Warren County Public Hearing July 1 On CDBG Funding

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The Warren County Board of Commissioners has scheduled a public hearing for July 1, beginning at 6 p.m., at the Armory Civic Center in Warrenton to get input from the community about the county’s application for Community Development Block Grant funding.

Warren County plans to submit a Neighborhood Revitalization application in the fall of 2024. This meeting will provide information about the available funding, including requirements and eligible activities. Citizens are encouraged to participate and provide feedback on the County’s potential use of CDBG funds.

This hearing will explain the funding available under the North Carolina Department of Commerce’s Small Cities Community Development Block Grant – Neighborhood Revitalization Program (CDBG-NR). These funds benefit low- and moderate-income residents, and eligible activities include housing rehabilitation, relocation, reconstruction, emergency repairs, public facilities, and administration of these activities. Projects must benefit at least 51 percent low- and moderate-income persons for area-wide benefits and 100 percent for direct benefits.

All interested citizens are encouraged to attend to voice their views, respond to proposed funding plans, and ask questions. Another public hearing will be scheduled before the application is submitted to discuss specific project activities.

Community & Economic Development Director Charla Duncan said “Pursuing CDBG funding for housing rehab is the next step in growing the scope of work of the county’s community and economic development department.”

“The county’s 2022 comprehensive development plan addresses several goals around housing, particularly around workforce and affordable housing needs in the community,” stated Rose Ponton, Warren County Community Development Division Manager. “Homeowner assistance programs like the CDBG funding can fund critical and urgent repairs for some of our more vulnerable populations,” Ponton said.

For more information about the public hearing, the CDBG program, or to submit written comments; please contact Rose Ponton with the Warren County Community & Economic Development Office by email at roseponton@warrencountync.gov or by calling 252.257.3115.

Solar+ Schools Award Provides Solar Educational Program At NGMS

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Northern Granville Middle School is one of nine schools across the state that will install a solar array, thanks to NC GreenPower with backing from the State Employees Credit Union.

The Oxford middle school is a recipient of the Solar+ Schools Award for 2024 – valued between $55,000 and $75,000to create a solar educational package including a fully-funded 20-kilowatt solar array, STEM curriculum, teacher training and more, according to information from Courtney Currin, GCPS public information officer.

The solar array will provide educational opportunities for students through an included weather station and data monitoring equipment. Additionally, the solar arrays will have an energy impact on Granville County Public Schools and, possibly, the community.

Superintendent Dr. Stan WInborne said he is excited about the opportunity for the district and students. “In GCPS, we are doing all we can to increase efficiency and effectively use taxpayer dollars to provide a sound education for our students. The Solar+ Schools Award at NGMS is just another way that we can make this happen.”

STEM Early High School in Vance County also received a 2024 Solar+ Schools Award.

Warren County Revaluation Underway

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The Warren County Tax Administration is currently conducting a revaluation review as required by state law. The county has contracted with Pearson Appraisers Inc., to visit each parcel in the county to measure and list any changes to the property and determine current market value.

Each appraiser has been issued Warren County ID and their vehicles are marked “Warren County Revaluation.” The parcel reviews will run through the end of the year.

New assessed values will be mailed out in early 2025 to each property owner.

 

TownTalk: Around Old Granville: Architects

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Lovers of historical architecture could come up with the analogy that if Old Granville County – what is now the four-county area that includes Vance, Warren, Franklin and Granville counties – were an art museum, then all the lovely homes that dot the towns, cities and countryside certainly are works of art to be admired and enjoyed.

Continuing that analogy, it was architects and craftsmen like Jacob Holt and Thomas Bragg and James Burgess who are just a few of the state’s premier artists whose creations still stand -and are still admired – today.

“They were able to express their aesthetic and the community’s idea of the aesthetic,” said Mark Pace, local historian and North Carolina Room Specialist at the Richard Thornton Library in Oxford.

Pace and WIZS’s Bill Harris talked about a number of homes, some standing and some long gone, that can be attributed to Holt, Bragg and Burgess in Thursday’s TownTalk segment of Around Old Granville.

Holt moved to Warren County in the 1840s, having worked with William Howard, an acolyte of Thomas Jefferson, in Prince Edward County, Va. He estimates that as many as 80 Holt houses still stand, a tribute to the craftsmanship Holt and his team of artisans poured into each build.

“If you’ve got a Holt house, it’s not a ramshackle mess,” Pace said.

He set up shop in Warren County and soon laid claim to having the second-largest non-agricultural work force around, Pace said.

Among his workers were enslaved persons as well as freedmen. “He had the talent and he had the crew,” he said.

And although it wasn’t his first build, the William Eaton House is what put Holt on the map.

With motifs of Greek Revival, complete with columns, cornices, elaborate mantelpieces and sidelights, the Eaton house remains “one of the showplaces of Warrenton,” Pace said.

Montmorenci is another well-known home in Warren County, and was built by James Burgess in 1822.

Much of the interior of Montmorenci was dismantled and sent to be part of the DuPont estate called Winterthur in Delaware, Pace said, including incredibly engineered spiral staircases and intricate mantelpieces.

Thomas Bragg was also a contractor and architect who worked in the area in the 1820’s through the 1840’s, Pace said. He did significant work in Wake County and designed the William Polk House there.

The home Bragg built for his family still stands in Warrenton. Some of Bragg’s children went on to achieve fame in their own right: Thomas, Jr. became a governor of North Carolina and Braxton was a general in the Civil War – it’s for him that Fort Bragg, now Fort Liberty, was named.

