Tag Archive for: #franklincountynews

The Local Skinny! ‘Step Back In Time’ Event Planned For May 14

/by

 

 

The Franklin County Historic Preservation Commission invites you to “Step Back in Time” at the historic Hudson Manor in Louisburg on Saturday, May 14 for a day filled with activities, food trucks and fun for the entire family – all for a good cause.

Hudson Manor owner Melissa Cogliati is teaming up with the county historic preservation commission to raise money to publish a book documenting the historic architecture of Franklin County, according to commission Chair Bill Harris. Harris, usually the person asking the questions as he interviews guests on WIZS, was the person providing the information on Tuesday’s The Local Skinny! segment with John C. Rose.

“We hope it’s going to be a great event,” Harris said, adding that there is a lot of excitement gathering in the area as the date approaches.

The event will run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Harris said, and will give folks a chance to see a variety of antique tractors and other vehicles – including “Maude,” a lovingly restored antique fire truck that served Louisburg for many years.

Bring a lawn chair to relax in while you enjoy traditional bluegrass music performed by Shannon Baker and Sometime Soon and the Birdsong Bluegrass Band; The Baldwin Storytellers also will be on hand to weave stories of years gone by.

A tractor-powered grist mill will be on hand for demonstrations, as well as various artisans and craftspeople who will share everything from doll making to wool spinning. Local historian and historical reenactor Mark Pace will be present as John Penn, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Members of the Haliwa-Saponi tribe will demonstrate native dances and there will be a silent auction of antique items as well, Harris said. And Tim Fisher of Franklin County’s Portis Gold Mine will have a panning sluice on the grounds for those who may wish to try their hand at panning for gold.

The organizers have worked hard to create a day filled with interesting activities and Harris said the ultimate goal is to get the book published. In 2017, Franklin County underwent a census of sorts to document the historic architecture throughout the county. Harris said the culmination of this inventory is the publication of the book, which will be chock full of information, photos and more to chronicle the county’s history.

And the book also will include the names of anyone who makes a donation of $100 or more.

Public libraries in Louisburg and Oxford have informational brochures about the work of the commission, and also will be available at Hudson Manor on May 14.

Anyone interested in participating in the program should contact Melissa Cogliati at 919.219.9139.

Hudson Manor is located at 908 Moulton Rd., Louisburg. To learn more about the venue and the event, visit https://www.thehudsonmanor.com/special-events.

CLICK PLAY!

 

RISE Open House Set To Gather Input On Regional Resiliency

/by

A regional forum about resiliency is scheduled for later this month to hear from business and civic leaders and from the community at large to collect information to be used to develop a regional vulnerability assessment.

The open house will take place on Thursday, April 28, from 6 p.m to 7:30 p.m at the Kerr-Tar Council of Governments, located at 1724 Graham Ave., Henderson.

The in-person open house will begin with a short presentation but organizers encourage anyone interested in participating to drop in any time during the 90-minute session to leave suggestions and opinions; participants may choose to join via Zoom between 10:30 a.m. and noon.

The project is called RISE – Regions Innovating for Stronger Economies and Environment – and the open house is hosted by the N.C. Office of Recovery and Resiliency, the N.C. Rural Center, the Kerr-Tar Council of Governments and the Kleinfelder group.

RISE will collect information that it will share within the region related to climate impacts such as flooding and storms, as well as how participants define resilience in the workplace or in homes, as well as community strengths. All of the information will be used to develop a regional vulnerability assessment.

According to Michele Burgess, president of the Henderson-Vance Chamber of Commerce, “As Vance County business leaders, community citizens, and members of the Henderson-Vance County Chamber of Commerce, we are encouraging you to step up and participate” in the regional forum.

The Kerr-Tar region includes Vance, Granville, Franklin, Person and Warren counties and organizers said they are looking to hear from a diverse cross-section of the community across ages, occupations and demographics.

The Zoom link is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84383461025.  The meeting ID is 843 8346.

