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Chatham News + Record

The Chatham News + Record •

The long road home

Adam Sides Jr. has a long fuse.

As a kid, Adam always told people he wanted to be in the military. He said he wanted to help people who couldn’t help themselves. His doctors, however, told him those dreams wouldn’t become a reality.

Now, the 43-year-old Chatham County resident has endured countless tribulations of his own in his quest for stable housing.

Yet, through it all, he’s maintained his positive attitude and affable personality.

When a construction accident in the 1990s left Adam with a ruptured disc, spinal issues and chronic pain, he found himself doing odd jobs for friends to make ends meet. But when those jobs dried up, or those friends went away, Adam was left with limited options.
The Chatham News + Record •

Special Olympics N.C. cheerleading competition shines at Seaforth

PITTSBORO — Dance moves, high kicks and joy were in abundance at Seaforth High School on Saturday for the annual Special Olympics North Carolina statewide cheerleading competition.

The event marked the first time Special Olympics N.C. held an event in Chatham County, and the first time the statewide cheerleading competition had been held since 2019, due to COVID-19. More than 120 athletes representing 18 teams and 14 counties across the state were present for the competition.

Athletes of all a
The Chatham News + Record •

Moncure residents express frustration, fear at plans for their community

MONCURE — Lisa Palmer, like many of her neighbors, grew up in Moncure and has lived there all her life.

Now, at 71 years old, she fears for the future of her beloved community, and the land she grew up on.

“How am I going to pay my taxes?” she said. “I don’t want to pass away anywhere except my home.”

Her home holds the memories of her loved ones — holiday dinners with her parents, after-school playdates with friends and bringing her son home for the first time.

But Moncure is on the fast tr
The Chatham News + Record •

A Chatham resident uses his urine as fertilizer. It’s not as weird as you think.

SILER CITY — Dr. John Dykers is well aware his home doesn’t pass the smell test.

As soon as you enter the front door, the odor smacks you in the sniffer — it’s unmistakable. The unpleasant stench is urine that he and his wife, Nancy Van Camp, have preserved over the past seven months.

The urine sits in several 55-gallon barrels on the Dykers’ lawn, adjacent to the house. The plan is to use that urine as fertilizer for their 100-acre farm.

The idea for using their own urine as fertilizer came
The Chatham News + Record •

‘Equity’ in Chatham County Schools isn’t worth squabbling over

In the latest round of the culture wars in school systems across the U.S., “equity training” is a rallying cry for those from both sides of the political aisle to take up arms and prepare to duke it out over how our children are educated.

The battle has taken form in Chatham County Schools too.

At the beginning of the school year, the district was accused of using “equity training” to force Critical Race Theory down the throats of educators in the school system — a claim the News + Record foun
The Chatham News + Record •

Chatham education advocates push back against ‘Parents Bill of Rights’

RALEIGH — Legislation known as the “Parents’ Bill of Rights” proposed by Republicans in the N.C. Senate would ban certain curricula around gender identity and sexuality for students in kindergarten through 4th grade, as well as require school staff to tell parents when a child wants to change their pronouns.

The bill has widespread Republican support, but Chatham County representatives and some local education advocates say the controversial bill is a “harmful distraction” meant to stoke the fi
The Chatham News + Record •

Despite threats, Merry Oaks community persists

MERRY OAKS — On a recent Wednesday evening at Merry Oaks Baptist Church, a dozen church members gathered in the sanctuary to discuss the Old Testament story of King David.

Three men risked their lives in a march to Bethlehem to get water for their camp, Rev. Jim Brady describes from the pulpit. When the men returned, water in hand, they gave that water to David and he poured it out in front of them.

“David did not drink of it,” Brady says. “He poured it out to the Lord.”

The story, he said, i
The Chatham News + Record •

Oral history project keeps history alive as the county grows

Jordan-Matthews High School hasn’t always been the home of the Jets.

Until 1971, the mascot was the Blue Phantoms — a name that caused many students and community members of color to feel unsafe in the school. Those who were there remember students coming to football games dressed in white sheets in what many Black students saw as an ode to the Ku Klux Klan. ”The African American people felt like the mascot represented the emblem of the KKK,” wrote Chad E. Seales in his book “The Secular Specta
The Chatham News + Record •

Maternity Care Center gets temporary ease

PITTSBORO — UNC Chatham Hospital assembled a task force of 36 community members and hospital stakeholders in August to investigate solutions for the Maternity Care Center, which at the time was facing major staffing issues and was in danger of closing.

