Home Care In Snow Camp, NC

Next meeting is tonight, by a subcommittee focusing on Snow Camp zoning; it will be an open meeting

A proposed zoning ordinance that has been two years in the making has set off a volcanic reaction from many residents of Snow Camp, who were apparently unaware of this plan’s implications until its recent debut before Alamance County’s planning board.

Over the past several weeks, the proposal’s critics have repeatedly converged on the county’s headquarters in Graham to prevent these land-use restrictions from being imposed on their rural, unincorporated community in the county’s southwestern reaches.

Their protests have, moreover, prompted the planning board to refer the rules back to a subcommittee which crafted them in order to address some of the community’s concerns. This three-member zoning ordinance subcommittee is scheduled to take up this task at a special-called meeting on Thursday night. Thanks to this newspaper’s intervention, this meeting will be open to the general public in compliance with the state’s Open Meeting’s Law – an assertion that couldn’t be made of the subcommittee’s previous powwows.

It remains to be seen what impact the public’s presence will have on the subcommittee’s proceedings, which are slated to begin at 7:00 p.m. in the meeting chambers on the second floor of the county’s headquarters at 124 West Elm Street in Graham.

Yet, for all of the upheaval it’s caused, the outcry against the proposed zoning ordinance is actually a good thing, according to Tonya Caddle, the county’s planning director.

Caddle contends that a vigorous response for the community was precisely what she and her colleagues intended when they mailed out notices to every property owner in the Snow Camp area shortly before Christmas.

“It was a shock for a lot of them,” she said in an interview Tuesday, “and we did that purposefully to make sure they knew what was going on.”

The county’s planning department may nevertheless have gotten more than it bargained for when the planning board was forced to confront the results of the mass mailing.

On the night of January 13, the county’s meeting chambers were packed with Snow Camp residents as the planning board convened a regularly-scheduled meeting that featured the proposed zoning ordinance on its agenda.

About 15 of board’s audience members went on to share their concerns with the ordinance during an hour-long public comment period that kicked off that evening’s three-hour gathering.

Toward the end of that night’s proceedings, the planning board considered a motion to throw out the proposed ordinance – a gambit that ultimately failed by a margin of one vote.

The board’s members didn’t get much further in their deliberations before they resolved to recess their meeting and reconvene a week later.

The board resumed its discussion on the night of January 19 – this time, to an even larger audience that required the use of an overflow room to accommodate the crowd of residents.

According to the fire marshal’s office, 75 people had passed through the door that evening – and about 15 of them weighed in on the ordinance when the planning board opened the floor to public comments.

The speakers who addressed the planning board on the 19th included several individuals who support tighter restrictions on land use in Snow Camp. Some of these zoning proponents were also part of a grassroots movement that tried, unsuccessfully, to get the county to revoke a permit that it had issued for a rock quarry in 2018.

The quarry’s opponents were ultimately the driving force behind the development of a zoning plan for the Snow Camp area, and a number of them were intimately involved in the plan’s composition.

“I heard that, in that meeting, 15 people spoke for an entire community. There’s a petition on Change.org that 263 people have signed against heavy use industry in Snow Camp…and this [proposed zoning] ordinance will start the process to address this threat to our beautiful and rural farming community.” – Linda Lee

“I would’ve sworn and bet money that a lawyer from San Francisco wrote this. I’m actually ashamed of Ms. Caddle if she was the one who asked for this.”

“If you want to build a new house, you’ve got to plant a certain size tree with a certain size canopy in the front yard – and the back yard. That’s not Southern Alamance – the home of the free. This is crazy…This is so far left, it’s not gonna fly.” – Mike Owens

The call for new rules to curb heavy industry was reiterated by residents like Linda Lee, who was the first to address the planning board during the public comment period on the 19th. Lee assured that the planning board’s members that they got an imbalanced view from the zoning opponents who had approached them at their previous gathering.

“I heard that, in that meeting, 15 people spoke for an entire community,” she added. “There’s a petition on Change.org that 263 people have signed against heavy use industry in Snow Camp…and this [proposed zoning] ordinance will start the process to address this threat to our beautiful and rural farming community.”

