Cooperative Extension with Wayne Rowland: Kudzu Bugs

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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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Isolated Shooting in Henderson; Intended Target and Innocent Bystander Shot

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UDATE 8:10 P.M. —

HPD Press Release:

A short time after 3:00PM this afternoon, Officers heard multiple gunshots in the area of Raleigh Road and S. Garnett Street and rushed to the area as 911 calls came in. Individuals parked in the parking lot of Hayes Brothers Muffler, 1002 S. Garnett Street, were approached and shot at.

The first of two victims were seated in their car when struck by gunfire at close range. We are certain this individual was targeted by the shooter. The victim drove away and was intercepted by emergency personnel a short time later and transported for medical treatment.

The second victim, an elderly female, was struck by a single round in the lower leg while seated in her car a short distance north of the incident scene. She was transported to a local medical facility and is currently in stable condition.

The assailant(s) fled the scene on foot and are believed to have gotten into a vehicle according to information and evidence located at the scene. An unoccupied vehicle and two structures were also struck.

We are diligently working to identify the suspect(s) at this time. The public has been extremely helpful and we hope the information continues to come in. Anyone with information is urged to call the Henderson Police Department at (252) 438-4141, our Crime Stoppers line at (252) 492-1925, or the P3 App on your mobile phone.

The Henderson Police Department is grateful for the assistance of Sheriff Curtis Brame and his Office and all the other responding First Responders. Acts of violence have plagued our Nation, and State and our perseverance will hopefully see us all through this.

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UPDATE 6:20 P.M. —

Friday afternoon about 3:05, a man was shot just west of downtown Henderson and a female was hit by a stray bullet near the post office.

Henderson Police Chief Marcus Barrow told WIZS News it was an “isolated incident.” He said he didn’t know what may stem from it but that at the present time there was no public safety problem.

The suspect or suspects remain at large at this time.

Barrow indicated a male in his twenties was the intended target. He was “shot at point-blank range by the suspect,” Barrow said, in the Hayes Brothers Muffler Shop parking lot.

Chief Barrow continued and said a stray bullet “went up the street and struck an older female in the leg as she was going to the post office.”

The injuries sustained by the female were not believed to be life threatening.

The male shooting victim attempted to drive himself to Maria Parham Health but only made it as far as a fast food restaurant at the corner of Dabney Drive and Graham Avenue. From there, he was transported by ambulance to the hospital about two miles away. Barrow said the victim was “alert and talking upon arrival.”

WIZS News spoke with Vance County Sheriff Curtis Brame. He said the Vance County Courthouse was locked down but only as a precaution.

Vance County Schools postponed the Vance County High School football game. Athletic Director Ray Noel told WIZS.

Whether related or just a coincidence, other sounds believed to be gunshots were heard just north of downtown about 10 to 15 minutes after the original shooting. A person close to WIZS heard the and described it as gun fire. It’s believed to have occurred near the old bus station near the corner of Chestnut Street and West Andrews Avenue.

Construction Of New Senior Center For Northern Granville To Begin In 2023

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County officials joined Stovall town commissioners Thursday at the future site of the North Granville Senior Center in Stovall.

The new 8,000-square foot center will be located at 301 Oxford St. in Stovall, adjacent to the Stovall Branch Library.

Construction of the new facility is scheduled for 2023.

The current senior center is located at 318 U.S. Highway 15 South in Stovall and will remain open until the new facility is ready.

“The existing site has served its purpose,” said Commissioner Chairman Tony Cozart. “But the time has come for Granville County to expand services in Stovall to match what can be found at  the Granville County Senior Center in Oxford and South Granville Senior Center in Creedmoor,” Cozart said.

In addition to Cozart, commissioners David Smith, Zelodis Jay and Sue Hinman spoke about the project.

“We know this center will help so many people in northern Granville County,” Smith said.  “This new site will be so much safer without our seniors having to make that dangerous turn off Highway 15 into a very tight parking lot. Being in the middle of downtown next to other public services like the Stovall Branch Library, town hall, the U.S. Post Office, and the Stovall Medical Center will help make downtown Stovall a service hub for our northern Granville residents.”

Jay said he looks forward to construction beginning in the coming months. “Commissioner Smith and I have worked on this for years,” Jay told those gathered. “Before the district lines changed, we both represented Stovall. Even though Stovall is no longer my district, I still consider it to part of District 1 at heart.”

