Smithfield
officially launches the Christmas
season
Mayor Andy
Moore takes a "selfie" of himself
with Santa Claus after the two
teamed up to pull the switch
lighting up the town's Christmas
tree last Thursday evening.
Smithfield's annual Christmas
parade, canceled last year because
of the pandemic, returns to Market
Street at 7 p.m. today (Thursday).
Two
more West Smithfield
subdivisions OK'd
And the
numbers of proposed new housing
units west of the river continues
to mount: Starting in
September, the Town Council has
approved five separate
projects planned to produce a
total of 587 townhouses, 234
single-family dwellings, plus 360
apartments.
READ MORE
about the latest
residential projects and
other matters before the Town
Council at its monthly meeting
on Tuesday>
March
8 elections postponed till May
17
Court's order
suspends candidate filing
that opened Monday
The
filing period opened at noon
Monday but was halted on
Wednesday by the N.C. Supreme
Court, which wants a lawsuit
challenging legislative
redistricting settled before the
electoral process resumes. When
the filing period will re-open
wasn't known this morning
(Thursday).
Of local interest, incumbents
who filed for re-election this
week include County
Commissioner Patrick
Harris, Sheriff Steve
Bizzell, Register of Deeds Craig
Olive, Clerk of Court Michelle
Ball, District Attorney Susan
Doyle, and Superior Court Judge
Tom Lock.
Filing in Smithfield's postponed
municipal
election: incumbent Mayor
Andy Moore and
Town Councilmen David
Barbour, Marlon Lee, and Travis
Scott. Doris Wallace also filed
for Dr. Barbour's seat.
Councilman David Stevens
announced on Wednesday that he
will not seek re-election; Sloan
Stevens, his nephew, filed as a
candidate to represent South
Smithfield's district.
Five candidates have joined a
race for three seats up for
election on the Johnston County
Board of Education, none of them
incumbents: Rick Mercier and
Terry Tippett, both of whom ran
in 2020, along with Stuart
Lee, Joe Preston, and Melissa
Bowers. Incumbents holding
seats up for election are Board
Chair Todd Sutton, Vice Chair
Terri Sessoms, and Al Byrd,
appointed earlier this year to
fill a vacancy.
For seats in the N.C. General
Assembly, incumbent
Representatives Larry Strickland
and Donna White, both
Republicans, filed this week for
re-election although their newly
drawn districts may be altered
by a judicial ruling before the
filing period resumes. Democrats
Wendy Ella May and William D.
Saunders also filed this week
for Mr. Strickland's seat.
For election to the U.S. House
of Representatives from a new
Fourth Congressional District
that includes all of Johnston
County but may be altered by
court order, four candidates
filed this week: Republicans
DeVan Barbour IV of Benson along
with Fayetteville residents Nat
Robertson and John Szoka and
Fayetteville Democrat Charles E.
Evans.
It's the second delay for
Smithfield's municipal election,
postponed from November because
of delayed U.S. Census results
that could have affected the
town's districts for electing
councilmen (turns out the
council decided to leave the
current districts in place).
Putting Smithfield's
election off till mid-May
means incumbent office holders
get six months added to
their four-year terms that
should have ended last month.
A
link on the Johnston County
Board of Elections website
leads to a complete
list of state as well as
local candidates who have
filed so far>
Butch
Lawter (left) with the
board's new vice chairman,
Patrick Harris of Smithfield.
(County of Johnston photo)
Clayton's
Butch Lawter is new county board
chair
Johnston's
County Commissioners by unanimous
vote Monday named Butch Lawter
their new chairman. He
succeeds Chad Stewart, who left
the board Nov. 30 to accept a
full-time position as general
manager of Johnston's Alcoholic
Beverage Control system.
Mr. Lawter is beginning his fourth
year on the Board of Commissioners
after winning election in 2018. He
previously served a total of 14
years (1999-2003 and 2008-2018) on
the Clayton Town Council.
Commissioner Ted Godwin nominated
Tony Braswell to be the board's
new vice chairman, but outgoing
Vice Chair Larry Wood nominated
Patrick Harris who got the job
with supporting votes from Dickie
Braswell, Fred Smith, and Chairman
Lawter.
