A
new day dawns for
Johnston Community
College
Newly
employed President Vern
Lindquist briefly welcomed
two dozen or so community
leaders to lunch on campus
Tuesday, then sat down to
listen to their
aspirations for Johnston
Community College, now in
its 54th year since the
first classes met at a
vacated public-school
campus at Four Oaks in the
fall of 1969.
"Technical expertise,"
responded County
Commissioner Ted Godwin.
"We need welders, and we
need people who can run
CAD machines," he said,
referring to the acronym
for "computer-aided
design," becoming more
prevalent in
manufacturing.
Local training of nurses
and others entering
"allied health" careers,
said Tommy Williams, CEO
of UNC Health Johnston.
Coming out of JCC, "they
can hit the ground
running" to fill
increasing professional
needs at Johnston's
hospitals, he said.
"What I want, mainly, is
accessibility," said
Oliver Johnson, a retired
African-American educator
who serves on the JCC
Board of Trustees. He was
talking about making sure
disadvantaged young people
can gain access "without
any hassles" to JCC's many
opportunities for
education and training.
State Representative Larry
Strickland pledged to do
what he can in the N.C.
General Assembly "to make
sure community colleges
get their fair share" of
funding since schools like
JCC are "the first place
people turn to when
they're unemployed."
Trustees' Chair Lyn Austin
wrapped up the session by
asking the group to
embrace Dr. Lindquist as
he strives to serve and
"get him out to meet
people, all kinds of
people, in this county."
Dr. Lindquist
comes to JCC from Lincoln
Land Community College in
Springfield, Illinois, where
he served as Vice President
of Academics. He has nearly
30 years of experience in
higher education, including
almost two decades as a
community-college
instructor.
For
the current spring
semester, JCC reports
total curriculum
enrollment at 4,188 (up
7.4% from a year ago)
while "full-time
equivalent" enrollment is
1,520 (up 5.1%). The college provides programming at its main
campus in Smithfield as
well as the Cleveland
Center, Arboretum,
Rudolph Howell & Son
Environmental Learning
Center at Bentonville,
and the Workforce
Development Center at
Clayton.
The almost-ready
Engineering Building at
the entrance to the
Smithfield campus of
Johnston Community
College gleams in the
glow of a January
setting sun.
VIEW
Johnston Community
College's fall-semester
academic achievement
lists>
Blue
Line Aviation touts
progress beyond promises
Trey
Walters – one of the
founders of Blue Line
Aviation, a pilot-training
company that moved its
operations to Johnston
Regional Airport year
before last – stood before
the County Commissioners
Tuesday evening to
complain about being left
out of last week's "State
of Aviation" celebration
at the airport. "We
weren't invited," he said.
"Blue Line has
outperformed its
promises," Mr. Walters
declared, referring to
terms of an agreement
qualifying his firm for
cash incentives from the
county for moving here.
Instead of an investment
of $4 million in
facilities at Johnston's
airport, he said, "we
actually did over $10
million"; instead of
adding 25 jobs to the
local economy, "we
actually grew by 50" and
"moved three companies in
instead of one."
Already, he continued,
Blue Line has grown from
18 aircraft valued for
county property taxation
at $3.6 million to 29
valued at more than $20
million with more coming:
"enough aircraft on order
to double our fleet size
once again." Blue Line's
operations have accounted
for 11,700 flights out of
Johnston Regional – more
than airports at
Winston-Salem, Kinston,
and Stanly County
combined, Mr. Walters
said.
Since it launched
operations in November
2021, Blue Line has helped
593 pilots get new
certifications and
licenses and has trained
75 new pilots, he noted.
Nationwide there's "a huge
airline-pilot shortage,
and we exist to fill that
need," he added.
Mr. Walters used the
occasion to announce Blue
Line's establishment of a
"Fly Right" scholarship
providing $100,000 to a
qualifying Johnston County
public-school graduate.
That's in response to the
fact that most of Blue
Line's trainees so far
have come from out of
state, he noted.
Despite all that,
relations between Blue
Line and the Johnston
County Airport Authority
have been strained.
Referring to a squabble
over aircraft parking
rights in front of Blue
Line's headquarters, Mr.
Walters said his firm has
"spent close to half a
million dollars fighting
for our right to operate."
"This really isn't the
welcome a valuable
business asset should
receive," he admonished
the commissioners, "and I
hope you will act with
some wisdom and courage to
make some changes."
Blue Line Aviation's
headquarters building
(background on the
right) stands next to
Johnston Regional
Airport's terminal (on
the left).
County
aids winner of state's
rural Broadband grant
Last
spring Johnston's County
Commissioners pledged up
to $1 million in matching
funds to whichever service
provider won approval of a
state GREAT grant for
expanding Broadband
Internet service to
under-served rural areas.
This week they made good
on that pledge by
committing up to $381,000
for a project to be done
by Johnston's winning
applicant:
Wilmington-based
Cloudwyze, Inc.
