The Local Skinny! Nothing Bugs Mark Harrison

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It wasn’t a lifelong fascination with bugs or a high school biology insect collection project that catapulted Mark Harrison into the pest control business, but here it is, more than four decades later, and Harrison remains the chief Whitco “Bug Warrior.”

Harrison visited with Bill Harris as part of the Business Spotlight of The Local Skinny! Harrison and his son run Whitco Termite and Pest Control, based in Henderson.

“I would like to say it was always my life plan to be in the pest control business,” he told Harris Thursday. “But I kinda fell into it.”

He needed a job back in 1976, and answered an ad for a termite technician. And the rest, as they say, is history. He obtained his pest control license and in 1987 formed a business partnership with Aaron Whitley of Rocky Mount. They rented a small space in Henderson and then five years later purchased their current location, 123 E. Belle St.

Eighteen years ago, he bought out his business partner and now he and his son run the business.

The Whitco Bug Warriors team conducts quarterly pest control appointments with clients as well as termite control. They also can perform work in crawlspaces to eliminate humidity problems, he said.

One employee – a termite expert – has worked with Harrison for 25 years.

“I would match him up against any termite man in the state of North Carolina,” he said, (and) his customers would agree with me.”

Fire ants are becoming more of a problem in the area, and they get calls to treat athletic fields.

“We do a lot of football fields,” he said. The last thing a football player wants is to get tackled and land on a fire ant hill.

Harrison said ants in general are probably the most worrisome pest that this area deals with, but they don’t generate as big an “eww” factor as another pest that Harrison and his crews tackle: Bedbugs.

There is one team member whose sole job is working to eradicate bedbugs, he said.

“It’s the most difficult problem that people face – I would say it’s impossible to get rid of them yourself,” he said of a bedbug infestation. “Oh yeah, it’s big time.”

Secondly, the treatment isn’t cheap, so not everyone can afford to call a professional.

That means everywhere they go, they’re taking bedbugs with them – ‘cause they’re great hitchhikers.

Peak time for bedbug calls are after holidays, when people have either traveled or have had people come stay with them.

To learn more about the services they offer, contact Whitco at 252.492.2818 or visit their website www.whitcobugwarriors.com.

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TownTalk: The Gist Of The Grist Mill

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According to the 1850 U.S. Census, there were more than 140 mills in operation in Vance and surrounding counties that once were all part of Granville County.

Some were sawmills, and some were grist mills – some constructed for use by a single landowner, but many were built for commercial use.

Folks would come to the grist mills to get their corn ground, of course, but mills also were important in other ways, too.

Sadly, few mills remain today, their wooden construction giving way to time and weather. Some have undergone restoration and are reminders of the mills’ place in their heyday.

Mark Pace, North Carolina Room specialist at the Richard Thornton Library in Oxford, and Bill Harris talked about mills and their roles in the community on Thursday’s tri-weekly history TownTalk show.

Pace said his research showed that in 1850, there were 102 mills in present-day Warren County alone – twice as many as the following county on the list, he said.

The reason for that may have been because of Warren’s status among other counties in the state at the time.

“In 1840, Warren County was one of the most prosperous and prominent counties in the state,” Pace said.

In a six-mile stretch along the banks of Sandy Creek in Vance County, there were numerous mills, he said.

First, there’s Fox Pond, site of the long-popular recreation facilities. A little farther down, there was Rowland’s Pond and mill, followed by Club Pond, then Weldon’s Mill and then Southerland’s Mill. At that point the creek continues into Franklin County, where there was Laurel Mill, Pace said.

Laurel Mill has been restored and visitors can see how the mill operated. Although situated along the stream or creek, a mill usually needed a pond nearby to employ that water when the creek levels were low. A mill race worked like a canal or trough to carry water from the pond to the water wheel. Millers would use a millstone to pulverize the corn.

John Penn had a small grist mill on his farm that is situated on Michael’s Creek in present-day Granville County. That mill used a different system for grinding grain. It used a wooden wheel called a tub turbine that was situated horizontally underwater instead of the vertical waterwheel.

Because these tub turbines remained submerged and weren’t exposed to the elements or  bug infestations, they were quite durable. “They lasted for decades,” Pace said. Using water-resistant woods like cedar and bald cypress made the turbines even longer-lasting.

In the mid- to late-19th century, a millstone cost somewhere in the $50-$90 range. Pace said that would easily translate to $4,500 or so in today’s money.

