Pictured, at a recent Surry County Board of Education meeting are, front, from left, Courtney Willard, Lauren Simpson, Kindle Giles, three teachers who recently received National Board Certification, school board members Dr. Terri Mosley, Melissa Key Atkinson, Superintendent Dr. Travis L. Reeves; back row, board member Dale Badgett, board chair Mamie Sutphin, and board member Clark Goings. (Submitted photo)

According to the 2022 National Board database, North Carolina public school classrooms are welcoming 399 newly-certified and 1,126 renewed National Board teachers this year. This newest batch of credentialed teachers brings the state’s total number of National Board Certified Teachers to 23,090 – the largest number of National Board Certified teachers in the nation.

Among those were several recognized at a recent Surry County Board of Education meeting for achieving certification. With the addition of these three teachers, Surry County Schools has 70 teachers in the district who have earned this certification.

The three recent additions to that number are:

– Kindle Giles, exceptional children teacher at Franklin Elementary School;

– Lauren Simpson, fourth grade teacher at Pilot Mountain Elementary;

– Courtney Willard, visual arts teacher at Westfield Elementary;

Additionally, Jonathan Carpenter, assistant principal at Surry Central High School, was recognized for his successful National Board Certified Teachers renewal. To retain certified status, teachers must complete a periodic demonstration of their knowledge and skills by submitting a Profile of Professional Growth demonstrating how their practice continues to align with the Five Core Propositions in their certificate area.

“Our work at the National Board is based on the belief that every child across the country deserves to be taught by an accomplished teacher,” said Peggy Brookins, national board president and CEO. “When accomplished practice becomes the norm, the advantage will be significant, spreading beyond students and teachers to be felt by their communities, employers, and society at-large.”

Ryan Flake from Horace Mann Insurance provided these teachers with a door plaque for their classrooms.

The Wax Museum is back at Gentry Middle

Cards defeat Hounds 2-1 in pitching duel

There are those big banner birthdays that are hard to get around, the ones that have a zero at the end – you know the ones. Try as COVID-19 may have liked to stop the hands of time, Surry County still had its 250th anniversary and then marched right on to the next anniversary as well.

Over the past two years there have been graduations, weddings, and all manner of events affected by the pandemic and, sadly, there were plans that got scrapped altogether that could not be rescheduled, those opportunities lost to the vicious virus.

Plans that had been designed to celebrate the sestercentennial, or the 250th anniversary, of Surry County, had to be put on hold too as the virus began its march around the globe. Now, as the world wearily looks to gauge if we may be approaching the end of the pandemic, aspects of life are bending back toward normal.

The masks have mostly disappeared, the Final Fours tip-off this weekend, the trickle of remote workers returning to their desks continues, in-person worship, and even up close and personal encounters at awards shows have resumed.

Of course, exceptions will remain, and some businesses may choose their own standards, but it seems people have grown accustomed to the potential dangers from the virus and precautions are now primarily left to the individual’s own decision making.

As the rates of infection and hospitalization across the United States continue their downward trend, Surry County is preparing to ramp back up sestercentennial events eloquently dubbed Surry 250 that were shelved due to the global health crisis.

Kate Rauhauser-Smith, history column contributor to the Mount Airy News, has in previous years wished the county a happy birthday on April 1. She provided the lesson that Gov. William Tryon signed the bill creating Surry County in January 1771. However, law required the act to be published and announced in various public places for a period of three months before it was enacted on the first day of April.

Part of the sestercentennial celebration will be to honor Jerry Atkins and Melvin T. Jackson for their creations from the American Bicentennial celebrations of 1976 that still adorn the likes of the Surry County Courthouse and all county documents.

In the fall of 1974, the Surry County Board of Commissioners authorized the Surry County American Revolution Bicentennial Commission to conduct a contest to select an official flag and seal for the county.

Jerry Atkins submitted the winning seal design, and Melvin Jackson won the flag design contest, “at the time we had neither,” Jackson recalls. The notice in the Mount Airy News for the contest noted a prize was to be awarded and he remembers, “I think we got a $50 savings bond.”

The tricolor Surry County flag design from Jackson carries the date of 1770, which represents the date of the act that formed Surry County which Gov. Tryon then signed in to law the next year. The original submission of the flag design is found in both the physical archives of Surry Community College, and their extensive collection of county artifacts online.

Atkins designed for Surry County’s seal a gold backdrop with “The Great Seal of Surry County” around its circumference. An outline of the county contains a picture of Pilot Mountain, a block of granite, a tobacco leaf, and a spool off thread with a gear.

Atkins chose those design elements not by accident as the granite block and Pilot Mountain Knob were chosen for their relevance to the area’s beauty and economy. The gear and spool of thread he said symbolize the area’s rich history in textiles and manufacturing. Finally, the tobacco he chose for his own family’s connection to the crop that was the cornerstone of many Surry County farms.

“When I saw his flag design, I knew it would win. He was proud of the flag,” Atkins said of his teacher. Being able to spot a winner, he hitched his horse to that cart, “When I saw his flag, I knew I should include it in the seal.”

Now years later, the seal and flag are approaching a milestone – their own 50th birthday. “I am happy that Jerry Atkins is finally getting recognized for his work,” he said of his reaction to seeing the flag still visible. “It is long overdue,” the teacher said as he deflected attention back toward his former student, his sense of pride in his student’s accomplishment still on display.

Atkins feels similarly “tickled” that the seal is still in use and that his design may have inspired elements of Mount Airy’s seal. After so much time, both men were thankful that their designs still garner attention and that they will be recognized by the county commissioners at a meeting for their work.

The sestercentennial events that were shelved such as a lecture series and the Surry 250 Bus Tour around historical sites of the county are being reworked now, and county public information officer Nathan Walls said when dates are finalized, word will be disseminated.

All that remains is to wish Surry County a happy birthday: you do not look a day over 230.

• A Mount Airy woman is facing three counts of assault on a government official and driving while impaired stemming from a March 23 traffic crash, according to city police reports.

Records indicate that the incident occurred at 1908 Rockford St., with Candyce Ladee Joi Grant, 36, of 1015 Mitchell St., exhibiting signs of impairment during the investigation. Grant was arrested and taken to the police station, where she allegedly refused breath testing and subsequently was served with a search warrant to obtain a blood sample drawn by Surry EMS personnel.

The assault allegations were not explained in police records, which state that a $5,000 unsecured bond was set for Grant, who was released from custody to her mother and is facing an April 18 appearance in Surry District Court.

• Rebecca Alison Wallace, 58, listed as homeless, was jailed on a second-degree trespassing violation Sunday after allegedly refusing to leave Knight’s Inn on North Andy Griffith Parkway after being told to by the manager. Wallace was held in the Surry County Jail under a $100 secured bond, with an April 11 court date set for the case.

• Andrew Chester Crotts, 44, of 2358 Flint Hill Road, Cana, Virginia, was charged with larceny and possession of stolen goods last Saturday at Dollar General on North Renfro Street. He is accused of taking packages of Total Hydration ChapStick from the business, which were recovered.

Crotts is scheduled to be in District Court on April 11.

• Larry Dwayne Bouldin, 51, listed as both homeless and with an address at 338 Durham St., was charged with larceny on March 19 at Food Lion on West Pine Street, where he is accused of stealing Bud Ice beer. He was scheduled to be in court this past Monday.

On March 20, Bouldin was charged with second-degree trespassing at Lady Bug Laundry on North South Street, after being banned from that location three days earlier. He was released under a $1,000 unsecured bond in that incident to appear in Surry District Court on April 11.

• More information has come to light involving an Alleghany County man accused of passing a form of fake currency known as “copy money” in Mount Airy on March 17. Such bills, which have turned up in other jurisdictions, are said to look and feel like the real thing, but contain the words “copy money” printed in small letters.

In addition to victimizing Circle K on Rockford Street and receiving real money in exchange for a bogus $20 bill, as previously reported, Noah Shane Blevins, 18, of Ennice, passed two $20 copy money bills at both the Circle K and Speedway stores on West Pine Street and three at Circle K on North Main Street in order to obtain genuine currency, and attempted to do so at Sheetz.

Blevins is facing six felony charges altogether from that one-day spree, including five counts of obtaining property by false pretense and one of attempting to obtain property by false pretense. He was confined in the Surry County Jail under a $6,000 secured bond and is facing an April 18 appearance in District Court.

• Jason Lee McBride, 42, listed as a homeless resident of Dobson, was charged with larceny on March 17 after allegedly taking Febreze car air freshener at Dollar General on North Renfro Street. An officer encountered McBride at the Ollie’s store next door and he admitted to the theft, retrieving the stolen item from a pants pocket and giving it to the officer.

The case is set for the April 18 District Court session.

Two Pinnacle-area women were rushed to the hospital in serious condition suffering from stab wounds, while the brother of one of the women was jailed after a family squabble turned violent.

Colton Ryan Collins, 27, of 291 Ayers Road, Pinnacle, was arrested on the scene and charged with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury. He was jailed under a $300,000 secured bond with an April 13 court date scheduled, according to a statement on the incident released by Surry County Sheriff Steve C. Hiatt.

The Surry County Sheriff’s Office initially received a call regarding a stabbing or cutting incident at 291 Ayers Road in Pinnacle. When patrol deputies arrived on the scene, they found Melissa Ann Collins, 48, and Meagan Cheyenne Collins, 24, both of the same address, suffering from stab wounds, according to the sheriff.

”Both female victims were transported by Surry County Emergency Medical Services to Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Hospital and they were in serious condition,” he said.

Deputies on the scene requested the assistance of the sheriff office’s Criminal Investigation Division. Detectives arrived on the scene and started expanding the investigation into the incident. That investigation eventually led to the arrest of Colton Collins.

The sheriff said the “incident started over an aggressive assault that occurred between Colton and Meagan,” who are siblings, and ended with the two women being stabbed. It was not immediately clear what relation Melissa Ann Collins was to the two.

“Additional charges related to this incident are forthcoming,” the sheriff said, while declining to give additional information. He said in his statement the probe is still ongoing. Assisting agencies were the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, Surry County Emergency Medical Services and the Shoals Volunteer Fire Department, he said.

Flat Rock was the scene of a possible earthquake this week, but some additional rumblings have been shaking up the small community east of Mount Airy in the wake of a recent traffic change there.

Residents and other travelers in the area object to a new all-way stop configuration at the intersection of East Pine Street (N.C. 103) and McBride/Quaker Road near Flat Rock Elementary School, saying it is unsafe and impeding vehicular flow.

This has included launching a petition drive to have the N.C. Department of Transportation remove the four-way stop system implemented on March 10. It now requires motorists approaching the busy intersection from all four directions to come to a complete halt before proceeding.

Previously only those arriving at the crossroads from Quaker and McBride roads — which face each other at N.C. 103 — encountered stop signs.

“The new all-way stop on 103 has the main highway backed up, blocking businesses and the elementary school,” in the view of Shanny Chappell, who started the petition on the change.org website — https://www.change.org/p/take-the-all-way-4-way-stop-away-from-103-quaker-mcbride-roads?redirect=false

As of Thursday, 904 people had signed the petition toward a goal of 1,000 on the website that provides the public with the ability to promote causes among potential signers. The Flat Rock effort garnered more than 500 signatures in the first four days it was established more than two weeks ago.

Drivers — especially of faster vehicles coming from either direction on N.C. 103 — don’t always notice, or heed, the stop signs, according to those opposed to the change DOT officials say was undertaken in the name of safety.

“Some blow right through the stop sign,” said Janice King, a longtime resident of Flat Rock who lives on McBride Road about a mile from the intersection. “People aren’t slowing down.”

King, a former employee of the Mount Airy Police Department and Surry County District Attorney’s Office, pointed out Wednesday that N.C. 103 is a truck route populated by big rigs hauling logs and other products from or to Virginia.

A further situation compromising safety involves motorists, particularly the elderly, being uncertain about how to react when reaching the four-way stop and thus creating dangerous bottlenecks.

“People are arriving at the same time and don’t know what to do,” King said.

“My biggest fear is a tractor-trailer is going to hit a family in a car and somebody is going to get killed.”

“People don’t even stop at the stop signs at night,” said another Flat Rock resident, Jamie Potts, who commented about the situation Wednesday while standing in front of a Citgo convenience store on the corner of N.C. 103 and Quaker Road.

Potts mentioned that motorists sometimes will cut through the store parking lot to avoid the all-way stop, creating another safety issue. “They come through about 25 miles per hour.”

“It’s too dang dangerous,” Judy Jessup commented in a post on the petition website.

“I don’t even go that way now.”

Added another petition signer, Jennifer Laws: “I don’t see how this is helping at all.”

Critics of the change say the situation is especially problematic in the mornings and afternoons as the school day begins and ends at Flat Rock Elementary.

When announcing the addition of the four-way stop sign system in early March, N.C. Department of Transportation officials explained that it was in response to an elevated crash rate at the site.

This included a study examining the five-year accident history of the intersection which revealed 14 dangerous-angle crashes, prompting crews to install the extra stop signs requiring all traffic to stop and warning signage.

“I’ll bet there’s been fourteen since since they put up the durn stop signs, or near misses,” King countered Wednesday concerning the accident rate.

​Economics also was a factor, with an all-way stop considered an effective and cost-efficient way to improve the safety of an intersection.

King said she and other residents in the area have long sought regular traffic lights there.

That idea was rejected by the DOT, with Division 11 Traffic Engineer Daniel Adams noting — in correspondence with Janice King and her husband Mark — that it is not a viable option.

“An evaluation was made to see if a signal was warranted,” added Adams, who is based in North Wikesboro, “however, it failed to meet the warrants for a signal.”

