Jeff Davis photo

Cold weather means water breaks...

Town of Siler City employees work on a water main break Monday morning on North Chatham Avenue.  Water main breaks and cracks are common this time of year as temperatures dip below freezing, causing the leaks.  Above, a worker cuts up the pavement to get to the leak as other workers wait to get started on fixing the problem.

Hospital benefits from endowment

By Randall Rigsbee

Chatham Hospital in Siler City and a local church were among the beneficiaries of a portion of the more than $35 million in grants approved in December by the Duke Endowment.

Trustees of the Duke Endowment approved during a meeting in December grants of $35,335,082 to organizations in North Carolina and South Carolina, bringing the total for the year to approximately $125 million.

The 81-year-old foundation, created in 1924 by industrialist and philanthropist James B. Duke, set a new annual record this year with its largest-ever total appropriations.

The Endowment supports  selected programs of higher education, health care, children’s welfare, and spiritual life in North Carolina and South Carolina.

The most recent group of grants includes approximately $20.6 million for not-for-profit hospitals and other health care organizations, $7.5 million for building and operating rural United Methodist churches and supporting retired United Methodist pastors and their families and $6 million for not-for-profit children’s homes and other children’s welfare programs that support adoption or prevent child abuse and neglect.

Locally, Chatham Hospital in Siler City received a grant of $74,839 to provide a bilingual nurse for the Latino and elderly population and for the Caring for Our Neighbors community health ministry; and Piney Grove United Methodist Church in Siler City received a grant of $20,000 to provide domestic violence prevention training and awareness activities.

"We are very proud to be making the largest total of appropriations in the Endowment’s history in a year when many people are hoping that private philanthropy will play a larger role in addressing our nation’s needs," said Russell M. Robinson II, chairman of the Duke Endowment.

The endowment’s previous one-year giving record was $116.9 million, which was set in 2001.

The trustees awarded 44 grants totaling $11,717,975 for programs to strengthen and improve hospitals.

more- See Thursday, Dec 29 paper: Vol 85, No. 5

Town okays school permit

By Joseph Pardington

The Siler City Town Board on Monday, December 19 approved the conditional use permit request by the Chatham County Board of Education to develop a new elementary school.

Town board members also voted 6-1 to strike a planning board recommendation for a second emergency access to the site.

The new elementary school is planned for the southern right-of-way of Alston Bridge Road.

It sits on land that is surrounded by agricultural/residential zoning. The permit was granted with numerous conditions attached from the planning board, and a few more recommendations following a traffic study of Alston Bridge Road and the proposed intersection across from Pony Farm Road.

The traffic study had four main recommendations:

more- See Thursday, Dec 29 paper: Vol 85, No. 5

County helps town with money for line

By Joseph Pardington

The Town of Siler City is $16,000 closer to paying for the Community Development Block Grant sewer extension project to Basic Machinery.

Joel Brower, Siler City’s town manager announced last week that Chatham County agreed to donate half of the cost overrun for the project. Basic Machinery was unable to pay for the remainder of the overrun, Brower said.

Siler City Mayor Charles Turner appeared pleased by the news during a town board meeting on December 19.

“That saves us $16,000,” Turner said.

The sewer line should be up and running by August 2006. It is being paid for in part by a job retention community development block grant (CDBG) from the N.C. Dept. of Commerce for $637,500.

The purpose of the grant is to retain 80 jobs at Basic Machinery.

more- See Thursday, Dec 29 paper: Vol 85, No. 5