By Reid Creager

SALZMAN	MYNATT	SHOE

Robust year-over-year increases in new car sales at several area dealerships could be a sign of an improving economy, or the fact that all old cars break down eventually. Maybe it’s a little of both.

“We’ve very encouraged,” says Jack Salzman, owner of Lake Norman Chrysler Jeep Dodge. “Business is good” — a whopping 55 percent increase in new car sales from last year, he says.

Salzman attributes the gains to three things: “The average age of the car on the road today is almost 11 years old; credit is getting easier for consumers to get; and I think consumers are feeling better about their personal situation — their job, the whole thing.”

Tanya Blackmon

By Dave Yochum

Tanya Blackmon was raised right.

Her mother was a school teacher who had a way of making her children believe in themselves.

Her father was a Marine Corps drill instructor who taught them they had to be the best at what they did.

Mix in concern for others, a religious upbringing, a good education and you get the president of Presbyterian Hospital Huntersville.

May 11 The University of North Carolina Nutrition Research Institute (UNC NRI) announced today that it is a Grand Challenges Explorations winner, an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Steven H. Zeisel, M.D., Ph.D., Kenan Distinguished University Professor in Nutrition and Pediatrics and UNC NRI Director, will pursue an innovative global health and development research project, titled “Choline and Optimal Development.”

Spurned by Huntersville, Carolinas HealthCare System has chosen a site in Davidson for a new 66-bed, 67,280-square-foot behavioral health hospital.

“We are eager to move forward with this project and begin building on our promise to provide more behavioral health services for those who desperately need them in our community,” said Dr. Roger Ray, Chief Medical Officer of CHS. “This new hospital will help us address a profound, unmet need in a professional, respectful, patient centric environment.”

The state of North Carolina began down-sizing state psychiatric hospitals following the passage of the Mental Health Reform Act of 2001. To date, about half of the state-operated hospital beds have closed. Mecklenburg County is experiencing a serious shortage of available beds for behavioral health patients, which results in some patients being held in observation in hospital emergency departments or acute care beds while waiting for placement.

The new facility will include a single-story, 67,280-square-foot hospital with large activity and living areas that will open to self-contained landscaped courtyards for outdoor recreation in a private, secure environment. The 23-acre site also will have a medical office building with 10,000 square feet. CHS and the land owner have an agreement for the sale of the property, which is on Hwy. 73 about a quarter-mile east of Ramah Church Road.

MORRIS

May 9 Cabarrus County Commission Chairperson Liz Poole retained her seat on the board in Tuesday's elections but Steve Morris, who had backing from an aggrieved business community, captured 7,158 votes, winning a seat on the county board. Holly Blackwelder, another favorite of the business community, missed her shot at the board, coming in third with 6,978 votes. A factor in the Cabarrus commission race was Cabarrus Jobs Now, a non-profit public advocacy group that campaigned for a pro-jobs approach to government.

Relations between the county commission and the business community became strained in recent years after county commissioners voted to cut support of Cabarrus Economic Development, with the blessings of Poole and former Chairman Jay White. Unemployment and job creation became the deciding issues in the May 8 vote.

White lost his bid for N.C. House District 82 to Larry Pittman, 4,262 to 4,032.

May 7 Uwharrie Capital Corp., parent company for Cabarrus Bank & Trust, Bank of Stanly and Anson Bank, reported net income for the first three months of 2012 rose to $700,000 from $209,000 during the first quarter of 2011. Total assets fell to $518.6 million at March 31, vs. $526.9 million at Dec. 31, 2011. Net income available to shareholders was $539,000 or 7 cents per common share for the three months ending March 31, compared to $48,000 or 1 cent a share for the same period in 2011. Net income available to shareholders takes into consideration the payment of dividends on preferred stock issued by the company.