Tag Archive for: #vancecountyncnews

Vehicle B&E Reported at Time Warner Cable in Downtown Henderson

On November 28, 2016 at approximately 10:00 AM officers with the Henderson Police Department responded to 215 Young St, Henderson (Time Warner Cable) in reference to a vehicle breaking and entering. Upon arrival, officers spoke with an employee who stated that sometime during the weekend someone broke into and entered one of their company vehicles (2008 Ford Escape). The reporting party advised that nothing appeared to have been taken.

The investigation is being conducted by members of the Henderson Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division. If anyone should have any information related to this case, they are encouraged to call Crime Stoppers at 252-492-1925 or the Henderson Police Department at 252-438-4141. Crime Stoppers offers a reward of up to $2,000 for information that may lead to an arrest. Callers may remain anonymous.

FGV Smart Start Announces New Executive Director

FGV Smart Start, Inc., has announced that Dr. Tony Cozart will be the new executive director.

Dr. Cozart is a retired educator, with over 32 years in the local public school systems. He began his career as a teacher and assistant principal in Vance County, then served in Warren County as principal at Norlina Middle, South Warren Elementary and Warren County High schools, among other administrative positions. He is the pastor of Cooks Chapel Baptist Church in Warrenton, and also serves on the Granville County Board of Commissioners.

Cozart is married to the former Jacqueline Peace. They have three daughters: Kimberly, Kristal, and Karmen. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education from Saint Paul’s College, Master of Arts in School Administration from North Carolina Central University, and Doctor of Education from Nova Southeastern University.

Dr. Cozart has been the Kindergarten Readiness coordinator at FGV Smart Start the last two years. He began his duties as the executive director on November 16.

Vance County Schools opens Family Resource Center

A grand opening was held during the evening on November 14 to officially open the Vance County Schools Family Resource Center in the Administrative Services Center on Graham Avenue in Henderson.

Parents, students, school system officials and community residents attended the event.

Superintendent Anthony Jackson and Vance County Board of Education Chairwoman Gloria J. White led the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new center.

Cassandra Evans, director of Federal Programs and Parent Engagement for the school system, led a committee made up of parents representing several local schools in planning the Family Resource Center.

The center will now be available for parents and other family members of students in Vance County Schools to visit during school days to take advantage of educational written materials and a vast range of online educational resources. The Family Resource Center includes a large volume of materials detailing the services and programs available to students and their families in the local public school system, as well as information on future educational and career opportunities beyond high school.

Plans calls for additional resources to be added to the center on a regular basis.

Clark Elementary School – Active Shooter Exercise

On Saturday November 19th, 2016 Vance County Public Safety agencies as well as emergency responders from our surrounding counties will be conducting a full scale active shooter exercise at Clarke Elementary School, located at 309 Mount Carmel Church Road, in Henderson.

Vance County received a grant in the amount of $20,000.00 through the Federal Homeland Security Exercise Program to conduct the training event, which has been in the planning stage for the past six (6) months.

It is our intent to make this exercise as realistic as possible while preserving the safety of all those involved. Simulated gun fire will be used as well as injury simulation (Moulage) to add realism.

The exercise will take place on Saturday rather than a regular school day due to the age of the students, however roughly 250 Vance County School’s personnel (many of them actual teachers) will be portraying students to further add realism to the scenario.

While we have conducted similar exercises to this in the past, each school is unique and offers its own unique challenges. Clarke Elementary was chosen as it is the newest school in the County and is probably not as well-known to our responders as some of the other school facilities.

Early preparation for the exercise will begin at 7:00 AM on that day with the exercise itself beginning later that morning. The exercise will conclude early in the afternoon on that same day. We would like to caution residents in the area that they may hear the simulated gunfire and would like to emphasize that they should not be alarmed by those sounds. Additionally, there will be a large public safety presence in and around the school for the duration of the event which will include law enforcement, EMS, fire and even helicopters, but again we would like to stress that this is all a part of the exercise.

