Free birthday concert, movie screening planned

WPAQ, housed in a building on Springs Road, continues to specialize in old-time, bluegrass and gospel music as it did when first hitting the radio airwaves in 1948.

Much has happened in the past 75 years — including 14 American presidents and the enduring of several wars while musical, fashion and other tastes came and went, but a local radio station has remained constant since 1948.

It was on Feb. 2 of that year — Groundhog Day — when Mount Airy’s WPAQ launched its first official broadcast at 740 on the AM dial as a flagship for the traditional string music of this region. And it’s still doing so today from a perch on Springs Road where tunes from the North Carolina foothills initially hit the airwaves.

The building of the radio station — the first in Surry County — fulfilled a dream of owner Ralph Epperson, who wanted to both preserve the music of the Blue Ridge and promote local talent while also exposing it to a wider audience.

Although Epperson died in 2006, that vision continues today with his son Kelly at the helm of the station, who has never been inclined to do things any other way.

“Since I’ve been in charge, I’ve always tried to honor my father’s promise that he made to the Federal Communications Commission,” Epperson said of the agency that licenses broadcast stations and the music the elder Epperson pledged to perpetuate. This includes devoting several hours to playing it each day.

“Seventy-five years later, I just don’t want to go against that,” Epperson added Thursday.

That milestone will be commemorated Saturday, Feb. 4, when a WPAQ 75th-birthday event is scheduled at the Historic Earle Theatre in downtown Mount Airy, free to the public.

Doors will open at 4 p.m., with a free screening of the documentary “Broadcast: A Man and His Dream,” directed by Jordan Nance, to begin at 4:30 p.m. It details the story of the late radio pioneer and WPAQ, including an interview with Epperson just weeks before his death.

Then at 5:45 p.m., live music will begin at the Earle by several featured groups including Travis Frye and Blue Mountain, The Country Boys, The Slate Mountain Ramblers, The Nunn Brothers and Harrison Ridge.

“I think a lot of people in the area really appreciate what we’ve done all these years,” the station owner said in looking forward to the celebration.

And by the same token, the support of musicians and listeners who have been a big part of WPAQ’s success also deserves mention.

“I am just just so grateful that people have responded to us as they have for the past 75 years,” Epperson said.

Name just about any radio station that’s been around a good while and chances are it has experienced a format change, or two, or three. It might have started as a country station, then shifted to rock and later easy listening.

Not WPAQ, still operating under the same values and with much of the same programming as in 1948 — which has been a recipe for success.

“I think just being unique, providing a format that is unlike any other that I know of,” Kelly Epperson commented in discussing its emphasis on old-time, bluegrass and gospel music.

“It’s not been easy,” he said of staying that course amid the pressures surrounding the commercial broadcast industry often guided by ratings whims.

Besides the music, the station has kept other facets alive which have defined its existence over the years.

Ralph Epperson made a standing commitment that its programming would be suitable for the entire family. And that still rings true today, according to historical information about WPAQ provided by Jennie Lowry, an announcer there who hosts its weekly Merry-Go-Round show originating live from the Earle.

Two hours of Christian programs continue to be a part of the morning lineup, while big band music has a three hour-slot on the evening programming schedule.

The station also has continued to be a source for news, and in earlier days that included tobacco market, agricultural pricing and related content that was important for listeners, the information from Lowry states.

Additionally, covering local sports has been a long tradition at WPAQ, as evidenced by this past football season when the Mount Airy High School Granite Bears won the 1-A state championship. The station broadcast the title game live, just as it had on Thanksgiving Day 1948 when the Bears also became state champs.

The information from Lowry further mentions how WPAQ has been on hand for live remote broadcasts of numerous business grand openings, including that of Mayberry Mall in 1968, and every Autumn Leaves Festival since that event began in the late 1960s.

Meanwhile, musicians continue to be encouraged to share and develop their talents as they perform live from the station’s Studio A or the stage of the Merry-Go-Round, the nation’s second-longest-running live weekly musical show of its type.

“From Day One Epperson’s commitment to serve his community with news and entertainment was paramount as he saw that the station’s programming reflected the cultural and musical values of the region,” says the information from Lowry.

“Though the facade is worn, the equipment replaced and the personnel changed, an unwavering commitment to preserving the culture of the region promises future generations the same informational and traditional music programming which their parents and grandparents enjoyed on 740 AM since 1948.”

“My dad wanted it to be a community station,” Kelly Epperson said regarding its varied offerings.

The local radio station’s reliance on the traditional doesn’t mean it has ignored technological innovations of the modern world.

This has included establishing an Internet presence.

Developments of recent years have included the addition of 106.7 FM and wpaq740.com, both offering 24-hour programming.

About a dozen people, both full- and part-time, now are part of the operation on Springs Road, which also includes personnel of WSYD, another local AM station which became part of its fold.

Kelly Epperson said one other possible change in the future might involve increasing the station’s broadcast power.

“I’ve always wanted to have a 50,000-watt station,” he said, compared to the present output of the local AM outlet of 10,000, with 50,000 the highest possible.

Yet such an upgrade would be quite costly and require extensive engineering studies, the station owner acknowledged.

WPAQ’s present capacity already ensures a wide reach, with Epperson recalling that he once picked up its signal while waiting at a stoplight in Harrisonburg, Virginia, located in the Shenandoah Valley more than 200 miles away.

And while his dad was alive, a commercial airline pilot reported regularly tuning in at high altitude, being able to first listen to the station in West Virginia and doing so all the way to Georgia.

Kelly Epperson, who first began working there as a high school sophomore in 1977, is proud of all WPAQ has accomplished so far.

“It has just been a blessing.”

Tom Joyce may be reached at 336-415-4693 or on Twitter @Me_Reporter.

College degree improves quality of life for alumni

Instead of a bridge to nowhere, a sidewalk to somewhere is being constructed along West Pine Street in Mount Airy to aid pedestrian access to areas including the Emily Taylor Greenway.

The work is occurring near a bridge over Lovills Creek in a busy section of town near the Lowes Foods shopping center and Creekside Cinemas.

“This project will help provide a safer route for residents to walk to shop, work and/or access the Granite City Greenway,” Mount Airy Parks and Recreation Director Peter Raymer explained Thursday.

City Public Works Department employees in the Street Division are constructing the concrete sidewalk that will lead from the shoulder on the south side of West Pine Street directly to the Emily B. Taylor section of the greenway. When complete, it will operate much like an on-ramp or exit ramp of a highway.

Members of a crew working there Thursday said they were about halfway finished with the new walkway.

Raymer mentioned that Public Works Director Mitch Williams is overseeing the project, which was recommended in the Comprehensive Pedestrian Plan for Mount Airy dating to 2013.

That plan notes that in addition to being a vital link into and out of Mount Airy, West Pine Street (N.C. 89) “has a critical interface with the Emily B. Taylor Greenway,” and also New Market Commons, the shopping center including Lowes Foods and other businesses.

“Currently there is no connection to the greenway nor are there sidewalks along the bridge crossing,” the 10-year-old plan further states.

Aside from that specific site, the study cites problems from overall fragmentation, or gaps, among walkways around town and a need to provide more access for pedestrians.

Before beginning the present task to supply the direct link to the greenway, municipal workers constructed another span of connecting sidewalk along West Pine Street on the western side of the Lovills Creek bridge.

The project at hand recognizes the fact that rather than fitness purposes, some people use the greenway to better access business or other locations along its route, as opposed to walking and cycling on busy roadways and risking injury or death.

“We are excited that this project is taking place in an effort to make our community more connected and walkable,” Raymer added.

Along with meeting an immediate need, a big-picture consideration is involved, evidenced by a 5-0 vote by the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners on Jan. 5 in favor of a resolution of support for the long-range connection of greenways across Surry County.

This eventually could lead to all municipalities, recreational areas and surrounding trail systems in the county being linked via paved trails and sidewalks, officials have said.

ARARAT, Va. — There is always room for more love in the world, including in Ararat where that word is now prominently displayed in a highly decorative way on the front of Willis Gap Community Center.

This did not occur through a desire to promote romance or this month’s celebration of Valentine’s Day, but this week’s official unveiling of the newest sign in Virginia’s LOVEworks program.

It is a statewide branding initiative designed to promote historic life experiences across the Commonwealth and strengthen awareness of the longtime “Virginia is for Lovers” message.

The new LOVE sign at Willis Gap Community Center which was welcomed during a special unveiling program Wednesday afternoon recognizes the center’s presence as a key stop along The Crooked Road: Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail. The Crooked Road is a 330-mile driving trail through the mountains of Southwest Virginia which connects nine major venues and more than 60 affiliated locations and festivals that visitors can enjoy each day of the year.

That includes the Willis Gap Community Center Open Jam, a weekly series ongoing since the 1990s which showcases multiple musical genres including Appalachian heritage old-time, bluegrass, country and gospel. Musicians and singers of all skill levels are welcome at the Friday night performances that have become popular with fans.

Wednesday’s unveiling event celebrating travel and tourism in Ararat included officials representing the community center, Patrick County Tourism Department and others, according to information from Mary Dellenback Hill, secretary of the Willis Gap Community Center Board of Directors.

Hill has been a member of Willis Gap Community Center for more that 20 years and also is involved in local tourism efforts to promote the Ararat area.

She lent her artistic talents to the center by designing the new LOVE sign that incorporates a musical theme featuring imagery of instruments.

A depiction of an upright bass forms the letter “L,” The Crooked Road logo the “O,” a leaned-over mandolin and fiddle the “V,” with a musical note resembling an “E” completing the word LOVE.

After all board members at the center approved Hill’s design, she sent the concept to David Stanley of SilverLivingDesign, who created a computer image for it that allowed the finished product to be made at another business called SignSpot.

Wednesday afternoon’s program included remarks by Patrick County Tourism Director James Houchins, who also read a statement in honor of the occasion from Carrie Beck, the executive director of Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail, Hill related.

“The Crooked Road is excited for this unique LOVE sign in Patrick County,” it reads. “The passion of Willis Gap Community Center’s Open Jam leaders and participants is evident in their love for heritage music.”

Beck added that “there is a long history of pickers and legends that have been in this building, so this sign is an amazing way to showcase their pride in this event. The Crooked Road is thrilled to have partners in the region that make heritage music every week with such dedication and thinks that the LOVE sign is a true beacon for Ararat and the Dan River District of Patrick County.”

Otto and Nellie Hiatt began the open jams in their home, according to Hill, which became so large that the sessions had to be moved to Willis Gap Community Center at 144 The Hollow Road.

Attorney General Josh Stein has sent a memo to all 100 North Carolina counties with “a request for you to take action to secure additional opioid settlement funds for your county.” The nation has been in the grips of the opioid epidemic for many years and with settlements agreements being reached between states and drug manufacturers, promoters, and distributors some tangible penalty has been assigned to parties that promoted the opioids for mass consumption that led to the current crisis.

Stein helped lead recent negotiations for $21 billion in new national settlement agreements with Walmart, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Allergan Finance, LLC, Allergan Limited, CVS Health Corporation, CVS Pharmacy, Inc., and Walgreen Co., as well as their subsidiaries, affiliates, and officers which is being called the Wave Two Settlements.

The Wave Two Settlements will bring the state more than $600 million in addition funds atop that $750 that already received as part of Wave One Settlements with Cardinal, McKesson, and AmerisoureBergen as well as the drug maker Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals which Stein was also among the lead negotiators.

Assuming the defendants sign off on the final settlement, not a foregone conclusion hence Stein’s memo, Surry County will get an additional $7,274,337 from the latest round of settlements. These funds will be in addition to the money the county has already begun to receive from the Wave One Settlements totaling $9,087,494.

Of the 114 counties and municipalities listed to receive funds in Wave Two, Surry County will get the fourteenth largest payout, versus the county’s rank of 37 out of 100 counties in population.

“In travelling across North Carolina in recent months I have learned firsthand about the many innovative programs to address the opioid crisis hat counties and municipalities are funding with money from the Wave One Settlement. These settlement funds have the potential to bring significantly greater resources to your county to address the opioid epidemic,” Stein wrote.

“I am excited about the many new or expanded programs that can be funded with the additional resources from Wave Two.”

In all there will be five new settlements coming according to Surry County Attorney Ed Woltz, who advised the county commissioners that each would need to be acted upon separately. He and County Manager Chris Knopf were given authority to sign and submit upon receipt these settlement offers without further action from the board.

“The defendants will agree to finalize the Wave Two Settlements only if the vast majority of local governments across the nation sign onto them,” the memo read.

“We are hoping to achieve the same unanimous approval of Wave 2 Settlements,” Stein said. “I’m proud that the strong partnerships between the state and local governments in North Carolina produced 100% local government participation in Wave One. This enabled the state and the participating local governments to receive 100% of our collective share of the national settlement funds.’

Assuming the same level of participation as was found in Wave One, which Stein’s office is expecting, these funds could reach the county in the latter half of 2023.

– The Surry County Office of Substance Abuse Recovery was approved to enter one-year contracts for media services with WIFM radio and in print to implement a sustained 12-month county wide communications campaign. The goal is to educate on topics involving substance use and mental health. The request said that the campaign is an essential element in the implementation of the Surry County Office of Substance Abuse Prevention Plan that is ongoing through 2024.

The commissioners approved $4,500 for radio ads on WIFM, and $12,647.25 for print advertising,

The Prevention Plan seeks to build community awareness through education and developing community readiness and to reduce the availability of illicit drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and vapes for the under-aged. The local office seeks to strengthen anti-drug use attitudes through sharing information and engaging with youth to enhance their life skills and drug refusal techniques.

By doing so the county’s goal is to reduce risk and improve protection in families by setting rules and opening lines of communication. Their theory is that communication will help kid’s feel more connected and strengthen social bonding that took a hit during the isolation of the pandemic.

Based on the feedback provided by the organization’s Communities Needs Assessment, this campaign will focus on suicide prevention, fentanyl education and prevention, targeted youth vaping prevention, and further promotion of Red Ribbon Week.

Also, Mark Willis, director of substance abuse recovery, gained board approved in a separate action to reallocate a $100,000 surplus from the Partners Recovery Grant to New Hope New Beginnings, a non-profit in Mount Airy that is seeking to open a transitional home for men on Rawley Avenue.

These were state Department of Health and Human Services funds allocated to Partners Health Management on a one time basis to address the needs of county residents who are struggling with disease. The Office of Substance Abuse Recovery gave Partners a list of priorities in 2021 which they received assistance on including funding the intervention team and establishing the re-integration program which helps those completing their time in jail with housing, treatment, and employment.

– Commissioner Larry Johnson is going to let greenbacks do the talking for him. He has offered to sweeten the pot and personally increase the stipend per bag of litter collected through the county’s litter program by $1 per bag.

That makes one bag of trash collected worth $8 – beating the federal minimum hourly wage. If a 501c3 group would like to participate as a fundraiser that county welcomes that but given the lack of participants, this program has been extended to contractors so there is an opportunity here for an industrious group or individuals to clean up both literally and figuratively.

As genial as he is known to be, don’t show up with a bag of litter at Johnson’s home. Contact the Development Services Department at 336-401-8357 for more information.

The time has come for county leaders to begin preliminary planning ahead of crafting the budget for the next fiscal year, which begans on July 1. Before sessions to hash out specifics the commissioners first hold a budget planning retreat, which was held this week at the Yadkin Valley Heritage & Trails Visitor Center in Elkin.

“It’s always interesting, it’s always challenging,” Vice Chair Van Tucker said of the budget process at the onset. At these sessions the board is able to discusses the previous budget along with incoming revenue, hear from department heads and local leaders on what their needs for the upcoming budget may be.

There can be a lot of change between the first meeting proposals to the finalized departmental budgets so these preliminary discussions will help the board members as they prepare to hold more extensive budget hearings in the coming months with individual departments where the nitty gritty details are hashed out.

Before budget talks can begin in earnest the commissioners needed to get a grasp on the county’s prior budget and balance sheet, so Penny Harrison of the tax department presented tax collection data.

Commissioner Larry Johnson has previously taken, and took again, a moment to thank the taxpayers as he marveled at the consistent rate of tax collection the county achieves. Having that consistency in both the property tax rate and the rate of collection will help make better forecasts.

The county budget for the fiscal year 2022-2023, which ends on June 30, is $93,597,569 in expenditures versus revenues at $82,665,933. The county’s total year-end fund balance at the end of the most recent fiscal year rose $34 million to more than $91 million, but most of that figure is earmarked for specific projects. The unassigned balance available to be used also rose $3.5 million to $17.8 million. This is one of the measures of greatest financial health for the county according to analysts.

Assigned funds were set aside for additional capital projects to the tune of $16 million and future education spending at over $9 million. Johnson asked for a breakdown of these funds to see where they came from and what they future projects they are set aside for.

Categories of greatest spending for the county were 29.75% of the budget on education, 14% on law enforcement, 11.6% on department of social services, 9.4% on public health, and 8.8% on emergency services.

The budget has line items of projects that have expired with their balances not being fully spent or projects that come in under budget and the board was told that prior to the retirement of Rhonda Nixon that she had been going through to close out accounts and clean up the books. Neely, who took over for Nixon, gave one example of a $900,000 balance being unused that this type of maintenance turned up.

She went on to explain some ideas she had to lower the county’s debt responsibilities by paying off projects early using this surplus funds. The board was anxious to hear more about her proposal to pay off the $2.5 million Flat Rock/Bannertown water and sewer project and turn operation of that over to the City of Mount Airy.

The project has a balance remaining of $2.1 million and the last payment the county made of $136,846 paid a whopping $89,845 in interest and fees. Neely said the interest rate on that loan is high and with the payoff amount she was quoted it could save the county $1.2 million over the remaining course of the loan.

Some members were ready to vote on this action that would save the county money, and lower water bills for those customer which Neely said were high in this area.

Commissioner Mark Marion said it would be one less headache to deal with and Johnson concurred saying, “We don’t need to fool around with it and administer it; it’s not worth it.”

There was no motion made nor vote taken, so this remains a theory from Neely that the board found appealing but would like more information.

Conversely, the board took a rare piece of action in the form of a vote on a vehicle purchase request form Chief Deputy Larry Lowe of the Surry County Sheriff’s Office. He told the board that sheriff’s office was approved in this budget year for nine squad cards and had received three of them, leaving six outstanding.

Lowe explained that through some miraculous turn of events, seven pursuit rated squad cars were found sitting on a lot in the Midwest and the county’s purchasing agent Miranda Jones made inquiry to check availability. With long delays in securing pursuit rated law enforcement vehicles, the department was eager to gain approval to use existing funds to purchase six of the seven cars using only money the office already has.

The board approved that idea and County Finance Officer Laura Neely said Thursday that the calls to the dealer were fruitful; the squad cars are available. “The dealer has confirmed that they are still available, and we are supposed to get the paperwork Friday to sign.”

North Carolina has the largest Senior Games in the nation.

At least, that’s the message from Bradley Key, the coordinator of programs, special events, and volunteerism for Surry County Parks and Recreation when he was speaking during Monday’s meeting of the county commissioners at which local competitors were honored.

“Thanks for highlighting one of the positive things going on in our community,” Key said. “We were very well represented at the state level.”

The participation was robust, he said, and out of 140 participants that competed at the local level with Yadkin Valley Senior Games in the spring there were 27 participants went on to seek greater glory at state finals in the fall.

Yakin Valley Senior Games and Silver Arts is one of the 53 sanctioned programs making up the North Carolina Senior Games Inc. which encourages and challenges all senior adults aged 50 or better to stay healthy and active.

North Carolina Senior Games is sponsored state-wide by the North Carolina Division of Aging and Adult Services.

Since its establishment in 1983, the senior games have become the largest Senior Olympic program in the nation, serving more than 60,000 participants across the state each year.

Key said the Yadkin Valley Senior Games and Silver Arts offer 25 different sporting events. For those seeking enrichment along with their friendly competition there are 30 cultural, literary, heritage and performing arts events each year as well.

“We set the bar for California for New York, for states that are bigger and have more seniors than us. They look to us to set the bar for senior programs that provide and encourage a healthy lifestyle year round,” Key said with pride.

It takes help to achieve the level of success the Yadkin Valley and North Carolina Senior Games have achieved, he said. “Without folks like Jackie Lewis, Bob Keck, and Randy Moore – these guys make this program work.”

“They are participants and certified ambassadors and without folks like these guys spreading the good news about senior games to our community, we wouldn’t be as strong and healthy as we are.”

Registration for the 2023 Yadkin Valley Senior Games and Silver Arts will run from March 1 – Mach 31 with events taking place in May and June.

There are many ways to register he said including at local fitness or senior centers, on the Surry County website under parks and recreation, on Facebook at Surry County Parks and Recreation, on ncseniorgames.org or by calling 336-401-8235.

John Brame: Silver Tennis Mixed Doubles

Pattie Brame: Silver Tennis Mixed Doubles

Linda Edwards: Gold Line Dancing – Small Group

Jon Foresman: Silver Pickleball Doubles

Elizabeth Freas: Bronze 50-yard Freestyle, Silver 100-yard Freestyle

Hobert Freeman: Bronze 400-meter Dash

Bonnie Hensel: Silver Pickleball Doubles

Susan Howlett: Gold Pickleball Doubles

Robert Keck: Bronze 50-meter Dash, Bronze Pickleball Doubles, Gold Tennis Doubles

Winston Kobe: Gold Pickleball Doubles

Jackie Lewis: Silver Basketball Shooting, Bronze Football Throw, Silver Croquet, Bronze Pickleball Doubles, Bronze Pickleball Mixed Doubles, Gold Tennis Doubles

Traci McGuire: Gold Line Dancing – Small Group

Daniel Merritt: Silver 10k Run

Randy Moore: Bronze Football Throw, Silver Softball Throw, Silver Billiards, Bronze Bocce, Bronze Horseshoes, Gold Mini Golf

Mary Jane Russell: Gold Line Dancing – Small Group

Sherry Smith: Gold Line Dancing – Small Group

Kathy Taylor: Gold Pickleball Mixed Doubles

Mitchell Taylor: Gold Pickleball Mixed Doubles

Phyllis Wagoner: Silver Pickleball Doubles

Derek White: Silver Pickleball Singles, Silver Pickleball Doubles

Judy Absher, Michelle Brown, Gary Stevens, and Linda Tilley were also among the contingent representing Yadkin Valley Senior Games.

Saving someone’s life in an emergency, when every second counts, can be a challenging and intense experience — but 11 members of the Mount Airy Fire Department have done just that.

Lt. Jake Henley, firefighter Isaac Crotts, Lt. Brad Harrell, Lt. Dusty Smith, Capt. Trey Leonard, Lt. Justin Mayes, firefighter Dustin Swaim, Capt Scottie Wolfe and Capt. Danny Vipperman were recognized for lifesaving actions by the city council during a special ceremony at a meeting last Thursday night.

Two other department members also are on the list who did not attend, Steve Everett and Dalton Simmons.

Each person involved is credited with saving one life during 2022 and was issued a certificate.

