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NASHVILLE - The Nash County public school district, faced with a $773,342 deficit after its first year of offering free breakfasts and lunches to all students in every school, will be re-evaluating that course at the end of this school year.
NCPS qualified in 2024 for the NC DPI program CEP (Community Eligibility for Free and Reduced Price Meals) to offer free meals across the board; it is now in its second year of offering the program. But while the meals were free to students, there was an unanticipated cost to the district.

RED OAK - By unanimous vote, the Red Oak town council has punted a conditional rezoning request for a 67-lot subdivision back to the town planning board, citing "safety concerns."
The 98-acre parcel, planned to house the "Doughtie Subdivision" should it be developed by Marvin Shearin, is currently zoned Agricultural, but the rezoning request would change it to RM, or Residential Mix. The parcel, owned by Peggy Doughtie of Bethel, is south of E. Castalia Road.

NASHVILLE - Well over 300 people gathered at the O.D. Moore building in Nashville Jan. 19th for the annual MLK Banquet in honor of Martin Luther King Jr., fittingly conducted on the federal holiday set aside in King's honor.
The event, organized by the Nashville Willing Workers, included a luncheon and multiple speeches reflecting on King's ideals and how those need to be applied to struggles today.

SPRING HOPE - The town of Spring Hope, sharing results of its 2025 audit at the January town board meeting, got some glowing praise from its auditor, who described the town's financials as "very clean."
Sam Potts of Thompson, Price, Scott, Adams & Co, via live telephone call that was easily audible at the Jan. 5 meeting, went over a power point summary of the town's audit from June 2025.

NASHVILLE- - An inaugural landowner summit, well-attended with 82 people present at the Nash County Agriculture Center Jan. 9, offered attendees a volume of information about how to preserve family farmland. Presenters from Nash County, the North Carolina Department of Agriculture, NC State, Working Lands Trust and a legal firm experienced in succession planning talked farmers through options for what to do and how to do it.
Farmers asked questions before, during and after the presentations.

NASHVILLE- Now that Nash County commissioners have pledged a half million dollars to pay for five additional school resource officers, the three agencies involved - the school system, Nash County Sheriffs Office, and Rocky Mount PD- are working out hiring details.
Leondus Farrow, Associate Superintendent for Nash County Public Schools, gave an update to the school board at their Jan. 8 meeting, detailing which elementary schools would be receiving new full-time officers, and which would be retaining the ones they have, previously having been split half-time between two schools.