WIZS Local News Audio 7-23-21 Noon
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Cooperative Extension with Jamon Glover 07-22-21 – Less is More
Listen live at 100.1 FM / 1450 AM / or on the live stream at WIZS.com at 11:50 a.m. Mon, Tues & Thurs.
The Local Skinny: Recycling On The Rise In Granville
In the 12 years since Teresa Baker has been recycling and sustainability coordinator for Granville County and Granville County Public Schools, she has seen a lot of things change. And most of it is because of her efforts to get the community onboard with recycling.
“It’s improved tenfold,” Baker told Bill Harris on Thursday’s The Local Skinny! “It‘s just been amazing.”
When the county started this program 12 years ago, residents were separating newspaper from aluminum cans from glass bottles. Now, residents can simply collect all their recyclables in a single container, what the industry calls “single stream.”
Among her many job duties, Baker collaborates with GFL, formerly Waste Industries, to make sure all residents have the service they need so their recycling efforts are optimized.
By informing the community about events like the fall and spring household recycling events she hosts, Baker said Granville residents are keeping a lot of harmful items out of the environment.
“We can reuse a lot of stuff, we can repair and recycle” to keep things out of the landfill. She said the upcoming RepairCafé workshop is just another way to keep items from being added to the landfill. She and Oxford resident and RepairCafé organizer Don Fick have teamed up to have a workshop at the Granville Expo Center on Sept. 18.
Golden Leaf changes approved for Open Grants Program
– courtesy of Golden Leaf and goldenleaf.org –
The Golden LEAF Foundation Board of Directors approved changes to the Open Grants Program at its June 2021 meeting, guided by the recently adopted strategic plan. Historically, the Open Grants Program has awarded $200,000 or less in funding for projects. While most applications will continue to be for $200,000 or less, the Board approved funding for up to $500,000 for projects that meet certain additional criteria.
The Golden LEAF Foundation is committed to using the funds entrusted to it for projects that show the most potential for strengthening North Carolina’s economy, especially in tobacco-dependent, economically distressed, and/or rural communities. The Open Grants Program allows eligible applicants to apply for Golden LEAF funding throughout the year. The Open Grants Program is for economic development projects aligned with Golden LEAF priority areas.
For projects that possess some additional characteristics, Golden LEAF may make awards of up to $500,000 from this program. To determine which projects will be eligible for consideration for an award of more than $200,000, Golden LEAF requires that the project include one or more of these characteristics:
- Higher level of funding will lead to significant outcomes
- Result of a planning process involving multiple organizations and members of the community
- Building on a history of success that allows a project to scale and significantly increase outcomes
- Funding will enable or encourage compelling collaboration, including uncommon or innovative approaches or organizations in more than one county
- Funding will leverage significant funding from other organizations
- Applicant has limited resources
- The project cannot be implemented in phases without compromising its outcomes
Applicants who wish to apply for more than $200,000 in funding from the Open Grants Program must complete a required consultation with Golden LEAF staff.
More information is available on the website at goldenleaf.org on how Golden LEAF evaluates Open Grants Program proposals, including detailed characteristics of exceptional projects.
The Golden LEAF Foundation, headquartered in Rocky Mounty, was established in 1999 to administer a portion of the tobacco settlement agreement monies back into North Carolina’s rural and economically distressed communities. For almost 20 years, the nonprofit has partnered with state and local governments and other foundations to build economic opportunity across North Carolina through leadership in grantmaking, collaboration, innovation, and stewardship as an independent and perpetual foundation.
VGCC, myFutureNC, Belk Endowment Work Together To Support Adult Learners
Vance-Granville Community College, John M. Belk Endowment, and myFutureNC are working together to better address the needs of local employers and adult students
Dr. Rachel Desmarais, President of Vance-Granville Community College called on adults across the region to visit BetterSkillsBetterJobs.com as a first step to gain the skills they need to secure the jobs they want.
“After a year of challenges like no other, we know many adults are examining their work situations and even considering career changes,” said Desmarais. “So we are making an extra push this summer to connect adults to a variety of fast, flexible, and affordable programs at VGCC which lead to current open jobs in our communities.”
“From biomanufacturing to warehousing, mechatronics to supply chain and logistics, emergency medical training to truck driving certificates, and many more, our courses are a direct pipeline to many of our region’s top employers,” Desmarais said. “That’s why we hope everyone will visit BetterSkillsBetterJobs.com today to quickly connect with us and explore all of the opportunities we offer that can lead to better skills, a better job, a bigger paycheck, and an even brighter future.”
