Sunday, March 7
•    Southside Baptist Church Revival Services – 10 am, Sunday School  Evangelist Morris Gleiser will speak; at the 11:00 am Worship service, and the 7 pm evening service on Sunday, March 7.  The revival will continue each night at 7 pm through Wednesday, March 10. Evangelist Gleiser served as a youth pastor in Florida for fourteen years, a camp director in Arizona for five years, and has been an evangelist since 2000. A graduate of Bob Jones University and received an honorary Doctorate of Divinity from Ambassador Baptist College. A nursery will be provided for each of the services. The public is invited to attend these special Revival services at Southside Baptist Church, 125 Cedar Creek Road, Biscoe. For more information or directions please call the church at 428-9243 or Pastor Michael Lynn at 974-4723.
•    The Rooster’s Wife – 7 pm, multi talented singer and musician Sara Grey and her son, Kieron Means, to perform at Poplar Knight Spot, Aberdeen. As well as singing and playing superbly Sara is a fine story teller specializing in stories from New England. Some of the projects she has been involved in include a seminar in Alness, Ross-shire, Scotland looking at the culture of Traveler's in Sutherland and the movement of their songs and stories to North America. Kieron Means is a singer primarily of traditional songs but also of contemporary songs and guitar player of great merit. His voice is as smooth as silk, rich and mellow and he sings to his audience not in spite of them. Continuing the series of Soup and Songs, the doors will open at 6 pm , with music at 7, in the gallery of Poplar Knight Spot. You can buy your tickets on line with debit or credit cards. Cash and checks are accepted at the door. $12 for you grownups; under 12 always free at the Rooster's Wife. Help teach the next generation about the magic of Live music. 114 Knight St., Aberdeen, www.theroosterswife.org (910)944-7502

Monday, March 8
•    National Active & Retired Federal Employees (NARFE) Sandhills Chapter 1895 –  10:30 am, quarterly “Eating Meeting”  at Kenny’s Country Restaurant, US Hwy 1, opposite the Shell Station in Pine Bluff. Chapter 1895 welcomes all Federal (including US Postal Service) active employees, retirees, spouses and surviving spouses to monthly meetings.  Additional information about NARFE is available by contacting: Vilma Geisert (910) 215-5898 or George Sandoval (910) 246-9881.
•    Bingo Night At Our Lady Of The Americas – 7 pm, Early Bird Bingo; and 7:30 pm, Regular Bingo. Located at 298 Farmers Market Road, off Hwy 211 (Exxon Station), just east of Hwy 220 near Candor. Minimum purchase $15.00. Doors open at 6:30 pm. Everyone over the age of 16 is welcome. For more information, call 910 974-3051.

Tuesday, March 9
•    Seven Lakes West Landowners Association Work Session – 9 am, West Side Park Community Center.
•    The Power of Email Marketing – Lunchinar, 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm, sponsored by Moore County Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. Held at the Moore County Chamber of Commerce. Program presenter will be Anissa Freeman Starnes, Regional Development Director with Constant Contact. Cost is $12 for members and $25 for non-members. Pre-registration and payment is required. Registrations after March 5, will be $20 for members and $32 for non-members. To register www.moorecountychamber.com, or call (910) 692-3926 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
•    Literacy Training – 1 to 2 pm, Moore County Literacy Council offers twelve hour workshops for volunteers who would like to become adult tutors. Tutor Orientation is today. Tutor Training will be held April 14,15, 21,and 22, from 1 to 4 pm each day. Register by the week prior to the session. Registrations may be made by phone, (910)692-5954 or e-mail, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it All sessions are held at the Emmanuel Youth House, 385 E. Indiana, Southern Pines.
•    Seven Lakes Computer Club – 3 pm, continuing with the “Back to Basics” theme. The guest speaker, will be Dick Kuehl, a retiree with 33 years of service at Dow Chemical and currently an instructor in Continuing Education at Sandhills Community College for the past eighteen months. Since proper maintenance is essential to keep your computer tuned for optimum performance, his presentation will be focusing on the essential operations of defragmentation, cleaning out temporary files, temporary Internet files and cookies and registry cleaners. Kuehl will also be discussing the merits of attending classes at Sandhills Community College that allow for a more in-depth discussion of subjects related to computer use, since computer skills support new careers, volunteerism and adult involvement with youths in their lives.

