Tag Archive for: #vancecountynews

Perry Memorial Library Adding New Programs to Winter Youth Lineup

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-Information courtesy the Perry Memorial Library website

Winter youth programs will begin at Perry Memorial Library, 205 Breckenridge St., Henderson, on January 2, 2019, and run through April 30, 2019. December is a youth program planning month.

Youth activities for January – April include:

Mother Goose Storytime (ages 2-5)  – Mondays at 11 a.m.  *NEW*

Totally Tweens (ages 8-12) – Mondays at 5 p.m.

Story Explorers (ages 5-11) – Tuesdays at 5 p.m.

Pajama-Rama Storytime (all ages) – Wednesdays at 5 p.m. *NEW*

Books & Babies (ages birth-2) – Thursdays at 10:45 a.m.

Mother Goose Storytime (ages 2-5) – Thursdays at 11 a.m.

LEGO Fun Club (ages 5-13) – Thursdays at 4 p.m.

 

 

Grace Ministries Now Accepting New & Gently Used Items for Toy Drive

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Grace Ministries is holding their Second Annual Toy Drive now through Friday, December 21. Please donate new or gently used toys at 1501 Raleigh Rd. in Henderson.

The toy giveaway will be held at Rebuilding Hope, Inc., located at 414 Raleigh Rd., from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, December 22.

For additional information, please call (252) 432-7124.

Save the Date: MADD to Hold Next Meeting Jan. 22; Volunteers Needed

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-Information courtesy Lisa Horton, Vice President, MADD

The next MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) meeting will be held on Monday, January 22, 2019, at the “Old Court House” in Henderson, NC on Young St. at 6 p.m.  Please join us in the Commissioners Meeting Room upstairs!

Our Local MADD Chapter is in need of the following volunteers:
1). Community Outreach – volunteers who will create awareness of MADD’S mission.
2) Court Monitors – volunteers are trained to observe court process and record the decisions made.
3). Sobriety Checkpoints – volunteers who will join the team’s efforts to support law enforcement officers while performing at checkpoints.

4). Victims Advocate Services – volunteers are trained to assist in the healing journey by offering emotional support for families who endure a loss of a loved one by a drunk driver.

We look forward to seeing each of you on January 22. There are lots of exciting things occurring with our local MADD chapter through the end of this year and into 2019! Exciting times for MADD as we expand our chapter territory!

MADD MISSION STATEMENT: The mission of Mothers Against Drunk Driving is to stop drunk driving, support the victims of this violent crime and prevent underage drinking.

H-V Emergency Operations

State of Emergency Declared for Vance County; Area Braces for Inclement Weather

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Updated – 12/07/18:

You may report weather delays and cancellations by email to news@wizs.com or by text at 432-0774. Delays and cancellations will be posted on WIZS’ Facebook page.

Henderson Mayor Eddie Ellington and Archie Taylor, chairman of the Vance County Board of Commissioners proclaimed a State of Emergency for the City of Henderson and County of Vance beginning Friday, December 7, 2018, at 5 p.m. The State of Emergency will be in effect for a period of four days unless rescinded by authorities.

General Emergency Protective Measures are in place. No public restrictions are in place at this time.

U.S. Department of Justice

Fisher Sentenced on Firearms Charge

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-Press Release, U.S. Department of Justice

The United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Robert J. Higdon, Jr., announced that today, Chief United States District Judge Terrence J. Boyle sentenced KYLE VICTOR FISHER, 29, of Henderson to 42 months imprisonment, followed by 3 years of supervised release. FISHER pled guilty to the Indictment, charging one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, on August 22, 2018.

On November 30, 2017, law enforcement received a report that FISHER had violated a protective order by going to the Henderson, North Carolina, apartment of his former girlfriend. The woman reported that FISHER pointed a silver revolver at her while verbally threatening to shoot her.

Later the same day, officers of the Oxford Police Department were able to locate and arrest FISHER at a hotel in Oxford where his current girlfriend was employed. FISHER had been driving his girlfriend’s car, and she gave officers permission to search the vehicle. In it, officers found a small amount of marijuana and a .38 caliber revolver matching that described in the earlier assault. The firearm was loaded and had an obliterated serial number.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. Since 2017, the United States Department of Justice has reinvigorated the PSN program and has targeted violent criminals, directing all U.S. Attorney’s Offices to work in partnership with federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement and the local community to develop effective, locally-based strategies to reduce violent crime.

That effort has been implemented through the Take Back North Carolina Initiative of The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina. This initiative emphasizes the regional assignment of federal prosecutors to work with law enforcement and District Attorney’s Offices on a sustained basis in those communities to reduce the violent crime rate, drug trafficking, and crimes against law enforcement.

The investigation of this case was conducted by the Oxford Police Department and the Henderson Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Jacob Pugh prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States.

News releases are available on the U.S. Attorney’s webpage located at www.usdoj.gov/usao/nce. Follow us on Twitter @USAO_EDNC

‘Cops on Top’ Surpasses Fundraising Goal for Special Olympics of NC

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Chick-fil-A of Henderson, the Henderson Police Department, the Vance County Sheriff’s Office and other community organizations once again teamed up for the annual “Cops on Top” Fundraiser for the Special Olympics of NC.

Held at Chick-fil-A on Thursday, December 6, the all-day event raised $2,291 for Special Olympics, surpassing the goal fundraiser organizers previously set of $2,000.

Lt. Jessica West with the HPD told WIZS staff that the event would not have been a success without the help and support of the entire community.

Abidan Shah, pastor of Clearview Church praised the police and fire departments and acknowledged Chick-fil-A owner/operator Josh Towne for hosting the annual event.

All money raised will go directly to Special Olympics of NC.

 

Left to right: Henderson Police Chief Marcus Barrow, Sheriff Curtis Brame and Pastor Abidan Shah with Clearview Church assist with the annual Cops on Top Fundraiser event at Chick-fil-a of Henderson. (Photo Credit: WIZS)

Billy Ayscue Named Rebuilding Hope’s Dec. Volunteer of the Month

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-Information courtesy Rebuilding Hope,  Inc.

Acquainted with the man who would be Rebuilding Hope’s founder and pleased with the camaraderie he later observed at the ministry, Billy Ayscue decided where to offer his time and talents.

“I knew Randolph Wilson before he started RHI and knew of his out-of-state trips to assist people with storm damage,” says Billy, now an eight-year RHI volunteer.

“Several years ago, I was looking for something to do when other activities were winding down,” he says.

Billy Ayscue, an eight-year volunteer, named Rebuilding Hope’s December 2018 Volunteer of the Month. (Photo Credit: RHI)

On a trip to donate some building materials at RHI’s old location on Oliver Drive, Billy says Randolph shared with him how he wanted the ministry to help meet housing needs in Vance and surrounding counties.

On another trip to RHI, Billy says he noticed the good-natured way volunteers were going about setting up a tent that would serve as a heated space for men’s prayer group meetings.

He concluded that RHI was “obviously a good place to be with a good group of people.”

The ministry “provides an opportunity to spend time in the company of Christian men and to be a part of helping others with their needs, both physical and spiritual,” he says.

Billy, a Vance County native and resident, served six years on RHI’s board of directors. Today he mans the application and phone desk a day each week and, as needed, assists with fundraising and delivering materials to work sites.

“We always ask to have prayer with applicants before they leave,” Billy says. “They’re asked about anything going on in their lives for which they may want prayer. Quite often, at the completion, tears are in the applicant’s eyes. It makes you wonder if this is the first time in their lives that someone has prayed specifically and directly for them.”

Billy retired in 1990 after 30 years with the North Carolina Department of Agriculture. He managed several agricultural research stations, including those in Oxford, Clinton, Salisbury and Rocky Mount.

A member of Raleigh Road Baptist Church, he teaches the Adult Sunday School Class and served as association Sunday school director. He served as deacon and Sunday school director in other churches as his family moved around the state.

He is a former active-duty U.S. Navy aviator and is retired from the Navy Reserve.

Billy and Nancy have been married for 58 years and have two children, two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

In his leisure time, Billy says he enjoys woodworking and gardening.

Dr. Rachel Desmarais Chosen as Next President of VGCC

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-Press Release, Vance-Granville Community College

Dr. Rachel M. Desmarais has been chosen as the next president of Vance-Granville Community College. With the final approval of the appointment by the State Board of Community Colleges on Dec. 18, she becomes the seventh president in the 49-year history of the college.

The VGCC Board of Trustees selected Dr. Desmarais on Wednesday, Dec. 5, following presentations by three finalists in a series of public forums from Nov. 30 through Dec. 4.

“The Board of Trustees has concluded Dr. Desmarais possesses the key attributes of an outstanding president that were identified in our search process,” said Danny W. Wright, chair of the board. “We are confident that Dr. Desmarais will provide: the visionary leadership to help our college expand and to promote economic development in our four counties, a powerful commitment to student recruitment and retention, the dedication to improving the lives of the people in our service area, the attention to facility planning and sustainability, and the articulation of our mission and vision to the college’s employees and the communities we serve.”

Dr. Rachel M. Desmarais, chosen as seventh president of Vance-Granville Community College.

The selection comes after a nationwide search that produced 89 applicants. She will begin work early in 2019.

