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School
board hires Bryant
as interim
head
Randall Rigsbee
Dr. David
Bryant, who was Chatham County Schools’ director of secondary
education from 2001 to 2005, will serve as the county’s interim
school superintendent.
The Chatham
County Board of Education appointed Bryant to serve in the interim
capacity to succeed superintendent Ann Hart, whose last day on the
job will be Dec. 31
Hart, who
announced her retirement in November, has accepted a new job as
director of the Eastern Division for the Advancement via Individual
Determination (AVID) program.
The school
board anticipates a new full-time superintendent will be hired by
the beginning of the upcoming fiscal year on July 1.
Bryant will
begin work in an interim capacity on Wednesday, Jan. 2.
"I am very
pleased to be here and look forward to working in Chatham County
Schools again," Bryant said.
"This is a
very good school system," he said. "I thank you for the opportunity
to work with you during this period of time and look forward to the
work we will accomplish together for our students."
School board
chair Kathie Russell said the board appreciates Bryant’s
"willingness to come and work with us during this transition period.
"His
experience in our school system and in many areas of education will
be an asset to our students, staff, parents, the community and the
Board," said Russell.
Bryant’s
experience in education includes service as superintendent of
Reidsville City Schools and Edgecombe County, as well as serving as
a principal, assistant principal, and teacher.
Since the
spring of 2005, when he left his previous post with Chatham County
Schools, Bryant has continued to work in the field of education,
directing the Leadership Program for Future Superintendents that is
part of the Principals’ Executive Program (PEP).
The North Carolina School
Boards Association (NCSBA) is coordinating the superintendent search
for the Chatham County Board of Education.
The timeline for the
superintendent search process will include a survey process through
mid-January.
more- See Thursday,
December 27, 2007 paper:
Vol 88, No.4
County tax forms in mail
With the
arrival of the new near, Chatham County taxpayers will receive their
2008 county tax listing forms in the mail within the next few days.
"Taxpayers
that have not received their notices by Friday, Jan. 11, should
contact the Tax Office immediately." said tax administrator Tina
Stone.
Senior &
Disabled Property Tax Exemptions
"The General
Assembly has increased the income limit so that elderly (ages 65 or
older) or permanently, totally disabled homeowners with annual
household incomes of $25,000 or less can qualify for a property tax
exemption for their permanent residence," said Stone. In 2007, the
income threshold was $20,500.
Applications
for the exemption must be made by June 1, 2008.
Homeowners who qualify for
the exemption for their permanent residence will have excluded from
property taxes either $25,000 or 50 percent of the appraised value,
whichever is greater.
more- See Thursday,
December 27, 2007 paper:
Vol 88, No.4
Drought hammers local crop farmers
By Bill Willcox
The drought
has been very hard on the few corn and soybean producers in
ChathamCounty.
Soybeans were
particularly hard hit this year.
"The [soybean
crop] was pretty much a complete failure," said Sam Groce, a Chatham
County agriculture extension agent.
"I don’t know
of any soybean harvests that were harvested for the bean," Groce
said.
Most of the
failed crop was baled to feed cattle, he said.
The corn crop
also suffered.
Most of the
corn was picked but with a 60 to 70 percent loss of yield.
Some of the
corn crop was also baled as cattle feed.
He said most
farmers carry crop insurance that helps provide income in tough
years.
Although corn
and soybeans were crop failures, the county ranks very low, 61st in
the state, in production of row crops, Groce said.
"Our damage
has come in pastures," he said. "Cattle producers have not recovered
at all. Because of lack of moisture grass is not recovering even
with warm temperatures."
more- See Thursday,
December 27, 2007 paper:
Vol 88, No.4
|
Jeff Davis photo
Dancing with
all smiles . . .
Chatham Charter student
Hannah Stackhouse is all smiles as she dances during a performance
of The Nutcracker. The third grade classes of Mrs. Walker and Mrs
Tharp were putting on the Christmas performance at J-M’s auditorium.
For more photos on the play see inside this week’s Chatham
News/Record.
State
orders new Pittsboro election for third and
fourth
place candidates
By Spencie Love
The
five-member North Carolina State Board of Elections unanimously
voted last Wednesday for a new election to be held between Pittsboro
Town Board candidates Hugh Harrington and Michelle Berger.
The State
Board also certified the victories of the two front-runners, Town
Commissioners Gene Brooks and Clinton Bryan.
Harrington
and Berger came in third and fourth in the town race, and Harrington
originally was declared the winner.
State Board
Chair Larry Leake commented, "There were clearly 17 illegal votes
cast in the original election and the margin of difference by which
Harrington won was only three votes. We really can’t say for sure
who did win."
The State
Board asked Jeffrey Starkweather, as the attorney for the prevailing
party, Michelle Berger, to write the order for the new election.
Tim Keim,
Berger’s partner, filed the initial protest on her behalf, citing
multiple violations of election law and asking that a new election
be held.
The Chatham
Board of Elections held a hearing on December 6. After listening to
testimony for five hours, the board unanimously agreed to send their
findings to the State elections board for a decision about holding a
new election, saying there were sufficient irregularities to do so.
Starkweather
represented Berger at the Chatham Board of Elections hearing and
also at the state elections board hearing last week.
Starkweather raised many
issues that the State Board ultimately did not directly address.
Starkweather submitted affidavits from nine Chatham residents who
claimed they witnessed Mary Nettles crossing the 50-foot buffer zone
around the polling place and campaigning for Harrington and other
candidates and thereby violating election law.
He also
argued that Nettles had harassed and intimidated Berger on Election
Day. In addition he said that Keim had reported an instance of
vote-buying.
The State Board of Elections
members, in making their decision, focused on the fact that the
Chatham Board of Elections discovered that 17 voters were not
registered accurately as a result of computer errors.
Ultimately, 17 voters
received the wrong ballots. Fourteen county voters received town
ballots and three town voters got county ballots, and thus weren’t
able to vote for the Town Board. Poll workers handed out the ballots
not knowing that the computer system had malfunctioned.
more-
See Thursday,
December 27, 2007 paper:
Vol 88, No.4
Newspapers set early deadlines
Because of
the New Year holiday, The Chatham News/Record newspapers will
alter normal deadlines.
The deadline
for all classified display ads, motor vehicle ads, real estate
display ads, service directory, society news and church news will be
Thursday, Dec. 27 at 5 p.m.
The deadline
for classified line ads, legal ads and regular display advertising
will be Friday, Dec. 28 at noon.
The newspaper’s offices in
Pittsboro and Siler City will be open until noon on Monday, December
31 and reopen for normal business hours Jan. 2. |
