TownTalk: Northeast Piedmont Chorale Comes To McGregor Hall

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The Northeast Piedmont Chorale will perform a free concert Saturday evening at McGregor Hall.

The 72-member choir will perform selections that reflect the concert theme, “Rejoice,” and Director Cindy Edwards said it’s a joy to be able to bring the story of Christmas through music.

Chorale President Judy Miller told John C. Rose on Tuesday’s TownTalk that she hopes concert-goers leave “feeling a special energy, rejoicing with us and enjoy the holiday season.”

Edwards and chorale baritone Tom Burleson joined Miller to talk about the upcoming performance, which begins at 7:30 p.m.

The spring concert almost filled the 1,000-seat performing arts center, which Miller said was among the largest audiences in the history of the chorale.

“It was just wonderful,” she said.

Many of the chorale members participate in their church choirs, but the pandemic really quashed singing – especially in congregational settings. Singing in a group setting was shut down to prevent spread of COVID-19, so the chorale is especially grateful to be able to perform on stage once again.

“Not only do musicians want to sing,” said Edwards, “but audiences want to hear” the music.

Among the selections that will be performed include a “very percussive” piece sung in Latin a cappella with handbell accompanists, an arrangement from “Ceremony of Carols,” as well as “Can You See The Star,” an original composition by chorale member and internationally acclaimed choral instructor Sally Albrecht.

Albrecht will be directing that selection, Miller said. “It will be so much fun to sing with the person who wrote the song,” she said.

Other selections include a Swahili adaptation of the Lord’s Prayer, with a guest soloist, as well as arrangements of traditional carols including “Little Drummer Boy,” “Deck the Halls” and “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.”

Edwards said the chorale will be accompanied by a 16-piece orchestra and a guest harpist that “put the icing on the cake. Strings, brass, percussion, harp and woodwinds makes it just beautiful,” she added.

To learn more, visit www.npchorale.org.

 

 

 

 

 

TownTalk: Celebrating The Career Of Lt. Ray Shearin

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Lt. Ray Shearin spent almost half his career with the Vance County Sheriff’s Office with two of the best partners he could have hoped for. They never took turns driving and never once paid for his lunch, but he’d have done anything for them, and probably the feeling was mutual.

His patrol buddies were part of the K-9 unit and Juneau and Rex were among the first canines to join the sheriff’s office.

Shearin reflected on his 28-year career with the local sheriff’s office during Monday’s TownTalk with John C. Rose. He will retire at the end of the month with 30 years of service, once you add in sick days, he said.

The Shearin family has a long relationship with the sheriff’s office – and with Sheriff Curtis Brame. Shearin’s father Henry retired in 1992 from the sheriff’s office just before his son left military service.

“My dad trained Sheriff Brame and Sheriff Brame trained me,” he explained. And all three have had the same VCSO number – S-4. “The sheriff was gracious enough to give me my dad’s number,” Shearin said, adding that it meant so much to him to be able to have the same number that his father had used.

Shearin said his father imparted many important life lessons that have stood the test of time:

“Dad’s work ethic. When you go to work, do your job,” Shearin said, adding that his father had been raised on a farm, “so he knew work. You go in and you give 110 percent and make sure everyone goes home safe, just like you.”

Shearin currently serves as the VCSO’s operations lieutenant, but he’s worked his way up like so many others from serving papers to working patrol shifts, up through the ranks of sergeant and now lieutenant.

There are about 60 employees in the sheriff’s office, he said, and estimated that between 20-30 are working at any given time of the day to keep the residents of Vance County safe and sound.

As he thinks back on his career and looks forward to his retirement, he said it is the camaraderie that he has enjoyed the most. “It’s a brotherhood and sisterhood,” he said of his fellow sheriff’s office employees.

“We’re a family,” he said. “We try to take care of each other.”

“The people in Vance County have been great to me.”

Which leads to another life lesson he learned from his father and utilizes every day he represents the Vance County Sheriff’s Office: “the goal is to treat people like you want to be treated,” Shearin said. “He’s the one who told me how to treat people and how to do your job and do it well.”

He said the use of computers has greatly enhanced the ability to be prepared in law enforcement, from typing reports instead of writing them in long-hand using carbon paper to make copies to having information readily available to ensure the safety of officers on patrol.

Deputies never know what a patrol shift may bring, so they have to be prepared for most any situation at all times.