The lifesaving award presentation is an annual observance recognizing the contributions firefighters make in addition to battling blazes, a gesture that never gets old, city officials say.

This has had special significance since 2010, when municipal fire personnel took on the extra role as first-responders to a wide range of emergency medical situations in addition to their normal functions. That was a major expansion of a service previously launched in 1997 which was limited to cardiac calls.

Those expanded responses might include a heart attack case, drug overdose, stroke, diabetes-related issue, cutting/stabbing, shooting, drowning/diving accident or cases of unresponsive persons.

“The opportunity to save a life doesn’t come on every call,” Fire Chief Zane Poindexter said when the lifesaving honors were bestowed by the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners.

But department personnel have proven they are up to that task as needed, which involves providing effective pre-hospital care to victims in various emergencies.

Administering CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation), removing an obstruction from an airway or controlling bleeding in a trauma situation were examples of that mentioned by Justin Jarrell, basic life support/public relations coordinator, who spoke during the recognition program.

With an average response time of less than three minutes at last report, city firefighters often reach a scene and render initial care ahead of EMS paramedics who provide advanced treatment that stabilizes patients until they reach a hospital.

Being credited with a medical save is a strictly defined process, which assesses the tangible role a firefighter played in prolonging someone’s life, whether it be restoring a pulse or someone’s ability to breathe.

Under program guidelines, multiple fire personnel can play a role in saving a single patient, according to previous reports. One firefighter might be engaged in chest compression and another ventilation, while someone else administers basic drugs the department is allowed to provide.

A county audit committee examines every case carefully to gauge the difference first-response efforts made in the outcome of an emergency to qualify as a save.

“We are very fortunate for the services they provide,” Commissioner Chad Hutchens said of the city firefighters.

“Departmental saves are up to 110 since the inception of the medical program in 1997,” Poindexter noted Wednesday in reference to the human equation behind the statistics.

“After the 2010 move to go ‘full medical response,’ our save numbers per year started going up significantly due to the fact we were afforded the opportunity to answer more medical calls,” the city fire chief added.

“The more calls we answered, the more chances we had to perform lifesaving measures — we projected that and it did in fact come true.”

Whether it involves good old-fashioned neighborliness or a matter of supply and demand, a long-awaited flow of water from Mount Airy to Pilot Mountain has begun.

A line-extension project in the works since 2018 — when the city agreed to sell part of its excess supply of H2O to the nearby town — finally reached fruition in recent days.

“It’s all working wonderfully and everything’s good to go now,” City Manager Stan Farmer said Tuesday regarding the water to Pilot Mountain being turned on last Friday.

This coincided with Pilot shutting down its own water plant and beginning to rely exclusively on the supply from Mount Airy, a changeover accompanied by few glitches.

“Well, we’ve not had many issues at all,” Pilot Mountain Mayor Evan Cockerham said Tuesday. “It’s really been a smooth transition.”

Plans for the $4.5 million construction contract which was involved called for extending a 12-inch water line from the end of the city service area in the Holly Springs Road section to Pilot Mountain’s water system near Toms Creek.

In addition to the two municipalities, the Surry County government agreed to help fund the effort to serve the eastern portion of the county.

The deal was motivated by a deteriorating utility infrastructure in Pilot Mountain which was deemed more expensive to repair than connecting to an existing city water line running southeast to Holly Springs. Grant and zero-interest loan funding was tapped for that effort.

“We think it will be a great partnership,” Mount Airy Public Works Director Mitch Williams said Tuesday.

While the water transmission itself is going swimmingly, the project was hampered by a situation in which the receiving of certain parts needed for its completion was delayed. “Typical with all construction now,” Williams said of a condition brought on by the pandemic.

“The supply-chain interruptions last year were big,” Farmer, the city manager, agreed.

William said shipments of items such as valves and pipes were involved.

That situation improved to allow much work to occur on the extension during 2022 and now the water transmission is at full operation.

“So far, so good,” Williams added Tuesday.

Cockerham, the Pilot Mountain mayor, said the few issues encountered with the switchover have been minor in nature, with no line breaks or other developments of that magnitude occurring.

“We didn’t have anything out of the ordinary,” he said. “We had to fine-tune the water pressure” due to Mount Airy’s pressure being higher than Pilot’s, with tank levels also addressed.

There were some reports of cloudiness in the water at first, which were cleared up, according to Cockerham.

The Pilot Mountain mayor credited the public works staffs of both municipalities for getting everything up and running.

Under the agreement between the two, Pilot Mountain is buying no less than 100,000 gallons daily from the city and no more than 2 million, a cap that anticipates future growth in Pilot.

Mount Airy also is selling water to Dobson and Carroll County, Virginia, to serve southern areas of it, as part of an ongoing goal of finding new customers for its surplus supply. It resulted from closings of industrial plants over the years which were large users.

Early on in 2020, Williams reported that the city had a water-production capacity of 8.5 million gallons per day, but only 2.3 million were being used at that time — leaving much leeway for additional taps.

Mount Airy officials recently have courted an unnamed manufacturer in California which would be a major water consumer if it were to expand in the city.

In an era when good news surrounding local industries has been hard to come by, Mount Airy officials are making the most of such a development by Renfro Brands.

“Any expansion is good,” Commissioner Tom Koch said of plans by that company to enlarge an existing operation on Riverside Drive.

Koch was speaking at a Mount Airy Board of Commissioners meeting last Thursday night, when the board gave final approval to an incentive package for the project which it initially had OK’d in November, joining a similar one by county leaders.

Officials have said the project will involve a consolidation of Renfro warehouse/distribution operations locally which also had been considered at two other locations in Alabama and South Carolina where the company has operations.

The ultimate decision to choose Mount Airy not only will create 35 jobs, but preserve 63 already here which would have been lost with a consolidation elsewhere.

“I just think it’s a good sign that the operation they have, they’re expanding it,” Commissioner Koch said of a decision that reflects the company’s confidence in this community.

Commissioner Phil Thacker, a retired director of engineering for Renfro, pointed to the company’s long history in Mount Airy, beginning with its founding here in 1921.

“I think it is an amazing accomplishment and I certainly hope it continues for many more years,” Thacker said of Renfro’s success and contributions. “It’s had the opportunity to make jobs available in this community for a long time.”

The unanimous vote by the Mount Airy commissioners putting the finishing touches on the incentive package was described by City Attorney Hugh Campbell as a bit of legal housecleaning.

“It just kind of finalizes it,” Campbell said, “for reasons of efficiency.”

The incentive package had been fast-tracked in November as both municipal and county officials scrambled to influence Renfro’s decision to expand here amid competition from the other states for the endeavor then dubbed secretly as “Project Cobra.”

“We just front-loaded the incentives — I don’t know that they’ve done that before” Campbell said of the city commissioners.

Last week’s action by them does not change any of the terms involved.

“Everything is exactly the same,” the city attorney said, with the exception of taking “mays” out of the agreement and replacing those with “wills.”

Renfro will receive $36,341 from the city and $36,244 from Surry County in the form of local government incentives. These are performance-based and reflect a company investment in taxable property as part of the package. It plans to invest about $2 million in equipment and infrastructure at the expansion location.

“The incentives are subject to a clawback if the company fails to perform,” Campbell said of provisions that will require it to make financial reimbursements should it, for example, decide to remove machinery or equipment acquired through the agreement.

“That seems unlikely,” the attorney said, given Renfro’s track record here.

Also at the meeting, the city commissioners voted 5-0 to rezone property on Carroll Street from a business to residential classification.

This occurred after no one spoke against that move during a public hearing affecting a .542-acre parcel in the 900 block of Carroll Street which is now vacant.

The zoning change, from a B2-CD classification (General Business with conditions) to R-6 (General Residential), will accommodate the construction of a duplex housing unit, Planning Director Andy Goodall has said.

Samuel and Letonia Moore, the owners of the property in question, who live on Hickory Street, had requested the zoning change.

While the commissioners had questions about the proposal, they ultimately voted unanimously for the rezoning.

The Surry County Board of Commissioners decided to begin the process of breaking its 19-year association with the Piedmont Authority for Regional Transportation last year. As with many relationships of this length, breaking up can be hard to do when one person wants the relationship to work but the other has decided it no longer does.

So is the case with the now defunct Route 6 Mount Airy Connector line that ran commuter bus service up and down US 52 from Mount Airy to Winston-Salem, stopping in King and offering a pair of stops in Pilot Mountain as well.

The commissioners informed PART in January 2022 of their desire to withdraw and end collection of a 5% rental car tax that was levied to cover the costs to operate the bus stops and buses. PART said it will not eliminate the rental car tax but have countered that it be reduced from 5% to 2%.

Surry County voters previously voted down a license plate registration fee or a tax increase for PART. It was decided that a 5% tax on cars rented in the county would be assessed to the renter which would cover the county’s cost for using the services of PART.

The route ceased operation last summer, but PART sent a memo last week to the county explaining that until they divest their assets in the county, the county still has a responsibility to contribute to their upkeep as was agreed upon when the county entered into the regional authority.

“From 2005 to 2022 PART invested in property, capital needs, established PART Express public service, increases promotions and various mobility enhancements in Surry County to expand the mobility options so that citizens of Surry County could reach employment center and join in other counties,” the organization said.

“PART and the jurisdictions of Pilot Mountain and Mount Airy have requested that Surry County reconsider its decision to withdraw from PART and maintain the public services provided to the citizens of Surry County, but have not been successful in maintaining their commitment to be a member of the PART territorial jurisdiction.”

PART seems to have resigned to the fact that Surry County has withdrawn from the authority, but there is no light switch that is going to turn the rental car tax off. Surry County is stuck with that until such time as the properties in Surry County that were operated by PART can be divested.

Officials with PART said that “ongoing maintenance and utility expenses will continue until such properties are no longer owned by PART, which investments and properties will take time to dispose of.”

The wording suggested Surry County cannot just take its ball and go home from a game county officials asked to be part of and contribute to the costs of. Until PART sells off its assets there will be costs. “The board will revisit this local tax at a time when there are zero expenses for the capital investments made in Surry County.”

The transportation authority’s counter to drop the tax to 2% in order “to collect a local fund source to continue the maintenance needs of the property” was not well received by the county commissioners. They were not seeking a reduction but rather an elimination of the rental car tax that was seen as being unfair.

When the commuter service was launched it was thought to be a money saver for riders who could keep hard earned money from going into the gas tank and help the environment while reducing traffic on the Piedmont’s major roadways – US 52 among them.

There was repeated discussion and more than one request from Commissioner Larry Johnson to review the rental car tax. He said as a person who rents cars with some frequency but does not use PART services, he was not too keen on paying a tax for a service he isn’t using.

With ridership numbers down, the commissioners wondered if Surry County residents were being unfairly taxed for a ride share program that was not being widely used. Residents’ taxes may be carrying the load for folks in larger counties who were using the service in greater numbers, it was felt.

PART’s point of view on ridership was that the way to help those numbers was to increase services by considering more stops at more locations. With more frequent opportunities to get on the PART bus for a jaunt to Pilot Mountain perhaps more would have been inclined do so.

The authority was in the process of gaining federal funding to do just that, to the tune of more than $300,000. It was approval of these funds that set this discussion in motion as the board asked for ridership data and Scott Rhine, director of PART, came to speak in person to explain that repeated attempts to get increased funding for rural routes had not been successful up to that point.

After the county exited from PART it was announced that Randolph County had been the beneficiary of this change to the tune of $600,000 – the amount they were going to get anyway, and the $300,000 Surry County declined to accept.

Monday evening it was clear the board members were displeased with PART’s suggested counteroffer and County Attorney Ed Woltz suggested they may want to speak to their representatives in Raleigh to express their “displeasure in the actions of PART.”

The board agreed and Chairman Eddie Harris recalled comments made last year as this was being debated, “We said this is either going to be a clean divorce or a messy one. Looks like it’s going to be a messy one.”

The annual Tommy Jarrell Festival gets underway later this week, with three days of workshops, lessons, competition, dancing and concerts to celebrate the musical legend who spent his life perfecting the Round Peak style of old time fiddle playing.

Jarrell, who lived from March 1, 1901 until Jan. 28, 1985, was known throughout the world of blue grass and old time music for his distinctive playing style. Many musicians from around the world made the sojourn to Surry County to study under his tutelage during his life, and some of those students, along with many fans, descend on the county each February for the festival, set for the final full weekend in February every year.

Old-Time workshops and classes are slated Thursday through Saturday.

On Thursday, the free Youth Traditional Arts Lessons will get under way at the Historic Earle Theatre. At 4:30 p.m. will be flatfoot dancing instructions, followed by fiddle at 5:30 p.m. and the guitar, banjo, and mandolin at 6:15 p.m.

Award-winning musician and teacher Jim Vipperman leads the instrument classes and Darius Flowers oversees the dance lessons. Instruments are provided if needed while available. Parents and guardians are welcome to stay and participate

On Friday, bluegrass and old-time master Wayne Erbsen will hold a beginning banjo workshop, followed by a concert. The workshop is 2 to 4 p.m., while the concert is 7 p.m., both at the Andy Griffith Museum Theatre. The workshop costs $35, with a $10 banjo rental for those who may need an instrument. The workshop and concert cost is $45. Those attending the concert only can expect to pay $12.

“As a musician, Wayne is a master of old-time, bluegrass, folk, Appalachian, cowboy, pioneer, railroad, and gospel music and music of the Civil War,” the Surry Arts Council said. He plays clawhammer and bluegrass banjo, fiddle, mandolin and guitar.

“Wayne has performed … across America and in western Europe. He has recorded many solo CDs and written dozens of music instruction books and songbooks. Wayne has won numerous prizes at fiddler’s conventions, including first place in clawhammer banjo (Galax, Virginia, 1973) and first place in senior old-time fiddler (Fiddler’s Grove, North Carolina, 2004).”

On Saturday, from 2 to 4 p.m. will be a series of old-time workshops in the Historic Earle Theatre, led by Emily and Martha Spencer, with a $25 cost per participant.

At 4 p.m. in the Earle will be one of the highlights of the annual gathering — the Tommy Jarrell Celebration Youth Competition. This is free to all youth who wish to take part, and categories include fiddle, clawhammer banjo, guitar, vocal, dance, and other (which includes all other instruments and bands), in two age levels: 5-12 and 13-18. Each contestant may enter only two categories. Contestants will have three minutes to perform and can have one accompanist, though no recorded backup is permitted.

Saturday evening at 7:30, again at the Historic Earle, will be the annual Tommy Jarrell Birthday Concert, featuring Whitetop Mountain Band.

“The Whitetop Mountain Band is a family-based band from the highest mountains of Virginia,” arts council officials said of this year’s concert artist. “Whitetop, Virginia is an area rich in the old-time music tradition; this band has deep roots in mountain music. The members have done much to preserve the Whitetop region’s style of old-time fiddling and banjo picking and are legendary musicians and teachers of the style. The band is currently led by Emily Spencer, who was a founding member of the group in the mid-1970s.”

Cost of the concert is $12.

For additional information or to enter the youth competition or purchase tickets for any of the events, visit https://www.surryarts.org/shows/tommyjarrell.html or call 336-786-7998. Tickets can also be purchased at the door prior to each show, if they are available.

A Westfield man has been missing since Feb. 5, and now the Stokes County Sheriff’s Office is looking to the public for help in finding him.

Trinity Sabastian Fain, 25, has not been seen since Feb. 5, when he left his Puckett Road residence in Westfield, but that is where the trail seems to go cold, according to scant information released by the sheriff’s office.

“He is reported to have been to his place of employment in Mount Airy on Sunday 2/5/2023,” the statement released by law enforcement said. “He is no longer employed at this location.”

Captain Danny Bottoms said he could not state whether Fain had been fired or quit, nor could he say whether Fain and his employer had parted ways that day before or after his disappearance, or if his employment ended at some other point.

Fain’s vehicle was found around 8 a.m. on Feb. 6, on Puckett Road, about a mile from his residence. However, Bottoms declined to say if foul play was suspected, or if Fain had left any personal belongings behind, such as a phone, wallet, or his identification.

“The information I have given you is all the information available for release at this time,” he said in an email. “This missing persons case is an active investigation.”

Fain was last seen wearing light colored blue jeans, Wolverine work boots, a green shirt and a blue jean Carhartt coat. He is described as being 6 feet tall and weighing 146 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes.

“If you have any information on the location of Trinity Sabastian Fain please contact the sheriff’s office,” his statement read.

Anyone with information is asked to call 336-593-8787, 800-672-2851, or 336-593-8130 and ask for Detective Larry Smith or the sergeant on duty.

Six weeks have passed since the death of 4-year-old Skyler Wilson, of Mount Airy, that shocked the Yadkin Valley region and made splashy headlines across the country.

Behind the headlines and left in the wake of the storm is Sherry Bowman, the lone employee of Dr. Joseph Wilson at Affordable Wellness Chiropractic, Acupuncture and Nutrition of Mount Airy. Wilson and his wife, Jodi Ann Wilson, are accused in their son’s death, each charged with murder.

Bowman said the tragedy has taken a toll on her emotionally, mentally, and even professionally. She sees the smiling face of Skyler Wilson and has even taken to drawing that now familiar, toothy grin of the late boy that has adorned social media since early January.

“I’ve been crying on and off for six weeks; I’m having nightmares too, at least one a week,” Bowman explained. “This is something I’ll never forget and never get over and when it all comes out, you’ll see why.”

Bowman has had communication with the Wilson family since Joseph and Jodi Ann were arrested in the Jan. 9 death of their son. She said that she is aware of the status and welfare of all four Wilson children, but declined to elaborate.

During a recent interview, Bowman repeatedly declined to answer questions for concerns of doing harm to the case; she wants justice for Skyler. “I don’t want to say or do anything to jeopardize the case.”

During her four years working for Joseph Wilson at Affordable Wellness, she said she was the only front desk employee despite information to the contrary found on the business’s website. Jodi Ann Wilson had been the initial receptionist when the practice opened and there had been another before Bowman took over, but for most of that time it was just the two of them, she said.

Bowman said that there has been confusion since Jodi Wilson had been previously identified as the front desk employee of Affordable Wellness and some have thought Bowman may be Wilson, “out on bail and looking for a job,” Bowman said Monday.

There has been so much interest in the case that she said people have been trying to reach her by phone, social media, through her child, and even via a drive by visit of her home. She is confused by the morbid fascination in such a sad affair. “There’s no scoop here and there is no dirt to a 4-year-old getting killed,” Bowman said.

“Trust me, you don’t want to know,” she said. “I’ll have a lot more to say after the trial.”

The next court date for Joseph and Jodi Ann Wilson is set for Superior Court on March 6 in Dobson, but Bowman suggested that the trial could be delayed. She said she was told by the Wilson family that the defendants are on their fourth lawyer and appeared to be on track to find their fifth one soon.

She got to know all five of the Wilson children — Skyler and his younger brother had been adopted by the Wilson family, and she knew that they had fostered other children and had taken classes on being foster parents.

Joseph Wilson, she said, conducted his practice in a way “that was a little too holistic from my perspective, but that’s his choice.” Bowman never worked with Jodi Ann Wilson but described her in some broad terms familiar to local residents when describing a New Yorker, noting she was a fast talker and a little “high-strung.”

She advised the Wilson family to retain legal counsel to deal with the affairs of Affordable Wellness, Dr. Wilson’s practice on West Pine Street in Mount Airy. They told her that the practice was closed for good. Affordable Wellness was not a chain or franchise location, and she pointed out that there is a potential HIPAA minefield waiting inside.

“I asked (the family) what was the plan? It would be a HIPAA violation (to throw the medical records out) so I suggested talking to a lawyer about what to do with medical records,” Bowman explained.

Bowman said she has no knowledge of self-professed parenting guru Nancy Thomas and her for-profit parenting and counseling solutions — according to court records, Skyler died after suffering injuries sustained in a practice called “swaddling,” in which he was allegedly tightly bound up in sheets and other bed clothing and unable to move. Thomas is a proponent of the practice, and other controversial parenting methods.

Bowman said she was not aware of the methods or practices that Thomas was extolling. “I didn’t know anything about her methods, and I assume she was just their counselor.”

Court documents said that Bowman “knew from previous conversations with Joseph Wilson that the Wilsons had recorded Zoom counseling sessions with Nancy Thomas… and knew Joseph Wilson would search parenting techniques and exorcisms while at work.”

Joseph Wilson, in court filings, identified that those swaddling technique were used by Jodi Wilson on the day of the incident, Jan. 5, where young Skyler was swaddled, and oxygen was cut off to his brain.

Surry County detectives were told at Brenner Children’s Hospital that the boy was already brain dead on Jan. 6 from the incident the day before; he did not pass away until Jan. 9.

Search warrants for the Wilson home and Affordable Wellness said detectives were looking for media and evidence “related to pouching, swaddling, and/or Nancy Thomas parenting.”

Thomas is not a doctor or therapist, and she states that in her writing and her website. She said she has learned about parenting and what works through years of experience with troubled kids with “attachment disorder.”

The American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children held a task force on attachment theory and in 2006 wrote, “Assessment for attachment problems requires considerable diagnostic knowledge and skill, to accurately recognize attachment problems and to rule out competing diagnoses.”

“A diagnosis of attachment disorder should never be made simply based on a child’s status as maltreated, as having experienced trauma, as being a foster or adoptive child. We believe that it is important to take a stand on harmful or questionable practices and theories, while encouraging increased dialogue and research in these areas.”

One tenant of attachment therapy is the concept of “re-parenting” where a child is treated as though they were younger than they are. The theory suggests kids could be treated like a baby or a toddler in an attempt to create a new bond between child and caregiver to replace those that were not formed with their birth parent or caregiver.

Court documents in the Wilson case said a woman identified as a former foster mother for Skyler’s and his brother had raised concerns to Surry County Department of Social Services for the treatment they were receiving at the hands of the Wilsons. The search warrant said, “Jodi Wilson had discussed with her pouching, swaddling, food restriction, the gating of Skyler in a room for excessive alone time, and the exorcisms of both children.”

North Carolina has banned swaddling of children as of 2017 in child care facilities and group homes as there is a danger in the poor execution of swaddling. The American Academy of Pediatrics said care givers should stop swaddling a child, “As soon as your baby shows any signs of trying to roll over.”

The city of Mount Airy has another problem building on its hands, the former site of a bank on the corner of North Main and Franklin streets in the heart of the central business district.

Cracked windows that endanger the public and a flow of rainwater damaging neighboring property have emerged as immediate concerns for the structure at 201 N. Main St., which housed major financial institutions of this city in its heyday.

The three-story building that towers over the Franklin-Main corner was constructed in 1923, according to Mount Airy Historic District records. The Bank of Mount Airy originally was located there, with that name etched in granite above the front entrance and still visible. The building served as the bank’s headquarters until 1934, when it became the site of Surry County Loan and Trust Co.

