Smithfield pedestrian a Market Street fatality

Tucker Lyon had been residing for some time in her childhood home on South Second Street near the Kiddie Park and was frequently seen walking the sidewalks of her neighborhood including Smithfield's Downtown. Last Saturday she was attempting to cross Market Street heading north on Second when she was struck by a pickup truck driven by a 20-year-old Wayne County man driving without a license. She died as a result of her injuries at Wake Med in Raleigh on Sunday.
READ the story with details about the incident in the JoCo Report>

Building Association offers relief for parking loss

At no cost to the public, the Johnston County Building Industry Association has converted its vacant lot at North Third and Bridge streets into a parking lot to help offset the recent removal of parking spaces along Market Street. The new lot is intended primarily for employees of the county's Land Use Center and the Public Library, thereby freeing up spaces in the paved parking lot behind those facilities for the public's use. (Town of Smithfield photo)
 

Ronald Johnson's lawsuit against town dismissed

The former Smithfield police detective and ousted school board member had sued the town for improperly firing him in October 2022 for "detrimental personal conduct." A federal judge dismissed his complaint on Monday of this week.

The JoCo Report has published a story by the Carolina Journal with details about the dismissal and a review of Mr. Johnson's past troubles with the law>
 

Here's the current plan for the baseball stadium under construction behind today's Smithfield Community Park. This is adjacent to a soccer field within sight of  Smithfield-Selma High School's baseball field.

County signs contract for stadium funding

The Johnston County Board of Commissioners Monday evening approved an agreement that sets forth terms for the county's $2-million contribution to help the Town of Smithfield build a stadium for a collegiate-level summer baseball team.

The key element in the agreement requires payments to be made as reimbursements for specific aspects of construction as they are completed. Each payment will require approval by the Board of Commissioners.

When commissioners pledged the county's $2-million grant to the town last October, the estimated cost of the stadium was capped at $6 million. That estimate has grown to almost $16.3 million since plans were changed after a larger site was chosen on recently donated land adjacent to Smithfield Community Park.

"I hope the town doesn't come back asking us for more money," Commissioner Bill Stovall said during Monday's brief discussion. He cast the only vote against the contract's approval, objecting to county funding to aid a for-profit baseball franchise.

The agreement states that payments made by the county "shall be made in increments and frequency solely determined by the county, but in no circumstance will exceed $2,000,000." It also states that "any request for reimbursement of funds must be submitted and received before December 30, 2028."

The initial phase of stadium construction has begun and is scheduled for completion in time for next year's season of play by the former Wilson Tobs' baseball team competing in the region's Coastal Plain League.

Whitley Heights Sanitary District goes out of business

Commissioners adopted a resolution to "dissolve" the Whitley Heights Sanitary District that was set up on US 70 Business at Swift Creek Road near the airport in 1988 to finance and administer a water-distribution system for the residential subdivision there.

A federal USDA loan was issued in 1992 to build the infrastructure, and in 2000 the district transferred its water and sewer services to the County of Johnston but continued to collect property taxes to finance the water system's original loan, which was paid off in 2024.

No longer liable for an extra property-tax levy each year, Whitley Heights customers will continue to be served by the county's Little Creek Water District. Last year's tax levy in the district was 5.5 cents per $100 valuation of real estate.

Barber Mill Road waste-collection station to be enlarged

Commissioners awarded a $432,941 contract to S.T. Wooten Construction Company to enlarge the county's solid-waste collection station on Barber Mill Road just off Cleveland Road.

County Manager Rick Hester said the site is "the busiest of 12" operated by the county throughout Johnston. It's being enlarged "to make it safer," he noted, by providing more space for vehicles to pull off Barber Mill Road.

Brian Beasley, the county's solid-waste director, said the site served 112,000 customers in 2025.

County buys AI-driven software for Emergency Services

Commissioners approved purchasing the software from Peregrine Technologies at an annual cost of $95,000. "Peregrine's platform unifies and displays live and historical data across systems to help agencies make informed, data-driven decisions in real time," noted Josh Holloman, deputy director of Johnston County Emergency Services.

