Tag Archive for: #thelocalskinny

The Local Skinny! Sossamon Details Upcoming Transportation Meeting

/by

Vance County residents are invited to a forum this Thursday evening, Oct. 26, to learn more about local transportation projects – those currently underway and others planned for the future.

Always wondered just how the state DOT decides where and how a road gets built or just how to define right of way? Find out Thursday beginning at 6 p.m. in the county commissioners’ meeting room on the second floor of the county administration building in Henderson.

According to N.C. Rep Frank Sossamon, R-Dist. 32, this is the second in a series of meetings that he and his staff have set up across his district designed to inform and educate his constituents.

A DOT divisional director will spend the day in Henderson to speak with different groups, Sossamon said on Monday’s segment of The Local Skinny!

At 10 a.m., local realtors are invited to a session to learn about roads and other topics around transportation and development. Then at 3 p.m., governmental leaders are invited to convene with DOT officials to have a dialogue about road infrastructure, highways and the like.

Next month’s topic is mental health, Sossamon said.

Forums will be held in Henderson on Nov. 28 at 6 p.m. at Spring Street Missionary Baptist Church and then Nov. 30 at 6 p.m. at Cornerstone Christian Church on Knotts Grove Road in Oxford.

CLICK PLAY!

 

Cooperative Extension with Wayne Rowland: Kudzu Bugs

/by

Listen live at 100.1 FM / 1450 AM / or on the live stream at WIZS.com at 11:50 a.m. Mon, Tues & Thurs.

Click Play!

 

The Local Skinny! Vance Co. Sheriff’s Office Presents Domestic Violence Awareness Event

/by

The fifth annual “Think Community” event is set for Saturday, Oct. 28 in observance of October as Domestic violence Awareness month. The program will begin at 3 p.m. at Clearview Church, 3485 U.S. Hwy 158 in Henderson.

Debbie Scott, domestic violence educator with the Vance County Sheriff’s Office, has planned an afternoon full of inspiration and remembrance for participants to “break the silence, stop the violence” around domestic violence.

Others in attendance include Deputy Lawrence Carter, of the Vance County Sheriff’s Patrol Division, Jayden Watkins, local minister, author (and WIZS Radio employee), as well as Chief Magistrate Debbie Small and others.

Special guests include God’s Men of Harmony who will provide musical entertainment and “Miss Get It Right” will perform a poetic tribute as part of the day’s activities.

To learn more, contact Scott at the sheriff’s office at 252.738.2235 or by email at dscott@vancecounty.org.

CLICK PLAY!

 

Cooperative Extension With Jamon Glover: Imagination

/by

Listen live at 100.1 FM / 1450 AM / or on the live stream at WIZS.com at 11:50 a.m. Mon, Tues & Thurs.

Click Play!

 

The Local Skinny! Oakwood Cemetery To Host ‘Sip And Stroll With Souls’

/by

The second annual “Sip and Stroll With Souls” in Louisburg’s historic Oakwood Cemetery promises to shed some light on some of the dearly departed who find their eternal rest there.

Dorothy Cooper is one of the event organizers, and she told WIZS’s Bill Harris on Tuesday’s segment of The Local Skinny! that the Oct. 29 tour is shaping up to be another success.

There’s an online registration on the Louisburg Historic District’s website, Cooper said. Find the link here: https://www.louisburghistoricdistrict.com/ and click on Events/Tickets.

A $10 donation per person helps the group with its ongoing efforts to clean, restore and repair gravestones in the cemetery, one of two owned by the Town of Louisburg.

From 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., participants will have the opportunity to visit a dozen or so different gravesites, with docents on hand to provide some history on the person buried there.

In some cases, the docent is a relative of the deceased; expect to see some docents in period dress and others with family portraits on display.

“We had a really great time last year,” Cooper said, adding that a good number of participants were from outside Franklin County. She said it’s always interesting to uncover new family connections and learn more about distant relatives.

“Some people are find out about family that they didn’t know before,” she said.

CLICK PLAY!

 

Cooperative Extension With Paul McKenzie: What Works in the Garden

/by

Listen live at 100.1 FM / 1450 AM / or on the live stream at WIZS.com at 11:50 a.m. Mon, Tues & Thurs.

Click Play!

 

The Local Skinny! Henderson Mayoral Contest

/by

CLICK PLAY!

Significant updates and changes have occurred since this original audio post above on Oct. 16.  It is strongly recommended that you review the new information available in bold below.

UPDATE 5 P.M. WEDNESDAY, OCT. 18, 2023

Mayoral Runoff Election Early Voting Starts 10-19-23

Geocoding issue resolved

WIZS Radio 5pm News Segment 1 From 10-18-23 Henderson Municipal Election Canvass

Click Here to Play – wizs.com/wizs-radio-5pm-news-segment-1-from-10-18-23-henderson-municipal-election-canvass/

•••••••••••••••••••••••••

UPDATE 4:30 P.M. TUESDAY, OCT. 17, 2023

The Vance County Board of Elections has called for a “recess” in the post-election canvass process – that 10-day window following an election that officials have to verify and certify results.

