Vance Charter School Pep Rally

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Monday night the Vance Charter School held a pep rally to help kick off its capital campaign.  The event was held at McGregor Hall in downtown Henderson and was well attended by students, teachers, staff and other interested members of the community.  The building seats about 950 people and the room was very full.

The Vance Charter School, which is now located on Dabney Drive inside the Henderson Mall, will move in the fall to its new location on Ross Mill Road.  At the present time, local general contracting firm H.G. Reynold is retrofitting the former Clayton Homes building for the school’s use.

The overriding intent of the Charter School’s capital campaign is to help complete certain areas of the building such as the gymnasium.

The school will also be expanding to cover high school grades over the next few years with the intent to increase the school population by 20 percent per year until it reaches the capacity of the new building, which is figured to be around 1000 students.  Enrollment presently is about 550 kids.

The theme of the pep rally and of the capital campaign is “Taking Excellence To The Next Level.”  A 15-minute documentary-style news and information video was shown which described the school’s beginnings and how the school’s board of directors, staff and teachers intended to continue to improve.

A math experiment was conducted, for fun but also to prove a point.  A couple of buckets were passed through the crowd and those in attendance dropped about $3,000.00 into those buckets.  They added it up on the spot.  Vance Charter School board member Josh Towne then took the stage and described the economic impact of each person giving that same amount, a dollar or two each day, for the next year.  It would add up to over $1 million and nearly $5.5 million over the next five years.  That kind of money would not only help cover the debt of the new building but also help complete discretionary parts of the building like the gym as well as help with the high school grade level expansion.

Henderson City Council Report May 9th

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The Henderson City Council held its regular monthly meeting Monday night and dealt with a laundry list of items.

In a phone interview with Councilman Garry Daeke, he told WIZS News the City sold some land and also sold a home that the City and County had taken as a tax seizure.

He said, “The land was the 50 acres we owned on Southerland Mill Road.  Actually, it’s just inside Warren County, and that 50 acres was put up for sale for upset bid to see what we might get.  It started out in the 40 thousands, but we finally got it up to where we sold it for about $65,000.00.  So we were pretty happy that that process worked well and we would have some funds coming into the general fund to use.”

The City had no need of the property.  It was an old hold out from years ago when it was thought a waste water treatment plant might be built in that area.  Not to be confused by any means with the treatment of fresh water, but several ponds like Fox’s Pond, Weldon’s Mill Pond and Southerland’s Mill Pond were at one time a source of fresh water for the City as well as expansion pools for the City’s fresh water, prior to the present day fresh water intake and treatment facility near Kerr Lake called the Kerr Lake Regional Water System.

Daeke said a Mr. and Mrs. Caulder bought that property on Southerland Mill Road, and he said he believed they already owned some property that would join the property they bought.

In another matter, Daeke said, “And then we had a house on Parkway Drive, and for lack of taxes, it ended up with no sale on the court house steps and it ended up with the City and County.  And the owner of the house came back and wanted to pay all the back taxes and all the fees to the City and County for all the work they did as well as the new deed.”

That’s one of the ways you can get it back, he said, and they did come in a pay all of that to re-establish their residency and own the house.

Daeke said, “It’s back on the tax books.  I was pretty excited we were able to do that.  Especially to get it back in the hands of the owners.”

It’s an unusual circumstance according to Daeke that the owner would pay off everything to re-establish his/her residency.

Daeke said, “It was good collaboration between the City and County to get that done.”

Town Talk 05/10/16

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Cooperative Extension with Wayne Rowland 05/10/16

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News 05/10/16

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Vance County School Update 05/09/16

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Town Talk 05/09/16

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Cooperative Extension with Wayne Rowland 05/09/16

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News 05/09/16

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Pete O’Geary Local Boy Scouts Citizen of the Year

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(Cover photo of Grace and Pete O’Geary)

Thursday night in Henderson, James D. “Pete” O’Geary was presented the Lone Scout Award by the Boy Scouts of America, the Occoneechee Council.  O’Geary is the recipient of the Citizen of the Year award for 2016.

This recognition was given at the 2016 George Rose Watkins, Sr. Citizen of the Year Award Dinner, May 5, 2016 at the Henderson Country Club.

R.G. “Chick” Young was presented the award in 2015, and the award was established in 2014 and named for and given to Watkins.

The award was given to O’Geary for his dedication and service to the community, because he is a businessman and former owner of Petal Shoppe Florist and Gift Shoppe, because he served on the Henderson City Council for six terms and because he was the Mayor of Henderson for eight consecutive years.

O’Geary was awarded the Order of the Long Leaf Pine recently as well, and he served on various city boards and committees as well as being Chairman of the Board and Chairman of the Finance Committee for the Kerr-Tar Regional Council of Government.  At the present time, O’Geary serves on the Salvation Army Board of Directors and on the Henderson Planning Board.

At the award dinner, guests were welcomed by Cliff Rogers, immediate past president of the Occoneechee Council.  The flag was presented by Boy Scout Troop 605 from First Presbyterian Church of Henderson.  The invocation was given by Pastor Ralph E. McGowen from West End Baptist Church where O’Geary has been a member for 56 years.

Rogers gave a brief outline of scouting in the council, which covers Vance, Warren, Granville and Franklin counties and the communities of Wendell, Zebulon and Rolesville while serving 559 youth.

McGowen presented a testimonial and spoke of O’Geary’s dedication and many years of service to the church, and he also spoke of O’Geary’s character, integrity and faithfulness in representing this community.

Former City Manager Ray Griffin spoke of O’Geary’s selfless leadership and service to this community, his partnership with the City Council and his great desire to create harmony in the community.

Dr. Steve O’Geary spoke on behalf of his father for his dedication to family, church and community, for the way he loved and connected his family, for the standards set by his father as examples for all to live by and for standing up for what he believes in.

Pete O’Geary thanked the scouts for their support in the community and for their role in shaping lives.  He thanked the scouts and community for supporting him.

John Akerman, scout executive of the Occoneechee Council, ended the dinner with the scoutmaster benediction.

(The award dinner was attended and written up by Susan Rose for WIZS News.)