Loading

Growing Chatham NC Cooperative Extension - Chatham County - December 2021

Enrolling in the Chatham County Voluntary Agricultural District Program

What is the Voluntary Agricultural District?

The Chatham County Voluntary Agricultural District (VAD) promotes the agricultural values and general welfare of the county by raising awareness of the importance of our agricultural community and its way of life. This is accomplished by encouraging the preservation of agriculture, horticulture, and forestry through protection from non-farm development. VAD is overseen by the Agricultural Advisory Board, which acts at the local government level to serve the interests of farmers in the county. The board includes nine appointed Chatham County residents who are actively engaged in agriculture.

What are the Benefits of Enrollment?

VAD enrollment encourages the preservation and protection of farmland. By participating in the program, neighbors, potential property buyers, and the public are made aware of the location of the working farm, discouraging possible nuisance complaints. Enrolled landowners can receive a sign (while supplies last) to display at their farm to show that the property is working farmland. The property is also publicly designated as VAD on the county’s GIS website and on the property tax card. Additionally, farms belonging to a VAD will not be required to connect to county water or sewer. Any potential assessment fees are suspended without interest unless and until property is connected. Farms enrolled in VAD may also benefit from higher ranking in Chatham Soil and Water Conservation District cost-share programs. Landowners enrolled in the Chatham County VAD voluntarily agree to protect their land from development for ten years.

Who Should Enroll?

  • Qualifying farmland includes property that:
  • is actively engaged in agriculture,
  • is well managed to prevent soil erosion,
  • is located in unincorporated areas of Chatham County, and
  • can be kept in agriculture for at least ten years.

How to Enroll

Interested landowners may request a paper application or apply for VAD enrollment online. Please contact Chatham Soil and Water Conservation District at (919) 542-8228 or NC Cooperative Extension – Chatham County Center at (919) 542-8202 with questions or for assistance filling out the VAD application.

Looking for a Christmas Tree? Download the Visit NC Farms app and start your search from there

O Christmas Tree!

Diana, Byron, and daughter Khoury

Two years ago, Diana May, owner of Jordan Lake Christmas Tree Farm, called our office wanting to know how she could add her farm to the Visit NC Farms app. At that point we were not a participating county with the Visit NC Farms app. We began to work with the Visit NC Farms app folks, and we started gathering assets that were willing to join us during our trial run with the app. Jordan Lake Christmas Tree Farm was the first farm willing to join us and help us pilot the app here in Chatham County. It was vital to have these first few farms and other ag related businesses to join us to work out the kinks. Diana was always gracious to provide us with feedback when we ran into any bumps in the road. Now here we are two years later, having several Chatham County farms and agribusinesses appearing on the Visit NC Farms app. The Visit NC Farms app continues to thrive throughout North Carolina.

Jordan Lake Christmas Tree Farm is celebrating their 27th year!

Jordan Lake Christmas Tree Farm offers more than just Christmas trees! During the warmer seasons they offer fresh cut flowers for sale. Need to get away from the hustle and bustle? Jordan Lake Christmas Tree Farm also offers overnight lodging at the farm. For more details click on the link below or download the Visit NC Farms app to your phone!

’TIS the Season for Holiday Cookie Making with 4-H!

Looking for some new holiday cookie recipes? Let 4-H help! Check out this recipe book that includes tasty recipes from 4-H members across the country.

Let's get crafting for the holidays with

4-H at Home

Crafting more your style? Check out the 4-H at Home Holiday Activity Guide for ideas on how to create one-of-a-kind care packages for veterans, turn yarn into festive ornaments, and even craft some seasonal popcorn balls!

2022 North Carolina Youth Institute

All high school youth are invited to join us for the 2022 North Carolina Youth Institute (NCYI), a program that provides a platform for youth to research and give recommendations to solve key global challenges that range from food insecurity, access to potable water, poverty, human rights, engineering issues, and more.

Write a paper: Youth select a country besides their own and research the challenges families face around food and write a paper with proposed community-based solutions.

Youth present their paper to their peers at the in-person NCYI at NC State and work collectively to find common themes around global hunger.