The intersection of N.C. 103 and McBride/Quaker Road was deemed “a good candidate” for the all-way stop, the traffic engineer advised. He added that studies show a 68-percent reduction in crashes when converting from a two-way to four-way stop situation.

Janice King said that for years small flashing lights existed there, and about two weeks ago a large flashing red light system was erected to provide an additional warning — apparently to quell concerns arising from the change made earlier in the month.

“If you can do all that, why can’t you put in a regular stoplight?” the Flat Rock resident said of the DOT, calling the four-way-stop format “absolutely ridiculous.”

King doubts that any local stakeholders were consulted before the change occurred, such as the Surry Emergency Medical Service, Four-Way Volunteer Fire Department, county commissioners or Surry County Schools.

Some residents reportedly are planning to attend a commissioners meeting to air the issue during a public forum.

The DOT issued these guidelines for all-way stops:

• The first vehicle at the intersection has the right of way.

• When two or more vehicles reach an intersection at the same time, the one to the right has the right of way and may go straight or, if legal and after signaling, turn left or right.

• When two facing vehicles approach an intersection simultaneously, both drivers can move straight ahead or turn right. If one driver is going straight while the other wants to turn left, the driver who wants to turn left must yield.

• Even with the right of way, drivers should remember to use appropriate turn signals and watch for pedestrians and other vehicles.

Thirty North Surry High School students singing together recently represented their school at the Music Performance Adjudication event in Gastonia, receiving a superior rating for their performance.

“These students have gone from singing outside in masks in three-part music last year to eight-part music this year,” said their music teacher, Sarah McCraw. “They have come so far.”

The students are: Gwendyline Aguiar, Cheyenne Alligood, Raegan Amos, Max Barnard, Alexis Bourne, Emily Bruner, Colby Callaway, Maggie Creed, Madison Creed, Kaitlin Culbertson, Will Danley, Molly Easter, Anna Flippen, Summer Goins, Gracie Goings, Hannah Hiatt, Trevor Jones, Chase Lawson, Schae Lawson, Vanessa Lowe, Noah Marley, Heather Messervy, Cassidy Mills, Colby Mitchell, Kinston Nichols, Mady Simmons, Mason Simmons, Ashley Todd, Anna Whitaker and Walker York

Willow Lawson, a sophomore at Surry Early College High School, has been selected to attend the Harvard Pre-College Summer Program this year.

Willow will spend two weeks at Harvard University where she will be challenged by Ivy League scholars and will immerse herself in a crisis journalism class with approximately 15 other students.

The Harvard Pre-College Program is exclusively on campus and offers more than 100 non-credit courses. Students will learn in an immersive and supportive academic environment alongside peers from around the world.

Surry Community College has been selected again as a Military Friendly School for 2022-2023. This is the eleventh year the college has received this honor.

Surry Community College’s Veterans Affairs Specialist, Jay McDougal, is a veteran, having served 13 years in the Army.

“We at Surry Community College are dedicated to the success of our veterans as well as to the success of family members of veterans. We are proud to receive this designation,” McDougal said.

Institutions earning the Military Friendly School designation were evaluated using both public data sources and responses from a proprietary survey. More than 1,800 schools participated in the 2022-2023 survey with 665 earning special awards for going above the standard.

The 2022-2023 Military Friendly Schools list will be published in the May and October issue of G.I. Jobs magazine and can be found at www.militaryfriendly.com.

Methodology, criteria, and weightings were determined by VIQTORY with input from the Military Friendly Advisory Council of independent leaders in the higher education and military recruitment community. Final ratings were determined by combining the institution’s survey scores with the assessment of the institution’s ability to meet thresholds for student retention, graduation, job placement, loan repayment, persistence (degree advancement or transfer) and loan default rates for all students and, specifically, for student veterans.

For more information about Veteran Services at SCC, contact McDougal at 336-386-3245 or mcdougaljr@surry.edu.

Earlier this month Surry Early College High School was recognized as a Signature School at the Piedmont Triad Education Consortium’s annual celebration meeting, at the Joseph S. Koury Convention Center in Greensboro.

During the 2020-2021 school year, Surry Early College High School achieved a graduation rate of 100%, which surpassed the North Carolina State average of 87% that year.

The emphasis on high academic achievement has allowed students at Surry Early College to earn a total of 3,943 credits from 1,338 classes during the last school year. By completing core college courses in high school, students are allowed more flexibility when they graduate, regardless of if they transfer to a four-year university or if they choose to enter the workforce immediately after graduation. Educators at Surry Early College High School have implemented high yield strategies for success and student achievement with unprecedented results:

– In 2020-2021, Surry Early College met all growth targets and all subgroups met growth targets, as part of the North Carolina School Performance data.

– Surry Early College increased student proficiency in English II and Math III in 2020-2021. This fall, Surry Early College has increased Math I by 1 percentage points over the previous year, along with English II growing by 4% and biology by 12%.

– Surry Early College has also raised ACT proficiency to 83.3% during the 2020-2021 school year.

While Surry Early College High School allows for students to complete their high school diploma at the same time as their two-year associate’s degree, Surry Early College also offers cost savings opportunities for students and families.

“Students at Surry Early College are encouraged to take advantage of the large course catalog offered by Surry Community College to complete their associate’s degree,” said Colby Beamer, the school’s principal. “Through these courses, students find individualized interests that help them select a future career. At our school, we focus on growing student leaders who are college and career-ready young adults.”

Additionally, students have the opportunity to work with business and community partners through internships and apprenticeships through Surry County Schools or Surry Yadkin-Works. Programs through both enable students to get hands-on experience outside of the classroom and expand upon potential career interests.

“Surry Early College High School richly deserves the Signature Award for its commitment to providing a rigorous and relevant education for all students,” said Surry County Schools Superintendent Dr. Travis L. Reeves. “The administrators, faculty, and staff at Surry Early College are extremely dedicated to helping all students succeed. Their hands-on approach to schoolwide project-based learning serves as a model for other schools. We applaud their successes and have enjoyed celebrating this achievement with the school community.”

Surry Community College is offering Landscape for Life, a gardening course, at the Pilot Center, 612 East Main St., in Pilot Mountain.

The course will run every Thursday from April 14 through May 19 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Landscape For Life will show students how to work with nature in their own garden, whether they garden on a city or suburban lot, a 20-acre farm, or the common area of a condominium.

While conventional gardens can work against nature, sustainable gardens are supportive of natural ecosystems and conserve resources. They enhance the environment’s ability to clean air and water, reduce flooding, combat climate change and provide other natural benefits that support life on earth. Landscape For Life is a collaboration between the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and the United States Botanic Garden based on the principles of the Sustainable Sites Initiative.

Tuition for this course is $71. The cost can possibly be covered for students through funds from the Surry Skill-UP grant. For information about this class or to register, call the Pilot Center at 336-386-3618.

DOBSON — If ever there was a time to watch every dollar, it arguably is now with inflation surging, and a local organization is planning a program to aid consumers in this regard.

The N.C. Cooperative Extension office in Dobson has announced a one-hour financial literacy class as part of a virtual monthly series being presented in conjunction with an Extension and Community Association (ECA) component of the agency called “At Home with ECA.”

It is scheduled for April 7 from 11 a.m. to noon.

That program in the online learning series will be held in conjunction with the observance of Financial Literacy Month during April.

“The At Home With ECA session will focus on money management, as we discuss the importance of creating and maintaining a budget,” explained Carmen Long, area Extension agent for family and consumer education who serves Surry and Alleghany counties.

There is no charge for accessing that program and other workshops in the monthly series which are being coordinated through the Eventbrite website used for such presentations. But Long says those wanting to do so must register beforehand at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/226054684647

In addition to the financial advice to be offered in starting or refining a budget, a convenient benefit of the online program is that one needn’t be parked in front of a computer during the actual program time.

“Once registered, participants will receive a recording after the session which they may watch at their convenience,” Long mentioned, to be emailed.

The monthly class series is presented by family and consumer sciences agents of the North Central District of N.C. Cooperative Extension, covering 14 counties altogether.

“It’s a group effort,” Long has said.

The financial management program will be presented by N.C. Cooperative Extension personnel in Wilkes County.

Even those who don’t live in Surry or the other counties in the region can still join the April 7 session via Zoom, organizers say.

N.C. Cooperative Extension has sought to distribute information to people for more than 100 years, and the At Home with ECA workshop series involves a new means of providing such outreach — embracing both the realities and technical alternatives of today.

The 2022 series was spawned by a similar effort launched for 2021 in reaction to the coronavirus restricting public gatherings.

Participants aren’t required to sign up for all the programs in the monthly online series, held on the first Thursdays, and can pick and choose ones they are interested in, according to Long.

A separate N.C. Cooperative Extension initiative is focused on another timely consumer matter, nutrition.

It is an online home food preservation series that will begin on April 14 and run bi-weekly for six weeks, ending on June 23, aimed at teaching people how to accomplish that in the comfort of their own surroundings.

The bi-weekly sessions are scheduled from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., under these topics:

Those interested can register for free at go.ncsu.edu/foodpreserving

Participants will need to sign up for each session they wish to attend separately, according to Long, and upon registering will receive a recording after the session which they can view at their convenience.

For students to improve their understanding of letter writing skills, the mail, newspapers, and their sense of geography, the students of Kimberlee Montgomery’s class at Salida Elementary School were asked to send correspondence out across the country to newspapers.

The project was designed as an attempt to gauge how far one letter from California may reach, and who may write back. One fifth grader, Axeton B., selected the “Great State of North Carolina.” From there, the letter crossed the country and found its way here to Mount Airy.

The handwritten state of destination showed that the student who drew Iowa was going to have an easier time writing their envelope and letter. Classmates who drew Massachusetts or Mississippi however may still be addressing their envelopes at this very moment.

To Axeton’s great credit, the fourth time North Carolina was written out the handwriting suggested a much higher level of confidence in the spelling of Carolina. Ms. Montgomery can check that off the list, as that part of the lesson is now a success.

Axeton’s letter to the newspaper is as follows:

“Dear Editors of The Mount Airy News:

Would you please print my letter in your ‘Letters to the Editor’ of your newspaper? This would be a great help to me in completing my state project:

Dear People of the Great State of North Carolina,

Greetings! My name is Axeton, and I am a 5th grade student at Salida Elementary School in Salida, California. We live in the central valley located east of San Francisco. This year we are going to complete a state project. I picked North Carolina. I am asking for any and all information from you about your great state sent to me. If you would, please send me any postcards, articles, maps, pictures, pins, pencils, stickers, or pamphlets from North Carolina.

I really appreciate your help in making my project a success! I am lucky to learn about an awesome state like North Carolina.

The chance Montgomery knows where Mount Airy is, or for what this area is best known for seems minute. One would think it to be unlikely that young Axeton would know the tales of Mayberry, Barney Fife, or Aunt Bea’s dreadful pickles, but might the reach of “The Andy Griffith Show” extend to the West Coast — still these many years later?

Greater Mount Airy Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Randy Collins thinks the answer is still yes and said as much last week at the Excellence in Business Awards dinner. “My office is just outside of the visitors center and it is really quite amazing the people we meet from all over the country, and indeed the world, that love Mayberry and love Andy Griffith.”

A drive past the Andy Griffith Playhouse nearly any day will find a tourist or two posing to commemorate for posterity their brief visit to “a simpler time, and a sweeter place,” as the Andy and Opie statue’s plaque reads. The nostalgia for the show and the simple messaging of a quaint time still resonates with viewers and does not show signs of stopping.

The care package going back to the Salida Elementary with goodies and highlights from this area is being assembled. It already includes information regarding our favorite son Andy and his accomplishments, as well as the Bunker Twins. Facts on the history of farming, livestock, and tobacco are being included to further explain the importance of agriculture to this area.

Information about the state was requested, and not just Mount Airy, so info on Kitty Hawk and the Wright Brothers, the sit-in movement, Edward Teach (Blackbeard), The Lost Colony, and of course the state’s rich tradition of college basketball are being reflected. Of note. Axeton will not be required to choose a side in the UNC – Duke rivalry, which seems only fair.

A selection of postcards, pamphlets and visitor’s brochures have been assembled, with additional information on Pilot Mountain State Park and the Blue Ridge Parkway added for good measure.

When the care package is complete and has been sent back to the West Coast, Axeton and Ms. Montgomery’s class will have a selection of interesting items to look over. Physical copies of this issue of the Mount Airy News will be included so this clipping can be added to the class’s collection of responses from around the country.

In a digital age where interpersonal connections are fewer and farther between, the sheer novelty of getting Axeton’s letter was a bit of nostalgia itself. With luck, a little knowledge about this corner of the country that is shared with fifth graders more than 2,700 miles away in California can lead to increased understanding of the world and their place in it.

Auditions for the Surry Arts Council’s production of Little Women directed by Shelby Coleman are being held today, March 30 from 6:30 – 9:30 p.m. at the Andy Griffith Playhouse.

• Sing an approximately 32-bar cut from a musical theater piece in the style of the show;

• Be prepared to read sides with other auditionees.

Video auditions are available for those who cannot make it in person. Send a video of a 32- to 62-bar cut of a musical theater piece and a 30- to 60-second monologue to shelby@surryarts.org by 11 p.m. on Wednesday, March 30.

The public performances will be on Saturday, May 14 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, May 15 at 3 p.m.

Little Women is based on the American classic by Louisa May Alcott. This timeless, captivating story is brought to life in this musical filled with personal discovery, heartache, hope and everlasting love.

Based on Louisa May Alcott’s life, Little Women follows the adventures of sisters Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy March. Jo is trying to sell her stories for publication, but the publishers are not interested – her friend, Professor Bhaer, tells her that she has to do better and write more from herself. Begrudgingly taking this advice, Jo weaves the story of herself and her sisters and their experience growing up in Civil War America.

