This Weekend Inside FRIDAY Partly Cloudy 90/70 Carrboro Branch SATURDAY 20% Chance of Rain Library hours 92/70 reinstated SUNDAY 20% Chance of Rain 92/70 Page 5 carrborocitizen.com JULY 24, 2008 u YOUR COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER u VOLUME II No. XIX FREE Town, owner at odds over Abbey Court towing After dozens of cars are towed, residents claim discrimination by Susan Dickson According to Chilton, Lucas said Staff Writer he was concerned that some people were parking there illegally to catch The owner of the majority of Ab- the bus to downtown Carrboro. bey Court Condominiums told May- In addition, according to Chilton, or Mark Chilton on Monday that he Lucas said he was concerned that would not suspend the complex’s tow- there are people living in some of ing policy and that management would the apartments who aren’t on the continue to tow residents’ vehicles that lease and that he was trying to use do not have parking permits. the parking permits as a method to Chilton said he asked Ken Lucas, determine where people are living. president and CEO of the Tar Heel According to resident Alfonso Her- Companies, to stop towing residents’ nandez, Abbey Court management had cars, but that Lucas refused. The Tar Heel 47 cars towed in one day last week. Companies runs Abbey Court and Lucas However, Chilton said Lucas told him owns most of the units in the complex. the complex had towed only 12 cars. photo by Ken Moore Last week, Abbey Court began Lucas did not return calls for com- A silphium flower head contains a tight cluster of male tube flowers surrouned by a circle of lady towing vehicles that were parked in the ment. Lucas’ attorney, Bart White, said ray flowers. A closer look may reveal to you the apartment complex’s parking lot with- on Friday that he would speak with The double thread-like female stigma at the base of the out permits. However, many residents Citizen, but has not returned multiple ray flowers. were denied parking permits because calls since. PHOTO by JORDAN TIMPY their cars have dents, need paint or Martin Ayala, who lives with his family in Abbey Court in Carrboro, stands outside have a cracked windshield, according the Carrboro Town Hall Saturday in protest of the recent spike in towing activity of to Carrboro police. SEE ABBEY COURT PAGE 7 residents’ cars by the apartment complex because they lack parking permits. Flora By Ken Moore Power-line botany Legislation PHOT O BY JORDAN TIMPY clears the way everal days ago, I spied Willie Brooks stands over a pile lots of yellow flowers of ripe tomatoes at the farmers’ for new airport along the edge of the market. power line crossing Pop- Landfill gas facility lar Avenue in west Carr- for Carolina North Sboro. Infrequently cleared power line right-of-ways are great places also part of bill to observe a diversity of both by Kirk Ross native and exotic plants and the Staff Writer critters that depend on them. This past weekend, I walked The General Assembly has cleared the way for UNC-Chapel Hill and through the tall grasses for a clos- UNC Health Care to jointly create er look. I found a vigorous stand an airport authority, which will be of six-foot-tall rosinweeds, Silphium charged with locating, building and asteriscus. The Latin, silphium, operating a new airport to replace the refers to the rosin content. There field at Horace Williams. are several species of silphium in The authority provisions, woven our state, occurring mostly on dry into a bill that authorizes various uni- prairie-like fields and roadsides. versity system construction projects, Tomato Time at the Farmers’ Market require approval by the UNC System They have an interesting heritage Board of Governors for the university of medicinal uses, including ton- by Susan Dickson tomato tasting during a Saturday mar- ferent types, we thought we could do and the health care system to set up an ics given to horses. The rosin was Staff Writer ket at the height of tomato season, but that better with a tomato day,” said authority. Once set up, the authority used for gum and candy for the this year things are changing slightly. Sarah Blacklin, director of the mar- would have the right to acquire prop- children. The frequently described Tomato enthusiasts, get ready – On Saturday, the market will ket. “Sometimes with a tasting, we’re erty, condemn land and construct an action of burning the dried root the peak of tomato season has arrived, host Tomato Day, which will feature only left with a couple of different airport facility. as a charm against lightning during and it’s time to head on down to the more than