Tag Archive for: #towntalk

TownTalk: African American Cultural Museum Looking to Move Within Henderson

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When families outgrow their homes, oftentimes they look for something in the same area with more bedrooms or bathrooms to make everyone more comfortable. That’s kind of what Edith Thompson is hoping to do with the African American Cultural Museum – their Oxford Road location actually used to be a home, but the museum quickly has outgrown its space.

The museum needs more space – inside and out, Thompson told John C. Rose on Wednesday’s Town.

“We’re excited about the future of the museum,” she said, noting that several groups have visited and held programs there recently. But parking is an issue, she said. And so is the underground oil tank, a relic of an obsolete heating system.

So for now, the museum is on pause for groups to come and visit. And Thompson and others are hopeful to find a spot in downtown Henderson to meet their needs.

“We need more space…we need to expand to incorporate an exhibit on the Henderson community,” Thompson said. A virtual tour will be posted on the museum’s website, www.rebuildcommunitiesnc.org, in the next 30 days or so, she said. A virtual tour will have to suffice, she said, until the museum’s docents once again can entertain face-to-face tours.

Leadership vance, biz exchange for minority businesses.

“We put a lot of money into renovating this space,” Thompson said, so she and other museum supporters are disappointed to have to be looking for another space so soon.

“We do what we must,” she said optimistically. “It’s a good sign that Henderson loves us and is really embracing us.” She said educating young people is a prime mission of the museum, but museum organizers also had a vision that the museum would attract more visitors to the Henderson area.

She said the plan is to be back open in time to celebrate Black History Month 2023. “Excuse us while we take a brief hiatus,” Thompson said. “We will be back.”

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S-Line Rail Corridor

Another Grant Means Another Step Toward ‘All Aboard’ for S-Line Rail

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Plans to bring rail service back to Henderson continue to chug along, and one city council member said he’s been pleasantly surprised at how the S-Line project is coming together.

Garry Daeke spoke with John C. Rose on Tuesday’s Town Talk about the recent announcement of a $3.4 million Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant to complete a transit-oriented development study.

“It’s incredible that we’ve been able to get these grants so quickly,” Daeke said. The wheels of government and bureaucracy often move slowly, especially when working with multiple agencies across the local, state and federal levels, Daeke noted. But everything is running along smoothly, including a recent site visit that Daeke said proved quite positive.

“I’m real enthused about the work of DOT – how much time and energy they’ve put into this – they really want to see this fly,” Daeke said. In fact, state DOT officials held a press conference Tuesday morning in Sanford to announce the awarding of the RAISE grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Sanford is one of the stops along the proposed S-Line, which includes stops in Apex, Raleigh, Wake Forest, Henderson and Norlina to connect the Raleigh to Richmond corridor.

The City Council is “100 percent excited” about the project, which would include a train station and other possible retail and commercial projects nearby, with the prospect of providing a huge boost to the area’s economy.

The rail would serve passenger and freight traffic, both of which Henderson has experienced in the past.

For Daeke, it’s all about working together. “Collaboration is how things happen,” he said. During the recent site visit, city staff and local officials joined NC DOT staff and railroad representatives to survey existing infrastructure and to envision how the area could be transformed.

The city put up $190,000 for its part of the project, and although Daeke said it’s a lot of money, he said he believes the project will pay big dividends for the city and beyond.

The group took a look at the old First National Bank Building on Garnett Street as a possible station, and Daeke said the reviews were positive. The group took a walking tour and looked at the former bank building as they covered basically the whole block, discussing everything from loading docks and accessibility to parking lots and bike paths.

“This will be the jewel on the new line between Petersburg and Sanford,” Daeke recalled one visitor as saying.

Between the urban redevelopment plans underway and what’s going on downtown with the Downtown Development Commission, Daeke said the state and rail officials who visited were impressed with prospects for the rail hub.

“They said it would be a fantastic site for a train station,” he said, affirming what city leaders had wondered about. “It became very clear that it could work.”

What comes next?

