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4 Monday, April 3, 2000 Transit Assistant Steps Up, Plunges Into Director Job By Tricia Barrios Staff Writer The new interim transportation direc tor for Chapel Hill says he is already tackling his new duties, even though he has not yet officially taken over. Scott McClellan, the administrative analyst for the Department of Transportation since December 1986, was named interim director March 24 after Transportation Director Bob Godding last month announced plans to retire. Town Manager Cal Horton said McClellan was the best choice for the interim position. “Based on my personal knowledge of him, I think he’s well-qualified to serve as the interim director,” he said. “He’s the senior management posi tion after Bob.” Before joining the Chapel Hill Transportation Department, McClellan spent almost nine years working in the Rail and Public Transportation Division at the Virginia Department of Transportation. During his time with the Chapel Hill Do you HIKE, RAFT, v cl dTe TRAVEL? The University of North Carolina School of Medicine and Carolina Wilderness Medicine are proud to announce the second WILDERNESS MEDICINE SEMINAR! Select topics by national level educators will include: Foreign Travel, Water Rescue, Wilderness Improvisation, Snakebites and Arthropod Stings, Group Travel, high Altitude Medicine (and Everest '96), Water Rescue, And Many More... April 29th and 30th Friday Center and Carolina Adventures Outdoor Education Center Students just $25, Others still only S6O If you enjoy outdoor recreation this is a must! Limited to the first 200. spots are going fast. For all the details (including how to reserve your spot) go to www.med.unc.edu/wildmed/conf2ooo. Morgan Writer-in-Residence Russell Banks Author of Continental Drift, Affliction, The Book of Jamaica, The Sweet Hereafter, and Cloudsplitter Two-Time Pulitzer Prize nominee Winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship, O. Henry and Best American Short Story Award, UNC-Chapel Hill Class of 1967 Public Reading Tuesday, April 4, 7:30 p.m., Memorial Hall University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Like our living literary giants such as Toni Morrison and Thomas Pynchon, Russell Banks is one of our greatest writers wrestling with the hidden secrets and explosive realities of this country. ” Cornel West Transportation Department, he was involved in the daily management of the town’s transit system, which serves 3 million annual passengers. McClellan said that although the pro motion did not officially take effect until Friday, he was already plunging into his workload. “Some of the work is coming my way,” he said. “But I’ve been here 13 years, so I’m pretty plugged into our department. 1 know how it works. So the transition hasn’t been that hard.” McClellan said he was expecting to tackle budget issues in his new interim position. He said planning for transit services was another major issue he planned to undertake. Horton said the permanent director’s position was open for application now. He said the position would be filled within the next two to three months. He said the prospective director would have to meet a list of require ments, the primary one being at least eight years of experience in transit oper ations, personnel supervision and man v-.," iSiplfiiißß • ntrftlT .. . |f|| | tyjz jr> ||p|| #■- y : <v r - l|||||w' . r - Cyyt* *, m • ' ' : Hgi?' agement. “To put it in a nutshell, experience in a manager’s operation similar to ours (is necessary ),” he said. Besides this qualification, applicants must also have the equivalent of an appropriate bachelor of arts degree and possess the skills to communicate suc cessfully. Depending on qualifications, the starting saiarv ranges from $5.5,016 to $80,294. The new director will manage a department consisting of about 152 employees with a budget of more than $6 million. McClellan said he was undecided about competing for the director’s posi tion. Bill Stockard, assistant to the town manager, said Horton would make the final decision. “It’ll be a thorough review process," he said. “I would estimate it wouldn’t be immediate.” The City Editor can be reached at citydesk@unc.edu. '?e*U6cU*ty /fut6e*ttic... Low-Fat Frozen Yogurt & Much, Much More! Also try our delicious Peanut Butter, Oreo Cookie, Vanilla Bean, Almond Joy and our great fruit flavors. Downtown Chapel Hill 106 W. Franklin St. (Next to He's Not Here) V ,4 2 puvp UOGURT J North Durham y V\ Tj fit JJ Northsate Mall (Next to Carousel) 286-7868 I I • - Put a little A culture ” in your life. HOURS: Mon-Sal 11 am-11:30pm. Sun 12pm-11:30pm News Cost Crux of Contraception Debate Some N.C. legislators fear insurance coverage of birth control will be met with a corresponding rise in rates. By Alicia Gaddy and Jessica Chism Staff Writers While the N.C. legislature has already passed a law