Evan O’Geary Crowns Latest Miss Henderson Shanice Street

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Miss Kerr Lake, Shanice Street, is now officially Miss Henderson.  She was crowned Wednesday morning at the Henderson-Vance County Chamber of Commerce Office downtown.

Evan O’Geary Crowns Miss Henderson Shanice Street – HV Chamber Photo by Melanie Mann

Street said, “I am a student and cheerleader at Wake Forest University. I am a Sociology major with a minor in psychology. I am both honored and elated to represent the Henderson community at Miss North Carolina in June. I competed in the Miss Kerr Lake Festival pageant back in September where I won the title which has now been changed over to Miss Henderson. My platform is Small Seeds Sprout Success. As a first generation college student I hope to instill hope in today’s youth and let them know that they can achieve anything they set their minds to regardless of any obstacles they might face.”

The Miss North Carolina pageant is during the week of June 19-23. The finals will be on June 23 at 8:00 p.m. in Raleigh.

(WIZS News appreciates the contribution of Melanie Mann, Director of Administration and Events at the Chamber, and John Barnes, Chamber President, as they contributed heavily to this story.)

Tickets On Sale Now for The Boys & Girls Club of Granville County’s Mardi Gras Bash Fundraiser

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By: Kelly Bondurant, Freelance Writer for Hire

The second annual Mardi Gras Bash Fundraiser to benefit the Granville County Unit of the Boys & Girls Clubs of North Central North Carolina (BGCNCNC) will be held Saturday, February 10 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Vino Oasi, an event center located in Stem, NC.

According to Jackie Sergent, mayor of the City of Oxford and an advisory council member of the Granville Boys & Girls Club, the fundraiser will be a celebratory event for all full of “lots of beads, lots of masks, and lots of color.” Participants are encouraged to dress in their finest Mardi Gras attire.

The fundraiser will include a dinner of a signature drink, appetizers, soup, salad, bourbon chicken, shredded beef and onions, vegetables and four-cheese macaroni followed by a traditional Mardi Gras dessert of king cake. In addition to great food, guests will enjoy the look, feel and sounds of New Orleans’ Bourbon Street with jazz music, festive décor and a photo booth.

A 50/50 raffle will be held as well as a wine pull. For $20, participants will be able to pull a wine with a value up to $70. Also for $20, a purchaser can select a person of their choice to sing karaoke. The selected person then must sing a song or will have the opportunity to pay $25 to decline the offer.

Tickets are on sale now for $50 a person and may be purchased at The Hub on Main or Uptown 101 in downtown Oxford, online by visiting the BGCNCNC Facebook page or by calling the Granville Boys & Girls Club office at (919) 690-0036.

A van will depart from The Hub on Main every 15 minutes beginning at 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 10 and will shuttle Mardi Gras Bash participants to the Vino Oasi location at 3220 Bliss Trail in Stem, NC free of charge. Parking is available behind The Hub.

All proceeds go to support the Granville County Unit of BGCNCNC. Money raised supports the mission of the club and allows for expansion opportunities and a potential cost savings to participants.

“The Boys & Girls Club is the single most nimble way to make an impact on child performance and support the local school system,” said Sergent. According to Sergent, 100% of recent Boys & Girls Club participants in the local five-county area graduated from high school, with 95% advancing to places of higher education or serving in the military.

The club offers after-school and summer break care to area youth up to five days a week until 6:30 pm. For $10 a week, children are provided snacks, homework assistance, fun activities, social interaction, dinner and a safe place to stay.

DeLauren White, unit director for the Granville Boys & Girls Club, explains that the club focuses on three main components with youth-academic success, good character and leadership and healthy habits. “There seems to be a misconception that the Boys & Girls Club is like a daycare. We are much more active and much more hands-on. We are really trying to change the lives of young people and I truly believe we are doing that,” White said.

With the majority of the youth being children between the ages of 5-12, the club aims to increase the number of teenagers they serve. Teen nights are now available on Friday nights from 6:30 p.m. until 10 p.m. and on Saturday nights from 4 p.m. until 10 p.m.