The RISE project is associated with the Kerr-Tar Council of Governments. Phone Kerr-Tar at 252.436.2040 to learn more.

The Local Skinny! Free Christian Play Coming To Louisburg

/by

Thanks to the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19, a group of pastors and ministers in Franklin County had to get creative as they began planning for their annual community gathering during the Easter season.

Speaking on behalf of FACES – Franklin Area Clergical Ecumenical Society – Eddie Williams said the result is a play called “Too Young To Be Saved: My Kids Saved My Life.” Williams spoke with John C. Rose on Tuesday’s The Local Skinny! segment.

“This gospel message will be presented in a theatrical format,” he said. The performance will be Saturday, Apr. 9 at 4 p.m. at the Pete Smith Amphitheater in Louisburg. The event is free to the community, Williams said, and said local actors, singers and dancers will be among those taking the stage.

“The actors are really engaging – it’s going to be a lot of fun,” he said. Jayden Watkins is participating. Watkins, a student at Henderson Collegiate, who also is a preacher, author and podcast host. The Cook Family Singers and IDance Praise Group also will be in the performance.

“We decided to go with someone with quite a bit more experience” in play production, so FACES approached Connie Ragland, who agreed to create something special for the occasion.

“This is the first time that we’ve done it on this level – we’re really excited about it,” Williams said. “We pray that lives will be touched.”

The play is about families and their day-to-day activities, he explained. There’s an encounter with God that produces life-altering results. Ragland has written other works with similar themes, Williams said, but this particular play focuses on the role children play in the lives of families.

“It’s always fun – there’s always some comedy in there, and some singing…as the message is conveyed.”

The Pete Smith Amphitheater is located at 116 N. Main St., Louisburg. Williams said there is bench seating, so it may be a good idea to bring a lawn chair.

Williams has one more request: “Continue to pray for good weather because (the performance) IS outside!”

Contact Williams at 919.263.4119 for more information.

Click Play!

TownTalk: Fisher Dredges Up Gold

/by

Anyone interested in learning how prospectors once set up camp in the northeast corner of Franklin County in search of gold will feel like they hit the mother lode when talking with Tim Fisher.

Fisher is a wealth of information about the Gold Run Branch gold mine, often called the Portis Mine by locals. And he spoke with Bill Harris on Monday’s Town Talk to give an update on another project that he and some dedicated volunteers have been working on – excavating a 94-foot-long bucket-line dredge that was found on the property.

The previous owner of the land had speculated that it was probably just a dam left over from when the gold mine was in full operation, Fisher said. But a couple of years ago, thanks to a couple of long, dry spells and the work of some pesky beavers along the branch, Fisher discovered something else entirely.

He got busy on the computer and found some mining journals with photos of the dredge, which is a floating vessel that used buckets on the front to scoop from the waterway floor, allowing the heavy gold to sink to the bottom of the dredge. The culled material would go off the back of the dredge, leaving the valuable gold inside.

Now that the dredge is partially excavated, Fisher said they’ve made some neat discoveries, like an old smelter in an assay lab. A smelter is like an oven or kiln that was used to melt the gold to test its purity. “It’s a cool, cool, rare piece of history,” Fisher said.

“We’ve figured out how to reconstruct it,” he said of the giant relic, adding that the plans are to make it totally safe for people. “We’re not planning to float it again,” Fisher said, but they do plan to restore it so others can see what it looked like when it was in use.

One by-product of the excavation is all the dirt and silt that has washed through the dredge over the years that it was abandoned. There are big bags of that excavated dirt that are ripe for modern-day prospectors to sift through in search of gold.

Any gold heavy enough would have sunk to the floor of the dredge, he explained. “There’s gold in it,” he said of the dirt they’ve pulled out so far. “When we pull the dirt out, there’s gold in it,” he said.

Some folks came out recently and said they’d like to try their hand at panning for gold in the creek. After a quick clinic to learn some techniques, Fisher said they had no trouble finding gold, which they took home in a small vial.

