Smart Start

TownTalk: Smart Start Year End Review

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The Franklin Granville Vance Smart Start Inc. annual report has been released and the agency’s executive director said his agency and staff undoubtedly have learned how to be flexible and adaptable as it continues to advocate for children, in spite of pandemic restrictions.

In a letter accompanying the 8-page report, FGV Executive Director Dr. Tony W. Cozart said the 2020-21 year had been “difficult but very gratifying as well.”

FGV’s fiscal manager, Garry Daeke, agreed wholeheartedly. Daeke spoke with John C. Rose Tuesday on Town Talk and said he was very happy to report that, despite the difficulties of the pandemic, FGV staff had been able to maintain relationships with both child-care providers as well as parents.

“We’ve been able to keep in contact and provide service and information to people,” he said, acknowledging that the one-on-one contacts have been limited, but FGV has found ways to do an end-around some challenges.

For instance, Daeke said FGV has been able to provide technical assistance via videotape and through increased filming of sessions. By filming programs and activities, FGV staff can critique and provide suggestions to help child-care providers with everything from how to set up a classroom to being financially efficient – staying safe and healthy at the same time.

There are 112 child-care programs in the three counties that FGV serves, Daeke said. “They’ve kept people working, because people need childcare.”

The agency gets most of its funding from the state (85-90 percent), and it has spent $907,689 to help parents pay for childcare in the past year, according to the report. The subsidy is available to parents who send their children to programs with a 4- or 5-star quality rating.

“We spend a great deal of money to provide a subsidy” to parents, Daeke said. FGV also supplements wages of teachers who stay in their jobs for a certain length of time and who continue to further their education. The report notes that 80 teachers received an average of $1016 in supplements in a six-month period.

“We spend a lot of money to make sure child care is high quality and that parents are able to access that child care,” Daeke said.

A number of programs that FGV supports don’t happen within the walls of a child-care center at all; rather, there are a variety of agencies that FGV contracts with that are quite successful as well.

Vance County’s adolescent parenting program that Annie Perry oversees, for example, focuses on keeping teenage moms in school so they can graduate. Daeke said Perry, a longtime program administrator, does an excellent job and consistently has graduates go on to continue their educations at Vance-Granville Community College or four-year universities.

“The main goals are to keep them in school and to prevent a second pregnancy. The program “helps them become the parent they need to be,” Daeke said. “We’ve had a lot of success over the years.”

Other programs like Parents as Teachers is a home visitation parenting program that operates primarily in Granville County through a partnership with Granville County Public Schools. And the Incredible Years program partners with the Vance Cooperative Extension to provide several sessions each year to work directly with parents to help them “be the very best parent you can be,” Daeke said. Although only in Vance County now, Daeke said he’s looking for grant funding to expand the program to Granville County and possibly Franklin County.

And a child-care health consultant has just come on board to visit child-care programs to help providers with health concerns. FGV has contracted through the Granville-Vance Health District to provide a nurse to help child-care providers, he said.

According to the report, total FGV expenditures for FY 2021 was $3,381,751. Almost three-fourths of that funding is used to ensure the availability and accessibility of high-quality childcare for children ages 0-5 years. That is done a variety of ways, including subsidies for working families through the Department of Social Services to help pay for childcare. It also administers the NC Pre-K program in Franklin County and offers wage incentives to retain childcare workers and ensure continuity of care.

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TownTalk: Henderson Fire Dept. Puts The Boot In For Maria Parham’s Angel Fund

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It is generally not recommended for pedestrians to walk out in the middle of traffic for any reason – especially Dabney Drive. But when firefighters do it, with their boots in their hands instead of on their feet, rest assured it’s for a good cause.

And on Tuesday, Henderson Fire Chief Steve Cordell presented the result of the 2021 fundraiser to the staff at Maria Parham Health’s Cancer Center – a check for $25,000. WIZS’s Trey Snide was on hand Tuesday for the check presentation and John C. Rose shared highlights on Wednesday’s Town Talk.

“It’s a great honor for us to be here with you today to present you with another donation from the wonderful residents of the city of Henderson and Vance County and the visitors that come down Dabney Drive,” Cordell said during the presentation ceremony.

