Area Unemployment Rates Fall Slightly In July 2022, Follow State Trends

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Vance County’s unemployment rate stands at 6.4 percent for July 2022, slightly lower than the rate so far for 2022, which is 6.8 percent. However, these rates remain well below the state averages of 3.7 percent and 4.1 percent, respectively.

According to data released yesterday by the N.C. Department of Commerce, Vance joins the other 99 counties in the state which experienced a decrease in the unemployment rate.

In Granville County for July, the rate is 3.2 percent. In Warren County, the number is 6.6 percent and in Franklin County the rate is 3.6 percent.

August figures are scheduled to be released in mid-September.

Henderson and Oxford are categorized as “micropolitan statistical areas,” a term coined in the 1990’s to describe growing population centers that are not near larger cities, and that draw workers and shoppers from a wide local area.

Henderson’s unemployment rates dropped 2 full percentage points from July 2021 to July 22 – from 8.4 percent to 6.4 percent, according to the data. Oxford also saw its unemployment rate drop over the same period, from 4.3 percent to 3.2 percent.

The number of workers employed statewide (not seasonally adjusted) increased in July to 4,966,822 – up by 31,277 – according to the data and unemployed individuals decreased by 18,851 to 190,340. Since July 2021, the number of workers employed statewide increased by 214,946, while those unemployed decreased by 65,092.

Vance and Warren counties are among 14 counties with unemployment rates between 5 percent and 10 percent; Granville joins 85 other counties with rates 5 percent or lower. None of the state’s 100 counties has a rate that exceeds 10 percent.

According to data from the Commerce Department, Franklin County has the largest labor force – or number of employed individuals – with 33,966. There are 1,218 who are unemployed for a rate of 3.6 percent.

Granville County follows with 30,571 people in the labor force. There are 991 unemployed for a rate of 3.2 percent. Vance has a labor force of 16,770, with 1,069 unemployed, which makes a 6.4 percent unemployment rate. And Warren County has the smallest labor force – 6,558 – with 436 unemployed for a rate of 6.6 percent.

GREAT Grant To Bring Broadband To More Warren Homes, Businesses

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The NC Department of Information Technology has announced that Spectrum Southeast, LLC has been awarded a $4 million grant to provide broadband services to more than 1,400 households and businesses in Warren County. Once this project and another federally funded project are completed, the entire county should have broadband availability.

The Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology (GREAT) grants are awarded from the federal American Rescue Fund Act State Fiscal Recovery Funds.

According to information from Warren County’s Charla Duncan, the service provider will match $1,408,229; the county has expressed a willingness to partner with Spectrum in helping to achieve the match. If all goes according to plan, 1,434 households and businesses in Warren County will get broadband services.

In 2021, Spectrum was also awarded a majority of the eligible Census tracts in Warren County through the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) federal reverse auction. This funding supports a build-out of a fiber network to eligible areas which covers roughly 2,000 households.

Warren County has worked with Spectrum since the RDOF award was announced in early 2021 to leverage federal dollars and to apply for state funding as well. At the December 2021 meeting, the Board of Commissioners reached a consensus giving County Manager Vincent Jones authority to move forward in negotiating a partnership with Spectrum to cover homes that were not a part of the RDOF award. GREAT grant funds and county dollars will assist in supplying the funding necessary to cover these households. Combining these programs will essentially lead to countywide availability of broadband.

Details on a construction timeline and specific household addresses that will be served are in the works. However, both the GREAT grant and RDOF funding outline set a completion time as part of the funding requirements. The GREAT grant program has a two-year construction timeline after all agreements are finalized.

More information on RDOF can be found at https://www.fcc.gov/auction/904. More information on the GREAT grant can be found at https://www.ncbroadband.gov/grants/other-resources/great-grant-state.

Vance County High School

SportsTalk: Vance County Looks To Move To 3-0 Friday Night

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The first two weeks of the high school football season have been good for the Vance Co. Vipers as they sit at 2-0.  This week they take on Riverside, which is coming off a 42-0 blowout of Southeast Raleigh after an opening season 18-14 loss to #15 ranked Cape Fear. Both Riverside Head Coach Cory Lea and Vance County Head Coach Aaron Elliott were guests on Thursday’s SportsTalk and discussed this week’s matchup.

Both teams are strong defensively. “Vance County’s defensive ends scare me to death,” Lea said of the Viper’s strong defense. “It’s one of the best defensive lines I’ve seen during my time coaching,” Elliott said of the Vance County Defensive Unit.

