VOLUME 148 ISSUE 5 | THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2025
CHATHAMNEWSRECORD.COM
SUE OGROCKI / AP PHOTO
Chatham product returns to Sweet 16 Alabama forward Jarin Stevenson (15) shoots against a Robert Morris defender in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last Friday. Stevenson and the Crimson Tide advanced to the third round of March Madness for the second year in a row.
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BRIEF this week
Teacher at Willow Oak Montessori charged with indecent liberties Pittsboro A teacher from Willow Oak Montessori School faces charges of improper sexual contact with two students following an investigation by the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office. Kelli Anne Bee, 44, of Chapel Hill, was issued a criminal summons on Tuesday. The alleged incidents occurred last spring at the kindergarten through eighth grade public charter school in Pittsboro. Bee is charged with two counts of felony indecent liberties with a student by a teacher and two counts of misdemeanor sexual battery. She has been suspended from teaching pending a school investigation and will appear in Chatham District Court next month.
Commissioners reissue Chapel Hill special-use permit for takes next step in coal ash new EMS station site “The site isn’t changing from what was approved the first time.” Angela Plummer, zoning administrator
The EMS station was previously approved in 2022 By Ryan Henkel Chatham News & Record PITTSBORO — The Chatham County Board of Commissioners met March 17 for its regular business meeting. The board held a quasijudicial hearing for a special-use permit request related to three acres of property located at 9251 U.S. 15-501 N for the construction of a new EMS station. The project was previously approved in May 2022, however, due to delays in the bidding process, a building permit wasn’t able to be obtained within the two-year timeframe required by the prior approval. “We did actually get to the point where we issued a commercial zoning compliance permit for them in December
of 2023, so they were moving right along,” said Zoning Administrator Angela Plummer. “Unfortunately, some things came up which delayed further progress.” According to Plummer, the project did receive an erosion control letter from NCDEQ in December 2023 which is still valid as it has a three‑year applicable window. According to the site plan, the station will be a single-story, long, metal structure with three attached vehicle bays. “The site isn’t changing from what was approved the first time,” Plummer said. “One thing that did come out of this is that they went back to the appearance commission and because we had the new, updated suggested plant list, there were some changes that came out of that which have been incorporated into a new, revised landscape plan. See CHATHAM, page A7
Pancake breakfast returns to help local services thrive Kelli Anne Bee
County fire marshal issues burn ban Due to hazardous contitions, the county has canceled all burn permits, and the ban remains in place until further notice.
“We don’t charge for our services, so the chance to have this event again is a big help to us and what we want to do.” Joyce Frank
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SonShine and Blessings teams with Methodist Church to raise funds By Bob Wachs For Chatham News & Record SOMETIMES A CASUAL conversation can lead to big things. That’s the case for local benevolent nonprofit organization SonShine and Blessings and Pittsboro United Methodist Church as they team up again for their Second Annual Pancake Breakfast Fundraiser, set for Saturday, April 5 in the church’s Family Life Center from 7-10 a.m. That casual conversation, which happened more than a year and a half ago, was the result of what church member
John Wilson calls “divine intervention” and happened in part because of a nonprofit organization he started last year called Brightest Light. With a lengthy musical background, Wilson had felt led to create an organization aimed at bringing music into places where it might not ordinarily be found in quantity. “Places like hospitals, prisons, rehab centers, homes for the aged and similar places were what I was thinking,” Wilson says. “I didn’t know anything about how to run a nonprofit, so I asked our choir director and Brightest Light board member David Smith if he knew anyone who had a music-based nonprofit, and he said he knew one — Joyce Frank See BREAKFAST, page A3
contamination remediation The current police station site was discovered to have coal ash in 2013
By Ryan Henkel Chatham News & Record CHAPEL HILL — The Chapel Hill Town Council has taken another step toward the environmental remediation of the Chapel Hill Police Department site. At its March 12 meeting, the council authorized the execution of a Brownfields A greement w ith the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality for the 828 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. site. In 2013, when the county took control of the property through eminent domain, it was revealed that the property contained coal ash dating back to the location having been an infill site in the ’60s and ’70s. A brownfield site is defined by the state as “any real property that is abandoned, idled or underused where environmental contamination or See CHAPEL HILL, page A3