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VOLUME 114, ISSUE 16 Hospital OKs $17.8 million for center INCREASED CONSTRUCTION COSTS PUSH PROJECT TO S2OO MILLION BY BOBBY MARSHALL STAFF WRITER Medical bills are not the only thing expensive about hospitals. UNC Health Care’s board of direc tors recently approved the allocation of $17.8 million to cover cost overrun in the construction of the N.C. Cancer Hospital an endeavor bearing a ONLINE POLLS: Looking for a reason Will March Madness fervor be the same on campus now that the men have lost? Go to: www.dailytarheel.com Looking for a reason Should Mohammed Taheri-azar be considered a terrorist? yes 76% yno 24% v 1,328 votes 414 votes This poll is not scientific and reflects the opinions of only those who have chosen to participate. The results do not represent the opinions of Internet users in general, nor the public as a whole. Town to span U.S. for manager Will advertise in papers nationwide BY TED STRONG SENIOR WRITER Not every organization has the moxie to advertise for anew employee in the executive classified section of the Sunday New York Times. - But the town of Chapel Hill sure does. Tim Dempsey, one of the consul tants helping the Town Council’s man ager search committee and a member of the Chapel Hill planning board, said at a Wednesday meeting of the group that a national push would have a simple aim. Town Manager Cal Horton is retir ing after 16 years in the position, effec tive Sept. 1. “The more you advertise, the more applications you will get,” Dempsey said, adding that the number of appli cations could spike dramatically. The search committee also decided Wednesday to advertise in a number of local, professional and minority papers, at local graduate schools and on several Web sites. The committee considered but SEE SEARCH, PAGE 4 Comedy festival here all weekend BY MARGARET HAIR SENIOR WRITER Whatever makes you laugh —a stand-up comic’s caustic wit, a novelist’s wry humor, an improviser’s uncontainable energy the organizers of the Carolina Comedy Festival do their best to provide it. Now in its second year, the festival, sponsored by the Carolina Union Activities Board, started Tuesday and runs through Saturday. In addition to the return of bloggin' | daijytarheel.cora ARTS DESK Reactions to the new DTH crossword service, which some find easier OPINION DESK More discussion of the process used in editing letters to the editor UNIVERSITY DESK Transcripts of the executive branch nomination hearings Serving the students and the University community since 1893 ahe lathi 3ar Heel price tag that has grown to almost S2OO million. The unexpected price inflation is linked to the urgent demand for resources needed to rebuild the Gulf Coast, coupled with China’s newly acquired stronghold on much of the world’s steel, said Bill Roper, CEO of the UNC Health Care System. rig ■ 1 The Master Batters play The Flying Goochmen in an intramural softball game on Hooker Fields on Wednesday night. Hooker fields 3 and 4 reopened Monday covered with FieldTXirf, an artificial grass that allows for all-weather play and low mainte Budget discussions surge forward Council listens to myriad .fund needs BY BRIANNA BISHOP CITY EDITOR Chapel Hill Town Council member Bill Thorpe perhaps best summed up the town’s budget pro cess when he addressed a group of public works employees in the audi ence at a Wednesday meeting. “We’re all in this together,” he said. The Town Council held a public forum Wednesday to garner feed back on issues relating to the bud get for fiscal year 2006-07, capital improvement priorities and vari ous grants and proposals. About eight community mem bers commented on what the town’s spending habits for the Lewis Black & Friends as the marquee event, this year the festival has anew eye-catching name on the bill: Author Nick Hornby —of “High Fidelity,” “Fever Pitch” and “About a Boy” fame will speak on campus. Jonathon Benson, CUAB president and festival orga nizer, said he wanted to bring a fiction author to provide another point of entry into the festival for students who might not be stand-up or improvised comedy fans. city | page 4 WHERE THE HEART IS Homelessness-focused group discusses public forums and preliminary data on the area's homeless, some of whom attended the meeting.^ | www.dailytarheei.com | The $17.8 million came from the hospital reserve, which is a pool of UNC Hospitals’ annual earnings after expenses have been subtracted. “What we’ve done is increased the budget,” said Karen McCall, vice presi dent of public affairs for the medical center. The hospital, which broke ground in September, is one of many cam pus construction projects either in progress or on queue that are feeling the heat from growing construction costs. BACK INACTION coming year should be. Requests ranged from binding for increased HAZMAT training for law enforcement officials and firefighters to money to create a position for a nonprofit manager. Town finance director Kay Johnson and deputy town manager Flo Miller reiterated that at this point, all proposals are preliminary the manager’s recommended budget will be presented April 24. The next budget work session is slated for April 5, and an agenda has not been set for that meeting. The budget will take effect July 1. Contact the City Editor at dtydesk@unc.edu. “A lot of people still read fic tion novels, and he’s arguably one of the better, well-known fiction writers out there,” Benson said. Black, who graduated from UNC in 1970, was more blunt in expressing his excitement for Hornby’s participation. “If people don’t come out to see him, they’re ... idiots,” he said. “You