With all this talk of how strong the Viper’s defense is one would think defense is the key to this game, but not so according to Elliott. He said,  “The key to the game will be scoring. I’d like to score on every possession. We need to improve the most on offense.” Elliott has a few new offensive wrinkles up his sleeve for Friday night that will hopefully get the Vipers in the end zone a few more times.

Coach Lea lost only three seniors from last year’s team. “Our babies have grown up,” Lea said referring to his team which features many juniors.  “We hang our hats on defense,” Lea continued summarizing his team’s strength.

The Vipers have cut down on mistakes and Coach Elliott has encouraged his team to stay hungry and stay focused. Elliott said the team didn’t have a great practice on Monday, but they have settled down the rest of this week and are playing together.

Friday looks like another defensive battle as the Vipers host Riverside. Airtime on WIZS is 6:50 p.m. and kickoff is at 7 p.m. Join Bill Harris and Doc Ayscue for all of the action of Vance County Friday Night Football.

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The Local Skinny! Around Old Granville: History Of Cedar Walk

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Think about it for a minute: Is is easier to remember what you ate for breakfast this morning or to visualize in your mind the house where you grew up? Many historians rely on people’s long-term memories to piece together the past, and that is exactly what Mark Pace did to try to learn more about Cedar Walk, a home in Williamsboro that was torn down in 1967.

He and WIZS’s Bill Harris talked about the origins of the home, which was called Blooming Hope when it was a school for girls during its early days. During the Depression era, it was the oldest house standing in Vance County, Pace said during the Around Old Granville segment of Thursday’s The Local Skinny!

Pace, North Carolina Room Specialist at the Richard Thornton Library in Oxford, said he was able to talk to some folks who’d lived in the house in the 1940’s and ‘50s who were able to describe the interior floor plan. The Library of Congress has photographs of the home taken in the 1930’s that show a fairly plain, two-story frame home with a covered front porch.

“It’s a shame it’s not here – it’s associated with so many important people,” Pace said. Revolutionary War leaders, a former governor and the minister who helped establish the Presbyterian Church in the state have ties to Cedar Walk, so named because of the lane of cedar trees that lined the walk up to the home.

By most accounts, the home probably was built around 1780, Pace said, based on the style and size of the structure. If the structure were still standing, the wood could be aged using tree-ring dating, he added, but most likely it would have been a contemporary of St. John’s Episcopal Church, which was built in 1773.

It was later purchased by Col. Robert Burton, who had fought in the Revolutionary War.

Burton was a businessman and UNC has a ledger in which he recorded some of his business dealings, Pace said. One notable entry is the sale of a horse to a fellow named Daniel Boone.

One of Burton’s nephews came to live at Cedar Walk. His parents died and Hutchins Burton came to live at Cedar Walk. He became North Carolina’s 22nd governor, serving from 1824-1827.

When the Bullock family bought the home in 1828, they made an addition to the home, which Pace described as “one of the great old plantation houses in Vance County.” Although the house no longer stands, the land remains in the Bullock family.

The house fell into disrepair, probably for a couple of reasons, Pace noted. One reason was the lack of electricity, which would have been a costly endeavor. But the second reason, he said, is because people said the house was haunted.

Visit the Library of Congress website and search “Cedar Walk” to see photographs.

 

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TownTalk: Classes For Caregivers

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A six-week online class designed to help family caregivers do the very best they can for their loved ones – and for themselves – is set to get underway in early September and Kerr-Tar Regional Council of Governments staffer Susan Tucker wants folks to know how helpful the program is. Tucker speaks from first-hand experience: not only did she complete the class, but she went on to become an instructor.

“I know that it works because it worked for me,” Tucker told John C. Rose on Wednesday’s Town Talk. The class is called “Powerful Tools for Caregivers,” and she said the impact it has had in her own life has been transformative. She has been a caregiver to her mother for the past six years and the tools that she learned from the class have proved invaluable.

The class runs on Tuesday mornings from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. beginning Sept. 6 and continuing through Oct. 11. It is free and designed for any non-paid caregiver; all participants will receive a workbook as part of the class.

Michael Patterson, a family caregiver specialist with Kerr-Tar COG, said participants learn how to take care of themselves as they provide care for their loved ones, which at times can be a delicate balancing act. The class provides information about community resources, as well as techniques and skills necessary to handle and manage stress.