Thursday, March 11
•    Help LaFave Twins Benefit & Auction – Benefit will help twin boys ofJeff and Jenny LaFave. The twins were born in Dec. 2009 at only 25 weeks and are at Duke University Medical Center, where they are being well cared for and growing quickly. This Benefit is being held to offset their rising medical bills. Event will be held at the Fair Barn, Pinehurst, 11 am to 8 pm. Silent auction 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm. Live entertainment will be held 6 pm - 8 pm for everyone’s enjoyment. Jordan's Catering will provide the food with BBQ and Fried Chicken on the menu. Cost per plate is $8. Dine-in and take-out are available. If anyone would like tickets, please contact Kim Tew at JuBilee Screen Print at 673-4240 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
•    League of Women Voters “Lunch With Legends” – Celebration of Women’s History Month, the League of Women Voters of Moore County is presenting it’s second annual “Lunch With Legends: An Afternoon With Historic Women.” Doors open at 11:30 am with lunch served at noon, at Whispering Pines Country Club. Lunch With Legends features stunning, live portrayals of three great women in America’s history. The “special guests” at this year’s luncheon will be Harriet Tubman, portrayed by Wilma Laney of Aberdeen; Alice Paul, played by Linda Tableman of Seven Lakes; and Margaret Chase Smith, performed by Carolyn Mealing also from Seven Lakes. A cash bar and valet parking will be available. Tickets are $30 per person. Group reservations are available and encouraged. For tickets and information, call Ginger Finney at 673-1330.
•    Moore County Republican Men’s Club – 12 pm (noon), Tim Lea, Chairman and District IV representative of the Moore County Board of Commissioners will be the speaker. Meeting will be at the Country Club of North Carolina. Interested persons can contact Miles Baldwin at 295-1577.
•    Seven Lakes Garden Club – 7:30 pm, “Landscape Design for Small Spaces”at Seven Lakes North Side Clubhouse. The Garden Club will welcome James Westman, Professor of Horticulture at Sandhills Community College. Professor Westman teaches the Arboriculture class at the college. Arboriculture is the cultivation and management of trees within the landscape and one of the many classes students in the landscape gardening program complete in order to receive their associate in science degree in landscape gardening. This program will instruct the home gardener on landscaping in limited and small spaces, and landscaping in general. Everyone is welcome.

Friday, March 12
•    Fundraiser at WEUMC – 6 pm. Don’t miss  “Italian Night” at West End United Methodist Church. Dinner hosted by the West End United Methodist Church Women. Menu includes lasagna, garlic bread, salad, and cake. Tickets are $8 per person. Call Anneliese Feggeler at 673-3734 for ticket information.

Saturday, March 13,
•    Mixed Paper Recycling – 9 am - 3 pm, Drive Keep Moore County Beautiful, Inc. at the Kangaroo Station in the Fresh Market Shopping Center, Southern Pines. Acceptable items include anything that is paper: All flattened boxes, paper grocery bags, telephone books, paperback books, junk mail, magazines, catalogs, shredded paper, flattened corrugated cardboard, office paper, and newspapers. Also accepting: Any type of Household and Rechargeable Batteries, Inkjet Cartridges, Cell Phones, diskettes, CDs, DVDs, and Laptop Computers. For information, contact Joan Neal, Executive Director, Keep Moore County Beautiful, Inc. at 947-3478 or by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

    From Robbins to Pinebluff, Moore County's towns and villages have remarkably similar concerns when it comes to their relationship with county government: coordinated planning for land use, and for water and sewer expansion; more responsive budgeting when it comes to funding fire protection and emergency medical services; and improved communication between the county and towns.
    Those were the common threads that emerged again and again as leaders from ten of the county's eleven towns shared their goals with the Board of Commissioners during a Thursday, March 4 meeting — the latest in a series of regular conferences bringing together the Commissioners with elected officials from the municipalities. Only the Town of Cameron failed to provide a list of goals.
    The February meeting of the county and towns concluded with a suggestion from Commissioner Cindy Morgan that each government submit a list of its top goals to be distributed and discussed during the March meeting. All but Cameron provided lists, which were circulated in advance of the conference.
    The meeting is structured so that the Commissioners and town council representatives sit facing each other around a large central set of tables. County and town staff, as well as members of the public and press, sit at tables behind. The Greater Seven Lakes Community Council recently asked for a seat at the table of elected officials, but has not yet received a response from the county. No one from the Council was present at Thursday's meeting.
    