Vance-Granville Community College (VGCC) is the local source for higher education and training in Vance, Granville, Franklin, and Warren counties with four attractive campuses, one in each county. Established in 1969, VGCC offers more than 40 curriculum programs, in which students work toward certificates, diplomas and degrees. Area residents and businesses can also take advantage of a variety of Continuing Education opportunities, as well as the High School Equivalency and Adult High School Diploma programs.
For more information about Vance-Granville Community College’s Better Skills. Better Jobs. Initiative, please visit: BetterSkillsBetterJobs.com/VGCC/
Vance-Granville Community College addresses needs of employers and students
Vance-Granville Community College, John M. Belk Endowment, and myFutureNC are working together to better address the needs of local employers and adult students.
Dr. Rachel Desmarais, President of Vance-Granville Community College called on adults across the region to visit BetterSkillsBetterJobs.com as a first step to gain the skills they need to secure the jobs they want.
“After a year of challenges like no other, we know many adults are examining their work situations and even considering career changes,” said Desmarais. “So we are making an extra push this summer to connect adults to a variety of fast, flexible, and affordable programs at VGCC which lead to current open jobs in our communities.”
“From biomanufacturing to warehousing, mechatronics to supply chain and logistics, emergency medical training to truck driving certificates, and many more, our courses are a direct pipeline to many of our region’s top employers,” Desmarais said. “That’s why we hope everyone will visit BetterSkillsBetterJobs.com today to quickly connect with us and explore all of the opportunities we offer that can lead to better skills, a better job, a bigger paycheck, and an even brighter future.”
Vance-Granville Community College (VGCC) is the local source for higher education and training in Vance, Granville, Franklin, and Warren counties with four attractive campuses, one in each county. Established in 1969, VGCC offers more than 40 curriculum programs, in which students work toward certificates, diplomas and degrees. Area residents and businesses can also take advantage of a variety of Continuing Education opportunities, as well as the High School Equivalency and Adult High School dploma programs.
For more information about Vance-Granville Community College’s Better Skills. Better Jobs. Initiative, please visit: BetterSkillsBetterJobs.com/VGCC/
TownTalk: Soul City: Race, Equality And The Lost Dream Of An American Utopia
Thomas Healy was born in 1969, the same year that Floyd McKissick launched Soul City, his dream to build a new town in Warren County that would boast 50,000 residents and pump life into a historically poor area of North Carolina.
Healy, although born and raised in North Carolina, only learned about Soul City when he was a reporter in the 1990’s at The News & Observer in Raleigh, he told Bill Harris and Mark Pace on Thursday’s Town Talk.
And now, the Seton Hall law professor has written a book about the spot where McKissick had envisioned Black people living, working and thriving. But Soul City: Race, Equality, and the Lost Dream of an American Utopia also looks examines misperceptions surrounding Soul City.
One glaring misperception is that McKissick wanted to build an all-Black city an hour north of Durham, Healy said. Then, with the backdrop of protests in Ferguson, Missouri, Healy decided to take a closer look at the story of Soul City and “to tell people about this history and, to some extent, set the record straight.”
McKissick, a Democrat, had some unlikely allies when he was trying to build Soul City, from James Holshouser, the Republican elected governor in 1972 all the way to the White House and Richard Nixon. Although initially skeptical and hostile, Healy noted, the nay-sayers realized what Soul City could do, they were on board.
But not Jesse Helms, newly elected senator from North Carolina. “Helms was hostile to Soul City from the very beginning,” Healy said. Ironically, The News & Observer, no friend of Helms ordinarily, “sort of tag-teamed with Jesse Helms in a way” in opposition to Soul City.
That combined opposition of the newpaper and Helms “was really devastating” for Soul City. Healy opined that if one or the other had not been such vocal opponents, then maybe Soul City would have had a fighting chance at survival.
Unlike suburban areas that grew up around urban areas as bedroom communities, Soul City was plopped in the middle of a rural county with little industry nearby. McKissick was trying to build a city of 50,000 people in a county that had a total population of 16,000 – he would have to clear the land, pave the roads, bring in electricity and then build homes, parks, amenities that would attract residents. And then there would need to be jobs.