“It’s an unbelievable situation up here,” Fisher said with enthusiasm. He said he hopes he can play even a small role in attracting more tourism up his way.

“There’s so much to see and to learn – I want to teach the younger generation how things used to be,” Fisher said. He’s also filming the dredge excavation project, and the end result is either going to be a documentary or a series that chronicles the project.

“I can’t even tell you how intensive this job is going to be,” he said, undaunted. The site is a little tricky to get to and the heavy equipment can’t get too close, so volunteers alongside Fisher are literally placing the dirt in the bucket of the excavator shovelful by shovelful.

“There is no quick way to do it…you don’t want to destroy, damage or crush stuff,” he said.

Visit Eastern Outdoor Expedition’s Facebook page to see videos of the progress and to learn more about making a trip to the location.

Fisher’s son, Ross, operates NC Treasure Hunters Campground and there are sites available for weekend campers who want to reserve an adult-size tepee or stay in a converted prospector’s cabin. There also are primitive camping facilities that have fire pits and picnic table. It’s a family-oriented recreation area, Fisher said. Contact them via their Facebook page or call 252.245.1197.

Click Play!

The Local Skinny! Business Spotlight: Wedding Bells And More At Hudson Manor

/by

Spring is in the air and many plan weddings this time of year. However, according to Melissa Cogliati, owner and operator of Hudson Manor in the Moulton Community in Franklin County, anytime of the year seems to be good for the sound of wedding bells.

Hudson Manor is a rather imposing house built around 1911 by Charlie Thomas Hudson, but by 2004 it had begun showing signs of decline. Cogliati and her husband were looking to get out of Raleigh for something more rural where he could concentrate on catering and cooking and she could start a wedding venue when they found the home. The house needed some work. A rear section that was added in the 1970’s was removed and the front porch was rebuilt to the original specifications. The Cogliati’s later added to the rear portion of the house so they could live there. Along with them came children and parents. “It’s a family compound,” Cogliati said on the Business Spotlight segment of The Local Skinny!

Improvements have continued with the addition of a wedding chapel which allows Hudson Manor to host weddings no matter what the weather. “We had a wedding in the snow,” Cogliati said. This would have been a few weeks back on one of those wintery weekends. She described that wedding as particularly beautiful. She has had couples from Vance, Warren, Granville, Franklin and other surrounding counties to book the venue for weddings, but Hudson Manor does more than just get people hitched. Last year Hudson Manor hosted a bluegrass festival, and they are available for fundraising events. Hudson Manor is open all year round.

If you have a wedding or fundraising event you can find out more information at www.thehudsonmanor.com.

Click Play

 

SportsTalk: Louisburg College Hopes To Make It To The World Series

/by

The list of legendary college coaches in North Carolina includes the likes of Dean Smith, Jim Valvano, Mack Brown, Mike Krzyzewski, Kay Yow and many more.  One legendary coach that might get overlooked is Russell Frazier. For 40 years, from 1959 to 1999, he led the Louisburg College Hurricanes and instilled a winning tradition that the school has had since. While his school never won a national title, his teams went to the National Junior College Athletic Association’s World Series on many occasions.  Louisburg’s last trip was in 2002 but now, 20 years later, the Hurricanes have their sights set on a return to Colorado for the series.

Louisburg College Head Baseball Coach Blake Herring told our Trey Snide on SportsTalk that his players are starting to buy into the idea that the Hurricanes are strong enough this season to make a run.   “If we can get out of our league, we have a good chance to get back to the World Series,” Herring said. While he is excited at the chances the Hurricanes have he cautions, “we can’t want it more than the players.”

His team is young. All but one pitcher are freshmen. He has a new outfield and says that the left side of the infield could be the strongest part of the team. This week rain has hampered practice but it’s nowhere as bad as last season when the school had 17 games rained out.  When inclement weather keeps them off the field, he takes his players to a parking lot at the school to practice throwing and hitting. “The most stressful thing to me is playing a meteorologist,” Herring says of his job as head coach.

