PITTSBORO — The Chatham County Board of Commissioners will still hold its regular monthly meeting on Monday, April 20, but it will be very different.
The meeting had been slated to include public hearings on both the Williams Corner development and borrowing for an upgraded radio system, but the Williams Corner hearings will be postponed again, and no one from the public will be allowed to attend. However, residents will still be able to submit public comment, and the meeting will be livestreamed.
Due to mass gathering restrictions implemented by Gov. Roy Cooper — banning all gatherings of more than 10 people — “the public will not be allowed to physically attend the meeting,” according to an April 8 news release from the Chatham County government. The board will vote to postpone the hearings on Williams Corner “to a future meeting,” and those who signed up to speak will “automatically be moved to the new meeting date.”
The public will be able to access the meeting through livestream on TajTalk.com, and any residents who wanted to share a public comment can submit them to Board Clerk Lindsay Ray at lindsay.ray@chathamnc.org by 4 p.m. on April 20.
A public hearing will be conducted on proposed borrowing to “construct and buy new communication towers, radio equipment, generators, etc. to enhance the County’s public safety and emergency communication system.” The county is in the process of securing around $18 million of borrowing the county is slated to do to pay for upgrades to its emergency communications and radio system. The county already received more than $2.3 million in grant money from the North Carolina 911 Board.
Mike Reitz, the county’s emergency communications director, explained to commissioners last May the need for an overhaul to the system.
“The current infrastructure is at the end of life,” Reitz said. “The current system is just out-dated, doesn’t provide good safety measures for responders. We have challenges every single day with communicating.”
Those wanting to comment on that borrowing may contact Ray at her email by the previously stated date and time.
The full agenda will be available at chathamnc.org/BOCmeetings on April 16.