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LASSITER unless
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STILL THE LONGEST LINE AT THE HAM & YAM
FESTIVAL The
Smithfield Kiwanis Club has
been serving up country-ham
biscuits at the same spot
since the first festival in
1985. At the peak of
business near lunchtime last
Saturday, veteran Kiwanian
Whit Whitley (right)
was minding the ham-frying
with assistance from Tracy
Harrison and her husband
James. It started out as a
fine day weather-wise for
the "36th-ish" annual event,
but the arrival in
mid-afternoon of
thunderstorms with
cloud-to-ground lightning
short-circuited practically
all activities including a
concert by the Rondells of
Beach Music fame that was
canceled. Delayed
Primary Election's finish
in sight
It
should have been held in
March but was delayed till
now because of North
Carolina lawsuits
challenging legislative
redistricting. Some of you
have already taken
advantage of early voting,
which
continues through this
Saturday. Many
others will visit their precinct
polling places
between the hours of 6:30
a.m. and 7:30 p.m. Tuesday
to cast ballots.
There's a Second Primary
scheduled for June 26 – in
contests where no
candidate wins at least
30% of Tuesday's vote.
It's
the first round of a
nonpartisan race for
school board Thirteen
candidates, running
without regard to
political party
affiliation, are on
Tuesday's ballot for three
seats on the Johnston
County Board of Education.
The top six finishers will
qualify for November's
General Election ballot
(without regard to the 30%
rule).
Only one of those
candidates is an incumbent
board member: Al Byrd, who
was appointed last year to
fill a vacancy (board
members Terri Sessoms and
Todd Sutton chose not to
seek re-election). Among
the other candidates on
Tuesday's ballot are four
who fell short of winning
seats two years ago: Terri
Tippett (who was the first
runner-up), Rick Mercier,
Mark Lane, and Michelle
Antoine.
Smithfield's
election involves just
half the town's voters Tuesday's
voting, postponed from
last fall because of
late-arriving Census data,
will be restricted to just
two of the town's four
electoral districts, with
two-candidate contests in
South Smithfield and West
Smithfield. Incumbent
council members Marlon Lee
of East Smithfield and
Travis Scott of North
Smithfield, along with
incumbent Mayor Andy
Moore, filed for
re-election without
opposition.
Competing for the South
Smithfield seat are
first-time candidates
Sloan Stevens and
Elizabeth Anne Temple
(seeking to succeed
Councilman David Stevens,
who chose not to seek
re-election). In West
Smithfield, incumbent
Councilman David Barbour
is being challenged by
Doris Louise Wallace. Town
of Smithfield elections
are nonpartisan.
Three
Johnstonians seek U.S.
House seat in a new
district Denton
Lee, a teacher at
Smithfield-Selma High
School, is one of five
Democrats competing in
Tuesday's primary while
Smithfield attorney Kelly
Daughtry and Benson-area
businessman DeVan Barbour
IV are among eight
Republicans seeking
nomination to represent a
newly established
Congressional district
that includes all of
Johnston County, a large
portion of Harnett County,
the southern half of Wake,
and the western half of
Wayne.
Other contests of local
interest Tuesday include a
three-candidate Republican
race for nomination to a
state Senate seat for a
new district that
encompasses Johnston
County alone, a
two-candidate Republican
primary for nomination of
a state representative
from a new district that
includes all of
Smithfield, a
two-candidate contest for
county commissioner
representing a district
that covers all of
Smithfield and Cleveland
townships and part of
Elevation Township, and
contests for one Superior
Court and two District
Court judgeships.
Statewide,
the main event features
primaries in both parties
for the U.S. Senate seat
presently occupied by
Richard Burr, who is
retiring from office. In
the hunt are 11 Democrats
and 14 Republicans. Also,
there are statewide
Republican primaries for a
seat on the N.C. Supreme
Court and two seats on the
N.C. Court of Appeals,
with Tuesday's victors in
November facing Democrats
unopposed in the primary.
For
the record, here's the
breakdown of registered
voters in Johnston County
by party affiliation (or
lack thereof) as of April
1: Republican 55,890;
Democrat 40,254;
Libertarian 1,161;
unaffiliated 50,374; total
147,679. Unaffiliated
voters, by the way, may
choose to cast ballots in
either party's primary
(but not both).
Following
last month's move by the
County Commissioners to
raise salaries of many
county employees,
Smithfield's Town Council
Tuesday night ordered
staff to undertake an
immediate review of all
town employees' pay to see
what needs to be done to
make salaries more
competitive in a volatile
labor market.
Town Councilman Travis
Scott insisted the town's
"healthy" finances make it
possible to add as much as
$890,000 to the coming
year's town budget to get
the job done. That, he
proposed, could be done by
taking $680,000 from the
town's uncommitted General
Fund surplus (more than
$11 million at the end of
fiscal 2020-21 last June
30) plus $105,000 from
each of two reserve
accounts for the town's
Electric Fund and its
Water and Sewer Fund.
