Weekend winter weather proves mild; more predicted

By Randall Rigsbee

For the second consecutive weekend, frozen precipitation fell in Chatham County, though Saturday’s winter weather encore proved more scenic than troublesome.

Though Chatham escaped problematic precipitation over the weekend, weather forecasters last week said central North Carolina could be in for another round.

On Tuesday, the National Weather Service said there was a 30 percent chance of rain or snow in the region on Wednesday and a 50 percent chance on Thursday.

Over the past weekend, despite a thin coating of ice which glazed tree limbs as a result of sleet and freezing rain which fell Saturday, law enforcement authorities in Chatham County reported few weather-related mishaps.

“The roads were pretty passable,” said Sgt. G.M. Franks of the NC Highway Patrol in Siler City.

Road maintenance crews acted early to mitigate the affect of wintry weather.

“The DOT came out and salted the roads early Saturday morning, which helped,” Franks said.

And the trooper said traffic on county roads was generally light because of the weather.

“A lot of people stayed in,” he said.

 Many area churches also took a cautious approach to the weekend winter weather, canceling Sunday church services.

Progress Energy was prepared for weekend weather far worse than the region received, according to company spokeswoman Julie Hans.

more- See Thursday, February 3 paper: Vol 85, No.10

Committee evaluates strengths, weaknesses of animal shelter

By Cara Rotondaro

After an extensive, eight-month, internal study, a committee constructed by the Board of Health gave its final report on the state of the county’s Animal Control Department at the board’s meeting last Tuesday.

The meeting, held in the conference room at CCCC, was attended by many county residents interested in animal welfare issues, some of whom were integral in convincing the board that Animal Control needed a study conducted in the first place.

The internal review team was made up of six members: Kelly Brown, Health Department processing assistant; Dorothy Cilenti, health director; Renee Dickson, assistant county manager; Barbara Long, business owner; Bonnie Terll, veterinarian and Board of Health member; and Jean Vukoson, Health Department quality officer.

The committee studied current practices of the Animal Control department, compared Chatham County’s services to those offered in other North Carolina counties, spoke with town and county leaders and conducted a group forum with community members in Chatham.

The result was a lengthy report. Terll served as spokesperson for the group, presenting some of the most important issues from that report.  

She began by reviewing the department’s strengths.  

“There’s a lot of community involvement in the shelter. There are a lot of volunteers and we felt that was a very great strength,” Terll said.

Animal Control has good training resources, and a good deal of funding, when compared to other animal shelter funding levels around North Carolina.

Chatham County, however, has no secondary animal shelter, such as a non-profit or SPCA, a factor that should be taken into account.  

more- See Thursday, February 3 paper: Vol 85, No.10

Large crowed hears tax rules explanation

By Bob Wachs

A packed house of farmers and agricultural producers turned out last Wednesday night in Pittsboro to hear a presentation by county tax office personnel on how they should be listing their business personal property.

Agricultural extension agent Sam Groce told the more than 200 in attendance that “in my 11 years as a county agent I never thought I’d see this many folks in the auditorium of the agricultural building.”

Farmers were at the session because they recently had received notice from the tax office that for years some farmers may not have been listing all their business property used in their operation. “People have asked me,” county tax assessor Kim Horton said, “what I know about farming. I know nothing about farming but I know the laws about property tax.”

She told the group that the county started an audit of local businesses in 1999, an audit that included farms. “Since then,” she said, “there have been between 500 and 600 audits.

“We’re not picking on one segment,” she said. “It’s just part of the job that all property subject to tax should be audited.”

Horton said two “red flags” had alerted tax office staff to the likelihood some business personal property was not being listed. One was that as she and other personnel visited farms to appraise property they noticed “some poultry farmers weren’t listing the equipment inside their poultry houses.

“And another red flag,” she said, “was when we saw people in the land use plan but no business personal property on their listing.” The land use plan is a county program which allows land in agricultural production to be taxed at a lower value than normal rural property.

more- See Thursday, February 3 paper: Vol 85, No.10