Nash County Commissioners moved forward on Monday with hiring a vendor to perform the next round of revaluations.
Commissioners voted 5-2 to hire Pearson Appraisal Service at $800,000 to handle the upcoming tax revaluation in 2017.
Outsourcing the upcoming revaluations was brought up at the board’s retreat earlier this year.

The Town of Spring Hope is moving forward with the condemnation of several abandoned properties in town.
Town Manager John Holpe brought four properties before commissioners that he had been working on.
One of the properties is the Masonic Lodge on S. Poplar Street. Holpe said they were unable to find the address of the last owner of the building and plan to advertise a hearing in the paper for July 21. The hearing will consider demolishing the building.

JULY 4TH PARADE CANDY –– Angela Dalton treats her grandaughter, Isabella Denton, to a lollipop from Castalia’s July 4th Parade.

Area veterans were honored at a special service Friday as part of Castalia’s annual 4th of July Celebration. Parade Grand Marshal SGT. Linwood S. Harper, a WWII veteran,  was joined by local veterans including members of American Legion Post 110, American Legion Post 293 and CPL Suzi Sannes Detachment 1262.
Special guests attending the event included Castalia Mayor Ellene Drake Leonard, Castalia Town Commissioner James Alston, NC House District 7 Representative Bobbie Richardson, Nash County Commissioners Mary Wells and Lou Richardson, and Nash County Clerk of Court Rachel Joyner.

Filing began on Monday morning for six seats on the Nash-Rocky Mount Board of Education.
As of Tuesday at noon, only one had filed for a seat on the board.
Latasha Sledge, of Rocky Mount, filed on Monday for the District Seven seat, currently held by Michael Grover. Grover was appointed by the board in February to fill the term of Bob Jenkins, who resigned.

Nash County Commissioners renewed a conditional use permit for a solar farm just outside of Nashville on Becton Road.
Nash County Planning Director Nancy Nixon said the permit was initially approved in December 2012.
“This is actually a request for a renewal of this permit,” Nixon said.
Nixon said the permit does carry an expiration date and if a certain amount of work isn’t done, the permit expires.

While attending a birthday party for his Godson, Gregory Quick had the idea to develop an edible birthday candle.
Quick began to work on developing his idea and in August 2010, received a patent for his invention.
Quick was recently recognized at an International Trade Show for his invention. The show was held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Nashville’s Town Council recognized the third round of Citizen’s Police Academy graduates at the board’s regular meeting last Tuesday night.
Certificates were presented to the 10 graduates of the program and in turn, graduates presented a plaque of appreciation to the town’s police department, who hosts the academy each year.

INCIDENTS
A driving while impaired was reported on 6/30/14 at First and Baker Street
A damage to property (vandalism) and breaking and entering a commercial was reported on 6/30/14 at 921 N First Street at the Nash County Animal Shelter

A failure to return rental property was reported on 6/30/14 at Nash Community College
A damage to personal property was reported on 6/30/14 at 6792 Corporation Parkway
A domestic was reported on 7/1/14 on Woodcrest Road
A narcotics violation was reported on 7/1/14 at 5862 South NC Highway 58

Nashville’s Chamber of Commerce celebrated the opening of U.S Cellular with a ribbon cutting Monday. The store, owned by Johnny Thompson, III, opened July 1st at 139 Nashville Commons Drive, next to Food Lion. Thompson owns four other stores located in Tarboro, Greenville, Farmville and Ayden.  Nashville’s location has a 1,500 square foot showroom  featuring three phone bars to allow customers access to the latest devices and accessories.

