Fiddler’s convention hearkens to originals of local music

A group of musicians from five different states put together a jam session Friday, playing music, sharing stories and telling a few jokes along the way. They are, clockwise, starting with the standing guitar player in the foreground, Danny Knicely of Lovettsville, Virginia, Steve Staneslau, Billy Hurt from Boones Mill, Virginia, Tom Mindty from Maryland, Colby Helms from Boones Mill, Donnie Dobro (standing in the background) from Mount Airy, Willie Marschner from Northern Virginia, Dany Bureau from Connecticut, and Bremen Ernst from Philadelphia. Also playing with the group but just outside the photo frame is Ettore Guzzini from Mooresville.

Aaron Ratcliffe, of Asheville, in the foreground with his back to the camera, teaches a flatfootin’ class Friday during a Surry Arts Council workshop at the Mount Airy Bluegrass and Old-Time Fiddlers Convention.

Don Leister, center, of Richmond, Virginia, fills out a sales slip for a fiddle he’s selling to Cas P. Ian, right, a New Orleans musician visiting the convention, while an unidentified customer on the left browses Leister’s booth.

Playing during the flat-footin class are, seated, from left, Chester McMillian of Round Peak, Nick McMillian of Mount Airy, Michael Motley of Pinnacle, and Kirk Sutphin of Walkertown, and, standing at left playing the bass, Ray Monfore from Patrick Air Force Base in Florida.

A chance encounter in the lobby of the Historic Earle Theatre more than a decade ago changed the life of an 8-year-old Raleigh girl, showing the sometimes destiny-changing power of the region’s famous old-time music.

That music, and the devotion of its fans, was on full display this weekend during the Mount Airy Bluegrass and Old-Time Fiddlers Convention.

And that 8-year-old girl, Eliza Meyer, is now an 18-year-old who rushed from her high school graduation in Raleigh Friday night to Mount Airy to be able to spend Saturday at the convention, among the thousands of fans and musicians at Veterans Memorial Park, the convention’s home.

Her mother — Staci Meyer, who just happens to serve as chief deputy secretary of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources — explains her daughter’s fascination with old-time music.

“We first came to Mount Airy on a Saturday morning, just to spend some time there…we’d heard about the Merry Go Round at the Earle,” she said of the weekly radio show broadcast on WPAQ and a trip the family made to Mount Airy ten years ago. “Our daughter had just stared playing the fiddle, and she wanted to hear the music.

“There was a group of men playing in the lobby, she took her little fiddle up there, she wouldn’t even take it out, she just put her case there and waited to see if they would ask her to play. They did, and she was thrilled. That was her first venture into music.”

That encounter, Meyer said, changed her daughter’s life forever, and has made Mount Airy almost like a second home.

“We’ve been coming to the convention ever since,”she said, and her daughter, Eliza, who was among the musicians performing Saturday, now plays fiddle, banjo, autoharp, guitar, stand-up bass — and considers Mount Airy among her favorite places in the world.

“She’s taken a lot of classes and lessons from the local musicians. She really feels like that’s her second hometown, she loves it so much.”

Meyer said her daughter is attending UNC-Chapel Hill in the fall, where she’ll be studying ethnomusicology and folk lore.

That love of the Round Peak style of music is far from unique to the Meyer family — hundreds, maybe thousands, of fans and musicians were in Mount Airy Friday and Saturday, celebrating the music and the return of the annual gathering after its COVID-19 hiatus last year.

The talent of many of those musicians and fans was on full display throughout the weekend, even among the camping sites were some out-of-town fans set up and lived for several days leading up to the convention.

Friday afternoon, jam sessions sprung up spontaneously. One such session featured a diverse group of musicians — some teenagers, others well into their 60s, some wearing overalls and cowboy hats more often associated with old-time musicians, others wearing more modern and relaxed clothing, one even sporting a bright, multi-colored hair style.

The ten hailed from as far away as Philadelphia and Connecticut and Maryland, with a few Virginians and North Carolinians adding a more local flavor. They played the guitar, banjo, fiddle, bass, even a washboard, and few in the group had met before their impromptu jam session, yet they played and sang as if they’d been practicing together for weeks.

It’s the music’s ability to connect people — to one another, and to the region’s history — that keeps some folks coming back to the convention year after year.

Wayne Martin, the executive director of the North Carolina Arts Council, made the drive from Raleigh to Mount Airy Friday afternoon, and Saturday morning he was in search of a jam session or two.

“I began attending the Mount Airy Fiddlers Convention in the 1980s,” Martin said. “I haven’t been every year since the 1980s, but I’ve been to probably three quarters of them since that time.”

Martin said he’s seen quite a few changes over the years.

“I remember it was a small community event…the music seemed to be mostly the bands that were local to this area.”

Of course, he said those days saw some of the legends of the music genre such as Benton Flippen and Verlen Clifton playing at Mount Airy, musicians who were known as among the best throughout the old time and bluegrass convention circuit, as well as having a national following among music fans.

“It was a thrill to be able to come and hear, kind of like musical heroes to us,” he said of listening to those musical giants. “We’d heard their records, and here they were live, in person, and at a very small event you could go up and talk to them, get to know them. Now there’s still a lot of that kind of informality, that sharing, is still part of the event.”

Martin, who plays the banjo and guitar, said getting a chance to sit down and talk with those early legends — and play with them — is what’s kept him coming back.

“I have really fond memories of when I used to come here. The highlight was getting into a little jam session with Paul Sutphin and Verlen Clifton, not only as musicians were they great, but as people they were great. Kind of role models, just funny, kind people who enjoyed the music and achieved a high level but were also so welcoming of others, so we would get together and have a little session.

“These guys…had all learned their music through oral traditions….most of them learned their music during the depression, from family and friends. You were getting something that was really, really strongly connected to this place. That was just thrilling to me and others.”

While the festival is much larger now, and most of those legendary musicians are gone, their impression on thousands of people endures — and Clifton’s grandson, Wes Clifton, may have put it best when he was checking in Friday afternoon, when he was commenting on how it felt to be back at the convention after the pandemic-forced shutdown last year..

“Being able to register this year and come here was a real pleasure…Missing last year was kind of a reminder to me what a privilege it is to be able to come here and play, listen to some of the greats…A lot of those old timers are gone, but they will always be with us as a result of the music they’ve left behind.”

Mayberry not so friendly after all?

Time to enjoy Mount Airy

In outlining guidelines for campaign signs recently cropping up locally in steadily increasing numbers, Chuck Morris, Mount Airy’s code enforcement officer, relied on words from an old song as a heading:

“Sign, sign everywhere a sign, blockin’ out the scenery, breakin’ my mind.”

“Well, here we are again in an election season and our streets are getting covered with ‘political’ signs and my inbox and voice mail are both getting inundated with calls,” Morris added this week regarding complaints and questions about what’s allowed.

And perhaps more importantly, what isn’t permitted, as the general election approaches on Nov. 8 — with early voting beginning on Oct. 20.

While a number of candidates for county, state and federal offices are on the ballot, issues with signs seem more concentrated in Mount Airy, where eight candidates are vying for three seats on the city council and that of mayor.

All four races in the 2022 municipal election are contested.

“Just the facts”

In responding to the flurry of sign-related activity, Morris chose to submit a “just the facts, ma’am” breakdown pertaining to signs in general and what exceptions are provided during the election season.

Legal implications for that period, as they relate to city of Mount Airy sign ordinances, can be viewed online at https://library.municode.com/nc/mount_airy/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=PTIICOOR_APXAZOOR_ARTIXSI

In addition, applicable N.C. Department of Transportation ordinances, including ones addressing political signs within municipalities, are accessible at https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/PDF/BySection/Chapter_136/GS_136-32.pdf

Among the city ordinances’ stated purposes are to encourage the effective use of signs as a means of communication while preserving the guarantee of free speech under the U.S. Constitution, yet also restricting those within public rights-of-way.

Morris pointed out that exceptions to the “typical” sign ordinance begin 30 days before the beginning date of one-stop early voting and end after the 10th day following Election Day.

To help with the signage process, he added that each candidate seeking office in Surry County was given a 12-page document that clearly defines the 2022 political sign ordinances. It is available at https://www.mountairy.org/DocumentCenter/View/3343/2022-SIGN-ORDINANCE-INFO

One consideration involves streets located in the city of Mount Airy which are not state-maintained by the N.C. Department of Transportation.

“The city of Mount Airy does not, even during an election season, allow any signs to be placed in the right-of-way for any of the city-maintained streets,” the code officer advised. “The city of Mount Airy does not, even during election season, allow for Type 2 free-standing temporary (commonly referred to as “banner”) signs on any residential-use property.

The only exception during the political season provided for in municipal ordinances relates only to Type 1 (temporary) signs, which states: “The limit on the number of Type 1 free-standing temporary signs that may be displayed on a parcel containing a use in the residential-use group is suspended.”

In referring to the distinction been municipal and state-maintained streets that are located within the city limits, Morris provided an online link to a map designating these: https://connect.ncdot.gov/municipalities/State-Street-Aid/PowellBillMaps/MountAiry_Surry_Map-2020.07.01.pdf

“The Department of Transportation typically does not allow any unauthorized sign, be it an advertisement or a political sign, to be placed in the right-of-way of any DOT-maintained streets,” Morris continued. “The exception is for political signs during the election season as defined earlier.”

Such exceptions allowing political signs in a DOT right-of-way must be in accordance with a guideline on sign placement. It states that a permittee must obtain the consent of any property owner of a residence, business or religious institution fronting the right-of-way where a sign would be erected.

• No sign shall be permitted in the right-of-way of a fully controlled access highway.

• No sign shall be closer than three feet from the edge of the pavement of the road.

• No sign shall obscure motorist visibility at an intersection.

• No sign shall be higher than 42 inches above the edge of the pavement of the road.

• No sign shall be larger than 864 square inches (six square feet).

• No sign shall obscure or replace another sign.

Complaints regarding DOT right-of-way signage should be directed to 877-368-4968, according to the local code enforcement officer.

“Whether the political sign in question is on a city street or a state-maintained street, they all fall under North Carolina General Statute 136-32,” Morris wrote.

That statute reads in part: “It is a Class III misdemeanor for a person to steal, deface, vandalize or unlawfully remove a political sign that is lawfully placed under the” listed exceptions.

In addressing the matter by providing the extensive breakdown, Morris seeks to clarify what and where political signs are permitted inside the city limits.

“And also, hopefully, our candidates will adhere to these ordinances and we all can see through the ‘clutter’ of misplaced signs.”

Along with the issue of campaign signs that are placed along streets, concerns have emerged recently about portable signs being displayed in Mount Airy.

This has included multiple instances of ones placed in the beds of trucks moved from place to place, which are regulated differently depending on whether the city limits are involved.

