Skip to content
The Archive of The Carrboro Citizen
Menu
  • Home
  • News
  • Community
  • Schools
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Obituaries
  • Sports
  • Mill
  • Flora
  • Print Archive
  • About
Menu

Our hour to shine

Posted on April 1, 2010 by Staff

The last time I spoke with Gov. Beverly Perdue was in February – until last Friday, March 25.

The governor called Chatham County Board of Commissioners chair Sally Kost and vice chair George Lucier and then me. We spoke about the tragedy of the Chatham Courthouse fire and her concern for the citizens of Pittsboro and Chatham County. We spoke about rebuilding, revitalizing and rejuvenating Pittsboro, Chatham County and North Carolina. We spoke about new ideas and getting our citizens back to work and we spoke about investing in our communities. The county leadership and I have also been in touch with House Speaker Joe Hackney, Sen. Bob Atwater, U.S. representatives Bob Etheridge and David Price and Sen. Kay Hagan. U.S. Senate candidate Cal Cunningham even visited with me on Saturday, March 26 at 7 a.m. to offer assistance and visit the site.

When the Historic Chatham County Courthouse burned on Thursday, March 24, the heart of Chatham County and Pittsboro was affected too. The courthouse has been woven into our social fabric and community consciousness for generations. It belongs to the people.

As Pittsboro Commissioner Gene Brooks reminded us at the emergency Pittsboro Board of Commissioners meeting last Friday, this is our fourth courthouse. The citizens of Chatham County have persevered. We have always rebuilt, even when we were extremely impoverished in the 19th century. Commissioner Brooks reminds us to heed and honor the actions of our ancestors.

Another Pittsboro town commissioner, Michael Fiocco, followed up and sent me a quote from a 19th-century author, teacher and social critic, John Ruskin, to consider:

“It’s unwise to pay too much, but it’s worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money … that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot. It can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that … you will have enough to pay for something better.”

Now is Chatham County’s hour to shine. Now is our day to pull together as a countywide community and address the tragedy head on and move our county and towns down the path of rebuild, revitalize and rejuvenate. Our future depends on our wisdom, our action and investment.

MAYOR RANDY VOLLER
Pittsboro

Web Archive

© 2025 The Archive of The Carrboro Citizen | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme