Hillsborough Mayor Jenn Weaver visited with 97.9 The Hill’s Andrew Stuckey on Tuesday, June 13. This is a transcript of her discussion of some of the isolated gun violence in the area, the town’s comprehensive plan, and the future train station. Listen to the full interview here.
Andrew Stuckey: Unfortunately, I’m going to have to start with a little bit of an unpleasant question for you. As I’m putting together the news each day here, I keep seeing these stories of crime that are coming out of the Hillsborough area. Are you hearing anything from residents or law enforcement with concerns about this?
Jenn Weaver: The first thing I would say is that I wouldn’t describe things as crime necessarily. There have been some incidents of crime, but we’ve also had some very upsetting incidents of gun violence. But those have been described by law enforcement as isolated incidents with no ongoing threat to the community that people know of. That said, I should say there are ongoing investigations related to these. So, I both don’t have additional information and would not want to speculate beyond anything that has been said to the public already. But the incidents that have resulted in loss of life, there have been two of those. I want to acknowledge that this is a small community. And so even though we don’t actually all know each other, it still hits very close to everyone when things like this happen in a place as small as Hillsborough. And I want to send out my sympathies and condolences to the friends and family of people who’ve been affected because I can’t imagine what they are going through and when I do imagine it, it’s just absolutely awful and heartbreaking. So, really holding those people in our thoughts these days.
Stuckey: To be fair, there isn’t any data that suggests that crime is actually up in general, as you were saying. There have just been a few very high-profile incidents of violence in the last couple of weeks. So I do want to clarify there isn’t any indication that crime, in general, is up, correct?
Weaver: Thank you, I appreciate that. Yes [that is correct.]
Stuckey: All right, to shift gears now as someone who’s new to the area. To give you a little bit of background, my wife was born in Carrboro and grew up in Carrboro. I have been visiting the area, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area for over 20 years. And I currently live in Pittsboro, so I’m familiar with the Chatham County area somewhat as well. I probably know Hillsborough the least of the areas that are in our immediate listening range here. So I’m going to ask you some questions as somebody who does not know Hillsborough very well. The first thing I’m curious about is what should somebody who doesn’t know the area know about Hillsborough? Are there any long-term projects that Hillsborough is working on or is there something that’s unique to the community or the character of the community that I should know about?
Weaver: Yeah, first of all, I just want to say, I love this question and I love that I get a chance to tell you about the third borough in this area. You already know two of them pretty well, and two really important things to our community right now that I would be sure to mention are the comprehensive sustainability plan because that’s something that we are hard at work on and is going to really shape the future of our community for many years to come. That’s really, really important to us and ongoing. I’m sure we’ll be talking about that more in the coming months. And then the other thing that I would be sure to mention is the train station because we do have a future train station and we are bound to have that constructed within five years. So that is something that is very much underway. And though we’re a ways from actually breaking ground yet, it’s a very exciting project and will really create a new space in our community. That will be very meaningful for us going forward.
Stuckey: I actually did not know anything about this, this is exciting news. Is the site selected? Do we know where it’s going to be already?
Weaver: Oh yes. The site has long been selected. The funding for the train station was part of the three elements of the transit tax that was approved by orange county voters. I’m missing the year, so I don’t want to say the wrong one, but it’s been several years now and that included three elements. One of them was the train station for Hillsborough, the light rail, which of course we know is no longer happening, and expanded bus service for the county. So this was part of that original transit tax. So, with some local money in the form of taxes, we are getting a really big match from the state to allow the construction of this building. And it’s going to be terrific.
Stuckey: Well, I’m going to skip ahead a little bit to a question that I was going to finish with, but it seems very appropriate given this train conversation. What do you see for Hillsborough in the next five years? And I was going to ask that question in general, but I want to ask it with the knowledge of that train station, theoretically being up and running five years from now, how will that change the tenor of the community?
Weaver: Absolutely. Yeah, super relevant question for that. Looking down the road, because the train station will be one element of an area of 22 acres that the town owns. And so another big piece of conversation and decision making for the town over the next several years will be, what do we want to see developed in the rest of the area surrounding the train station, because that’s going to be really important. We want this to be a transit hub that is accessible by foot, by bicycle, by wheelchair. We really want it to be connected to other parts of the community. And certainly not just by vehicle, because we want people who live here to be able to get there easily. And we want people who visit us to be able to access both downtown and South Churton street. When they come in by train, we want them to be able to visit all parts of our community. And hoping that there are people who are able to live and work right there around the train station too. So, lots of decision-making there, that will create another hub of activity for Hillsborough, of course. And that should also be fitting in. This is where we circle back to the comprehensive sustainability plan to what that plan is going to inform for how and where we grow and develop and what that is like for us moving, not just in five years, but well into the future. And hoping that we are an even more connected Hillsborough than we are right now, because that has been a long-term project started before me that I know myself and the current town board are interested in pursuing.
Stuckey: We’re joined by Hillsborough mayor Jenn Weaver. And thank you for that. I feel like I do have a little bit more of a big picture context of Hillsborough. I would like to get a little bit more zoomed in context. So I’m going to ask you a pretty generic question that I’m probably going to actually use the answer to this for in real life. If I were planning a day trip to Hillsborough, what would you recommend I include in that day trip?
Weaver: Well, I hope you would set aside the whole day because there’s so much that you could do and you could fill the whole day easily. You could certainly start with getting coffee and delicious pastries. We have an abundance for a town, for a community as small as ours. We now have three fantastic places where you can get baked goods downtown and I would certainly start there. And then before it gets too hot, if you’re coming this summer, it’s the perfect time to head down to River Walk and enjoy River Walk by foot, by bicycle or by wheelchair. That is an accessible path. And then you might want to add on the Occoneechee Speedway, it’s at one end of Riverwalk or you might take a more ambitious hike at Occoneechee Mountain on the other end. By that time you’re probably going to be ready for something to eat. So you can grab something to eat at one of our many delicious local restaurants, and then you could hit up some of our art galleries, some of our local retail establishments. We have a fantastic independent bookstore downtown, and you can also walk up to some of our historic sites like the Orange County Historical Museum, which is super interesting, and of course serves the whole county. Or the Burwell School, which is another beautiful site, with so much to learn there. And then, you could grab dinner again downtown, but also know that there’s really great places to eat north and south of downtown. The repertoire of places to get great food at a variety of price points has really expanded over the past five to 10 years in Hillsborough. So, there’s always something for everyone.
Stuckey: Awesome. Thank you so much for that. I’m definitely going be revisiting this conversation in a couple weeks when I have a free weekend to make it up there.
Weaver: Awesome.
Stuckey: We have about a minute left if there’s anything else going on around the area that you’d like to touch on.
Weaver: Just a reminder to folks that the tomato picnic at Burwell School is coming up on the last Friday in July. There’s always great opportunities to get out and be in community with folks and build relationships with other people. Check out lots of free events in Hillsborough and the Visit Hillsborough site can always tell you more.
Stuckey: Thank you Hillsborough Mayor Jenn Weaver, have a great rest of your week.
Weaver: Thank you so much. You too. Talk to you soon.
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