Surry Director of Elections Michella Huff says portable signs are allowed per the N.C. State Board of Elections Campaign Finance Manual as long as a disclosure statement (legend) is present and is 5 percent of the height of the printed space on the advertisement.

“Here at the Board of Elections, we are concerned about the disclosure statement being on the sign, that it is the correct legend and it is the proper height,” Huff stated.

But the elections director acknowledged the fact that specific city/town ordinances might treat portable signage regulations differently.

That is the case in Mount Airy.

“It is not in compliance with the (city) ordinance,” Police Chief Dale Watson said Thursday concerning the use of portable campaign signs.

“The ordinance does not allow for that.”

Coach Alex Gibbs is gone, but certainly not forgotten, judging by an event this week at which the nephew of the late Mount Airy High School and NFL coach was guest speaker.

Many football fans might recall Gibbs as the highly acclaimed offensive line coach who helped the Denver Broncos win back-to-back Super Bowl games in the late 1990s.

But 30 years before that, Gibbs was the head coach of the Mount Airy Bears for three seasons and guided them to the Class AAA Western State Championship in 1968.

Though he would go on to the bright lights of major college and pro football stadiums, Gibbs — who died in July 2021 at age 80 — considered the Granite City the place where his expertise as a coach was spawned.

“I know it meant the world to Alex,” the former coach’s nephew, Rusty Gibbs, told the Rotary Club of Mount Airy Tuesday afternoon. “His time here was extremely important.”

It proved to be a springboard for a career that would take Gibbs to college coaching gigs at schools including Duke, Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio State, Auburn and Georgia before serving in the NFL ranks. And Rusty Gibbs’ path to Mount Airy also was somewhat circuitous.

His appearance as guest speaker for this week’s Rotary meeting at Cross Creek Country Club was arranged by member Carol Burke, who had crossed paths with him during an event in Charlotte, where Rusty Gibbs resides.

After hearing his last name mentioned, Burke inquired if he was any kin to Alex Gibbs.

“No one’s ever asked me that before,” Rusty acknowledged Tuesday during his time at the podium.

“Usually they ask me if I’m related to Joe Gibbs,” he said of the former head coach of the then-Washington Redskins who won multiple Super Bowl championships before becoming a NASCAR team owner.

Rusty Gibbs is active in economic-development projects in Charlotte, including efforts focusing on the role of sports in big business as evidenced by the presence of professional teams there such as the NFL’s Panthers and the National Basketball Association’s Hornets.

Gibbs also is involved with volunteer work in Charlotte, including NorthEndPartners and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg County Police Department.

When speaking in Mount Airy Tuesday, he could have talked about those roles, but instead his focus was on football and Alex Gibbs’ link to this community.

“Where he really got his start was in your town of Mount Airy in 1966,” Gibbs’ nephew said of a stint that began when Alex was just 25 years old, 10 years before Rusty Gibbs was born. Alex was the older brother of his father.

“When I was a kid, I only got to see Alex about once a year,” recalled Rusty, who relished those occasions when he had the chance to ask him questions and hear interesting stories. One was where, among his many stops, made the biggest impression on Coach Gibbs.

“It was probably Mount Airy, because it was all about coaching football and teaching kids,” Rusty Gibbs said of a job that sometimes included driving the bus. Alex Gibbs also developed a habit then of discussing non-football subjects with players meant to instill key life lessons in them.

Coupled with the role model he provided as “a fierce competitor,” his nephew said, Coach Gibbs stressed integrity, dedication and accountability.

His work in Mount Airy culminated with the 1968 state title victory.

“I was at that championship game,” Rotary Club member Greg Perkins said during a question-and-answer session with Rusty Gibbs. “I don’t remember it, because I was wearing diapers.”

Dr. Phillip Brown, the club’s president, mentioned that his father-in-law, Coley Burton, was a member of the 1968 Bears team.

As is the case with talented coaches, Alex Gibbs was destined to go beyond the high school level and he subsequently became defensive backs coach at Duke University in 1969. So great was his desire to break into the college ranks that Gibbs worked for free his first year there, it was revealed Tuesday.

A pivotal moment in Alex Gibbs’ career would come during the 1970s when he joined the staff at Ohio State under its legendary coach, Woody Hayes. Gibbs also was on the staffs of other highly regarded coaches such as Bobby Bowden and Pat Dye.

Hayes offered Gibbs the job of offensive coordinator with the Buckeyes, which came with the requirement that he also coach the offensive line.

This was an odd development for a man who stood only about 5-5 or 5-6 and weighed 150 pounds.

“His players were like twice the size of him,” Rusty Gibbs said.

Yet this didn’t prevent his uncle from grabbing them by the facemask and poking them in the chest when they missed blocking assignments.

In pioneering the concept of zone blocking for which he is most known, Gibbs’ style deviated from the philosophy of just having ponderous linemen push the pile forward. His method relied on schemes that were more lateral in natural, designed to create gaps for running backs to hit, which require more nimble and mobile guards, tackles and centers.

“He didn’t want hulking offensive linemen,” Gibbs’ nephew said.

His tough coaching style tended to be punctuated with expletives, Rusty added, with film clips of his uncle on the sidelines filled with bleeps.

“But he was also a very caring person,” Rusty Gibbs said. “Alex was an interesting guy.”

Gibbs additionally would coach the offensive line at Georgia in the early 1980s, when running back Herschel Walker led the Bulldogs to a national championship.

He joined the NFL in 1984 for his first of multiple stints with the Broncos, initially working as offensive line coach in Denver for three years and later returning there as an assistant head coach from 1995-2003. In 2013, he was back with the Broncos as an offensive line consultant for a season.

Gibbs also was a coach with the Los Angeles Raiders, San Diego Chargers, Indianapolis Colts, Kansas City Chiefs, Atlanta Falcons, Houston Texans and Seattle Seahawks.

Rusty Gibbs told Tuesday’s audience that he attended an event in Canton, Ohio, in June during which his uncle was honored posthumously through the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Awards of Excellence program. It recognizes individuals who contributed to the game other than as a player or head coach.

And the three years Alex Gibbs spent in Mount Airy and its influence on him in achieving such accolades hasn’t gone unnoticed among his family.

“I’m just really honored to be able be here,” Gibbs told local Rotarians in praising the role this city played in his uncle’s future success.

“You gave him the opportunity to do what he loved.”

The Surry County Board of County Commissioners met Monday evening in Dobson for their regularly scheduled meeting. While their agenda was light that evening, one item was back on the agenda from the week before involving COVID relief money.

Surry County Emergency Management Director Eric Southern summarized the situation for the board that in 2020 when the Federal emergency declaration on the pandemic was released, the county was informed there as a fund from which the county could pay for COVID related ambulance transports.

When that fund ran out, the county was still providing EMS runs for COVID patients and not billing them for the ride, as the Federal government had taken over the costs of those rides. Now the county still owes a balance on those rides to and from the hospital for COVID care to the tune of $23,410.70.

For comparison, Southern asked for a comparison of the write off amount of $23,410.70 compared to other counties similar in size and was told the average write off amount was $71,000 with the highest being near $300,000/

At their last meeting, the commissioners were asked to write off that amount as unbillable and unrecoverable because the guidance, Southern said, at that time was that any expenses for COVID would come from that fund.

This is where Commissioner Van Tucker found a sticking point last meeting, just as he did at this meeting. He questions the rationale of the funding that was mandated for these EMS transports, “At that time, there was no other option? Even for those people with the Cadillac Blue Cross Blue Shield? I don’t quite understand this.”

“I am a little confused myself,” Southern admitted of the federal funding. He said though once a doctor made a diagnosis that the patient was transported for COVID, “That’s where the money had to come from.”

“I’m sure there are people with insurance cards would have wanted to pay or submit the bill to the insurers. Some people wanted to pay it, some people probably just had paid their bill when these funds were approved, and others were charged the day the fund ran out,” Tucker observed. “It’s interesting to me that with the government statute we can’t go back and recoup our losses.”

Tucker acquiesced that the county had no recourse but to write off the EMS transport costs as unrecoverable and made a motion to that end. The board concurred and the measure passed unanimously.

In other board of commissioners news:

– The board was asked to give their approval to the conveyance of surplus medical items from the county to find use with other groups rather than be sent to the landfill. The board approved the transfer of two Stryker Power-Pro 6500 XT stretchers, with mounting brackets, to Pilot Mountain Rescue and EMS. Similarly, nine complete sets of Scott SCBA 4.5 Airpacks, with bottles, were deemed surplus and no longer needed by the county. They are being conveyed to the Surry Community College Firefighter and Rescue Program to train the next generation of local first responders.

– Surry County Health Director Samantha Ange requested from the board’s permission to purchase a mobile phone application that she said would be used to share “valuable information and resources with the community and partners in almost real time.” The cost of the mobile application is $24,855 but Ange in her request said no additional county funds would be needed but rather remaining COVID-19 funds would be used.

The speed with which information could be disseminated from the county to its residents is of interest to the Health Department. Other county offices have similar desire to reach residents as was explained during the funding request made for Surry on the Go, the county’s streaming application that will be found on Spectrum cable and will give the county another nearly immediate path to get information to residents.

– The board was asked to give their approval to the slate of Trustees for Northern Regional Hospital, all four of which have graciously agreed to serve another term. Teresa Lewis, Paul Patterson, Tom Riggs, and Ann Vaughn were renominated to serve another term as Trustees and the board approved.

Nikki Hull of the Surry County Juvenile Crime Prevention Council asked the board to approve a change to that council’s membership. Juan Sanchez was approved to be the Health Department Designee replacing Allie Willard, the outgoing health department representative.

– County Tax Administrator Penny Harrison presented the commissioners a list of foreclosed properties that the county is ready to sell after having made the required official notices. She told the board her department has sent numerous statements out to collect the outstanding taxes and they have now exhausted all means to collect on the delinquent taxes.

The properties listed are found in Mount Airy at 263 Maple Dr., 1185 S. Main St., a vacant lot on Bowman Rd., another vacant lot on N. South St., and 220 Cedar Gate Ln. Also, a parcel of land at 916 Jenkinstown Rd. in Dobson was listed. Harrison submitted the tax values on each parcel and asked the commissioners to accept the opening bids on each and proceed to finalizing the foreclosures, to which they agreed.

Commissioner Van Tucker took a moment to note most Surry County residents pay their taxes on time. The county foreclosing is among the last things anyone wants to do, and the commissioners have reached out to owners in the past and spoken to them about past due balances, he said. However, foreclosure is a part of life Tucker admitted, and while it may pain members of the board to make these decisions it is their duty to do so, “We do it as the very last option, I assure you.”

