Gateway CDC May 17th Social at 5 p.m.

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Join Gateway CDC in downtown Henderson for a “community social with a purpose” on May 17.

The social will be held at Southern Charm on Garnett Street from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., and CDC President Heather Joi Kenney said it’s a time for everyone in the community to gather, spend time with friends and colleagues as plans continue to take shape for “The Henderson Vision.”

“We will continue to work on adding vision statements to The Henderson Vision banners in the hope of creating a unified vision for Henderson that will culminate in a community-wide branding campaign, Kenney said.

“All are welcome, including children. This is a fun and relaxed event and we hope to see all community members out.”

Food will be available for purchase from a food truck parked on Breckenridge Street, and donations – tax deductible – will be accepted for the Henderson Vision fund, set up to provide much-needed resources to downtown area businesses.

Southern Charm is located at 200 S. Garnett St.

For more information, contact Gateway CDC at 252.492.6298.

Henderson City Council Approves Resolution to Name Bridge in Memory of Master Trooper

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The Henderson City Council unanimously approved a resolution to name a bridge in Vance County in memory of Master Trooper James “Brent” Montgomery.

The action item appeared on the Council’s agenda Monday night. The resolution calls for the I-85 bridge at Satterwhite Point Road to be named in memory of Montgomery.  He died in March 2021 from complications of COVID-19 at age 50.

He had been a trooper for 15 years in Vance, Warren and Franklin counties, and before joining the Highway Patrol had worked with the local sheriff’s office and police department.

“As a dedicated public servant, he was exemplary in the performance of his duties and an inspiration to all who knew him,” according to information included in the Council’s agenda packet.

A portion of the resolution reads:

WHEREAS, the Henderson City Council desires to honor former North Carolina State Trooper and dedicated public servant James “Brent” Montgomery; and

WHEREAS, Master Trooper Montgomery served the North Carolina Highway Patrol in Vance, Warren and Franklin counties with diligence and honor for 15 years; and

WHEREAS, Master Trooper Montgomery served as Field Training Officer, Traffic Crash Instructor, Taser Instructor and had charge over the School of Safety Program; and

WHEREAS, after enduring a difficult battle with Covid-19, James Brent Montgomery, at 50 years old,
passed away on March 15, 2021; and

WHEREAS, personally and professionally, Master Trooper Montgomery was loved and respected for his exemplary conduct and service to the community.

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Henderson City Council does hereby request the North Carolina Board of Transportation name the Satterwhite Bridge over I-85 for the late Master Trooper James ‘Brent’ Montgomery.”

CLICK PLAY FOR BROADCAST AUDIO PRIOR TO THE MEETING!

 

MPH Earns Another Leapfrog “A” For Patient Safety

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-information courtesy of Donna Young, MPH Marketing & Communication Coordinator

Maria Parham Health has earned another ‘A’ in hospital safety from a national watchdog group that rates hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers for protecting patients from preventable harm and errors.

This latest grade from The Leapfrog Group is primarily for the time during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. MPH received an A from the same group last fall.

“This outstanding result represents the work and collaborative efforts of our entire care team and partners over the years,” stated MPH CEO Bert Beard. “We are very proud to have sustained this high standard and will continue to work to provide access to high quality care for the region. With just over a quarter of the hospitals across the country receiving an A, we thank our communities for entrusting us with their care and for the opportunity to serve them at this high level.”

The Leapfrog Group, an independent national organization assigns letter grades of A, B, C, D and F to general hospitals across the country based on more than 30 national performance measures reflecting errors, accidents, injuries and infections, as well as systems hospitals have in place to prevent harm.

“This new update of Hospital Safety Grades shows that, at the national level, we saw deterioration in patient safety with the pandemic,” said Leah Binder, president and CEO of the The Leapfrog Group. “But this hospital received an A despite those challenges. I congratulate all the leaders, staff, volunteers and clinicians who together made that possible,” Binder said in a press release from MPH Marketing & Communication Coordinator Donna Young.

The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade is the only hospital ratings program based exclusively on hospital prevention of medical errors and harm to patients. The grading system is peer-reviewed, fully transparent and free to the public.  Grades are updated in the fall and spring each year.

To see Maria Parham Health’s full grade details and to access patient tips for staying safe in the hospital, visit HosptialSafetyGrade.org. and follow The Leapfrog Group ofn Twitter, Facebook and via its newsletter.

WIZS Pop The Hood: Batteries

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— for our sponsor, Advance Auto Parts

Unless you’re really into vehicles and how they work, you may think all car batteries are alike. By asking just a few simple questions about your particular driving habits, the knowledgeable team of employees at Henderson’s two Advance Auto Parts locations can help you choose the right battery for your vehicle.