He recounted that the first fundraiser to support the cancer center’s “angel fund” was back in 2014. Through t-shirt sales to fight breast cancer, the fire department was able to raise about $3,400 for the oncology department.

Since then, the annual fundraiser – except for last year when it was cancelled because of the pandemic – has netted more than $77,000.

This year’s total of $25,000 almost doubles the combined efforts of previous fundraisers, and Cordell credits the generosity of the community and the willingness of all three shifts of firefighters with this year’s success.

“This year’s total – I was blown away,” he told the group assembled at the hospital for the presentation. The original goal for Day 1 of the project was $4,700, but they’d gotten that by lunchtime, Cordell recalled. By the end of Day 1, folks had put $11,000 in those boots.

Cordell said he remembered thinking, “Man, that’s good. The rest of the days will be pretty slow, but the people just kept on giving.”

“If it wasn’t for these men and women that go out there, very unselfishly, and stand out there in the middle of Dabney Drive and hold a boot,” Cordell said, the donation to the cancer center simply wouldn’t have been possible.

Kimberly Smith is director of the hospital’s cancer center and she said the angel fund helps cancer patients with basic needs, from transportation to medicines to help with their treatment.

“We thank you very much,” Smith said.  “We appreciate you…this money will go to great use for our patients and our community here.”

She likened the work of firefighters to the work that the staff at the cancer center, saying that every day, each group of workers does an amazing job and, every day, they find ways to help people in the communities they serve.

Hope Breedlove is a social worker at the cancer center and offered her thanks as well.

“I’m so thankful.  I’m so proud right now of you, of the community.” Through the angel fund, patients can receive funds that remove barriers, Breedlove noted, and if it weren’t for the angel fund, “we couldn’t do some of the things that we’re able to do” for the patients.

“This angel fund is truly a godsend,” Breedlove said. “From the bottom of my heart, from the bottom of our hearts, and from the bottom of our patients’ hearts, we just thank you so much.”

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TownTalk: Shop With A Cop Makes Christmas Brighter For Kids In Vance County

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(Shop with a Cop 2021 photos by HPD)

The 2021 Shop with a Cop project proved to be another huge success, and local law enforcement officials said it was good fun for a good cause. Henderson Police Chief Marcus Barrow said that 58 young people took part in Tuesday’s activities, thanks in large part to the generosity of local businesses and individuals who participated in the fundraising arm of the project sponsored by the Henderson-Vance Chamber of Commerce.

Chief Barrow reportedly had a run-in with the Grinch, but not even the Grinch could dampen the holiday mood at the Henderson Walmart as the children and law enforcement officers had some quality time together as they shopped the aisles.

“It was a tremendous event,” Barrow said. “We had an absolute blast shopping with the kids. It’s a great but humbling feeling to be able to shop with these kids.”

Vance County Sheriff Curtis Brame echoed the police chief’s sentiments.

“It’s an awesome program,” Brame told John C. Rose Wednesday by phone. “I look forward to doing it every year.” With the help of Michele Burgess and Sandra Wilkerson at the Chamber, Brame said he and others in law enforcement get the chance to interact in a positive way with  young people in the community .

The police department, sheriff’s office, Chamber, as well as the N.C. Highway Patrol and Maria Parham Health all are united together for a great cause, Brame added.

The community donated $12,000 through the chamber’s fundraising event – and through other donations – to provide the money for the Shop with a Cop project, according to Barrow.

He added that the families are grateful for the event. “It takes a burden off them during economically challenging times,” he said.

For the children, it’s just fun.

“It’s a positive thing to take them out to Walmart and shop with them,” Brame said. “That’s the part we love – it’s a win-win situation.”

(More photos below)

 

 

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TownTalk: Sossamon Discusses Candidacy For NC House 32

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The Rev. Frank Sossamon said his more than three decades as a local pastor will serve him well if he’s elected to serve a different kind of flock – the residents of N.C. House District 32.

Sossamon has filed as a candidate for the House seat and will face incumbent Terry Garrison in next year’s election.

He and Garrison both put their hats into the ring before filings were suspended, pending a court ruling on whether the redrawn district maps would be upheld or would need to be changed again. Critics have charged that the new maps are gerrymandered and are partial to the Republican majority in the N.C. General Assembly.