Further, we will be closing off certain sections of the roads in and around the school to allow us to adequately test our perimeter control methods. Residents that live in the confined area will be contacted to make them aware of what is happening and they will be allowed to come and go if they should need to. Through traffic will be routed around the exercise venue until the event is over.

This exercise is NOT open to the public. Anyone not affiliated with one of the participating agencies who approaches the exercise area will be turned away. You do not have to get disheartened as you can easily navigate to this website and find easy ways to build yourself a relaxing time. It is unfortunate that we must prepare for such a horrible event but we owe it to our citizens and our communities to ensure that such public environments are as safe as possible. Through joint efforts such as this exercise we ensure that a coordinated response will occur during an actual event.

Contact: Brian K. Short

Phone: 252-438-8264

H/V Chamber and HPD to Partner for Reverse Raffle

Update 11-1-16:

Reverse Raffle to benefit Shop With a Cop is THIS Saturday.  Purchase your tickets now and donate items.

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The Henderson-Vance County Chamber of Commerce along with the Henderson Police Department (HPD) are partnering to host a reverse raffle. The event will benefit a program serving local underprivileged children called “Shop With a Cop” along with the Chamber of Commerce and its efforts to help local business.

The event is scheduled for Saturday, November 5 and will be held at Henderson Country Club beginning at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are on sale now and include dinner for two and a chance at the $5,000 grand prize. Throughout the evening, guests will be given opportunities to bid on various silent auction items as well as two reserved tickets which will be auctioned toward the end of the ticket drawing. Three reserved tickets will also be raffled during the course of evening.

The “Shop With a Cop” activity will take place in December at which time members of the HPD will take local underprivileged children shopping with local retailers for Christmas. A certain dollar amount of the proceeds raised will be set aside for each participating child. “I’m so excited about this event and the good that we can do for the local community with the proceeds. The HPD is always anxious to do what we can to help children”, said Police Chief Marcus Barrow.

There are opportunities for local businesses to donate silent auction items, sponsor the event or help in other ways. Members of the HPD and Chamber staff and board of directors will be making community contacts in the very near future.

If you or your business would like to purchase tickets, donate items or get more information, contact the HPD, Chamber board members or the Chamber office at 252-438-8414.

Vance Furniture Celebrates 75 Years with Ribbon Cutting

On Tuesday, October 25th, Craig Bailey and Sam Harper celebrated the company’s 75 years in business with family and friends, their staff, local officials and business owners and the Henderson-Vance Chamber of Commerce.

Through the years, Vance Furniture has faced its share of hardships – storms, changing marketplace trends and demands, along with the region’s physical landscape and the economy while at the same time remaining true to their commitment to exceptional customer service and thinking of their staff as family. Long hours, hard work and their commitment to deliver perfection has kept them in business for many years.  Vance Furniture has survived it all, and this year, celebrates its 75th anniversary. Henderson certainly would not be the same without this downtown staple for furniture.

Sam and Craig have never settled for ‘good enough’. Having been in Henderson for 75 years, they know the people in Henderson.  They know what matters to their customers.  The Vance Furniture name has been built on their insistence that every purchase must meet or exceed customer expectations, and they will do whatever it takes to make it so.

Within Vance Furniture there are five floors of showrooms offering home furnishings from the best brands, including: A.R.T., Armini, Broyhill, Craftmaster, Hillsdales, Hooker, Kincaid, La-Z-Boy, Legacy, Lexington, and Paula Deen Home furniture to name a few.

For more information about Vance Furniture, please stop in at their 325 S. Garnett Street location or contact them at 252-438-3911.  You can also check them out at www.vancefurniture.com.

This anniversary represents a very significant milestone for Vance Furniture and the Chamber is very excited to have been a part of this celebration today.

Community Voices Session I

The Community Voices Program kick-off took place last week and was a great start to what we hope will be something wonderful for Henderson/Vance County–citizens working together to build a strong community.

