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The Daily Tar HeelTuesday, December 8, 19923 L Laed revaluations mm complaints Dukakis to talk about Clinton health plans Former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis will discuss challenges facing President-elect Bill Clinton's national health-care policy in a lecture spon sored by the UNC health policy depart ment and the administration of the UNC School of Public Health. Dukakis' lecture, "The Clinton Ad ministration and Health-Care Reform: Lessons from the States," will be held at 4 p.m. Wednesday in Rosenau Hall. The speech is free and open to the public. The 1988 Democratic presidential candidate will visit UNC at the invita tion of UNC health policy and adminis tration Professor Kenneth Thorpe. Thorpe was named a member of the core group for Clinton's transition team on health policy last week. The nationally known health econo mist was an health-care policy adviser to Clinton throughout his 1992 presi dential campaign. Dukakis' speech will address the current policy crisis based on the former governor's experience establishing one of the first statewide comprehensive health-care packages in the country. Dukakis graduated from S warthmore College and Harvard Law School. He has taught public-policy classes at the University of Hawaii and cur rently teaches at Northeastern Univer sity. Parties to proliferate at the Peach Bowl If a major football bowl game isn't enough entertainment, UNC students making pilgrimages to Atlanta for the Peach Bowl may attend back-to-back parties before the game. All ticket holders may attend the pre game events free of charge. The day will begin with a high school band march through downtown Atlanta from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Fans from both teams are then in vited to attend the World's Largest In door Tailgate Party from 3 p.m. to X The party will be held in the Georgia . World Congress Center, Exhibit Hall D, adjacent to the Georgia Dome. The party will feature food, drinks and fun. Fans can warm up for the game while tailgating at the Peach Bowl Pep Rally from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. The rally will feature school bands and cheerleaders. Croup to work to aid day care in South A group of eight Southeastern state leaders will work to improve state day care regulations in a workshop designed by a UNC health education and behav ior expert. More than 10 million U.S. children younger than 6 receive out-of-home child care. Recent research shows cur rent state day-care regulations are inad equate. Researchers working in a joint project sponsored by the UNC School of Public Health and the University of Alabama at Birmingham and eight leaders from Southeastern states hope to improve regulations according to standards set by American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Public Health Asso ciation. The group will review regulations in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, North and South Carolina and Tennessee and identify areas where regulations do not meet AAP and APHA standards. Regional and state workshops will help to identify problem areas in child care and work to determine how those regions can improve. The project will be funded by a $32,000 grant from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau. The principle investigator for the project is Carol Runyan. Runyan is the director of the Injury Prevention Research Center and is an associate professor of health behavior and health education in the School of Public Health. Library offers winter tales from abroad A chill is in the air and children can celebrate the wintry holiday season at Wilson Library by hearing festive sto ries from countries around the world. Friends of the Library will present "Seasonal Tales Heard 'Round the World" free of charge for children and adults. The event is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 17 in the Wilson Library lobby. The program will feature traditional and winter stories from all over the world as told by Teri Lomoureux and Nancy Novotny. Lomoureux and Novotny are master's degree candidates in the School of In formation and Library Science. Refreshments will be provided. For more information, call 962-1 30 1 . By Paul Bredderman Staff Writer Orange County tax assessors have received numerous calls since Friday from residents who are worried that their property taxes will increase as the result of recent land revaluations. County tax assessors sent property revaluation notices to about 40,000 Orange County residents last week, let ting some know that the market value of their homes had increased during the past five years. Overall property values for Orange County have increased 15 percent since 1987, said county tax as sessor Kermit Lloyd. Lloyd said the "heavy" volume of calls his office had received from wor Well-soiled bulbs Mandoline Blackburn, a sophomore from Carrboro residence Monday. Tulips must JPJW pp.i.j',,4i.yji.iwww " , I i J ( j ' i I I UNC Press set to roll into Brooks this spring By Chris Robertson Staff Writer The UNC Press Building will have a quiet homecoming after operating in a temporary location for two years. The press building was damaged se verely in a Dec. 5, 1990, fire that en gulfed the building in a 30-minute blaze. Fifty firefighters were called to