Tag Archive for: #hendersonnews

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TownTalk: A Look At The Vance Co. Budget

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Vance County residents can expect no increase in property tax rates or other fees if the commissioners approve the $55 million budget presented to them earlier this month.

The commissioners are expected to decide at their June 6 meeting, according to information from County Manager Jordan McMillen.

The proposed budget represents a 6 percent increase – or roughly $3.3 million – in the 2021-22 budget, and McMillen said the county is in a position to further plans to create a shell building in the industrial park, which will be a boost for future jobs and local investment.

The budget will use more than $1.6 million from the general fund balance.

“We do anticipate our fund balance increasing over the next year or so,” McMillen said in an email to WIZS News. He attributes this expected increase mainly to increased tax collections and, unfortunately, vacancies in some of the larger county departments and added that he anticipates moving additional fund balance money to plan longer term for future capital needs.

The property tax base is increasing $95 million from the prior year which, along with an increased tax collection rate, will account for $1.1 million in additional property tax revenue, according to the budget information presented to the commissioners for review.

The sales tax is projected to be $2.8 million more to the 22-23 budget than in the current budget. This increase will help fulfill recommendations from the recent salary study for county employees.

The proposed budget also has increased support for the fire department, with the addition of three new fire engineer positions – one for each shift.

McMillen said having such revenue growth in both property tax and sales tax is not something that the county is used to. “ I have not seen a situation where both property tax and sales tax were up to the degree it is right now,” he said. “Both are explainable when you look into what is making up the tax base growth and when you account for the pandemic’s impact on sales tax spending.,” he said, adding that he doesn’t anticipate it to be a “continual pattern.”

View the proposed budget here: https://www.vancecounty.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/MASTER-File-Website.pdf

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SportsTalk: Ryan Parker of Vance Charter Talks About Lacrosse and His Future

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Ryan Parker has had a lacrosse stick in his hand since he was about seven years old.  Now a senior at Vance Charter, that experience has paid off as the Knights went to the state playoffs this season compiling a 13-6 record. With 116 points on the season, Parker finished as one of the top scorers in the state.  He started playing in his yard with his brother and credits him along with his coaches Dan and Dennis Sandlin for his love of the game and to his success.

The road has not always been an easy one. During his freshmen year, Vance Charter didn’t have enough players to field a team and during his sophomore year the Knights only had the opportunity to play in four games before cv-19 caused the team, like many others, to close up shop. During Parker’s junior year, fall sports were pushed to spring and that meant Parker was playing and practicing lacrosse and soccer at the same time, but all of that hard work paid off in his senior year with the Knights making the state lacrosse playoffs. “It was our best season,” Parker said. “The team bonded.  We have a sense of brotherhood,” Parker added.

Parker is hoping to eventually become part of a Division I program and would love to go to Jacksonville University, but for now he will be heading to ECU in the fall and is planning to play club lacrosse.  Parker will majoring in marketing and sales.

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Maria Parham Health: Memorial Day, No Greater Love

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Memorial Day is coming up, and Thursday, May 26th at 10 a.m., Maria Parham Health will remember fallen heroes. The presentation called “Memorial Day, No Greater Love” will take place at the flagpole, weather permitting, in front of Maria Parham.

The public is invited to the event on the main, Henderson campus as those who have died in the performance of their military duties while serving the U.S. Armed forces will be remembered and honored.

The ceremony will include prayers, speakers, music, the hanging of a memorial wreath and the reading of names In Memoriam.

In the event of bad weather, the ceremony will move to the front lobby of the hospital. Either way, the address is 566 Ruin Creek Road.

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Cooperative Extension with Wayne Rowland: European Hornets

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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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Henderson Sears Closing Its Doors June 27

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There’s been a Sears store in Henderson for more than 60 years, but that’s about to change: the Sears store on Dabney Drive is closing its doors on June 27. Friday marked Day 1 of a liquidation sale, and Store Manager T.W. Floyd said business has been brisk.

Business used to be brisk when Floyd’s dad, Thomas Floyd,  was the manager of the Sears store, too, from 1956 to 1986.

The senior Floyd retired after 30 years, and he reflected about his time with the company.

“I gave my life to Sears,” he told WIZS News via telephone Friday. There were long hours, to be sure, but Floyd said he loved every minute of it. “We were the center of sales,” he recalled. “We were busy, busy, busy.”

The first Sears location was right in the center of downtown on Garnett Street, Floyd recalled From there, the store moved to Rose Avenue and then ultimately, to its current 9,100 square foot location on Dabney Drive. Each store was bigger than the previous one, Floyd said, trying to keep up with demand for goods from customers.

But over the years, consumers’ buying habits changed, and corporate philosophy shifted to the smaller, hometown store model. The Henderson store is one of about 85 still in operation, but T.W. Floyd said that between the COVID-19 pandemic and the continuing supply chain challenges that retailers face, he decided to close the doors when the current contract is up.

Floyd owns the building where Sears is located, and he said Friday he didn’t expect any trouble finding a new tenant.

Floyd, who has managed the current store for 28 years, said both he and his dad followed the “old school” way of putting customer service at the top of the priority list. “It has served us well,” he added.

“We were fortunate to be in business for as long as we have been,” the younger Floyd said, and he said the store had always enjoyed good local support.