Fundraising events such as the Mardi Gras Bash help make expansion projects such as teen nights possible and ensure continued coverage of current program offerings. The public is invited to attend Saturday night’s bash to celebrate Mardi Gras and support the Granville County Boys & Girls Club. Those that cannot attend the event are also welcomed to make a donation.

(This is not a paid advertisement.)

Legacy of Martin Luther King discussed at VGCC

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— courtesy VGCC

Vance-Granville Community College hosted a program to discuss the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on Jan. 24, after being postponed due to winter weather. The discussion was sponsored by the college’s Minority Male Success Initiative and was held in the Civic Center on VGCC’s Main Campus.

VGCC Counselor Cathy Davis made remarks about the purpose of the event and the King holiday. She quoted the King Center, which said the observance commemorates Dr. King’s actions and words that “answered our collective longing to become a country that truly lived by its noblest principles.” Davis added, “The Minority Male Success Initiative invites you to commemorate this holiday by making your personal commitment to serve humanity, promote Dr. King’s teachings and carry forward his legacy.”

The program then featured VGCC student Angelica Bridges of Oxford presenting a powerful rendition of the song, “Rise Up.”

The featured speaker for the event was Roberta Scott, a longtime public school teacher and retired Adult High School coordinator for VGCC. Scott is currently a member of the Warren County Board of Education, an officer of the N.C. School Boards Association, and an advisor to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. In 1963, she participated in the March on Washington, at which Dr. King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

First, Scott described growing up in Washington, D.C, in an era when the nation’s capital was racially segregated, recalling the practices that restricted her access to certain restaurants, playgrounds, schools and even seats on trains. She then put the 1963 march in its political and historical context.

“Dr. King met with President John F. Kennedy, and he told the president about the severity of the injustices in the country,” Scott recalled. “Dr. King said we needed a civil rights bill. President Kennedy told him, ‘I understand, but we have so other many things going on’ and said it couldn’t get done right now.”

Scott said that, after that somewhat disappointing conversation with the president, King’s next move was “to organize a nonviolent march in Washington, the march to the Lincoln memorial, which Dr. King felt would be a fitting place.”

She remembered, “There were 250,000 people who marched that August 28 — people marching cheerfully, having conversations, and there was no violence whatsoever. You saw whole families, children marching with their parents. My husband and I were there, and our four-year-old daughter marched right along with us. It was a sight that you will never forget.”

“I don’t think President Kennedy expected Dr. King to really go back and organize such a march,” Scott noted. With many national civil rights groups working together to organize the massive demonstration, the event was effective in galvanizing public support for a federal civil rights bill, which ultimately was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson after Kennedy’s assassination.

Scott said that young people today typically cannot imagine what the era of segregation was like, because of the work that was done by King and other leaders to make change happen. “You can go anywhere to eat, you can sit where you want to on the bus or the train, go to the college you want to go to, you can do all of these things without even having to think about it,” Scott said. “But there was a day when you couldn’t do that. It’s hard for you to realize.”

She emphasized the importance of rejecting hatred and of voting. “We need to become passionate in a nonviolent way, and we need to encourage everyone 18 years or older to vote,” Scott said. “Do whatever you can in your community to help, to make a difference, and to keep Dr. King’s dream alive, the dream of equality and freedom.”

The program was one of two organized by the VGCC Minority Male Success Initiative in honor of the King holiday. The other was a trip for students to the International Civil Rights Center & Museum in Greensboro.

–VGCC–

Granville County Public Schools

Granville County Board of Education Retreat Meeting Sat, Feb 10, 2018

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NOTICE TO PUBLIC AND PRESS

The Granville County Board of Education will meet in a Board Retreat on Saturday, February 10, 2018 at the Masonic Children Home, 600 College Street, Oxford, NC 27565 at 9:00 a.m. The Board will meet in Closed Session for Personnel/Attorney Client Privilege in accordance with N.C. General Statute 143.318.11 (a)(6), 143-318.11 (a)(3), 143.318.11 (a)(5) and Section 115C-321.

