Vance Sheriff Accepts $691,536 From N.C. Rep. Sossamon For Body-Worn Cameras

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Vance County Sheriff Curtis Brame wants his employees to be safe when they are performing their duties, and he’s crunched the numbers, so he knows the price tag for state-of-the-art equipment.

When he learned that local legislators could make a request for body-worn cameras and supporting equipment from something called non-recurring funds, he got in touch with N.C. Rep. Frank Sossamon, (R. Dist. 32) who represents Vance County and most of Granville County.

“I gave him the numbers and the platform (information and) it was granted, thank God,” Brame told WIZS News in advance of a meeting Thursday, where Sossamon presented a check to Brame and county officials for $691,536.

“This will be a big help for us,” Brame said. The funds will be used to outfit sheriff’s staff and detention staff with body-worn cameras and the supporting equipment needed to upload and store video footage. In addition to providing an extra layer of protection for the officer, Brame said the cameras will be useful if a situation were to arise and false claims are lodged against his officers.

In an interview earlier this week, Sossamon said he’s “elated” for Brame, his staff, and the residents of Vance County.

“We have some appropriation chairs that are very, very pro law enforcement,” Sossamon said in an interview this week. “Any time they can support law enforcement, they’re going to do it.”

The equipment, Sossamon predicted, will be a selling point for recruiting, not to mention “a morale booster for the sheriff and for his officers.”

Check Receipts For Accuracy – Scanning Errors Do Occur!

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Two area retailers have paid penalties totaling more than $4,700 in civil penalties for error rates in advertised prices and the prices that ring up at the register, according to information from the N.C. Department of Agriculture’s Standards Division.

The Walgreens located at 201 Trade St., Henderson paid $495 in September following a string of inspections over several months, during which the error rate fell from 14 percent to a passing level in August. The 14 percent error rate in February was based on 7 overcharges in a 50-item lot; subsequent follow-up inspections found error rates of 3.67 percent in March, based on 11 overcharges in a 300-item lot and a 6.67 percent error rate in May, based on 20 overcharges in a 300-item lot. The store passed inspection in August and paid its penalty in September, according to the NCDA report.

The Warrenton Dollar General, 211 E. Macon St., paid $4,245 following an initial inspection in July found an error rate of 40 percent and a follow-up inspection in August showed an 18.33 percent error rate.

The store will be reinspected.

The July inspection showed 20 overcharges in a 50-item lot; the August inspection found an error rate of 18.33% based on 55 overcharges in a 300-item lot. The store will be reinspected.

“Our Standards Division does excellent work inspecting stores across the state for scanner errors that hurt consumers’ pockets,” said Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler. “North Carolinians should only have to pay the price they see on the shelf and  this work is vital to make sure that happens. Our Standards Division will continue to inspect stores, but consumers should also check their receipts often and notify store managers if they see an issue.”

 

The department conducts periodic, unannounced inspections of price-scanner systems in businesses to check for accuracy between the prices advertised and the prices that ring up at the register. If a store has more than a 2 percent error rate on overcharges, inspectors discuss the findings with the store manager and conduct a more intensive follow-up inspection later. Undercharges are also reported, but do not count against a store. Consumers who would like to file a complaint about scanner errors they encounter, can call the Standards Division at 984.236.4750.

 

Penalties are assessed if a store fails a follow-up inspection. In addition to the penalties paid, the store will be subject to reinspection every 60 days from the last inspection until the error rate is at 2 percent or lower. Additional penalties may be assessed if a store fails reinspection.

Expanded Granville DSS Board Seeks Two Additional Members

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Information courtesy of Granville County Public Information Officer Terry Hobgood

Granville County needs to fill two new positions on the Granville County Board of Social Services. The two seats were added after the Granville board of commissioners submitted a request to the N.C. Social Services Commission to expand the local board from three members to five. One position will be appointed by the Granville County Board of Commissioners and the N.C .Social Services Commission will appoint an individual to fill the other seat.

“It is critical that we recruit stellar applicants for both of these positions,” said Commissioner Sue Hinman, who also chairs the local Social Services board. “The Board of Social Services is critical, Hinman said. We can’t have a well-functioning county without a well-functioning Department of Social Services,” she said.

The Board of Social Services typically meets monthly on the fourth Tuesday at the Oxford Social Services Office, located at 410 W. Spring St. Board members are required to be citizens of Granville County, advocate for Social Services staff and clients, attend required training and continuing education courses, and come prepared to each monthly meeting. Board members are also expected to study and maintain a copy of the UNC School of Government publication “Serving on the County Board of Social Services.” Find the document here: https://www.sog.unc.edu/publications/reports/serving-county-board-social-services.

To apply for the Board of Social Services seat that will be appointed by the Board of County Commissioners, fill  out the application found here https://www.granvillecounty.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/BOC-Application-PDF2023.pdf and submit to Debra Weary, Clerk to the Board of  Commissioners, by email at debra.weary@granvillecounty.org, in person at the County Administration Office  located at 104 Belle St., Oxford, or by mail to P.O. Box 906 Oxford, NC 27565 to the attention of Debra Weary.

