An early evening tractor-trailer crash has snarled traffic on U.S. 52 N, near Exit 131. not far from Pinnacle.

According to the North Carolina Department of Transportation, the crash occurred at 5:49 p.m. and has resulted in one of the northbound lanes of U.S. 52 being closed.

“Expected impact to traffic is high,” the agency said as traffic back up for more than a mile at the wreck location, with the line of stalled traffic expected to grow. Southbound lanes were clear with traffic moving as normal.

It was not immediately clear what caused the wreck, how many vehicles might be involved, nor if there were any injuries. Highway department officials said traffic would likely be slowed at least until 8:30 p.m. while crews worked to clear the scene.

Hospital earns top rating in annual report

Northern Regional Hospital has earned a five-star rating for quality care – the highest award possible — in the most recently published ‘Hospital Compare’ report of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Northern Regional Hospital is one of 12 hospitals in North Carolina, and the only hospital in the region, to be so highly rated.

“This five-star designation comes on the heels of our recent Leapfrog ‘Grade A,’ the highest rating in patient safety, and is a testament to our unwavering commitment to quality care and service excellence,” said Chris A. Lumsden, president and chief executive officer of Northern Regional Hospital. “As we grow, improve, and expand clinical services and programs, we will uphold the superior standards that we have established in the delivery of high quality, safe care to patients and the communities we serve. Congratulations go to our entire Northern team.”

The Hospital Compare report, released July 27, compared quality data from 3,093 hospitals in the nation by looking at seven measurable indicators of quality performance, including the self-reported experiences of patients. Only 14% of hospitals in the country received a five-star rating. Hospitals are awarded between one and five stars based on quality performance, with five stars being the highest achievement for excellence.

According to Medicare.gov, Hospital Compare summarizes a variety of measures across seven areas of quality into a single rating for each hospital. Those measures are mortality, safety of care, readmissions, patient experience, effectiveness of care, timeliness of care, and efficient use of medical imaging. The report is designed to help patients make decisions about where they seek health care and encourage hospitals to continuously improve quality of care and patient safety.

“Northern Regional Hospital’s five-star designation speaks to the dedication of each member of our healthcare team – including physicians, nurses, allied-health professionals, administrators, support staff, and volunteers – who are focused 24/7 on delivering top-quality care to patients,” said Robin H. Hodgin, senior vice president for patient services and chief nursing officer. “It also speaks to the cherished level of trust our patients have in us to provide them with high-quality care and heartfelt compassion.”

After almost 30 years of service to the Twin Counties and the New River Valley, Jeff and Sharon Johnson have sold Jeff Johnson Chevrolet to their son, Adam Johnson. The dealership will also be changing its name to Johnson Family Chevrolet, to reflect its success as a team, and its commitment to family values.

“I am very excited to have purchased Jeff Johnson Chevrolet,” said new owner Adam Johnson. “I want to assure everyone we are going to continue with the same values that we have always offered including our no doc, processing or hidden fees approach, value pricing, family atmosphere and large inventory selection.”

Johnson continued, “I have chosen to change the name of the dealership to Johnson Family Chevrolet to reflect the fact that our success really comes from all of our team members and their dedication ensuring the very best in customer experiences.”

“We, of course, will continue the Johnson traditions, while also streamlining our customers shopping processes, making it easier than ever to purchase a new Chevrolet or quality pre-owned vehicle.”

Johnson Family Chevrolet will retain the entire staff and strive to serve the community.

A local organization that targets child abuse along with serving neglected and at-risk youth has become the latest grant recipient of the Mount Airy/Surry County Community Foundation.

The grant was awarded to a non-profit entity located in Dobson which was long known as the Children’s Center of Surry Inc., before being renamed Children’s Center of Northwest North Carolina in 2019.

A competitive grants program that is undertaken annually by the Mount Airy/Surry County Community Foundation resulted in the $1,530 award to the Children’s Center from the foundation’s community grantmaking fund. It will be used for life skills education.

“Nonprofits are the bedrock of our community,” Jay Williams, advisory board president of the Mount Airy/Surry County Community Foundation, said in a statement. “We’re honored to grant to an organization that helps our children thrive.”

The Children’s Center of Northwest North Carolina offers a wide range of programs that support the prevention, intervention and treatment of child abuse. It also provides services for neglected and at-risk youth. The center operates two residential cottages — in Surry and Yadkin counties — and serves families throughout Northwest North Carolina.

It has been in existence since 1998.

The Mount Airy/Surry County Community Foundation, formed in 1999, is led by a local volunteer advisory board that helps build community assets by creating permanent endowments, making grants and leveraging leadership and partnerships – all to benefit the city and county.

That board advises the Mount Airy/Surry County Community Fund, an unrestricted community grantmaking resource to support local needs.

Advisory board members live and work in the county, positioning them to strategically leverage resources, meet those needs and access opportunities.

In addition to Williams, the members include Sam Wagoner (vice president), Chris Duggins (secretary/treasurer), Carol Burke, Tanya Jones, Darren Lewis, Emily Loftis, Morris Samet and Betty Wright.

The Mount Airy/Surry County Community Foundation, an affiliate of the North Carolina Community Foundation, provides an easy way for folks to support the place they call home.

Someone can open an endowment for his or her favorite cause at any time or contribute to an existing fund in any sum.

Tax-deductible contributions, made payable to the Mount Airy/Surry County Community Foundation, can be mailed to the North Carolina Community Foundation, 3737 Glenwood Ave., Suite 460, Raleigh, NC, 27612.

Donations can also be made online at nccommunityfoundation.org.

The entity in Raleigh, the single statewide community foundation serving North Carolina, has administered more than $217 million in grants since its inception in 1988.

With more than $400 million in assets, the North Carolina Community Foundation sustains in excess of 1,200 endowments established to provide long-term support of a broad range of community needs, non-profit organizations, institutions and scholarships.

It partners with a network of affiliate foundations to provide local resource allocation and community assistance across the state. An important component of the North Carolina Community Foundation’s mission is to ensure that rural philanthropy has a voice at local, regional and national levels.

• A Mount Airy man has been jailed under a $15,000 secured bond on a felony charge of abusing a disabled elder, resulting in injury, according to city police reports.

Brandon Michael Senter, 35, of 131 Cartwright Lane, was encountered by officers last Friday during a suspicious-person investigation at the AutoZone Auto Parts store on Rockford Street, where he is listed as an employee, and found to be wanted on that charge.

It had been filed on Feb. 9 through the Surry County Sheriff’s Office with no additional details provided. Senter is facing an Aug. 8 appearance in District Court.

• Robert Samuel Joyner, 59, of 122 Northwood Drive, was charged with hit and run Sunday, stemming from a traffic crash on Five Forks Trail at Fairview Avenue.

A 2009 Infiniti QX56 that Joyner was driving during that incident was located unoccupied in the parking lot of Northwood Apartments Saturday and positively identified then by a witness to what happened. Joyner came to the police station the next day and stated that he was operating the vehicle involved and had fled the scene of the crash.

The case is scheduled for the Sept. 26 session of Surry District Court.

• Jordan Matthew Wood, 25, of 1643 U.S. Highway 21, State Road, in the Elkin area, was confined in the Surry County Jail without privilege of bond Monday on a charge of assault on a female.

Wood is accused of wrapping his hands around the throat of Vanessa Floridalma Rodriguez of N.C. 268 at Dobson and scratching her neck.

This allegedly occurred Sunday afternoon at a business where Rodriguez is employed, Metro by T-Mobile, on Rockford Street. Wood was arrested there Monday afternoon after he was encountered by officers during a suspicious-vehicle investigation at that location.

He is facing an Aug. 8 appearance in District Court.

U.S. Senate candidate Cheri Beasley spoked with area voters in Pilot Mountain on Monday, part of her campaign swing through the region with stops in Surry, Stokes, Rockingham, and Caswell counties.

She visited the region, her campaign said, to “hear about their (voter) concerns and discuss her commitment to standing up to Washington and big corporations to do what is best for North Carolina. Cheri held community conversations with voters and met with small business owners to hear from them about how she can best support small businesses in the Senate.”

“Today I heard from small business owners that are struggling to stay afloat as prices rise and don’t have all the tools they need to strengthen their businesses, including affordable childcare. It shouldn’t be this way, and it doesn’t have to be,” Beasley said. “But it starts with having a senator who will stand up for the people and their needs first, and not corporations. Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and help our communities thrive, and I will stand up for small business owners in the Senate.”

A Rotary Club of Mount Airy meeting Tuesday had a distinctly youthful appearance, which included students being recognized for academic and other achievements along with one person who’ll be participating in an upcoming jiu-jitsu competition.

Local Rotarian Rachael Williams is preparing for the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Master Championship scheduled for Sept. 1-3 in Las Vegas.

Brazilian jiu-jitsu is described as a grappling-based martial art that recognizes how it is easier to control an opponent on the ground as opposed to a standing position. Once taking the opponent down, the aim is to wrestle for dominant control positions from which the opponent can be rendered harmless and forced to submit.

The Rotary Club of Mount Airy’s Global Outreach Committee is a sponsor of Williams’ participation. A $300 check for sponsorship funds was presented to her during Tuesday’s meeting at Cross Creek Country Club.

Williams will be promoting the local group during the international competition in the form of a patch on the front of her jacket providing what she called “great visibility.” Matches during the event will be live streamed, powered by FloSports, a subscription service.

“I am blown away and so thankful for this opportunity to take the Mount Airy Rotary name with me to Las Vegas in September,” Williams commented.

Another Rotary initiative that supports higher-education aspirations of local students also took center stage Tuesday.

“Every spring we give scholarships and it is dependent on how much money we have,” said the club’s Polly Long. “And this year we were able to give two.”

Awards of $500 each went to Paxton Reece and Kade Norman, recent graduates of Mount Airy and Surry Central high schools, respectively. Norman was presented a check at a Rotary meeting on June 28, which Reece was unable to attend, so she received hers Tuesday.

Along with academic performance, the scholarship criteria includes community service through the countywide Interact Club, a youth branch of the Rotary organization which encourages participation in service projects.

Scholarship recipients must be members of that group. “We look at what they’ve done for the community,” Long explained.

Reece, who is headed to the University of North Carolina to study psychology, took part in the Lunch Buddies program at B.H. Tharrington Primary School, played a role in Blue Bear Bus activities and participated in a dog wash.

Norman, who will pursue nursing training at Surry Community College, aided food distribution for those in need, participated in a cleanup effort and assisted in a building program of the Greater Mount Airy Habitat for Humanity.

Also recognized Tuesday were two local students who are winners of Rotary Youth Leadership Awards.

They are Devin Davis, a rising senior at Mount Airy High School, and Katie O’Neal, who will be entering the 12th grade at Surry Central High School.

Rotary Youth Leadership Awards involve a program coordinated by Rotary clubs worldwide, which includes thousands of young people being chosen to participate in the highly selective program that provides training for their future endeavors.

The local students’ selection as award winners led to their attendance at the recent Rotary Youth Leadership Awards Conference at Oak Ridge Military Academy in Guilford County.

Both Davis and O’Neal got a chance to speak about their activities there during Tuesday’s Rotary meeting and how meaningful that gathering was to them.

Davis called it easily “the best experience of my life,” and expressed gratitude to the club members for sending her to the conference. “I can’t thank you enough,” she told them.

The event stressed the fact that the future is now, the student added.

“It showed me that I am not a leader of tomorrow, but a young leader of today.”

Along with recent summer temperatures, a new Andy Griffith mural on Moore Avenue remains a hot topic at City Hall — not the mural itself, but related parking and sidewalk changes there which one official says were done improperly.

“We didn’t follow our charter,” Commissioner Jon Cawley said during the last council meeting in a continuing debate over an issue that first began heating up when it last had met on June 16.

And the flame was turned up higher last Thursday night when Cawley came armed with copies of Mount Airy’s charter — the official document specifying the rights and duties of city government — documentation he’d been asked to produce at the previous session.

Cawley, who has said repeatedly that he loves the new mural, contends, however, that only the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners had the authority to change the street infrastructure there. This included widening the sidewalk to allow a better observation area for the public, which caused two parking spaces to be lost.

The often-outspoken North Ward commissioner — who is running for mayor this year — said that rather than the board, City Manager Stan Farmer authorized the recent infrastructure work.

Cawley read a pertinent section of the municipal charter, taking up about a page, which states that the city board has the power to authorize both street and sidewalk changes and makes no mention of the city manager’s role. He focused on the loss of the parking spots, indicating that affected business owners should have had a chance to weigh in on that at a public hearing.

Other members of the city council disagreed last Thursday with Cawley’s assessment of the matter, which had arisen in June in connection with an unrelated request from a local body shop owner regarding a sign.

Frank Fleming, also known for his modified racing career, is seeking an amendment to a city ordinance which would allow him to have a taller sign at a new shop location on Merita Street which isn’t presently permitted. A public hearing on the proposed amendment is scheduled for Aug. 18.

Cawley Thursday reiterated a previous statement that Fleming is doing this “the right way” in conforming to the rules, compared to what he believes is no respect being shown for city procedure concerning the mural site.

“We didn’t do it the right way,” Cawley said of his position that the board should have authorized the work, while quickly adding that he is not trying to call out the city manager, who came aboard in January.

“With all due respect, Stan, I appreciate you and I like you,” he told Farmer, seated right beside him in the council chambers.

“We didn’t follow our charter,” said Cawley, who added that “I just throw my hands up” if fellow officials think there is no need to abide by that document.

Others on the city board, in attempting to counter Cawley’s argument, said there was a gray area involved with the mural-related work and their interpretation of the charter. This was after Commissioner Marie Wood asked Cawley to read the key passages aloud while presiding at the meeting in her dual role as mayor pro tem due to the absence of Mayor Ron Niland.

“I don’t get that,” Wood said of Cawley’s accusation while advising that she sees nothing in the charter explicitly forbidding the city manager from making such decisions. “I’m trying to wrap my head around how this had anything to do with the mural.”

The board’s Steve Yokeley, who had asked Cawley to produce documentation that led to the latter’s reading of the charter, also weighed in on the matter.

“I just think that if we’re going to nitpick about allowing the city manager to do what he is charged to do,” Yokeley said, “it will be a sad day for the city.”

Commissioner Tom Koch agreed, saying he could foresee problems “if the city manager has to come to us every time anything is done in this town.”

“We just can’t micromanage,” Yokeley said. “We have to look at the big picture and set policy.”

Yokeley disagreed with Cawley’s interpretation of the charter, saying he also doesn’t see language prohibiting Farmer from removing a small parking section.

“The question was whether the city manager had the authority to take two parking spaces.”

“Where does it stop?” Cawley responded in suggesting that a couple of parking spots lost today could mean 24 being taken later under the same scenario — impacting affected businesses.

Toward the end of the mural debate that took up most of the meeting, Commissioner Joe Zalescik asked City Attorney Hugh Campbell for his assessment on what had transpired — “because none of us up here went to law school.”

Campbell concurred with Cawley that the board has the authority to make street/sidewalk changes, as the charter states, saying he couldn’t recall a similar case of parking spots being removed without board action. Campbell has been city attorney since 2002.

Yet he also thinks the city manager did not overstep his authority in the matter or otherwise did anything wrong.

The scope of the mural project had been discussed and approved by the commissioners beforehand, Campbell said of action taken last year.

That finding only produced further debate.

Commissioner Cawley reminded that the mural originally was intended for a wall of Brannock and Hiatt Furniture Co. on North Main Street. It was shifted to the location on Moore Avenue for reasons including a high cost of readying the Brannock and Hiatt wall for paint.