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.

Did a minor earthquake strike Surry County Tuesday night?

Dozens of folks in the Flat Rock area say yes, posting on Facebook about feeling the ground waver and their homes shake — some even reporting a loud boom sound. A local business owner who has a broadcast meteorology degree, William Bottomley, posted on Facebook a picture of what he said was a seismograph located in King showing activity at 7:06 p.m.

An official with Surry County Emergency Services said her department fielded a number of calls Tuesday shortly before 8 p.m., people reporting the ground shaking and a loud boom. “We sent out an officer and a fire truck, but we couldn’t find anything,” she said.

The United States Geological Survey, however, said nothing happened. The agency recorded no significant seismic activity in Surry County according to their website, and a geologist with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, Dr. Kenneth Taylor, said on Thursday he confirmed there was no seismic activity in the county that evening.

Bottomley posted the photo of the seismograph shortly before 8 p.m., more than a half-hour after the activity. While those responding from Stokes County said they had felt nothing, dozens of individuals responded to his Facebook post saying they had felt a quake and some had heard a loud boom in and around Flat Rock. One even said she had heard a rumbling in Virginia, though she did not specify exactly where.

“We did! Thought something exploded under my house or that someone had hit my house,” one person commented.

“Shook my house in Flat Rock, loud sound, and dog started barking,” another said.

Another also mentioned dogs barking in response to the event.

The United States Geological Survey reported that night no evidence of earthquakes in the area, according to the agency’s website. The website shows all seismic activity which measures at least 2.5 on the The Moment Magnitude Scale, which has replaced the better-known Richter scale. However, volcanodiscovery.com, run by an organization which seeks to monitor and report earthquakes and volcanoes around the world, reported suspected activity 3 miles east of Flat Rock. The website estimated the activity at 3.0 on the Moment Magnitude Scale, with a depth of roughly 6 miles, although there was no indication how the organization arrived at those measurements.

Taylor, with the state DEQ, said he checked for any activity — even that which would have registered less than 2.5.

“If it had been an earthquake, it would have been easily measured,” he said on Thursday.

This is not the first time area residents have reported shaking ground, rattling houses, and loud booms.

Last spring, a number of residents in Mount Airy reported periodic loud booms and ground shaking at night. City police even dispatched officers over several nights when those were reported and officers felt the police department shake one night, but no cause was ever discovered.

Earlier in 2021, in January, media outlets reported the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office was inundated with calls about such booms shortly after the first of the year, but no one there could find a cause. Those reports were widespread, not only in parts of Forsyth, but across Surry, Yadkin, Stokes, Davie and Rockingham counties.

No cause of any of those were ever discovered.

The most recent confirmed significant earthquake in this region of North Carolina was Aug. 9, 2020, when a 5.1 quake struck Sparta and the surrounding area, damaging a number of homes and other structures. That area has been plagued by periodic tremors ever since, most reaching between 1.5 and 2.5 on the scale, according to the United States Geological Survey. Some of those tremors have been as recent as this past month.

• A homeless Mount Airy woman is facing a felony drug charge involving crack-cocaine which was filed Sunday, according to city police reports.

Dana Meador Sander, 53, was encountered by officers during a traffic stop on Merita Street near Gravely Street for failing to maintain lane control while at the wheel of a 1994 Chrysler New Yorker, arrest records state.

Sander subsequently was found with 2.5 grams of crack along with smoking devices and digital scales, leading to charges including possession of a Schedule II controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia. She was jailed under a $3,000 secured bond and is scheduled to appear in Surry District Court next Monday.

• Brandon Lee Barnes, 21, listed as homeless, was charged with driving while impaired, concealment of merchandise and possession of a Schedule VI controlled substance stemming from a Friday incident at the Tractor Supply store on Rockford Street.

Barnes allegedly concealed merchandise, listed as black and green latex gloves, without paying and also was found with marijuana. The gloves were recovered. Officers further determined that Barnes had driven to the store while impaired, police records state.

He is facing a court appearance on Monday.

• Police learned last Thursday of a case involving financial card fraud, which involved a known individual using a card owned by Kimberlee Monik Duncan of Pfafftown to withdraw an undisclosed sum of funds at State Employees Credit Union on South Franklin Road.

The crime occurred last fall.

• Two West Virginia residents are facing charges as the result of a March 19 civil disturbance at Soho Bar and Grill on Franklin Street.

Nathaniel John Southern, 37, is accused of assaulting Jose Manuel Resendez Nava, while Jennifer Dawn Cook, 44, of Pineville, was charged with being intoxicated and disruptive.

Southern was released under a $2,500 secured bond and Cook, $1,000 secured, with both scheduled to be in Surry District Court on April 11.

• A man from Wendell in Wake County was jailed after a March 16 incident at Walmart, where Russell Lee Caldwell Jr., 42, allegedly stole merchandise valued at $50, including computer hardware/software, a battery stand and two pairs of men’s shoes.

Caldwell, who was charged with larceny and possession of stolen goods, also was revealed to be the subject of an outstanding order for arrest filed on March 14 for failing to appear in court in Surry County.

He was taken into custody under a $2,000 secured bond and is facing a May 16 District Court date.

• The Sheetz convenience store on Rockford Street was the scene of a theft on March 15, when soft-serve ice cream, Mountain Dew and cashews with a total value of $17 were taken by an unknown suspect.

A coach who guided Mount Airy High School to prominence nearly a century ago, the school’s all-time leading rusher and two championship volleyball teams are the latest inductees for a place of distinction in local sports history.

The selection committee for the Greater Mount Airy Sports Hall of Fame began soliciting nominations for its 2022 class in December and now has unveiled what Assistant City Manager Darren Lewis calls an “outstanding” group of honorees.

Since 2016, names of prospective inductees have been accepted every two years for the recognition program spearheaded by Mount Airy Parks and Recreation, of which Lewis served as director until assuming his present post in February.

Entering this year, more than 80 individuals or teams had been inducted into the hall since its first class in 2003.

• George Underwood, a coach who was responsible for Mount Airy High School athletics’ rise to excellence, according to information provided by new Parks and Recreation Director Peter Raymer.

Underwood guided all four sports teams the school offered when he became a physical education teacher in 1928, and is credited as the first coach to win a championship in any sport for Mount Airy, with specifics of that — including the year — not available from Raymer.

Although Underwood’s coaching career spanned only five years, his teams appeared in four state championship games, winning two, based on the city bio information.

• Anthony Moore, whose 5,803 career rushing yards for Mount Airy High achieved in the mid-1990s remains the school record.

Moore accomplished this during three seasons as a varsity letterman from 1994-96, breaking the previous rushing record established by his father, Joe Ray Moore, in the 1970s.

After his high school career, Anthony Moore played collegiately at James Madison University.

• The 1986 and 1987 Mount Airy High School volleyball teams. Both squads were inducted into the hall of fame’s 2022 class as links to a legacy of excellence.

The 1986 unit was the first MAHS volleyball team to win a state championship and the 1987 team went undefeated and repeated as state champs.

Those athletes were coached by Ginger Crissman Ashley (now Ginger Hamric).

• Frank Sheppard was selected for inclusion in the Greater Mount Airy Sports Hall of Fame as this year’s winner of the Granite City Award. It goes to someone who has contributed to the promotion of sports in the community in a special way.

Sheppard began his career as head baseball coach for Mount Airy High School while also coaching Mount Airy Middle School football. After several years of doing both, he focused exclusively on the middle school football team, amassing an overall record of 200-17.

“A lot of the success of the Mount Airy High School football team is credited to Frank’s contributions at the middle school level,” city bio information states. “Frank Sheppard touched many lives in his 37 years of coaching.”

An induction ceremony for the 2022 sports hall is scheduled on April 24 at 3 p.m., hosted by the Andy Griffith Playhouse. The unveiling of a monument near the Municipal Building reflecting the newly inscribed inductees will be held afterward.

The defined area of the Greater Mount Airy Sports Hall of Fame covers the city limits, the Mount Airy City Schools District and the one-mile extraterritorial (ETJ) zone long in place for areas just outside town.

It honors those who’ve played a role in the entire sports history of the area, either living or deceased.

Mount Airy residents will soon have an opportunity to learn about and meet candidates for the 2022 municipal election season during a downtown event — to feature a different format than others in the past.

Billed as a non-partisan introduction to the 13 office-seekers ahead of a May primary, it is scheduled for April 11 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Historic Earle Theatre and Old-Time Music Heritage Hall.

The meet the candidates event is co-sponsored by Mount Airy Downtown Inc. and the Greater Mount Airy Chamber of Commerce.

It is a prelude to the primary election on May 17, when the ballot will feature a total of 13 city residents seeking four municipal offices including those of mayor and three seats on the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners.

Invitations to the April 11 event were sent to the candidates last week, which produced a healthy response.

“From what I can see everyone has accepted,” chamber CEO Randy Collins said Tuesday afternoon.

“I think they’ve been responding to Lizzie as well as myself,” Collins added in reference to Lizzie Morrison, Main Street coordinator with Mount Airy Downtown Inc.

• For mayor — Ron Niland, who now holds that position and is running against North Ward Commissioner Jon Cawley and Teresa Lewis, a former at-large commissioner.

• North Ward commissioner — four candidates are vying for Cawley’s seat, Teresa Davis Leiva, Chad Hutchens, John Pritchard and Joanna Refvem.

• South Ward commissioner — the field includes Gene Clark, Phil Thacker and present At-Large Commissioner Joe Zalescik, who are seeking the seat now held by Steve Yokeley.

• At-large commissioner — Yokeley is among the candidates vying for Zalescik’s council slot along with Deborah Cochran, a former mayor and at-large commissioner, and Tonda Phillips.

All 13 will be on the ballot for the May primary as part of this year’s non-partisan municipal election process, which requires primaries for offices in which three or more candidates file.

The two top vote-getters on May 17 will square off in the November general election.

Candidates will be seated on the Earle stage grouped by their respective races.

Past city candidate events have included office-seekers responding to questions prepared by organizers or offered from the audience.

However, the one upcoming will involve the election hopefuls simply making pitches to voters.

Each candidate will be given four minutes to speak to the audience and asked to address four main points: his or her background and experience, campaign platform/vision for Mount Airy, the ways in which each believes the city is on the right path and the ways it is on the wrong path.

The office-seekers are to be called to a podium one by one to introduce themselves and begin their remarks and upon completion will return to their designated seats onstage.

A moderator will manage the schedule, signalling with a hand when there is one minute left in a candidate’s allotted time. A bell will ring after four minutes, and the moderator will thank each for his or her remarks and move on to the next candidate.

No debate or rebuttal opportunities are to occur onstage. No questions will be taken from the audience and the moderator will not ask any questions. All candidates and attendees are asked to be courteous of each other and not interrupt anyone’s remarks.

Once all candidates have spoken, a “meet and greet” session is planned at the UnCorked wine shop and boutique next door to the Earle, where citizens can approach them with questions or ideas.

“If folks are registered to vote in the city of Mount Airy, it’s a great opportunity to meet all these candidates,” Collins said Tuesday.

Edward Jones hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony this past Thursday during the Grand Opening celebration. Michael Warren will be the financial advisor for the new business that is located at 101 Shoals Road Ste. D in Pilot Mountain.

“Simply opening the doors to a new business isn’t enough. Hosting a grand opening and having a ribbon cutting symbolizes the start of a new venture. It is a time to celebrate the hard work put into getting a space ready to open and to celebrate the new possibilities that await.” said Commissioner Donna Kiger.

“Ribbon cuttings are a great opportunity for folks who work in local businesses to network and for the community to show entrepreneurs we are here to support them. They are taking a leap of faith in opening a business in our town, and we want to do our part to give them every change to be successful,” said Mayor Evan Cockerham.

Warren is a lifelong resident of Mount Airy and a Mount Airy High School graduate of 1994. He and his wife Crystal have two daughters and a son. Michael is also involved with the Pilot Mountain community and is serving as the vice president for the Pilot Mountain Civic Club.

In discussing his career as a financial advisor, Warren said “(he) loved working along people helping them to reach their financial goals and dreams.” Prior to working with Edward Jones, he worked for Team Penske in NASCAR for 18 years and Farm Bureau for two years.

The question on the minds of many local residents is “Why does Pilot need two Edward Jones offices?” “Because there has been a growing demand in this area for what we do and one office isn’t enough to keep up and serve our clients properly,” said Warren.

Edward Jones offers a variety of financial and life planning services such as retirement options, wealth strategies, investment products, college savings plans, insurance and annuities and solutions for business owners. For more information contact Warren at 336-368-0782.

Two area men were recently arrested and charged with drug trafficking and relating charges as part of an operation by five difference law enforcement agencies.

Gabino Arriola Armenta, 33, of 188 Pilot View Street, Mount Airy, and Danny Jay McCraw, 62, of 143 East Crosswinds Court, Mount Airy, were each arrested and charged on multiple accounts.

The men were taken into custody after a search warrant was executed at Armenta’s home by the Surry County Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Division and Street Crimes Unit, the Pilot Mountain Police Department Narcotics Division, the Stokes County Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Division, the Yadkin County Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Division and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation.

”Detectives were looking for illegal controlled substances being keep or distributed from this address,” Surry County Sheriff Steve C. Hiatt said. “During the search, the narcotics detectives found over 62 grams of methamphetamine, fentanyl, marijuana, and assorted drug paraphernalia.”

Armenta was charged with two counts of trafficking methamphetamine, one count of possession of Schedule I controlled substances, one count of possession of marijuana, and one count of possession of marijuana drug paraphernalia. He was jailed under a $220,000 secured bond.

