Carrboro Celebrates Earth Day! April 22 from 5-7:30 pm

Join us at the Carrboro Town Commons to celebrate Earth Day 2022! In partnership with The Climate Reality Project's Orange County chapter, the Town of Carrboro will host an Earth Day Celebration on April 22 from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The event will feature a variety of vendors to help residents learn more about environmental topics such as food waste, beekeeping, sustainability, recycling and solar energy. Items like vegan ice cream, honey, plants, soaps and candles will be available for sale. Kids' activities, including a children's parade at 6pm—animal and plant costumes welcome, planet-friendly vegan and vegetarian food for purchase, used-book giveaways on climate topics, and many different tables sharing information--composting, electric cars, plants, bees, many environmental groups, county and town climate initiatives and so much more! Together, we can create a strong sense of community as we work to better our Earth. Come get inspired. The earth is in our hands! More information here https://www.carrboronc.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=2087

East Main Street closure on Tuesday and Wednesday

A contractor conducting work on Norfolk Southern Railroad crossing that intersects near the 200 block of E. Main Street in Carrboro will close this portion of the roadway on Tuesday and Wednesday, April 19-20.  Detours will be set up for local traffic, but commuters are encouraged to look for alternate routes to their destination. A contractor has notified the Town of Carrboro that they plan to replace wooden railroad ties and do other work. 

The town will share updates on the status of the closures on its social media channels.

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From left to right Arthur Dow and Oliver Dow with their mom Sabrina Zadrozny 

David Markiewicz 

Come Help Keep Carrboro Beautiful!

On April 23 from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., the Carrboro Recreation, Parks and Cultural Resources Department will host its annual Keep Carrboro Beautiful Volunteer Day. Bring your group, friends or family out to help clean-up the Town of Carrboro and prevent trash from entering our local streams.  Jeremy Poythress, recreation supervisor for Carrboro's recreation, parks and cultural resources department, said the event's purpose is to beautify the town  by removing litter. “You get a really nice feeling from seeing a big bag of trash in your hand at the end of the day that you know isn’t out in the environment anymore,” Poythress said. Bring your work gloves and dress to be outside. Volunteers will meet at the Century Center at 9 a.m. and clean-up supplies are provided. Scout groups and youth groups are welcome to participate. Please register your family or group at https://register1.vermontsystems.com/.../ncca.../splash.html or call 919-918-7392.

• Date: Saturday, April 23, 2022 
• Time: 9 - 11:30 a.m.
• Location: Meet at the Century Center, 100 N. Greensboro St. Carrboro, NC 27510
• Cost: FREE!
• Pre-Registration is required. If you have not registered for programs with the Recreation, Parks, & Cultural Resources Department previously, please allow a couple of days for account approval.
• Registration Website: https://register1.vermontsystems.com/.../ncca.../splash.html

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So many eggs found in Carrboro!

Hundreds of wayward eggs were mercifully located by Carrboro kids this past Saturday. A Teen/Tween Flashlight Egg Hunt was held at Wilson Park and a well-attended egg hunt for younger kids was held at Hank Anderson Park.  Thank you to all the families who participated and all the town staff and volunteers who pulled it off!

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 Protect our watershed during Spring cleaning

It’s that time of year, the start of spring cleaning to spruce up our homes inside and out. Before you pull out the hose or power washer keep your runoff in mind.

It’s important to keep pollutants and litter out of storm drains, because in The Town of Carrboro they flow directly to creeks, and to our water supply sources, without going to a treatment plant first. Grass clippings, soot, auto fluids and other residue from daily life settles on our sidewalks, driveways, roofs and other structures. When these surfaces are cleaned by hosing or using a power washer, the wash water carr­ies the pollutants away from your home, where they eventually they find their way into a storm drain. Even tap water can harm the delicate microorganisms that help keep water ecosystems healthy.