Water & Sewer Issues
    Commissioner Cindy Morgan called the issues surrounding the management of the county's water and sewers systems "the hardest problem we have," and that assessment was amply illustrated by the number of towns that included water and-or sewer issues among their goals.
    The County owns and runs the utility system in some towns — Pinehurst, for example; it provides wastewater treatment service to others, like Aberdeen; the County is expanding service to others, like Vass; and it buys water from others — Aberdeen and Southern Pines. In some cases, more than one of these relationships obtains with a single municipality — so nearly everyone at the meeting had something to say about water and sewer issues.

The March 5 edition of The Seven Lakes Times is now available for download in pdf format.

Highlights of this 32-page issue include:

- The SLLA Board passed a $1.3 million budget for FY 2010-2011 that Treasurer Denny Galford says is not all that different than the FY 2009-2010 budget -- aside from the higher costs associated with bringing Talis Management on board.

- Debate continues on the West Side about the SLWLA budget and the substantial dues increase it contains -- as well as about how best to handle the problem of speeding in the community.

- Moore County will participate in a preliminary engineering study of the water intake and treatment plant at a defunct textile plant on the Lumber River near Wagram -- the same plant that the Village of Pinehurst was trying to buy last year. And there's some sign that the County will reopen talks with Robbins about cooperation on water supply issues.

- New Community Manager Alina Cochran is getting to know her way around Seven Lakes; she sat down with reporter Laura Douglass for an interview.

- The Times moderated a forum for SLLA Candidates; Laura has a review. One of the questions involved incorporation and unleashed a tidal wave of bad information; don't miss our attempt to set the facts straight.

- Laura investigates the possibility that you can live forever on the web -- or, at least, that the most embarrassing bits of your life may be immortalized there. Mason looks at the world from a bug's eye view. Claire Czupyrna wants your help to keep the West Side's fireworks display alive. And a bunch of folks weigh in on SLLA candidates, the SLWLA budget, and -- what else? -- speeding in Seven Lakes West.

Download the pdf edition and read it all this morning, pick up a copy at locations all over Seven Lakes this afternoon, or check your mailbox tomorrow.

Monday, March 1
•    Moore Republican Women’s Luncheon – 11:30 am, lunch served at 12 noon, at the Pinehurst Members Club. Cost is $15 payable by cash, or check to PCC, LLC. Call Pauli Curl at 215-9796 to make your reservations by Thursday, February 25. The guest speaker will be: Leighton W. Smith, Jr. Admiral, United States Navy (Retired).
•    Moore County Board of Commissioners – 4:00 pm. Historic Courthouse in Carthage.
•    NAMI-MC “Managing the Stress that Drains and Binds You” – 7 pm, Kelly Frye, with FirstHealth Outpatient Behavioral Services, will be the guest speaker. Frye will give her presentation on “Managing the Stress that Drains and Binds You”. If you are tired mentally and physically even though you are not working, this session will give you the opportunity to interactively explore your stress responses and sources. Create your own “toolbox” of skills for handling stress and learn to feel better. Held at FirstHealth Conference Center, Room B, located at the corner of HWY 211 and Page Street, Pinehurst.  All meetings are Free and open to the public. Call (910) 295-1053 or go to www.nami-moorecounty.org  for further information.

Tuesday, March 2
•    NAMI-MC 11-Week “Family to Family” Course – Tuesday(s) through May 11, 7 - 9:30 pm. This National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) of Moore County event is free to family members of close relatives with mental illness. Attendees will learn of all current information about the severe and persistent mental illnesses, up-to-date information about medications, and current research. The educational course will be held at FirstHealth Moore Regional Specialty Clinic (formerly Pinehurst Surgical Clinic building) with limited seating. Call 910-692-7399 to register and for more information. For details, check out NAMI-Moore County at nami-moorecounty.org Everything is confidential.

