Nash County reached another milestone last week, with positive COVID-19 cases going over the 10,000 mark.
Nash County Health Director Bill Hill reported on Friday, March 26 over 100 new cases in a 48-hour period, bringing the total of positive confirmed cases to 10,012.
"We've broken the 10,000 barrier now," Hill reported during a COVID update.

Sunday's strong winds are responsible for bending the Nash County Courthouse flag pole. Graphic photo by Jo Anne Cooper

Downtown Nashville received the brunt of a Sunday afternoon storm that toppled trees and light poles and even bent the flag pole in front of the Nash County Courthouse.
Brent Fisher, Nash County Assistant Director of Fire, Rescue and Emergency Management, said the storm damage is being investigated to determine if it was caused by a tornado or straight line winds.

A Castalia man was arrested last week after trying to break into the home of his ex girlfriend.
The Nash County Sheriff's Office were called to a home in the 3600 block of Loop Road in Nashville around 8:40 p.m. after 28-year-old Randall Lamm, of Castalia, reportedly held a male subject at gunpoint and later fled the scene after taking a firearm along with his own firearm.

The Nash County Farmers Market will celebrate opening day on Saturday, April 3.
Over 40 vendors are slated to be at opening day, which will kick off at 8 a.m. and run until 1 p.m.
Maurine Brown, who serves as the Farmers Market Manager, said vendors range from seasonal produce to meat and seafood, kettle corn and even local artisans.

The Red Oak community, including the town's board of commissioners, honored a resident recently for her 100th birthday.
A birthday celebration was held for Aletha Mitchell Hedgepeth on Sunday, March 21, who turned 100 on that day.
Hedgepeth was born in Red Oak and raised in the Hilliardston community.

Nashville's Town Council is hopeful a third park will come to fruition in Nashville.
The idea of another park in town was brought up during the board's annual retreat in March.
Town Manager Randy Lansing said there is the potential of around 10 acres being donated to the town.

North Carolina Wesleyan College students in the RN to BSN program will soon be honored with The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nursing Students. The awards are part of The DAISY Foundation's mission to express gratitude to Nurses with programs that recognize them for the extraordinary, compassionate and skillful care they provide patients and families.

Nashville's Town Council has developed a shared vision and goals for the town.
Council members spent Tuesday in a special strategic planning session with Rick Rocchetti, a consultant out of Wake Forest, who divided council members up in groups to come up with goals to incorporate in the upcoming budget.

Nash County department heads pled their case for budget requests on the first day of the commissioner's annual budget retreat.
Commissioners met on Tuesday and Wednesday to receive a first glimpse into how the 2021-2022 fiscal year budget was panning out and to hear requests from department heads who may not get their requests met in the upcoming budget.

A financial transaction card fraud was reported on 3/26/21 a 13603 NC 98, Spring Hope
A possession of cocaine and felony flee/elude arrest with a motor vehicle was reported on 3/27/21 at 1370 N Wesleyan Boulevard, Rocky Mount
A motor vehicle theft was reported on 3/24/21 at 1423 E Castalia Road, Nashville

Rocky Mount Police are investigating a shooting at a nightclub.
Police responded to a shooting with injury call at Da Boat Ryde, in the 1800 block of Stone Rose Drive around 1:40 a.m. on March 29.
Officers arrived and located the victim, 44-year-old James Blossom, who had been shot and sustained non-life-threatening wounds.

INCIDENTS
A maintaining a place was reported on 3/23/21 on Burton Street
A larceny was reported on 3/23/21 at 703 E Washington Street

City Manager Rochelle Small-Toney has completed a national search for the Rocky Mount Police Department Chief of Police vacancy. Robert Hassell, who currently serves as Chief of Police for the city of Reidsville, North Carolina, has received a conditional offer to become Rocky Mount Police Chief beginning May 3, 2021.
Hassell's appointment is pending the outcome of a background investigation.

The same storm which damaged homes in Nashville also hit areas near and in Rocky Mount. This home in the 600 block of Cummings Road was damaged from an uprooted tree during the storm.

