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Come 2027, the composition of the Nash County board of commissioners is likely to look very different after one major upset and a general shakeup as shown in primary results.
Robbie Davis, who has served 24 years on the board, including multiple years as chairman, was overthrown in the Republican primary by Jerry Barnes of Red Oak, who had a ballot count of 880 to Davis' 566. Barnes ended up with 60.86% of the vote to Davis' 39.14%.

NASHVILLE - A "firm" request from Nash state legislators that county officials hold off on putting a state-funded public safety warehouse project out to bid may be putting the county in a bind and unable to use $2.1 million in grant funds before deadline.
Senator Lisa Barnes and Rep. Allen Chesser, in a Feb. 27th letter to the board of commissioners, focused on not only the warehouse project, originally slated as storage for both Nash County Emergency Management and the Nash County Sheriff's Office, but also carried strong words of criticism for how county officials are handling long-term planning for public safety infrastructure.

SPRING HOPE- One of Spring Hope's native sons, Roscoe Joyner, has a birthday coming up on March 11th, with a party planned the weekend before. Not so unusual, you might say- until you hear which birthday Roscoe is celebrating. It will be his 107th.
Roscoe's son, David Joyner, asked if he knew of any particular secret or habit his Dad- who was born in 1919- has to have enjoyed such full years, said he'd asked that himself. The answer, according to Roscoe, is "clean living."

NASHVILLE - With all parties involved willing to 'meet in the middle,' a contested conditional rezoning request for a Braswell Family Farms property has been approved by the Nashville town council.
The property, a vacant 2-bedroom, 2 bathroom house on a half acre lot at 505 S. Alston is across the street from Braswell Family Farms corporate headquarters. Trey Braswell applied for conditional rezoning to change the land from R-10 residential to CZNR-B-1, conditional non-residential. It was wanted for use as office space.

ROCKY MOUNT - Persistence, planning and resilience may be qualities aspired to by every candidate for the Boys & Girls Club Youth of the Year, but Nashville's Carisma Deans is a "poster child" for those qualities. Deans, who had to attend last Thursday's ceremonies at the Booker T. Washington theater and give her speech via Zoom, triumphed nonetheless: she was crowned Youth of the Year while stuck at home battling Covid.
Deans, an 18-year-old Senior at Nash-Rocky Mount Early College, has been a member of the Nashville Boys & Girls' clubhouse for seven years.

NASHVILLE - Nashville's Downtown Strong Advisory Board (DSAB) Committee hit the ground running in 2026, allocating $26,000 in MSD funds use at their first meeting since October 2025.
Joanne Pope-Clark and Brian Hutson were readily re-elected as chair and vice-chair, respectively, at the Feb. 24th DSAB meeting, which was attended by two of its three newest members: Slade Woodard and Michael Aycock. Latanya DuBois, another newly-appointed member, was not present and had an excused absence.