INC NEWS - Melissa Rooney among "Eight to Watch"

[Pat Carstensen]

I don't know if it bad news that Durham's growth is so painful or good news that Durham's neighborhoods are so noticed, but congratulations to Melissa

MELISSA ROONEYIn 2006, Melissa Rooney was named "Neighborhood
Hero" in Durham. In 2007, she made herself a sort of e-mail Paul Revere
for the town as a whole, and in the process became a voice for
ever-growing South Durham.In 2008 -- well, Rooney said she'll
wait to run for public office until her children are in school full
time, but, "I feel a sense of fate in that direction."Rooney, 37, has lived in the Fairfield subdivision off Herndon Drive for almost five years."My
big concern is environmental," she said. Her activist horizons began
expanding when woods just across the street were cut and graded for a
new subdivision.She began to educate herself on development and
the rules and processes that govern it in Durham, sharing what she
learned by way of Durham's multitudinous e-mail lists.She also began campaigning to change the rules to give residents more information and more say about what's done around them."It's not so much my thoughts as a culmination of conversations with other people," she said.Rooney
holds a doctorate in chemistry and met her husband, Mike, in graduate
school at UNC-Chapel Hill. They have two children, Aiden, 6, and
Seamus, 4."It's been a real whirlwind year [in 2007]," she said.
"I get really frustrated, but I feel really good about the people I've
met and the baby steps we've taken."

Full article: http://www.newsobserver.com/print/tuesday/city_state/story/854716.html


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