Tag Archive for: #wizsnews

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Commissioners Approve Rezoning Request 6-1 In Special Called Meeting

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In a 6-1 vote, the Vance County Board of Commissioners voted Monday afternoon to approve a rezoning request for a 40-acre tract on U.S. Hwy 158 Business.

Board Chair Carolyn Faines last week called for a special meeting to be held just prior to a regularly scheduled work session to consider the rezoning request. The special called meeting began at 4 p.m. and the work session began at the conclusion of the special called meeting, which lasted only a few minutes.

Commissioner Tommy Hester made the motion to approve, seconded by Commissioner Dan Brummitt, to “approve the zoning map amendment and to adopt the resolution with the statement of consistency and reasonableness.”

In opening remarks, Faines reminded those in attendance to behave in a respectful orderly and quiet manner.

“The board is here to deliberate and take action,” she said. “We ask for your cooperation in maintaining a respectful environment so the board can conduct the county’s business efficiently.”

After the vote was taken, however, there were boos that emanated from the members of the audience, which exceeded that of the Apr. 6 meeting. One person called out to ask for a roll call vote, but that request was declined. Commissioner Valencia Perry cast the nay vote. All commissioners were in attendance.

The beginning of the work session was delayed by several more minutes as members of the audience, visibly and audibly angry and upset at the board’s action, left the commissioners’ meeting room.

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NC Department of Labor logo with North Carolina outline, three icons, and the text 'NCDOL' and 'Luke Farley, Commissioner'

TownTalk: NC Commissioner of Labor Luke Farley Headed to Henderson Tuesday

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N.C. Department of Labor Commissioner Luke Farley is scheduled to be in Henderson Tuesday to present safety awards to local business and industry leaders.

Farley’s stop in Henderson is part of a 20-stop tour that recognizes businesses and industries with Gold and Silver Safety awards for exceeding industry safety standards for employee accidents and injury.

The presentation ceremony, co-sponsored by the Henderson-Vance Chamber of Commerce, will take place at 12 noon beginning with a luncheon at the Henderson Country Club.

“My most important responsibility as commissioner is the health and safety of the working men and women in this state,” Farley told WIZS News Monday. The DOL’s goal is to make sure every working man and woman gets to go home to their family at the end of the workday, he said.

“I’m a big believer in the safety awards because I believe positive recognition inspires excellence,” Farley said. Although the department does issue citations and assign penalties when necessary, he prefers to use positive recognition like the safety awards to raise workplace safety standards that make people safer.

But businesses have to meet a certain set of standards to qualify, Farley explained. “We don’t give them out like candy – they have to be earned.”

For instance, companies demonstrate safety excellence by being at least 50 percent below the industry average for illness and injury rates.

He’s especially gratified when he is able to give awards to industries that have earned the designation for consecutive years for their achievements in maintaining safety excellence year after year.

“Once people get into this program, they stick with it and they come back year after year after year,” Farley said. And that’s not only good for employees, it’s good for the bottom line.

Those consecutive safety award designations show real commitment on the part of the industries that receive them. “That’s ultimately what we’re going for,” he said, referring to the buy-in that comes from both employers and employees.

“Safety is good for the bottom line,” Farley said. “You should be doing it because it’s the right thing to do. But the added benefit is that it’s good for the bottom line.”

A new DOL initiative is focused on reducing “struck by” incidents in workplaces.

As Farley explained it, it’s a broad category that includes everything from workers being struck by vehicles like forklifts in a warehouse or a backhoe on a construction site to falls from roofs, scaffolding or scissors lifts.

Farley said he and his staff took note when this type of accident increased two years in a row. “This is more than a blip on the radar. We have to do something about this,” he said, recalling how the new initiative got launched.

In this first year of a two-year plan, DOL will be providing employers with education and resources as they form plans to implement.

In year 2, Farley said employers will see a year of stepped-up and targeted enforcement by DOL.

This first year gives all employers an opportunity to address the problem on their own, he said, before the state begins issuing fines and penalties.

“We’re going to drive them down,” Farley said of these “struck by” deaths. “We’re committed to it.”

Another initiative that he and his DOL staff were committed proved successful, and anyone who’s been in an elevator in North Carolina lately can attest to the fact that inspectors have been on the job.

“We’ve cleared the backlog for the first time ever,” Farley said of the DOL’s Elevator and Entertainment Device Bureau’s task of inspecting annually about 32,000 elevators, amusement park rides, escalators and even dumbwaiters.

“In my first year, we cleared that backlog,” Farley said, adding that he doesn’t intend to have any backlogs going forward.

And it took zero dollars of taxpayer money to clear the backlog; this arm of DOL is funded through user fees, he said.

