August 2005

Chapel Hill Herald, Saturday August 27, 2005

Last Wednesday, the Chamber of Commerce hosted an event to allow members to react to Chapel Hill's recent increase in the fees for privilege licenses for business. In the face of a crowd that was varyingly confused, frustrated or angry, chamber director Aaron Nelson rose to the occasion and showed some real leadership.

Typical of the comments in the early part of the discussion was the notion that "the town is not friendly to small business" or that "to suggest that this wasn't noticed [by Town Council members] is a bit naïve." But when one business owner asked, "Why were no business leaders part of this decision?" Nelson spoke up.

Nelson acknowledged that he was part of the budget committee that met 20 times over several months and worked with the town's budget consultant. He told attendees that he was an author of the committee's final report which he described as "very sensitive to the business community," adding that "he has never felt better about business interests being represented."