A feasibility study, including a site assessment and preliminary engineering plans, for starters.

But the project includes much more than just situating a train station in town.

The whole notion of a “transportation hub” involves looking at how people are going to get to the station and could include projects from creating bike lanes to widening existing roads. Then there’s the very real possibility of having to build a couple of overpasses for the trains to keep road traffic moving. Where will folks park if they want to catch the train in Henderson and leave their car for a few days?

Daeke said it will be key to take a look at where people gain access to the train and make sure that the area is safe and easily accessible for the community.

“It’s definitely a bigger plan than just building a train station,” he said.

The S-Line is a developing rail corridor that will better connect rural and urban communities, improve and expand freight and passenger services, and significantly reduce rail travel times between Raleigh and Washington D.C. To learn more, visit this NCDOT webpage.

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Granville Vance Public Health Logo

Granville County Has First Case Of Monkeypox; Vaccines Ordered

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Granville County has its first confirmed case of monkeypox, and local health department officials said that they’re waiting for vaccines to arrive, but don’t have any at the moment.

Granville-Vance Public Health Director Lisa Harrison said they were notified Friday afternoon about the case in Granville County, one of 138 cases of monkeypox in the state.

“Although GVPH does not yet have vaccine on site, we have ordered the vaccine and we have a relationship with both Durham and Wake counties who are two of the sites that received monkeypox vaccine in NC in the first few weeks,” Harrison said in a weekly communication statement.

Harrison and her staff have been monitoring COVID-19 updates for the past two years, and recently have had to put monkeypox on their radar screen.

Both counties remain in the “high” community spread category for COVID-19, Harrison noted. Vance County has reported a total of 126 deaths from COVID-19; Granville County has reported 118 deaths.

The BA.5 variant is now most prevalent as indicated by the data dashboard. For the most up-to-date information, visit  https://covid19.ncdhhs.gov/dashboard.

The Kaiser Family Foundation website has helpful information on monkeypox. View the FAQ section here.

Below is a bulleted list of statements about monkeypox, who is getting sick and the role of vaccines in curbing spread: 

  • ALL of the cases in NC so far have been in men ages 18-65
  • Transmission happens through skin-to-skin contact, and occasionally contaminated items
  • Symptoms include: Lesions on the skin, fever and swollen lymph nodes
  • Monkeypox impacts people of all sexual orientations
  • Monkeypox has been declared a public health emergency of international concern
  • Vaccine supply will continue to increase and we should have some locally soon — the sooner an exposed person gets the vaccine, the better.
  • Both smallpox and monkeypox vaccines are effective at protecting people against monkeypox when given before exposure to monkeypox

 

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last week issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the Jynneos vaccine to allow health care providers to administer it via intradermal injection for individuals 18 years of age and older. Intradermal injection uses one-fifth the size of dose as subcutaneous injection, allowing the U.S. to stretch the current limited vaccine supply to reach more patients. The updated EUA is based on a 2015 study that showed a smaller dose of the vaccine injected intradermally generated a similar immune response to a larger dose injected below the skin. The EUA also allows for the use of Jynneos vaccine in individuals younger than 18 at high risk of monkeypox infection though via the original subcutaneous injection route.

Henderson Vance Recreation & Parks

TownTalk: Henderson Rec P.U.L.L. Event To Bring Community Together

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Events like the upcoming P.U.L.L. event are just part of the reason why the local parks and recreation department were honored at a national conference that focuses on ways to curb gang activity and gang violence.

Shantel Hargrove, youth services outreach coordinator for the Henderson Vance Recreation and Parks Department, said she and director Kendrick Vann were in Chicago for the national gang specialist training conference that concluded last week and were surprised to hear their names called as recipients of the Spirit Award, for “significant public service and issues of gang prevention, intervention and counseling.”

Hargrove spoke with John C. Rose on Thursday’s Town Talk. “We didn’t know we were getting the award,” she said, expressing surprise for being honored in front of a national audience.

