Planning Board Meeting Displaced

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Planning officials have been searching the county for a place to hold the March 8 meeting of the Moore County Planning Board.

Public meeting places are about “sold out,” according to Planning Director Nancy Roy, who has settled on the conference room in the Planning Department’s second-floor suite in the Courthouse Square Mall building.

State Rep. Richard Morgan has asked the county for use of the historic courthouse to hold a public hearing on the issue of hunting deer with dogs.

The proposed hearing date conflicts with the regularly scheduled March meeting of the Planning Board, which meets on the Thursday after the first Monday in each month.

Roy said she was asked to move the Planning Board meeting to another site. However, she learned that all facilities in the popular Agriculture Center are booked that night. And Carthage’s historic McDonald Building is used on the same night for a meeting of the Carthage Planning Board.

The Planning Department conference room is comfortable but small. In spite of its limited size, Roy said she is confident that the board, her staff and visitors can be accommodated in the conference room for that one meeting without major discomfort.

SEWER PLANT — The Moore County Board of Commissioners is scheduled to study the county’s 201 Facilities Plan today at a work session in the Public Utilities Building.

The 4:30 p.m. workshop will precede the board’s regular third Monday 6 p.m. meeting.

At their biennial planning retreat in January, the commissioners learned that the regional wastewater treatment plant is operating at 70 percent of capacity. That means it’s time to begin planning for expansion in order to meet county needs before it reaches 100 percent capacity.

Public Utilities Director Dennis Brobst said engineers estimate that it will cost $15 million to expand the plant to meet future county needs.

The treatment plant was built more than 20 years ago to serve Southern Pines, Pinehurst and Aberdeen. Today it serves those towns plus Pinebluff, Carthage and outlying areas.

HEARINGS — Three public hearings will open the board’s 6 p.m. meeting.

One hearing will focus on a proposal for a corporate hangar lease agreement between the Moore County Airport Authority and Southeast Air Charter Corp. Southeast Air wants to build $700,000 in facilities to base four or five aircraft at the airport.

The other hearings are related to planning matters — a proposed text amendment for the Seven Lakes Gated Community and proposed amendments to the road name and address ordinance.

The board will also receive an updated report from Michael Watson, area director of Sandhills Mental Health Center.

SUITS — When the commissioners complete their regular agenda, they won’t be through with the night’s work.

That’s when the really tough work may begin — a closed session with County Attorney Lesley Moxley.

During the closed session, the board will review, among other things, four civil actions against the county and an action taken by the county against the Humane Society.

In the suit filed on behalf of Jeff and Christi Dotson, the county is one of several defendants listed in a case involving construction problems at the Dotson house in Beacon Ridge.