It was a classic chicken-egg theory – which would come first, jobs or the city? Industry would demand a skilled workforce to draw from, and residents would have to have a way to make their livelihood in order to relocate, Healy said.
It was a strategic, yet pragmatic move that McKissick made in the summer of 1972 to switch political parties. He became a Republican and supported Nixon. Healy said he felt like this was insurance that would assure Soul City would get the federal dollars from HUD to become a reality.
Soul City got the money, but it wasn’t enough, Healy said. And that type of idealistic thought doesn’t exist today. “It was a super ambitious, audacious project,” Healy said. “If you proposed something like this now, I think people would look at you like you were crazy.”
McKissick did not see his dream come to full reality. He died in 1991, after Soul City had closed. But Healy said he felt McKissick would be heartbroken today to see that spot in Warren County where his dream began.
For complete details and audio click play.
WIZS Local News Audio 7-22-21 Noon
Thank you for listening to WIZS Radio, Your Community Voice!
Vance Co. Sheriff’s Office Investigates Homicide
On June 11th, 2021 around 4pm, 911 Central dispatched the Vance County Sheriff’s Office deputies to 519 Fields Ave. in Henderson to check on a resident’s welfare.
Upon arrival, the family member that called 911 met the deputies. The deputies, along with the family member, approached the residence to check on the occupant. No one answered the knock on the door or responded when deputies called out.
Upon entering the residence, deputies detected a pungent odor. Moving further into the residence, deputies discovered a body that was later identified as Hiawatha Nicholson, a black male, age 73.
The Vance County Sheriff’s Office along with the State Bureau of Investigations are investigating the death of Mr. Nicholson as a homicide.
Please contact the Vance Co. Sheriff’s Office with any information leading to the arrest and conviction of suspects in the death of Mr. Nicholson. The Vance Co. Sheriff’s Office may be reached at 252-738-2200
TownTalk: Repair Cafe Event Coming To Granville County
Don Fick of Repair Cafe NC discusses how his organization repairs many daily household items keeping them out of local landfills.
For complete details and audio click play.
Just because the button on your household gizmo is broken doesn’t mean it needs to go straight to the landfill – it may just need a quick trip to a RepairCafé workshop. There’s one coming up Saturday in Durham, but Don Fick and his crew are coming to Granville County in September.
Fick and Teresa Baker, the county’s recycling and sustainability coordinator, held an interest meeting last week in Oxford and have since scheduled a workshop for Saturday, Sept. 18 at the Granville County Expo Center. Fick joined Bill Harris on Wednesday’s Town Talk to talk about what RepairCaféNC is and what it does.
At its simplest, Fink said, RepairCafé workshops consist of a group of folks who get together and share repair skills to fix broken items that others bring in. There is no charge for the labor, although guests may be asked to reimburse for replacement parts that are used.
In today’s society, disposable items are everywhere – things that once were made to last a long time are now easily – and more economically – replaced. But that “stuff” has to go somewhere. And, usually, that means a landfill.
“The money that the county has to spend to dump a ton of waste is only going up,” Fick said. Individuals don’t really have to think about that, he added. “We toss it in the trash can and the truck comes and picks it up and we never see it again.”
Fick said a mission of RepairCafé is to reduce the amount of waste consumers generate that ends up in landfills. When a lamp stops working and it’s not the light bulb that’s the problem, someone who lacks confidence about making repairs may choose to toss it. But that same lamp may find new life in the hands of one of the RepairCafé “coaches.”
Fick said the volunteers have a 65 percent success rate of fixing the items that they work on. They see a lot of lamps, as well as vacuum cleaners, electronic equipment, necklaces and children’s toys.
He cited one example of a woman who brought in a music box – a gift from her grandmother – that had long ago ceased playing.
“She sat with two of our coaches and together they meticulously cleaned it, lubricated it, worked very carefully on realigning some bent pieces of metal. And after an hour’s work, it was playing music again,” Fick recalled. “We were able to restore her cherished possession,” and she got to share her story and her relationship with her grandmother.
“We’re doing more than fixing stuff,” Fick said. “We’re helping people reconnect with memories and we’re showing appreciation for the stories they bring.”
Fick said the group is looking for volunteers for the Granville County workshop. The volunteer coaches simply have an interest or curiosity of how things work, he said, and have a skill set for making repairs.
The Durham workshop will be held at The Scrap Exchange from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Visit www.repaircafe.org to learn more or to register to attend a workshop.