– The board passed a resolution designating Surry County a Green Light for Veterans County. Now through Veterans Day, Nov. 11, is “a time to salute and honor the service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform transitioning from Active Service. In observance of Operation Green Light residents are encouraged in patriotic tradition to recognize the importance of honoring all those who made immeasurable sacrifices to preserve freedom by displaying a green light in a window of their home or place of business.”

The resolution notes the financial impact veterans have on the country but also the perilous nature of the transition from military to civilian life that leads to a higher incidence of suicide in the first year after discharge. The county supports and respects its veterans and participating in Operation Green Light will be an ongoing affirmation of that support.

The recent passing of Queen Elizabeth II was a big blow to British royalty, but Mount Airy still has its own “monarch” who was celebrated during a recent event that included an appropriate beverage.

This involved the Fit For a Queen Afternoon Tea at a local residence, where the guest of honor was Betty Wright — known locally as the Queen of Preservation for her efforts to safeguard historically valuable properties.

Norm and Jeanmarie Schultz had heard about Wright’s reputation in that regard and decided that a Queen’s Tea would be appropriate for her.

The occasion unfolded at the South Main Street home of the Schultz couple. They moved to Mount Airy about a year ago and have fallen in love with the community, according to Ann Vaughn, one of those attending the afternoon tea who provided a recap of the gathering.

It was held at a house that Norm and Jeanmarie Schultz bought and renovated while maintaining the historical integrity associated with the structure, Vaughn added, so it was appropriate to recognize Betty Wright.

Twelve ladies attended the event.

“It was absolutely a wonderful occasion, dedicated to times when we used to dress up for church and found time to stop and smell the roses along the way,” Vaughn reported. This included wearing gloves and hats for an event fitting for someone known as Mount Airy’s own Queen Mother.

After signing a guest register in the foyer, those attending picked up porcelain name cards and headed toward the dining room that was elegantly decorated with a number of floral and other arrangements.

“The room and the appropriately decorated table would have rivaled anything that Alice in Wonderland or the Mad Hatter might have imagined many years ago,” in Vaughn’s view. “As a matter of fact, they would have been so envious — the Cheshire Cat would have been grinning from ear to ear hoping to catch all of the chatter in the room.”

Wright’s daughter, Tamra Thomas, brought her to the tea.

Its sandwich menu included cucumber and cream cheese along with egg salad, chicken with cranberries and bacon quiche, with the dessert list featuring scones with marmalade and butter, white chocolate and buttercream petit fours, raspberry petit fours, fruit tart, chocolate peanut butter nibbles, mini-lemon tarts, Russian tea cookies, oat lace cookies, Belgian butter thins and wedding cookies.

“Many thanks to Norm and Jeanmarie Schultz for opening up their beautiful home and sharing a delightful afternoon that was superlative in every way,” Vaughn concluded.

In conjunction with the Fit For a Queen Afternoon Tea, details on foods served there have emerged.

This includes a recipe for cucumber sandwiches, which are easy to prepare and are a great treat for any occasion:

Ingredients needed are one cucumber, peeled and sliced extremely thin; eight-ounce cream cheese, softened; fresh dill, chopped; a pinch of salt; white bread.

Mix the cream cheese, dill and salt. The cucumber can be sliced ahead of time and stored in a container of water in the refrigerator.

Spread a thin layer of the cream cheese mixture on both sides of the bread. Layer the cucumber and make the sandwich. Cut off the crusts. Cut into squares or triangles. The sandwiches are best served chilled. The extra cream cheese mix can be stored in an airtight container.

Ingredients needed: one cup of butter, softened; 3/4-cup powdered sugar; two cups of flour; one tsp. of vanilla; one cup of finely chopped pecans; extra powdered sugar for coating.

Beat the butter until fluffy. Add the other ingredients and mix well. Shape the dough into one-inch balls. Bake at 325 degrees for 14 to 18 minutes on an ungreased cookie sheet. The cookies are done when the bottoms are lightly brown. Cool completely on wire racks.

Place about two cups of powdered sugar in a large bowl with a lid (or freezer-sized Ziploc bag). Add the cooled cookies and shake to coat. Larger cookies might take up to 21 minutes to bake — so don’t get worried. If the bottoms are brown, they are cooked.

Colby “Branch” Benton had a birthday Monday that he neither observed nor celebrated; for him, there was no birthday cake to mark twenty-seven years. Today he is lying in a hospital bed fighting for his life following a violent incident last weekend at the very party meant to celebrate his birth.

Benton is a former United States Marine who with four others was stabbed Sunday after an altercation at 153 Old Wagon Trail, Dobson.

According to a release from Surry County Sheriff Steve C. Hiatt authorities arrived at the scene at 12:42 a.m., responding to a call of a cutting or stabbing incident with multiple victims.

Cortlan Damaryce Clark, 21, of 289 Happy Oaks Lane, Boomer, was arrested in Wilkes County Sunday and jailed under a secured $125,000 bond, according to a release sent by Surry County Sheriff Steve C. Hiatt.

He faces one count of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and four charges of assault with a deadly weapon. He will make his first appearance in Surry County District Court on November 9.

Sheriff Hiatt said this was considered to be an “isolated incident which started with a physical altercation between Mr. Clark and several of the victims,” the sheriff said.

“When patrol deputies arrived on the scene, they found three victims with multiple stab wounds ranging in the areas of the chest, neck and/or upper extremities.” the sheriff said.

Two of the victims had already left to seek medical care, suffering from similar wounds.

“All five victims were transported and/or seen by a medical facility: Northern Regional Hospital, Hugh Chatham Hospital and/or Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Hospital,” the sheriff said, adding that three were males and two females.

Further details on the incident have come in part from the GoFundMe page set up by Benton’s fellow Marine Joshua Reid-Dixon where the incident was described thusly, “On the evening of October 1, Branch and a group of close friends and family were celebrating his birthday when an uninvited guest (Clark) showed up. After being asked to leave, the individual refused to comply before drawing a deadly weapon, which he used to then stab Branch and four others.”

The statement goes on to say that Benton is “currently in the hospital, in a coma. He suffered a severe stroke from a blood clot that formed after the stabbing. His brain has swollen to the degree they needed to remove a piece of the skull just to provide relief and to prevent even more damage.”

His family said Wednesday morning they were heading to the hospital to get an update on Branch’s condition, “Right now we’re headed to the hospital. They are bringing him off sedation to do neuro tests to test his responses.”

Reid-Dixon said Wednesday that he was not at liberty to disclose what hospital was treating Benton, saying there may be some ongoing security concerns and that information is being withheld from non-family members.

“His life, as we know it, will never be the same,” Reid-Dixon writes of his comrade in arms who he called “the life of the party, a man of good morals and ethics, a loving soul, a kind soul, a man with patience and love for anyone he encountered.”

Brianna Kelly was an invited guest to the party and was also injured during the attack. She suffered a deep cut to her left arm which is now in a splint. “I may never get feeling back in it again,” she said Wednesday. She is cousin of the suspect but that did not stop her from calling the police and trying to turn Clark in herself.

“He (Clark) jumped in my car and try to force me to take him to his car and I refused. I went straight to the hospital and attempted to turn him into the police but he was already gone,” she said.

Some in the Benton family are finding the smallest silver lining amongst a tragic occurrence, “He should have bled out before making it to the hospital,” Luke and Eliza Benton wrote on Facebook, “But God placed a nurse at the party who knew where to put her fingers to slow down the tremendous blood loss.”

Reid-Dixon spoke about his friend with the level of respect that Branch earned during their time in the Corps and as the person out of the uniform, “He’s a patriot that loves America, and that was demonstrated in his four years of selfless service. He loves his family, his friends, the outdoors, horseback riding, working on his family ranch, and just being the sunshine on anyone’s cloudy day,” he wrote.

“As you read this post, He is fighting for his life right now and he needs our help,” he said on the GoFundMe page set up to raise money for the expenses that are to follow.

He established the GoFundMe so Branch’s friends, loved ones, fellow Marines, and veterans of all branches can send financial support and words of encouragement for his family during this trying time. A goal for donations of $10,000 was set and has already been exceeded with the tally continuing to grow higher still. Find the GoFundMe page at: https://gofund.me/03af9a6b

There are other victims and families suffering as well and Sheila Benton said she is keeping the other victims in her prayers, “I also would like to pray for the other four victims. They have families, friends, loved ones. I pray God will rescue all these families from evil and give them all comfort and miraculous healing.”

Reid-Dixon said that Benton is an incredible human being who, “Will now have to live the rest of his life with medical complications and limitations.”

The family requests prayers for Branch as well as all the other involved and have asked for privacy.

Momentum has been building for a event scheduled Sunday afternoon in downtown Mount Airy which will involve a walk to “save” Main Street.

“We’re trying to put this thing together and get as much support as we can,” said one of its organizers, Martha Truskolaski, owner of the Spotted Moon gift shop downtown.

Sunday’s event, scheduled from 2 to 4 p.m., has been described as a “friendly walk” — but one with a firm purpose of demonstrating business owners’ and other citizens’ opposition to a downtown master plan update.

It was approved by the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners in a 3-2 vote on Sept. 1, despite a large audience being on hand to oppose that measure.

Concern has been raised about parts of the master plan, an update of one completed in 2004, which opponents fear would harm the existing character of the central business district.

The general concept for North Main Street includes providing what are called “flex spaces” to create more areas for outdoor dining, tree plantings and other tweaks. Flex spaces 20 feet wide are envisioned on each side of North Main Street, including sidewalks 12 to 20 feet wide, with a movable bollard system and options for parking along the way.

The plan further prescribes large flexible outdoor spaces at street corners and the burial of above-ground utility lines along with street trees, new decorative street lights and strategically placed loading zones.

Traffic along North Main would remain two lanes going one way, but there are concerns among merchants and others that the changes would eliminate parking spaces and result in other detrimental effects.

Opponents’ underlying argument is that while supporters see the proposed changes as improvements, why do anything to risk messing up what already is widely considered a Main Street appreciated by locals and tourists alike.

Those not favoring the plan have the chance to make their opinions known en masse during Sunday’s walk, which in addition to Truskolaski has been organized by others including Gail Hiatt, longtime owner of Mount Airy Tractor Co. Toyland downtown.

Participants are asked to assemble between 1 and 1:30 p.m. in the Truist (BB&T) bank parking lot at the upper end of North Main Street. They will walk through the downtown area to the Municipal Building, where speakers are expected to address those assembled.

“Our permit allows us two o’clock to four o’clock,” Truskolaski said.

Arrangements have been made to provide vehicle transports for persons who don’t think they can walk that entire distance.

“I can’t tell you exactly how many people are going to be there,” Truskolaski said late Tuesday afternoon regarding the event. “Until it actually happens and people show up, you don’t really know.”

However, one thing is clear at this point about what opponents of the master plan implications for Main Street desire.