The redrawn maps have District 32 covering all of Vance County and all but two southernmost precincts in Granville County. Sossamon told John C. Rose on Tuesday’s Town Talk that if he were elected, he would serve all the people in his district.

“I’m going to represent the people,” Sossamon said. “I am a Republican, and I am a conservative Republican, but in order to get things done…we’ve got to work for the greater good for the people we represent.”

He said he won’t be the type of politician that sits behind a desk. “I’ll be out meeting the public,” he said working to find ways to help solve problems and helping the community.

“I will be a very active, a very busy representative – that’s been my nature for 36 years in Vance County,” he said.

As a pastor in Vance County for all those years, he has vast experience in being a problem-solver. That, he said, along with his ability to listen, really listen, to people, will transfer into his role as representative if he is elected.

He said he wants to challenge, to encourage and motivate people in the community to make things better. “We can’t wait on Washington, or Raleigh…we can pull ourselves together and accomplish a lot of things” he said, adding that this effort could really become a model for others to emulate.

As for key issues facing the district, Sossamon ticked off economic development, infrastructure, improving the workforce, education and clean drinking water. And crime.

Infrastructure is a “major problem” in Vance, he said. “We need a lot of help.”

“I just feel like there are some things we can do to make our communities safer and to feel better about where we live,” Sossamon said.

There are many ways to work together across county lines to have mutual benefit, he said, adding that although Vance and Granville often compete for new business and industry, there are various ways that both counties can work together “to do some joint things regarding economic development. There are things we can do better together,” Sossamon said. He said he would like to sit down with leaders from across the district, identify strengths and weaknesses and then concentrate on the strengths to recruit business and industry.

Working together rather than becoming territorial doesn’t have to dampen the competitive spirit between counties, but Sossamon said he hopes “we can lay those things aside and have a conversation that can lead us to joint ventures.”

Improving the workforce, for example, is something that would make the area more attractive to business and industry. “We’ve got the community college to help us,” he said.

Improving the quality of the workforce not only will make the district more attractive, but it also could lower crime in the area as well, for example.

Sossamon said he hopes to bring “a fresh look, a new look…a new vision for the area.”

He doesn’t subscribe to the idea that ministers should steer clear of politics. On the contrary, he said, Christians across the nation are realizing the need to be involved in the greater community, whether in politics or in other capacities.

He decided to run for office after prayer and contemplation about just what he has to offer to help the district.

“There ought to be people lining up to serve” their communities, he said, challenging others to consider running for local office as well, “to bring fresh ideas that will help improve our community.”

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TownTalk: Politics And Its Impact On Local Law Enforcement

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Local politics in Vance County certainly lends credibility to the adage that there are two sides to every story.

The three sheriff’s deputies that remain on suspension with pay want their day in court, and District Attorney Mike Waters said he predicts that a trial could be late summer 2022 or later in the making.

But Sheriff Curtis Brame said he feels like it’s a ploy to wait until after the 2022 elections to decide the fate of the three deputies.

John C. Rose spoke by telephone to both Waters and Brame today (Monday), and both men sounded frustrated with the situation and progress – or lack thereof.

The deputies were indicted earlier this year and Brame said it was his decision, upon hearing from an independent investigation, to suspend the deputies with pay. During a recent county commissioners’ meeting, a member of the public asked the commissioners just how long the deputies would continue to draw their pay while on suspension.

Waters agreed that it was up to the sheriff about what to do with his employees. “He always has discretion about how he’s going to deal with his employees going forward,” Waters said.

“I know I can’t do this indefinitely,” Brame acknowledged. But he contends that politics is playing a role, adding that he feels the district attorney is dragging out the process, “and that puts the burden on me.”

Brame also said he predicts the cases will not be resolved before the 2022 elections. And he blames that on politics, too.

Waters said additional orders will be released soon that will “illuminate” details of the internal investigation of the sheriff’s office as well as release transcripts that presently are sealed.

Waters said the sheriff has made some statements that he “vehemently” disagrees with regarding the case, but he didn’t elaborate for publication. And, because it is an ongoing investigation and it will be litigated, he cannot discuss details on the record.

Brame said all he and his deputies want is to have their day in court.

On that statement, he and the district attorney agree.

“Yeah, there will be a day in court,” Waters said.