The P.U.L.L. – an acronym for Peace, Unity, Love, Live – event takes place Aug. 25-28 and is designed to bring the community together with such activities as a two-day basketball tournament, bookbag and school supply giveaway, street festival and free haircuts for youngsters headed back to school.

This is the 7th year for P.U.L.L., Hargrove said, who added that the event seems to get bigger and better each year.

“It all started off with (us) going to local barbers,” she said, to ask them to donate their time to KUTZ 4 KIDS to give basic haircuts and hairstyles for children returning to the classroom. For families with children, the price of getting school supplies, clothes – and haircuts – can get expensive quickly.

“It’s a tremendous gift for the parents,” Hargrove said, referring to the free cuts and styles.

On Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Hair In Motion at 211 Orange St.  will be offering free cuts. Then, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Ice Cold Cuts and Exquisite Cuts 2.0 will be offering their services.

The activities kick off with a two-day basketball tournament, Hargrove said. Michael Bullock is instrumental in organizing the Battle of the Brands tournament, she said, calling Bullock a “great community activist…(who) is all about bringing the community together” to help youth.

“The community loves basketball,” Hargrove said. “And basketball brings out the community.” What used to be a single-elimination tournament has grown over time. “Now it’s a two-day tournament because so many teams wanted to be a part of the event,” she said.

The tournament will be held on Thursday, Aug. 25 and Friday Aug. 26 in the HVRPD gymnasium (former Eaton Johnson gymnasium). Tickets are $5 for adults 18 and older; tickets for youth 17 and younger are $2.

The street festival and community cookout on Saturday will be held in conjunction with the annual Night Out Against Crime, and Hargrove said she appreciates the collaboration of the Henderson Police Department and Lt. Jessica West.

“We’re going to combine and make it one event this year,” Hargrove said. The event will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Chestnut Street Park. There will be vendors, a DJ playing music, a dance performance and other activities including cornhole for participants to enjoy. Free hotdogs, drinks and chips will be available as well.

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Kerr Tar Regional Council of Governments

TownTalk: Classes Offered To Support Family Caregivers

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A six-week online class designed to help family caregivers do the very best they can for their loved ones – and for themselves – is set to get underway in early September and Kerr-Tar Regional Council of Governments staffer Susan Tucker wants folks to know how helpful the program is. Tucker speaks from first-hand experience: not only did she complete the class, but she went on to become an instructor.

“I know that it works because it worked for me,” Tucker told John C. Rose on Wednesday’s Town Talk. The class is called “Powerful Tools for Caregivers,” and she said the impact it has had in her own life has been transformative. She has been a caregiver to her mother for the past six years and the tools that she learned from the class have proved invaluable.

The class runs on Tuesday mornings from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. beginning Sept. 6 and continuing through Oct. 11. It is free and designed for any non-paid caregiver; all participants will receive a workbook as part of the class.

Michael Patterson, a family caregiver specialist with Kerr-Tar COG, said participants learn how to take care of themselves as they provide care for their loved ones, which at times can be a delicate balancing act. The class provides information about community resources, as well as techniques and skills necessary to handle and manage stress.

“That’s the wonderful thing about the class – that’s the whole point,” she said, of finding ways to manage the stress of caring for a loved one. It can be incredibly overwhelming, she added, and rarely is the caregiver prepared for or aware of what they’re getting into.

The class is different from other programs that may be focused squarely on the person who requires the care, which may provide a checklist of all the things that should be done for that person to receive proper care.

“(This) class really gives the caregiver the tools to handle their role as a caregiver,” Tucker said. “It puts tools in your hand to perform those tasks so that you can thrive while you’re caring for your loved one.”

The biggest takeaway for Tucker, she said was a feeling of confidence. “II actually felt – all of a sudden – that I could do it. I didn’t feel alone.”

Call 252.436.2040 to register for the Powerful Tools for Caregivers class.

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TownTalk: School Board Approves VCS Strategic Plan

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The new Vance County Schools logo was officially unveiled Aug. 1, and school officials took time at Monday night’s school board meeting to share a bit about the meaning behind the color scheme and the graphics.