Truskolaski says they want city officials who support the plan to reconsider possible changes that could prove harmful to the main drag through the downtown area.

They want to keep North Main Street the “charming place” it is now, she explained.

Many people share that desire, as evidenced by the heavy response to petitions being circulated on the matter and that for a recently created Facebook page to promote the “Save Main Street” movement.

It had attracted between 400 and 500 followers as of Tuesday afternoon. T-shirts bearing the message “Keep Our Downtown Charm” and “Save Our Downtown Main Street” also are being bought by organizers to help promote their cause.

“It’s just amazing the outpouring,” Truskolaski said.

The shop owner wanted to make it known that she and others aren’t opposing the entire master plan update. It’s just the parts targeting North Main Street which critics say would give it the “cookie-cutter” look of places such as Asheville and West Palm Beach, Florida.

Truskolaski indicated that it is good to have diversity downtown, as evidenced by a revamping of Market Street to create an arts and entertainment district and changes eyed for the former Spencer’s textile mill site, both nearby.

But the tradition of North Main Street should be left alone, plan opponents believe.

“Why do we need to change Main Street, is basically what we are saying,” Truskolaski advised.

Another thing Truskolaski wants to stress involves a desire to prevent Sunday’s walk, and the movement itself, from being politicized.

This year’s municipal election in Mount Airy includes three races for commissioner and one involving a sitting commissioner running against an incumbent mayor.

Some of those candidates are expected to be among the speakers Sunday at the Municipal Building, but Truskolaski doesn’t view the downtown master plan update as a campaign issue.

“This has nothing to do with politics, in my opinion.”

PINNACLE — Unlike last weekend when the remnants of Hurricane Ian put a damper on outdoor events locally, sunny skies are forecast Saturday for the return of Horne Creek Living Historical Farm’s corn shucking frolic.

For the last two years, a variable other than the weather has prevented the typically well-attended fall event from occurring.

“Yeah, COVID got us,” Horne Creek Site Manager Lisa Turney said Monday of the scenario unfolding since the last corn shucking frolic was held in 2019 — which curtailed it and other large public gatherings.

With that threat now out of the picture, excitement is running high for the 29th-annual frolic scheduled Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Horne Creek Living Historical Farm, where the centerpiece is the 1900-era Hauser family farmhouse.

It and the adjoining buildings and grounds have been preserved as a North Carolina State Historic Site to give the public an idea of what agriculture was like in the early days.

This will be in full display Saturday with activities to showcase what event organizers describe as a traditional rural frolic featuring the harvesting, shucking, shelling and grinding of corn — recreating community corn shuckings of the distant past.

Cider making, a quilt exhibit by the Surry County Quilters Guild, cooking, woodworking, spinning wool and flax, the making of apple butter and molasses, antiques, cooking demonstrations in the farmhouse, chair bottoms made with corn shucks, tobacco curing, natural dyeing, crocheting/knitting and numerous other craft demonstrations and exhibits are among attractions planned.

The list further includes a gristmill demonstration, log hewing and crosscut sawing and blacksmithing, along with others.

Old-time, bluegrass and gospel music performed by six different groups will add further spice to the gathering. The list of performers includes Candelfirth, Travis Frye and Blue Mountain, Chords of Faith, Gap Civil, Harrison’s Ridge and New River Line.

Areas of the farm to be involved other than the farmhouse include a tobacco barn, orchard, feed barn, dry house, garden and visitors center.

Various organizations will have a presence at the corn shucking frolic such as the Surry County Extension Master Gardeners, Four-H, Boy Scouts and the Surry County Beekeepers Association.

Old farm comes to live

The usual scene at the corn shucking frolic includes folks sitting on lawn chairs, which they are encouraged to bring, and bales of hay on the lawn of the farmhouse listening to music performed from a porch. And the other locations on the grounds where various demonstrations are taking place also are beehives of activity, including a well-filled corn crib.

Meanwhile, vehicles tend to line the roadway leading into the farm and fill its lot.

“I think there’s several reasons,” Turney said of the corn shucking frolic’s popularity.

One involves a sense of nostalgia and the desire to keep traditions alive.

“I think it’s because a lot of older people have done a lot of things that are highlighted,” Turney added of the various activities taking place along with shucking corn, “and they want to bring their families and show them.”

On the other end of the spectrum are attendees from urban environments who are totally unfamiliar with agricultural life and want to experience that, the site manager mentioned.

When there’s good music, food and heritage demonstrations, “I think you’ve got a winning combination,” she said.

Turney lamented the fact that another popular part of the festival, hayrides, has been discontinued for insurance reasons.

Admission to the event will cost $8 per adult and $5 for children ages 6-12, but is free for kids 5 and under.

There also will be a charge for food, drinks and some craft activities. Chicken stew, pintos, fried pies, apple cider and other items will be offered, with products and gifts available for sale at a country store on the site.

Additionally, apple trees grafted from those in the Southern Heritage Apple Orchard on the farm can be purchased.

No outside food or pets (other than service animals) will be allowed on the grounds.

Horne Creek Living Historical Farm can reached by taking the Pinnacle exit off U.S. 52, with state historic site signs leading the way from there.

DOBSON — With voting machines becoming a hot-button issue across the country in the wake of the 2020 election, efforts have been undertaken locally and statewide aimed at ensuring the integrity of those devices.

This included logic and accuracy (L&A) testing being conducted last week at the Surry County Service Center in Dobson to ensure machines will correctly read each ballot type and accurately count votes for the upcoming general election. It took place in a large meeting room beside the Surry Board of Elections office.

Three bipartisan teams of precinct officials from different areas of the county performed the testing during a planned day-long process leading to a reassuring outcome where accuracy in the voting equipment used at local precincts is concerned.

“The machines correctly read each ballot style for the upcoming general election as a result,” Surry Director of Elections Michella Huff reported.

“This is one more step in the process to reflect the machines are election-ready.”

The general election will be held on Nov. 8, but devices will be pressed into service before then when one-stop, no-excuse early voting begins at two locations, in Mount Airy and Dobson, on Oct. 20.

In anticipation of the election, the logic and accuracy testing targeted every machine used in all 100 North Carolina counties.

Under a procedure prescribed by the N.C. State Board of Elections, test ballots are marked by hand and by ballot-marking devices before being counted by a tabulator. These ballots are filled out according to a test script, which is designed to simulate the various combinations of selections citizens could make on their ballots during actual voting.

Huff advised that the machines tested in Surry were DS200 tabulators (all 33 in the county were checked) and the ExpressVote type (all 28 were tested). ExpressVote is a ballot-marking machine that can be used as an ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) device for any voter who wishes or needs to mark a ballot independently.

Federal law requires each precinct to have at least one Americans with Disabilities Act-approved voting device.

After the test ballots are run through the machines and results are printed and read, the machines are then reset to ensure no testing information remains in the devices, the local elections official explained.

And the security procedures do not end there.

“All equipment is sealed and recorded for chain of custody for opening on election morning at the polls, or on the opening of one-stop (voting) for two of the DS200s and two ExpressVotes,” Huff mentioned regarding the early balloting devices.

In addition to being sealed, the state requires voting equipment to be locked in a secure area until transported to the voting places.

Tamper-evident seals are placed on media ports, voting machines are never connected to the Internet and they also lack modems, officials say. A person would need physical access to a machine to install any type of virus or malware, they assure.

County election boards document the chain of custody of voting equipment when it is moved from its secure storage location, under state-required procedures.

Additionally, even assuming unauthorized access were possible, the tabulators recognize only approved and verified media/USB (Universal Serial Bus) interfaces and will ignore any unverified media.

Among other precautions, the coding for a particular election is encrypted and, when loaded on a machine, requires the validation of a digital signature to confirm that the data is from a trusted source.

People in Mount Airy are still counting their lucky stars when it comes to the near miss incident involving the Main Oak Building.

The partial collapse of the historic downtown building occurred in the early morning hours of July 5 after the Fourth of July parade had made its way past the Main Oak Building just the day before the collapse.

Since that time Mount Airy residents have been hungry for information, but it has been hard to come by since the building’s collapse. Mount Airy City Manager Stan Farmer was excited Monday to offer some good news and a progress update.

He said after a conference call on the Main Oak Building that the news, “Seems really positive. The insurance issues appear to have been settled and a plan is in place” to repair and restore the building.

Farmer said that for about the next three months the plan is to work out the design of the repair work. He noted that the third floor has been shored up and the plans are “not starting from scratch.” A major focus of the project will be the restoration of the historic façade of the building.

After the planning stages, Farmer said for the next three to six months construction and repair will be occurring. Concurrently, the owners will be applying for historic tax credits to offset the costs of repair to a building that is included in the Mount Airy Historical District.

He noted that the support beams would need to remain in place, but the barricades have been moved as much as possible to allow for pedestrians to move more easily downtown once again.

The free flow of foot traffic was a concern to organizers and vendors of the upcoming Autumn Leaves Festival in downtown Mount Airy. Farmer said the situation in regard to ALF has improved as much as possible noting the city has done all they can do.

While the public had been waiting for news, Farmer said his interactions with the building’s owner and the companies contracted to do the demo work and removal had been very positive. “They have done what they said they were going to do,” he said.

Any time you have an incident such as this and there are multiple parties involved it can be challenging, Farmer said. Trying to navigate the varying interests of the building owner, the insurance company, and the city itself can be tricky.

Farmer though reiterated that the parties are moving forwards and are committed to the repair of the Main Oak Building.

The three-story structure, at the corner of Main and Oak Streets had changed hands last year, when long-time owner Burke Robertson sold the building to a Durham business known as Mt. Airy Once, LLC. The new owners were planning to convert at least part of the building into Airbnb units supplying short-term rentals to tourists in town like the project they did in Elkin called Three Trails.

While the initial planning had been for short term rentals, Airbnb rentals tend to be for a week or less when someone is on vacation, he noted the Elkin plans had evolved. Farmer said the Elkin project has been marketed with some success by Hugh Chatham Memorial Hospital to travelling nurses and doctors.

Therefore, the Main Oak project will also seek flexibility, Farmer said, to allow for some instances of long-term rentals similar to Three Trails in Elkin.

The Main Oak Building was constructed between 1905 and 1910 as the Midkiff Hardware Store. Lizzie Morrison, downtown coordinator for Mount Airy Downtown Inc., said at the time of the collapse they were, “Shocked and saddened by the sudden partial loss of a pivotal historic building in the Mount Airy National Register Historic District.

“It is an invaluable and irreplaceable part of our history here in Mount Airy. The community and visitors alike will be mourning a monumental loss if the front facade cannot be saved.”

As the calendar flips to October, many in the region are thinking about cool autumn days, Halloween decorations and the late-season harvest time.

