A house on South Street is surrounded by snow Sunday night. (Kathleen Main photo) MORE PHOTOS in related story - Send your photos to us (editor@davidsonnews.net)

CMS, other schools  to be closed Monday

Updated 11:30 p.m.

Heavy snow fell in Davidson and throughout the region Sunday night after a day of steady rainfall. The wet snow weighed down limbs, snapping some and knocking out power and transformers in some areas. Numerous automobile accidents were reported on snowy interstate highways and backroads, according to monitoring of local emergency radio channels.

PHOTOS: see related story.

CLOSINGS: On Sunday night, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools announced a closing for Monday, with the lost day to be made up Memorial Day. Davidson Day School, Woodlawn School, Children’s Community School, Pine Lake Prep and Mooresville schools also canceled Monday classes.

Davidson College is on spring break, so classes are not affected, but offices will not open until noon. (Additional closings below. Send closing notices to editor@davidsonnews.net) Read the full story

Davidson town attorney Rick Kline discusses a Lake Davidson map. (David Boraks photo)

A rough map sketched Thursday marks in green the areas where power boats would be allowed. Other areas would be designated as no-wake zones. Click for a larger map.

The Lake Davidson Working Group all but wrapped up its work Thursday after reaching consensus on an agreement that will be sent to the town boards of Davidson and Mooresville for consideration.

The agreement calls for new measures to protect the environment as development continues, including shoreline no-construction zones and a ban on private docks around the tiny lake.

It also includes what committee members on Thursday described as a new “policy statement” – in the form of a lake-use map – that envisions expanding no-wake boating zones to ensure safety for a broad range of uses, from power boating and water skiing to canoeing and swimming. In general, it calls for no-wake zones on the Davidson side of the lake and in coves. But that “policy statement” is non-binding and would require action from the Lake Norman Marine Commission to have any effect.

Read the full story

The Lake Davidson Working Group will meet this morning at 9 a.m. in the board room at Davidson Town Hall, 216 S. Main St., to continue a discussion with citizens to map recreational uses of the small lake.

The committee of public officials from Davidson and Mooresville, chaired by Davidson Commissioner Margo Williams, is trying to draw up a two-town agreement on regulating the lake amid rapid development and competing uses. The 341-acre lake is east of I-77  between the two towns.

Today’s agenda also calls for at the least the start of deliberations by the committee to try and hammer out an agreement on new regulations that would go to the two town’s commissioners for consideration. Read the full story

Crime reports in Davidson rose 23.5 percent in 2008 from a year earlier, largely because of a jump in thefts at houses under construction, as well as vehicle break-ins and thefts, Police Chief Jeanne Miller told the Town Board Tuesday night.

Meanwhile, the number of speeding arrests continued to rise in 2008, and might have been higher except that enforcement was down slightly because Davidson has 3 vacancies in its 19-member police force, Chief Miller said.

She said the large number of speeding tickets “is in direct response to a desire for a pedestrian and bicycle friendly environment.” Read the full story

Swaney and Corporal Scott Searcy

Town of Davidson announcement

The Davidson Police Department is sad to report that Swaney, the department’s canine for 11 years, has died. K9 Swaney was recruited in winter 1998 and was named in honor of Davidson Police Officer Mark Swaney, who died in the line of duty on Dec. 25, 1997.

K9 Swaney partnered with Police Corporal Scott Searcy, who has been a Davidson police officer since 1996. When not working, K9 Swaney lived with Corporal Searcy. They were partners until 2007, when after almost nine years of public service, Swaney retired from active duty. Read the full story

The Lake Davidson Working Group will hold another public meeting on Feb. 26, tentatively at 9 a.m. at Davidson Town Hall, 216 S. Main St. The date is sooner than announced last week. Davidson Assistant Town Manager Dawn Blobaum said the committee will continue work on a lake-use map. For more, see our Feb. 17 report, “Lake Davidson group still seeking agreement on water use.” (Note: the time of this meeting has changed twice over the past week; this time was announced late Friday. We’ll update you if it changes again/David Boraks)

Pine Lake Preparatory School, on N.C. 115  in Mount Mourne, was locked down for just under an hour this afternoon, after school officials reported a man with a shotgun was firing shots near the campus around 2:40 p.m.

Officers from Mooresville Police Department and the Iredell County Sheriff’s Department responded, and surrounded the charter school.

“We had a report of an individual in the area of the school here, with a long gun, and some shots fired,” Mooresville Police Capt. Phil Blocker told DavidsonNews.net. When they arrived, police found shotgun shells in an area behind the school. Read the full story

Updated Thursday, Feb. 19,  5:12 p.m.

The Lake Davidson Working Committee, comprised of local officials from Davidson and Mooresville, will hold another public meeting later this month in hopes of reaching a compromise on a two-town agreement that will accommodate all kinds of uses on the lake, from power boating and water skiing to canoeing and kayaking.

Committee chair and Davidson commissioner Margo Williams said the meeting is scheduled Feb. 26 at 9 a.m. at Davidson Town Hall.  (Update: This is an revision of the originally reported tentative meeting date). Read the full story