Wednesday, July 9 from 9:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. at Honeywell Corporation, 3475 Wesleyan Boulevard
Monday, July 14 from 2:30 until 7 p.m. at Northside Community Church, 1660 Beaver Pond Rd., Rocky Mount
Monday, July 14 from 10:30 a.m. until 1:15 p.m at Texas Steakhouse, (Bloodmobile) 126 Gateway Plaza, Rocky Mount
Monday, July 14 from 3:45 until 6:45 at Texas Steakhouse, (Bloodmobile) 711 Sutters Creek Blvd, Rocky Mount

Mr. and Mrs. Roger Eugene Harris and Mr. William Ennis Kornegay, Sr., all of Rocky Mount, announce the engagement of their daughter, Laura Anne Kornegay, of Raleigh to George Bradley Hearn, of Raleigh. He is the son of Mr. and Mrs. George Gilbert Hearn, of Raleigh. A September 20, 2014 wedding is planned in Swansboro.

Tracey Coppedge, a 2012 Southern Nash High School graduate, was recently named to the Dean’s List at Elon University. Coppedge received a scholarship to join the football program at Elon. At Southern, he was a standout in both football and track. Since going to Elon, Coppedge has had two successful years as a student-athlete. He has maintained a 3.69 GPA this semster at Elon and was named to the Dean’s List.

Mitchell and Lindsey Shearin of Rocky Mount announce the birth of their son Macon Ryan Shearin who was born June 24, 2014 at Nash Health Care Systems at 3:28 a.m. He weighed 7 pounds, 11 ounces and is 21.75” long. Maternal grandparents are Keith and Amy Beasley of Nashville and Allan and Apryl Pope of Rocky Mount. Paternal grandparents are Tony and Shirley Shearin of Rocky Mount. 

Cedar Grove Elementary School participated in the Give 5 Read 5 book cllection drive just before the school year ended. The drive is initiated by the NC Department of Instruction. The goal of the campaign is to give 5 books to each K-5 student to read during the summer as an “antidote to the summer slide.” Students tend to lag behind in their reading during summer because of lack of reading resources.

Chancellor Linda P. Brady has announced the names of Spring 2014 graduates, and of students who attained Deans’ List and Chancellor’s List honors at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro during the Spring 2014 semester.
Nash County residents receiving Bachelor’s Degrees include Allison Drive, Zoe Jones and Lydia Knight. Jones and Knight graduated Cum Laude.

Appalachian State University has released its Dean’s and Chancellor’s List students for the Spring 2014 semester.
To be named to the Dean’s List, undergraduates must either be enrolled in 12 to 14 hours of academic credit and attain a minimum 3.45 grade point average or be enrolled in 15 hours or more of academic credit and attain a minimum 3.25 grade point average.

Nash-Rocky Mount Schools continues to work on its strategic priority of innovative and cutting edge technology. Jane Finch, Chief Technology Officer for Nash-Rocky Mount Schools, provided an update on that technology at the board’s annual retreat on June 26.
Finch told board members that the first full year of the system’s iConnect 1:1 initiative had went well, though it did face challenges at first.

A series of unfortunate events have occurred at Ennis Park in Red Oak in the past two months. A robbery, a car accident, and a random of vandalism, all within the period of a few weeks, have plagued the park and left Red Oak board members concerned about how to prevent such events in the future.
In May, equipment was stolen from the equipment shed in the park, resulting in the loss of several weed eaters, a push mower, and a leaf blower.

CLASS OF 1967 –- Pictured (left to right) Louise Wehrum Carmichael, Sally Ogburn Dorman and Shirley Bleu Johnson are shown holding a photo of their graduating class of 1967.

The history of Park View Hospital and School of Nursing was honored at a special Centennial Celebration on June 28th at Nash Community College. More than 200 alumni and guests attended the event which also marked the 25th anniversary of the Park View Nurses’ Alumnae Scholarship Endowment.
Park View Hospital opened as a 25-bed facility in Rocky Mount on July 1, 1914. The hospital closed its doors in May of 1971, then a 145-bed facility.

The following students at Hobgood Academy made the Principal’s List (A’s) or the Honor Roll (A’s and B’s) the sixth six weeks of school.