Shaun Olsen, president and
CEO of Cloudwyze, told
commissioners Tuesday his
firm will use its
$4-million state grant
plus another $762,000
including the county's
contribution to build 55
miles of fiber-optic cable
extending high-speed
Broadband service to as
many as 2,073 households.
A map accompanying his
presentation showed the
project is planned for
rural areas west of Kenly,
west of Four Oaks, between
Four and Benson, and
southeast of Benson.
Mr. Olsen said
construction should begin
this spring and take two
years to complete. He said
Cloudwyze has been doing
similar work in rural
areas of neighboring Nash
County over the past five
years and in Harnett
County for two years now.
County Manager said
Johnston's contribution
for the project here will
likely come out of $40
million the county has
received in federal ARPA
funds. (ARPA stands
for the American Rescue
Plan Act adopted by
Congress in 2021.
Regarding the state
grants, GREAT stands for
Growing Rural Economies
with Access to
Technology.)
HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS REPORT
Smithfield-Selma hosts a countywide
swim meet
SSS recently hosted what was billed as the "first ever" Johnston County Swim Championships at the Smithfield Recreation & Aquatics Center.
Among the winners was Francesca Digiovanni of the SSS team, who finished first in the girls' 100-yard freestyle event.
Other champions were swimmers from Cleveland and Corinth Holders high schools. The complete list of winners is posted on the Town of Smithfield Facebook page>
Both the Spartan boys'
and girls' basketball teams
remain winless
after three more losses apiece
during the past week.
The SSS boys are 0-15 overall,
0-7 in Quad County 3-A
Conference games after losses
at home against North Johnston
57-45 last Thursday, at C.B.
Aycock 77-54 on Friday, and
47-34 at home versus East Wake
on Tuesday.
The girls are 0-12 overall,
0-7 in conference play after
losses at home against North
Johnston 40-8, at C.B. Aycock
56-14, and at home versus East
Wake 75-11.
Neuse
Charter basketball
teams get two more
wins
The
Cougar boys' team is 16-3
overall and undefeated at
3-0 in Carolinas 1-A
Conference play after wins
at Hobbton High 68-63 last
Friday and 56-45 at
Rosewood on Tuesday. Sire
Holmes scored 21 points,
Jayvin Bradley 19, and
Jayden Atkinson 10 to lead
the Cougars at Hobbton.
Holmes had 25 points and
Donollyn Tyrell 11 at
Rosewood.
The Cougar girls are 10-7
overall and 2-1 in
conference play after wins
at Hobbton 48-41 and 38-20
at Rosewood. Lyndsy
Parrish had 19 points and
Cayley Cochran 16 for
Neuse Charter at Hobbton
Friday. Cochran had 19
points and Parrish 11 in
Tuesday's game at
Rosewood.
WHAT'S
COMING UP?
DEATHS
& FUNERALS
Click
on the name to read an
obituary, usually posted
by the funeral home
DIANA
FOSTER, 75 – died
January 18
PATRICIA
BLASZEK KERBE, 75
– died January 17
SHARON
DENISE BUNCH BARBOUR, 64
– died January 14
LEROY
FRANKLIN RAY, 78 –
died January 13
JOHNNIE EARL
GODWIN, 70 – died
January 12
LOUISE
McMILLIAN McFADGEN, 91
– died January 10
A
WORD (OR TWO) FROM THE
EDITOR
"Town
hall" meetings on school
issues? Good idea
Every
now and then a citizen who
speaks up during the
Public Comment segment of
our local governing
boards' monthly meetings
offers a suggestion worth
reinforcing. Christine
Livingston gets my vote
for asking the Johnston
County Board of Education
last week to schedule a
series of "town hall"
meetings to share ideas,
build relationships, and
"get a handle on what's
really going on in our
schools."
The three minutes allotted
each speaker – with no
time for feedback from
board members – isn't
sufficient to address the
multitude of issues
confronting public
education these days, she
said.
For starters, she said
"bullying and hazing need
to be addressed" along
with other student-safety
concerns such as assigning
properly trained SROs
(school resource officers)
and installing metal
detectors at all our
schools.
She suggested a series of
public forums, held at
each of our high schools,
to allow ample time for
give-and-take among
parents, board members,
teachers, students, and
anyone else worried about
the course of public
education these days.
A time-consuming task?
Yes, it would be. But
anything truly worthwhile
takes extra effort beyond
simply taking token steps
toward solutions to public
problems.
Robins
are flocking to
Smithfield in big
numbers
And
I haven't noticed that
before, although I've
learned it's not an
unusual phenomenon for
this common species.
According to the American
Bird Conservancy, robins
become "nomadic" in
winter, "searching widely
for their favorite
cold-weather fare" and
moving about in flocks
"which can number in the
hundreds of thousands." I
haven't seen that many in
one place, but I have seen
dozens at a time moving
through Smithfield yards
recently, including the
trio (shown above) drinking
from the editor's backyard
birdbath.
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