“Building a new Senior Center in northern Granville County has been a top priority of mine since I was first elected,” said Hinman. “Even though my district doesn’t include Stovall, I have always made a point of advocating that our Senior Services Department equally serve all parts of Granville County.”

Phyllis Blackwell, the center’s manager, can be reached at 919.693.3383 or phyllis.blackwell@granvillecounty.org.

Fire Ants: How To Manage Them, Not E

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The wet weather associated with Hurricane Ian a few weeks ago has really allowed the red imported fire ants (RIFA), Solenopsis invicta, to thrive. It seems everywhere you look you see a large mound of soil, and even if you barely come in contact with it, those small red pests swarm out.

If you are familiar with them, either by sight and by sting, you know they can be quite troublesome and they are not easily controlled,” according to Johnny Coley, horticulture agent for Granville and Person counties.

“When you have RIFAs move into your yard or landscape, managing them is usually the best you can hope for. Once you think you have them under control, five to ten more hills show up,” Coley said in a written statement about the stinging insects.

Although native to South America, fire ants were introduced to the U.S. in the 1930’s and were first found in North Carolina in the early 1950’s. They are now mainly found in the Southeast. Mounds can have more than 100,000 workers and hundreds of winged adults but only one queen. Winged adults will mate and, after mating with females, spin off their own queens and can produce their own nest. A queen can fly up to 10 miles from its original mound; however, most queens do not travel that far. Most queens do not survive once they have mated because other foraging ants, especially other fire ants, will kill them.

Several methods can be used to control fire ants including baits, granular insecticides, drenches and powders.  Rotating insecticides with different active ingredients is always the best practice. This will prevent fire ants from becoming resistant to a particular active ingredient.

For a comprehensive list of active ingredients/products that are available for fire ant control and more general  information about RIFAs please visit: https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/red-imported-fire-ant-in-north-carolina

You may also contact Johnny Coley at the Granville or Person County Extension offices at 919.603.1350 (Granville) or  336.599.1195 (Person) or by email at johnny_coley@ncsu.edu for a copy of this publication.

TownTalk: Hauntings Of Old Granville

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One of the reasons the stately old home known as Cedar Walk in Williamsboro fell into disrepair was because of the ghost that inhabited the premises.

And the Neal House in Epsom rode the poltergeist wave right in the early ‘80s, about the time the movie of the same name was popular – you know, objects flying around, dishes flung from their shelves.

And then there’s the legend of “Hatchet Man,” who wanders the general area of Oxford Road near the local country club.

Mark Pace and Bill Harris talked about these phenomena – and more – during Thursday’s tri-weekly history show on TownTalk.

Did prominent physician Hutchins Burton really haunt Cedar Walk? Who knows. But according to the writings of local historian S.T. Peace, Burton was hanged in the house, Pace said. And members of families who later lived in the house reported hearing all kinds of strange noise over the years, and seeing a ghost in the hallway downstairs.

“It got to the point,” Pace said, “that nobody wanted to rent the house.” And, unoccupied, it fell into ruin.

Whether you’re one who believes in the supernatural or chooses to find logical explanations for the seemingly inexplicable, the stories you hear – especially around Halloween – are interesting, to say the least.

The house known as Pleasant Hill in Middleburg, later called Rivenoak, was purchased by a young couple who moved in and set about restoration work, which including wiring it for electricity for the first time.

Joel Holloman Carroll was born in that home and lived his entire life there. He was a real creature of habit, and was known to strike a match against the same door frame near the kitchen each evening to light a lamp before before bedtime.

Carroll died there, and during the restoration, passersby would swear they saw a light shining through his bedroom window. The young couple’s ebullient Golden Retriever refused to cross the area that led to that same bedroom. And the couple’s young child would remark about a man standing nearby when there was nobody there.

  1. You could possibly explain those away – the light was a reflection from something, the dog was just being, well, a dog. And a child can have a vivid imagination.

And Hatchet Man?  The story goes that if you go over to the country club section of town into a particular area that once had been a dead end, dirt road, and cut off your car, Hatchet Man would show up, Pace said.

  1. Maybe that’s someone’s overactive imagination or maybe that was a story created to keep pesky teenagers off manicured greens.

But what about the poltergeist of Neal House?

“Dishes move, things fly off the table – literally fly-through-the-air kind of stuff,” Pace said. He was a student at ECU when he read a story in the student paper about the home.