“The board never approved putting the mural where it is now,” he said, mentioning that all the work was done before this could occur.

“I know it’s too late now,” Cawley said of such a decision. “It was too late when I brought it up (last month).”

Yokeley said he was aware the mural site was going to be moved.

“I’m glad you knew about it,” Cawley replied. “I didn’t.”

Food, agriculture and bluegrass picking are staples in Surry County and starting Friday, Aug. 26, the three will blend together in harmony when the Music at the Market concert series kicks off at the Dobson Farmer’s Market.

Folks from all over will be able to satisfy their taste buds from food trucks on-site at 6 p.m. and whet their bluegrass appetite with the music of Steve Marshall & Highroad from 7 to 9 p.m.

Admission is free and citizens should bring their lawn chairs. BJ’s Fry Shack, My Kitchen, and Station 1978 Firehouse Peanuts are scheduled to be at the first concert.

Utilizing the location of the Farmer’s Market off the Dobson U.S. Hwy. 601 exit, at 903 E. Atkins St., Dobson, organizers of the concert series hope it will be a crowd pleaser and a perennial draw.

All concerts in the series are free and will be held at the same time of the evening from late summer through the fall, which should make for cooler weather — fingers crossed.

The concert series is sponsored by Carolina West Wireless, Surry Communications, Frontier Natural Gas and Surry-Yadkin Electric Membership Corporation.

There are six bands set to perform during Music at the Market.

“Combining their precise instrumental skills with their powerful harmony, Steve Marshal & Highroad produce music embedded in the bluegrass tradition with feeling and soul,” according to promotional material for the band.

The next show will be held on Sept. 9 featuring Hubert Lawson & the Bluegrass Country Boys. They have been described as a hard-driving traditional bluegrass and bluegrass gospel band playing in North Carolina and surrounding areas.

Hubert Lawson, who emcees the show and plays guitar, shares the stage with his wife Vera, on bass, and their two sons Lee and Eddie Lawson.

Wood Family Tradition will wrap up the month with their show on Sept. 30. Family values, legacy, faith and humor are just a few things that Wood Family Tradition bring to the stage with more than 150 years of combined experience in the Bluegrass and Bluegrass Gospel genre.

Wood Family Tradition has its roots from legendary banjoist and songwriter Al Wood. Mike and Bobby are his sons and Jason is his grandson. Other members include Jason’s wife Mackenzie, and banjoist Brian Aldridge.

Get the fiddles ready for The Country Boys on Oct. 7. The Country Boys have played in most of the regional fiddler’s conventions, and they have won the coveted first place in the Galax Fiddlers Convention competition several times. The band also placed second runner-up in the old Union Grove Fiddlers Convention.

The band specialized in fiddle tunes and receives a lot of their repertoire from Kenny Baker and Lester Flatt. More recent influences have come from the Country Gentlemen, while adding their own modern twist.

On Oct. 28 it will be time for Gap Civil to take the state for Music at the Market. The group is an Appalachian Mountain Music band built on the motto of honor and innovation. They honor the mountain traditions that have shaped and rooted their music, yet they take great pride in innovative and exciting original songs, tunes and arrangements.

Gap Civil was formed in 2017 in Sparta and features Caroline Noel Beverley on guitar and vocals, Chris Johnson on banjo and bass, Lucas Pasley on fiddle and vocals and Kyle Dean Smith on bass and lead guitar.

Slate Mountain Ramblers will end the roster of performances with a bang on Nov. 11. The Slate Mountain Ramblers is a family old-time band from Mount Airy. They formerly lived in Ararat, Virginia. For many years, Richard Bowman, his wife Barbara and their daughter Marsha have spent weekends playing music. Richard plays fiddle, Barbara the bass and Marsha the claw-hammer banjo.

The band has a winning tradition at fiddler’s conventions throughout the years. Richard, on fiddle, and Marsha, on claw-hammer banjo, have received many individual awards. The Slate Mountain Ramblers play for shows, dances, family and community gatherings, benefits and compete at fiddler’s conventions throughout the year.

The Ramblers have played internationally at the Austrian Alps Performing Arts Festival and in Gainsborough, England for the Friends of American Old Time Music and Dance Festival. They also lead fiddle, banjo, bass and dance workshops.

No music festival would be complete without a cold drink and something to snack on. Scheduled food trucks to appear at this year’s Music at the Market Concert Series include:

• BJ’s Fry Shack: Aug. 26

• Shikora Express on Wheels: Sept. 30

• Mermaids On the Go: Sept. 30, Oct. 28 and Nov. 11

• Station 1978 Firehouse Peanuts LLC: Aug. 26, Sept. 9, Sept. 30, Oct. 7, Oct. 28 and Nov. 11.

If the tunes were not enough, the food trucks may add an extra tasty incentive for people to come out and enjoy dinner and music, organizers said.

Toward the end of the most recent school year, one cadet was recognized on behalf of the Cardinal Battalion as Cadet of the Semester for his work.

Cadet SSG Joseph Boggs was tapped as the Cadet of the Semester, which meant not only being recognized for his academic success and passing a set of question posed by a panel, but the honor comes with a promotion to the next rank.

Joseph, along with several other cadets, were asked a series of questions based on the JROTC curriculum. The panel judging their replies was made up of Cadet Command Sergeant Major Dylan Myers, Cadet Major Maria Chilton, Cadet First Sergeant Hunt McMasters, Cadet First Lieutenant Dylan Brock and Cadet Captain Travis Watson.

In order to compete cadents must maintain an “A” average. The cadets were graded on military bearing, appearance, and execution of drill. Each cadet was asked a maximum of ten questions. They were all scored on how well each individual answered the question and how well they executed their drill movements.

All participating cadets earned a ribbon to display on their dress uniform.

Lindsay Davies, D.O., has joined the medical staff of Northern Regional Hospital to serve as a Hospitalist physician for inpatients at the nationally recognized 133-bed community hospital.

A board-certified physician, Dr. Davies served previously as a hospitalist at Bristol Regional Medical Center in Bristol, Tennessee for two years; and, prior served three years as a hospitalist at Johnston Memorial Hospital in Abingdon, Virginia; and a resident physician at Norton Community Hospital.

“We are very pleased to welcome Dr. Davies to our medical staff,” said Jason W. Edsall, MD, chief medical officer of Northern Regional Hospital. “Her broad-based medical knowledge and experience, as well as her demonstrated commitment to providing quality care to patients, is a great fit for our hospital.”

Dr. Davies’ path to becoming a physician and, ultimately, a hospitalist (a specialist for inpatient hospital care) began at an early age when she visited her newborn sister in the hospital and was inspired by her local community family physician. “I grew up in the mountains of Appalachia where the only community doctor in town was an absolute pillar. Dr. Janice Gable manifested compassion, intelligence, and the actual art of medicine by caring for and treating the relatively rural community. She showed me that a woman could contribute so much goodness to the world which drove me forward and inspired me. Over the years medical interactions fascinated me and the direction of my life was very clear. The Science of how amazing the human body is drew me in completely.”

Dr. Davies’ approach to patient care is to “meet patients where they are — sometimes that means a lot of listening and sometimes teaching and instruction. I believe in gentle but direct conversations, as most people appreciate a straight shooter. I‘ve also found that if you break the science down and make it more relatable, the patient is more likely to understand the problem and buy into the treatment plan.

“This empowers the patient to contribute to their care from a place of respect and understanding. For example, I will sometimes describe the urinary system in plumbing terms, or neurologic or cardiac issues more as electrical situations. This helps patients relate to something they are more familiar with and therefore better understand what we are dealing with and how to go about treating the problem we’re facing.”

After earning her Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Alice Lloyd College in Kentucky, she attended Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee and earned her Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.) degree in 2013. The newly minted doctor then became a resident physician at Norton Community Hospital where she began an intensive three-year residency program in internal medicine.

“During my residency, I found through my rotations that I enjoyed the hospital setting the most, as that is where patients are very sick and you can follow their case to help them heal.”

Dr. Davies is a member of the American Medical Association and has served on numerous committees at previous hospitals, including patient safety committee and medical staff committees.

Dr. Davies is enjoying working with colleagues and applying her medical knowledge and skills to help inpatients at Northern Regional Hospital. “The group of physicians I am working with work well together, which leads to a collegial environment that thrives. I was impressed by the level of organization, dedication, and willingness to work together to ensure everyone in the group is an equal partner.”

She was attracted to Northern Regional Hospital for many reasons. “It is an independent community hospital with a commitment to give back to the community and remain independent,” said Davies. “I am also impressed at the magnitude of welcomeness I have felt. This is also a stunning part of the country not too far from home. It seems like a terrific place to raise my family with so much to offer them. I am so excited to join the team.”

Davies has three children, ages 6, 4, and 18 months old. They enjoy playing outdoors together, completing puzzles, conducting science experiments at home, and playing with cousins and their pets. They have two dogs and a bearded dragon.

The 2022 North Surry yearbook recently competed in the North Carolina Scholastic Media Association statewide contest at UNC Chapel Hill and brought home the highest honor in school history.

In the overall contest, the 2022 yearbook was named an All-North Carolina selection. This is the association’s highest rating. All-North Carolina yearbooks demonstrate excellence in all areas of journalism. North Surry was one of only thirteen schools in the state to earn this honor.

In the section contests, the book received third place for the cover and for coverage. Advertising also received honorable mention.

In the individual contests, Marissa Casstevens won third place for sports captions. Ashley Flores won third place for sports photography and honorable mention for sports spread design.

The 2021 yearbook was previously named a Yearbook of Distinction at the High School Journalism Awards held by the North Carolina Scholastic Media Association at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The contest is open to every school in the state. Public, private, and charter high schools of every size compete against each other in the overall and individual contests. The section awards are broken down into two categories, large and small schools.

This wasn’t the only accolade the North Surry staff received. The 2021 North Surry yearbook is included in the latest volume of Possibilities, an idea book from Walsworth Publishing Company that is distributed nationally to current and prospective customers.

“The Possibilities book is a collection of Walworth’s favorites that have been gathered ‘in hopes of creating a one-stop ideation shop’ for schools. The portion of the publication containing spreads showcases schools that ‘came up with new spins on traditional topics, created eye-catching designs and masterfully utilized their photography and illustrations to create something masterful,’” said Walsworth.

A spread covering National Dog Day is featured in the book. Madalyn Edwards wrote the copy for the page. Marissa Casstevens, Cassidy Hull, Isaac Riggs, Mattie Everitt, Victoria Andre submitted the photographs that were included in the spread.

Junior Ashley Flores submitted a picture to a photography contest of a football player carrying a North Surry flag running onto the football field. That photograph also was selected to be included in the Possibilities book. Additionally, it will be included as the main varsity football photograph in the 2022 yearbook. The 2021 yearbook editors were Meg Adams and Madalyn Edwards. The 2022 yearbook editors are Marissa Casstevens, Madalyn Edwards, Micah Felts, Cassidy Hull.

“Our goal is always to make a better book than we did the year before, and the 2021 yearbook staff raised the bar for us. At the beginning of each school year, we go to the Possibilities book for ideas because it is a curated collection from some of the best yearbook programs in the country. I am really proud of the work that my students create because they have grown our program into one that others across the country can go to for inspiration,” said North Surry yearbook adviser Myra Combs.

The Kiwanis Club of Mount Airy recently presented a check to the Surry Community College Foundation for its scholarship fund. Bettsee McPhail, chapter president, presented the check to Sheila Franklin, SCC Foundation executive director.

The Kiwanis Club of Mount Airy Scholarship is awarded to a student who is a Key Club member of North Surry or Mount Airy high schools. The student must have a 3.0 grade point average and demonstrate financial need. The recipient can study any program at Surry Community College.

“The Surry Community College Foundation greatly appreciates the generous monetary gifts from individuals, organizations, and civic groups such as the Kiwanis Club of Mount Airy,” Franklin said. “Without the kindness, generosity, and philanthropic heart of those in our community, many students would not be able to achieve their educational goals and ultimately their career goals. We are so fortunate to be in a position to facilitate these scholarship monies with students in need.”

The Kiwanis Club of Mount Airy works to promote different causes, including drug overdose awareness campaigns, the local historical preservation society and promoting organ donation through the Donate Life Campaign. The Mount Airy Chapter is ranked first in North Carolina for its work in encouraging individuals to become organ donors.

Anyone interested in joining the Kiwanis Club of Mount Airy should contact McPhail at P.O. Box 705, Mount Airy, NC 27030. Individuals must be at least 18 years of age to join.

Surry Community College opened in 1964, and the Surry Community College Foundation was established in 1966 to provide financial support to students and the college at-large, promoting educational opportunity for students. As a part of its mission, the foundation administers a number of student scholarships sponsored by individuals, civic organizations, and business/industry partners.

Those interested in learning more about the foundation and how to support scholarships may contact Franklin, SCC Foundation executive director, at 336-386-3205 or franklins@surry.edu.

Before he became a member of the medical profession, Dr. David Dixon was a poet.

“I got my first poem published in 1992,” he said of the days preceding the beginning of his training to become a family physician.

Now retired from that field, Dixon’s love of writing has come full circle with the recent publishing of his first book of poetry which also is meshing with one of the Mount Airy resident’s longtime passions as a doctor: the Surry Medical Ministries clinic.

Dixon is donating every penny of proceeds from advance sales of the book — titled “The Scattering of Saints” — to the Rockford Street clinic that provides free health-care services to low-income uninsured patients. He is medical director of the all-volunteer facility, which the local doctor has been involved with since 2003, about 10 years after it first opened.

Surry Medical Ministries officials, including Dixon’s wife Nancy, who is president of its board of directors, are presently engaged in a $3.5 million fundraising campaign aimed at providing a larger facility to meet a growing demand for the clinic’s services.

The organization has been generating support from various sources, including state and local governmental funding, to make the project a reality, with the sales of Dr. Dixon’s book part of that equation.

“It was accepted for publication about two years ago,” he said of the collection of poems that took about three years to write. The book was put out by Hermit Feathers Press, a small independent publisher based in Clemmons which specializes in regional poetry of the Southeast.

The 109-page work explores a variety of subject matter from a life that also included time as a seminary student.

“It’s a little bit of everything,” Dr. Dixon, 61, added during a book-release celebration at his home last Friday night which was attended by about 50 people.

This includes material derived from his experiences as a physician, along with observations about nature, religion and life in general.

“David Dixon whirls readers through languages of faith, illness, love, loss; lives of apostles, pets, poets and trees,” says a description of “The Scattering of Saints.”

“He’s seen a lot and is not afraid to get it down on the page.”

“A search for meaning is what it’s all about,” said the author, also a musician, who was born in Mount Airy but grew up in Peru, where his parents were missionaries. The new book is dedicated to them.

Its title, “The Scattering of Saints,” is a line from one of the poems.

Among the captivating names of the many it contains are “How to Care for a Dogwood,” “Never Like the Movie” and “Speed of Light.”

Friday night’s kickoff event featured readings by other writers, Bill Colvard, Angell Caudill, Jenny Bates, Steve Cushman and Elaine Neil Orr.

Dr. Dixon said 300 advance copies of “The Scattering of Saints” have been made available for distribution by him, for which 100% of the sale proceeds will be used to benefit the free clinic.

The base cost per volume is $20.

“Many people are donating extra for the books,” Dixon explained regarding their desire to aid the Surry Medical Ministries mission beyond the $20 price.