Co-sponsored by NC Agricultural & Technical State University in Greensboro, and Vance County Cooperative Extension, the training sessions already have members of our community who are trained to ready to serve as facilitators for this program.   And there is no cost to participate.

Even if you missed the kick-off, please come to Session I which will be held on Thursday, October 27, from 6:00-8:00 p.m. at the Vance County Regional Farmers Market located at 210 Southpark Drive (off Beckford Drive) in Henderson.

Please call 252-438-8188 to sign up to attend next week’s session so we may have adequate supplies ready for you.  Also, please feel free to promote this to someone in your community who might like to participate.

This training series is designed for:

  • People who want to be trained for help others to discuss critical community issues.
  • People who want to create a shared vision for their community’s future.
  • People who are interested in learning good listening and communication skills.
  • People who are willing to volunteer their time to implement a community action plan in support of this community effort.

Sessions may be scheduled different days of the week to accommodate the participants’ schedules and the holidays.  Following is a list of the training topics to be discussed:

  • Session I – Creating a Shared Vision of Community’s Future
  • Session II – Connection Our Vision to Community Strength & Resources
  • Session III – Communicating a a Group to Reach Our Vision &                             Making Shared Decisions as a Group
  • Session IV – Learning to Solve Our Community Problems, Step by Step &               Selecting Community Problems from our Vision
  • Session V – Seeking More Information About Our Problems &                              Determining Solutions for Our Problems
  • Session VI – Determining Solutions to Our Community Problems
  • Session VII – Making a Shared Community Action Plan &                                          Planning to Continue Our Work
  • Action Forum & Graduation

Incident on Main Campus Reported at Vance-Granville Community College

On Thursday September 22nd at around 4:00 p.m., Joshua Abraham Coles, 26, of 11 Delta Place, Henderson was charged with misdemeanor assault on a Government Employee, resisting a public officer, and second degree trespass on the main campus of Vance-Granville Community College.

Information published in a Public Information Release said, “Mr. Coles was a person of interest in an investigation being conducted by the VGCC campus police department. He was asked to leave the campus. He refused to leave and assaulted a security officer and a campus police officer. No injuries reported from the suspect or officers involved.”

Allure Xtensions Celebrates H/V Chamber Ribbon Cutting

A ribbon cutting was held on Thursday, October 13th for Allure Xtensions Hair Boutique to celebrate this new business and membership with the Henderson-Vance Chamber of Commerce.  Friends and family of owner Winter McMannen, chamber staff and local dignitary and businesses joined them in their celebration at their 939C West Andrews Avenue location in Henderson.

Allure Xtensions Hair Boutique has spent a great deal of time searching and insuring that they can provide the highest quality of Virgin Hair to all of their customers at a very affordable price. They want to promote the inner and outer beauty of every woman.  Having beautiful hair and the opportunity to create any desired look makes women feel self-confident and beautiful. Allure Xtensions wants to leave their imprint in the sand just to show who they are!  They are Allure Xtensions, where it isn’t just a hairstyle, it’s a lifestyle!

To learn more about Allure Xtensions check them out on the web at www.alluregirls.org or  visit them at their 939C West Andrews location.  You can also reach them at 919-691-2977.

Teachers in Vance County Schools receive new laptops

The deployment of almost 600 new laptop computers to teachers in Vance County Schools began today with teachers from six schools coming to the Administrative Services Center in the afternoon to get their new devices.

The teachers were returning their old devices and then picking up new ones, which are Lenovo E460 laptops, that have been fully programmed and equipped to use as teaching tools each day in their classrooms.

Technology Department staff members have worked long hours to get all of the new laptops ready for the teachers.

Teachers from Southern Vance High, Early College High, Aycock Elementary, Carver Elementary, Clarke Elementary and New Hope Elementary received laptops today. New laptop computers will be given tomorrow afternoon to teachers from Northern Vance High, STEM Early High, Dabney Elementary, E.O. Young Jr. Elementary and Zeb Vance Elementary.

More computer deployments are planned for teachers at additional schools on October 25 and 26.