At 33, Herring is young and has been with the school for seven years, first as an assistant for three years before taking the head coach position four years ago. Currently the Hurricanes are 6-1 having won there last six games.

Keep up with the Hurricanes at lchurricanes.com or on You Tube at Louisburg College Official.

Click Play

 

Got To Be NC Festival Set For May 20-22 At State Fairgrounds

/by

Planning is underway for the 2022 Got to Be NC Festival and registration is open now for commercial vendors and homegrown marketplace vendors to participate in the three-day event coming up in May.

The annual event will be held at the N.C. State Fairgrounds in Raleigh from May 20-22. It will feature food, wine and beer from across the state, according to information from the N.C. Department of Agriculture.

The festival also will feature one of the largest displays of antique tractors and farm equipment in the Southeast, and organizers are looking for tractor collectors and clubs to be part of the event. Plans include a daily tractor parade through the fairgrounds for tractors in working order. Participation is free and open to individuals and clubs, but pre-registration is required. Contact Pat Short at 336.706.9796 to register or for questions. National farm broadcaster Max Armstrong will be on hand to announce the Sunday, May 22, tractor parade lineup.

Food concessionaires, commercial vendors and organizations interested in exhibiting at the festival have until March 1 to complete their application at ncstatefair.org. For more information, contact Letrice Midgett, commercial space administrator, at 919-839-4502 or email at Letrice.Midgett@ncagr.gov or phone her at 919.839.4502.

April 1 is the deadline for North Carolina-based food and beverage companies to register for the festival. Prospective vendors must be members of the Got to Be NC marketing program. Got to Be NC program members should contact Sherry Barefoot at sherry.barefoot@ncagr.gov with questions.

Registration forms and vendor applications for the Homegrown Marketplace are available at https://gottobenc.com/event/gtbnc-festival/.

Franklin County Logo

Franklin Asking State Commission For $15.1 Million To Improve, Upgrade Emergency Radio System

/by

Franklin County has submitted an application to the state’s Local Government Commission for funding to improve its public radio system used by law enforcement and emergency officials. It is one of several applications that will be reviewed when the LGC meets remotely tomorrow (Tuesday, Feb. 1).

The meeting will begin at 1:30 p.m. and the public may attend virtually at the following Go To Webinar link:

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8801061036096403215

Franklin County officials want the LGC to sign off on a private $15.1 million installment contract to improve spotty coverage and reliability of the public radio system used by law enforcement, fire, emergency and other agencies, and to expand its coverage across the county, according to a press release from N.C. Treasurer Dale Folwell.  County commissioners also are seeking a separate $4.4 million private installment contract to install new water/sewer meter equipment and for new billing system software; no tax increase is expected for either project, according to the statement.

“The LGC, chaired by State Treasurer Dale R. Folwell, CPA, and staffed by the Department of State Treasurer (DST), has a statutory duty to monitor the financial well-being of more than 1,100 local government units. The commission also examines whether the amount of money units borrow is adequate and reasonable for proposed projects and confirms the governmental units can reasonably afford to repay the debt,” the statement read.

Other projects include beach renourishment projects totaling close to $40 million in Dare and Onslow counties following recent hurricanes.

The LGC is expected to vote Tuesday on $3 million in grants from the Viable Utility Reserve. The requests – $781.000 in merger/regionalization feasibility studies and just over $2.4 million in asset inventory and assessment studies – would allow local government units identified as having distressed water/wastewater systems to begin working toward long-term solutions for their systems. The reserve was established in 2020 by the N.C. General Assembly to improve the viability of distressed water and wastewater systems in the state.

