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LOUISBURG -- As restrictions were being lifted for COVID-19, Franklin County recorded its highest single day increase in confirmed cases and its second outbreak at an assisted living facility.
On May 8, the number of COVID-19 cases and tracking information across North Carolina gave officials confidence to ease restrictions on public movements and allowed more businesses to open as part of Phase 1.

YOUNGSVILLE -- Town commissioners approved a $4.2 million budget, moved forward with plans to build a new public works building and gave its town manager a pay raise.
The only thing that remained static was the Main Street Improvements Plan.
The decisions were made during the board's May 7 meeting -- a virtual affair that allowed the public to participate via teleconference.

CASTALIA -- One of the three goals for the Northeast Franklin County Revitalization Committee is to attract more people -- and their money -- to the oft-neglected portion of Franklin County.
A couple months ago, they took their own advice by touring a gold mine that straddles Nash and Franklin counties.

BEAUFORT -- Several media outlets are reporting the death of a Franklin County couple during a weekend scuba diving incident off Cape Lookout.
The Franklin Times was unable to get direct confirmation from the U.S. Coast Guard, but, locally, family and friends were lamenting the demise of James and Carla May.

HONOLULU -- Naval service took Davie Lee Williams from his Halifax Road home in Louisburg to war patrols aboard a submarine in the South China Sea.
On July 2, 1944, according to historians, duty called and the USS Robalo spotted a Fuso-class battleship with air cover and two destroyers for escort ... just east of Borneo.
There was no other message and when the Robalo didn't return from patrol, she was presumed lost.

Bunn native Chuck Mann

These are strange times and it's not just this danged virus that has upset the apple cart.
Over the weekend, wearing a hoodie -- in May! -- to work in the yard just didn't seem right. But with the temperatures combined with a strong breeze, the old hoodie felt really good in the morning hours.

It's fair to say that in the last few weeks, heck, probably the last few days, things have gone cattywampus.
Of course, it all started as the coronavirus spread as a silent killer -- considered malarkey by many -- until the disease began killing enough people to generate the kind of provable data that warranted a brouhaha amongst the media.

BUNN--Funeral services for Alvis "Ray" Webb, 74, who died Thursday, May 7, 2020, were held Tuesday, May 12, at the Richardson Funeral Home Chapel in Louisburg, with the Rev. Pete Brodie officiating. Burial followed in the Cemetery on the Hill.

NELSON, VA--Jackie Garrett Arrington, 62, of Nelson, VA, died Wednesday, May 6, 2020 at Maria Parham Hospital in Henderson. Due to the pandemic and social distancing, a private graveside service was held Saturday, May 9, at Union Chapel Baptist Church, Clarksville, VA.

LOUISBURG -- Talent, leadership and heart are three intangibles that will take a student-athlete a long way -- just look at the exceptional to-date softball career of Louisburg High School's Chelsea Roberson.
Roberson was a diamond starter from the first day she arrived at LHS, and was an outstanding shortstop during her freshman season.

BUNN -- Bunn has produced its share of elite-level catchers on the softball diamond over the past 25 years, including Melanie Lovin, the program's current head coach.
Certainly, Lovin knows a thing or two about the position from her days of working behind the plate for legendary pitcher Misty Faircloth.

WENDELL -- East Wake High School has become known as 'Bunn West' to folks in Franklin County as its athletic staff is filled with coaches with ties to the Wildcats.
A former 'Cat will now be leading EWHS' sports as Chuck Mann as been selected as the Warriors' new Athletic Director.
Mann spent the past five years as the school's Assistant Athletic Director under the legendary Jon Hasbrouck.

LOUISBURG -- When he was a student-athlete at Louisburg College, Larrell Murchison was described by then-football coach Trevor Highfield as the model player and person for the rest of his program.
Murchison lived up to those lofty expectations at Louisburg College and beyond -- and he recently received the ultimate award courtesy of the National Football League.

GREENSBORO -- Rosters have been selected for the annual North Carolina Coaches Association's East-West All Star Basketball Games.
The girls-boys hoops doubleheader is scheduled for July 20 at the historic Greensboro Coliseum.

WILSON -- Committed to a higher level of baseball learning for its participants, the Wilson Tobs Youth Summer Baseball Camps are excellent opportunities for young ballplayers to enhance their skills and broaden their game knowledge.
Coordinated by the Tobs Head Coach, Assistants, and Players the Tobs staff will work with all participants to enhance the camper's fundamentals and individual athletic skills.

LOUISBURG -- An uninvited intruder -- COVID-19 -- shaped much of the discussion at a glitchy virtual meeting of the Franklin County Board of Education Monday night as school officials struggle to handle the challenges the virus has caused for local students and the school system.
"There are a lot of unknowns" at the moment regarding the reopening of schools in August, Schools Superintendent Rhonda Schuhler cautioned the school board.

LOUISBURG -- Authorities arrested someone they allege swindled a disabled woman out of money and her car.
On May 5, Butner police arrested Ellen Page Newton, 54, of Louisburg, charging her with two counts of exploiting the trust of a disabled or elderly person and 16 counts of obtaining property by false pretense.

LOUISBURG -- The Town Planning Board took a step backward in order to move forward with regulations on generating electrical power from solar panels during a virtual meeting last Thursday.
Back in 2012, the planners adopted the regulations but a clerical mistake meant that they were never properly adopted into the town's rules.

LOUISBURG -- Complaints about drug activity led Franklin County sheriff's deputies to make a drug arrest in White Level.
On May 6, Tyrone Neal, 48, was arrested and charged with two counts of trafficking in cocaine, and maintaining a vehicle for the purpose of selling a controlled substance.
According to authorities, the arrest was the result of a vehicle stop.