Tag Archive for: #hendersonnews

TownTalk: Around Old Granville Churches And Religion

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These days, churches and their congregations are fairly stable entities, occupying structures that have been around for years, decades, and even centuries. But in earlier days, when congregations were first being established, church services outgrew their small buildings and moved to bigger places.

And sometimes, the building moved, too.

That’s what local historian Mark Pace discovered when he went on a field trip to Stovall to check out Grassy Creek Presbyterian Church. Pace, who is the North Carolina Room Specialist at Richard Thornton Library in Oxford, said he had presumed that it was the congregation that pulled up stakes and moved to Stovall. But as he poked around during a renovation project, he saw pegs – not nails – and two-toned timbers that “looked like they’d been moved and replaced.”

He suspects that at least part of the existing church dates back to the 1750’s or 1760’s.

Grassy Creek Presbyterian is the Mother Church of other Presbyterian churches in the area, he said, having been established in 1757.

That’s pretty old – more than a decade older than historic St. John’s, Williamsboro, the oldest frame church in North Carolina, built in 1772.

But it’s not enough that parts, not all, of the church are old, Pace said.

There are plenty of congregations that have been in existence in the area for many years, but the structure in which they worship has either been renovated, torn down and rebuilt or has been lost to fire.

Take Liberty Christian Church in Epsom, for example. Pace’s own relative, Benjamin Franklin Ayscue was one of the church’s founders back in 1859. The church once stood where the Epsom Fire Department is now, and it was called Liberty Hill. The current church was built in 1904.

Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Warrenton was built in 1824 by Thomas Bragg, who also was the chief contractor for the State Capitol in Raleigh.

Brassfield Baptist in Granville County was built in the 1840’s and nearby Banks Methodist started out as an Episcopal Church in 1790; the current building was built in 1911.

Hester Baptist and Mountain Creek Baptist were built by the same contractor; their sanctuaries look the same, but Hester got shortchanged during construction and is 10 feet narrower than Mountain Creek, Pace said.

Tabbs Creek Baptist is celebrating its 250th  anniversary, having been established in 1775. But the current church building is 20th century vintage.

Old Granville County was somewhat of a melting pot, and it’s not surprising that immigrants brought their religions with them. St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ridgeway was established in the 1870’s to serve the area’s German population.

In 1923, the first Catholic Church was built at the corner of Montgomery and College streets in Henderson, largely to serve people who moved to the area for the textile industry, Pace said.

A larger church was built on Oxford Road to accommodate the growing Catholic population. That site is now a funeral home.

Not to be outdone, Oxford got its own Catholic church in 1955 when St. Catherine’s of Siena was built. It stands empty today, but recently was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Pace said its unique Mission-style architecture, interior artwork and windows by a liturgical artist Ade Bethune are special features of this building.

Granville County boasts of a most unusual spot to host a church service – a railroad car.

“In 1892, the Catholic Church built two identical chapel cars, St. Peter and St. Paul,” Pace said. “In 1942, with the creation of Camp Butner, there was a need for a Catholic Church,” he continued. So one of those chapel cars was parked on a spur line off Spring Street and from 1942 to 1954, Catholics held mass there.

The Henderson and Oxford congregations merged when St. James Catholic Church was built on U.S. 158.

Listen to the entire interview at wizs.com!

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The Local Skinny! Pop the Hood: Spring Cleaning Your Car

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For our sponsor, Advance Auto Parts, as part of a paid radio sponsorship on WIZS.

Getting a little spring cleaning done may be on people’s minds, now that the pollen has done its thing and the weather’s warming up.

But spring cleaning shouldn’t be limited to homes and businesses – what about your vehicles?

We make lists to take care of seasonal household chores like washing the windows and cleaning out the gutters, but cars and trucks would benefit from having seasonal checklists, too.

The professionals at Advance Auto Parts can help you choose the right products to keep your vehicle looking great and running great this spring and all year long.

Some maintenance and spring cleaning tasks are recommended based on time, others on the number of miles you’ve driven, and some are simply preventative measures to keep your vehicle in good repair.

The “check” lights on dashboards of many newer models remind us when it’s time to change the oil or check tire pressure – they may be annoying to see, but they shouldn’t be ignored.

There’s not a “check” light for things like belts, battery terminals and spark plugs, so a quick look under the hood can help you spot little problems before they become big problems that could leave you stranded along the roadside.

Spark plugs may need to be replaced every few years, especially if you put 30,000 or more miles a year on your vehicle. Timing belts should last for 50,000 miles or so, but all hoses and belts should be checked periodically for wear.

If you use a mechanic for tire rotations and oil changes, they should be checking things like tire pressure and uneven wear, as well as air filters and cabin filters.

DIY’ers need to keep those things in mind as well – a cabin air filter helps keep dirt and irritants out of the interior of your vehicle.

Speaking of interiors, when’s the last time you cleaned the inside of the windshield? That filmy buildup can be easily removed. While you’re at it, go ahead and give the seats and floorboards a deep clean.