LGC members also are being asked to approve several cost-saving refunding proposals at lower interest rates, as well as increases in revolving loans, including a $4.7 million loan to the city of Oxford for replacing water mains that are at least 100 years old.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Franklin County Logo

Franklin County Seeks Input regarding EMS

/by

Franklin County is seeking community input in regard to Emergency Medical Services
(EMS) within Franklin County via a brief survey. The survey can be found at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CGCZR2W or on the County’s EMS website at https://www.franklincountync.us/services/emergency-services. If you are interested in sharing your
input, this brief survey will be available until Wednesday, February 2, 2022.

The survey is part of a comprehensive EMS Study funded in the FY22 Budget by the Franklin County Board of Commissioners. The study seeks to assess the current EMS service and develop recommendations for the future. The study is being conducted by the Center for Public Safety Management (CPSM), a public safety consulting firm with both former practitioners and current EMS
leaders with first-hand knowledge and expertise in the emergency medical services field. All survey responses will be delivered directly to CPSM.

For additional information, please contact William Doerfer, Assistant County Manager, at (919) 496-5994.

TownTalk: Book Will Highlight Franklin Co. Historic Architecture

/by

 

The book chronicling historic architectural properties in Franklin County has taken a few years to come to fruition, but a few years is a drop in the bucket when you consider that Franklin County’s roots go back to well before the Revolutionary War.

But those on the Franklin County Historical Preservation Commission are anxious for the book to be published, and its chairman, Bill Harris, said Monday that he hopes the book will be ready in time for Christmas 2022.

The biggest part of the work was completed by 2018 or so, Harris told WIZS’s Trey Snide on Monday’s Town Talk. Jeroen van den Hurk and Megan Funk of the Commonwealth Heritage Group walked and drove the county, took countless photos and spoke with many people to identify previously documented historic properties and to find new structures that hadn’t previously been included in the survey completed in 1975.

That survey resulted in the small but well regarded Early Architecture of Franklin County by T.H. Pearce, Harris noted, but this new book is going to knock it out of the proverbial park.

He said the book, which is in final edits, will probably weigh in between 400 and 500 pages. A classic “coffee table” style book, it will have 800 photos – including a collection of color photos of places of particular historical significance – and the information will be organized by township, he said.

The COVID-19 pandemic is partly responsible for the delay in publication and release of the book, Harris said. And the historic preservation commission is seeking donations from individuals to help defray costs.

For a minimum donation of $100, sponsors will receive a complimentary copy of the book, along with recognition among a list of sponsors included in the publication. There are different levels of giving – platinum level is a gift of $1,000, gold is $500 and bronze is $250.

There are brochures at libraries in Oxford and Louisburg that give details of the process. Harris said he hoped to have copies at the Perry Memorial Library soon to share with anyone interested in learning more. A PDF of the brochure can be found on Facebook at Frankin, Granville, Vance, Warren Genealogy. The PDF can be downloaded.  https://www.facebook.com/groups/fgvwgeneaology.

The soon-to-be published book is a comprehensive architectural history of the county, Harris said. But it was important to the members of the commission that the book not be a dry book about architecture. There’s going to be a glossary of architectural terms and a section that Harris is calling “lost properties,” which will include photographs of “so many great houses that have been lost to time.”

There are existing photographs of structures that no longer exist, and often don’t appear in books like the one the commission is creating.

“It’s not just the architecture – it’s the stories behind the houses” and the families that lived in those homes, he said, that he hopes the book will capture.

“Anyone who has roots in Franklin County will find it interesting,” he said.

The book will be dedicated to a former Franklin County resident – Maury York – who Harris said was instrumental in the formation of the historic preservation commission. “He did so much groundwork,” he said of York, adding that he continues to offer advice and provide information to the commission. York also helped create the Tar River Center for History and Culture located on the campus of Louisburg College.

The focus of the project is not about making money – but not to lose money, either, Harris said. Rather, it’s to help promote historic tourism in the area, as well as to capture and preserve some of the qualities that make Franklin County unique.

“There’s an interest here,” Harris said, to promote tourism. And that helps to boost the local economy.

Send donations to Franklin County Historic Preservation Commission, 215 E. Nash St., Louisburg, NC 27549.