Meanwhile, Mike Owens, a vocal opponent of zoning, delivered an impassioned speech to the planning board that took direct aim at the county’s planning director for her apparent role in the proposal.

“I would’ve sworn and bet money that a lawyer from San Francisco wrote this,” Owens said during his allotted three minutes at the podium. “I’m actually ashamed of Ms. Caddle if she was the one who asked for this.”

Owen went on to decry some specific provisions within the plan that he felt smacked of regulatory excess.

“If you want to build a new house, you’ve got to plant a certain size tree with a certain size canopy in the front yard – and the back yard,” he exclaimed. “That’s not Southern Alamance – the home of the free. This is crazy…This is so far left, it’s not gonna fly.”

The planning board also heard some misgivings about the proposed ordinance from Jane Majors.

“What this does, in my opinion,” she told the group, “is to try to squash our local character and way of life and make us a carbon copy of a town in an attempt to standardize us into somebody else’s perceived notion of what we should be.”

Majors also found fault with some of the proposal’s particulars, including one provision that seems to allow a landowner to parcel off no more than two lots from a larger tract that he or she intends to share out among family members.

“I have a strong objection to anyone telling me how I should divide or bequeath my land,” Majors went on to declare. “If you’ve got a 100 acres, and you’ve got five children and grandchildren, you can only give two of them some of your land no matter how much you’ve got.”

According to Caddle, Majors and other critics of this particular provision have misunderstood what the proposed rule is actually intended to do.

She points out that, under the proposed zoning ordinance, the limits on gifts and bequests would only apply when a landowner wants to subdivide property into smaller lots than the county’s existing subdivision ordinance permits. The proposed regulation is, in other words, a loophole for people who want to get around a rule that’s already on the books.

“There were a lot of misconceptions. They were picking out sections of the ordinance without reading the whole thing.

“It’s very clear here that you have two sides – one side wants everything touched and restricted and the other side wants to be left alone.”

– Alamance County planning director Tonya Caddle

Caddle insists that this subdivision limit is merely one of several recommendations that have been misconstrued by the residents who’ve spoken out in opposition to zoning.

“There were a lot of misconceptions,” she said. “They were picking out sections of the ordinance without reading the whole thing.”

The county’s planning director is nevertheless emphatic that the planning board still needs to hear this sort of feedback before it decides whether or not to endorse the zoning proposal to the county’s board of commissioners.

Caddle also noted that these contrary views will provide the members of the zoning ordinance subcommittee with fodder for their discussion at Thursday’s special-called meeting.

In either case, Caddle insisted that inclusion of opposing opinions is precisely what a good public planner should strive to achieve.

“You need to reach out and get all sides,” she added. “and it’s very clear here that you have two sides – one side wants everything touched and restricted and the other side wants to be left alone.”

A mailbox decked with a brace of party balloons was the only thing that marked out the destination on Friday when Alamance Aggregates hosted an open house for its newly-operational quarry in the unincorporated community of Snow Camp.

This low-key event, which drew a select list of clients, associates, and local dignitaries, was nevertheless a long-time in the making for this family-owned mining concern, which applied for its first county-level permit at the end of 2017.

Although the company had an easy-enough time obtaining this “intent to construct” permit, it soon hit a much harder stratum of regulatory review when it submitted its plans to North Carolina’s state mining commission. As part of its application to the commission, the company was required to notify neighboring property owners of its intentions, which set off a veritable explosion of dread among the previously unwitting residents of Snow Camp.

Over the next three and a half years, the mine’s neighbors fought tooth and nail to keep the proposed mine out of their idyllic corner of Alamance County. Nor did their objections elude the state’s mining commission, which put the mine’s would-be operators through their paces before it finally signed off on the project this past winter.

Even now, there are still yard signs that declare “No Snow Camp Mine” tucked amid the rolling hills and rough country roads of Snow Camp. But these lingering traces of opposition don’t seem to have dampened the spirit of Drew Boggs, a co-owner of Alamance Aggregates, who was eager to present the facility’s best face during the open house Friday.

