Rebecca Clark Dies Residents Concerned About Colleton Crossing
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
This Weekend FRIDAY Clear 49/31 Carey SATURDAY to head 20% Chance of Rain 59/36 ESC SUNDAY Partly Cloudy Page 3 50/27 carrborocitizen.com JANUARY 8, 2009 u LOCALLY OWNED anD OPEraTED u VOLUME II NO. XLIII FREE Residents concerned about Colleton Crossing BY SUSAN DIckSON Board members heard from a Drew Narayan, a resident of has reviewed the proposed proj- Staff Writer packed house at the hearing and Claymore Road, said in November ect. Lavelle served on the planning expect the same at the continued that he was concerned the narrow board prior to her election to the With a possible decision on the hearing. roads were not designed to handle board of aldermen in 2007. proposed Colleton Crossing sched- The Friends of Bolin Creek have the number of cars the development “The planning board raised sev- uled for Jan. 27, some community cited issues regarding a proposed could bring. eral concerns with the applicant, as residents are expressing concerns connector road to run along the Residents are also worried that did the other boards,” she said. about the project, citing safety, envi- east side of Bolin Creek, close to the the lack of sidewalks on the roads, While the applicant has addressed ronmental and traffic issues. planned development. combined with the additional traf- some of those concerns, Lavelle said, In November, the Carrboro Board In addition, residents of the fic, could be unsafe for pedestrians. other issues could be inherent to the of Aldermen opened a public hearing Highlands have expressed concerns Board member Joal Hall Broun project, and thus hard to address. on the Colleton Crossing develop- regarding the traffic that the devel- said she would like to hear the ap- Because of the size of the project ment, which is proposed for 8400 opment could bring to the neighbor- plicant respond to some of the con- and the concerns of many residents, and 8420 Reynard Road. The devel- hood, with access to the development cerns raised by residents of the ad- Lavelle said she doesn’t expect the oper, MBI Development, proposes a planned for Claymore and Sterling jacent neighborhoods, particularly board to make a decision on the 39-dwelling subdivision on 31.6 acres roads as well as Reynard Road and those regarding traffic. proposed development at the Jan. with a connector road to Claymore Tallyho Trail. Several have raised Board member Lydia Lavelle said 27 public hearing. Road in the Highlands. According concerns that the roads lack the ca- that while the board has not delved The continued public hearing to the developer, the project, if ap- pacity to support the traffic the pro- into public discussion of the de- will be held Jan. 27 at 7:30 p.m. at proved, is projected to open in 2010. posed development would bring. velopment yet, the planning board Carrboro Town Hall. Aquatic Center Opens Rebecca PHoto BY KEN MoorE Clark dies The bluish berries and scale-like leaves of this coastal red cedar are very similar to the berries BY KIRK RoSS and leaves of the common eastern red cedar. Staff Writer CHAPEL HILL — Rebecca Clark, cham- pion for justice, community leader and BY KEN MOORE Flora political organizer, died early Saturday in her sleep at her home on Crest Drive A tale of two cedars in Chapel Hill. She was 93. News of Clark’s death had many t was the driest of years recalling a life marked by a deep car- and the wettest of years. ing and concern for all people and an North Carolina’s two red acumen for community and political cedars stood strong and organizing. green during the year of Services will be held Friday at Cha- drought and rains. pel Hill Bible Church with a viewing I starting at 11 a.m. and services at 1 The eastern red cedar, Juni- p.m. Later, there will be repast at the perus virginiana, surrounds us in Hargraves Center for out-of-town the Piedmont. Except for the visitors. PHoto BY ava BarloW outer coastal regions and the Becky Campbell, left, coach of the East Chapel Hill High School swim team, instructs some of her team members at practice Her grandson, Doug Clark Jr., who high mountain elevations, the Monday in the new Homestead Aquatic Center, which opened last weekend. Monday was the team’s first chance to practice lives in Chapel Hill, said he and his eastern cedar tree is common in the new facility, said Campbell, and the team was especially excited about it because they got four lanes and an hour and a children visited with his grandmother throughout the eastern U.S., half, as opposed to three narrower lanes and one hour at their old practice location, the community center pool. Thursday and shared holiday stories. “She will be missed,” he said. “They extending into Texas and north- don’t make them like that anymore.” ward up through the Midwest- The