On another public-safety matter, commissioners approved a request from 9-1-1 Communications to pay $325,000 for radio maintenance and server upgrades. Funding is coming from the state’s Emergency Telephone System Fund.
 

Craig Olive a "Shining Star"

Johnston County's Register of Deeds Craig Olive has received the Shining Star Award from the N.C. Association of Registers of Deeds – presented annually to an association member "whose work goes beyond the call of duty." Shown here is Mr. Olive with Robin Phillips, Northampton County's register of deeds who nominated him for the honor.

READ the story with more details by the county's Public Information Office>
 

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  SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS  


Under construction beside Barbour Road northwest of Smithfield is a larger facility for home-grown Ace Fabrication that will include robotic laser-welding equipment.
(Photo from County of Johnston)

Ace Fabrication grows with biotech expansion

From CHRIS JOHNSON, Johnston County Economic Development Director

Consider Johnston County’s most important life sciences companies, and names like Novo Nordisk, BD, and Grifols come to mind. True, the three are global biotech titans that employ thousands of workers here. But less conspicuous industry names are also thriving. Now expanding in Smithfield, for example, is Ace Fabrication, a business that has operated at its U.S. 70 Business West location since 1962.

Michael Prince, president of Ace Fabrication, notes that his company’s presence in Johnston County pre-dates that of Novo Nordisk, the Danish bio-manufacturer that arrived in Clayton in 1993. Since acquiring the company 10 years ago, he has grown Ace Fabrication’s workforce from 10 to 30 employees – with more hiring likely as the company triples its real-estate footprint and adopts the latest laser and robotics-rich production technologies.

Ace Fabrication is an end-to-end design, engineering, fabrication, and installation company providing custom stainless-steel equipment, architectural products, and facility solutions for new construction, expansions, and ongoing production needs in the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries.

While the company delivers stainless steel products across the country, its work on behalf of arriving and expanding biotech names in the Triangle has intensified in recent years. “So much of everything that’s going on involves all the new pharma facilities in the RTP area,” said Mr. Prince, whose career managing capital projects spans positions at Burroughs-Wellcome & Company (now Thermo Fisher Scientific), Wyeth (now Pfizer), and Biogen.  

Operating in the Triangle region are more than 600 life-sciences companies ranging from early-stage university spin-offs to multi-billion-dollar biomanufacturers, collectively employing 42,000 workers, according to the N.C. Biotech Center.

Johnston County super-charged its life-sciences cluster in 2004 with the opening of Johnston Community College’s Workforce Development Center at Clayton, customizing a bio-manufacturing training program around the talent needs of Grifols and Novo Nordisk. More recently, JCC’s Advanced Manufacturing Training Facility in Four Oaks is growing a talent pipeline to support defense-oriented manufacturers and other 21st Century industries.

As a fabrication shop, Ace sets itself apart from competitors because it uses only stainless steel to avoid the risk of contamination from mixed materials common with other suppliers. “Hardly anyone else has the volume to be exclusively stainless steel,” Prince said. “That’s a key advantage for us.”

As to the importance of talent, Prince says “workforce is number one.” Ace maintains informal relationships with colleges and universities in the region to hire workers with the right skills. “NC State produces a lot of our engineers,” says Prince, who holds a mechanical engineering degree from NC State and an MBA from UNC-Chapel Hill. The company taps JCC’s welding program for some of its staff and has even found Wayne Community College a fertile source of engineering and technical talent. 

Ace Fabrication is working with Goldsboro-based Jackson Builders on its new 33,000-square-foot facility. Mr. Prince estimates the company will invest a total of $6.5 million in the site, including the installation of new systems like robotics-driven laser welding equipment. “The support we get from the county and the town is important,” said Prince, who commended the County of Johnston and the Town of Smithfield for smoothly executing the permitting and approvals necessary for his company’s expansion.

Ace’s Prince expects his company’s new facility to be complete by the end of this year, at which point he can turn his attention to additional hiring needs.

The past decade has been a fruitful one for the company. “We’ve grown revenue by a factor of five over the last 10 years,” Mr. Prince said.