control the burning building, located at the cor- nerof Boundary Street andHooper Lane behind the Forest Theatre. After a two-year reconstruction pro cess, the UNC Press Building soon will be ready for operation. UNC Press now is operating in a temporary location in Franklin Square, near the Omni Europa Hotel. UNC Press representatives said they hoped to move back into Brooks Hall, the building that housed the publishing company, by April or May. The press publishes scholarly and regional books and textbooks. Authors such as William S. Powell, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese and Jaqueline Hall have had their works published by the insti tution. The press building was not equipped with a sprinkler system at the time of the Yuletide Tour By Shakti Routray StaffWrlter The Chapel Hill Preservation Soci ety will showcase historic homes in the Tenney Circle area of Chapel Hill for its annual Yuletide Tour of Homes Satur day and Sunday. Dianne Day, administrator of the Chapel Hill Preservation Society, said the tour had been conducted for the past 14 years with few exceptions. We do it every year, and the pro ceeds support all the activities of the ried residents since Friday probably would not subside until the end of the year. Assistant county manager Rod Visser said an increase in property value did not suggest a definite increase in prop erty taxes. But residents who received notice of property value increases of 15 percent or more the county average might pay more in property taxes, said Bob Bryan, president of the Chapel Hill Board of Realtors. But those with re valuations of less than the average can probably expect to pay less than they are currently paying, or lower-than-av-erage property taxes, Bryan added. Visser said the revaluation notices were not tax bills. "You won't know DTHErin Randall West Jefferson, plants tulips outside of her be planted early for spring blooming. fire. The building did have smoke alarms, but the alarms did not go off in time to prevent the fire. Sprinkler systems were not a require ment in Brooks Hall at the time of its construction because it was not a class building and not big enough to demand sprinklers, said Larry Johnson, who led the Chapel Hill Fire Department's in vestigation into the fire. The new Brooks Hall will include sprinklers as well as smoke alarms, said Judy Bergman, UNC Press controller and assistant director. Construction on the building has included a new roof, windows and the erection of dry walls in the office areas. "If you drive or walk by, you can see that the construction is going along very well," Bergman said. The building is scheduled to be finished around March or April, she said. The project is expected to cost about $1 million, Bergman said. Ed Willis, director of construction administration, said the budget allotted $75 1 ,000 for construction. "The $751,000 is solely for costs involving construction," Willis said. See PRESS, page 4 of Homes spotlights Chapel Hill's historic residences preservation society," Day said. Day said the tour would teach resi dents, students and newcomers about Chapel Hill. "Anyone new to the com munity will Ieam something," Day said. "It is a wonderful opportunity to ex plore the community and to get to know it." Glaxo Inc. of Research Triangle Park will provide free transportation to fa cilitate residents in viewing the houses. Ramona Jones, a spokeswoman for Glaxo, said the company had provided the service for the past few years. whether your tax bill will go up, down or stay the same until June," he said. Bryan said the increase in overall property values could be attributed to an increase in supply and demand for land and houses in the past five years. The Orange County Board of Com missioners will decide in June whether to increase the county tax rate based solely on the budgetary demands of the next fiscal year, Visser said. Bryan said he expected the county commissioners to approve a tax increase in June, largely because of the $52 mil lion school bond referendum passed by voters in the November election and because of the trend of rising operating costs of city and county governments. Visser said because of the increased Local students prepare for graduation party at Union By Richard J. Dalton Jr. Staff Writer Chapel Hill High School students planning a graduation party to be held in the Student Union will be given a large degree of freedom in planning the event, according to Donald Luse, the director of the Student Union. Project Graduation, an all-night, substance-free party for high school se niors and their guests, is held in many counties throughout the state. "They are active participants," Luse said. "They are actively involved in providing their own security. "(Students are) using good judgment in setting this up," he added. Chapel Hill-Carrboro Drug Abuse Task Force's Jim Huegerich, who has been involved since the party's initial planning stages more than two years ago, said that students also were in volved heavily in its organization. Huegerich said adults would help plan the party and would chaperone on thenightoftheevent,tobeheidfrom 1 1 p.m. to 4 a.m. June 10. He said he thought about 100 parents would work in two-hour shifts throughout the night. Huegerich said parents of seniors would not help out because students did Aid availableipii storm