Nash Arts hosted an Arts Camp, “Art Around the World,” the week of June 23 for ages 5 to 12. The camp was taught by Wendy Ferguson-Whitehead and featured a different theme and different country each day. Pictured above, Lawson Pierce, 8, works on a drawing of a fish at camp on June 24.

The N.C. Department of Transportation has awarded a contract to improve Country Club Road from U.S. 64 Business to Jeffreys Road in Nash County.
Improvements include replacing the bridge over Stoney Creek, widening the road, installing drainage, paving and adding signals. The $8.1 million contract was awarded to Barnhill Contracting Co. of Tarboro.

Appalachia State University has released its graduation list for the Spring 2014 semester. A total of 268 graduate students and 1,715 undergraduate students received degrees during ceremonies held in May.
Nash County residents graduating include Aby Barnes Cash, who received a Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology and Caroline Susan Gray, who received a Bachelor of Science in Psychology.

On a beautiful July morning Peachtree folks gathered for worship in the church.  The sanctuary flowers were red, white and blue in honor of the nation’s birthday.  They were given by David and Rosemary Bryant.  The special music was a solo by Faye Vick.  She sang a beautiful arrangement of, “Go Tell It on the Mountain.”
In the absence of the pastor, the sermon was brought by the Rev. Lynn Long.

Summertime means mission trips! The Red Oak United Methodist Church ASP (Appalachia Service Project) missionaries were commissioned as ambassadors of the ROUMC congregation and sent forth last Sunday, June 22 to be the hands and feet of Christ in Mitchell County, NC, where they will complete various home repair projects to keep the families they go to serve warmer , safer, and drier.  Prayers were offered for their travel, work, and service.

Our choir sang, “I Will Offer You Praise” for the call to worship. Our hymns of praise reminds us how thankful we should be for the freedom we have in America. This weekend has been a time to celebrate the many freedoms we have in America; freedom to worship God, freedom of sharing love for others. Freedom of thanking God for all He has done for us and all He gives us every day.

I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday on the 4th. I didn’t attend the events at Castalia this year but I hear it was really nice (as always). They always do a lot of preparation and hard work and we want to thank everyone who makes it happen. I hear they are going to do a lot of new things in planning the park there. When I ride by I really miss seeing the old barn that had the beautiful U.S. flag painted on the side.

The Reverends Jamie Lee Thompson (at left) and Laura Keith Thompson (at right), sisters and natives of Kinston, have been appointed as associate pastors at Centenary United Methodist Church in New Bern, and as co-pastors of a new faith community that they are working to establish in the New Bern area. Most recently, Jamie has served as pastor at Maury/Mt. Herman United Methodist Charge in Maury and Lizzie, NC.

The Rocky Mount Rotary Club recently installed its latest officers. Krista Ikirt (at left) passed the gavel to Ron Green (at right) for the 2014-2015 year.

I wasn’t sure what the appropriate action to take might be. After my sister-in-law invited my sons — seven and nine years old respectively — to go fishing on the Rocky Mount reservoir, it seemed some type of medical attention would be needed.
The boys acted as though they’d slammed back a six-pack of Red Bull and eaten a dozen Krispy Kreme coffee-filled doughnuts each. Plans were made.

Last week, I wrote about the Fourth of July and how wonderful Castalia’s parade and celebrations are.
Towards the end, I made a comment about Mr. Pee Wee Harper, the Grand Marshal of the parade. The comment said men like him were a dime a dozen.
That, obviously, was not what I meant and I apologize for not catching the error.

I attended Castalia’s Veteran Service Friday which kicked off the town’s Fourth of July  Celebration festivities. Small Town USA graciously allowed the committee to use its building as the venue keeping it nice and cool and comfortable for guests. I was moved by the number of veterans attending the event,  even more so moved by reactions to  comments and speeches given by special guests.
One speech in particular had many, including me, wiping back tears.