If vehicles are, indeed, a reflection of the owners who drive them, then some of us may need to tackle a spring cleaning project or two before we head down the road.

The information contained in this post is not advice from Advance Auto Parts or WIZS.  Safety First!  Always seek proper help.  This is presented for its informational value only and is part of a paid advertising sponsorship.

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TownTalk: ALS United NC Helps Those With The Disease

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Dave Shore and WIZS’s Bill Harris have some things in common: They both have had media careers – Dave as one of the founders of 99.9 The Fan in Raleigh back in 2007, and Bill behind the mic right here at the radio station, for one. But more importantly, both are interested in helping others manage what, at best, is a life-altering diagnosis.

Shore was busy with TV sports career back in 1991 when his mother was diagnosed with ALS, and he said he wasn’t able to provide the care for her that he would have liked.

As president and CEO of Raleigh-based ALS United NC, however, Shore said he considers “this is my time to help my Mom…to help others.”

Today, Harris can count himself in that group. He was diagnosed last week.

“I’ve got it. I have to deal with it,” Harris said. “If doing a show can help someone else, I’m all for it.”

And so, that’s just what he did.

Shore joined Wednesday’s TownTalk segment by telephone from Washington, DC, where he and others are meeting with North Carolina legislators to talk about ways to help fight ALS.

“I’m leading a major Mission First organization,” Shore said. ALS United funds two grant streams – one that goes to patients to pay for things not covered by insurance – and the other that provides grant funding to the six clinics set up across the state to help ALS patients.

The two closest are at Duke and UNC, he said. These multi-disciplinary clinics are a one-stop shop of sorts to help patients see various specialists during the course of a day visit.

It’s a lot easier to go with the acronym ALS or Lou Gehrig’s Disease than it is to say Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (a-my-o-TROE-fik LAT-ur-ul skluh-ROE-sis), and Shore said diagnosing the disease can be as complicated as trying to pronounce the medical term correctly.

Basically, what it’s doing is breaking down motor neurons in your body and robbing your body’s ability to get signals from the brain, Shore explained.

“It’s a hard diagnosis to make,” he said, and it often takes a long time.

There is reason for hope, however. Between advances in research and drug trials, neurologists have more tools to improve patients’ lives.

The ultimate goal, of course, is to find a cure. In the meantime, organizations like ALS United continue to work to make patients’ lives better.

“Our main goal is to take care of our patients. We don’t do the research, but …partner with the ones who do to keep it going,” Shore said. “They’re smart people,” he said of the researchers, “and they’re going to find the right combination.”

Similarities between ALS and other neurological diseases ranging from Alzheimer’s to Parkinson’s are desperately underfunded. But Shore said if ALS researchers have a breakthrough, it likely would carry over into treatment of the others.

Remember the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge that went viral 10 years ago? “We’re going to do it again,” Shore said. “We need that influx of dollars.”

He’d like to think that a treatment for ALS, now considered a progressive, degenerative disease, will come along, much like the drug cocktail that has essentially made HIV a disease that patients can live with.

“It became a survivable diagnosis,” he said.

There are so many trials and so many drugs that people are being put on to see if the progression can be slowed down.

Shore’s mission is to find a way to live with ALS. “It’s kind of what fuels me,” he said. “That I get this information out and help as many people as I can.”

Visit https://alsnc.org/ to learn more.

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Home And Garden Show

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On the Home and Garden Show with Vance Co. Cooperative Ext.

  • Cleanup perennial flower beds. Cut back plants, pull weeds and refresh mulch
  • Finish up your pruning chores. Fruit trees,blueberries,grape vines, broadleaf evergreens and ornamental trees.
  • Increase pollination of your garden by purchasing Honey bees or contacting a beekeeper to place a hive on your property
  • Keep your garden notebook up to date
  • Check vegetable seedlings that you are growing indoors daily, light,soil moisture
  • Plan your spring garden on paper before planting your garden
  • Check all Garden equipment have it ready when needed

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Vance County Courthouse

eCourts Odyssey Roll Out

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UPDATE 4-30-24 Noon

Clerk Of Court Henry Gupton Said Day 1 Of ‘Odyssey’ Went Smoothly on WIZS Radio’s The Local Skinny!

The clerk of court staff put in a full day Sunday – 9 to 5 – to make sure the transition from paper to paperless went as smoothly as it possibly could, and Vance County Clerk of Superior Court Henry Gupton said he thought things went very well on Monday – Day 1 – of the online data management system.

Gupton said he was happy and proud of the court staff, and he predicted that things would smooth out as everyone gets used to the Enterprise Justice system, also called Odyssey. Odyssey replaces paper processes with online access uploads and transactions. Features include online citation and ticket payments, as well as a free search portal to display court records and case events.

“The system is slow, we’ve got to get used to it,” he said on Tuesday’s segment of The Local Skinny! “It’s going to be very beneficial,” Gupton added.

But for the next 10 weeks or so, it’s going to probably be a slog.