“We want to be a good neighbor,” Boggs assured The Alamance News during the mid-day get-together. “We want to be a good corporate citizen, and we want to give back to the community.”

The guest list for Friday’s event was noticeably bereft of the neighbors who’ve been especially adamant in their opposition to the new mine. It nevertheless included a fair number of local movers and shakers, including at least three of the five county commissioners and officials from the Snow Camp volunteer fire department.

Among the activities that awaited these invitees were a free raffle and a short-order lunch under a covered canopy. Those who were inclined could also take guided tours of the site – and gawk at the state-of-the-art machinery that Alamance Aggregates uses to extract crushed stone from the unyielding bedrock.

During one of these tours, Chad Threatt, an executive with Alamance Aggregates, extolled the versatility and efficiency of this rock crushing equipment, which he noted can be powered with diesel fuel or plugged directly into the power grid when fuel prices get out of control. Threatt also touted the top-notch emission standards of this machinery, whose “Tier 4” ratings are the highest currently available on the industrial market.

Another point of pride for Threatt and his colleagues are the precautions they’ve taken to minimize the mine’s impact on its immediate surroundings. These reductive measures include the carefully-controlled blasts that Alamance Aggregates uses to soften up the solid bedrock before its extraction. Although there were no live demonstrations during the open house, a video of one recent blast was making the rounds thanks to Tom Terrell, a Greensboro-based lawyer who has served as the mine’s legal counsel.

“I recorded this for people to see what the blasting is like,” Terrell explained during the open house, “and it’s not really an explosion. It’s more of a ‘floosh’ that lasts for about two seconds.”

These blasts, which are handled by a third-party contractor, are monitored by a collection of seismographs that Alamance Aggregates has set up at certain strategic locations, including two along a natural gas main that’s owned by the Colonial Pipeline Company. Threatt emphasized that the measurements at these locations must never exceed a level of 1.0 – a reading that’s well below the threshold of human perception.

In addition to this seismological monitoring system, Alamance Aggregates has also implemented various erosion control measures to limit the mine’s impact on its surroundings. In particular, Threatt called his tour group’s attention to the lush field grasses that cover much of the site – a feature that he said he’d one day like to share with the rest of the world.

“We maintain our site very well, and we want people to see it,” he added. “And a little down the road, we’d like to do field trips.”

At this point, however, the wider community hasn’t been entirely receptive to what it has seen of the mine’s operations.

In recent months, neighboring residents have repeatedly complained about truck traffic en route to quarry, which is located off of Clark Road in the southernmost depths of Alamance County. Boggs noted that the NC. Department of Transportation has already begun to make improvements along Clark Road to accommodate the comings and goings of these heavier vehicles.

In the meantime, reports from the community also alerted county officials to something of a false start in the mine’s operations.

Boggs acknowledged that he and his colleagues hadn’t fully addressed some of the county’s mandated punch list items when they ramped up their activity earlier this spring. The discovery of these loose ends ultimately prompted the county to impose some $16,500 in fines on Alamance Aggregates – a penalty that Boggs concedes was very much in order given the circumstances.

“We had 98 percent of that list done,” he recalled. “But there were just a few things that were not finished, and we started operating before these few things were done. So, they had to fine us for that, and we hand delivered the check for that amount.”

Boggs added that, in the future, he hopes that Alamance Aggregates will overcome this fitful start to be increasingly accepted as a valuable member of the local business community. His efforts to cultivate a more positive image seem to have already borne fruit with the Snow Camp fire department, whose chief Gene Wellons was among the guests at Friday’s event.

During the open house, Alamance Aggregates formally presented Wellons with a new John Deere gator for his firefighters to use in the field. This gesture was certainly not lost on the department’s chief, as he admitted in a brief conversation that afternoon.

“A lot of our district is inaccessible to our trucks,” Wellons told The Alamance News. “So, it’s going to be a huge help…and we’re glad to have them here in our community.”

