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| PUBLISHED
ONLINE AUGUST 20, 2020 • VOL. 2,
NO. 41 |
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Stories and photos by Wingate Lassiter unless otherwise noted (click highlighted link to e-mail the editor) |
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| Public schools re-open with remote
classes till younger students return after Labor Day Johnston County Public Schools officially opened the 2020-21 term on Monday of this week. But how much learning is going appears uncertain as this first week was to be devoted to online orientation for the system's 37,000-plus students. Students won't return to classrooms before September 8, when grades K-5 will be allowed on campus two days each week on a rotating basis for students whose parents want them there. At last report, parents of more than 14,500 Johnston students have chosen online remote learning through the end of the first semester. When students will be allowed to return to middle-school and high-school campuses has not been determined by Johnston's Board of Education. Neuse Charter School welcomed students in grades 9-12 back to campus this week after opening the semester August 10 with online instruction. Grades K-2 will return to campus August 31, grades 3-5 September 8, and grades 6-8 September 21. All grades will attend classes in person in two groups for two days each week: either Monday-Tuesday or Thursday-Friday. FREE "GRAB-AND-GO" BREAKFAST & LUNCH AT ALL SCHOOLS  Cafeteria Manager Jessica Myrick (center) surveys the scene as cafeteria assistants Doris Ortiz (left) and Linda Price set up meals to be distributed to families of students at South Smithfield Elementary School. Prepared in the school's cafeteria, one lunch and one breakfast per student are being handed out to from 11 a.m. to noon Monday-Friday to any and all comers free of charge through the end of August under the federal Summer Food Service Program. After that, families that aren't eligible for free meals will be required to make payment arrangements as they normally do when students eat in the lunchroom. Ms. Myrick said about 50 meals have been given out each day this week. The school system reports that 4,152 meals were distributed curbside at Johnston County's 45 public schools on Monday and 4,614 on Tuesday.  VIRTUAL SCHOOL "FANS" --- BUT NOT FOR FOOTBALL Like the cardboard "fans" set up in the stands at professional baseball and basketball games presently airing on TV, these cutouts pasted onto a picture of Smithfield-Selma High were posted on the school's Twitter page this week --- to encourage students to communicate individually with school staff online during designated "office hours": 8-10 a.m., noon-2, and 3-4 p.m. Meanwhile, high-school football season has been delayed till late next winter. The N.C. High School Athletic Association announced last week that a reduced season of seven games will begin February 26. Cross-country seasons are delayed till November 16, with basketball season to follow starting January 4. VIEW the NCHSAA calendar covering all sports during the 2020-21 term> CORONAVIRUS UPDATE 3,525 cases --- weekly
gain in number
of cases continues on downward track Here's the County of Johnston's coronavirus report as of 5:00 p.m. Wednesday: • 3,525 cases, 50 deaths, 18 hospitalized, 312 at home, 3,145 presumed recovered (that nets a total of 380 active cases). • 1,905 female cases; 1,620 males. • Cases by age: 539 ages 0-17 (525 last week); 481 18-24 (459 last week); 1,481 25-49 (1,417 last week); 664 50-64 (633 last week); 359 age 65+ (347). • Cases by race: 2,037 white, 456 black, 524 other (508 not known). • Cases by ethnicity: 1,602 Hispanic, 1,431 non-Hispanic (492 not known). VIEW the current list of test sites and testing events in Johnston County>
JAIL OUTBREAK CONFINED TO DETENTION OFFICERS The Health Department this week reported 14 staff members at the Johnston County Jail have tested positive for COVID-19. Sheriff Steve Bizzell told the Sun on Wednesday that the infections have not spread among the inmates. And 10 of the 14 infected officers have recovered and returned to work, he said. Meanwhile, visitations including pastoral visits continue to be barred. "Our inmates do have access to contact their loved ones by phone or by mail and have been encouraged to do so," the sheriff noted. "I can assure you that we are constantly taking the necessary precautions including masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, continuous cleaning, and temperatures are being taken to ensure that our inmates are housed in a very healthy environment," he said. |
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Smithfield's Aldert Root Edmonson finishes 41-year-career with State Bar  We knew him growing up here as "Aldert,"
president of the Smithfield High School Class of 1965.
