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New hotel to break ground
Ceremony tentatively set for Jan. 11
BY ZACH JEPSEN
STAFF WRITER
Recent efforts to rejuvenate West
Franklin Street have resulted in the
groundbreaking of new complexes
such as Rosemary Village.
Now, after several years of plan
ning and delays, the Franklin Street
Hotel is nearing the time when it
also will touch fresh dirt.
The principal architect on
the hotel, Josh Gurlitz of GGA
Architects, said he hopes the
project, which has been in plan
ning stages since 2001, will break
ground formally next month.
“The date that I’ve proposed is
January 11 at noon,” he said.
But, he added, the date is not set
in stone because other stakeholders
needed to be consulted before pro
claiming a groundbreaking date.
Child abuse center
to receive funding
Program to be extended nationwide
BY ARLEY WOLBER
STAFF WRITER
A Chapel Hill social service
agency is using a grant to estab
lish a national center to provide
help with training in child abuse
prevention programs across the
country.
Chapel Hill Training-Outreach
Project Inc. received a federal
grant from the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services that
will be issued each year for the next
five years.
CHTOP will use the grant
to establish and maintain the
FRIENDS National Resource
Center for Community-Based
Child Abuse Prevention.
The center will provide training
and technical assistance to state
agencies that work to fight against
child abuse.
Mike Mathers, executive direc
tor of CHTOP, said the organiza
tion is mainly concerned with early
childhood education and children’s
issues.
He said that while many of the
employees will be scattered across
the country, he is pleased that
the organization will be based in
Chapel Hill.
“Chapel Hill is always such a
great place for a program such as
this,” Mathers said, referring to the
town’s educational resources.
Linda Baker, director of
FRIENDS which stands for
Family Resource Information,
Education and Network
Development Services said the
transition into the new resource
center would be easy.
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The hotel, which will be located
at the site of the old Greyhound bus
station on West Franklin Street, is
planned to be two stories high on
the street front and five stories high
further back from the street. It will
contain 66 boutique-style rooms.
“There are certain things that
have to happen to a site like this
before you can begin construction,”
Gurlitz said.
Parts of the previous building
had to be recycled and asbestos
removed, he said.
The trees and bushes near the
site’s walls must be cleared away
before the site can be excavated for
construction, Gurlitz said. The site
had been secured, and demolition
was set to begin Thesday, he added.
After it is constructed, the hotel
will help invigorate West Franklin
“We already have the infrastruc
ture in place,” she said.
But Baker said it might be dif
ficult making the transition with all
the partner institutes.
FRIENDS is a partnership of
six organizations: CHTOP, the
School of Social Work at UNC,
the Child Welfare League of
America, the National Alliance
of Children’s Trust Fund, Prevent
Child Abuse America and Circle
of Parents.
Cynthia Savage, project man
ager of Circle of Parents, said the
organization is in the process of
developing a training curricu
lum of planned activities with
FRIENDS.
Baker said that although
FRIENDS would not focus on
working with community-based
programs around the state, com
munity programs could contact
FRIENDS for information through
the state’s lead agency.
Bernadine Walden, who works
with the North Carolina Division
of Social Services, will submit these
requests to FRIENDS.
FRIENDS moved to CHTOP on
Oct. 1.
The organization had previously
operated through Family Support
America.
Mathers said more information
is available at the CHTOP Web site
at http://www.chtop.org.
Information about FRIENDS
can be found at http://www.friend
snrc.org.
Contact the City Editor
at citydesk@unc.edu.
Street by providing visitors with a
place to stay in the downtown area,
he said.
“It’s a small upscale hotel, and
the focus is on personal service,” he
said. “(The prices) will be competi
tive with the Carolina Inn and the
Siena (Hotel).”
Gurlitz said the hotel will only
serve breakfast in order to promote
local restaurants. “The people stay
ing in the hotel will have a wonder
ful assortment of dinner places.”
The hotel has received positive
reception from Franklin Street busi
nesses, he said. “I’m really pleased
that it’s starting right now.”
University Florist owner Charles
House said he is glad to hear the
project is almost under way.
“This has been on the burner for
a long period of time,” he said.
House said he sees West Franklin
Street as a work in progress.
“It’s not a question of revitaliz
Palestinians ordered
to tone down media
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
JERUSALEM lnterim
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas
ordered a halt to anti-Israel incite
ment in government-controlled
media, officials said Tuesday, meet
ing a key Israeli demand and add
ing to the new signs of goodwill
that have emerged since the death
of Yasser Arafat.
Israel has long complained
of incitement in the Palestinian
media, citing fiery anti-Israel
broadcasts by Muslim preachers
and programs praising the kill
ing of Jews. It blamed Arafat, who
died Nov. 11, for the objectionable
content.
