SILER CITY — The Chatham Soil and Water Conservation District invites the community to Creek Geeks Field Day from 1 to 3:30 p.m. Saturday, April 2, at Boling Lane Park, located at 302 S. Fir Ave.
This family-friendly event is free and open to the public. The rain date is April 9th.
The event is an opportunity for the community to explore the local watershed and discover the plants and critters that live in the creek and wetland. Participants will tour Boling Lane Park, where the town of Siler City installed Best Management Practices (BMPs) such as wetlands and riparian buffers. Attendees will learn about these BMPs, native vegetation, and the overall benefits for the Loves Creek Watershed.
Other exciting opportunities include exploring some of the techniques used in stream health assessment and water quality testing in the creek running along Boling Lane Park; searching for macro invertebrate critters living in the creek; and measuring chemical and physical parameters to assess the water quality.
Using an EnviroScape watershed model, participants will learn how nonpoint source pollutants affect local waterways, and they will learn ways to make small changes in their own lives which add up to a large impact.
Each of these activities will run every 45 minutes to give attendees a chance to visit all three. The first 20 participants can receive a free, native tree from the Loves Creek Watershed Stewards. The Chatham Soil and Water Conservation District also will distribute educational activity books.
Residents who wish to attend are asked to register online. Participants will be asked to sign waivers at check-in on the day of the event.
Questions about this event may be directed to Brandy Oldham, Chatham Soil and Water Conservation District Administrator and Education Coordinator, at 919-545-8440 or brandy.oldham@chathamcountync.gov.
The Council on Aging’s Family Caregiver Support Group will meet from 6 to 7 p.m. on Monday, April 11, at Chatham Community Library with the topic being “Routine and Rhythms.”
For more information or to register, contact Aging Social Worker Rodney Dietrich at 919-542-4512, ext. 231, or email rodney.dietrich@chathamcoa.org
GOLDSTON — Beginning Friday, April 1, the Chatham County Library will adjust its hours of operation at the Goldston Branch located at 9235 Pittsboro-Goldston Rd.
The library will be closed on Saturdays, open on Tuesdays, and will not close for lunch on the days it is open. Effective April 1, the Goldston Library will operate with the following hours:
• Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday: 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.
• Thursday: 10 a.m. - 8 p.m.
• Friday: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
• Saturday and Sunday: Closed
The library says that these changes will be more accommodating to its patrons. Residents will gain an additional nine hours per week that the library is open.
“The library has reviewed the number of visitors at the Goldston Library on Saturdays, and it is quite low,” said Chatham County Library Director Linda Clarke. “We also noted that many people use their lunch hours for errands and would knock on the door when it was closed during lunch on weekdays.”
The pandemic became an opportunity to evaluate the use of resources and how to best allocate them to the community.
“It is not always necessary to visit the library in person, because of the addition of remote resources; the pandemic provided the opportunity for the library to address providing services when the buildings were closed,” Clark added. “In addition to regular users, the library gained new patrons who only accessed e-materials and did not intend to physically enter any of the library’s facilities.”
The Chatham County Public Libraries have two other branches (Chatham Community Library in Pittsboro and Wren Memorial Library in Siler City) which will remain open for an entire day on Saturdays.
The Goldston Library can be reached at 919-898-4522. Residents may visit the libraries’ website www.chathamlibraries.org for more information on all Chatham County Library services, events, and programs.
—CN+R staff reports
PITTSBORO — The School of the Arts for Boys Academy (SABA), opening in Pittsboro this fall, is seeking volunteers to help with admissions, operations, curriculum and community engagement.
SABA is hosting a “virtual volunteer” meeting by Zoom at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 31, and welcomes your participation. You can dial in by calling 1-646-558-8656 to join us and to learn more about the ways to be part of SABA’s academic community. The call’s meeting ID is 898 8513 7904.
SABA is a tuition-free NC Charter School, exclusively serving boys in grades 3 through 6. The school took root in Chatham County when a founding group of educators, parents and community leaders made note of the challenges that underserved student populations, boys in particular, have experienced as they worked to achieve their full potential in traditional educational settings.
It will begin as a 3-to-6 school, add at least one new grade each academic year, and ultimately become an established K-to-12 school for boys in the Chatham County area.
SABA will provide an academic home where a diverse student population is fully respected and supported. In this nurturing environment all SABA boys will grow to become strong, creative, academic scholars, critical thinkers and community leaders, through a culturally responsive arts-based education.
SABA are still in the process of enrolling its final group of students for the 2022-23 school year.
PITTSBORO — The consultants overseeing the Chatham County unified development ordinance (UDO) will present a draft code audit for public review and feedback on Monday, April 4. The community can view the presentation at the Chatham County Board of Commissioners meeting at 6 p.m. at the Historic Courthouse, 9 Hillsboro St. in Pittsboro.
Chatham County contracted with White & Smith, LLC in 2021 to develop a unified development ordinance over a two-year period. The project will merge, rewrite, and update multiple ordinances and regulations while evaluating and improving upon existing standards.
“The goal is that the UDO will develop clear procedures and guidelines that are simple, flexible, and easily administered,” said Chatham County Planning Director Jason Sullivan. “The Planning Department is looking forward to the community seeing the results of the audit which will identify the subject areas to be revisited during the recode process.”
The UDO audit incorporates feedback received from October to December 2021 of advisory committees, the Planning Board, staff, and the Board of Commissioners and the issues identified as important as the County revises its zoning, subdivision, stormwater, and other land use codes over the next two years.
The public is encouraged to review the draft audit and to provide feedback at the April 4 meeting. Residents also may submit feedback in writing to UDO Project Manager Chance Mullis at recodechathamudo@chathamcountync.gov. A copy of the draft audit will be posted on the project website at www.recodechathamnc.org.
SILER CITY — Jordan-Matthews High School’s yearbook, Contrails, has been recognized for excellence and featured in the Jostens Look Book 2022, celebrating the best-of-the-best in yearbook design and inclusivity. The Jostens Look Book is a collection of outstanding yearbooks and their creative themes, cool covers, beautiful designs, relevant coverage of school events, meaningful storytelling, and stunning photography.
Along with design excellence, the annually published Look Book honors the work of the students who create the yearbook over the course of six to 12 months. Through it, they chronicle the experiences, stories and achievements most relevant to students and that academic year.
The Contrails was created by the 2020-2021 Yearbook Staff under the direction of Jessica Kimrey, Jordan-Matthews’ yearbook adviser.
“The 2021 Contrails book may have been the hardest one to create yet,” Kimrey said. “We began the year virtually, with no real feel for how the school year was going to go. Many of the usual events were canceled or postponed to dates beyond our deadline so my staff had to get creative in the ways they featured our students in our book.”
The Jordan-Matthews yearbook was one of only 458 yearbooks selected from nearly 1,000 yearbooks submitted. The 2022 panel of judges, composed of nationally recognized scholastic journalism professionals and award-winning yearbook advisers, selected the best examples of yearbook spreads and covers to make up the 320-page Look Book 2022.
“The Jostens Look Book showcases the hard work and dedication of students who tell the story of the school year through photos and words. It is their collaboration and communication, as well as creative thinking in challenging situations, that results in the fine designs shown in this book,” said Michael Wolf, vice president of Yearbook Marketing at Jostens. “We are very proud to celebrate the ability of this country’s future leaders and communicators by showcasing their sophisticated designs and photography.”
Kimrey and her yearbook staff received a copy of the Jostens Look Book 2022 with a plaque and banner from Jostens to recognize their outstanding achievement.
In addition, Northwood High School’s yearbook received an honorable mention.