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lailu ®ar Mttl J? Volume 102, Issue 44 101 yean of editorial freedom Serving the students and the University community since 1893 Merchants Force Temporary End of Downtown Han BY JAMIE KRITZER CITY EDITOR A downtown improvement plan that has been four years in the making may not even make the slightest dent in Chapel Hill after merchants and town planners unex pectedly postponed it Tuesday. About a dozen merchants, concerned that prolonged digging of walkways in front of their stores would hurt business, opposed the plan, much to the chagrin of town officials. “We had spent a fair amount of time preparing and planning forthis,”saidßruce Heflin, Chapel Hill Public Works director. “Obviously we were not ready for this.” The concerned merchants will voice their objections to the project to the Chapel Hill Town Council June 13. The pilot project was to refurbish several hundred feet of walkways on the northern side of Jurors Express Regret BYJAMIE KRITZER CITY EDITOR At least two jurors in the Anthony Simpson murder trial are feeling remorse and anguish one week after they handed down the lesser sentence of second-degree murder in the shooting death of Kristin Lodge-Miller last July. In a case where jurors stood racially divided for most of their 11 hours of delib erations, one white juror even went so far as to say she returned the wrong verdict Wednesday afternoon. “I’d never had to deal with this deci sion,” said the juror, who chose to remain anonymous. “I didn’t like it. I didn’t know where it came from.” In response to the verdict, residents in the community have joined forces with the Orange County Women’s Center, Orange Ex-Carolina Players Buy Dance Club BY NANCY JANE JOYCE STAFF WRITER Two former towering Tar Heels revis ited their alma mater this week, but not just to shoot some hoops and sport Carolina blue. Former first-team All-American forward J.R. Reid and center Marty Hensley came back to buy Players, the famous Chapel Hill night spot. Reid, who now plays for the San Anto nio Spurs, said he had always wanted to be in the nightclub business. “This was a great opportunity because we don’t have to go out and buy all the equipment,” Reid said. “We’re going to keep the place pretty much the same.” Hensley, who played at UNC from 1985 through 1990, said his goal was to go into business for himself. “I wasn’t necessarily interested in the nightclub business, but J.R. was, ” said the 6-foot-l 1-inch Hensley. “I knew this was a great opportunity.” Hensley and Reid have been friends since their Tar Heel days and have kept in touch because Hensley takes care of Reid’s finances. “When this opportunity came up, neither one of us could turn it down,” Hensley said. The new owners said possible changes included having Players open on Wednes day nights with drink specials. “We are going to continue to have pri vate parties during the week for sororities, fraternities and businesses,” Hensley said. “We won’t make many changes." ReidplayedfortheTar Heels from 1987 to 1989 before being drafted in the first round by the Charlotte Hornets. He made the NBA All-Rookie second team in 1990. He was traded to the San Antonio Spurs, where he has continued as a backup center, in the 1992-93 season. In addition to being voted All-American in his 1988 season with the Tar Heels, Reid captured Most Valuable Player of the year the same year. Hensley spent much ofhis time with the Tar Heels out with a knee injury. Players’ former owners Mike and Mark McCormick sold the bar to Reid and Hensley because it was time to move on to other things, they said. “I’ve been in the bar business for 13 years and have been an owner since 1985,” Mike McConnick said. “Inthisbusiness, if the owner is not here all the time, it’s hard to succeed. The average success rate of bars is less than two years.” / McConnick said that since his brother became a partner one year ago, he had WEEKLY SUMMER EDITION West Franklin Street from Hams Restau rant to Chapel Hill Cleaners. It would have served as a test to illustrate to the commu nity the benefit of the overall project. Streetscape, modeled afterasimilarpro gram in Charlotte, would replace side walks and street lights along a four-mile stretch of Franklin and Rosemary streets. But several merchants would like to see that this never happens. “Ultimately, I would say, given how bad business has been this year, I would just as soon not have it,” B erkeley Grimball, a co-owner of Grimball & Stokes said. “For three moriths, there would be jack hammers. People are not going to stop by in the stores when this is going on.” Tuesday’s meeting was originally de signed to discuss construction and its im pact on the approximately 35 business owners on that stretch of Franklin Street. Construction plans, however, were never County Commission for Women and the Orange County Rape Crisis Center to ex plore what can be done legally to keep 18- year-old Simpson from being granted pa role in about nine years. “(Lodge-Miller) was totally innocent, and taking up the fact that she used Mace to fight him off is ridiculous,” said Donna Livingston, supervisor at The Club For Women Only. “We’re just trying to focus around this case, to send the message that this verdict should have been a lot more severe.” Protesters will hold the forum in the Phillips Middle School auditorium from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. June 9. It will be followed by a candlelight march from the school to the site where Lodge-Miller was shot. During the trial, a note sent to Orange County Superior Court Judge Gordon Battle die day before the verdict was reached Hr ’ pr it i nr ? ; h l||iy|| m w -a mmm w * § ■■lliSiil : : 'V\ •• -i * DTH/ELIZABETH MAYBACH Marty Hensley and J.R. Reid stand outside their new acquisition. Players, on East Franklin Street. The two former Tar Heels said they would not make many changes but would consider opening on Wednesday nights. spent less time at work. “It’s time to move on to other business opportunities and another lifestyle. Things