But for some hoping to ensure area children and teens have a happy Christmas, this is the time to start working for the holiday season.

The annual Give A Kid A Christmas program, started by former Sheriff Graham Atkinson more than three decades ago, will be gearing up for the fundraising portion of its activities over the next week.

“The foundation board met last week,” said Dr. Travis Reeves, Surry County School superintendent. “We have letters ready, we’re getting those printed and mail merged to go out…Those will be going out in the next few days. That’s really the kickoff to our fundraiser.”

The event, begun roughly 30 years ago when Atkinson, then a deputy serving as a DARE officer in the local school system, is a massive effort joining the county school system, the Give A Kid A Christmas foundation, the Surry County Sheriff’s Office under the direction of Sheriff Steve C. Hiatt, and local businesses and volunteers.

Through various fundraising efforts, the foundation will collect money to help buy needed goods — chiefly food and clothes for underprivileged families — along with a few fun Christmas presents for the kids and teens. While they’re doing the fundraising, school counselors are working with the Salvation Army to identify kids from families who might have holiday needs, and then the program culminates near Christmas, when an army of volunteers puts together large food boxes for the families, while other volunteers use the raised funds to shop for clothes and toys for the kids.

Then, more volunteers deliver them all to households in the community.

“For over 30 years, the Give A Kid A Christmas Foundation has been a staple here in Surry County Schools to help our students with food, with clothing, the bare necessitates, and with toys,” Reeves said.

The program wasn’t always so elaborate.

Atkinson, who has served in Raleigh on the governor’s Post-Release Supervision and Parole Commission since he retired from the sheriff’s office in 2015, said he had no idea of starting a county-wide movement that would last beyond his time with the sheriff’s office.

He has many times told the story of how the program began, when he noticed a child in a local elementary school in need.

“I noticed the young man was wearing the same clothes each time I was there,” he said in 2019 during the fundraising kick-off that year. “They were obscenely small clothes. I started asking some of his teachers, and they told me he’d worn the same set of clothes to school every day. Since he was in third grade.”

He reached out for some help, finding it at Walmart, who helped the deputy provide enough clothing for that young man to provide him with a modest new wardrobe.

“If you had handed him a bar of gold, it wouldn’t have meant any more to him. For the rest of the year, his clothes may not have always been clean, but he wore those (new) clothes, and he was proud of them.”

From that beginning, and the desire to help more and more children each year, grew Atkinson’s Give A Kid A Christmas program.

This week, Atkinson said he never knew what eventually became of that child, but he recounted a few other heart-tugging incidents along the way.

“In one of our very first years, we used to get the guidance counselors to help us get the names (of kids to help). I got a request from a 17-year-old-female, when she put down what she wanted for Christmas, she put down she wanted an ax.

“Now, the law enforcement officer in me started to get worried. But…I learned this little girl’s daddy was disabled. Some well-meaning neighbors had gotten together and cut a load of wood, but they had cut it fireplace length, and all they had for heat was a wood stove. She wanted an ax so she could split the wood.

“I delivered that one in person. She got the ax, though we didn’t do that one at school,” he was quick to add. “She got an ax, but she also got some other things a 17-year-old girl should have for Christmas.”

Another story he shared brought some raw emotion to the surface, as the former sheriff said he always gets choked up relating this memory.

“I was looking through the requests when I came across a third-grade boy,” he said. “I don’t need anything,” the child had written. “But my little sister is 3 and she would really like a baby doll.

“There again, the little girl got a baby doll, but the boy also got Christmas presents. That was very early when we started doing this, but that set the tone for what we are doing today. That’s when we realized we should include siblings that are not of school age.”

Now, he said, when they identify a home in need, they try to provide gifts for all the children and teens in the household, and enough food to the family so they can make it through the Christmas break from school. Atkinson explained that for many children in Surry County, the only food they have each day is the school-supplied breakfast and lunch, with no dinner at home available some nights.

“You can imagine how hard that is for a two-week Christmas break.”

Reeves said there are many opportunities for people to help. Many groups in the schools — from student clubs collecting change to faculty and staff organizing donation drives — are working to give to the project.

A number of area residents and businesses make donations as well.

The single biggest fundraiser is what they call an annual “telethon,” which is a live-streamed event similar to television shows that raise money for various causes. Reeves said the event, to be hosted by former television weather forecaster and current local pastor Austin Caviness, along with former television anchor Cameron Kent, is set for Nov. 28. It will be live-streamed on Facebook, and possibly some other outlets.

“We’ve raised $30,000, $40,000 in one night,” he said of the telethon. “A lot of folks look to that date to give.”

While that seems like a hefty figure, the effort will use every dollar, and then some.

“Last year, we raised money for food and clothing for about 700 children,” he said. “We provided over 350 food boxes…and the food boxes weight 50-60 pounds. It’s quite a lot of food.”

On average, he said they spent about $140 per child on clothing and toys.

For those wishing to donate to the effort, there are several ways:

– Send a check to Sheriff Atkins’s Give A Kid A Christmas Foundation, PO Box 827 Dobson, NC 27017

– Send a donation via PayPal at https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/giveakidachristmas

– Sent a donation via Venmo using the email sheriffsgiveakidachristmas@gmail.com

For more information, visit the foundation’s Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/giveakidachristmas

Five stabbing victims were sent to area hospitals — three in serious condition — and a Boomer, North Carolina man has been arrested and jailed in connection with the early Sunday morning incident.

Cortlan Damaryce Clark, 21, of 289 Happy Oaks Lane, Boomer, was arrested in Wilkes County Sunday and jailed under a secured $125,000 bond, according to a release sent by Surry County Sheriff Steve C. Hiatt. Clark has been charged with five counts of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury with intent to kill.

The charges come after an altercation became violent during a birthday party at 153 Old Wagon Trail, Dobson. The sheriff said the violence was an “isolated incident which started with a physical altercation between Mr. Clark and several of the victims,” the sheriff said,

After the altercation, the sheriff’s statement said deputies arrived at the scene at 12:42 a.m., responding to a call of a cutting or stabbing incident with multiple victims.

“When patrol deputies arrived on the scene, they found three victims with multiple stab wounds ranging in the areas of the chest, neck and/or upper extremities.” the sheriff said.

Two of the victims had already left to seek medical care, suffering from similar wounds.

”All five victims were transported and/or seen by a medical facility: Northern Regional Hospital, Hugh Chatham Hospital and/or Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Hospital,” the sheriff said, adding that three were males and two females, ranging from age 19 to age 25.

The investigation is ongoing, and Clark is scheduled to appear in Surry County District Court on Nov. 9, 2022. Other agencies involved with the case include Surry County Emergency Medical Services, South Surry Volunteer Fire Department, and the Wilkes County Sheriff’s Office.

The blast tore through the chilled morning air, glass shards from shattered windows raining down on Mount Airy citizens as they ran to investigate. The scene of destruction must have been jarring.

A heavy fog shrouded the carnage, clinging to trees and adding to the surreal affect. Twisted metal, fluttering pieces of paper, and the mangled remains of a Ford pickup truck littered Franklin Street and the neatly kept lawns that lined it. The acrid scent of burning fuel filled the air as people tried to make sense of the wreckage.

Twenty feet from the truck lay the body of their neighbor William Cochrane. Someone brought a blanket to cover the young man out of respect as others called for emergency services.

It must have been a shock when Bill pushed the fabric from his face. “Don’t cover me. I’m not dead.”

It was 8:05 am, Monday, Dec. 31, 1951. Bill was headed to White Plains High School where he was an agriculture teacher who worked with the Future Farmers of America and also GIs returning to family farms after their tour of duty was done.

At 23, he wasn’t much older than many of his students. Athletic and affable, he was popular with students and staff at the school where he’d been teaching since he graduated from NC State in 1949. The Franklin native had deep roots in the far-western counties of Macon and Buncombe where his ancestors had lived since at least 1800.

He met Imogene Moses, a graduate of Appalachian State and Surry’s assistant home demonstration officer, here. Imogene grew up near Pittsboro, Chatham County, near Raleigh. The couple married August 25, 1951. They were looking for a home in White Plains where they regularly attended services at the Friends’ Meeting House.

The blast put an end to all of that.

The bomb was under the driver’s seat. It ejected Bill through the roof of the cab and amputated both legs. Police, recognizing the severity of Bill’s injuries, asked if he knew who could have done this.

“I don’t have an enemy in the world,” was the confused reply before he was taken to Martin Memorial Hospital on Cherry Street.

His students flocked to the hospital to donate blood but, despite extraordinary efforts by the medical staff, the trauma and shock were beyond them. William Homer Cochrane Jr. died 13 hours later. More than 3,000 mourners attended the funeral.

Rumors flew as the investigation got underway. Mount Airy Police Chief Monte W. Boone met with James Powell, director of the State Bureau of Investigation. Mount Airy Police Captain W. H. Sumner worked with SBI Agent Willis Jessup, former Mount Airy Police Chief.

City leaders posted a $2,100 reward for information leading to an arrest. The state added $400 and Bill’s hometown of Franklin where his own father was chief of police, added $1,300.

Governor W. Kerr Scott decried the indiscriminate nature of the murder that could have killed anyone. “The flames of righteous anger continue to run high in Mount Airy… every citizen should cooperate to the fullest with the Mount Airy police officers.”

Sumner and John Edwards and Guy Scott, SBI agents based in Elkin, tracked down Imogene’s former beaus here, at App State, and in Chatham County where she grew up.

They sent what they could find of the bomb to the FBI’s Crime Laboratories in Washington, D.C., where it was determined dynamite or nitroglycerine had been used. So, they tracked down dynamite sales.

The process was made more difficult by a dry season where many local wells dried up causing a spike in dynamite sales. Ed Draughn, a worker at the W. E. Merritt Hardware Store on Main Street, remembered selling two sticks and five blasting caps to a stranger the week before Christmas.

But there the trail ran cold — until April 1954.

Imogene moved back east to Edenton to be closer to family and to escape painful memories. There she met George Byrum, a city councilman. Two weeks before they were due to wed a bomb was found in her car. Not as powerful or sophisticated, when this bomb exploded it didn’t kill anyone, just put Edenton Police Chief George Dail in the hospital with burns.

SBI agents John Edwards and Guy Scott headed to Edenton to talk with a man they suspected from the start but couldn’t find enough evidence for arrest.

George Henry Smith, a childhood friend of Imogene’s, had asked her out a few times over the years. She never accepted. After being questioned he drove to the family farm where he lived with his parents, ran into the woods and committed suicide before they could charge him.

Imogene and George Byrum married and raised a family in Edenton. She and George both died in 2008.

There are those who believe young Cochrane’s spirit haunts the apartments and homes along Franklin Street where he lived and died. His story is recounted on the museum’s ghost tour each Friday and Saturday night. The tragic emotions of a life cut short ripple through time as he continues to wonder, “Who could have done this? I don’t have an enemy in the world.”

