All up in your business for April 24, 2014

Eye Care Center celebrates Earth Day

The eyecarecenter at 140 West partnered with Farmer Foodshare  to celebrate Earth Day.

Farmer Foodshare is a locally operated charity that donates fresh food to families in need through a network of local farmers.

“We found out about the charity from Old Chicago because they had worked with Farmer Foodshare in the past,” said Emilee Ricks , an optician technician at eyecarecenter who was involved in creating the partnership. 

"We wanted to work with them, so we reached out.” 

On Tuesday, eyecarecenter hosted an Earth Day fundraiser to benefit the charity.

They collected organic food recipes from the community to be compiled into a book. 

A download of the book is free for those who turned in a recipe and available to the public with a $5 donation to Farmer Foodshare.

To further celebrate earth day, there was also a plant swap. Community members brought in seeds, bulbs or plants to exchange for another.

Five dollars from every eye exam or glasses purchase at eyecarecenter this week will be donated to the charity.

Ricks said she expects a large turnout.

“We’ve been telling people on Facebook and reaching out to our customers and patients for a while,” she said. “I think it’s gonna be great.” 

Aidan’s Pizza focuses on delivery and carry out

Aidan’s dad wanted to do something drastic for him.

Something so drastic, he has been awake since 3 a.m. working a different job to ensure the financial stability of the project.

Owner of Aidan’s Pizza and father to 2-year-old Aidan , Thomas Kaczor , said he had to get away from his day job and try something different.

That something different is a pizza delivery and carry-out service on Jones Ferry Road that opened in Carrboro in February.

Kaczor chose the location because it used to be a Chanello’s Pizza restaurant , where he was an assistant manager.

“This area, out in the country, did not have any pizza delivery service when we opened here,” he said. “We have a different recipe, we make our own stuff and we have the best possible ingredients.” 

Kaczor said there are many pizza places in Carrboro now, but Aidan’s is unique.

“We started out trying to make a decent pizza that is cheap and has fast delivery,” he said. “We are still doing that, but we’ve changed our recipes to make phenomenal stuff.” 

The restaurant exclusively does delivery and carry-out pizzas, but Kaczor said they are looking into the possibility of opening a dine-in location. 

Rosemary Imagined moves forward

The Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership is taking community planning to the streets.

For the past year, community input and feedback have been collected through meetings for a project known as Rosemary Imagined.

The ideas from the meetings were combined to create three different drafts for the Rosemary Street Vision and Implementation Plan.

On Thursday, representatives from the downtown partnership will meet with interested community members at the plaza at 140 West Franklin to walk along Rosemary Street and review conceptual sketches of the drafts.  

Meg McGurk , executive director of the downtown partnership, said the meeting-on-the-move is a moving conversation.

“This will be guided by the group and the individuals," she said.

"It’s just a conversation about what we have here and what we envision, we’ll discuss the sketches and the ideas for the future.” 

It is an extension of a similar series of walks that occurred last year called Dream of Downtown.

“It’s going to be really enjoyable,” McGurk said. “We’ll get to be in the actual environment walking around instead of just in a room with a map.” 

The three draft concepts will be revised into one draft concept in early to mid-May.

A community review meeting will be held after in late May or early June to receive feedback on the draft.