Pittsboro

A contentious state road project in Pittsboro hit a detour last week, after town leaders unanimously directed transportation officials to analyze yet another alternate route for the $30 million North Chatham Park Way, one that would avoid lopping off part of the bucolic North Woods neighborhood. 

The road would require clear-cutting, take private land, divide the neighborhood, and cross Haven Creek, which feeds the Haw River.

Mark Pavao was working in his home that is tucked inside a woods and perched above a creek when he heard chainsaws.

Pittsboro, Fuquay-Varina want to buy drinking water from Sanford. But that town's water is contaminated with PFAS. At least 1 million people living from Pittsboro to Wilmington in the Cape Fear River Basin could be exposed to high levels of toxic perfluorinated compounds.