Kate Rauhauser-Smith is a volunteer for the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History with 22 years in journalism before joining the museum. She and her family moved to Mount Airy in 2005 from Pennsylvania where she was also involved with museums and history tours.

DOBSON — For more than 30 years, Bryan Cave has been a go-to guy for local farmers in helping their operations succeed and now he is moving on to a new chapter in life.

Cave has retired as county extension director for the N.C. Cooperative Extension’s Surry Center. His last day on the job was Friday, capping a 34-year career that began in 1988 when he was hired as an assistant agricultural extension agent.

In 2007, Cave was promoted to extension director.

Through that role, Cave continued his efforts begun earlier to support and advise livestock and forage producers along with providing leadership for the county Cooperative Extension staff. It now has nine people, including the director position.

The impact Bryan Cave has made on the Surry County landscape was highlighted Tuesday when a retirement party was held at the Surry County Government Service Center in Dobson in honor of his contributions.

This included a “floating” period when well-wishers could stop by to help celebrate the milestone, along with dinner and speeches.

It is estimated that at least 200 people came through as part of the occasion involving “Bryan being put out to pasture,” as an announcement for the party stated.

The event included Cave receiving the Order of the Long Leaf Pine award, which is considered the highest civilian honor given in North Carolina. Making the presentation was Dr. Rich Bonanno, an associate dean and director at N.C. State Extension.

Cave also was presented with a personalized belt buckle from his son Joshua as a retirement gift.

Before launching his N.C. Cooperative Extension career, in 1987 Cave received a B.S. degree in animal science from N.C. State University, where he later earned a master’s degree in that field, according to information from Nicole Vernon, a staff member at the Surry Center.

He began work in Surry County with responsibilities that included providing educational opportunities and leadership to livestock and forage producers.

Within seven years, Cave had excelled in leading local producers to the point that an estimated increase in farm income exceeding $10 million had occurred and he was promoted to a full extension agent.

Over the years, Cave became known for his networking abilities, which have enabled invaluable partnerships to be formed. As county extension director, he organized and allocated resources to ensure his local staff had what has been needed to be successful, the information provided by Vernon further states.

His presence also has made a difference in places other than Surry.

For more than 10 years, N.C. Cooperative Extension utilized Cave’s skills to assist other counties where there was a vacant extension director position and he served on an interim basis in Yadkin, Wilkes, Alleghany and Stokes counties. During that time, he helped rebuild, restructure and strengthen county offices.

Cave also is credited with creating bridges that linked N.C. State University to local county government and led to greater understanding of each partner creating a more productive work environment.

During his tenure, Cave also was an advocate for farming, playing a critical role in the education of non-farm citizens of Surry County to the importance of agriculture in their lives and the economic well-being of the county, region and state.

This has included developing annual Farm Animal Day programs in local schools to connect with younger students.

Cave frequently has been invited to speak at regional economic-development training programs for business professionals in the Piedmont region, along with addressing Rotary, Ruritan and other civic groups.

His reputation for knowing the facts — which he can readily recite off the top of his head — and having an intimate knowledge of topical farm issues have been pluses in this regard.

He has served as a member of numerous economic-development and other boards and organizations such as the North Carolina Cattlemen’s Association.

Cave’s imprint is expected to have a lasting impression for years to come.

The retiree, a resident of Dobson, now plans to be involved in an unspecified part-time endeavor in addition to spending more time with his family.

It includes his wife of 35 years, Angie; their children, Joshua and Sarah; and five grandchildren.

Relief efforts for residents of Florida who were impacted by Hurricane Ian are already underway locally.

In Mount Airy donations are being accepted at Creative Designs located at 1351 S. Main Street where a trailer is parked and is ready to receive donations.

The trailer donated by William “Crab” Smith Trucking will be on the road this week to deliver supplies including trash bags, contractor trash bags, cases of water, toilet paper, paper towels and wipes for personal hygiene.

Cleaning supplies are being requested as are tarps, bungee cords, shovels, and rakes.

In times of need pets need assistance as well and organizers listed dry food for cats and dogs, as well as cat litter.

Dianne Johnson of Johnson’s Xtreme Softwash has been helping spread the word on social media to draw attention to the collection efforts, “Let’s fill this trailer, we want to get this on its way this week.”

The North Surry High School Student Council has announced a similar drive to, “Collect necessary supplies for residents impacted by Hurricane lan on Sanibel Island and the Fort Myers, Florida area.”

Over the weekend students wishing to participate as asked to pick up requested items and bring them to school on Monday.

“The time is now, and the need is great! Let’s go Greyhounds!” the announcement said.

The requested items list matches the list found above and items are to be put in the lobby at North Surry on Monday.

Hurricane Ian has made another landfall, this time in South Carolina. The U.S. National Hurricane Center says Ian’s center came ashore Friday afternoon just after 2 p.m. near Georgetown, South Carolina, with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph.

Ian previously hit Florida’s Gulf Coast as a powerful Category 4 hurricane with 150 mph winds Wednesday, flooding homes and leaving nearly 2.7 million people without power.

A hurricane warning was in effect from the Savannah River along the Georgia – South Carolina state line up to Cape Fear.

Tropical storm force winds were ongoing along much of the coast and Tropical Storm Warnings are in place across parts of the North Carolina coast from Cape Fear to Duck late Friday.

“Ian is forecast to move more quickly toward the north today followed by a turn toward the north-northwest by tonight. On the forecast track, the center of Ian will reach the coast of South Carolina today, and then move farther inland across eastern South Carolina and central North Carolina tonight and Saturday,” according to Friday’s National Weather Service statement on the storm.

In their statement the National Weather Service in Blacksburg, Virginia, issued both a wind advisory and flood watch for Surry County.

“Hurricane Ian is expected to bring widespread 2 – 4 inches of rain to parts of the area through early afternoon Saturday. Locally higher amounts up to 6 inches are also possible, especially along the Blue Ridge, and any areas where bands of heavy rain remain situated for extended periods of time,” the advisory said.

Ian was expected to maintain about the same strength before landfall late Friday, then weaken and rapidly transition into a post-tropical cyclone overnight leading into Saturday. Ian should dissipate over western North Carolina or Virginia late Saturday, the advisory notice said.

The Weather Service warns to be alert for flash flooding caused by excessive rainfall from the remnants of Ian. Excessive runoff may result in flooding of rivers, creeks, streams, and other low-lying and flood-prone locations, the notice states.

“Locally considerable flash, urban, and small stream flooding is possible today into early Saturday across portions of northwest North Carolina and southwest Virginia,” the Weather Service advised late Friday.

The National Weather Service says to monitor later forecasts and be alert as watches can become warnings in a matter of minutes. Those living in areas prone to flooding should be prepared to act should flash flooding occur.

Residents of the area are also being warned about the potential for high winds. A wind advisory period began at 10 a.m. Friday and will continue through noon Saturday. The Weather Service predicts that winds of 20 to 30 mph will come from the northeast with gusts reaching up to 40 mph expected. Gusts of up to 50 mph are possible in higher elevations and along ridgetops.

Surry County Emergency Management Director Eric Southern sounded confident in the county’s preparations. He said the fact that Ian looks to be a slow rainmaker does not change the county’s preparation or alert status.

“We are monitoring the situation electronically,” he said Friday afternoon. “Our crews have been notified who is on call, they are at home waiting for the call and have equipment ready.”

He said there has been no special guidance offered from Raleigh on statewide preparation, so Surry County is ready now for the rain and wind that are expected this weekend. Southern expected the weather to have arrived by late Friday afternoon.

“People should expect wind and rain any time now,” he said as the skies got ever darker over Mount Airy.

Southern recommended residents use the Hyper-Reach system which is a state-of-the-art mass emergency notification system designed specifically for public safety. The system provides rapid notification of severe weather, amber alerts, silver alerts and safety situations using a mix of telephone calls, text and email messages, and services designed for the hearing impaired.

Citizens can download the Hyper-Reach Anywhere app on their smartphone. Hyper-Reach Anywhere is a free smartphone app that allows individual citizens to manage and monitor the alerts they receive, for their home and office addresses, as well as addresses for friends and family.

Sign at: https://signup.hyper-reach.com/hyper_reach/sign_up_page_2/?id=88382

President Joe Biden has already issued disaster declarations for the states of Florida and South Carolina, “Last night I received a request for an emergency declaration from Gov. Henry McMaster, which I approved right away just as I did for Florida,” he said. “This allows for immediate federal funding for the state to shelter people and provide other essential support.”

Closer to home, residents have been scrambling to modify and change plans due to the fickle nature of forecasting hurricanes. Surry County Public Schools released students early, canceled field trips for Friday, and moved Friday night football games to Thursday as a precaution. The Sonker Festival, Music at the Market, Mayberry Food Truck Fest, and Civil War reenactment in Ararat, Virginia were all also moved or postponed.

A good number of people in Mount Airy are interested in learning more about city government, judging by the interest shown in a new Mayberry Citizens Academy that will accommodate more people than first planned.

Municipal officials announced the program on Sept. 10, saying it would be limited to 15 applicants.

“We got over 20 people,” City Manager Stan Farmer said Thursday.

“And we have got room for more,” he added regarding the series of classes involved which starts next week. “So more is merrier.”

The goal of the Citizens Academy is to help Mount Airy residents better understand how local government operates while benefiting the community overall.

Such academies, also known as leadership institutes, seek to educate residents through direct contact with public officials, site visits and hands-on activities, and are fairly common throughout the nation, officials say. These programs address what is considered a knowledge gap between citizens and government.

Classes locally will include a range of topics such as city and state government relations, firefighting, police and code enforcement, public works/utilities, finance, parks and recreation and planning.

Including the first Citizens Academy session on Tuesday, a total of eight is planned each Tuesday evening over nine weeks until Nov. 29, skipping the week of Thanksgiving.

On those Tuesdays from 5:30 to 7 p.m., different subject matter pertaining to local government will be covered by the city manager or department heads. The first class will be a general introduction featuring Farmer along with City Attorney Hugh Campbell and City Clerk Nicki Brame.

Speakers will be involved in seven of the classes, with the eighth to serve as a graduation ceremony.

Farmer is pleased by the interest shown in the Citizens Academy.

“It’s encouraging that people want to learn about their local government more,” he said Thursday.

Once the number of applicants exceeded what Farmer called the “15 self-imposed limit,” organizers decided to open the program up to more people, agreeing that they can handle the greater number. There is now no specified limit, according to the manager.

However, those interested must complete a short application form available on the city website and submit it by the close of business on Monday. The form can be accessed at https://www.mountairy.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=427

Completed applications may be forwarded to sfarmer@mountairy.org or dropped off at City Hall.

