4
THURSDAY, JUNE 21, 2007
Council plans library, talks Lot 5
Debate future expansion proposals
BY TRACEY THERET
CITY EDITOR
The Town Council received a
concept plan for the expansion of
the Chapel Hill Public Library that
would add 37,000 square feet to
the current floor plan.
The extra space would comprise
a wing on the north and on the
south of the existing library at 100
Library Drive off of East Franklin
Street and Estes Drive.
Anew turn-around and drop-off
area and 120 new parking spaces
also are proposed.
After hearing the concept
plan, Council member Mark
Kleinschmidt compared the pro
posal to Seattle’s Central Library,
a facility he visited recently.
“They made sure it was not
only a library for 2007 but 2107,”
Kleinschmidt said.
Nifong barred, forced to resign immediately
FROM STAFF REPORTS
Mike Nifong will be able to add
anew line to his resume former
district attorney.
The now infamous Duke
Lacrosse case drew national media
attention from its beginning and
placed the Durham DA under
tremendous pressure to deliver a
conviction.
But in the end, it was Nifong who
ended up facing judgment. In four
days of witness testimony, includ
ing a tearful admission of wrong
doing by Nifong himself, the N.C.
State Bar established that the Duke
case had turned into a “fiasco” for
which the DA bore responsibility.
During his testimony, Nifong
announced that he would resign
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“That buildings going to be able
to shift and move and be some
thing different 100 years from
now.”
Kleinschmidt stressed the impor
tance of this adaptability for Chapel
Hill’s library expansion and asked
planners to keep the functionality
of the added spaces in mind.
Also at Monday’s meeting,
the Council held a public hear
ing on the Downtown Economic
Development Initiative of Parking
Lot 5, a proposed 1.92-acre assem
blage that would be located between
West Franklin and West Rosemary
streets with Church Street along
the western boundary of the site.
Liz Parham, the executive direc
tor for the Chapel Hill Downtown
Partnership, endorsed the plan for
the Lot 5 development.
“The vision of a downtown
as district attorney effective July
13, regardless of the outcome of
his disciplinary hearing.
Bet that wasn’t fast enough for
Durham County Judge Orlando
Hudson, who ordered Nifong’s
office keys and access card seized
after the State Bar found the pros
ecutor guilty of ethics violations
and revoked his law license.
The State Bar disciplinary panel
said Nifong’s political interest had
motivated his behavior in the
Duke case, pushing him to make
misleading media statements and
denigrating remarks about the
Duke lacrosse players.
The most damning charge was
that Nifong willfully withheld evi
dence from defense attorneys. In
Chapel Hill is a sustainable,
mixed-use district that builds
community as a center of educa
tion and a center of arts and cul
ture,” Parham said.
Resident Bernadette Keefe
grouped residents of Chapel Hill
into three categories the rebels,
those who are eager for morebusi
ness downtown; the no-shows,
who find downtown unsafe or
unappealing; and the chjcken
littles, who are worried about
the cost of Lot 5 or the loss of the
downtown “feeling” Chapel Hill
currently maintains.
Keefe identified herself as a
“rebel” and said she strongly sup
ports Lot 5 and a significant tran
sition of the downtown area.
Aaron Nelson, executive direc
tor of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro
Chamber of Commerce, empha
sized the viability of maintaining
the feeling of a strong downtown
even though Lot 5 may raise high
failing to promptly disclose full
DNA test results that were ulti
mately favorable to the defendants,
the bar found Nifong guilty of an
egregious violation of both his ethi
cal responsibility and state law.
The decision to revoke his
license effectively ends Nifong’s
legal career in North Carolina.
Governor Mike Easley has
said he is already searching for a
replacement for the Durham DA.
That person will hold the position
through 2008, when anew elec
tion can be held.
Easley has said he’s anxious for
the state to move on.
“It looks bad for North Carolina,”
Easley said of the case.
Meanwhile, Duke University
Naurs
erthan most Chapel Hill residents
are accustomed to.
“We’ll protect the green stuff by
going high and dense,” Nelson said.
