Web Run

Land transfer tax long shot, Chatham told
[Mar. 15, 2005] A tax some officials say is the best way for Chatham County to fund about $150 million in needs could be difficult to get through the General Assembly, state Rep. Joe Hackney warned county commissioners. During a meeting with the commissioners, Hackney said he'd push for the 1 percent land transfer tax, but noted that history is not necessarily in its favor. "Every time I guess somebody tries it and the political situation is assessed, and it either goes or it doesn't," and it usually doesn't, Hackney told the commissioners. "We'll do our best to check it out and give you the best honest report we can give you." By WEB RUN - Herald-Sun

DA named superior court judge
[Mar. 15, 2005] Gov. Mike Easley named Orange-Chatham District Attorney Carl Fox as a new superior court judge for the two counties Monday. The governor also named Fox's senior assistant district attorney, Jim Woodall, to be interim district attorney. Both men will be sworn in to their new offices March 23. Fox, 51, will fill a new position created by the N.C. General Assembly in 2004. He will join Wade Barber as the second superior court judge in Orange and Chatham counties. Superior court judges handle both felony criminal cases and civil lawsuits and spend about half the year handling cases in their own district and about half a year handling cases in nearby districts. By WEB RUN - Herald-Sun

Fox moves to the bench
[Mar. 15, 2005] Orange-Chatham District Attorney Carl Fox is taking a new seat in the District 15-B courthouses. Three and a half months after funding became available for a new Superior Court judgeship, Gov. Mike Easley appointed Fox to the bench. The move makes room for assistant district attorney James Woodall to step in as lead prosecutor on an interim basis. Fox, who has been district attorney in Orange and Chatham counties since 1984, will be sworn in March 23. His appointment ends several months of speculation and political jockeying among lawyers interested in the new post. By WEB RUN - N&O

Land transfer tax long shot, Chatham told
[Mar. 15, 2005] A tax some officials say is the best way for Chatham County to fund about $150 million in needs could be difficult to get through the General Assembly, state Rep. Joe Hackney warned county commissioners Monday. During a meeting with the commissioners, Hackney said he'd push for the 1 percent land transfer tax, but noted that history is not necessarily in its favor. The General Assembly hasn't allowed counties to enact land-transfer taxes -- which are a percentage of the property's worth that's tacked on to the price of the land when it's sold -- since the 1980s, he said. Currently, just a handful of counties, including Dare and Currituck, have the tax. By WEB RUN - Herald-Sun

Pittsboro eyes continuing building freeze
[Mar. 13, 2005] To build, or not to build. That's the question Pittsboro board members will ponder tonight when they discuss whether to keep a freeze on major residential subdivision construction for another year. Since 2001, the town has imposed a moratorium off and on on new development because it couldn't shoulder the sewage capacity from new developments. In March 2004, the town commissioners decided not to approve subdivisions with more than six lots for a year unless the developments could handle their own sewage. By WEB RUN - Herald-Sun

'Tolerance' video for students hasn't appeared at area schools
[Mar. 13, 2005] SANFORD - "We Are Family," a children's music video and teacher's guide designed for use in schools, has drawn the ire of national conservative Christian groups. But so far, none has turned up in Lee, Harnett, Chatham or Moore county schools. The We Are Family Foundation sent out copies of the video and guide to 15,000 public school districts this week, reaching more than 60,000 public schools. The video, which is designed for early elementary age students, features popular children's cartoon characters, such as Big Bird and Barney, in a presentation of the song, "We Are Family," by songwriter Nile Rodgers. Conservative Christian groups, such as Focus on the Family and the American Family Association, have accused the foundation of using cartoon characters to promote acceptance of homosexuality under the guise of tolerance. By WEB RUN - Sanford Herald

Geez, Louise: It'll be good to see you!
[Mar. 12, 2005] Carrboro - Missing: elderly woman, raincoat, shopping bag. Goes by the name of Louise. For six years, Louise never left that Weaver Street bench. Then in October, she disappeared, leaving a gray slab and a stir of e-mails, phone calls and puzzled people inquiring: "Where is she?" The cement sculpture outside the Frank Cole Building Company, just down the street from Weaver Street Market, will return this spring. She's in Pittsboro now, being primped and polished after a brutal beating last October. Her hefty 500-pound body was flipped over one late night before Halloween. Neck cracked, hat ripped, face stained with orange paint, she lay helpless on Weaver Street until morning. By WEB RUN - Herald-Sun