Any contributions made above the book purchase are fully tax-deductible, according to Nancy Dixon.

Copies of “The Scattering of Saints” can be obtained from the clinic on Rockford Street, across from Northern Regional Hospital, or by reaching out to him on Facebook, Dixon said.

The option also exists for literary enthusiasts to order the poetry book on Amazon.com, but none of the proceeds from those sales will go toward the clinic.

Dixon additionally is hoping to make copies available at bookstores such as Pages in Mount Airy and others in Winston-Salem.

Start stretching and getting loose now for the United Fund of Surry Downtown Rocks and Runs which will be held on August 13.

For 65 years, the United Fund has combined a mixture of fundraisers, donations, corporate gifts, and workplace campaigns to support the member agencies under their umbrella in Surry County. The member agencies provide various services in this area from Surry Medical Ministries, Shepherd’s House, Parenting Path, and area rescue squads.

United Fund seeks to maximize the return on each dollar donated or raised by keeping those dollars in the community. Local groups have a better sense of what local needs are, which provides a unique opportunity to impact as many people in this area as possible.

“We are so excited to be back, Downtown Rocks and Runs has become the major event for our campaign kick-off. Last year, our return following COVID was our best year yet,” says Melissa Hiatt, executive director. “Our marketing committee works very hard to produce a family friendly, fun event to support our agency and lead into our campaign year.”

The upcoming race will be held downtown Mount Airy on August 13, and includes a 5K, 10K, and a Kid’s Fun Run. Early registration has started and is $25 for the 5K and $35 for the 10K.

Interested runners should act now as these are discounted rates. The rate will increase on July 30, to $30 and $40, respectively.

To sweeten the pot for early registration, “The first 200 registered runners will receive an awesome event T-shirt and a swag bag, so make sure you register now. The Fun Run is free for kids 12 and under, or you can add a Fun Run t-shirt for $10,” Hiatt said.

The 5K and 10K races will have a “gun start” which means all participants will have the same start time, and the finish time will use the chip on the back of the participant’s bib once they cross the finish line. Timing services will be provided by Go! Sports Timing and Events.

On the other hand, the Fun Run will have a clock at the finish line for the runner’s own gratification, but individual’s times are not recorded. So, whether you identify as tortoise or hare, your speed can be a closely guarded secret between you and the clock.

For anyone interested in a challenge, there will be individual and team awards for the 5K and 10K races. The Overall Top Male and Female in the 5K and 10K will win $250 sponsored by Advanced Electronic Services.

Hiatt said that awards for 5K and 10K Individuals will be: Overall 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place Male/Female, and Top 3 Male/Female in each age division. Age divisions are 13 and under, 14-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, 70+.

Other ways to compete include: the organization with the highest number of participants will win a Corporate Participation Challenge trophy.

There will be a 5K Team Fitness Challenge Award for the team with the fastest average team finish. Winners will receive bragging rights and a trophy.

The Fun Run (kids 12 and younger) participants will all receive a ribbon and a goody bag sponsored by the Greenhill Group.

Participants do not have to be runners to be in the 5K, both walkers and strollers are welcome.

Races start at 7:45 a.m. beginning with the 10K, then at 8 a.m. the 5K will start — both near the US Post Office parking lot on Cherry Street. The Fun Run will be in front of the Municipal Building at 9 a.m. Awards will be presented at 9:15 a.m. in front of the Municipal Building.

Early packet pickup will be August 12, from noon – 6 p.m. at White Elephant Brewing Company. Race day packet pickup and registration will be 6:30 a.m. -7:30 a.m. in front of the Mount Airy City Municipal Building, 300 S. Main St.

Updates on the races can be found on the United Fund’s Facebook page. Online registration is available until August 12 at 6 p.m. at: https://downtownrocksandruns.itsyourrace.com/event.aspx?id=1858.

• A Dobson man has been jailed on felony drug and other charges filed in Mount Airy, according to city police reports.

Tyler Cleve Storms, 33, of 5334 Haystack Road, was arrested as the result of an incident earlier this month for which charges against Montia Marie Midkiff of Pilot Mountain previously were reported.

The case stems from a July 5 traffic stop of a 2009 Nissan Sentra on Mayberry Mall Road and a probable-cause search. Storms is accused of possession of a Schedule II controlled substance with intent to manufacture, sell or deliver along with two misdemeanors: contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile and possession of drug paraphernalia.

He was confined in the Surry County Jail under a $5,000 secured bond and is scheduled to appear in District Court on Wednesday.

• Brenda Mae Surratt, 58, of 1313 Northridge St., was jailed without privilege of bond on July 11 for an assault charge resulting from a domestic call at that location.

Surratt allegedly assaulted Ronald Edward Hawks by striking him with her fist, causing minor injuries. The case was scheduled for Monday’s session of Surry District Court.

• Two copper ground rods valued at $200 were discovered stolen from a home in the 900 block of Reeves Drive on July 14 after a breaking and entering. James Michael Wilhite, a resident of Granite Street, is listed as the victim of the theft.

• North Star Garage on North Franklin Road was the scene of a larceny discovered on July 13 which involved miscellaneous items being taken from the mailbox of the business.

Auditions for the Surry Arts Council’s production of Shrek The Musical JR. directed by Shelby Coleman are being held on Wednesday, July 27 and Thursday, July 28 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Andy Griffith Playhouse.

Beauty is in the eye of the ogre in Shrek The Musical JR., based on the Oscar-winning DreamWorks Animation film and Broadway musical. It’s a “big bright beautiful world” as everyone’s favorite ogre, Shrek, leads a cast of fairytale misfits on an adventure to rescue a princess and find true acceptance. Part romance and part twisted fairy tale; Shrek The Musical JR. is an irreverently fun show with a powerful message for the whole family.

Those auditioning should be prepared to sing a song from Shrek The Musical JR. and learn a short dance number from the show. There are parts for ages 5 to 18. Anyone unable to make auditions in person should send a video singing a song from Shrek The Musical JR. to shelby@surryarts.org by Wednesday, July 27 at 8:30 p.m.

The public performances will be at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 22 and at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 23. School performances will be on Friday, Oct. 21 and Monday, Oct. 24.

For additional information, contact Shelby Coleman at 336-786-7998 or shelby@surryarts.org. Tickets for the shows are available online at www.surryarts.org, via phone at 336-786-7998, or at the Surry Arts Council office at 218 Rockford Street.

Nearly two dozen classic and old-time autos were on display Sunday at the Dobson Church of Christ.

A good-sized crowd turned out for the church’s Sunday afternoon cruise-in, which Pastor Scott Meadows hopes to make an annual event.

”We had 20 car entries for the show, two food trucks, Benny’s Ice Cream and State of Graze,” he said, giving fans the chance to enjoy a few treats while checking out the classic cars and trucks.

Gray Gwyn’s 1966 Cadillac Deville was crowned the People’s Choice award-winner.

“Those attending enjoyed viewing the cars and good times in the shade,” Meadows said.

The Surry Art Council’s Summer Concert Series has two bands set to play this weekend. The Entertainers will play the Blackmon Amphitheatre on Friday night, while the Holiday Band will take the stage on Saturday. Both shows will start at 7:30 p.m.

The Entertainers have shared in the South’s Beach Music tradition for over 30 years. While staying true to their R&B and beach music roots, the group also satisfies the most diverse audiences by playing selections from the latest Top 40, classic rock and roll, and country music.

The Holiday Band blends soul, blues, funk, and Carolina Beach music. Holiday has established itself as a premier entertainment package with the always-present theme “Keep The Music Alive!”

Both concerts will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturda. Admission to each show is $15 or a Surry Arts Council Annual Pass. Children 12 and younger are admitted free with an adult admission or Annual Pass. The Dairy Center, Whit’s Custard, and Thirsty Souls Community Brewing will be at the concerts to provide food, snacks, drinks, beer, and wine for purchase. No outside alcohol or coolers are allowed to be brought into the Amphitheatre area. Those attending are asked to bring a lounge chair or blanket to sit on.

Tickets are available online at www.surryarts.org, via phone at 336-786-7998, or at the Surry Arts Council office at 218 Rockford Street. For additional information, contact Marianna Juliana at 336-786-7998 or marianna@surryarts.org

Before school was finished for the the 2021-22 year, Cedar Ridge Elementary School students in John Strickland’s class read the book “The Secret Garden.”

After reading the book, the class ventured outside, where they hid wildflower seeds in their secret garden and marked the spot with a gnome village.

What the students didn’t know at the time is that flowers would soon going to appear in the very spots where they hid their seeds.

PILOT MOUNTAIN — Even if there were such a creature as the Heat Monster, it would’ve been no match for the brontosaurus, triceratops, tyrannosaurus rex and other dinosaur species that invaded downtown Pilot Mountain over the weekend.

Of course, none were real, although some appeared to be alive — and appropriately fearsome — thanks to the animation skills of Ed’s Dinosaurs Live, a Concord-based outfit that provides educational entertainment of the prehistoric variety at events including festivals and parades.

And the interactive exhibits, rides and other attractions featuring lifelike dinosaurs which Ed’s brought to downtown Pilot Mountain Saturday for an event free to the public showed that while those creatures themselves are extinct, their human admirers certainly are not.

Nearly every inch of ground surrounding the town hall parking lot was filled with people — mostly parents with small children, some riding in strollers and others perched on the adults’ shoulders, but nearly all with looks of awe on their faces. Parking spaces also were hard to come by in the downtown vicinity.

“We’ve already had 3,000 in the first couple of hours today,” Pilot Mountain Mayor Evan Cockerham said of the attendance shortly after noon Saturday, with about two hours still to go for the Dinosaurs on Main event.

Similar to the figure of a brontosaurus that loomed over the proceedings, Cockerham was expecting final turnout to tower above that of a previous Ed’s Dinosaurs Live appearance in Pilot Mountain in 2019.

And keep in mind that all this was unfolding under a searing sun that baked the crowd in temperatures of around 90 degrees. This was intensified by the hot pavement on which folks had to stand while waiting in line for dinosaur rides or to touch replicas of the fabled denizens that once ruled the earth.

“The line has never ended since we started this,” Doug Tompkins, one of the crew members, said around noon while assisting children in mounting and dismounting a triceratops ride during the festival that had begun two hours earlier.

“But kids enjoy this stuff,” Tompkins observed regarding the dinosaur infatuation among the young.

“I think it’s because it’s something they don’t see every day — it’s not like a dog or cat,” said Stephanie Wise, a teacher who lives in Pilot Mountain and was attending the event with her husband Matthew and son Adrian, 3.

“It’s just these giant things that they can see — and touch now,” Wise added of the hands-on opportunities being offered Saturday, which included one presenter seen wearing a (what had to be uncomfortable) dinosaur costume.

“I’m glad Pilot Mountain is doing something like this,” Matthew Wise said, which Mayor Cockerham agreed was at the heart of Dinosaurs on Main in providing an event families could enjoy.

Along with the rides, face-painting, dinosaur craft stations for kids and various vendors, two shows were scheduled Saturday which proved fun and educational.

The stage was set for this as the song “Godzilla” blared from a sound system. That recording by the rock band Blue Oyster Cult celebrates the movie monster originating in Japanese cinema, containing fitting lyrics including “he picks up a bus and he throws it back down, as he wades through the buildings toward the center of town.”

“Raise your hands if you like dinosaurs,” Ed Bounds of Ed’s Dinosaurs Live shouted to the crowd upon beginning an 11 a.m. show, to which children responded enthusiastically.

“If you like dinosaurs, roar,” Bounds also urged, bringing another spirited reaction.

He informed the kids that they could be members of the “Dino Gang” by obeying simple rules such as: “Tidy up your room every 65 million years or so.”

Bounds also led an “All About T-Rex” segment during which spectators could mimic the motions of the popular dinosaur.

Dakota & Friends, another entity that presents dinosaur-themed shows, also had a presence at Saturday’s event, where markers were placed at the different exhibits to identify the dinosaurs depicted.

In addition to local organizers, those operating the various rides were impressed by the turnout.

“It’s amazing,” crew member Drew Nowlin said. “Hope everyone gets their dinosaur fill for the summer.”

That seemed to be the case for Brent Hiatt and his son Brexton, 2, of Ararat, whom his dad says just loves the way dinosaurs look and sound, their overall imposing presence. And even in extreme heat Brent offered opposite terminology to describe Saturday’s gathering:

“It’s cool.”

Recently the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History hosted its second monthly Rotary-sponsored Family Fun Day, with nearly 250 folks turning out for the event.

The third Sunday of every month through October has been set aside as Family Fun Day through funding provided by The Rotary Club of Mount Airy.

“During these events touring the museum is free to the public, which many have found exciting as they get a sneak peak of the new exhibits and the upcoming children’s play space,” museum officials said of the monthly event. “We also offer free activities during these events. Yesterday (July 16) we had a llama out in the courtyard thanks to Greg Hall from Simplicity Llama Farms located in Dobson, and everyone got their turn to get a photo taken.

“To continue with the llama theme we offered coloring, puzzles, games, and even themed crafts such as llama puppet making and a kid-friendly weaving activity.”

Museum officials say they hope to continue to see this level of turnout, especially as the museum plans to have its children’s gallery, along with some new exhibits, start to open by September. Three more Fund Day — August 21, Sept. 18, and Oct. 16, are scheduled, each planned for 1 to 4 p.m.

“The activities for each will also be something different, and we always recommend that guests pop in for a quick tour to see how things are changing as we move through our renovations,” museum officials said.

Honoring those who have served the nation is a mission that is taken seriously in this country. Active duty, reserves, deployed, or stateside — the nation owes its veterans a thank you.

In Surry County there will soon be another way to honor and remember those who have served with the deployment of a new time capsule at Veterans Memorial Park.

Set to be placed by the tank on Saturday, Sept. 10, those putting together the time capsule is seeking artifacts that are centered around the veterans of the area and around Veterans Memorial Park itself.

Jerry Estes of the local American Legion said he wants to make sure that veterans are not forgotten. It can be easy to remember the graphic stories of war and loss, but he said he wants area veterans to be remembered for what they stood for and what they contributed to the area after they served.

Artifacts are going to be collected on Saturdays at the main office of Veteran’s Memorial Park. Space inside the time capsule will be limited, Estes said there may not be room for all the artifacts but encourages veterans to see what they may wish to archive for posterity.

In 50 years, the Veterans Memorial Park time capsule will be brought up and Estes said, “I hope it can show who we were and the things we have done. We made an impact locally, not just in our service, but afterward as well.”

“I want people to know we were here, and we cared enough to give back even after we served.”

He said attitudes have changed so much toward veterans over the years. From the ticker tape parades and celebrations to close out the second World War through the ridicule and scorn heaped on veterans returning from the horrors of Southeast Asia, the treatment of veterans has been inconsistent at best.

Estes noted that “now there isn’t as much made of the veterans returning” even as there had been in thepast decade during the height of the country’s foreign conflicts post-September 11. He said pride is not lacking even if the nation’s mood on politicians and the machinations of Washington D.C., or Raleigh, have led to a dour outlook.

“Pride comes from the people and the country, not the politicians,” Estes reminded.

The members of American Legion Post 123 in Mount Airy have been working to make sure veterans are not forgotten while also continuing to shine a light on Prisoners of War and those Missing in Action.

In 2019 the Legion launched a program to honor local POW/MIAs with memorial plaques. The first six names were placed on the “Remembering Surry County POWs and MIAs” wall outside of the meeting hall at Veterans Memorial Park in February 2020.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency last available data showed that there are still 81,600 POW/MIAs. Of that total it is estimated 41,000 were lost in the Pacific theatre and are presumed lost at sea from sinking ships or downed aircraft.

