Gaining Community Member Perspectives
Pittsboro Community ForumSeveral community members struggled with their definition of Pittsboro; most community members seemed to agree that the community of Pittsboro encompassed more than just the territorial jurisdiction, and included much of the surrounding county. Many who lived outside the actual town still identified themselves as being from Pittsboro. One thing which all Pittsboro adult community members agreed about was that Pittsboro had many strengths which made them happy to live there. They identified Pittsboro as a "strong, supportive community" in a good location: close to Chapel Hill, Raleigh and Durham and yet still with the "feel of country life".
Community members also made clear that the community of Pittsboro is not homogeneous, but is made up of distinct group. These include racial groups as well as groups defined by their length of residence in Pittsboro: "There's very different groups of people. You know, there's sort of the people that have been here forever, and their culture. And there's sort of the more younger people that are probably mostly hippies," commented one respondent. Groups are often defined by their political leanings: whether they are conservative or more "progressive". One focus group was self-identified as being on the progressive side, and participants spoke of their community as both distinct and close-knit:
There's a mix in here (indicating this room) which is what some people would call liberal - us folk - or progressive - and we all tend to fit into that category so therefore we all know each other - everybody - it's tight in the sense of culture, and it's tight in the sense of the type of entertainment we enjoy - it's tight in the sense of all the people we know - it's tight in the since that we all hang out and go at one point or another to the General Store - it's tight in the sense that we all belong or have, at one point or another, belonged to the same organizations, because there's a great deal of volunteerism.
Residents' pride in Pittsboro became apparent in this same focus group after the facilitator summed up the list of issues they had been discussing and asked if there were any others they wanted to talk about. Apparently disturbed by the facilitator's focus on weaknesses, the community member defensively replied, "It's a lovely place - God's country. It's a great place to live. We all enjoy it tremendously in spite of the things that are detracting."
One of the major issues which is detracting from the quality of life of native Pittsboro residents is growth and development. People that have recently moved to Pittsboro find it an ideal town to live and raise a family and recommend it to others. This causes a great deal of nervousness among those who want to keep the rural nature of the county intact. One community member stated, "For a town of comparable size in North Carolina, we have more than our share of environmentalists here, and artists who really have strong opinions on matters of growth so that it (Pittsboro) doesn't become like a Cary or Fuquay Varina. I was down there recently and it was a subdivision city. And a lot of people here don't want that." In addition, when asked what they would tell someone who was considering moving to Pittsboro, one focus group member replied, "Well, I would say that they shouldn't plan on coming - that's what I would tell them. I'd try to think of all the negative parts about living here." He was echoed by another participant: "I agree. I would discourage them from moving here, if I could. Keep them away so we could keep to ourselves."
All residents, regardless of their opinions about newcomers, recognize that growth is inevitable and would like to see Pittsboro grow responsibly. With growth comes a need for the infrastructure to support it. Though Chatham County's growth is mostly residential, many argue that this is not enough because it does not provide a tax base that can support the growth (with money for schools most of all; but also for sewer, water, and transportation). There are many suggestions about how to cope, as well as many disagreements. Some community members argue for the need to combine residential growth with commercial or industrial growth so that the tax base can expand. However, the two major industrial growth opportunities offered to Chatham County over the last six months, an enormous landfill to serve four states and a CP&L nuclear waste facility, have both carried serious consequences for the environmental health of the county and been the subject of much heated debate. After a substantial surge of community protest, the landfill proposal was withdrawn (though many suspect it may resurface in the future), but the nuclear waste facility remains a current issue. Residents who argue for the need for industry or commercial development to add to the tax base urge the need to find creative ways to locate and attract businesses that will not bring down the quality of life. "Everybody's looking for the ideal, smokeless industry that does not pollute, that employs high class, high paying individuals,", commented one interviewee, "and those are hard to find."
Increasing the residential tax base is also a subject of emotional debate. Property tax evaluations this year dramatically raised the value of most Chatham County properties, and some more than doubled. This will probably result in higher taxes for most residents. Some argue that this is a necessary step to bring properties up to their current value rates and provide needed money for the school system, while many others feel cheated since they do not believe they are receiving the public services such taxes merit. One chatlist member even suggested picketing the tax offices. Another bone of contention is a proposed bill to levy an "impact tax" on any new residential developments to support the cost of new and expanded schools.
Community members, though reticent to see new development and industries, can at the same time recognize the possible benefits. A Teen Center board member commented on how the development they didn't really want coming in could also become something to sustain or increase Teen Center services. "We may be sitting in a good chair and that may be this year or five years from now if we play our cards right", he said. Thus, there is conflict not only between people with opposing viewpoints, but within individual community members over the issue of growth and development. Many community members are struggling to identify exactly where the perfect compromise exists between unbridled growth and "smart growth".
