This Weekend FREE FRIDAY 60% Chance of Rain James Taylor 67/52 Concert for SATURDAY 40% Chance of Rain Obama 61/41 on Monday SUNDAY See page 7 and visit Partly Cloudy 68/43 carrborocitizen.com/main for updates carrborocitizen.com OCTOBER 16, 2008 u LOCALLY OWNED AND OPERATED u VOLUME II No. XXXI FREE Airport, waste sites top issues Halloween at county commissioner forum changes BY KIRK Ross Staff Writer announced With an intense and historic presi- BY RIch fowLER dential election, a highly contested Staff Writer race for governor and a U.S. Senate election that could turn out a well- The Town of Chapel Hill known incumbent, there seems to be wants to discourage people from little oxygen left for races further down coming to this year’s Halloween the ballot, especially local races. celebration. Roughly 80,000 peo- That didn’t stop Democrat Berna- ple came last year and the town dette Pelissier and Republican Kevin expects to see about the same Wolff from highlighting their differ- number of people again this year. ences Tuesday, as the two candidates As part of the effort to rein in for the newly created at-large seat on the celebration and make it safer, the Orange County Board of County the town negotiated with local Commissioners squared off at their bars and restaurants to limit alco- one and only election forum at Carol hol sales. As a result, on Halloween Woods Tuesday. every bar and restaurant on Frank- lin Street will charge a minimum Pelissier said she has worked hard PHoto BY KIRK ROSS to learn the ropes, serving in the past Democrat Bernadette Pelissier and Republican Kevin Wolff, candidates for the new $5 cover charge starting at 10 p.m. as chair of the Orange Water and at-large seat on the Orange County board of county commissioners, debate the and they will all close their doors Sewer Authority board of directors issues at a forum at Carol Woods. to new patrons at 1 a.m. and at present on the county Planning Scott Maitland, owner of Top Board and the Commission for the that our policies recognize that.” He said his credentials as a busi- of the Hill Restaurant and Brew- Environment. Wolff, who twice ran unsuccessful- nessman and attorney would bring ery, thanked town leaders for If elected, she said, she would fo- ly for mayor of Chapel Hill and whose that balance. He said he does not be- working with bar and restaurant cus on implementing the county’s wife, Mary, challenged Pelissier in the lieve that view is present on the cur- owners on Franklin Street. new comprehensive plan and work Democratic primary, said he wants to rent board of commissioners. “I just want to give all of you to make county government more ef- bring his business experience to the “Since we’re expanding [from] five a pat on the back for starting a board. to seven [seats on the board], this is a process that will proactively make PHoto BY Ken Moore ficient. The comprehensive plan, the county’s first full re-write since the “I would like to bring a balance to great opportunity to open up the view sure that there are no problems in Seed capsules make a beautiful contrast with long- future Halloween events,” Mait- lasting fall foliage of Sourwood. 1980s, is important, she said, because the board of commissioners,” Wolff and have a more balanced perspec- it recognizes that “the environment, said. “I believe we have plenty of peo- tive,” Wolff said. land said. the economy and social issues are all ple who will uphold and implement interrelated. We need to make sure the policies that Bernadette would.” SEE DEBATE PAGE 7 SEE HALLOWEEN PAGE 3 FlorA BY KEN MOORE Seeing autumn tints Cool, calm, collecting retirement Bike plan before the peak RECENTLY . detailed t’s all about taking a closer By Valarie Schwartz BY SUSAN DICKsoN Staff Writer look. This is the season that John Thomas has left the theater. folks seek instructions on After 30 years of teaching theater tech at Chapel Hill The Carrboro Board of Aldermen when and where to view High School and managing Hanes Theatre, Thomas an- talked bicycle transportation, green- peak color. It’s sad that we nounced his retirement last spring. He could not of- ways, helmets and more on Tuesday Iplace such emphasis on a peak of ficially retire until the end of August; but with the new during a work session to review the Bi- fall color. school year beginning then, it was on Oct. 3 that the cycle Transportation Plan. school community wished Thomas a fond farewell. Carrboro received a Comprehensive The English describe fall colors “J.T.,” as fellow teachers, students and parents know as “autumn tints.” I like the no- Bicycle Planning Grant from the North him, came to Chapel Hill in 1976 with a master’s de- Carolina Department of Transporta- tion of “autumn