Monday's meeting was the first for
Dickie Braswell, appointed by the
rest of the board last month to
fill the remaining year of Mr.
Stewart's term.
Redistricting
for board seats isn't required
County
Attorney Jennifer Slusser told
commissioners at Monday's morning
session that redistricting for
filling the board's seven seats
isn't required as a result of the
2020 Census since voters
countywide elect all members of
the board even though candidates
run as representatives of their
district of residence.
But if the board wants to alter
the existing district boundaries
in light of the latest Census, she
said, authority to make those
changes must originate with local
legislation from the N.C. General
Assembly.
VIEW the current
district map on the Board of
Elections website>
Violation
of house-number rule won't carry
criminal penalty
Ms.
Slusser presented a proposed
revision of county ordinances to
comply with state legislation
requiring "decriminalization of
certain local government
ordinances." Even so,
commissioners objected to any
criminal penalty for violation of
a Johnston County rule that
specifies where house numbers
must be posted as an aid to
emergency responders (Kenneth
Taylor of Gordon Road, Clayton
brought the matter to the board's
attention).
"A criminal charge is too much"
for violating the house-numbering
rule; "civil penalties are
sufficient," said Commissioner
Smith. The rest of the board
agreed and ordered that change to
the overall revision of
ordinances, which continue
misdemeanor penalties for
violating rules on "loud and
disturbing noise," discharge of
firearms, loitering, and
littering.
New
sewage plant's cost expected to
reach $110 million
In
awarding a $25-million contract to
low-bidder Wharton-Smith, Inc. of
Charlotte for the "biosolids
component" of the county's new
sewage-treatment plant near the
landfill, commissioners raised the
project's budget to $110 million –
to be covered by an anticipated
$91.7-million loan from the state
(1.1% over 20 years) plus revenues
from the county's wastewater
customers over time.
Heritage
Center gets money to up-fit
former Roses building
Commissioners
approved $20,000 for the Johnston
County Heritage Center to pay for
up-fitting space in the former
Roses store on Market Street as an
exhibit hall. The county has
leased a portion of that building
for expansion of the Heritage
Center, located a block to the
west in the original home office
of First Citizens Bank.
Commissioners approved the
following appointments:
Public Library Board
of Trustees –
Daniel Joseph Franch of Shadow
Lake Drive, Willow
Spring newly appointed.
Livestock Arena Management
Board –
Chad Holloman of Oak Grove Inn
Road, Selma newly appointed.
Research & Training
Zone Advisory Commmittee –
Charles Blatchley reappointed to
represent the Grifols
pharmaceutical plant.
Economic Development
Advisory Board –
Linwood Parker newly appointed to
represent the Town of Four
Oaks; Mike Fleming
reappointed to represent the Town
of Smithfield; Edwin L. Aldridge
Jr. of Billini Drive,
Clayton and Steve Hargis of
Crantock Road,
Smithfield reappointed
to at-large positions.
SOLD!
3-bedroom,
2-bath
highly sought brick
ranch on landscaped lot
in West
Smithfield.
SUSAN
LASSITER
Fonville Morisey
Realty •
919-669-9235 •
LassiterSusan@aol.com
CORONAVIRUS REPORT
Johnston
County reaches 50% vaccination
rate
It has
been a long, slow climb to reach
that mark, and Johnston continues
to trail the statewide rate of 58%
and the nationwide rate of 61% of
total population fully vaccinated
against COVID-19. Numbers tallied
by the N.C. Department of Health
and Human Services for Johnston
County at mid-week show that 902
residents in the 5-11 age
group, 8,006 under
age 18, and 24,533 age 65 and
older have been fully vaccinated.
That last number works out to 86%
of Johnston's elderly population.
Meanwhile, the number of cases
detected in Johnston has been
rising over the past couple of
weeks, Dr. Marilyn Pearson
reported to the County
Commissioners on Monday. At the
same time, the county's health
director noted, "not as many
people are coming in for first
vaccinations," and she urged
Johnstonians to get a COVID
vaccine because "it does prevent
you from being hospitalized or
getting very sick."
