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PUBLISHED
ONLINE AUGUST 15, 2019 •
VOL. 1, NO. 33
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Faith and farming on Brogden Road
Tobacco ripens in a field
across the road from Sardis Baptist Church east of
Smithfield as another harvest season comes upon us. In
years gone by, the harvesting of tobacco was a
celebrated event around here. Even the opening of
public schools was delayed until after Labor Day so
youngsters could help with the harvest. Those days are
long gone as tobacco isn't the dominant "cash crop" it
used to be. But that shouldn't keep us from
remembering what it once meant to the region's
farmers, pulling many of them out of the depths of the
Great Depression.
A photographic history lesson about the days when
Tobacco was King is focus of this week's FEATURE
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The interior of the warehouse behind the Las Brasas
restaurant on South Bright Leaf Boulevard will be
reconfigured for Frank Lee's hemp-growing
operation.
Without objection, Smithfield Council OKs
permit for a hemp-production greenhouse
The Smithfield Town Council approved a special-use
permit Tuesday night for converting a former tobacco
warehouse into an indoor hemp-production facility.
Frank Lee's 70,739-square-foot warehouse on South
Bright Leaf Boulevard across from the Civitan Baseball
Park will accommodate what Planning Director Stephen
Wensman described as a "light and climate controlled
greenhouse" where tightly regulated hemp will be
grown.
 State
rules allow hemp to be produced in North Carolina for
a variety of commercial uses so long as its "THC"
content doesn't exceed 0.3%. Hemp produced for
marijuana, in comparison, has THC content of 10 to 30
percent, said Joshua Mays, a former employee of the
N.C. Department of Agriculture (NCDA) who was
introduced to the Town Council as a recognized expert
on hemp production.
THC is tetrahydocannabinol, the chemical responsible
for most of marijuana's psychological effects --- and
the reason its sale and consumption is still illegal
in most states, including North Carolina.
Mr. Lee has a three-year permit to produce hemp at his
Smithfield operation, Mr. Wensman told the council.
Mr. Mays said the hemp to be produced here can be used
in pharmaceuticals as well as textiles and building
materials. The CBD (cannabidiol) in THC-restricted
hemp is "a health and wellness supplement" similar to
vitamins, he noted.
Asked what happens if the hemp tests above the 0.3%
THC limit, Mr. Mays said it's "destroyed on site, by
fire." Asked why it's grown inside instead of in
fields, he replied simply: "Hurricane Florence" --- a
reference to the crop's vulnerability to changing
weather conditions.
"Indoors gives him (Mr. Lee) the ability to grow it
year-round," Mr. Mays added.
He said North Carolina presently has 1,259 licensed
hemp producers using 15,198 acres and more than
5.6-million square feet of greenhouse space to grow
the crop. "I see this industry growing tremendously,"
he concluded.
No one spoke in opposition during a public hearing on
Mr. Lee's permit request, and the Town Council gave
its approval without a dissenting vote.
READ
MORE from Tuesday's Town Council session>
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7th Street Marketplace & The
Chicken Barn
Market
Street (US 70 Business) at 7th Street,
Downtown Smithfield
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Parents of opioid victims want to take
their warning message into Johnston's schools
A group of parents and
siblings coming together as "JoCo Angels"
made an emotional plea to the County Board of
Education on Tuesday for support in their mission
to carry personal warnings about prescription-drug
addition into Johnston's public schools.
 Elizabeth Parham, a 2016
graduate of West Johnston High School, said "at
least" 35% of her classmates "have turned to
drugs," and "100% of my graduating class has been
affected by drugs in some way."
Rhonda Toppings said her son became addicted to
heroin at West Johnston after taking prescription
drugs to treat an injury. Heroin, she said, is an
addiction that's "virtually impossible to quit on
your own." Despite efforts to overcome it, he took
his own life this past January, she told the
board.
"Two of us who were in the same grief support
group" started JoCo Angels a couple of months ago,
Ms. Toppings continued. "One of our goals is to
speak at the Johnston County middle and high
schools."
Other members of Tuesday's
delegation said the group is working on a
"resource map" identifying places in Johnston
where parents and teenagers struggling with drug
abuse can get professional help.
And there's a grant available from the Poe Center,
they said, to start a "pilot" program dealing with
opioid addiction at all the schools in the West
Johnston attendance district --- at no cost to the
county. (The Poe Center is a North Carolina-based
nonprofit that supports health education for
youth.)
"It's an ugly, ugly thing, and we have to let
everyone know how ugly it is," concluded Eddie
Bennett, a father dealing with the recent loss of
his son.
Responded Mike Wooten, the school board's
chairman: "We're grateful for your partnership
with Johnston County schools."
Here's a link to the JoCo
Angels' statistical presentation>
READ
MORE from Tuesday's Board of Education
meeting>
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  JOHN P.
(JACK) O'HALE
Attorney at Law
102 S.
Third St.