just change,” he said. “I got married two years ago, and the life of coming home from work at 4 a.m. is not conducive to a marriage.” McConnick said he and his brother had considered selling Players when he got married. “My two partners, from the be ginning, wanted to get out, but I thought the offers we received were too low,” he He who runs away can run away another day. Maverick Chapel Hill, North Caroliaa THURSDAY, JUNE 2,1994 discussed during the 30-minute meeting, most of which was taken up with the mer chants’ concerns. The duration of the project was a prob lem with most of the business owners. The project’s landscape superintendent, Curtis Brooks, said Sunday that the pilot plan running severalhundred feet along Franklin Street was due to be completed by the end of the summer. Grimball, however, said Brooks didn’t tell him the project would take the summer to complete until a week ago. “This is bad,” Brooks said. “It isn’t anything at all what I had anticipated.” Another major deficiency was commu nication of the project to the merchants. Several owners along West Franklin Street even said they didn’t know what Streetscape was. Grimball said this had been a major problem. “They went from talking about taking Over Simpson Verdict “There was a lot of discussion about race before a vote on first-degree murder came out. I’d never considered myself a racist ANONYMOUS JUROR On racial tensions within the jury said that jurors were divided 8 who believed Simpson committed first-degree murder—to 4—who felt Simpson lacked deliberation when he shot Lodge-Miller five times with a .32-caliber handgun. The juror confirmed that the eight who believed Simpson committed first-degree murder were white. The other four were said. “Mark and I bought their share of the business from them a year ago, and Mark became part-owner.” The deal developed after McCormick, who sells real estate in Raleigh, was help ing Hensley find a house to buy and men tioned he was considering selling Players. “Later, I told Marty I wanted to sell, and he mentioned it to J.R., who was looking into a business investment to have while he played basketball for the Spurs,” he said. “The two accepted our offer.” six weeks to taking 14 weeks,” he said. “The money we would be losing would be considerable. My explanation is that we may look obstructionist, but really we are survivalist.” Three months ago, Grimball took a pe tition around tofellowWestF ranklin Street business owners to find out if they had his same concerns. “My impression is that they are all against this,” he said. “Some more than others.” But Brooks said the people at the meet ing only represented those who were against the plan’s inception. “There are definitely people for it, but they didn’t come to this meeting,” he said. One of those business owners is Chanelo’s owner Ray Harvey. Harvey said he thought Streetscape would have a posi tive effect on the area, but acknowledged the difficulties it might cause to businesses. black females. A statement on the note to Battle read: “We have both disagreement on the conclusion... and we have disagree ment on the definition of deliberation. The poll (84) has been unchanged since the overnight recess.” ■ But the white juror recalled more than just deliberation at stake in the decision process. “There was a lot of discussion about (race) before a vote on first-degree murder came out,” she said. “I’d never considered myself a racist,” she elaborated. “Heck, some of my best friends are black, and I’d never encountered being attacked like that. When that happened, I almost became immobile ... frozen within myself.” She said black jurors were contending that black males had a “rage” that caused Please See SIMPSON, Page 7 Harris: Search Committee Full for Now BYTHANASSISCAMBANIS UNIVERSITY EDITOR Despite the resignation of chancellor search committee member James Peacock, the committee makeup will stay just the way it is, according to committee chair man Johnny Harris. Harris, who also is chairman of the Board of Trustees, announced Thursday afternoon shortly before the committee went into executive session to discuss per sonnel matters that he would not add any one to the search committee. “At this point, we’re going to leave (the seat) vacant,” Harris said. Peacock, an anthropology professor whose name was suggested as a possible chancellor candidate, resigned from the committee in late April. Some student lead ers had, at the time, suggested replacing Peacock with a student representative. “I have been contacted by numerous interest groups to replace Jim Peacock on the committee,” Harris said. “I have de cided not to add anyone at this time. And that’s the way it will stand for the present.” Student Body Vice President Donyell Phillips said Tuesday that students still could play a valuable role in the search process. “We did want to add another student,” Phillips said. “(But) I think a coalition of students can sit down and figure out some concrete characteristics they feel would be necessary to have in anew chancellor, but I don’t feel that would require meeting a lot.” The search committee should hold more open meetings in the fall, so students can communicate their desired characteristics, Phillips said. The committee now has 21 members — six representing UNC faculty, seven from the BOT and eight alumni representatives. “If it becomes obvious later that we Rostenkowski Indicted, Loses Influential Post THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON Rep. Dan Rostenkowski’s successor as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee today said broad political corruption charges against his predecessor wouldn’t slow the pace of health care reform. Though “shocked and saddened” by the charges against Rostenkowski, Rep. Sam Gibbons, D-Fla., the new chairman, said he would seek quick committee action on health care legislation the panel had been drafting under the leadership of the Chicago Democrat. “As soon as Congress reconvenes a week from today we will be ready to go to work, ’’ Gibbons said in a telephone interview