This morning's report from
Johnston County Public Schools
showed 116 active cases among
students and staff (up from 71
last week) with 358 students and
27 staff members quarantined (up
from 232 students and 13
staff a week ago). As of this
morning, Corinth Holders High
School had 38 students in
quarantine followed by
McGee's Crossroads Elementary with
24 and North Johnston and South
Johnston high schools with 21
apiece.
VIEW the school
system's COVID dashboard with
data for all schools>
VIEW the current
list of vaccination clinics in
Johnston County>
VIEW the
current list of testing sites in
Johnston County>
CORONAVIRUS
weekly
measurements |
Case
total
since 3-20
(last
week) |
Deaths
since 3-20
(last
week) |
Hospital
patients
(last
week) |
Fully
vaccinated
(last
week) |
| JOHNSTON
COUNTY |
33,910
(33,450) |
357
(355) |
23
(24) |
104,897: 50%*
(103,592) |
| NORTH
CAROLINA |
1,558,510
(1,537,044
) |
18,923
(18,800) |
1,371
(1,157) |
6,048,542: 58%*
(5,971,067) |
| UNITED
STATES |
49,538,960
(48,695,
518) |
793,228
(782,106) |
|
200,400,533: 61%*
(197,363,116) |
| WORLDWIDE |
268,035,994
(263,689,974) |
5,283,305
(5,228,097) |
|
8,312,332,755
total
doses given |
*
Percentage of total
population (all ages)
Data provided by: County of
Johnston at
5:00 p.m. December 7
N.C.
Department of Health and
Human Services at
11:55 a.m. December 8
Johns
Hopkins University at
8:22 a.m. December 9 |
Employed
Johnstonians now number
near 100,000
Johnston
County's unemployment rate declined
from 3.3% in September to 3.2% in
October as the number of
Johnstonians holding jobs rose from
98,634 to 99,571 while the
number unemployed dropped from 3,357
to 3,269, reports the N.C.
Department of Commerce. October's
jobless rate is the lowest since the
coronavirus pandemic pushed
Johnston's rate as high as 11% in
the spring of 2020. Johnston's
October rate of 3.3% was below the
statewide rate of 3.6% for the
month.
More
than $4 million in rental aid
distributed so far
County
Finance Director Chad McLamb
reported to the County
Commissioners Monday that about
$4.2 million in rental assistance
to needy households throughout
Johnston has been distributed as
of the first of this
month. And there's still
about $8.5 million in federal and
state COVID-relief money left for
the program that's being
administered by the county with
assistance from Yardi (a national
provider of property-management
software and services), Mr. McLamb
noted. Currently about 600
applications are "in progress," he
added. To expedite the
distribution of aid, commissioners
granted Mr. McLamb's request to
allocate more funds for the
program's administration to enable
Yardi to increase from seven to 16
the size of its staff assisting
Johnstonians.
Innovation
Academy welcomes new principal
Jan. 3
The Johnston
County Board of Education has named
Crystal Gregory principal of the
Innovation Academy at South Campus
in East Smithfield, effective Jan.
3.
She comes to Johnston's system from
Wake County where she has most
recently served as assistant
principal of the new Willow Spring
High School.
She previously held positions as
assistant principal at Fuquay-Varina
High and instructional management
coordinator for both Wake and
Harnett County's schools. Before
that she worked as a teacher in the
Wake and Winston-Salem/Forsyth
County systems.
Located on the former South Campus
of racially segregated Johnston
Central High School, the Innovation
Academy offers "personalized
learning opportunities" for students
in grades 6-8 who apply for
admission from anywhere in Johnston
County.
At a special session last Thursday,
the school board also named Tami
Poland as the new principal at
Polenta Elementary School in
Cleveland Township.
Johnston
students to get an extra holiday
Jan. 4
The school
board at last week's meeting
adjusted the 2021-22 calendar to
convert Tuesday, Jan. 4 from a
regular school day to a required
workday for teachers and June 7 at
the end of the term to a required
rather than optional teacher
workday. That means students won't
return to school for the start of
the second semester until Wednesday,
Jan. 5 since Monday, Jan. 3 was
already a holiday for students.
