Dix park getting new push

The grass fields on Dix Hill are spurring the grass roots.

A splinter group of the Friends of Dorothea Dix Park has met for the past two Mondays at retired N.C. State employee Bill Padgett's house. They plan to start a new group, Dix 306, to organize a grass-roots campaign for a major urban park.

The name comes from a letter to the editor by Padgett that The News & Observer published in June. He argued for all 306 acres of the Dorothea Dix state mental hospital to be kept for public use.

Two days after the letter was published, Padgett registered the Web site www.Dix306.com. But he said the group has only recently come together.

Padgett, 62, is best known in Raleigh for leading the coalition that successfully defeated a plan by developer Neal Coker to build high-rise towers on Wade Avenue in 2001. But he lost a later effort to stop a scaled-down version of the plan.

He said the new group will complement efforts by the Friends of Dix Park and other park advocates.

"We're going to meet more frequently and probably take a little higher-energy approach," he said.

The group meets at 7 p.m. Monday. For more information, call Padgett at 787-6378.

A FAMILY AFFAIR: Paul Coble's swearing-in as Wake County commissioner was a family affair Monday. He took his oath of office over a Bible his youngest daughter gave him. His wife, Connie, and mother, Betsey, helped him hold it.

And the oath was administered by his cousin, District Court Judge Jennifer Knox.

Knox's grandfather is longtime Republican Sen. Jesse Helms, who is Coble's uncle. Apparently, that makes them first cousins, once removed.

Knox said she has sworn in a handful of elected officials but no family members until now.

For more on Wake County politics, go online to blogs.news observer.com/wakepol.

DEFACED IN DURHAM: During the recent $90,000 facelift of the council's chambers at Durham City Hall, workers apparently dropped a large dollop of blue paint on the official portrait of former Mayor Nick Tennyson.

As one of the few Republicans ever elected to the top office in the Bull City, Tennyson said it is bad enough that the color now obscuring his mug is associated with the rival political party. Even worse for the Duke alumnus, the shade of the blue is not far from the light tint favored by that school in Chapel Hill.

"I'm a Dukie, so the color is horrible," Tennyson said, chuckling. "I want a bipartisan commission to look into this. I've always thought I was a pretty handsome guy in that picture."

POLITICALLY SPEAKING

Mayor Charles Meeker will hold the first Mayor's Unity Breakfast today from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at N.C. State's McKimmon Center, on Gorman Street. The city's Human Relations Commission is sponsoring the breakfast.

The purpose of the event is to celebrate human diversity in Raleigh. Residents are invited to join Meeker in an open dialogue to learn and share ideas on how to enhance understanding of diverse cultures, build inclusiveness and improve human relations.