Many longtime local residents also will recall that Northwestern Bank later occupied the spot for many years, which occurred after Surry County Loan and Trust merged with Northwestern in 1961.

Now this century-old, former center of commerce sits vacant and has been for some time. A structure long considered a fine exponent of the fabled white Mount Airy granite it was made from stands in major disrepair.

Not only is its internal structural integrity being compromised by roof leakage, cracked exterior windows on the Franklin Street side of the building pose external hazards to passersby which officials say is an everyday risk.

Cracks in the plate glass are what first brought the issue to municipal attention.

“A good strong wind could put that glass out in the middle of the street and endanger our citizens,” said the city’s building codes enforcement officer, Chuck Morris, in detailing problems Thursday night during a Mount Airy Board of Commissioners meeting.

“The sashes have rotted out of those windows,” Morris explained regarding the structures holding them in place. “Once the sash fails, the glass has no stop.”

Due to that potential, the Mount Airy Police Department has considered closing Franklin Street at that location, it was noted.

During Thursday’s meeting, a comparison between the former bank and another structure further down Franklin Street deemed a major safety hazard for years seemed inevitable.

“This is sort of like the Koozies building,” Commissioner Tom Koch said of what once existed at the corner of Franklin and South streets in relation to the old bank structure, “except it’s closer to Main Street.”

The Koozies building, in a less-trafficked area, was demolished in September after years of inactivity by its out-of-town ownership group that neglected numerous city appeals to correct the situation.

Although there was no talk Thursday night about razing the facility at 201 N. Main, the commissioners did vote unanimously to pursue steps to alleviate the pressing concerns.

“Right now what we’re asking for is to make a quick fix,” Morris said before that action.

Along with the falling glass threat, the flow of water into the neighboring site of a business, Mayberry Embroidery, is deemed a priority. Damage put at $5,000 has occurred to materials and merchandise there as a result, according to meeting discussion.

Similar to Koozies, the old bank building is owned by an out-of-town entity, in its case King’s Corners, LLC, based in Florida. Morris said an elderly lady who has expressed an affinity for the structure is somehow part of the ownership chain, but that admiration has not led to the site being maintained.

“There seems to be little to no effort by the owner to stabilize or improve these conditions,” Mayor Jon Cawley said. “The building has been and remains in a state of disrepair.”

Numerous violations have been spelled out to King’s Corners, LLC and multiple letters sent by the city government, Cawley added, which Morris says have produced “very, very” slow response.

“(The owner) has had opportunity after opportunity and it just keeps getting worse,” Commissioner Koch observed.

A series of photos showing other water damage that has stemmed from roof leakage was presented by the codes officer at the meeting.

This included shots of rotting flooring, damaged ceilings, crumbling stairs and mold outbreaks, with standing water documented throughout.

Some stopgap measure to alleviate the flow to the business next door will be taken along with securing windows.

City officials say that in correcting the immediate priorities, they are prepared to file a lien on the property to recoup the labor and other expenses involved.

Meanwhile, Morris said a private contractor has been exploring ways to shore up the inside of the structure to make it safe to allow substantial roof repairs seen as the ultimate solution.

The codes officer said the interior is not a direct threat to the public as long as entry to it is prohibited, comparing the situation to a tree falling in the woods and no one being there to hear that.

Concerning the long view in dealing with possible implications from the building’s present state, “we’re looking at all the options,” City Attorney Hugh Campbell informed the commissioners.

Campbell, who has been closely involved with the case along with Morris, says he is amazed that someone would pay a substantial sum for the old bank building 10 years ago and then let it fall into ruin.

The total assessed value of the structure and land is listed as $233,760 in county tax records.

Commissioner Marie Wood, apparently bothered by ongoing issues Mount Airy officials encounter with such structures, offered an idea Thursday night for nipping these in the bud, as Deputy Barney Fife might say.

Wood wants a new provision instituted in the city whereby those buying buildings would be subjected to fines if they allow them to become vacant and neglected for a specified time.

She said the penalty involved should be significant enough to compel property owners to avoid such situations.

“Do something to really get their attention rather than just send letters over and over,” Wood suggested.

City Manager Stan Farmer will explore what’s needed to implement such a procedure and report back to the board at an upcoming meeting.

Major League Baseball’s regular season is more than a month away, but a sneak preview of diamond drama was provided to fans this past weekend in Mount Airy.

This didn’t occur on a local field — instead the venue was inside the city’s public library on Rockford Street, where an entertaining and thought-provoking presentation highlighting the life and times of Jackie Robinson was in full swing Saturday.

Robinson was the first African-American player to break into Major League Baseball during its modern era, and a production by the Bright Leaf Touring Theatre celebrating his accomplishment proved to be a hit with the library audience. It was arranged by the Friends of the Mount Airy Public Library and the Surry Arts Council in recognition of Black History Month.

Although Robinson covered much ground before, during and after his baseball career and interacted with many key figures along the way, stories and events surrounding all that were highlighted Saturday through the talents of only two actors in just under an hour.

The Bright Leaf Touring Theatre’s Cedric Calhoun portrayed Robinson and also an elderly man who had seen Robinson play as a youth, while fellow performer Jayla Lomax almost stole the show by tackling a variety of others.

Those included Robinson’s mother, his wife and that of the elderly fan, along with several male figures prominent in the athlete’s life. Among them were his drill sergeant in the Army; boxing legend Joe Louis; Branch Rickey, the general manager of the then-Brooklyn Dodgers who orchestrated Robinson’s historical entry into the big leagues; a bus driver; and a New York sports announcer.

All came to life in a series of rapid-fire skits requiring constant costume changes by Lomax — yet carried out as seamlessly as a Jackie Robinson stolen base or the infielder’s snagging of a line drive.

The audience also was engaged in the production.

“I cut my teeth on baseball, so I had to come,” said one person there, Katherine Rose-Plum of Mount Airy, a retiree who played the sport while growing up in New Jersey.

The fact Jackie Robinson came into prominence during a turbulent time in history — punctuated by segregation — can’t be ignored.

But Saturday’s program also was heavy on the message that anyone of any color who faces adversity through racism or otherwise can learn from the lessons of perseverance, leadership and good role-models which factored into Robinson’s success.

“Knowing that so many people believed in me, it helped a lot,” Calhoun said in character as Robinson, who died in 1972, more than 40 years before a certain film was released.

“I never thought there would be a movie about my life,” the actor added in rendering a statement Robinson might have made had he been alive to see the premier of “42,” a title that referred to his uniform number.

Robinson was born in 1919 to a single mother of five who worked various odd jobs to support them.

She eventually saved enough to buy a house, but while growing up in an affluent community in Pasadena, California — in poverty compared to neighbors who didn’t want them there — Robinson and other friends of color often were excluded from community recreational activities.

“I wanted to run away — my mom decided we would stay,” he (Calhoun) related Saturday of her decision not to move elsewhere. Robinson’s mother encouraged him to not give up on the dream of playing baseball no matter how many unfriendly people he encountered.

“She didn’t let us fight back” — encouraging her children to do so by excelling rather than engaging in violence.

While Robinson was in his early 20s, America entered World War II and he was drafted into the Army.

During that point in Saturday’s production, two kids from the audience were recruited to participate in a short calisthenics session to help recreate the rigors of basic training.

Robinson sought to become an officer, a goal not feasible because of his race.

“That was not the first time I was turned down because of the color of my skin,” Calhoun (as Robinson) told Saturday’s audience, commenting on the absurdity of this:

“Now I want you to think for a minute — did you choose the color of your eyes?”

Robinson later enlisted heavyweight boxing champ Joe Louis (played Saturday by Lomax) to use his contacts to help him in becoming an officer. This led to Robinson attending officer school and being promoted to the rank of second lieutenant.

“We’ve got to stick together if we want to change the world,” Louis told Robinson, based on the script.

“But I didn’t earn the right to sit on a bus,” Calhoun (as Robinson) recalled of an event in 1944 which ended his Army career. “I was kicked out of the military for doing the same thing Rosa Parks did — I refused to give up my seat to a white soldier.”

Through the efforts of Branch Rickey, Robinson, who had been a star for the all-black Kansas City Monarchs, joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, bringing more challenges.

“There are no laws about black players playing in the major leagues — there’s just this segregation thing,” Rickey said at the time, according to Saturday’s script.

Along with not being able to eat at certain restaurants, stay in certain hotels or frequent certain movie theaters during his playing days, Robinson faced resentment from some of his own teammates in addition to those on opposing clubs.

That did not deter his performance, with Robinson gaining a reputation for hitting, speed around the bases and fielding, leading to him becoming the first African-American inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1967. “Playing baseball always felt at home to me,” Calhoun (as Robinson) said.

Robinson’s experiences formed a natural springboard for becoming part of the Civil Rights Movement after his 10-year playing career, putting him in contact with individuals such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “What a time to be alive,” the actor portraying Robinson said.

Later in life, Robinson held executive positions in the business world, among sports and other involvements, before dying of a heart attack in 1972 while only 53.

A big part of his legacy surrounds the groundbreaking role he played in paving the way for other players of color such as Willie Mays and those of all races to participate in whatever sport they choose, Saturday’s audience was told.

“Jackie Robinson did live an interesting and exciting life,” Calhoun said at one point Saturday, speaking from the viewpoint of actor rather than dramatic subject.

“This story has taught me a lot.”

In a development that might shatter the hopes of hardcore environmentalists, the city of Mount Airy has stopped accepting glass in its recycling program.

“There is just no market anymore,” City Manager Stan Farmer said of that material Thursday night when formally announcing the change during a meeting of the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners.

Farmer said the municipal staff is asking sanitation customers not to put glass into recycling containers, since it no longer is being collected and separated as part of a recycling stream that also includes plastics, metals and paper.

“So they might as well not put it into those containers,” he said of the familiar blue receptacles used for purposes of recycling. “They might as well put it in their normal trash.”

This is just the latest change in the recycling industry overall, which has been subject to the ebb and flow of demand for certain materials in recent years.

In the case of glass, it is being phased out by communities across the country for recycling due to economic factors, according to online reports. In addition to its poor market value at present, weight is a factor with glass, which is heavier compared to items such as cardboard and plastic and can cause compactor trucks to become burdened along with problems from breakage.

“It’s not recycled anymore,” Farmer said.

Mount Airy residents who continue to put glass into the recycling containers will cause a weight-related problem for the city government due to the cost it must pay a company to handle local recyclables.

“There is no reason to pay them $60 per ton,” Farmer said of the rate involved and factoring in the additional weight posed by glass.

The glass exclusion by Mount Airy apparently was not widely disclosed until Thursday night, when the city manager discussed the change prior to the meeting. He later announced it at the end of the meeting when officials may make random comments.

One local resident who notified The Mount Airy News Thursday said many citizens apparently don’t realize that glass recycling has ceased, with the exception of those possibly noticing small magnetic stickers on canisters delivered around the first of the year.

“So all of us are still putting glass in our recycling,” that person said. “It’s a myth to think that citizens saw that little magnetic thing.”

“I did have a couple of people contact me about it,” Commissioner Chad Hutchens said before Thursday night’s meeting.

Mount Airy launched single-stream curbside recycling in January 2012 after years of residents being required to transport recyclable materials to a drop-off center. The single-stream concept has allowed them to place all such items into containers without having to be separated.

For years, the city was paid for the recycled materials it generated.

However, that situation changed in 2018, when China began banning imports of certain recyclables and imposed restrictions on others.

In late 2019, Mount Airy officials were told that not only would the city cease reaping revenues from such materials, it had to begin paying for their collection and processing by Foothills Sanitation and Recycling. It is a company in Wilkesboro which is contracted by the municipality to provide that service.

This resulted in the $60-per-ton charge cited by the city manager. That translated to almost $40,000 annually based on Mount Airy’s volume in late 2019.

Pvt. Henry Wagoner advanced with his company across the German countryside near Aachen on a bitterly cold November day in 1944. “It rained and spit snow every day,” he said in his memoirs.

Shrapnel hit his head and he was knocked to the ground unconscious. Hours later he came to. The battle had moved on and two German soldiers loomed over him with a rifle. “Don’t move.”

The next several days were a swirl of disjointed memories: the soldiers helped him to walk when he was conscious and carried him when he was not; he was loaded in an ambulance, then a train; taken to a hospital in Dusseldorf; his hair was shorn; the shrapnel removed; Allied planes bombed the city.

They gave him a pencil and a postcard to write home.

“November 26th, Dear Myrtle, Just a few lines to let you know that I am well. Hope you are well and OK. I have been captured. I will close with all my love. Henry”

He wrote again on Christmas Day. “Hope you are having a good Christmas. Keep praying and keep your chin up.”

Little could he know but she did.

Myrtle Hill Wagoner lived in Mount Airy with her in-laws while Henry was deployed. She received a telegram from the War Department in November telling her Henry was missing but they didn’t know if he was alive or dead.

It would be January 31, 1945, before she knew for sure and February before Henry’s postcards reached her.

“God was with us all the time,” she said in her family memoirs. “I never gave up of not seeing him any more.”

The youngest of Everett and Siller (Beasley) Hill’s 12 children, she grew up on a farm about seven miles from Mount Airy. When they weren’t in school at Pine Ridge, the children helped raise the corn, tobacco, vegetables, hogs, cattle and chickens the family depended on.

In 1930, when she was 14, times got harder.

“Well, here comes the Depression and dry weather,” she said. “ We did not make anything on the farm, not even enough to pay bills.” In time, her mother encouraged her to try for a job at one of the town’s mills. She went every week for six weeks to ask for a job at the Renfro Mill on Willow Street and they finally said yes.

In 1936, at a ballgame with some friends, she “met this young and handsome boy” and they started to date on weekends and Wednesday nights. When, after three months “Henry asked me would I be his wife” she wasn’t sure she wanted to get married so she didn’t give him an answer that night. He had to wait until the next week.

But on Saturday, March 27, 1937, he worked his morning shift then borrowed his father’s car. Dressed in his best clothes he picked up Myrtle and two friends and drove to Hillsville, Virginia, where they got a license and were married in a minister’s house. Myrtle recalled they “stood on a sheepskin” and had a ring ceremony. Henry gave the minister $5, all the money he had.

The Wagoners attended a revival in 1937 when Myrtle responded to the minister’s invitation. A few weeks later they began attending Calvary Baptist Church and she was baptized in the river at Laurel Bluff. The event and her faith were clearly important to her as she recalled the loss of two infants. “We did not know why God was so displeased with our lives that we could not have a family.”

The hard-working couple lived frugally, paying $6 rent for a small house with no power or running water. They saved enough to buy two acres on Caudle Road for $300 in 1939. By September of the next year, they built a house for $1,000 with help from Federal Building and Loan. There was no power down that road at first, so they heated with wood and coal, and read by oil lamp. She did laundry with a washboard and tub and ironed with a flat iron heated by fire.

When power did reach them, she proudly recalls buying an electric iron and refrigerator.

Then Henry was drafted. She closed up the house and moved in with his parents.

Most of Henry’s memoirs focus on his time in the stalag. As the Allies advanced, the Nazis moved the POWs further from the front. He talked of cutting wood in the forests around the camp, being sent to the fields to plant and tend potatoes, of sleeping on straw mattresses, but through it all he carried a picture of Myrtle in his wallet.

In May 1945 the prisoners were marched for three days, carrying boiled potatoes for food and sleeping in barns along the way. They were taken to a bridge where they were met by American troops and the Germans surrendered.

Though Henry experienced poor health for years following the war, he and Myrtle built a good life together. They ran the grocery his father started years earlier on Bluemont Road and were active in their church.

We know this level of detail about the Wagoner’s love story because members of their family interviewed the couple and created two memoirs annotated with pictures from their 62 years together. The family recently shared scans of the memoirs and photos with the museum and donated a shadowbox of Henry’s WWII service memorabilia.

Such records are incredibly important in giving us a lasting and well-rounded idea of life for people of all social levels in the region. Yes, the lives and experiences of political and business leaders are important but that is only part of the story for any community.

Theirs is a story of everyday people, not celebrities or financially wealthy. They were the sort of people who keep our society moving and they seem to have been wealthy in love and admiration. The museum is so glad to have that important story -their hometown love story – as part of our collection.

Kate Rauhauser-Smith is a volunteer for the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History with 22 years in journalism before joining the museum. She and her family moved to Mount Airy in 2005 from Pennsylvania where she was also involved with museums and history tours.

The Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America held its 33rd Annual National Leadership Forum in January and Surry County sent members of the Surry County Office of Substance Abuse Recovery to learn from top experts in the field and network with other organizations working toward a similar local outcomes.

The coalition is a non-profit organization representing adult and youth coalition leaders through the nation who are “working to make communities safe, heath and drug-free for more than 25 years.” They have created a network of more than 5,000 community anti-drug coalitions that bring together public and private sector groups who seek to make change through an evidence-based approach to reducing drinking, tobacco use, illicit drug use, and the misuse of prescription drugs.

This was not meant for just the mental health professionals of the world but for educators, faith leaders, those in recovery, public health professionals, and members of law enforcement, all of whom joined together in forums that provided information and strategies to take the work of prevention to the next level. Simple networking with folks in public health or a school system in another state could lead to idea sharing that and collaborations that could benefit communities across the country, officials said.

One of this year’s featured speakers was author Beth Macy, a Roanoke, Virginia journalist who has researched and written extensively about opioid addiction to shine a light on the protracted struggle of rural America and those fighting the battle on its frontlines. Surry County and members of the community have featured prominently in her work.

Members of the county’s substance abuse recovery office from director Mark Willis on down have been telling county leaders for some time that the more money that is spent on prevention means less money being paid out for mental and behavioral health services, often at the county’s expense. Recently the International Narcotics Control Board said in its annual report, “Every dollar spent on drug abuse prevention can save the government up to ten dollars in later costs.”

At the leadership forum participants engaged seminars and classes based around community prevention efforts. In a presentation by Derrick Newby on youth engagement and how to build systems not just for, but with youth, he said, “to develop and support youth leadership in prevention that will support the development of prevention systems where youth interact with their community as a part of the prevention system.”

“A system in which they are not just the receivers of services but where they can have an influence while operating according to a set of rules and become a part of the unified whole,” the presenter Partnership for Success described.

The session “Getting Candid” presented by National Council for Mental Wellbeing (NCMW) provided a host of information that may be used locally, “The COVID-19 pandemic caused incredible disruption in the lives of young people… NCMW conducted four large-scale national assessments of youth from 2021 to 2022 and created a comprehensive, youth-informed message guide and suite of tools to help providers have impactful prevention conversations with the youth they serve.”

Taking information from surveys such as the one National Council for Mental Wellbeing conducted can help guide practices based on the responses they got from kids across the country. Feedback from such surveys helped guide session topics like “Keep Them Safe: Suicide Safety Planning and Access to Means Counseling” presented by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

“Suicide is preventable when we know what to do. A critical component of safety planning is the conversation regarding access to lethal means. Removing and restricting access to lethal means during the crisis period can oftentimes be the difference between life or death,” they wrote.

Their session will demonstrate that there is a “critical component of safety planning is the conversation regarding access to lethal means. Removing and restricting access to lethal means during the crisis period can oftentimes be the difference between life or death.”

Another session, “Taking the “Small” Out of Small Towns: Working in Rural America to Promote BIG Health Changes.” The presenter said the session will walk take participants through “the conventional, and sometimes unconventional, processes that must happen to take the “small” out of small towns by making sustainable changes toward healthier outcomes.”

According to the CDC, rural Americans are more likely to die from heart disease, cancer, unintentional injury, chronic lower respiratory disease, and stroke than their urban counterparts so the presenter, Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living, have been working to reduce secondhand smoke exposure and the overall use of tobacco. Not all remediation campaigns focus on hard drugs: alcohols, tobacco, and vaping are reasons for concern as well.

It’s not every day that a foreign diplomat visits “Mayberry,” and such a day will come in May when Tanee Sangrat from the Royal Thai Embassy in Washington is scheduled to be here.

The upcoming trip by Sangrat, Thailand’s ambassador to the U.S., is not related to “The Andy Griffith Show,” but the opening ceremony for a planned Siamese twins museum in a new Arts Center near the Mount Airy Public Library.

Work on the multi-purpose facility on Rockford Street began in September 2021 and now is winding down.

City officials got a preview earlier this month of the new Surry Arts Council building that will include programming, classroom, exhibit and other space in addition to the twins museum. A statue of the legendary pair also is to be featured.

The opening ceremony appropriately is set for May 11, the birth date in 1811 of Eng and Bunker in what then was known as Siam, before becoming the modern-day Thailand.

The twins left their homeland and made public appearances in the U.S. and elsewhere as their conjoined physical deformity became a major attraction. Known as the “original” Siamese twins, they eventually settled near Mount Airy to farm.

In recent years, Thai officials have established a bond with Mount Airy due to the common link between the two places symbolic of that shared by the brothers themselves.

This has included appearances by embassy officials at local Eng and Chang reunions and forging a sister city relationship with the Samut Songkhram province that produced the twins.

Ambassador Sangrat’s scheduled appearance here in May took root with a WebEx meeting he had with Surry Arts Council Executive Director Tanya Jones on Feb. 6. Jones has spearhead the Arts Center/museum development and is a great-great-granddaughter of Eng Bunker.

As an announcement by Sangrat’s office details:

“Mrs. Jones invited the ambassador to join the opening ceremony of the new museum on the twins’ birthday (on May 11), with city and state executives, especially those involved with the sister cities partnership between Samut Songkhram province and Mount Airy and an existing network of local Thai communities.”

In accepting the invitation, Sangrat mentioned that it is particularly timely due to 2023 coinciding with the 190th anniversary of Thailand-U.S. diplomatic relations.

As a fourth-generation Bunker descendant, Jones is excited about the ambassador’s upcoming trip to Mount Airy.

“I am discussing the visit with the ambassador’s assistant and I am discussing details of an itinerary so we can work with city officials to make the most of this exciting opportunity,” she advised Thursday.

The announcement from the Thai ambassador indicates that it will be broader in scope than just the Siamese twins aspect.

“In this regard, he would like to extend this opportunity by making an official visit to North Carolina and call on both city and state executives, state representatives, senators, Thai firms in the area, agencies that could be beneficial to Thailand, including local Thai communities to discuss ways and means to strengthen Thais and Thai-Americans in North Carolina,” it states.

“We’re hoping that he will stay several days and meet with state and local officials,” Jones said Thursday, which she wants to not only include the government realm but those involved with educational and cultural aspects of the area.

At any rate, the ambassador’s visit represents another key event in Mount Airy’s history, which has experienced only a handful of such occasions.

The first time this occurred was in 1959, when Turkey’s ambassador to the U.S., A Suat Hayri Urguplu, visited the city in conjunction with an event at Mount Airy Country Club called the Four-State Tobacco Luncheon. That same weekend, Mount Airy hosted a National Tobacco Queen pageant at Reeves Community Center.

