WIZS Radio Local News Audio 07-11-22 Noon
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Tag Archive for: #hendersonnews
Cooperative Extension with Wayne Rowland: Spotted Lanternfly
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WIZS Radio Local News Audio 07-08-22 Noon
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SportsTalk: Wilkerson Helps College Baseball Players Take The Next Step
Daniel Wilkerson has traveled a long way since his days of playing baseball for his father, Todd Wilkerson, at Kerr-Vance Academy. His baseball journey has taken him to Randolph Macon College and then to East Carolina University and now to the Cotuit Kettleers in the Cape Cod League.
“I’m following in my father’s footsteps,” Wilkerson said on Thursday’s SportsTalk with George Hoyle. Wilkerson’s father spent many years coaching at KVA and the younger Wilkerson is doing much the same but at a different level and a different place. After two years at East Carolina, Wilkerson has found himself an assistant coaching position with the Kettleers. He coaches 1st base during games and does much of the team’s field work keeping the playing surface in game day shape. In the evenings Wilkerson will scout teams to help prepare the Kettleers for the next game.
The Cape Cod League has 10 teams in two divisions and features some of college baseball’s top players, many of whom are on the verge of being drafted. That means players turn over frequently. Despite the geographical distance between Cape Cod in Massachusetts and Henderson, Wilkerson does see similarites in how all of the programs he has been involved in operate. He also sees differences as well. “The game speeds up,” Wilkerson said. He says there was a difference in the speed of play from KVA to Randolph Macon and again from there to ECU and even more in the Cape Cod league.
His work for the Cotuit Kettleers must be paying off as the team leads there division in the league with a 14-4 record.
The Local Skinny! Around Old Granville: Place Names
What’s in a name?
So many places within the four-county area got their names as a way to honor prominent families of the day; landowners who donated land for the railroad to come through back in the late 1880s, for example, resulted in town names like Stovall, Townsville and Stem.
An area hit the “big time” when it got a post office, and local historian and Thornton Library’s North Carolina Room specialist Mark Pace said the names that postmasters chose resulted in names like Dabney, Epsom and others. Pace and WIZS’s Bill Harris combed through a list of townships and communities – some still in existence and others lost to time and progress – during Thursday’s Around Old Granville segment of The Local Skinny!
Take Dabney, for instance. When a post office was established there, the postmaster renamed the community of Herndon (president of the railroad)to Dabney to honor William Dabney, a state geologist who “found some pretty neat things” in the 1880s and 1890s. Dabney later moved to Texas and became a prominent professor and university president.
And the community known as Mobile, for example, never had its own post office, but got its name because of the ties to Mobile, Alabama that the Hawkins family, a prominent African American family in Henderson, had.
More recently, the Granville County town of Butner gets its name from Camp Butner, an Army base constructed in 1942. Maj. Gen. Henry W. Butner, from Stokes County, NC, had died just a few years earlier and officials thought it fitting to name the base for someone from North Carolina, Pace said. Butner served in World War I and was noted for developing artillery for the Army, he added.
“It was run by the state of North Carolina until it was incorporated in 2007,” Pace said, making it the third newest town in the state.
The Umstead brothers – John and William B. – used their political influence to get the government to building the base in Granville County, where land was cheap and the camp could be relatively secluded but in close proximity to a large city (Durham).
The origin of Butner’s next-door neighbor, Creedmoor, isn’t quite so clear. There are several theories out there, Pace said, but he suspects that the town got its name from a famous gun range on Long Island, NY called Creedmoor Gun Range. There were a lot of gun enthusiasts in the area when Creedmoor was incorporated in 1911, he added.
The Lyons family established a post office in 1886 and there’s a Lyon Station Road located nearby.
William Thomas Stem was a big farmer in Granville County and he gave land for the railroad to come through. The name Stem replaced an earlier community called Tally Ho, which was a stagecoach stop. Tally Ho Road and Tally Ho township serve as reminders today.
There is a similar situation up in the northern part of Granville County, in the Sassafras Fork township. That name, Pace said, goes back to the late 1700s, but the town name was changed to Stovall to honor John W. Stovall who donated the land for, you guessed it, the railroad to come through to connect Clarksville and Oxford.
