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Thursday, October 10, 2019
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• Belmont • Cramerton • Lowell • McAdenville • Mount Holly • Stanley
Thursday, October 10, 2019
Groundbreaking held for new Belmont Abbey residence halls By Alan Hodge alan@cfmedia.info
A large crowd of folks endured near 100F temperatures last Thursday at a groundbreaking ceremony for new residence halls at Belmont Abbey College. The groundbreaking took place at the site of the new hall directly across from the Abbey Yard baseball field. “This is an amazing thing,” said BAC president Dr. Bill Thierfelder. “Through the grace of God we found a way and the resources to male this a reality.” The $4.4 million, 136room residence hall represents the largest capital investment in the college’s history. The new hall will primarily serve upperclassmen but also add new classroom, office, and meeting space. MKC Architects designed the new building to mirror the Gothic architecture promi-
nent on the college’s campus. University Housing Solutions is the contractor building the new facility. The plans include additional parking for residents of the new hall. The as of yet unnamed new residence hall will be situated across from the softball field. The college has plans for a duplicate residence in the near future adjacent to the new dorm. In addition to these new accommodations, the college is also considering additional food service options for 2020 and beyond. The structure will be five stories, with the first story having meeting areas, social areas, offices, two classrooms, and a student lounge available to all students, including commuters. The upper floors will alternate between a men’s and women’s floor. Each residence floor will have a kitchenette, study areas, a laundry area, and a
Belmont city council approves $250,000 paving program The Belmont city council approved the 2019-2020 street resurfacing program that will resurface the 10 blocks of streets in Belmont that are in the worst condition. The city council approved this program during its August 5, 2016 meeting. The city staff awarded the contract to Blythe Construction, the low bigger on the project. The adopted FY 20192020 budget includes $250,000 for this paving program, and this is paid for using Powell Bill or gasoline tax revenue that the City receives from the North Carolina Department of Transportation. “Over the past several years the City of Belmont has used a data-driven process to determine which sections of city streets need resurfacing,” said Belmont Mayor Charlie Martin. “This process allows the City to spend its limited resources where they are
most needed. This fall resurfacing project achieves one of the city council’s longstanding goals of improving our infrastructure.” Belmont staff hired a consultant in 2013 and again in 2018 to rate the condition of every block of city streets within Belmont. The consultants used a series of criteria to rate each block, giving each block a rating from 0 to 100, with 0 being the worst and 100 being the best. This datadriven approach has allowed the city council to spend its limited street resurfacing funds where they are most needed. The initial goal of this program was to resurface all blocks with a rating of 0 to 10. With such competitive bids from previous years, the city council has been able to increase the number of blocks in the program to include all but one block with a rating from 0 to 20. See PAVING, Page 3
gathering area on each side. For security, the upper floors will only be accessible via the elevator and the stairwell via the student’s magnetic ID that will permit them to their floor. The new hall will open in August of 2020. The annual cost for the new residence will be $7,300 per year which is only about $70 more a month than St. Scholastica and St. Benedict Halls which were the last new halls built in 2013. For more information regarding the new halls, Dry dirt flies at the groundbreaking last Thursday for the new residence hall at Belmont Abbey. contact the college admissions From left- Abbey president Dr. Bill Thierfelder, Belmont mayor Charlie Martin, Montcross office at admissions@bac.edu Chamber board chair Shannon Thomas, Abbot Placid Solari, the BAC Crusaders mascot. Photo by Alan Hodge or by calling 1-888-222-0110.
Heat gone but drought still hanging on By Alan Hodge alan@cfmedia.info
The long, hot summer certainly seared itself into everyone in our area, but even though the heat has eased up, lack of rain remains despite a few showers earlier this week. Officially, we are in a state of “Moderate Drought”. Local lake and river levels have experienced to varying
degrees the lack of precipitation. “The sustained dry weather over the past six weeks or so has impacted all lake levels, especially on our larger (storage) reservoirs: James, Norman, Wylie and Wateree,” said Duke Energy spokesperson Kim Crawford.. “Natural surface evaporation and flow requirements have contributed
to these declining levels.” Recent lake level readings taken by Duke Energy showed the following results. Lake James is currently 1.5 feet below its normal seasonal target. Lake Norman is currently 2 feet below is normal seasonal target. Lake Wylie is 0.6’ and Wateree is only 0.2’ below their target levels. “On October 1, the Ca-
tawba basin was still barely in a normal drought condition based on reservoir storage, six-month average stream flow and the U.S. Drought Monitor,” Crawford said. “The lake levels will continue to decline, however, without above average rainfall this month. Our hydro operations team is operating conservatively, although See DROUGHT, Page 2
This photo taken at the boat ramp at Kevin Loftin Riverfront Park shows how much the water level has fallen on that stretch of the Catawba River over the past month or so. Photo by Alan Hodge