CANDLELIGHT REFLECTIONS FOR ALZHEIMER'S
AWARENESS
Hosted
by Community & Senior
Services of Johnston
County, the annual event
was held last Thursday
evening inside the
Courthouse atrium, where
loved ones gathered to
remember family and
friends lost and those now
living with Alzheimer's
disease and other forms of
dementia. Candles were
lighted from tip to tip as
each person taking part
called out a victim's
name. The national
Alzheimer's Association
estimates more than
6-million Americans,
including 180,000 North
Carolinians, are living
with the disease today.
Those numbers are
projected to increase to
12.7 million and 210,000
by the year 2050. (Screenshot
from County of
Johnston's YouTube
streaming of the event)
New
charter school lifts
county's enrollment total
First-month
reports filed with the
N.C. Department of Public
Instruction (DPI) show
enrollment in Johnston
County Public Schools
(JCPS) was down slightly
from last year's
first-month number, but
that was more than made up
by enrollment of 1,759
reported by the area's new
charter school, American
Leadership
Academy-Johnston, which
opened its doors this fall
to grades 1-10.
Johnston's public-school
enrollment at the end of
the first month came in at
36,410 – down from last
year's first-month Average
Daily Membership (ADM) of
36,787, which was up from
35,721 in 2020 at the peak
of the coronavirus
pandemic.
Meanwhile, the latest ADM
report shows Neuse Charter
School at Smithfield with
909 students (grades 1-12)
and Johnston Charter
Academy at Clayton with
672 (grades 1-8). American
Leadership Academy's new
campus is located beside
US 70 Business near
Johnston Regional Airport
between Smithfield and
Clayton.
Adding charter-school
enrollment to the JCPS
number, the first-month
reports lift Johnston's
total to 39,750 students.
Johnston's first-month ADM
of 36,410 in traditional
public schools is below
the 37,307 JCPS reported
had arrived on campuses by
the 10th day of the fall
semester that began August
26. Based on historical
trends, a subsequent
report to DPI later this
fall is likely to show a
figure closer to the Day
10 report. The numbers in
that report will determine
the annual allotment of
state funding for all of
Johnston's schools,
including the charters.
READ MORE
about recent enrollment
changes at North
Carolina's charter and
traditional schools in a
story with data posted
on the EducationNC
website
For
us, 2 new representatives
in the next Congress
Two men
representing Johnston
County (and beyond) will
be elevated to new
legislative positions when
the 118th United States
Congress convenes in
January.
Republican TED
BUDD will give
up his seat as
representative of a
Congressional district in
central North Carolina to
take office as the state's
second U.S. senator,
joining Tar Heel
Republican Tom Tillis in
the upper chamber of
Congress. Senator-elect
Budd won the seat by
defeating Democrat Cheri
Beasley in last week's
election.
Democrat WILEY
NICKEL is
leaving his post as a Wake
County representative in
the North Carolina Senate
to take office as the
representative of a new
13th Congressional
District that encompasses
all of Johnston County and
parts of Harnett, Wake,
and Wayne. He won the seat
by defeating Republican Bo
Hines in last week' s
election, thanks to
substantial voter support
in Wake that more than
offset big majorities by
Mr. Hines in Johnston,
Harnett, and Wayne.
Currently, Johnston
County's representative in
the U.S. House is
Republican David Rouzer of
Wilmington. He was
re-elected last week to
continue serving as
representative of a new
7th Congressional District
that includes his home
county of New Hanover. Mr.
Rouzer was a resident of
Johnston County when he
first won election to
Congress – in 2014. He
moved to Wilmington in
2018.
Mr. Nickel's election
helped produce an even
partisan split in North
Carolina's delegation in
the U.S. House of
Representatives – from
eight Republicans and five
Democrats now to seven
from each party starting
next year. (N.C. got an
additional seat in the
House as a result of
nationwide population
shifts recorded by the
2020 Census.) Overall, the
makeup of the 435-member
U.S. House of
Representatives has been
flipped by last week's
election results to a
slight Republican
majority.