“The new logo represents the pathway options that students may choose as the letters v,c and s can all be traced in the image,” according to information in the VCS Board Briefs document. There’s a color gradient that moves from greens to blues and that represents the personalized education and pathways available to students, the statement explained.

The school board also approved the 2022-2025 strategic plan, which includes a revised vision and mission for the 16-school district, which serves about 5,000 students from preschool through high school.

The four-point plan lists equity, innovation, high performance culture and experiential learning as driving forces to inform the work of schools, staff and district leadership.

“Vance County Schools provides an adaptable educational setting where learning is a catalyst to the pursuit of dreams in an evolving society,” the vision statement reads.

And the mission states: “Vance County Schools is committed to providing broad experiences and opportunities to stakeholders that enable them to compete globally.”

Visit https://www.vcs.k12.nc.us/ to learn more.

City of Henderson Logo

TownTalk: Council Approves Updated Minimum Housing Code

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The Henderson City Council unanimously approved the revised minimum housing code at its meeting Monday, putting in place an updated framework for making sure that dwellings – especially rental properties – are maintained to comply within acceptable guidelines.

“They adopted the code last night with the exception of Section F,” City Manager Terrell Blackmon told WIZS News Tuesday. Section F includes details about local agents, or points of contact, for properties located in the city.

Blackmon said City Attorney D. Rix Edwards is in the process of seeking clarification from the UNC School of Government to make sure the wording in the code is appropriate and follows state laws. “At a later time, that section could be added back to the code, with some adjustments to the language,” Blackmon explained.

During a work session last month, council members reviewed various changes and updates that had been proposed to the existing code; there was some concern about whether the city could require designation of a local contact in case of an emergency repair at a rental home. State law prohibits registrations of rental properties by municipalities and council members wanted to get guidance about the proper language used in the code to ensure compliance with state rules.

At the time, Blackmon said the city may choose to make naming a local contact person voluntary.

Council Member Melissa Elliott told WIZS News Tuesday that the proposed draft had included the word “agent” and council decided to change the term to “point of contact.”

The rationale behind that part of the code, Elliott said, “is just to have someone local that we can reach out to when a landlord has a house that may have an emergency repair or something that needs to be done” and the landlord lives outside North Carolina.

In today’s written correspondence about the outcome from Monday’s meeting, Blackmon said the city could get registered agent information from the Secretary of State’s office or from lease agreements, which residents submit as part of an application to the city’s water department.

The updates to the city’s minimum housing code is just one step that local officials and the larger community are considering as part of revitalization efforts in and around the downtown area.

TownTalk: NC Hospitals During The Civil War

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Wade Sokolosky has done a lot of research on the Civil War. He’s from Beaufort in Carteret County, so he’s familiar with nearby Fort Macon. In fact, his great-great uncle was an artilleryman who was captured at Fort Macon and later lost his life in the Battle of Goldsboro.

And when Sokolosky was in the U.S. Army, stationed at Fort Campbell, KY, he said he and a soldier friend visited the old battlefields that dot middle Tennessee, which further piqued his interest. So much so, that his master’s thesis was on Gen. Sherman’s Logistics, especially the Carolina Campaign and the March to the Sea.

All that research and searching through historical documents led him to be curious about hospitals that had been set up to treat and house soldiers. But he couldn’t find a single book about North Carolina Confederate hospitals.

In the last few years, Sokolosky, a retired Army colonel, has been working to change that. His first book, “North Carolina’s Confederate Hospitals 1861-1863” has been out since mid-July. But it will be Volume 2 that will have information about Vance County’s own Confederate Hospital, which was set up at Kittrell Springs.

Sokolosky spoke with Bill Harris and Mark Pace on Thursday’s tri-weekly history segment of TownTalk. He said that during the time he’s spent researching, he’s run across a lot of interesting tidbits of information about the hospitals, so he decided to organize the information he’d uncovered into a study of the Confederate hospitals and why and how they came to be.

