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| PUBLISHED
ONLINE JANUARY 2, 2020 • VOL.
2, NO. 1 |
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 Look what just dropped in: A Brand-New Year! some details behind his claims of corruption In an interview recorded for broadcast on the "JoCoReport" website this week, school board member Ronald Johnson provides some details behind earlier, unspecified charges of "corrupt and deceptive practices" by fellow board members as well as high-ranking administrators of Johnston County Public Schools. In the interview he talks about incidents reported to him involving sexual harassment, factual misrepresentation of public funds, conflict of interest involving a board member, and attempted bribery of a school principal. Access the interview along with a written summary on the JoCoReport website> |
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 Town employees are shown at work Sunday morning repairing the electrical substation located beside Hospital Road just west of Buffalo Road. Sunday
morning's power failure, fortunately,
came at a quiet time, without cold weather Most of Smithfield lost electric power around 4:20 a.m. last Sunday when a breaker switch failed at the town's main substation on Hospital Road. Town employees made the necessary repairs and power was restored around 10:50 a.m. --- just in time for church services. Fortunately, mild temperatures overnight Saturday into Sunday morning spared us the discomfort of unheated homes (the outdoor temperature at 4:20 a.m. was 57 at Johnston Regional Airport and rose into the 60s not long after daybreak).  Town Manager Mike Scott said the
substation repair cost about $32,000 since all the
labor was completed "in house."The photograph on the right (provided by the Town of Smithfield) shows the breaker switch that failed, with the center insulated terminal "obviously damaged and burned," Mr. Scott noted. "This could have been caused by any number of things," he explained. "The normal is an animal shorting the two insulated terminals together, but if the insulation was damaged in some way, this too could result in the short. Now that it is blown apart, there is no sure way to know." What about plans to make the town's newer substation off Brogden Road a backup for the older Hospital Road facility? Town Manager Scott provided this update: "The plan is to convert the entire town to 230 kVA from 115 kVA (an electrical measurement for "kiloVoltAmpere"). This will allow us to carry and utilize twice the electricity that we can currently move throughout our system. The Brogden Road station receives 230 kVA now, while the Hospital Road substation receives 115kVA. "This is a 20-year project and we have completed about five years of that. We budget between $500,000 and $1,000,000 annually for this project so we are paying as we go, so to speak. This year we have budgeted $950,000 for the conversion project. Once completed we will have two substations that provide identical kVA and each will be redundant of the other." A positive move observed during Sunday morning's blackout was the attachment of portable generators to traffic-signal controls along busy Bright Leaf Boulevard. Mr. Scott said that's a practice the town adopted after prolonged power outages resulting from Hurricane Matthew in 2016. |
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 First Baptist's Pastor Lee Colbert is about to give the benediction at last Sunday's service, which almost didn't make it online as Smithfield's power outage ended just minutes before the start of the service. (Photo from the church's Facebook page) Smithfield churches are "live streaming" their Sunday morning worship services A number of Smithfield-area churches are "live streaming" their Sunday morning worship services over the Internet these days, and some of those telecasts are archived online for viewing anytime. Included are Smithfield's First Baptist and First Presbyterian churches as well as the Smithfield Church of God, The Bridge Church, New Generation Christian Church, Smithfield Free Will Baptist Church, and perhaps others. Access is gained through each church's website or Facebook page. First Baptist recently installed a new HD (high definition) camera to complement the church's long-standing radio broadcast of its Sunday morning service, currently via Station WTSB (AM 1090), previously via WMPM going back to the 1950s. Smithfield's Centenary United Methodist Church, meanwhile, has been airing its 11 o'clock Sunday service for more than a decade over WARZ-TV, a local low-power station with limited range (accessible over the air on channel 34 and UHF channel 23). That telecast, however, is not live; rather, it's recorded (and edited) for viewing at 11 a.m. the following Sunday. Here are links to several local church websites or Facebook pages where "live streaming" telecasts may be found: First Baptist / First Presbyterian / Church of God / The Bridge / New Generation / Free Will Baptist. EDITOR'S NOTE: We'll be glad to post links to other local churches "live streaming" their services as we are notified about them. |
