We apologize for the lack of posts, comments or any other communication from the HomeinHenderson staff for more than a day. We ran into some serious technical difficulties in Myrtle Beach, but we’ll be home today to get going again. Thanks for your patience and understanding.
Category: Quick hits
Pick of the day: Celebrating independence
You had your chance to watch fireworks and celebrate the United States’ 229th birthday Saturday at Kerr Lake (or Friday if you felt like driving up to South Hill). Now you can spend the whole day celebrating the Fourth of July. There are plenty of events in the Triangle area (check WRAL’s list), or you can stay closer to home and have a picnic or a cookout or just watch some baseball on television with your family. That’s what’s great …
Pick of the day: Early fireworks and fun at the lake
The Fourth of July comes early to Vance County with the Tourism Department’s Independence Day celebration at Kerr Lake, which is always held on the Saturday closest to July 4, weather permitting. The free festivities kick off at 6:30 p.m. at Satterwhite Point and include a lighted boat parade, music by The Foundations and fireworks. Food, T-shirts and glow sticks will be sold. A free shuttle will run from the Rose’s parking lot on North Garnett Street from 4 to …
Pick of the day: Filing period approaches
We normally wait until the day of an event to make it the Pick of the Day, but this is really the Pick of the Month: The filing period for Henderson’s Oct. 11 municipal elections, as well as those in Kittrell and Middleburg, opens Friday and runs for five weeks until Aug. 5. We’re hopeful that Henderson builds on the increased competition of the city elections two years ago, when Mayor Chick Young’s retirement drew three council members into the …
Pick of the day: Late-night budget action
There’s a lot on the agenda for tonight’s City Council meeting (see related story), which is to be expected when there’s a three-week gap between meetings and when your humble editor is on vacation (things always go crazy at the office when you’re away). But the biggest issue has to be the budget for 2005-06, a fiscal year that starts Friday. Based on the agenda, we don’t expect the council to take up the spending and taxing plan until some …
Pick of the day: The view from Gitmo
Within the hour, the congressman who represents Henderson and northern Vance County, Democrat G.K. Butterfield of Wilson, is due to land at Raleigh-Durham International Airport after a fact-finding one-day visit to the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. His 7 1/2 hours at the base with fellow members of the House Armed Services Committee included a briefing and a tour of the hospital, interrogation area and an unoccupied cellblock. It will be interesting to hear what Butterfield, whose district includes …
Pick of the day: Attacking homelessness
Mayor Clem Seifert’s homelessness committee reaches out with a series of focus groups throughout the day at the Senior Center downtown. The series of discussions will give service providers, the homeless themselves and other groups a chance to talk about what’s needed and what can be done to solve the problem of homelessness. (This would be one of those Seifert initiatives, with arrangements by assistant Sandra Wilkerson, that you probably wouldn’t have seen under Chick Young.) The public will get …
Partnership moves toward county approval
The Henderson-Vance Economic Partnership passed the hurdle of the General Government Committee of the Vance County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday and should get the endorsement of the full board July 11. We’ll have a full report posted as soon as possible. We apologize for the delay but are traveling. If you can’t wait to read the details, check out the story in today’s Daily Dispatch.
On the road: Which way is up?
This is the first of an occasional series of articles from the HomeinHenderson.com staff during a summer road trip through the South. Every town has its idiosyncrasies when it comes to getting around, resulting from history, nature and other forces beyond anyone’s control.
Army’s Jones gets attention
We like to keep up with Vance County athletes in the world at large, and we spotted this tidbit about Northern Vance alumnus Carlton Jones, who plays running back for Army’s football team: “RB — Carlton Jones, Army: Believe it or not, but Jones ranked 13th in the nation in yards per game last season and he didn’t do it against a bunch of cupcakes either. He had 93 yards against Louisville and 108 against TCU. His best game was …
No complaints about Vance budget
The Vance County Board of Commissioners was scheduled to meet Wednesday afternoon to give county department heads a chance to complain about the proposed budget the commissioners will approve this month. But whether out of hopelessness or satisfaction, no department heads wished to argue for any changes, so the commissioners canceled their meeting. The budget appears likely to wind up largely as County Manager Jerry Ayscue proposed, though with a 2-cent increase in the property tax rate, to 92 cents …
Pick of the day: Listen and learn
For simple mystery, today’s special meeting of the Henderson City Council at 5 p.m. at the Municipal Building is hard to beat. Mayor Clem Seifert’s motivation for calling the meeting had to do with a personnel matter, but once the council gets going, anything could happen. Still, the most important use of your time might be spent listening to the radio from 11 a.m. to noon. Bob Fleming and Lynn Harper, the chairman and vice chairwoman of the Henderson-Vance Economic …
Big-city garbage collection
In light of Henderson’s debate over garbage and recycling at the curb, it is interesting to see those operations in action in New Orleans. Garbage and recycling are collected at the curb, recycling in rectangular plastic bins, garbage in ordinary cans that people must carry or drag to the roadside. The pickups are handled by private companies under contract to the city. And this week, when storms have hit daily, both collections are late, leaving the unattractive bins and cans …
Pick of the day: Big Easy weekend
Your humble editor has left his Henderson home for the weekend to visit the place of his birth, New Orleans, for a few days of family, food and college baseball. We’ll update the site as opportunities allow.
Pick of the day: HUD returns
Less than three months after the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development abruptly halted their project, College of Experts consultants Yolanda Porche and Dorothy Reiser return to Henderson today for a two-day visit that marks the revival of HUD’s technical assistance to the city’s housing redevelopment efforts. They might not have the green light for their full $120,000 plan of help, but Henderson will take whatever it can get. So if you see two women who aren’t from around …
Pick of the day: Health insurance to be set
For employees of the city of Henderson, nothing this budget season is more important than the decision that should be made sometime after 6 p.m. in the conference room at the Municipal Building. At a Finance and Intergovernmental Relations Committee meeting, City Council members are expected to select the health insurance coverage for municipal employees for the year starting July 1. The impact on taxpayers as a whole will be minor compared with the effect on individuals facing a doubling …
Pick of the day: Optimism for public safety
The Henderson Optimist Club takes time to honor our local public safety agencies with a low-key, high-praise banquet at 1 p.m. at the police training center to mark Respect for the Law Day. Besides the free food for the officers, the highlight of the afternoon is the announcement of the police officer of the year, sheriff’s deputy of the year and firefighter of the year.
Pick of the day: A time to bleed
Maria Parham Medical Center is holding a Red Cross blood drive from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the John T. Church Classroom. Call Lee Anne Peoples at 436-1116 for an appointment, and be sure to check out the sparkling new ER while you’re there.
All aboard for the Imagination ArtStation
Children who were in elementary school this year still have time to get their tickets for Imagination ArtStation, the Vance County Arts Council’s award-winning weeklong day camp at E.M. Rollins Elementary School.
Pick of the day: Batten down the hatches
OK, it’s far too early to panic, but today marks the start of the six-month Atlantic hurricane season, and the experts have increased their forecast for trouble: 15 named storms (from Arlene to Ophelia), including eight or nine hurricanes. At least one major storm is expected to hit the United States, with a 59 percent chance the East Coast will be hit. So today’s a good time to stock up on some emergency supplies, just in case.