Radwan Abu Ayyash, head
of Palestinian radio and televi
sion, said he instructed all of his
department heads, at the request
of Abbas, not to broadcast offensive
material.
“Abu Mazen asked us to be sure
that the material we broadcast does
not contain any material that could
ir
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News
ing,” he said. “Downtown is always
in a state of work and change.”
But House added that the hotel
still will help spur new growth.
Chris Ehrenfeld, co-owner of
Build Ex Inc., the company con
structing Rosemary Village, a
mixed-use complex with luxury
condominiums on West Rosemary
Street, said he is looking forward
to the addition of the hotel to the
western part of downtown.
He said the hotel will bring an
influx of people for businesses.
“There’s other projects in the
works coming to that area,” he said,
adding that those also will attract
future developments.
Gurlitz said it will take about 10
months to construct the hotel. But,
he said, “That depends on what this
winter is like.”
Contact the City Editor
at citydesk@unc.edu.
be considered incitement,” he said,
referring to Abbas by his nickname.
Officials said the new instructions
were given last week.
Israeli officials welcomed the
development but said they were
waiting to see actual changes in
the Palestinian media.
“If we see a reduction in incite
ment, this will indeed be a positive
signal,” Israeli Foreign Ministry
spokesman Mark Regev said.
Late Tuesday, gunmen in a taxi
shot and killed Nasser Badawi, 37, a
Fatah political leader in the Balata
refugee camp next to the West Bank
city of Nablus, Palestinian security
officials said. It was not known who
the gunmen were. Israel said it had
no troops in the area.
Fatah is Abbas’ party.
Announcements over camp
loudspeakers blamed collabora
tors with Israel, but some resi
dents said the shooting could
have resulted from an internal
Palestinian conflict.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2004
Gell speaks on
prison struggles
BY JAMES EDWARD DILLARD
STAFF WRITER
Alan Gell was supposed to be
dead long before he spoke to an
attentive crowd Tuesday night on
campus.
His manner was relaxed he
didn’t poke at his wire-rimmed
glasses or pull at his red embroi
dered tie.
Calmly, in his deep Southern
voice, he explained to his audi
ence the tragic history of his trip
to death row and back.
Almost 10 years ago in April
1995 Gell was arrested for a
murder he didn’t commit.
Gell already was in prison for
stealing a car he says he never
stole when the N.C. State Bureau of
Investigation showed up at his cell
to question him about his girlfriend
and a friend in connection with the
murder of Allen Ray Jenkins.
But four days later, Gell said the
SBI returned, this time for him.
“(They told me,) We know you did
it because (your friends) told us
you did it.’”
The police gave him witness
statements to read and asked him
to prepare his own.
He spent two years and 10
months in solitary confinement
waiting for a trial.
“I can’t tell /all how hard it is to
be bounced from lawyer to lawyer
to lawyer,” he said.
He said he remembers particu
larly bad lawyers —one who hand
ed him a Bible and told him that
his best legal defense was to find
Jesus and ask for forgiveness.
Ironically, after all the failures
of the justice system that brought
him to the feet of death, he said it
was another failure that ultimately
saved his life.
Mary Pollard, a corporate law
yer with no trial experience, was
assigned to his case.
But whefe others had failed him,
Pollard succeeded.
“Mary was the greatest lawyer I
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“We make mistakes
and learn from
them. Not in North
Carolina.”
ALAN GELL,
FORMER DEATH ROW INMATE
could have,” Gell said, adding that
she was the first to show the deter
mination a capital case is due.
Pollard discovered lawyer and
police misconduct, including evi
dence withheld that clearly indi
cated Gell’s innocence and began
the tiresome road to freedom.
Gell said he expected an over
haul of the system to prevent simi
lar situations, but it didn’t happen.
“We make mistakes and learn from
them. Not in North Carolina.”
Speaking before Gell, Chapel
Hill Town Council member Mark
Kleinschmidt, an attorney for the
Center for Death Penalty Litigation,
said Gell’s case is an example of the
problems that plague the system.
Kleinschmidt said problems
range from race discrimination to
lawyer misconduct and even a bias
in the jury selection process.
John Steen, a UNC senior who
came to hear Gell speak, said he
found inspiration in Gell’s struggle.
“Gell’s frustration of the system
is something we should mirror in
a positive movement for change,”
Steen said.
Still, Gell is affected most, especial
ly when he thinks of the approaching
execution of Charles Walker, whom
he knew personally from his time on
death row, and whose case he said
mirrors his.
“If they execute him, that will
probably be the first innocent person
North Carolina executed that I know
of" he said.
Contact the State & National
Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
9