Lost remains are still being identified and the total number of missing or captured is dropping. In July alone the accounting agency made 16 press releases to confirm the outcome of missing heroes.

The National World War II Museum in New Orleans offered an estimate that roughly a quarter million veterans from WWII are still living. They go on to note that more than 200 of these veterans are dying a day as of late 2021. Sadly, COVID may have increased the rate at which the country is losing it heroes of the Greatest Generation.

Before their memories and stories are lost, an emphasis has been placed on securing oral histories of American veterans. Register of Deeds Todd Harris is spearheading the county’s campaign to conduct interviews and supply oral histories to the Veterans History Project. The goal is to preserve the firsthand interviews and narratives and is being done in conjunction with the United States Library of Congress Veterans History Project.

“We have uploaded several of our interviews as a finished product and have more in production,” Harris said Friday. “We will continue to seek veterans to interview as long as I am Register.”

For more information on the Veterans Park time capsule Estes advises parties to come to the main office at Veterans Memorial Park at 691 W. Lebanon Street in Mount Airy on Saturdays for inquiries or to contribute an artifact.

• Property worth hundreds of dollars has been stolen from vehicles in the Lowe’s Home Improvement parking lot, according to Mount Airy Police Department reports.

The incident occurred on July 15, targeting autos owned by two employees of the store, Jason Earl Hill of Pipers Gap Road in Cana, Virginia, and Bradley Mark Bedsaul of Ennice. Listed as taken were an undisclosed sum of money, a Flex reciprocating saw, a pair of costly sunglasses and an EverStart 80-amp jump starter. The loss totaled $789, not counting the currency.

• Ronald Dale Ashburn, 63, of 125 E. Oakdale St., was served last Saturday with a criminal summons for a harassing phone call charge that police records indicate had been issued earlier that day with Patrick Wayne Robinson, a Culbert Street resident, as the complainant.

Ashburn was scheduled to be in Surry District Court Friday.

• A car wash beside the Speedway convenience store on West Pine Street was the scene of a property-damage incident discovered on July 15, which involved a pry tool being used to open four latches. Damage put at $20 resulted.

• An Apple iPhone owned by Kimberly Dawn Reavis of South Davis Street in Pilot Mountain was stolen on July 14 at Quality Mart on Holly Springs Road. The phone, valued at $1,100, is described as blue in color.

• A break-in involving the larceny of jewelry said to be worth $5,000 was discovered on July 7 at a room of Quality Inn on Rockford Street where Patricia Diane Fink of Marion was staying.

Police records indicate the room was forcibly entered, enabling the theft of two gold rope chain necklaces, one with an angel and the other, a cross.

• A Pilot Mountain woman was jailed on a felony drug charge after a July 5 traffic stop on Mayberry Mall Road. A subsequent probable-cause search resulted in Montia Marie Midkiff, 31, of 290 Golf Course Road, being accused of possession of a Schedule II controlled substance along with possession of drug paraphernalia and contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile.

Midkiff was held in the Surry County Jail under a $3,000 secured bond and slated for an appearance in District Court next Wednesday.

Audra Chilton has been named as the Surry County Schools director of school finance. Chilton will be responsible for all district finances including payroll, accounts payable and receivable, all state and federal reporting, and the development of the district’s annual budget, according to an announcement by the school system.

“Chilton will be providing a combination of deep industry knowledge, relevant experience, and financial acumen to the role.”

Chilton brings more than a decade’s worth of experience in finance. She served as a senior tax associate at Dixon Hughes Goodman in Winston-Salem, which now goes by Forvis following a recent merger, from August 2007 to August 2012. After departing from Forvis, Chilton served as a Senior accountant with BB&T from August 2012 until January 2014. In 2014, she transitioned into public schools, where she gained experience and understanding of educational funding.

Chilton graduated Cum Laude from Appalachian State University in 2006, where she received her Bachelor of Science in business administration and accounting. She received her Master of Science degree in accounting the following year. Chilton is a Certified Public Accountant and a certified finance officer with the NC State Board of Education.

“Mrs. Chilton is eager to begin this new journey with Surry County Schools with her husband of 15 years, Tyler, and their two daughters, Amelia and Blakely who attend Shoals Elementary School,” the school system said.

“It is an honor to be selected as the Director of school finance for Surry County Schools. I am excited to serve the district I was brought up in and to give back to my community,” Chilton said.

“Mrs. Chilton’s experience as a school finance officer will be an invaluable asset to Surry County Schools and our leadership team,” said Superintendent Dr. Travis L. Reeves. “We are excited to welcome her to the Surry County Schools family. Mrs. Chilton is well respected across the region and state of NC for her leadership and contributions to the North Carolina Association of School Business Officials. The Surry County Board of Education and I are excited to partner with Mrs. Chilton and look forward to her contributions to the students, staff, and families of Surry County Schools.”

It was not immediately clear who had previously held the position. Kevin Via is listed on the school system’s website as the interim finance director.

DOBSON — Two of the four early voting sites open in Surry County during recent election cycles face elimination along with certain Saturdays that service typically is available, but the final decision on locations will come from the state.

That is required due to the Surry Board of Elections failing to achieve unanimous votes on proposals for closures during a meeting Wednesday afternoon in Dobson.

There is general support among the five-member board for not operating one-stop absentee, no-excuse early voting locations in Pilot Mountain or Elkin ahead of the general election on Nov. 8. That sentiment is based on the relatively low turnout at those sites for a May 17 primary and the expectation that again will be the case this fall.

The other two sites are in Mount Airy and Dobson.

“I would like to have the one-stop open at all four locations” under ideal conditions, Board of Elections Chairman Dwayne Carter said, which have not been manifested given the voter participation rates in Pilot Mountain and Elkin.

“Dobson has to be open by statute,” Carter added regarding the home base of the Surry Board of Elections.

And the popular Mount Airy early voting station in a county facility behind Arby’s is thought to be sustaining itself when weighing the turnout against the costs of the early voting service. It allows citizens to both register and cast ballots ahead of a regular election day for whatever the reason.

“We really need to have Mount Airy open,” Carter believes.

“And, of course, you have to have the same people, the same equipment and the same supplies there,” he said of the Pilot Mountain and Elkin sites where turnout is low. Spreadsheets were prepared on attendance and expenses to achieve breakdowns on the cost per vote cast, which showed that operating those locations isn’t justifiable.

“So we did attempt to pare down,” Carter said.

However, a vote to not operate the Pilot Mountain and Elkin stations this fall didn’t produce that desired result due to parliamentary rules governing the local board.

“We did not come to a unanimous vote,” Carter said of Wednesday’s action — which means the outcome must be decided by the State Board of Elections in Raleigh.

That was the case earlier this year when Surry board members registered a split vote on the number of early voting sites for the primary. That led to a decision by the state board in March to maintain all four locations.

Although the Surry Board of Elections is a five-member body made up of three Democrats and two Republicans, Wednesday’s vote was bipartisan in nature. One GOP member made a motion to operate only the Mount Airy and Dobson locations, which also was backed by all three Democrats.

However, the remaining Republican voted against that plan — thus triggering the required intervention by the State Board of Elections at an upcoming session.

“I’m thinking it will be in August,” Carter said.

“We tried to come to a better compromise for everything and that didn’t quite work,” he mused.

The failed unanimous decision on eliminating the Pilot Mountain and Elkin locations led to another motion being introduced by a Republican member to have only the Dobson early voting site. It failed along party lines 3-2, again necessitating state involvement.

“Just like before the spring primary, it will have to go to the State Board of Elections,” Carter said.

When it takes up the matter, the options will include maintaining Mount Airy and Dobson, Dobson only or all four sites, but Carter doesn’t expect the latter to occur.

One local board member on each side of the issue will argue his case before the state board.

The Surry County Board of Elections did achieve a definitive result this week when it came to cutting the number of Saturdays when early voting stations will be open before the November election.

Three Saturdays normally would be included, with the one right before Election Day mandated to be on the schedule.

“We were unanimous in the decision to close the two Saturdays that we had the power to say ‘open’ or ‘close,’” the local chairman disclosed.

Low turnout for comparable Saturdays during the primary was again the motivation.

Carter explained that the overall downscaling sought by the Surry board is a recognition of the lack of voter interest demonstrated for off-year elections such as in 2022 when no presidential race is on the ballot.

Many local candidates will be listed who have no opposition by virtue of winning party primaries in May, making them automatic victors in November.

“We don’t predict there will be a large abundance of voters,” Carter said of the impact from such factors.

He suggested that the only hot race facing local citizens looks to be a statewide U.S. Senate contest pitting Republican Ted Budd against Democrat Cheri Beasley.

Those longing to resurrect the 1960s era of flower power and hippies have an outlet for experiencing that this weekend at a local venue.

The Hippie Revival Festival is unfolding for the second year at Miss Angel’s Farm and Orchard near Mount Airy, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to noon Sunday.

“Last year was such a groovy, far-out great experience that we’ve decided to make our 2022 Hippie Revival even better,” says an announcement for the two-day July 23-24 event.

Organizer Angela Shur of the farm launched the festival in 2021 for multiple reasons, including no similar gathering being held elsewhere in the area.

Another involved allowing the public to experience peace and love during turbulent times while also paying homage to the colorful hippie era, with a bit of nostalgia thrown in for those around then.

This will include two bands providing “Woodstock” music; best-dressed hippie/flower child, dance and other contests; face-painting and tie-dyeing; morning yoga; more than 50 hippie and other vendors; a petting zoo and pony rides; jugglers; and a peach pancake breakfast, among additional attractions.

Attendees are invited to take picnic blankets and lawn chairs along with their best flower crowns, paisleys and peace signs, but coolers are discouraged.

There are options to camp on the farm, where food and beverages are to be sold.

Saturday’s admission cost is $10, with overnight camping $50 per tent (which includes yoga). A Sunday breakfast and yoga bundle is available at $15 for adults and $12 for kids, with breakfast alone $10.

A portion of the proceeds will aid local food pantries, including one at Trinity Episcopal Church. Miss Angel’s Farm and Orchard is located at 252 Heart Lane (formerly Quarter Horse Lane), which is west of Mount Airy near Interstate 77, off N.C. 89.

In the racing world a good crew helps, and that’s what Frank Fleming was surrounded by when Mount Airy officials green-flagged action to settle a controversy involving the local modified legend.

“I think it’s positive,” Fleming said after the city commissioners voted during a Thursday night meeting to set a public hearing on a proposed amendment to regulations presently prohibiting a tall sign for a $2 million expansion of his body shop.

The stage had been set for this when those officials last met — on June 16 before taking a summer hiatus — greeted by a crowd of supporters who crammed into Council Chambers in favor of a request Fleming made then for such relief.

In the interim, new language was injected into the City of Mount Airy Zoning Ordinance which if approved will exempt rundown property Fleming bought on Merita Street — to improve and expand his longtime shop — from signage height restrictions imposed in 2016.

A similar crowd of well-wishers was on hand Thursday night, but the mood seemed to be more one of joyous support rather than tenseness as was the case before.

This was accompanied by the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners voting to schedule the required public hearing on the proposed amendment for Aug. 18 at 6 p.m. It would permit the re-use of non-conforming sign framework on the property which exceeds a 15-foot limit set in 2016 for new business developments such as that by Fleming, who is relocating his shop from Springs Road.

He has sought to utilize the metal remnants of a signage earlier drawing attention to a Winn-Dixie supermarket formerly located on Merita Street. Supporters of the amendment say such a tall structure will be needed to highlight the new body shop on a site not readily visible from nearby U.S. 52.

It also is viewed as a safety measure to easily guide people to the business and prevent them from possibly missing it and then having to double back via a U-turn in the face of heavy traffic.

The amendment contains added provisions pertaining to the Merita Street property. It says such signs that are set back a minimum of 300 feet and no more than 600 feet from U.S. 52-Bypass, U.S. 601 and Interstate 74 rights of way shall be exempt from other sign rules in the city ordinance.

An earlier attempt by Fleming to have the Mount Airy Zoning Board of Adjustment approve an exception permitting the sign was unsuccessful, and he appealed the case to Surry County Superior Court.

Unlike the June 16 city council meeting, there was little or no mention of the issue Thursday night by Mount Airy officials — and no one addressed it during a public forum, as had been the case last month.

The commissioners approved the scheduling of the public hearing through a consent agenda, in which items are lumped together for a single vote without in-depth discussion.

But Fleming said after leaving the room that he is satisfied with the direction in which council members are taking the matter.

“They’re doing it by the book the way it’s supposed to be done,” he said of the ordinance-change procedure being employed, including next month’s hearing that he hopes will bring a successful resolution.

“We just have to be patient and time will tell.”

Mount Airy Wesleyan Church will be hosting a gospel music concert on Saturday, August 6 at 6 p.m. featuring multiple Dove Award nominees The Sound.

The Sound is a family group made up of gospel music veteran Rob Mills and his two sons, Levi and Jacob. Their distinct, country-pop inspired style has captured the attention and affection of fans around the world. The Sound has performed live for thousands of gospel music enthusiasts and has been viewed by millions on television and via social media.

The group travels thousands of miles every year to share their engaging and eclectic shows full of music, laughter, and testimony. Since their formation in 2019, their short career has been marked by four consecutive chart-topping songs, three Dove nominations, and a feature performance on the 2020 Gospel Music Association Dove Awards. Their latest 2022 album, God Is Real, incorporates elements of Nashville country-pop and worship.

Mount Airy Wesleyan Church is at 2063 South Main Street, Mount Airy. The concert will be held in Mount Airy Wesleyan’s gymnasium/worship center. This is a ticketed event, and persons may purchase tickets at Mayberry Music Center, Charis Christian Books and Gifts, Mount Airy Tractor Company Inc., Toyland, Mayberry Primitives Rustic Décor and Embroidery, and Pages Books and Coffee or by calling 336-442-2991. Tickets will also be available at the door.

Major Larry Lowe will be taking over on August 1 as the chief deputy to Surry County Sheriff Steve C. Hiatt, filling the position being left vacant by a retiring Paul Barker.

“I’m beyond blessed and honored that the sheriff has given me this opportunity. I will work tirelessly to continue the route that’s been set forth before me by the previous chief,” Lowe said this week at Surry County Courthouse in Dobson.

Major Lowe entered law enforcement in 1991 before stepping away in 2010 from full time service, he remained a part time sworn officer and retained his certifications before returning full time in 2016.

Lowe steps into the role being vacated by Barker, who said this week that he thinks 30 years of law enforcement is enough and he is now ready for a “a new chapter in life.”

Barker leaves the sheriff’s office after four years of service having moved over from the Mount Airy Police Department where he started serving in September 1993. He climbed from patrol office through detective and rose to lieutenant over all criminal investigations in 2010.

After 26 years of service to the city Barker said it was an easy decision to make the move “when Sheriff Hiatt came in and asked me to come over and be part of his command staff in 2018.”

As the chief deputy, Lowe explained he will be the second in command to Sheriff Hiatt over a force that “has grown a lot in the last few years.” He will take on a leadership role with the departmental budget and personnel matters as well.

In the latter area he knows the road will be difficult, finding applicants for law enforcement jobs is a struggle. “In today’s time in law enforcement, trying to find personnel is hard, no one wants to be a public servant.”

“We are battling it the same as others, although I do believe we have combated it better than some agencies over the last few years. We are still facing (trouble) though right now, trying to find these folks,” Lowe said.

