VOLUME 147 ISSUE 10 | THURSDAY, MAY 2, 2024
CHATHAMNEWSRECORD.COM
C HATHAM NEWS & R ECORD THE CHATHAM COUNTY EDITION OF NORTH STATE JOURNAL
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BRIEF this week
Housing manufacturer eyeing Siler City plant Housing component manufacturer Innovative Construction Group is planning a manufacturing facility in Siler City that would see a capital investment of just under $40 million, with the possible creation of more than 150 jobs over the next five years. The Florida-based company is in the final stages of evaluating a potential purchase of 46 acres at the Chatham-Siler City Advanced Manufacturing Site, also home to Wolfspeed’s future silicon carbide plant. As part of the development, the North Carolina Railroad Company will spend $200,000 to create a new rail spur to the site, connected to the Norfolk Southern Railway, handling some 75 rail cars per year.
Chatham seeks new Board of Health members Chatham County has four vacancies on its 11-member Board of Health, with spots reserved for a physician, nurse, optometrist and a member of the public, and they must be Chatham County residents. Professional applicants must hold a current license to practice in North Carolina. Interested parties should submit their application by Friday, May 9, at 5 p.m. on chathamcountync.gov. The Board will review applications and make a recommendation to the Board of Commissioners. Candidates will serve a three-year term with up to two additional terms possible.
Former Congressman McMillan dead at 91 Former Congressman John B. McMillian died last month at age 91. McMillan, CEO of Harris-Teeter, ran for Congress in 1984, winning his seat by just 321 votes. He had 50 years of experience representing clients in courtrooms and at the NC General Assembly as a lobbyist. He was also a former president of the NC State Bar. He served on a litany of statewide boards and was instrumental in the planning and construction of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences building, the Nature Research Center and the State Bar Building.
MAKIYA SEMINERA / AP PHOTO
Students work on assignments and listen to organizers as they sit inside the encampment protest in Polk Place at UNC Chapel Hill on Monday.
Protesters raise Palestinian flag on UNC flagpole The provocation follows early morning arrests at the Chapel Hill ‘Gaza Solidarity Encampment’ By Jordan Golson and A.P. Dillon Chatham News & Record MIDDAY ON Tuesday, a confrontation between police and protesters at UNC Chapel Hill was broadcast live on national news networks CNN and Fox News, with objects being thrown at officers who were protecting a flagpole at the center of Polk Place.
Police had rushed into the center of the protests after an enormous American flag flying on a campus flag pole was lowered and replaced with a Palestinian Flag, according to press reports and a post on X from Students for Justice in Palestine, a student group at UNC Chapel Hill. Previously, in a pre-dawn operation on Tuesday, law enforcement agencies detained 30 individuals participating in the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” at Polk Place on the UNC Chapel Hill campus. The encampment lasted around three days and the ar-
rests followed a warning issued by Interim Chancellor Lee Roberts and Provost Chris Clemens at 5:37 a.m., urging the demonstrators to disperse or face consequences. Only six of the 30 detained were arrested, according to a report from The Daily Tar Heel, the student newspaper at UNC Chapel Hill. All were later released. The operation began around 7 a.m. and involved multiple agencies such as the UNC Chapel Hill Campus Police, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and North Carolina State Highway Patrol officers. Reports
from the scene claim officers from the N.C. State University, UNC Wilmington, and Appalachian State University were also present. University officials had previously informed protesters the encampment’s tents were in violation of school policies. Those arrested have allegedly been taken to the Orange County Detention Center for processing. UNC Students for Justice in Palestine organized the protest as a means to pressure the university to sever financial ties with companies tied to Israel. In a statement, Roberts and Clemens emphasized the need to prioritize the safety of students, faculty, staff, and campus visitors, particularly with quickly approaching final exams and graduation ceremonies. “This group has now made it clear they will no longer even consider our requests to abide See PROTESTORS, page A3
Chatham Schools tout Moncure Fire pitches music, STEM programs new training facility “He often fills in as a father figure for those students that might not have that special someone in their lives.” Letter recognizing Rodney Barker, lead custodian at Bennett Elementary.
30-year vet Rodney Barker recognized for his service By Robert Owens For Chatham News & Record CHATHAM COUNTY was cited by the NAMM Foundation as one of America’s Best Communities for Music Education, an award revealed at the Chatham County Schools April 15 board meeting. The award acknowledges schools and districts with a commitment to and support of music education, and this is the 6th consecutive year Chatham has received the designation. “We are excited that we were honored with the best communities for music education once again this is our sixth year in a row and this year there were only two districts in the state of North Carolina and we were one of those,” said Amanda Moran, assistant superintendent for academic services & instructional support. Some 1,000 schools and districts are recognized every year. Robotics and computer science programs at CCS also got a shout out during the meeting, with Superintendent Anthony Jackson telling the board about a visit to the school by a mobile STEM lab. “We had Betabox, a gaming and technology company with a lot of artificial intelligence and interactive robotics, bring their mobile lab down to our OneAcademy and our students were allowed to spend time with that,” said Jackson. CCS educators and staff were also recognized by the board, with Kirsten Berger of Seaforth High School named the Excellence and Opportunity Champion for April. Berger is advisor to the Black Student Union at Seaforth, which has become more visible under her tutelage. “Coach K” See SCHOOLS, page A2
Chatham commissioners vote to move forward on proposal By Robert Owens For Chatham News & Record MONCURE Fire Chief Robert Shi made a plea for a new training facility at the Chatham County Commissioners April 15 meeting. The department, which contracts with the county to provide fire, rescue and emergency medical services across 86 square miles in Moncure and surrounding areas. “We are sort of the main community organization in Moncure there is really no other quasi-public entity excluding the school,” Shi said. “We’re kind of the very heart of the community. … most of our firefighters are from Moncure, from the community they live in.” The district, which is funded by a special fire tax, is projected to get “massive growth” Shi said, and noted that an increased need for fire services will arise before the money arrives. “We do the best we can with the amount of money that we get to work with. We feel that we punch above our weight by trying to get creative,” Shi told the commissioners, em-
phasizing the need for safety equipment and, particularly, a new training center. Shi asked commissioners to allocate $600,000 of funding from the coal ash fund towards construction of a new training facility to help prepare for “high risk, low-frequency events.” “Some of the most challenging incidents we respond to are things that don’t happen often. We need to have that muscle memory,” he explained. “Training facility credit is worth 14 times as much as classroom training” when it comes to determining the ISO rating for the district, which is what helps determine property insurance rates. “Maintaining or lowering our permit rating directly translates into saving money for the citizens in our district,” he said. Currently, it’s prohibitive to get it is proSee TRAINING, page A3
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