Shearin said he will never forget when he and Juneau were called out to help locate a young child who’d followed her dog off into the woods and hadn’t returned home. It was just getting dark, he said, and he sent Juneau, a tracking dog, ahead. That dog “tracked her for over a mile,” located her by a pond, barking each time Shearin called the dog’s name – just like it had been trained to do.

“That’s the gratifying part,” Shearin recalled, “when something like that happens” and families are safely reunited.

“Having a partner like that, you always have someone you can rely on,” Shearin said. “Even when backup is coming.”

Both dogs retired to Shearin’s farm and lived out their days there. Juneau died of cancer and Rex suffered hip dysplasia in his older years. But they were – and remain – cherished members of the Shearin family.

 

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The Local Skinny! City Council To Hold Public Hearing

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UPDATE FROM WIZS RADIO – Click Here – wizs.com/henderson-zooms-ahead-with-racetrack-ordinance

The information in the link above is more up to date than the audio link below.

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City of Henderson Logo

Council May Take Action Monday On Request For Motorsports Park

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UPDATE FROM WIZS RADIO – Click Here – wizs.com/henderson-zooms-ahead-with-racetrack-ordinance

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The Henderson City Council will hold a public hearing as part of its December meeting before possibly deciding whether to accept a request to allow a motorsports park within the city’s jurisdiction.

Included in the agenda packet for the Dec. 12 meeting, which begins at 6 p.m., is an item from Devin Anderson and Justin Davis, who have submitted a request to open a race track. This request resulted in city staff drafting an ordinance that includes all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), motorcycles, automobiles and trucks. The planning board reviewed the information back in June, but member requested more time to review the ordinance.

In August, the planning board made a motion to deny the text amendment, and the council, at its October meeting, asked the land planning committee to review the information and recommend possible changes.

The committee met on Nov. 30 according to City Manager Terrell Blackmon, and the council is scheduled to get an update and a possible recommendation before deciding whether to accept or deny the request.

According to the agenda packet, issues that were addressed by city staff include hours or operation, defining “racing event,” gravel parking and setbacks.

WIZS News asked Blackmon about the process, and in a reply by email, he said that the land planning committee had made minor changes to the ordinance based on recommendations from the city council’s October meeting.

“There is a revised text amendment that will go before council on Monday night,” Blackmon said, adding that the public hearing will be reconvened from October before council takes action.

Even if the text amendment is approved, Blackmon noted that there remain specific requirements to be met before a race track could be developed, including getting a special-use permit from the board of adjustment.

Check Receipts To Avoid Scanner Overcharges

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Four area stores in Vance County and one in Granville County have racked up more than $20,000 in civil penalties as a result of excessive price-scanner errors, according to information from the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ Standards Division.

These five area locations are among 70 stores in 38 counties across the state that were identified by the department’s standards division during the third quarter of 2022.

If it passes reinspection, the Raleigh Road Dollar General will not have to pay the $5,000 it was assessed. It has paid fines for excessive scanner errors earlier in the year. The other four stores – two Family Dollar stores and two Dollar Generals – paid fines ranging from $1,530 to $5,000.

“Our Standards Division continues to see a significant increase in stores with price scanner errors, as many stores continue to deal with staffing shortages,” N.C. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler said in a press release announcing the fines.

“During the holidays especially every penny counts, and we want consumers to pay attention during check out. Over the last year we have seen about 26 percent of price scanner inspections fail. It is always a good practice for consumers to check their receipts as well as the price on the shelf to make sure that they are paying the correct amount and alert managers if they are not correct.”

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.

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

Following is a breakdown of the information provided by the state:

• Family Dollar at 1414 East Andrews Ave. paid $3,715 in fines. An inspection in April found an error rate of six percent based on 18 overcharges in a 300-item lot. The store also failed its previous three inspections and paid additional fines. The store passed inspection in June.

• Family Dollar at 901 South Beckford Drive, Henderson paid $5,000 in fines. An inspection in August found an error rate of 33.33 percent based on 100 overcharges in a 300-item lot. The store also failed four previous inspections and paid additional fines. The store passed inspection in October with zero overcharges.

• Dollar General at 4500 N.C. Highway 39 South paid $1,530 in fines. An inspection in July found an error rate of 6 percent based on 18 overcharges in a 300-item lot. The store passed inspection in September.

• Dollar General at 394 Raleigh Road was assessed a $5,000 fine. An inspection in October found an error rate of 27.67 percent based on 83 overcharges in a 300-item lot. The store also failed three other inspections this year and paid additional fines. The store will be reinspected.

