VOLUME 113, ISSUE 37
Council
picture
remains
unclear
BY ADAM W. RHEW
STAFF WRITER
Less than seven months
from now, Chapel Hill voters
will cast their ballots and deter
mine the town’s leadership.
Though some incumbents
keep saying it is too early to
know whether they will run, a
few fresh faces are already add
ing to the field of candidates.
Rumors are flying on cam
pus about potential student
candidates for seats on the
Town Council. But the UNC
junior who seemed most likely
to take a stab at local politics
bowed out of the race long
before it started.
Former student body pres
ident hopeful Tom Jensen
who expressed interest in
running for council after his
defeat in the campus race
said Wednesday that he will
not seek a seat in November.
“I just can’t make a com
mitment to be in the area until
2010,” he said.
He will, however, be
involved behind the scenes
with one to three campaigns,
he said.
Thursday, Jensen confirmed
rumors that he will be working
on Mark Kleinschmidt’s cam
paign, if the council member
seeks re-election. The junior
said he is not sure which other
efforts he’ll join.
But he’ll have faces new and
old from which to choose.
Town transportation board
member Laurin Easthom con
firmed Thursday that she will
seek a seat on the council. “For
me, yes, it is something I want
to do,” she said.
“I want to make sure Chapel
Hill remains a beautiful and
charming place for citizens
to live,” said Easthom, who
graduated from UNC’s den
tistry school in 1998.
Easthom also is a member
SEE COUNCIL PAGE 7
CHAPEL HILL
LEADERS
UP FOR
RE-ELECTION
Foy
Harrison
Kleinschmidt
Verkerk
Wiggins
Felton, May,
Williams to
reveal plans
Press conference
will be held today
BY DANIEL MALLOY
SPORTS EDITOR
North Carolina’s post-cham
pionship saga of rumors and
innuendos will come to an end
today as Raymond Felton, Marvin
Williams and Sean May announce
their plans to either stay in school
or jump to the NBA.
The three men’s basketball
players will hold a joint press
conference at 1:30 p.m. in the
Smith Center, the Department of
Athletics announced Thursday.
Felton, Williams and May are
the final three question marks for
the Tar Heels, who have lost Jackie
Manuel, Melvin Scott and Jawad
Williams to graduation and junior
Rashad McCants to the NBA.
McCants held a press confer
ence April 13 to announce his
SEE BASKETBALL, PAGE 7
Raymond Felton
■
Marvin Williams
Sean May
INSIDE
EARTH SONG
Local kids leam the value of nature
through hands-on activities PAGE 8
Serving the students and the University comm unity since 1893
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Candates likely to spice up race
ASPIRING ALDERMEN COULD BE A
CHALLENGE TO THE STATUS QUO
BY EREN TATARAGASI
STAFF WRITER
Election Day is 200 days away, and
for the four Carrboro officials whose
terms expire in December, speculation
already has begun.
The race’s makeup won’t be entirely
clear until after the Aug. 5 filing dead
line, but it’s clear that candidates will
come from a variety of backgrounds
—and that some of those hopefuls will
look to challenge the status quo.
The Nov. 8 election will include the
seats now held by Mayor Pro Tern Diana
McDuffee, aldermen Jacquelyn Gist and
John Herrera, and Mayor Mike Nelson.
Among the possible candidates are a
UNC alumnus who got his start in local
politics as an undergraduate, as well as a
slate of fresh —and unhappy faces.
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am 111
DTH/GILUAN BOLSOVER
Town and county leaders, representing civic as well as citizen-led organizations, meet for AM radio station WCHL's third annual public forum Thursday
afternoon. The 10-hour forum began with a discussion about town-gown relations, during which University leaders and town officials had heated debate.
BY CHRIS CARMICHAEL
STAFF WRITER
For Orange County political junkies,
Thursday was a smorgasbord.
During this year’s WCHL-AM 1360
Chapel Hill-Carrboro-Orange County
Forum, entitled “Building Bridges,”
town and county leaders ran the gamut,
discussing a wide variety of area issues
overturning some stones while leav
ing others untouched.
The 10-hour forum kicked off
Wednesday with a discussion of town
gown relations, a topic that generated
heated discussion last year and provided
much headline fodder.
During this year’s forum, town and
University leaders seemed committed to
quelling the perception of strained rela
tions between city and UNC officials.
BOG agrees to open search for president
BOG Chairman
Brad Wilson
said any finalist
must accept
public scrutiny.