A Sept. 1, 1959 article in The Mount Airy News stated that A Suat Hayri Urguplu’s appearance here was part of a gala affair reflecting tobacco’s prominence at the time. Local officials expressed pride in being selected for the National Tobacco Queen event and related festivities, which included the agriculture commissioners of both North Carolina and Georgia being present.

After that, the next visit to Mount Airy by a foreign ambassador to the U.S. is believed to have been in July 2013 when then-Thai Ambassador Dr. Chaiyong Satjipanon came to town for the Siamese twins reunion.

Other such appearances included those of Thai Ambassador Pisan Manawapat in 2017 and Ambassador Manasvi Srisodapol in 2021.

Sangrat, the person now holding that position, took office in November. His previous diplomatic involvements have included serving as Thailand’s ambassador to Vietnam.

In the world of stock car racing the white flag doesn’t mean surrender, it means one lap to go; hit the gas. The white flag for Election 2022 is finally in the air as early voting has begun in Dobson to settle what is one of the last undecided contests anywhere in the nation from November, and the checkered flag is tantalizingly close.

“On our opening day of early voting for the Dobson Town Commissioner Election we had 28 voters,” Surry County Election Director Michella Huff said. “We were very pleased with the day’s turnout.”

One-stop early voting period for the Dobson election will run through Saturday, March 4 at the Surry County Service center, 915 E. Atkins St., in Dobson. Residents who will require an absentee ballot need have their submission by 5 p.m. on Feb. 28.

Election Day for the Town of Dobson special election for town commissioner will be held on Tuesday, March 7.

A special election was ordered by the state board of elections following a pair of challenges to the outcome of the Dobson commissioners race in November where incumbents J. Wayne Atkins (184 votes) and Walter White (167) secured the highest two vote counts in a field of four.

Local businessman John Jonczak came in a close third with 159 votes, and Sharon Gates-Hodges got 106 votes posthumously.

The death of Gates-Hodges after early voting had begun and printed ballots were already distributed, used, and returned meant that her name could not be removed. The election would go forward with four named candidates for two seats.

All things being equal, these results would have stood as the 8 votes, or 1.29%, while a close margin of victory for White was not close enough to fire an automatic recount. Huff told the state board in December that three votes would have been that margin.

Things though were not equal as the state board heard in affidavits and sworn testimony offered from local resident Nancy Hill and James E. Yokeley that there may have some undue influence on the outcome.

Both gave an account of a poll worker in Dobson who either told voters that Gates-Hodges or Jonczak was dead. A poll worker can only help the voter with technical problems unless it is an instance where a voter has requested assistance.

For the worker to have offered unsolicited to voters that one of the candidates was deceased may have been an implied endorsement of the others.

The worker also told different voters different information. Hill, for instance, was told Gates-Hodges had passed away. This clearly stood out to her, she said in her affidavit because Gates-Hodges was her friend and had still gotten her vote.

Yokeley said the worker pointed to Jonczak’s name on the ballot when identifying him as dead. He said he was bewildered to discover he had apparently been speaking to an apparition in the parking lot that looked a lot like John Jonczak.

Right away Yokeley said he knew something was off and word got to both Jonczak and Director Huff on election day that the poll worker was conducting herself in an improper manner whether intentionally or not.

Huff spoke to the precinct captain and the poll worker in question on election day. The worker told Huff that she had informed voters a candidate was deceased because they “thought they should be letting people know.”

With three write in votes and 106 for Gates-Hodges, any vote here or there that may have been swayed from confusion could have bridged the eight vote gap between White and Jonczak and thrown this whole affair in another direction.

Under state law, the state board of elections may order a new election if its five members determine that “irregularities or improprieties occurred to such an extent that they taint the results of the entire election and cast doubt on its fairness.”

Damon Circosta, chair of the State Board of Elections, said the State Board does not take decisions to order new elections lightly. “When issues arise, there are procedures in place to remedy them, and that’s where we are now,” he said during the December meeting at which the new election was called for.

Huff said that the county is footing the bill initially for the special election, but that Dobson picks up the bill in the end, “On costs, we will bill the municipality under GS 163-284, because of its mandatory language.”

That statutes said that “the conduct of all elections in municipalities and special districts shall be under the authority of the county board of elections. Each municipality and special district shall reimburse the county board of elections for the actual cost involved in the administration required under this section.”

Huff said, “The Town of Dobson will be billed by the county for full reimbursement. Dobson Town Attorney Hugh Campbell has been made aware and I think the Town has had discussion about this mandate.”

When asked, Huff said the of the costs to run the do-over election for the two Dobson seats, “I estimated no more than $15,000 for the special election.”

It goes on to say that allegations of irregularities “shall be made to the county board of elections and appeals from such rulings may be made to the State Board of Elections under existing statutory provisions and rules,” which is exactly the process that was followed with the Yokeley and Jonczak challenges to the general election results.

This has been another week where there were eyes from outside the Yadkin Valley have peering toward Surry County in an attempt to discern what is going on in these parts. Tuesday’s hearing in Raleigh by the North Carolina State Board of Elections on the possible removal of Surry County Board of Elections Secretary Jerry Forestieri and member Tim DeHaan drew attention from state and national media.

After the state board handled other business and heard the opening remarks of complainant Bob Hall against the county board members, the meeting took a pair of unexpected recesses as Chair Circosta and other board member sought clarification on the general statute on hearings. Ultimately, DeHaan’s objection to procedural elements of the hearing lead the state board to table the hearing and reschedule it for a later date in Surry County. The state statute says that hearings of these nature need to take place in the county in which the offense was alleged to have occurred.

The men signed a letter at a county canvass meeting in November that raised eyebrows. The men in the letter said that they questioned the authority of the state board of elections to conducts free and fair elections since the laws they were executing was built on tenuous ground. After the 2018 federal ruling that knocked down North Carolina’s voter ID requirement, they feel elections have been conducted in a way that leads them open to fraud.

While they found no issue with Surry County’s election, they initially refused to sign off on the county’s election certification. Forestieri essentially said he couldn’t sign a document say the results were 100% accurate if there was no assurance of who voted on election day. DeHaan decided that what the state said was an official ballot was that, and he would accept it and certify the results.

The resurfacing of existing streets and related work is on tap in Mount Airy using funding from the N.C. Department of Transportation.

Bids are now being received for a project targeting a cluster of roadways in the Fairfield neighborhood just off South Main in Bannertown with the help of what is commonly known as Powell Bill money.

The eight streets involved are West Devon Drive, East Devon Drive, West Fairfield Drive, East Fairfield Drive, West Wensley Drive, East Wensley Drive, Vernon Circle and Burnley Lane.

Those were selected for the next round of resurfacing as part on an ongoing city program that addresses streets based on priority of need.

In 2022, the list included ones in the Maple-Merritt Street area where pavement had been disturbed by a major utility project involving the installing of lines.

Sealed proposals from general contractors to perform the upcoming work in the Fairfield section will be received at the Mount Airy Public Works Building on East Pine Street until 2 p.m. on March 1, according to a notice issued by city officials.

Complete plans, specifications and contract documents are available for inspection at that location between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

The awarding of the contract is subject to a vote by the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners, Public Works Director Mitch Williams advised.

All work must be completed by June 15.

Mount Airy was awarded $352,145 in the last round of funding through the State Street Aid to Municipalities program, or Powell Bill allocations. It is derived from state gas tax revenues that are given back to municipalities across North Carolina based on a formula set by the Legislature.

Powell Bill funds are used primarily to resurface municipal streets, but also to maintain, repair, construct or widen streets, bridges and drainage areas. Localities additionally may use those funds to plan, construct and maintain bike paths, greenways or sidewalks.

State allocations for other municipalities in Surry County include $46,939 for Dobson, $46,554 for Pilot Mountain and Elkin, $140,116.

The sum each community receives is based on a formula set by the N.C. General Assembly, with 75% of the funds linked to population and 25% to the number of locally maintained street miles.

Mount Airy, listed with 10,609 residents, is responsible for the condition of 73 miles of streets on the municipal system.

Meanwhile, the state DOT maintains major routes through town including U.S. 52 and U.S. 601 which are part of its transportation network along with state-designated highways such as N.C. 89 and N.C. 103.

DOBSON — The Aktion Club at Surry Community College faced a dilemma when its parent organization, the Mount Airy Kiwanis Club, recently faded from the local civic scene due to dwindling membership partly caused by the pandemic.

This left the Aktion group — the only service club for adults with disabilities — needing a new sponsor in order to meet organizational requirements and ensure its continued operation after being chartered in 2011.

Even though it is not based in Surry County, but a city about 35 miles away, Winston-Salem, another group came to the rescue.

“Twin City Kiwanis took us under their wing so we could continue to be chartered,” Diane Barnett, an instructor at Surry Community College who is the adviser to the Aktion Club, happily reported this week.

Failing to do so would have been a blow to area charitable programs and citizens the Aktion Club has aided over the years through numerous community service projects.

Despite suffering from conditions such as autism, Down syndrome, birth defects and others, its members have taken an active role — as the group’s name implies — through projects to help feed the area’s hungry year-round.

This most recently involved Kiwanis Aktion Club members partnering with Lowes Foods in Mount Airy to assemble bags of food for a “Friends Feeding Friends” holiday drive. The bags went to the food pantry of Yokefellow Ministry for distribution to those in need.

About 1,000 bags, or 7,000 pounds, of items were prepared by the club on top of other efforts over the years. These have included a summer feeding program that fills a void for local youth in the absence of school lunches.

The Aktion Club, which had 15 members at last report, also has conducted fundraisers to provide donations to local charities.

As the new sponsor of the SCC Aktion group, the Twin City Kiwanis Club will host PanJam ’23, the club’s 63rd Pancake Jamboree, on Feb. 24 at Benton Convention Center (lower level), 301 W. 5th St., in Winston-Salem.

Club members will serve all-you-care-to-eat pancakes, sausage and a beverage from 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. continuously that day.

Tickets, available at the door, are priced at $9 for adults and $4 for children 12 and under, with takeouts to be available.

Proceeds from the event, the club’s only fundraiser, benefit local, nonprofit youth charities and one in Vietnam. PanJam is one of Winston-Salem’s oldest non-profit fundraisers. It was cancelled the past two years because of the pandemic

Radio station WTOB (980 AM) will broadcast live at PanJam ’23.

In addition to the Winston-Salem event, Barnett, the Aktion Club sponsor, announced that the group will be the beneficiary of proceeds for dining at 13 Bones in Mount Airy on March 2.

All day and evening, including at the restaurant’s drive-through window, customers only need to inform a waitress that they are dining for the Aktion Club and 10 percent of their bill sums will go to the group, according to Barnett.

It’s a common sight: tourists from faraway places arrive in Mount Airy — then come to a dead stop in the middle of traffic unsure how to reach the Mayberry and other attractions they’ve heard so much about.

Fortunately, a project has been undertaken to prevent such dilemmas, which involves “wayfinding” signage being installed at strategic locations around town to do just that: help visitors better find their way.

This ongoing work in progress picked up steam in recent days.

“I am excited to share that we have added more wayfinding signage for the city of Mount Airy,” Assistant City Manager Darren Lewis stated Tuesday afternoon in an announcement to the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners and City Manager Stan Farmer.

“These two additions are located in front of the granite quarry and Dickerson Farms in Bannertown” near U.S. 52-Business/Old Buck Shoals Road,” Lewis added.

Traffic entering Mount Airy along South Main Street in Bannertown Wednesday afternoon seemed to slow in recognition of the new eyecatching sign posted there.

“I think was either Friday or sometime over the weekend,” Jenny Smith of Mount Airy Visitors Center, who regularly travels that route, said of its placement,

The sign points the way to the center along with downtown Mayberry attractions and the Granite City Greenway, a 6.6-mile trail system that has become a tourism destination in its own right.

Providing such wayfinding signage was identified as a top priority among local needs arising from a “Vision” committee initiative in 2021 which explored downtown, economic development and other issues.

This concern was fueled by such situations as a maze of one-way streets downtown and lack of existing signage to guide people to key locations, causing much confusion especially among tourists here for the first time.

Lewis mentioned Tuesday that thanks are due Jessica Roberts for getting the wayfinding project funded through the Mount Airy Tourism Development Authority (TDA), of which she is executive director.

The TDA engages in various efforts to market the local area using occupancy tax proceeds generated at lodging establishments.

Roberts explained Wednesday that the Tourism Development Authority has included money in its budget to provide multiple wayfinding signs each year.

Two, costing a total of $12,000, went up during 2022 on U.S. 601 (Rockford Street) at Hampton Inn and on N.C. 89-West (Pine Street) near Subway.

Although the tourism body is funding the signs, the wayfinding effort involves a partnership between it and the city government.

“Last year, Stan Farmer, Darren Lewis and I worked on which ones would go in first and also worked on which ones will come in next,” Roberts related Wednesday. More signs are planned in addition to those just installed in Bannertown and near the granite quarry, a combined $13,000 expense.

“It is an ongoing project with the city of Mount Airy and Mount Airy TDA as we go forward with getting more signage in and around Mount Airy and the process with getting approved by the N.C. Department of Transportation,” Roberts mentioned regarding a regulatory hurdle involved.

Lewis has been instrumental in that process, Roberts noted.

The Mount Airy TDA also has updated existing signs in the central business district with the help of Lewis, along with Surry County officials erecting signs to direct tourists the city’s way.

One goal is ensuring a similar look among all the signage, according to Roberts.

“We are gradually getting to the ‘core’ of the city,” Lewis advised Tuesday. “These additions will help us with our final project/goal of having a downtown wayfinding signage system.”

Roberts stressed Wednesday that a countywide focus is involved, not just on one community.

“We are excited about this ongoing project that will assist with wayfinding and signage throughout Mount Airy and Surry County.”

In a case of hurry up and wait that the military would be proud of, the North Carolina State Board of Elections voted to postpone the disciplinary hearing of Surry County Board of Elections members Jerry Forestieri and Tim DeHaan.

During their opening statements the Surry County board members made a procedural challenge to the location of the hearing that drew objections but ultimately was successful in getting the hearing delayed and relocated back onto home turf.

Tuesday’s hearing in Raleigh was to have been the resolution to complaint filed by Bob Hall, formerly of the advocacy group Democracy NC, against the members of the county board of elections he said should be removed from their posts for the actions and statements after November’s elections where one, Forestieri, chose not to certify the election results.

“The people of North Carolina cannot count on them as they are effectively renouncing their oath of office and rejected the authority of this board,” Hall said in his opening remarks. “In their letter and in the county canvass meeting, both men made it clear that they reject the authority of this state.

“As part of their oath they swore they would ‘bear true allegiance to the State of North Carolina and to the constitutional powers and authorities… established thereof.’ Now in their letter, and in the November canvass meeting, they reject that allegiance and denounce how the board administers elections.”

“According to the letter their allegiance is to a higher power and higher forces that lead them to proclaim the 2022 election results are ‘not credible’.” Instead of honoring their oath, they say they obey a different authority and are ready to create their own standards for administering elections.”

Hall asserts that the men stepped over the line in expressing their disagreement with the ruling of Federal Circuit Judge Loretta Biggs in 2018 that invalidated a voter ID law in North Carolina.

DeHaan and Forestieri assert that since voter IDs have not been required since her ruling that it opened up elections to potential fraud. They cannot certify an election for which not everyone was required to show identification and they asked how they could sign off that the election was valid when there were no safeguards in place to verify every voter’s identity. They both signed a letter that the “delusional” Biggs had no right to change the law in the first place.

“DeHaan’s statements are not just a criticism of a court ruling or state board decision. He is like a sailor on a ship who has signed an oath of service but instead of performing his duties doesn’t just disagree with the Captain, he declares the Captain illegitimate,” Hall said in explanation for his request to have the men removed from the Surry County board of elections.

“That’s a cry of mutiny; it creates dangerous confusion and chaos, and purposefully in this case undermines the public’s confidence the integrity of our elections.”

He felt while the men are allowed to have opinions, that their opinions were preventing them from doing their jobs. “This is about trust and the evidence will show they cannot be trusted to fulfill the obligations of the general statute.”

“They have to obey your directives; that is the law. They are saying they have no obligation to follow the board.”

“DeHaan said he wouldn’t (certify the results) and then he did but he never took his name off it. So, he may sign a canvass document one time but maybe he won’t the next. By his actions, he has signaled to you he cannot be trusted. He is a free agent, he may obey the election rules for a protest, maybe he won’t. You don’t know,” Hall suggested.

“It’s not just you who can’t trust how they act; it’s the citizens of Surry County and the people of North Carolina. We can’t trust Forestieri to follow the law, he didn’t sign it even though he said at the canvass meeting that he didn’t find anything (evidence of error or fraud).”

DeHaan raised a series of objections to the hearing itself and the way it was being conducted. He said based on the statutes that the location for the meeting was wrong. He told the board that “they should meet in the county where the alleged offense occurred, and we are not in Surry County.”

Wording in that statute that a hearing “shall” take place in the county where the offense was claimed to have happened meant that holding the hearing in Raleigh was a violation.

The state’s legal counsel at the hearing said that there have been multiple occurrences where the state board heard charges that may warrant removal of a county board of elections member, but that no one had invoked the clause on holding the hearing in the home county. DeHaan said that precedent was no reason to not follow the statue as written.

Chairman Damon Circosta sought clarification from counsel and expressed his belief the venue was correct. He then polled the state board members and DeHaan and Forestieri for their input. Board member Dr. Stella Anderson said that since everyone was there, and the hearing was in progress that it was best to proceed.

Board member Stacey Eggers IV said, “I know we’re all here and such, but the statute says ‘shall’ and shall is a term of art in the law.” To the layperson it means little but to the parliamentarian or legislator, the difference between shall and may is like Lexington vs. eastern BBQ – it makes all the difference.

While there was some disagreement among the state board members and their counsel, they appeared to err on the side of caution.

Hilary Klein, Hall’s legal counsel, said that there had been sufficient time and notice given that the hearing was to be held in Raleigh and that any objections to the venue could and should have been raised before the members were present and the hearing in progress.

DeHaan also questioned the standing of Hall to bring the complaint as an out-of-county resident and whether there may be conflicts of interest regarding Hall and his relationships with members of the state board and state counsel’s office given his many years leading Democracy NC. He said Hall was exchanging emails with Paul Cox of the state counsel’s officer seemingly for advice on his complaint. “It looks like two people planning an attack against adversaries.”

Chairman Circosta said that just knowing someone does not make it a conflict of interest. Ultimately, he said it was not fair to continue with the hearing in Raleigh and it was rescheduled to a date to be determined in Surry County. Hall’s status of an out of county resident was determined last year by the state board to be a non-issue in his raising a complaint.

After taking a recess to consult with the legal team and read the statute again, Circosta gave DeHaan and Forestieri the chance to choose whether to proceed with the hearing everyone was there for, or move it back to Surry County. The gentlemen asked the hearing be moved back to Surry County where it will still be heard by the state board, just in a different physical location.

Hall said Tuesday that the delay and location change are not what matters. “Personally, I’m fine with the hearing moving to Surry County.” Rather for him it has been about the execution of sworn duties in service to the constitutions both the United States and North Carolina.

Delaying and moving the hearing should allow for a more complete hearing with questioning and input from the whole board — only three of five members of the state board were present for the hearing which was a sufficient number to reach a quorum.

Circosta and Eggers voted to move the hearing back to Surry County and Anderson was the sole vote opposed. Absent member Tucker had voiced opposition at the preliminary hearing in 2022 to advancing the DeHaan complaint in the first place, meaning the fate of men has never been bound to one another; they may face ultimately face two different outcomes.

It is not known if someone yelled, “OK, everybody, out of the pool,” but the indoor swimming facility at Reeves Community Center has been closed temporarily due to a major renovation project.

The pool was shut down last Friday and is expected to remain so for about two weeks as various tasks occur.

This was set in motion with a vote by the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners in October to award a $389,000 contract to Stanley Heating and Air Conditioning, based in Elkin, to replace the dehumidification system for the indoor pool.

That was long seen as a need due to the pool creating a humid area and requiring a means of offsetting those effects for users.

“One of the biggest concerns in the aquatics industry is air quality,” city Assistant Parks and Recreation Director Cathy Cloukey said Monday. Before assuming her present position, Cloukey was Mount Airy’s aquatics supervisor for more than 13 years.

While replacement of the dehumidification system has loomed as the greatest need, the major renovation effort also includes a number of other new items for the swimming facility, such as insulation, plaster, heating/air components and depth markers.

The work began Monday with crews of a subcontractor, Andrea’s Pool Plaster, busily grinding off old plaster around the sides of the pool to allow replastering, creating a cloud of dust.

This reflected another overdue need.

Pool plaster, which provides a protective seal for the facility, typically has a life expectancy of seven to 15 years, according to Cloukey. “Ours was put in in 1995,” she said.

Cloukey and Parks and Director Peter Raymer agreed that “excellent maintenance” by city crews has allow the plaster to last as long as it has, 28 years.

Recreation officials say updates will be provided on the progress of the pool renovations so users will know when the facility can be reopened.

Raymer said this is a good time to undertake such work, with needed parts being made available to allow it to occur. Certain seasonal swimming activities at Reeves Community Center also have been winding down.

“So the timing works out perfectly,” Raymer added.

Pool needs at Reeves Community, particularly the dehumidification system replacement, have been an issue for years. However, until the commissioners’ vote in October, that item was delayed numerous times due to budgetary limitations.

The Surry County Board of County Commissioner last week heard a second presentation on a request to add school resource officers to county elementary schools. After a short presentation and discussion, the board approved the funding to add three new officers.

All five members of the Surry County Board of Education left an ongoing school board meeting to pay a call on the commissioners and urge them to fund the new SROs. Their stated goal is to have an officer at each of the county’s public schools and they said if they had the funds, they would do it right away.

Surry County School Superintendent Dr. Travis Reeves reviewed a grant the county has been approved for to receive $264,000 a year for two years which would fund additional elementary school SROs. The commissioners heard this presentation in January but asked for time to mull it over and Reeves spoke to at least one of them directly to discuss the grant proposal.

The county needed to approve expenditures that would come from accepting the grant and costs of adding officers above the grant funding for long term expenses such as health insurance or retirement funding.

The state wants to help fund two additional officers, but Dr. Reeves told the board he was hoping to gain approval to add three officers. He took a new tactic from the last meeting and spoke of the coverage and response time adding two or three new SROs would provide.

“The grant approves two SROs, we want three… Right now, if we got the three with this grant, coupled with the two we already have (and the addition of an SRO paid for by Pilot Mountain for Pilot Elementary) we would have one SRO per two elementary schools. We like that coverage and that gives us a lot more coverage than we currently have,” he said.

“Also, we are worried about schools that are on the perimeter of the county like Shoals and Copeland, ones that are not easy to get to from Dobson. I think that gives us better coverage and response times are better. It will also give those SROs a better chance to develop key relationships with students and parents,” Reeves said.

School board member Clark Goings told the commissioners adding more safety to school campuses hit home for him. “I have kids and family working in the schools. Their safety is a top priority for me, and I appreciate everything you’ve done for the school system. We just need to do a little more.”