“So the people who had the money were the ones that ran the mills,” he said.

But mills represented more than just a place to grind grains.

“Mills were kind of a cultural and social center of the community,” he said. In some instances, some mills served as polling places. Folks who lived on one side of the Sandy Creek would vote at one mill and folks who lived on the other side of the creek would vote at another mill, he said.

Mills in the area are associated with certain family surnames – there’s Amis, Gregory and Stark in Granville County, Weldon in Vance and Hamme in Warren, just to name a few. Hamme’s Mill just south of Warrenton is an example of just how picturesque the mills and their settings are, Pace and Harris agreed.

In Vance County, O.B. Weldon ran Weldon’s Mill along Sandy Creek, and his brother operated another mill as well, Pace said.

Granville County’s Rufus Amis Mill, currently undergoing a restoration, and the Gregory Mill near Stovall serve as the county’s two existing examples of mills. Dalton Mill near Grassy Creek had been one of the oldest and largest in the area, dating back to the early 1800’s. It was taken down in 1993.

The Perry family owned Cascine in Franklin County south of Louisburg and there’s a mill that survives on that property today. If you count the basement, that structure stands five stories tall.

Want to learn more about mills and their history in North Carolina? Visit the North Carolina Room of the Richard Thornton Library and check out a book titled Beginner’s Guide to Grist Mills in North Carolina.

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Cooperative Extension with Jamon Glover: Parent Trap, Pt. 1

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Listen live at 100.1 FM / 1450 AM / or on the live stream at WIZS.com at 11:50 a.m. Mon, Tues & Thurs.

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Deputy Terminated and Charged

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— Press Release from Sheriff Curtis Brame

Sunday, February 27, 2022, the Vance County Sheriff’s Office received a complaint from an inmate regarding a deputy having inappropriate contact with him.

As a result of the complaint by the inmate, the Vance County Sheriff’s Office contacted the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation.

At the conclusion of the State Bureau’s investigation, employee Bryan L. Shearin was terminated prior to being formally charged.

Bryan L. Shearin was charged with: Misdemeanor False Imprisonment; Misdemeanor Sexual Battery and Misdemeanor Willful Fail Discharge Duties.

Bond: $5,000.00 Unsecured

For any other information, please contact the NCSBI.

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West Oxford Elementary To Launch Dual Language Program In 2022-23

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West Oxford Elementary School got approval from the Granville County Board of Education Monday to proceed with plans to have a dual-language program next year.

The board unanimously approved re-allocation of funding to make possible the new initiative.

Principal Bethany Bonnemere said she is excited to be able to bring the Spanish-English program to the school. “The staff and school community have worked hard to develop our Global program over the past two years, and bringing on the dual language program will take our school to a whole new level,” she said in a written statement from GCPS public information officer Dr. Stan Winborne.

Superintendent Dr. Alisa McLean said she has wanted to start a dual-language program since she arrived in the school district. “I believe students will thrive under this model, as research shows that bilingualism promotes achievement for all students and increases literacy and academic achievement in both languages.  I am thrilled to see this happen at West Oxford and am very proud of Mrs. Bonnemere and her team for their efforts to make this a reality,” she stated.

The program will support the development of Spanish as a second language for all students whose families choose to participate.  The program, which will begin in at least one classroom in kindergarten, will expand with each year that students move up through each grade level.  Non-bilingual classrooms in each grade level will still be offered for families who choose not to participate, although they will still take part in the school’s global focus.

Dual language programs follow a variety of models, but all promote bilingualism, biliteracy, building an awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and high levels of academic achievement through instruction in two languages.  Additional details about the specific plans for West Oxford’s model can be found on the school’s website in the coming weeks.

“I look forward to our school becoming a bilingual center of the community,” Bonnemere said.

TownTalk: Tar River Land Conservancy Improving Access To Nature

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Derek Halberg has been working with Tar River Land Conservancy for 18 years – not quite since its inception 22 years ago, but as executive director, he has witnessed a lot of growth in the area of land conservancy.

“We’ve done a lot of great work, and it’s very rewarding,” Halberg said.

TRLC, a nonprofit land trust, is one of a couple of dozen across the state with a similar mission to preserve – conserve – land for farm use or for future recreational use.

The group takes its name from the body of water that begins in Person County and continues Granville, Vance, Franklin and points farther east. The TRLC works in those and other counties as far away as Edgecombe County to help landowners find ways to conserve their property.