By Amber Heintzberger

At Braeburn Farm in Snow Camp, NC mother and daughter Cindy and Eliza Sydnor work side by side day after day sharing their business and their passion for horses. To some this may sound like a dream come true, for others it may sound like a recipe for disaster, but this mother-daughter duo is definitely making a success of their shared interest.

Cindy and her husband, Charles Sydnor, own a 400-acre farm in central North Carolina. He raises grass-fed Red Devon beef, and Cindy and Eliza train dressage horses and teach riding lessons. Mother and daughter have each formed LLC’s: Eliza Sydnor Dressage LLC and Cindy Sydnor Dressage LLC. They work side by side and keep their own horses and training horses in Cindy’s barn. They use the entire facility together, often teach in the arena together and ride together daily. Their only constraint is that the barn has only nine stalls, which limits the number of horses they can take in for training.

When horses come in for training with Eliza, the client pays her for the training and Cindy for the boarding and all other bills – shoeing, worming, vet, etc. This way Eliza is basically a private contractor working out of Braeburn Farm.

Cindy’s business consists also of judging dressage with her USEF “R” license, giving clinics away from home, and being an examiner for the USDF Instructor Certification program.

Eliza, 24 in November 2006, is a USDF Certified Instructor through second level and will probably test for the third and fourth level certification in 2007. She has already gathered a good group of students locally and in several locations around the state of North Carolina. She has taught on Maui, Hawaii, also.

Cindy and Eliza Sydnor: A Family Dressage VentureBy Amber Heintzberger

Sharing Their Lives and Interests

Both Cindy and Eliza love music, good literature, and a few movies. “I played the piano a little but not as well as Eliza, who also plays the guitar quite well and sings. Eliza reads many good books; I like to listen to books on tape and CD’s,” says Cindy. “I don’t share Eliza’s love of hiking and camping, but I’m thrilled that she loves it. We both like writing and seem to find interesting projects in that area.”

Asked about the pros and cons of a mother/daughter business venture, Cindy answers, “I think this is the ultimate mentoring situation. I have always loved seeing Eliza learn to ride and handle horses. It is one of my greatest joys in life to see her love and enthusiasm for horses and dressage. She was never pushed; she pushes herself more than enough.”

Eliza finds working with her mother a positive experience. “The pros are many: we get to spend most of the day together doing what we love, we trust each other, we work with each other to solve problems,” she says. “Also a big pro for me is that I get some of the best training in the country every day for free – although I work my butt off for it in return!” She considers, “The cons are that since we are so close sometimes it gets hard to work together. We both love the horses so much and each other so much that emotions sometimes run high.”

Cindy and Eliza Sydnor: A Family Dressage VentureBy Amber Heintzberger

Working With Others in the Sport

Sometimes they find it easier to go to an outside instructor who can give them an unemotional outlook. Eliza explains, “When a student works with an instructor that she doesn’t have a personal relationship with, then it is just business. But when my mother tells me to do something that I don’t agree with I feel totally comfortable telling her that I don’t agree with it! So, sometimes it is easier to go to an outside trainer that we both really respect to get advice. We both try to get into ‘business mode’ rather than ‘mother/daughter mode’ but sometimes that line gets blurry.”

Cindy continues, “From a business point of view, it is good, because we trust each other completely and want the best for each other. When I don’t have the time for a new client, I refer them to Eliza, and I’m sure the reverse will happen soon as Eliza becomes more popular. Another advantage is that we help each other in our daily training and riding. Eliza is very good at teaching and coaching, and I appreciate her corrections. Everyone needs a ground person. Everyone.”

Eliza’s riding goals are to continue training and showing her horses up the levels and continue to help her students progress as well. Her big goal is to compete her horse Lancer at Grand Prix next year. “I have taken him from pre-training level through Intermediaire 1 with my mom’s help, and he is so close to the Grand Prix I can taste it!” she enthuses.

Eliza also has many young horses that have been competing at the lower levels. Prince Hopeful, a 2002 Hanoverian gelding owned by The Hopeful Group, LLC, is an exciting young prospect that she is hoping to compete in the FEI 5-year-old tests next year. The stallion Wilmington is a 2001 Hanoverian (Waikiki/Fabriano) owned by Lucile Broadley of Honey Locust Farm in Chapel Hill, NC. This is a Hannoverian breeding farm where Eliza also works starting young horses under saddle. “He’s a super young horse who has done very well this year at First level and I hope to continue working with him for many years to come,” says Eliza.

