Time is short for the developer of of a 1652-acre Planned Unit Development that, if built, would stretch from West End to Pinewild and from NC Highway 211 to NC Highway 73.

The zoning permit for Pine Forest — a proposed development that was to include 700 homes, 300 hotel rooms, two-golf courses, and a shopping village — is set to expire on September 6, thirty-six months after it was approved by the Moore County Board of Commissioners.

Planning Director Debra Ensminger provide the commissioners with an update on the project during their May 20 meeting.

"Along with the rezoning," Ensminger said, "a board order was executed that listed ordinance standards and additional conditions that must be followed during the development process. And I stand before you tonight to share that nothing of that order has been completed. We are just where we were on September 6, 2011, today, May 20, 2014.

"Some requirements have to be executed by September 6, 2014, or that permit goes away," Chairman Larry Caddell reiterated.

"There are a number of things that are in front of the developer between now and September," County Manager Vest explained.

Members of the Sandhill Sandsharks Swim Team will be swimming in Seven Lakes North's Lake Echo on Saturday, May 24 from 7:30 am to 10:00 am.

Among the swimmers expected at Saturday's swim are Olympian Alex Meyer and world champions Ashley Twichell and Chloe Sutton.

It's the second day of the team's annual Shark-A-Thon, which raises money for training equipment, awards, a banquet, and pool rental. The team will be swimming at the O'Neal Pool on Friday, May 23 from 4:15 pm to 7:30 pm.

Saturday's swim at Echo also serves as practice for the NC Open Water Swim Championships, which will be held at Lake Echo on June 6 & 7.

Folks who would like to support the team can make a flat donation or donate based on the distance covered by a particular swimmer.

For more information, visit the Sandsharks website.

The 30-year-old Seven Lakes Welcome Center is getting a facelift.

A crew was at work on Tuesday using a crane to remove the high steep-pitched roof from the building on Lakeway Drive at the entrance to Seven Lakes West, with trusses standing by for a new, lower-pitched top covering.

Building owner James Kirkpatrick told The Times that he plans to brick the exterior, updating the building's appearance.

MOR Group, one of the successor companies to original Seven Lakes developer Longleaf Inc., had the structure built as a sales office in 1984. It has been used by a succession of developers and Realtors in the years since.

Kirkpatrick has plans for a two-story professional office building on the cleared lot beside the former Welcome Center. That project has received a special non-residential intensity allowance from the county and a sedimentation and erosion control permit from the state, which allowed for the clearing of the tract.

But, according to the county Planning Department, the project awaits approvals of a septic or wastewater plan before it can move forward. An initial plan to use two residential lots on the opposite side of Lakeway Drive for septic fields ran afoul of Seven Lakes West Landowners Association rules and Westside covenants.

Kirkpatrick's company owns Seven Lakes Plaza Shopping Center, as well as a large inventory of lots within Seven Lakes West.

Dr. Robert P. Grimesey, Jr. will join Moore County Schools [MCS] as Superintendent on July 1. The Board of Education appointed Grimesey by unanimous acclamation during their Monday, May 12 meeting.

School Board Chair Kathy Farren said board members are "confident that he will lead Moore County Schools to an even higher level of achievement."

Grimesey's brief acceptance speech made it clear he had done his homework on MCS. He praised the digital learning initiative, the new master facilities plan, and the Growing to Greatness strategic plan that the board would approve later in the meeting, as well as noting the progress the district had made in improving student achievement.

Grimesey also noted the "economic and political challenges" the district faces, and the lack of significant salary increases for North Carolina teachers in the past six years.

"It may be reasonable for many of them to feel that their personal interests have been abandoned," he said.

Grimesey said he had "built something of a reputation" for helping school districts through troubled times.

From the Old Dominion to the Old North State

With thirty years experience as an educator in school districts across Virginia, Grimesey is currently Superintendent of Orange County Schools, a district northwest of Charlottesville, VA that serves more than 5,000 students. MCS has approximately 13,000 students.

Prior to his appointment to the superintendent's post in Orange County, he led the schools in Allegheny County, VA for eight years. Grimesey has taught social studies and coached football and wrestling at the high school level, served as principal and assistant principal, and even worked as a newspaper reporter and sportswriter.

A graduate of James Madison University, he received his doctorate from the University of Virginia's Curry School of Education.

Grimesey has been honored by his peers for his work as Superintendent on a number of occasions, receiving the 2012 Outstanding Superintendent Award from the Curry School of Education and the 2013 Directors Award from the Virginia Association of School Superintendents.

Speaking to the large group of MCS personnel who attended the school board meeting, Grimesey introduced his wife Carol, and explained that he has three children: a son in the US Air Force, a daughter teaching English at the American College of Sophia, Bulgaria, and a daughter attending Virginia Commonwealth University. He said he became aware of Moore County when his son was stationed at Fort Bragg.

Grimesey will start at a salary of $165,000 plus benefits, comparable compensation to his predecessor, current Superintendent Aaron Spence, who is departing for a position in the Virginia Beach City Schools.

Proving himself a good sport, after his more formal remarks, Grimesey donned in succession jerseys from each of Moore County's three high schools and posed for photographs with staff members from those schools.

Other business

In other business during their Monday, May 12 meeting, the Board of Education:

• Approved a $110 million Master Facilities plan that Superintendent Spence said includes ten school construction and renovation projects that will stretch over the next ten years.

• Approved Growing to Greatness 2.0, an substantial update of the strategic plan that will guide the district over the next three years.

• Reappointed George Little as one of the board's representatives on the Sandhills Community College Board of Trustees.

• Received a quarterly financial update from Chief Financial Officer Mike Griffin and learned that Griffin will become MCS's Director of Budget. Tina Edmonds will move up into the position of Chief Financial Officer.

• Celebrated the leadership of West Pine Middle School principal Candace Turk, who is retiring at the end of this school year.

• Honored twenty-five members of the MCS staff who attained Masters Degrees this year, as well as two who obtained their doctorates.

"Someone is going to buy the polka dot pig. It will happen," Director Dan Blue told the Seven Lakes West Landowners Association [SLWLA] Board during their Tuesday, May 6 regular meeting.

Blue presented the Board with a set of guidelines for yard decorations that had been crafted by the Architectural Review Committee [ARC].

"There has been a lot of conversation about this, ad nauseum," Blue said. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. We have tried to give a series of guidelines without going into what is pretty or not."

The proposed rules, if added to the existing architectural standards, would regulate the size, placement, and number of yard decorations, but not the "content."

Amending the SLWLA Rules and Regulations requires an initial approval by the board, called the "first reading," followed by a thirty-day opportunity for public input, after which the rule may receive final approval on "second reading."

Blue emphasized that the new rules would apply only to decorations in the yard, not to decorations affixed to the home or placed on the porch or deck.

"The ARC spent a ton of time on this one," he added.