Two families honored to mark Farm-City Week
The families headed by Myron Smith and Ronnie Parker were selected by Johnston County's Farm-City Week Committee to be honored during the annual observance this week for contributions to farming and agribusiness. The heads of the two families are shown in screenshots taken from last week's meeting of the County Commissioners when the honors were presented. The stories of Smith's Nursery and Ronnie's Country Store appear on the FEATURE PAGE>
CORONAVIRUS REPORT
CORONAVIRUS
weekly
measurements |
Case total
since 3-20
(last week) |
Deaths
since 3-20
(last week) |
Hospital
patients
(last week) |
Fully
vaccinated
(last week) |
| JOHNSTON COUNTY |
33,231
(32,859) |
354
(352) |
23
(22) |
102,799: 49%*
(102,355) |
| NORTH CAROLINA |
1,524,078
(1,510,086) |
18,676
(18,514) |
1,113
(1,049) |
5,926,764: 57%*
(5,901,781) |
| UNITED STATES |
48,018,473
(47,421,879) |
774,416
(767,439) |
|
195,973,992: 59.7%*
(195,612,365) |
| WORLDWIDE |
259,185,236
(255,193,384) |
5,171,809
(5,127,302) |
|
7,483,560,496
total doses given |
* Percentage of total population (all ages)
Data provided by: County of Johnston at 5:15 p.m. November 23
N.C. Department of Health and Human Services at 12:35 p.m. November 24
Johns Hopkins University at 1:22 p.m. November 24 |
CLEANING UP AFTER THE "EXPLOSION"
Thanksgiving Week is leaf-raking time, especially this year in the aftermath of one of the most spectacular fall-color explosions we've seen around here in quite some time. The Public Works Department's high-powered vacuum was making quick work of collecting the piles of fallen leaves as it patrolled Smithfield's streets on Tuesday.
FOR SALE: HIGHLY VISIBLE
COMMERCIAL PROPERTY
Former Jewel Box store at 1699 East Booker Dairy Road on lot with 30+ parking spaces. UNDER CONTRACT.
SUSAN LASSITER
Fonville Morisey Realty • 919-669-9235 • LassiterSusan@aol.com
Energy assistance offered to low-income families
From Johnston County Dept. of Social Services
Applications for the federally funded Low Income Energy Assistance Program will be taken beginning December 1 for the priority group and will continue through March 31 or until available funds are exhausted.
The priority group includes households age 60 and above or disabled persons receiving services from the Division of Aging and Adult Services. Other individuals and families with the lowest incomes and highest relative energy costs are potentially eligible and may apply beginning January 3.
Eligible households will not receive a check, as the payments will be made directly to energy providers including electric-power, gas, or fuel-oil companies.
Applications can be completed by contacting the Department of Social Services at 919-989-5300 or online at https://www.nc.gov/services/e-pass.
WHAT'S COMING UP?
Christmas tree lighting next week; parade coming Dec. 9
Details about Smithfield's upcoming Yuletide events in December are posted online at SmithfieldChristmas.com>
Here's the rundown in chronological order:
• Tree Lighting Downtown, 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 2.
• Santa's Workshop Downtown, various times on weekends starting Dec. 3.
• Carriage Rides and Santa Visits Downtown, 5-8 p.m. Fridays, Dec. 3, 10, 17.
• Stink, Stank, Stunk 5K Run & Jingle Bell Jog, 9 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 4 at SRAC.
• Christmas Parade Downtown, 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 9.
• Santa Sleigh visits neighborhoods all over town, 1-5 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 11.
• Swim With Santa at SRAC, 1:30-4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 18.
The town's second annual "Light Up Smithfield" decorating contest is open to all residences and businesses with a Smithfield address. The categories: Griswold ("the tackier, the BETTER!"), Traditionally Elegant, Best Theme, Best Window Display. Judging Dec. 11-12. Registration is now open on the town's website>
State & local agencies closed Friday; banks and P.O. open
And that includes banks and the Post Office, which will be open Friday, while state, county, and municipal offices and services are closed for the day. Of course, just about everybody has Thanksgiving Day off. Retail businesses, meanwhile, are open or closed for this and all other official holidays as they see fit.
DEATHS & FUNERALS
Click on the name to read an obituary, usually posted by the funeral home
HOWARD RAY ROSE, 82 – died November 23
PATRICIA KAY (TRISHA) REDMAN, 60 – died November 22
IRENE WIGGS BRASWELL, 87 – died November 18
JAMES HARGETTE ELLERBE, 88 – died November 18
JACKIE MASSENGILL DAUGHTRY, 74 – died November 17
JOSE MANUEL ESPINOSA, 39 – died November 17
WILLIAM KENNETH HINTON, 81 – died November 17
LARUE LASSITER ROGERS, 60 – died November 17
AUDREY BLEDSOE NORRIS, 89 – died November 16
REV. ERVIN JUDKINS, 87 – died November 13
Colorized postcard made from a photograph taken not long after the present-day Johnston County Courthouse was completed in 1922. (Johnston County Heritage Center collection)
A WORD (OR TWO) FROM THE EDITOR
Courthouse centennial comes next year, not this
I've been wondering why no fuss was being made this year over the 100th birthday of the Johnston County Courthouse on Market Street. A trip to the Heritage Center quickly produced the answer: Construction of this magnificent edifice began in the spring of 1921 but the building wasn't finished until late summer in 1922.
Up to now I've been mistakenly referring to it as the "1921 Courthouse," which replaced a smaller brick structure on the same site that was built in 1843.
The N.C. General Assembly got the ball rolling in August 1920 with adoption of a local act to erect at Smithfield "a new courthouse and jail of sufficient size to accommodate the present and future needs of the county."
Smithfield, especially, was enjoying "boom times" during the years following the First World War. Two other major Downtown structures of that era still standing are the Austin Building on South Third Street and the Hood Building on the corner east of the Courthouse.
And how much did that majestic new courthouse cost to build? "An expenditure, we are told, of approximately $425,000, including plumbing, heating, elevator, and furniture," reported The Smithfield Herald following the building's dedication on September 26, 1922.
The newspaper concluded its coverage with a note that the owner of the Sanford company that built the courthouse, J.W. Stout, hosted dignitaries at "a barbecue dinner at Holt Lake, bringing to a close ceremonies the like of which Johnston County may not see again." (Presumably, that dinner was held in one of the screened picnic shelters that stood near the lake's bath house at the time.)
Will the county make that much fuss when the new Detention Center and adjacent Public Safety Center are finished east of town in 2023? The projected costs for those two buildings, by the way, are $44.5 million and $21 million.
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