victims By Rama Kayyali Staff Writer The U.S. Small Business Adminis tration will provide physical and eco nomic disaster loans to the victims of the severe storms that hit counties of North Carolina and a contiguous (Jounty in Virginia. Severe storms hit Hillsborough in the early moming hours of Nov. 22 and caused the death of two residents and the hospitalization of 10. Physical dam ages in Hillsborough included the flat tening of almost 40 homes and the dam aging of more than 100. Catherine Thom, who is a public information employee of the Small Business Administration in New York, said SBA was a division of the federal government that guaranteed loans pri marily for small businesses. Another function the agency per forms is providing disaster relief in the form of loans to areas declared to be disaster areas, she said. Renee Hoffman, director of public affairs for N.C. Crime Control, said SBA provided long-term assistance to disaster areas unlike immediate assis tance provided by the Red Cross. According to Hoffman, the SBA and the N.C. Division of Emergency Man agement assessed the damages in North Carolina to be $9.3 million, including insured and uninsured properties. The Police, shops By Robert Strader StaffWrlter Local police and businesses are bracing themselves for an expected increase in shoplifting and thefts dur ing the holiday season. "There is an increase m larceny from residencies and fraternity areas and larceny from vehicles," said Chapel Hill police Chief Ralph Pendergraph. Chapel Hill police spokeswoman Jane Cousins said many thefts oc curred because the homeowners went out of town for the holidays. "But most break-ins are reported when people get back into town after the "Glaxo supports a lot of community activities," Jones said. "We try to get involved in activities that Glaxo em ployees are interested in." Day said that the tour had been very popular in the past and that she expected a good turnout this year. When the show was canceled last year due to the ill nesses of some people involved in the tour, many residents called to express their disappointment, Day added. Mimi Fountain, a Chapel Hill resi dent whose house on 3 1 2 Tenney Circ le will be a part of the tour, said she de county tax base, he expected the tax rate to drop from 84.25 cents per $100 of property to between 74 and 78 cents. "If the overall tax base is going up by 15 percent, then we're going to adjust the tax rate down ... so the total revenue for the county does not change as a result of the revaluation," Visser said. In the past 20 years, Orange County property values have been assessed in six-year increments, Visser said. State law requires that revaluations be conducted every eight years. But recently, the county commissioners de cided to assess property value every four years. The next revaluation will occur in 1997, Visser said. Lloyd said residents who thought their property value was assessed incor not want their parents at the party. Law enforcement officials also will work at the event for emergencies, traf fic control and visibility to give the students a sense of control, he said. The party must have at least one University Police officer, but Huegerich said he did not know if the University would incur some of the costs. Luse said the planners were unsure if they would need University Police on site. "We want to make sure there's an emergency plan in place," he said. Luse said the students planned to take strict safety measures for the party, including a prohibition on alcohol, drugs and re-entering the party. Use of a metal detector also is being considered, he said. Huegerich said that if the students had alcohol on their breath, they would be escorted home. The planners of the party are try ing to prevent someone's bringing a weapon or drinking in a car, he said. "Once you leave, you're out," Huegerich said. Luse said, "You cannot protect against all things, but you can exercise good judgment. "There are ways you can have fun, safe events and have control," he added. But he also said the students were exteritrtf damagesralifiedbrange ana Mokes counties tor stSA loans, she said. Thom said certain requirements must be met before disaster loans were guar anteed. She said an area must be de clared a disaster area by either the presi dent or the administrator of the SBA. Thom said 25 homes andor 25 busi nesses in a county must sustain major uninsured damages. "Forty percent or more of pre-destroyed property had to be uninsured," she said. "In North Carolina, two counties met that Orange and Stokes. Whenever an area is declared a disaster area, the contingent areas are included," she said. Orange and Stokes counues and the surrounding counties of Alamance, Caswell, Chatham, Durham, Forsyth, Guilford, Person, Rockingham, Surry and Yadkin are eligible for the loans. According to an SBA disaster loan fact sheet, there are three types of disas ter loans: Home Disaster Loans, Busi ness Physical Disaster Loans and Eco nomic Injury Disaster Loans. Home Disaster Loans are available to homeowners or renters to repair or replace related damage to homes or personal property that is owned by the applicant. Business Physical Disaster Loans are available to businesses to repair or re place disaster-related damage to prop erty owned by the business, including brace for holiday crime