Chapel Hill urged to honor veterans

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Nine make their cases for Thorpe's seat

The Chapel Hill Town Council heard presentations Monday from nine candidates to replace council member Bill Thorpe, who died of heart failure in September.

The council plans to appoint a new member this Monday night.

The applicants are: Gene Pease, an investment services executive; Will Raymond, a hi-tech businessman who has twice run for the council; Loren Hintz, a biology teacher at Chapel Hill High School; Donald Shaw, a UNC-Chapel Hill journalism professor; J.M. Green, a UNC-Chapel Hill education professor; Jim Merritt, a retired school counselor and administrator; Willard Blaine Rogers, a veteran, community organizer and homeless person; Amy Chute, who serves on the town's Northern Area Task Force; and Andre Wesson, who heads the town's Justice in Action Committee.

Chapel Hill project has group's support

The Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership voted Wednesday to send the Town Council a letter in support of Greenbridge, a residential and retail project being proposed for West Rosemary Street, between Graham Street and Merritt Mill Road.

Mayor Kevin Foy and Tom Tucker, a partner in the development, abstained from the vote. The other five members agreed unanimously to support the project.

The Greenbridge project is designed to meet principles of environmentally friendly, sustainable building. Possible features of the project, which comes before the town's design committee later this month, include green rooftops covered in grass or shrubs, solar-heated water, and a design that maximizes the sunlight that enters the buildings.

Pease to run for Chapel Hill Town Council

Gene Pease, a veteran of community boards and CEO of several companies, is running for Chapel Hill Town Council.

He joins Penny Rich and incumbents Laurin Easthom, Ed Harrison and Jim Merritt among announced candidates for council. The official filing period opens July 6.

Easley losing key aide

It's official: John Merritt, Gov. Mike Easley's equivalent to a chief of staff and his most prominent lightning rod for the past 18 months, is leaving the administration at the end of the month.

Word that Merritt would leave has been circulating Raleigh for months. Some of it may have been wishful thinking; Merritt has irked more than his share of politicians, from city and county leaders to state Sen. Marc Basnight to Easley's own press operation. The press office finally confirmed the rumors with a statement Monday.

Merritt chuckled when asked whether he was leaving voluntarily or Easley had asked him to go, but said little to explain his decision. The veteran party operative and business executive had said when Easley hired him in the fall of 2001 that he was unlikely to stay for more than a year.

James Merritt joins Chapel Hill council

The Chapel Hill Town Council appointed James Merritt on Monday night to fill the seat held by former council member Bill Thorpe, who died in September.

Merritt was one of six remaining candidates. He was the choice of the Anderson-Thorpe Breakfast Club, a group of black community leaders named after Thorpe and former Carrboro Alderman Hank Anderson.

A former assistant principal and guidance counselor, Merritt has a bachelor's degree in sociology and master's in counseling. He has said that he wants to use his 30 years of educational planning to help decide whether to move forward with the planned $16 million expansion of the Chapel Hill Public Library.