Franklin Health Dept. Gets Grant $ For Women’s Health Services

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-information courtesy of Franklin County Public Information Officer James F. Hicks, III

More grant money is coming to Franklin County to bolster women’s health services.

Franklin County Health Department is set to receive $460,000 in grant funding from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services over the next four years to provide women’s health services in a variety of ways. The health department will provide expanded clinical hours, home visits for post-natal assessment and integrate community health workers into department programs to bridge the gap in health care access, enhance cultural competence and provide essential support to our community.

The department will receive $115,000 annually over the course of four years.

“Receiving these funds from the state will allow us to enhance birth outcomes and reduce infant mortality by expanding our services beyond our current programs to pregnant and postpartum women,” Franklin County Health Director Scott LaVigne said.

Funding is expected to begin in February 2024.

For more information about this grant or the Health Department, contact LaVigne at 919.496.8111 or slavigne@franklincountync.gov.

TownTalk: 2024 Election Information

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We’re three days into the New Year, which means that early voting for the March 5 primary elections is a mere 43 days away. Vance County voters will have two locations to cast their votes early, but neither of them is the Henderson Operations Center.

Early voters will go to either Aycock Rec Center, 307 Carey Chapel Rd. or the Eaton Johnson gymnasium, located at 500 N. Beckford Dr., according to information from Vance County elections officials.

“The decision for two early voting sites was made by the Board to increase accessibility considering this is a Presidential election year,” said Vance County Board of Elections Director Jennifer Cocklin, whenthere usually is a higher voter turnout.

Early voting begins on Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024, and continues through Saturday, Mar. 2, 2024, according to a notice issued by Vance County Board of Elections Chair James R. Baines.

In an email to WIZS News on Wednesday, City Manager Terrell Blackmon said the city reached an agreement with county officials to move the early voting site away from the city’s operations center for a simple, practical reason: “The City has run out of file and storage space in other parts of the building and we desperately need to utilize all available space in our facility for engineering and public works,” Blackmon said.

“There is no dissatisfaction by the City. We just need the space,” he added.

Blackmon went on to say that there is plenty of parking at the Eaton Johnson gymnasium to accommodate voters who come early to cast their ballots in the Mar. 5 primary.

The notices from the Board of Elections remind voters that they will be asked to show a photo ID when they come in to cast their ballot. If for some reason they don’t have one with them, they can still have their vote counted if they sign a form explaining why they are unable to show ID, or by casting a provisional ballot and returning to the Board of Elections office with their ID no later than 5 p.m. on Mar. 14, 2024.

Voters also can request a free photo ID from their local Board of Elections office. Find out more at https://www.ncsbe.gov/voting/voter-id

Below are the dates and times for early voting at both locations:

 

Thursday, Feb. 15 – 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Friday, Feb. 16 – 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Monday, Feb. 19 – Friday, Feb. 23 – 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Monday, Feb. 26-Friday, Mar. 1 – 8 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, 02-March 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

 

Absentee ballots will be mailed to voters who have requested them beginning Jan. 19, 2024. Absentee ballots must be received by the county board of elections no later than 7:30 p.m. on March 5, 2024. A voter can fill out an absentee ballot request at https://votebymail.ncsbe.gov/app/home, or by filling out a request form provided by the county Board of Elections office. The request must be received through the website or by the Vance County Board of Elections by 5 p.m. Feb. 27, 2024.

The voter registration deadline for this election is 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 9, 2024. Eligible individuals who are not registered by that deadline may register and vote at any early voting site during the early voting period. New registrants will be required to provide current documentation of their residence (for example, a government ID, other government document, or a paycheck, bank statement, or utility bill). Voters who wish to change party affiliation must do so by the Feb. 9 deadline.

In the primary election, voters will select nominees for a political party to move on to the general election on Nov. 5. Contests on the ballot include U.S. President, U.S. House, N.C. Governor and other Council of State Offices, N.C. Supreme Court Associate Justice, N.C. Court of Appeals, N.C. House and Senate and county offices. In the primary, voters affiliated with a political party will be given a ballot of candidates for their party, if their party has a primary. Unaffiliated voters may choose to vote in any party’s primary, but they may select only one party’s ballot.

To learn more, call the Vance County Board of Elections Office at 252.492.3730 or send an email to vance.boe@vancecounty.org.

 

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Home And Garden Show

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

  • Start planning your spring garden on paper
  • Consider options to add beauty to your winter landscape.
  • Order new varieties of seed ASAP
  • Don’t wait until spring for landscape projects that include trees and shrubs.
  • Review your garden notebook. Start a new notebook for 2024
  • Start planning now for turf weed management.
  • Check pruning equipment now!
  • Consider switching to battery powered equipment.