UNC Health gave that task force 60 days to come up with solutions and options to ensure the long-term viability of the center. On Monday, just before the end of those 60 days — which would have been next Thursday — task force members shared their
The Chatham News + Record •

North Chatham Elementary’s garden blossoms with community

CHAPEL HILL — The recess bell rings at North Chatham Elementary and the 2nd graders in Susana Negroni’s class bolt out the classroom door and onto the playground.

Some gather for a game of tag near the slide and others congregate at the swing set. But for many of the rest, there’s a new favorite activity: gardening.

The North Chatham Elementary Parent Teacher Association opened a community garden on campus, just off Lystra Road, in April. Since it first broke ground, the students and parent vo
The Chatham News + Record •

Winger challenges Turner in Dist. 3 race, bringing attention, outside cash and drama

The longtime Chatham County School Board Dist. 3 incumbent Del Turner, who has been on the board since 2010, faces a challenge from Jessica Winger, a Chatham County Schools parent and substitute teacher calling for more transparency from the board.

The race has brought sharp focus on issues such as Critical Race Theory, parent oversight in curriculum and school safety to the local stage. Bigger-than-usual donations, advertisements and social media posts have also swirled around the election, wh
The Chatham News + Record •

Is CRT taught in Chatham County Schools?: Spoiler alert: School system says it’s not

We don’t have time to politicize our classrooms but outside people are doing that for us.”

A collection of documents from a recent training program for teachers and administrators in Chatham County Schools recently made the rounds on social media.

The training, held last month, was meant to help teachers understand equity and race as part of improving inclusivity efforts in the classroom — but instead it sparked claims that CCS is teaching CRT, or Critical Race Theory, to students.

A selectio
The Chatham News + Record •

Wolfspeed announces historic economic development in Chatham County: $5 billion, 1,800 jobs and more impact expected.

“Our community is fortunate to have had great ownership [of the CAM site] that has stayed with us over time, to win this project,” said Michael Smith. “They have had other opportunities to do other things with that site ... It’s all because of having an owner like that who knows what he’s doing and has been committed to making this happen.”

She said she hopes these companies also foster relationships with public institutions like CCCC and Chatham County Schools to help foster the next generatio
The Chatham News + Record •

‘And a very pleasant good evening’

Vin Scully started every broadcast the same way: “Hi everybody, and a very pleasant good evening to you wherever you may be.”

It always felt so pleasant. Like he cared about me and wanted me to feel included.

That is what baseball has always felt like for me, inclusive. It has always been my haven and my gateway to manhood. While my scrawny 5-foot-6 frame was never going to hit home runs or throw no-hitters, being able to talk baseball with my father was always a point of connection.

I always
The Chatham News + Record •

The unclear endgame of StartUP Siler: Company provides hints, posts jobs, but also finds itself in a harassment case

SILER CITY — StartUP Siler, the mysterious philanthropic organization which has promised, among other things, to tackle Siler City’s drug and crime woes and invest $100 million in a housing loan fund, promised in an announcement on Twitter to open its doors this week “to varies (sic) media outlets from across the state and country” to give “an intimate look at the inner works” of the organization.

“All leading up to major milestones announcements, and intros of our new selects,” the Monday post
The Chatham News + Record •

Exploring Vingroup’s vast reach in Vietnam, and what it means for Chatham County

Editor’s note: Ben Rappaport has just returned from a week in Vietnam touring VinFast’s manufacturing facilities and meeting with company officials. It was part of a VinFast-paid media tour in advance of the electric vehicle manufacturer’s plans to locate a $4 billion plant in Chatham County. This is the first in a series of stories about Rappaport’s experiences.

Dinner cruises along Ha Long Bay, rooftop dinners with fire-breathing performers and five-star hotel stays were all part of an extrav
The Chatham News + Record •

Remembering Chatham’s lynchings and a call for justice

PITTSBORO — Members of the Chatham County community gathered Saturday to remember the five Chatham County residents lynched in the county more than a century ago.

Jerry Finch, Harriet Finch, John Pattishall, Lee Tyson and Henry Jones were memorialized through a soil collection and libation ceremony by the Community Rembrance Coalition-Chatham and both Chatham County NAACP branches. Local officials, including Chatham County Commissioner Karen Howard and Sheriff Mike Roberson, attended the event,