Recent Articles

Dear editor:
Franklin County School employees were notified last week that Franklin County Schools are eliminating school librarians beginning next school year.
The current media coordinators will be offered other classroom-based jobs in the district, and instructional assistants will be placed in libraries. The decision is being blamed on budget cuts and the ending of the COVID relief ESSER funding.

Dear editor:
It's great that at least one commissioner acknowledges the problem with the recent re-evaluation. I appreciate Commissioner Michael Schriver's candor.
However, wouldn't it be reasonable for the county commissioners and/or the appraisers to also take responsibility for FIXING the problem?
Why should individual property owners be required to appeal their evaluations when there is so much evidence that the appraisal process is badly flawed?

Dear editor:
Recently, Franklin County Schools Superintendent Dr. Rhonda Schuhler and the Board of Education made the very difficult decision to eliminate the media center coordinators' (school librarians) position for next school year and move them into classroom positions.
Understandably, this was unpopular among many citizens of Franklin County.

YOUNGSVILLE -- Commissioners have set a May 9 public hearing to allow residents to weigh in on the town's 2024-25 spending plan.
During the board's March 8 work session, Town Manager Nathan Page presented commissioners with a budget that included significant projects -- including the beginning stages of funding a bypass, parks and recreation upgrades and capital expenses, such a s a $450,000 automated trash truck.

BUNN -- It took just 21 hours for the rematch of the 'Game of the Year' in the Big East Conference to be played -- and that brought a few key intangibles into play.
With rain in the forecast for last Thursday, Round Two of the Bunn-Northern Nash baseball showdown was moved up one day -- and the first game of the series had been staged Tuesday, with host Northern Nash rallying from a huge deficit to force extra innings before finally earning the tough victory in the bottom of the 11th stanza of action.

Northern Nash's Tristan Murray slides safely into home plate as Bunn's Jared Hagwood attempts to apply the tag during last Wednesday evening's key Big East Conference diamond matchup at the historic BHS Baseball Complex.

FRANKLIN COUNTY -- The first Big East Conference boys golf match after Spring Break culminated in the same result as all of the previous ones this spring -- with the Roanoke Rapids Yellow Jackets taking first place in the overall team standings.
Roanoke Rapids, also the defending league champion, saw its margin of victory drop, but the Yellow Jackets still got the job done by finishing with 347 team strokes to take the 18-hole competition last Wednesday at The River Golf Course near Bunn.

BUNN -- Forget the 'Q's, minding the 'P's has brought the most dividends to the surging Bunn High School boys tennis program this spring.
Patience. Perseverance. Persistence. Practice. All of those intangibles have helped deliver the biggest 'P' of all -- the Payoff.
And it's been quite a big one for the once-downtrodden Wildcats, who have risen to become one of the top team standings in the solid Big East Conference under great head coach Dale Murphy.

LOUISBURG -- A shift to a new league and a strong blend of players has added up to a potential championship season for the Louisburg High School golf squad.
After two years in the Big East Conference, the Warriors have moved to the Northern Lakes Athletic Conference, and Coach Michael Sheldon's squad is ruling the NLAC heading into the second half of the league's links schedule.

ZEBULON - The Carolina Mudcats (4-1) saw three leads disappear throughout last Wednesday night's contest at Five County Stadium, but a big Cooper Pratt two-run single in the eighth gave the Mudcats just enough of a cushion to hand the Down East Wood Ducks (4-1) their first loss of 2024 by a final score of 7-6.
Despite the several surges from Down East, Carolina never trailed in the ballgame.

Winner Willie Bell Taylor at the Senior Games in Vance County

Louisburg, NC--Funeral services for Dorothy "Dot" Davis, age 82 who died on Saturday, April 13, 2024, will be held on Friday, April 19, at 12 p.m. from the First Baptist Church in Louisburg with Minister Russell Miles officiating. Burial will follow in the Cedar Street Cemetery.

LOUISBURG, NC -- Funeral services for Emma Jean Bullock, age 89, who died on Friday, April 12, 2024, was held at 1 p.m. Wednesday, April 17, 2024 from the Jones Chapel Baptist Church. Burial will follow in the Jones Chapel Church Cemetery.

FRANKLINTON, NC -- Mary Garnet Burchett Driver, 92, died April 13, 2024. Mary was born on May 17, 1931 in Granville County, NC to the late Battle and Lee Bert Morton Burchett. In addition to her parents, Mary was predeceased by her husband, Curtis Driver.

LOUISBURG NC -- Quentin Peter Greear, 42, of Louisburg died on April 9, 2024. He was born in Carteret County on September 5, 1981, to Deborah West and Jessie Greear.

BUNN, NC -- Arie Jane Richards Horton, 105, of Bunn, died Sunday, April 14, 2024. She was born on May 12, 1918 in Wake County and was the last living child of the late Buck and Nellie Robertson Richards. In addition to her siblings and parents, Arie Jane was predeceased by her husband, Curtis Duke Horton; and her son, Ted Duke Horton.

LOUISBURG, NC --Mrs. Edna Murphy Knight, 69, of Louisburg passed away peacefully at her home on April 11, 2024 surrounded by her family. She was born on October 10, 1954 to the late Paul "PB" Murphy Jr. and Beulah Wood Murphy in Franklin County, NC.

Spring Hope, NC--Charles Lee "Chuck" Allman, 82, of Spring Hope, passed away, on April 10, 2024. He was born on April 25, 1941, the son of the late Tressie Asbury Allman.

FRANKLINTON, NC--The funeral for Peggie Mizelle Kearney, of Franklinton, will be held on April 20, 2024, with visitation and viewing from 9:30 - 11 a.m., with the service beginning at 11 a.m. The service will take place at Wake-Forest Presbyterian Church, located at 12605 Capital Blvd., Wake- Forest NC 27587. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to the Peggie Mizelle Kearney scholarship fund.

LOUISBURG -- Franklin County property owners have until Saturday to submit an informal appeal to their tax assessment.
It was a week's extension granted by county commissioners who have urged property owners to appeal what they consider wildly fluctuating values.
"I spent some time going through some various things and what I found was a lot of inconsistencies," Commissioner Michael Schriver said during the Franklin County Board of Commissioners' April 1 meeting -- the same meeting they agreed to extend the informal assessment appeal deadline by one week.

LOUISBURG -- The prospect of rain has pushed Franklin County's 2024 Special Olympics Spring Games back a week.
But spirits are not dampened.
Following a seven-year hiatus, Special Olympics competition returned to Franklin County in 2008.

LOUISBURG -- Apparently, there are no small dreams, just tiny houses.
Last month, the Franklin County Cooperative Extension, in partnership with Northeast Franklin Revitalization and the Franklin County Tourism Development Authority, hosted the Franklin Region Agritourism Opportunities Conference.
If focused on farm stays, tiny homes and other real estate-inspired agriculture opportunities.

Thales Academy Middle Schooler Connor Roberson

LAKE ROYALE -- Lake Royale police and deputies with the Franklin County sheriff's office combined to arrest one man and are closing in on the other suspect they allege are responsible for a series of break ins.
On April 3, officers obtained warrants to arrest Gregory Lee Hicks and Jamarion Tyrel Reddick for the series of break-ins that occurred on Tuesday, March 26.