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| PUBLISHED ONLINE MARCH 19, 2020 • VOL. 2, NO. 12 | |||
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Stories and photos by Wingate Lassiter unless otherwise noted (click highlighted link to e-mail the editor) |
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CORONAVIRUS: the local numbers from Johnston's Health Department These bits of information from Wednesday evening's special meeting of the Johnston County Board of Health, called to address the coronavirus crisis: • Just two (2) confirmed Johnston County cases --- both in one household. North Carolina had 93 cases, the United States 9,415 as of 7:30 a.m. Thursday, according to a worldwide map maintained by Johns Hopkins University. • 68 Johnstonians have been officially quarantined because of exposure to infected persons; 74 others have been placed in isolation --- for 14-day incubation periods. • There's still a shortage of testing kits. Johnston's Public Health Department started Wednesday with just 15, with 11 on hand at the end of the day. • Some private physicians as well as Johnston Health's Smithfield and Clayton hospitals also have testing kits, easing demands on the Health Department. Questions about the coronavirus? The County of Johnston has opened a telephone hotline "to take all of your COVID-19 questions" at 919-989-5400. TOWN SCHEDULES "COMMUNITY BRIEFING CALL" At 6 p.m. Friday (tomorrow) Smithfield's mayor, council members, and town manager will address questions related to the Pandemic from citizens who submit them by e-mail or voicemail no later than 4 p.m. Friday. E-mail info@smithfield-nc.com or voicemail 919-989-1077 to leave questions. To listen to the briefing at 6 p.m. Friday, telephone 1-800-719-7514; when prompted, use code 808829 to join the call. 
Photo
from Johnston Health
Johnston Health initiates in-house testing Janie Robinson "fit tests" an Emergency Department employee with an N95 mask and respirator at Johnston Health's Smithfield hospital. In the background is Ashley Maher, who's keeping time on her smartphone as part of the procedure. They are two of four HealthQuest workers "fit testing" more than 200 employees at Clayton and Smithfield where Johnston Health has begun testing inpatients who may be carrying the COVID-19 virus. Meanwhile, Johnston Health has been restricting public visitation to one person per patient for the duration of his or her stay in the hospital. And for now, no one is allowed to walk for exercise inside the Medical Mall, where HealthQuest facilities are closed. Folks are still welcome to use Johnston Health's walking trail around the small pond beside Hospital Road. |
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 Associate pastor Meagan Matthews delivers her sermon before vacant pews during last Sunday's worship service at Centenary United Methodist Church. Congregants were ordered to stay home, but a modified service was "live streamed" over the Internet --- as was done by at least two other Smithfield churches that will continue the practice until the coronavirus pandemic is brought under control. CORONAVIRUS threat puts a brake on just about every public activity Here's the list of public activities canceled or postponed and public places closed that we know about as of this morning (Thursday): JOHNSTON COUNTY'S PUBLIC SCHOOLS Following orders from Governor Roy Cooper, Johnston County joined the rest of the state in shutting down its public schools this week and next, and perhaps longer. At an emergency meeting on Monday, the county's Board of Education assured all school-system employees they will continue to get paid --- "pending further guidance from the state," said Board Chairman Todd Sutton. (The state pays the salaries of most teachers and administrators; the county compensates everyone else.) CONGREGATIONAL WORSHIP AT CHURCHES Smithfield's churches have suspended in-house services and programs for the most part, but three that we know about will continue to conduct Sunday morning worship via Internet "live streaming" on their Facebook pages: Centenary United Methodist, First Baptist (South Fourth Street), and First Presbyterian. MOST DISTRICT & SUPERIOR COURT SESSIONS North Carolina's Chief Justice Cheri Beasley has directed that most cases be postponed for at least 30 days. Exceptions include "due process" and "emergency relief" proceedings and cases where a jury has already been empaneled. LOCAL GOVERNMENT MEETINGS The Smithfield Town Council's budget session scheduled for Tuesday of this week was canceled. So was the school board's Legal Services Committee meeting that had been rescheduled from last Friday till Wednesday afternoon of this week. INTERSCHOLASTIC AND TOWN-OPERATED ATHLETICS This includes all high-school and middle-school sports, suspended through April 6. Smithfield Parks & Recreation has suspended play in all its youth and adult leagues. TOWN'S INDOOR RECREATION FACILITIES The Smithfield Recreation & Aquatics Center was closed at 5 p.m. Monday until further notice. Also closed is the Sarah Yard Community Center. Parks remain open but all rentals of shelters and athletic fields are canceled through April 6. A Smithfield parks report from last weekend on SPORTS & RECREATION> PUBLIC LIBRARY OF JOHNSTON COUNTY & SMITHFIELD Closed to visitors. Fines suspended and will not