Through consistency and good management, Farley said the agency tackled the challenge that created a win for public safety.

“It not a sexy business, necessarily,” Farley said of elevator inspections. “But

it’s a problem that needs to be solved and it undermines people’s confidence in government if we can’t do something simple like (having) elevators inspected on time.”

With this success under his belt, Farley said he and staff can take a similar approach to apply to other parts of the department.

As areas like Vance County and Henderson look toward economic development, Farley said a good place to begin is with his department.

He called DOL North Carolina’s “secret weapon” for economic development, in fact, and said the regulatory part of DOL focuses on job growth. “We think common-sense regulation encourages businesses to relocate here – that’s our contribution.”

While he acknowledges that there are inevitably some “bad apples,” most employers are trying to do the right thing.

Those bad apples may find themselves on the wrong end of a fine or citation, but Farley said “partnership and collaboration go much further than finger wagging and citations.”

To learn more about the programs and services of the N.C. Department of Labor, visit www.labor.nc.gov or call 800-NCLABOR.

 

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Cooperative Extension with Wayne Rowland: Fertilizing Trees & Shrubs

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Wayne Rowland, on the Vance County Cooperative Extension Report:

To grow trees and shrubs well you must take a good soil sample to know the nutrient needs for your plants before applying  any fertilizer to your trees and shrubs.

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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Cooperative Extension with Jamon Glover: When the Stress Turns to Anger

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Jamon Glover, on the Vance County Cooperative Extension Report:

We continue our new series called Strong Fathers Under Pressure. In part two of this series, we talk about what happens when stress turns into anger.

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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The Local Skinny! The Many Programs of Triple P

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There are parents who may feel like they have all the answers when it comes to raising their children, but parents who turn to Triple P for strategies and suggestions as they navigate child-rearing may find they have an edge, not to mention an ally.

Triple P – Positive Parenting Program – offers different modules for parents, and Kimiko Williams, the local coordinator for the nationally recognized program, wants parents to know there’s something for everyone.

Whether you’ve got time on a Saturday morning or after supper on a weeknight, the free, online self-paced modules are accessible whenever parents are available.

There are four different modules, three of which are targeted at certain age groups of children. There’s the basic Triple P 0-12 years module, a Triple P Baby and a Triple P Teen for those 10-16.

A fourth module, Triple P Fearless, deals with issues surrounding children who may be dealing with anxiety issues.

“We’re seeing that a lot of children are developing anxiety around certain situations,
Williams said on Thursday’s segment of The Local Skinny!

This particular module has suggestions for helping children from 6 years and up cope and overcome anxiety – and the strategies are useful for adults, too, she said.

Parenting doesn’t come with a manual, and one size does not fit all when it comes to handling the important job of raising healthy, happy children.

Triple P is for not only for parents, but also for caregivers, Williams said. “Anybody who has a direct impact on raising a child, this course is very helpful. We want our children to grow up to be healthy, well rounded productive citizens.”

The modules include fun, interactive videos that touch on a variety of topics, from understanding why your baby is crying – usually he’s either sleepy, hungry or needs changing. But how do you tell the difference, and how do you know that there’s not something else going on?

Even if you’re not a new parent,” Williams said, each child is different and so what worked for Baby #1 may not do the trick with Baby #2.

Whether you’re a first-time parent or a fifth-time parent, Triple P can be a much-needed resource, she said. “If nothing else, it will make you feel a little more comfortable as a parent.”

The program for ages 0-12 includes 17 proven strategies that can be used in any combination as parents go about their daily interactions with their children. It’s important to be consistent, however. Don’t try something once and discard it if it doesn’t work right away.

Oftentimes, children will pick up behaviors from the adults in their lives, too. Whatever the family dynamic is, she said, there are tools and strategies that can be effective for creating a positive home environment where children thrive.

As children grow into their teens, when they’re on the cusp of being neither children nor adults, Triple P offers parents a glimpse about what it’s like to be a teen today.

Children are facing different things than their parents did when they were teens, but they’re still trying to figure out how to fit in.

“We can’t parent our teenagers the same way we did when they were in elementary school,” Williams said. Triple P Teen provides support to help parents manage their reactions to teens’ meltdowns, outbursts and other behaviors and help their young people better understand tand manage heir feelings.

Accessing Triple P is a simple process, Williams said. Visit triplep-parenting.com and create an account, provide a few bits of information such as the number of children in the household, their ages and the county you live in, and you’ll be ready to go!

And, Williams said, parents are always welcome to be in touch with her if they have questions or want more information.

