County seeks one-cent local sales tax hike

By Randall Rigsbee

County commissioners have asked the North Carolina General Assembly to authorize a local one-cent sales tax to generate funds for capital projects, including new school construction.

Commissioners on Monday approved a resolution asking the General Assembly to approve a Senate bill sponsored by Sen. Bob Atwater, which would authorize Chatham County to levy a local one-cent sales tax.

“As the state’s second-fastest growing county, Chatham County is growing at historically record rates,” states the board’s resolution, which notes that “population growth in the county far exceeds the county’s fiscal growth.”

The county’s “reliance on the property tax for funding services and capital needs is already among the highest in the state,” according to the resolution. “The county does not have the fiscal infrastructure to adequately address school space needs and county space needs.”

Commissioners are exploring a number of funding avenues, including a land transfer fee, which would require legislative approval, or a revised impact fee rate.

more- See Thursday, March 24 paper: Vol 85, No.17

County to talk to neighbors on lake intake

By Randall Rigsbee

Concerns about Chatham County’s future access to Jordan Lake’s drinking water has prompted Chatham commissioners to seek meetings with elected officials from Orange and Durham counties to discuss seeking a regional intake on the west side of the lake.

The Army Corps of Engineers has said only two intakes will be permitted on Jordan Lake.

Cary already has one intake.

During a work session Monday, county commissioner Patrick Barnes said Chatham needs to begin planning for Chatham’s future water needs.

Barnes said he is particularly concerned about plans Amberly, the 5,000-home development which straddles Wake and Chatham counties, has for Jordan Lake.

 “In Amberly’s proposal was the second intake by Cary,” Barnes said. “If Cary gets that second intake, we are at Cary’s mercy for our water supply.”

And that, Barnes said, isn’t acceptable for Chatham.

“If we sit here, we aren’t going to have anything,” he said.

“If there are only going to be two intakes in Jordan Lake,” Barnes said, “I want to make sure Chatham County has a piece of one of those pipes.”

more- See Thursday, March 24 paper: Vol 85, No.17

Jeff Davis photo

A group of Union soldiers use their horses to move through the battlefield, setting up for a confrontation with Confederate soldiers Sunday at Bentonville. The scene came from the 140th anniversary of the largest land battle of the Civil War in North Carolina.

Goldston man wins Carnegie medal for heroic action

By Cara Rotondaro

Frank L. Hubbard wasn’t thinking of himself when he rescued Terry Thompson from a flame-engulfed vehicle on March 11, 2004.

He just knew he had to do what he did.

“I wasn’t even thinking. I just reacted,” he said in an interview this week. “Both of us could have been killed. Both vehicles burned to the ground.”

But one year after the accident Hubbard was in the spotlight. Last Thursday he was one of 15 recipients of a Carnegie Medal for his act of bravery.

The Carnegie Hero Fund commission recognized Hubbard and other recipients from all over the country and Canada who had performed acts of extraordinary heroism and had been nominated for the recognition.

Andrew Carnegie started the fund in 1904 and the commission has recognized 8,884 heroes since.

Awardees or their survivors will receive a grant of $3,500 this year, according to the Carnegie commission.

Hubbard joins a variety of heroes this year whose acts of courage include pulling a victim from a burning house, saving someone from assault, and rescuing a stranger from drowning.  

According to reports of the incident from both men, 43-year-old Hubbard rescued Thompson, 60, when he was unconscious in the driver’s seat of a pick-up truck after it collided with a tractor trailer at an intersection.

Flames immediately broke out and grew rapidly, spreading to the cab of the vehicle and the tractor.

When he saw what had happened, Hubbard left his vehicle, opened the driver’s side door of the pick-up and found Thompson unresponsive and restrained by his safety belt.

Despite flames in the vehicle, Hubbard extended his upper body into the vehicle and cut the safety belt with a pocketknife.

He grasped Thompson by his jacket, pulled him out of the car, and dragged him out of the wreckage, which became engulfed by flames.

 more- See Thursday, March 24 paper: Vol 85, No.17