• Granville Dollar General at 108 Highway 15 North, Stovall paid $5,000 in fines. An inspection in October found an error rate of 17.33 percent based on 52 overcharges in a 300-item lot. The store also failed and paid fines for three previous inspections this year. The store will be reinspected.

Consumers who would like to file a complaint about scanner errors they encounter can call the standards division at 984.236.4750.

TownTalk: Local Lore Rooted In History

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Once upon a time, the tiny town of Stovall in northern Granville County wasn’t so tiny. In fact, it once claimed the honor of having one of the largest private residences in the state, second only to the famed Biltmore Estate in Asheville.

“Waterloo,” as it was known, was built by James Daniel in 1840 and ultimately had a whopping 48 rooms.

After the Civil War was over, a Mr. Dickerson frequented the area, where he spent time hunting quail. “He liked the place so much, he bought it,” said Mark Pace, local historian and North Carolina Room specialist for the Richard Thornton Library in Oxford.

Pace said it is Dickerson who is credited with a couple of other “firsts” for the town – he was the first person to bring a car there, he had the first graded road constructed and he also had the first telephone, according to Mark Pace,

Pace and WIZS’s Bill Harris chatted about a few examples of such historical lore during Thursday’s tri-weekly TownTalk history segment.

Dickerson lived up North and turned the sprawling home into a hunting lodge. He would travel down on the train, which stopped in Stovall, unload his car, and stay for weeks at the time, Pace said.

“When he came, it was quite a big deal,” Pace said. His office in New York was across the street from the Federal Reserve.

“Not only did he have money, but he had brand-new money,” Pace explained. That new money also prompted rumors that circulated at the time that Dickerson was actually printing money at his Stovall digs.

He did infuse the local economy, however, running a store next to the railroad depot with its own bar and drugstore.

When he got older, Dickerson returned to New York, leaving area residents bummed. It seems that Dickerson paid all his neighbors’ property taxes – in exchange for hunting rights.

The Vance County connection is this: Henderson native Charlie Rose owned the property for a number of years, although the main house burned in 1962, leaving several outbuildings and an overseer’s house.

It’s sometimes difficult to ascertain fact from lore when dealing with stories like these, but that just adds to the interest.

One story from right here in Henderson when, in December 1932, a real estate agent and stock broker driving to Richmond on business vanished, never to be heard from again.

Or was he?

Rufus Sidney McCoin was a well-respected member of the community, Pace said. He served in the state legislature and on the state advisory budget commission, which Pace said afforded him access to some of the state’s influential leaders.

It was the height of the Depression, Pace said, and “there was no indication that anything was going on in his life” that would raise questions or concerns for his welfare.

He was last seen at a gas station just outside Richmond, and that’s where the tracks went cold.

“He bough gas using a Gulf courtesy card…used the phone and took off down the road,” Pace recounted. “And that was the last anybody heard of him.”

Fast-forward a couple of weeks and the chief justice of the state supreme court received a letter postmarked December 25 from Chicago, IL. The letter, of which Pace read a lengthy excerpt, detailed what had transpired two weeks prior outside Richmond.

“It was signed ‘a boy in distress,’” Pace said, adding that the letter still exists. He’s seen it and he’s read it, and he has his own theories as to what may have happened.

 

The contents of the letter accurately disclosed where to find McCoin’s car – in a garage in Ohio. Also recovered were his wallet, a bloody glove and his eyeglasses.

Although there were alleged sightings of McCoin in the years that followed, the mystery has never been solved.

Which is where educated guesses and speculation come into play, Pace said.

“I think whoever wrote this was an educated person trying to sound like an uneducated person,” he said, questioning why some common words like “hotel” and “gas”would be misspelled while other less common names of towns would be spelled correctly.

The letter itself has stains on it that appear to be blood, but how those stains got on the letter will probably never be known.

To hear more stories of interest, listen to the entire interview at wizs.com.

 

State Highway Patrol

Single-Car Accident Claims Lives Of 2 Teenaged Sisters

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A single-car accident claimed the lives of two Henderson sisters late Wednesday evening.

According to reports from the N.C. State Highway Patrol, Zikera Kearney, 17, and her sister, Jaiah Kearney, 19, were traveling east on Hwy 158 Business near Pine Meadow Trail when the accident occurred about 11:45 p.m.

The younger sister was driving the Honda Accord, which ran off the right side of the road, struck a tree and overturned, striking another tree before coming to rest.

No other information was immediately available from the Highway Patrol.