“One common thing that I am hearing from elementary school principals is the need for an SRO,” school board member Kent Whitaker said before they raced back to their own meeting. “It gives them a comfort level and I think it’s more than just safety. I think it has to do with building relationships with law enforcement.”

“When we can get a sheriff’s department employee into a school it brings a whole lot of comfort and in today’s climate, we’re seeing situations probably that you never saw before, even in the elementary setting with behavioral issues and maybe domestic issues that filter in. I think the need (for more SROs) is there and I can’t think of a better need we could address tonight than to add SROs to our schools.”

“I support the SROs to those schools,” school board member T.J. Bledsoe added. “Do I think they will be the end all and be all and fix all our situations? No, I do not, but I do think it’s a great start and I am in full support.”

Commissioner Mark Marion spoke up on his own experiences in the classroom having spent many years as a substitute. He joked he didn’t have as many years in the saddle as former educator and administrator Commissioner Bill Goins but, “I witnessed firsthand what a school resource officer can do. It’s not only about them being there as the sheriff department, they are there for camaraderie. It’s to handle situations before they get out of hand. A police presence on campus can change the attitude of students.”

Given the board’s earlier vote on the pro-life resolution that brought many to the gallery, Marion said the decision to fund more SROs was just a furtherance of that notion that all life is precious. “What better time than on the heels of the right to life resolution to continue to protect our children by placing three new SROs?”

Commissioner Van Tucker reiterated his earlier concerns that this grant funding from the state makes this seem an easy decision, but he cautioned once more, “It may come that the county winds up bearing he full brunt of this. This is not about if we need SROs, or if we feel better with them, but who is going to pay for them?”

“I am somewhat torn, I think it comes down to providing SROs, as many as we can, even if we may have trouble hiring for them. After the last presentation we said we wanted one in all the schools as soon as we can,” Tucker said.

He had previously reminded the board that bringing on a full time county employee and the recurring costs of healthcare will not go away when the state funding inevitably dries up. He also said that while adding an officer to a school may be easy, it would be much harder to remove one.

Chairman Eddie Harris said no fool-proof plan exists to keep school campuses safe. “Evil people do evil things, and they find crafty ways of doing that. The very best we can do is inadequate, but nevertheless we are under an obligation to protect our children.” As with Marion, he noted the timing of this vote and the earlier pro-life resolution dovetailed with one another.

– The board accepted an initial offer of $150,000 for the former Westfield School property that was surplussed in 2021. The bid does not include any of the remaining artifacts, such as the school bell, or the county owned recycling center. The full tax value of the land is $229,320 but County Manager Chris Knopf informed that sum included the value of the recycling center.

Commissioner Van Tucker, who represents this district, called it “a legitimate bid” and made a motion, which passed, to accept the bid and open a period of upset bidding.

– Surry County and the city of Mount Airy worked together to add two new fire hydrants to Franklin Elementary in Mount Airy. The board of commissioners agreed Monday evening to a reimbursement agreement for installation of the Franklin Elementary School fire protection line.

Mount Airy took the lead in requesting the bid for the design and construction and officials there have selected the winning bidder. The city will split costs evenly with the county and it was agreed that the new fire protection line will remain an asset of the city’s upon the completion of the project. It will be connected to Mount Airy city water and the city will be responsible for its maintenance going forward.

The winning bid for the project was $135,000 and the final allocated amount will be $142,000 to allow for contingencies during construction.

– Finally, it was time to honor the best in county athletics as the Mount Airy High Women’s Tennis Team was on hand to be recognized. They won their second 1A Dual Team State Championship and Carrie Marion won the NCHSSA 1A Individual Single State Championship.

Coach Lou Graham said coaching these young women has been a pleasure and their hard work speaks for itself. “Fortunately, for us, their hard work has shown off with our play. I am extremely proud of what they accomplished and how they handled themselves. It’s been a fantastic experience.”

On the gridiron, the Granite Bears also brought home the hardware in football and coach J.T. Atkins added more kudos by being named NCHSSA 1A Coach of the Year. He said on behalf of his coaches and players (many of whom were at spring sports practices that night) that they were thankful for being recognized.

Coach Atkins said, “We don’t take this lightly, doing what this team did and being part of what happened is very special and comes with a lot of pride. We’re proud we are from Surry County and appreciate the recognition.”

The State Board of Elections will be conducting a hearing Tuesday aimed at determining if two members of the Surry County Board of Elections — Tim DeHaan and Jerry Forestieri —should be removed from office.

The hearing is a result of a complaint filed against DeHaan and Forestieri in November by Bob Hall, the former director of Democracy NC. His complaint came after the two men signed a letter stating they had concerns about the legality of North Carolina elections calling into question their legitimacy and, in Forestieri’s case, refusing to certify the most recent elections.

In December, the state board of elections held an evidentiary hearing and voted to set hearings on the possible removal the men “after finding prima facie evidence of a violation of election law, duties imposed on board members, and/or participation in irregularities or incompetence to discharge the duties of the office.”

The hearing is Tuesday in Raleigh and can be seen online.

Hall’s complaint said the two were derelict in their duties and should be removed. “It’s unfortunate that their actions have resulted in the necessity of the State Board of Elections to hold hearings about their conduct.”

“When they each declared that the administration of elections laws in the state is ‘illegitimate,’ then they crossed the line from free speech and criticism to rejecting their oath to uphold election laws. Maybe they have changed their position – I hope so – but at this point it’s hard for the public to know what actions they might take if they continue serving as election officials,” Hall said.

The two local board of elections members took umbrage with the 2018 ruling of U.S. District Court Judge Loretta Biggs that knocked down North Carolina’s voter identification law.

DeHaan and Forestieri wrote a letter to their colleagues on the county board of elections deriding the decision in strong terms. Their letter said, “I don’t view election law per North Carolina State Board of Elections as legitimate or Constitutional.”

Hall contends both men failed in their sworn duty to defend and uphold the Constitution of the United States and North Carolina. “They take an oath when they begin service and it is an oath to uphold the state law, the state and federal constitution, and obey the authorities and rulings of the state,” Hall explained.

The state board of elections considered late last year whether there was enough evidence of “misconduct, irregularity, or some other cause that would enable the State Board to remove or otherwise discipline a county board member.”

They unanimously voted to allow the complaint on Forestieri to a formal hearing and advanced the DeHaan complaint in a 3-2 vote with state board members Stacy Eggers IV and Tommy Tucker voting no.

“Mr. Forestieri choosing not to proceed with the county canvass is concerning and I think it (is) what merits moving forward with a hearing. The distinction with Mr. DeHaan is he did in fact discharge his duties and proceed with the canvass certification,” Eggers said during the hearing in December before the vote they advanced the complaint to Tuesday’s hearing.

In the state board’s report, it was detailed that Eggers found a distinction between the two cases and he has, “concern with the statement made by Mr. Forestieri that all matters within his control and jurisdiction were handled appropriately and ballots tabulated, but his choosing not to proceed with the county canvass is concerning and worthy of moving forward to a hearing.”

Eggers went on to detail his point that there is another distinction “between advocacy for candidates versus expressing opinion and concerns about judicial activism or the procedures and directions that they receive from our staff at the state level.”

State Board Chairman Damon Circosta added that there is an issue of what type of speech one can engage in as it relates to their duties on a county board of elections.

At the county election canvass meeting in November the two men presented their letter. In short, they feel Judge Biggs’ 2018 voter ID ruling was illegal and that the state has therefore been conducting elections that are, in their opinion, not being held as they should.

Without voter ID anyone can vote, they said and at Tuesday’s hearing there will be testimony from Steve Odum on alleged voting day irregularities where he challenged out-of-area voters.

However, at that meeting DeHaan said, “We have no complaints with what Surry County Board of Commissioners or Board of Elections has done. We are not questioning anything that is happening within the walls and with the employees of the Board. None whatsoever.”

He went on, “Our concern is with the way the law has improperly been changed by a judge who has no authority to make law, but she is doing it anyway, and it basically is saying that we feel that the election was held according to the law the we have, but that the law is not right. And because the law is not done properly, it was made by a judge, it is not proved to be 100% accurate as far as any of the elections go in the state, not just outs, but any of them.”

“I must not call these election results credible and bow to the perversion of truth Judge Biggs foists upon us. Her opinions regulating elections conform to a generally held, though perverted, view of a legal election,” their co-signed November letter read.

After a recess Forestieri said, “Given the choice of endorsing this 100% or not at all, I would just not sign the certification.”

DeHaan on the other hand said, “The problem I have… comes does to the term ‘legal ballot’ and the question of what is a legal ballot? While I don’t agree with what the state has defined as a legal ballot, I will accept what they are saying is a legal ballot as being a legal ballot; therefore, I will sign to certify the election.”

Surry County Board of Elections member Drew Poindexter even questioned why Forestieri was still serving on the board at the time. “Jerry, if you thought that ever since what Judge Biggs did is illegal – and that’s your right to do – and it’s been going on since 2018, if that had been me… I would not think myself proper to sit on this board if I thought what we were doing here was illegal. That’s just me,” he said.

Hall’s complaint was accompanied by a letter from a coalition of voters rights group who wrote, “The letter’s inflammatory language is dangerous misinformation that constitutes an attack on North Carolina’s laws, election integrity, and voter confidence.”

They also took exception with their point on voter ID. “They incorrectly contend voter ID was not required in the 2022 general election due to Judge Bigg’s 2018 decision… But as the State Board is well aware, the most recent voter ID legislation, S.B. 824, was not in place for the 2022 general election because it was permanently enjoined by a state court three-judge panel in a September 2021 decision in Holmes v. Moore.”

“By calling into question the legitimacy of state and federal Constitutional requirements and doing so under the color of exercising their official duties as members of the Surry County Board of Elections… they have violated the most central oath and duties of their office. They intentionally and undeniably violated their oaths and sworn duties,” the letter said.

Forestieri wrote in an email dated Feb. 6, “Our current NC Supreme Court is in my opinion more incline to the rule of law than the rule of man. It is a good time to test this legal point in this hearing, and if necessary and prudent, on appeal all the way to the NC Supreme Court, Lord willing.”

Tuesday’s hearing is set to begin at 11 a.m. and can be viewed online at bit.ly/3lnSsL3

In what has become an all-too-familiar refrain, substance-use calls run by the Surry County Emergency Medical Service — and related deaths — have increased locally.

In one bright spot for an otherwise dismal picture, the prevalence of Narcan — a medication used to reverse or reduce effects of opioids, including by bystanders at the scenes of overdoses — rose during 2022 in Surry despite fatalities increasing slightly to 47 from 44 in 2021.

A total of 567 substance-use “events” were logged last year by the Surry EMS, according to statistics recently completed by Eddie Jordan, the agency’s compliance officer. That’s the highest total of any year since 2009, when 46 incidents were noted.

The present trend began with cases showing a drastic jump in 2020 to 503, which local emergency and substance-abuse officials have blamed on the pandemic due to people being isolated. The upswing continued in 2021 (533 cases) and again last year to the latest 567 annual tally.

The breakdown from the EMS shows a total of 336 pre-hospital Narcan doses were administered during 2022, up from 269 the year before.

Narcan is the brand name for naloxone, a medication that blocks respiratory depression and other effects of opioids, especially in overdoses. It can be administered by laymen, meaning professional medical aid might not be sought when one occurs.

Yet the death total still rose to 47 last year, the highest since the 55 fatalities in 2017 — which is the all-time record for Surry County.

A breakdown of Surry substance-use events by year shows that these incidents have shown annual increases every single 12-month period since 2009, leading to the 567 total for 2022.

And one further alarming aspect is that the “official” figures — already substantial — might not reflect the true severity of the problem.

“These statistics only represent what Surry County EMS has come in contact with and not what is not reported,” explained Eric Southern, the county’s director of emergency services.

“We suspect that these numbers are probably double with in-home and personal use of Narcan,” Southern added in reference to how such incidents can stay off the books.

Based on what was reported officially, deaths occurred in 8% of the total substance-use events in 2022, the same as 2021.

Already in 2023, seven deaths had occurred in Surry County after about one month having past, out of 51 total incidents — 37 of which involved the use of Narcan.

The abuse of fentanyl, a highly potent synthetic opioid employed as an analgesic, has become a major concern nationwide including locally.

“Fentanyl does make up around 7% of the overdose cases, but heroin and mixed substances (fentanyl, heroin, and/or other opioids together) make an even larger portion,” Southern observed. Fentanyl is used recreationally, sometimes mixed with heroin, cocaine, benzodiazepines or methamphetamine.

The primary substance-abuse categories reported by the EMS for Surry County and the%ages they make up of the total include:

• Unknown/prescription/over-the-counter substances — 23%;

• Other and unidentified opioids — 19%;

• Benzos (short for benzodiazepines, a type of sedative medication) — 7%;’

Southern says multiple local entities are trying to curtail the ongoing abuse threat.

“Very grateful for our relationship with have with our law enforcement agencies and the (Surry County Office of) Substance Abuse Recovery.”

Attempts to get comment on the annual totals from local Substance Abuse Recovery Director Mark Willis were not successful.

But Willis had advised last year that “the vicious cycle of illegal drug use that has affected Surry County, and many other counties, will continue to be a problem until we implement an effective recovery-oriented system of care for substance-use disorder that focuses on all aspects of prevention, intervention, treatment and recovery.”

Every summer, during the peach-picking season, folks make the mountain trek to Cherry Orchard Theatre in Ararat, Virginia, where outdoor shows — often original productions written by local artists — are produced on a simple stage, with the hollows and ridges stretching toward the North Carolina Piedmont serving as a backdrop

Twenty-five years ago, the first show took to the stage there, a drama written by Frank Levering about his ancestors who settled the area and started Levering Orchard, just a few years after the calendar flipped from the 19th to the 20th century.

While the outdoor theater there has attracted audiences and actors from all over — including a few California stage performers — and has traveled to other cities, setting up shop and adapting its products to various indoor venues, the theater is doing something this year it has never done before: Putting on three shows in downtown Mount Airy.

The three productions: “Kalamazoo,” “Does A Dress Have A Life?” and “Flights of Imagination,” will each have a one-night engagement at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History over the next three months. “Kalamazoo” will be on Feb. 25, “Does A Dress Have A Life?” will be March 25, while “Flights of Imagination” is set for April 22.

Levering said the first leanings toward putting on the shows in Mount Airy largely came about because of Terri Ingalls, Mark Brown, and Matt Edwards. Both Ingalls and Brown are known locally as actors and story tellers, with each of them a seasoned Cherry Orchard Theatre performer as well as volunteers at the museum, while Edwards is executive director at the museum.

“The three of them have been thinking about starting to do theater at the museum for a few years,” Levering said. “We all saw this as a good way to get started doing that. It seemed like a really good fit for the museum and for Cherry Orchard Theatre.”

Cassandra Johnson, director of STEAM education and programming at the museum, said those talks picked up steam in the autumn.

“It’s their off-season,” she said of the timing of the plays, and the idea that the partnership could be beneficial to both organizations. “We thought maybe there are people who go there, but have never come to the museum, who might come to this, and there are probably people who have come to the museum but have not gone there.”

This might expose folks from both camps to what both the theater and the museum have to offer patrons.

Johnson said the shows will be set up in the third floor program space of the museum, which can seat about 75 people. She said as soon as the museum announced the shows, tickets started selling, although there are still seats available for all three productions.

“This is going to be great,” Levering said of the shows and the museum’s partnership. While there haven’t been any formal discussions about doing additional shows after this three-performance schedule, the museum’s Johnson said her organization is hoping to use this as a springboard toward offering similar productions.

Levering said all three shows have already been performed in the outdoor setting at Cherry Orchard, so the actors will be bringing a sense of familiarity to the indoor stage at the museum.

The first show, “Kalamazoo,” stars Ingalls and Brown in what he described as a romantic comedy.

“The play is about two older people in their 70s who meet online, they start seeing each other, the play follows the course of their romance. It’s a comedy, it’s a very funny play,” he said.

The second show, “Does A Dress Have A Life?” is a one-person production with Melissa Hiatt, who Levering called one of the most talented performers in the region. “It’s a very personal story about growing up and having a difficult childhood, some really harsh things she had to face in growing up,” he said of the piece, which Hiatt wrote.

The third show, “Flights of Imagination,” is a one-person show written and performed by Ingalls.

“It’s about Terri Ingalls telling about her years as a flight attendant of Piedmont Airlines (in the 1960s),” he said. “It is just delightful. It’s another comedy, a lot of comedy in it, and you also learn a lot about the experience of being a flight attendant.”

Each of the shows will be performed at 8 p.m. on their respective play dates. Tickets are $15, with popcorn and a drink available for an additional $5. The shows may not be suitable for all audiences, with adult content and themes part of the first two productions.

To reserve tickets, call 336-786-4478 or visit northcarolinamuseum.org

The Surry Arts Council kicked off its 2023 Fund Drive at noon on Thursday at the Andy Griffith Playhouse, taking aim at its $175,000 goal for the year.

Board members, staff, volunteers, and other members of the community were on hand to see a new rack card, featuring 58 summer series concerts, while also being able to view photos from arts council programs during the past year on a screen in the playhouse.

Nicole Harrison, president of the Surry Arts Council Board of Directors, shared with those in attendance how the arts affect thousands of lives in the area. Venues are all open at full capacity and the priority remains to keep the community safe while keeping them engaged with the arts.

She shared that the Surry Arts Council — which as been in existence for 54 years — is excited about the future and looks forward to opening the new Arts Center. She shared how the arts council was a part of her life growing up in Mount Airy and is now a part of her daughters’ lives. She talked about the venues that the council operates including the Blackmon Amphitheatre, the Andy Griffith Playhouse, the Andy Griffith Museum and Museum Theatre, and the Historic Earle Theatre and Old-Time Music Heritage Hall.

Scott Needham, secretary of the Surry Arts Council Board of Directors, acknowledged the important role of the arts in stimulating the creative juices that spark new economic development. He shared that he had been a part of the arts council since he was in high school both on stage and back stage. As a result, he majored in lighting design in college and has helped the council over the years both onstage and off stage. He emphasized the importance of the success of the fund drive to ensure that the arts remain an important part of the community.

Candice Kerley, treasurer of the Board of Directors, spoke of upcoming programs.

She noted that a new adult line dance class that began this week had more than 30 participants. A special friends crafts workshop Thursday had more than 50 participants. Cinderella, with a cast of 70, is rehearsing daily in the Andy Griffith Playhouse.

She reported that the Surry Arts Council is kicking off the fund drive with more than $95,000 of the goal already raised, with the drive lasting until June 30.

Kerley reviewed the concerts and shows that will be held in the amphitheatre, announcing that the amphitheatre series is scheduled to kick off on April 29 with Jukebox Rehab and has a record 58 shows planned. She reviewed the rack card art camps that will be held weekly this summer beginning on June 5 with Arts Alive. She pointed out that the council dance program, led by Madeline Matanick, Jamie Davis, and Tyler Matanick, has more than 135 dancers enrolled who attend weekly classes, work to get ready for a May recital.

She pointed out that the Andy Griffith Museum continues to thrive and that there were more than 65,000 guests during the past year. In addition, there are voice lessons, acting workshops, musical theater dance, and weekly line dance classes

She shared that upcoming programming includes the Arts Ball on Feb. 17, featuring Band of Oz at Cross Creek Country Club and noted that all the proceeds from this event support free cultural arts programs for 25 area schools.

Additional upcoming programs include old-time workshops with Martha and Emily Spencer, and the Tommy Jarrell Birthday Concert on Saturday, Feb. 25 featuring the Whitetop Mountain Band; Wayne Erbsen hosting a beginning banjo workshop on Friday Feb. 24 followed by a concert in the Andy Griffith Museum Theatre; The Allen Boys Sacred Steel Band performing that same evening at the Earle; and the annual Tommy Jarrell Youth Competition to be hosted by Jim Vipperman in the Andy Griffith Museum Theatre on Feb. 25.

Tanya Jones, Surry Arts Council executive director, closed the kick-off meeting by introducing and thanking staff, board members, volunteers, and supporters for their work and creative solutions to the challenges of the past few years. Ben Currin was recognized as being “an amazing volunteer who attends and helps at SAC events ranging from Mayberry Days to ushering for theatre, concerts, and assisting at the gates during the amphitheatre series.“

Membership, giving opportunities, ticket purchases and program information are available online www.surryarts.org or by calling 336-786-7998 or emailing alena@surryarts.org. Movie information including times and features can be accessed by calling 336-786-2222 any time. Pledges and contributions may be made online or by mailing checks or pledges directly to the Surry Arts Council, PO Box 141, Mount Airy, NC.

Surry County Manager Chris Knopf presented the State of the County Thursday to business and civic leaders at a luncheon held at White Sulphur Springs in Mount Airy. He said that the state of the county is a matter of perspective and that, “If you ask anyone what condition our county is in, you’d get a lot of different responses.”

Folks gravitate to the financial health of the county, so he outlined that and demographic data to allow for comparison. With 71,152 people reported Surry County ranks 32 out of 100 North Carolina counties in population.

Knopf said that the population rate has stabilized somewhat, and that growth is still being seen from those moving away from the cities to find a different way of life than is found in cities or along the I-40 corridor.

One of the greatest recruitment tools that Surry County has to offer is an exceptionally steady property tax rate. The Board of Commissioners make it a point of order and take great pride in recognizing the property tax rate — the county ranks 81 of 100 in property tax rates.

On taxes, the county has been raking in big dollars with a continued change in spending habits that has emerged post-pandemic. When stores closed to in-person shopping and malls became hot spots to be avoided, folks turned to online shopping.

Knopf said, “When you buy something from Best Buy online and have it shipped here, the sales tax stays here. When you go to Winston-Salem to go to Best Buy, the sales tax stays there.”

He echoed a point of view espoused by board Chairman Eddie Harris who said the sales tax is the most equitable way to levy a tax. Knopf simply called it “the fair tax, because everyone pays it.”

Sales tax revenue is a tide that lifts all boats he said, noting that not only the county but also the municipalities and the school systems all benefit from increased sales tax revenue. The growth of sales tax revenue from fiscal year 2012-13 ($12.6 million) to 2021-22 ($21.5 million) is pronounced and this growth is not expected to change given the trend toward online shopping.

Knopf pointed to historical budget data to show the recession of 2008 had a tremendous impact on this area. However, improvements have been pronounced in the past decade Knopf said. He noted in the FY 2012-13 the county’s budget was $70.5 million had a general fund balance of $27 million, but he noted that only $736,000 of those were in the “unassigned ledger,” think of that as the cash on hand for emergencies, he said.

Flash forward to the FY 2022-23 budget of $93.6 million and the general fund balance is $62.7 million with $17.8 million in the unassigned, able to be spent, column. This does not mean the county wants to or will spend those funds, quite the opposite. The conservative county commissioners are known to look for ways to save or not open the checkbook in the first place and are pleased with the growth of the general fund.