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Johnston's Extension directorassesses impact of trade wars abroad, rural growth at home Bryant Spivey, director of Johnston County's Cooperative Extension Service, has issued a year-end report on the economic status of local farming and prospects for the new year ahead. Read his report in full here> |
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 N.C. Bar Foundation photo
Jimmy
Narron among N.C. Bar Foundation honoreesSmithfield attorney James W. (Jimmy) Narron (pictured on the right) was one of three persons recently honored by the North Carolina Bar Foundation with the naming of Endowment Justice Funds. Others were Betty Quick of Winston-Salem (second from right) and the late Bill Kennon of Durham, who was represented by his wife Martha (left). High Point attorney Jim Morgan (in back) was honored for establishing the foundation's first Lawyer Impact Fund. READ the full story here> |
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LOCAL GOVERNMENT AGENDAS COUNTY COMMISSIONERS MEET MONDAY, JAN. 6 TO CONSIDER "STATE OF THE COUNTY" AND SOLID-WASTE DECAL REPLACEMENT Johnston's Board of Commissioners will conduct its monthly first-Monday sessions at 10 a.m. and again at 6 p.m in the Courthouse at Market and Second streets. Board Chairman Ted Godwin will present the annual "State of the County" report in the morning. The board will resume its debate over how to replace the county's solid-waste decal system in the evening. View the complete agendas for both sessions> SMITHFIELD TOWN COUNCIL MEETS TUESDAY, JAN. 7; AGENDA INCLUDES WATER-RATE STUDY, POLICE SALARIES, DILAPIDATED-BUILDING RULES The council's monthly meeting starts at 7 p.m. Among the items on Tuesday's agenda: • Audit report for 2018-19 fiscal year that ended June 30. • Results of a consultant's study of town water rates. • Public hearing on a proposed 17-lot townhouse development on Bright Leaf Boulevard (US 301) just southwest of its intersection with Galilee Road. • Request for annexation of the 25-acre site of the Johnston County Detention Center about to be built on US 70 Business East. • Town Manager Mike Scott's request for upward adjustments in the Police Department's salary schedule "to better recruit and retain sworn police positions." • Adoption of the proposed Comprehensive Growth Management Plan and Transportation Plan presented at a public hearing during November's council session. • Consideration of a proposed new ordinance on dilapidated buildings. View the complete agenda packet> SCHOOL BOARD MEETS MONDAY, JAN. 6 IN SPECIAL SESSION TO DISCUSS PROCESS FOR RECRUITING A NEW SUPERINTENDENT Johnston's Board of Education will meet at 5 p.m. in the Evander S. Simpson Building on US 70 Business East to discuss the process for recruiting a new superintendent of schools to succeed Jim Causby, who has agreed to serve as interim superintendent through June 30 if need be. The board's regular monthly meeting is scheduled for Tuesday evening, January 14. |
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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. SHERRI DAWN WATSON, 55 - died Dec. 28 CHANLER MICHAEL DEAN CLOUD, 25 - died Dec. 28 WALTER GIDEON MARTIN, 94 - died Dec. 28 PATRICIA ANN VANCE BRAGG, 76 - died Dec. 28 PERRY EMERSON HINES, 62 - died Dec. 28 JACK BAKER, 73 - died Dec. 28 MARY GORDON BATTEN, 96 - died Dec. 3 |
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THAT'S THE WAY IT WAS Remnants of Holt Lake's heyday as a place for water sports This November 1963 Smithfield Herald photo of Holt Lake drained for maintenance purposes shows what remained of the diving platforms many of us remember from the 1950s, when the lake was a popular place for public swimming, water skiing, fishing, and dancing inside a sheltered pavilion. The latest installment in Gary Ridout's series on "Memories of Holt Lake" is Tony Hamilton's recollections, appearing on a separate page of this week's edition> |
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THE WEEKLY SUN THANKS THESE CONSISTENT SPONSORS THAT CARRIED US THROUGH OUR FIRST YEAR OF PUBLICATION: |
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