By:
CAREY JOHNSON, Times Staff Writer
FRANKLINTON — Residents, officials and staff said goodbye to one long-serving commissioner and said hello to another long-standing public servant.
Businessman Joe Cutchins Jr. left the board Tuesday after serving 20 years on the board.
And Ray Gilliam, who retired after 19 years on the police force and beat out Cutchins in the November election, was sworn in as the newest member.
Daniel Collie is ready for Santa Claus
By:
CAREY JOHNSON, Times Staff Writer
FRANKLINTON — Town officials got an update regarding its ongoing lawsuit with Franklin County — in open session.
Franklinton filed suit in January, asking a judge to resolve a contract dispute that has brewed between the town and Franklin County since September of 2010.
Former legislator and school board member John May was on the mend this week following a health scare.
May said he was doing some scrap metal recycling in Rolesville on Monday with his grandson and a cousin when he began feeling chest pains.
Knowing the area, they drove to the EMT building in town and staff there checked him out.
Workers with Custom Towers out of Scott, La. began erecting a new emergency communications tower at the Franklin County Sheriff’s office last week. The work is essentially complete this week. The tower is part of a roughly $10 million upgrade and overhaul of the county’s emergency communications system — a system that has been in need of improvement since at least the 1970s.
Franklin County’s 911 service was shut down about 30 minutes on Thursday morning.
Well, sort of.
There was an issue at the Rocky Mount office, said Brian Smith, Franklin County’s emergency communications operations manager, and power was lost at about 5:50 a.m.
Newly elected Commissioner Ray Gilliam, with hand raised, shares a laugh with his family, clockwise, daughters India, with head turned, Roxi, his wife, Wendy, and mother, Ann, as the Honorable J. Larry Senter reads him the oath of office.
Re-elected Commissioner Anita Fuller fills out paperwork after she took the oath of office during the board’s meeting on Tuesday while the Honorable J. Larry Senter looks on.
By:
Jay Lamm, Times Editorial Cartoonist
Here it is Christmas Eve and many of us haven’t even made our wish list for Santa Claus yet.
Maybe it’s the weather, maybe it’s just procrastination or perhaps it’s just been a rough year that left so many of us exhausted and frustrated!
But with the economy struggling, one war still raging in a far-off place, our state and national governments facing critical financial woes and so many Americans without jobs, it’s been a very difficult year — again!
Ahhh, so it’s suddenly Christmas Eve and all through the house ...
... the procrastinators among us are among the creatures stirring ... frantically still trying to get ready in a few short hours what we’ve known was coming for months!
I’m not sure why exactly -- a genetic defect perhaps -- but I’m never ready for Christmas.
GOOD MORNING: It’s Christmas Eve and in the words of my father, the late Times editor-publisher Asher F. Johnson, Sr., back when I was a kid, “Christmas Eve Gift – Give It To Me!”
It was during the Great Depression back in the 1930’s and times were tough, but we were thankful for what we had. Dad would kindle a roaring fire in the living-room fireplace, before awakening us with the holiday greeting.
Dear Santa Claus:
I’m a fifth grader in Louisburg Elementary School.
My name is Isaiah and all I want for Christmas is for you to get in your sleigh and go to Afghanistan and bring the U.S. soldiers home for Christmas and forever. They deserve to be home because they have been fighting from 2001 to the present year and that’s about 10 years now since 2001.
Dear Editor:
The tragic events of the past week have reinforced what we see on a daily basis. The attempted murder/suicide in Bunn and the murder/suicide in Louisburg illustrate just how prevalent domestic violence is in Franklin County. Every day we receive calls from frightened people that feel helpless against the violence they are going through or expect to happen at any moment.
RALEIGH – Cattle, sheep, and other herd animals lack the ability to chew, swallow, and digest their food the way we do. They regurgitate solids from their stomach in the form of a cud, to be further chewed and broken down before digestion.
You know, we adults always think that we learn something valuable only from someone our age or older. Well, last Sunday at Louisburg United Methodist Church, we had the service conducted by our young college-age people. I was truly impressed with their maturity and talents.
To begin with, we have many talented young folks in our congregation, and we are proud of them.
Franklin County sheriff’s deputies helped a Texas man track down his aircraft.
According to a report by Dep. Tim Joyner, Jeff Akhtar got involved in an aircraft sale that apparently got shaky and nearly cost him his $300,000 craft.
On Dec. 16, aircraft dealer Patrick Dennison told authorities that he was trying to broker a deal between his client, Akhtar, and a local man, Brandon Scott.
The Franklin County Library has been awarded a $32,710.00 grant to be used for the Library’s migration to NC Cardinal that will soon serve the citizens of the county. These Library Services and Technology Act funds have been awarded and are made possible through funding from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the State Library of North Carolina, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources.
The Victorian Carolers, based in Louisburg, returned from a trip to Washington, D.C. where they performed at the White House on Dec. 6. The group, which includes Paula and Johnny Walters, Jo Ann Fish and Hanna-Joy Bowden of Louisburg, Brian Fergerson and Laura Cashwell of Wake Forest, Rick King and Matt Lewis of Zebulon, and Jody Rollins of Raleigh, didn’t perform for President Obama, but the trip was the group’s grandest audience to date.
LOUISBURG – Bobby Ray Young, 74, died Wednesday afternoon, Dec. 21, 2011. A graveside service was held Friday, Dec. 23, at Oakwood Cemetery, with the Rev. Bob Mosher officiating.
LOUISBURG – Kenneth Vernon McCurry, 88, of Louisburg, passed away Tuesday night.
The Nu Epsilon Chapter of Alpha Pi Chi National Sorority, Inc. held its annual Miss Nu Epsilon Cotillion on Saturday, Nov. 5, at the Interdenominational Headquarters Building in Franklinton. There was a reception beginning at 5 p.m., followed by the Cotillion at 6 p.m.
Franklin-Granville-Vance Smart Start, Inc. is a non-profit organization led by local volunteers who design and provide programs and services for families with children ages 0-5 in Franklin, Granville, and Vance counties. Each year at this time, FGV Smart Start staff chooses a local agency to assist during the holiday season.
By:
GEOFF NEVILLE, Times Sportswriter
FRANKLINTON -- Full-court pressure defense has been a staple of Lester Wilder’s glorious tenure as the girls basketball coach at Franklinton High School.
Wilder’s teams have gained a statewide reputation for delivering 94 feet of defensive intensity -- especially during FHS’ numerous deep postseason runs in the 1990s.
By:
GEOFF NEVILLE, Times Sportswriter
FRANKLINTON -- Free-throw shooting in pressure situations has been a long-time issue for the Louisburg High School boys basketball team -- even going back to when current head coach Dontae Lassiter was a player for the Warriors.
But the Warriors enjoyed plenty of charity-stripe success Tuesday, and the result was a clutch victory over host Franklinton in a key Northern Carolina Conference matchup at the new FHS Gymnasium.
