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A suspect is in police custody following a high speed chase in Siler City Saturday afternoon.

The suspect, who initially fled the scene on foot, was later apprehended and is facing several traffic charges.

According to authorities, the chase began around 4 p.m. on Saturday after Master Sergeant Rick Merritt of the Siler City Police Department observed a vehicle, driven by 19-year-old Gerardo Candelarlo Perez, of 415 S. Second Avenue, Siler City, traveling at a high rate of speed on E. Third Street.

Merritt followed the car and a chase ensued, reaching speeds over 100 miles per hour, according to authorities with the Siler City Police Department.

The pursuit continued down N. 6th Avenue to S. 6th Avenue. Perez, according to police, then led authorities to Sam Fields Road, then onto Alston Bridge Road and then onto Rives Chapel Road.

Authorities said that Perez then turned into the eastbound lane on Highway 64, but was headed west.

According to witnesses, the suspect met nearly 25 vehicles while driving into oncoming traffic. Cars swerved to avoid the oncoming car. There were no injuries reported from this.

Officers followed in pursuit of the vehicle in the west bound lanes of Highway 64.

An 18-year-old dancer with deep ties to Siler City has made the Top 20 on the popular Fox show "So You Think You Can Dance."

Noelle Marsh lived in Siler City until she was seven before moving with her parents Edd and Gaylene Marsh to Sanford.

But she has many relatives who live in Siler City. Edd has five brothers and sisters who live in the area and the family business is Marsh Auto Parts.

Due to a strict confidentiality agreement with the show’s producers, her immediate family cannot talk to the media.

But her dance instructor in Sanford, Tori Melby, was able to discuss Noelle’s quick rise to national stardom.

Melby of Dancer’s Workshop instructed Noelle from age three to 17.

Siler City town officials were elated last week when they received word from the state that could begin to fill the new reservoir. And it didn’t take long for the word to get from City Hall to the operator’s at the water treatment plant to turn the valve. By Friday morning water had started to fill in around the structure, top photo of the newly named Charles B. Turner Reservoir. But with the good news came the bad news also. With the lack of rainfall, the town should have to proceed with mandatory water restrictions either the end of this week or the beginning of next week. The pipeline from Dobson’s Lake near Liberty has been opened and water has begun to trickle down to the old reservoir. In the left photo town workers help to get pipe in place so the pumping can begin last week.

Siler City has had voluntary water conservation measures in place for some time, but come next week the town’s water customers will have to comply with mandatory water restrictions.

As of Monday morning, November 2 at 8 a.m., Mayor Charles L. Turner will increase the water shortage danger to Level Two, which means mandatory restrictions shall be in place. It will be unlawful to:

• Water any lawn, shrubbery, flowers or other vegetation

• Wash any automobile or other similar equipment, including commercial washing

• Wash outside areas such as sidewalks, patios, or driveways, or to use water for any similar purposes

• Use water for any decorative fountain, pool or pond

• To introduce water into any swimming pool and

• To make a non-essential use of water for commercial or public use.

Siler City town manager Joel Brower said previous water restrictions occurred in 2005 and 2006. The town was under a Level Two restriction in those years. In 2007, the restriction was a Level Three.

A Level Three water shortage emergency will be in effect when the water level declines to a level which is twelve (12) feet below full.

In addition to the restrictions heretofore imposed, the following additional restrictions shall be in effect:

As of Monday evening, approximately 200 voters had cast early one-stop ballots for the general election set to take place Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Light turnout is expected for the election in general, said Dawn Stumpf, elections supervisor for the Chatham County Board of Elections, because this is the first time since 2005 that there are only municipal candidates on the ballot.

She said in 2005, a total of 198 voters cast early one-stop ballots, so this year’s numbers should exceed that figure, but not by much.

In 2007, there was a much larger turnout because the county transfer tax was on the ballot, so registered county voters could go to the polls.

The hours for early voting, only being held at the Board of Elections office, 984 Thompson Street in Pittsboro, are Wednesday and Friday from 8 - 5, Thursday from 8 - 7 and Saturday, from 10 am until 1 p.m. Saturday is the last day to vote early.

A unanimous decision by the Chatham County Board of Commissioners to sell water to a golf course during the long drought of 2002 has come under scrutiny in a daily newspaper’s reporting on former Gov. Mike Easley.

In the summer of 2002, Chatham County was in the grip of a long dry spell, prompting the county in June to revise the county’s water conservation policy.

"People do need to be thinking about water," the county’s then-public works director Ron Singleton was quoted in the June 20 edition of The Chatham News/Record. "If we don’t get a lot of rain this summer, it’s going to get serious."

Earlier that month, the president of the Old Chatham Golf Club, a private club in northeast Chatham, requested permission to pump water from a creek that feeds Jordan Lake in order to water the golf course, the Raleigh News & Observer reported on Sunday, October 18.

more- See Thursday, Oct. 22,  2009 edition