Education was a common theme discussed by community members. People felt that, within Chatham County, there is a real range in the quality of schools. Areas of the county that have experienced more growth have better schools than areas that have not experienced such growth. Growth is causing the schools to become crowded and the tax base isn't there to deal with that growth or to pay the teachers wages that are competitive with other surrounding counties. This combination of growth and lack of resources causes many community members to be concerned over the quality of schools. One community member stated, "In Chatham County we're not able to pay our teachers as much as other counties, like Alamance and Durham and all those other counties. So what happens is the good teachers might come here for two years and they can just go 30 minutes away and make a lot more money."
Transportation also came up as a concern among community members. There is limited public transportation system in the county, which makes it very difficult for teens that don't have their license or for other community members that do not have a car to get around. The lack of transportation limits the activities and opportunities that are available to the teens. One community member stated, "If you have a car, and parents are willing to take you places, then there are lots of activities for you. If you don't have parents who have the time or means of transportation, there is nothing." Some community members also expressed concern over safety of the roads in Pittsboro. As a result of the many high traffic roads that cut through the town, it is more difficult to run to a friend's house across town. Also, Chatham County roads are narrow and there are not many streetlights, making it a dangerous place for inexperienced adolescent drivers.
Lack of recreational opportunities for community members, and especially for the younger population in Pittsboro, was a topic recognized by all of the community members that we spoke with. One community member said, "I'm kind of in a mentoring relationship-and the one young lady, she is bored beyond bored - bored to the point of being very angry about being bored." Community members are concerned that the lack of fun, creative ways for teens to spend their time will force them to turn to unhealthy, risky behaviors such as the use of drugs and sex. There are some organized sports offered by the schools and the Chatham County Parks and Recreation Department but there is not much else available for adolescents who are not interested in competitive sports or who cannot get a ride to practices and games. There are several groups in Pittsboro who recognize this problem and are trying to address it. Two of these groups are the Teen Center board and those working towards a Pittsboro YMCA.
The Teen Center offers a place for teens who are between 11 and 15 years old to hang out after school. The Pittsboro Teen Center began six years ago by a group of concerned parents who decided they needed to provide a place for their children to go after school. They held some fundraisers and gained access to an old community-owned building about a half a mile from Horton Middle School. The Teen Center began with teens themselves on the advisory committee. These teens would help make the rules, decide what was going to go on, and even help interview and vote for potential directors. At one time, the teens who attended were numerous and active enough to raise their own funds to take a trip to Carowinds Amusement Park.
However, both interest in and attendance at the Teen Center have waned in the last year. Teens currently allowed at the center cannot be more that 15 years old, and it is rare to see over seven attendees in a certain day (and about half of those who do attend seem to be younger than 12 years). Many in the community do not appear to know about the Teen Center and many who do know do not attend. The current Board has found it extremely difficult to recruit volunteers for the Teen Center this year or raise any kind of sustained interest in the community. Board members find this hard to understand.
"Maybe this is what happens when you start something, you know," commented one founding member, "because there's a lot of excitement at the beginning, and it's like, and then you have a wall and, you know, I can't quite understand…" Although board members persevere in their work with the Teen Center and hope to achieve non-profit status and perhaps eventually have a facility of their own, they are beginning to feel discouraged with the lack of community awareness and support.
Another group (with very little understanding of or contact with the Teen Center group) is working towards getting a YMCA in Pittsboro. It has been a difficult process because the population base is not big enough to support such a venture. A recent meeting with representatives from Chapel Hill explored the possibility of a Pittsboro YMCA slowly developing under the larger umbrella of the Chapel Hill YMCA. Some see a YMCA as being a long way off and so the question then becomes what to do in the meantime.
When asked about how teens contributed to the community, adults had trouble formulating an answer. One focus group member responded, "I'm sure they contribute in many, many ways - I don't know what…" Like service providers, some community members seemed to struggle with the self-centeredness and immaturity they saw in adolescents. However, community members tended to agree on the fact that adolescents were the future of Pittsboro, and as the future were very important to the community. One community member framed the teens' current contribution to the community in terms of their individual learning and development:
I think kids from 11 to 18 are … exploring themselves and learning how to explore other people and learning about appreciation of diverse people and so really they're contributing to the community by learning about others and by becoming accepting of others and really integrating all these sort of complex intersocial relationships in a more in-depth way. So it's really by learning about those things, they're contributing to the community in a larger sense.