You can prevent pollution by sweeping instead of hosing. If you must wash, be sure that the flow of water ends up on landscaping or gravel areas instead of the street or sidewalk. Allowing wash water runoff to enter storm drains or streams is a considered an illicit discharge and is a violation of town ordinance (Article IV)

For more information on outdoor washing activities and how you can prevent stormwater pollution visit our Homeowner’s Watershed and Stormwater Handbook and our online resources.

To report suspected illicit discharges use the Stormwater Hotline at 919-913-2999, Stormwater@CarrboroNC.gov, or the online form. 

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Come enjoy the WCOM Radio Friends & Family Festival April 23

Not many towns the size of Carrboro can boast their VERY OWN radio station, but we can! To celebrate and support the station, come enjoy the WCOM Friends & Family Festival from 2 to 7 p.m. Saturday, April 23, at Carrboro Town Commons, 301 W. Main St.

The WCOM Friends & Family Festival will be a day of fun, friends, live music, food and lots of activities for kids, and kids at heart. This fundraiser for WCOM is free to attend. There will be food trucks, a beer/wine tent, a KIDS ZONE, and live music featuring Karen K, Saludos Compay, The Carolina Songbirds, and Jay Carlis. 

Carrboro's WCOM 103.5 FM broadcasts more than 50 locally-produced music and talk shows, and carries such essential news shows as Democracy Now, Counter Spin, and Making Contact. 

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Pump Track at MLK Park closed April 19-22

For a few days, you'll need to find somewhere else to do the bunny hop with your bike. The Pump Track located at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Park, 1120 Hillsborough Road, will be closed for maintenance from Tuesday, April 19 to Friday April 22.

Local residents express high satisfaction for town services and quality of life in Carrboro

Carrboro ranks as a “high performing city” with nearly all (98%) of the residents surveyed rating the Town of Carrboro as excellent or good as a place to live, as a place to raise children (98%), and as a place they feel welcome (96%), according to results from the Carrboro Resident Survey.

The Carrboro Town Council received the results from the biennial survey at its April 12 meeting. The status of “high performing city” comes from the national surveying company, which has benchmarking data to compare Carrboro to cities across the country and region.

“I am pleased to see in these survey results that residents rate the quality of life and their satisfaction with services and local government as excellent or good,” Town Manager Richard J. White III said. “This is certainly a great validation of the high-quality services that town employees have continued to deliver despite the challenges presented by the pandemic. We will continue to review the data and feedback to find areas where we can improve services, increase civic engagement, and address quality of life issues in the community.”  

Highlights from Overall Survey Results 

• Notable high areas of satisfaction are overall appearance of the town (82%), access to parks and green space (80%), and availability of festivals and community events (78%). Notable high areas of satisfaction with town services were public works (91%), fire services (87%), parks and recreation facilities (87%) recreation and cultural programs (83%), and police services (81%).
• Most important categories of Town services identified by residents were parks and recreation facilities, public works, and police services. 
• The top three priorities for the Town were identified from importance-satisfaction data as being affordable housing, economic development, and police services.  
• Residents were asked to prioritize the allocation of funds received through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), the purpose of which is to address the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. The actions that had the highest levels of support were providing services to disproportionately impacted communities and investing in infrastructure. 

In an effort to hear voices from residents who are historically hard to reach, a second survey of residents who live in the town’s Qualified Census Tracts. These tracts have 50 percent of households with incomes below 60 percent of the Area Median Gross Income (AMGI) or have a poverty rate of 25 percent or more. Results from this specialized survey will be used along with other information to identify American Rescue Act Plan (ARPA) funding priorities.

Respondents from these areas of town were more likely to be renters (78% in the QCT as compared to 45% in the overall survey), younger (43% in the QCT are ages 18-34 as compared to 19% in the overall survey) people of color (13.3% are Black, 9.6% Asian and 9.6 % Hispanic in the QCT as compared to 11% Black, 9% Asian and 7% Hispanic in the overall survey), and have less access to the internet (6% reported no access to the Internet in the QCT as compared to 3% in the overall survey.) 

