News Bites For Tuesday: Traffic, Libraries, Bonds, Alums, Food

Watch for overnight traffic restrictions this week in Chapel Hill at the intersection of MLK and Hillsborough Street. Wednesday through Saturday from 9 pm to 5 am, OWASA crews will be working on water lines, so one lane will be closed in each direction on MLK and you won’t be able to make turns at that intersection. There will be posted detours.

Also, if possible, avoid Merritt Mill Road during the day on Saturday the 21st: from 9 am to 4 pm, Merritt Mill will be closed between Crest Drive and Grant Street so crews can remove a tree. Detours will be posted there too.

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Orange County Commissioners are meeting Tuesday night, October 17, at 7 pm in the Southern Human Services Center on Homestead Road. Agenda includes a presentation from FEMA on Orange County’s floodplain management program, a public hearing on a possible grant application for public transportation projects, and a possible development agreement for a new Orange County Southern Branch Library at 203 S. Greensboro Street in Carrboro.

Read the full agenda.

Carrboro Aldermen are also meeting Tuesday night, at 7:30 in Town Hall. Aldermen will be considering that library agreement too; the board’s agenda also includes a federal grant for police bodycams and a summary report of a study on solid waste.

Visit this page for the full agenda.

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Orange County has again received a Triple-A bond rating from the three major ratings services. That’s the highest possible bond rating, and that’s good news for Orange County – a high bond rating means lower interest rates whenever the county wants to borrow money. Voters approved a new bond last year, and Orange County Chief Financial Officer Gary Donaldson says the county will save more than $150,000 in interest payments by having a Triple-A rating instead of a Double-A rating.

County Manager Bonnie Hammersley says only three percent of the counties in the nation have Triple-A bond ratings from all three rating agencies.

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UNC’s General Alumni Association has honored three Carolina grads with Distinguished Young Alumni Awards. Brooke Baldwin, Nicholas Black, and Nikole Hannah-Jones are this year’s recipients: Baldwin is an anchor for CNN; Black is the founder of a nonprofit called Stop Soldier Suicide; and Hannah-Jones writes for the New York Times. (Hannah-Jones also won a MacArthur “Genius Grant” fellowship this month too.)

The GAA’s “Distinguished Alumni Award” goes to alums 40 or younger who have “brought credit to the University through their achievements.”

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On Sunday, the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina joined forces with TABLE to support TABLE’s Weekend Meal Backpack program. Every week, TABLE fills backpacks with healthy food for more than 600 local kids who receive free or reduced lunch at school, so they can continue eating healthy over the weekend…and the Food Bank will be chipping in by donating $20,000 worth of food to the effort.

The Food Bank made the announcement Sunday at TABLE’s Empty Bowls fundraiser, which drew about 500 people to the Weaver Street lawn in Carrboro.