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TownTalk: Scammers Active In Vance County

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Vance County Sheriff Curtis Brame urges the public to be savvy when it comes to answering phone calls from someone claiming to be a representative of his office.

These calls are scams and the best advice he can give anyone who answers such calls is simple: Hang up.

Brame told WIZS News Tuesday that his office has gotten reports about two different scams involving a person’s failure to appear in court or failure to appear for jury duty.

Be assured that anyone who fails to appear in court for any reason, Brame said, would not get a phone call, which usually ends up with the call recipient being told to make some kind of  payment to a third party. Don’t fall for it! Brame said he was informed on New Year’s Day that someone had gotten one of these phone calls. These scammers call random numbers, and often the number that pops up on Caller ID appears to be a local number.

This particular call recipient, however, is a friend of Brame and “the person knew my name and voice” and was not fooled by the call.

The simplest thing to do is ignore the call. If it’s a legitimate call from a legitimate number, the caller will leave a voicemail and you can retrieve the information.

Once again, nobody from the clerk of court’s office is going to make a phone call to an individual who, for whatever reason, has failed to appear in court for jury duty.

That’s not how the process works.

Whether you’re a defendant facing charges or someone who may be asked to serve on a jury, the process is simple: show up in court at the right time or a sheriff’s deputy will show up on your doorstep – with a summons to appear.

 

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Community Partners of Hope

TownTalk: Community Partners Of Hope Mourns Death Of Beloved Men’s Shelter Worker

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William James Avery, a dedicated worker at the local men’s shelter, died last week. He was 80.

Avery completed his shift that began at 9:30 p.m. on Dec. 28 and ended the next morning at 6:30 a.m.

From there, he went to a medical appointment and suffered a medical emergency, according to his co-worker and friend, Shelter Manager Darryl Jones.

In a written statement, Jones said Avery “loved the shelter and the men who came there for help.  He gave selflessly of his time to this ministry and was anxiously awaiting the day when we could move into our new location at City Road Center for Hope.”

A service will be held at 11am, Saturday, Jan. 6, at Shiloh Baptist Church, 635 S. College Street in Henderson. Interment will follow at Elmwood Cemetery. A viewing will be held from 2 p.m. – 5 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 5 at Davis-Royster Funeral Home.
Avery was a Vietnam veteran and worked at General Motors for 30 years. He was a church deacon and sang in the men’s choir there. He began his work with the men’s shelter as a volunteer for nine years; he was a paid employee for six years.

Jones said Avery was someone he could count on – “reliable, faithful, dedicated, committed, trustworthy…he was all these things, but most of all, he was my friend.”

 

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Perry Memorial Library

The Local Skinny! What’s Happening At Perry Memorial Library

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Perry Memorial Library is abuzz with activity during the day, helping patrons with book checkouts and providing a spot for a variety of groups to gather. But have you ever wondered just what goes on after-hours at the library?

If so, Youth Services Director Melody Peters may have just the activity to grab your little ones’ attention. It’s called a Teddy Bear Sleepover and Peters said plans are shaping up for the Saturday, Jan. 20 event.

The library staff continually strives to find host programs and activities that appeal to a variety of folks – from the preschooler through high school-aged students and beyond.

The Teddy Bear Sleepover is one that is geared for the younger kids, Peters said on Tuesday’s segment of The Local Skinny!

The idea is to have the children bring to the library a favorite stuffed animal, doll or other type of “lovey” and then do some activities before they leave them overnight for a sleepover – the stuffed animals stay overnight, not the children, Peters said, chuckling.

The next day, when parents bring their children to pick up their lovey, they’ll get a photo album filled with all the overnight antics that occurred after the library was closed.

This is just one of the new offerings for younger patrons, and Peters said teens are invited to another new program on Tuesday where they’ll create vision boards.

A vision board, she explained, is a type of goal-setting activity, and teens can “come have a good time…and think about where you want to be in a year, in five years.”

Using pictures from magazines, participants will create their unique vision board.

“When you have it visually, you can look at it every day,” she said.

Another new program will kick off on Monday, Jan. 22. It’s called “Community Read Aloud” and it will be held from 5:30 p.m. to about 6:15 p.m.

“It’s definitely geared to kids who are reading,” Peters said, but there will be volunteers on hand to help those who may be struggling readers. She’ll kick things off by reading from a chapter book while people gather, and then participants will choose their own books to read. Then they’ll have a chance to read aloud at their tables when they break off into groups.

The idea, she said, is that everyone will read aloud and to be more comfortable in a small-group setting.

Check out the library’s complete schedule of programs and services at www.perrylibrary.com.

Email Peters at mpeters@perrylibrary.org if you’d like to learn more about the new programs at the library.

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Cooperative Extension with Paul McKenzie: What Works in The Garden

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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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