Harrington provides a capsule review of the issues and legislation introduced and debated during the short session of the North Carolina General Assembly.
North Carolina citizens in certain areas are bracing for the introduction of the \"rain tax,\" a fee to pay for EPA-mandated systems to handle storm-water runoff. The tax is the latest federal environmental mandate that local governments must implement.
After the worst workplace safety disaster in state history, the 1991 Hamlet chicken plant fire, the General Assembly strengthened OSHA by passing stricter laws, hiring more inspectors, and levying a non-compliance penalty on local governments.
When environmental protection and economic interests clash, environmentalists, regulators, and developers have used negotiation as a means of settling disputes.
Some things local government observers predict for North Carolina in 2005 include financially sound cities; a clean environment; expanded information networks; an older, more diverse population; and the Triad, Charlotte, and the Triangle coalescing.
Begun in 1980 as a project for the National Trust for Historic Preservation the North Carolina Main Street program has assisted cities like Tarboro, Mocksville, and Waynesville in revitalizing and preserving their central business districts.
Recycling by the state's municipalities has become profitable, bringing higher prices than two years ago. Because of previous contract commitments or insufficient personnel for handling recycling, however, not all cities are benefitting from the trend.
Many state cities, like Jacksonville, are resorting to curfews to set limits for youth whose parents will not. The curfew helps curb vandalism, control juvenile crime, and reduce chances for young people to become victims or be lured into crime.
When Hazelwood and Waynesville in Haywood County consolidate July 1, 1995, it will be only the fifth city-city merger in the state this century. Mergers of cities and counties are even rarer.
To bring companies and jobs to their area, competing cities sometimes offer attractive incentives, like use of a speculative building. While this can be a sound business approach, it can also be detrimental, creating costs that have not been budgeted.
Although nonpoint pollution (pollution not originating in a pipe) has such sources as mining, construction, and failing septic tanks, it took pollution spillage from collapsed hog waste lagoons to dramatize the need for closer management of this problem.
With crime rising across the state, police departments are fighting back with innovative programs like Charlotte's Domestic Violence Unit and Serious Juvenile Crime Unit and Winston-Salem's Court Case Management Unit.
Many cities have residential recycling programs, but few have ones for businesses. Greensboro's Environmental Business Partners involves over 100 businesses in recycling expansion and environmental education.
U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno presented the 1995 William French Smith Award for Outstanding Contribution to Cooperative Law Enforcement to Raleigh Police Captain Michael L. Longmire.