Participate in hands-on workshops. Youth will have a chance to explore hands-on sessions led by faculty across CALS to learn more about NC agriculture and food systems.

Become a Borlaug Scholar. After participating in the NCYI, youth will be named a Borlaug Scholar by the World Food Prize.

The NCYI is hosted by NC State University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences and is a part of the the World Food Prize's Global Youth Institute.

Youth will need to register and submit their paper by March 4th, 2022 (registration opens soon) and the in-person, one-day NCYI will be held at NC State on Friday, April 1st, 2022.

If you have any questions or to learn more about the process of this program, contact the North Carolina Youth Institute State Coordinator Dr. Lori Unruh Snyder at lori_snyder@ncsu.edu | (919) 515-4070 or Liz Driscoll, liz_driscoll@ncsu.edu | (919.886.3424).

busy season for the Chatham County Horsekateers

The Horsekateers 4-H Club was well represented on the NC 4-H National Teams at AQHA Congress in Ohio, as well as the Eastern National 4H Roundup in Kentucky. Our member Victoria Smith earned a coveted spot on the NC National Judging Team. At Congress, the team placed 7th in halter, 7th in performance, 5th in reasons, and 6th overall. At Eastern Nationals, Victoria Smith placed 8th in halter and 9th overall. Their team easily won the championship after placing either champion or reserve in every subcategory.

Samantha Durham earned a spot on the National Horse Bowl Team. They won Reserve Champion at Congress and then went on to win the National Championship by a large margin.

This team was coached by Horsekateer leaders Mary Dickerson and Ruth Vorder Bruegge, who were selected based on club performance at the state level.

Horse judging is a contest that requires participants to evaluate horses based on knowledge and facts. This involves judging good conformation, breed character, and performance ideals in different breeds of horses.

Contestants must then defend their placings in an oral presentation. This competition allows individuals to improve their critical thinking and communication skills while expanding their equine knowledge.

Horse Bowl is a quiz-bowl style competition of horse knowledge on a wide variety of topics, from physiology and genetics to horse industry standards. Participants learn the fundamentals of biology, nutrition, and equine health, as well as team cooperation and healthy competition.

Selection for the NC National Teams requires competing at the District, State and multi-state Regional contests, plus numerous practices and tests, so these young ladies are truly the best of the best in NC. We are very proud of what they have accomplished this fall!

4-H STEM Club, Galactic Quest Workshop was out of this world!

On October 28th, the 4-H STEM club, Galactic Quest workshop attendees, and 4-H staff and members had a very special guest speaker. Our very own Mr. Rob Bergmueller invited his cousin Dr. Rachel Kronyak to talk about her research and the work she does for NASA.

Dr. Rachel Kronyak

Dr. Kronyak's interest in science began early and has continued through her roles in multiple Mars missions. As a graduate student, she joined the Mars science laboratory team in 2015. Her doctoral research involved using a variety of Mars datasets and scales to study the fractures on Mars's surface. She then joined the Mars 2020 team as a postdoctoral researcher in early 2020. In late 2020, she joined the science operations team as a Systems Engineer.

On October 28th, Dr. Kronyak gave an outstanding presentation on the Mars missions and the past and current rovers on Mars. Currently, the Mars rover named "Perseverance" is making its way around the red planet taking core samples and pictures for NASA. To learn more, you can visit NASA's webpage linked below. A big thank you to Dr. Kronyak for her time and insights as well as Mr. Rob Bergmueller for coordinating this opportunity for our Chatham County 4-H'ers.

Check Your Dirt NC!

This informative survey is for gardeners in North Carolina who want to:

  • Learn about the types and sources of soil chemical contaminants that might be found in and around their own garden site
  • Evaluate relative risks and gardening practices that decrease the risk of exposure to soil contaminants
  • Find resources to test for soil contaminants in the garden.

The information you provide about your garden will help identify potential risks of soil contaminants in your garden and provide advice about how to keep yourself and other gardeners safe while gardening and eating food grown in the garden. We’ll ask you in what county your garden is located, the history of the site, how your garden is managed, and who gardens.

Have you seen this weed?

