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Hundreds gather
at J-Mto honor legacy of MLK
By Mike Gates
Hundreds of residents,
church members and local officials gathered in Jordan-Matthews High
School in Siler City Monday night to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr. Day.
The evening was a mixture of
prayer, song and inspiration.
The Rev. Barry Gray, pastor
of Siler City’s First Missionary Baptist Church, presided over the
even and kept the mood light and joyful.
"Let’s remember that
tonight, this is a house of God," he said to open the ceremony. "If
you want to go to school, come back tomorrow."
The ceremony was part church
service and part tribute to honor King’s work.
Readings of inspirational
Scripture laced the event, tying the Bible to the Civil Rights
Movement.
The Rev. Edward McClure,
pastor of Alston Chapel U.H. Church in Pittsboro, was one such
speaker.
Powell referenced passages
citing the Apostle Paul, who encouraged people to work for a better,
brighter future, just as King and his followers did.
In addition to Scripture,
speakers told of how King affected their lives, even though some
weren’t born when he was assassinated in 1968.
Locals such as Maria Jordan,
who became the first black executive director of the Chatham Group
home, said she was just one of many touched by his words.
"Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
has impacted my life, and the lives of millions, with his
philosophy," Jordan said. "I realized that with hard work,
dedication and faith, all dreams can come true."
One of those dreams, Gray
said, is the desire for a good education.
To that end, the Council of
Churches took up a collection, which would benefit the group’s
scholarship program.
Elder Samuel Obie, pastor of
the Holy Trinity U.H. Church in Siler City, said that, given the
occasion, attendees should consider whether they could give a bit
extra.
"I see you reaching for your dollars," Obie
said. "But this time, I’m asking if you can give a bit more."
more- See Thursday,
January 19, 2012
edition
Boards discuss school budget
By John
Hunter
The Chatham
County Board of Commissioners (BOC) may be seeking a new method of
allocating funds to the Board of Education.
During the
Board of Commissioners’ retreat last Thursday, commissioners
discussed the possibility of appropriating funds to schools by the
Purpose and Function method.
The Purpose
and Function method is a "broad, not targeted, control and has more
to do with how funds are removed each year," said Renee Paschal,
assistant county manager.
Eleven
counties in the state are now budgeting by Purpose and Function,
according to a NCASS Budget Survey.
The
discussion followed a presentation by Paschal on the roles of the
BOC and BOE in the school budget.
Currently,
the county allocates roughly 40 percent of its budget to education.
The school system presents a summary of requests to the county and a
line-item budget for county allocation. The county appropriates the
current expense, supplement and capital each in a separate lump sum.
A quarterly report is given on the capital expense.
more- See Thursday,
January 19, 2012
edition
Chatham farmers eligible for disaster relief funds
Farmers in
Chatham County may be eligible for financial aid sustained during
last year‘s damaging tornadoes and hurricanes.
Gov. Bev
Perdue has received from U.S. Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack a
disaster declaration for 35 counties to help farmers recover from
the devastating tornadoes and hurricanes of 2011.
The
secretarial disaster designation enables farmers in primary and
contiguous counties, which includes Chatham County, to apply for
federal financial assistance through low-interest Farm Service
Assistance loans and Supplemental Revenue Assistance Payments (SURE)
disaster assistance program.
"We have
never stopped working aggressively to secure as much aid as possible
for our fellow North Carolinians who suffered damage during these
storms," Perdue said. "We owe it to them to do everything we can to
help them recover from these devastating losses and be ready for
this year’s growing season."
Farmers in designated
counties have until September 10, 2012 to apply for disaster
assistance to cover crop losses.
more- See Thursday,
January 19, 2012
edition
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Jeff Davis photo
MLK Celebration at J-M
. . .
The annual celebration of Martin Luther
King, Jr was held at Jordan-Matthews with a packed house in
attendance. Above, keynote speaker Reverend Anthony J. Davis speaks
to a crowded auditorium as part of the congregation, lower left,
listen intently.
Courthouse
work reveals possible hidden tunnel
By Bill
Willcox
During
recent excavation work at the Chatham County courthouse, evidence
has emerged to support one of the famous courthouse legends – that a
tunnel, or secret passageway, once existed under the structure.
The
existence of an opening in a below-ground wall was first reported on
a blog on the Hobbs Architects website.
"A brick
arched opening has been uncovered in one of the primary south side
bearing walls," the blog stated. "The opening is now crudely filled
in with masonry, but it is clear that a tunnel type opening existed
at one time."
Grimsley
Hobbs of Hobbs Architects is careful not to call the opening a
tunnel at this point since there is no indication it extends beyond
the wall. But he said further exploration will be conducted.
Gene Brooks,
a past president of the Chatham County Historical Association, said
he has known a tunnel existed for a long time.
"I knew it
was there because too many people told me about it," he said. "I
talked to people who had seen it and knew about it. One of them, Mr.
Petty, was a carpenter who might have been involved in filling it
up."
Brooks said
one Chatham County man told him he had been inside the tunnel as boy
in the early 1950s.
"He and some
other boys went far enough that they found some wooden cases and
they became scared and never went back," Brooks said. "They thought
they might have been rifle cases."
Brooks said
the tunnel progressed from the courthouse north for a block and
emerged near what used to be an antebellum residence, the Launis
House.
The Launis
House was demolished sometime in the 1950s to make way for a Piggly
Wiggly and later housed the PTA Thrift Shop. The building has been
vacant for several years.
Brooks said
the exact location of north end of the tunnel is not certain. It may
have ended near the back of the City Tap, or on the north side of
Salisbury Street.
Brooks said
he does not think the tunnel was constructed as part of the 1881
courthouse currently being restored but was part of the previous
courthouse built in the 1840s.
Brooks has
never been able to talk to anyone who could tell him the purpose of
the tunnel but there is wide speculation that it was some sort of
escape route for the judge and jurors.
Pittsboro
Mayor Randy Voller thinks this theory makes a lot of sense.
"It was not
used for drainage or anything like that," he said. "I think it was
put there so if someone had to get away from the court quickly, they
had a way. Back then court day was a big day. If they had a big
case, they could get a couple of thousand people there. If the jury
or judge made a decision the crowd didn’t like, maybe it gave them a
way to get out."
A famous 1912 incident in
Virginia known as the "Hillsville Shootout" demonstrated this type
of danger. Five people, including the judge and sheriff, were killed
in a courthouse shootout.
more- See Thursday,
January 19, 2012
edition
Cell phone ban would be difficult to enforce
By John
Hunter
A ban on
drivers’ use of cell phones could be hard to enforce, according to
local law enforcement officers.
Last month,
the National Transportation (NTSB) Safety Board called for a
50-state ban on the use of "personal electronic devices", which
includes phones, while driving.
The NTSB
used deadly accidents that have been attributed to drivers who were
using their phones as the basis for the ban. The NTSB specifically
cited a 2010 multi-vehicle crash in Missouri where 2 people were
killed and 38 were injured. An investigation into the accident
revealed that it originated with a driver who was texting.
more- See Thursday,
January 19, 2012
edition
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