In this first installment of “Pop the Hood,” Advance Auto Parts District Manager Jay Matthews explains a bit about choosing the right battery for your needs.

Running a lot of errands each day and stop and start your vehicle often? Have you tricked out your car or truck with lots of electronics? The Advance Auto Parts employees aren’t being nosey, Matthews said. “What they’re trying to do is determine the best battery for you.”

It’s important that your car’s battery provide adequate cranking power – and that varies with the seasons, he noted.

“What a lot of people don’t realize is what it takes to crank your vehicle at 70 degrees is totally different from what it takes at 30 degrees.”

Drivers are welcome to come to either location – 400 Prosperity Drive just off Dabney Drive or 390 Raleigh Road – to get a complimentary battery or alternator check, just to make sure things are operating properly.

Preventive maintenance is just one way to reduce the chance that your vehicle is going to leave you stranded.

Sometimes it’s not the battery that needs replacing, Matthews said. Sometimes, the corrosion that occurs when acid leaks from the battery ends up on the terminals and in the battery cables.

“On most vehicles, we do free installation of batteries,” he said. Some vehicles have batteries in tricky places that just aren’t safe to install in a store parking lot. The folks at Advance Auto can look up the information quickly to determine which vehicles that don’t qualify for the free installation.

Advance has free curbside services to offer battery checks, as well as wiper replacement and check engine light scans. And the stores offer a 10 percent military discount.

Check out “Pop the Hood” every other Thursday at 11:30 a.m. on WIZS

CLICK PLAY for 5-4-23 Broadcast!

TownTalk: Around Old Granville: The History Of Area Newspapers

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It wasn’t that long ago that people had to wait until the local daily or weekly hit the front stoop, sidewalk or mailbox to get the latest news and information. In today’s world of breaking news reports and computers that, with a few keystrokes, pull up news from across the globe, the physical newspaper has really taken a hit.

There have been dozens and dozens of newspapers published across the Old Granville area over the years, and Thornton Library’s North Carolina Room Specialist Mark Pace talked about some of them with WIZS’s Bill Harris on the Around Old Granville segment of TownTalk.

A number of print newspapers continue to provide local news and community journalism for their coverage areas, including The Dispatch in Henderson, the Oxford Public Ledger, Butner-Creedmoor News, Warren Record and Franklin Times.

But do you know about the Gold Leaf, a newspaper printed in Henderson by Thad Manning?

“He really kind of changed newspapers in this area,” Pace said of Manning, who came from Halifax County, NC in 1881 and began the weekly newspaper.

Until then, newspaper publishers were more “fly by night” operations, bringing in printing presses on the back of trucks and setting up shop in storefronts in small towns.

During World War I, there was such a demand for news that Manning started a weekly paper in 1914 called the Dispatch. It later became a daily, was owned and operated for decades by three generations of the Dennis family, and it currently publishes three times a week under its original name, The Dispatch.

Henderson had another publication called the Henderson Semi-Weekly Index, which Pace noted became popular enough to be replaced by the Weekly Index. Not surprisingly, issues of that publication have not been located for the years 1861-1865, because of the chaos brought by the Civil War and the scarcity of newsprint.

Much like today’s wire services – think Associated Press and Reuters – newspapers shared copies among themselves and published stories that would be attributed to the original source. Pace said that’s how researchers can piece together information about long-gone newspapers. The credit line “taken from Gillburg News,” for example, confirms the existence despite the fact that no physical copy of the Gillburg News exists, Pace explained.

The newspapers of yore contained information that today may seem insignificant or trivial – visiting relatives and a story about someone’s unusually large potato won’t be seen in today’s newspapers. But Pace said it can really help piece together what a community looked like at the time and it can help genealogists with their research, too.

Pace implores anyone with old newspapers – or other printed information that may seem obsolete – to bring it to the library before hauling it to the landfill so he can take a look. There just may be something of interest there.

Two good resources for finding microfilm or copies of old newspapers are https://www.newspapers.com/ and the NC Digital Heritage Center at https://www.digitalnc.org/

CLICK PLAY!

 

NC MedAssist Has $55,000 Goal To Provide Inhalers To Patients

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Inhale. Exhale. Repeat.

The average person takes between 12 and 20 breaths each minute, which adds up to about 22,000 each day. This simple, but essential, action goes unnoticed by so many, until there’s a problem. Like asthma.

