Protesters descend on future Carrboro CVS again

Members of the group gathered in front of the vacant building, at 201 N. Greensboro St., which they had hoped would become a community center. Unlike the night before, when protesters went inside the building and were asked to leave by the town’s mayor and police, this time the gathering stayed outside.

Maria Rowan spoke on behalf of the group and said “the laws are unjust and people are suffering.” She asked the news media not to record any of their gathering on the street corner. One man then stood in front of a news camera.

Jeff Herrick, who lives near the building and said he is married to an alderwoman, said he, too, does not want to see a CVS because he believes it will increase traffic, but he did not support what he saw Saturday night.

“We’ve been approaching it through the normal means, where you go through the mayor, you go to the aldermen, you talk to them,” Herrick said. “You go to the town. You can talk to the town planning board. You can figure out what the process is that CVS has to go through.”

Herrick says the store is not a done deal and there is still is a zoning matter that has to be cleared up before it can become a CVS. Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton said there will be a public meeting with representatives of CVS to discuss the matter at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

In a statement Saturday, the protesters said the proposed drug store has faced "near-unanimous opposition" from the Carrboro community.

"Carrboro residents should have direct decision-making power over the resources of our neighborhoods and workplaces, rather than live at the mercy of speculating absentee landlords, out-of-state drug corporations, or town bureaucrats and politicians," the release said.