Danny Jay McCraw was charged with one count of possession with intent to manufacture sell and deliver Schedule II controlled substances, one count of maintaining a vehicle/dwelling/place for controlled substances, and possession of drug paraphernalia. McCraw was placed under a $5,000 secured bond

Cedar Ridge Elementary School students in Pre-K recently worked through their insect unit.

During their studies, they learned a great deal about bugs. To start off their unit, students got to take magnifying glasses outside. After an outside read-aloud about insects, students began a search for some fascinating creatures.

Meadowview Magnet Middle School Mustang Ambassadors sponsored a school-wide Dodgeball Tournament on March 25.

Mustang Ambassadors, sponsored by guidance counselor Sherri Hanks and sixth grade teacher Kim Utt, spent weeks preparing for this event for the students and staff. Students created dodgeball teams, prepared posters, and made t-shirts in preparation for the event.

The event attracted 20 teams for the dodgeball tournament, which consisted of students and a staff teammate, or students and a staff sponsor. Seventh and eighth grade teacher Maggie Watts and the Cobras received first place. Paul Clark and the Black Ducks received second place, and Caleb Whitaker and the Moving Targets received third place.

DOBSON — After a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Surry-Yadkin Electric Membership Corporation will host its 10th annual charitable golf tournament Thursday, June 16, at Cedarbrook Country Club. The tournament is put on by the electric cooperative’s Community Projects Committee, made up of employees of Surry-Yadkin EMC.

This year’s tournament will tee off at 9 a.m. and will benefit four nonprofits in the Surry-Yadkin EMC service area. Those charities include Grace Clinic of Yadkin Valley, a medical clinic in Elkin; Yadkin Valley United Fund, which supports 23 nonprofit agencies and three scholarships; Mount Airy Ministry of Hospitality, which oversees The Shepherd’s House and Helping Hands Foundation; and Second Harvest Food Bank, which benefits food pantries in the region.

A number of sponsorship opportunities for the golf tournament are available to area businesses and individuals, as well as playing opportunities.

“As a locally-owned, member-owned cooperative, it is important to us that we support the communities we serve and live in,” said Travis Bode, economic development coordinator for Surry-Yadkin Electric and this year’s Community Projects Committee chair. “All of this year’s beneficiaries are important parts of helping members of our community, and we look forward to partnering with our sponsors to boost the nonprofits’ efforts.”

Anyone interested in supporting the Surry-Yadkin EMC Golf Tournament can find information on the tournament at syemc.com. For questions, reach out to Wendy Wood at wendywood@syemc.com or Kasey Martin at kaseymartin@syemc.com or by phone at 336-356-8241.

Northern Regional Hospital has named Kristi Johnson Marion as vice president of marketing. She will assume the new post on April 19.

Johnson brings more than 20 years of professional marketing and leadership experience to Northern. Over this period, she has worked for the March of Dimes, Forsyth Woman & Family Magazines, RiverRun International Film Festival, and, most recently, the North Carolina Zoo and NC Zoo Society as a communications consultant.

“Kristi is known for her team building skills, passion for mentoring and coaching, friendly demeanor, and history of giving back to her community and profession. Every professional reference complimented Kristi on her ability to balance immense technical skills with a great attitude and kind, but competitive, spirit,” said Chris A. Lumsden, president and CEO. “Kristi will fit well with the culture and operating philosophy of NRH, and I look forward to her joining Rylee Haynes, our marketing team, and the NRH family.”

Johnson was born and raised in Mount Airy and graduated from North Surry High School. She graduated with honors from Surry Community College and then from Appalachian State University with a degree in English literature, also with honors. She has two children in high school. She has many family members that reside in Mount Airy and Surry County. In her free time, Johnson enjoys spending time with her kids, being walked by her great dane, hiking, and catching an art exhibit.

An auction that was scheduled Friday in Mount Airy — of land beside a controversial building the city government could be demolishing in the coming months — wasn’t held as planned, with no reason for that readily emerging.

“Actually what they did was postpone it,” Mayor Ron Niland said Friday afternoon of organizers for the auction of a small parcel located along West Pine Street adjoining what is commonly known as the former Koozies property.

“And I have no idea why they did that,” added Niland, who was relaying an update from City Manager Stan Farmer.

The Mount Airy Board of Commissioners had voted 4-1 on March 17 to have Farmer or a designee submit a bid on the municipality’s behalf at the scheduled auction.

“It just came up kind of strange,” Niland said of what will be a one-week postponement, based on a text message he had received from the city manager. “But I was surprised by that.”

The former Koozies building at 455 Franklin St., which also is bordered by West Pine and South streets and is named for a private club once operating there, has been the subject of much debate in recent years over its dilapidated condition.

It is located in a section of town declared a blighted area about seven years ago by a now-defunct city redevelopment commission that eyed major changes there including installing a traffic roundabout for a gateway to downtown Mount Airy.

More recently, the city commissioners voted 4-1 in February to give the owners of the former Koozies building and two other substandard structures nearby 90 days to bring the buildings up to code or have them demolished.

If no action is taken by then, the city government can move forward with the razing on its own, and possibly end up seizing the land to recoup the demolition costs.

That has been stated as a reason for the city’s interest in the small parcel on West Pine Street, which would provide more space for a potential redevelopment of the Koozies property, the mayor has said.

While the parcel amounts to only about a quarter-acre, its possible acquisition by the municipality has attracted a disproportionate amount of criticism, including from Commissioner Jon Cawley.

Cawley voted against the city submitting the bid, saying he doesn’t believe it should be competing against the private sector that otherwise likely would buy the property.

He further pointed out that the city government has no clear-cut need for the small parcel owned by two sisters in Lewisville.

Cawley also had objected to the ultimatum issued to the owners of the three buildings in February.

Since the March 17 vote by the majority of commissioners to submit the bid, it was disclosed that local businessman Wes Collins had bought a half-share of the site from one of the sisters unbeknownst to city officials.

Collins owns property on West Pine Street which adjoins the land in question and contains a building.

Despite knowing this, Mount Airy officials still planned to send Farmer to Friday’s auction, which was to occur under a judicial proceeding known as a commissioner’s sale — typically done to satisfy a debt.

Mayor Niland did not know Friday what impact the sale of half the property might have had on the auction postponement.

“I’m just really not sure about that,” he said.

However, another source involved with the auction disclosed later Friday that an alleged notification issue was involved.

“Certain heirs stated that they had not received notice of the sale — that’s all I would say,” that source advised, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Collins, the neighboring property owner who bought the half-share of the land in question, declined to comment on the situation Friday afternoon.

As COVID-19 infections have dropped dramatically across the nation, Surry County has seen its numbers fall to levels not experienced since the earliest days of the pandemic.

At their worst, Surry County was seeing well over 100 new cases per day, with Northern Regional Hospital often filled to capacity and then some, with patients waiting in Emergency Department beds and hallways for either inpatient beds to open or beds at other more acute-care facilities to clear.

Now, case levels have fallen so far the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services has stopped reporting daily cases. Earlier this month, before the department stopped that reporting on its website, daily cases in Surry County had dropped to fewer than 4 per day, over both the seven-day and 14-day average.

Northern Hospital reported no COVID patients in the hospital Friday, a far cry from earlier times when COVID patients filled more than half of its Intensive Care and Step-Down units, and as many as 30% of the beds hospital-wide.

Overall, Surry County has seen 20,990 cases of COVID since the pandemic began, with 331 deaths. Statewide, those figures are 2.63 million, with more than 23,000 deaths.

Now, the state health department is reporting new cases on a weekly basis. On Thursday, the department reported 2,842 new cases statewide, with 401 hospitalizations. The previous week, the state’s numbers stood at 3,924 cases, with 524 hospitalizations.

By comparison, the most recent wave of COVID, fueled largely by the Omicron variant, saw 231,749 new cases over the previous week reported on Jan. 15, with 4,092 hospitalizations.

In addition to those who have survived having COVID, many across the state are enjoying some level of immunity from vaccinations. Statewide, according to the health department, 65% of the state’s eligible population has received at least one dose of a vaccine, and 62% of the state has been fully vaccinated.

Surry County, which has had among the highest infection rates throughout the pandemic, has shown a significantly lower level of vaccinations. Countywide, 35,860 individuals, or just 50% of the population, has been fully vaccinated. Another 1,882 have had a single dose of a two-dose vaccine, and among those fully vaccinated, 16,555 have had a booster shot.

Despite the sharp drop in cases, health officials encourage people to continue being cautious, particularly with a sightly different version of the Omicron variant spurring small waves of new cases in different parts of the nation.

Northern Regional, for their part, are still enforcing more rigid visitor standards than before the pandemic.

“Masking and screening of visitors is still a requirement,” said Rylee Haynes, marketing specialist with the hospital. “Visitation is unrestricted for general visitation with some limits on number of visitors at a time in some of the specialty areas such as Emergency Department.”

Testing is also key for those who may have been exposed to others with COVID-like symptoms. In addition to several pharmacies offering testing in the area, the Surry County Heath and Nutrition Department continues to offer testing, at least through the end of the month.

In Mount Airy, testing is at Central united Methodist Church, from 11 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. Sunday and Tuesday, and 11 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. on Friday; and on Tuesday and Thursday from 10 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.

In Dobson testing is available at the Farmer’s Market beginning at noon Monday through Thursday, ending at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, at 6:30 p.m. the other days.

In Pilot Mountain, testing is being conducted at First United Methodist Church from 1 p.m. until 6:30 p.m. each day.

It was not clear if the health department will be sponsoring testing sites after March 31.

The board of advisors of the Mount Airy/Surry County Community Foundation is accepting grant applications from nonprofits serving needs in the local community.

Funds are available for nonprofit organizations serving Surry County and will be awarded from the community grantmaking fund.

Applications will be available beginning Friday, April 1. Visit nccommunityfoundation.org for information about applying. The deadline for applications is Tuesday, May 3 at noon.

Grants are not available for regranting purposes, capital campaigns, capital improvements, out-of-state travel or for individuals. Funds are awarded by the board of advisors of the Mount Airy/Surry County Community Foundation, an affiliate of the North Carolina Community Foundation.

“We are stronger thanks to the nonprofits that serve Mount Airy and Surry County,” said Jay Williams, board president. “It is an honor to offer these grants to support their critical missions.”

For more information, contact Tyran Hill, NCCF program officer, at thill@nccommunityfoundation.org or 828-772-1886.

According to the 2022 National Board database, North Carolina public school classrooms are welcoming 399 newly-certified and 1,126 renewed National Board teachers this year. This newest batch of credentialed teachers brings the state’s total number of National Board Certified Teachers to 23,090 – the largest number of National Board Certified teachers in the nation.

Among those were several recognized at a recent Surry County Board of Education meeting for achieving certification. With the addition of these three teachers, Surry County Schools has 70 teachers in the district who have earned this certification.

The three recent additions to that number are:

– Kindle Giles, exceptional children teacher at Franklin Elementary School;

– Lauren Simpson, fourth grade teacher at Pilot Mountain Elementary;

– Courtney Willard, visual arts teacher at Westfield Elementary;

Additionally, Jonathan Carpenter, assistant principal at Surry Central High School, was recognized for his successful National Board Certified Teachers renewal. To retain certified status, teachers must complete a periodic demonstration of their knowledge and skills by submitting a Profile of Professional Growth demonstrating how their practice continues to align with the Five Core Propositions in their certificate area.

“Our work at the National Board is based on the belief that every child across the country deserves to be taught by an accomplished teacher,” said Peggy Brookins, national board president and CEO. “When accomplished practice becomes the norm, the advantage will be significant, spreading beyond students and teachers to be felt by their communities, employers, and society at-large.”

Ryan Flake from Horace Mann Insurance provided these teachers with a door plaque for their classrooms.

The eighth grade students at Gentry Middle have been working hard on a research project based on important historical figures. They learned about the research process which includes taking notes on several sources, organizing the notes to create a rough draft, and creating a final paper.

“It is important to not only give students the tools to know how to write a research paper but also give them a purpose behind what they are doing,” said Christie Robertson, an eighth grade English Language Arts teacher at the school. “This is why we came up with the idea of adapting their research papers to a script for a wax museum several years ago.”

Students are put into groups with other characters that have similar backgrounds to write their scripts. They have been working on this process for several weeks and recently the wax museum went live for the students at Gentry Middle.

Televised images of the devastation in Ukraine are especially painful for one Mount Airy resident who hails from that country and still has relatives there who are struggling to survive the Russian invasion.

“My heart is heavy — grieving for all the Ukrainian people suffering,” Irina Ilyasova said of the human toll accompanying the conflict that has now been raging more than a month.

The bombed buildings and ravaged streets are difficult enough to handle — there’s also the emotional fallout gripping citizens there and those in this country who are concerned about them.

“I cannot imagine how people have struggled,” said Ilyasova, a former longtime resident of both Ukraine and Russia whose fluent English is punctuated by a thick accent.

While she now is living a safe, though unsettled, existence in North Carolina that’s not the case for her family members in Ukraine who have been touched by the crisis.

They include her younger sister, Nyla, who recently fled the capital city of Kyiv, a brother and his two children.

“He is still in Ukraine,” said Ilyasova, whose relatives there also include an uncle in his 70s and that man’s family.

The local woman particularly was concerned about her sister due to her being in the large city suffering the brunt of Russian attacks.

Ilyasova managed to monitor Nyla’s well-being through sporadic Internet connections.

“She was in a bomb shelter for almost three weeks in Kyiv,” said the local resident, who was concerned for Nyla’s well-being due to the fact she would have to leave that facility to get food and thus be exposed to violence. “It was difficult for her.”