Her office is located within the Franklin County Health Department, 107 Industrial Dr. Her phone number is 919.496.2533 extension 2335 and her email is klwilliams@franklincountync.gov.

(The text above and the audio embedded below are part of a paid advertising message.)

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Home and Garden Show

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

  • Reminder that there is a burn ban in effect all across North Carolina.
  • There will be a Container Gardening Event on April 27th, starting at 6pm at the Vance County Regional Farmers Market.
  • Harden off transplants outside for a few days before planting them.
  • Read seed packets before planting seed.
  • Purchase seeds and plants that have disease resistance.
  • Check media before watering plants, if the media contains moisture don’t add water.
  • Increase pollination of vegetables by purchasing honeybees or renting a hive from a beekeeper.
  • Use metal discarded  window blinds to make row markers.
  • Before mowing your lawn, scout the lawn for objects that could damage your mower.
  • Start spraying your fruit trees as soon as blooms fall off the tree.
  • It’s now ok to plant trees and shrubs but don’t forget to water them.
  • Get your vegetable publications from Cooperative Extension.
  • Check houseplants dust weekly with a soft cloth.
  • Check storage areas for mice.

The Vance County Cooperative Extension Building is located at 305 Young St, Henderson, NC 27536

The Vance County Regional Farmers Market is located at 210 Southpark Dr., Henderson, NC 27536

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TownTalk: Warren County Farmers Market Season Kicks Off April 25

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In her role as manager of the Warren County Farmers Market, Tamara Small has many tasks and logistics on her to-do list this time of year: with Opening Day less than two weeks away, Small no doubt is arranging details with vendors, scheduling special activities, cooking demonstrations and more.

But Small draws comparisons with her present role to her previous work in the health care industry.

She said the farmers market provides people a way to make healthy choices and provide nutritious food for them to eat.

“It’s like preventative care what I do now, that’s how I like to think about it,” she said on Wednesday’s TownTalk.

The market kicks off on Saturday, Apr. 25, and Small said she welcomes patrons back to the parking lot of the Warren County Health Department, 544 W. Ridgeway St., Warrenton.

For now.

If all goes as planned, the market will close for the season in mid-November at its brand-new location. The new market is scheduled to be completed in August, she said, and when it’s finished, the market will move just up the road to its new spot at 429 W. Ridgeway St. The theme for Opening Day is pollinators, and a group of Master Gardeners will have a butterfly release at 10 a.m., Small said. Customers can put their names in a bucket for a chance to win a pollinator basket, filled with goodies for pollinators and people, alike.

Right now, expect to find cool-weather produce like lettuce, radishes and the like. As spring moves into summer, expect different produce, as well as eggs, honey and meats. There also will be fresh baked goods, and unique arts and crafts for purchase. The market will be open on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 12 noon, and vendors accept a variety of payment methods.

Of course, they prefer cash, Small said, but some vendors take cards and other cash apps. WIC and SNAP EBT is accepted, too, and Small said a double up food bucks program will be in effect for those SNAP EBT customers. “If you spend $20, we’ll give you an additional $20,” she explained.

There are programs for seniors and for children, too.

“I think that is a wonderful asset, a great benefit for people,” Small said of the various benefit programs that are accepted at the market. “It makes fresh, nutritious food available for everyone, no matter how they’re paying for their food.”

As she begins her fourth year as market manager, Small said she is happy to see people come out to the market, being outdoors and enjoying a community gathering space.

“It’s a place that you look forward to going on a Saturday morning,” she said. The market is a family-oriented destination, and a fun place to spend some time on the weekend.

Last year, Small said about 6,000 people visited the market during the season, averaging about 200 people each week.

“Those are great numbers,” she said. She wants this year to be even better.
We want more people to be aware about the Warren County Farmers Market. We have so much to offer, it’s a great place to be.”

Customers enjoy making connections with their food, she said. The vendors who sell on Saturdays at the market are the ones who actually grew the food. It’s interesting to find out how far (or how near) the vendors traveled to get their goods to market.

Vendors put their heart into what they’re doing, Small said. “They’re very particular about what they grow and how they grow it.” Keeping sales local has a positive impact on the local economy – another plus.

The market may be a little bit different each week, depending on what special activities are planned. Small said there will be cooking demonstrations each month, and there will be honey tastings and face painting on Opening Day, she said.

“I just really like to bring the community together and embrace that togetherness in a healthy way,” Small said. “We’re outside, we’re eating good, we’re laughing, we’re talking…we’re just having a good time. It’s the best place to be on a Saturday morning.”

Follow the market on social media and find links to vendor applications, weekly newsletters and more. For more information, contact Small at 252.2131.7216 or the Warren County Cooperative Extension at 252.257.3640.

 

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