Spotted Lantern Fly a Threat to NC Landscapes

Image source: NCDA & CS

Spotted lanternfly is an invasive insect that was first detected in the United States in Pennsylvania in 2014. This 1-hour video will cover its life cycle and biology, hosts, signs and symptoms, regulatory updates, and how we’re preparing to combat the pest when it gets to North Carolina.

Jumping Worms

Although earthworms (terrestrial oligochaetes) are supposed to be a gardener's best friend, many species in the United States are not native and some are destructive. One of the most notorious groups of earthworms are the so-called "Asian crazy / jumping" worms (referred to as "jumping worms" from here on out), known locally sometimes as snake worms, Alabama jumpers, and Georgia jumpers. Despite some of these names, jumping worms are native to regions from East Asia through Australia, but have been moved by humans all over the world, especially in soil and planting pots. They are in the family Megascolecidae, and the most often referenced species is Amynthas agrestis, though there are other species in that genus and other related genera (e.g. Amynthas tokioensis and Metaphire hilgendorfi) that can be common. Multiple species can even be found together in landscapes.

Despite news reports suggesting these worms are new to the United States and North Carolina, jumping worms have been in the country since at least the late 1800s. Amynthas agrestis has been in the United States since 1939 (first found in Baltimore, MD; Chang et al. 2016) and recorded in North Carolina since at least 1978 (Reynolds 1978). These worms may be locally abundant but appear to be patchy and unpredictable in their presence.

Fiddlehead Farm Wins Another National Good Food Award!

Chatham County’s Fiddlehead Farm has won their THIRD national Good Food Award! Earlier this year they won for their Black Garlic Rooster Sauce. In previous years they have won for their Roasted Strawberry Preserves (2018) and Strawberry Honeysuckle Jelly (2020). The awards are given annually to winners in several categories: beer, cider, charcuterie, cheese, chocolate, coffee, confections, drinks, elixirs, fish, grains, honey, oils, pantry, pickles, preserves, snacks, and spirits. Close to 200 winners are chosen from over 2,000 entries from all 50 states.

Fiddlehead Farm’s Emily and David Boynton have produced many different hot sauces over the years and last year David had the idea to substitute black garlic for some of the regular garlic in their rooster sauce recipe to take it up a notch. It was a success! They make the black garlic and also grow the habanero peppers used in the sauce. Black garlic is produced by aging fresh garlic through an extended warming period (140-190° F) in high humidity for 1-2 weeks. The finished garlic is tender and dark brown in color with a rich, tangy, slightly sweet flavor that lends umami to dishes. Black garlic cloves can be chopped, smashed, or pureed and added to sauces, soups, stews, pastas, and sautéed vegetables.

Emily makes a wide variety of preserves, hot sauces, and finishing salts in her kitchen in Pittsboro. All of Fiddlehead Farm’s products are made in small batches which means the focus is on high quality seasonal ingredients. Emily sources her ingredients from local organic and sustainable farms with the exception of fruits like citrus and cranberries that are not grown in North Carolina.

View Recording of CCP Healthy Yard Alternatives Webinar!

Native plant garden. Photo by Debbie Roos.

Chatham Conservation Partnership conducted a webinar on Healthy Yard Alternatives on October 21, 2021, and we had a great turnout of about 140 folks. Now everyone can view the recording! Barbara Driscoll of the New Hope Audubon Society talked about the benefits of leaving your leaves; Chatham County Cooperative Extension Horticulture Agent Matt Jones talked about Lawn Alternatives; CCP Steering Committee member Allison Weakley shared a local landowner example of a wildflower meadow; and Chatham County Cooperative Extension Sustainable Agriculture Agent Debbie Roos gave a virtual tour of her Pollinator Paradise Demonstration Garden through the seasons.