“That’s the wonderful thing about the class – that’s the whole point,” she said, of finding ways to manage the stress of caring for a loved one. It can be incredibly overwhelming, she added, and rarely is the caregiver prepared for or aware of what they’re getting into.

The class is different from other programs that may be focused squarely on the person who requires the care, which may provide a checklist of all the things that should be done for that person to receive proper care.

“(This) class really gives the caregiver the tools to handle their role as a caregiver,” Tucker said. “It puts tools in your hand to perform those tasks so that you can thrive while you’re caring for your loved one.”

The biggest takeaway for Tucker, she said was a feeling of confidence. “II actually felt – all of a sudden – that I could do it. I didn’t feel alone.”

Call 252.436.2040 to register for the Powerful Tools for Caregivers class.

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Cooperative Extension With Jamon Glover: Bedtime Problems 2

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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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McGregor Hall

TownTalk: Love Of Performing Keeps Alston And Manhattans On Stage

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The smooth, sultry sounds of The Manhattans is a balm for anyone who grew up listening to R&B and Henderson’s own Gerald Alston has helped to create that sound for, well, a few years now.

Alston will perform this Friday evening, Sept. 2 at McGregor Hall alongside Troy May and newcomer Lawrence Newton, with the band East Coast Connection providing the accompaniment.

The concert begins at 8 p.m. Purchase tickets at https://www.mcgregorhall.org/

Alston, now 70, talked with WIZS’s Bill Harris on Wednesday’s Town Talk, and said he is always happy to perform in the place where he got his start.

“Over the years that I’ve been singing, we’ve always been well supported by my hometown,” Alston said. “It’s a joy to me to be able to come home and perform for friends, family and fans.”

Earlier this month, the group celebrated its 60-year anniversary. Although the faces may have changed over those six decades, the sound remains true. Alston joined the group at the young age of 17 and he said his love of singing is what keeps him going. “My love of singing and love of family,” he said.

He became lead singer in 1970 and has never looked back. Concert goers can expect to hear some of the group’s biggest hits – think “Shining Star” and “Kiss and Say Goodbye,” just to name a couple.

“We’ll be adding a couple of songs that we don’t usually do,” but are regional favorites, he hinted.

Over the years, as vinyl albums made way for cassettes, CDs and now streaming platforms, Alston said he and his group have enjoyed how the “old” fans come together with new fans to appreciate the music they create.

“Social media and Internet radio have been our friend,” he readily acknowledged, adding that fans can download particular songs to create their own playlist and don’t have to depend on traditional radio stations or other traditional formats.

If all goes according to plan, the Manhattans will have 35 or 40 shows this year, bouncing back after the COVID-19 pandemic. Their latest single, “Get It Ready,” climbed high on the soul independent charts, and Alston said he expects the group’s touring schedule to continue to pick up speed.

“The point is that we love singing and God has granted us the ability to still be doing it,” he said.

Having said that, however, Alston did suggest that touring the country and the world to perform can be tiring.

They recently did a two-day gig with the O’Jays down in Florida, he said, playing Tampa one night and then Miramar the next. “Believe me, the traveling is what gets you,” he said. “Traveling takes its toll on you at times.” Between early flights and late check-ins, sound checks and finding a spot to eat – and then heading back to the venue for a two-hour show, Alston said it’s not as easy to bounce back at 70 as it was earlier in his career.

As for Friday night’s venue, McGregor Hall, Alston is seriously pumped.

“Mark Hopper… has done a wonderful job,” he said. “McGregor Hall is one of the best venues that we’ve played – the sound is great, the hall is beautiful…and the staff there is top-notch.”

McGregor Hall is on the smaller side of venues where the Manhattans have performed – dwarfed certainly by the Houston Astrodome and the Atlanta Braves Stadium, where the group has performed to crowds of between 30,000 and 40,000.

 

Alston said he prefers the smaller venues because of the closer, more intimate setting they provide – there’s literally less space between the fans and the stage. “I love being close to my fans and the audience,” he said.

But whether in an intimate setting or a cavernous sports arena, the response from the audience is the same. “They give you that energy,” Alston said, “their appreciation for our music and their support” pumps up the performers and makes it all worthwhile.

“At some point, I may slow down with the work,” Alston said, perhaps picking and choosing performances. “But I think I’ll always be singing.”