The Kittrell Springs Hotel became the site for the Vance County hospital, known as General Hospital Number One.

“When it comes to hospitals, North Carolina didn’t have as many as Virginia,” Sokolosky said, but the state was in the top three or four. He said he hopes his books will help “fill a gap in our study of our state’s role in the war.”

He visited the National Archives in Washington, DC during his research phase for the first volume, but the COVID-19 pandemic shut down hopes for a subsequent trip.

North Carolina only had two hospitals at the time of the Civil War – the marine hospital on Portsmouth Island was for seamen, not locals. And “Dix Hill” was the asylum in Raleigh.

Residents received medical care from physicians who made house calls, and only when the family remedies didn’t work.

The whole notion of hospitals to house wounded and sick soldiers during the Civil War was a novel concept. But Sokolosky said that it was during Gen. Grant’s Overlands Campaign that countless sick, wounded and recovering soldiers had to be evacuated away from battlefield hospitals to make room for new casualties.

“They were evacuated to Raleigh and (soon), they’re bustin’ at the seams,” he said. “All those Confederate wounded are coming South.” Thanks to the proximity of the Raleigh & Gaston Railroad, Kittrell seemed a fitting spot to transform a hotel into a hospital and soldiers didn’t have to go all the way to Raleigh.

The government paid rent to business owners or schools for use of the facilities for hospital space. Peace College and Wake Forest College also became sites for hospitals.

And the Confederacy maintained detailed records of what happened in those hospitals – who was treated, who died, which surgeons worked where. Sadly, most of those medical department records were destroyed by fire where they were kept in Richmond.

So Sokolosky has pieced together information by delving into the service records of individual surgeons.

He has found letters and other documents during his research, adding that when he’s able to connect the dots through his research, it’s very satisfying.

“I enjoy the research, especially when the dots come together.”

 

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TownTalk: 911 Dispatchers Recognized For Their Role In Saving Woman In Burning House

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When we see firetrucks or emergency vehicles dashing down the road with sirens blaring and lights flashing, chances are that the men and women in those vehicles are on their way to help someone in distress. But an important group of people who aren’t on those trucks are vital team members – they are the 911 telecommunicators, stationed in front of computers and phones to receive and dispatch calls.

A team of Vance County dispatchers were recognized Monday during the county commissioners’ meeting for their life-saving role during a housefire earlier this year.

Emergency Services Director Brian Short presented Meritorious Service Awards to the dispatchers, who, on March 27, were able to stay on the line and help the victim – trapped in the burning home – find her way to a safer part of the house until firefighters could arrive.

Short and Vance County Fire Chief Chris Wright spoke with John C. Rose during Wednesday’s Town Talk and offered praise and appreciation for the 911 dispatchers and the role they play in emergency services.

“We’ve got the best technology, we’ve got the best things money can buy to do our jobs, but all that is completely worthless without the people that actually do the job,” Short said.

The county’s dispatchers have completed emergency fire dispatch certification that equips them with a checklist of tools, suggestions and advice to help those who call 911 with an emergency.

“They gave this lady life-saving instructions,” Short said, adding that the situation was a perfect example of everybody working together and doing their best, which resulted in saving the woman’s life.

Seconds can seem like minutes when you’re in distress, and that also holds true when you’re a dispatcher receiving a call from someone in distress. Short said it was bound to be gut-wrenching for dispatchers to keep a victim focused while providing those step-by-step instructions that prolong safety until help arrives.

Those instructions and prompts, Wright said, are critical components. “It gives them an extra few minutes,” he said, “that could mean a life-changing experience for them.”

In this case, “the whole front end of the house was on fire,” Wright recalled. Dispatchers were able to get the woman to the back part of the house while firetrucks were en route. The front entry had a vaulted ceiling, which meant that the fire went up before spreading to the back of the house.

“That open floor plan and vaulted ceiling played a role in the fire behavior,” Wright said, allowing the woman to seek safety at the rear of the home.