However, Ilyasova said her sister actually seemed to handle the ordeal much better than she, including sending Ilyasova periodic messages such as “I’m OK,” and “trying to calm me down.”

Nyla finally was able to leave Ukraine via a train and head to Lithuania, located to the north of Ukraine, with the nation of Belarus in between. Her daughter Diana lives in Lithuania.

“At first, people would spend weeks of waiting to get on a train,” Ilyasova said of the predicament faced by an estimated 10 million people displaced from their homes who have had to seek refuge elsewhere.

After taking the train, Nyla boarded a bus to complete her journey to Lithuania, where she and other refugees received a warm greeting including free food and cell phones.

“It took two days to make it,” Ilyasova said.

Meanwhile, her brother and other relatives are staying in Ukraine, advised the local resident, who is reasonably comfortable about their safety since they live in rural sections away from the main part of the fighting.

“You hope it will be OK, but you never know,” she said of uncertainties surrounding warfare. “You can’t really feel good, because it’s all over.”

Ilyasova painted a scenario reminiscent of that for farm families in this area, who grow produce that they then can or otherwise store in cellars — where people also are hunkering down now to be better protected from attacks.

It’s one thing for armies to engage in conflict in the traditional way — on remote battlefields with limited impact on the populace, but this has not occurred in Ukraine.

Civilians have inescapably been caught up in the struggle that has occurred street to street in some cases as combatants kill each other.

“People survived World War Two and now they’re dying in the twenty-first century,” Ilyasova observed.

Some regular citizens have taken up arms against the Russian invaders, and naturally suffered casualties as a result, but the local resident is finding it hard to deal with attacks waged on innocent, non-combative civilians in places such as theaters and shelters.

“It’s beyond war,” Ilyasova said.

Yet she believes Ukrainians will continue to stand their ground and resist Russian intrusions, with one key factor in their strong backlash so far involving the fact they are defending their homeland.

“Who wants to give up part of their land?” she said of one possible consequence of a takeover by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Seeing the after-effects of the conflict via TV coverage has been difficult for Ilyasova, who says the best news she has received out of Ukraine so far “was hearing that my relatives are alive.”

“Brother against brother”

Irina Ilyasova, a former pediatrician, has lived in Mount Airy since 2005, when her family moved here after her husband, also a doctor, accepted a position at Northern Regional Hospital. Ilyasova has a son who is 30 and a 23-year-old daughter.

The family relocated here from New York City.

But Irina’s story — as it relates to the present conflict — actually begins much earlier when she was born in Ukraine.

Ilyasova left there at age 15 to live in Moscow, where schools existed to launch her medical training, which was before the Soviet Union dissolved.

In addition to her relatives in Ukraine, Ilyasova knows many folks in Russia due to living in Moscow for 27 years.

While she firmly supports the cause of the Ukrainian people, to a certain degree Ilyasova’s loyalties lie on both sides in the conflict among similar people.

“I couldn’t believe how brother can fight against brother,” she lamented. While swayed mostly by the struggles of the Ukrainian people, “my heart is on both sides,” Ilyasova said.

“It breaks your heart.”

Ilyasova has been comforted by the support received from this community since the invasion began.

“I get a lot of phone calls,” she reported, along with people bringing her flowers.

Ilyasova is a member of the Rotary Club of Mount Airy, which has been supportive throughout the ordeal.

Also, a fundraising event is planned today at 1 p.m. on Miss Angel’s Farm, located at 252 Heart Lane, to aid efforts by Samaritan’s Purse. That organization provides assistance to persons in physical need as a key part of its Christian missionary work and now has teams on the ground responding to the Ukraine crisis.

“Bring comfortable shoes, as we will be walking the perimeter of the farm at 1:30 to show solidarity with Ukrainians abroad and at home,” says a Facebook announcement for Miss Angel’s Farm.

“Afterwards, we will have Ukrainians in our community speak on what’s happening and how you can help and cultural music will be provided by Gypsy Laurel to celebrate Ukraine,” the announcement adds. “Feel free to make posters and bring flags if you have them to this event.”

Irina Ilyasova greatly appreciates such gestures, but says the ultimate gift will be a breakthrough in the conflict that now shows no signs of waning.

“I hope it will stop,” she said. “I would love to have peace between countries.”

• An Alleghany County man has been arrested on a felony charge in Mount Airy stemming from his alleged passing of “copy money” at a local convenience store and receiving genuine currency in exchange.

Noah Shane Blevins, 18, of Ennice, is said to have presented what appeared to be a regular $20 bill on March 17 at Circle K on Rockford Street which turned out to be fake. Such bills, which have turned up in other jurisdictions, are said to look and feel like the real thing, but contain the words “copy money” printed in small letters.

Blevins was charged with obtaining property by false pretense and confined in the Surry County Jail under a $6,000 secured bond. He is facing an April 18 appearance in District Court. Records show he is charged with additional false-pretense violations besides the one involving Circle K, for which no details were available Friday afternoon.

• Tools valued at $440 were stolen Monday from a construction site on Merita Street, including a Milwaukee cordless band saw and a Milwaukee impact drill.

A business known as BCA, LLC on Old Highway 601 is listed as the victim of the crime.

• Kristie Mechelle Krantz, 46, of 266 Atkins Lane, Siloam, was served late Monday night with an outstanding criminal summons for a second-degree trespassing charge that had been filed by the Sparta Police Department in September 2020 with no other details listed.

Krantz was encountered by Mount Airy officers investigating a suspicious-vehicle call at CF Jones Classic Cafe on West Pine Street, of which she is listed as an employee. The Siloam woman is scheduled to be in court in Alleghany County on April 19.

Seeking to improve their own capabilities in order to offer the maximum service to residents of two counties, Westfield Volunteer Fire Department took advantage of training programs offered through Surry Community College to get an additional certification.

They are adding Light Rescue to services already offered in Fire Protection and First Responder, this will increase the capabilities of the department while offering potentially lifesaving services to Surry and Stokes counties. “With volunteer firefighter numbers on the decline, and calls going up, we’re always looking for ways to expand services,” Deputy Chief Matt Martin said.

Westfield Volunteer Fire Department has asked the county to revise their service contract agreement with the county to reflect the new service they will now be offering. This is a legal necessity for the department, as County Manager Chris Knopf said, “Their contract needs to reflect the services they are actually providing.”

Nine of Westfield’s firefighters have completed Light Rescue certification, with six more in the pipeline now taking free training classes at Surry Community College. These firefighters will have achieved more than 200 total hours of training in vehicular, technical, and agricultural rescue in order to get the Light Rescue certification.

Westfield Fire Chief Johnny Sutphin described the elements involved in rescues including the ability to use ropes to rappel, using heavy equipment to extricate trapped drivers, and cribs to stabilize vehicles.

With so many and differing types of farms agricultural rescue may mean more than a runaway tractor. The chief noted chemical sprayers and conveyor junctions as possible reasons his department may respond to a rescue call from a farm.

In the agreement with the county from 1986, Westfield VFD was established to “provide and maintain for the district fire protections services, facilities, and functions to levy a tax for the support thereof.” The county is divided into volunteer fire districts, with each levying their own fire district tax for maintenance and upkeep of equipment, fire houses, and to pay staff.

Each of the volunteer departments offer fire protection as their main service, but the agreements go on to outline Westfield’s responsibilities as first responders. It may be quizzical to think of them as anything but a first responders, but there is a designated difference as not all alarms they respond to involve an actual fire.

The agreement stipulates they “undertake first responder services under the supervision of the Surry County Emergency Services, and in compliance with the first responder programs and its rules and regulations.

“The purpose of the department participation is to reduce pain, suffering, and disability or death which may accompany prolonged delays in treatment in areas of the county not reachable by regular Surry County Emergency Medical Services units or rescue squads within four minutes.”

Surry County and fire officials are collaborating with the volunteer fire departments to develop a new plan to recruit and retain more firefighters. Surry County has also proposed a plan to station additional county resources strategically around the county to offer an additional county response element to emergency calls.

Adding on new services for Westfield means they have the opportunity to respond to more and different types of calls, and the county commissioners were informed this week by Westfield 2nd Lieutenant Glenn Lamb that, “We also have a contract with Stokes County, we are doing the same thing with Stokes.”

Chief Sutphin said that 42% of his fire district is over the line in Stokes County, and that approximately that percentage of his calls go that way.

Adding in these new strategic resources and having volunteer fire departments increasing their individual capabilities can have a direct impact on individuals when time is of the essence. “We’ll get there first, just based on the logistics and the location,” Sutphin said. “So, we can be there to provide rescue service until the county arrives, then we can work together from there.”

Progress is always a key to growth, and Martin said it is in the culture of the Westfield Volunteer Fire Department to look at their programs and services to find areas to expand. “Last year, we saw this as an area of improvement. It took twelve months, but we did it.”

The commissioners approved the new contract agreement, and County Attorney Ed Woltz added his desire to use the Westfield agreement as a template for departments who add services.

Another recreational resource has been added to those owned by the city of Mount Airy, which didn’t involve any construction or other major undertaking but the acquisition of one already existing.

“Graham Field now is officially a city facility,” Mayor Ron Niland announced Wednesday during a “visioning budget retreat” in which Mount Airy council members and department heads discussed numerous local issues including those in the recreational realm.

Many local citizens might have assumed the ballpark situated at the northern end of town near the old Jones School was already under the city government umbrella due to being within Mount Airy’s corporate limits.

But Graham Field, which was completed in 2002, actually has been owned by Surry County along with other former school properties and was leased to Mount Airy for recreational uses, mainly Little League baseball.

The city’s present 10-year lease was not set to expire until 2027, but a curve ball of sorts was tossed into the equation last July when the Surry County Board of Commissioners declared Graham Field surplus property along with the former school located across Jones School Road from the field.

This involved county officials attempting to sell those two sites along with the former Westfield School property on N.C. 89.

That provided an opportunity for Mount Airy to acquire Graham Field, a lighted facility that city officials unsuccessfully sought to obtain in conjunction with the expiration of the last 10-year lease in 2017.

Niland says this was a logical step for the municipality, since it has long been using the facility for recreation purposes including Little League.

“The county doesn’t really need to own it, because they don’t run the recreational program for the city,” the mayor reasoned. “So it just made sense.”

Meanwhile, the price for Graham Field also seems right.

“We’re going to end up paying $12,500,” Niland said Wednesday.

Mount Airy’s acquisition of the facility further will provide a sense of security, given that the county’s action to surplus it last year could have resulted in Graham Field’s ownership by another individual or entity.

“So we don’t have to worry about some future group taking it away,” Niland said.

A contingent of citizens in Mount Airy led by the late Scott Graham — who also served as a city commissioner about 10 years ago — developed the baseball field in the early 2000s. This involved sizable investments of money, time and other resources.

In the years since, the city government has maintained liability insurance coverage for Graham Field; undertaken renovations, alterations and other improvements to its buildings and grounds; and provided for the maintenance of those.

It reportedly once was declared the best Little League field within a 500-mile radius by officials of the Cal Ripken youth league.

After attempting to gain control of Graham Field in 2017, Mount Airy officials were met with resistance by the majority of county commissioners who didn’t see that as beneficial to Surry residents as a whole, based on previous reports.

A complication has emerged regarding an attempt by Mount Airy officials to buy land near West Pine Street adjoining the former Koozies property that has been cloaked in controversy in recent years.

The city council had voted on March 17 to submit a bid on the site — located near West Pine’s intersection with South Street in the area of Mill Creek General Store — which is slated to be auctioned today.

That 4-1 decision occurred after the matter was discussed behind closed doors.

The new development has come to light since last week’s action, which involves the owners of the vacant lot of about one-quarter acre, sisters Gloria Mittman McNeil and Amy White, both of Lewisville.

One of the two has decided to sell her share of that property, Mayor Ron Niland disclosed Wednesday during a budget retreat meeting of city officials.

“She sold her half-interest,” said Niland, who didn’t specify which of the siblings took that step. The mayor said the two apparently had differing ideas about who should end up with the property.

It was not readily known how this occurred from a legal standpoint, since one might assume that all owners of a parcel are require to sign off on such a sale.

The buyer was identified as local businessman Wes Collins, who owns property containing a building at 446 W.Pine St. next door to that of the sisters.

This complication prompted another closed-door meeting Wednesday afternoon at the conclusion of the city budget retreat, which was allowed due to a possible property acquisition being involved.

No new action was taken afterward to undo that of the March 17 session when the majority of commissioners authorized City Manager Stan Farmer or a designee to submit a bid at today’s scheduled sale.

“I think the way it stands is they’re still sending Stan to the auction,” Jon Cawley, the lone dissenter in the earlier vote, said Thursday.

This is being viewed as an apparent effort to further the city’s interests as much as possible regarding the land.

While Mount Airy’s plans have been publicly announced only within the past week, the interest by Collins is said to have been under way for about a year.

Cawley considers it only natural for a neighboring property owner to acquire land in such instances.

“Private enterprise may want that property for reasons that have nothing to do with the city,” he said.

Cawley voted against making a bid at the auction because he doesn’t think the municipality should be in competition with the private sector in these kinds of situations.

He also pointed to the fact that the city government has identified no specific use for the property sought.

The auction step is coming on the heels of another 4-1 vote by the commissioners in February — with Cawley also dissenting — targeting the Koozies building and two other rundown structures.

Those also include the so-called “red building” at 600 W. Pine St. beside Worth Honda and the former Mittman body shop at 109 S. South St., also owned by Gloria Mittman McNeil and Amy White. They are heirs to John Mittman, who operated the paint and body shop.

The three separate owners were given 90 days to bring the buildings up to code before the city proceeds with demolition, which would open the door for the municipality possibly seizing the land left behind to cover the tear-down costs.