This winter was rough on the cats, both the free-roaming and the feral. Usually there are lots of kittens at the Nash Shelter by now. Not only were they not trapped during the bad weather, but we also fear that many of them didn't survive, in particular the wee ones. This has created a vacuum effect. When this happens with the feline population, females almost instantly go into heat.

In 2003, David Beamer, an East Carolina University grad student, found a male millipede during a research trip. He wasn't studying millipedes but thought it may be of interest to a fellow student. Close to 20 years later, the millipede has been identified as a new species and named after Beamer, a professor at Nash Community College. "Sigmoria beameri" is described in a paper published in January 2021 titled "Phylogenetic Systematics of the Millipede Family Xystodesmidae."

I enjoy parables. They are great teaching tools and were used by Jesus to convey spiritual truths that are often difficult to grasp. In Jesus' case, he would use an everyday situation that happens in life to communicate how he felt we should live our lives, respond to life situations, etc. Jesus liked them so much that about forty of them - over a third of the Gospels - are recorded in the New Testament.

Whether it's our own or the voice of someone else, we must always be careful to follow the Lord rather than human reasoning. Sometimes we don't understand how God could possibly accomplish what He's promised, so we decide to help Him out in some way or do it ourselves.
However, if we don't wait for God, we'll live in disharmony with Him and suffer the consequences.

This past Sunday at Vaughan's Chapel was Pastor Appreciation Day for Pastor Rev. Reuben Batchelor and his wife Rev. Marie Batchelor. Fallon Curtis and Alan Dew each sang specials followed by the morning message given by Rev. Jerry Braziel entitled "Jephthah - From the Bottom to the Top". Parkers BBQ of Wilson catered lunch and there was also an Easter egg hunt for the children.

Jesus did many incredible works that a book, no matter how long, could hope to contain (John 21:25). The fullness of his grandness to the wideness of his kindness is beyond human writing and human comprehension, yet we can still know enough, and enough is revealed to us in the Bible. The Bible, which reveals to us all that is necessary for salvation, is for us, the book we look to, so that we might know the heart of God through the work of Jesus.

Peachtree Baptist Church members welcomed guest and watched a video on "The Triumphant Entry," Jesus entering into Jerusalem, Palm Sunday. Easter is a time when we celebrate God's love and sacrifice for us. Please come and join us next Sunday to celebrate our "Risen Lord," Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday.
The sanctuary flower arrangement Sunday was loving presented to glorify God by Bill and Bart Wood in loving memory of their mother, Mrs. Patricia Wood.

Red Oak Baptist Church was honored to have Brittany Daniels speak on Sunday, March 28. Brittany grew up in Red Oak and worked as a middle school science teacher in Pitt County before dedicating her life to long term missions work serving God as missionary through Youth With a Mission. She has traveled to various countries doing missions work, most recently working in Tanzania. She shared with us her love of God and for spreading the gospel.

Jasmine Bailey of Rocky Mount, has earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Western Governors University (WGU). The online, nonprofit university has graduated over 218,000 students from across the country since its inception in 1997.
WGU has recognized 14,146 undergraduate and 15,640 graduate degree recipients, who have completed their degrees since July 2, 2020.

The following Nash county deed transfers were made March 22-26, 2021.

BUILDING PERMIT
(COMMERCIAL)
Lisa Barkley; 10790 Taylors Store Road; addition; $25,000
Miles Glasgow; 2090 Eastern Avenue; sign; $1,500

North Carolina's egg prices were steady on small, lower on the balance when compared to last week. Supplies of medium were light, extra large fairly light, while large were heavy to meet a moderate demand. The North Carolina weighted average price quoted Thursday, March 25, for small lot sales of delivered, cartoned, grade "A" eggs was 157.83 for Extra Large, 155.37 for Large, 120.43 for Medium, and 85.00 for Small eggs.

Dear Holly,
There are significant birthdays and then there are significant birthdays.
By my reckoning, they are: age 1, age 5, age 10, age 13, age 16, age 18 and age 21. After that, they move so fast, it is too hard to keep up.
You'll be 21 this week, a full adult by all measures. When you hit 18, you're "sort of" an adult, with all citizenship privileges established unless you want to run for senate or president. I think we all know you are too good-hearted for that kind of work.