Clark family is tight knit, and ern states. It is adapted to a Group even after the musical success of Doug wide range of soil types, mois- Clark Sr. and his brother, John, the Pine ture regimes and temperature secures Knolls neighborhood was still home. extremes. It grows in all but Doug Clark Jr. said his grandmoth- water-logged soils. Eno tracts er knew everyone in the community It is an early successional tree around Cole and Johnson streets and BY SUSAN DIckSON Crest Drive. species – one of the first to Staff Writer “She was the matriarch of this appear on abandoned farmland neighborhood,” he said. “A lot of people and other disturbed sites. Birds The Eno River Association is an- would drop by to seek her advice and disperse the seed, accounting other step closer to completing the approval.” for characteristic rows of cedar gaps in the Eno River State Park with Clark was able to weave politics and along fence lines and beneath the recent acquisition of 65 acres of community organizing into advocacy power line perches. On good river frontage, some of the last re- for her neighborhood, convincing Cha- maining missing links. soils, cedars can be shaded out pel Hill to annex the area and provide The acreage, located on the east paved roads and services. if competing with a dense stand side of the river near Cabe Ford Road, Fred Battle, former president of the of pines and they are slowly is made up of two tracts separated by Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP and a displaced by maturing decidu- existing parkland. The association Chapel Hill native, recalled her life of ous forests. Cedars do require worked with the Brame family, who service. The two spent some time to- sunlight. In contrast, on re- owned the property, for several years gether two weeks ago going over candi- ally shallow soils and on xeric to acquire the land through a combi- dates for an NAACP award named in (extremely dry) sites, cedars nation of sale and donation. her honor. “This is an area in the park that “She did an outstanding job serving compete well and can mature for a long time we’ve been trying to a lot of the elderly and sick, folks con- as a dominate tree of the plant acquire,” said Klugh Jordan, director fined to their homes and rest homes. community. of land protection for the association. And she was very politically active,” he Occasionally, you will notice “It’s also an area [in which] the park MAP coURTESY OF ENO RIVER ASSocIATION said. “It was a beautiful sight when you a dense stand of red cedars is trying to expand its trail system.” went to the Lincoln precinct and you’d growing so thickly that other In addition to expanding the park, The Eno River Association has land outside the state park, protect see her son Doug out there and she’d tree species have great difficulty the acquisition will also permanently been working to protect the land as much of the watershed area as be bringing people to the polls. It was a protect an old slave cemetery as well around the river and in the water- possible and minimize the amount family thing.” gaining a foothold. Such cedar as rare species of mussels on the shed area since 1966 with the goal of of sediment and nutrients that flow stands persist for decades. property, which has been designated completing the gaps in the Eno River into the river. Eastern red cedars grow up- as a Nationally Significant Natural State Park to create a 6,000-acre park SEE CLARK PAGE 3 right, but their shapes are con- Heritage Area by the NC Natural with 16 miles of river frontage. The sistently variable. Commonly, Heritage Program. association also works to acquire SEE ENO PAGE 7 they have steeple-like tops Climbing high with a safety net SEE FLORA PAGE 8 RECENTLY . divided by grade and school into five groups, By Valarie Schwartz meet each week. TCH transforms these mid- dle school years from a time filled with ques- INSIDE There’s no denying the difficulties con- tions and lack of confidence into one where nected with being a teenager. The angst of their peers begin to turn to them for answers, that age involves charting unfamiliar waters frequently continuing beyond their teens. The Eater returns and facing adult situations — sometimes Julia Thornton was a planner on the page 4 with an adult-looking body — but with the founding committee for the program that experience and insecurities of a child. started in 1996. A needs assessment per- INDEX For 12 years, Teens Climb High (TCH), formed by the Resident’s Council in the a program of the Women’s Center in Chapel public housing communities in Chapel Hill Hill, has endeavored, with assistance from the indicated the need for a program that ad- Community .........................................................................................2 middle schools, to make this passage easier dressed teen pregnancies.