Tag Archive for: #wizsnews

Vance County High School

SportsTalk: Alston Signs With South Carolina

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Taeshawn Alston has one more season to suit up in the green and white uniform as a Vance County Viper before he trades those colors for the garnet and black of the University of South Carolina.

As of Tuesday, Alston has committed to play football for the SEC school located in Columbia, SC.

Alston and Vipers Coach Aaron Elliott were on Sports Talk Wednesday to talk about the recruiting process and what led to Alston’s decision to become a Gamecock.

“Coach Beamer is amazing,” Alston said, referring to Head Coach Shane Beamer, son of legendary Virginia Tech football coach Frank Beamer, adding that it “felt like home, then and there,” when he paid a visit to the school. “It just clicked with me.”

He’d been on their radar since April 2023, and Alston said he liked everything about the coaching staff – how they treat the players and how, in turn, the players treated recruits like him who were visiting.

And then there’s the “Game Day atmosphere,” he said, surrounding the famed Williams-Brice Stadium, home of the Gamecocks.

Being the focus of coaches’ attention during the recruiting process was fun, Alston said. “It was good, (but) sometimes it was stressful.” He named UNC-CH, Virginia Tech and Rutgers as other schools that were interested in what he could bring to their programs.

As a coach, Elliott said he encouraged Alston to “find a place that best fits him – a place that’s going to show him love, that wants him to be there…and wants him to grow as a player.”

When schools contact Elliott about his players, it’s always “measurables” that they want to know about: How fast can he run? How tall is he? How does he move? What are his grades like?

“Taeshawn checks all those boxes,” Elliott said. “It was easy for me to talk to coaches about Taeshawn,” he explained, which shows “he’s doing what he needs to be doing on the field and in the classroom.”

When Alston takes the field this fall for his final season as a Viper, he’ll be playing linebacker and EDGE. He likes both positions, so he’s happy to go in any direction his coaches decide.

The coaching staff at USC has said they’d like for him to get a little bigger, something that Alston has taken to heart. For the record, he’s listed now at 6-foot-4 and about 230 pounds.

Alston has a good idea about what USC will give him – a chance to play against top-level opponents in the SEC and a quality education. But what are the Gamecocks getting from him?

“They’re getting a great athlete, a great academic student,” Alston said. “I feel like they’re getting a monster, on the field and in the classroom.”

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TownTalk: GPS In County Vehicles

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As of just a few weeks ago, vehicles that are owned by Vance County are now equipped with GPS tracking devices.

County Manager C. Renee Perry said installing the devices is being done “as a matter of safety and for fleet tracking.” The cost is roughly $9,300 a year, but that doesn’t include vehicles used by the Sheriff’s Office. They don’t have the equipment – yet.

There is some debate between Sheriff Curtis Brame and other county officials about whether the county has the authority to place the GPS trackers on vehicles used by the Sheriff’s Office.

Brame has said he is not in favor of putting the devices on his patrol cars, even though they are county-owned vehicles.

There was discussion at a June 13 county budget work session, during which Perry stated that County Attorney Jonathan Care said the sheriff’s vehicles could be included, but Brame read a statement that supported his claim that the county doesn’t have jurisdiction over the vehicles in his fleet.

The county doesn’t have power over the sheriff’s office or of its personnel; Perry said the board of commissioners “is still considering attorney guidance” in the matter.

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The Local Skinny! County Budget Includes $60K For McGregor Hall

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The newly adopted FY 2024-25 Vance County budget includes a $60,000 appropriation for McGregor Hall, which represents the full amount requested by the performing arts venue. Executive Director Mark Hopper told WIZS News earlier today that he is “absolutely elated” with the commissioners’ action.

“It’s the first step toward making this facility function in a way that every other facility functions in the state,” Hopper said in a telephone interview Tuesday morning. “It’s a really important first step.”

Commissioner Archie Taylor is also on the board of the Embassy Cultural Center Foundation. He said Tuesday that McGregor Hall attracts tourism dollars to the county each time an event is held there.

“As a commissioner, I look at our community as a whole, what is beneficial for Vance County, not for any particular organization,” Taylor said. He referred to a recent economic impact study completed by N.C. State University, which concluded that McGregor Hall has a multi-million dollar impact on the county, bringing outside dollars through sales tax and hotel/motel tax revenues.

The Henderson City Council included a $5,000 one-time grant to McGregor Hall in its recently adopted budget, representing just more than 6 percent of the total amount – $75,000 – that was requested.

City leaders have discussed the purchase of a downtown property currently owned by McGregor Hall for a price in the range of $255,000. When asked whether the sale would move forward, Hopper said “the city has not contacted us.”

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Cooperative Extension With Michael Ellington: Japanese Beetles

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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 Wayne Rowland – Blossom End Rot

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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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Vance County Logo

TownTalk: Does Vance County Know Where Its Money Is?

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Vance County Manager C. Renee Perry has confirmed that there is an open investigation into the practices of the county’s former finance director after a recent audit found deficiencies in financial processes that involves $1.1 million in county funds.

The audit presented at the June 3 Board of Commissioners meeting revealed that the former finance director “wired, from the County’s bank account, funds equating to approximately $1.1 million dollars through the end of fiscal year 2023, with subsequent wire transfers occurring into fiscal year 2024.”

Katherine Bigelow had served as the county’s finance director since 2019. She was dismissed in February 2024; on May 10, Perry sent an email to county staff informing them of Bigelow’s “recent passing.”

The county has 60 days from the June 3 audit report presentation to present a plan of action to the Local Government Commission.

In an email to WIZS earlier today, Perry said the audit – a public record – disclosed some of the information, adding that there is little else she can say at this point, per the FBI.

“The County was deprived of its monetary resources, resources which should have gone to covering legitimate expenditures and projects which the County has undertaken,” the audit report stated.

The audit report identified four “significant” audit findings: budget violation, reconciliation of records, internal controls and timeliness. In his presentation to commissioners, Thomas Price said his team at Whiteville-based Thompson, Price, Scott, Adams, and Co., P.A. noted that the county failed to comply with General Statutes by not having a two-signature process in place as it pertains to county funds.

This lack of secondary approval or oversight allowed for the finance director to post entries in the county’s financial software; the audit pointed to lack of sufficient training and cross-training practices to ensure proper handling of financial matters.

Citing timeliness of the numbers and the accuracy of the numbers they were provided, Price said they discovered issues that they couldn’t get satisfactory answers for.

“By November, she (Bigelow) wasn’t giving us information in a timely way,” Price said.

Price conceded that his team could have done a better job briefing Perry – who only came on board in November 2023.

“At that point, we didn’t suspect foul play, but we didn’t know,” Price said.

Over the past three or four months, county staff and the audit team have communicated weekly – sometimes daily, and Perry said, “We’ve had conversations…moving forward, things will be different.”

Commission Chair Dan Brummitt said he would like to see an agreement “defined in writing. There appears to have been some miscommunication along the way,” he said. Brummitt said he would go so far as to create an Audit Committee, made up of commissioners and others with accounting experience.

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