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Jeff Davis
photo
Look who’s
here,..
It’s been a
long time — a whole year, in fact— since Santa made his last visit but
the jolly ol’ Christmas elf seems no worse for wear, even though he’s
been making an annual visit for hundreds of years Late at night when the
whole house, including the family mouse, is sound asleep St Nick makes
his rounds, checks his list once or twice, and fills the stockings and
puts presents under the tree before returning to his shop at the North
Pole Wait!! What’s that creaking noise on the stairs? Could it be…
Siler City considers state facility
By Joseph Pardington
Dwayne Patterson, deputy secretary, N.C. Dept. of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention, on Monday spoke about the proposed 32-bed youth
facility planned for the Chatham County Business Park.
“It will be just girls at the facility,” Patterson told the Siler City
Town Board and the Siler City Planning Board in a joint public hearing.
In North Carolina, best practices recommend working with juveniles under
16, Patterson said. Best practices also recommend smaller facilities, he
said. “Smaller facilities work better. Facilities that are tied to local
communities work better,” he said.
The new facility will not be a prison with guard towers and fences,
Patterson said. Instead it will use one-on-one services and behavior
modification, which has been effective for this population, Patterson
said.
“We can succeed with these girls. As North Carolinians, we can do better
by the girls,” Patterson said.
The average annual salary at the youth facility will be around $35,000,
he said. “We will provide 62 jobs to the community,” he added. Most of
the jobs will require a college degree, he said.
Helen Buckner, Town Board member, asked if most of the girls at the
facility would come from the court system. Patterson said they would.
more-
See Thursday,
Dec 22
paper:
Vol 85, No. 4 |
Moncure plant plans expansion, creation of jobs
By Randall Rigsbee
A Moncure industry plans to
expand its operations, investing more than $25 million over the next
three years and creating 65 new jobs.
ATC Panels, which makes wood
panel products, will expand its Moncure plant utilizing a $200,000 One
North Carolina Fund grant, Gov. Mike Easley announced last week.
“ATC Panels’ decision to
expand here in Moncure will provide 65 good-paying jobs for 65
hardworking North Carolina families,” Easley said in a statement last
week. “We are making the right investments in education and
infrastructure necessary to maintain our No. 1 ranked business climate.”
ATC Panels is a subsidiary of
Aconcagua Holdings, and is a leading supplier of composite wood panel
products, including particleboard and medium-density fiberboard.
The company’s Moncure
facility currently employs 112 people.
Wages at the expanded plant
will vary, state officials said, but the average weekly wage of the new
jobs is $652 plus benefits, which is higher than the Chatham County
average weekly wage of $520.
The Moncure location played a
major role in the decision to expand, according to company officials.
more-
See Thursday,
Dec 22
paper:
Vol 85, No. 4
Chatham, Cary pan for growth
By Randall Rigsbee
Managing growth in eastern
Chatham County will involve participation by Chatham County government
as well as the Town of Cary.
Elected leaders from both
governments have met several times in recent weeks to discuss common
concerns and last week both the Chatham County Board of Commissioners
and the Cary Town Council each adopted a joint planning resolution, with
each agreeing to work together to plan for future development of the
area west of Jordan Lake.
The resolution notes that
both government entities are “equally concerned about protection of
water quality in Jordan Lake, an important shared resource” and
recognizes that property owners east of Jordan Lakes “are expected to
continue to exercise their rights to improve, sell and develop their
land.”
Chatham commissioners and the
Cary Town Council agreed in the resolution to “move forward with a
process for joint land use and environmental planning” in the area and
for the process to include both government’s technical staff with
oversight from the governing boards and “extensive public involvement
through a variety of public participation opportunities.”
The joint planning process
aims to create a mutually acceptable plan adopted by both governing
bodies to use when making decisions about private developments and
public capital investments eastern Chatham County between Jordan Lake
and the Chatham County/Wake County line.
Some development in Cary -
including Amberly and Weldon Ridge - already straddles the county lines
and both boards have discussed mutual development concerns in the past.
In 2003, Cary proposed
including approximately 10,000 Chatham County acres in its Southwest
Area Plan, but dropped those plans after protests from Chatham
residents.
Elected leaders from Chatham
County and Cary also met for dinner in March 2004, agreeing at the time
to periodically meet to discuss common development concerns.
In adopting the new
resolution last week, the boards “resolve to embark on a join process to
prepare and adopt a plan to address future land use, utility
infrastructure, transportation, and environmental protection” in the
region. |