Communities like Gela near Stovall, Zacho near Wilton and Woodsworth near Townsville are just a few examples of communities that just sort of died off, Pace said. In the case of Woodsworth, Pace said, the family for which the community is named, moved to Arkansas but the name stuck. Zacho had a post office, and was located south of Wilton going toward the Tar River. Until just a few years ago, there had been a one-room shed that served as a post office.
There may have been only one Zacho, but several counties claim communities called Sandy Creek, Pace said.
There’s one in Vance, one in Warren and one in Franklin, he said. And they’re located near each other geographically, which could muddy the waters for genealogy researchers who are trying to find where ancestors lived or where they may be buried.
The oldest place name with European origin is Nutbush creek. William byrd doing dividing line between nc and va. Surveying in 1722.
Came to a creek in northern vance co. had a lot of hazel nut. So they just called it Nutbush creek.
“The oldest place name with a European origin,” Pace said, “is Nutbush Creek,” located in the general area of Williamsborough north of Henderson. William Byrd was surveying the area that created the North Carolina-Virginia state line in 1722.
“He came to a creek in northern Vance County that had a lot of hazel nut trees,” Pace explained. “So they just called it Nutbush Creek.”
Sometimes names come about as a matter of practicality.
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WIZS Radio Local News Audio 07-07-22 Noon
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TownTalk: 11 Year Old Varonica Mitchell Attracts National Spotlight
Like a lot of other kids her age, Varonica Mitchell was excited recently because she was getting a new phone.
But how many other 11-year-olds have a resume that lists accomplishments including actress, musician, dancer and, wait for it…stand-up comedian?
Varonia, or V V, as her family calls her, can be seen in her one-man, er, one-girl show on all the different social media platforms. Simply called “The V V Show,” viewers can click on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to see what the vivacious V V currently is up to. She has 37,000 followers, just within that past 18 months.
She chatted with John C. Rose recently for a TownTalk segment that aired Thursday and he asked her what she enjoyed most.
“I think I like dancing most,” she said after a little thought. “Shout out to my mom’s iDance Praise Academy,” she added.
Whether she’s dancing, modeling, cheerleading, playing the drums or performing her original skits, Varonica gives it her all. Her infectious energy bubbles up when she speaks about the show. She’s developed several characters that she has introduced on her show: there’s Grandma Roseanne and Granny Rowann but she said a lot of folks are partial to Mr. Egg Nog.
“My friends like him,” she said. “His favorite word is ‘Well,’” she said, uses her best gravelly, old codger voice to drag out the word. “Mr. Egg Nog has a big stomach and a beard,” she said. “He tells me he’s supposed to eat healthy, but he doesn’t. He eats everything.”
Varonica gets into costume to portray the characters, and the rest of her family pitches in before and after production. Her dad does the videoing and posting and her mom helps her with her outfits. And when they’re on the road, older sister tutors her so she doesn’t fall behind on school work.
“My mom, my dad and my sister inspire me. Also Kevin Hart,” she added, giving a nod to the comedian, with whom she shares a common attribute – height. Hart, a world-famous comedian, stands at 5-foot-2; Varonica checks in – so far – at 4-foot-5.
“He inspires little kids who want to be comedians,” she said, but even if you don’t want to be a comedian, he still makes them laugh.
And if Varonica creates a similar path for herself, she is well on the way.
When asked what she thought she’d be doing in 5 or 10 years, she got quiet for a moment before she answered. “I will be an independent woman,” she predicted. “I will be doing movies, series…my mom will probably be kicking me out of the house by then,” she said.
But as long as Varonica keeps doing what she’s doing, her future surely is on a sharp upward trajectory.
“It’s me, being myself. Mmm hmmm.”
Learn more about Varonica and “The V V Show” on any of the following:
www.instagram.com/_thevvshow_/
Google: http://g.co/kgs/Lds9wG
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Cooperative Extension With Jamon Glover: Patience
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Local Businesses Asked To Donate Items For New Teacher Welcome Bags
The Henderson-Vance Chamber of Commerce is preparing 130 welcome bags for the new teachers preparing to come to work in the Vance County area.
But the Chamber needs your help! If your business would like to donate an item to help fill these bags, please contact us at 252.438.8414 or bring the items (in quantities of 130, please) to the Chamber office, 414 S. Garnett St., no later than Friday, July 8.