Officials have said that applicants must be city residents, but non-Mount Airy residents might be considered if space is available. There is an emphasis on creating a diverse class from many different neighborhoods within Mount Airy.

Farmer said Thursday he thinks this has been accomplished based on the more than 20 people signed up so far.

“Demographically it appears to be pretty diverse.” This includes a balance of folks in different parts of town and also from a gender standpoint.

DOBSON — A group from Patrick County, Virginia, captured the coveted band competition last Saturday at the Surry Old-Time Fiddlers Convention in Dobson.

The absence of the event for more than three years as a result of COVID-19 did not dampen musicians’ enthusiasm to be recognized as tops in their field, with Buffalo Mountain Ears from Meadows of Dan judged best band. The convention was staged at the Surry County Service Center.

A Westfield group, The Minglewood Ramblers, took second place and The Slate Mountain Ramblers of Mount Airy, third place.

Another local-based group, The Roaring Gap Rattlers of State Road, captured fourth-place honors, with The Orange Grove Hot Shots, from Hillsborough in fifth place.

Young band competition also was highly contested, led by The Greasy String Band of Mount Airy.

The Newfound Gap Band hailing from Leicester took second place and The Biscuit Eating Ramblers of Lowgap, third.

Place winners in individual categories, whose hometowns were not available, included:

• Variety — 1. Coleman Emerson, 2. Penny Kilby, 3. Milton Scott, 4. Mason Winfree, 5. Bobby Fields.

• Folk song — 1. Mark Kilianski, 2. Aaron Ratcliffe, 3. Mason Winfrey, 4. Jared Boyd, 5. Jack Zell.

• Mandolin — 1. Todd Hiatt, 2. Ralph McGee, 3. Eva Casstevens, 4. Cody Bowman.

• Bass — 1. Stacy Boyd, 2. Barbara Bowman, 3. Bill Sluys, 4. Tammy Sawyer.

• Guitar — 1. Danny Casstevens, 2. Steve Kilby, 3. Mark Kilianski, 4. Gene Anderson.

• Banjo — 1. Jared Boyd, 2. Nancy Sluys, 3. Andrew Walker, 4. Aaron Ratcliffe, 5. Josh Harrod.

• Fiddle — 1. Amy Alvey, 2. Richard Bowman, 3. Jason Phillips, 4. Travis Watts, 5. Thom Worm.

• Dance — 1. Marty Todd, 2. Barbara Bowman, 3. Marsha Todd, 4. Mason Winfree, 5. JoAnn Call.

• Best all-around performer — Jared Boyd.

• Variety — 1. Coley Palmer, 2. Emmie Davis.

• Folk song — 1. Maggie Wilkerson, 2. Levi Head, 3. Bayla Davis.

• Guitar — 1. Gavin Woodruff, 2. Judah Davis, 3. Levi Head.

• Banjo — 1. Brock Greer, 2. Bayla Davis, 3. Josiah Wilkerson.

• Fiddle — 1. Sylvie Davis, 2. Hunter Hiatt, 3. Sam Wilkerson.

• Best all-around performer – Gavin Woodruff.

Surry County Parks and Recreation has extended an invitation to members of the community to join a public meeting in which they hope to gain insights and opinions to what residents want to see in future projects.

Residents are being asked to provide feedback that will assist the department in development of the Surry County Parks and Recreation Master Plan which will guide expansion, addition, or renovation to existing parks, playgrounds, ball fields, river accesses, and trails across the county.

Furthermore, department officials are hoping members of the public will aid in updating and further developing the Fisher River Park Master Plan. Daniel White of Surry County Parks and Recreation has previously explained improvement plans he would like to see at Fisher River Park, such as replacing old playground equipment and rethinking the orientation and skill level of the mountain bike trails at the park.

Input is needed at the public meeting so that parks and recreation may seek grant funding from the Access for Parks Grant and the North Carolina Parks and Recreation Trust Fund grant. Parks and Recreation’s Bradley Key said that topics under consideration at the public meeting will include parks, programs, facilities, and amenities that may best service the community in the years to come.

The Access for Parks Grant provides $10 million to parks departments for programming designed to benefit persons with disabilities. Grant funding will be used to adapt existing equipment or build new facilities that can meet the needs of children and veterans with physical or developmental challenges. The program is administered through the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation and the N.C. Parks and Recreation Trust Fund.

White says the Access grant is broad and considers many different forms of physical and development disabilities that may need to be accommodated for. He has said that creating greater accessibility such as having ramps that can get mobility challenged kids up “into the play” rather than watching from the sidelines.

Multi-sensory apparatus that engages in a variety of ways like tactile interactions or musical instruments incorporated into playground equipment would increase participation. White noted a xylophone is one of his bucket list ideas offering it would be interesting but is just one idea. He suggested also having areas for kids to transition into group play may benefit those with vision or hearing problem to gain comfort with their surroundings so they may more fully enjoy themselves.

“I may not be able to do it all, but I can dream and then I value-engineer,” he said with a smile from the parks and rec office in Dobson. “That’s what I do: I dream and then I value-engineer.”

The General Assembly awards funds to the Parks and Recreation Trust Fund each year and a citizen board makes the decisions on allocating funds. Since 1994 a total of 993 projects have been funded across the state totaling $236 million in granted dollars, which were then paired with local matching funds to reach $746 million in total impact for funding of parks.

Surry County has previously funded 12 projects with trust fund assistance including funding for multiple Greenway extension projects, Dobson Square Park, Westwood Park in Mount Airy, Pilot Mountain Park, and dual grants for Fisher River Park. With the county’s matching funding these 12 grants total $8.8 million of parks investment.

Through grant applications Surry County Parks and Recreation are seeking to find alternative ways of funding improvement to parks without asking for more funding from the county or the taxpayer.

White explained, “The resources that we are given in this department, we do our best to use them to the very best of our ability. To use them to their maximum potential. That’s what we are looking for, to use the resources to their max potential and leverage the dollars they are giving us into more.”

To qualify for consideration for these state grant programs, the county must hold an open meeting with input from the residents they serve. To satisfy that requirement the meeting will be held on Tuesday, Oct, 4, from 6 – 8 p.m. at Dobson Town Hall, located at 307 North Main St. in Dobson.

Refreshments will be provided at the meeting, so a grumbling stomach at a natural dinner time need not discourage participation. Parks and Recreation needs to hear from as many people as possible to ensure that the future of Surry Count’s facilities will match the wants and desires of the community.

The state told applicants, “Local governments with better plans and public involvement have received more grants.”

With more public input and guidance as to what people want to see, the better the grant application will be thus increasing the likelihood of being awarded the funding.

For more information on parks planning or the public meeting, contact Surry County Parks and Recreation at 336-401-8235.

DOBSON — The general election won’t be held until Nov. 8, but Surry Countians already have begun making their choices through the absentee ballot by mail process.

“North Carolina was the first state in the nation to begin voting for the 2022 general election, being the first state to mail out absentee ballots on September ninth,” Surry Director of Elections Michella Huff advised.

“We have received requests for and mailed out 549 absentee by mail ballots,” Huff added Wednesday. “We have received 61 as of this morning.”

Under state law, any North Carolina registered voter may request, receive and vote a mail-in absentee ballot — with no special circumstance or excuse needed.

Absentee request forms can be returned only by mail or in person — except for individuals covered under the Uniformed And Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA). They may return requests via email and fax, based on information earlier released about the process.

Nov. 1, a week before the election, is listed on the Surry Board of Elections website as the last day to request an absentee ballot. The deadline for returning civilian ballots is Nov. 8 by 5 p.m. That day is also the deadline for those participating through the Uniformed And Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act.

An absentee ballot portal at https://votebymail.ncsbe.gov/app/home is available.

The mailing address for the Surry Board of Elections is P.O. Box 372, Dobson, NC, 27017, and its physical address is 915 E. Atkins St., Dobson.

Absentee by mail balloting has been a source of skepticism surrounding its security compared to in-person voting, but elections officials in North Carolina say a number of precautions exist to ensure the integrity of that process.

For one, county election officials send ballots only to registered voters who request them using official forms, according to information from the State Board of Elections which was updated this month.

Also, the voter or his or her near relative or legal guardian must fill out and sign the request form. Required information includes the voter’s date of birth, driver’s license number or last four Social Security number digits.

Teeth are behind those rules, with fraudulently or falsely completing the request form a Class I felony.

In 2022, voters must cast their ballot in the presence of two witnesses or a notary public. Witnesses are required to sign the absentee return envelope, certifying that a person marked his or her ballot and is the registered voter submitting the ballot.

If a voter forgets to sign or fails to get the witnesses to print and sign their names and provide their addresses, the ballot cannot be accepted.

Only the voter, a near relative or legal guardian may return the ballot. The county elections board keeps a log of who drops off absentee ballots.

Upon being returned, the board reviews the absentee envelope to ensure compliance with the legal requirements.

Once an absentee ballot is received, a barcode on the return envelope is scanned and linked to the person’s voter registration. The ballot envelope then is placed on an absentee report for approval by the Surry Board of Elections at a meeting that is part of the tabulation procedure.

Huff mentioned that the first absentee board meeting will be conducted next Tuesday, when members are to review and approve the initial batch of absentee by mail ballots for the general election.

At that stage, a citizen is counted as having voting and barred from casting a ballot in person at one-stop early voting sites or his or her Election Day polling place, which prevents someone from doing so more than once. If such a voter returned another ballot, it would not count.

Additionally, each absentee voter’s unique identifier barcode for the return application ensures the state system will not permit two ballots from the same person to be accepted or counted.

Other local absentee meetings are slated for Oct. 11, Oct. 18, Oct. 25, Nov. 1, Nov. 7, Nov. 8 and Nov. 17, when a supplemental one is scheduled a day before the vote canvass.

“Many people are watching North Carolina’s absentee voting process, including candidates, political parties, county boards of elections, political and data scientists and the media,” a statement from the N.C. State Board of Elections says in part. “If there are anomalies or questionable activities, they will be reported to election officials.”

The state board has a dedicated team of experienced investigators who probe credible allegations of election fraud and refer cases to prosecutors when warranted by findings, officials in Raleigh added.

An innovative program has been greenlit in Surry County that will pair the expertise of the Surry County Office of Substance Abuse and Recovery with those of the county’s EMS to offer individuals who suffer an opioid overdose a solution that can save lives while saving the county money.

Surry County will receive $350,000 over the life of a three-year grant from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services with federal dollars through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to train staff and deploy the EMS Bridge MAT Program.

Bridge MAT is, “A cutting edge and innovative preventive intervention intended to meet survivors of opioid overdoses attended by EMS, where they are by providing an initial dose of buprenorphine for withdrawal relief and ongoing support for medication assisted treatment (MAT) initiation in rural counties in North Carolina.”

