Chatham County commissioners got their first official look at a proposed $90 million school construction program Monday night and acknowledged that the issue isn’t whether to accept the program but rather how to fund it.

"I don’t think anybody questions the need," commission chairman Bunky Morgan said at a joint meeting of the commissioners and board of education where the school board presented a list of projects it said was not "wants" but "needs" for a growing student population.

Rather, the chairman said, "It’s a question of how to pay for it."

Board of education members met prior to their session with commissioners to formally adopt, by a unanimous 5-0 vote, a building program that carries a current proposed cost of $89,728,000. Those 18 projects have an escalated – the cost as much as three years from now – price tag of $103,734,000.

Board of education chairman Allan Zimmerman told commissioners the needs are immediate and the longer the county waits the more the work will cost. Zimmerman traced for commissioners the process of discussion about building needs, pointing out that some projects were long overdue and that further delays would be even more costly.

"You may ask ‘why are we moving so fast now’ on this now," Zimmerman said. He then went on to cite a specific example. "In January, 2004 we got an estimate on a new high school for $35 million. We could have brought that before the board of commissioners but we had some concerns and the community had some. Do we need it now? Where should it go? So we had an independent study done and in September, 2004 it showed us what we need and where."

Jury selection began Tuesday morning in a Chatham County superior court case that arose from a 2001 wrongful termination lawsuit.

The trial involves Dan Phillips, a former school resource officer and former deputy with the sheriff’s office, and Ike Gray, the former county Sheriff who fired Phillips in January of 2001.

Phillips claims he was wrongfully fired for two reasons. He believes Gray terminated him in retaliation for helping initiate a federal investigation into thousands of pounds of missing marijuana from the sheriff’s office after a drug raid in 2000.

Phillips also claims he was fired for bringing to light racial problems going on at a county school.

Gray claims that Phillips was fired for insubordination. He said that Phillips made threatening comments to him and his chief deputy, Randy Keck.

The marijuana was taken by the Sheriff’s Office after a drug raid in Siler City in February, 2000.

Don Whitt was the Sheriff at the time.

The Pittsboro Board of Commissioners on Monday unanimously approved a site plan for Bellemont Station, a commercial site that will include a Lowe’s home improvement center with related retail facilities.

The board approved the plan contingent on several conditions made by the Pittsboro Planning Board, including that a lighting plan, soil erosion sediment control plan, and storm water management plans be developed and approved by the town planner before a building permit is sought.

Corrections to the plan requested by Town Planner David Monroe had been made to the plan by Monday’s meeting.

"The plan before you tonight is a revised plan that satisfies all the minor corrections," said Monroe.

The site is located just north of Pittsboro on 15-501 near the US 64 bypass. The land, owned by Ricky Spoon, is currently zoned for commercial use and would support such a development.

The phase presented before the board included a Lowe’s, a grocery-related retail store, and a drugstore.

Lowe’s Home Centers, Inc. is acting as developer for the section of land dedicated to the home improvement store, while developer Jeff Baran has contracted with Spoon to develop the rest of the commercial space.

The only concern brought up by the board on Monday was the town’s lack of wastewater capacity for such a development, but Town Manager David Hughes said that talks with Lowe’s indicated this wouldn’t be a problem.

"In preliminary talks with the developer I indicated that there were only 17,000 gallons of capacity to serve this property and they said that was ok," Hughes said.

Monroe had also spoken with Lowe’s representatives and said that Lowe’s uses an unusually low amount of capacity because they reuse excess water to irrigate plants.

He said that the engineer for the development indicated that a Lowe’s of this size would use 2,500 gallons of water but only output 1,100 gallons of wastewater, leaving 15,900 for the rest of the development.