requiring insurance companiesto cover contraceptives, the debate rages on in other states. Women's health advocates claimthat covering the male-potency drug Viagra without covering birth control is unfair. But opponents of the measures say requiring insurance companies to cover anything, including birth control, raises premiums. Alaska, Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, Utah and 13 other state legisla tures all considered requiring birth con trol coverage this year. But similar bills have recently been defeated in the Utah legislature. A divided N.C. General Assembly voted last year to require insurance providers to fund birth control. Bill sponsor Rep. Verla lnsko, D-Orange, said the N.C. bill was one of the first in the country and would ease the financial burdens of women’s health care. “It will All events are free and open to the public reduce out-of-pocket costs for women,” she said. “Women pay considerably more than men for health insurance, and a portion of that is contraception.” Insko said mandatory insurance cov erage for Viagra meant birth control should also be insured. “(Birth control not being covered) is a form of discrimination, although not malicious, it was still discriminatory," she said. Insko said Viagra’s success in insurance backing helped pave the way for birth control to become insured. “The coverage of Viagra absolutely made it easier for this bill to pass,” Insko said. “It gave us a solid argument.” But not all legislators thought insur ance coverage should be easily mandat ed. Sen. Virginia Foxx, R-Alleghany, said N.C. insurance costs grew as required coverage extended. She said this could be the case with birth control. “Every time we add requirements to the insurance coverage, we drive up the cost of insurance,” she said. Despite this controversy, insurance agents said much of coverage was in the hands of employers and individual insurance buyers. Commercial Insurance Planning salesman Terry Moore said birth control was usually an option in group health insurance sales. “Most of them either cover them or Chapel Hill's ORIGINAL Irish Pub & Restaurant PBjJrN Sun - Thurs 4pm-2am Fri - Sat 11:30am-2am IWB-YEATS Comejoin us for greatfood & beer specials! ffdtl “Open Mic” Acoustic Night - 9:3opm Tue Pub Quiz - Win Dinner for Two and pub paraphernalia W' B- YEATS COLLEGE NIGHT • LIVE Dj • BEER SPECIALS Chapel Hill’s ThlM* LIVE MUSIC • IMPORT SPECIALS home to watch all ~ rugby and soccer DRINK I.^VI_S matches. Whiskey Specials • English Premier League All Day Live Irish Music - 9pm, NO COVER CHARGE Located behind Wicked Burrito 306-G West Franklin Street 960-8335 Sunday, April 2 Screenings of Affliction, (Academy Award Winner for Best Supporting Actor James Cobum), at 7 p.m. and The Sweet Hereafter (1997 Cannes Film Festival Winner), at 9:30 p.m., Carolina Union Theatre, Frank Porter Graham Student Union Monday, April 3 Discussion of fiction with Russell Banks and UNC-CH faculty panel Dey Hall, Toy Lounge, 3:30 p.m. and Screenings of The Sweet Hereafter at 7 p.m. and Affliction at 9:30 p.m., Carolina Union Theatre. Thursday, April 6 Discussion of screenwriting and adapting novels to film with Russell Banks and UNC-CH faculty panel at 2 p.m., Kresge Commons Room (downstairs), James M. Johnston Center for Undergraduate Excellence, Graham Memorial Morgan Writer-in-Residence sponsored by the Department of English and made possible by a gift from UNC-CH alumni Allen and Musette Morgan of Memphis. For more information, call 919-962-4283, or www.unc.edu/ depts/english/news.html. tEljp Satly (Ear Hwl have it as an option,” he said. Moore said that if the state legislature mandated insurance coverage of birth control, companies would raise their rates to compensate. “Any time the legislature tells a com pany what it has to cover, that’s just going to pass the cost on to you and I.” Republican Bryan Holladay, a mem ber of the Utah House of Representatives, said Utah legislators opposed contraceptive insurance on both moral and practical grounds. “We had a bill that proposed having insurance cover birth control, but it never got very far,” Holladay said. He said many voters in the predomi nantly Mormon state had religious prob lems with birth control and would not back the bill. “Utah is a relatively conservative state, and I don’t think this bill will ever get very far,” Holladay said. He said Utah legislators often did not like to require insurance companies to cover specific drugs. “Birth control does interfere with reli gious beliefs, but the main problems are with the mandate,” Holladay said. “Even if mandates save money for peo ple in the long run, they are never very popular.” The State & National Editor can be reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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April 3, 2000, edition 1
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