A few community members commented on their desire to see more opportunities available for adolescents to become involved in community activities. One respondent expressed the desire for community involvement to be a credit requirement for high school juniors and seniors, so that they could get a sense of what's going on in the community and contribute to it.
Although we were not able to conduct any formal focus groups with adolescents, we had an opportunity to hear their voice through several other avenues. Through our time volunteering at the Teen Center we had the opportunity to interact with adolescents on a more informal, casual level. This interaction allowed us to get an initial feeling of some of the issues that Pittsboro adolescents are facing as well as some of their strengths in addressing these issues. In addition to our contact at the Teen Center, the county health educator was able to survey some of the students that she works with at Northwood High School. Their responses to questions about school, substance abuse, self-esteem, violence, recreation and health were summarized providing a lot of rich, useful data on adolescent concerns. We also had access to information from a focus group done for another purpose at Horton Middle School. In general, many of the issues discussed by teens were similar to the ones that were brought up by both service providers and community members. Following are some of the most common themes that arose.
Issues relating to a lack of recreational facilities for adolescents were the most frequently cited ones. Teens in Pittsboro are craving places to "hang out" and spend the free time that they have during the evenings and weekends. Among the kinds of things that they wanted to see available were a movie theater, a bowling alley, an arcade, a community center with basketball courts and more parks and fields for them to play sports in.
In addition to improving recreational options for teens some of them also suggested more opportunities to get involved in school and the community, something some of the adults we talked to also want to see. Some teens wanted to see a wider variety of options available to them in school such as a larger arts program, the addition of a cosmetology program at Northwood High School and tutoring available during school and after school. Among the suggestions for opportunities made available to teens in the community were more concerts and carnivals, an opportunity for older teens to mentor younger teens through Chatham Together, basketball exhibitions that brought surrounding teams into the area to play, and other volunteer opportunities. One teen even suggested putting together an advisory board for teens in order to give them a voice, which is something that an adult in the community is also interested in doing. As one teen said, "More programs at the middle school level, sports, and big brother/big sister would encourage teens not to get started on bad behaviors like smoking and drugs.
Some of the teens also made suggestions for how to improve the Teen Center. Most of them knew it existed but felt that there wasn't enough available there for them to do. They wanted to see computers and a game room put in and suggested more structured activities such as "movie night" and field trips. Another issue is the age restrictions at the Teen Center. Some high school students would like to see a Teen Center started that would be open to older teens.
Many of the suggestions made by the teens mentioned above would also help address the issue of the lack of employment opportunities for teens. There are not a lot of places for teens to find minimum wage retail or food service jobs within Pittsboro. If movie theaters and bowling alleys opened up there would be more jobs available to teens. In addition to expanding the options of paying jobs, volunteer opportunities would also provide teens with a structured, committed activity that helped them learn responsibility. For example, both the mentoring suggestion and the advisory board for teens would require a regular time commitment from those involved. One community member felt that, if teens got more involved in the community, they would be more likely to stay in Pittsboro or return to Pittsboro after college.
There were many health issues brought up by the adolescents. Some teens wished there were more counselors available and more people to talk to about issues. They may be aware of services available to them such as the Health Department but, as one teen said, "Teens may be afraid to come to the health department, think they might be seen by someone they know, and are not sure if it is really confidential."
With regard to most of the health issues discussed by the teens, most of them felt that peer pressure was a big problem and a reason for many of the risky behaviors taking place. Teen perceptions lead them to believe that most of the other teens around them are engaging in risky behaviors. One teen speculated that 75% of teens are pressured into risky behaviors. When asked what the major issues facing teens in Chatham County were, many of the teens mentioned issues surrounding teen pregnancy and pressure to have sex. Smoking, drugs and alcohol were also listed and some thought that there were too many teens using. Some teens suggested more education on both issues. Some wanted to see more drug abuse education while some wanted to see more birth control education in addition to the abstinence education that is provided in school.
Another concern of teens also needs to be considered when considering the issues mentioned above. Many teens don't have access to transportation and therefore, many of them highlighted the need for transportation options made available to them. The teens are going to need ways of getting to jobs, recreation and the health department and other social service organizations. It was also mentioned that transportation to recreational opportunities already available in the area, such as Jordan Lake, was needed.
Finally, teens mentioned low self-esteem as an issue that many of them face. Some teens feel that their peers are super critical and think they are better than others and if someone is different than others they aren't accepted. Stereotypes from adults were also mentioned. A few teens suggested creating programs to address this issue of low self-esteem.
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