Ginger and Turmeric a High Value Crop for Local Growers

In January 2011, I was at a Southern SAWG Sustainable Agriculture Conference in Chattanooga, TN when I spotted Maine grower Susan Anderson’s East Branch Ginger booth at the trade show. Susan was selling certified organic disease-free ginger seed stock. I was intrigued because I knew a couple of forward-thinking farmers were experimentally growing ginger in North Carolina but very little was known about it. So I hung around Susan’s booth during her presentations until the crowds had cleared away and then introduced myself. I told her I was an Agriculture Agent with N.C. Cooperative Extension and asked her if she would be willing to do a presentation on growing ginger at a Cooperative Extension workshop in Chatham County, North Carolina. She said yes! Long story short…a mere two months later we did our first Ginger Production Workshop in Chatham County, she and her husband and two kids ended up moving to Chatham County that May and and we went on to do two more workshops in 2012 on growing ginger and turmeric. In all, about 250 growers from across the state attended these workshops. East Branch Ginger has now transitioned to producing microgreens and edible flowers and Susan and I have become good friends. And many growers are now growing these specialty crops across the state! I was recently out at Granite Springs Farm in Pittsboro while grower Meredith Leight was harvesting ginger and turmeric. Meredith attended our ginger and turmeric workshops in 2011 and 2012 and has grown these crops every year since! She tells me they are the most high value crops she produces. She sells ginger and turmeric at the Pittsboro Farmers’ Market, to local restaurants, through her Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, and to Farmer Foodshare. Local brewers have made tasty beer from Meredith’s ginger. Ginger and turmeric are available on-line from the Granite Springs Farm on-line store. Chefs and customers wanting five pounds or more should contact her directly for wholesale pricing and delivery options.

Chatham County Farm Field Day for NC Farm School

The NC Farm School is a Cooperative Extension entrepreneurial program for new and transitioning farmers with the mission of increasing the number of successful farmers in North Carolina. The school includes eight in-class sessions plus five farm field days. I am part of the team of Agriculture Agents conducting the 2021 Northern Piedmont Farm School. We take turns teaching classes…I taught the class on Developing your Market.

On Monday October 18 I hosted the NC Farm School Northern Piedmont students in Chatham County for a Farm Field Day. We visited two operations: Meredith Leight’s Granite Springs Farm, a sustainable vegetable and mushroom farm that sells through CSA and to farmers’ markets and restaurants. We also visited Farrell Moose’s Dutch Buffalo Farm, a new native plant nursery that offers a unique CSE (Community Supported Ecology) model.

In between the two farm tours we convened at the Chatham County Agriculture & Conference Center for lunch and educational presentations. Gena Moore from Carolina Farm Stewardship Association talked about organic certification and Jody Moore (no relation!) of Rocky River Bee Farm talked about the Business of Bees.

Lunch was catered by Angelina’s Kitchen and sourced from several local suppliers including Granite Springs Farm, In Good Heart Farm, Screech Owl Greenhouses, East Branch Ginger, Marshall’s Produce, Lee’s Hill Top Farm, and Chicken Bridge Bakery. Interested in attending a NC Farm School? Click here for details on the 2022 NC Farm Schools (both the Northern Piedmont and Piedmont schools).

Chatham County 2021 Holiday Farmers Markets!

Eva Degraffenreaidt Green of Rabbit Patch Baskets will be one of the guest vendors at the Pittsboro Farmers’ Market’s Holiday Craft Market. Photo by Debbie Roos.

Two of Chatham County’s three farmers markets will be hosting special holiday markets to help folks get in the festive holiday spirit!

  • The Pittsboro Farmers Market will host their annual Holiday Craft Market on Thursday, December 9, from 3–6 p.m. at their usual location at Main Street Station in downtown Pittsboro. The market will feature unique crafts and gifts handmade by local artisans. This is in addition to the usual assortment of vendors selling produce, flowers, meat, dairy, and baked goods.
  • The Chatham Mills Farmers Market will host a Holidays at the Market each Saturday in December from 10 a.m. til 1 p.m. Each week will feature visiting craft vendors in addition to the usual vendors. Check the market’s website and Facebook page for a listing of craft vendors each week in December.
  • The Fearrington Farmers Market is now a year-round market and will be open every Tuesday from 3–5 p.m. until spring when they resume their normal hours of 4–6 p.m. Vendors will be taking pre-orders for holiday pies and similar items so visit the market website for details and vendor info.

Come on out to the markets to support our local farmers and artisans!

