Bill Graham's home sits on a two-acre lot in the Crescent Golf Club in Salisbury.

The Republican gubernatorial candidate bought the land for $335,000 in December of 1998 and began building soon afterward.

The house, finished in 1999, is 12,045 square feet and includes a pool, pool house, elevator and a "mini-Sistine Chapel" ceiling designed by a Charlotte artist in the master suite, according to a Dec. 2, 2000, article in the Salisbury Post.

The Post also nicknamed the house, valued at $5.3 million, "mini-Biltmore," after the Asheville estate built by George Vanderbilt II.

In separate transactions in March 2003 and July 2006, Graham bought the empty lots that back up to his property as well as the ones that line the street leading up to the house. Those properties cost a total of $841,500.

The Albemarle Mental Health Center overpaid its top employees, according to a state audit.

The auditor's office criticized the mental health office in northeast North Carolina for paying director Charles Franklin Jr. $282,663 last year. His assistant, who does not have a college degree, made about $143,000 — more than Gov. Mike Easley.

The average pay for directors of regional mental health agencies was about $115,000 last year, the audit said.

The local mental health board that set Franklin's salary refused to talk with a reporter, instead sending a statement through a Raleigh public relations firm, French/West/Vaughan. 

In addition, the audit said board members wasted money on unnecessary conferences, including $12,476 at the Biltmore Estate in 2005. (N&O)

Bonus for Dome readers: Guess who Albemarle's lobbyist was...