Surry County’s median household income increased by 41% over the past five years and now more than 54% of the county’s households earn more than $50,000 a year. Wages are up in the county as well with the average being $714 per week, ranked 48 of 100.

That said, 23% of county homes are on food/nutrition assistance (up 19% since 2019) and 34% of residents are on Medicaid. With Raleigh taking up expansion of the plan, it may yield as many as 42% of Surry residents enrolled if it passes.

The assembled business and civic leaders heard from Knopf the results of a survey of local business where they were asked to rank what are the biggest challenges they are facing. The majority (52%) said that finding and retaining an appropriate level of staffing for their workforce was a challenge.

For others they said sales and marketing (25%), pandemic related changes (23%), and learning how to scale up a business (19%) presented challenges. Housing for workers (19%) rounded out the top five and Knopf discussed the housing challenges the county faces.

There is a noted lack of inventory in fair market housing which finds it roots in that new homes are not being built in their area at the rate they once were. Knopf reported there has been no significant residential neighborhood development in the past several years.

He informed the number of homes built in the 1990s and the early 2000s, before the Great Recession, was more than double than new housing starts in the 2010s. In the 1990s and 2000s there were around 2,000 houses built in each decade but that number plummeted to around 800 for the 2010s.

Another concern is the age of homes in the county compared to the rest of the state. Other counties average between 30-35% of homes in the area to have been built after 1999; locally that number is closer to 15% and 11% of county homes were built before WWII. Older homes that are not being replaced with new construction have led to shortages.

Younger people are especially sensitive to these shortages and are leaving the area to live as they cannot find housing. Knopf told the crowd his office and the county have tried to attract new builders of market rate housing as there is strong demand for single family homes and townhomes in this area.

He made sweet lemonade from a sack of COVID lemons by explaining the pandemic brought federal relief dollars to the area that freed up general ledger funds to be spent elsewhere. He alluded to the fact that not everyone is thrilled the feds doled out trillions in relief, but for communities across the country he called it, “A once in a lifetime opportunity.”

Long-standing projects that needed attention such as replacing the lights on sports fields at Cedar Ridge, Shoals, Mountain Park, and Dobson that were in dire need as well as work on the White Plains Recreation Center were able to be addressed with the financial flexibility relief money afforded.

It also allowed the county to aid non-profit organizations including Mayberry4Paws, Surry Arts Council, and Habitat for Humanity in the area who shared in $2.1 million in additional county funding.

The survey gauged what respondents were most pleased and displeased about with living here. Surry Community College and the area school systems received high marks as did the quality of utilities and quality of life (access to shopping, dining, healthcare), and broadband speeds.

On the tail end of the scale were a local transportation network, availability of workforce training, and residential housing option which were ranked as areas residents were more displeased.

While not on the list, there is one item that is driving residents and leaders alike batty and as Knopf neared the end of the presentation a slide appeared with just one word: litter. It was accompanied by photos of trash lining Linville Road and there was an audible groan from some in the crowd.

Knopf threw up his hands, metaphorically, on the issue of litter and said that he was not sure why this was an issue here in Surry County. He had visited rural South Carolina recently and said he did not see a similar little problem there, “and I looked for it.”

The county’s program to pay 501c3 non-profits to conduct litter collection have slowed to a trickle even as the payout has gone up. Knopf noted organizations do not have the time or the volunteers to make such a commitment.

When the county opened the program last year to any private contractor who may want to pick up litter, “There was not a single taker last year.” He said two new groups have applied to participate in the program since there has been increased recent attention on the matter again recently.

No matter who deals with it, litter will have to be dealt with and Knopf noted that in a county that is increasingly reliant on tourism, trashy roadways send the wrong message.

A major construction project along the U.S. 601 business corridor in Mount Airy — to implement what’s been called a “superstreet” concept — again has been delayed, which is either good or bad news depending on one’s perspective.

Based on earlier plans by the N.C. Department of Transportation, which maintains the major route also known as Rockford Street, a contract for the work was scheduled to be let in June 2023.

However, the DOT reported this week that the project has been pushed back until Fiscal Year 2025 — meaning construction won’t begin until sometime after July 1, 2024 when that fiscal year begins, the agency’s Division 11 Engineer Michael Poe confirmed Thursday.

This roughly one-year delay has transpired through revisions made by the state Board of Transportation to North Carolina’s Transportation Improvement Plan for 2020-2029. The board did so to allow additional time for right-of-way acquisitions for property needed along the local project’s path — from U.S. 52 to Forrest Drive (SR 1365) near Walmart.

Poe, whose Division 11 district is based in North Wilkesboro and includes Surry and seven other area counties, explained Thursday that no particular right-of-way problems out of the ordinary have been encountered with the U.S. 601 upgrade.

He said the construction postponement reflects lingering issues that caused earlier delays of DOT projects in general, due to COVID-19 and funding limitations, including disrupting the acquisition process.

“We basically had to start over with — updating all the appraisals,” Poe said of a key step in that process. “It’s just a lot of work.” The same issues have derailed similar efforts around the state, the Division 11 engineer says.

The most recent delay is on top of others for the Mount Airy project that originally was scheduled to be under construction in 2020.

It is anticipated to cost $11.7 million.

DOT officials have said that what commonly is known as the superstreet project will introduce a raised median configuration along U.S. 601 to re-direct or restrict left turns and across-the-highway movements.

Side-street travelers wanting to cross U.S. 601 or turn left onto it, for example, would need to first go right and then make a U-turn at a safe location to reach desired destinations in those directions.

The raised concrete medians will replace the present center turn lane along Rockford Street. It is virtually uncontrolled and linked to high accident and fatality rates in the U.S. 601 business corridor that has seen tremendous growth and increased traffic, prompting the DOT to prescribe the change.

In one recent 12-month period, 145 traffic accidents occurred at various intersections from U.S. 52 to Forrest Drive, according to statistics compiled by Bonnie Overby, records administrator for the Mount Airy Police Department,

Forty-six of those accidents were in the area of U.S. 601 and U.S. 52, with 29 logged at U.S. 601 and Forrest Drive. Other trouble spots included U.S. 601’s intersection with Reeves Drive (19 accidents), Edgewood Drive (18), Stewart Drive (13) and Mountain View Drive (11), with smaller numbers occurring elsewhere along that route.

One fatality was reported for that annual period, involving a crash at U.S. 601 and Reeves Drive.

Although the upcoming construction will cause a major upheaval to the U.S. 601 corridor which will be long in duration, observers agree that some remedy is needed for what has become the busiest section of town.

This was determined by highway engineers to be the change to a superstreet.

“I think overall it would promote a safer and more efficient flow of traffic,” Mount Airy Police Chief Dale Watson has said. “So I think it would serve to make a safer roadway.”

But Watson says an adjustment to the new configuration will be needed by motorists.

Local citizens, including business owners in the project’s path, gave mixed reviews to the U.S. 601 improvement plan during a public meeting in November 2019 at Reeves Community Center.

After months of relative inactivity at the site of a collapsed building in downtown Mount Airy, the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel is flickering in terms of having it repaired.

“We’re hopefully getting closer,” City Manager Stan Farmer said Thursday in reference to ongoing delays surrounding the Main-Oak Emporium structure at the corner of those two streets in the heart of the central business district, which collapsed on July 5.

Farmer’s expression of optimism originally surfaced during a Feb. 2 meeting of the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners. He reported a breakthrough with a regulatory hurdle affecting the repair of the structure that has languished since July while disrupting downtown traffic.

“The developers of the Main-Oak Emporium building have dropped off a full set of plans to be reviewed with the county building inspector,” the city manager advised at last week’s meeting.

“So there’s movement on it,” Farmer said Thursday in elaborating on the submission of the plans. “It’s just a good sign.”

This is important since those plans must be approved by the county before a building permit can be issued which will put repair crews into motion.

Farmer, who has closely monitored the situation and updated progress on it since the collapse, said the developers have told them they hope to get all the paperwork matters completed so work on the building possibly can begin in March.

“But buildings don’t get engineered and repaired overnight,” Farmer said in cautioning that a number of variables could disrupt that timetable.

Since the partial collapse last July of the historic structure dating to 1905, East Oak Street has been closed to traffic at that corner and travel on North Main Street reduced to one lane.

Access to nearby businesses has been disrupted as a result of the closure that was enforced while demolition crews removed debris and to ensure safety as it awaits repairs.

Insurance issues were cited as a holdup early on in that process, with the last remaining obstacle seemingly the nod from local inspection personnel. One consideration has involved preserving the facade of the historic structure, with previous reports noting that tax credits were being sought to aid that objective.

“Early last week they dropped off the plans, structural and architectural plans, to the county building inspector,” Farmer explained. PME (plumbing, mechanical and electrical) plans also are part of the mix — which have passed preliminary muster.

“They gave us the opportunity with (municipal) staff to review the first couple,” Farmer said of the developers.

“So this should be a complete set,” he said of the plans received by the Surry building inspector, “with little error to be found if any.”

Secretive no more, Project Cobra has been uncoiled and brought forward from the shadows to be revealed. Surry County will be the beneficiary of its snakebite as it was announced Friday that it is Renfro Brands who will be the beneficiary of tax incentives to grow their operation on Riverside Drive in Mount Airy.

Renfro Brands said in a statement that the firm plans to invest approximately $2 million in equipment and infrastructure at its location in Mount Airy, and add what could eventually be close to three dozen jobs. Renfro Corporation changed name to Renfro Brands with its sale to a private holding company, The Renco Group Inc., in 2021.

Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Dave Dinkins said, “We are excited to announce the expansion of our Riverside Drive facility. Our company was founded in Mount Airy in 1921 and we are glad to be able to continue to invest in the community.”

“This investment in our Mount Airy operations will add new and expanded capabilities that will keep us on the leading edge of our industry.”

Renfro Brands is well-known to residents of this area as a leading designer, manufacturer, and marketer of quality socks and legwear. The products they produce are known to thankful feet around the world. According to Renfro officials, they are likely to have made one in five socks sold in the United States.

The company is the licensee for renowned global brands including Polo, Ralph Lauren, Dr. Scholl’s, Chaps, New Balance, Merrell, Sperry and Jeep. Renfro also owns premium fashion and performance brands, including K. Bell, HOTSOX and Copper Sole.

Mount Airy and Surry County were in competition with other locations in other states for the consolidation of operations that Project Cobra proposed. At that time the company was not identified except to say they had over 60 on staff and were looking to add as many as 35 more. There was some level of concern that there may be jobs lost locally had the decision gone another way.

To prevent that and entice the mystery company to expand and grow its footprint, Surry County and the City of Mount Airy each approved tax incentives for “Project Cobra” in late 2022 even though the details of the project site and company were kept a tight secret.

Some residents at the time questioned the level of secrecy and the county commissioners explained that tactical advantage for the business as well as the local governments was a key factor.

Renfro Brands has committed to invest $1,969,710 in Project Cobra during the public hearings and will receive $36,244 from Surry County and $36,341 from the City of Mount Airy in the form of local government incentives. The incentives are performance-based and reflect the company’s investment in taxable property.

City of Mount Airy Mayor Jon Cawley said, “We are thankful that Renfro Corporation continues to make investments in Mount Airy. Renfro has a long history as a strong corporate citizen and provides quality jobs for our citizens. This investment further solidifies Renfro’s commitment to our community.”

Eddie Harris, chair of the Surry County Board of Commissioners, said, “I want to thank Renfro Corporation for this expansion in Surry County and thank them for their continued investment in Surry County. When a global company like Renfro, with a historical birthright in Surry County, chooses to continue their investment in our community, it reinforces our position as a business-friendly location.”

Harris echoes the sentiment that Surry County is “open for business” as the county continues to seek opportunities and offer performance-based tax incentives to potential businesses in order to improve the economic outlook for the county and offer more jobs for residents.

“This incentive will keep people working and create new opportunities for others, and add new value to Surry County’s tax record,” the former director of the Surry Economic Development Partnership Todd Tucker said at the time of Project Cobra’s proposal.

According to the project’s presentations Alabama and South Carolina were also being considered as possible sites for what was described as the consolidation of a warehouse and distribution center.

“What do we have to lose?” Commissioner Van Tucker asked of the project. “I think it’s the best kind of proposed incentive package since I’ve seen since I’ve on the board. I don’t see how you can lose on this kind of deal.”

“It’s always been incumbent on this board to support small business in Surry County,” said Chairman Eddie Harris in initial support of the incentives package. He has expressed reticence in the past on tax incentives for businesses, pointing to what he described as past incentive packages that ran into the seven figures with enough conditions and stipulations to paper over the washroom wall with; those days are gone.

The expansion will add up to 35 more jobs to the area and will keep existing jobs here which will allow Renfro Brands to remain a valued member of the community. “Renfro supports the communities in which it operates, including providing financial support and facilitating the participation of its associates in causes including United Fund, United Way, American Red Cross and in support of disaster relief efforts around the world,” company officials said.

Establishing the county as a sanctuary for life, the board of county commissioners Monday voted to approve the non-binding resolution that had been requested from some members of the community last year.

This endeavor was a labor of love for supporters of the resolution who felt that they were advocating for those who could not advocate for themselves. They expressed that these are not embryos or hypothetical future citizens, but rather from the moment of conception are full human beings with all the same unalienable God given rights the founders said shall be afforded to all.

Kevin Reece told the board that he was glad they were taking up the resolution and recognizing that life begins at conception. “We’re here because God gave us life and out mothers made the choice to go through with it,” he said. “I’m glad my mother went through with it.”

“I’m thankful to have three minutes you gave me because the kids aborted don’t get that. I’m happy to speak on their behalf,” Jason Johnson of Snow Hill Baptist said in support of the measure.

He was speaking for himself and members of the gallery when he said, “I am glad God gave me life, and gave me eternal life. God is pro-life and he wants us to be pro-life.”

Since the Supreme Court’s ruling Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization struck down the precedent set by Roe v. Wade, Reece said that more and more people are coming into North Carolina to have abortions.

The Roe decision established federal level abortion policy that was the law of the land, but Dobbs has thrown the matter back for individual states to make their own policies.

Some states have more restrictions on when an abortion can be done. Gov. Cooper has noted the state will not seek to prosecute anyone crossing state lines to seek treatment they cannot obtain in their home state causing one of many slippery slopes due to a wide range of state policies on abortion.

“It’s my belief people have been flocking to our state to murder children. The more towns and boards that recognize that life begins at conception sends the message to Raleigh that we need to do something about it,” he said.

Woodrow Holder of Holy Cross Missionary Baptist recounted from the Old Testament the tale of Cain and Abel, “Cain slew Abel, he killed his brother. The Bible says his brother’s blood cried out from the ground.”

Holder’s point of view was that being a remaining a silent casual observer to abortion is similar to being an accessory to murder. “ I am sorry to have to say this but I am afraid we have all slew our brothers and sisters because we haven’t stood up more for life. It breaks my heart the shape this nation’s got in.”

“It’s shocking that we have to be here doing this,” Paula Stanley agreed. “I can’t believe we live in a nation where we have to say this…. We’ve lost our way.” She feels that every county across the state should be taking the same stance to proclaim themselves advocates of pro-life policies.

Advocates for the unborn rose from unlikely places. “I don’t understand why a man that is 6’4” and weighs 280 pounds would have anything to do with this, but God keeps putting it in my path. I am here, as has been said, to stand up for those who can’t stand up for themselves,” Mitch Callaway of Stones Throw Christian Ministries said.

Some expressed they did not appreciate the way distant politicians and judges have forced their point of view on others like, “The so-called intellectual elite…who arrogantly think that they know better than us ignorant rednecks of Surry County tell us that women must have a choice; after all, it is their bodies,” Earl Blackburn explained to the board.

“Yes, they do have a choice just like a person who owns a gun has a choice.”

“If a person with the right to choose takes a gun and kills someone else, that choice becomes murder. Abortion is the same way…. Do not babies in the womb have a choice whether they live or die? I think they do but they cannot speak up for themselves,” he said.

Since 1970 the CDC, Blackburn said, reported 70 million abortions but that states such as Illinois and California have not reported their data. The true number of lost souls cannot be calculated and among those could have been the next Mozart, Michael Jordan, or Billy Graham, “Alas, we’ll never know.”

Commissioner Van Tucker echoed the same. “I too am an adoptive father and was blessed to adopt an infant son with my precious wife Karen. We brought him home at three days and he is now 37 years old: he is a gift from God.”

“We brought him home and probably helped his chance at life, but he has greatly enriched my life and many, many more. I have to believe saving life and protecting it in the womb could have some other great results like that.”

Martin Cable got choked up when explained he wasn’t a preacher but, “Just a citizen who had the privilege of adopting a baby girl that otherwise I never would have gotten to raise. The mom made the choice to keep her, and I was fortunate enough to adopt her… a life than could have been aborted, but it changed my life.”

Chairman Eddie Harris regularly poses questions on the nature of the family in modern American life. He has asked if some of the dysfunction and disconnect of the 21st century may be caused in part from the breakdown of values. The value humans place on life is high on that list. “There’s been too much cheapening of human life… it’s a disgrace to our nation. I hope God can bring some change to our nation and make us appreciate the sanctity of life.”

He went on to note that the resolution was not a direct response to Dobbs v. Jackson but rose from the public and comments during open forum from individuals and groups such as Lifeline Pregnancy Center and Stones Throw. With other county elected officials on hand from Wilkes County and the Town of Rhonda who helped the board refine the resolution, and with similar resolutions passing in neighboring counties Harris said, “The timing is appropriate, and the time is now.”

“I am happy to make the motion that we adopt the resolution…declaring Surry County to be a strong advocate for life and urging the citizen of the county to promote and defend the inalienable right to life,” Tucker said, bringing the matter to a vote which had the expected outcome, a unanimous decision in support of the resolution.

From its introduction the five members of the Surry County commissioners spoke in support of the pro-life resolution. While there are nuanced differences between them on abortion born from pragmatism, they were in agreement that life is sacred and each one has its own intrinsic value.

PILOT MOUNTAIN — A concert by the Grammy-winning band Old Crow Medicine Show is scheduled in April to headline a new festival being launched by the town of Pilot Mountain.

The first-ever Pilot Mountain Outdoor Adventure Festival and Expo is set for the weekend of April 21-23, to include activities both downtown and at Armfield Civic and Recreation Center Park nearby.

Old Crow Medicine Show is slated to perform at 8 p.m. on April 22 in the baseball field section of the Armfield Center.

“We know we can fit 6,000 (people) into that area,” said Scott Needham, a Pilot Mountain town commissioner who has been involved with putting the new festival together along with other municipal personnel.

Needham was referring to Old Crow Medicine Show’s tendency to draw large, sell-out crowds, something being signaled as word of its upcoming appearance has spread.

He said Tuesday that 2,000 tickets already had been scooped up by fans of the group specializing in old-time/folk/alternative country/Americana sounds with a reputation for putting on high-energy concerts.

“We sold about 1,000 tickets our first week,” Needham added.

In addition to capturing a Grammy Award in 2015 for Best Folk Album, titled “Remedy,” Old Crow Medicine Show has been inducted into the Grand Ole Opry. Its more well-known songs include “Wagon Wheel” and ”Paint This Town.”

The band originated in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and presently is based in Nashville.

Needham said one of its members, guitarist Mason Via, hails from Stokes County.

Tickets can be ordered via the town of Pilot Mountain website at https://www.pilotmountainnc.org/vist/page/music

A lawn concert-style seating format will be involved, with attendees invited to bring lawn chairs and blankets but no coolers or outside food/drinks.

In addition to the music at Armfield Civic and Recreation Center Park, seven groups will perform at a downtown bandstand on West Main Street on both Saturday and Sunday during the Pilot Mountain Outdoor Adventure Festival and Expo weekend.

Further planned is a Friday night downtown block party on April 21 to feature music by a DJ.

While much attention surrounds the concert by Old Crow Medicine Show, Needham said the overall purpose of the Pilot Mountain Outdoor Adventure Festival and Expo involves promoting local natural resources.

He pointed out that plans for the inaugural gathering are coinciding with 2023 being declared the Year of the Trail in North Carolina.

To that end, the festival is an attempt to showcase such attributes in the Pilot Mountain area.

“We have two state parks that are real close together,” Needham said of Pilot Mountain and Hanging Rock. “We think our future is in the outdoor recreation economy.”

As is the case with many small towns in the region, Pilot Mountain has suffered from the closing of traditional textile industries that were their lifeblood for generations.

Needham said it is hoped the festival will highlight what the town has to offer and perhaps entice manufacturers or retailers of products geared toward the outdoor recreation industry.

“Hopefully, it will improve our economy,” he said regarding implications of the upcoming event.

Along with music, it will feature elements stressing the outdoor focus, including a bike criterium (typically a mass start, multi-lap event contested on a closed course where laps tend to be a mile or less and include four to six corners); a disc golf tournament at Armfield Civic Center; and a 5K run.

Various vendors also are to be part of the festival footprint, including those offering beer and wine, among other attractions.

Organizers believe the booking of Old Crow Medicine Show will be a major driver for the what the Pilot Mountain Outdoor Adventure Festival and Expo seeks to accomplish.

Needham credits Christy Craig, local events coordinator, who chairs the Pilot Mountain Tourism Development Authority, for lining up a group of that caliber.

“She really beat the bushes,” he said.

Needham invites everyone to come and enjoy all aspects of the new festival “and help our area grow.”

On the heels of a successful Mayberry Citizens Academy last fall, Mount Airy officials are rolling out a spring edition of the program to give local residents the opportunity to learn more about city government.

“It is no secret that citizens across the United States possess little knowledge about their government or its operations,” City Manager Stan Farmer said in a statement announcing the latest academy and the role it can play in addressing that issue.

“This is particularly true at the local government level,” Farmer added. “Ironically, residents know least about the level of government closest to them.”

Mount Airy officials are seeking to bridge this gap with the continuation of the Mayberry Citizens Academy.

Its second version will start on March 7 and run for a total of eight sessions each Tuesday evening over an eight-week period until April 25.

During those classes, to run from 5:30 to 7 p.m., a different aspect of local government will be covered by the city manager or relevant department head.

The range of topics includes city and state government relations; fire operations; police and code enforcement; public works/utilities; finance; parks and recreation; and planning. The last session will be a graduation ceremony.

Farmer pointed out that the aim of the program is to better inform citizens about matters that typically arise in municipal government and alleviate a lack of understanding often greeting those.

“This paradox can create challenges for local government leaders who try to garner resident buy-in, particularly when addressing complex issues such as new ordinances, funding capital projects or rezoning decisions,” the city manager stated.

“Although articles (from) the local newspaper, city website, social media and Board of Commissioners meetings can help local governments connect with residents, public sector leaders have long sought better methods for promoting engagement and information sharing.”

The Mayberry Citizens Academy reflects a nationwide trend of local government officials initiating programs promoting a better understanding of local governments, according to Farmer.

Variously referred to as citizen academies or leadership institutes, these programs seek to educate through direct contact with public officials, site visits and hands-on activities.