Knowing the solution to draw new candidates into law enforcement Lowe said is the million-dollar answer. Barker said, “I think it’s a calling that a person has to have to go into any type of public service.”

These problems may be exacerbated by a shift among some Americans toward demonizing law enforcement of all stripes for the actions of some within a system some see as fundamentally broken.

Barker noted, “It’s not only police, it’s fire and rescue, too. A lot of these are volunteers, we are not, they have made a conscious effort to get into emergency services to be a servant to their town or community. I think there has been a falling away in interest in that.”

“I’ve seen in,” Lowe agreed. “Back in high school I was a volunteer firefighter, that was something you wanted to do for the community. It was a desire I had, I’m not sure why more people don’t anymore. Maybe it’s the environment of today’s world.”

Barker notes this is not an issue of a lack of local pride, but it is something happening all over. “The sheriff, Larry, and I are in close contact with our counterparts across the state. Everyone is having problems.”

The Surry County Sheriff’s Office leaders bristled at the notion a shortage of staff may hinder the services they offer or their response time. “One of the good things with the people that are involved in service to others is that heart that they have for it. They pick up the slack. Sometimes you do more with less, but those people who are in it, they are the real heroes in my opinion,” Barker said.

“For all intents and purposes, these men and women could go and make more in the private sector but choose to stay in this line of work for that reason, there is no other reason.”

The leadership took time to discuss the new detention center. Progress is ongoing with Barker reporting curbing and landscaping would be likely move forward in August.

In the interior the last cell was placed in June and finishing work is ongoing. “It’s a large building, so they have to go through and clean it, paint it, etc. We are on course from what I am hearing. The weather is the elephant in the room,” Barker said. Estimates currently have the construction done early in 2023 for an opening in late summer.

“My understanding is that it’s all under a roof and that the insulation project is well underway,” Barker said. “If you go down there from this week to next, it’s leaps and bounds in the differences.”

Sheriff Hiatt said his office plans to still use the intake part of the existing jail structure when the new facility opens, but they have no plans to continue housing inmates there.

“There is a reason we are building a new jail, the reason is it’s outdated,” Barker added. “For today’s times it’s broken up into an odd layout” that is not conducive to effective management nor in line with modern jail design.

In another change to modern tactics, the war on drugs finds the county investigation deaths that occur that are related to the scourge of opioids. Arresting and prosecuting the end users of such drugs will never end the blight but Lowe said “our county is leading the way and trying every option that is possible” to fight back.

Coming off the heels of a 13-month investigation into the overdose death of Melissa “Shannon” Dublin and the arrest of Chris Wayne Mosley on a charge of second-degree murder, the leadership said they would consider asking for more resources to add to opioid death investigations. The county’s substance abuse recovery office and sheriff alike are also looking forward to having space in the new jail for drug counseling and education.

On the radar recently with the county commissioners has been the county’s animal control. Sheriff Hiatt said a brainstorming session was scheduled for Wednesday to have discussion on that very topic. Lowe said, “We are looking to try and enhance what we have. We are doing the very best we can for the animals because ultimately that’s what it’s all about.”

Lowe is ready for the task at hand and yet knows he does not yet know everything. His goal for his tenure is laudable, “To continue to push the sheriff’s office in a professional manner to the highest level we can.”

All signs are pointing to a solution on the horizon regarding a situation whereby a local body shop owner has been barred from using an existing sign for a $2 million expansion of his business in Mount Airy.

This involves a proposed amendment to city zoning regulations, which if approved would set new distance boundaries allowing Frank Fleming to re-face the large sign left behind by the Winn-Dixie supermarket when vacating a site on Merita Street years ago.

Fleming has been denied from utilizing the framework of the former grocery store sign due to updated rules implemented in 2016.

These limit a sign’s height to 15 feet in cases of new business developments such as his, where the existing one is taller — and which Fleming says is needed to draw attention to the new body shop location tucked away off U.S. 52-North.

Construction recently has been occurring at the site where the owner plans to double his staff of about 10 employees at the present shop on Springs Road. He bought the property on Merita Street in a rundown state that is anticipated to be greatly improved through the expansion.

The local businessman, backed by a crowd of supporters, attended the last meeting of the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners on June 16 seeking an amendment to the regulations which would permit the sign use.

After hearing spirited pleas for that, city officials announced that the matter would be discussed at their next meeting scheduled today at 6 p.m.

Since the June meeting, an amendment has been devised by city planners to address what are described as non-conforming freestanding signs existing in highway corridors, mirroring the situation involving Fleming.

The added language says such signs that are set back a minimum of 300 feet and no more than 600 feet from U.S. 52-Bypass, U.S. 601 and Interstate 74 rights of way shall be exempt from other sign rules in the city ordinance.

Those pertain to one or more non-conforming signs located on a parcel of land or building whose occupancy or use has been discontinued for two consecutive years, among other provisions. Such signs are to be removed, replaced or otherwise brought into compliance with present standards.

The Mount Airy Planning Board, an advisory group to the commissioners, voted 4-2 in favor of the proposed amendment’s approval on June 27 and now the ball is in their court.

“All we’re going to do Thursday is set a public hearing,” Commissioner Jon Cawley said Tuesday regarding the fact that citizens must be allowed a chance to comment before such an ordinance change occurs. It is scheduled during another meeting of the city board on Aug. 18 at 6 p.m.

Cawley has been highly vocal in his support for Fleming’s sign request and is satisfied the amendment will solve the impasse that has included the businessman appealing the case to Surry County Superior Court.

The North Ward commissioner and 2022 mayoral candidate said he went to the Merita Street site where the expansion is underway and took a measurement with a golfing device to ensure the new language pertained to Fleming’s property.

“When I went out and shot this, I used a golf rangefinder and it was 504 feet from the edge of (U.S.) 52,” Cawley said. That device magnifies a target and shoots a laser beam at it in order to determine a precise distance.

“I didn’t know how we were going to go about it,” Cawley said of providing relief to Fleming which he and other municipal officials expressed support for during the June 16 meeting. “I thought was going to be a variance.”

A variance can be granted to a property owner when his or her planned use of a site deviates from local zoning laws.

Cawley applauded the proposed amendment as a pro-business move.

“We always need to be helping our business owners,” he said, who are often in the best position to know what’s best.

“If he thinks he needs the sign, then he needs the sign.”

• A civil disturbance Tuesday led to a Mount Airy man being charged with breaking and entering, according to city police reports.

Bobby Durelle Robinson, 40, of 401 Hadley St., allegedly took the keys to the residence of Jeffery Lee Frost on Marshall Street from a caretaker, which he entered without permission while the occupants were away and remained inside, police records state. Nothing was listed as stolen from the home.

Robinson is scheduled to appear in Surry District Court on Aug. 8.

• A $40,000 work vehicle was stolen Tuesday from a parking lot on Hay Street, where it had been left unsecured. The 2011 Ford F-350 cutaway van/truck, equipped with an 18-inch box, is owned by D Phillips Enterprises, LLC, with David Wayne Phillips of Summit Drive reporting the theft.

The vehicle, white in color, was bearing license plate number KM8056 when stolen.

• Ethan Bradly Gallimore, 22, listed as homeless, was jailed as a fugitive from justice and on an outstanding order for arrest on June 30, when he was encountered by police at Tlaquepaque Mexican Grill on Rockford Street. Gallimore’s name was found to have been entered into a national crime database due to being wanted in Virginia on an unspecified matter.

The order for arrest had been issued in Surry County, with no other information listed. Gallimore was held in the Surry County Jail under a $5,500 secured bond and is scheduled to be in District Court on Aug. 8.

• Herbert Eugene Burrows, 50, of Walnut Cove, was served with a warrant for a charge of assault on a female after being encountered by city officers during a June 30 drug activity investigation at the Circle K convenience store on Rockford Street.

The assault warrant had been filed in October 2018 through the Surry County Sheriff’s Office with Brianna Hope Ayers of Bourbon Lane as the complainant. The case is slated for Friday’s District Court session.

Jurassic Park will have nothing on Pilot Mountain this weekend.

The famous series of best-selling movies always revolve around the re-emergence of prehistoric dinosaurs, and it is those very creatures which will be let loose on Main Street in Pilot Mountain — or at least animatronic versions of the creatures.

Running the show is Ed Bounds, of Ed’s Dinosaurs Live, who said he is familiar with the area, having done a Dinosaurs on Main Street program in Pilot Mountain in 2019, as well as appearing in the Surry County Agricultural Fair.

Saturday, he and his prehistoric friends will be set up in the parking lot of town hall in Pilot Mountain. While the raptors in the Jurassic Park movies are pretty scary, the ones Bounds will be pulling out Saturday are of a much friendlier nature — though at times they may seem real, with life-like movements and the occasional whimper, cry, or roar, not to mention an amazing ability to talk just like a human.

Bounds, who was volunteering at the North Carolina zoo a decade ago, working with chimpanzees, was recruited to help out with a traveling dinosaur display at the zoo. He didn’t do a lot — essentially held a dinosaur puppet during the show, but once he held that puppet and saw how kids reacted to it, he was hooked.

So he started building his traveling dinosaur show, designing it to be fun for kids, and to be a bit of a cross between Mr. Rogers and the old Captain Kangaroo show, helping to encourage kids while teaching a few understated character lessons.

“The dinosaurs are always pranking me,” he said of how the shows play out.

He also makes a point of involving kids from the audience — “it is always interactive and immersive” he said. “The kids scream and laugh and stand up and dance. I always put a lesson in there, but you don’t really know it, you’re having fun, laughing, we sort of sneak that in there under the radar.”

On Saturday, Bounds said he will be set up in the Pilot Mountain town hall parking lot from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m., with two official shows set for 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. The rest of the time, he said, he and his prehistoric friends will be interacting with the crowd.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun. During the show, a baby dinosaur may very well hatch from an egg.”

Jenny Kindy, the Main Street coordinator for Pilot Mountain, said the show is free for all. In addition to the dinosaur show, she said there will be other kids’ activities, as well as a couple of food trucks and probably vendors selling ice cream and Icees.

The last time Ed’s Live Dinosaurs visited the area was 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic shut downs.

Kindy said she and Events Coordinator Christy Wright were attending a conference together regarding Main Street activities, and were in a vendor show when they saw “A man off in the corner with his dinosaurs.”

That was Bounds, showing off what his animatronic creatures could do.

“Christy said from being a mom, how much her kids like dinasoaurs, that really inspired her,” Kindy said of Wright’s decision to pursue the dinosaur show for the town.

She said she was not sure what to expect from the crowd the first time.

“I was incredibly and pleasantly shocked. It was gangbusters. It was completely filled the whole day,” she said. “Each showing was completely packed, there were so many families walking up and down the sidewalks, going in the stores. It really gave an inviting and friendly atmosphere to downtown.” She said even most of the merchants got into the spirit of the show, selling dinosaur-themed goods, and many are excited for this year’s return of the dinosaurs.

Bounds, too, is hoping many folks will come out Saturday.

“They’re not going to want to miss this,” he said of area residents. “It will be more fun than they’ve had in 65-and-a-half million year.”

The Surry County Board of Commissioners heard Monday night from Teramore Development and the residents of Sheltontown about a rezoning request that would have turned the plot of land at the corner of Westfield Road and Quaker Road into a new Dollar General.

After hearing from both the developer and residents, Commissioner Larry Johnson said as one of the commissioners representing the district that he moved to deny the rezone request for the parcels of land at 2953 Westfield Road. The motion passed unanimously, and the rezoning request was denied.

Representing Teramore, Mike Fox had said they felt the rezoning request was a reasonable one that was within the land use plan. The new Dollar General location he told the board would not be a destination shopping location, but one that would fill the daily needs of the community in which it was to be located.

The Teramore request was for a conditional rezoning, and he made the statement that the developer would be open to making some changes to the plan to make it more palatable. These would be changes to landscaping or buffering but not a change in type of business or any other accommodation that would have addressed the neighbors’ concerns.

Joe Strickland, director of operations for Teramore, told the commissioners that they had opened an eye-popping 500 new Dollar General locations in North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida in the past three years.

On his last visit there was some back and forth with the board and Strickland about how many Dollar General locations are in Surry County, this time Strickland was armed with an answer that 18 exist.

Five new locations have been built in Surry County in the past four years making a $10 million economic impact, he said. A sixth new location on Mount View Drive was approved in short order by the commissioners in June. The proposed Westfield/Quaker Road location would have been the seventh new location.

For Monday’s commissioners meeting both the Sheltontown opposition and the developers came armed with the knowledge gained from the planning board meeting last week. The anti-rezone group had been commended by the planning board for their organization and presentation one week prior that yielded a successful motion to deny the rezoning request.

One of the strongest points the opposition made had to do with the economic and tourism impact of the NC Scenic Byway and Bikeway that run through the area along Westfield Road. The developers asked about 14 acres that are zoned for commercial use along the byway pointing to Po-Folks, Moore’s General Store, Hiatt’s grocery, and Kustom Kraft Woodworks as examples that such business exists and does not detract from the byway.

Treva Kirkman rebutted this assertion by pointing out that many of the businesses are closed and/or the owners retired. Commissioner Johnson offered his observation that many of those businesses were family-owned on family-owned land.

Fox reminded the board as he did the planning board that this is decision to be made about land usage, and what is allowed or not based on the land use plan. It is no time for emotions nor is it for the commissioners to “choose winners and losers.”

He went on to say that “family owned is not a zoning condition” and for the planning board or the commissioners to weigh a decision on such flies in the face of the hands of government attitude so many espouse to.

Susan Krepps plays the piano at Shelton Church of Brethren across Quaker Road from the proposed location and disagreed, telling the board, “I am emotional about this, I’ll admit that. We are perfectly capable or driving two miles if we need something that we can’t get at Moore’s or Busy Bee but nine times out of ten you don’t have to.”

It was the need factor that Melissa Hiatt hammered home noting the land use plan allows for rural commercial development on a case-by-case basis if the needs are not already met by a business serving the area. With five locations within five miles the saturation of existing Dollar Generals she felt certainly does the job covering the area.

Commissioner Van Tucker, who said he shops at Dollar General, asked why this area needed another store. Strickland replied that market planning shows them this is an area that can support another location, “I was there, it is a busy area with lots of traffic. We want to capitalize on it.”

Furthermore, Strickland said the new locations have the larger floor plan “could potentially” offer new product offerings such as fresh produce. This statement was seized on by the opposition noting that when Mount View Drive was being proposed to the board Teramore alluded that all future locations would have the expanded fresh options.

Security was a concern the residents listed and Teramore addressed this with an analysis of 911 call data. The analysis was done by Ken Miller, the former police chief of Greensboro who was more recently the chief of police in Greenville, South Carolina, before resigning in 2019 after an ethics investigation that yielded no charges.

Miller told the developers that in his opinion that stores of this sort do not drive crime, and if they do it tends to be property crimes such as shoplifting. Fox added that Moore’s General Store touted the addition of dozens of new security cameras, there would have been no need for such if there was not an element of crime already found in the area.

Sheltontown organizers Heather Moore, of Moore’s General Store, and Melissa Hiatt, had told their group that Teramore would come back armed with rebuttal points, and they were not wrong.

A thorough reading of the county’s land use plan turned out to be the greatest asset the residents had besides the solidarity of purpose they showed in opposition.