The executive vice president and chief operating officer of Forsyth Technical Community College in Winston-Salem since 2015, Dr. Desmarais has been with Forsyth Tech in a variety of roles since becoming a department chair in 2002. Once a student at Forsyth Tech, taking Information Technology and Programming courses in 1994-1995, Dr. Desmarais became an adjunct instructor at the community college from 1996 to 1999 while also working in the private sector. She became the vice president of information services at Forsyth Tech in 2008 and moved to vice president of planning and information services in 2010 before assuming her current position.

She earned her doctorate of philosophy in instructional design and technology from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., in 2015 after getting her masters of science in information technology management from the University of North Carolina in Greensboro in 2003. She earned a bachelor of music degree in voice performance from Mars Hill College in 1992.

She was also among fewer than 40 aspiring and emerging community college presidents nationwide who were chosen for the Aspen Institute Presidential Fellowship for Community College Excellence in 2017-2018.

“I am honored to have the opportunity to serve and lead Vance-Granville Community College as its seventh president,” said Dr. Desmarais after being given the news on Wednesday night. “VGCC is a special place with students, faculty, staff, and board members who care for and take great pride in the college and community. I look forward to building on the strong value and culture already present in the college to cultivate a new shared vision for VGCC and its communities. Together, we will truly be Vanguards!”

Born in Sumter, S.C., while her father was stationed at Shaw Air Force Base, she moved to Alabama when her family returned home after the Vietnam War.

“I got to watch my dad march across the stage at Auburn University as an electrical engineer,” Dr. Demarais said. “My mother was a preschool teacher. I got exposure to education at a young age, and I saw the value of it.”

Her family found a new home in Orangeburg, S.C., for her father’s first job after college and then eventually Rock Hill, S.C., where she attended middle school and completed her secondary education.

Since her move to Mars Hill, N.C., at the age of 18 to attend college, she has remained in North Carolina, noting that her career has taken her from music education to an administrative assistant in manufacturing to information technology and ultimately to community college administration.

She still has a desire to teach and said she now blends that desire with her love of information and technology to help students find success in the classroom.

“I have a real passion for using data from our students to help them learn how to learn,” she said. “Students have jobs. They have their lives to lead while going to college. They have much to juggle. We have a responsibility to make sure that the education we offer them is as efficient and effective in its delivery as it can be.

“I’m really a strong believer in institutional effectiveness,” she added. “The data can be used as a tool to help our students succeed. We need always to use it as a positive tool. An educated society is a happier, more fulfilled society.”

Her work in the private sector includes a period from 1999 to 2002 when she worked with the Womble Carlyle Sandridge Rice law firm and later a subsidiary, FirmLogic, in Winston-Salem as a systems support manager and, later, project manager. She was assistant to the director of manufacturing and a systems analyst for Highland Industries in Kernersville in 1997-1999.

She also has been actively involved in community projects in the Winston-Salem area, including the United Way; Boy Scouts of America; Forsyth Futures, a non-profit community data research organization; WinstonNet Inc., a non-profit community technology initiative; the Center for Design Innovation; and the Board of Cooperative Ministries for the Southern Province of the Moravian Church.

Dr. Desmarais has an adult son, Ian, who is currently a biotechnology major at Forsyth Tech. Her younger son, Conall, who will be completing the eighth grade, is interested in attending an early college high school. Her husband, she said, plans to retain his job in the Winston-Salem area as he is able to do the majority of his work off-site.

The search process for the new president began in September when the Trustees selected the firm of Executive Leadership Associates (ELA) LLP of Emerald Isle to help the board create a profile of the ideal presidential candidate needed for VGCC, to guide the search process and to recruit and screen applicants. Applications and nominations were accepted beginning Oct. 8 with a deadline of Nov. 9.

Serving on the VGCC Trustees’ presidential search committee were Trustees Deborah Brown, chair; Herb Gregory, vice chair; N. Annette P. Myers, Abdul Sm Rasheed, Donald C. Seifert, Sr., and Sara C. Wester.

With the guidance of ELA, a consortium of former North Carolina community college presidents, the list of candidates was narrowed to five by the board’s search committee. On Nov. 19, at the regular bimonthly meeting of the board, the Trustees trimmed the list to three finalists who were invited to the college to meet with staff and faculty, county officials, chamber members and the public to participate in individual forums. Attendees were given the opportunity to provide input on each finalist via a form distributed at the forums or verbally to representatives of ELA in attendance.

The board met on Dec. 4 following the last of the interviews with candidates. A final decision on the selection was made at a continuation of that meeting, on Dec. 5, following the results of a vetting process conducted by the State Board of Community Colleges.

“After this carefully executed selection process, we believe Dr. Desmarais has the background and the experience to move us and our communities forward,” Trustee Wright said. “We do appreciate our two other finalists who showed such a strong interest in helping our college advance, and we owe much to the members of the public sector who also attended the forums and assisted us in this search process as well.”