Since then he has gone by his middle name, "Root," taken
from his mother's maiden name.This summer marked the end of a long legal career, mostly as deputy counsel of the North Carolina State Bar, where he has been employed since 1979. He retired this month. Not to be confused with the North Carolina Bar Association, the State Bar is the official state agency that regulates the legal profession in North Carolina. That includes more than 27,000 licensed lawyers. A "Resolution of Appreciation for A. Root Edmonson," adopted by the Council of the North Carolina State Bar at his last meeting with that body in July, calls him "the best known and best liked person ever to work for this agency." The resolution goes on to call him "the profession's peacemaker": "Root Edmonson has an uncanny ability to facilitate dialogue and civility among lawyers and judges who appear to be incapable of either in the midst of hotly contested legal proceedings... Time after time he has been able to restore professional decorum in explosive situations, often, it would seem, simply by showing up and bringing his incomparable personality to bear. Perhaps not surprisingly, people find it hard to be unprofessional in his presence. How can such a man ever be replaced?" READ MORE about the man and his career on the FEATURE PAGE> |
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 Johnston
Community College photo
JCCollege students build a
"Lightboard" Students in the Engineering and Industrial Technologies programs at Johnston Community College have built an innovative high-tech tool for teachers. Called a "Lightboard," it's a clear-glass structure on which instructors can write while still facing a video screen. It's part of stepped-up efforts to enhance online learning in the midst of the cornavirus pandemic. The college's Jaguar Office of Learning Technologies (JOLT) is collaborating with teachers from Johnston County Public Schools' Early Learning and Career & Technical Leadership academies, which operate on the JCC campus. The "Lightboard" project has also received support from the JCC Foundation. READ the full story on the Johnston Community College website> Town Council, Planning Board to meet jointly to discuss new zoning mechanics The Smithfield Town Council will meet jointly with the Smithfield Planning Board at 6:30 p.m. next Monday (August 24) at Town Hall to discuss conditional zoning and subdivision regulations. The meeting will be open to the public; all who attend will be required to wear masks if medically able to do so. Conditional zoning is a relatively new concept being tried by North Carolina's local governments. It's another way to restrict uses of property for specific purposes as is frequently done through the granting of special-use permits. |
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A very rainy 2020 it has been here so far, reports backyard weatherman Cornell Cox  He grew up on a tobacco farm down at
Bentonville, so he has a long-standing habit of keeping
up with the weather.Several years ago Cornell Cox went "high tech" with his weather watching by purchasing an electronic system that tracks temperature, precipitation, and wind flows from a "weather station" mounted on a pole in his backyard to a wireless receiver in his den. He's been sharing his data with friends and neighbors, including the editor of the Weekly Sun. Therefore, let's begin a new feature entitled "Cornell's Backyard Weather Report." It's a good time to start, for he reports that we've had almost 8 inches of rainfall in South Smithfield this month, with more than a week to go till the end of August plus four months after that till the end of 2020. He's recorded rainfall on 14 of the first 19 days of August. This month's accumulation brings his year-to-date total to 43.03 inches, approaching our average normal rainfall of 47.75 inches, according to U.S. Climate Data, an affiliate of the National Weather Service. And we're still not done with hurricane season, which typically delivers heavy downpours in our neck of the woods. |
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DEATHS & FUNERALS Each week we post links to obituaries about persons who have died during the past week. We 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.... ALICE SYLVIA EASON DAVIS, 76 - died August 16 DISIREE NICOLE HUNTER, 37 - died August 13 CLARA WOODARD PARRISH, 93 - died August 13 JOHN WYATT TWISDALE, 83 - died August 13 |
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THAT'S THE WAY IT WAS  OUR COURTHOUSE, 1843-1921 --- AND IT DIDN'T BURN DOWN! A reader wanted to know the location of the Johnston County Courthouse before the present-day edifice was built in 1921. The answer: On the same spot of land. What was to become Smithfield started out as "Johnston County Courthouse" in 1771 after Wake County was formed out of western Johnston and the county seat was moved eastward from Hinton's Quarter (near present-day Clayton) to be more centrally located. The first courthouse built here stood somewhere near the northeast corner of today's Market and Front streets above the river, but was moved in the late 1780s to the middle of the intersection of nearby Second and Market streets. It's not clear whether it remained at that spot until the classic brick structure pictured here was built before the Civil War, and there's no photograph of that original wooden structure. Unlike courthouses elsewhere, ours never burned down, so our public records from the 18th and 19th centuries are mostly intact. (Photo from the Johnston County Heritage Center) |
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LINKS TO MORE PAGES IN THIS EDITION OBSERVATIONS Rewind with our archives |
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For more information
about our community, check out my 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 government website links • Local weather data, current & past • Neuse River levels & forecasts • Official time & Farmer's Almanac • Monthly unemployment reports • Quarterly retail-sales reports • Official population estimates • Agricultural statistics • Things to see and do www.smithfieldselmasun.com |
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