accrue. "Curbside service" available through an online catalog or by calling 919-934-8146 Monday-Friday 9 to 5. SENIOR CENTERS (BUT MEAL DELIVERIES CONTINUE) Closed through the end of March, but home-delivered meals are still being sent out with volunteer drivers still allowed to make deliveries. SMITHFIELD'S AVA GARDNER MUSEUM Temporarily closed, with no re-opening date set. "During this time, we will be thoroughly cleaning the museum and assessing our facilities to consider possible modifications that could ensure appropriate social distancing going forward," stated Museum Director Lynell Seabold. BATTLE OF BENTONVILLE RE-ENACTMENT Scheduled for this coming weekend, it has been postponed till March 2021. Johnston County Visitors Bureau has info about tickets already purchased> JOHNSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE The Smithfield campus is closed to the public, students, and employees through Friday, March 27. Students are advised to continue working on their courses online. |
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 212 E. Church Street • 919-934-1121 • johns@johnscovil.com |
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Schools start handing out meals to any and all students in households with need Starting on Wednesday, Johnston County Public Schools began distributing pick-up lunches, and bagged breakfasts, to students from any household that wants them --- free of charge, without limits on eligibility, no questions asked. Johnston's Board of Education got the details during an emergency meeting held Monday afternoon following a long weekend of staff preparations for what could be a drawn-out closing of schools because of the coronavirus threat. The meals will be handed out curbside at 13 of the county's 45 schools, including Smithfield-Selma High and West Smithfield Elementary. Dana Edwards, the system's school-nutrition director, said the effort is being administered under the federal Summer Food Service Program, which restricts distribution to school sites where at least 50 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals. But that doesn't prohibit Johnston County from handing out meals to students regardless of income eligibility, Ms. Edwards said, so that is what's being done. The only qualification is that the meals must be picked up by a parent or someone else from the receiving household, she explained. Distribution hours Monday-Friday are 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Get updates on the feeding program via the school system's website> |
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 It appeared to be business as usual on Wednesday in the drive-thru lanes of fast-food restaurants like McDonald's in West Smithfield. For restaurants, banks, and bill-paying, "drive-thru" is the recommended option As an emergency coronavirus control measure, N.C. Governor Roy Cooper on Tuesday ordered restaurants across the state to cease serving dine-in customers, leaving the "drive-thru," where available, as the chief option for drop-in patrons. But restaurants are free to fill take-out orders, and that's what many are doing. In Downtown Smithfield, locally owned eateries are offering delivery service and promoting sales of gift cards for future dining. And the town has put up signs reserving one parking space in front of each restaurant for take-out customers. Banks, meanwhile, are recommending that on-site customers stay in their vehicles and use the drive-thru windows. The Town of Smithfield is recommending a similar practice when it comes to paying utility bills. Town Hall doesn't have manned drive-thru windows, but it does have drop boxes on the premises where payments by check or cash may be securely placed. Bills may also be paid through the town's website or by phone at 1-855-603-9197. Issuing a State of Emergency declaration for Smithfield Tuesday night, Mayor Andy Moore asked citizens to refrain from visiting Town Hall for any reason. "This declaration," he explained, "allows Smithfield to access federal funds, if needed, for any loss of revenues or increased expenses that may occur" during the virus threat. At an emergency meeting of the County Commissioners Tuesday evening, Sheriff Steve Bizzell said his office will not strictly enforce the Governor's Executive Order limiting public gatherings to no more than 100 persons, nor abide by his subsequent advisory limiting those assemblies to no more than 50. "I'm not going to a church and tell them they can't pray," he declared. The sheriff said legal proceedings are going forward to release from jail persons incarcerated for non-violent offenses. He thanked Superior Court Judge Tom Lock and other judicial officials for that, noting that more than 300 persons are presently being held in the county's jail plus overflow cell space in neighboring counties. At Tuesday's meeting, commissioners suspended cutoffs of county water service to customers in arrears until April 13 and authorized County Manager Rick Hester to make decisions regarding "flexible work situations" and "different types of leave" for county employees as well as restrictions on work-related travel. |