AgVentures Grant

Beef: Beyond the Basics

Cow Camp 101

Thursday, December 16th - Session 2

Cattle Marketing webinar (in-person) 6pm,

Franklin County Extension Center Annex.

Dinner provided.

Speakers: Paul Gonzalez, Extension Ag Agent, Sampson;

Martha Mobley, Extension Ag Agent, Franklin

’tis the Season to Hang Sticky Bands to Prevent Cankerworm

It’s hard not to love this time of year between the spectacle of fall colors and the reprieve of cooling temperatures. And although trees are losing leaves, now is an important time to take precautionary measures if cankerworms are your tree’s #1 enemy each spring.

Cankerworms are defoliating caterpillars in the inchworm family (Geometridae), recognized by the movement of crawling through a series of arching their back then stretching straight. Image: A. Steven Munson, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org
Whether wingless like fall cankerworm (shown) or winged like spring cankerworm, the female of neither species can fly. To reach the treetop to mate and lay eggs, she must crawl up the trunk. The sticky bands capture her during this climb. Image: John Ghent, Bugwood.org.

WEBINAR: Ask for Wood: Mass Timber and Modular Construction

Ask for Wood, Ask for Paper is a new project sponsored by Keeping Forests. This webinar is the first in a series that aims to arm the broader forestry community, including landowners, with information on the benefits of wood construction and the use of paper and packaging in all projects, which they can then use to advocate with local community leaders and decision makers. This webinar will explain the basics of mass timber, the market potential of mass timber, and showcase actions participants can take to promote the use of mass timber (and wood in general) in their communities and with their political leaders and decision makers.

Date: December 1, 2021

Time: 1:00 pm

Dr. Patricia Layton

Presenter: Dr. Patricia Layton, Director, Wood Utilization & Design Institute

WEBINAR: Forest Health in the South: Preparing for Future Challenges

Date: December 15, 2021

Time: 2:00pm

Presenters: Dr. Kier D. Klepzig and Dr. Kamal J.K. Gandhi

This webinar will discuss predicted changes in the southern forest resource, how they may impact forest health, current tools for detecting forest health issues, and a plan for responding to possible pandemics in pines.

NC State Fair Chatham County Pony Express Participants

Elise Overton

Elise Overton of Apex, NC started entering the State Fair in 2019 and the list of what to enter grows every year. Because she loves agriculture and crafts, there is plenty to consider. Next year she even plans to show a goat. Elise got involved in 4-H in 2018 and decided to join a livestock group called the Chatham County Charging Champions the following year. “I won’t be surprised if Elise makes this a career somehow and becomes a 4-H agent,” says her Mom, Kristy Overton. “She definitely needs to do something outdoors as it is her element.”

Elise with this year's Fair entries, including her second-place wildflower honey!

Ric Harber

Ric Harber, from Pittsboro, started leatherwork as a hobby in the early 1980s while in Lubbock, Texas. When he retired in 2006, he began to turn his hobby into an obsession, opening a retail store in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He moved to North Carolina at the end of January, 2020, just in time for the fun we've all had over the last year and a half. The tooled oak leaf purse was Ric's first entry in the North Carolina State Fair.

Ric's tooled oak leaf purse

Rob Bergmueller

Leather carving and constructing leather projects has been a hobby that Rob Bergmueller, from Apex, has enjoyed for over twenty-five years. Rob says after all of these years, he still finds that he continues to improve his technique.

There are times where he will pull a piece of leather out of his scrap bin, select a pattern, and start carving, just for the practice. There are many different styles of leather carving including the Southwest Style as well as the Sheridan Style. When carving the Southwest Style, the leaves and flowers being carved are usually large and there’s a lot of open area in the background. On Sheridan Style, the flowers and leaves are generally small and in figure eight patterns with limited backgrounds stamped in the leather. Rob enjoys carving both, but Sheridan is his favorite. He also enjoys making reproduction pieces and pictured is a possible bag that a black powder hunter would use to carry his tools, spare flints, etc. for a day or two in the woods.

