Stories and photos by WINGATE LASSITER unless credited otherwise
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A NEW PLACE FOR WALKING & BIKING – in East Smithfield

It's an eight-foot-wide concrete pedestrian trail that encircles Smith-Collins Park as well as the large holding pond behind the Innovation Academy across the street where it connects to the Belmont neighborhood and Johnston Community College.

Built for $407,416 with a grant from the state, the trail runs for  6,000 feet (more than a mile). And it's flat, making travel accessible to one and all, including this young tyke learning to ride his bike on Wednesday's picture-perfect afternoon.
 

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Let's take a quick look back at 2022...

Public schools head my list of highlights. Buoyed by massive federal aid in response to the coronavirus pandemic, Johnston's County Commissioners and Board of Education were able to address some pressing public-school needs without raising local taxes.

Commissioners increased funding by almost $5.7 million for the "current expense" portion of the school board's 2022-23 budget. In turn, the Board of Education was able to withdraw $8 million from its reserve account to cover capital expenditures for immediate facility repairs and upgrades.

With Johnston County's unprecedented population growth bearing down, commissioners authorized a $177-million county bond issue for new schools that won approval from almost 65% of Johnston's voters. As a result, the county is moving ahead at year's end to buy 210 acres at Wilson's Mills for a new high school (and perhaps a riverside park as well) for a cool $4.2 million.

That bond issue will also provide part of the funding for a $9.6-million project to upgrade safety measures at all of the county's school campuses in response to a nationwide epidemic of gun violence. Most of that cost will come from yet another transfer from the county's mounting stash of reserve funds.

On the political front, 13 candidates entered the race for three Board of Education seats up for election this year. Six (none of them incumbent board members) advanced to the General Election, which put newcomers Michelle Antoine, Kevin Donovan, and Terry Tippett into office earlier this month.

Lurking behind the school-board election and the bond vote was the board's censure of one its members, Ronald Johnson, for secretly recording discussions held behind closed doors, interfering with a school principal's pupil-assignment duties, and sending inappropriate text messages about a school employee during board meetings. In addition, Mr. Johnson was fired from his job as a Smithfield police detective for "detrimental personal conduct" and violating department rules. (At year's end, he remains a member of the school board yet may face criminal charges arising from an investigation into his behavior by the district attorney's office.)

That controversy carried over into the school board's election of a new chair, with Lyn Andrews favored by a slim 4-3 majority of board members over Mr. Johnson's nomination by Mr. Donovan and Ms. Antoine (perhaps a prelude to similar divisiveness in months to come).

The year 2022 brought the opening of another charter school here. American Leadership Academy Johnston opened its doors to about 1,600 students in grades K-10 at a newly constructed campus between Smithfield and Clayton. Unlike Neuse Charter School, ALA Johnston was built and is being operated by private enterprise although it gets a per-pupil allocation of funding from the state's taxpayers. As a result, enrollment in Johnston's traditional public schools has leveled off at about 37,000 students even as the county's population continues to grow.

Pay raises for public employees was another big story. Fueled by inflation coming out of the pandemic, this nationwide upheaval impacted the finances not only of Johnston's school system but also the County of Johnston and the Town of Smithfield. Fortunately, the healthy fiscal status of those units of government – resulting from the federal COVID aid coupled with robust local tax revenues despite the pandemic – enabled officials to approve unprecedented pay raises to keep employees on the job and put the brakes on an alarming rise in vacancies among policemen and teachers and school-bus drivers especially.

Speaking of COVID, the epidemic eased its grip this year. As new-case numbers started to decline, 2021's mask mandate for Johnston County's school children and staff was lifted in February, and by the end of March the Health Department had discontinued its daily advisories about COVID's spread. The state's latest report, issued December 21, shows Johnston County had recorded 72,716 coronavirus cases resulting in 491 fatalities since March 2020.

Smithfield saw a surge in plans for new housing in 2022. As the new year approaches, several substantial subdivisions are under construction in and around the town, with more in the final planning stages. Two of those are especially large projects – one being designed for more than 2,000 residences east of I-95, the other for almost 700 dwellings across from the new Amazon distribution center in West Smithfield that's expected to begin operations this spring.

Johnston County reached an employment milestone. The N.C. Department of Commerce reported for the first time last March that more than 100,000 Johnstonians are now employed. Along with that, Johnston's unemployment rate has dropped from a peak of 11.6% in May 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic to 3.4% last month when 103,661 Johnstonians held jobs (according to the latest report from the N.C. Department of Commerce).

Smithfield-Selma High School's football team won 9 games. Finishing the 2022 season with a record of 9-4 (following an 8-4 season a year ago), the Spartans produced the school's best showing on the gridiron in a quarter of a century. To celebrate the achievement, the team served as grand marshals for Smithfield's Christmas Parade.

Those are items on the editor's short list of 2022's highlights. For a more complete overview of the year gone by, scroll through the Weekly Sun's online archive>
 

 

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Retail sales continue climbing, but not quite as fast

According to the N.C. Department of Commerce, retail sales in Johnston County totaled $766,410,829 during July, August, and September – up from sales of $706,809,640 a year earlier. That gain of 8.4% was down from a third-quarter jump of 21.4% a year ago – when Johnston County and the rest of the nation was in the midst of a robust economic recovery from the peak of the coronavirus pandemic.
 

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WHAT'S COMING UP?

County Commissioners to consider another trail project

This one's a link in the East Coast Greenway from Smithfield to Benson. Johnston County's Board of Commissioners will be asked to apply for a Paved Trail Feasibility Study for the proposal during Tuesday's 10 a.m. session at the Courthouse (postponed from Monday because of the New Year's holiday). The board will also receive a report from Cloudwyze, winner of a state grant to extend Broadband Internet to unserved areas of rural Johnston. Here's the complete agenda>
Commissioners will hold public hearings on two rezoning requests at their 6 p.m. session on Tuesday. One of those is a petition for industrial zoning of 3.64 acres on County Home Road in Smithfield Township. Here's the complete agenda>

Town Council to get annual audit report next Tuesday

The Smithfield Town Council's regular monthly meeting begins at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Town Hall. Thompson, Price, Scott, Adams & Co. will present results of its audit of the town's finances through the end of the 2021-22 fiscal year last June 30.
Here's the complete agenda for Tuesday's meeting>

Forum will seek citizens' ideas about town's next police chief

The Town of Smithfield will hold a Community Forum at Town Hall on Tuesday, January 10 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. "At that time, we want to hear your ideas and allow you to express to the Town Council and Town Manager the traits you would like to see in our future chief," reads the town's announcement. "With Chief Keith Powell's retirement, the town has begun a nationwide search for Smithfield's next Chief of Police. As we begin that process, we want to hear from you, the citizens."
 

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DEATHS & FUNERALS

Click on the name to read an obituary, usually posted by the funeral home

ELMA BARNES (E.B.) PENNY, 100 – died December 26

MARY JANE TUCKER HARRELL, 87 – died December 25

WANDA MAE DAUGHTRY, 73 – died December 23

SHAQUIRA JE'QUON HALL, 30 – died December 23

BETTE JOHNSON DAUGHTRY, 88 – died December 22
 

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