Highlights from QCT Survey Results 

• Most important categories of Town services were parks and recreation, housing and community, and transportation.  
• Satisfaction was lower than the overall survey results for ease of walking, adequacy of street lighting and availability of sidewalks.  
• Residents were asked to prioritize the allocation of funds received through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), the purpose of which is to address the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. The actions that had the highest levels of support were providing services to disproportionately impacted communities and investing in infrastructure. 

Benchmarking
When Carrboro is compared to communities across the region and the United States, it scores the highest in every comparable category. For example, overall ratings for Carrboro “as a place to live” were 98% for Carrboro, 60% in the Atlantic Region and 50% in the United States. This data was collected from ETC Institute national and regional surveys. The Atlantic Region comprises North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia and New Jersey. 

Methodology 
The six-page survey was mailed to a random sample of 2,000 households in Carrboro in December 2021. The goal to obtain completed surveys from at least 400 residents was surpassed when a total of 512 residents completed the survey. The survey mailing was followed up by emails and phone calls inviting responses. To encourage participation, ETC Institute communicated that a VISA gift card would be presented to one of the survey respondents. 

Access the Complete Survey Results 
Survey reports are available for public review at https://townofcarrboro.org/1096/Citizen-Survey-Reports  

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Town Council Update

Meeting agendas and updates are issued from the Town Clerk’s Office. To receive these by email or text, sign up for Carrboro Town News at carrboronc.gov/signup

Civic involvement is a valued tradition in our community. Reach the Town Council with your ideas, views, and questions at Council@carrboronc.gov

Coming Up
The Town Council will meet next at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 19, to consider an agenda posted at https://bit.ly/3KRhREM and carrboro.legistar.com 

This in-person meeting will be held at Carrboro Town Hall, 301 W. Main St. Members of the public are welcome to attend in person or can view the livestream at carrboro.legistar.com OR YouTube.com/CarrboroNC OR Cable TV 18 (in Carrboro). 

To submit a comment on this agenda, please contact publiccomment@carrboronc.gov to reach the Town Clerk.  

Past Meeting 
The Carrboro Town Council met virtually Tuesday, April 5, and took the following actions on the agenda posted at https://bit.ly/3LX75Nl 

• The Council received the report for the first quarter report for calendar year 2022 for the Town of Carrboro’s Community Development Block Grant - Coronavirus (CDBG-CV) award from the NC Department of Commerce.
• The Council reviewed and provided feedback/questions on the 2022 Annual Report on the Schools Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance (SAPFO) from the Technical Advisory Committee. The Orange County Board of County Commissioners referred the 2022 draft report for review. The Council forwarded its comments, including the need for reserving an elementary school site at the Greene Tract and district planning that locates families closer to schools within walk zones. 
• The Council received an update on the Town of Carrboro website redesign and related improvements for www.carrboronc.gov  
• The Council received the results from the Carrboro Resident Survey. A news release announcing the results is available at https://www.townofcarrboro.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=2109 with complete survey reports posted at https://townofcarrboro.org/1096/Citizen-Survey-Reports  

About the Town Council
The Town Council is the legislative and policy-making body for Carrboro, consisting of the following: Mayor Damon Seils, Mayor Pro Tempore Susan Romaine, Council Member Barbara Foushee, Council Member Randee Haven-O’Donnell, Council Member Danny Nowell and Council Member Sammy Slade. More information is available at http://carrboronc.gov/248/Town-Council

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Early Voting for the May 17 election

Orange County offers early voting to all registered Orange County voters who wish to vote early, in-person rather than voting absentee by mail or on Election Day. For the Early Voting schedule, visit

https://www.orangecountync.gov/1116/Early-Voting.

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Carrboro participates in Black Restaurant Week