New ideas for old oil
[Mar. 11, 2005] The folks at Piedmont Biofuels call their new digs "The Plant," a play on words because they'll be manufacturing fuel out of vegetable oil. The group is tapping into a growing demand for alternative fuels and has plans to become one of the state's first commercial biodiesel manufacturers. It hopes to be making 1 million gallons a year in 18 months and could begin distributing it out of state as soon as April. Biodiesel is a vegetable oil derivative that is processed to work in regular diesel engines. It smells like french fries when it's burned and is often mixed with petroleum diesel to reduce emissions. By WEB RUN - N&O

Bowden's season: a real transition game
[Mar. 11, 2005] Prince Bowden expected Dudley to return to the state championship game. The senior hoped the Panthers would. After all, most of those guys are his friends. And all of them are his former teammates. In January, Bowden transferred from Dudley to Northwood in Pittsboro. The move cost him the chance to play for a state basketball title because the Chargers lost in the first round and Dudley returns to Saturday's title game. By WEB RUN - N&R

'Burbs boom, business looms
[Mar. 10, 2005] Until now, Chatham's nearly 60,000 residents have been too dispersed and too close to too many other population centers -- Chapel Hill, Cary, Sanford, Greensboro, Asheboro -- to warrant much interest from commercial developers. But the lack of options for local entertainment, retail and professional services is likely to change soon. A major highway expansion is set to finish this summer, fueling an impending boom in residential growth in northeast Chatham. Supermarkets, big box retailers and professional services are expected to follow. By WEB RUN - N&O

Chatham whistle-blower wins
[Mar. 10, 2005] For four years, Dan Phillips was a fugitive from all that was familiar in his native Chatham County. Humiliated by a very public ousting from the sheriff's department, he retreated from life, defeated by losing his job for what he says was doing his job -- reporting wrongdoing. He abandoned his hobbies and old haunts. When he wasn't ducking around town trying to avoid eye contact with neighbors and friends, he was on virtual house arrest in his Bennett home, a mortgage he paid with money borrowed from his elderly parents. On Wednesday, a jury awarded Phillips $102,000 in damages, finding that he was wrongly terminated as a sheriff's deputy. By WEB RUN - N&O

Chatham board OKs sewer for molding business
[Mar. 10, 2005] The Chatham County Board of Commissioners has given its blessing to the American Molding and Millworks project in Goldston. Chatham Economic Development Director Tony Tucker said the company is willing to move into the Kyser-Roth building, but not until it can get the wastewater issue resolved.
The City of Sanford is willing to treat the sewage if Chatham will run the line from the facility to the Sanford plant. A grant of $750,000 for the $1.2 million project has been obtained, Tucker said, but noted the remainder of the cost would have to be honored by the county. Some of the remainder money could come from another grant. By WEB RUN - Sanford Herald

Chatham watershed ordinance change proposed
[Mar. 10, 2005] A Chatham citizens action group plans to file for an ordinance change today that would ensure some protection from development in the county's watershed areas. Chatham Citizens for Effective Communities members say their watershed ordinance amendment wouldn't affect a proposed Bynum development, but it would protect about 24 parcels in river corridors. The amendment would quadruple the size of the buffer required along a riverbank, from 100 feet to 400 feet. It also would increase the buffer along perennial streams from 100 feet to 150 feet. By WEB RUN - Herald-Sun

Ex-Chatham deputy who won civil suit loses federal case
[Mar. 10, 2005] As former Chatham County Deputy Dan Phillips was winning a civil lawsuit in Chatham County against his former boss for wrongfully firing him, Phillips was losing a separate lawsuit against another of his former bosses and the Chatham County school superintendent in federal court. On Wednesday, a Chatham County jury awarded Phillips more than $100,000 in damages in his lawsuit against former Chatham County Sheriff Ike Gray. Phillips and his attorney, Al McSurely, convinced the jury Gray fired the former deputy in retaliation for trying to reveal the racist remarks of a Chatham County school principal and for taking an informant to talk to the FBI about marijuana the sheriff's office had lost. Phillips had filed a separate lawsuit against schools Superintendent Larry Mabe and former Sheriff Don Whitt, claiming they engaged in a conspiracy to remove him from his job because he revealed the racist language and attitude of former Chatham Central High School Principal Buddy Fowler. While Phillips was making his case in Pittsboro, a federal judge with the U.S. District Court in Greensboro issued an order dismissing the claims against Whitt and Mabe. By WEB RUN - Herald-Sun