CHEERING SQUAD –– This photo originally published September 16, 1965. Pictured are Nashville High School’s cheerleaders. Left to right are: Janice Jenkins, Jackie Carpenter, Maureen Neal, Cherie Gulley, Josephine Woodard, Becky Denton, and Donna Winstead. Lisa Joyner, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Willard Joyner, was the mascot.

Time passes on and I am passing the newspaper duties to Kristy Carney. Kristy will be sending in the Notebook column and the Shelter photos, as I’ve done in the past.  Kristy is very active in Animal Rescue and we are very happy that she will be able to take on this volunteer effort on behalf of the Nash County Animal Shelter pets and Nash County Animal Friends (NCAF).

LANCE LEADS THE BACK. Lance Norris starred in this event last Wednesday evening for the Nash Rec Swim Team.

ROCKY MOUNT -- Two of the Nash-Halifax Swim League’s longest-standing foes renewed their rivalry last Wednesday evening.
Visiting Nash Rec, the defending N-HSL champion, was able to hold off a threat from Westridge by a 440-383 margin.
Nash Rec is now 2-0 on the season, with one meet not finished due to poor weather. NRST and Westridge will meet again this Thursday -- this time at the Nash Rec Pool in Nashville.

READY TO GO. Former Southern Nash High School standout Tracey Coppedge is excited about the upcoming season as a member of the Elon University football squad. Elon opens August 30 on the road at Duke.

STANHOPE -- Twas the day before Christmas, and not a creature was stirring at Southern Nash’s Firebird Stadium.
Except for a solitary figure doing wind-sprint repetitions across the chilly track.
While most of his Elon University teammates were feasting on a pre-holiday meal or pondering their gifts under the tree, Tracey Coppedge was hard at work.

STANHOPE -- Concerning the North Carolina Coaches Association East-West All-Star Football Game, Southern Nash’s Brian Foster already knows the drill.
Foster was an assistant coach for the East Team back in 2009 for the annual event at Jamieson Stadium on the campus of Greensboro Grimsley High School -- so he already knows what to expect coming in.

ROCKY MOUNT -- Facing elimination on two different occasions, the Rocky Mount Coleman-Pitt Post 58 baseball team rallied to defeat Cary Post 67 last week in the opening round of the American Legion State Baseball Playoffs.
Last Thursday, Post 58 fell 15-13 in a high-scoring showdown, but evened the best-of-three series on Friday with a 13-10 triumph.
In the deciding matchup last Saturday, Post 58 used a late rally to win the series with a 10-9 triumph.

ON HIS WAY. Nash County All-Star Isaiah Bland (left) speeds home with a run during Monday evening’s Tar Heel District Baseball Tournament matchup against homestanding Louisburg.

LOUISBURG -- A whopping 31 total runs were scored when Nash County lined up against host Louisburg on Monday in the opening round of the Tar Heel District 6 11-12 Baseball Tournament at Warrior Field on the campus of Louisburg High School.
Fortunately for Nash County, the visiting All-Stars delivered 20 of those runs en route to securing a 20-11 decision over Louisburg in a high-scoring showdown on the first day of the double-elimination format.

ZEBULON -- The Carolina Mudcats fell to the Salem Red Sox 8-2 in the series finale on Sunday afternoon at Five Country Stadium in a Class A Carolina League baseball matchup.
The Mudcats (10-8, 39-46) were held to eight base runners and the Red Sox (9-8, 42-43) won their third consecutive series over Carolina.

ROANOKE RAPIDS -- Host Roanoke Valley bounced back from a loss to Nash Rec by defeating Birchwood by a 444-147 margin last Wednesday at the Roanoke Rapids Aquatic Center.
The event was pushed up one day due to the Fourth of July Weekend.
The squads will meet again this Thursday -- this time at the Birchwood Country Club Pool as Nash-Halifax Swim League action resumes. First race will be at 5 p.m.

ROCKY MOUNT -- Since 1999, North Carolina Wesleyan College has honored 56 former athletes, administrators, teams, coaches and contributors by enshrining them into its Athletics Hall of Fame. 
These individuals have created a higher standard for Battling Bishop athletics and were selected based on their outstanding accomplishments and/or contributions to the College.