Asthma is a condition that makes that simple, but essential, action more difficult for 670,000 North Carolinians. May 2 was observed as World Asthma Day, and a non-profit agency has a campaign open through May 16 to raise money to help those who live with asthma.

NC MedAssist serves the uninsured and low-income residents of the state, providing free medications to treat chronic illnesses like asthma, COPD. About 17 percent of  patients currently need inhalers to treat these chronic respiratory conditions. “It’s not a luxury item, it’s an item that allows them to continue breathing,” stated Jessica Yarzumbeck, director of communications and marketing for MedAssist.

The Charlotte-based agency receives all of its prescription and OTC medicine through generous in-kind donations, but inhalers have recently been removed from the list of available items, which directly affects 3,236 of its patients, Yarzumbeck said.

The agency has an immediate to provide respiratory therapies like inhalers to the patients it serves. A gift of $111 can support one patient. The goal is to be able to support 500 – making the goal $55,000.

Donate at https://medassist.org/take-action-on-asthma/

 

VGCC Logo

VGCC Foundation Scholarship Priority Deadline May 31

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-information courtesy of VGCC Public Information Officer Courtney Cissel

Scholarships offered through the Vance-Granville Community College Foundation for the 2023 Fall Academic Year are open for applicants. The priority deadline for full scholarship consideration for Fall 2023 is May 31, according to VGCC officials.

“We know our students are often already working, raising families, and going to college in their spare time,” VGCCF Executive Director Tanya Weary stated. “At VGCC, we work to help them graduate with as little debt as possible.”

The VGCC Foundation has more than 300 endowed scholarships based on a variety of factors – merit, financial need, degree choice and more. Scholarships are awarded individually to curriculum students based on criteria outlined for each award. Selection will be based on an overall assessment of academic performance, leadership skills, character and community service, according to a press statement from VGCC Public Information Officer Courtney Cissel.

Scholarship funding is limited, and completion of the application does not guarantee an award. All applicants must have a minimum of a 2.0 GPA to be considered for a VGCC Foundation scholarship; many scholarships require a minimum 3.0 GPA. Scholarship recipients are selected by a scholarship selection committee unless otherwise stipulated in the criteria of the scholarship.

The scholarships are made possible through the generous support of private citizens, organizations and businesses. To apply for VGCCF scholarships, visit www.vgcc.edu/fao/scholarships. For additional questions, contact foundation@vgcc.edu.

 

Area Chambers Name Winners Of 2022 Small Business Of The Year At May 3 Luncheon

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Four local Chambers of Commerce announced the 2022 Small Business of the Year winners at a luncheon in Henderson Wednesday.

Vance County Chamber President Sandra Wilkerson presented Kilian Engineering with the award. What Michael Kilian began in 2001 with one employee has grown to five offices in Henderson and surrounding areas, Wilkerson said.

The firm is very interested in establishing local partnerships – from the new men’s shelter in Henderson to internships for local high school students.

“They do what they do because they want to do the right thing,” Wilkerson noted. Other groups the firm has sponsored include Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts and a recycling program, the proceeds of which are donated to McGregor Hall.

Rhonda Wells accepted the award on behalf of Kilian Engineering.

Henderson-Vance County Chamber of Commerce Photo L-R: Sandra Wilkerson, H-V Chamber President; Bobby Pegram; Rhonda Wells; Janelle Kilian; Shade Bolling; Bert Long, H-V Chamber Board Chair

In Granville County, Next Door Radio was named 2022 Small Business of the Year. Lauren Roberson, director of the Granville Chamber, called Trey Snide to the podium to accept the award.

“Trey is a pure asset to our community,” Roberson told the group of about 35 at the event. Snide and Next Door Radio give the community a platform to express ideas, opinions and more. “He’s one of the friendliest people you’ll ever meet,” Roberson added.

Franklin Chamber Executive Director Richie Veverka presented his award to the Youngsville ABC Store. Veverka said the store, which opened in 1971, has consistently given back to the community. In fact, he estimated that their giving back to various organizations across Franklin County has totaled more than $5.6 million.

Bridget Stanley, general manager, accepted the award. The new location opened at Youngsville Crossing on Capital Boulevard in 2021.

Person County’s Small Business of the Year is 1792 Beer Co., a bottle shop that strives to welcome its customers, whether they come to grab a beer at the bar or choose from the wide variety of beers, ciders and other beverages for purchase. In her remarks, Roxboro Area Chamber Executive Director Samantha Bagbey said owner Kyle James and his partner opened the business in 2019 – just in time to be told they had to shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Now they’re thriving and really are staples of our community,” Bagbey said. The business is located at 106 N. Main St. in Roxboro.