Plans for Dollar General growth in Surry County will go on and as was the case for Mount View Drive, not all neighborhoods are going to fight as ferociously as did Sheltontown. The opposition always wanted it made clear that Dollar General was not and is not the enemy, but theirs was a case of “not in my backyard” that the planning board and county commissioners heard unequivocally.

Surry Medical Ministries has moved a big step closer to a new building for the free clinic it operates thanks to an injection of $400,000 in state funds.

Word of that development came earlier this week, hailed as “awesome news” by President Nancy Dixon of the board of directors for the Mount Airy facility where medical services are provided without charge to people lacking health insurance.

Dixon added that she had just learned the $400,000 was included in a state spending plan recently approved during a short session of the N.C. General Assembly.

She mentioned that the money will go toward ongoing capital efforts for the new building to replace Surry Medical Ministries’ present base of operations on Rockford Street, across from Northern Regional Hospital. The clinic, which opened in 1993, is housed in a structure that is about 70 years old, where a lack of space has hampered the growing operation.

Rep. Sarah Stevens of Mount Airy, who serves Surry County in the state Legislature — where she occupies a top leadership position as speaker pro tempore in the House of Representatives — has been a major supporter of the clinic and its mission. This also includes dental services.

“They serve people who have nothing,” Stevens has said of the facility that provides primary medical care to a large number of uninsured patients in Surry County.

Late last year, Stevens was instrumental in securing an earlier allocation of $300,000 in state budget funding for the Surry Medical Ministries clinic that renders services as a non-profit foundation with the help of volunteer health-care professionals.

That appropriation was approved to enable the clinic to become a full-time operation and possibly help provide for the new building, based on previous reports.

This past winter, the clinic’s hours were expanded from a two-days-per-week schedule to four days, in response to its caseload more than doubling after COVID-19 struck. That included an increase to around 5,000 during 2021 alone.

In addition to the state funding, clinic officials have asked the city of Mount Airy for $200,000 in capital support for medical needs of Surry County residents as the operation transitions to a new building to better serve the community. The project cost is listed as $2.7 million in city government documents.

No location for the building has been publicly announced.

Surry Medical Ministries is one of 16 non-profit organizations seeking a total of $2.4 million from federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding awarded to Mount Airy. This far outstripped the sum available for these groups, meaning some tough decisions await city officials on that issue, expected sometime later this year.

Those organizations were invited in January to request a share of the ARPA funding.

Meanwhile, Surry Medical Ministries has been tapped by county government officials to receive a $89,345 grant through an Invest in Surry program.

Dixon, the clinic official, has said realizing the new building will involve “a multi-year proposition that will take the partnerships of everyone in our community to address.”

If it seems that the community theater at the Stokes County Arts Council has been focusing on plays with a little more relevance to North Carolina, that is because the folks there have been doing exactly that since returning from the pandemic closures.

The play opening this weekend also brings a bit of Grammy exposure to local audiences.

“Brother Wolf: An Appalachian Adventure” opens on Friday for a four-show run over the weekend. Under the direction of Laurelyn Dossett, the show features several musical pieces, including the song “Anna Lee,” penned by Dossett and recorded by multiple national artists, including by Levon Helm and Appalachian Road Show. It appears on two of Helm’s Grammy-winning recordings, “Dirt Farmer” and “Ramble at the Ryman.”

“Anna Lee is half death ballad and half lullaby. I wrote it in the carpool line when my daughters were in school. I never expected that little song to go as far as it has,” Dossett said.

The show, a loose retelling of the epic Beowulf, was written by Preston Lane, with music written by Dossett, and debuted 16 years ago in Greensboro before going into national publication.

That was the same team which wrote Bloody Blackbeard, a show that was performed last year at The Arts Place in Danbury.

“We’re going in that direction,” said arts council Executive Director Eddy McGee, in referencing this year’s play and last year’s Bloody Blackbeard. “What we’re trying to do is go in the direction of supporting more North Carolina based stories. For years, we were much like a lot of other arts councils, producing nationally recognized productions. We’re just trying to add a little more home state flavor, if you will.”

He said that is important to the arts center.

“We are looking for North Carolina-based content…it’s not just performance, there is an educational component as well. You’re learning about North Carolina history, you’re preserving history as well. It’s not just performances for performance sake.”

That effort has paid off handsomely thus far. In 2021, McGee said the arts council made the mistake of scheduling just three performances for Bloody Blackbeard.

”They all sold out and we basically had standing room-only at those performances.”

This year, Brother Wolf is set for four shows — 7 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, along with a 2 p.m. Sunday performance.

“I fight sin with the good book. But I fight hell with a long sharp knife.” Such is the creed of the show’s hero, Brother Wolf, an itinerant mountain preacher.

In addition to Dossett directing, the show will include actors Lee Bodenhamer, Elise Spencer, Ava Smith and five members of the Burgess family of Danbury: Bruce, Emily, Anakin, Django and Zinn. The music will be performed live by Dossett, Andrew Young, Marci Shore and Molly Heath, a fiddle student in the Junior Appalachian Music program. Among the traditional instruments to be used are the fiddle, banjo, mandolin, and guitar.

“Beowulf is one of those classical literature pieces that everyone has heard of, but few of us really know it,” Dossett said. “Brother Wolf is a fun and exciting way into the story, with mountain monsters crawling up out of caves to wreak havoc on the Speerdane family. It’s a story of revenge and forgiveness, themes as old as time but as relevant today as ever,” said Dossett.

Some Stokes County high school seniors study the original Beowulf in class. “Seeing Brother Wolf can really help bring it to life,” she said.

All shows will be at The Arts Place, 502 Main Street in Danbury. For tickets or more information, call 336-593-8159 or visit www.StokesArts.org. Brother Wolf is rated PG-13 for mild language.

DOBSON — The first youth apprentice program for registered nurses in North Carolina has culminated this year in nine local students committing to apprenticeships at Northern Regional Hospital in Mount Airy.

An additional five have signed to continue their employment with Northern Regional Hospital through the Surry-Yadkin Works program at a signing event held at Surry Community College. Ten nursing apprentices signed with Northern Regional Hospital in the program’s inaugural year in 2021.

“The youth apprenticeship program has developed even more amazingly than we could have dreamed,” said Robin Hodgin, senior vice president of Patient Services and chief nursing officer at Northern Regional Hospital. “We have been truly blessed with this group of students, a group that our staff has grown to love and appreciate. We’ve enjoyed seeing their smiling faces each day, not to mention their eagerness to learn new skills. We know these young ladies have very bright futures ahead, and we hope those futures return them to Northern Regional Hospital.”

The apprentices who signed are: Trista Berrier of North Surry High School, Hannah Hall of Starmount High School, Gisell Hernadez Aguilera of Yadkin Early College High School, Brianna Key and Mariela Secundino of Surry Early College High School, Callie Moore and Kate Parks of Surry Central High School, Cristina Seawell of East Surry High School, and Ashlyn Shore of Forbush High School.

Additionally, the following Surry-Yadkin Works pre-apprentices working at Northern Regional Hospital signed with with the hospital as PRN nurses at the event. (“PRN” stands for the Latin phrase “Pro re nata,” meaning “as needed,” and “occasionally”): Kylie Bruner, Hannah Johnston, and Clara Willard of East Surry High School, Ellen Bryant of Surry Central High School, and Natalie Payne of North Surry High School.

“Working at Northern Regional Hospital has not only been an eye-opener for me but has been a wonderful learning and working experience,” said Cristina Seawell. “The staff and especially my mentors on the Labor and Delivery floor, who are now like my family, have been amazing. They are the best teachers and have taught me so much. This must be my most amazing opportunity yet. My choice in pursuing my nursing career has become clearer since being here, and I am excited to continue my journey here, as I know that I will have lots of help and support along the way. I am very thankful.”

This opportunity is a part of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Apprenticeship program and the state’s ApprenticeshipNC program through the N.C. Community College System Office that combines a paid work-based learning experience with classroom academics leading to a national certification. These students will earn free tuition for the associate degree nursing program at a North Carolina community college to become registered nurses.

The students began their paid pre-apprenticeships on Jan. 10 and worked through May 13 as certified nursing assistants and patient care technicians. They received high school or college credit for their employment along with a stipend each month for travel expenses.

“The partnership that Surry-Yadkin Works has established with Northern Regional Hospital is incredibly exciting for our local students as they are connected early in their educational journey to the hospital, so they can explore career paths,” said Crystal Folger-Hawks, program director of Surry-Yadkin Works. “If it’s a good fit, students can continue working at Northern Regional Hospital, while their college education is paid for through the ApprenticeshipNC program. This is a win-win for the business and students, and I’m proud to be a part of this endeavor.”

For more information about Apprenticeships at Northern Regional Hospital, visit wearenorthern.org/careers or email hrhelp@wearenorthern.org.

Surry-Yadkin Works is the first community-based internship program of its kind in North Carolina, officially beginning on Jan. 1, 2021, covering a two-county region.Surry-Yadkin Works is the collaborative effort of four public school systems in Surry and Yadkin counties including Elkin City Schools, Mount Airy City Schools, Surry County Schools, and Yadkin County Schools, as well as Surry Community College. The funding is also a joint effort with commitments from the Surry County and Yadkin County commissioners. An anonymous contributor donated $100,000 prompted by a presentation about the program at an educational summit to help begin the program.

For more information about the Surry-Yadkin Works program, contact Folger-Hawks at 336-401-7820 or folger-hawksc@surry.edu or visit www.surryyadkinworks.org.

With much focus nowadays on space tourism ventures launched by visionaries such as Jeff Bezos, Sir Richard Branson and Elon Musk, local kids got the chance to explore the galaxy without even leaving Mount Airy.

This was courtesy of a summer enrichment program offered by Mount Airy City Schools which has a different theme each week, including a “Reach for the Stars” session that concluded last Thursday allowing youths to learn about space.

The theme for this week is “Under the Sea.”

Mount Airy City Schools bills the different segments of the summer enrichment program as “family engagement sessions” that are geared toward school-age children and parents.

And the beauty of the concept is that they don’t have to travel to some facility on the other side of town to participate.

“We’re bringing it to them,” said Candice Haynes, one of two lead teachers for the summer program along with Ashley Pyles. This occurs using the familiar Blue Bear Bus, which is driven to different locations around town each week, filled with books and other materials to match the different themes.

On Mondays, the bus travels to the Madoc Center, and on Tuesday program organizers set up shop on Granite Road. Fellowship Baptist Church is penciled in on the schedule each Wednesday and the week concludes with a Thursday stopover at Riverside Park.

(Today’s session has been shifted from Granite Road to Riverside Park due to the threat of rain, but will resume at the normal sites on Wednesday.)

The segments run from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the different locations. The summer enrichment program began in early June and will end on July 28.

Along with “Reach for the Stars” and “Under the Sea,” the weekly themes have included “Ready Set Grow,” “STEAM into Summer” and “Red, White and Blue,” an appropriate lead-in for the July 4 weekend before the program took a brief break.

The final theme for next week’s session is “Fun Fitness.”

“We give away free books every day,” Haynes said, with breakfast and lunch also provided at no charge to participants.

Additionally, a field trip component is built into the program, including to a facility in Winston-Salem.

Along with providing fun activities for children and families, the summer enrichment effort reflects an ulterior motive of sorts: avoiding what educators refer to as “summer slide.”

That is the tendency among some students to lose academic gains they achieved during the previous school session — forcing them to play catch-up when the next term begins.

The different themes of the enrichment program each week are designed to keep the kids’ minds engaged and focused on learning.

“These are activities they’re not going to go out and do in the summertime (otherwise),” Haynes said.

Last week during the “Reach for the Stars” session, for example, participants developed Mars Rover models; worked with Legos figures; learned about the different phases of the moon and its orbit around Earth using cookies; and enjoyed hands-on time with “slime,” reminiscent of experiments undertaken with that substance in 2020 aboard the International Space Station.

The Nickelodeon television network provided the slime that has become an iconic feature of the network which is dumped on people’s heads during game shows in acts of either celebration or humiliation — which most consider a privilege overall.

Simulated slime also covered the endzone after every touchdown during a special Nickelodeon telecast of the San Francisco 49ers-Dallas Cowboys playoff game in January.

A humble mixture of vanilla pudding, applesauce, green food coloring and a little oatmeal, the slime was used by International Space Station crew members to test how the unique fluid reacted in microgravity.

Nickelodeon also created a teacher’s guide on the experiments conducted to stimulate young students.

Slime was in plentiful supply at the Madoc Center along with LEGO pieces students worked with, coinciding with another endeavor in which 26 LEGO figures were transported to the International Space Station as part of a special mission.

This week’s “Under the Sea” theme is being accompanied by activities showing the dangers of plastic to marine life, an oil slick experiment and more.

Yet aside from the educational components involved with the Blue Bear Bus summer enrichment program is the opportunity for socializing which it provides.

“Definitely, the interactions, especially with my daughter,” parent Vasso Iliopoulos said of the benefits for her two children, the daughter who is 4 and a 10-year-old son. They have been able to meet many other people during the Madoc Center gatherings that they regularly attend.

Iliopoulos also praised the program for its offering of unique activities that typically would not be available to her children during the summer — “things they don’t get exposed to at home.”

• A vehicle was stolen Saturday in Mount Airy by two suspects, according to city police reports.

The theft occurred at Quality Mart on Holly Springs Road, where the 2008 Kia Spectra was taken from the parking lot of the business.

Billy Hassell Tilley of King was identified as the owner of the car, which is white in color and was bearing license tag number TJL8448. It is valued at $3,000.

• Ronald Lee Carter, 57, of 189 Eleanor Ave., was arrested Saturday on a charge of resisting, delaying or obstructing a public officer after an incident at Dollar General on North Renfro Street.

Carter was encountered by officers responding to a shoplifting call at the store and fled on foot upon being pointed out by the manager as the suspect during the larceny investigation, police records state.

He was placed under arrest on Oak Street near Junction Street after a short foot chase, but only the resisting charge is listed in those records. Carter was held in the Surry County Jail under a $500 secured bond and slated for an Aug. 8 appearance in District Court.

• Nathanial Brendon Lee, 20, of 328 Wallace Creed Road, was jailed on a felony drug charge on July 9 after a traffic stop in the 500 block of North Main Street.

During that encounter, Lee allegedly was found in possession of an unspecified drug, leading to him being accused of possession of a Schedule II controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Lee was confined in the Surry County Jail under a $2,500 secured bond. He was scheduled to appear in District Court Monday.

The Surry Arts Players will be performing Music Man directed by Tyler Matanick this weekend. There will be Friday and Saturday July 22-23 performances at 7:30 p.m. and a Sunday performance at 3 p.m. at the Andy Griffith Playhouse.

The Music Man follows fast-talking traveling salesman, Harold Hill, as he cons the people of River City, Iowa, into buying instruments and uniforms for a boys’ band that he vows to organize – this, despite the fact that he doesn’t know a trombone from a treble clef. His plans to skip town with the cash are foiled when he falls for Marian, the librarian, who transforms him into a respectable citizen by curtain’s fall.

The production stars David Timm as Harold Hill, Katelyn Gomez as Marian Paroo, Hollie Heller as Mrs. Paroo, Quintin Zemon as Winthrop Paroo, Chloe Lawson as Amaryllis, David Nielsen as Mayor George Shinn, Jane Tesh as Eulalie Mackecknie Shinn, LillyRuth Beck as Zaneeta Shinn, Noelle Snow as Gracie Shinn, Scott Carpenter as Marcellus Washburn, Walker York as Tommy Djilas, Robert Parks as Jacey Squires, Greg Matthews as Ewart Dunlop, Tom McCluskey as Oliver Hix, Will Banfield as Olin Britt, Judy Beamer as Alma Hix, Lori Hawkins-Beck as Maud Dunlop, Julia-Ann Banfield as Ethel Toffelmier, Ashley Mills as Mrs. Squires, RJ Heller as Charlie Cowell, Allie Pell as Constable Locke, Hailey Nichols and Tess Ramey as Pick-a-Little Ladies.