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Fred Smith's 50-vote GOP Primary win in county board race won't be challenged His lead in preliminary results on Election Night was just 47 votes over second-place finisher Michelle Pace Davis in the Republican Primary. The final margin grew to 50 votes when provisional ballots were counted in last Thursday's official canvass. Ms. Davis decided not to challenge the final tally: Smith 9,611, Davis 9,561. As a result, Mr. Smith, a former county commissioner, will face Democrat Justin David King in next fall's General Election contest for the District 1 seat on the Johnston County Board of Commissioners. Here's a rundown of all the local and district races to be decided November 3: NOTE: (D) denotes Democrat, (R) Republican, (U) Unaffiliated, (*) incumbent. U.S. House of Representatives, District 7 Christopher M. Ward (D), Tabor City David Rouzer (*) (R), Wilmington NOTE: District 7 includes all of Johnston County. N.C. Senate District 11 --- Allen Wellons (D), Smithfield Lisa Stone Barnes (R), Spring Hope NOTE: All Smithfield precincts are within District 11. N.C. House of Representatives (district voting for each seat) District 26 --- Linda Bennett (D), NC 96, Zebulon Donna McDowell White (*) (R), Clayton Denton Lee (U), Killarney Lane, Clayton District 28 --- Corey Stephens (D), Benson Larry C. Strickland (*) (R), Pine Level NOTE: District 26 includes South Smithfield Precinct; District 28 includes the East and North Smithfield precincts. County Commissioners (countywide voting for all seats) District 1 --- Justin David King (D), Peach Blossom Court, Clayton Fred J. Smith Jr. (R), Pritchard Road, Clayton District 2 --- Wendy Ella May (D), Micro Ted G. Godwin (*) (R), Hawkins Road, Selma District 4 --- Alan Lamont (D), Everland Parkway, Angier Larry Wood (*) (R), Benson District 6 --- Gettys Cohen Jr. (D), Smithfield Tony Braswell (*) (R), Gor-An Farm Road, Selma County Board of Education (countywide voting for four seats) Lyn Andrews, Afton Lane, Smithfield Kay Carroll, South Lakeside Drive, Four Oaks Teresa M. Grant (*), Crestwood Court, Garner Ronald Johnson (*), Westminster Drive, Clayton Rick Mercier, Fireweed Place, Clayton Terry Tippett, Simon Road, Middlesex Chuck Williams, Neuse Ridge Drive, Clayton Mike Wooten (*), Cedar Springs Drive, Princeton Johnston has 132,064 registered voters That total, which includes new voters registered during "one-stop" voting prior to the March 3 Primary Election, is larger than the county's total population of 121,900 recorded by the 2000 U.S. Census just 20 years ago! (Johnston's current population is 202,675, according to the most recent Census estimate.) Of Johnston's 132,064 voters, 50,592 are registered as Republicans, 42,470 as Unaffiliated with a political party, and 38,033 as Democrats. The breakdown for Smithfield's four precincts totals 4,313 registered as Democrats, 3,527 as Republicans, and 3,369 as Unaffiliated. Final Primary Election results for Johnston County on Board of Elections website> |
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 Genuine Springtime is here! The flowering trees in front of First Citizens Bank's Smithfield office on Market Street apparently got Mother Nature's recent memo warning about premature blooming before Spring has actually arrived. Now it's here, officially to begin at 11:50 p.m. today (Thursday), and Friday's high temperature is expected to reach the mid-80s. Too bad the Bradford pears didn't get that warning memo and had their blooming cut short by the fickle weather of late February and early March. SPRING EQUINOX WALK AT ST. PAUL'S LABYRINTH This Friday (March 20), 7:30-8:00 p.m. at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, corner of South Second and Church streets in Smithfield. Daughters of the King will place votives (candles) around the labyrinth's exterior to add to your experience. |
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DEATHS & FUNERALS Each week we post links to obituaries about persons who have died during the past week. We monitor the websites of local funeral homes to compile our list, and we welcome links provided by readers to obituaries of persons with Smithfield connections who have died outside our immediate area.... WILLIAM ARTHUR WELLS SR., 69 - died March 17 VICKY CASEY OVERFIELD, 57 - died March 14 JOSEPH LAWRENCE LANGDON, 83 - died March 14 IRENE WHITLEY CREECH, 94 - died March 13 FAYDINE BROWN WALL, 84 - died March 12 |
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THAT'S THE WAY IT WAS  A small remnant of Smithfield's first railroad The first railroad to reach our town arrived in 1882, and it wasn't the present-day CSX north-south main line. It was the Midland North Carolina Railroad that originated in Goldsboro and ended at the banks of the Neuse River in Smithfield, running down the center of present-day Market Street. By 1886 the bankrupt Midland had been absorbed by the Wilmington & Weldon and was cut off where its new route from Wilson to Fayetteville passed just east of Downtown. The line from Goldsboro was later operated by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad until its abandonment in the 1920s. The portion shown here --- embedded in the pavement of Old Goldsboro Road just north of Market Street east of the underpass --- was part of a sidetrack that remained in service until the 1970s. |
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"INSIDE" PAGES IN THIS WEEK'S EDITION SPORTS & RECREATION Visit our archives |
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