Smithfield
919-934-6021
e-mail kim@jackohale.com
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Smithfield-Selma High School hosted a football
"jamboree" on Wednesday. Teams from 16 schools
were invited to join the Spartans for
scrimmage sessions on shortened fields. Here,
four teams share the turf at Charles Tucker
Stadium. The Spartans, by the way, open their
season on this field a week from Friday.
High-school sports won't wait for classes
to begin; several seasons open next week
For most of North Carolina's
high schools, including Smithfield-Selma, fall sports
won't wait for classes to begin on August 29 (an
exception is Neuse Charter School, which began classes
this week). SSS football, soccer, volleyball, and
girls' tennis open their seasons next week. At Neuse
Charter, next week brings season openers in soccer and
volleyball.
READ
MORE on the Sports & Recreation Page>
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SUSAN
LASSITER
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Photo
from Johnston County Industries
JCI employee named "Specialist of Year"
Bianca
Alemeida (center), Individual Peer Support
Specialist with Johnston County Industries (JCI),
received the Employment Specialist of the Year
Award at last week's statewide gathering of the
N.C. Individual Placement Support Coalition and the
UNC Institute for Best Practices (part of the
Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health
within the UNC-Chapel Hill Department of
Psychiatry). With Bianca at the presentation were
JCI team members (left to right) Daphine Smith,
Erin Driver, Savannah Palmisano, and Charee Smith.
JCI is a nonprofit corporation "dedicated to
empowering people with disabilities or
disadvantages to succeed through training and
employment." Started in Johnston County, the
program has expanded its services into Harnett,
Lee, Sampson, Duplin, and Wayne counties.
WHAT'S COMING
UP?
A rundown of upcoming
civic and cultural opportunities in our
community
that we've been told about or seen
publicized elsewhere:
 MUSIC
FOR THE LUNCH
BUNCH
wraps up
another season
next Wednesday
(August 21) at
12:15 p.m. at
the Neuse
Little
Theatre's home
in "The Hut"
at 104 South
Front Street
by the river.
An ensemble of
NLT singers
will perform.
DOWNTOWN
SMITHFIELD'S
"RHYTHM &
BREWS" monthly
outdoor
concert series
continues this
Friday (August
16) from 7:00
till 9:30 p.m.
on South Third
Street with a
band called
Street
Revival. Jim
Quick &
Coastline is
rescheduled
for Thursday,
August 29
(postponed
from July
because of the
weather).
JOHNSTON
COUNTY WRITERS
GROUP will
begin meeting
the second
Thursday of
every month,
starting
September 12,
at the Public
Library of
Johnston
County and
Smithfield
from 6 till
7:45 p.m.
Guest author
at September's
meeting will
be Wanda
Robinson Lee,
author of an
autobiography
entitled God's
Voices:
Choices That
Led My Journey.
These monthly
sessions are
open to the
public free of
charge. For
more
information,
e-mail jocowriters@gmail.com.
"BIRDS, BEES, BUTTERFILES," a
symposium on "Growing a Pollinator
Garden," will be hosted by Johnston
County Extension's Master Gardener
volunteers on Saturday, September 14
from 8:30 a.m. till 4:00 p.m. at the
Johnston County Agricultural Center.
For more information, e-mail jocomastergardeners@gmail.com;
to register, visit jocomgbbb.com.
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DEATHS & FUNERALS
Each week we'll post links to obituaries about persons
who have died during the past week. We'll monitor the
websites of local funeral homes to compile our list,
and we welcome links provided by readers to obituaries
of persons with Smithfield connections who have died
outside our immediate area.
DONALD RAY WILLIAMS 74 -
died August 11
MAC ARTHUR LEWIS, 76 -
died August 10
FANNIE PAULETTE
BARNES, 70 - died
August 8
WILLIAM (BILL) NORWOOD ROYALL,
94 - died August 8
WILMA JEAN ARWOOD
DAVIS, 69 - died August 3
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THAT'S THE WAY IT WAS
In 1956, Downtown Smithfield was dominated
by tobacco auction warehouses, as this aerial
photo clearly shows. This view is looking westward
along Market Street, and we can see the rooftops
of five large warehouses. These weren't all of
them. Several others were located alongside
Highway 301 (today's Bright Leaf Boulevard).
Another stood at the site of today's Smithfield
Post Office. In the years that followed, two of
the larger Downtown warehouses were destroyed by
fires; all the others were eventually demolished,
replaced by newer facilities erected along 301
South, several of them still in use today as
either flea markets or storage buildings. (Photo from the Johnston County Heritage
Center)
MORE
historical tobacco photos on the Feature
Page>
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For more
information about our community, check out
our online "newspaper parent" via the link shown
below. This website is a handy "portal" to
important sources of current information about
Smithfield and Johnston County.
 Here's what you'll find there:
• Local weather data, current
& past
• Monthly jobs reports
• Quarterly retail-sales reports
• Official population estimates
• Agricultural statistics
• Local government links
• Things to see and do
www.smithfieldselmasun.com
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