Additional cast includes Kinston Nichols as the train conductor; Devin Poindexter as a farmer; Raegan Amos as the farmer’s wife; Charlotte Banfield, Madeline Caudill, Paisley Chilton, Ava Chrismon, Reese Cox, Remi DeVore, Catherine Douglas, Molly Easter, Atticus Hawks, Prim Hawks, Hannah Hiatt, Charlie Johnson, Cassidy Mills, Brooke Nichols, Sierra Nichols, Zoey Rumsey, Charlotte Sheets, Abby Smithson, Maggie Wallace, Claire Youell, and Maddie Youell as the ensemble.

Serving on the production crew is Director/Choreographer Tyler Matanick; Music Director Darrell Beck; Stage Manager Abby Brady; Dance Captain Cassidy Mills; Assistant Director Madeline Matanick; Technical Director Tyler Matanick; Sound Engineer David Brown; Light Board Operator Patrick McDaniel; Costumes Lori Hawkins Beck, Tess Ramey, and Abby Brady; Set Building David Brow and Tyler Matanick; Conductor Darrell Beck; Piano Adam Rudisill; Keys 2 Wilson Smith; Trumpet Allen Nichols; Flute Linda Twedell; Bassoon Sherri Collins; Saxophone/Clarinet Bobby Heller; Percussion Brady Reed; and Stage Crew Brody Sheets and Kori Hawks. Instruments were provided by Olde Mill Music.

Performances are on Friday, July 22 and Saturday, July 23 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, July 24 at 3 p.m. Tickets are $20. Tickets are available online at www.surryarts.org, via phone at 336-786-7998, or at the Surry Arts Council office at 218 Rockford Street. Tickets will also be available at the box office one hour before each show if available. For additional information, contact Marianna Juliana at 336-786-7998 or marianna@surryarts.org. This show is funded in part by a Grassroots Grant from the North Carolina Arts Council along with the Diane Holcomb Endowment.

While some “new business” has emerged with the recent collapse of the Main-Oak Building, Mount Airy officials’ attention also has been focused on a bit of “old business” surrounding three dilapidated structures elsewhere in town.

These include the former Koozies/Quality Mills located at 455 Franklin St; the old Mittman body shop at 109 S. South St.; and what is referred to in municipal documents as the “red building” at 600 W. Pine St. beside Worth Honda.

All three have been declared unfit for human occupancy by the city building codes officer and on Feb. 17 the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners took action giving the separate owners of the sites 90 days to repair or demolish the structures.

With that deadline having come and gone in May, the three are still standing, but Mayor Ron Niland says some movement has occurred with two of the three locations.

The days could be numbered for the third, the so-called Koozies building, the name of a private club once operating there, which has been especially problematic — included two fires in recent months linked to homeless occupancy. Its owner is listed as an entity in Oklahoma.

During an interview last week, the mayor reported on the present status for the trio of structures, having just spoken with City Manager Stan Farmer regarding the situation.

Niland said that the red building on West Pine is in the process of being sold to a buyer who knows the structure needs to be razed and reportedly is willing to do this. The mayor did not know the identity of the supposed purchaser.

Meanwhile, the former Mittman Paint and Body Shop on South South Street was auctioned in April to J&E Properties of North Carolina based on Park Drive, which includes a business called Ultimate Towing and Recovery.

The mayor said it is his understanding that the new owner bought the site with the intention of bringing the dilapidated structure up to code for reuse.

That leaves only the Koozies building, which at last report was said to be in limbo after an auction attempt in late April.

After making a high bid of $165,000, an unnamed New York party backed out, reportedly upon learning of the demolition mandate after initially being unaware of this.

Mayor Niland indicated that the Koozies property remains unsettled — a situation municipal officials are poised to rectify shortly.

He said the plan includes going back to the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners at some point in the next 30 to 60 days for “a decision on how to proceed going forward.”

“It’s going to have to come down sooner rather than later,” Niland added concerning the Koozies facility.

“That’s got some of the same issues as the building downtown,” he said of the Main-Oak one, which collapsed on July 5. The Koozies structure also contains a wall in danger of falling, the mayor mentioned.

Under the city’s action in February, the owner’s failure to act by the May 18 deadline included giving the commissioners authority to direct the codes officer to facilitate demolition.

The price tag for that has been put at hundreds of thousands of dollars. The municipality could then seize the property to help offset the cost.

Surry County announced the appointment of Laura Neely as the county’s new finance officer. Neely will be filling that role on Sept. 1, following the retirement of Rhonda Nixon, who after a career spanning 25 years of public service is ready to pass the baton.

Neely has been employed with the Town of Dobson since 2012, serving initially as finance officer and most recently as town manager. “During my time as town manager, I gained invaluable skills and insights into working with boards and elected officials, project management, budgeting, leadership, and effective communication,” she said.

“I learned lessons from each accomplishment and mistake made while in this role. My time also solidified my love of working in the public service sector and opened my eyes to all of the amazing individuals who work daily to make Surry County a great place to live and work.”

A graduate of North Wilkes High School she earned a Bachelor of Science in finance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro followed by a Master of Public Administration from the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

She is also a graduate of the Municipal/County Administration course at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Government.

The Dobson board of commissioners met in closed session Monday, July 11, to discuss the search for a new town manager. Neely said, “Their plan is to appoint a temporary internal interim town manager at the July 28 meeting so business can continue as usual until another interim town manager is appointed.”

This will not be her first transition as a public servant. She said the last job change was made easy, “Moving from finance officer to town manager while at Dobson was a relatively smooth transition because of the mentor I had in previous Town Manager Josh Smith.”

“I felt prepared to take on the challenge and already had a good relationship with the staff and town board. My staff and board were extremely supportive during that transition and were always quick to lend a helping hand or a listening ear if needed.”

She said, “I am excited to begin a new chapter in my career at the county of Surry. This role will allow me to continue to serve the great citizens of Dobson and all of Surry County in a new capacity while presenting new challenges. Finance is my background, and I am eager to dive back in as finance officer. I feel very honored to have been selected for this role.”

“I would like to thank each and every employee, the mayor, and commissioners for their continuous support during my time with the Town of Dobson. I am so proud of our small town and the great strides we have made during my time,” Neely said.

Misty Marion currently serves a dual role for Dobson as finance officer, Neely’s job prior to town manager, and as assistant town manager. “I’ve had the pleasure of working with Laura for many years. While I will miss her greatly, I know that she will be an invaluable member of the team at Surry County. I wish her the best of luck as she moves on to this net chapter in her career.”

“I am very excited to have Laura join our Surry County team,” Assistant County Manager Sandy Snow said of Neely’s move to join the county. “I am confident she will be a great asset to the county. Her finance background and public sector experience will serve her well in her new role.”

Surry County Manager Chris Knopf added, “I would like to congratulate Laura on her appointment as finance officer. I’ve had the pleasure to work cooperatively with Laura for a number of years and look forward to her joining our team here at Surry County.”

Neely says it is a bittersweet transition, but her neighbors in Dobson are being left in good hands, “The staff and board of commissioners that I leave behind are outstanding and truly desire to always do what is best for this wonderful town.”

The Board of County Commissioners made an allocation of $2.1 million within the Invest in Surry program for qualifying grants to local non-profit organizations earlier this year. At last week’s meeting of the commissioners, County Manager Chris Knopf released the details on the decisions on disbursement to area non-profits.

County staff compiled the applications from those that were submitted throughout late winter and into spring and reviewed them for compliance against the stated goals of the programs.

Applications had to meet a two-part test by the county’s Finance Committee to determine is the activity had a reasonable connection to a legitimate aim of the government. Also, the application had to prove that the program was for the public’s gain and “not that of an individual or private entity.”

Other restrictions were placed as well such as one that stated that organizations who had received other pandemic relief from the CARES Act or American Rescue Plan Act were not eligible. The size of the nonprofit was considered as there is an “assumption that larger organizations have more diverse funding and support options, and that this program’s support should be reserved for smaller non-profits in the county.”

All restrictions presented exemptions for those groups “directly dedicated to COVID patient care,” the application materials read.

In the end there were 37 applications received requesting a total of $4,722,260.45 against the $2.1 million amount allocated; so, some applications had to be weeded out.

Surry County used a variety of methods to base the decision making process on reducing the number of applications for non-profit grants so that the greatest number of organizations as possible.

An application for one of the nonprofit grants could not exceed 50% of the organization’s annual operational budget. Knopf’s office noted that applications were received from groups who exceeded that threshold amount and were therefore disqualified.

Other ways to whittle down the applicants was to set some restrictions on what the grant monies may be used for. “Funding could not be used for salaries, benefits, etc. because there was no guarantee with these types of expenditures that a tangible outcome would remain,” the county said.

Organizations who are awarded an Invest in Surry nonprofit grant will receive 50% of the awarded funding in August and the remainder in February. The county’s finance office will track the spending of funds awarded and will require reports be submitted on a regular basis to monitor compliance.

The nonprofits sharing the $2.1 million in grants through the Invest in Surry program are:

– Greater Mount Airy Habitat for Humanity $ 113,000

– Mount Airy Junior Women’s Club $25,000

– United Fund of Surry County $59,205

– Children’s Center of NWNC $100,000

– Surry County Schools Educational Foundation $25,000

– Helping Hands of Surry County $100,000

The Blackmon Amphitheatre will have a full schedule of music this weekend. Liquid Pleasure will play Thursday night. The Magnificents will take the stage on Friday night and Part Time Party Time Band will perform on Saturday night. All three shows will be at 7:30 pm.

Liquid Pleasure is a Chapel Hill based party band that plays everything from Top 40, rap, rock, and a variety of other genres. After more than two decades of bringing audiences to their feet, the band Liquid Pleasure has become a multi-cultural icon.

With no album high on the charts to boost them, Liquid Pleasure is a marketing phenomenon, generating buzz and full venues through word-of-mouth only. Liquid Pleasure brings fun and excitement to the stage.

The Magnificents Band has a wealth of live playing experience in varied styles of music, including classic soul, beach, Motown, Top 40, and dance hits.

Not just a beach music band, the Part Time Party Time Band plays a host of Motown, soul, ’60s, ’70s, and timeless classics. The band will even slide in a funk or country song to keep the dance floor full. No sequencers, synthesizers, drum machines, or backing tracks are allowed. These are real musicians playing real music with heartfelt passion.

Each concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. Admission to each show is $15 or a Surry Arts Council Annual Pass. Children 12 and younger are admitted free with an adult admission or Annual Pass. The Dairy Center, Whit’s Custard, and Thirsty Souls Community Brewing will be at the concerts to provide food, snacks, drinks, beer, and wine for purchase. No outside alcohol or coolers are allowed to be brought into the Amphitheatre area. Those attending are asked to bring a lounge chair or blanket to sit on.

Tickets are available online at www.surryarts.org, via phone at 336-786-7998, or at the Surry Arts Council office at 218 Rockford Street. For additional information, contact Marianna Juliana at 336-786-7998 or marianna@surryarts.org

For years, residents in and around Pilot Mountain have enjoyed using the Edward M. Armfield Senior Civic and Recreation Center.

The facility, built specifically to serve Pilot Mountain as a community center, fitness and workout facility, among other uses, has been owned and operated by a non-profit private foundation.

That may be changing soon — though members and local residents should not worry about the prospective new owner.

That would be the Town of Pilot Mountain.

Mayor Even Cockerham recently said the town staff and commissioners have been in discussions with the foundation’s board about the concept.

“We’ve always kind of thought this might be something we need to do,” the mayor said. He said being owned by a municipal government, as part of a parks and recreation department, would give the center some advantages over being owned by the non-profit foundation.

Among those would be a host of grant opportunities not now available to the center.

Funding has been a problem, at times, for the center, although Cockerham said the membership of the center and volunteers have done an amazing job over the years of fundraising to handle needed repairs and upkeep. Volunteer work there at times has saved tens of thousands of dollars on some projects, the mayor said.

Still, the expensive process of resurfacing the pool every 20 years, periodically replacing the HVAC system, the roof, and other major projects “have been a little bit of a struggle.”

He said the center has also been hit by the coronavirus pandemic — being forced to close for many months under state orders that shuttered all gyms and workout centers across the state in 2020. Even after the gym and other facilities there reopened, some individuals opted to cancel their memberships rather than comply with state mask mandates that were in effect at different times.

“Membership has rebounded some, from what I understand, but I don’t think they’ve rebounded to pre-pandemic numbers just yet. To their credit, between volunteer work and staff going the extra mile, they have been, for the most part, a break-even operation, but it’s those long-term expenses” the are challenging.

Cockerham said the facility is vital to Pilot Mountain and Surry County. In addition to a weight room, walking track and basketball court, it is also the town’s senior center where the Meals on Wheels program operates. Additionally, the mayor said several county schools, including East Surry High School, use the indoor pool for swim meets.

“The main thing we want to make sure going forward is working with the county and with the school system to maintain the building properly and set aside funds for capital needs.”

The town has applied for a $300,000 Rural Transformation Grant from the North Carolina Department of Commerce to use for the purchase. He said buying the center for that cost would essentially wipe out all of the center’s debt.

At present, he said a lot of “due diligence” is underway, including commercial building inspectors looking over the facility and grounds, and developing a capital improvement plan for the community center.

Should the process conclude with the town’s purchase of the property, Cockerham said details of how it would operate have yet to be worked out.

“Right now we’re exploring our options how best to manage the facility. The employees there would stay on as town employees, or as employees of the Armfield Center under the town’s umbrella. We won’t make any major changes.”

He also is not sure if town residents would get a break on membership fees while out-of-town members would pay more, although such an arrangement is a possibility, he said.

“The memberships there are really affordable, I’m a member of Armfield myself,” he said.

Attempts to reach officials at the Armfield Center were not successful. It is unclear how many individuals are employed there — Leah Tunstall is listed as director and Geneva Cheek as assistant director. Overall 20 people are listed on the website as employees, though it is not clear how many are fulltime, part-time, or temporary seasonal staff.

Cockerham said it’s not yet a done deal, but he is hopeful the town will learn this year what it will be able to do and get started.

“We’re still working out details when those funds will actually be available to us, timeline on when the town will take over. The staff and volunteers there have really gone above and beyond…We want to make sure anything we do respects what they’ve done to get us to this point. We hope we can be part of Armfield Center’s future, make sure it can continue to operate and be a successful asset to our town.”

SALISBURY – Food Lion recently said nearly 300 of its associates will be celebrating 30 or more years of service with the company including five long-term associates from stores in the Mount Airy area.

“Recognizing associates who have shared their gifts and talents with Food Lion and nourished their neighbors for decades is incredibly important to us,” said Meg Ham, president, Food Lion. “These dedicated associates have touched the lives of their fellow associates and customers alike. We are so fortunate to have such committed associates and I so appreciate the care, compassion and commitment they share with Food Lion and the towns and cities they serve.”

Food Lion recognizes these associates celebrating 30, 35, 40, and 45 years of service with the Years of Service Award. Each year, the omnichannel retailer holds a recognition event to share appreciation and gratitude for associates who have achieved these service milestones. At the Years of Service Awards event, each associate’s name, position, location and service milestone are read aloud and celebrated.