from France, where he was attending festivities A large part of the design of the project is that it would not take place all at one time. The sidewalks and lighting revisions were, instead, to be completed in small segments along Franklin and Rosemary streets. The entire process was estimated to take several years. The town had proposed trying to obtain funding as the project was carried out. Scott Radway, a member of the plan ning board, said that was a problem. Radway’s biggest concern is that doing the project in pieces without having all fund ing appropriated from the start of construc tion would be the wrong approach. “Working with 75 feet of improvement in front of one building and then 75 feet of improvement in front of another building, in the longer run of making budget deci sions, then it will have problems,” he said. “The town should go ahead and bite the bullet and make a commitment of it. They 1 BTWPAVnTAPOro' "Death Is Forever" lies painted onTEstes Drive in reaction to Anthony Georg Simpson's sentence. After Simpson was sentenced Thursday to life in prison, some residents protested at the site where Kristin Lodge-Miller was killed. Staff Presents Chancellor Criteria BYTHANASSISCAMBANIS UNIVERSITY EDITOR University staff members, who say they have been neglected in the chancel lor search process, presented their crite ria for anew chancellor at a forum Thurs day. Five members of the committee that is seeking a successor for Chancellor Paul Hardin attended the open discussion to receive input and guidelines for the search process. “This was one of the most productive meetings of this type that I’ve been to,” said David Whichard, vice chairman of the search committee. The forum, organized by Michael Brady of the Institute of Government, drew 22 staff members, who voiced con cerns about the chancellor search process and suggested criteria forthe search com mittee. “One of the things I’m concerned about is that the committee will convey to the prospective candidates their views on staff development as opposed to just faculty development,” Brady said. Brady said the search committee should discuss the issue of staff develop ment with all prospective candidates. need more people, I will consider adding another member at that time, ” Harris said. “It’s a decision I have made as chair, and that’s the way it will stand for the present. ” Phillips said she thought the committee had enough members, adding that stu dents had missed the best chance to con tribute during April’s open hearings. “Johnny Harris has somewhat compro mised by having the open meetings that anyone could attend,” Phillips said. “So celebrating the 50th anniversary of the D- Day invasion. Even though the indictment removes Rostenkowski as a key player in the health care debate, Gibbons said, “1 don’t think it has any adverse effect” on President Clinton’s campaign to overhaul the nation’s medical insurance system. Asked today if Rostenkowski’s troubles Editor's Note If you usually pick up your copy of The Daily Tar Heel or other local newspapers along Elliott Road in front of Village Plaza Shopping Center, you may have discovered that the newspaper racks are gone. The shopping center manage News/Features/Am/Spom 9624)245 Business/Advertising 962-1163 C 1994 DTH Publishing Coip. All rights reserved. should get all of the construction cost ap propriated beforehand.” Radway added that business people worried about the success of their stores during the Streetscape construction pro cess had a legitimate concern. Stacy Franklin, manager of Hams Res taurant, said she thought her restaurant wouldn’t have suffered because there was more than one way for customers to get there. “But I’ve heard a couple ofbig objec tions,’’ she added. Prior to Tuesday, Franklin was prepar ing for the project by placing ads in two newspapers telling customers that Hams would still be open. Several of the merchants got up and left before Brooks, who has worked on the project for four years, could complete his mapped explanation of Streetscape. Please See STREETSCAPE, Page 2 Therearenostaffmembers on the search committee. Dean of the School of Medicine and search committee member Stuart Bondurant agreed that no sufficient staff development program was in place. “If it were easy, it would have been done before now,” he said. At the forum, staff representatives asked search committee members how they planned to incorporate the interests of the University’s staff when selecting finalists. “We feel the committee is representa tive of as many constituencies as we could reach,” Whichard said, adding that the search committee had held sev eral open meetings for staff and was willing to take suggestions. Other committee members empha sized support for University staff. “The interests of the SPA employees are the interests of the institution,” Bondurant said. Peter Schledom, a computing con sultant for research services, said the atmosphere and organization of staff was not conducive to productivity and security. Please See STAFF, Page 4 we did make some progress in that area.” The search committee held open hear ings across campus for both staff and stu dents to contribute ideas to the search committee. The student hearings were marked by very low attendance, drawing fewer than 20 students. “Not that many students attended the open meetings, if any,” Phillips said. Please See SEARCH, Page 4 would hurt health reform, White House Communications Director Mark Gearan said on NBC: “Congressman Rostenkowski is entitled to his day in court. What we need to do now is continue the good work he has started.” Gibbons joined other leading House members in lament- Please See ROSTENKOWSKI, Page 2 ment removed those racks, which were on public property, against the wishes of the media who vend there. You can register your complaint or approval with Chris Shaw of Ginn and Cos. at 967-2040.
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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June 2, 1994, edition 1
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