One of the things common to almost every American household is that we need to get rid of a Christmas tree right about now. If you live in Durham, here are the instructions for tree pickup straight from the city.

“The Department of Solid Waste Management will collect Christmas trees from all Solid Waste customers from January 4-29, 2010.  Trees should be placed at the curb by 7 a.m. on residents’ normal household garbage collection day.  Residents are asked to leave the tree at the curb for one week before contacting Durham One Call at (919) 560-1200 to report a missed tree collection.

Trees taller than six feet should be cut in half.  Residents should also remove all decorations, including tinsel, lights, garland, and ornaments, as well as stands, nails, and other hardware.  Residents are also asked to not place trees in bags.

Christmas trees may also be dropped off at the City’s Waste Disposal & Recycling Center at 2115 E. Club Blvd., Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Saturday, 7:30 a.m. to 12 p.m., at no charge until January 29.  Trees delivered after that date will be subject to the usual disposal fees.”

[photo credit zin1223 and Creative Commons]

That is a debate which will probably go on forever — right alongside Duke vs UNC vs State and Ginger vs Mary Ann.

Last week, the Milken Institute added another data point when they released their list of Best Performing Cities for 2009. tucked in comfortably at #6 is our fair city. Durham did well in job growth and in high-tech GDP in 2008. According to Milken, we’ve even handled the storms of the past year relatively well, with only a modest job contraction — ranking Durham at 54th out of a group of 200.

Where was Raleigh? Four spots down in 10th place. Raleigh also did well in most categories, but the job contraction of the past year [where it ranked 124th out of 200] really dropped the overall score. That ranking is certainly nothing to sneeze at and it is very possible the roles will be reversed in 2010, but for now, we’ll enjoy our place in the sun.

The Herald Sun reported today that a proposed high school will not be built on the Erwin-Cornwallis site the DPS has been investigating. apparently the grading requirements and the required creek buffers made the site unsuitable for the amount of development required for a high school. The DPS staff says they are still looking at three other sites for the new high school, but would not give any information about their location.

Today’s Herald-Sun had the results of last years Performance composite scores. congratualtions to the following schools, which were cited as “Schools of Distinction”

• Little River Elementary
• Mangum Elementary
• Pearsontown Elementary
• Middle College High School at Durham Tech

This award is a reflection of a lot of hard work by both students and faculty. Congratulations!

For more details about the results for all Durham schools, click here.

I will get to the monthly housing stats in a [hopefully] few moments, but I wanted to call reader’s attention to this insightful post at Bull City Rising about the possibilities for a new high school. Kevin and Yonah have done an amazing job of analyzing how a new high school could fit in various places in Durham — along Ninth Street, at the current University Ford and at the old Lakewood Shopping Center. They didn’t look at my pet site, University Marketplace, but that is a small omission. Hopefully we can spur some discussion about how Durham can reuse its current buildings before clearing its ever shrinking greenways.

Looking for something to do to celebrate our nation’s Independence Day? Here are a few ideas

As always the biggest event of the weekend is the Festival For the Eno. The festival runs all weekend, and features over 80 performers on 4 separate stages. Plus it ends at 6PM, so you would still have time to make the fireworks!

Durham’s fireworks celebration will be in the American Tobacco complex. There will be live music starting at 5:30, a baseball game at the DBAP starting at 6:50 [the USA National Team vs. Guatemala] and fireworks after the game — probably around 9PM. Admission to the stadium will be free after the 7th inning stretch [around 7:30]

Chapel Hill’s fireworks will go off at Kenan stadium on UNC’s campus. The stadium gates will open at 7PM with live entertainment until the fireworks start at 9:30PM. Admission is free.

Have fun this evening, and remember what we are celebrating.

The Friends of the Durham Library is having its 2009 Summer Book Sale this weekend. The sale is being held at its traditional location – the Main Library at 300 N Roxboro [on the eastern side of the Durham Loop]. There will be thousands of books, DVDs and other media for sale with prices starting at 50 cents each. Here are the hours for the sale.

• Friday, June 26, 4 – 7 p.m. Friends members only—join at the door!
• Saturday, June 27, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Everyone welcome.
• Sunday, June 28, 2 – 5 p.m. Everyone welcome. $7 Bag Sale, auditorium only.

This is a great opportunity to fill out a collection, or explore some genres you have been curious about. Plus, your money helps a community resource. Hopefully, we’ll see you there.