know, I’m excited he’s coming.” SEE COMEDY, PAGE 4 dive I pages 7-11 THE BIG QUIZ The Beatles, Simpsons and Meg Ryan converge in this annual sampling of pop culture trivia. Try your hand at the Trivia! Pursuit-style game. Both materials and labor have sky rocketed in price, said Bruce Runberg, assistant vice chancellor for facilities construction and planning. “Our projects in general on campus at the University... have had significant inflationary issues,” he said. The rising cost of labor is also a problem, McCall said. “This is a sup ply and demand thing.” Growing labor costs are a product of the construction marketplace, which is in the midst of a growing glut of proj ects, Runberg said. nance costs, after a semester off. The fields, which host intramural and club sports Sunday through Thursday from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m., lie along South Road across from the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery. The artificial turf on Hooker fields 1 and 2 will be replaced later this year. PRELIMINARY BUDGET Town staff is considering several key national and local issues in drafting a 2006-07 budget, including an anticipated slowing of the economy, increased fuel costs and the downtown redevelopment initiative. The budget’s estimated base expenditure is $46 million for the general fund, and base revenues are estimated at $47.3 million. A shortfall of about $122,000 is projected between total costs and total available revenues. CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN The 15-year capital improvement program prioritizes capital and maintenance work needed in the town. Early projections estimate a budget of about $1.7 mil lion for improvements. High-priority items included in the budget are repairs to town-owned buildings including Town Hall and the Inter-Faith Council homeless shelter. SEE REQUESTS, PAGE 4 Carolina comedy festival events schedule For more information about the festival events, check out www.unc.edu/cuab. Bryan Tucker Close Up at 4pm, Union 3209 Class with Lewis Black at spm, Union Auditorium Nick Hornby at 7pm, Great Hall Carolina Comedy Club 9pm, Cabaret SATURDAY, MARCH 25 "The Daily Show" Close-up at Ipm, Class of 2000 Lounge TODAY Student Comedy Showdown at 7pm, Cabaret FRIDAY, MARCH 24 Nick Hornby Workshop at Ipm, Class of 2000 Lounge Improv / Performance Workshop at 2pm, Union 3209 Women in Comedy Close-up panel at 3pm, Union 25188 SJKirtS | page 15 MARCH SWEEPS The Tar Heel baseball team sweeps Towson, finishing the Tigers off 11 -3 Wednesday. Josh Horton matched a career high with four hits. THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 2006 Contractors have more flexibility and freedom as projects are arising rapidly. This produces less competi tion per project, allowing contractors to require higher fees, Runberg said. “We’re lucky if we get three bids per project, whereas we were getting eight to 10 bids a few years ago.” Building materials, such as steel, concrete, glass and lumber, are a few of the products that have shot up in price recently, McCall said. SEE OVERRUNS, PAGE 5 Group starts fee talk revisal Trustees predict smoother format BY NATE HUBBARD STAFF WRITER The Board of Trustees opened the book on revising the way the campus develops student fee hikes Wednesday during a meet ing of its audit and finance com mittee. The group discussed an ini tiative designed to give trustees broader oversight throughout the process, which has come under fire from several student leaders OTH/JORDAN HARRELL For Love of the Laugh: NY Comedy Club Scene at 2pm, Class of 2000 Lounge Class with Lewis Black at 3pm, Union Auditorium Stand-up / Performance Panel at 4pm, Union Auditorium Comic Writers' Close-up at spm, Class of 2000 Lounge Lewis Black & Friends at Bpm, Memorial Hall today in history MARCH 23,1983... Only 9 percent of the student body votes on a referendum to raise the student activity fee. The ballots are never counted. 1 UNC health care CEO Bill Roper said other work will not take a hit. in recent years after unpopu lar increases. The trust ees listened to a presenta tion detailing the history and process of establishing fees from John Adams, direc tor of financial planning and budgets and a member of the Trustee Karol Mason backs the proposal to combine tuition, fee processes. fee committee. Trustees are considering mak ing the fee process more similar to the way tuition is handled, which grants them more partici pation. “I think the trustees need to be involved ear lier so there is no misunderstand ing,” said Trustee John Ellison, vice chairman of the finance commit tee. Currently, two trustees sit on the tuition advi sory task force, but fee discus sions, which are addressed by the INSIDE Trustees look at research assistants on campus PAGE 4 INSIDE Trustees do not alter West House stance PAGE 5 chancellor’s committee on stu dent fees, involve no trustees. Trustees do not participate in formal fee debate until it comes before them during one of their bi-monthly meetings. Trustees did not take formal action on the issue Wednesday, but their discussion will spur sev eral proposed changes that will be voted on during the trustees’ May meeting. Two possible amendments to the process were discussed Wednesday. One idea would add at least one trustee to the chancellor’s committee. SEE FEES, PAGE 5 weather Partly Cloudy XvJfc H 60, L3B index police log 2 calendar 2 crossword 13 sports 15 edit 16
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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March 23, 2006, edition 1
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