Jeff Davis photo

The Chatham Central, Northwood and Jordan-Matthews tennis teams were able to tread on new grounds when they started their season on Monday. That’s because all three have newly resurfaced tennis courts. The courts were finished up last week just in time for Mondays openers. Chatham Central was able to test out their new courts Monday when they hosted Thomasville. Jordan-Matthews hosted the Bears on Tuesday while Overhills, a new school in Harnet County traveled to Northwood on the same day. The courts were resurfaced with four coats, including asphalt, then a new paintjob, before the lines being painted white. While one worker dribbled paint along the taped lines, another spread the paint out using a small scn4b brush attached to a longer pole to do the actual painting. The company, Court One, but of Raleigh, painted the courts, then placed new nets up for the court.

By Melissa Ledgerwood

Even with all of the recent talk about a countywide water system, some residents in the extraterritorial zoning jurisdictions of Siler City and Pittsboro are stranded in a “no man’s land” where water is concerned.

Residents living within a town’s extraterritorial zoning jurisdiction (ETJ) but outside the city limits are apparently living in a “no man’s land” where town or county water is concerned, according to both Siler City and Chatham County officials.

 “Siler City has no interest, responsibility or reason to run water to somebody living outside the city limits other than being nice guys,” said Siler City Planning Board chair Don Tarkenton.  “And Siler City just can’t do that.”

Siler City deals with only planning and zoning issues inside the ETJ, Tarkenton said.

“That’s why you live in the city—to get city benefits,” Tarkenton continued.  “These people don’t want city taxes but they want city water and sewer.”

“These people built [homes] with the presumption that they would have wells,” said Chatham County manager Charlie Horne.  “It didn’t work out like that.”

more- See Thursday, August 19 paper: Vol 84, No.38

By Randall Rigsbee

Chatham County commissioners on Monday postponed until September setting a date for a public hearing on Briar Chapel, the county’s first proposed compact community and the single largest development ever proposed in Chatham.

Because of Briar Chapel’s unprecedented size and scope, members of Chatham Citizens for Effective Communities (CCEC), asked county commissioners to consider conducting two county-sponsored public forums – one with developer Newland Communities to present its plan and a second with the county-hired peer review consultants to explain their findings on Newland’s application – prior to the county’s public hearing on Briar Chapel.

“The stakes are too high to do anything less than take whatever time it takes to get it right,” said Jeffrey Starkweather, a CCEC board member. “In addition to the fact that you are essentially designing a city, this development will affect the entire county.”

more- See Thursday, August 19 paper: Vol 84, No.38

County aims to study sewer

By Randall Rigsbee

Chatham County economic development director Tony Tucker has repeatedly said that a lack of infrastructure is the biggest impediment the county faces in attracting the type of businesses and industries it needs.

County commissioners have begun addressing a major component of that equation: water. The county plans to build water lines throughout the county and established three water districts as part of that project.

On Monday, commissioners decided to take a closer look at the second half of that equation: sewer service.

Commissioners unanimously agreed to seek a $40,000 Rural Center grant for a study of the cost of a county sewage plant.

“We all know there’s a sewage problem,” said Board of Commissioners chairman Tommy Emerson. “This will be a first step in looking at a permanent solution to that, which is one of the needs of the county.”

more- See Thursday, August 19 paper: Vol 84, No.38