Kinnaird: Carrboro Could Be More 'Business-Friendly'

Retired state Senator and former Carrboro Mayor Ellie Kinnaird said she’d like to see a more business-friendly Carrboro – as well as a post office that recognizes the town’s actual boundaries.

“I would like you to ask the post office to draw the boundaries of Carrboro where they actually are,” Kinnaird told the Board of Aldermen last Tuesday night, to applause.

Kinnaird said it’s something she’s been working on since she was mayor. She held the office from 1987 to 1996, when she was elected to the N.C. Senate.

Kinnaird retired in 2013. She still owns property, including two cemetery plots, in Carrboro.

One reason for her brief appearance in front of the Board of Aldermen last Tuesday was to request that the town manager’s office look into making the Old Carrboro Cemetery a green burial site. The board unaninimously approved that request.

And she had other issues in mind. Some Carrboro residents still have a Chapel Hill address, and the last time the Town of Carrboro inquired about changing that, the postal service conducted a survey of those residents’ preferences.

Carrboro lost that round. Kinnaird said said she realizes that it’s a lot of trouble to change addresses.

“Some people like the cachet, they think, of Chapel Hill,” said Kinnaird. “So what I would ask is that if you do ask the post office to do that, that you ask them not to take a survey, but to just make what is actually on the ground the actual change.”

Kinnaird brought up another sleeping issue from the past: a street that was once planned to connect Lloyd Street to Greensboro Street.

“Lloyd Street is a dead end,” said Kinnaird. “There are quite a few businesses there right now, and the Piedmont Health center.”

Speaking of business, she praised ongoing development at 300 East Main Street, including the new hotel, and called the new parking deck a “lifesaver.”

But she also lamented the recent loss of some businesses around town – Phydeaux and DSI to Chapel Hill; and Miel Bon Bons Fine Chocolate & Artisan Bake Shop and Caktus Consulting Group to Durham.

She said that Carrboro needs to set aside more open office space, and that the town could probably take some tips – but not too many – from Wake County.

Kinnaird said she’s read positive comments recently from businesspeople about Garner, in particular.

“Garner is agile and easy to work with,” said Kinnaird. “These are the businesspeople talking about that. We know that Carrboro and Chapel Hill are not agile and easy to work with.”

She said she hoped that Carrboro could take a more business-friendly attitude, and mentioned Durham’s Innovation District as an example.

Mayor Lydia Lavelle thanked Kinnaird for her comments, and said she would look into the post office matter.

Members of the board said they’d also look into improving the traffic light situation at 300 East Main, as Kinnaird requested.

Alderperson Jacquie Gist mentioned to Kinnaird that there are some business-friendly Carrboro events coming up over the next few weeks, perhaps a reference to the Think Local business campaign that kicks off Oct 2, with a Happy Hour at Venable’s new B-Side Lounge at Carr Mill Mall.

And she offered a not-so-subtle hint to Kinnaird that there are still a lot of vacancies that need to be filled on Carrboro’s advisory boards.