An attorney who heads a
Cary-based law firm,
Congressman-elect Nickel
resides in Cary, just
beyond the bounds of the
13th District. (The U.S.
Constitution does not
require a member of the
U.S. House to reside in
the district he is elected
to represent.) Mr. Nickel
has served in the N.C.
Senate since he was first
elected in 2018. From 2008
until 2012, he worked on
the staff of President
Barack Obama. Mr. Nickel
will be 47 years old on
November 23.
Senator-elect Budd, 51,
was first elected to the
U.S. House of
Representatives in 2016.
He and his family reside
on a farm in Davie County
where he grew up. He owns
and operates a gun store
in the town of Rural Hall
north of Winston-Salem.
By the slimmest of
margins, the U.S. Senate
will remain controlled by
Democrats, who will hold
at least 50 of the 100
seats as a result of last
week's election. The final
count will be determined
by a runoff election next
month in Georgia. If the
Senate split winds up
50-50, as it is now, Vice
President Kamala Harris, a
Democrat who presides over
Senate proceedings, would
provide tie-breaking
votes.
HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS REPORT
Princeton lone survivor after
playoffs' 2nd round
Princeton's
Bulldogs took care of
business by trouncing
Pender County's Heidi
Trask High 71-34, but
Cleveland High's Rams lost
to Rolesville 28-21 in the
second round of North
Carolina's high-school
football playoffs last
Friday night. As a result,
Princeton – the only
Johnston County team still
alive in the competition –
will host Burlington
Cummings this Friday in
the third round.
The Bulldogs are the No. 1
seed in the Eastern
bracket of the 2-A
playoffs. Cleveland was
the No. 6 Eastern seed in
the 4-A playoffs. The Rams
finished the season with a
record of 11-1. Princeton
is now 11-1, the team's
only loss at the hands of
Smithfield-Selma in the
first game of the season.
Neuse
Charter basketball teams
have won first 4 games
Both
the Cougar boys and girls
basketball teams are 4-0
after non-conference wins
at home this week. The
boys beat Southside
Christian 89-50 on Monday
and Friendship Christian
72-34 on Tuesday. The
girls beat Southside
Christian 43-33 on Monday
and Friendship Christian
50-16 on Tuesday.
For the boys team, senior
Sire Holmes scored 31
points in Monday's game
and 13 on Tuesday. Senior
Donollyn Terrell led the
Cougars with 19 points on
Tuesday after scoring 12
on Monday. Junior Jayvin
Bradley scored 17 in
Monday's game; senior
Phillip Sullivan had 10 on
Tuesday.
For the girls team,
sophomore Cayley Cochran
scored 30 points in
Monday's win and 18 on
Tuesday. Senior Lyndsy
Parrish scored 12 points
and junior Nivea Winston
11 in Tuesday's victory.
The
basketball season for
Smithfield-Selma High
begins next Monday with
boys and girls games at
Cleveland High School.
WHAT'S
COMING UP?
Downtown
Smithfield's Wine Walk
scheduled this Friday
The
Downtown Smithfield
Development Corporation
will host the 12th annual
Wine Walk from
5 to 9 p.m. this Friday.
Walkers will begin at the
Public Library of Johnston
County and Smithfield. Tickets may
be purchased for $25 in
advance online or
$30 at the door (if
available). All walkers
will have their IDs
checked and be given
commemorative wine glasses
and a wristband that will
allow them to taste wines
at participating
businesses. The event was
launched as a fund-raiser
for Harbor, but the
domestic-violence agency
is no longer involved.
Proceeds will benefit
projects of the Downtown
Development Corporation.
County
Commissioners to
consider school-safety
funding
The
Johnston County Board of
Commissioners will convene
at 6 p.m. Monday at the
Courthouse. Among items on
the agenda is a request
from Johnston County
Public Schools for an
additional $9.6 million in
"restricted Capital Outlay
Funds" for equipment and
construction "to improve
school safety." Of that
amount, $1.5 million would
come from the school-bond
issue approved by
Johnston's voters last
week.