Both men said that change is a part of life that should be embraced. “Nothing in life stays the same,” Thomas Floyd said. “We have to adapt to change.”

One thing that IS the same, however is a freezer in the older Floyd’s basement. “I put it there in 1959,” he said proudly, “and it’s never given me a moment’s trouble.

No need to wonder where he purchased it – the brand name was Coldspot before it underwent a name change. To, you guessed it – Kenmore.

MPH Staff Has An Oasis Room To Take Respite

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Maria Parham Health staff now has an Oasis Room, designed just for them as a spot where they can just unplug and recharge – themselves and their phones.

With thanks to the hospital’s facilities team and suggestions from staff to the Resiliency Committee, the room was officially opened today (Thursday) and will open for everyone to enjoy come Monday, according to Kimberly Smith, director of the Cancer Center and member of the resiliency committee.

What once had been a spot with outdated lighting and carpeting that served as a hiding spot for storage racks has been transformed into a soothing, well – oasis – for MPH staff to come enjoy a few minutes of peace and quiet during their workday.

There’s a massage chair for relieving stress and a television that will play soothing music, Smith said.

“People can use it as a place to relax a little bit,” said CEO Bert Beard, before returning to the work of saving lives and caring for patients.

There will be snacks and drinks and a single-cup coffee maker for everyone to enjoy. There’s a spot to charge phones and a coloring wall, along with a board where folks can write positive messages to one another.

“We’re very pleased with the way the space turned out,” Beard said. Smith also gave special thanks to Josh Banks, director of the facilities team, for the extra effort they put in to making the room just right. “They just really have a heart to make things happen,” she said.

But that’s not all – Smith said she hopes to create a smaller version of the Oasis room on the patient floors for those nurses and others who aren’t necessarily able to come to the Oasis room during their shift. “Even if it’s a simple recliner,” Smith said, having a mini-oasis on the different floors would allow staff “to get away and reset themselves.”

SportsTalk: Coach Bunn Talks Vance Charter Softball, Friday’s Game

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Could this be the year that Vance Charter’s Softball team advances beyond the quarter finals?  Head coach Brian Bunn would like to think so.  This is the third trip to the quarter finals for the Knights. With a team heavily laden with seven seniors, Bunn and his team will have the chance to advance tomorrow (Friday) at Oxford Park when Vance Charter takes on Perquimans County. While Perquimans is obviously a good team to have made it this far in the playoffs, they are young and Bunn hopes his team’s experience will pay off tomorrow.

“It’s been an awesome, awesome experience,” Bunn said of working with the seniors. “It’s a coach’s dream, these seniors to lead the team,” Bunn continued. The Knights have taken that experience and used it to go undefeated in the conference this season and those seven seniors have a combined 47-10 record over their varsity career. One of the reasons the Knights have been so successful is they aren’t easily rattled.  “No matter what happens, they keep their composure,” Bunn explained.  Bunn said, while the girls on the team have a lot of fun, they also know when to get serious and practices can get quite intense. Six of those seven intense seniors will be moving on to play at the college level next year.

In addition to senior leadership, Bunn says scheduling non-conference powerhouses like East Alamance and East Wake has helped toughen up his team and contributed to the Knights winning twelve of the last thirteen games. The Knights hope those winning ways continue.

Tomorrow night’s game at Oxford Park between the Vance Charter Knights and Perquimans Co. gets underway at 5pm and tickets are only $7.

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TownTalk: Kaleah Padgett Helps Daughters Who Have Lost Mothers

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Kaleah Padgett has degrees in sociology and in Biblical and religious studies, both of which provide useful tools, but it’s the personal experience of dealing with the loss of her mother that she draws from as she helps other women struggling with their own mothers’ deaths.

Padgett formed Our Motherless Daughters about five years ago, and until the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the group met monthly at Perry Memorial Library. Now Padgett is leading more than 100 women via a Facebook page.

“Hopefully we can have start having meetings again soon,” Padgett told John C. Rose on Thursday’s Town Talk. It also is her wish to find a central location to gather, making it easy for women to walk to the meeting.

Padgett said her mother died 12 years ago, on Padgett’s own birthday.

“Having that happen on my birthday was very, very hard,” she said. Over the years, however, the sadness of grief has transformed into a “great celebration of life,” with each birthday that comes.

“My mom gave me life on that day…and she went Home on that day,” she said. The profound grief she still feels over the loss of her mother is an emotion that others in the group feel as well. But Padgett said the skills she learned through her education help her provide spiritual support and emotional support as she talks with the other women in the group. And she also has experienced the loss herself, which can also be a source of comfort to the group’s members.

Padgett said she was lucky because she had wonderful family support when her mother died. “A lot of people don’t have that support,” she noted. “I wanted to reach out…and let them know they are not alone in this process.”

Everyone grieves in a different way, she explained. It is something that she continues to process, but the feelings remain. “It lessens and it gets better, but it never goes away. Grief is also a part of the healing process as well,” she said.

In addition to starting up the in-person meetings again, Padgett said she has a second goal of identifying a location for a community garden, where women in the group can select a flower to plant as a way to remember their mothers. Each flower can represent a mother that is still missed by her daughter.

Call Padgett at 919.426.7396 to learn more about the support group, or find the group page on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/groups/204678233602493.

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