Jeff Davis photo

Nobody seems to remember her, but she made sure she wouldn’t be forgotten.

Helen Ewing Gardner was a regular patron of the Main Library in Burlington, part of the same regional library system that serves Chatham County.

When she died in January, 2003 at the age of 82, she left the bulk of her estate, about $700,000, to the Central North Carolina Regional Library System.

Library director Margaret Blanchard said the gift came as a total surprise. "We know she used the main library and we can tell she checked out books regularly until a few months before she died. But we don’t know who she was," Blanchard said.

Chatham County commissioners on Monday postponed a January 20 public hearing on the county’s proposed compact community ordinance to allow more time for the board to consider recent changes recommended by the county attorney.

That decision came after commissioners exchanged opinions about the merits of changes proposed in December by county attorney Bob Gunn and his law partner, Paul Messick.

Commissioner Bob Atwater strongly objected to any consideration of the "Draft B" proposal, which contains a number of revisions to "Draft A," which is the result of 18 months of work by county commissioners, the planning board and the Land Use Plan Implementation Committee (LUPIC).

At the Board of Commissioners’ Monday meeting, several county residents voiced objection to the eleventh-hour appearance of "Draft B."

County resident Ed King was among those who objected to the attorneys’ revisions, calling consideration of the new draft "undemocratic."

"What’s happening here is an erosion of respect for the LUPIC process," said King.

Chatham County residents were without their traditional 911 service for about 90 minutes Thursday night.

According to Janet Scott, Chatham County Director of Communications, the system went down because of problems with a fiber optic line operated by Sprint.

The line, located between Pittsboro and Fayetteville first started causing 911 dispatchers to receive phone calls that were heavy with static. Later the line went down completely.

Scott said the downed line forced 911 calls to be rerouted to the emergency department’s administrative line.

That meant dispatchers didn’t have access to information they would normally have, such as the telephone number and location of where the call was coming from.

Rerouting the call also created a delay in having 911 dispatchers answer the phone, but the administrative line rings three times in the administrative office before it rolls over the dispatch center.

"Fortunately, it wasn’t busy at that point in time," Scott said. She’s unsure how many 911 calls were made while the system was down.

Scott said updates planned for the county’s 911 system would have eliminated Thursday night’s problems.