Chatlist Chatters

Pittsboro Partners rezoning vote this Monday
[Aug. 26, 2007] It is my understanding that Pittsboro Town Board Commissioner Max Cotten is pushing to vote on rezoning to accommodate Pittsboro Place. It is highly likely that the rezoning request by Pittsboro Place Partners, developers of the project, will be voted on during the Town Board Meeting on Monday, 8/27. We should not assume that there are enough votes to block this rezoning. By Roxanne Hollander

My hermit crab died
[Aug. 25, 2007] It really did. No family member has come forward to tell me but I know that it is true. I am not too broken up about it. I know that it has died because I found it’s dried out carcass on a paper towel on my kitchen counter, next to the new hermit crab habitat and the recent butterfly and wayward lizard containment system. At first I thought it
was a shrimp, lost and forlorn. By Dan Cahoon

Important point about the Carolina BREWERY
[Aug. 25, 2007] There’s been lots of debate about Carolina Brewery. Very little of it has been about the most important part, the Brewery part. I picked up a “growler”, which is their beer in 1/2 gallon jugs. This is very appropriate for our region, except the local stuff my grandfathers acquired in gallon jugs was much higher octane. By Jeff Christian
Also: Carolina Brewery

A brewery and hopefully more to come
[Aug. 24, 2007] I had an interesting night at the Carolina Brewery. Interesting in that I enjoyed seeing something totally new in Pittsboro. Food was good, service slow, but, it’s new and all of us are slow when starting something new. I really enjoyed looking at the art around the wall. We actually met up with Corky and Linda sitting next to the beautiful portrait of their house on main street. It was a kodak moment, but didn’t have a camera! Also enjoyed watching the staff walking up those stairs and carrying those trays, hoping they wouldn’t fall. By Wandra Farrell

Providing nutrition is not the job of government schools
[Aug. 12, 2007] Did anyone read the article in the Chatham Record about the nutritional program being rolled out by our wonderful government schools? They are called "Fuel Up" and "Food Until Everything Looks Up". These programs send home food on Friday afternoon for hungry student to eat over the weekend. Packaged in "non-identifiable" backpacks so that the student doesn't get teased by other students. By Steve Candelori

Pittsboro Place is not for me
[Aug. 6, 2007] I was at the zoning meeting on Monday last concerning the rezoning of land off of 64 and Industrial Park Drive. I learned much listening to Developers and Citizens presenting their thoughts, feelings, ideas and plans about the idea of having the proposed Pittsboro Place become a reality on the outskirts of Pittsboro. By Scotty Young

Carolina Brewery houses "Chatham's Second Man Made Wonder"
[Aug. 6, 2007] All this talk of needing restaurants and movie theaters and shops is all true. But it doesn't have to be the mega mall disaster. I toured the Carolina Brewery yesterday and there is nothing like it in Chatham. I'm dubbing the walk in beer cooler with it's 20 foot ceiling and huge vats of brew "Chatham's Second Man Made Wonder". By Meg Miller
Also: Carolina Brewery Pre-opening Photo Gallery

Shop til you drop at cheery shopping centers
[Aug. 6, 2007] There are many reasons why a shopping center or large paved area may be a bad idea for the area in question. Any development creates change in the landscape and what we see around us. Trees get downed, meadows and wetland plowed under. That would happen with any kind of development. By Dan Cahoon

Attention! The circle in Pittsboro is at Level F! I repeat, Level F!
[Jul. 27, 2007] What exactly does level F mean? Fun? Friendly? Fascinating? Other words that start with F? This was from the lawyer representing Pittsboro Plunder, I mean Pittsboro Place (proposed retail and housing development on East 64). He told the county commissioners and our fabulous mayor that "no matter what, the circle will be at level F" in a matter of time. I would love a rubric that detailed what level F means (how much traffic etc.) and how someone calculates this "level". By Dan Cahoon

A former paperboy reminisces
[Jul. 23, 2007] NC - I don't have recent experience with rural driver routes and only a few stories from folks who have had one (many negative, funny stories). I can tell you that daily delivery of any item gets REAL old REAL quick. I remember the old days when a young boy would get "recruited" by some employee of the circulation department at my local newspaper. The virtues of hard work, easy schedule, and quick cash were extolled until a victim would succumb and become the next "paperboy". By Dan Cahoon

Making the most of Japanese Beetle season
[Jul. 11, 2007] To make the most of the invasion of Japanese beetles, follow these steps. By Joy Hewett

Teaching the test is a waste of time
[Jun. 22, 2007] Public schools in North Carolina (and almost all states) use a common curriculum that breaks down the individual strands of a subject area into supposedly developmentally appropriate sections. Every few years those "curricula" are modified to reflect new theories of learning and development or to prepare students earlier for higher level thinking (i.e. -learning fractions before algebra, etc.). By Dan Cahoon

A land transfer tax makes sense
[Jun. 17, 2007] Based on the population growth from 1970 to 2000, Northeast Chatham is projected by the Triangle J Council of Governments to have 117,000 residents by 2035, growing at an average rate of 4.2% per year. (From 1980 to 2000 the growth rate was actually 5.0% per year, which would increase the estimate to 146,200 for Northeast Chatham by 2035.) By Robert Eby

Teaching in August
[Jun. 17, 2007] I must apologize to the month of August. I do in fact teach in August. August is a fine month to stay in an overly air conditioned space, learning to read, write and solve problems. For many children, this is preferable to the alternative of watching endless hours of cartoons and fending off parents attempts to get you to go outside "and have fun" in the 95degree 100% humidity of central North Carolina. By Dan Cahoon