The two other finalists were Dr. Quentin Johnson of Mooresville, vice president of Student Support Services at Guilford Technical Community College in Greensboro, and Dr. Melanie Thornton of Albany, Ga., vice president of academic affairs at Columbus Technical College in Columbus, Ga.

The new president succeeds Dr. Stelfanie Williams who left in August to become the vice president for Durham affairs at Duke University. Dr. Gordon Burns, retired president of Wilkes Community College, is serving as interim president for VGCC until Dr. Desmarais takes office.

Vance County Logo

County of Vance Releases Fire District Reorganization Info.; Public Hearing Set for Jan.

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-Information courtesy Jordan McMillen, County Manager, Vance County

To assist the public, the County of Vance has posted several documents related to the fire commission’s proposed reorganization of the County’s fire services on their website. The County will be seeking public comments at the Vance County Board of Commissioners meeting to be held on Monday, January 7, 2019.

The proposal includes the following changes:

– Converts the Goldenbelt fire district into a volunteer district with the Rescue Squad reincorporating as a volunteer fire department and rescue to take on the district.

– Moves existing county fire staff out of Goldenbelt district and splits them between Hicksboro and Bearpond Volunteer Departments; moves the county fire staff under the fire marshal/fire services department for oversight of paid personnel and creates an Assistant Fire Marshal position.

– Utilizes savings from the general fund county fire department operational expenses to offset costs in fire fund for 12 part-time positions, two at each station for Cokesbury, Drewry, Kittrell, Townsville, Watkins, and the newly constituted Goldenbelt volunteer fire departments during the day-time.

– Provides $200,000 in annual funding to the Rescue Squad as the new volunteer fire department that would also take ownership and associated debt of County’s newly ordered fire truck.

– Includes paying off the existing Kerr-Lake substation and county tanker debt from the general and/or fire fund balance.

– Provides equal funding of $100,000 to the border departments, Drewry and Epsom.

– Eliminates the substation funding of $10,000 for Hicksboro and eliminates the rotating capital funding of $30,000, with the fire fund being used to assist departments with 50/50 grants and capital needs.

– Moves dispatch from three alarm to four alarm.

New Operators Hope to See Increased Traffic at Henderson-Oxford Airport

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Chris and Amanda Welsh, with the Henderson-Oxford Airport, were on Thursday’s edition of WIZS’ Town Talk program to discuss their recent hiring as the local airport’s newest fixed-base operators (FBOs).

Hired in October to manage day-to-day operations such as fueling, hangaring and maintenance, the Welsh family brings a lifelong love for aviation and their years of experience working at the Triangle North Airport in Franklin County with them on this new venture.

“I’ve been involved with airplanes basically my entire life,” said Chris. “My father got his pilot’s license when he was in college, so I’ve been exposed to them, literally, since birth.”

With aviation in his blood, Welsh began working with a mechanic at the Louisburg airport after his own graduation from college and has spent the past six years there honing his skills.

Upon learning that the Henderson-Oxford Airport was in need of a new FBO, Welsh said he and his family put together a presentation for the airport’s Board Authority and the rest is history.

From people forming big lines to board flights to people walking freely who charted private jets using the Jettly website, he has seen it all and met those people. He has asked the airport authority to put forth a proposal to make the terminal bigger with longer runways so that there can be a separate allocated runway strip for both private and commercial planes.

The Welshes’ main goal for the airport, located on the aptly named Airport Rd. in Oxford, is to increase the general aviation traffic and to make businesses and corporations more aware of its existence and amenities.

“General aviation has ebbed and flowed [recently], said Amanda. “We are just at an ebb. Right now, we have a great condition runway at a good length [5,500 ft]. We just had our apron redone and are having work done on our lights to get them up to LED spec.”

“The facilities of the airport have outpaced operations,” she further explained.

The Welshes anticipate that continuous growth in Raleigh and the Research Triangle Park will help push business their way. “I think Raleigh’s going to come north and that the people of Henderson and Oxford are going to see growth from those who want to get just outside of North Raleigh,” Amanda said.

Proximity to the interstate is another plus for aviation traffic, according to Chris. “This airport has good access, via I-85, to the Durham area. As RDU grows and becomes less friendly to very small aircraft – piston/propeller-type, you’re seeing the movement of these traffic operations go to the Sanford or Louisburg airports. We’re hoping to draw some of that traffic to the Henderson-Oxford Airport.”

The airport is also increasing awareness by participating in events such as the annual military history show. Celebrating its third year this past October, the event coordinated by Harry Coombs features various military displays from the Revolutionary War, World War II, Vietnam and more. The Welshes hope to make the event even bigger next fall with the addition of rides and games for the whole family.

The airport also offers flying lessons for all interested potential pilots. Instructor Paul Hesse with Empire Aviation runs the flight school and can be contacted by clicking here.

To hear the interview in its entirety, please click here.