 

Click Play – about the 17 minute mark starts the politics and law enforcement part

 

TownTalk: Vance County Architecture Survey Continues

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Work continues on the architectural survey for Vance County, and the 2-person team responsible for checking on already-identified properties will be back in 2022 to collect information on new places in the county that will be included in the completed survey.

That work will continue until October 2023, said Elizabeth King, architectural survey coordinator for the state’s historic preservation office.

Bill Harris and Mark Pace, of the North Carolina Room at Richard Thornton Library in Oxford, checked in with King today on the tri-weekly history segment of Town Talk.

The consultants who are doing the field work have updated about 360 files that already existed in the state’s files. The files are in the review process now, she said. “After the new year, they will do some more field work on new properties that we don’t have files on.”

That could take another six months, she predicted, and then the team will move to the city of Henderson to do the same thing.

King said that, so far, about 80 of the state’s 100 counties have been surveyed. Vance County’s was long overdue, and King said she was glad to be able to have the work started. Once Vance and Person counties and a few others are completed, that number will rise to 86.

Most of the architectural surveys have resulted in publication of a book, and King said she usually works with a local historical society, nonprofit or local government to collaborate with.

So far, she hasn’t heard from anyone in Vance County about a collaboration.

“I’d be very happy to talk to anyone interested in sponsoring that type of project,” she said, adding that, in her experience, “the cost is almost immediately offset – and surpassed – with book sales.”

The survey is not just about capturing information about those old family homes that have been a part of the county’s landscape for generations, King noted. Her team uses the Fifty-Year Rule, which basically means that if a building or structure has been around for 50 years, then it may have architectural significance.

Using that rule, there are structures today that may not have met that requirement when the last survey was completed, but they do now. Whether it’s a church, a school, a post-World War II subdivision or a prison unit, there are many properties that warrant attention by the surveyors.

It is vitally important to the survey to be able to talk with people in the community about the different types of buildings to provide a living memory, she said. The survey “gives us a chance to talk to people about how a building was used, how it was contructed,” King said. But they also want to hear comments like “Oh, we thought it was hideous,” or “Well, my granddaddy told me…” King said.

“We can collect stories from people who can remember those early impressions,” she said, which provides valuable information for future generations who will read the documents that are created today.

Tobacco buildings like curing barns are well-documented because tobacco was such an important cash crop for this area, but King wonders whether there is information about other important crops in the area that also may have special outbuildings associated with them.

King said she has known about the rich history in Vance County for a long time, and she is pleased that, as this project continues, “more and more people I work with have realized it, too.”

There’s a growing awareness in the preservation community about the treasures in Vance County.

The project will continue to see the public’s input to learn about prospective new listings for the survey.

“We’d be so pleased to hear from whoever is interested in this project,” King said.

Contact King at elizabeth.king@ncdcr.gov or 919.814.6580 or survey team member Heather Slane at heather@hmwpreservation.com.

 

TownTalk: From Tally Ho To Outer Space, James Webb And NASA

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In one week, the U.S. is scheduled to launch a new telescope into space and scientists are eager to analyze the information that it will send back to Earth. The project, which bears a $10 billion price tag, also bears the name of a local man who rose to great heights in this nation’s space program.

James Edwin Webb was the son of John Frederick Webb and was born on the family farm near Stem, in the Tally Ho community. When his father became superintendent of Granville schools in the early 20th century, Jim Webb moved to Oxford.

And on Dec. 22, the James Webb space telescope will catapult into space for its monthlong journey to reach its destination. Visit https://webbtelescope.org/ to read more about the telescope and its mission.

On Wednesday’s Town Talk, Mark Pace and Bill Harris discussed Webb’s life and just how he ended up running NASA back in the early 1960’s.

The Webb telescope dwarfs the Hubble in size – it’s four stories tall, Pace said, and its sun shield is the size of a tennis court; Hubble’s is a mere eight feet in diameter. Others have compared the two this way, Pace added: Hubble is a horse and buggy and Webb is a Mercedes.

Join Pace at the Granville County Museum Thursday, Dec. 16 at 2 p.m. to learn more about Webb’s life, his achievements and just how he got a telescope named after him. Contact the museum at 693.9706 to join virtually.

“He was a pretty big deal for astronomy,” Pace said of Webb and his accomplishments in the space program.