SSS
DECA students excel in regional
competition
Smithfield-Selma
High's Michell Chen, Brianne
Simerman, and Jude Reece (kneeling
in front) were winners in
competition last week among
DECA chapters in Johnston and Wake
counties. Distributive Education
Clubs of America
train students in marketing,
finance, hospitality, and
management. Members of the
SSS chapter are Crystal
Anthony, Dana Ayala, Camryn
Barefoot, Camille Bracy, Ayana
Casado, Michelle Chen, Tatyana
Cook, Karina Diaz Coyt, Frankie
DiGiovanni, Rose Eklund, Katie
Felizzi, Fernanda Ferreyra, Jazlyn
Fontanez-Zambrano, Angel Fuentes
Ponce, Jackeline Garcia, Yvette
Gomez, Kamila Gonzalez, Stuart
Guerrero Hernandez, Storme
Harbinson Wheeler, Su'Miah
Lassiter, Greer Lee, Camryn
Lovette, Javier Martinez, Sherelle
McDaniel, Janada Melvin, Mohamed
Mohamed, Sabreen Mohamed,
Monserrat Morales, Chloe
Nelson, Jude Reece, Magali
Santiago, Brianne Simerman, Terri
Sinclair, and Hailey Stephens. (Photo
from SSS)
919-934-0153 www.CallPernell.com
WHAT'S
COMING UP?
It's
Santa's time to come to town
(Smithfield town, that is)
He'll be
atop a fire truck at the end of
this evening's Christmas parade
that starts at 7 p.m. on Market
Street (with hot chocolate and
cookies inside Town Hall). Then
he'll be atop a couple of fire
trucks that'll be calling on every
neighborhood in town this Saturday
afternoon, starting at 1 p.m.
and continuing till the sun
goes down.
Detailed schedules
for "Santa Sleigh" are posted
online>
Board
of Education's monthly meeting
next Tuesday
The school
board's open session usually
begins at 4 p.m. in the system's
headquarters on US 70 Business
east of Smithfield. The agenda
wasn't posted as of this morning,
but it's certain to include the
required monthly vote on whether
to continue the mask mandate for
students and staff.
VIEW the complete
agenda once it's posted on the
schools' website>
DEATHS
& FUNERALS
Click
on the name to read an obituary,
usually posted by the funeral
home
SHIRLEY ANN WHITLEY,
77 – died December 8
PHYLLIS SHANNON
RELIFORD, 51 – died
December 5
GLENNWOOD (GLENN)
WHITLEY GRANT, 91 –
died December 2
WILLIAM RAYFORD
(W.R.) HARTLEY, 76 –
died December 2
CARL KENNETH WATSON,
77 – died November 30
TIMOTHY CHRISTOPHER
CAPPS, 45 – died
November 27
A
WORD (OR TWO) FROM THE EDITOR
Early Smithfield
Heralds can
now be read online!
The
never-ending wonders of digital
technology:
Searchable digital
copies of The
Smithfield Herald dating from
1901 through 1925 are now
available online via Digital NC,
thanks to the UNC-Chapel Hill
University Library and its
partners in cooperation
with the Johnston County
Heritage Center, which holds both
original and microfilmed copies of
the newspaper from the late 1880s
through 2007.
I tested it out this week and
quickly found the edition of
September 10, 1920 that carried
top-of-the-front-page news of the
unexpected death of my
grandfather, the first T.J.
Lassiter to edit the Herald
– 13
years before my father, Thomas J.
(Tom) Lassiter Jr., came home to
join his mother to produce the
paper.
Why does the digital
archive stop at 1925? Warren
Grimes, chairman of the Johnston
County Heritage Commission, said
DigitalNC won't scan newspapers
less than 95 years old because of
copyright concerns. Meanwhile,
"it's fun to read all the old ads
to see what was being sold and at
what prices," he noted. "Saw a new
Ford was $322 in 1912."
Launch your own
search via this link to
DigitalNC's Smithfield
Herald archive>
If
you're not a
subscriber and
want to be
alerted each
Thursday when
a new edition
of the
Smithfield
Weekly Sun is
published, send
your name and
e-mail address
to wingate.lassiter@nc.rr.com and
I'll add you
to the list
(at
no cost).
Subscribers
to this
edition: 1,317
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A PREVIOUS
EDITION?
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