"We've got to take care of
our employees," he
declared.
The council backed his
proposal without a
dissenting vote
(Councilman David Stevens,
who is giving up his seat
next month, was the only
one absent).
The decision followed
Police Chief Keith
Powell's plea for
increased pay and benefits
in recruiting and
retaining officers in his
department. He said
offering more "take-home
cars" is currently "a big
deal" with new recruits.
The Police Department has
six vacancies among its
patrol force of more than
40 officers, with two new
recruits available for
duty in about two weeks,
the chief noted.
"I've got officers waiting
to see what happens July
1," Mr. Powell added,
referring to what the new
fiscal year's town budget
will do to address police
compensation.
Councilman Scott said
staff's evaluation of
salaries in all the town's
departments needs to be
done "as quick as possible
so we can make changes
with this budget," which
must be adopted before the
end of June. Tuesday's was
the second in a series of
council budget sessions. A
third was scheduled for
6:30 p.m. this Monday.
Town Manager Mike Scott
said another idea under
study to attract and
retain employees is
restoration of a previous
benefit to provide health
insurance at no cost to
retirees with many years
of service. That benefit
was eliminated about 15
years ago when the County
of Johnston made a similar
move.
Should the town hire a full-time
code-enforcement
officer? That
question was raised by
Councilman David Barbour
during Tuesday's session.
"We need to put more
efforts into code
enforcement," he said,
specifically mentioning
"junk cars in the yard."
Town Manager Scott
discounted the need for
another staff position.
"Based on complaints (the
town receives from the
public), we're doing OK
with what we have," he
said.
Planning Director Stephen
Wensman, whose department
handles complaints about
code violations, said his
office maintains a
spreadsheet keeping up
with the status of his
staff's investigations,
with "a whole lot of cases
sitting on Bob's desk"
(referring to the workload
confronting Town Attorney
Bob Spence).
The town manager's "draft"
budget, as it now stands,
is balanced without
changes in the town's
property-tax and utility
rates and without any new
town employees. It
includes 2% pay raises for
all town employees in July
plus individual merit
raises up to 3% in
January.
Shannan
Parrish was recognized at
last week's Town Council
session with a resolution
read by Mayor Andy Moore
and adopted by the council
proclaiming Professional
Municipal Clerks Week in
Smithfield. "You are a
very, very valuable
asset," Mr. Moore told
her. Council members
chimed in with their own
remarks of praise for
"keeping us in line."
Shannan has served as town
clerk since 2011. (Town
of Smithfield photo)
School
board raises bus-driver
pay to $17.50
Johnston
County Public Schools
operate 278 buses for
students every school day
with just 81 drivers that
aren't "dual employees"
called away from their
regular jobs as teaching
assistants, nutritionists,
and custodians to cover a
driver shortage. There's
even a "duty to drive"
policy in place requiring
that practice where
necessary.
The system's
administrators want to do
away with that by raising
the number of
"driver-only" employees to
280. Toward that end, they
asked Johnston's Board of
Education on Tuesday to
raise minimum pay for
those drivers from $15 to
$17.50 an hour (effective
July 1) and employ a
recruiter to find more
drivers. The board
approved the
recommendation by
unanimous vote.
Also approved is a
doubling of a safety and
perfect-attendance bonus
for bus drivers from $500
to $1,000 to be paid
monthly rather than
annually.
Board member Ronald
Johnson said the
compensation upgrades are
"a good start, but over
over the years we're going
to have to get this pay
up" to match wages offered
by major new employers
such as Amazon coming to
Johnston.
Board member Kay Carroll
said parents have asked
him why high-school
students can't work as bus
drivers as they did in
years gone by. Marlon
Watson, the school
system's newly employed
director of
transportation, said
that's no longer practical
since drivers must be at
least 18 years old and
have six months "behind
the wheel" before they can
operate a school bus.
Mr. Watson said the school
system currently has 540
staffers in various jobs
who are licensed by the
state to drive buses. A
recent survey found just
46% of current drivers
would be willing to
continue with that duty if
the current policy
requiring the extra duty
were eliminated, Mr.
Watson reported.
Prices
for meals at Johnston's
schools going up
The
Board of Education
approved a staff
recommendation to raise
meal prices for students
with the start of the
2022-23 school year in
August. Meals for all
students have been free of
charge the past couple of
years because of federal
legislation linked to
COVID relief, but Congress
has not extended that
beyond June 30.
The new prices are $2.25
for breakfast for all
grades, $3 for lunch in
grades K-8, and $3.50 for
lunch in the high schools.
To qualify students for
free and reduced-price
meals, parents will have
to re-apply for that
assistance, the board was
told. When asked how many
families would be
eligible, newly employed
Director of Nutrition
Jennifer Lawson said it
ran about 30% in Johnston
when the program was in
effect two years ago.
Emphasizing that school
meal prices are set to
cover costs and not to
make a profit, Ms. Lawson
listed four points of
emphasis directing the
system's handling of food
purchases during the year
ahead:
• Provide greater access
to fresh fruits and
vegetables.