 

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North Carolina Teacher Retention – NCAE

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Teacher pay and a moratorium on private school vouchers are two of the tangible issues that the president of the North Carolina Association of Educators has on her radar. But Tamika Walker-Kelly also is calling on legislators to join her as she and other public school advocates seek to restore a culture of respect for the thousands of teachers who work in public schools.

Yes, salaries have gone up – it’s about $41,000 for starting teachers, Walker-Kelly acknowledged on Thursday’s The Local Skinny! But North Carolina has lost ground to other states and now is ranked at 38th in the nation for teacher pay.

“We know our legislators in Raleigh could do more,” she said, adding that higher pay is a critical component when it comes to recruitment and retention, but teachers deserve to have respect restored to their profession – “they want to be valued and be heard, and their contributions… are respected and valued,” she said.

The 2024-25 school year marks the fifth year that Walker-Kelly has led the NCAE, which she said is the largest education advocacy group in the state.

She is a proud product of North Carolina public schools and has taught music all of her 18 years in Cumberland County.

“I was inspired by my high school chorus teacher,” she said. “I wanted to be a music teacher just like her.”

Public school teachers interact with more than 1.5 million students across the state’s public school districts – that number accounts for about 85 percent of all children in the state.

The legislature’s private school voucher program stands to siphon off upwards of $500 million dollars, a move the NCAE opposes.

“As an organization, the NCAE continues to be in opposition to vouchers,” she said, adding that taxpayers’ money should go to public schools.

Supporting universal breakfast and lunch programs, mental health programs for students and additional tutoring are other areas of interest for the NCAE, and Walker-Kelly said “education should be everybody’s issue. It should be a bipartisan effort, she said, adding that the NCAE would continue to be a voice for public schools in the General Assembly, across the state and in local communities.

She ranks visiting schools across the state as one of her favorite things to do in her role as NCAE president.
“We should never let people forget that great work goes on in public schools every single day.”

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One Man Charged In Weekend Shooting At Pool Party

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– Press release from the Vance County Sheriff Curtis Brame

On June 9, 2024, the Vance County Sheriff’s Office was dispatched to a gunshot victim at 1305 Pool Rock Road, Henderson, NC 27537.

Upon arrival, deputies observed a crowd at a pool party, but were unable to immediately locate a gunshot victim. A few moments later a male with a gunshot wound to the leg arrived at Maria Parham Hospital. The male was identified as 21-year-old Qualil Champion of Henderson.

Vance County Criminal Investigations Division responded to the scene to conduct an investigation into the incident.  As a result of the investigation, an arrest warrant was taken out on James Scott Jr. (B/M, age 31) of Henderson for the charge of Assault with a Deadly Weapon with Intent to Kill, Inflicting Serious Injury.

On June 12, 2024, Scott surrendered himself to the Vance County Sheriff’s Office and was served with the warrant. Scott was presented before a district court judge and received a $300,000 secured bond for the charge.

The investigation into this incident is still ongoing and anyone with additional information regarding this incident is encouraged to contact the Vance County Sheriff’s Office at 252.738.2200, or Henderson-Vance Crime Stoppers at 252.492.1925 or through the P3 app.

Cooperative Extension with Jamon Glover: Bedtime Problems, Pt. 3

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Listen live at 100.1 FM / 1450 AM / or on the live stream at WIZS.com at 11:50 a.m. Mon, Tues & Thurs.

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TownTalk: 8th Annual Bee Jubilee June 22 At Granville Expo Center

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The Granville County Beekeepers Association’s 8th annual Bee Jubilee happens Saturday, June 22 and will feature a variety of workshops and demonstrations designed for those with lots of experience handling those honey-producing insects all the way down to folks who want their gardens to be pollinator-friendly havens.

“North Carolina really does love their pollinators,” said Christi Henthorn, the president of the Granville group and one of the Bee Jubilee organizers. She said previous events have brought a couple of thousand folks to the Expo Center to experience all the sights, sounds and tastes of the day.

There will be food trucks on site, as well as more than 100 vendors, all of whom offer handcrafted items, with a focus on bees and other agriculture-related products.

“You literally could come out the whole day and not be bored,” she said on Wednesday’s TownTalk. There will be plenty of activities for the kids, not to mention a competition featuring entries that promote beekeeping, honey and beeswax. There are categories for kids to enter, too.

We love honeybees because they produce honey – Henthorn calls them the “poster child of the bee world” – but pollinators come in all shapes and sizes, from bumblebees and native sweat bees to wasps, hornets and hummingbirds.

Generally speaking, bees aren’t aggressive to people, Henthorn said, as long as “you let them do their thing and give them their space.”

Sometimes, though, they occupy space they shouldn’t and people find hives in their homes. Don’t call the exterminator – call your local beekeeper. Chances are, the hive can be safely removed and placed somewhere safer for all involved.

The beekeepers’website has a link to the rules for the competition, so take a look if you’ve got a honey-themed item to enter. Cash prizes will be awarded to the winners.

Check the Bee Jubilee Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/beejubilee/

to find a schedule of events soon, including different talks and demonstrations. The popular auction begins at 1:30 p.m. and the winner of the “Honey for a Year” raffle will be announced at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $1 each or 6 for $5.

Visit https://granvillecobeekeepers.wildapricot.org/ and click on Bee Jubilee to learn more.

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