“It was really active stuff,” he said, recalling some of the stories being told about that house.

 

Hear more stories in the full interview at wizs.com

 

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Warren County Getting Slice Of $17.5M Grant To Establish High-Speed Internet Connections

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Warren County residents are going to reap the benefits of part of $17.5 million in grant funding to create high-speed internet connections for thousands of its residents.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture released information Thursday stating that AccessOn Networks Inc. is getting the money to connect residents, businesses, farms and educational facilities in Warren and Halifax counties in North Carolina as part of $759 million in loans and grants awarded in the third funding round of the federal ReConnect Program.

The company will make high-speed internet service affordable by participating in the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Lifeline and Affordable Connectivity Programs, according to a USDA press release. This project will serve socially vulnerable communities in Halifax and Warren counties and people in the Haliwa-Saponi Tribal Statistical Area.

“People living in rural towns across the nation need high-speed internet to run their businesses, go to school and connect with their loved ones,” said USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack. “USDA partners with small towns, local utilities and cooperatives, and private companies to increase access to high-speed internet so people in rural America have the opportunity to build brighter futures. Under the leadership of President Biden and Vice President Harris, USDA is committed to making sure that people, no matter where they live, have access to high-speed internet. That’s how you grow the economy – not just in rural communities, but across the nation.”

To be eligible for ReConnect Program funding, an applicant must serve an area that does not have access to service at speeds of 100 megabits per second (Mbps) (download) and 20 Mbps (upload). The applicant must also commit to building facilities capable of providing high-speed internet service with speeds of 100 Mbps (download and upload) to every location in its proposed service area.

To learn more about investment resources for rural areas, visit www.rd.usda.gov or contact the nearest USDA Rural Development state office.

TownTalk: Ghost Hunting With Michael La Chiana

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About this time each year, TVs in living rooms everywhere are filled with scary movies and TV shows about spooky things to entertain viewers. But there’s a big difference in the shows that are designed for entertainment and the shows that Michael La Chiana is producing.

La Chiana, a paranormal investigator and researcher, is dedicated documenting the “real” stuff.

His first show, “The Heritage Hunters: Journey Through the Past” was released last year and he told WIZS’s Bill Harris on Wednesday’s TownTalk that it’s already gotten 900,000 views.

His second show is due out next month, he said. The show can be found on Prime Video he said.

There’s nothing wrong with those scary movies and shows about ghosts, but La Chiana said he reminds folks that there IS a difference: “what you see on TV – unless it’s a true documentary,  is not real.”

When he investigates paranormal phenomena, he said he looks at every angle to prove – or disprove – what’s going on.

“I love to debunk everything that I can so I can find real evidence that’s there,” he said. That unexplained creak or pop could be a loose floorboard or clanging water pipe inside a wall.

He is pretty much a one-man production company – he investigates, films, writes, edits, produces – so his second episode has taken a couple of years to complete.

“I’m very thorough and I dig deep,” he said.

The second episode delves into the history of Tom Dooley, who was a real person hanged for a murder in North Carolina back in the 1860’s.

Yes, that Tom Dooley, that the Kingston Trio sang about in their hit song of the same name. La Chiana found Laura Reed, a Nashville recording artist who covered a rock version of the song, and she said he could include it in his show.

“To have original music is great,” he added.

The upcoming episode investigates the jail where Dooley was held for a long time, and La Chiana said he’s “captured so many things over the years.” He uses sophisticated recording equipment during his research and investigation, and said he especially enjoys hearing what he can capture on the audio recordings.

“What we’ve captured is insane,” he said of the upcoming episode featuring the legend of Tom Dooley. “We’ve asked several times ‘Who killed Laura Foster?'” La Chiana said. “We got a male voice telling us the name,” he added.

There’s VP – voice phenomena – that you can hear with your ear – and then there’s EVP – electronic voice phenomena – those sounds that are best heard on audio recordings.

La Chiana said he prefers to investigate alone or with as few people as possible, to be able to stay focused on the presence or disturbances in a particular place.

Future episodes of the show will feature real places, La Chiana said. “Places you can actually go…and check out yourself,” he said.

When he went to investigation the mysterious Brown Mountain Lights in the western part of the state, he said he was intrigued.

Could those lights be a natural phenomenon – an energy that comes up out of the ground?

“It’s very fascinating,” La Chiana said, adding that such phenomena are “not so ghosty and more of a mystery – I like those types of things, too.”