Recent Articles

LOUISBURG -- Sen. Chad Barefoot secured another term in the General Assembly, securing the Franklin County vote and district wide support -- capturing 56,656 votes.
Democrat and Franklin County Board of Education member Gil Johnson secured 45,705 votes in his attempt to unseat Barefoot.
Immediate attempts to contact Barefoot were not successful.

LOUISBURG -- Congressman George Holding cruised to a win Tuesday night, securing more than 56 percent of the vote.
His 219,322 votes bested a challenge from newcomer, John McNeil, who garnered 167,297 votes for the Congressional District 2, which includes Franklin County.
Holding also beat out McNeil in Franklin County, getting 16,565 votes to 12,958.
Immediate attempts to contact Holding were not successful, but published reports reflected his efforts to build the area's finances and protect the country.

LOUISBURG -- Caroline Burnette continued her run of victories after capturing the most votes during the spring primary by winning a district court judge's seat following Tuesday night's election.
Burnette, an attorney and legal counsel for social services departments in Vance and Warren counties was elected to a district court judge's seat representing this area after beating out Quon Bridges, 32,043 votes to 28,580.

Mason Shope was in the Halloween spirit

LOUISBURG -- A Youngsville man whom authorities allege played a role in a multi-county chop shop operation pled guilty in court recently.
Roger Nipper avoided jail time, but it'll cost him more than $22,000 in restitution and he'll have to keep his nose clean for at least five years.
State Department of Motor Vehicle agents and Franklin County Sheriff's Office investigators arrested Nipper in January 2014, alleging Nipper was housing stolen truck and machine engines and parts at his Moores Pond Road property, preparing them for sale to salvage yards across the state.

BUNN -- Town commissioners agreed Monday night to raise water and sewer rates, an action that will take effect after the first of the year.
Town Clerk Judy Jeffreys said she became curious about whether the town's utility charges were keeping pace with debt service and inflation after reading some information posted by the N.C. Rural Water Association -- a trade association originally formed to be a collective voice for water and wastewater systems operators across the state.

LOUISBURG -- Franklin County commissioners approved an incentive and a resolution that will aid a Youngsville company double in size and create 100 new jobs.
Last week, Gov. Pat McCrory appeared at a ground-breaking ceremony to announce that the state approved a $1.1 million job development grant that will aid K-Flex USA's expansion plans in Youngsville.
On Monday night, the Franklin County Board of Commissioners unanimously agreed to provide K-Flex with a $1.3 million incentive per its economic development policy.

YOUNGSVILLE -- K-Flex is taking an aggressive approach to becoming a leading manufacturer of a rubber product with a myriad of applications and Gov. Pat McCrory toured the site -- media in tow -- to get a look at the company's push to expand.
Shortly thereafter, he took a more quiet tour, away from the media bustle and the hum of machinery, but it was of a place that leaders are no less convinced is on the cusp of mushrooming, too -- downtown Youngsville.

Members of the Louisburg High School volleyball team stand during pre-match introductions at last Saturday's Class 1-A State Championship Match at Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh. LHS was making its first appearance in the finals since 2007.

LOUISBURG -- Historic preservation is as much "about people as it is about place," said Preservation North Carolina President J. Myrick Howard last Thursday evening as he addressed a small group that attended the latest meeting in the series "Historic Preservation: Building Community and Enhancing Prosperity."
The lecture series, sponsored by the Tar River Center for History and Culture at Louisburg College, is intended to bring together those interested in local history and architecture as well as those focused on economic development.

Wake Electric recently surprised Bunn High School teacher Christopher Cullom (right) with a Bright Ideas grant check for his idea to expand the school's Power Lunch program. The co-op awards Bright Ideas grants annually for creative classroom ideas and projects. Darnell Alford, Bright Ideas program administrator, presented the check to Cullom (along with balloons) during one of his classes. Cullom's grant is to help continue and expand a successful tutorial program that provides academic assistance and tutoring to students in need.