Thursday, March 4
•    Women of Seven Lakes – meeting at 2:00 pm, Westside Park Community Center. Over the past two years of economic recession and job loss, student enrollment at Sandhills Community College has nearly doubled. Featured guest Dr. John Dempsey, President of SCC, will discuss ‘Education in NC and at Sandhills.’ Refreshments will follow.
 •    Amos Speaks, Then And Now: An Adult Academy Lenten Study – 10 am, Don Welch, pastor of the Chapel in the Pines and McDonalds Chapel Presbyterian Church will offer a course on the Book of Amos from the Hebrew Scriptures on Thursdays (March 4, March 11, March 18 and March 25). The sessions will last one hour and will be held in the sanctuary of The Chapel in the Pines.  Participants will study the meaning of Amos. The course is presented by the Adult Academy for Religious Studies of West End Presbyterian Church and the Chapel in the Pines and is open to interested persons from all faith traditions. No prior registration is required. Participants should bring a modern translation of the Bible and read the first three chapters of Amos before the first session.
Wine Tasting – at Sandhills Winery 5 to 8 pm. Located in Seven Lakes Plaza next to Peking Wok.
•     Moore County Planning Board – 6:00 pm. Historic Courthouse in Carthage.

Friday, March 5
•    Spring Home and Garden Exposition – The Moore Master Gardeners will be particpating in the Moore County Builders Home and Garden Exposition at the Carolina Hotel. Gardening in the Sandhills presents special challenges as well as special opportunities. Stop by and talk to the Master Gardeners for answers to whatever is bugging you - or your plants. Visit their display and pick up some handouts that will help you get your garden ready for Spring. The Expo will continue through Sunday, March 7.
•    Christian Author Julie Barnhill Seminar – 7 – 8:30 pm. Barnhill, popular speaker, author, brings her razor-sharp insight into the woman’s psyche to Southern Pines with two seminars (today and Saturday). Today’s seminar is titled,   “You Go, Girlfriend.” Held at Grace Church, Southern Pines. The fee for Friday’s session is $15. Saturday’s session is $25 and includes free entry to the Friday session. Advance tickets  available online at www.sandhillsmops.com or at Moore County Chamber of Commerce. Seminars are presented by Sandhills MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers), a chapter of MOPS International.

Saturday, March 6
•    Christian Author Julie Barnhill Seminar – 9 am to noon. “One Tough Mother.” Strategies for the modern mother – assaulted by television shows, magazines, well-meaning friends, and their own mothers – can use to sift through the volume of unsolicited parenting advice. Held at Grace Church, Southern Pines. The fee for Friday’s session is $15. Saturday’s session is $25 and includes free entry to the Friday session. Advance tickets  available online at www.sandhillsmops.com or at Moore County Chamber of Commerce. Seminars are presented by Sandhills MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers), a chapter of MOPS International.

Sunday, March 7
•    Southside Baptist Church Revival Services – 10 am, Sunday School  Evangelist Morris Gleiser will speak; at the 11:00 am Worship service, and the 7 pm evening service on Sunday, March 7.  The revival will continue each night at 7 pm through Wednesday, March 10. Evangelist Gleiser served as a youth pastor in Florida for fourteen years, a camp director in Arizona for five years, and has been an evangelist since 2000. A graduate of Bob Jones University and received an honorary Doctorate of Divinity from Ambassador Baptist College. A nursery will be provided for each of the services. The public is invited to attend these special Revival services at Southside Baptist Church, 125 Cedar Creek Road, Biscoe. For more information or directions please call the church at 428-9243 or Pastor Michael Lynn at 974-4723.
•    The Rooster’s Wife – 7 pm, multi talented singer and musician Sara Grey and her son, Kieron Means, to perform at Poplar Knight Spot, Aberdeen. As well as singing and playing superbly Sara is a fine story teller specializing in stories from New England. Some of the projects she has been involved in include a seminar in Alness, Ross-shire, Scotland looking at the culture of Traveler's in Sutherland and the movement of their songs and stories to North America. Kieron Means is a singer primarily of traditional songs but also of contemporary songs and guitar player of great merit. His voice is as smooth as silk, rich and mellow and he sings to his audience not in spite of them. Continuing the series of Soup and Songs, the doors will open at 6 pm , with music at 7, in the gallery of Poplar Knight Spot. You can buy your tickets on line with debit or credit cards. Cash and checks are accepted at the door. $12 for you grownups; under 12 always free at the Rooster's Wife. Help teach the next generation about the magic of Live music. 114 Knight St., Aberdeen, www.theroosterswife.org (910)944-7502

