10
Thursday, June 15, 2000
Brian Frederick
EDITOR
Jonathan Chaney
MANAGING EDITOR
Board Editorials
Taking Out the Trash
The Chapel Hill Town Council made a logical decision by switching
from backyard garbage collection to curbside pickup.
After years of debate, the Chapel Hill
Town Council finally made the right decision
and kicked backyard garbage service to the
curb.
In an extremely close decision last week,
the council voted 5-4 to switch from twice-a
week backyard garbage pickup to once-a
week curbside garbage service.
It’s a wise move. Under the current sys
tem, trash collectors log up to 20 miles a day
walking to the backyards of homes on their
route and end up hauling roughly six tons of
trash a day.
However, money seemed to be the final
incentive for switching services.
In the first year of curbside service, the
town is projected to save $50,000. Over a six
year period, the savings are expected to top
$400,000. The new system will be more effi
cient, requiring fewer garbage collectors.
At a time when Chapel Hill’s budget must
be tightened, conservative fiscal policies
should be looked toward and encouraged.
The simple truth is that Chapel Hill has
gotten too large for a luxury service such as
backyard trash pickup.
With over 90,000 homes in the town, it’s
very time-consuming and expensive for
garbage collectors to trudge behind every
home and haul the bags of garbage to the
front all in the name of “small town charm.”
Chapel Hill’s growth has been exploding
and some small town amenities have to be
cut. The time to switch to a more efficient
and cheaper method of trash disposal is long
overdue and curbside service fits the bill.
The five members of the Town Council
who voted in favor of switching garbage ser-
Cost of Convenience
The General Assembly is inching closer and closer to making toll
roads a reality in North Carolina. Unfortunately, it's necessary.
North Carolina’s free ride might be over.
The General Assembly is considering, and
is expected to pass, legislation that would
authorize six new toll roads to be built in the
state. They would be the first toll roads in
North Carolina.
But in a state where traffic has become
increasingly problematic, it makes sense to
look at other effective means of reducing
congestion on North Carolina’s highways.
And building toll roads is a logical solution.
Currently, North Carolina is only one out
of 15 states without toll roads. Most of those
who do not have them are less populous
states like Montana and the Dakotas. On the
east coast, North Carolina is the only toll-free
state between New York and Florida.
It was nice while it lasted, but North
Carolina has experienced such growth that
the state’s highway system has not been able
to catch up. The Triangle area and Charlotte
are particularly affected by booming popu
lation growth and clogged highways.
As urban areas develop, the need for larg
er and faster roadways increases. Tack on the
costs of maintaining the roads already in
place, and the expenses spiral up.
The gasoline tax, which is around 22 cents
a gallon, is in place to help pay for addition
al road construction. But it has not been able
to help the state keep up with the increasing
demand for more efficient roadways.
It’s a tight budget year for the General
Assembly. So, there are no overflowing cof
fers to pull a little cash out of and place in
transportation construction.
And it’s an election year, so there’s no way
in hell that lawmakers are going to suggest
raising taxes to pay for the spiraling costs of
building new, faster road networks.
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vices made the smart choice.
Opponents of curbside pickup worried
that the streets of Chapel Hill would be lined
with strewn garbage from curbside bags. But
that’s why roll-out carts are the best option to
collect the trash.
Enclosed in the carts, trash cannot be
blown into the street. Plus, it makes it easier
to collect.
As Chapel Hill’s Public Works Director
Bruce Heflin said, “Containers and loose
bags are more likely to be ripped open or
blown over. Traditionally, we have tried to
clean up messes left by residents, but this
doesn’t happen with roll-out carts.”
Another concern about curbside pickup
dealt with disabled residents and the elderly,
who might not be able to push a cart to the
end of their driveway. But the new policy
covers that potential problem.
Exemptions are available to disabled res
idents and residents over the age of 70. Also,
it provides alternative options for residents
whose geography limits truck accessibility
and areas where there is no viable space to
place the cart. Everyone is covered.
The outgoing policy was a small town fea
ture unique to Chapel Hill. We were the only
town in Orange County with backyard or
sideyard garbage collection. But it becomes
increasingly difficult to retain a small town’s
flavor in the face of massive growth.
There comes a point when clinging to an
outdated policy becomes too expensive.
Such a thing happened with backyard
garbage collection.
In the end, Chapel Hill made the right
choice by trashing it.
But lawmakers have learned that tolls are
actually more preferable than tax hikes.
In Miami-Dade County in Florida, voters
recently overwhelmingly voted 2-to-l against
a one-cent sales tax that would replace the
toll on four highways in the county.
