VOLUME 147 ISSUE 17 | THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 2024
CHATHAMNEWSRECORD.COM
inside After 14 years as athletic director at Northwood, then Seaforth, Jason Amy saw his girls’ soccer team take the state title on his very last day as AD. Take a look back in our exclusive interview, Page B1.
PJ WARD-BROWN / CHATHAM NEWS & RECORD
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BRIEF this week
Chatham water rates to rise by 15% Chatham County is increasing the water rate for its 11,200 water utility customers beginning July 1, the start of the new fiscal year. A county press release points out that there has not been a rate increase since 2007, and the higher rates are necessary to cover rising costs and to pay for needed capital improvements. The average water bill of $43 would increase to $49.45. The increased rate will be reflected in quarterly water bills beginning in September.
Siler City Elementary gets new principal Sarah Estes will be the new principal at Siler City Elementary, effective July 1, the school district announced this week. She will be replacing Tania Poston, who is retiring. Estes has been principal of Virginia Cross Elementary in Siler City for the past six years, having previously spent six years as assistant principal at North Chatham Elementary and one year in the same position at Pittsboro Elementary. She began her career in Granville County, teaching fourth and fifth grade.
NCDOT seeks feedback on EV charging stations The Department of Transportation will host a webinar to gather public feedback on where to deploy the second round of public electric vehicle charging stations. The public will be able to give feedback to NCDOT on the federally funded NEVI charging station program, and to learn more about the program and how it works. NEVI, or National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure, is a federal program that set aside $5 billion to build a network of publicly funded electric car chargers around the country — though the rollout has been slow, with only a handful of chargers built in the two years since the program was approved. North Carolina received $109 million to build its portion of the network. The webinar will be from 3-4:30 p.m. on June 26. Interested parties can register for the program on NCDOT.gov, and a recording will be posted to the NCDOT YouTube page. The first NEVI stations in North Carolina should open sometime in 2025.
STAN GILLILAND FOR CHATHAM NEWS & RECORD
A good walk spoiled
Pinehurst No. 2 was a formidable challenge for U.S. Open competitors last week, with everyone spending time in a bunker or the course’s countless native areas at some point. Above, 2013 U.S. Open winner Justin Rose considers his lie during the second round on Friday.
Siler City PD to hire new clerk for traffic records partnership “It’s going to bring revenue in to us, and these are items that these guys are going to have to have.” Andrea Smith, records supervisor
The agreement with iTicket.law, a traffic ticket-fighting legal service, could bring in $200,000 a year By Ryan Henkel Chatham News & Record SILER CITY — The Board of Commissioners has approved a new agreement between the po-
Food trucks, sidewalks headline Pittsboro commissioners meeting The minimum lot size for new housing could be cut in half By Morgan Matthews For Chatham News & Record PITTSBORO — Affordable housing, food trucks and streamlined zoning downtown were some of the topics covered at the Pittsboro Board of Commissioners meeting on June 10. In an effort to help drive
down the cost of housing, the commissioners are considering reducing the lot size requirements to potentially allow for more homes to be built — which would, economic theory suggests, lower housing costs. It was noted this could also allow for more mixed-income neighborhoods, with the minimum plot size potentially reduced by about 50%. In other zoning matters, the See PITTSBORO, page A7
lice department and iTicket.law to fulfill requests for driving records in exchange for a small fee. iTicket.law is an online service that connects individuals who have received traffic tickets with legal representation. The firm’s attorneys, in turn, submit requests for driving and ticket records to help with the defense. The agreement, approved at the June 3 Commissioners meeting, will see the Siler City police
department hire a new records clerk to help with the expected influx of driver’s license record requests from iTicket.law. “They currently have an agreement with Orange County Sheriff’s Office where they have an employee that runs their driver’s license checks, and they have an average between 3,500 to 4,000 requests a month,” said Siler City Police Chief Brian Regan. Orange County, the chief said, currently gets around $5 per records request. “There’s an opportunity for us at the police department to take this on. It would require us to hire a full-time records clerk, and then this person would be runSee SILER CITY, page A2
Many voters in swing-state NC are disengaged. Both parties want to change that Turnout and enthusiasm could swing the purple state
the election this November. The woman, Cynthia, tells Purvis she doesn’t watch the news or even know who the
By Makiya Seminera The Associated Press
See VOTERS, page A10
OXFORD — She opens the door wearing a gray tank top, Hello Kitty pajama pants and pink fuzzy slippers. With her 6-year-old son standing quietly beside her, she listens patiently as Liz Purvis begins discussing what’s at stake in
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