Dywanda Pettaway
Clerk to Board of Education

NC Coop Extension

Cooperative Extension with Paul McKenzie 02/07/18

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Town Talk 02/07/18

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News 02/07/18

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Community Partnership for Pets $10k Grant to Vance County

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Community Partnership for Pets $10k Grant to Vance County

Frankie Nobles, Chief of Vance County Animal Services, told WIZS News in a press release that Vance County is the recipient of a $10,000.00 spay/neuter grant.

The grant was applied for on January 26, and Nobles indicated it would be used as follows:

  • Spay/Neuter for citizens in the community who are considered low income, but do not qualify for our free program.
  • Free spay/neuter and rabies vaccines for families turning in litters of puppies/kittens (Prevent a Litter)
  • Start a TNR program for cats in the community.

TNR stands for Trap-Neuter-Return.

Nobles said, “These funds will be a great help getting animals in the community spayed/neutered. We anticipate that with this assistance for more citizens, we will see fewer litters of puppies and kittens being brought into the shelter. We are also hoping to see our yearly intakes at the shelter decrease each year as we start a TNR program for feral cats in the community.”

The OPS Academic Honorees Fall Semester 2017/2018

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WIZS has been asked to announce:

Vance County, NC

Water Planning Committee Seeks Self-Sufficiency in Customer-Friendly Incentives

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At Monday night’s Vance County Board of Commissioners meeting, the Water Planning Committee discussed its plan for self-sufficiency for the county water system by presenting two possible incentives focused on the goal of attracting a new customer base.

The first incentive called for “forgiving” the outstanding balance of availability customers once they have been connected to the water system for a period of time. Availability customers are the portion of active customers who signed up for the water system, but never made an actual connection.

According to County Manager Jordan McMillen, there are currently a total of 434 availability customers who are responsible for a $30 monthly fee as a result of their commitment to the system and having water available to their property.

The second incentive presented to the Board would allow existing/active customers to receive a credit on their bill for referring a friend or neighbor who becomes an active water customer. This referral incentive would only apply to existing/active customers.

Both incentives aim at increasing the water system’s customer base. The county water system currently serves 1,282 active customers in the Sandy Creek, Dabney and Williamsboro townships, with 848 metered customers hooked into the system.

According to McMillen, the total number of current metered customers comprises slightly more than half of the overall number needed to reach self-sufficiency. “To achieve self-sufficiency, we need approximately 1,500 to 1,600 active metered customers. Our multi-year financial plan for the system includes converting more availability customers to active customers as well as adding new customers to the system to alleviate a situation where the county is providing approximately $400,000 a year from the general fund to offset and subsidize the water system,” stated McMillen.

McMillen noted that it is typical for a new water system to be subsidized for a period of time while the customer base builds. He believes incentives and current customer satisfaction will go a long way into building the necessary customer base. “The incentives discussed are being proposed as a way to add customers. Once they join the system, they are happy with what they are receiving, they like the fact that water is available when the power is out, and they have peace of mind not having to worry with wells drying up, well pumps or related issues,” McMillen remarked.

After hearing the incentive proposals, the Board instructed staff to develop the necessary language and specifics to move forward with the customer referral incentive for consideration at the water committee’s February meeting. The committee then plans to bring the more developed customer referral program language back to the board of commissioners for consideration at their March meeting. The Board was not in favor of the outstanding balance forgiveness proposal at this time.

In addition to the discussion of the two incentives, the committee also heard from three availability customers and one active customer who favored eliminating the $30 fee and replacing it with an annual tax or another type of assessment.

McMillen acknowledged that the challenge with eliminating the availability fee is making up the difference elsewhere. “The challenge with eliminating any fee is that it widens the gap in funding that is necessary to reach self-sufficiency and essentially requires a different revenue option or fee to fill its place,” explained McMillen.

While the committee works diligently to reach its goal, McMillen reported that the system is keeping its current customer base happy. “The water committee is continually looking for ways to decrease expenditures, add customers, and increase revenues to bring the system to self-sufficiency.  As the committee continues to do this, we are cognizant that the water system is serving citizens and satisfying a need for quality drinking water and fire protection throughout the county,” McMillen stated.