• Provide high quality
proteins.
• Provide cleaner labeled
products.
• Buy local.
"Different
Not Less"
walk-and-run benefits
SSS Unified Spartans
More than a hundred persons turned out for a
"Different Not Less
Color Run" at
Smithfield-Selma High
School April 23 when
volunteers doused
participants with
powdered color as they
walked or ran a 3.1-mile
trail course. Proceeds
went to support Unified
Spartans, a program that
partners schools with
Special Olympics to
promote inclusion for
those with intellectual
disabilities. The SSS
event was organized by
Unified pair Emily
Stuckey and Gary Smith (pictured).
They are student leaders
in the program, which
currently has about 100
members. The program is
led by faculty members
Bethany Jones and Haley
Cubbison. (Story and
photo from SSS)
Public
Library to lend hotspots
and Chromebooks
The
Public Library of Johnston
County and Smithfield
(PLJCS) has launched a new
program to allow
library-card holders and
students to borrow mobile
hotspots and/or a Wi-Fi
enabled Chromebook.
The library has 15 mobile
hotspots available for 21
days at a time. These
provide 4G Internet
service and unlimited data
usage. Ten Dell
Chromebooks can circulate
for seven days, with two
renewals. Both devices, if
not returned once their
check-out period has
expired, will be turned
off to encourage return
for the next customer.
To borrow a hotspot device
or a Chromebook, patrons
may visit the Reference
Desk on the second floor
of the library or place a
hold via the library's online
catalog. Replacement
costs for lost or damaged
hotspots are $90 and $390
for Chromebooks.
Meanwhile, PLJCS continues
to offer free Wi-Fi inside
the library in Downtown
Smithfield.
The hotspots and
Chromebooks are made
possible by funding from
the Federal Institute of
Museum and Library
Services under provisions
of the Library Services
and Technology Act as
administered by the State
Library of North Carolina.
For more information, call
984-985-BOOK.
FOR
SALE: Cherished
4-bedroom brick ranch on
half-acre landscaped lot
at 707 Crescent Drive in
South Smithfield.
Includes office, all
appliances, stair lifts,
wired workshop, 2-car
carport, greenhouse.
2,936 square feet:
$399,000 SUSAN
LASSITER, Broker •
FONVILLE MORISEY
REALTY • 919-669-9235
WHAT'S
COMING UP?
County
Commissioners to get
Space Needs Study Monday The
board will consider a
consultant's recommended
options for expanding
facilities housing County
Government's principal
agencies during its
regular third-Monday
session at 6 p.m. Monday
at the Courthouse. The key
decision is what to do
with the Department of
Social Services complex of
office buildings if new
quarters for that agency
are constructed elsewhere.
On another matter, the
Johnston County Fire
Chiefs Association will
present a proposed Fire
Service Supplemental
Funding Matrix for the
board's consideration. VIEW the
complete agenda, with
details, for Monday's
meeting>
Registration
now open for Parks &
Rec summertime
activities Smithfield
Parks and Recreation will
host a wide selection of
sports camps this summer
including soccer, tennis,
football, basketball, and
wrestling. The Recreation
and Aquatics Center will
host week-long summer camp
sessions along with art
camps, swimming lessons,
lifeguard training, and an
opportunity to swim with
the SRAC Sharks Swim Team.
VIEW details
about the summer
lineup>
DEATHS
& FUNERALS
Click
on the name to read an
obituary, usually posted
by the funeral home
A
"Voter Guide" posted
online by The News
& Observer
includes written responses
to questionnaires sent to
candidates on Johnston
County's ballots, but like
the Triangle East
Chamber's Candidates
Connection posting,
it's incomplete.
In the hotly contested
Primary races for the
District 13 seat in the
U.S. House of
Representatives, four of
the Democratic candidates
(including Johnston
County's Denton Lee)
submitted responses, while
just half of the eight
Republican candidates did
so (Johnston's Kelly
Daughtry and DeVan Barbour
did not).
Only one of three
Republicans competing for
Johnston County's seat in
the N.C. Senate took part.
And in the nonpartisan
Board of Education Primary
here, just four of the 13
candidates responded to
the N&O's request for
viewpoints.
These online forums are
providing free political
advertising! Why wouldn't
any serious candidate for
public office take
advantage of that?
Here's
another option for
"getting to know the
candidates": curbside
placards like these on
South Fourth Street near
the early-voting site
inside the First Baptist
Church Ministry Center
(former home of The
Smithfield Herald).
Shannan
Parrish was recognized at
last week's Town Council
session with a resolution
read by Mayor Andy Moore
and adopted by the council
proclaiming Professional
Municipal Clerks Week in
Smithfield. "You are a
very, very valuable
asset," Mr. Moore told
her. Council members
chimed in with their own
remarks of praise for
"keeping us in line."
Shannan has served as town
clerk since 2011. (Town
of Smithfield photo)