Making the company’s success even more astounding is the fact that Ace Fabrication operates without a sales or marketing team, relying completely on word of mouth for new clients. “We’re a relationship business,” Mr. Prince explained. “When we work with a new partner, we rarely ever lose that business – ever.”
 

Food Lion boosts local child-hunger efforts

The Salvation Army of Smithfield has been awarded a $10,000 grant from the Food Lion Feeds Charitable Foundation to support local efforts to provide nutritious food and resources to children facing food insecurity in Johnston County.

"The grant will strengthen The Salvation Army's ongoing commitment to serving vulnerable families and ensuring children have access to healthy meals and snacks when school-based food programs are unavailable," explained Christopher Rawls, the Salvation Army's corps officer based at Smithfield. "Funding will be used to support food purchases through Haven Hangout and related programming that helps nourish children and promote healthy living."

The Food Lion Feeds Charitable Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Food Lion, based in Salisbury. It has provided more than $25 million in grant funding for backpack programs and other hunger-relief efforts as well as funding for programs to help shorten the lines at food banks. Food Lion's foundation partners with Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger-relief agency.

 

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 WHAT'S COMING UP 

From Johnston County
Visitors Bureau

This year's Ava Gardner Festival focuses on Ava's life in Spain, inspired by her personal independence and celebrating the ongoing cultural interaction between Spain and Ava herself – through live flamenco performance, movies from her esteemed filmography, and never-before-seen artifacts.

The festival kicks off on Friday evening, October 2 with a black-tie gala – "A Night In Madrid" – from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Ava Gardner Museum in Downtown Smithfield. Ticketed guests will walk the red carpet and experience the essence of Spain through live Flamenco performances, Spanish music, and a specially curated charcuterie spread.

On Saturday, October 3 the festival continues at the Smithfield Performing Arts Center with a ticketed screening of an Ava film, The Sun Also Rises, at 10 a.m. From 9 a.m. till 4 p.m. Saturday, the museum will feature new displays, wine tasting of Seven Jars Distillery Ava Gardner Wines, and Ava films in the museum’s theater.

On the final day of the festival – Sunday, October 4 – the museum will host “Breakfast at Ava’s" with a light homemade continental breakfast of country-ham croissants, various breads, fresh fruit, and beverages. Ava’s 1960 film, The Angel Who Wore Red, will be shown in the theater.

Advance purchase of tickets is encouraged, and may be done online> 
 

 DEATHS AND FUNERALS 
Click on the name to read an obituary, usually posted by the funeral home:

E. JAY WELLONS III, 79 – died September 22

TUCKER LYON, 78 – died September 20

BETTY CAPPS MOYE, 77 – died September 15

RUTH GODWIN STRICKLAND, 95 – died September 11
 

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 A WORD (OR TWO) FROM THE EDITOR 

The urgency of controlling Market Street traffic

Last weekend's pedestrian fatality at Market and Second streets brought home the critical need for better traffic control on Downtown Smithfield's main street.

A big step recently taken by the N.C. Department of Transportation was to eliminate all parallel parking along Market Street. The next step is a redirection of vehicular traffic flow by pairing Second and Third as one-way streets between Johnston and Bridge streets and one block of Johnston Street behind the Courthouse.

That plan, presented to the Town Council last spring, includes pedestrian safety improvements at Market Street intersections, especially at Second and Third where most folks walk across the four-lane throughway that's the root of our problems.

The Town of Smithfield is awaiting the final plan from NCDOT, hoping to sign off in time for construction to start in late December or early January.

In the meantime, we've been complaining for some time about the lengthy green-light signals for traffic that zips through town without regard to the 25-mph speed limit. Shorten those green light and force speeding vehicles have to stop more often!

Another sad aspect of this story is today's driving behavior by many. It's terrible. Not only do many folks disregard speed limits but they also have developed a bad habit of no longer using turn signals.

Adding fuel to the fire is distracted driving: folks looking at their phones and other electronic devices instead of keeping an eye on what's going on around them.

Who will step up and set a better example for common courtesy on the road?
 

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