Tolls are better than taxes because only
users pay for the service. Whereas taxes are
applied uniformly across the board, tolls pay
for their own construction and upkeep
through those that take advantage of the con
venience it offers. And anything extra helps
out the entire road network of North
Carolina.
There are some concerns about toll roads.
Some argue that tolls will create a two-tier
driving system. Those who can afford the toll
will have a faster commute. Those that can’t
will still be stuck in traffic on the “free roads.”
What’s not taken into account is the num
bers that would take advantage of toll roads.
If enough people use the tolls, it lessens the
congestion on the other roads. Besides, those
who are willing to pay a little bit more on
tolls should be allowed to reap its rewards.
Another concern is that toll booths create
their own traffic jams, as commuters have to
stop to round up the spare change needed.
But technology has solved that problem.
Many toll booths now use electronic tech
nology which scans a tag on the driver’s
windshield or bumper and then charges the
toll to their credit card. With the new tech
nology, drivers do not even have to slow
down to pay.
Times have changed. The number of dri
vers will keep rising and North Carolina’s
growth explosion necessitates more innova
tive ideas for financing road construction.
And toll roads are right on the money.
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Jeff MacHdlv
(1947-2000) and
Americans Often Forget Flag Day
So, did you have a good Flag Day?
What, you didn’t know yesterday was
Flag Day!?
That’s right! Sandwiched between two of
the most patriotic holidays of the year,
Memorial Day and July 4th, Flag Day has
come and gone, once again.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United
States ofAmerica, and to the Republic for which it
stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with lib
erty and justice for all.
Poor Flag Day doesn’t get too much atten
tion. It’s probably plainly marked on your cal
endar or day-planner, but there isn’t a special
rack of cards at your local stationery shop.
Betsy Ross? Poor thing; forgotten amidst
the May parades and July cookouts. You see,
Flag Day is just a day of observance, not an
actual or official holiday.
Following the signing of the Declaration of
Independence in 1776, the U.S. Continental
Congress adopted the stars and stripes pattern
for the national flag on June 14, 1777.
One hundred years later, people celebrated
the flag’s centennial and started to take up the
star spangled banner’s cause by calling for a
national holiday. In 1949, President Harry
Truman made it law; Flag Day, June 14th, is
the day of national observance for the red,
white and blue. But only Pennsylvania offi
cially marks the date as a holiday.
For most of us, the 13 horizontal alternating
red and white stripes, each representing one
of the 13 original colonies of England, and a
blue field of 50 white stars for each of the 50
states of the Union, “Old Glory” was hoisted
on Flag Day 2000 as just another “hump day”
like all the other Wednesdays in the year.
Not so for the fine folks of Argentina,
Canada, Finland, Haiti, Panama and
Paraguay, whose citizens all celebrate their
Reflecting on Two Fulfilling Lives
My fingertips are blackened.
I have spent the last week flipping
through old bound volumes of Tlie
Daily Tar Heel.
And though I can now successfully navi
gate my way through the stacked skeletons
that makeup The DTH graveyard, I fear that
my obituary may read “Student Journalist
Dies of Lead Poisoning.”
I’ve been thinking about obituaries a lot
lately. I had to write two for this issue. One
for Jeff Mac Nelly, the editorial cartoonist, and
the other for Kevin Clyde, owner of
Henderson Street Bar and Grill.
Both died just after we put out our last issue
and I have spent the last week observing how
other papers have covered both deaths.
The lead of one article on Clyde men
tioned that his body was discovered on
Friday, when in fact it was Wednesday and
the paper came out on Thursday. In the lead.
Another article quoted a worker at a near
by restaurant who said Clyde was “really
quiet” though the article had previously said
how outgoing he was.
Meanwhile, in its rush to cover Mac Nelly’s
death, one newspaper had two articles, one
said he died at 52, the other, 53.
Granted, these newspapers had to cover
the deaths for the next day’s issues. But I have
begun to realize that as journalists, we are
often responsible for how the general public
remembers someone.
Friends and family will always have their
own memories. But the rest of the community
and/or country may remember people by
how much and what kind of press they
receive after they die.
Mike Ogle
SPORTS EDITOR
Caroline Hupfer
DESIGN EDITOR
DANA ROSENGARD
TV GUY
own Flag Day on days significant, of course,
to their history.
Back here in America, the flag was, by
Congressional Code, supposed to fly this
Wednesday, one of only 16 specific days so
designated. That code also stipulates flag eti
quette. The U.S. flag should be hoisted briskly
at sunrise, lowered ceremoniously at sunset,
flown in inclement weather only if it is an all
weather flag and flown at night only if it is
properly illuminated.