“These programs are fairly common throughout the nation,” Farmer advised.

The upcoming Mayberry Citizens Academy is limited to 15 attendees.

“Several of Mount Airy’s finest have signed up already for the spring class,” the city manager reported last Friday. He says there is no deadline to do so, with the registration to proceed on a first-come, first-served based until the class limit is reached.

Those interested in learning about their local government and having a little fun in the process, Farmer pledged, are asked to complete a short, half-page application on the city of Mount Airy website — at https://www.mountairy.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=495— which can be sent to sfarmer@mountairy.org or dropped off at the Municipal Building.

Applicants must be city residents, but if there are seats remaining non-residents may be considered. Emphasis will be given to creating a diverse class from as many different neighborhoods within Mount Airy as possible, organizers say.

An attendance policy will be in force to ensure a full and dedicated class. Participants missing two or more classes do not graduate, but will have the option to make up classes they missed when the next academy takes place.

Those doing so may graduate with the next academy.

During the graduation ceremony, each student will be presented with a certificate of completion signed by the mayor, and a class shirt embroidered with the city logo.

Their pictures will be taken with the mayor and classmates to be sent to the local newspaper and other media outlets.

In a year that ends in an odd number there should be little campaigning or electioneering going on. At this time of the election cycle only the big dogs should be sniffing around Iowa, New Hampshire, or the new belle of the ball for Democrats: South Carolina.

In Dobson though it’s time for a special election for three candidates seeking two open seats among the town’s commissioners. What was thought to be a settled affair, and a win for incumbents Walter White and J. Wayne Atkins over newcomer John Jonczak and the late Sharon Gates-Hodges, was thrown into utter chaos by the actions of a single poll worker.

Now, with dates of importance fast approaching, the Surry County Board of Elections has been working to ensure that all residents are aware of the upcoming special election that was ordered by the state Board of Elections due to the election day snafu.

For those who need to register to vote, the state deadline for voter registration forms to be delivered or have been postmarked is 5 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 10 so that the requests may be processed in time.

One stop early voting for the special election will begin on Thursday, Feb. 16 at the polling location at the Surry County Service Center located at 915 E. Atkins St. in Dobson. Voters will continue to be able to take advantage of early voting through Saturday, March 4.

Dobson’s special election for commissioner will hold in person voting on Tuesday, March 7 from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Service Center.

Absentee ballots are already available and can be requested online by visiting https://votebymail.ncsbe.gov/app/home. The last day to request an absentee ballot is Tuesday, Feb. 28.

To request an absentee ballot a voter must provide their date of birth and one of the following to verify their identity: a North Carolina issued identification card, driver’s license number, or last for of social security number. The request must be signed by either the voter themself or guardian, as needed.

Once voters have requested an absentee ballot BallotTrax tracks the status of their mail ballot and can send a series of alerts notifying where each voter’s mail-in ballot is in the election process, from its initial printing through its acceptance.

Some residents have expressed concerns about ballot security and the sanctity of the elections process. Being able to track a mail-in vote through to the end may provide some relief for those who find absentee voting as prone to fraud.

The November election was thrown into disarray when an assortment of claims of improper conduct by the poll worker were brought to the attention of the county board of elections on election day.

It was to have been a four-way race for commissioner, but with the unexpected passing of Gates-Hodges shortly before the general election that field thinned itself; the ballot did not. As early voting had already begun, all four names remained on the ballot.

After votes were counted on election day Atkins got 184 votes, White raked in 167, and Jonczak came in third in a race for two seats with 159 votes. Gates-Hodges still garnered 106 votes and there were three write-in votes for commissioner.

The eight-vote difference between White and Jonczak was not narrow enough to trigger an automatic recount, Huff told the county elections board in December.

A poll worker was accused of telling voters in ways both active and passive that one of the candidates on the ballot had died. One voter claimed to have been told that candidate Jonczak was the deceased party, even though Jonczak was outside at that time greeting voters.

According to Michella Huff, Surry County’s elections director, there were multiple mistakes made by that poll worker. She told the county board of elections that poll workers should not deliver any information of any sort on candidates to voters. Directing a voter away from a candidate, even a dead one, is an implied endorsement.

Election integrity has been called into question repeatedly since the 2020 presidential election with supporters of former President Donald Trump contending that the election was “stolen” or “rigged,” although those claims have been proven false through security checks and voting audits. Since that time there has been a concerted grassroots movement from conservatives to demand access to voting machines or move voting away from machines and back to paper ballots.

The county took its time in hearing challenges to the outcome of the Dobson race and appeals of those challenges before referring the matter to the state board of elections for further consideration. Along with the referral was the county’s recommendation that a new election would be the best recourse for the candidates in the race as well as the voters.

“An improper election can hurt a community and set back its growth. Win or lose, I would think all candidates would want to know they won or lost the way our election system was designed,” Jonczak said Monday. “As a first time political candidate, I see how easily the voting process can be flawed. I am pleased, however, with the course of action and it has restored my faith in the process.”

To make sure the will of the voters is properly heard, the state authorized the special election. While there was a problem with the vote, the county and state boards of election are working to get the result right. This sort of transparency may help restore faith in a system that many Americans feel is broken.

When the dust settles and the winning combination of White, Atkins, or Jonczak are seated among the Dobson board, Surry County residents can take a breath and relax knowing that filing season for the 2024 election cycle is ten months away.

Mount Airy’s governmental leaders are officially recognizing the celebration of Black History Month in the city, an observance one representative of a local group asserts isn’t limited to a particular race.

“A lot of people think it’s just for blacks,” said Teressa Spencer, a longtime member of the Surry County NAACP and a former officer of that group.

“But it’s not,” Spencer added Monday regarding the lessons of justice and fair treatment the month seeks to highlight. “Equality is for everyone.”

A proclamation honoring Black History Month was introduced during a meeting of the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners last Thursday night.

It was read by Mayor Jon Cawley and presented to Craig Smith, Surry NAACP president, as other members of the local African-American community watched appreciatively from the audience.

The proclamation says the special month was formally adopted in 1976 “to honor and affirm the importance of black history throughout our American experience” each February.

It also serves to promote cultural enrichment, ethnic pride and self-esteem by recognizing the lives and achievements of great African-Americans, the proclamation states.

“African-Americans have made valuable and lasting contributions to communities, achieving exceptional success in all aspects of society including business, education, politics, science and the arts.”

This month’s observance in the city, state and nation highlights African-Americans who’ve played significant roles in economic, cultural, spiritual and political development while working tirelessly to maintain and promote their individual culture and history, the document further says.

“Black History Month is a time for all Americans to remember the stories and teachings of those who helped build our nation, took a stance against prejudice to build lives of dignity and opportunity, advanced the cause of civil rights and strengthened families and communities.”

In issuing the proclamation, Mayor Cawley urged all citizens to join him in paying tribute to African-Americans and encouraging appropriate programs and activities that honor their notable contributions.

It was mentioned Thursday night that such attention should be bestowed on deserving Americans each day of every month and not just one particular occasion, which Spencer — an NAACP member of about 25 years — believes highlights Black History Month’s universal nature.

“Equality for all,” she said.

Disproportionate to their size (5 feet, 2½ inches tall) a museum devoted to Original Siamese Twins Eng and Chang Bunker will be a huge part of a new Arts Center in Mount Airy — but there’s more.

“It is as multi-functional as possible,” Surry Arts Council Executive Director Tanya Jones said Thursday afternoon when giving city officials a tour of the facility developed by that organization.

The mayor, commissioners and key staff members including City Manager Stan Farmer got the chance to see inside the new building, for which construction began in September 2021 and now is nearing its final stages to allow use around early spring.

Located on Rockford Street near the Mount Airy Public Library, the center will become the new headquarters of the Surry Arts Council staff — now jammed into a small office space at the Andy Griffith Playhouse.

Yet in listening to Jones as she showed off its different rooms last week, one got the impression that the center largely will be a community facility.

Space is available for classes, such as line dancing; special presentations by artists; events such as class reunions; a gallery highlighting the work of Surry County photographers; displays of locally made products; public restrooms that will be available during concerts at Blackmon Amphitheatre nearby; and other facets including those highlighting unique Mount Airy claims to fame including its white granite.

The building, a $3.5 million project, contains about 6,000 square feet.

Project funding came from multiple sources, including $700,000 from the city government, which will own the facility that sits on municipal property and lease it to the Surry Arts Council for programming and other uses.

“As some of you know, this has been a work in progress,” Jones told city officials during the tour of the facility that has been planned for about 10 years.

The concept originally called for a two-story structure.

“When the funds got cut, we just cut the top of the building,” Jones explained during the walk-through. The structure also was shifted slightly from the initial site planned to avoid problems with granite — a familiar construction nemesis in these parts.

“We did not change the footprint,” the Surry Arts Council official said of fulfilling the overall vision for the center that she and her staff sought.

“We’re super-excited,” Jones told the tour group in discussing the project. “We couldn’t be happier.”

While leading everyone to a large, now-mostly empty room in the Arts Center, Jones explains that it soon will become home to the Siamese twins museum.

The conjoined pair played a significant role in not only local, but national history. “They were the first Thais to become citizens of this country,” said Jones, who is a great-great-granddaughter of Eng Bunker.

He and his brother grew up poor during the early 1800s in Siam, the present-day Thailand, and also were of Chinese descent. The two migrated to America, becoming a major show business attraction because of the oddity surrounding their attachment at the chest by a narrow band of flesh.

Eventually, they moved to the Mount Airy and maintained separate households while raising large families with wives who were Quaker sisters.

Jones said during the tour that the idea behind the museum is to tell the complete story of the Original Siamese Twins who popularized the term now used to refer to other conjoined persons.

This will include a boat depicting the abilities of Eng and Chang to perfect watercraft and other skills together in their homeland despite the twins’ physical obstacle, and various artifacts. One is a hollowed-out log used at one of the brother’s farms in Surry to salt-cure meat.

In addition to a statue of the twins, the Arts Center museum will contain pop culture elements surrounding them, including many books, cartoons and other artwork featuring the brothers, who also were the subject of an essay by Mark Twain.

The museum will provide “lots of opportunities to educate from many different angles,” according to Jones. It has generated much excitement at the Royal Thai Embassy in Washington, with the 190th year of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Thailand being celebrated in 2023.

Jones said the Surry Arts Council has sought to have as many local workers as possible engaged in the project, including the general contractor for the building, Garanco Inc. of Pilot Mountain.

The tour produced many pleased looks — and maybe a few oohs and aahs — among city elected officials, with Mayor Jon Cawley articulating their collective appreciation as he left the new Arts Center.

“Another world-class facility in Mount Airy,” Cawley said while expressing thanks to the Surry Arts Council and its board of directors for what has transpired.

“I want to thank Tanya and her board and their dream and hard work to see it through,” the mayor commented.

Jones has said that a ribbon-cutting event to officially welcome the new facility will be held at some point.

Tony Kirby, owner of K&D Signs of Mount Airy, has owned the building at 1078 S. Main St. since 2015 and has been slowly renovating it ever since. He said he has been amazed at what lies beneath the surface of the building that was ensconced in a metal wrap when past efforts to keep it painted were unsuccessful.

On the wall of the main lobby is a large photo of Barber Hosiery Mill, which once occupied the building on Main Street but is largely unknown to local residents. Kirby is asking the public for help in collecting photos and memorabilia from the Barber Hosiery Mills era to create a display in the K&D Signs lobby to honor the rich history of the former mill and its workers.

If Kirby is right, many do not know that T.C. Barber graduated from N.C. State and with a degree in textiles, came to Mount Airy to manage a small mill before Renfro Hosiery Mills Company scooped him up in 1921. He then opened the Barber Hosiery Mill in 1937 which were “manufacturers of fine quality infants, misses’ and ladies’ anklets” according to period documents. Renfro bought the business in 1972 and renamed it the Renfro Barber Street plant.

When touring the upper level, Kirby gestured to the many panes of plywood that covered where dozens of original windows had once been. He said it gives him pause to stand on the floor where the mill machinery once was and imagine all the windows open, the cool air of a spring or fall evening wafting through.

In his mind he can imagine the mill floor as it was and on hot days he said the old floor boards release some of the oil that had seeped into them over the years.

So much of the building is just as it was in the 1940s, and while Renfro may have laid 1970s era linoleum over beautiful hardwoods, they remained beneath just waiting to see the light of day.

The memories of Barber Hosiery have been similarly papered over Kirby said, and that is part of the reason he is seeking to create a place to remember Barber Hosiery. After Renfro bought them out, he said that is what most people remember, “Everyone knows Renfro, but no one remembers Barber.”

Those who do remember Barber Hosiery Mill are dwindling and Kirby is hoping that by soliciting donations from the public of all things related to Barber that he can create a display at K&D Sign for those folks.

“We are reaching out to former workers, descendants of and the public for their assistance in helping us to create a memorial for those employees, this will be located at the same facility they spent their years of dedication in making top-of-the-line products and providing for their families.”

“We want to have an event for the Barber Hosiery folks, and we need help finding things to display,” Kirby said.

He recalled seeing George Speight Sr., who was the longtime manager of Barber Hosiery Mills, come through the offices and when he saw photos of the old Barber mills, Kirby said it “caused a spark of energy” and he wants to duplicate that.

The Speight family donated items such as scales, sock boarding boards, and the time clock from Barber Hosiery. Kirby wants to add to the collection with items specifically from Barber Hosiery Mills from around 1938 to when Renfro bought them out in 1972.

His goal is to collect enough artifacts to invite Speight Sr. and former Barber Hosiery Mills employees back to tour the space and share their memories of their former mill.

When comparing the lobby photo side by side with what is visible from South Main Street today, it is not hard to see Barber Hosiery’s skeleton still. Kirby said after acquiring the building in 2015 that it and the grounds needed work. His staff cut back the vines and overgrowth from the street-facing side to expose the original stone wall and a granite landing from the staircase that led from the street to the mill.

He said that the former owner had let the building begin to fall into disrepair. There was significant damage from leaks in the roof that needed repair. Renfro had been using it for many years for storage only, Kirby said. “They basically just kept the boiler on.”

As repairs and renovations to the building have been made, more history has been discovered. Dustin Bledsoe, K&D Signs creative director, said the history of the building is not lost on him. He pointed to a dark spot on the floor and said that was where the water fountain for the mill had been. When he stands there, he said he feels “the weight” of those who were there before him and can picture weary workers seeking a respite from the heat of the mill floor one sip of water at a time.

Just steps from where the fountain once stood is a 1940s freight elevator that, Kirby said, although it needs one new button or switch, is in working order. The interior of the elevator shows the scratches and scars of a well used unit that was installed when there were 48 states. For Christmastime this year he said K&D Signs wants to incorporate the freight elevator tower into a display featuring one Mr. S. Claus.

Next on Kirby’s list is to build out displays of service stations from years gone by and show off signage and memorabilia surrounding classic service stations. K&D Signs have over 100 employees working and eight teams deployed into the field right now working on gas station renovations and brand conversions.

Contact K&D Signs to offer an items to the Barber Hosiery collection: 336 789-4074.

No groundhog was spotted at the Municipal Building, nor any shadows of that creature, but its special day in February took center stage when attention was given to a local radio station by city officials.

“What an appropriate time to say ‘thank you’ to such a longstanding business,” Mayor Jon Cawley said Thursday night when WPAQ was honored on its 75th birthday during a meeting of the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners.

Cawley was referring to the fact that the AM station on Springs Road first hit the airwaves on Feb. 2, 1948 — exactly 75 years before on Groundhog Day.

“I don’t know if the groundhog saw his shadow in 1948, but he heard a new radio station,” Kelly Epperson, son of its late founder, Ralph Epperson, said Thursday night when receiving a city proclamation commemorating that anniversary.

“I am accepting this award, or proclamation, tonight because of my dad,” added the younger Epperson, now the station owner, who was accompanied at a council chamber podium by his wife and station co-owner Jennifer. Meanwhile, several WPAQ employees watched from the audience.

The municipal proclamation cites Ralph Epperson’s vision of wanting to present and preserve the traditional string music of the Blue Ridge region while also highlighting local talent in the old-time, bluegrass and gospel realms.

It still maintains that format today and other longtime features such as live broadcasts of local sports and reading news and obituaries over the air.

“Which is not too removed from the original 1948 offerings,” the city government document further states, also including two hours of Christian programs in WPAQ’s morning lineup and big band music for three hours in the evening.

The proclamation mentions that WPAQ continues to reflect its 1948 values while also becoming available live online and adding 106.7 FM and wpaq740.com as modern elements.

Ralph Epperson’s intent was to give the community something it “could enjoy and embrace,” Kelly said Thursday night.

“I am so thankful,” his son said of being able to carry on that mission today.

Along with the city government recognition Thursday night, a WPAQ 75th-birthday event is scheduled today at the Historic Earle Theatre in downtown Mount Airy, which is free to the public.

Doors will open at 4 p.m., with a free screening of the documentary “Broadcast: A Man and His Dream,” directed by Jordan Nance, to begin at 4:30 p.m. It details the story of the late radio pioneer and WPAQ, including an interview with Ralph Epperson just weeks before his death.

Then at 5:45 p.m., live music will begin at the Earle by several featured groups including Travis Frye and Blue Mountain, The Country Boys, The Slate Mountain Ramblers, The Nunn Brothers and Harrison Ridge.

The free concert to be offered today has a link to WPAQ’s maiden broadcast, which featured a group called The Green Valley Boys, according to historical information from the station.

After receiving the proclamation Thursday night, Kelly Epperson recalled key events in the life of his dad, who died in 2006, which laid the groundwork for WPAQ’s long success.

While growing up in Ararat, Virginia, during the 1920s and 1930s, Ralph developed a love for transmitting messages and information over the air as he listened to early radio broadcasts in his family’s home.

Around that period, in 1940, he heard an on-air appeal from the president of John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, inviting prospective students to attend and work while learning. This tapped into Epperson’s desire to seek a career in broadcasting.

“It was not easy to go from Ararat, Virginia, to the northwest corner of Arkansas,” Kelly Epperson told Thursday night’s audience, which is a distance of about 1,000 miles.

“So my dad had to hitchhike and he learned fun ways to attract attention from prospective drivers, because there were a lot of people hitchhiking back in that day,” he related. The hard work and dream that Ralph demonstrated then were manifested in the development of WPAQ, his son added.

After graduating from John Brown University and serving at the Naval Research Laboratory during World War II, Ralph returned to Ararat and began to perfect his skills out of his parents’ home with weekend broadcasts of music and preaching.

It wasn’t long before he turned his attention southward to a community a short distance away.

“He selected Mount Airy to be the site of WPAQ radio station,” Kelly recounted. Its construction began in early 1947 and the rest is history.

Kelly said he asked Ralph late in life what he considered his greatest accomplishment, among such accolades as receiving the Hall of Fame Award from the North Carolina Association of Broadcasters and entry into a religious broadcasting organization’s Hall of Honor.

“And he said it would have to be in the field of hitchhiking,” Kelly advised, drawing laughter from the council chamber audience.

Thursday’s proclamation program included members of the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners expressing thanks for WPAQ’s longtime presence here.

“I could talk forever about the impact the Eppersons have had on this community,” said Commissioner Deborah Cochran, a former radio personality locally.

“Congratulations to WPAQ for 75 strong years,” fellow board member Marie Wood said.

Commissioner Phil Thacker is thankful for Ralph Epperson’s vision in creating a legacy still being built upon.

“What an accomplishment they’ve had over 75 years,” Thacker said of WPAQ.

While Ralph Epperson gets much of the credit for its success, Mayor Cawley complimented the founder’s son for exhibiting many of the same traits that motivated his father.

“He (Kelly) loves this community and wants it to succeed,” Cawley said of the present owner’s support of Mount Airy business and civic life that also includes announcing Mount Airy High School games from near and far.

“I can see the acorn did not fall far from the tree.”

There has been a dedicated campaign in Surry County to combat litter along roadways for several years after a hiatus from an earlier such effort. Since its relaunch the initiative has gotten a snazzy new Keep Surry Clean logo made by a local student, but what it has not captured is the passion of residents.

The countywide litter campaign has sought 501(c)3 groups who are willing to collect roadside trash and refuse but unlike an Adopt a Highway, the county is offering greenbacks in exchange for trash.

Officials have long hoped that if money talks, the trash will walk its way to the landfill thanks to enterprising citizens who want to make money while improving the appearance their community.

Eligible groups may receive $7 for every garbage bag of roadside litter that they collect. This dollar amount has increased twice from the $3 that was once offered per bag of waste.

In December 2021 the county extended the offer from 501(c)3 groups to any local business or contractor. “The board of commissioners and citizens alike would like to see cleaner roadsides, and, thus, funding has been added to the county budget to help address the issue,” the county’s statement read.

Commissioner Van Tucker said at the time of the extension of the program, “It embarrasses me for people to ride through Surry County and see this nastiness on the side of the road.”

Only state-maintained roads that are not a part of the DOT’s Adopt-a-Highway program, or do not have contracted litter collection, are eligible for litter collection under the paid county program.

“I drive that road every day, maybe a dozen times a day,” an exasperated local businessman said in a recent complaint on trash on Linville Road to The Mount Airy News. “Right there, you see it by the bridge – just trash. There is even a bed frame down there.”

He maintains folks from far and wide come to Mount Airy for Andy, Opie, and the Mayberry experience. They come to Surry County to see Pilot Mountain, hike the numerous trails that the county has, or set off in a kayak for a stint down the Yadkin River.

Tourists are paying to enjoy the squad car tours around Mayberry and are being driven past piles of everyday trash that line Linville Road, he said, but that is only one such example.

The county commissioners have discussed litter at previous meetings and have asked what the source may be. Some point to those hauling their own debris to the landfill or the county’s convenience centers via pickup truck who do not cover their load while driving. Officials think this may account for much of the debris found on routes to and from those locations.

Another suggestion was that independent trash collectors who are making runs to private residences where they do not have their trash collected by the city or a city contractor as a possible source. In both cases the suggestion was that a lack of attention or care was being paid by those doing the hauling.

The board of commissioners heard a suggestion last year to consider adding cameras onto utility poles around the county’s dumping sites to locate and fine offenders.

For their part the N.C. Department of Transportation will be holding their 2023 Spring Litter Sweep in April. This biannual event is a change for residents to help keep the state’s roadways clean.

Non-profit groups interested in participating must contact the Surry Development Services Department at 336-401-8300 to sign up for the program. Individuals and business who would like to participate are directed to contact the Surry County Finance office at 336-401-8203.

Residents have stated litter is a problem and the county has presented a solution: they are willing to pay to get county roadways cleaned up. What the county cannot do is mandate participation in cleanup efforts or regulate the behavior of individuals who make the choice to roll down the window and jettison their debris for the rest to enjoy.

Sara Lowe, a teacher at Mount Airy High School, has been awarded an Ag in the Classroom “Going Local” grant by the North Carolina Farm Bureau to promote the importance of agriculture among youths.