tints.” In a way, gree from the University of California-Davis and a wish tion in May 2007 to create the Bicycle it describes the subtle natural to develop community theater here. With the ArtsCen- Transportation Plan, which has been progression of colors as plants ter (then called the Carrboro Art School) in its infan- developed by staff with the help of Gre- move from the growing sea- cy, founder Jacques Menache tapped him to start the PHoto BY Valarie SCHWartZ enways Incorporated. theater program, and The Gallery Theatre opened that John Thomas enjoyed a standing ovation during his last time The plan includes a bicycle network son to the dormancy of winter. on the stage at Hanes Theatre, which he managed for 30 Rather than anticipate a sudden summer. Two years later, with the theater playing the project, with paved shoulders, bicycle role of first tenant in the newly opened Carr Mill Mall, years while teaching at Chapel Hill High School. turn from summer green to a lanes, sharrows, sidepaths and off-road Thomas was broke. He reluctantly sought and accepted trails at identified road corridors, intersec- Mark Nielsen, the drama teacher at CHHS when Thom- dazzling peak of color, we can the job as theater manager for the new state-of-the-arts tions and greenway corridors. The chang- as arrived, played emcee to his going-away ceremony. enjoy weeks and weeks observ- Hanes Theatre. es are intended to help provide access to “I worked with John for eight years on 52 produc- ing plants moving slowly through “The last thing in the world I wanted to do then was schools, greenways, downtown and other tions,” Nielsen said as he took attendees down a mem- tints of colors that vary from high school theater,” he said in a speech at the school business zoning, bicycle facilities, high- ory lane tour. species to species. two years ago. density residential areas and more. Dramatic colors have already He and his co-workers would change the definition of begun in our western mountain high school theater with the standards they would set. SEE RECENTLY PAGE 12 SEE BIKE PLAN PAGE 11 counties. The burgundy-red tints of the sourwood, Oxydendrum BreakdoWN : A series on mental HealtH care in NC arboreum, are especially appreci- ated now against the green back- ground of trees only beginning Is our best enough? to turn. In two to three short weeks, the mountainsides will BY TAYLOR SISK Despite resistance, There are now ACT teams in Staff Writer most every state and in other coun- be winter bare, the temperature success tries, including Canada, Australia extremes up there moving the The approach is called assertive and Japan. This story is the fourth in a season along at a quick pace. community treatment (ACT). In the mid-‘90s, Mahadevan, series about mental health care Here in the more leisurely ACT is considered evidence-based who was a graduate of UNC’s reha- in North Carolina. The names of treatment for people with severe and bilitation counseling program and piedmont, we are fortunate to mental health care recipients and persistent mental histories — those had done his internship at John Um- have the autumn tints progress their families have been changed. diagnosed with schizophrenia, a bipo- stead Hospital in Butner, came to at a slower pace. Some of our lar disorder and, in some cases, major sourwoods began to show color work at OPC as a case manager. He XDS Inc. in Chapel Hill is a rare depression — and is particularly de- had become intrigued by the ACT some weeks ago and they will mental health care success story, an signed for those with dual disorders, model and believed it was needed in continue for weeks more. organization that has managed to which would include a substance- this area. In 1997, he and a few col- navigate North Carolina’s post-re- abuse problem. The term “evidence- leagues traveled to Delaware to see form mental health care morass. based” means that the ACT model an ACT team in action, and were SEE FLORA PAGE 12 But it barely hangs on. Challenged has consistently shown success in the impressed. each day by sheaves of bewildering treatment of clients with these disor- “We thought it was amazing just paperwork and limited funding, it’s ders. to see how things were happening,” a “day-to-day struggle,” says XDS The ACT model was introduced Mahadevan recalls. “People were INSIDE executive director Thava Mahade- in the early ‘70s by a group of mental out and about. One of the biggest van, to stay afloat and continue pro- health care professionals at the Men- contrasts was that clients weren’t viding very critical treatment, reha- dota Mental Health Institute in Wis- Commissioners alter waste Thava Mahadevan coming to the mental health center, bilitation and support services.