VIEW the
complete agenda posted
by the county for
Monday's session>
Board
of Education's monthly
session next Tuesday
The
Johnston County Board of
Education's November
meeting, postponed from
last Tuesday (Election
Day), will be held at
4 p.m. next Tuesday
(Nov. 22) at the Evander
S. Simpson Building on US
70 Business east of
Smithfield.
VIEW the
agenda once it's posted,
usually no later than
Friday afternoon>
Next week's Thanksgiving holidays:
one day or two?
For
state and local government
agencies and public
schools in North Carolina,
Thanksgiving holidays
include both Thursday and
Friday next week (schools
are closed next Wednesday
as well). For federal
agencies, including the
U.S. Postal Service, it's
a one-day holiday:
Thursday, Thanksgiving
Day. Banks are also closed
next Thursday, open next
Friday.
DEATHS
& FUNERALS
Click
on the name to read an
obituary, usually posted
by the funeral home
DOROTHY
MAUREEN LEHMAN KING, 89
– died November 15
LOLA MAE
MOYE MOORE, 78 –
died November 14
CHERYL LYNN
CHICKI, 61 – died
November 13
FRANKIE
CANALES CUBAS, 13 –
died November 12
MARY GAHAN
ELMORE, 95 – died
November 12
RUTH EVELYN
BRYANT ELLIS, 85 –
died November 11
JEANETTE
McIVER POWELL, 91 –
died November 11
JOHNATHAN
WAYNEY CUMMINGS, 43
– died November 10
JIMMY VANCE
GARNER, 71 – died
November 10
VICKIE
ELAINE WARD SMITH, 72
– died November 9
A
WORD (OR TWO) FROM THE
EDITOR
Outlet
Center Drive is unfixed
for the holiday rush
I've
noticed many of our
two-lane highways and
secondary roads have
gotten fresh coats of
asphalt in recent months,
not just around here but
everywhere else I've
traveled in North Carolina
and beyond. Smithfield's
pothole-plagued Outlet
Center Drive is not one of
them.
Why not? Because it's no
longer a state-maintained
roadway like the others
that have been resurfaced.
For a decade now, Outlet
Center Drive (formerly
Industrial Park Drive) has
been a Town of Smithfield
"street" – added to a
growing list of local
resurfacing needs that
can't be met by the town's
paltry allocation of state
Powell Bill funds for
street maintenance.
When this year's options
for spending some of that
money came before the Town
Council in June, an
expenditure of just over
$180,000 was a choice
between rebuilding half a
mile of Outlet Center
Drive or spreading the
money over eight sections
of half a dozen
residential streets. The
council chose the latter,
preferring to bring
smoother rides to the
citizens of Smithfield
rather than visitors to
the outlets, restaurants,
and hotels along I-95.
Why, then, isn't Outlet
Center Drive a
state-maintained "service
road" alongside the
Interstate anymore? Town
Manager Mike Scott
explained: "The town took
over responsibility for
Outlet Center Drive as
part of the agreements
with NCDOT to create the
round-about and Crossroads
projects in that area,
around 2010."
Perhaps that was a good
deal for the cash-strapped
N.C. Department of
Transportation. Not so
good for the Town of
Smithfield, especially
when you consider the
ludicrous configuration of
streets that were built to
steer traffic between the
southern end of Outlet
Center Drive and East
Market Street.
Since Powell Bill
allocations for Smithfield
and just about every other
city and town in North
Carolina haven't kept pace
with street-repair needs,
perhaps our legislative
delegation can come to the
rescue by requiring NCDOT
to take back
responsibility for a road
the state built to begin
with.
Patched potholes along
Smithfield's Outlet
Center Drive are barely
visible in the
photograph below, but
you can't miss 'em when
you drive along this
busy roadway.
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