Mayor Niland has described the possible acquisition of the small parcel adjoining the former Koozies property as a strategic move that might aid the future development of the property due to more space being provided.

About seven years ago, the Koozies building and other nearby sites drew the scrutiny of a now-defunct city redevelopment commission which identified those locations as being in a blighted area.

This sparked fears of property there being taken forcibly via eminent domain to facilitate a traffic roundabout forming a gateway to downtown Mount Airy and other plans.

That scenario evaporated after the 2015 municipal election when the majority of the commissioners voted to disband the redevelopment group.

• Two people were jailed under under large bonds after being arrested in Mount Airy earlier this week as fugitives from justice wanted in another state, with one also facing a felony drug charge filed when he was apprehended.

Caught up in that legal snare are Jason Lee King, 40, of 198 Meadowlark Road, and Kristie Cox Jernigan, 36, listed as homeless, who were taken into custody Sunday at King’s residence. Warrants for arrest had been issued for both on unspecified matters by authorities in Carroll County, Virginia.

During Sunday’s arrest, King also allegedly was found in possession of methamphetamine and marijuana and charged by city officers with possession of a Schedule II controlled substance, a felony involving the meth; possession of a Schedule VI controlled substance; possession of drug paraphernalia; and possessing marijuana paraphernalia.

King was confined in the Surry County Jail under a $15,000 secured bond and Jernigan, $10,000 secured, with both scheduled to be in District Court in Dobson on April 4.

• Amber Lea Marshall, 30, of 1865 Doe Run Road, Ararat, Virginia, was charged Monday afternoon with concealing merchandise at Dollar General on North Renfro Street, where she allegedly had placed the contents of a hair coloring product in her purse.

The property was recovered intact, with Marshall scheduled to appear in Surry District Court on June 6. She also has been banned from Dollar General.

• An Ararat woman is facing a court date Monday stemming from a suspicious-vehicle call in the Lowe’s Home Improvement parking lot on March 11. Brooklyn Eva Braswell, 32, of 137 Hope Lane, claimed possession of a white powdery substance in a plastic baggie, nine pills identified as alprazolam prescription medication and a straw with white residue, police records state.

Braswell was charged with possession of a Schedule I controlled substance, a felony; simple possession of a Schedule IV controlled substance; and possession of drug paraphernalia (identified as digital scales).

During the same incident, Larry Mitchell Towe, 25, of the same address, was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia. He was jailed under a $500 secured bond and Braswell, $1,000 secured. Towe also is scheduled to be in District Court Monday.

For the seventh year in a row, The Mount Airy Museum of Regional History is partnering with the Surry County Genealogical Association to sponsor a Family History and Genealogy Swap Meet. Everyone is welcome, and event is free to the public.

This is a chance to discover more about your family history; learn about the interesting families that are a part of the area; maybe even an opportunity to share stories about your own families’ history and genealogy.

Everyone is welcome to bring photos, books, laptops, or other small items to share about their own genealogy and family history, and tables will be available for those who wish to ‘show and tell.’ Knowing your own family history and bringing visuals for the swap meet are not required, and those who wish to come just to learn are encouraged to do so.

The gathering will be held on Saturday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. in the third-floor Bunker exhibit space at the museum.

Members of the Surry County Genealogical Association will be onhand and ready to help anyone interested in learning their family history through access to tools such as Ancestry and FamilySearch. The museum will also have a copying machine available with a small fee for making copies.

Additionally, those connected with the genealogy group or local authors are welcome to set up an information table and sell books, maps, or other event appropriate items. A presentation will also be made by the members of Surry County Digital Heritage: Saving Our Surry County Communities to explain the group’s current genealogy project.

Anyone with questions about the event can contact The Mount Airy Museum of Regional History at 336-786-4478.

A Lowgap woman and a Dobson man were arrested earlier this month and charged with several drug-related offenses in the sheriff’s department ongoing campaign to seek out and jail those involved in the drug trade.

Ashley Lynn Lowdermilk, 29,of 156 Foye Haynes Lane, Lowgap, and Charles Willard Haney II, 38, of Arthur Haney Road, Dobson, were each taken into custody March 3 after being stopped by Surry County Sheriff’s Office deputies, according to Sheriff Steve C. Hiatt.

He said the deputies were conducting surveillance in the Cook School Road area in reference to complaints about illegal drug distribution when they stopped a black Ford Escort for a motor vehicle violation.

When deputies approached the vehicle, they identified the driver as Haney, and the passenger as Lowdermilk.

“During the search of the vehicle, deputies located over 36 grams of methamphetamine, heroin, crack cocaine, psilocybin mushrooms, marijuana, and assorted drug paraphernalia,” Hiatt said in a written statement regarding the arrests.

Lowdermilk was charged with two counts of trafficking methamphetamine, one count of conspiracy to traffic methamphetamine, one count of possession of schedule II controlled substances, one count of possession with intent to manufacture sale and deliver heroin, and one count of possession of drug paraphernalia. She was jailed under a $250,000 secured bond awaiting an April 13 court date.

Haney was charged with one count of conspiracy to traffic methamphetamine, one count of maintaining a drug vehicle, and one count of driving while license revoked. Haney was placed under a $200,000 secured bond with an April 13 court date.

LaShene Lowe has taken a stand or two against injustice and discrimination in her life and was not afraid to be found making another stand over something she felt so strongly about: legacy.

Monday evening was one of significance to the Black community of Mount Airy and the area in general. The African American Historical and Genealogical Society of Surry County and their ‘Save Jones’ committee appeared before the county commissioners to announce acceptance of the county’s proposal to take ownership of the former J. J. Jones High School, currently the L. H. Jones Family Resource Center

Over the past months as the future of J. J. Jones High has been discussed at meetings of the county commissioners, members from the society have been making regular pleas that the board do the right thing. They wanted their former school to be given to the Black community for its preservation, and the county agreed.

Thursday, Lowe was no less excited that on Monday when the alumni group did something, “I never thought we’d be able to do – convince those five men to give the school to us,” she said.

The date of transfer of the property is to coincide with the end of the fiscal year, Lowe said. The county’s goal has always been a timely transfer, and the transfer date was one of the only points of Save Jones’s proposal where the county and the group did not agree completely. To wait, as requested, until 2025 to make the final transfer was not an appealing option to county officials.

The Save Jones group has spoken to county officials since Monday’s meeting, and Lowe advised they sent a list of questions to the county for review. She said Thursday that she was aware of an offer that had been made for a tract of acreage that abuts the Jones School grounds from a private citizen after the surplus had been announced.

Monday was a day some did not think they would live to see, and sadly many of the Jones High alumni did not. Legacy, and the chance to preserve it, were the main goal of the Save Jones group. The history of the area’s first all-Black school with parts of it built by hand with the blood, sweat, and tears of its own students mixed into the bricks they the laid was at risk.

For all the complaints that local government is too slow or unresponsive, count Commissioner Mark Marion among those, as he just discussed his own thoughts on the speed, or lack thereof, of county government last week with students at North Surry High.

The case of J. J. Jones however may throw a few of those conventions out the window. Lowe is thankful to be in a position to disagree with that notion. “I felt it moved pretty quickly,” she observed. From the time of the surplus designation to the for-sale signage, to Monday evening’s meeting of the county commissioners was just over eight months.

“Save Jones committee was not even formed until Dec. 30, and we have been doing the impossible ever since,” Lowe said of the daunting task that faced the Save Jones group when the county sent a dispatch in late January.

At that time, the group was asked to join the county commissioners at their all-day planning session just a few weeks out. Scrambling as a team they put together a proposal including a video presentation on the Selma Girls School that had been successfully converted into a residential and multi-use facility.

There was some extra help in getting the presentation together, Lowe admitted. “There is a saying in the Bible that when two or more gather, I will be there. Well, there was 20 or 30 of us,” Lowe said with a chuckle. Strength in numbers among the alumni will be needed going forward as will some more help from above. “I know the Lord has blessed us and was with us to work a miracle.”

There was a feeling of concern expressed after the surplus decision that Jones would be forgotten, sold, or just cast aside even though the services of YVEDDI and other groups still call the aging building home. Having those community organizations on the new campus of Jones is something Lowe wants to continue. “We don’t want to put anyone out. We want YVEDDI to stay and evolve.”

For their part, the county commissioners let it be known several times throughout the process that they had no desire to see the building lost to time, or a wrecking ball. At no time did the county entertain any idea of demolishing the former school, which was a notion that made its way into the discussion every so often — to the bewilderment of a board comprised of self-admitted history buffs.

The county entertained a proposal from the Piedmont Triad Regional Council who wanted to develop an affordable rental community on the campus of the former school. The P3 plan (Public Private Partnership) would have seen the county pair with the PTRC to form their own limited liability corporation which would have overseen the redevelopment and later management of the new community.

Surplus properties are for sale outright, as the signage reflected, so the easiest path for the county to remove these buildings from their budget was to have them bought from the county. J. J. Jones High recently was appraised at over $300,000 so there is value beyond the sentimental value which does not translate directly into dollar signs.

There were no interested parties in buying the old school building outright.

The African American Historical and Genealogical Society and Save Jones were represented at Monday’s meeting by Lowe, president, and co-chairs of ‘Save Jones School’ Adreann Belle and Jackie Snow.

Also, in attendance to represent the AAHGS for the historic evening were Chaplain Brenda McCalop, Rebecca Hampton, Ken Badgett, Nevada Love, Alice Brim, Jewell Hauser, Rev Billie King, Sonya Dodd, Jamal Thompson, Beatrice Shoffner, Marie Nicholson, Maggie Hatcher, Cynthia Penn, and Rodney Galloway.

Mountain Valley Hospice & Palliative Care’s “Big Hospice Raffle” fundraiser is back, and tickets go on sale March 28.

“We are excited about this year’s raffle. Tickets can be purchased in person or online,” said Sara Tavery, senior director of philanthropy at Mountain Valley Hospice & Palliative Care. Proceeds from the raffle will help support the hospice mission of providing end-of-life care to patients, especially those who are uninsured or under insured.

“As a nonprofit agency, we don’t turn anyone away, and so we rely on the generosity of the public to help sustain our mission,” said Tavery “This raffle is a fun way for the community to help raise funds that go directly into providing care for patients, and support for their families.”

Daily drawings will begin on May 1 and continue every day throughout the month. Raffle tickets can be purchased with a minimum donation of $10 per ticket. Two prizes will be awarded every day, and winning tickets for each day will remain eligible to win again throughout the month. There will also be three surprise drawings between May 1 and May 31.

In total, there will be 65 chances to win more than $5,000 in cash and prizes.

Winners and their prizes will be announced daily on Facebook at Facebook.com/mtnvalleyhospice. Winners will also be contacted directly at the end of each week of drawing. For more information, or to enter tickets online, visit mtnvalleyhospice.org/BHR

Surry Community College is offering the 2022 NC Real Estate Broker Renewal Course on Friday, April 8, at the Pilot Center, 612 East Main St., Pilot Mountain.

The course will include the four-hour general update portion from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The four-hour elective portion, “The Contract Maze,” will be held from 1:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Tuition for this course is $71. There will be an additional $12 fee for books and materials. Students will need to bring their pocket card to class. For information about this class or to register, call the Pilot Center at 336-386-3618.

Pilot Mountain Elementary recently named its 2022-2023 Teacher of the Year and Teaching Assistant of the Year.

Haley Everett, exceptional children’s teacher, was selected by her peers to represent Pilot Mountain Elementary as Teacher of the Year. Haley Everett has been teaching at the school for four years.

Leigh Gilliam, computer lab teaching assistant, was selected by her peers to represent the school as Teaching Assistant of the Year. Leigh Gilliam has been at Pilot Elementary for six years.

Members of Surry Community College’s Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society recently attended Carolinas Regional Awards Ceremonies where they received multiple awards.

The award recognitions include: Most Distinguished Chapter in the Carolinas Region; Beta Tau Continued Excellence Award for being a Distinguished Chapter for at least three years; Five Star Chapter; Distinguished Honors in Action Project; Distinguished Honors in Action Theme One: The Heirs of Our Ways; Distinguished College Project; Carolinas Region Super Stars; Outstanding Participation in Carolinas Region Honors in Action Project; and Outstanding Participation in Carolinas Region Service Project.

Co-advisor Dr. Kathleen Fowler won the Paragon Award for New Advisors and the Phi Theta Kappa Carolinas Region Horizon Award. She will be formally recognized at PTK Catalyst, the organization’s annual convention, in Denver, Colorado.

SCC College President Dr. David Shockley said, “I am so elated that Dr. Kathleen Fowler was chosen as a recipient of the 2022 Phi Theta Kappa Paragon Award for New Advisors. She continually leverages superior leadership qualities, advising, knowledge, and work-ethic to transform our Alpha Xi Tau Chapter of Phi Theta Kappa while always seeking to improve the lives of students.”

Other awards were for individuals, including: Distinguished Chapter Officer Team including Christina Blakley, Victoria Blakley, Madalyn Edwards, Cassie Hull and Mariela Trejo; Certificates of Excellence in Transfer Edge including Dr. Kathleen Fowler, Mary Hodges, Jesse Keaton and Noelia Valdez-Caudill; Certificate of Excellence in Competitive Edge for Megan Mabe; and Certificate of Excellence in Healthcare Edge for Jesse Keaton. Additionally, Madalyn Edwards also earned awards for Distinguished Chapter Officer and Phi Theta Kappa Hall of Honor.

The Alpha Xi Tau chapter of the PTK Honor Society at SCC has also been named a REACH Chapter for 2022. The REACH Rewards Program recognizes chapters that achieve or exceed 15% for their membership acceptance rate.

