Henderson Fire Dept

TownTalk: Henderson City Council’s Fire Department Update

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The Henderson Fire Department enjoys a rating that puts it among an elite group of fire departments across the country, and Acting Fire Chief Curtis Tyndall said he was proud to present information about how the department measures up to industry standards during Monday’s City Council meeting.

Tyndall thanked the city for helping the fire department provide the city with the level of service to its residents.

The ISO rates fire departments on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the best. Insurance companies use the grade to help determine insurance premiums.

The Henderson fire department has a level 2, which puts it in the top 4 percent of departments across the country.

The areas that are considered during the ISO rating include emergency communications, fire departments, availability of water and community risk.

According to Tyndall, 78 percent of the city is with a 1.5-mile radius of a fire department.

The city has been discussing for the past several years the possibility of adding a third fire station to serve the western part of town.

In an email sent to WIZS Tuesday morning, Henderson City Council member Garry Daeke commented on Monday’s meeting and about the city’s finances.

“We have spent our money on recurring costs, salaries, and the budget is about to get much tighter,” Daeke wrote. “Taking action sooner, rather than later, would save on future costs,” referring to the construction of a third fire station.

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Perry Memorial Library

The Local Skinny! Upcoming Children’s Programs At Perry Library

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Summer is just around the corner, and Perry Memorial Library staff is planning a host of programs to keep youngsters occupied while they’re enjoying their time away from school.

Youth Services Director Melody Peters said the library will be a cool spot to visit over the summer, and not just for the air conditioning.

“It’s free – all summer long,” she told WIZS’s Bill Harris during the library’s recurring segment of The Local Skinny!

A new space for teens is being created just outside the Maker Space, Peters said. They’ve ordered some new “cool” furniture for the spot, which will be geared to young people in middle and high school. Teens that take part in the summer reading program will get coupons that they can turn in for sweet summer treats.

The reading program isn’t just for teens, however. There are a variety of ways to track progress – from time spent reading to chapters completed, and participants can come to the library each week to track their progress and get prizes.

“We want everybody to join us,” Peters said. The reading challenge kicks off at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 13.

The N.C. Cooperative Extension is offering a Lunch and Learn program on Wednesdays for students in grades 6-8. The first session will be Wednesday, June 14, Peters said, and participants will be cooking and making different recipes each week.

And although the Mother Goose storytime is taking a break in May, Peters said the time slot – Thursdays at 11 a.m. – is still a great time for young children to come and take part in some “make and take” craft projects.

“It really is for all ages,” she said, adding that there’s a theme for each week’s projects through the month.

Peters said craft activities are really important ways for youngsters to develop skills that they need at school. “I was hearing from teachers that kids really missed out on some of those skills with scissors, painting“ during the pandemic. “Kids really lost two years of using scissors, using glue – those fine motor skills really do matter.”

Another way young people can use their imagination and develop those fine motor skills at the same time is by coming to the Lego Club. The Club begins June 15 at 4:30 p.m. in the children’s storytime area.

Participants will have the option of “free-build” or they can accept a challenge, Peters said.

“We’re going to try to have challenges and then say, ‘show us what you did,’” she added.

Contact the library at 252.438.3316 to learn more about any of the programs the library offers. Peters’s extention is 226. Or you can visit www.perrylibrary.org or follow the library on Facebook or Instagram.

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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.”

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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

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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/

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