Most of the work will fall to the clerk’s office at first, he said. “If we all give it time and we’re all patient, we’ll be fine.”

Gupton said he’s going to take part in a meeting later this week to discuss equipment at the detention center that could be used to provide detainees a virtual first appearance, which could ease sheriff’s officers of the burden to transporting detainees to and from court.

**Previous update below as well as additional audio.

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**UPDATE 4-29-24 Noon

Vance County is among 10 counties switching over to eCourts today, putting an end to paper files and transitioning to a cloud-hosted digital case management system.

The Enterprise Justice system, also called Odyssey, replaces paper processes with online access uploads and transactions. Features include online citation and ticket payments, as well as a free search portal to display court records and case events.

As Enterprise Justice expands statewide, millions more North Carolinians gain mobile access to their courthouse, saving time and providing transparency, according to information from the N.C. Office of the Administrative Courts.

Vance, Granville, Warren and Franklin counties are in Track 4 of the statewide rollout. There are two more groups of counties to go live in 2024, and the process should be completed by the end of 2025.

But in an April 15 work session of county commissioners, Vance County Sheriff Curtis Brame said he and other sheriffs across the state are less enthusiastic about the rollout.

“It’s going to slow down our court system,” Brame told commissioners. “Nobody likes it.” Brame said a typical court day in Vance County may have 300 names on the docket. Odyssey would reduce that number to 50, Brame said.

“Enterprise Justice has accepted over 600,000 electronic filings and supports tens of thousands of daily searches for digital court records in North Carolina’s largest population centers and five counties, jurisdictions serving nearly three million people,” said NCAOC Director Ryan Boyce.

Preparations and walkthroughs for each track of the eCourts transition begin months in advance to train court officials and the public on new technologies and processes, install improved network infrastructure in courthouses, customize programming integrations, and migrate case event data and court records from mainframe indexes and paper to a dynamic cloud-hosted platform.

In addition to electronic filing and records searches, the eCourts suite of applications also includes the already statewide eWarrants and Enforcement Mobile platforms, which integrate law enforcement processes with the court system, and Guide & File, a tool that helps self-represented users create and electronically file common legal actions through automated interviews. Statewide, more than 36,000 registered eWarrants users have issued 1.2 million criminal processes since the eCourts application for law enforcement replaced older systems in July 2022.

A large network of IT and software systems teams from NCAOC supports the eCourts transition through training, on-site assistance, remote monitoring and help desk response. Several eCourts platforms already operate statewide, including eWarrants, Enforcement Mobile, and a dual-form of Guide & File.

The NCAOC estimates that more than 2.3 million sheets of paper have been saved during the first two phases of eCourts by transitioning five counties to electronic filing and records access over a ten-month period. Historically, roughly 30 million pieces of paper were added to court files each year in North Carolina. The historic transition from paper court records to digital files is also shifting data storage from old mainframe technology to cloud hosting and storage, allowing NCAOC to retire outdated onsite application hosting and storage infrastructure while improving cybersecurity and online accessibility long-term.

TownTalk: AVID Equals Post-Secondary Readiness for VCS

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AVID is a program that’s been helping public school students unlock their potential for more than 40 years. Its longevity is a tribute in part to its effectiveness and in part to its response to the evolving needs of students.

The acronym stands for Achievement Via Individual Determination, and VCS AVID District Director Dr. Destiny Ross-Putney said today’s program focuses not just on college-bound students, but post-secondary pursuits that include work after high school.

Putney calls it “post-secondary readiness,” whether students are college-bound or head right into a career.

A typical AVID student is a student who has a GPA between 2.0 and 3.5. “It’s not for your typical high-flying student,” but rather for students who have the potential to be more successful with just a little bit more structured support in the classroom, Ross-Putney said.

“Some students are simply not interested in college,” she said, but AVID prepares students for life after high school graduation, whether it’s college or work. AVID teaches students how to be truly prepared to be active citizens in the community.

Three Vance County Schools have AVID programs – Vance County Middle School, Vance County High School and, new this year, Carver Elementary. There are about 70 middle school students at each grade level that participate in AVID, and there’s an elective class at the high school, Ross-Putney said. VCHS is a schoolwide AVID school, she added, which means that faculty use AVID techniques and strategies in their classrooms.

The third- and fifth graders at Carver are getting their first taste of AVID, Ross-Putney said. The plan is to introduce AVID in other elementary schools in the district.

The district also has professional development to share with teachers’ various AVID strategies, which include things like how to take good notes, create resumes, and effective interview techniques.

There’s a focus on writing with AVID, and teachers use the WICOR strategy to help students: WICOR stands for Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organization and Reading.

AVID helps students develop self-confidence and self-advocacy, she said. “I can see how confident students are,” when she visits AVID classrooms. “They are specifically taught how to have a discourse,” she said, which increase students’ “abilities to communicate as well as withstand rigorous course work.”

And AVID also keep track of students after graduation – it’s a built-in component of the program to check in one year and three years after graduation.

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