Phi Theta Kappa is an honor society recognizing the academic achievement of students at associate degree granting colleges and helping them to grow as scholars and leaders. The society is made up of more than 3.5 million members and nearly 1,300 chapters in 11 nations.

For more information about Phi Theta Kappa and their projects, contact PTK’s faculty co-advisors Dr. Kathleen Fowler at 336-386-3560 or fowlerk@surry.edu or Kayla Forrest at 336-386-3315 or forrestkm@surry.edu or go to www.ptk.org. Follow the local chapter on Facebook @surryPhiThetaKappa.

Folks often enjoy hiking wilderness trails — a chance for some exercise while getting away from the modern world, clearing their head, simply communing with nature.

Sharon Short uses such sojourns to plan murders. Or at least germinate a few deathly ideas she might put into practice.

No, Short is not a serial killer. She’s better known to many people as Jess Montgomery, author of The Kinship murder mystery series.

Short is scheduled to be in Mount Airy on April 2 for an author meet and greet at Mount Airy Public Library, where she’ll be discussing her latest novel — The Echoes — which is the fourth novel in The Kinship series.

The series is not her first foray into the world of novel writing and publishing.

“My first published novel came out 30 years ago,” she said. It was a three-part series known as The Patricia Delaney eGumshoe Electronic mystery series.

“She (Patricia Delaney) was a woman who used computers to solve crime. It was very high tech at the time, now it would read historical,” she said with a laugh.

She has since penned the six-part Josie Toadfern Stain-Busting humorous mystery series about a laundromat owner and stain-removal expert who happens to solve crimes, along with stand-alone novels, poetry, and a collection of her columns.

Even before her first novel, Short was a writer and journalist and, she said, one in a long line of story tellers, having grown up with parents, grandparents, and extended family who all loved to weave tales for whoever would listen.

“I’ve been a writer essentially my whole life, since I could write as a little girl,” she recalled recently when talking about her career and her impending visit to Mount Airy.

After earning a bachelor of arts degree in English from Wright State University and a master of arts degree from Bowling Green State University, she spent ten years writing a weekly humor and lifestyle column for The Dayton Daily News. She still writes for the paper as a literary life columnist, and pens a regular column for Writer’s Digest called Level Up Your Writing.

But it is storytelling that she loves, though she struggled early on to find her place in the literary world.

“In my 20s, I tried my hand at writing a romance novel.” At the time, the romance genre was hot, filling the best-seller lists, but she said she struggled. Then came what she calls her “light bulb moment.”

She was sitting with a collection of mystery novels she was getting from the local library when her husband shared an observation.

“You’re writing a romance novel, but the only thing you’re reading is mystery novels. That seems to be what you are most drawn to as a reader.”

That, Short said, changed her life. She set to work penning a mystery novel. Once completed, she attended the Antioch Writers Workshop in Yellowstone, Ohio. There, a young Sue Grafton — just before she hit the best seller list with her Kinsey Millhone Alphabet Series, gave Short a detailed critique of the first few chapters of her work.

“She was great, she was just such a good teacher, she reviewed the book I had worked on, the opening pages. She told me it had a good plot, the characters were interesting, but she said ‘You haven’t really done as much research as you need to in police procedure and your dialogue is a bit stilted.’”

Getting encouragement, as well as detailed pointers on where she needed improvement, from someone already with a few publishing credits under her belt was the final push for Short. While that first novel was never published — she said it was more of a learning experience — she soon published her first Patricia Delaney novel, and has been publishing ever since.

Her latest work, The Kinship Series, had its genesis when she and her husband were getting ready to go on a hike with her youngest daughter.

“She majored in outdoor education. She likes to do outdoor things, so we were going to visit her, do some hiking. I started doing some research on that part of the state, hikes that would be interesting to her and doable for us.”

In doing that research, she stumbled across the real-life accounts of a woman named Maude Collins, who in 1925 became the first female sheriff in Ohio history. She inherited the post when her husband, Fletcher, was killed in the line of duty. A year later, however, she ran for re-election and won.

“There have only been five female sheriffs in the state’s history,” she said, with the next one not winning the office until 1976. It wasn’t until after the turn of the 21st century that another would take the office in one of the state’s 88 counties.

“I found that really remarkable, that she was able to win election. My imagination was inspired. I wondered what if Maude didn’t know who killed her husband?” While the killer of the real-life Fletcher Collins was well-known at the time, Short said the idea of the mystery of solving such a crime took root and grew in her imagination into the Kinship series.

She said during her library visit she will be making a more detailed presentation on the series, with particular emphasis on the fourth installment, which is set to be released March 29. She said she would be glad to take questions from the audience, both on the series and about writing in general.

“I’m very much looking forward to it. I’m looking forward to chatting with readers and meeting the good folks of Mount Airy.”

More information on Short and her Kinship series can be found at https://jessmontgomeryauthor.com/ Her talk at the local library is scheduled for April 2 at 11 a.m.

The Jones School Alumni Inc. is inviting the community to attend a Bingo Family Fun Night coming up this weekend and the VFW Building at Veterans Park in Mount Airy. The alumni group is holding the event to raise money for the maintenance and upkeep of the auditorium at the former J. J. Jones High School.

For a donation of $1 there will be snacks and drinks served, with free coffee as well. The bingo cards are $1 each, until the final round when one card will cost $3 or two for $5.

Doors will be opening at the VFW Building at 4 p.m. and game time at 5:30 p.m. Door prizes drawings will be held throughout the evening for another chance to win. Single door prize tickets are $1, six for $5, or immerse yourself into the door prize bonanza with 20 entries for $10.

With a lot of talk about Jones High School and its status, it may be easy to lose sight that the auditorium of the former J. J. Jones High School is and has been owned and operated by the Jones School Alumni Inc. group, and that it is not part of any of the proposed changes as they relate to the surplus status of the former school or its future development.

This creates a touch of confusion on the fundraising side of things. Organizers of this bingo event made clear their group, Jones School Alumni Inc., is the entity managing this bingo event for the sole purpose of raising funds for the auditorium.

“Fund raising is ongoing and critical,” Nancy Bowman Williams, president of the alumni group holding this event mentioned recently. “We do have some maintenance issues as expected with a building more than 50 years old. As these arise, they are corrected in the order of priority, and affordability.”

For some a night of bingo may be the ideal antidote to the Madness of March that consumes this basketball hungry state every spring. For the rest, UNC tips off at 9:39 p.m., so that leaves plenty of time for bingo beforehand.

Spring forward is now behind us, the early blooms of the cherry trees have been seen, and the first pollen spores already in the air. While spring allergies may not be welcome back, the 2022 Budbreak Wine and Craft Beer Festival will be a welcome sight to be sure.

Budbreak is moving back to spring where it belongs after having been unseated by COVID last year to a date in August, and a cancellation the year before. Residents of the Yadkin Valley and beyond can begin planning for Budbreak 2022, tickets are on sale now for the event which will be held on Saturday, May 7, from 12 – 6 p.m. in downtown Mount Airy.

If it ain’t broke

The festival itself will see little change. Organizer Bob Meineke said he hears back from guests and participants how well the format works. In one change to this year’s event however, a portion of the proceeds will be going to support the Rotary and Rotaract clubs of Ukraine during their time of crisis.

For every ticket sold online through the end of March, $2 will be donated to the relief efforts in Ukraine. The Budbreak Festival will donate $1 per ticket, which will be matched by District 7690 to total the $2 per ticket donation. Meineke said from there donations may be matched and grow even more, but one ticket yielding $2 for those in distress in Eastern Europe is no small thing.

All the tastes, smells, and sounds of Budbreak will be back where they belong with more than 16 vendors sampling craft beers and wine. Tasty eats from 13 Bones will be on site, along with favorite downtown eateries.

Wine & Beer Tasting Tickets cost $20 in advance and gets you a commemorative glass for tasting wine and craft breweries from the plethora of vendors. On the day of the event, the cost will be $25.

General Admission Non-Tasting Tickets will allow access to the festival which includes the music and food providers for $4.99. Children 12 and younger are free with a paid adult, and because food and beverage are being offered, no pets are allowed.

Music will be provided by B-Dazzle Productions, the festival’s Hometown DJ, who will start the event with tunes to set the mood from 12 – 3 p.m. Meineke also advised that Craig Southern and The Phoenixx Band “promised three solid hours of a mix of beach, R&B, country and some rock and roll.” Southern and The Phoenixx band will take the stage from 3 – 6 p.m.

The Budbreak Festival is the primary external fund-raising event for the Mount Airy Rotary Club and has afforded local Rotarians the opportunity to donate more than $193,000 locally to groups such as The United Fund, Surry Medical Ministries, and The Surry Arts Council. “Through the success of the fundraiser we have been able to provide extraordinary service to our community and the world,” the organizers said.

The Rotary Club in the United States was founded in 1905 for the purpose of bringing business and professional leaders together in order to provide community service. Its basis as a non-political and non-religious organization have helped it to steer clear of politics and social movements to focus rather on its 46,000 clubs worldwide and the difference their members can make in each community.

The existence of Rotary Clubs outside the US may not have been known. Indeed, there are 62 Rotary clubs with about 1,100 members operating inside the Ukraine. There are also 24 Rotaract clubs, these are community service clubs for people over age of 18, think of Rotaractors as the Rotarians of the future.

District 2232, comprised of clubs in Ukraine and Belarus, formed a committee to help people affected by the ongoing Russian invasion. It has launched an appeal to Rotary members worldwide for funds to provide basic necessities.

Lviv has had an influx of people displaced from other cities around Ukraine. The Rotary Club of Lviv, working with local authorities and major hospitals, created an online wish list of relief items that can be accessed by people who want to help. Members arrange for the donated items to be delivered to hospitals and coordinate storage with local warehouses.

Rotarians in Kisvárda, Hungary, are coordinating contributions and mobilizing members to donate necessities and deliver the items to where they’re needed. In Romania and Moldova, they have created a central fund for contributions and set up WhatsApp groups that organize food donations and coordinate shelter for refugees. Clubs in Slovakia and in the Czech Republic have partnered with a railway and cargo company to offer transportation to nearly 2,300 refugees.

While Rotarians across the globe are finding ways to help their sisters and brothers in the Ukraine, local organizers remind, “As we prepare for spring and celebrate our freedoms, we are reminded of the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. We are inviting you to take part in helping with that need.”

For tickets, including a Hampton Inn by Hilton festival package, visit: www.budbreakfestival.com/tickets

• A traffic stop in Mount Airy has resulted in a Winston-Salem woman being jailed under a high bond on felony drug and failure to appear in court violations, according to city police reports.

Brook Elizabeth Rice, 42, was encountered by officers on West Pine Street at West Independence Boulevard early last Friday. She was found to be wanted on outstanding warrants that had been filed in Forsyth County in April 2021 for charges of possession of a Schedule II controlled substance with intent to manufacture, sell or deliver and possession of a Schedule II controlled substance, both felonies, along with a misdemeanor, possession of drug paraphernalia.

Rice also was being sought on three counts of failure to appear in court issued by Forsyth authorities in June 2021. She was confined in the Surry County Jail under a $19,000 secured bond and is scheduled to appear in court in Winston-Salem on April 1.

• William Darrin McRae Coleman, 49, of 936 Davis St., was arrested Thursday on U.S. 52 near Starlite Road and charged with driving while impaired stemming from a traffic crash investigation.

Coleman was operating a 2010 Chevrolet Aveo while under the influence of an impairing substance, police records state, which was not identified. He was released under a $1,000 unsecured bond to be in Surry District Court on April 4.

• Brandon Coolidge Pack, 31, of 308 Galloway St., was charged with second-degree trespassing on the evening of March 14 after allegedly refusing to leave the property where public restrooms are located in a downtown rest area at 112 N. Main St. He had been asked to do so by officers investigating a suspicious-person call there.

Pack was held in the Surry County Jail under a custody-release bond to await being picked up by his mother, police records state, and is scheduled to appear in District Court on April 18.

Citizens benefit when water and sewer lines in their neighborhoods are replaced, but there’s a downside: the work isn’t pretty and leaves scars behind in the form of damaged streets dug up during the process.

However, Mount Airy officials have acted to remedy that where a major water-sewer rehabilitation project was completed last year in the area of Maple and Merritt streets.

The multimillion-dollar utility project there included replacing aging lines.

During a meeting last Thursday night, the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners approved a resurfacing contract for the streets that were affected in a 5-0 vote. In addition to Maple and Merritt streets, the list includes Pippen Street, Porter Street, Rawley Avenue, Sydnor Street and a portion of Willow Street.

Mayor Ron Niland said he was especially concerned about the bad condition of the Willow Street section involved, running from West Independence Boulevard to some railroad tracks.

A local firm, Sowers Construction Co. of Mount Airy, was awarded the job, which constitutes the city’s annual resurfacing contract for 2022.

Sowers had the lowest of four bids submitted for the paving project after it was advertised in February, offering one of $258,416 which drew an observation from Commissioner Joe Zalescik about the final tallies resulting.

“I see that these bids are very interesting,” Zalescik said in commenting on the wide disparity between the lowest and next-lowest proposal, submitted by Carl Rose and Sons of Elkin, $321,083. The highest bid received provided even more of a contrast, a $488,971 offer from Adams Construction Co. of Jefferson — which was $230,555 higher, or nearly double, the winning bid.

“That happens sometimes with construction contracts,” city Public Works Director Mitch Williams responded regarding figures that can reflect a lack of interest by a particular company for whatever the reason. “That’s typical — they just don’t want the work as well as the winner.”

Rounding out the four bids was one submitted by Tri-County Paving, also of Jefferson, for $451,936.

