|
||
ONE LAST LOOK AT 2020 Illustrated by photographs published in the Weekly Sun:  Johnston County's school leaders were under fire in January. The first of several gatherings in front of the Courthouse in 2020 --- this one on the second day of the new year --- had leaders of Johnston's Board of Education defending themselves in the wake of revelations about mismanagement of finances and personnel matters by the school system's Central Office. The turmoil prompted 16 candidates to file for election to four seats on the school board.  Things
settled down after Johnston's County Commissioners in
early February granted the school system an extra
$950,000 and the Board of Education in late May named
Eric Bracy (right) its new
superintendent.Results of November's General Election brought two new members to the school board --- Lyn Andrews and Kay Carroll --- while two of three incumbents --- Ronald Johnson and Mike Wooten --- won re-election.  The worldwide coronavirus pandemic arrived here in March. In this photograph from Johnston Health, an employee in the Smithfield hospital's Emergency Department "fit tests" an N95 mask and respirator, two essential tools in the battle waged by front-line health-care workers against COVID-19.  The year brought an outbreak of new-home construction to town. The biggest project is the East River Subdivision off Buffalo Road that's headed toward 300 new housing units. Elsewhere in Smithfield, new residences on individual lots started going up in noteworthy numbers for the first time in decades.  The coronavirus pandemic brought forth notable acts of charity. At the Sarah Yard Community Center in East Smithfield (above), the Easter Bunny and friends were on hand to distribute free meals to children kept home from school. Across town at Johnston Health (below), a faith-based organization provided free lunches to about 450 hospital employees.  The pandemic pushed church services outdoors and online. Here's a screenshot from the St. Ann Catholic Church Facebook page of mass being celebrated outside the sanctuary on May 10.  The pandemic forced schools to improvise commencement. Johnston Community College conducted a drive-thru graduation ceremony in June. Smithfield-Selma High School wasn't able to present diplomas to its graduates until an outdoor walk-thru in early August.   Fortunately, our Black Lives Matter protests were peaceful. Two rallies originated in front of the Johnston County Courthouse in June, while a third --- "100 Men In Suits" --- took place in early July with a march to several historic points Downtown. Black and white community leaders joined hands to keep the protests free of violence and vandalism amidst nationwide unrest over the killing of African-Americans by police officers in several of the country's major cities.   Schools sought to serve students the pandemic kept at home. That included distribution of lunches to any and all families willing and able to come by and pick them up from cafeteria workers like these (below) on the job at South Smithfield Elementary School in August. A bigger challenge was distribution of laptop computers and WiFi devices to all families who needed them for online "remote learning."  Unexpected flash flooding took the lives of two small children. Here's the site (below) of the washout on Galilee Road where a vehicle driven by the mother of two children riding with her was swept downstream shortly before midnight August 31. She was rescued. The children's bodies weren't recovered till floodwaters receded a couple of days later. A year of record rainfall produced several flash floods that damaged businesses and public infrastructure.  Younger students came back to school in October. But their days in the classroom were numbered as a spike in coronavirus cases throughout Johnston County after Thanksgiving prompted officials to shut down all school campuses till the middle of next month. The scene below shows masked children returning to the playground at South Smithfield Elementary School.  COVID-19 didn't keep Johnstonians from voting in record numbers. It was by far the largest turnout ever as 111,732 Johnstonians participated in November's General Election, most of them at early-voting sites such as this one at the First Baptist Church Ministry Center in Smithfield (below) or by absentee ballot because of the coronavirus pandemic.  The year ended with a ray of hope as the first vaccines arrived. The first shipments on December 17 went to Johnston Health's hospitals in Smithfield and Clayton where front-line workers got the COVID-19 vaccine produced by Pfizer (below). A few days later arrived a shipment of Moderna's vaccine for employees of the Johnston County Health Department.  And there was encouraging news on the economic front. After spiking at a record 11% in May as the coronavirus pandemic took hold, Johnston County's unemployment rate was down to 5.3% in October as businesses re-opened and many folks went back to work. Even so, we're still above historically low monthly rates hovering at 3% or slightly above in 2019. Somewhat surprising were reports that Johnston County's retail sales increased through the spring and summer months at a record pace despite the coronavirus pandemic. The most recent report showed sales up 12.3% July-September. |
||
| RETURN
TO THE SMITHFIELD WEEKLY SUN FRONT PAGE |