holidays," Cousins said, Pendergraph said the police would handle holiday crime by increasing se curity patrols in local shopping areas. "We try to increase our presence in areas where we anticipate potential crimes like University Mall, Glenwood Village (Shopping Center) and Brendle,s,M Pendergraph said. "Shoplifting is the responsibility of the individual businesses," he added. Carrboro police Chief Ben Callahan said, "We will step up the routine (of street patrol) and concentrate more in mall areas." Callahan suggested ways for out-of-town owners to deter break-ins such as having police or neighbors check their cided to participate in the show when the society chose her neighborhood for this year's tour. Joan Huntley, whose house at 3 1 7 N. Boundary St. also will be included on the tour, said of her participation, "We wanted to make a contribution to the community." Florence Peacock of 306 N. Bound ary St. said she wanted to participate because she thought the tour benefited a good cause. "I think the preservation society of this town is a wonderful way to preserve rectly should contact the county tax assessor's office. "I really can't do any thing about anyone's tax bill," he said. "I can only do something if the ap praisal isn't correct to what that prop erty would currently sell for." Visser said that citizens could appeal the revaluation to the Orange County Board of Equalization and Review or further could appeal to the state Prop erty Tax Commission. "We certainly hope we can resolve many of these questions at the local level," he said. County officials will be available to answer questions at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Superior Court Room in the Orange County Courthouse in Hillsborough and on at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Chapel Hill Town Hall, Visser said. paying rent for the use of Union facili ties, so the University did not dictate what they could and could not do. Luse said the students would use several Union areas, including Great Hall, the bowling alley, billiards room and Union Cabaret. He said they also may use the auditorium to show films. Huegerich said the students would pay for utilities and the labor costs of security and bowling alley employees. Huegerich said students chose the Student Union not only because of its facilities but also because high school students look up to University students. In another attempt to encourage at tendance, prizes and about five $ 1 ,000 scholarships will be distributed to party goers, Huegerich said. Donald Boulton, vice chancellor for student affairs, said, "This is the first time the high school has asked to do this kind of event." Luse said the absence of alcohol, which Boulton said was a requirement of Student Union parties, tended to re duce problems. The University does not give priority to outside agencies, Luse said, adding that the graduation party did not con flict with any University events be cause it would take place in June. inventory and supplies. " Economic Injury Disaster Loans are available to small businesses and small agricultural cooperatives to assist them through the disaster recovery period, provided they cannot obtain this type of assistance from nongovernment sources. The victims requesting loans must show the ability to repay them. Physical loss loans in excess of $10,000 and EJDL loans in excess of $5,000 must be secured with collateral, the fact sheet stated. Different interest rates and terms ac company the loans, depending on whether the victims could recover from the disaster damage with their own funds or could borrow through nongovernment sources. The maximum loan term limits for those who have outside available loans is three years. For all other borrowers, maximum loan terms are 30 years. Loan limitations are on secondary homes and luxury items such as boats, planes and recreational vehicles. There also are limitations on loan amounts for landscaping and family swimming pools. Thom said applying for SBA loans was similar to applying for loans from the bank. The only difference is the SBA expects more information about those requesting loans and might send See LOANS, page 7 homes or leaving their lights on. He added that residents couldprotecttheir packages from being stolen by storing them in their car's trunk. Local businesses also are preparing for the possible increase in shoplifting and other holiday crimes. Ellis Perry, manager of Belk-: Leggett at University Mall, said the store would have more employees; working at once as a security measure.; "We have employees working based on the traffic flow," he said. : Perry added that large crowds did; not make it easier for people to steal.; "If someone's going to steal, they'll steal. Crime is no more a problem (in Chapel Hill) than anywhere else." ' some of the old houses in town," Pea cock said. Peacock said she was really excited because her house was located where W.C. Coker's garden used to be. Coker was a professor of botany at the Univer sity. Pat Geikler, of 380 Tenney Circle, said the show would help residents get into the spirit of the holiday. The tour will be held from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Tickets for the tour are $8 for adults and $5 for children.
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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