Pretty Places and Interesting Observations
Coming off from a holiday weekend and getting back into the swing of work is always tough. Even more so when you’ve been battling a cough for going on three weeks. Thankfully when I called out of work on Tuesday, they were entirely understanding (they had to bear through my hacking every day after all) and let me do my work from home that day. The cough has gotten better and is slowly going away thanks to the miracles of antibiotics and the compassion of my coworkers.
Wednesday was a day full of meetings out of the office for me and I loved it. In the morning I attended a Pittsboro Business Association (PBA) meeting where the members were all very in tuned with the presentation and asked a lot of good questions about the various megasites and developments happening around the County. Chatham Park always ends up being discussed in these types of meetings but that’s entirely understandable because the anticipated effect on the county, especially Pittsboro, is going to be huge in the coming years and business owners want to have some idea of how best to prepare themselves. At this point I’ve seen the presentation they gave about 3 or 4 times and am pretty sure that, if needed or pressed, I could probably give the presentation fairly well. I’ve grown so familiar with all the data of Chatham County these past few weeks, I actually feel knowledgeable haha!
One thing I noticed at the PBA meeting was the representation of businesses there. It was one of the monthly general meetings and as I looked around the room I noticed there were a lot more females than males present. I’m not sure if maybe some of the men were absent but it seems as though there’s a larger female representation in the Association than you would assume would be the case for small business owners. But then again, maybe that’s the case because women are more likely to join these kinds of associations for general business support? I’m not really sure but either way it was very interesting and encouraging to see such a strong female representation as heads of businesses.
On Wednesday I also went out to visit Arauco with another intern and the VP of the EDC to try and get them on board for the business tour I’ve been working on. It seems like they’re on board for the tour!! So far that makes at least 3 businesses who have agreed to participate so things are definitely moving in the right direction with that. My hope is that when it all takes place, the businesses really use that time to showcase not only the products they produce but also talk to the officials about what problems they are running into that can be changed and improved by the electeds. That time is going to be really valuable for both parties to learn more about each other and ways they can be mutually beneficial.
While riding through Moncure (where Arauco is located) I finally learned the full story behind the coal ash dump dilemma. I had been hearing about it repeatedly in bits and pieces here and there but never the full back story and explanation. I’m glad that it’s more or less been settled but the sad fact that change often only comes after tragedies hit is unsettling.
During the week I also got the chance to finally visit Fearrington Village and boy is it pretty! Opportunity Chatham is going to be held there in October so I went out with the President and Communications Director to talk with the wonderful planner working on the event, Gilda. We had the chance to walk around the central Village and see some of the buildings (all first time things for me) and I can only imagine how beautiful the area is going to be in October!
Next week before I head out to wonderful California I’ll get a chance to do a bit of presenting at the EDC Board meeting so I have to prep for that and make sure everything is ready to go in the presentation I created of survey results.
Thank you for keeping up with me and my classmates all this time through the summer!! We’re almost at the finish line and appreciate all your encouragement!