The schools include those in Vance County Public Schools as well as Henderson Collegiate, Crossroads Christian School, Kerr-Vance Academy and Vance Charter School.
Some suggestions for donations include: pens, pencils, pads, hand sanitizer, coupons /discount cards, key chains, etc.
The Chamber staff thanks you in advance for your kind donation.
TownTalk: Looking To The Future Of Area Transportation
Imagine driving to the train station in downtown Henderson to begin your daily commute to your job in the Triangle. You hop on the commuter rail, which whizzes past the stopped traffic along U.S. 1 and Capital Boulevard as you approach your destination.
For regional planner Sam Boswell, that is no longer a pie-in-the-sky notion, but what could be reality in, say, another 10 years or so.
Boswell is a regional planner who concentrates on transportation for the Kerr Tar COG. He told WIZS’s Bill Harris Wednesday that he sees his job as a balancing act to ensure that the COG provides and promotes projects for all parts of the region, not just the ones that are experiencing the burgeoning growth right now.
The Kerr Tar COG, which serves Vance, Granville, Warren, Franklin and Person counties, stays up-to-date on NC DOT projects, such as the S-Line Rail Project slated to run through Henderson and points north, participation in a regional greenway project and an alternative to the gas tax, which helps to fund transportation projects and maintenance.
Individuals have an opportunity to ask questions, voice concerns and hear updates from the NC DOT as it hosts an open house during the week of July 25-29. Folks can drop in to Div. 5 offices, 2612 N. Duke St., in Durham any time between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. during that week, Boswell said.
Part of his job, he said, is to help municipalities and counties with projects and to explore ways to have a regional effect, “a grouping of services to benefit the region.” That sometimes proves difficult, he said, explaining that municipalities may not reap a direct benefit from a project that is not geographically nearby.
Take the S-Line rail project, for example. This project will connect Raleigh and Richmond and completing the Southeast rail corridor that then can feed into the much-used Northeast rail corridor.
“It’s a big deal, for sure,” Boswell said, adding that there’s a great deal of excitement around the project.
In addition to reducing commute times and the number of vehicles on the road, a passenger rail brings with it other benefits. “If you’ve got a train stop, you’ve got people leaving and people coming in,” he explained. That means riders can choose to get off at the Henderson or Norlina stations, “put a break in their trip and visit local businesses,” spending money and adding to the local economies.
There’s another exciting possibility for transportation of a slower nature – bicycle and pedestrian traffic along a greenway. The East Coast Greenway feasibility study is underway now. It’s mostly a biking trail, but there’s a walking route as well, Boswell said. The greenway extends through 400 cities from Florida to Maine, sort of like the Appalachian Trail, and the American Tobacco Trail in Durham makes up 27 or so miles of the greenway trail, he added.
“We’re working with a team of consultants to see how we can make that happen in the Kerr Tar region,” he said. Right now, there’s a section between Butner and Oxford in Granville County, but the COG is waiting to hear from another grant opportunity to continue the study on a bigger scale – building a greenway trail from Oxford north to Virginia and from Oxford to Henderson.
These projects, and others on the horizon, signal change for the area. Boswell said, like it or not, as the Triangle continues to expand, it’s important to keep the transportation system updated – even trying to stay ahead of the growth that is surely coming.
In addition to new projects like the rail line, it’s also critical to keep existing roads in good repair and able to handle the increasing volume of traffic.
“People are going to start moving in here,” Boswell said of the Kerr Tar region. What planners have to try to figure out is how to make adjustments to the infrastructure to accommodate those people.
More people means more vehicles using the roads, but not necessarily producing more revenue through the gas sales tax. More hybrid and electric vehicles means less money spent on gas, he explained. So the DOT is re-examining an idea previously studied that would generate revenue based on the number of miles a driver drives as opposed to how much gas he pumps into his tank.
“Right now, money for construction projects comes from the gas tax,” Boswell explained. As vehicles become more fuel efficient or not dependent at all on gas, drivers “aren’t paying their fair share…and the burden falls on some drivers more than others.”
DOT looked at it a few years ago.
Is it more equitable or sustainable to pay per mile than per gallon of gasoline? That’s one of the questions being considered in the study, he said.
The study has slots for 450 participants throughout the state, which will run from the end of July through October. Participants will get a device of some sort that will connect to the vehicle’s odometer or otherwise track the miles driven.
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