FRANKLIN COUNTY -- In the last month, there have been eight fatal wrecks either in Franklin County or involving Franklin County residents.
The most recent was reported on Nov. 2 when Percy Jones, 54, was traveling in the roadway of N.C. 561 after dark on a riding lawn mower when he was hit from behind.
Jones, who had a Louisburg and a Bunn address, died at the scene.

Louisburg College honored five members of its community recently during an alumni brunch as part of its Homecoming celebration.
The Allen de Hart Humanitarian Award, honoring the late Louisburg College professor, benefactor and advocate for the arts, was presented to Clara Frazier, retired chemistry professor and environmental steward.
Frazier, Class of '55, joined the Louisburg College faculty in 1962, helped with the college's concert series, served on the Franklin County Board of Supervisors and has pushed for recycling, writing a column for The Franklin Times, Clara's Conservation Corner.

Since this was written before election tallies were made, I hope you're reading it knowing who will be our nation's president for the next four years.
After a divisive, brutal and downright disgusting campaign, whoever is our new president is going to be facing a giant task of trying to actually govern this nation.
About the only good thing I can say about this election cycle is that it gave us all a bit of a history lesson.
I suspect we are a more familiar with the Electoral College than we were and we've been reminded about why some of the Founding Fathers had such a fear of a two-party political system.

A nationally known expert in using historic preservation as an economic development tool spent more than an hour last Thursday evening discussing the concepts and presenting concrete examples of what has worked across North Carolina.
Unfortunately, Preservation North Carolina's Myrick Howard was preaching to the choir.
Most of the nearly 60 people attending already have a strong interest in historic preservation, many have restored homes and other structures and virtually all of them realize that historic preservation is one of the "legs" upon which the future of Louisburg and Franklin County must stand.

While Tuesday night's election might have seemed like life or death to some, it was not.
What has been life or death, though, is traveling area roads just over the last month.
By my count, there have been 10 fatal wrecks either involving Franklin County people or reported on Franklin County roads in just over a month's time.
And I've heard that during that time, there were two more reported in Vance County.

Logistically, this is a challenging article to write.
My subject matter is almost always political in nature and this article is being written prior to the election for publication purposes.
So I decided to write about some of the things that come with election time that I won't miss. Generally somewhere between one-third and half of my readers disagree with me; I think that will be very different this week.

Dear editor:
I smell a rat and the stench is bad.
I am elated that we finally have a contract for Duke Lifepoint to open an ER and other health care benefits.
The timing of the announcement sent up a red flag. Was it planned to be announced less than two weeks before the election? I think so.

COOL RIDES. Above, from left to right, Joshua Pearce, Joshua Green and Brayden Pearce check out the POW Bucket, a hot rod restored by Wayne Daniels and his family and used to raise awareness about soldiers who are missing in action or prisoners of war. The car was part of an Oct. 24 show hosted by the Franklinton Parks and Recreation Association as a fundraiser.

RALEIGH -- Six students from the Student Nurses' Association (SNA) at Vance-Granville Community College, including three Franklin County residents, attended the North Carolina Community College System Conference in October to assist with health assessments for participants, who included faculty, staff and administrators from throughout the 58-member college system.
The students included Rachel Edwards of Louisburg, Deborah Janifer of Youngsville, Trey Wright of Franklinton, Heather Avery of Wake Forest, Ladonya Tinnin of Durham and Sara Wheeler of Raleigh.

The Youth Department of the Franklin County Missionary Union recently held a hot dog and clothing giveaway in Riverbend and many people braved the wind and cool weather to fellowship with the young people. Many household items, books, clothing, hot dogs, and drinks were given away.
Youth Director, the Reverend Cora Campbell, with the assistance of youth department helpers, Reverend Rosemary Cooper and Reverend Dexter Wright, organized the event.

RALEIGH - Louisburg's quest for a perfect ending -- literally -- wasn't meant to be last Saturday at the Class 1-A State Volleyball Championship Match.
But the Lady Warriors' three-set loss to powerful Community School of Davidson at Reynolds Coliseum didn't deter from a strong campaign that featured an unblemished mark heading into the finals -- along with the school's first East Regional crown since 2007.
"We had a great year, and making the state championship match was really big for our program,'' Wammock said.