just a tomato sampling. varieties by the end of the day, and The bill was held up briefly while storms really fires the imagination. Carrboro Farmers’ Market to sample “To keep everybody trying the not everybody gets the opportunity Senate and House negotiators settled some of the area’s best varieties. same tomatoes throughout the to try everything.” on language that limited where such an Silphiums are in the composite For the past eight years, the Car- morning and actually getting the authority could be set up. The Senate’s (aster) plant family. I never miss rboro Farmers’ Market has featured a opportunity to learn about the dif- SEE TOMATO PAGE 7 version of the bill was much broader, al- an opportunity for a closer look lowing other institutions in the UNC at a composite head. It is always system to set up airport authorities. a wonder to discover that what Shotgun-toting robbery suspect arrested But House negotiators led by Orange looks like a single, multi-petaled County representatives Verla Insko and flower is really a tight cluster of Chapel Hill Police have obtained a victim and also demanded the victim being held up by a man brandishing a Bill Faison managed to maintain lan- warrant for a suspect in a robbery Tues- withdraw more money from the ATM. shotgun. guage the House adopted specifying numerous separate tiny flowers. day near the ATM at RBC Centura Roberts then fled in his car, according According to police reports, on Sun- that the new airport authority should Having a hand lens in the pocket Bank on Willow Drive . to the report. He was apprehended later day, around 6:30 p.m., two men headed be limited to Orange County. really does help see these details. The robbery occurred at 2:40 p.m. in Raleigh and is in the custody of the toward Franklin Street through the al- An amendment offered by Faison (I assume that one never walks when the victim was returning to his Wake County Sheriff’s Department. ley next to the Varsity Theater were held during House debate states that, “An outdoors without their trusty car after withdrawing money from Chapel Hill Police issued a statement up by a man with a shotgun. About 10 airport established under this Article hand lens.) the machine. Wednesday saying the department ob- minutes later, a woman parked near the may only be established in Orange I counted the individual flow- According to a police report, the sus- tained a warrant for Webster for robbery ATM at Wachovia Bank at University County. The sole purpose of the author- ers in several silphium heads pect, Keith Robert Webster, Jr. of 516 with a dangerous weapon in connection Mall told police that another car pulled ity is to re-site Horace Williams Airport Burlington Ave. in Durham, was sitting with the robbery. up next to hers and a man got out, pro- and operate the re-sited aircraft.” and discovered an average of 15 in a car parked next to the victim’s vehi- Tuesday’s robbery is the third in a duced a shotgun and demanded money. golden-yellow ray flowers en- cle with a shotgun across his lap. The re- series of daylight armed robberies in circling an average of 40 smaller port says he demanded money from the Chapel Hill in which victims reported SEE SHOTGUN PAGE 7 SEE LEGISLATION PAGE 3 greenish-yellow tube (disc) flow- ers. The tube flowers in the very center were unopened. Progress- ing outwardly, the flowers be- A roadside garden reflects the gardener came fully mature, characterized RECENTLY . at all – it was known only by its Rural by a star-shaped opening at the By Valarie Schwartz Free Delivery (RFD) route number. top of each tube. You can see Irene remembers that the privy sat in For years, I’ve admired the garden- a spot where today’s road runs. the dark pollen-bearing anthers ing I could see while driving past Irene In 1995, after her step-grand- held inside. Womble Stevens’ home on Damascus mother had died, Stevens and her Church Road. From whichever direc- husband moved from Greensboro, SEE FLORA PAGE 10 tion one approaches this home perched where she had retired after a 40-year on the crest of a hill, there’s no doubt career as an office worker for Burling- that a gardener lives there. ton Industries, and made the home INSIDE One day last year, I left a note in their own. the mailbox claiming my admiration “We could have bulldozed it down and included my phone number. She and rebuilt for what we spent on res- The Music Man beings run called and we talked about her garden- toration,” she said. But instead they at Playmakers ing obsession, but the drought was on preserved the character of the origi- and not much was left for the season.