This action comes one week after the Oct. 10 nonpartisan municipal elections in Henderson that included contests for four City Council seats and a four-candidate field for mayor.

A runoff had been set for the mayoral contest, but those plans also were put on hold earlier today, per the N.C. State Board of Elections. The recess means that none of the contests have been certified.

In a meeting held at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Vance Board of Elections Chair James Baines issued the following statement:

“The Vance County Board of Elections is recessing Canvass completion for the Municipal Election that occurred on 10-October-23 because the State Board of Elections has not yet completed the investigation regarding the geocoding issue. Canvass will reconvene once the State Board of Elections notifies the County Board of the completion of the investigation and resolution to the issue.”

As elections board members explained, the process of certifying election results considers all contests as one process; results must “be submitted to the state at once,”  board member Cathy Clodfelter said Tuesday. So because all of the results have not been certified, none of the contests has been certified.

Earlier Tuesday afternoon, Vance County Board of Elections Director Jennifer Cocklin informed WIZS News that early voting – set to begin in two days’ time – would not begin as previously announced.

Cocklin read the brief statement to WIZS News from the state board of elections:

“The results of the 10-October-2023 Vance County municipal election have not been officially declared by law, therefore the run-off election cannot be called for at this time.”

A glitch in geocoding is at the heart of the issue, and elections officials acknowledged the state board of the possible problem. As part of election coverage to announce the unofficial results on Oct. 10, WIZS included a statement from Baines that was issued after the polls had closed:

“The Vance County Board of Elections is aware of a geocoding issue that may have caused some voters in the city of Henderson elections to receive a ballot in Tuesday’s election that did not have the correct alderman ward contest. The County Board immediately notified the State Board of Elections, which is working with the county to determine how many voters’ ballots were affected. Election night results are always unofficial, and the post-election canvass process will ensure that the votes are counted correctly for each contest. Election officials will provide additional information about this situation as it becomes available.”

Cocklin provided few details about next steps, but she said she has provided information to the state board as it is requested.
“They’re asking us and we’re providing information as quickly as we can,” she said. “The only thing I know is they are working on it,” she said, “meeting every day – at least once every day.”

Just in case you need a refresher course in civics, here’s some information from the state board of elections website:

“Results on election night are unofficial. Canvass is the official process of determining if the votes have been counted and tabulated correctly, resulting in the authentication of the official election results.

For close elections, the canvass period is especially important. During this time, elections officials count absentee ballots that came in before the deadline and research provisional ballots to determine whether they should be counted.

In every county, the canvass meeting when the results are certified is 10 days after Election Day. Because elections thrive on transparency, the canvass meeting is open to the public.”

Cooperative Extension with Wayne Rowland: Fire Ants

/by

Listen live at 100.1 FM / 1450 AM / or on the live stream at WIZS.com at 11:50 a.m. Mon, Tues & Thurs.

Click Play!

 

The Local Skinny! Duke Remote Area Medical Clinic Update

/by

The Remote Area Medical pop-up clinic that set up shop back in May provided $186,000 in free medical, dental and vision care to people who attended the weekend event.

Saajan Patel and Anvi Charvu, both upperclassmen at Duke University, helped to organize the two-day clinic and provided a follow-up report on Thursday’s The Local Skinny!

“The clinic went really well,” Patel said.

Health professionals were able to attend to 230 different patients who came to the parking lot of Vance Charter School where the pop-up clinic was held.

In addition to many children seeing a doctor for the first time, Patel said there were 30 dental cleanings performed, 92 tooth extractions and 140 pairs of glasses made on the spot to give to those in need.

This is the second year that RAM has had a clinic in Henderson, and Charvu attributed this year’s success to having more volunteers to help things run more efficiently and smoother.

“Our first year, we had a limited number of volunteers, so we had a limited capacity,” Charvu said. This year, clients could pretty much walk in and be served, she added.

Duke sophomore Grace Wang is helping to plan next year’s clinic, which will most likely take place in February 2024. Wang said she was impressed with the “amazing energy” of the volunteers and the health professionals who provided the care during the May clinic.

Don’t want to wait until February? There’s a RAM clinic at Nash Central High School in Rocky Mount this weekend, Patel said.

The pop-up clinics are “band aid” solutions to the overarching challenge of health care inequities, Patel said. RAM clinics are free and open to anyone – with or without insurance.

The May clinic demographics broke down like this: 48 percent of clients were African American, 20 percent were Hispanic; 79 percent had not completed a college degree and 64 percent had neither dental nor vision insurance.

“We want to continue expanding and educating everyone” on how to solve the challenge of health care inequity, Patel said. Wang said the RAM organizers are partnering with local agencies like the health department, Triangle North Healthcare Foundation and others to help make a difference.

“We want to support the health of this county in more ways than one,” Wang said.

Visit www.ramusa.org to learn more or to view the clinic schedule.

CLICK PLAY!