    Residents of a one-acre property on Lucas Road near Seven Lakes surrendered at least eighteen dogs to Moore County Animal Control staffers on Tuesday, February 16, according to a information released by the county's Public Information Office late Tuesday afternoon. Another ten dogs still on the property may be surrendered at a later date the county reports.
    Though it lies outside the gates of Seven Lakes West, the Lucas Road property is located less than 200 feet from Grace Court on Beacon Ridge Country Club. Aerial photography of the lot shows it littered with junk cars; driving by, a motorist sees animals on chains mixed in among the rusting vehicles.
    Raleigh television station, WRAL-TV, alerted to the situation by Seven Lakes residents, was on the scene Tuesday when the animals were surrendered. You can see a video report on the WRAL website here .

    Conditions on the property, as well as the persistent barking of the dogs, have prompted perennial complaints from Westsiders and others concerned about the welfare of both the human and animal residents of the property. County staffers from a variety of departments have been attempting to address those problems since early 2008.
    According to the County's press release, the house on the property is in such poor condition that it could not be rehabilitated using Community Development Block Grant funds available for that purpose. Housing assistance and enforcement efforts has been further complicated by the fact that the property is owned by several heirs, not all of whom live there.
    The three elderly current residents have been allowed to live in a dilapidated recreational vehicle to avoid becoming homeless. The Planning Staff is continuing to work with the residents to apply for financial assistance to address their housing needs.

    Treasurer Denny Galford presented a $1.373 million Fiscal Year 2010-2011 budget to the Seven Lakes Landowners Association [SLLA] Board of Directors during their Monday, February 15 Work Session.
    The anticipated $1.373 Million in revenues includes $124,000 that will beset aside for road repaving and state-mandated repairs to the community's dams, leaving $1.249 million in unrestricted income, Galford told the Board.
    After $1.1 million in operating expenses, $149,000 will be left over for capital expenditures. The Treasurer recommended that the Board approve the operating budget at the February 24 Open Meeting, along with capital expenditures of up to $50,000 for road repaving and $60,000 for dams.
    Galford presented the Board with a six-page budget packet, explaining that former Community Manager Dalton Fulcher had presented both an operating budget and recommended five-year capital budget to the Finance Committee. The Committee developed its proposed budget from that starting point and Galford then adjusted the budget to reflect the contract with Talis Management Group.
    [The Times asked for a copy of the budget packet, but Galford declined to provide one. Some budget detail will be attached to the agenda for Wednesday's Open Meeting, which had not been published at press time.]
    The proposed revenue budget exceeds the FY2009-2010 revenue budget by approximately $147,000, which likely reflects a $50 dues increase for FY2010-2011 approved by landowners at last year's annual meeting.
    Galford told the Board that he did not plan to hold a drop-in meeting during which landowners could ask questions about the proposed budget, a practice the Association has followed for the past several years. After the meeting, Galford told The Times that last year's meeting attracted few residents and those who did attend were more interested in revisiting old controversies than asking specific questions about the proposed budget.