 

Nomination forms for the state-appointed seat can be found here:  https://www.ncdhhs.gov/media/14051/download?attachment.

To learn more about the state appointment process, contact Paris Penny at 919.527.7527 or paris.penny@dhhs.nc.gov.

Mail completed applications for this seat by Nov. 2, 2023 to:

Paris Penny

NC Social Services Commission

2444 Mail Service Center

Raleigh, NC 27699-2444

Triangle North Businesss Park Future Home Of VGCC Training Facility

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It’s been a few years in the making, but a contingent of local officials joined Vance-Granville Community College President Dr. Rachel Desmarais and others Wednesday afternoon to celebrate a facility – yet to be built – that will support future training needs for existing and prospective industry.

VGCC is getting $11.5 million in the newly passed state budget, and N.C. Rep Frank Sossamon (R-Dist. 32) provided key support in getting the funding for his district, which in cludes Vance and most of Granville counties. Sossamon was  among those present Wednesday at the Triangle North Industrial Park, located in Granville County off U.S. 158 near I-85.

According to information from VGCC Public Information Officer Courtney Cissel, 15 acres on the campus of the business park have been set aside for construction of the facility, the result of a collaboration among Granville County Economic Development, Kerr-Tar Council of Governments and the Triangle North board.

In her remarks at the event, Desmarais said the Triangle North Business Park represents a true collaboration among a cross-section of agencies, and it’s something that attracted her to the area. “I saw collaboration that I hadn’t seen before,” she said. “Today’s announcement is very important, for the people of Granville County and Vance County and the entire service area” the college supports.

No dates have been released for when work will begin, but this could well be the first to locate in the park. That fits in with Desmarais’s vision for VGCC to be a catalyst to build strong communities.

“Workforce development plus economic development equals regional prosperity,” Desmarais said.

The facility will support industry training needs in the areas of industrial maintenance, mechatronics, electronics, welding, and fabrication; serve as an advanced manufacturing company recruitment benefit; and support collaborative high school and college career and technical education partnerships. An investment of this magnitude will send a powerful message to current and future manufacturing stakeholders that our region values the manufacturing sector, supports growth and innovation, and increases employee value.

Abdul Rasheed, vice-chair of the VGCC Board of Trustees, talked about the impact the facility will have on the community.

“Doing this kind of investment begins to shape the kind of jobs, the kind of salaries, the kind of quality of life that we want for ourselves,” Rasheed said. “And that is very, very exciting to me.”

Granville County Board of Commissioners Chairman Russ May echoed sentiments from other speakers. This state funding makes possible the “beginning of some really great things for this community,” May said. “This is a start for much bigger and greater things for Granville and for Vance counties,” he said.

Additional construction funding will come from Granville County and from VGCC’s Board of Trustees.

Vance County High School

SportsTalk: Vipers Take On South Granville For Senior Night

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94 – 18.  Doesn’t sound like a football score, does it?  Yet that’s what the final score was last Friday night as the undefeated Vance Co. Vipers had a record setting win against Granville Central.  Quarterback Javion Vines-Holder tied the state record by throwing ten touchdown passes.  “We wanted to do something for the team and the community,” commented head coach Aaron Elliott on Thursday’s SportsTalk.  When Vines-Holder approached his coach at half time and said he wanted to go for the state record it was decided by the coaching staff to support the decision.  Vines-Holder now holds the record with a couple of other players in the state but for now, his name is in the record books.

This Friday night is unlikely to see the Vipers put up 94 points as the Vikings of South Granville come to Henderson.  “They find ways of making it a ball game and they are looking for a share of the conference championship,” Elliott said.  To do that, South Granville will have to rely on a run heavy offense to take down the Vipers.  South Granville leads the conference in rushing so the Vipers will have to be ready on defense.  “We are focusing on ourselves.  Cleaning up mistakes on offense and defense,” Elliott stated.

It will be a big night at Viper Stadium as ten seniors will be honored during Senior Night festivities and there will be fireworks!  Those were supposed to take place during Homecoming but rain caused the fireworks to be cancelled.  Those will take place after the game Friday night which is the final home game of the regular season for the Vipers.

Join Bill Harris and Doc Ayscue immediately following the Joy Christian Center broadcast about 6:50pm for all of the action as Vance Co. takes on South Granville on Vance County Friday Night Football here on WIZS.

 

TownTalk: Around Old Granville: Cemetery Preservation In Warren County

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We’ve probably all seen them dotting the landscape: small cemeteries – fenced or not – that appear to pop up in odd places along the roadside. But there probably many more gravesites that we don’t see in our daily travels – they may be overgrown with weeds, or shrouded in wooded areas well off the road.

Local historian and genealogist Emerson Foster hunts for this type of cemetery. But he doesn’t’ stop when he’s found one – he goes to great lengths to clean it up.

“I see a lot of these graves with headstones falling over and in disrepair,” Foster said on Thursday’s Around Old Granville segment of TownTalk. Along with a handful of his genealogy friends, Foster said they try to right fallen headstones and clean them up.