I haven't written in this space in a long time.
I'm still here though!
It's been over a year now since the COVID-19 pandemic began and it's still here. Things seem to be getting better but I believe we still have a ways to go to get back to normal. I'm not sure things will ever be back to normal but we can hope!

To our loyal subscribers who reside at a Rocky Mount address, we thank you for your support and for your patience!
Apparently there is a secret code to getting a newspaper delivered to a Rocky Mount address on time these days. Or even within a reasonable time!
We understand we're not alone in the fiasco of getting mail delivered in the big city. But that doesn't make it any easier to understand why it takes several days, sometimes weeks, for a paper to arrive at your Rocky Mount address...

This photo originally published in The Nashville Graphic on April 8, 1975. Members of the Castalia Community erected a Bicentennial town name sign. The markers were part of a county-wide Bicentennial project.

SCRAMBLE MODE. Northern Nash High School senior quarterback Thomas Engelking (with ball) rolls out on a pass attempt during last Friday night's home victory against Big East Conference foe Franklinton.

RED OAK - Early in the third period, the Northern Nash-Franklinton football game seemed destined to be a down-to-the-wire thriller -- a trend that is becoming fashionable in the suddenly parity-filled Big East Conference.
Franklinton had just scored a touchdown to pull within two points, and the Red Rams appeared to have gained a measure of momentum in the contest, which had been back-and-forth to that point.

NORTHERN NASH DISTANCE STANDOUT JUSTIN MARSHALL

RED OAK -- Making the adjustment from high school to college can be a difficult adjustment for some boys cross country runners -- mainly because the distance increases from 5-K to 8-K.
Don't look for that to be an issue for Northern Nash High School senior standout Justin Marshall, who signed a letter-of-intent last week to continue his cross-country/track and field career at Barton College.

RED OAK -- Golf season is in full swing at Northern Nash High School as the Knights kicked off their 2021 spring campaign at Willow Springs Country Club in Wilson two weeks ago.
Led by head coach Brian Taylor, Northern Nash, and other golf teams around the Class 3-A Big East Conference alongside the state of North Carolina, are having to make one major adaptation.

STANHOPE -- Given their uncharacteristic record, it would be easy to assume that the Southern Nash Firebirds wouldn't be a factor in the Big East Conference football race this spring.
That assessment, however, would be incorrect.

ROCKY MOUNT -- The 17th-ranked North Carolina Wesleyan College baseball team knocked out 15 hits en route to an 11-5 USA South Conference victory over rival Methodist University at Bauer Field on the NCWC campus last Friday afternoon. With the win, the #17 Bishops improved to 16-2 on the season and 4-0 in the conference while MU fell to 7-11 and 1-3 in conference.

LOUISBURG -- Fueled by a strong performance from medalist Jacob Kearny, Southern Nash was able to take first place in the team competition during last Tuesday's Big East Conference boys golf match at The River Golf Club in Franklin County.
Kearny fashioned a solid 44 on the challenging layout to help the Firebirds close with 192 strokes -- four shots ahead of runner-up Franklinton.

NASH CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL'S TIMOTHY HOLLIDAY

WILSON -- Nash Central High School head football coach Chris Lee wondered coming in how his young club would fare last Friday against a talented, oversized Wilson Beddingfield squad.
Lee conceded that the matchup might not the best fit for his Bulldogs, as the Bruins prefer to utilize a power brand of football behind a big offensive line.

The staff at the Theater at the Imperial Centre for the Arts and Sciences is offering the public a chance to make and star in their own movie productions. The 48 Hour Film Festival will be held April 9-11 and will allow residents to write, shoot and edit their movies before the film is screened in front of an audience at the Imperial Centre. On Friday, April 9, teams will draw a genre from a hat, and will be given a character, prop and line to include in their films. Submissions of the film must be received by 6 p.m. on Sunday, April 11, and the screenings will begin at 8 p.m.