Halberg spoke with Bill Harris on Wednesday’s Town Talk to discuss some upcoming projects, one of which involves 83 acres in southern Granville County called Horseshoe Road Nature Preserve.

“It’s one of our newest properties that we’re actively working on to open to the public,” Halberg said. He said he hopes that a ribbon-cutting to officially open the property will take place in June.

When completed, the Horseshoe Road property will feature a couple of miles of hiking trails, much of which is being created with the help of volunteers. It will join Roberts Chapel Conservation Area in Stem to provide a place for hikers to come and get a little exercise while observing nature up close and personal.

TLRC has received some financial support from several local governments to help create the trails, signage and such for the Granville projects. And although using volunteers may take a little longer to complete a project, Halberg said that involvement will pay dividends in the long-run.

A project the size of Horseshoe Road may take a professional team a few months of continuous work to complete, but Halberg said TLRC’s approach was aimed at community involvement.j

“It takes longer, but it creates better results,” he noted. Volunteers have contributed more than 1,000 hours of their time, using rakes and shovels to put the trail through the woods, he said.

“We transform a property from a raw wilderness property into something that people can visit and enjoy.”

The Tar River and its tributaries provide water to reservoirs like Lake Holt in Creedmoor and Falls Lake in Wake County. Ensuring safe drinking water is a primary objective of the TLRC, but the group also works to protect the flora and fauna of the area – some of which “are found nowhere else on earth,” Halberg said.

There are fish, fresh-water mussels and amphibian species that dwell in and around the waters of the Tar and its tributaries that create a rich biological diversity in this part of the state, he said.

Unlike the Roanoke River to the north, from which Kerr Lake and Lake Gaston were formed, The Tar is still a free-flowing river, a fact that Halberg said makes it “pretty great for the wildlife.”

The TLRC is always looking to work with new landowners, he said. “We’re always looking to start new conversations,” he said.

Call the office, located in Louisburg, at 919.496.5902 or visit www.tarriverlandconservancy.com to learn more, from volunteering to participate in upcoming projects to ways to conserve properties.

 

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Home And Garden Show 03-09-22

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On the Home and Garden Show with Vance Co. Cooperative Ext.

  • Repot houseplants, dust them with soft moist cloth
  • When growing seeds indoors check the media before watering. If the media has moisture check the next day before watering.
  • Finish up your pruning chores, fruit trees, grape vines, broadleaf evergreens.
  • Bring indoors any plants that you placed outdoors ex houseplants Saturday projected low 21F
  • Write out a monthly plan in your garden notebook and keep your journal up to date
  • We have excellent gardening publications at Cooperative Extension
  • Get your lawn care equipment ready now.
  • Always check moisture level of garden soil before tilling that soil
  • Plant berries, or maybe next year.

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H-V Industrial Park Gets $761,040 Grant From U.S. Dept. Of Commerce For Infrastructure Improvements

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Vance County has been awarded more than $760,000 from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration to support business growth in the Henderson-Vance Industrial Park.

The announcement was made today (Tuesday, Mar. 8) by the U.S. Department of Commerce. The EDA grant totals $761,040 and will promote job creation through roadway and sewer upgrades necessary for business expansion, according to a press statement. The grant will be matched with $190,260 in state investment and is expected to create 50 jobs and generate $3.2 million in private investment.

“This infrastructure grant is a big win for Vance County and the continued growth of the Henderson-Vance Industrial Park,” said U.S. Sen Thom Tillis. “I was proud to advocate for this award on their behalf, and I want to thank Vance County Commissioner Tommy Hester and Kerr-Tar Regional Council of Governments Executive Director Diane Cox for their partnership as we worked together to create more jobs in rural North Carolina.”

Congressman G.K. Butterfield, who represents Vance County, said the money will benefit the five counties the Kerr-Tar COG represents. “I am very pleased with the Economic Development Administration’s decision to invest in Vance County,” he said. “This grant award is well deserved and will provide needed funding for infrastructure improvements that will support business and job growth at the Henderson-Vance Industrial Park,” he added.

Included in the press statement were remarks by N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper. “We can build a stronger future for all by making smart investments in roads, water systems and other infrastructure,” Cooper said.  “Vance County is a great place to live, work and raise a family, and this grant will help make necessary improvements and create more jobs.”