CORBIN ADVANCES. Nashville Academy of Martial Arts student Corbin Clark, 3, recently received his white stripe with green belt during advancement testing.

NASHVILLE -- Seven students from the Nashville Academy of Martial Arts earned advancements during a belt-testing session on June 26.
The following students were honored:

Among last Thursday’s swim standouts in the meet between Nash Rec and Westridge were Langdon Norris (Nash Rec).

WILSON - Cleo D. Patterson, age 90, died Wednesday, July 02, 2014. She was preceded in death by her husband of 59 years, Elmer Patterson.

Allen Dunn, 69 of Louisburg, passed away Tuesday, July 1, 2014.

Annie “Maude” Raynor Farmer passed away Monday, June 30, 2014. Maude was the daughter of Harvey C. and Lula Lee Raynor. She was born on May 19, 1920 in Sampson County. She was married to William Edward “Bill” Farmer in 1942. He preceded her in death in January of 1997. They were married for 56 years. Maude was also preceded in death by her brothers, Harvey Raynor, Jr, Earl C. Raynor and Willie Lee Raynor.

Rocky Mount - Bettie Wiggins Foster-Simmons, 93, died June 23, 2014. 

ROCKY MOUNT –– Cathlyn Brown, 63, of Greensboro, died on July 6, 2014.

ROCKY MOUNT - Esther McIver, 96, of Rocky Mount, died on July 5, 2014. Funeral arrangements are incomplete and will be announced by the Rocky Mount location of H.D. Pope Funeral Home.

Evelyn Clay Pitt Bradley, age 89, passed away  Saturday, July 5, 2014. Born in Edgecombe County on June 25, 1925 she was the daughter of the late William Arthur Pitt and Bessie Price Pitt. She is also preceded in death by her husband, Russell Taswell Bradley; sisters, Virginia Price and Dal Vester; and brother, Clyde Pitt.

SPRING HOPE –– Herman Ivy Strum, 89, passed away Sunday, July 6, 2014.

Joannie “Candy” McCalston, age 87 of Bailey,  passed away Monday, June 30, 2014.

ROCKY MOUNT –– Joseph Earl Hunter, 61, of Rocky Mount, died on July 4, 2014.

Katherine Camp passed away on Saturday, July 5, 2014.   Born in 1929 to Haskell and Lizzie Humphries in Shelby N.C., Katherine was the eldest of ten children. She was preceded in death by her parents; grandson, Jason Camp; her husband, Boyd Camp; brothers, Blaine Humphries, Wendell Humphries and Roger Humphries.

Lewis “Wayne” Bridgers, age 72, passed away Tuesday, July 1, 2014. Born November 24, 1941 in Edgecombe County, he was the son of the late Don Paul Bridgers and Lida Mae Killebrew Bridgers. He was raised in Macclesfield.

NASHVILLE - Linda Mae Parker Hayes, age 68, passed away  Monday, June 30, 2014. Born in Nash County on December 25, 1945, she was the daughter of the late Rev. Alex Luther Parker and Florence M. Williams Parker. She was also preceded in death by her brothers, Harvey Parker and Luther Parker; and sisters, Christine Parker and Irene P. Vester.

Lindsay C. Myers, age 63, passed away on Monday, June 30, 2014. Born in Wayne County on March 15, 1951, he was the son of the late David Leroy Myers and Albie Beasley Myers.

ROCKY MOUNT –– Lovie (Pettaway) Harrell, 78, of Rocky Mount, died on July 5, 2014.

CASTALIA - William (Larry) Fisher, 75, passed away, Thursday, July 3, 2014. He was born November 17, 1938 in Nash County to the late William B. and Ruth Boulden Fisher. Larry was preceded in death by a granddaughter, Nicole Fisher.

William O. Wiggins of Spring Hope, passed away Monday, June 30, 2014.