But just how did someone from Granville County end up running NASA?

Pace said Webb, who was known to have a photographic memory, graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1928. But like so many other young people at that time, his life was interrupted by The Great Depression. He had to come back home and help his family, Pace said. He joined the Marine Corps and became a Marine aviator.

Over the course of his career, he became an attorney, worked in private industry and in the office of a congressman from North Carolina. These experiences, along with being in charge of large corporations and government agencies in Washington, D.C., all contributed to Webb being a top candidate to run NASA and help the United States compete in the Space Race.

As Pace noted, the U.S. was scrambling in the late 1950’s with its space program, but Lyndon Johnson told newly elected President John F. Kennedy about this fellow, Jim Webb, who he thought would do a good job at NASA.

“They needed somebody to take control of the situation,” Pace said. Somebody with qualifications and experience. Someone like Webb. He got called to the White House in 1961, and Pace said there’s a photo of Webb with JFK as the president announced his plan to put a man in space.

Apparently, Webb’s wife learned of her husband’s new job on the radio – it was such a whirlwind decision, he didn’t have time to tell her before he accepted.

Webb was a New Deal Democrat, and Pace said he had what it took to get the job done – he could play the Washington insiders game, and he wasn’t shy about making deals or shaking hands to achieve the mission.

“He freely admitted he wasn’t a scientist or an engineer,” Pace said, but he was knowledgeable about aviation and management to keep all the moving parts at NASA to carry out JFK’s promise to land a man on the moon by 1970. .And, in Pace’s opinion, Webb should be known not just as the guy who put a man on the moon, but as the guy who kept NASA on solid footing.

“That’s his real legacy, for me.” Webb was NASA administrator from 1961 to 1968, during which time the U.S. saw Alan Shepard make the first manned space flight and the creation of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX. Much of the groundwork for the Apollo manned space mission was completed during Webb’s term; Neil Armstrong’s historic moon walk was in July 1969.

When Richard Nixon became president and Webb no longer was in charge at NASA, he worked as a consultant (Webb was also an attorney), and he worked at the Smithsonian Institution – he became head regent there, Pace said. He also wrote a book on management and worked with the National Geographic Society.

He was a low-key kind of a person, Pace noted. “But he really wanted to get the job done.”

Webb died in 1992. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery and his modest tombstone reads “James Webb, public servant.” In 2018, a historic marker was placed on College Street in Oxford to honor the hometown hero. The marker is located in front of C.G. Credle Elementary School.

And if you’ve ever visited the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., you have Webb to thank.

He created it.

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TownTalk: Boys And Girls Club Of North Central NC Plan Granville Club Renovation

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Vision. Mission. Hope. Community.

Those words get tossed around frequently, but it also takes funding – money – to bring those words to life.

The Boys & Girls Club of North Central North Carolina has served thousands of young people in its almost 10 years of existence. BGCNCNC has the vision to help young people, the mission to provide support to those who need it most. The hope for bright futures and a strong community remain priorities in the five counties that it serves.

And now, some community supporters and benefactors have pledged some substantial amounts of money to help renovate club space in Granville and Vance counties. And BGCNCNC leaders hope to reach a goal of $100,000 by Dec. 31 to be able to start the first phase of a four-part, $5 million renovation of its space in Oxford.

Chief Operations Officer Jacqueline Robinson spoke with John C. Rose on Tuesday’s Town Talk about several recent developments in the cash flow department.

The most recent comes from The Goodwill Foundation, longtime BGCNCNC partners. Robinson said it will give $100,000 to the Granville unit and $50,000 to the Vance unit for club upgrades and safety enhancements.

That donation came about because of two other sizable donations – $25,000 from Strong Arm Baking Co. and $500,000 from Richard and Noel Moore. Richard Moore is a native of Oxford and served as state treasurer from 2001 to 2009.

The downtown Oxford bakery and kitchen was nominated for a Rush Limbaugh Great American Business by a loyal patron. Owners Julia and Thomas Blaine took the opportunity to pay forward the cash prize and challenge others in the community to contribute the other $75,000 to help BGCNCNC reach their Phase 1 goal of $100,000.

Robinson said she and the Blaines attended school together in Oxford. “It’s absolutely priceless,” she said, “for them to be so selfless to (want to) provide great opportunities for young people.”

