News About Town: Last night, before the regular Board of Commissioners meeting, the council met with Alta Planning for a presentation on preliminary findings with the downtown mobility study.  Alta staff presented data showing no shortage of parking in downtown, but a shortage of parking close to the entrances of business. One suggested solution is to look into joint parking with private businesses. As an example, Carrboro leases more than half of their public parking from private developers. Alta also presented ideas to connect sidewalks through downtown, such as making the striped portion of the former BB&T into a multi-use path. 

News Around Town: Jansen’s Hallmark, a family-and locally-owned Hallmark shop in Matthews Festival, is closing business. Opened in 1981, the shop has been a mainstay for Matthews. According to comments on Facebook, the availability of Hallmark products beyond the stores, as well as the increasing popularity of online shopping contributed to the closure.

One Fun Thing: One day into summer break and kids are already complaining of boredom. Enter the library! Along with their summer break challenge, each branch has free activities planned. While many of the activities for Matthews are already full, it’s worth checking out and snagging those last available spots. Slaying the boredom monster on a budget? Yes, please!