Commercial Truck Insurance in Burlington, NC

BURLINGTON, N.C. (WGHP) — A trucking school in Burlington left its students high and dry after it shut its doors.

Students said it happened without warning, leaving some students without a CDL license or a refund.

“Unbelievably frustrated when you’re getting nowhere,” truck driving student Shelly Critchley said.

Critchley said her future is in limbo. She was hoping to earn her CDL and become a licensed truck driver.

But two weeks ago, she showed up for class at Cross Country Truck Driving Training School, and signs alerting them the school was closed were posted.

“We’re tired. It was more or less like you see the signs on the doors, and nobody was saying anything … That’s our hard earned money or time,” Critchley said.

The owner of the facility found herself in a civil battle with the North Carolina Department of Transportation, which resulted in the department revoking the school’s certification to perform CDL testing.

Court documents show the NCDOT filed a petition to revoke the school’s certification to perform CDL testing after an incident in the summer of 2022.

According to the paperwork, a school employee gave a passing grade to a CDL applicant without actually giving them the test.

The documents go on to say that same school employee admitted to “doing a handful of fraudulent testing.”

Court documents show the owner of the school Pamela Day tried to fight for her certification.

In the court documents, Day’s lawyer argued that Day had a good “track record” of conducting CDL tests and even self-reported the employee and fired that employee immediately.

Ultimately, the court upheld the NCDOT’s decision, leaving the school without its certification.

Critchley says she shelled out more than $5,000 for the training and now has nothing to show for it.

“I hope that we’ll be able to test out somewhere for the couple of us that do need to test out. And I hope that the rest of my friends can go to another school and get their kids home. This is for other jobs. This is for what we want to do,” Critchley said.

FOX8 reached out to Day who said she has no comment.

BURLINGTON, N.C. —

A city in the Triad is getting a new fire chief.

Matt Lawrence is stepping up from his role as deputy fire chief into fire chief of the city of Burlington, as of Feb. 15.

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Lawrence has been in the fire service for more than 26 years, according to the city. He's worked in roles that required both physical skills in fire prevention and administrative skills behind the scenes. For example, Burlington city representatives said he led projects on fire station construction and even led the Burlington Fire Department to get the NC Department of Insurance Fire Protection Rating of Class 1. That's the best rating possible.

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Though he's been Burlington's deputy fire chief since 2018, he's also worked as deputy fire chief for the town of Chapel Hill.

Lawrence is also involved in local nonprofits. He's currently president of the board for Alamance County Meals on Wheels.

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“We want to thank Chief Lawrence for his willingness to step up into this position. His commitment to the City and to the Fire Department is unmatched," City Manager Craig Honeycutt said in a news release.

“I am excited and grateful to be given the opportunity to serve as fire chief and help guide the future of this great department,” Lawrence said. “The men and women of this department are the best that I have seen. I am honored to stand with them and support them as we continue to provide the absolute best fire protection and emergency response services possible to the citizens of Burlington.”

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Update at 12:20 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 26.: The Town of Pittsboro released the first sampling results for 1,4-Dioxane:

The EPA has set a health advisory goal of 0.35 ppb of 1,4-Dioxane in rivers and streams and 35 ppb in drinking water. The EPA has not yet established a legally enforceable maximum level for drinking water. The 35 ppb figure is not as protective as that for rivers and streams. That’s not a scientific rationale, but a technical one: Because of the cost of upgraded treatment systems — in the tens of millions of dollars — most utilities could not achieve the more stringent goals.

“The Town is cautiously optimistic with these results, which indicate whether the “slug,” or concentrated area of 1,4 dioxane, has passed us and we had minimal uptake, or it is just now reaching us,” wrote town spokesman Colby Sawyer, in a press release. Additional test results are expected tomorrow. “Once we receive these results, we can determine if our 1,4 dioxane concentration is moving in a positive or negative direction.”

Update at 7:48 a.m.: Because of the uncertainty about the presence of 1,4-Dioxane in the town’s drinking water, the Town of Pittsboro and Chatham Marketplace, 480 Hillsboro St, are offering free reverse osmosis (RO) treated water to Pittsboro water customers and customers of Aqua NC who receive their water from the Town of Pittsboro. Customers may use Code 64261 to fill jugs and bottles for free. Hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays.

Customers should bring jugs and bottles from home, as only a limited supply is available for purchase at the store.

The Town of Pittsboro has ramped up its drinking water testing after the City of Burlington discharged a slug of toxic chemical 1,4-Dioxane — 1,300 times the EPA’s health advisory goal — into the Haw River. It is the second time Burlington has reported contaminating Pittsboro’s drinking water supply this year.

In a press release issued late Friday afternoon, Pittsboro spokesman Colby Sawyer said Burlington officials had notified the town at 1:30 p.m. that routine testing showed high levels of 1,4-Dioxane — 459 parts per billion — had been discharged from one of its wastewater treatment plants on Sept. 14. However, Burlington officials reportedly told their Pittsboro counterparts that the test results had only arrived that day — more than a week later.

1,4-Dioxane is a “probable” carcinogen, according to federal health authorities. The chemical is used in industrial processing and as a solvent.

The source of the 1,4-Dioxane was likely one of Burlington’s industrial customers that discharges its wastewater into the city sewer system. Since traditional treatment methods don’t remove 1,4-Dioxane, the chemical passed through Burlington’s wastewater treatment plant and entered the Haw.

Burlington is 30 miles upstream of Pittsboro.

Sawyer said Pittsboro officials still don’t know if the 1,4-Dioxane has already passed by the town or has yet to arrive. “When a release of this type occurs, most of the substance flows downstream together,” Sawyer said. “The dilution and speed of travel of this bulked substance, or slug, is based on how fast and at what volume the river is flowing.”