The total budget allocation approved by the commissioners for the project is $284,258, which includes a 10% contingency figure to cover possible cost overruns in addition to the $258,416 low bid.

Williams pointed out that along with its bid, he recommended that Sowers Construction be awarded the contract based on its past performance on resurfacing contracts and an “excellent working relationship” with the city government.

The job is expected to be completed by the end of June.

Money for the project was included in the city budget for the present fiscal year that ends on June 30.

It is coming from the N.C. Department of Transportation, which awarded more than $300,000 to Mount Airy in 2021 in the form of State Street Aid to Municipalities, also known as Powell Bill funds.

That money is derived from state gas tax revenues that are given back to municipalities across North Carolina based on a formula set by the Legislature.

Mount Airy has devoted its Powell Bill funding in recent years to resurface clusters of streets in various parts of the city based on a priority list that addresses those with the greatest needs.

The funding formula includes the number of locally maintained street miles. Mount Airy is responsible for the condition of 73 miles of streets on the municipal system.

In a contest to raise money for the fight against cancer, there really is not a loser. Collectively, everyone wants there to be only one loser and that is cancer itself. For those who did not have the skill set to study oncology, it can be easier to find ways to aid in the ongoing battle against cancer than one may think.

Jacee Avara was announced Saturday as the winner of the 2022 Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Students of the Year for the Triad. It is worth noting that not all superheroes wear capes or masks, it turns out some may have glasses and be found slinging not a spider’s web, but rather a latte your way with a smile.

She was nominated to participate in the LLS annual Students of the Year campaign, in which high school students compete in a challenge to raise money to fight all types of cancer, by a family friend. “It’s an amazing opportunity, a once in a lifetime thing you get to do,” she said of the nomination.

From there, Avara set a goal that she promptly discarded, setting her ambitious objective even higher. “We started at $30,000 but, knowing me and my family, I figured we can do better than that. So, I went for $50,000.”

Avara assembled Team SWAT, which stands for Surry Working Alongside Traci and is named for her aunt Traci Haynes George, to help aid in her quest to be the top fundraiser from the Triad. Avara and her Team collected funds from donations, business profit gifts, matches from the likes of Northern Regional Hospital, and a bingo event that drew the attention of the county commissioners by raising nearly $20,000.

The participants from the Triad region collectively raised an impressive total of $237,000 that will make its way back to LLS to help fund their efforts. Of that total a staggering amount of more than $82,000, over one third, was raised by Avara and Team SWAT.

A gala event in Greensboro for the contestants from the ten area schools to crown a regional winner was to have been held last weekend, but COVID decided to muck up events for yet another year.

Not to be deterred, on Saturday night at the White Elephant in Mount Airy, an impromptu gala was set up for Avara and she walked the red carpet in style. In addition to receiving recognition for earning the title of Student of the Year, Avara will also receive a $1,250 scholarship towards the college or university of her choice.

Commissioner Mark Marion mentioned that he more or less stumbled upon the gala on Market Street that evening. From the dais, he offered congratulations during Monday evening’s Surry County Board of Commissioners meeting to Avara for a job well done.

Commissioner Larry Johnson was absent Monday but had previously told his fellow board members of the great success of the bingo event in early March. He noted that the large amount of money raised from one event shows the generous nature to this community, “I am just saying it can be done, but you got to work at it.”

Good news and news of good acts travel fast around Surry County, and word of the win spread quickly around social media. With generosity the likes of which this community showed Avara in reaching her target plus much more, paired with her own grit and determination to take on such a lofty goal, it’s a feel-good win-win for all parties – except cancer.

Marion concluded his tributes to “our celebrity” for her win Monday by sharing from Avara’s own victory speech Saturday: “Maybe we can find a cure for cancer.”

Chelsy Payne was named Mount Airy City Schools 2021-2022 Principal of the Year in a surprise fashion recently.

Surrounded by students, family, friends, and leaders from across the district, Payne was taken aback with the announcement.

“Chelsy Payne has done an amazing job during a difficult couple of years of pandemic challenges,” said Superintendent Kim Morrison. “She brings a joy and enthusiasm to her job that radiates out to her staff and students. We are happy to reward all of her hard work and determination with our 2021-2022 Principal of the Year.”

Following Morrison’s announcement, students in the Jones Intermediate School cafeteria erupted with cheers for their principal. Payne was encouraged to provide a speech and noted, “I’m honored. I would not have an ounce of success if not for the people in this room.”

Mount Airy City Schools and districts across the country have been working to come out of COVID-19 and are facing gaps in student learning due to a variety of factors. Payne has led her staff, students, and families through the pandemic and put structures in place to ensure teaching and learning identify areas impacted by learning loss and gaps are closed, officials with the school system said.

“Jones Intermediate School exceeded student growth in the 2020-2021 school year indicating that students were learning above the expected rate for the year,” according to a statement released by the system. “Through the use of flex time across grade levels, students are expected to grow even more as they are each being met at their point of need in math and English Language Arts. She has also worked to provide students with choice and voice in their learning through club offerings and the newly introduced special area fifth grade electives.

“This work truly reflects the work of so many,” Payne said. “I am thankful to my colleagues and fellow educators who nudge me toward my passion each and every day. Making a difference in the lives of children is the absolute best.”

Payne attended the University of North Carolina at Wilmington where she earned her undergraduate degree in elementary education. Her educational career began in 2009 as a teacher in Ogden Elementary School in Wilmington. In 2012, she completed her Master of Arts in education which focused on reading education through East Carolina University and became a teacher at BH Tharrington Primary School.

In 2017, she received her Certificate in School Leadership through Appalachian State University and her National Board Certification. She served as the Tharrington Primary’s curriculum facilitator from 2016 to 2019 when she accepted the role of principal of Jones Intermediate School. She is married to Tyler Payne and they have two children, TJ and Tennyson.

While the Mount Airy Fire Department is known mostly for responding to blazes, it also plays a role in medical emergencies — which has included 10 of its members being credited with saving lives during 2021.

“What better service can you give citizens than the opportunity to get their life back,” city Fire Chief Zane Poindexter said during an annual ceremony recognizing their efforts held last Thursday night during a Mount Airy Board of Commissioners meeting.

Providing a first-responder role in support of the Surry County Emergency Medical Service has been a key function of city firefighters since 2010, which includes a long list of life-threatening situations.

This expanded on a service previously launched in 1997 — that was limited to cardiac calls — to also include strokes, diabetes-related issues, cuttings/stabbings, overdoses, shootings, drowning/diving accidents, unresponsive persons and other emergencies.

This is incorporated into the department’s normal duties and utilizes fire trucks.

Being credited with a medical “save” requires a strictly defined process, which includes cases in which a victim was not breathing or the person’s heart had stopped.

In each instance, department members prolonged life by restoring the pulse of someone in full cardiac arrest or the person’s ability to breathe so he or she could make it to a hospital — and ultimately leave that facility alive.

Under the program guidelines, multiple fire personnel can play a role in saving a single patient, Poindexter said Tuesday afternoon. One firefighter might be engaged in chest compression’s and another ventilation, while someone else administers basic drugs the department is allowed to, he explained.

A county audit committee examines every case carefully to gauge the difference first-response efforts made in the outcome of an emergency to qualify as a save.

The Mount Airy Fire Department members cited during the most recent verification period include Capt. Scottie Wolfe, who is credited with two saves in 2021.

Registering one save each were Lt. Steve Everett, Lt. Brad Harrell, Lt. Justin Mayes and firefighters Michael Bowman, Daniel Camacho, Matthew Fink, Matt Hardy, Joshua King and Dusty Smith.

Chief Poindexter said at the meeting that fire personnel never know what they might encounter during the course of a shift, and mentioned “the risk they take when they go out and perform their duties.”

The aggressiveness those employees display in quickly making contact with a patient can be the difference between life and death, the fire chief indicated.

Commissioner Steve Yokeley said the expanded medical-response program by city firefighters was implemented at a relatively low cost, and added that any life saved is well worth the extra expense required.

“We can’t put a price on that,” agreed Commissioner Jon Cawley, who also believes fire personnel who record saves deserve much more than a paper certificate issued by city officials.

“Eight-by-eleven is just insufficient,” Cawley commented regarding the size involved.

All Surry County middle schools had the opportunity to compete in the Regional MathCounts Competition on a virtual basis recently.

Seven teams comprised of 30 students in grades sixth through eighth went through four rounds of math problem solving aiming to sharpen their skills. Because the regional event was virtual, each student participated on their school campus. However, the competition format remained the same, students first competing individually and then in a team format.

This event marks the first time every district middle school has competed on the regional level, and every team brought their all. Every team ranked within the top 20 in the region. Meadowview Magnet Middle School was the top-ranked team from Surry County, ranking sixth in the regional competition, with Gentry Middle School also ranking in the top 10. Central Middle School ranked 11th, and Pilot Mountain Middle School ranked 13th.

Surry County Schools also had many students rank within the top 25% of the entire regional competition. Meadowview Middle School representatives Sid Sutphin and Mckenly Fallaw ranked high, along with David Schuyler, Ayden Hicks, and Jackson Gardner from Gentry Middle School.

Participants from Meadowview Magnet Middle School included: Sid Sutphin, Mckenly Fallaw, Hudson Collins, Bailey Ray, Fernando Lachino, Katherine Bowman, Angie Guarneros, Jordin Beasley, Barrett Collins, and Violet Morgan. The participants from Central Middle School included: Cameron Cruise, Micah Whitley, Brynna Atkins, Eliza Nixon, Maddie Wolfe, Emma Bryant, and Kassy Jones. Gentry Middle School also had a strong turnout, with David Schuyler, Ayden Hicks, Jackson Gardner, Jaxie Draughn, Gabrielle Richardson, Ava McPeak, and Estephany Sanabria competing. Additionally, Kennedy Cook, Seth Sharp, Coby Yarboro, Caitlin A Joyce, Lexzandra Chavez, and Vada Woods represented Pilot Mountain Middle School.

“What an event. We are so proud of the students in all of our middle schools who were able to compete in this rigorous and challenging competition,” said Dr. DeAnne Danley, assistant superintendent. “Not only did our students showcase their understanding of advanced mathematical concepts, they also placed amongst the highest in region. It has been an absolute pleasure to see students excited about the opportunity to compete academically and engaging with teammates as they lead themselves and lead with others.”

The Surry Arts Players community theater will be performing Seussical JR. this Saturday and Sunday at the Andy Griffith Playhouse. Shows on both days are at 3 p.m. This Junior show directed by Shelby Coleman is filled with Dr. Seuss classics, and more than 700 students in area schools will see the production on Monday.

Horton the Elephant, the Cat in the Hat, and all of the favorite Dr. Seuss characters spring to life onstage in Seussical JR., a fantastical musical extravaganza from Tony-winners, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty.

Transporting audiences from the Jungle of Nool to the Circus McGurkus, the Cat in the Hat, our narrator, tells the story of Horton, an elephant who discovers a speck of dust containing tiny people called the Whos, including Jojo, a Who child, who gets in trouble for thinking too many “thinks.”

Horton’s challenge is twofold — not only must he protect the Whos from a world of naysayers and dangers, but he must also guard an abandoned egg that’s been left in his care by the irresponsible Mayzie La Bird. Although Horton faces ridicule, danger, kidnapping, and a trial, the intrepid Gertrude McFuzz never loses faith in him. Ultimately, the powers of friendship, loyalty, family, and community are challenged and emerge triumphant.

The production stars Mason St. Angelo as Jojo, Django Burgess as The Cat in the Hat, Max Barnard as Horton the Elephant, Walker York as Mr. Mayor, Gracie St. Angelo as Mrs. Mayor, Lilly Ruth Beck as Gertrude McFuzz, Raegan Amos as Mayzie La Bird, Hannah Hiatt as Sour Kangaroo, and Maddie Youell as Young Kangaroo. Coleman is grateful to the parents who supported their children in this production that has more than 50 cast members.

Additional cast includes Thomas Holladay, Kori Hawks, Morgan Shipley, Tanner Price, Kinston Nichols, and Judy Adams as Wickersham Brothers; Lydia Beck, Maggie Wallace, Zinnia Burgess, Reese Cox, and Abbie Schuyler as Bird Girls; Noah Wilkes as Vlad Vladikof; Noah Petree as The Grinch; Brooke Nichols as Thing 1; Chloe Lawson as Thing 2; Matthew Adams as Elephant Bird; Kaitlyn Holladay, Ashton Freeman, Remi Devore, and Anne Rachel Sheppard as Featured Dancers; Claire Youell, Evelyn Casstevens, Noelle Snow, Ellie Kniskern, Chloe Vinson and Sidney Barker as Jungle Citizens; Genevieve Quinn, Makenna Wall, Avery Leonard, Owen Leonard, Lorena Arroyo, Ellyzabeth Rojas, Sidney Petree, Sierra Nichols, Catherine Douglas, Atticus Hawks, Prim Hawks, Kaitlyn Holladay, MaKenna Holladay, Anderson Holladay, and Samuel Holladay as Who Citizens.

Serving on the production crew is Coleman as director and choreographer, Music Director Darrell Beck, Stage Manager Lori Beck, Technical Director and Setbuilding Tyler Matanick, and Stage Crew Revonda Petree, Isabel Cowan, Patrick McDaniel, and Jordan Dover. Others assisting with design and setbuilding included Johannes Arnold and Bruce Burgess. Others helping with costumes include Amanda Barnard and Khristie Petree.

Performances are on Saturday, March 26 and Sunday, March 27 at 3 p.m. in the Andy Griffith Playhouse. Tickets are $15-20. 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. For additional information, contact Marianna Juliana at 336-786-7998 or marianna@surryarts.org.

© 2018 The Mount Airy News