A company in Roseland, New Jersey, has
been manufacturing U.S. flags longer than
any other American business and still to this
day makes more each year than any other
operation.
Company officials report flag sales are
mosdy to banks and schools, also stating that
only 15 percent of American homeowners
own flags.
But right now, while you’re reading this
column, I want you to hum a little tribute to
01’ Glory. Come on, you know the tune:
You’re a grand old flag,
You ’re a high-flying flag;
And forever in peace may you wave;
You ’re the emblem of the land I love;
The home of the free and the brave.
Every heart beats true, under red, white and blue
BRIAN FREDRICK
EDITOR
When you read the two obituaries that I
wrote, you are reading how I piece together
the lives of Mac Nelly and Clyde. Using the
facts of their lives and deaths, with the words
of friends and family, I am conveying their
lives to you, the reader.
I feel tied to both.
Clyde was also a co-owner of the Dead
Mule Club, a bar, unfortunately for my check
ing account, I spend more time drinking at
than I do bartending there.
And my favorite place to go on Tuesday at
midnight, after I had finished my fifteen hour
day at The DTH, was to “H Street" for a fried
club and several beers.
H Street is now closed.
The Mule is still open, but has served as a
place of consolation since Clyde’s suicide.
I did not know Clyde as well as my friends
did. And when I cried this weekend at his ser
vice, it was for them. I cried for the numerous
employees at H Street that have lost their
livelihoods. I cried because in Clyde’s case,
there are no answers.
As for Mac Nelly’s death, like readers across
the nation, I felt like I knew him simply based
QJlje Satly (Ear HM
Emily Schnure
PHOTO EDITOR
Josh Williams
ONLINE EDITOR
Where there’s never a boast or brag;
But should old acquaintance be forgot,
Keep your eye on the grand old flag.
So why do I know so much or care so
much about Flag Day? Well, because it’s my
birthday! Asa young kid, I thought all those
folks back in Massachusetts were flying the
flag in my honor! Out come the red, white and
blue just a wavin’ and a flappin’ in the breeze
as I walked to school (something I did for 12
years, I might add!). And June 14th is a great
day for a birthday.
Again as a youngster, it typically meant I
had die last birthday party of the school year,
which seemed to always also serve as a bon
voyage to another grade passed. Classmates
were ready to party! We’d play games, inside
and out, drink lots of brightiy colored punch
and sodas and eat candy and cake until we
almost felt sick.
This year’s party held this past Saturday
was a lovely dinner event hosted by a class
mate and his wife, which featured martinis
(vodka and gin), single malt scotches and this
incredible mushroom and onion souffle cre
ation as an appetizer.
I guess the celebration change is because
my classmates are a little older. Okay, I’m a
little older, too. How old you might wonder?
Well, I’ll give you a hint. I was bom the
same year the last star was added to the Stars
and Stripes. And, go figure, Hawaii is the only
state I have not yet been to. Birthday present
suggestion, anyone?
Dana Rosengard is a Ph.D. student in the
School of Journalism and Mass Communication
originally from Haverhill, Massachusetts, with
many stops between there and here. He can be
reached at danar@unc.edu with questions,
comments, concerns or column suggestions.
on his editorial cartoons and “Shoe.”
So you’re seeing it how I see it.
I’ve flipped through the pages of the
archives looking at Mac Nelly’s old drawings
and reading the racially charged stories of a
time when you could get a meal at Lenoir for
50 cents.
I’ve talked to people who knew Mac Nelly
when he was just a kid. I’ve talked to his assis
tant, who was the first to look at everything he
did. And I’ve talked to the man who inspired
a popular cartoon.
I’ve looked through the archives to find the
drawings done by Mac Nelly’s son, Jake, who
died in a rock climbing accident at the age of
24. In Jake, I saw a son who aspired to be a
political cartoonist like his father. And though
he had his own drawing style, he signed his
name just like his dad.
I’m still trying to make sense of it all. I’ve
shortened both stories, wanting Mac Nelly’s
work to speak for itself and hoping the flowers
outside H Street would convey the feelings of
Clyde’s friends.
But beneath it all, I had hidden motivations
for wanting to write (and right) these stories.
I have known everybody at the Mule since
1 got here, and I was just starting to get to
know everyone in the H Street family. All
very wonderful people.
As for Mac Nelly, I had always harbored a
hidden desire that one day, he would illustrate
one of my columns, as he did for Dave Barry.
Kevin, tonight at the Mule, 1 drink to you.
And Jeff, this issue is dedicated to you.
Brian Frederick can be reached at
brifredQyahoo.com.
We
must get
it right.
And not
just fac
tually.