Driver hits school bus

Reporting activities, Interests and News of the People of Chatham County
©2014 The Chatham News Publishing Company, Inc- All Rights Reserved Thursday, November 20, 2014
Siler City, NC-
Vol. 95 No. 3 USPS 101-160
Driver
hits
school
bus
Jeff Davis photo
I’ll take this one . . .
Braxton Tickle climbs on a garden tractor with a modified front end loader at the
Hart’s Pumpkin Festival Saturday. Braxton was running from tractor to tractor until
he found one just his size. The weekend was perfect for the festival, with blue skies
and sunny days. For more photos on the Pumpkin Festival see page 10-1.
By John Hunter
A Pittsboro teen faces driving charges following a threevehicle accident on Monday
involving a Chatham County
School bus.
According to Patrol Lt.
Richard Merritt of the Siler
City Police Department, a
Chatham County School bus
transporting 37 students between the ages of 5- and 10years-old to Virginia Cross
Elementary had stopped to
pick up a student at the intersection E. 11th Street and
Loves Creek Church Rd.
The bus, driven by Michelle
Womble, was facing westbound on E. 11th Street, and
all of its lights were functional and its stop arm was
deployed. Several cars had
Nov. 20, 2014 Edition
Newspapers set
deadlines for
Thanksgiving
The Chatham News
and
The
Chatham
Record newspapers will
have early deadlines for
the Thanksgiving edition
dated November 27.
Deadlines for all classified display, motor
vehicle ads, real estate
display ads, service directory, society news
and church news will be
Friday, November 21 at
noon.
The deadline for retail
block ads, classified line
ads and legal ads will be
Monday, November 24
at noon.
The newspaper the
week of Thanksgiving
will be printed and delivered on Tuesday,
November 25.
Duke Energy plans coal ash storage
Company eyes site in Brickhaven to house 12 million tons
By John Hunter
Duke Energy is planning on
moving up to 12 million tons
of coal ash for storage in clay
mines in Chatham and Lee
counties.
The company made the announcement last week and,
though the news is fresh, concerns from county residents
are mounting.
Under the plan, up to 12 million tons of coal ash could be
stored in the Brickhaven Mine
in Moncure over the next five
years.
But before any work can
begin, the North Carolina
Department of Environmental
and Natural Resources (NC
DENR) must approve Duke
Energy’s coal excavation plan.
Duke Energy plans to remove
ash stored at the Asheville
Steam Electric Plant, the Dan
River Steam Station in Eden,
the Riverbend Steam Station
in Mount Holly and L.V.
Sutton Steam Electric Plant in
Wilmington.
All basins at those sites must
be closed by August 1, 2019,
under North Carolina’s Coal
Ash Management Act.
“This milestone reflects
Duke Energy’s commitment
to moving forward as quickly
as practicable in a safe and
environmentally sound way to
address the enormous task of
long-term coal ash storage in
North Carolina,” Lynn Good,
Chatham Park revisions
set for Monday hearing
By Bill Willcox
A public hearing will be con-
ducted Monday, Nov. 24 on
a rezoning case for Chatham
Park, as the developer is applying to add 45 acres to the
7,200-acre property and also
submitting a revised master
plan.
The public hearing will be
held at 7 p.m. during the regular meeting of the Pittsboro
Board of Commissioners. The
location will be on the second
floor of the Chatham County
Historic Courthouse.
The 45 acres are spread
across the northernmost section of the Chatham Park
property. Some are doughnut
holes surrounded by Chatham
Park land while a section on
the northern corner is bordered
on the south by the Chatham
Park, but also abuts private
property.
Four of the parcels are less
than one acre; the other two
are 21 and 23 acres. The larger parcels are in the area of
Bynum Beach Road.
The submittal of a master
plan is required as part of the
rezoning case.
“If we add 45 acres we have
to resubmit the master plan,”
said Chatham Park consulting
planner Philip Culpepper. “It
is a new rezoning case.”
He said the rezoning provided an opportunity to revise the
master plan, with most of the
changes intended to provide
clarity and better organization
within the document.
But members of Pittsboro
Matters claim the changes are
a direct result of their current
lawsuit challenging significant
deficiencies in the June rezoning approval for Chatham
Park.
Pittsboro Matters Vice Chair
Jeffrey Starkweather said most
of the changes came about after he was deposed by CPI attorneys on October 23.
“During approximately six
hours of deposition testimony,” CPI’s attorneys wrote
in a subsequent legal document cited by Starkweather,
“[Pittsboro Matters] clarified
the alleged deficiencies in the
zoning map amendment and
Master Plan, provided a greater level of specificity as to
those alleged deficiencies, and
identified new deficiencies not
raised in the complaint.” As a
result, CPI “took the testimony into account when drafting,
and ultimately submitting, the
Nov. 20, 2014 Edition
president and chief executive
officer of Duke Energy said in
a released statement.
“We are devoted to being
good neighbors to the communities we serve and good custodians of our shared environment,” Good continued.
During the initial phase of
excavation, Duke Energy will
move 5.1 million tons of ash
from the four plants, which will
take up to 18 months.
Duke Energy is planning to
send the majority of the initial 3 million tons of coal ash
excavated from Riverbend
to the Brickhaven Mine in
Moncure, with some of the
waste possibly being stored at
a mine in Sanford as a backup location.
Later, Duke plans to put an
additional 2 million tons of
ash in the open-pit mines in
Moncure and Sanford from
On Monday, the Chatham
County Manager’s Office
presented a proposed sevenyear Capital Improvements
Plan (CIP) for 2016-22 that
includes revisions to projects
already in the CIP and newly
funded projects, including an
expansion and renovation of
the Animal Shelter and several school projects.
Residents can provide
feedback at a public hearing on Dec. 1, at 6 p.m. in
the Historic Courthouse in
Pittsboro.
Copies of the proposed CIP
are available on the county
website (www.chathamnc.
org) using the Quick Links
box on the homepage. Printed
copies will be available in the
three county libraries by the
afternoon of Nov. 20.
“We are pleased to announce
that the recent upgraded bond
rating to AAA by Standard
and Poor’s and to Aa1 by
Moody’s had a very positive influence on the interest
rate and amount of premium,
$1.38 million, received on the
bonds for the new Agriculture
& Convention Center,” said
County Manager Charlie
Horne. “This is a substantial
amount that we do not have
to repay.”
Horne added that the Board
of Commissioners will hear
public input and could make
changes in the CIP before
adopting it.
The CIP is adopted annually to provide a long-term plan
for funding capital needs,
such as facilities, equipment
and other projects costing at
least $100,000. The CIP considers both capital and operating costs and is the county’s
major planning tool for projects. The CIP is an important
factor in the county’s high
bond ratings.
In 2006, the county began
setting aside funds in a capital reserve, which has allowed
the county to issue debt for a
number of county facilities
when interest rates have been
at historic lows and construction costs dropped during the
economic downturn.
The proposed CIP includes
all of the school projects that
were in last year’s adopted
CIP, but one was revised and
Nov. 20, 2014 Edition
County seeks
input on CIP
Jeff Davis photo
Wet Ride . . .
An old Model A travels down the road in Pittsboro last week
during a rain shower. The car, and passengers, were part of a
club called the TarWheel A’s, based out of Raleigh. The members of the club bring out their Model A’s and tour North Carolina.
Nov. 20, 2014 Edition