Cindy and Eliza Sydnor: A Family Dressage VentureBy Amber Heintzberger

Cindy Sydnor – USDF Instructor Examiner, Instructor of Instructors

An examiner for the USDF Instructor Certification program for almost thirteen years, Cindy works with one or two other examiners once or twice a year at “testings” where the candidates are tested on longeing horses, longeing for seat, teaching private and group lessons, and riding familiar and unfamiliar horses. They also have to take a written exam and a verbal exam.

She explains, “In addition to acting as an examiner, I and the others on the “faculty” teach workshops in all the disciplines mentioned. A “Pre-cert” is also in the program. This is a mock testing so the candidates can do a practice exam before the real one. The Pre-cert turns out to be very valuable for the candidates’ time management in the exam and it settles their nerves a little.”

The program is the first certification program of a high standard to exist in the U.S. It is patterned after the British Horse Society’s and the German Federation’s programs, both of which are enormously successful and productive in those countries. “It is quite an honor to be certified by the USDF,” says Cindy. “Students are asking instructors if they are certified, and we are very proud of those who are.”

Cindy’s involvement in instructor certification prompted Eliza to start organizing USDF IC workshops in NC when she was just 15 years old. “I discovered that I really enjoy organizing events like this, so over the years I have organized around 15 workshops, two pre-certs, one final testing, a USDF L Program and many other educational events,” she says. “I really like the USDF IC program. It is tough but fair, and I found it to be really fun!”

Eliza teaches many juniors and a few adult amateurs. “ I have really grown to love teaching, and I get a lot of joy out of seeing my students progress,” she says. Eliza passed her Training – 2nd USDF Instructor Certification in 2004 at the age of 22 and hopes to test for 3rd-4th level next year.

She reasons, “The workshops, pre-cert, and even the testing make you think about what you’re doing, express it, and do it better. Without pushing myself, I feel that I would get stuck in always being ‘pretty good’ at what I do. The process is humbling, but it makes you realize how much more there is to learn. You can look at that as a scary, overwhelming thing, or as a really exciting thing. I choose to look at it as being really exciting. Look how much more I have to learn, and look how good I could become if I keep learning.”

Cindy and Eliza Sydnor: A Family Dressage VentureBy Amber Heintzberger

Sound Business Advise for The Equestrian Professional

Asked what advice would she give to other people going into business with a family member, Eliza emphasizes that the business aspect needs to be taken seriously. “Sit down with a lawyer, an accountant, and other people whom you admire in the business world and plan out how you want things to work,” she says. “Make a written business plan, make your business a legal entity, keep track of finances, learn how to really be a business owner/operator. We’re all in this because we love horses, but if you don’t figure out how to make it work for you as a career, it’s easy to get burnt out and broke and not know how you got there.”

When she decided to make horses her career, Eliza sat down with a long time client of theirs who was a very successful businesswoman. “I wrote a business plan and had her critique it,” she says. “Then I started working with a wonderful lawyer who helped me create the LLC that is my business and also put together the syndicate that owns one of my young horses. I’ve never had business classes in college, but I can assure you that I know a lot about all of that now!”

Cindy answers, “First, there has to be a feeling of total trustworthiness and good intentions. Both parties have to want to see success for the other person and for both. If there is jealousy or dishonesty, it would never work, as in any relationship. Secondly, it is very important to outline who does what, so that responsibilities are clearly defined. Thirdly, it is essential to have regular business meetings to discuss goals, plans, and any problems. And lastly, the financial information must be well-kept, accurate, with good business principles, with a profit.”

She advises, “It is actually very difficult to go into business with a family member. One must be honest, considerate, and somewhat unselfish. Otherwise, not only the business will fail but the family bond can be severed.”