    Moore County's Board of Commissioners seem determined to lay to rest charges that the county doesn't communicate well with the leaders of its towns and villages. At the end of their Monday, February 15 regular meeting, members of the Board took the unusual step of provided brief reports on meetings held with other local officials during the past two weeks.
    Commissioner Cindy Morgan said she, Chairman Tim Lea, and County Manager Cary McSwain met with Robbins council members and staff in a February 2 session that focused largely on Robbins' desire to bring its unused water plant online and sell water to the county. Robbins officials asked for a joint meeting between the full town council and Board of Commissioners to discuss the matter, Morgan said, adding that she and Lea had encouraged the council to reach its own consensus about what Robbins wants before any joint meeting takes place.
    Pinehurst was next on Morgan's list. She and Commissioner Larry Caddell met with Pinehurst Council Member Joan Thurmond on February 3 to bring her up to date on a variety of on-going issues between the County and the Village.
    Picking up the story, Commissioner Nick Picerno said he and Commissioner Jimmy Melton met with the Greater Seven Lakes Community Council on February 11, bringing the council up-to-date on the county's various water initiatives. "We did emphasize . . . that the Commissioners are in discussion with numerous entities for future needs, for not only the area in Seven Lakes but the area that our entire Public Utilities serves," Picerno said.
    On February 12, Lea and Picerno met with representatives of Sandhills Community College to dig into budget issues. Picerno said the "very informative" session was  "the kind of exchange or ideas we need to have, if they  are to understand . . . what we are trying to accomplish here in our task of trying to hold down our taxes and provide for good education." Picerno said the exchange of in-depth information would prove useful to the Commissioners as they prepare the county's Fiscal Year 2010-2011 budget.
    On the agenda going forward, Picerno said, is a February 23 meeting with the NC Rural Economic Development Center, the US Department of Agriculture, and Vass municipal officials to continue the process of seeking funding for the Little River Lift Station project, which will carry wastewater from Vass to the county's wastewater treatment plant in Addor.
    Commissioner Caddell then reported that he and Picerno had met independently on February 2 with two Robbins Council Members, Terry Holt and Clara Matthews, again focusing on water issues and concluding with the suggestion for a joint meeting of the two boards.

    The Foxfire Fire Department, an auxiliary station initially opened in 2002 with assistance from West End Fire Rescue, is now regularly manned during business hours with a first responder who is available Monday through Friday from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm.
    “Being so close they will be able to respond quickly – this is a real benefit to Foxfire Village,” Councilwoman Page Coker reported to the Village Council on Tuesday, February 9.
    The brief business meeting was presided over by Finance Director Leslie Frusco in the absence of Mayor George Erickson and Mayor Pro Tem Ed Lauer.
    Coker also reported the Foxfire Police Department responded to 126 events in January, and that there were four vehicular accidents related to the inclement weather including two traffic deaths.
    
Finance
    2009 Delinquent property taxes total $62,178 plus the Village is due an additional $11,000 in delinquent accounts dating to 2008, reported Frusco.
    Reminder notices of delinquent accounts will be mailed in March and tax liens will be advertised in April.
    Frusco reported the General Fund at $711,597 including $45,000 in Powell Bill funds and $20,000 restricted to Stonehill Pines. The Water Fund stands at $276,269 including $33,312 for completion of the water line along the Woodland Circle Extension project, and $135,000 in restricted funds for new wells.
    An annual bank loan payment of $103,000 for the Woodland Circle Extension project is due in April 2010.

    A forward-thinking technology initiative that would place a laptop computer into the hands of every Moore County student in grades 8-12 over the next four years was presented to the Board of Education during its Monday, February 8 meeting.
    However, the bold plan comes with a lofty $3.8 million price tag.
    If approved the initiative would commence this Fall with intensive professional teacher development and an initial purchase of one laptop cart with thirty computers on-board for each Seventh grade team, one laptop cart for each elementary school, replacement of teacher’s classroom desktop computers with laptops, hiring of an instructional technology specialist, and wireless networking throughout all schools.
    The second, third, and fourth years of the initiative would provide additional laptop carts at elementary schools, additional technology staff and training, and a one-to-one laptop distribution to Eighth grade students beginning in 2011.
    Once fully phased-in, the program would utilize 5,000 laptops with parents defraying a portion of student expenses through a $25 technology fee for Eighth grade, and $50 fee each year of high school.
    Laptops used in the elementary and middle schools would remain on campus; however, 9-12 grade students would be assigned a laptop of their own responsibility to use throughout high school that could be taken home during the academic year.
    “Obviously, this is a considerable amount of money,” said Dr. Larry Upchurch, noting that without proper training for teachers, technology is useless in the classroom. “We must first take the time and effort to reeducate teachers how technology can help them with learners of the 21st century. This is a collaborative effort for all involved in the process and it could potentially revolutionize what we are all about.”
    Dr. Purser echoed his comments stating that undertaking such a bold technology program for county students was “not a matter of if but when.”