[Clarification: Seven Lakes West Landowners Association Events Director Rosemary Weber expressed concern that this report on the Tuesday, June 26 Board meeting may have created the impression that CAS, Inc. staff are currently involved in the planning and execution of Community Events. Weber told The Times that "CAS has not orchestrated any of the Events for Seven Lakes West -- and will not, until next year, when the Events Director's position will be eliminated, along with the Safety and Security Director position, reducing the Board to seven Directors."]

Responsibility for Safety & Security, as well as Events, will pass from the Seven Lakes West Landowners Association [SLWLA] Board of Directors to the Association’s management company, CAS, Inc. when the terms of current Directors Ed Cockman and Rosemary Weber expire next March.

The Directors had voted earlier in the year to downsize the Board from nine to seven members, a recommendation made by last year’s Nominating Committee. They voted during their Tuesday, June 25 meeting to reassign the functions that Cockman and Weber had been handling.

After the meeting, SLWLA President Stevens told The Times that it was difficult to find nine board members who are willing to volunteer.

“We went from nine to seven because it is more typical,” he added. “All of the associations that CAS represents have boards with seven members. Plus, the Board, over time, is trying to come up with a plan to make volunteering as a Board Member to be more enticing. It’s a better plan get people to volunteer.”

The NC Department of Transportation [NCDOT] has released a drawing of its plan for a new gated railroad crossing at the main intersection in Seven Lakes, where Seven Lakes Drive and Lakeway Drive meet NC Highway 211. Download the plan here.

When a train is approaching, traffic entering Seven Lakes West will be stopped by 30 foot gate, with four two-light assemblies affixed to its mounting structure.

Traffic using one of the two exit lanes from Seven Lakes West will encounter a slightly longer gate, as well as signal lights mounted on a cantilever that extends across both exit lanes of Lakeway Drive. The illustration at right shows a typical railroad crossing cantilever.

Traffic lights at the intersection will be interconnected with the crossing signals (the technical term is “pre-emption”), so that traffic headed for Seven Lakes West will be stopped when a train has the crossing closed.

NCDOT Engineer Nancy Horne told The Times that the Department’s signal group has completed its plan for the traffic signal pre-emption, and the crossing plan has been submitted to the Aberdeen, Carolina, & Western Railway [ACWR], which will design the signal circuitry and, eventually, handle signal construction.

Once a cost estimate from ACWR is in hand and approved by NCDOT, construction can begin.

Horne said that is still several months off, “but we are a lot further along than we were.”

Excessive speed was the cause of a single vehicle accident on Longleaf Drive in Seven Lakes West Saturday night, June 22, that claimed the life of 48-year-old Earnest Ray Barber of Pinebluff.

That's the conclusion reached by NC Highway Patrol Trooper K.R. Burroughs, who told The Times on Monday that he estimates Barber's vehicle was traveling at nearly 70 miles per hour when it crossed the center line and slammed into a tree around 11:00 pm. The accident occurred between the two ponds on the outside of Longleaf, west of Lakeway Drive, near Patman Court.

Burroughs said Barber was traveling east on Longleaf, and his high rate of speed was observed by witnesses in two other vehicles heading west on Longleaf.

Barber was driving a full-sized Dodge pickup, with 25-year-old Bryan Scarlett, of Jackson Springs, in the passenger seat. Scarlett was transported to FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. On Monday, the hospital reported Scarlett in good condition.

In addition to the Highway Patrol, first responders called to the scene included Moore County EMS, Seven Lakes EMS, Seven Lakes Volunteer Fire Department, and West End Fire and Rescue.

The accident, rescue efforts, and investigation stopped traffic on Longleaf for about two and one-half hours, Ed Cockman, Safety and Security Director of the Seven Lakes West Landowners Association, told The Times. The Association opened the road across Lake Auman Dam to facilitate the flow of traffic to and from the neighborhoods west of the dam.

Moore County's Board of Commissioners have approved new zoning rules that will allow the development of industrial scale solar farms in the County, despite a unanimous recommendation to the contrary from the Planning Board. The Board took up the matter during their Tuesday, June 18 regular meeting.

The text amendments approved allow solar farms as a conditional use in the County's business and industrial zoning districts, as well as in the RA-Rural Agricultural zoning district that encompasses most of the county's rural areas.

As a "conditional use," each proposed solar farm will have to win approval from the Planning Board in a process that allows both supporters and opponents of the use to weigh in on the project under oath in a quasi-judicial public hearing.

Solar farms will be subject to number of requirements under the approved ordinance, including a minimum lot size, height restrictions, setbacks, fencing, and screening where they adjoin residential property and public rights of way. The applicant for a zoning permit for a solar farm is also required to supply a plan for removing the structure once it is no longer in use.

Otis Ritter, a stalwart of the Moore County Republican Party, has been selected by the party's executive committee to serve out the unexpired term of Craig Kennedy on the Moore County Board of Commissioners.

The 73-year-old Ritter, who currently serves as Chairman of the County's Emergency Services Advisory Committee [ESAC], told The Times that he will be a staunch conservative on matters of taxes and spending, and that he plans to continue to work on public safety issues as Commissioner.

Kennedy resigned on April 25; his term would have expired in November of 2014. Under state law, a resigning Commissioner must be replaced by someone from the same district and party, and the law requires that the remaining Commissioners accept the person recommended by the executive committee of the appropriate political party in the county.

Moore County GOP Chairman John Rowerdink told The Times that the party's executive committee met on Tuesday, May 14 and voted unanimously to recommend Ritter for the post. Party officers had interviewed three other individuals who had expressed an interest in filling the seat, Rowerdink said, including GOP Men's Club President Lewis Gregory, Soil and Water Conservation Board Chairman Scott Sheffield, and former Robbins Mayor Theron Bell.

"I think he'll be an excellent Commissioner," Rowerdink said, noting that Ritter regularly attends Board of Commissioners meetings, and thus is well acquainted with the issues facing the County.

"All things being equal, we felt it was important to have someone from the northern part of the county," Rowedink added. "In the interest of geographic balance, we wanted to make sure those people were represented." Ritter lives outside Robbins, near North Moore High School.