But it was 911 dispatchers who started the process and then helped put the plan in place, all of which helps emergency responders on the scene. “The advice they were able to give her gave first responders the extra time that was needed to go in and make the save,” Wright said.

“Of course, they were overjoyed to receive the award, and to see that they were being appreciated,” Short said of the Monday recognition before the county commissioners. But in reality, dispatchers have to be able to pivot flawlessly from one call to the next.

“We do our very best with every call we take and then try to move on to the next one.”

The county reviews all multi-agency calls as a matter of course, and the March 27 housefire was no exception. In addition to ensuring that all agencies performed their duties in a satisfactory manner, Short said a review also can help determine if grief counseling is needed. “They’re not machines, they’re human beings,” he added. We have to be aware of their mental health, too.”

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Terry Garrison

TownTalk: Garrison Seeks 4th Term, Discusses Water, Sewer Projects In District 32

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Several towns in the area have recently received state and federal funding to make improvements to water and wastewater services, and N.C. Rep. Terry Garrison said it was important to him to make sure projects in his district were on the state’s “radar” to get that much-needed money.

Garrison is seeking his fourth term as a legislator representing District 32, which includes Vance, Warren and most of Granville counties. He faces challenger Frank Sossamon in the November midterm elections.

Although the General Assembly is in recess right now, Garrison told John C. Rose Tuesday that it’s less of a vacation and more of a quasi-adjournment. Legislators regularly are called back into session, not necessarily to take votes, but to hear information and discuss issues. In fact, they were called back last week. “We can pretty much expect to go back each month through December to address matters,” Garrison said.

When legislators are called back into session, you need to be ready, he said. “You never know what may occur in your absence.”

Garrison, along with colleagues, was able to secure millions of dollars in funding to help several municipalities in the district with water and water treatment projects. The city of Henderson has gotten more than $10 million from a couple of different funding streams, the legislator explained.

One $5 million allotment is for the Kerr Lake Regional Water System and a second $5.4 million comes from the American Rescue Plan and was awarded through the state’s Department of Environmental Quality.

The ARP appropriation was dedicated to address drinking water and wastewater projects, he said. “Our situation was severe enough to qualify us to receive the money,” Garrison noted.

“I yelled as loud as I could to make sure persons were aware of our critical needs,” he continued.

During the most recent long session, as it’s called, legislators made history, Garrison said. “The last session was the longest in the history” of the General Assembly. It convened in January 2021 and didn’t adjourn until March 2022. “It was extensive and it was intense,” Garrison recalled.

Then the “short session” began in May. Although the bulk of the work of the state House and Senate has been done, there are matters that are lingering, he said. “We’ll just have to see how it goes – we’re on standby.”

He said he’s hopeful about the possibility of Medicaid expansion, which had been a sticking point in getting the most recent state budget passed. “It does appear that we’re back on track to get something on Medicaid expansion,” he said, adding that the fate of the issue most likely will be determined by the November elections.

Garrison said he voted for the budget, despite its shortcomings. “We absolutely needed to have a budget,” he said.

Before heading off to Raleigh to represent House District 32, Garrison had been dean of workforce development at Vance-Granville Community College. His realty firm, Tegarris Associates has been in business for more than 40 years. Much of that time, Garrison served as a Vance County commissioner.

“I stand for democratic principles and values, and I stand for you,” he said. In addition to being a proponent of Medicaid expansion, Garrison said education, jobs that pay a liveable wage, the expansion of rural broadband internet access are other top-of-mind issues for him.

Adequate and appropriate funding for schools, teachers and for community colleges are vital to the state’s education system. And although he acknowledges that charter schools and private schools both have a place in the education system, he does not favor using public funds to pay for families to send their children to private schools.

He is an advocate for affordable housing, as well as services for veterans the elderly. In addition, he supports community development – and redevelopment efforts.

“I will always play the game fair,” he said.

Subscribe to Garrison’s monthly newsletter to stay on top of legislative updates. Email terry.garrison@ncleg.gov to learn more. And he said constituents are always welcome to phone his office at 919.733.5824.

 

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