These are largely family cemeteries, and Foster said he’s located numerous cemeteries in his search for where his own ancestors are buried.

“The last cemetery we went to was the Green family cemetery” in the Snow Hill area of Warren County, Foster told WIZS’s Bill Harris and Mark Pace.

He has relatives that belonged to the Greens that descended from Thomas Edward Green, he said.

As the older members of a family die off, Foster said, the locations of some of these family cemeteries gets lost, so Foster relies on information from relatives or others who may live near a cemetery to help him locate them.

The Green cemetery has 35 graves, five of which were where children are buried. But there was only one marker with the name “Davis,” he said. “Everybody else is marked with field stones.”

Undeterred, Foster used death certificates to confirm which people are buried in that particular cemetery. The death certificates contain names, dates of birth and death – and where the body was buried.

“They all said ‘buried at Green family cemetery,’” he noted.

He located another cemetery after speaking with a woman who lives across the road from where he suspected the cemetery to be. “She pointed us in the right direction. We just kept walking until we found it – it’s deep in the woods,” Foster explained.

He’s been at this for four or five years, and he said he always looks forward to the fall – that’s prime walking-in-the-woods-weather – fewer bugs, too.

These sometimes forgotten cemeteries often are on private property, so Foster recommends trying to locate the owner and request access to the property.

“A lot of these older cemeteries that are way out in the woods, (the landowner) is not even aware that there’s a cemetery there,” he said.

 

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The Local Skinny! Pop The Hood: Winterize Your Vehicle

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For our sponsor, Advance Auto Parts, as part of a paid radio sponsorship on WIZS.

When the weather cools off, we think about taking steps to winterize our homes and our wardrobes, but what about our vehicles? There are a few key steps car and truck owners can take now to keep those vehicles in top running order through the cold winter months.

Is your car harder to start in the winter? It could be a faulty thermostat, weak battery or starter issue, said John Stevenson, WIZS’s resident expert.

“The number one thing is to make sure you have the right content of antifreeze,” Stevenson said, “not the level, but the mixture,” he added. A 50-50 ratio is recommended for most vehicles, but let the professionals at Advance Auto Parts help you select the right product for your vehicle’s needs.

Take a moment to get your battery tested, too. Advance can test your battery at no charge.

In anticipation of icy road conditions, taking a moment to inspect your brakes and tires is another way to make sure you stay safe.

And taking a peek under the hood to do a visual inspection on those cables, belts and spark plugs is not a bad idea, either.

One other item that drivers may overlook is washer fluid. There are different formulas, Stevenson said. “There’s all kinds of stuff that you would never think about,” he said. “That’s a good reason to check things out with the folks at Advance.”

The information contained in this post is not advice from Advance Auto Parts or WIZS.  Safety First!  Always seek proper help.  This is presented for its informational value only and is part of a paid advertising sponsorship.

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WIZS Radio Local News Audio 10-05-23 Noon Special Report

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WIZS Radio ~ 100.1FM/1450AM

 

Cooperative Extension With Jamon Glover: Why?

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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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Warren County: Skunks Test Positive For Rabies; Make Sure Your Pets Are Vaccinated!

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Two skunks have tested positive for rabies recently in Warren County and county officials remind pet owners that state law requires that all dogs, cats and ferrets older than four months have a current rabies vaccination.

Both incidents occurred in Norlina. A skunk climbed into a dog pen on Lewis Mustian Road on Sept. 29 and there was another incident the same day on Essence Boulevard. These cases bring to three the number of rabies cases noted since July in Warren County.

Dogs and cats not current on their rabies vaccination that come into contact with a rabid animal have very few options. One option is quarantining their pet for a period up to six months at the owner’s expense; the second is euthanizing the pet.

Raccoons account for the majority of woodland animals that test positive for rabies, followed by skunks and foxes. More cats test positive for rabies than other domestic animals, including dogs and livestock.

Please don’t feed or keep stray or unvaccinated cats, as it presents a health risk to the community. Dumping food scraps in yards and wooded areas only attracts animals and county leaders urge residents to dispose of food scraps by composting or throwing them away in trash receptacles.

Pet owners who fail to keep their animals vaccinated against rabies can face fines and criminal charges. The Warren County Animal Control Department offers 1-year rabies vaccinations Monday through Friday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Animal Ark. The cost is $5 per animal.

Rabies is a fatal disease that has no cure for animals or humans. Feeding, keeping or harboring of stray cats and dogs increases the risk of rabies being transmitted from stray animals to humans and is highly discouraged by Animal Control.  Individuals who keep, feed or harbor unvaccinated animals place the animals, themselves and their community at risk of being exposed to this fatal disease.

Unwanted or stray dogs and cats can be reported to Animal Control or brought to the Animal Ark. There is no fee for these services, however; Animal Control has limited resources and responds on a priority basis.

For more information, or to make an appointment, contact Warren County Animal Control at 252.257.6137 or visit the Warren County Animal Ark located at 142 Rafters Lane, off of Hwy 58/43 east of Warrenton.