But Council members still had
questions for Ram Development
Cos., the company applying for the
Lot 5 project.
Questions ranged from handi
capped access to sidewalk lengths
to the possibility of parking on
Church Street, which was nixed.
Council member Jim Ward also
requested that Ram work with the
police department to ensure they
could properly protect the area.
The Council recessed the pub
lic hearing and will return to the
topic at a meeting on June 27.
A representative from Ram
said the company hopes to break
ground next spring and open the
spring of 2010.
Contact the City Editor
at citydesk@unc.edu.
officials announced June 18 that
they had reached a settlement
with the three defendants in the
case, heading off the possibility
that the former lacrosse players
might pursue legal action against
the school.
“This past year has been hard for
many people who care about Duke
for students, faculty, staff, alum
ni, families and friends —and for
the three students and their fami
lies most of all,” the university said
in a written statement. “We resolve
to bring the Duke family together
again, and to work to protect others
from similar injustices in the crimi
nal justice system in the future.”
The families of the three exoner
ated players might still pursue civil
cases against Nifong in an effort to
recoup a portion of the estimated
$3 million in legal bills they accu
mulated during the ordeal.
Contact the State & National
Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
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Farmers hurt by
summer drought
Lower N.C. rain
levels hit crops
BY DAVE PEARSON
STATE & NATIONAL EDITOR
April showers bring May flow
ers, as the saying goes. But the
saying about freezing weather and
droughts is less well-known.
Natalia Sanchez, a statistician at
the N.C. Department of Agriculture
and Consumer Services said much
of the state is experiencing below
average amounts of rain, which is
compounding the effect of Easter
weekend’s freezing temperature.
“I think last year we were in a
similar boat for a while, then we
got a tropical storm,” Sanchez
said.
“This year we haven’t experi
enced any big rain.”
She said the western tip of the
state is in an extreme drought,
having received between 71 and
78 percent of normal rainfall.
Sanchez also said a wide swath
of the Piedmont is abnormally dry,
but added that the pockets of rain
the area has received have helped
a lot.
The dry weather has affected
farmers significantly, Sanchez
said.
In drought areas, grass hasn’t
grown enough to meet farmers’
demand to feed their cattle. As
a result, she said, farmers have
to buy hay to use as feed, but the
drought has also lessened the
amount of hay available. Sanchez
said her office has received reports
of farmers selling their cattle earli
er than they’d planned because the
cost of feeding them is too high.
“Mostly we just need rain in the
coming weeks,” Sanchez said.
Peter Robinson is the man to
talk to about rain.
Robinson is a professor in the
UNC Department of Geography,
who specializes in meteorology
and climatology.
0% latlg (Ear Hrrl
Robinson joked that all anyone
wants to talk to him about is the
weather before he said the bottom
line with weather is “We don’t
know.”
Robinson said water is avail
able, just not accessible.
“We have an enormous amount
of water above us,” Robinson said,
referring to clouds.
“But there are no mechanisms
that we can use to make it rain.”
Robinson said no matter how
accurate storm forecasters might
be, the Atlantic Basin is an enor
mous area.
“Even if they were right on tar
get every year, it would still be dif
ficult to translate what’s going to
hit us,” Robinson said.
He said the latter part of the
past century had fewer strong
storms than should be expected
but was quick to add that for
people on the ground, the biggest
issue would be whether they live
where a storm hits.
Robinson also spoke about the
freeze this past spring.
“Most of the eastern part of the
country had a spring freeze,” he
said.
Robinson said it was a large sys
tem, which he defined as “a bit of
weather.”
One victim of that bit of weather,
Sanchez said, is the peach crop.
Sanchez said North Carolina
farmers are reporting that approx
imately 84 percent of the peaches
harvested so far are of poor or very
poor quality.
She also said the state’s apple
crop is in a similar predicament,
with 81 percent being poor or very
poor. Sanchez said that it is farm
ers, not consumers who will most
feel the damaged apple crop but
that the freeze affected much of the
nation’s peach-growing region.
“It’s not going to be a good
peach year.”
Contact the State & National
Editor at stntdesk.unc.edu.