Along with constructing projects, Rob also enjoys sharing ideas and teaching others how to carve and how to assemble their projects. Rob explains, "With leather carving there are many nuances that one can learn as well as improving on your own techniques to make your projects more attractive and enjoyable to create. This is a hobby where you can always learn something and you can repair leather goods as well. When you need a gift, given enough time, you can make something that someone will enjoy for a long time. If you enjoy using your hands to make something creative this is something you are sure to enjoy for a lifetime."

Rob takes second place with his belt

A guide for safely made food gifts

Gifts from your kitchen can be a fun and thoughtful way to share holiday cheer! Be sure to safely gift your delicious foods by checking out this guide for safely made food gifts.

Spiced Walnuts Recipe

Excellent as a holiday gift! Just place spiced nuts in a small jar with a ribbon and tag or a holiday themed bag and give to your loved ones.

Join Tara's Family & Consumer Sciences Email List

If you'd like to be added to Tara's Family & Consumer Sciences email list to stay up-to-date on nutrition, health and wellness related classes and events, please click on the button below. You will be redirected to our subscriber list. Click on "Chatham: Family and Consumer Sciences New Subscriber."

A Few Quick Tips to Stay on Track this Holiday Season

Making a holiday budget is very important to keep yourself on track. If you go into the holidays with a plan for your finances, you will be able to relax more and not stress out over your personal finances throughout the season.

Gift Budget:

• Make a list of all the people that you plan to buy gifts for and then put a dollar amount of what you plan to spend for that gift by their name. This will allow you to have a visual of how much you could possibly be spending.

• Before you start shopping, take some time to brainstorm gift ideas for those gifts and the amount of money that you have planned to spend on those gifts. This way, when you start to shop you will have a plan, and we tend to spend less when we have a list of items that we plan to purchase. This also helps us not buy those impulse items that the stores hope we fall for.

• As you start purchasing gifts on your list, you will be able to see if you are staying on track with your budget.

This time of year can be very stressful, but we hope that with a little preplanning you will be able to enjoy the holidays and your family and make many wonderful memories together. We wish you and your families a Happy Holidays!

Looking Rearward One Hundred & Four Plus Sixty Years

At first glance of the title above you may scratch your head wondering what in the world?!? Yes, it makes very little sense, but once you read the article below written by A.D. Phillips, from The Chatham Grit's December 26, 1917 edition and then my version from our current time, it will all start making sense. The article below really puts into perspective how much has changed since this article was written.

Photo provided by K. Phillips, Findagrave.com

According to the information on Findagrave.com, Albert Phillips was a shoemaker, a farmer, and Postmaster. Albert was also a correspondent with many local newspapers, reporting on activities of the Bear Creek, Bennett and Ramseur areas, using the pen name Long Shanks. Albert was received as a member of Bennett Baptist Church in July 1912, he married Sarah Campbell in 1861.

Mr. A.D. Phillips was 75 years old at the time of this writing.

Reading this article made me stop and think about how much has changed since I was a kid. I was born in 1972, and I think about the things I asked Santa for, such as a Barbie, the Playdough Dentist toy, and the one thing that made me feel like the coolest kid ever, a boom box that Santa brought me. I was able to carry that huge, portable radio around with me everywhere and play my music as loud as I could, until the neighbors started to complain.

I had my first child in 1998 and the things that he wanted were video game related such as a game boy, the Wii, and the various Play Stations. He's twenty-three and still loves his video games! My youngest was born in 2001 and was obsessed with school buses. For a couple years straight, all he wanted were school buses. When he was nine years old he took his school bus obsession a step further, one that I would have never imagined he would ever do. He was pretty savvy with computers and finding out information. He visited the eBay website and saw that a real school bus was up for auction. He could see the seller's information and sent them an email stating that he liked their school buses. As he was telling me all about the bus and emailing the folks, of course I told him that he could not do that again. Not too long after he found the real school bus on eBay he was at his grandparent's house eating dinner with them. His grandmother told him that he received some mail and thought it was odd that he had mail coming to their address. He opened the envelope and became very quiet during dinner because the wheels were turning in his head. After dinner, he asked his grandmother how do credit cards work? She questioned him why he was asking about a credit card. Then he pulled out the envelope that he received in the mail at her house and it was a Master Card! On that Master Card was my son's name, Andrew Wheeler, Preferred Cardholder. To shorten this story, he completed the Master Card application by using various family member's information such as birthday, employment, phone number, and address. Needless to say, after several phone calls with Master Card, finally convincing them that a nine year old figured out how to apply and get approved for this card, it was finally cancelled. Thankfully the school bus had sold before Andrew had a chance to try to bid on it.