For this proud mother and her aspiring daughter, there seems to be no limit to their dedication to learning all that they can and sharing what they learn. In admirable fashion, this mother/daughter team is making a success of their venture. With planning, openness and love for their horses and each other, their business grows and prospers.

Another landfill approved for Snow Camp area

Alamance County’s governing board has given an area resident the all-clear to establish a new landfill for tree stumps and other inert debris in the unincorporated community of Snow Camp.

During a regularly-scheduled meeting on Monday, the county’s board of commissioners formally agreed to let Gordon Pike construct this land clearing and inert debris landfill on some 32 acres he owns at 4275 Euliss Road.

Pike, who resides just up the road from the proposed site of this ‘stump dump,’ assured the commissioners that his proposed operation wouldn’t pose any problems for the surrounding community.

“This will be only for trees, stumps, concrete, and rocks,” Pike told the commissioners before they signed off on his request. “The state has approved it…and we’ve jumped through all the hoops that the county has asked us to do.”

Under the county’s ordinance for heavy industrial development, landfills and other industrial ventures must meet certain criteria in order to set up shop in unincorporated parts of the county. The ordinance effectively guarantees a permit to any operation that ticks off all of the required boxes. At one point, these permits were originally issued administratively by the county’s planning director, although an outcry several years ago over the administrative approval of a stone quarry in Snow Camp convinced the commissioners to wrest back the authority to issue these permits.

As things currently stand, the commissioners are still obligated to approve any permit that meets the ordinance’s requirements. The request must nevertheless go through a cursory review by the county’s planning board as well as a public hearing before the commissioners themselves.

The public hearing for Pike’s proposed stump dump ultimately drew a smattering of remarks from property owners in the southern part of county. These comments included some negative feedback from Carol Davis, who identified herself as the owner of a family farm near the landfill’s proposed site.

During her appearance before the commissioners, Davis noted that her family currently leases the hunting rights for its land to a hunting club that she feared will be run off by the landfill’s activity. Davis also alluded to the presence of another land clearing and inert debris landfill just two miles away along with another equally proximate site for the disposal of construction and demolition debris.

“Does the Coble Township really need three landfills in a four-mile radius,” she went on to inquire, “which is what we’d have once this landfill is approved?”

Pike’s proposal received a much more glowing review from Henry Vines, a one-time candidate for the board of commissioners who happens to live in the project’s vicinity. Vines informed the commissioners that the landfill’s would-be developer also resides just up the road from the 32-acre site of this venture.

“I have no doubt that Gordon and his family will run this operation in the way it needs to be run,” Vines went on to assert, “and I don’t have a problem with him doing this landfill.” These observations were echoed by Mike Wilson, who likewise touted his roots in the southern part of the county.

“I’ve known Gordon for a long time,” Wilson recalled, “He’s a good family man, and he would not put something there that’s a detriment to his family.”

The commissioners were quick to concur with this view of the landfill’s would-be proprietor before they gave their unanimous imprimatur to the requested permit.

See earlier deliberations on transferring the ownership of an existing construction debris landfill, also in Snow Camp: https://alamancenews.com/county-oks-multi-state-co-to-take-over-private-landfill-franchise/

Commissioners OK expansion of county landfill in Saxapahaw: https://alamancenews.com/commissioners-vote-to-expand-landfills-waste-disposal-area/

It all happened at a one-story house on Quakenbush Road in Snow Camp Monday. Firefighters arrived to find the house engulfed in flames.

SNOW CAMP, N.C. — A propane leak inside a house in Snow Camp Monday afternoon caused an explosion.

According to the Snow Camp Volunteer Fire Department, the explosion happened at a one-story house on Quakenbush Road.

Firefighters said the homeowner was on the scene when they got there. No one was inside the home when the explosion happened. Officials arrived to find the house engulfed in flames.

Credit: Melissa Evans

After the fire got under control, an investigation led firefighters to find it was caused by the leak.

“As cooler weather approaches, we encourage you to have your gas service and gas appliances serviced by your gas company or a certified technician,” Snow Camp Fire wrote in a social media post. “We also encourage you to have working smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms and check them regularly.”

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