■9
| www.dttioxiKine.coni |
200 DAYS UNTIL
MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS
MAKING WAVES
ON THE AIRWAVES
Board approves 13-member panel
BY ERIC JOHNSON
ASSISTANT STATE & NATIONAL EDITOR
BOONE The task of selecting
the next UNC-system president
officially got under way Thursday,
and university officials promised
to make the process more open
than it has been in the past.
The system’s Board of Governors
approved the 13-member search
committee that will choose a suc
INSIDE
VALUE FOR NONPROFITS
Aid groups get major benefits
from their volunteer corps PAGE 2
Alderman Mark Chilton, whose seat
expires in 2007, said Thursday that
although he is still undecided, he is
considering a run for mayor.
“It’s a job that demands a lot of one’s
time,” said Chilton, who won a seat on
the Chapel Hill Town Council while
still enrolled at UNC. “I want to see
how the feel of the race and other can
didates is going to shape up.”
Chilton said he’ll know his intentions
for sure once he examines the position’s
demands and speaks with his family.
An aldermen whose term is not yet
up is still allowed to run for mayor,
according to Board of Elections
Director Carolyn Thomas.
Candidates also could come from out
side the town’s existing ranks. Residents
angry with their recent annexation into
“I think town-gown relations are
much better than they are often por
trayed,” UNC Board of Trustees mem
ber Roger Perry said.
Perry, also a member of the
Downtown Economic Development
Corporation, said there is little basis for
the community’s apparent suspicion of
all University motives.
Both sides cited ongoing talks about
changes to the Office/Institutional-4
zoning district as evidence that either
party is willing to compromise.
The changes, which both sides will dis
cuss further next month, would give the
town more review power over University
development applications, mandating a
120-day review period. The town now
only has 90 days to review applications.
“I think 01-4 represents a three-quar-
cessor to President Molly Broad,
who announced earlier this month
that she will step down within the
next year.
All 13 are members of the Board
of Governors, including the stu
dent representative, Association
of Student Governments President
Amanda Devore.
In a break with established
policy, the board also enacted a
CARRBORO LEADERS UP FOR RE-ELECTION
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Gist Herrera McDuffee Nelson
the town are looking for candidates.
Randolph Ryan, a member of a
recently annexed subdivision, said he
and others on an action committee are
interviewing possible candidates.
“Our plan is to back, financially and
politically, a slate of candidates that
would remove the incumbents and any
other new candidates taking the same
stance as the aldermen on unchecked
expansion,” he said.
ters-full glass that works,” Chapel Hill
Town Council member Bill Strom said.
But the pace and intensity of the
University’s planning efforts for its pro
posed satellite campus, Carolina North,
continuetobea source of tension between
the town and gown, Strom said.
“Trust gets questioned when a plan
that’s developed on the campus gets
promoted in a way that says, ‘This is the
only option,’” Strom said. “We have to
have an intellectually robust conversa
tion about what the options are without
the threat of the legislative end shaking
the foundation all the time.”
Strom criticized the University’s plan
ning process as not living up to what
Chancellor James Moeser referred to as
SEE WCHL, PAGE 7
resolution that calls for publicly
identifying contenders for the job
before a final decision is reached.
Under the new guidelines, the
committee will announce the
names of “one or more finalists”
before submitting its official nomi
nation to the full board.
BOG Chairman Brad Wilson,
who put forth the resolution, told
the board that a public disclosure
of potential candidates was the
right thing to do. He also noted
that public scrutiny is an inevi
SPORTS
MAKING A RACKET
Tennis team rebounds from poor
showings to beat NCSU PAGE 11
FRIDAY, APRIL 22, 2005
Ryan also hopes to involve UNC
and its students in this year’s race.
“The University is an important seg
ment we want to appeal to,” he said.
Students have not shown excitement
about local elections in the past. In the
2003 Chapel Hill elections, only 10 per
cent of registered 18- to 22-year-olds
voted —and because more students live
SEE ALDERMEN, PAGE 7
“Trust gets
questioned
when a plan
that’s developed
on the campus
gets promoted
in a way that
says, This is
the only
option!”
BILL STROM, council member
table part of the job.
“The president of the University
of North Carolina lives in a public
world in all matters and all things,”
he said. “Someone who is coming
into that position might as well get
used to it.”
A number of board members
raised concerns that announcing
a list of finalists might discour
age some candidates from apply
ing. Applicants not selected for
SEE BOG, PAGE 7
WEATHER
TODAY Scattered T-storms, H 79, L 60
SATURDAY T-storms, H 70, L 41
SUNDAY Partly cloudy, H 57, L 39
Mm