Looking back through the years so much has changed. Back in the "olden days" folks were enjoying time together at candy pulling parties or corn shucking parties, while today we have virtual parties online, we stay connected with friends and family across the country and the world thanks to technology. We have the ability to facetime friends and family or have a zoom session for a virtual family get together. No matter how you spend the holiday season with friends or family, make some terrific memories because one day your loved ones may not be here to celebrate those special times with you. Hope you make some great holiday memories this holiday season!

From Our Community Partners

Chatham County Government Launches Redesigned Website

On November 18, 2021, Chatham County government launched a redesigned website: https://www.chathamcountync.gov. Along with a sleek update in appearance, the new website is designed to make it easier for residents, businesses, and other members of the public to find what they need.

COVID-19 Booster doses are available!

All three COVID-19 vaccines are authorized for boosters. Those eligible are anyone over 65 years old and folks 18-64 years of age who are at higher risk for severe COVID-19 due to underlying medical conditions or work and/or live in a high-risk setting like healthcare, schools, child care, manufacturing, grocery stores, correctional facility or homeless shelters. For more information, including where to get a booster vaccine, please see the attached COVID-19 Booster flyer, in English and Spanish or visit the health department webpage about booster shots English and Spanish. You can also follow the health department’s Facebook page for the latest information: https://www.facebook.com/chathamhealth

2021 Community Assessment

Anyone who lives, plays, works or prays in Chatham County is eligible to participate in the 2021 Community Assessment by completing a survey to share your thoughts and opinions about health and well-being in Chatham, participating in a Story Circle (similar to a focus group) or by taking and submitting a photo through the Chatham Snapshots project. Those who submit a photo will be entered into a $20 Visa gift card drawing that will take place every Monday from November 22nd through December 20th and a $40 grand prize drawing that will take place on Friday 12/31. For more information see the attached flyers, in English and Spanish: “2021 Community Assessment,” “2021 Story Circles,” and the “Chatham Snapshots flyer.”

2021 Community Assessment Supplemental Survey

The supplemental survey is part of the 2021 Community Assessment process. Every three years, a group that includes the Chatham Health Alliance, the Chatham County Public Health Department and Chatham Hospital produces the Chatham County Community Assessment, a collaborative report that provides a snapshot of the county and its residents – what is needed, what challenges are faced, what strengths and opportunities exist in the community, and what can be done together to make life better.

Take the 2021 Community Assessment Supplemental Survey to share your thoughts and opinions about health and well-being in Chatham County!

¡Realice la Encuesta Complementaria de Evaluación Comunitaria del 2021 para compartir sus pensamientos y opiniones sobre la salud y el bienestar en el Condado de Chatham! Haga clic en el botón de abajo.

Mask Reminder

Before entering any Chatham County Government building, please be aware that masks are required.

NC State University and N.C. A&T State University commit themselves to positive action to secure equal opportunity and prohibit discrimination and harassment regardless of age, color, disability, family and marital status, genetic information, national origin, political beliefs, race, religion, sexual identity (including pregnancy), and veteran status. NC State, N.C. A&T, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and local governments cooperating. Persons with disabilities and persons with limited English proficiency may request accommodations to participate by contacting Ginger Cunningham, County Extension Director, at 919.542.8202, ginger_cunningham@ncsu.edu, or in person at the County Extension Office at least 30 days prior to the event.

Created By
Tiffany Hancock
Appreciate

Credits:

Created with images by JillWellington - "christmas tree santa woman" • TerriC - "poinsettia christmas christmas background" • katja - "butterflies christmas star wildlife" • Einladung_zum_Essen - "apple onion chutney" • monicore - "christmas gift new year" • v-a-n-3-ss-a - "syringe needle injection"