.” No one has the slightest idea where the airport would be moved, he said. “I’d like to know before I step down as chancellor if there will be an alterna tive airport,” Hardin said. “I think we ought to plan on the contingency that it will be moved and that it will not.” Town council member Alan Rimer, who also is a visiting professor in the University’s Department of City and Regional Planning, said it would get the town off the hook if the University built its own affordable housing community. “The reality is we need more oppor tunities for graduate students close to campus,” he said. from page 1 or less of the median-income range,” he said. “I think we have an obligation to work with the community to provide affordable housing.” Broun said the town should take a leadership role on the issue but added that the town did not have funds for all of the community’s housing needs. “I don’t expect this is a problem that is going to go away in 10 years,” he said. “I think it’s gotten worse as land values have gone up.” He said the town should work with the Orange County Housing Commis sion, community groups and the Uni versity to develop some kind of afford able housing plan. ‘lnvesting in the future’ Michael Luger, a professor in the University’s Department of City and Regional Planning, said Chapel Hill should concentrate more on affordable housing to avoid becoming an upper income, predominantly white town. “The housing stock and population in Chapel Hill is not diverse,” he said. “There are not a lot of houses available at the low end of the spectrum.” Building affordable housing units in the middle of a middle-class neighbor hood would not diminish property val ues, Luger said. “All that Chapel Hill has undertaken is reasonably well-designed housing,” he said. “They don’t look too different from the low end of the private low income housing market.” He said some studies have shown that public housing can diminish prop erty values, but that affordable housing should be considered separately. Luger and Michael Stegman, then chairman of the City and Regional Plan ning Department, completed an aca demic study of the Tandler subdivision when the town was deciding whether to fund the project. Luger said the development was in novative, but did not make a significant impact on answers for the town’s af fordable housing needs. “We’re talking about less than 30 units,” he said. “It’s a drop in the bucket.” Rimer said affordable housing would help to create an economically diverse population. “It is intuitively obvious to the casual observer that you’ve got middle and upper-middle class. To be able to let town employees live in Chapel Hill, it means affordable housing.” Shaw said affordable housing builds a community across economic lines. “Chapel Hill has been so expensive for so long, people who work there can’t afford to live there,” she said. “Investment in housing is investing in the future.” Nautilus Fitness Center Student Special Second Summer Session *35 imtonMiafe on Augusts TANNING mondi unlimited s 4O Feeturlnn: Free Weights, Aerobics, Nautilus Machines, Exercise Bikes, Treadmills Sauna, Stalrmaster At Straw Valley on Chapel Hill Blvd at 1-40 Intersection96B-3027
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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July 8, 1993, edition 1
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