The initial phase of renovation has a price tag of about $1 million; the Moores’ contribution, matched with an additional $500,000 from the community, will create a games room, multipurpose classroom space and technology upgrades, Robinson said, in addition to collaborative learning space and remote learning stations for the Granville Club.

It sounds like a lot of space is needed to complete the renovations, but space is something that the BGCNCNC has. In 2016, Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co. donated a 27,000 square foot warehouse to the BGCNCNC. Since then, the cavernous buildings have been reworked to provide adequate space for the administrative offices, as well as an activities space and a space for a makeshift cafeteria and homework spot.

When a team from The Goodwill Foundation visited the Granville Club, toured the facilities and then heard about Strong Arm’s and the Moores’ investment, “they wanted to be a part,” Robinson said, adding that the Goodwill team “have been fierce supporters of our programs here in Granville and Vance counties.”

Robinson has been involved with Boys & Girls Clubs for 17 years, but she wasn’t ever a club member. There wasn’t a club in Granville County for her to join. But she volunteered while she was in college and now she has the chance to have a front-row seat to see the Granville unit grow.

“I was one of the young people that needed a Boys & Girls Club,” she said. “I make it my mission to make sure that children have the chance” to be a part of such a strong organization.

The club helps young people make positive decisions and have positive youth development experiences, she said.

The renovations at the Vance club will be to its upstairs space, and it will provide more technology and make it a place “where teenagers want to go and grow and thrive.”

Both Robinson and Chief Executive Officer Donyell “DJ” Jones joined BGCNCNC during the pandemic, so they haven’t had the opportunity to get out into the community as they would have liked to.

But Robinson said she and Jones used that time in a positive way. “It was a wonderful opportunity for us to create the narrative” that is proving so helpful to share with the community as pandemic restrictions relax.

“I think people in the community are really beginning to see what the clubs can offer,” she said. “It’s amazing to hear people talk about what the Boys & Girls Club means to them.”

Now that the children are back, Robinson said she and the club staffs are eager to continue to enhance programming and create positive experiences for a brighter future. Pre-pandemic numbers showed upwards of 3,000 club members across the five-county area, and Robinson said last year’s 719 is definitely an atypical figure. Right now, she said Granville has served 156 club members and Vance has 149 on the membership list. “We are ready to relieve some of our capacity restraints,” Robinson said, and grow in numbers again.

“We want to go from the best-kept secret in the community to really being a community catalyst for youth development,” Robinson said.

Want to help BGNCNC reach the Strong Arm challenge? Visit www.strongarmbaking.com and click the link to donate.

Donate to www.bgcncnc.com or stop by the administrative offices at 105 West St., Oxford. The mailing address is BGCNCNC, P.O. Box 176, Oxford, NC 27565.

 

 

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TownTalk: Why Vance County Gets Zero from State Budget

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It’s sort of like a high school student who didn’t follow the directions to complete an assignment – that’s the way one caller likened the situation that Vance County finds itself in with regard to earmark projects in the new state budget.

Vance County is one of three counties among the state’s 100 counties that received no money for special projects. On Monday’s Town Talk, John C. Rose heard from several callers who offered their perspective on the issue.

“If you took our list of needs in Vance County and compared it to any one of the other 97 other counties that received money from this appropriations bill, you would see that our list of needs grows a lot longer than most,” one caller said.

“My family stopped buying the city water over two years ago – ever since we started having issues at the treatment center. We pay our water bill every month, of course. But we don’t drink it and we don’t cook with it. In essence, this household pays for water twice.

“I can’t think of a bigger failure on the political front in my lifetime,” he continued. “I probably won’t see a failure this big anymore.”

“We missed our opportunity – big time.”

Other callers offered similar sentiments and said more than state politics, local officials should be held more accountable.

“I think that it had nothing to do with politics,” another caller stated. “There are people that are supposed to keep up with all that stuff,” she said. “Grants and all the things that come to Vance County (have) to be applied for…that was a big, big oversight on Vance County personnel. “They don’t just give (money) to people who act like they don’t want it,” she added.

“I put all the blame on Vance County,” she said.

One caller said everyone in Vance County should be upset about not getting our share of money in the state budget. “We need the money – it is just crazy that we’re not getting this money.”