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©2001-2005 The Chatham News Publishing Co., Inc. - All Rights Reserved

 Siler City, North Carolina  (919)663-3232   

School board to act on final budget

By Bob Wachs

Students and money are two key components of any school system because it takes both to make the system work. And as far as Chatham County’s school system is concerned, both of those areas are on the upswing.

Board of education members meeting Monday night received final copies of the 2005-06 system budget, which shows an increase of 6.6 per cent in spending. At the same time, school superintendent Ann Hart told board members that figures for the 20^th day of student enrollment show the county has an increase of students to a total of 7,521, 117 or between two to three percent more than last year’s total of 7,404.

The final budget, which Hart asked board members to be prepared to vote on at their next meeting, set for October 24 at Pittsboro Elementary School – calls for a total operating expense of $62,790,462, up from last year’s total of $58,857,948. Those figures include local, state and federal funding for all instructional programs as well as support services but do not include capital outlay ($1,905,652), child nutrition ($3,477,012) or child care (($799,374).

Funding for instructional programs and support services comes from three sources – local, state and federal appropriations. In the 2005-06 budget, local funding totals $19,515,115. An additional $38,964,172 comes from the state public school fund while federal funds total $4,311,179.

Hart pointed out in her budget message to board members that state funds were reduced by a total of $237,643, a cut which was absorbed in the local budget. She also told board members that the system has approximately $1.6 million in fund balance and that $1.3 million of it is recommended in this budget.

  more- See Thursday, Oct 13 paper: Vol 85, No. 46

With annexation, Siler City grows and aids business

By Joseph Pardington

The Siler City Town Board voted Oct. 3 to annex the 9.9-acre lot that contains Basic Machinery Co. Inc./Milholen Properties, Llc, providing the business with much-needed sewer service.

The move will allow the town to provide sewer services to a business with a damaged septic system, Siler City town manager Joel Brower said.

“That’s nice,” said Siler City Mayor Charles Turner. “We’ve been working on that for many years.”

The sewer line should be up and running by Aug. 2006, Brower said.

It is being paid for in part by a job retention community development block grant (CDBG) from the N.C. Dept. of Commerce for $637,500.

The purpose of the grant is to retain 80 jobs at Basic Machinery, town officials said.

Basic needed improved sewer and this grant allows them to avoid layoffs or cutbacks. The town would pledge $162,500 in matching local funds, while Chatham County and Basic Machinery would contribute $25,000 each toward the project.

The public was allowed to comment in favor or against the annexation. Nobody commented, and the voting took place.

The annexed property is located along the southern boundary of Harold Andrews Road and U.S. Hwy 421.

The Board, during its meeting last week, also recognized fellow member Sam Adams, who was named Progress Energy’s Citizen of the Year.

Five hurt in wreck on Old 421

 By Randall.Rigsbee

Five people, including two young children, were injured when two vehicles collided in a head-on crash on Old US 421 Monday afternoon.

Trooper SJ. Cleary of the NC Highway Patrol said the accident occurred north of Siler City on Old US 41. near Poe Road when a southbound car driven by Regina Leigh Harris, 38, of Staley traveled left of the center line, strikin a northbound pick-up truc driven by Gerardo Campos Jimenez, 26, of Siler City.

The two vehicles collided just off the northbound lane.

The wreck remained under investigation Tuesday after­noon, at which time no charges had been filed.

At the time of the accident — around 2:25 p.m. — a misting rain was falling, which may have contributed to the wreck, Cleary said.

Both Jimenez and his pas­senger, Victor Rodriguez, were transported to area hos­pitals for treatment of injuries sustained in the collision.

Cleary said two young chil­dren — a 4-month-old and a 2-year-old — who were passen­gers in Harris’s car sustained injuries which were not be­lieved to be life-threatening.

Harris also sustained injury and was hospitalized.

 more- See Thursday, Oct 13 paper: Vol 85, No. 46

Fearrington ponders possible incorporation

By Randall Rigsbee

For years residents of Fearrington Village have considered the possibility of incorporating the community, which sits at the halfway point between Pittsboro and Chapel Hill in the heart of a rapidly-developing region of Chatham County, though the effort has never gained much steam.

Now, after an incorporation committee of the Fearrington Homeowners Association has written a 93-page report on the proposal, which outlines pros and cons of incorporation, the matter is again under serious discussion.

This year, it has been discussed at three homeowners’ association meetings, including one last month, and will be discussed again in November with residents outside Fearrington but within the area considered for incorporation.

 “I’m a proponent of it,” said Bill Sommers, a member of the Fearrington Homeowners Association Board and the incorporation committee. “But there are some who are opposed to it.”

Incorporation would give residents of the area, which would include approximately 150 residents outside the Fearrington community, greater control over planning and zoning.

Sommers described Fearrington, which began development in the 1970s, as sitting squarely within “a vortex of development along 15-50, and there’s no recourse in terms of guiding it. One way of having that is to incorporate.”

The growing region includes the mixed-use Briar Chapel community, which was the subject of several years of planning and discussion. Approved by commissioners last year, Briar Chapel will include approximately 2,400 homes.

Sommers acknowledged that not everyone agrees incorporation is the right move.

“I know there’s a lot of support,” he said, “but I know there’s some opposition, too.”

Some residents are wary, Sommers said, of “another layer of government.”

Others are concerned about additional taxes they would pay with incorporation.

But incorporation is a lengthy process.

“It’s not easy,” Sommers said.

Nor is it a speedy process.

Supporters need at least 15 percent of the proposed incorporation area to agree to the plan. The state Joint Legislative Commission on Municipal Incorporations would decide whether it send it to the General Assembly for consideration.

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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