Locally, those recognized for 30 years of service include Pricing Coordinator Mary Fultz, Produce Sales Manager James Haymore, and Evening Manager Jason McGee.

Those recognized for 35 years of service include Perishable Associate Billy Meyers and Store Manager Chad Hiatt.

Food Lion, based in Salisbury has more than 1,100 stores in 10 Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic states and employs more than 82,000 associates companywide.

Mount Airy City Schools recently announced several administrative changes for school and district positions.

Among those is Andy Mehaffey joinging the school system as finance director. He graduated from Johnson & Wales University in 2005 and from Wake Forest University with his master of business administration in 2010. Mehaffey comes with a variety of financial experiences Most recently, he has worked as finance director for Graylyn Estate at Wake Forest University. Mehaffey replaces Audra Chilton and began his role in late June.

“We are pleased and excited to have Andy Mehaffey on our team,” said Superintendent Dr. Kim Morrison. “He has a wealth of experience and visionary thinking that will contribute greatly to our financial success. After extensive interviews of many capable candidates, Andy rose above those to win the top spot. We are glad to welcome him to the Mount Airy City Schools family.”

Shannon Collins joins the school system’s finance team as finance specialist. She earned her BBA in Business administration from Campbell University and graduated from The North Carolina Association of School Business Officials Academy. She brings more than 21 years of experience in accounting, school business, and education with her. She began her role in late June.

“Shannon Collins has an extensive background in school finance and will be a tremendous asset to our finance team,” said Dr. Morrison. “She has been a leader for many years and will help us navigate the changing waters of North Carolina school finance. We welcome Shannon to the Mount Airy City Schools family.”

Nora Santillan has been named assistant director of innovative programming and world language. She will continue to oversee Language Leaders, the district’s dual language immersion program, as well as other programs with Innovative Programming Director Penny Willard.

Santillan earned her bachelor of arts in test of English as a foreign language from Instituto Neuquino del Profesorado de Inglés in Argentina and her master of arts in teaching English to speakers of other languages from Greensboro College. Most recently she earned her M. Ed. degree in education leadership and her N.C. School Administrator: Principal K-12 license. She began her role on July 1.

“We are excited to have Nora join the Mount Airy City Schools Innovation Team to support many of our pivotal program areas,” Willard said. “She has already established many positive relationships with our families and community partners and this is essential to our continued work. Nora’s skill set paired with this new role will allow her to lead, innovate, and serve at a greater capacity.”

Melanie Sparks has been named as Mount Airy Middle School’s assistant principal. She graduated from Appalachian State University with a bachelor of science degree in secondary mathematics education in 2001 and with a master of school administration in 2015. She has worked as a high school math teacher and most recently an exceptional children’s teacher. She is a National Board Certified teacher who brings more than 20 years of teaching experience to her new role. She will begin on August 1.

“We are excited and looking forward to Mrs. Melanie Sparks joining our family at Mount Airy Middle School,” said Principal Levi Goins. “Her wealth of experience and background will serve our students and community well. Mrs. Sparks’ desire to connect with students and staff will allow her to have a lasting impact on our school.”

DOBSON — Many Surry Community College programs were recognized for 100% pass rates for first-time state licensure examinations during the spring 2022 faculty/staff meeting.

The N.C. Criminal Justice Standards Division announced the 2021 results of the Standards Examination for SCC Basic Law Enforcement Training (BLET) students. Students in the BLET evening program achieved a passing rate of 100% for first-time test takers.

The Detention Officer Training Program students have also achieved a 100% pass rate for first-time test takers on the State of N.C. Criminal Justice Standards Division Examination for the fifth consecutive year.

The Basic LIDAR Operator Certification students also achieved a 100% pass rate on the N.C. Criminal Justice Standards Division Speed Measurement Instrument Examination.

BLET Director Jim McHone was presented with three resolutions for these achievements from the SCC Board of Trustees by SCC President Dr. Shockley at the meeting.

The N.C. Board of Cosmetic Arts announced the 2021 Cosmetology State Board Results for SCC. The SCC Cosmetology program students have achieved a passing rate of 100% for first-time test takers on the cosmetology licensure exam for the second consecutive year.

Lead Cosmetology Instructor Robin Minton accepted a resolution from the SCC Board of Trustees on behalf of the cosmetology faculty.

Phi Theta Kappa Co-Advisor Dr. Kathleen Fowler was recognized for leading the chapter to achieve state, regional, national and international recognitions during the 2021-2022 school year.

Fowler received the Paragon Award for New Advisors from the Phi Theta Kappa International Honor Society, consisting of 1,300 chapters. She also received the PTK Carolinas Horizon Award. Other recognitions earned by the chapter include: three International Hallmark Trophies for 2020, four International Hallmark Trophies for 2022, six Regional Trophies including the 2022 Most Distinguished Chapter, Distinguished Theme Award for Honors in Action, Distinguished Honors in Action Project, Distinguished Chapter and seventh finalist for Most Distinguished Chapter of 1,300 Chapters.

Fowler was presented with a resolution from the SCC Board of Trustees for PTK’s honors.

Other programs and individuals were recognized for their work.

The NC Department of Public Instruction announced that for the academic year of 2020-2021, Surry Early College High School of Design had a 100% graduation rate, surpassing the state average of 87$. The school also received the recognition and honor of being named a Signature School of the Piedmont.

The NC Department of Public Instruction announced that for the academic year of 2020-2021, Yadkin Early College High School had a 100% graduation rate, surpassing the state average of 87%.

Surry Cellars, the college’s viticulture and enology program winery, continually receives awards at local, state, national and international competitions. Since 2009, Surry Cellars has received 96 wine awards – 42 medals in North Carolina, 18 nationally and 18 internationally. In 2021, Surry Cellars won Best Sparkling for their Traminette Pet-Nat from NC Fine Wines for the fourth consecutive year.

Surry Community College has been named a Military Friendly School for 2022-2023 and has been recognized as “Military Friendly” for the eleventh year.

• A Dobson man has been arrested for allegedly discharging a firearm at a Mount Airy nightclub, according to city police reports.

Francisco Rayo Ocampo, 35, of 109 Mexico Way, was encountered by officers last Saturday during a shots-fired investigation at Cumbia Mix on West Pine Street. He was found to have fired multiple rounds from a handgun at that location, arrest records state.

Ocampo was charged with discharging a firearm in the city limits and held in the Surry County Jail under a $300 secured bond. He is facing an Aug. 1 appearance in District Court.

• Melissa Ann Sheets, 45, listed as homeless, was charged with second-degree trespassing Monday during the investigation of a suspicious person at a residence on East Bluemont Road. It revealed that Sheets was trespassing due to being banned from that location on June 29 by a city officer.

The case is slated for the Aug. 29 session of Surry District Court.

• Cash and credit cards were stolen from a local medical facility on June 28, when the wallet of Earl Ray Marshall of Woodland Drive in Elkin was taken from Northern Wellness and Fitness Center on North Pointe Boulevard.

In addition to the brown tri-fold wallet, the loss involved an undisclosed sum of money; two credit cards, including one issued by Capital One; Dell, Amazon and Belk charge cards; a Social Security card; and a driver’s license.

• William Michael Judd, 26, of 218 W. Lebanon St., was charged with driving while impaired on June 30 after officers investigated a single-vehicle collision involving a 2013 Honda NCH50 scooter he was operating.

Police records do not list the location of the incident. Judd is scheduled to be in District Court on Aug. 8.

Last weekend on Riverside Drive in Mount Airy, a plume of smoke was rising from a small grill in front of the S&S Salon next to the DMV tag office.

The cookout and clothing distribution event were the second such that Bruised Not Broken, and Rhonda Baylor, put together. “We had a nice turnout, compared to the first one this was more. We’ll grow it. We had a whole lot, but we only have two buckets of clothes left,” she said gesturing to two large plastic totes filled with gently used clothing.

Baylor is having these events to give back to those in need. She faced struggles in her life, now she wants to be in the corner of those who may not have anyone. She has husband Keith nearby for the cookout. “I support my wife in any way I can,” he said.

More than just standing by his wife, he sees ways that he can share his knowledge and experience too. He said it means a lot to him, and to those who the Baylor’s help, to be doing good. “It means a lot. Sometimes they can look at me, some of them know my story or have heard me give testimony. With some I already know what they are thinking.

“What he is doing – I already done it,” Keith Baylor said, “He’s just doing it different.” The means and methods may have changed, but he sees a similarity in the way he lived his life for so many years, “I did it Keith’s way for all my teens, twenties, and thirties.”

“Some of the youngsters know my story and to watch me change and help others, it may touch their heart to do the same because that’s not what’s happening out there. All those bads I try to make good, but I can’t do it without Him,” he said, pointing to the skies.

The hamburger was made fresh to order, juicy right off the grill from Sister Rucker. She held court while cooking burgers and hot dogs for those who stopped by, stopping to count the remaining patties to report the headcount. Bruised Not Broken served nearly 50 burgers and three packages of hot dogs. An elderly gentleman pulled up and stepped out of his pickup, not known to the Baylors or Sister Rucker but the latter welcomed him warmly and insisted he take two burgers.

Shania Cornigans was inside doing hair at S&S Salon while the event was ongoing, she also bought the meat for the grill. She is more than happy to offer ongoing support to the cause, “What (Rhonda) is doing is a good cause, there are a lot of homeless people around here and kids that are in need, families that are in need.”

“I just feel like it’s a blessing that God put that on her heart. I wish more people would get involved so it could become something big. I encourage people to come out, make donations, purchase clothing and bring it – this can be a big community.”

“A lot of people don’t realize how many people are in need,” she said. “I see it all the time, families don’t have. We have people not working around here and the need things, need food, especially the kids. I just hope everyone can come together and make it bigger, grow it.”

“Thank you so much and God bless y’all again,” a local mother said as she was leaving the event before heading to see wrestling later in the day at Veterans Park.

Baylor said the majority of those who came to the event to get something to eat, or clothes, were strangers to her. “Some were, not all of them. I asked how they heard about it they said the newspaper and one lady said she overheard someone at Circle K.”

“Ha! That we me,” Rucker shot back from over the grill also offering a suggestion for some pulled BBQ at the next event.

Cornigans and her mother, Rucker, both said S&S Salon will continue to host these events “They can have it here,” Cornigans said because there will still be a need. She suggested, “You don’t have to donate money. Shoes, clothes, if you’re in your closet and think ‘I don’t need this anymore’ just bring it down to help someone else.”

Rhonda Baylor has a calling to serve, and she wants to do more but has found that getting the clothes to Surry County in her current car is not the best solution. “I need a van because I go back and forth the Statesville to get the clothes. What I need is a van so I’m going to sell my Cadillac and buy a van to get these clothes.”

“I love that car, and I haven’t had it long, maybe six months, but I can’t put everything in there. I said, ‘I need a van Lord’ and it came to me to sell the car.”

She said she first came to Surry County with the clothes in a garbage bag and a busted black and white television. Years later she and Keith are together owners of a Habitat home and are finding ways to feed, clothe, and share their experience with those who may benefit from it. Be on the lookout for a Bruised Not Broken event again in August, Baylor said.

After more than eight years and almost as many pitfalls, the redevelopment of the former Spencer’s textile mill property in downtown Mount Airy is reaping dividends, local citizens learned during a meeting Friday.

This included a before-and-after comparison by Randy Collins of the Greater Mount Airy Chamber of Commerce, who mentioned turbulence encountered soon after the city government acquired the sprawling, dormant industrial site in May 2014.

“The battle was going pretty hard at that time,” Collins said in recounting citizen unrest that peaked in 2015 over the public dollars being spent toward rejuvenating it and eminent domain concerns about neighboring properties initially included in the redevelopment area.

“And what we’ve done in seven years has been nothing short of miraculous,” the chamber president and CEO added regarding a partnership with the city and county governments, local groups and volunteers which has made good things happen.

Collins was speaking during the latest edition of a Lunch and Learn series sponsored by the chamber that allows its members and others in the community to stay abreast of important issues.

The topic of Friday’s luncheon event at Cross Creek Country Club — attended by about 100 people — was a downtown economic-development update in which the featured speaker was Main Street Coordinator Lizzie Morrison of the group Mount Airy Downtown Inc.

It has been a key player in the redevelopment effort since Mount Airy bought the old Spencer’s complex dating to 1888, which included 22 buildings and 10 acres when acquired about seven years after children’s-apparel manufacturing ceased there.

Using a PowerPoint presentation, Morrison detailed the progress that has occurred so far, including a Phase One segment focused on downtown residential growth as evidenced by the development of loft condominiums and apartments on former Spencer’s property.

Phase Two is underway, including a hotel, identified as a Marriott Tribute facility, and market center elsewhere on the site, with the hotel scheduled to be open in the spring of 2025.

Planning efforts now are focused on a Phase Three project to add a conference center in a 50,000-square-foot space at what’s known as The Cube property and an adjacent visitor center.

City officials learned this week that a $2 million state grant had been awarded for site-preparation work in The Cube area.

Upon reaching fruition, the overall redevelopment will represent an investment of $55 million to $60 million, Morrison told an audience that included city government, tourism and industrial recruitment representatives in addition to chamber members.

“When this project’s completed, it’s going to be the largest economic-development project ever in Surry County — not just Mount Airy,” said another speaker Friday, Steve Yokeley, a member of the city council who’s served all during the transformation process.

“It’s been a long battle to get things done,” Yokeley said regarding what has occurred since 2014.

Morrison related some of the pitfalls endured to reach this point.

One involved a plan to bring an expansion of the Barter Theatre in Virginia to the former Spencer’s property along with an earlier hotel envisioned by a business group in the Winston-Salem area.

However, the Barter project fell through in late 2018 over funding concerns, with the proposed hotel also doing so soon after. Yet the Barter setback served as fuel for stepping up the redevelopment efforts including the preparation of a key site plan, Morrison said.

She also addressed funding concerns by some citizens which have dogged the Spencer’s project since it began.

“There was some criticism about the amount of money the city spent on Phase One,” the Main Street coordinator said of site work and related infrastructure improvements for the residential developments with a price tag of $3.2 million.

But she said that injection of housing downtown has reaped benefits including those residents spending $2 million to $2.5 million in the downtown district annually. Their presence also helped businesses there survive the pandemic due to the extra customer base involved, Morrison said.

She also mentioned another $3.2 million earmarked by the city and county governments for site work/infrastructure during the Phase Two segment involving the hotel and market center. Those funds would have been spent anyway due to the need to replace utility lines at that location which had been in the ground more than 100 years, the coordinator advised.

Meanwhile, private investment of $15.3 million and $15 million is reflected in the Phase One and Phase Two efforts, respectively.

“It’s just a perfect storm for economic growth in Mount Airy,” Morrison said.

Collins, the chamber official, agreed with the assessment of the redevelopment now being on firm footing.

“It’s really exciting to see it,” he said.

Collins tied that in Friday by telling those gathered about an out-of-the-blue telephone conversation he had around 2017 with a woman who had been a longtime employee of Spencer’s along with her husband.

The former worker said she hoped something good could be done with the property.

After viewing conceptual drawings Morrison presented showing what the hotel/market center will look like along with the conference/visitors center — adorned by green spaces and other amenities one might see in metropolitan areas — Collins believes the woman should be encouraged.

“A lot of them are still around,” he said of former Spencer’s employees, “and I think they’re excited about what could be done there.”

© 2018 The Mount Airy News