Because Pittsboro’s contracted testing labs don’t operate on the weekends, its results won’t be back until Monday or Tuesday. Without the data, “we are unsure of what impact this release has, is having, or will have on our water system.”

Pittsboro utilities staff are drawing only the minimum amount of water from the Haw to “keep the water system functional,” Sawyer said.

The town is encouraging its water customers to conserve water by reducing or eliminating non-essential uses, such as landscape irrigation, washing vehicles and filling swimming pools.

In July, Burlington’s Southside wastewater treatment plant released 1,4-Dioxane into the Haw, albeit at lower levels — 160 ppb, or 457 times the EPA goal for rivers and streams. It took about a week for the chemical to reach Pittsboro, which at the time, detected levels in drinking water at 11.9 ppb.

In 2020, the Haw River Assembly, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center, and the City of Burlington reached a memorandum of agreement to identify sources of 1,4-Dioxane and to reduce its discharge. Burlington has not publicly announced which of its industrial customers is responsible for the high levels of 1,4-Dioxane discharges.

The City of Burlington believes Apollo Chemical in Burlington dumped 1,4-Dioxane into the Haw River. The Town of Pittsboro is feeling the effects.

BURLINGTON, N.C. — The possible carcinogen, 1,4-Dioxane was recently dumped into the Haw River.

The City of Burlington said the potentially cancer-causing chemical came from Apollo Chemical in Burlington.

This is an issue for the Town of Pittsboro as they get their water directly from the Haw River.

Pittsboro's Public Information Officer Colby Sawyer said this is something they've dealt with before.

"We're not new to this. We've had multiple of these events over the years, and so we're pretty well-trained and prepared on how to handle these things," Sawyer said.

Although the chemicals are said to come from a chemical company in Burlington, the City of Burlington's water supply is fine, but with Pittsboro being downstream from Burlington, any possible traces of 1,4-Dioxane will eventually end up in Pittsboro and beyond.

"Our water sources are not connected to the Haw River. The South Burlington Wastewater Treatment Plant discharges into the Great Alamance Creek, just upstream of where it discharges to the Haw River. Anybody downstream of that potentially could be affected," City of Burlington's Water Resources Director Bob Patterson said.

According to the CDC, 1,4-Dioxane is a clear liquid that easily dissolves in water. It's used primarily as a solvent in the manufacturing of chemicals. The CDC says the chemical is possibly carcinogenic to humans, meaning it's capable of causing cancer.

Pittsboro has yet to get back results from the lab on whether or not 1,4-Dioxane is in their water. But out of caution, the town is using the bare minimum amount of water needed to keep their systems functioning and even giving out free water until they get the all-clear. The town, as well as the folks with the Haw River Assembly, like Haw Riverkeeper Emily Sutton, are encouraging people to push legislators for more regulation of 1,4-Dioxane in our water systems, so that the dumping of the chemical into waterways can be monitored closer, and those responsible can face more consequences.

"Right now, North Carolina is in this very contentious debate around whether or not our state can enact narrative standards, numeric standards, for 1,4-Dioxane on any of these discharge permits. 1,4-Dioxane isn’t an issue that we’re seeing federally as much as PFAS, so it hasn’t risen to the level of concern that we’re seeing," Sutton said.

A diversified Pittsburgh company that has moved into energy storage, including for electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cells, is hoping to convert and expand a Burlington printing and embossing equipment maker it acquired several years ago.

Matthews International is seeking Burlington’s help on a N.C. building re-use grant for a proposed $10 million investment that would create about 25 jobs paying an average of $64,061, according to a city public notice. The notice is for a public hearing on the grant proposal at the city council’s Dec. 5 meeting.

Under the North Carolina Commerce Department building re-use program, local governments typically seek the grants on behalf of companies with which they enter contracts.

Matthews, which traces its history to 1850, has three main business lines: Memorialization, consisting of bronze and granite memorials, caskets and cremation equipment; industrial energy storage systems, product identification and warehouse technology including fulfillment and tracking systems; and brand management including printing equipment and merchandising and consumer-product services.

Its energy storage business produces engineered industrial calendering, laminating, and coating equipment that is used to make lithium-ion batteries and components of fuel cells. The company also delivers products to several major vehicle producers and is actively pursuing opportunities with several other electric vehicle and tier-one battery manufacturers, it stated in its most recent annual report.

In early 2021, Matthews acquired a Canadian company, Terrella Energy Systems, that makes a graphite component of fuel cells.

In 2022, it added two Germany companies, Olbrich GmbH and R+S Automotive GmbH, in the battery and energy storage business, with Olbrich's main business in electrodes that make up lithium-ion batteries and hydrogen fuel cells.

That followed Matthews' announcement earlier in 2022 of a a joint development agreement with Canadian engineering firm Illuming Power to work toward an automated production line for certain fuel-cell components.

The company found that it can adapt some of its processes for other industries, including making lithium-ion batteries for EVs, CEO Joseph Bartolacci told the Pittsburgh Business Times. Those processes include rotary gravening and calendaring, where a material like metal is smoothed through rolling cylinders.

Matthews came to North Carolina in 2018 with the acquisition of Frost Converting Systems of Burlington, maker of equipment for printing and embossing for packaging for a variety of products, including the tobacco industry. It's the former Frost site that is the subject of the grant application.

Matthews hopes to convert the site to make parts for hydrogen fuel cells and electric-vehicle batteries, according to Burlington’s economic development director, Peter Bishop.

The company has indicated it will seek a local incentive grant of $100,000 from Burlington as well.

The site is at 2056 Willow Springs Lane in Burlington, where there is a building of about 34,000 square feet, according to Alamance County property records.