A county planning board meeting to discuss details of a proposed new ordinance might not seem like the kind of event that would draw large crowds.

Except in unusual cases. In the case of Chatham County’s proposed compact community ordinance (CCO), public interest has been intense..

A February 10 meeting of the Chatham County Planning Board illustrated the degree of interest county residents have in the pro-posed rules.

Nearly every seat in the spacious District Courtroom in Pittsboro was occupied by people closely following the document’s progress.

Last week’s meeting was the latest in the controversial document’s journey toward final consideration by the county Board of Commissioners.

The meeting – which had been postponed from an earlier date by bad weather – allowed members of the planning board to review in de-tail changes to ordinance that have been recommended by county attorney Bob Gunn and his law partner, Paul Messick.

Planning board chairman George Lucier assured the large crowd that the county will continue to carefully review any changes before the CCO is finalized.

"This meeting tonight certainly won’t be the last thing we do with the compact community ordinance," Lucier said, noting there are "several steps left in the process."

County commissioners took their case for extending county water lines on the road last week, meeting with potential new water customers in Silk Hope and Moncure.

The meetings were the first of three – the third is February 19 at Harper’s Crossroads Community Center at 7 p.m. – to give county officials an opportunity to tout their plans for extending county water lines by creating three separate water districts and applying for federal grant money to aid in the construction costs.

County commissioners decided last year to begin the process of expanding the county’s water system.

The plan is to extend water transmission lines from the county’s water treatment facility at Jordan Lake to areas of the county not currently served by county water.

To qualify for grants and low-interest loans for the project, the county plans to create three water districts consisting of Cape Fear, Oakland and Haw River townships; Bear Creek and Gulf townships; and Albright, Hadley and Hickory Mountain townships.

Residents within those three districts are being asked to vote in the July primary to support the formation of the districts and a bond referendum.

Through mud and swampy land two friends tromped, only to be disappointed – at least at first.

"It was a hell of a workout," said Crist Holden just days after his excursion, and consequential discovery. Holden is an amateur archeologist and Chatham County native.

It was on the way back from the search, about five miles from the Haw River, near power lines and a leveled development site, that Holden and companion Scott Bowling, from Chapel Hill, found ancient tools used by the Clovis Native American culture.

 The 14,000-year-old knife blade and flake tools were found by the knowledgeable friends who have been studying the Clovis culture for years, and immediately identified as extremely rare.

 "How rare? Extremely rare," Holden said about the find. them.

 "Just 10 miles down the road are prehistoric quarries that ancient man used. Most people don’t know that," he said.

The knife blade is about the size of a small leaf, and the same shape, but sharp, hard, and fashioned from grey rock. Holden finds an area where his thumb fits perfectly for accurate use.