The appropriate state agency is monitoring the well water quality to make sure levels of carcinogens from certain areas near the golf maintenance building at the Harness Track and Golf Course No. 2 don’t get so high that they become a danger to human health, Village Manager Andy Wilkison reported. He said he would ask for a report to the council.
But the council members decided they’d like to make sure the Pinehurst Wellfield Subcommittee of the Planning and Zoning Board is activated to keep an eye on the situation and make sure the plumes don’t migrate into underground drinking water supplies.
The terms of several active members, including Don Van Roosen, have expired on both the advisory P&Z board and the subcommittee. The council briefly discussed a resolution to honor Van Roosen, who has offered to remain active as a volunteer with the subcommittee to monitor the contaminated plume.
“The silence coming out of Carthage is deafening, in terms of what they’re doing about our water needs,” said Councilman Douglas Lapins. He remarked that the county’s ownership of the public water and sewer system serving Pinehurst hasn’t resulted in any action to do work needed for the last two years to upgrade and maintain it as the council has requested.
“They aren’t doing squat,” he added.
The latest effort by Pinehurst to communicate officially with the county Utility Department and the commissioners came in a Dec. 14, 2004, letter to the Moore County Commissioners asking for a dialogue. The village would like a voice in seeing to it that more of the money collected in Pinehurst is spent on Pinehurst’s systems.
The letter requested the county commissioners to consider an advisory body with representation by Pinehurst to help make decisions about the system’s needs, and to hire a professional utility department director instead of relying on outside consultants. So far, there’s been no response, except that Chairman David Cummings told The Pilot the county would make sure everyone had an adequate water supply.
The Village Council failed last year in an attempt to buy its water and sewer service. That would have allowed the council to make decisions about where and how to spend the revenue from the village’s rate-payers to upgrade and expand the system serving the rapidly growing village.
The commissioners voted by a bare majority to hold on to the system.
Pinehurst voters had approved a $16 million bond referendum that would have provided the money to buy the system from the county and start making 20 years’ worth of capital improvements and expansions to the system.
Based on recommendations from an outside consultant, the county would provide for future water needs by running a line from Harnett County to serve both Pinehurst and Seven Lakes.
More Wells Sought
The council wants to dig more wells, which would provide cheaper water. But no new wells are listed in the county’s planned work, although a couple of potential sites have already been identified.
In case of emergencies, the county officials contend, they can just buy more water from Southern Pines or Aberdeen to serve Pinehurst through hookups already placed during the 2002 drought.
“Water quality in Pinehurst is an issue,” Lapins said, not just insurance that the village will have a future adequate supply.
Lapins told the other council members of troublesome contaminated wells that the Moore Public Utility Department owns and is responsible for maintaining in the Harness Track area. There’s one with “troublesome nitrate levels at Golf Course No. 2,” he added.
Councilwoman Virginia Fallon and Mayor Pro Tem George Hillier expressed concern that the council didn’t have any regular reports coming from the now state-monitored contamination areas that could hurt the water quality of public wells if underground plumes should migrate into those supplies.
Hillier, who presided over the regular work session since the mayor is on his annual vacation in Florida, said: “At the very least, we should have something on our own list to monitor.”
Fire Station Bid
In other business, the council accepted a low bid from RBC Centura Bank to finance the construction of a new fire station for 15 years at a 3.44 percent interest rate.
The council by law must hold a public hearing before voting to sign a contract for the loan. The hearing is scheduled for 11 a.m. Feb. 8.
Assistant Village Manager and Chief Finance Officer Natalie Dean said the proposal will allow Pinehurst to borrow up to $2.5 million, if needed. If the project costs less, the village can borrow less money.
The new fire station is to be built this year adjacent to the Village Assembly Hall at Rassie Wicker Park. The council will also keep the station on N.C. 5 open, but will close the oldest station in the historic area when the new one is up and running.
The council reviewed and questioned developers for Fairwoods Villas, who submitted a major site plan for council approval for a 73-townhome development in a Multi-Family zoned area behind the Lawn & Tennis Club on Morganton Road. Access drives would run through the club’s Forest Hills Road to Morganton Road. No one was present to voice any opposition to the plan, although some Lawn & Tennis Club residents have previously objected to the loss of trees.
The Raleigh developers will completely level the open area where the complex will be built on 18.45 acres, leaving 6.7 acres of wetlands where they couldn’t build by law. But they say they plan to add more than the minimum required amount of new tree plantings and visual buffers.
The streets will be private, and all the homes will have two-car garages, said Jerry Jensen, a representative of Withers & Ravenel developers. The townhomes will cost about $220,000 to $325,000, and the whole project will be built over a 24-month period.
The council is expected to vote on whether to approve the site plan at its Feb. 8 meeting.
The council appointed Tom Campbell, chairman of the Greenway Trails Committee, to the advisory Planning and Zoning Board to replace Margaret Goodfellow, whose term expired.
Many complimentary letters and comments on the Greenway Trail have come in, according to the council. Campbell warned that walkers should beware of some ruts in certain areas of the trail from recent rains. Some under-trail pipes can be added at fairly low cost to help the drainage, he said.
