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 Siler City, North Carolina  (919)663-3232   

Fall event planned for incubator

By Joseph Pardington

It’s not clear when or exactly where it will be held, but one thing is certain, the North Carolina Arts Incubator will hold a fund raising event in downtown Siler City sometime this fall.

The Siler City Town Board voted unanimously on Monday to approve the event that would possibly include beach music, food and other forms of entertainment. The likely setting is either the same as the Chicken Festival or the 100 block of North Birch Avenue.

The event would have three goals—to bring traffic downtown, to show those people what is happening and to raise money for the Arts Incubator, said Executive Director of NC Arts Incubator Leon Tongret. The event would most likely be held on the last Saturday of September or the first Saturday in October and would run from late morning to early evening, he added.

Town Board member Helen Buckner gave Tongret some advice.

“I would urge you to make it close to the area where the Arts Incubator is – that would make it separate from the Chicken Festival,” Buckner said.

Mayor Pro Tem John Grimes recalled past festivals when downtown was shut down, festivals that were on Chatham Avenue or Raleigh Street.

Siler City town manager Joel Brower cautioned against having the festival on one of the main streets, due to the need for posting detours and having traffic patrol for several hours. Also the Town would need to get permission from the North Carolina Dept. of Transportation to close off either of town’s main streets.

“The mission would be to stay off those DOT streets and stay on our own,” Brower said.

The Town Board also voted unanimously to approve a new public comment policy.

“It would put the public comment period for the third Monday night,” Brower said.

more- See Thursday, July 21 paper: Vol 85, No.34

Field of candidates grows as filing period for Nov. 8 elections continues

By Randall Rigsbee

Chatham County commissioners are considering revising the way the county board considers some rezoning requests.

The change would replace the county’s current conditional use permit procedure, which is a quasi-judicial process, with “conditional zoning,” a legislative process.

Commissioners discussed the potential new rezoning procedure for the first time during a work session on Monday. They didn’t approve the change, but agreed by consensus to continue to explore it and to have the county Planning Board weigh in on it.

Adoption of the new process would require amending the county’s zoning ordinance.

Conditional zoning originated in North Carolina in Charlotte, which began using it several years ago, according to county planner Jason Sullivan.

The conditional zoning process remains relatively new in North Carolina, to date used only by a handful of counties and municipalities.

Neighboring Lee County began conditional zoning recently, Sullivan said, and it has also been implemented in Burke and Mecklenburg counties.

Commissioners said the new process has some advantages over the county’s current conditional use permit process.

more- See Thursday, July 21 paper: Vol 85, No.34

Exercise help county emergency officials prepare for possible worst-case storm scenario

By Cara Rotondaro

The situation presented to Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) and Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) volunteers and personnel last Tuesday afternoon during a hurricane preparedness training exercise was dire.

A “class five” hurricane was imminent, quickly approaching  Chatham County. And because the ground was already saturated by two prior storms, trees and utility poles were likely to fall.

CERT team leaders sat at tables in the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) going over specific situations at the sites they were each responsible for: Fearrington Village, Governor’s Club, Pleasant Hill United Methodist Church, St. Julia’s Catholic Church and Alston’s Chapel Church.

Luckily major storms have steered clear of Chatham County and surrounding areas so far this year.

But in the event of a hurricane emergency, volunteers need to be ready and that’s why they spent time at the county’s EOC and at the sites they’ve been specially trained to activate in case of an emergency for about three hours last Tuesday afternoon.

The exercise, organized by Family Resource Center (FRC) chairman Bill Lail with MRC and CERT volunteers, involved going over county policy in case of an emergency as well as practicing protocol for opening shelters and ensuring county residents are safe.

“It’s important we understand the policies and procedures of the county,” Lail said before starting the exercise.

The volunteers, including translators, trained to act in a variety of emergencies, sat in a room equipped with computer generated maps, phones and other necessary equipment before checking in with their individual sites. Preparations went on at each of the sites simultaneously during the exercise, which lasted from 4 to 7 p.m.

The Chatham News

is Published Every Thursday by The Chatham News Publishing Co, Inc at

303 West Raleigh Street, Siler City, NC 27344, (919)663-3232

Alan D. Resch Editor-Publisher

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