PROJECT: Jackson Hamlet, Moore County, NC

Background info

(from UNC Center for Civil Rights)


  • Unincorporated; within Extra-territorial jurisdiction of the Village of Pinehurst
  • Population: 2,341
  • 95% African-American
  • $25,625 median family income
    (Pinehurst = $67,353 MFI)
  • 43% below poverty

Jackson Hamlet is a minority community of approximately 100 households in the extra-territorial jurisdiction of the Village of Pinehurst in Moore County. The community is served with county water, but has no central sewer service, inadequately maintained roads, no storm water control, and only privately maintained street lighting. Referred by Voices for Justice, the UNC Center for Civil Rights has been working with Jackson Hamlet to review various options for the community to upgrade those public services, particularly analyzing what annexation opportunities the community has. The Center invited NCRCAP to assist with this process in the fall of 2004.

The community-based organization, Jackson Hamlet Community Action (JHCA), has a solid history of community development activities. Established in the late 1960s, the organization managed a community water system, facilitated the construction of a community center (rehabilitated in 2006), maintained street lighting and coordinated a community watch program. Currently, JHCA is involved with youth development with an after-school tutoring program, and is coordinating a GED program with Sandhills Community College.

Timeline

  • NCRCAP completed a needs assessment and environmental health survey in early 2005. Survey revealed significant need to improve wastewater services.
  • NCRCAP met with Jackson Hamlet Community Action (JHCA) for strategic planning. Participants established wastewater as the community’s top priority, with solid waste disposal second.
  • NCRCAP brought in engineers with the NC American Water Works Association/Water Environment Federation’s Outreach Committee in late 2005 to provide pro bono services. The result was a preliminary engineering report that outlined the cost of connecting the community to the Moore County Water and Sewer system for $2.5 million. The Village of Pinehurst and Moore County worked together to request a CDBG Infrastructure application worth $750,000, which in its second request was funded in the spring of 2007.
  • In 2006, when the first CDBG Infrastructure application was denied, NCRCAP facilitated planning efforts to develop an innovative approach to pursuing wastewater improvements in Jackson Hamlet. NCRCAP and JHCA wrote a successful funding proposal to the Creating New Economies Fund Grant Fund of the Resourceful Communities Program. With these funds, JHCA has hired Integrated Water Systems to outline the technical options in Jackson Hamlet to collect and treat the community’s wastewater on-site to reuse standards. This treated wastewater could then be available for use at any of the nearby golf courses or industries, thereby conserving the raw water currently used. This study will be complete by the U.S. Women’s Open to be played in Southern Pines in late June 2007.