Outreach grants provided to educators in the state through the Ag in the Classroom program aid them in offering their pre-k to twelfth grade students real-world education and experiences surrounding farming and agribusiness.

The process of instilling an appreciation for that industry within youths occurs while also adhering to the school system’s common core and essential standards, officials say.

Going Local grants are valued at up to $500 each through the Ag in the Classroom program that began in 1985.

Lowe is a sustainable agriculture and science teacher at Mount Airy High.

She said Friday that the grant will be used for a student project involving raised beds to be planted this coming spring with basic garden items and some floral varieties. These are located near a greenhouse behind the school, with grant funds to assist with irrigation of the raised beds.

This project, part of a sustainability curriculum at the high school, is aimed at providing students with gardening experience they can apply later in life and a respect for the process required.

“I’m very thankful that I got the grant,” Lowe said.

Farm Bureau officials also appreciate work by educators such as her, believing young people acquiring an appreciation for agriculture and an understanding of its purpose to be vital.

“There is no more valuable resource in North Carolina than our students and the teachers charged with their education,” North Carolina Farm Bureau President Shawn Harding said in a statement announcing the grant to Lowe.

She is the only recipient reported for Surry County as a whole.

“Through our Ag in the Classroom program, the state’s farmers are investing in the future leaders of North Carolina, as well as the future of agriculture, which is the state’s top economic sector,” Harding added.

County Farm Bureaus play an integral role in providing information regarding the grants and curriculum to teachers throughout North Carolina.

Teachers in traditional public schools, private charter schools, public magnet schools, private schools, online academies, home schools, colleges and universities are eligible for the grants, which are available twice a year.

Grant submission deadlines are April 15 and Nov. 15.

With word from Raleigh that more stores have been fined for price-scanning errors — including three in Surry — the question is, are the penalties imposed sufficient to stop the practice that’s costing consumers?

“That’s a good question,” Manager Chad Parker of the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ Standards Division said Thursday in discussing discrepancies that arise between sums advertised for products and those showing up at the cash register.

“Could they be raised?” Parker said of the fines, including those levied most recently against 52 stores in 33 of the state’s counties — in the wake of another round of penalties announced last winter arising from failed inspections by regulators.

“I guess they could, but the stores are paying a good chunk of change now.”

Personnel from the state department conduct periodic, unannounced inspections of price-scanner systems in businesses to check for accuracy between the prices listed and those charged.

Based on the latest state crackdown announced this week, the three local businesses cited for errant price-scanner systems in their operations include:

• Circle K at 110 Graceland Lane near the intersection of N.C. 89 and Interstate 77 west of Mount Airy, which paid a total of $4,235 in fines for two failed inspections in May and July of last year. The store failed an initial inspection in April with an error rate of 44% based on 11 overcharges in a 25-item lot. The store also owes $4,715 for failed inspections in September and November. It will be reinspected.

• Dollar General at 2282 Zephyr Road, Dobson, which paid $1,350 in fines. An initial inspection in August found an error rate of 14% based on seven overcharges in a 50-item lot. A follow-up inspection in September revealed an error rate of 4% based on 12 overcharges in a 300-item lot. The store passed inspection in November.

• Family Dollar at 308 East Atkins St., Dobson, which forked over $7,010 in fines. An initial inspection in June 2022 found an error rate of 12% based on six overcharges in a 50-item lot. The store failed two follow-up inspections and then passed inspection in December.

If a store has more than a 2% error rate on overcharges, inspectors discuss the findings with the store manager and conduct a more-intensive follow-up inspection later. Undercharges are also reported, but do not count against a store, officials say.

Penalties are assessed if a business fails a follow-up inspection. In addition to the fines paid, it will be subject to re-inspection every 60 days from the last inspection until it meets the 2%-or-less error rate. Additional penalties may be assessed if a store fails a reinspection.

The maximum fine that can be assessed on a single store is $5000, according to Parker, which collectively amounts to a lot.

“We gave out a half a million dollars’ worth of fines this past year,” he said. “So it’s not something small.”

Yet with some retail chains apparently not getting the message despite those fines, which seemingly are failing to act as a deterrent, an obvious solution is to increase them.

Parker says this would require changing the statute governing the enforcement process.

In 2022, the state department announced that similar fines had been assessed on 22 stores across North Carolina, including Dollar General at 514 N. Renfro St. in Mount Airy.

Of those 22, 13 were Dollar General outlets.

That same trend continued with the fines announced this week, as 23 of the 52 stores involved were listed as being in the Dollar General fold.

Parker, the manager of the state Consumer Services’ Standards Division, in discussing where there was anything systemic or inherent in the Dollar General retail chain’s operations which have made it a chronic offender.

“I can only give you my opinion,” he said.

“These small stores in my opinion don’t give the managers enough time to do the job properly.” Those employees are faced with multiple tasks that might keep them from monitoring the pricing systems, which does not reflect any desire to be dishonest or hike profits, Parker indicated.

A man who identified himself as the manager of Dollar General on North Renfro Street said in February 2022 that steps were being taken at the store to prevent future pricing discrepancies that resulted in it being fined. This apparently is occurring based on no fines being reported against that store since.

Meanwhile, 15 of the stores included in the latest batch of fines statewide are Family Dollar outlets, with another six listed as Walmart stores.

Along with any in-house efforts on behalf of stores to maintain accuracy, shoppers can do their part, Parker says.

“Consumers should continue to watch their tally ringing up and be very vigilant,” he advised.

Those wanting to file a complaint about scanner errors they encounter can call the Standards Division at 984-236-4750.

“Our Standards Division continues to see about a quarter of all price-scanner inspections fail and many stores are failing multiple inspections,” state Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler said in a statement.

“Overcharges cost consumers so we remain vigilant in inspecting stores in order to protect consumers,” Troxler continued.

“Remember, it is always a good practice to check your receipt as well as the price on the shelf to make sure you are paying the correct amount and alert managers if the prices don’t match.”

Interim Surry County Department of Social Services Director Wayne Black did not mince words in his report to the Surry County Board of County Commissioners recently. Since he came out of retirement to fill the post on a temporary basis, he has found filling vacancies to be the greatest single challenge that faces Surry County’s Department of Social Services.

Since April, the department has been in search of a new leader with the departure of Kristy Preston. Black, who has served as both the head of the local department and as the chief of the state Department of Social Service in Raleigh, said he was surprised when he took the local job on a interim basis last year. “I was aware there were staffing issues but until I came back to work in July, I had no idea the significance of the lack of employees, or the lack of candidates for jobs,” Black explained to the board.

He has been in supervisory positions in social services for much of his career, dating back to Guilford County DSS in 1978. “I was responsible for recruiting, selecting, and training people. I have never seen a situation where we couldn’t even attract candidates for the number of vacancies we have, not quality candidates – just anybody.”

“We will basically interview anyone with a four-year degree, regardless of what it is, with any experience — or none. Yet we have don’t have applicants to interview for these positions.”

Black gave a snapshot of the staffing levels and reported units like Child Welfare and Child Protective Service are struggling. In the Foster Care unit, he told the board he is budgeted for nine social workers and has six vacancies. Two of the three staff are new, “They haven’t even made it out of state mandated training yet.”

That means for another month of more this unit will have eight of nine posts vacant in a unit where regular check-ins are essential. Mandated visits for kids in the care of DSS are important and Black advised that on the evening of the report there were 115 children in the custody of Surry DSS and 22 of those were being held out of county.

As each child must be seen monthly, Black said he has re-instituted a contract with Vanguard Professional Services to oversee the out-of-county visitations. There is also some considering of utilizing Vanguard for in-county visits which will free up county staff to focus on issues locally.

Vanguard used retired county social service workers, or ones from other counties who are moonlighting, to cover some of the visits that would require a county employee crisscross the state making visits or risk a hefty penalty. “It’s important anyway, regardless of the financials, to maintain contact with our kids. They are our kids,” Black said.

He has been streamlining reporting structures and managers are filling in gaps as they are found. He has several candidates hired and in training now and when more candidates are found, they can be brought up to speed quickly. Black said the county has an excellent training program, “I commend the county’s training system. It’s as good as Wake or Mecklenburg county.”

Child services are not the only places he needs a hand. Medicaid and Food & Nutrition Services which are about half staffed. Black identified this as an area where, “When I look back to when I came in July, we not only haven’t filled these new positions, but we also haven’t kept the ones we already had filled.”

Black said he is looking for a high school graduate with some experience with banking, or accounting, to work in these jobs that require data entry and attention to detail.

The report from Adult Services was more positive as Black reported this department has more stable staffing level with one employee having just retired. Proper staffing levels here are critical as the adult services unit also handles the energy programs such as low income energy assistance and energy intervention program.

Black advised staff has left the department due to natural attrition from retirement and lateral promotions, as well as a loss of workers to private mental health facilities as managed care coordinators. The school system, hospitals, and Surry Community College have all also been identified as destinations employees leaving DSS are headed to.

He has ten positions for investigation assessment workers with three vacancies and two supervisors over it all who are pulling extra duties while short staffed. The department is missing administrative staff like a processing clerk to oversee the “billing and coding of financials to draw down federal reimbursement and not get stuck with a repayment. That can happen you don’t do it right the first time.”

His business officer who had been with the department several years just left for greener pastures in another county, or as he said, “They gave her an offer she couldn’t refuse.”

Black told the board that one of the biggest problems facing state DSS is finding beds for those who need mental or behavioral health assistance. Children may have to be taken out of state because there are no beds.

As though on cue to the comments on the scarcity, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Director Kody H. Kinsley announced on Tuesday the state has launched a new online tool to help locate those few that are available.

BH SCAN is an online centralized bed registry with a daily inventory of available beds to help hospitals and other providers quickly find open beds where those in need can get the behavioral health treatment they deserve.

He noted this comes at a time when one in five individuals are experiencing a behavioral health issue in this state. “One of my top three priorities is to invest in behavioral health and resilience as we move forward from the pandemic, and this new resource is one solution of many needed to get people the care they need.”

Black also informed that as part of the debt ceiling negotiations Congress had agreed to de-link from the emergency declaration programs that had extended Medicaid and food benefits. “The federal government giveth, the federal government taketh away,” he said.

Since March 2020 anyone on Medicaid, or who was added to it, did not have to periodically re-qualify for benefits but had them extended indefinitely whether they remained eligible or not.

With federal food assistance Black explained that during the pandemic food benefits were supplemented so that homes would get the maximum benefit their household size allowed, minus benefits already received. To get the debt ceiling passed, these programs were early victims.

Monday though, President Biden announced plans to end the national and public health emergencies that were declared, and they will sunset on May 11.

When these changes hit, Black said Surry DSS is going to have fewer people on staff to help process changes. He also anticipates the General Assembly will expand Medicaid coverage this session, which will create more work for them as well. Black said they stand ready to assist and the board thanked him for stepping up and filling in for the people of Surry County.

Black said he was happy to be back working for the county and quipped, “At least now I will be able to say I retired from Surry County and not the State of North Carolina.”

Bridgework not only is needed in dentistry — it also is occurring on Mount Airy’s greenway system as part of a $98,000 project to refurbish structures crossing waterways along its route.

“We are excited for the needed renovations to seven bridges along the Granite City Greenway,” city Parks and Recreation Director Peter Raymer advised Tuesday afternoon regarding work on the pathway heavily used by walkers, cyclists and joggers.

All six bridges along the Emily B. Taylor segment of the greenway — from Worth Street to Lebanon Street — have been targeted for new wood decking and railing, along with another elsewhere.

Such repairs have been viewed as a priority by Mount Airy officials, with the Emily B. Taylor Greenway having opened about 20 years ago and the wooden decking deteriorating on bridges over the years and becoming splintery in some cases.

“That has been a need,” City Manager Stan Farmer said last spring in outlining various infrastructure projects to be funded through a $3.2 million COVID-relief allocation to Mount Airy from federal American Rescue Plan Act funding.

In addition to the bridges on the Emily B. Taylor greenway leg — which is two-and-three-eights miles long altogether — the renovation project targeted one on the Ararat River Greenway section of the 6.6-mile network.

“The bridge at Riverside Park along the Ararat River Greenway segment was the first to receive repairs and has already received new decking as of last week,” Raymer reported Tuesday.

This involves fresh new boards being installed to replace the old decking of the bridges, which park personnel consider a safety improvement for the benefit of users.

In shifting to the Emily B. Taylor portion, contractors began with the bridges closest to Worth Street and are working their way north to the final bridge before arriving at West Lebanon Street near Veterans Memorial Park, Raymer mentioned.

Realizing that the greenway is a popular spot — even in winter — steps have been taken to lessen the impact of the bridge project on users while it is taking place.

The greenway will remain open except for the time when particular bridges are undergoing construction.

“The contractors will work on each bridge section by section with a goal of being able to reopen the bridge each evening after they have finished work for the day,” Raymer explained.

Also, the greenway will be fully operational each weekend to provide the community the ability to enjoy it without interruption as much as possible.

The bridge project has an estimated timeline of four to six weeks to complete, depending on the weather.

During that period, greenway users are asked to plan their walks, jogs and bike rides accordingly.

“The greenway continues to be one of the most-utilized recreation facilities in our community and we are proud to provide this quality-of-life amenity,” Raymer stated.

STUART, Va. — A Mount Airy man was being held in the Surry County Jail this week after a shooting in Patrick County, according to authorities.

Keith Samuel Gunter, 59, who has been listed with an address on McBride Road, is charged with firing a gun into an occupied dwelling stemming from an incident last Thursday in Stuart, the Patrick County seat, located about 30 miles from Mount Airy.

Deputies responding to 315 Chestnut St. shortly after noon on Thursday discovered that multiple shots had been fired into the dwelling, according to information from Patrick Sheriff Dan Smith.

Three occupants were inside the home at the time and stated that the suspect allegedly fled in a vehicle after discharging the firearm. No injuries were reported.

Smith advised that Gunter was arrested later that afternoon by the Surry County Sheriff’s Office on a probation violation.

Gunter has a history of drug trafficking and other convictions.

The Mount Airy man was confined in the Surry County Jail to await extradition to Virginia.

A jail spokesman said Gunter was still being held in the Dobson facility Wednesday.

Smith added this week that more charges against the Mount Airy man are forthcoming.

No other details were available, including reasons for Gunter being in Stuart or any circumstances leading up to the shooting.

At the time of his arrest last week, he was on probation due to his conviction on multiple drug charges last April in Stokes County, and before that was tried on charges of trafficking a Schedule I controlled substance in Surry.

Gunter’s criminal history has included serving active time.

A new Surry Arts Council building on Rockford Street has slowly taken shape since construction started in September 2021, with the project now to the point where Mount Airy officials will get a grand tour this week.

“We do have the certificate of occupancy,” said Tanya Jones, executive director of the arts group, referring to a permitting document deeming the multi-purpose facility as having cleared inspection hurdles to allow its use.

“All the things that are required for safety and compliance,” Jones added last week of the regulatory procedures involved.

However, it’ll be a little while longer until the new Arts Center is ready for daily business, with the executive director saying “a couple more months of work” is required to reach that juncture after a long period of planning and preparation.

“There’s a lot of work that has been talked about for 10 years,” Jones said.

As an example of where the facility now stands in terms of being occupied, “zero furniture” has been moved into it so far, she said.

In the meantime, the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners and other municipal officials are scheduled to have a walk-through of the building on Thursday. The board’s last meeting on Jan. 19 was recessed until then, with the sneak peek to precede a regular meeting Thursday at 6 p.m.

The city government has a vested interest in the new structure, including allocating $700,000 for the facility that has been projected to cost $3.5 million.

Although its development is being spearheaded and will be occupied by the Surry Arts Council for programming and other uses, the building located at 215 Rockford St. sits on municipal property in a cluster of other city-owned sites. These include the public library; Blackmon Amphitheatre; the Andy Griffith Playhouse complex, where the arts staff is based now; and the Municipal Building.

Plans call for the Arts Center to become another holding of the city government once finished. It in turn will lease the facility to the Surry Arts Council for 25 years while also maintaining the structure, under an agreement forged in 2020.

“Punch-list items” remain

The multi-purpose Arts Center has around 6,000 square feet.

It contains space for classrooms, meetings and exhibits along with a Siamese Twins component including a museum honoring the conjoined pair Eng and Chang Bunker who were born in what is now Thailand and eventually migrated to Surry County.

A need to accommodate artist and scholar presentations additionally has been mentioned as part of the mix.

The facility also will include office space for Surry Arts Council staff members who presently occupy cramped quarters at the Andy Griffith Playhouse.

Public restrooms are another component of the new multi-purpose structure that awaits a few more steps to become fully functional.

“There are a number of punch-list items,” Jones said of a slate of remaining tasks typically accompanying a construction project.

This includes infrastructure elements such as internet and telephone components still to be installed which are required for office operations. “Cables have to be run,” Jones explained.

“Very, very exciting”

The Surry Arts Council is gratified that the facility finally has come together.

“It’s very, very exciting,” Jones said of the process. “I’m so proud of what we have done.”

The plans have been tweaked here and there to get the project within the available funding frame while still having a fine finished project, the Surry Arts Council official indicated.

“It exceeds our expectations as far as utilizing the space we ended up with,” Jones said.

A ribbon-program program for the new building will be scheduled at an appropriate time, she said.

Beginning this weekend at the Mount Airy Library will be the first of five children’s theater performances from Bright Star Touring Theatre company thanks to grant funding from the North Carolina Arts Council and the Friends of the Library.

Known for performances which are ready to be put up almost anywhere, a stage is not needed for these troubadours, the troupe will be presenting shows on Saturdays through May.

“We have five performances by Bright Star Touring Theatre coming up,” library manager Rana Southern explained. “We asked for $1,362.50 to fund five different programs, and we were awarded a grant from the arts council.”

“Each applicant had to submit an application detailing goals, intended audiences, the format of the project and activities involved,” she said. All of these events are provided with grants and matching grants from The Arts Council and The Friends of the Mount Airy Public Library.

“I have seen Bright Star performances when I worked in the school system and we have had them at the library for summer learning programs in the past,” Southern said.

“They always do a good job. They bring history and books alive. They interact with audience members and are very energetic.”

She said all five performances will be held Saturdays at 11 a.m. and will be at the library, either in the multipurpose room or the main area of the library.

Coming in February the library will be celebrating “Bring Your Child to the Library” on Saturday, Feb. 4. She said, “It’s a way to get your kids out of the house and away from electronic distractions. It also reinforces the importance of reading, building better reading habits, learning responsibility (of returning books) and making memories.”

Southern said the first show is about African Folktales. “Folktales are a fun way to get kids reading. The Anansi stories and pourquoi (why) tales were some of my favorites growing up. Not only are they short stories, but they are fun and can spark the interest of reading.”

In recognition of Black History Month, the second show of the month will feature the life of baseball legend and Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier in baseball.

“I feel that is important for children to learn that adversity can be overcome, if you work hard. Kids need to hear from different voices to learn that everyone is an equal and that we need to work together to live peacefully and fruitfully,” she said.

“Jackie Robinson made my success possible. Without him, I would never have been able to do what I did,” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said of the impact Robinson’s accomplishments had on him.

To receive the grant, the library needed to choose activities reflecting diversity. She said they addressed that by choosing topics such as Robinson during Black History Month.

In March, for Women’s History Month, the performance will be called “We Can Do It” and will focus on famous women in history. “I feel strongly about women’s history. I want little girls to be empowered and know that they can be anything they want to be and also to learn about the history of the woman to be treated equally,” Southern explained.

Earth Day falls in April, so “Gus Goes Green” will present a show about the three R’s: recycle, reduce, reuse. With ever-increasing understanding of the relationship between humans and the health of the planet she said educating the next generation can have a lasting impact. “We need to take care of our Earth. We need to recycle, reuse and reduce in order to have a beautiful and healthy planet.”

And in May it would seem as good a time as any for the Mad Hatter and company to visit Mayberry and share “Alice in Wonderland” with the children. Southern called it something of a palate cleanser to lighten up the fare and help promote the summer learning program.

“The mission of The Northwestern Regional Library System is: advancing knowledge, strengthening communities and inspiring people. These plays will advance knowledge by sharing cultures and histories of topics that children may not have heard before,”

She said they will strengthen communities by sharing different points of view from a diverse array of characters. All this will tie into their Summer Learning theme of “All Together Now,” all about kindness, friendship and unity.

Southern said welcoming Bright Star falls in line with their mission. “We will inspire people by teaching them about the heroes from the past and show them that they can be and do anything that they set their minds to.”

Police continue to seek a man facing “numerous” felony drug charges who fled from a traffic stop last week, drove into a day-care center playground and is accused of 18 additional violations stemming from that.

The Mount Airy Police Department is seeking information from the public in efforts to apprehend Rayshad Lamont Simmons, who is in his mid-20s and has been listed with addresses on Pippen and Gaylon streets.

Simmons is described as a black male who is 6 feet, 1 inch tall and weighs about 160 pounds.

Even before the playground incident on Wednesday afternoon of last week at KinderCare on South South Street, Simmons was a highly wanted person.

He was the subject of outstanding warrants for charges including four counts of trafficking in methamphetamine, maintaining a vehicle for controlled substances and possession of drug paraphernalia.

At the time of the KinderCare incident, Simmons already was out on bond for numerous other felony drug and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon charges, according to city police.

He also had been banned from Mount Airy Housing Authority property in June 2015 for possession of cocaine while there.

Officers became aware of his location last week in a Housing Authority parking lot between Hadley and Marshall streets.

Simmons was found inside his motor vehicle by police officers who identified themselves as such while approaching the car.

But he disobeyed their commands to surrender and drove his vehicle out of the parking lot in the direction of Marshall Street and onto Price Street.

Due to what Police Chief Dale Watson has termed a disregard for public safety and his reckless driving, Simmons crashed the car on the Price Street side of KinderCare through a fence and into the playground.

It was devoid of children during the rainy and chilly day accompanying the incident, with no injuries resulting.

Meanwhile, witnesses took cell phone pictures from inside KinderCare as Simmons ran from the scene along with a female juvenile who was a passenger in the vehicle that was left behind at the scene.

She was located afterward and returned to her guardian, while Simmons has been at large since.

As a result of his actions last week, additional warrants were obtained for the man on charges of felony fleeing to elude arrest; resisting, delaying or obstructing a public officer; possession of marijuana with intent to manufacture, sell or deliver; and possession of marijuana paraphernalia.

Also, he is charged with felony maintaining a vehicle for controlled substances; second-degree trespassing, due to being on Housing Authority property; contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile; five counts of injury to personal property; hit and run; driving while license revoked; reckless driving; no liability insurance; expired vehicle registration; and failing to wear a seat belt.

Drug items apparently were left inside the vehicle as the two people fled.

Anyone with information regarding Simmons’ whereabouts is asked to contact the Mount Airy Police Department at 336-786-3535 or Crime Stoppers, 336-786-4000.

© 2018 The Mount Airy News