What dangers do power lines pose to emergency responders?

Progress Energy helped firefighters answer that question Monday by conducting a live wire demonstration for first responders at Siler Business Park in Siler City.

A trailer consisting of three power poles, a transformer, fuses and circuits was used to demonstrate high and low voltage. Linemen used 120 volts to demonstrate low voltage and 7,200 volts for high voltage.

According to Marty Clayton, Progress Energy’s manager of media relations, Progress Energy wanted to recreate the kind of incidents first responders often encounter, such as trees in power lines.

Linemen use long yellow poles called shotgun sticks when working with live wires. They wear rubber gloves and boots which are tested daily.

"We fill up the gloves with air and see if any air escapes from them," he said. "If there is even a hole the size of a pin, electricity can get into the glove."

Clayton said the shotgun sticks are cleaned and waxed each day because dirt conducts electricity.

Linemen attached rubber snakes to the shotgun sticks to demonstrate what might happen when snakes climb power poles.

"Snakes are a good conductor of electricity because of the moisture and tissue they contain," he said. "We try to protect animals from getting into the lines but occasionally, they still do."

Clayton talked about underground power lines and how to locate them.

"We’ve had instances where people have been digging in their yards and struck a line," he said. "The current will melt steel."

He advised the audience to call Carolina One Call to locate buried power lines before digging in their yards.

Clayton also talked about trees in power lines and why citizens should not attempt to remove the trees themselves.

more- See Thursday, May 17 paper: Vol 87, No.24

more- See Thursday, May 17 paper: Vol 87, No.24

By Angela Delp

After one of ISP Minerals’ land deals went sour, many Chatham County residents questioned the future of an ISP quarry in Siler City’s extraterritorial jurisdiction.

The question has been answered.

Ann M. Anderson, attorney for the Maryland-based company, said in a Hillsborough courtroom Monday that the company no longer plans to pursue the project, citing as the reason the sale of Siler City Mayor Pro Tem John Grimes’ land to a competing buyer.

Grimes sold 115 acres previously sought by the company when his contracts with ISP expired.

ISP Minerals had planned to build a 1,076-acre quarry off Old U.S. 421 in the Mount Vernon Springs Community. The company intended to manufacture roofing granules.

On Monday, a lawsuit filed by several plaintiffs against the Town of Siler City over the town’s decision to rezone property from an agricultural/residential use to heavy industry to allow the mining operation was to be heard in Superior Court in Hillsborough.

Anderson and Siler City’s town attorney William Morgan both suggested the case be dismissed.

Plaintiffs Friends of Mount Vernon Springs (FOMVS), Horizon Cellars and private citizens Bobby Branch, David Watts and Stephen Landing pointed out that the proposed quarry site is still zoned for industry.

They asked Judge Kenneth Titus to revoke the company’s special use permits and rezone the quarry site from Heavy-Industrial (H-I) back to Agricultural-Residential (A-R).

Horizon Cellars’ attorney David Pokela called the company’s withdraw from the project "a step in the right direction."

more- See Thursday, May 17 paper: Vol 87, No.24

By Randall Rigsbee

Chatham County will upgrade its existing water treatment plant at Jordan Lake rather than proceed with a plan a previous county board approved to buy drinking water from Harnett County.

The Chatham County Board of Commissioners split in a 3-2 vote last week to back out of a $32 million plan with Harnett County.

The plan to buy water from Harnett County was made by Chatham commissioners last fall when the board was comprised of Bunkey Morgan, Tommy Emerson, Carl Outz and current board members Patrick Barnes and Mike Cross. The decision last year was unanimous and commissioners said at the time that other governments were eager to work with Harnett if Chatham wasn’t.

During a work session last week, commissioners Carl Thompson, George Lucier and Tom Vanderbeck voted in favor of reversing the earlier board’s decision in favor of upgrading Chatham’s plant.

Barnes and Cross voted against withdrawing the deal, continuing to favor the Harnett option as a way to ensure a water supply for Chatham County’s growing population.

The deal with Harnett County would have supplied an additional 6 million gallons daily to Chatham.

Commissioners will instead invest in the water treatment plant at Jordan Lake and continue to seek an additional allocation of Jordan Lake water.

The plant currently has a capacity to process 3 million gallons per day (mgd).  Chatham has a 6 mgd allocation.

more- See Thursday, May 17 paper: Vol 87, No.24

Authorities are investigating a possible homicide in northern Chatham County.

The victim was identified as Tracy Baldwin, 38, of 29 Red Pine Road, Chapel Hill, according to the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office.

The cause of death is thought to be "blunt force trauma," said Sheriff Richard Webster.

The official cause of death will be determined after an autopsy is performed by the medical examiners’ office in Chapel Hill, he said.

"All information is going to be released by the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office," an official from the medical examiners’ office said Tuesday.

At this point, no suspects have been named in what is being investigated as a homicide.

"It was bad," Webster said of the crime scene. Webster added that he really wanted to find whoever was responsible for the woman’s death.

It is estimated that the time of death was no more than 48 hours before her discovery on Saturday. It is still unclear how she died but she was found in her bed, a report from the Sheriff’s Office said.

The medical examiner conducted an autopsy May 13 and will release the information to the sheriff’s office regarding the cause of death.

more- See Thursday, May17 paper: Vol 87, No.24

By Joseph Pardington

While there are many themes to this year’s Pittsboro Relay for Life, one theme stands out, said Carol Esau, co-chair of the Pittsboro Relay for Life. "Our whole theme is: ‘Cancer doesn’t sleep, and neither do we," she said. "Our big focus has been from midnight to 8 a.m."

The 2007 Pittsboro Relay will be held Friday May 18 and Saturday May 19 at Northwood High School. Festivities begin at approximately 6 p.m.

The Pittsboro Relay for Life is one of hundreds raising funds for the American Cancer Society. But, combined with the West Chatham Relay, Pittsboro is best Relay for its size (from 50,000 to 59,000).

more- See Thursday, May17 paper: Vol 87, No.24