Surry County will be among the second wave of counties selected in the state to deploy Bridge MAT, joining the ranks of Onslow and Stanley counties who were the first grant recipients and will grow the total number to ten.

The plan calls for adding two paramedics that will serve with the substance abuse and recovery office to seek outcomes for individuals suffering an overdose that will lower the “significant monetary and emotional toll” that substance use disorder has on the individuals, their family, and the community.

This program will support paramedics responding to individuals with an opioid overdose who refuse transport to an emergency department for reasons that may include lack of insurance or concerns of interaction with law enforcement. In this plan under the supervision of a waivered prescriber, the paramedics can administer the first dose of buprenorphine to alleviate some of the pain of opioid withdrawal.

The “bridge” is filling the gap from the time of the overdose until such time as that person can find the treatment that fits their needs. For a period of seven days there is follow up from Peer Support specialists of the substance abuse and recovery office Intervention Team and the new Bridge MAT paramedics. During that period, they can help make referrals to appropriate opioid use disorder treatment provider, but this takes time.

The county said there are no detoxification nor behavioral health urgent care clinics within an hour’s drive of the county in their application for the grant. Some providers who offer intensive outpatient care do not treat clients in a walk-in fashion they said. “MAT normally requires one week to schedule the client’s assessment and an additional week in an intensive outpatient program before MAT is available to clients with opioid addiction.”

Member of the county’s Intervention Team informed that clients with opioid addiction are “frequently unable to abstain from opioid use during this two-week delay while they wait for entry.” Reading between the lines, the implication is during the waiting period the individual is going to seek the path of least resistance toward alleviating that pain – back to the pills or the needle, and the cycle renews again.

The Bridge MAT program suggests a more useful course of treatment during those seven days would be one in which the individual receives ongoing treatment with doses of buprenorphine from the trained paramedics. “All medications will be oversighted through the direction of Surry County EMS Medical Director, Dr. Jason Edsall,” the county said.

Oversights have been built into this plan to ensure the proper use of the allocated federal grant funds as well as guaranteed standards for care during what will be essentially a three-year test run. “Since providers and equipment change often, treatment protocols must be reviewed in regular intervals to ensure compliance,” the county wrote.

The EMS Bridge MAT program will have also additional assistance from the Surry County Health and Nutrition Center under the direction of the county health director to oversee licensed medical care providers that will provide clinical support.

Mark Willis and the Office of Substance Abuse and Recovery will continue to be responsible for the staffing and operation of programs such as the intervention team comprised of certified peer support specialists, community transportation programs such as Ride the Road to Recovery that will support the Bridge MAT efforts. Also, data collection and analysis support will continue from county data guru Jaime Edwards who along with Paramedic Eddie Jordan compiled a wealth of information for the grant application.

Surry County EMS responses to substance use events from 2015 to 2021 increased by an alarming 277%. Instances of opioid related overdoses in the same period rose to become 40% of the total, with fentanyl involved overdoses doubling to 7% of the total number. More than 4,000 overdoses were reported in the past five years, sadly 198 of those proved fatal.

EMS has mapped overdose locations beginning in 2017 with data going back to 2010 added to form a more complete picture. The map distinguishes between overdoses that proved fatal as well as when Narcan was administered. Multiple administrations of Narcan are becoming more common as fentanyl is laced into street drugs with often lethal results.

The use and administrations of Narcan has risen dramatically with the onset of the opioid crisis. Use by first responders increased 60% between 2019 to 2021. It grew by 514% during the same period for family members and bystanders who administered the potentially lifesaving drug.

Mapping which overdoses are fatal, which required more than one dose of Narcan, and even who administered the Narcan can prove helpful in discerning the patterns of abuse in areas of the county.

The data shows patterns do repeat. “EMS responded to 24 overdose events involving duplicative clients in 2021. Between Jan. 1 and June 30…the number of EMS responses to duplicative overdose clients has almost tripled to 62. These 62 EMS responses to overdoses involved the same 21 clients.”

Based on 2021 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, the estimated national cost due to instances of opioid use disorder is $221,219 per person. If over the three-year lifetime of the Bridge MAT grant it were only to “positively intervene” on 21 patients the county said that potential savings may be more than $4.5 million.

The need for innovation was discussed as the county noted during COVID and the corresponding trend to isolation, many community outreach efforts were less successful than in previous years or lost ground when community outreach was stymied.

Officials hope Surry County EMS Bridge MAT in conjunction with peer support through the intervention team will help those who suffer an overdose alleviate their pain more quickly and aid in finding them the long-term recovery support they require to treat a potentially life-threatening disease.

Office of Substance Abuse and Recovery leaders hope that ground lost in the community fight against substance use disorder can be won back and this grant will offer new tools to that end.

DOBSON — This past weekend marked a new era for the Surry Old-Time Fiddlers Convention, in a new venue, but the absence of the event for more than three years didn’t diminish its music or spirit.

The convention enjoyed a triumphant return to a semblance of normalcy with a square dance Friday night followed by adult and youth competition the next day.

Looking at the flurry of activity Saturday, one could easily forget that because of the pandemic the Surry Old-Time Fiddlers Convention had not been held since April 2019, when the event celebrated its 10th year.

After being cancelled in both 2020 and 2021, organizers hoped the convention traditionally held in early spring could return this year. That didn’t happen then and there were indications the event might be gone for good.

This was especially disappointing for those catering to the old-time music genre, since the Dobson fiddlers convention — unlike others that feature both bluegrass and old-time — is a rarity in terms of being dedicated entirely to the latter.

But the weekend’s slate of activities showed that it is hard to keep a good thing down.

“I’m just glad that it’s back going again,” Gene Anderson of the Copeland area said Saturday before registering to compete in the adult guitar category, “very glad.”

Of course, the 3.5-year shutdown/revitalization period has been accompanied by some changes.

One involved moving the convention from its longtime location at the Surry Community College gym in Dobson to the Surry County Service Center on East Atkins Street across town.

Another difference was to shift the event from its early spring date to September.

Neither seemed to present any obstacles for either musicians or fans, with Friday night’s square dance featuring music by two groups — The Slate Mountain Ramblers and Lucas Paisley and the Stratford String Band — setting the stage for a successful weekend.

“The dance floor was as full as you could get it all night long,” said a longtime convention organizer, Buck Buckner.

“Last night was good — really good,” Buckner added Saturday.

Getting the convention back up and running again after more than three years was not as daunting a task as one might think.

“We had it pretty well figured out by now, so it’s been good,” Tammy Sawyer, another key organizer, said of the event’s rejuvenation.

“We’re happy to do it,” Sawyer added while registering contestants Saturday afternoon.

In the weeks preceding the convention, Buckner had credited Travis Frye — who in March became tourism coordinator for the Dobson Tourism Development Authority and Surry County Tourism Development Authority — with providing a boost that led to having a 2022 event.

Frye was on the stage Saturday announcing contestants while wearing a smile.

“I think it’s going really well,” he said of the convention reboot in between performances.

Frye pointed out that two hours of solid competition among youthful musicians had just occurred. “Which is a good sign,” he said of the younger generation carrying on the old-time musical tradition.

“To have it in Dobson is important because it is the center of the county,” Frye said further.

Anderson, the guitar player, who attends fiddlers conventions throughout the region, said he appreciates the “hometown” atmosphere of the Dobson event. “I like smaller festivals.”

Buckner also praised the new location for the convention at the Surry County Service Center.

“I personally like it a lot,” he said. “I think it’s wonderful that the county makes it available” for community events.

Another highlight Saturday was the continuation of a convention tradition: bestowing the Master Artist Award, which this year went posthumously to Helen White.

Frye believes that with COVID-19 now largely a blip in the rear-view mirror, it’s important to maintain the continuity of the Surry Old-Time Fiddlers Convention.

And by all indications, its weekend comeback with nary a sour note heard will allow that to happen.

For about 45 minutes during a cool early fall morning in downtown Mount Airy, reality merged with make-believe to captivate hundreds of people attending the annual Mayberry Days Parade.

During that brief period, folks could forget about the turmoil in the nation and world and essentially be whisked back to a simpler time. It’s one existing within the confines of a black-and-white television series from the 1960s which is still wildly popular today.

Die-hard “Andy Griffith Show” fans of all ages, from both local communities and a number of states, began lining North Main Street well before the scheduled 9 a.m. start time for Saturday’s procession.

“It’s just a big family reunion every year,” Kenneth Sullivan of Cowan, Tennessee, said as he watched it from a spot near Holcomb Hardware.

Sullivan said he regularly attends Mayberry Days and its parade, during which all the visiting celebrity guests and others who have participated in various activities during the week come together in a single spot.

This provided an opportunity Saturday for those in the crowd to interact with individuals such as Ruta Lee. The familiar actress appeared in two episodes of “The Andy Griffith Show,” including one in which she played a female reporter trying to dig up dirt on Sheriff Taylor.

On Saturday, Lee was much less threatening as she rode in a Ford Mustang convertible while waving to and chatting with admirers along the way when the parade slowed on occasion.

Among additional celebrity guests was actor Daniel Roebuck, a cast member with Griffith in the “Matlock” TV series during the local native’s post-Mayberry days who also has had key roles in “The Fugitive” and other movies.

While Roebuck was another attending Mayberry Days for the first time, others were making return visits such as Ronnie Schell. He logged guest appearances on “The Andy Griffith Show,” but is best known for portraying Duke Slater on the “Gomer Pyle” program starring AGS alum Jim Nabors.

Margaret Kerry was another visiting guest star, who was the model for Tinker Bell in Walt Disney’s “Peter Pan” and rode in a vintage vehicle Saturday.

The passage of time has meant that many of the performers from “The Andy Griffith Show” have passed on to Hollywood Hereafter. Those no longer around include Griffith himself, who died in 2012.

But in a sense he lived again on Saturday in the form of a Sheriff Taylor impersonator whose large mask formed the spitting image of Andy and was warmly greeted as he meandered down the street on foot.

The parade also featured many Barney Fifes — in numbers too abundant to count — easily making that character the most-imitated on Saturday. Others were there in the guises of Opie Taylor, Floyd the barber, Otis the town drunk, members of the Darling family, Gomer and Sgt. Carter and even one man carrying a briefcase who bore a striking resemblance to Howard Sprague.

If that were not enough, there were individuals portraying characters such as the Potato Queen and Pork Princess reminiscent of the show.

Rivalling the number of Barneys who appeared Saturday were more than a few Mayberry squad car replicas, along with a number of antique vehicles of varying makes and models.

One squad car was at the front of the parade with “The Andy Griffith Show” theme music blaring from its speakers to help set the tone for the occasion.

The marching band of North Surry High School also lent its talents to the parade downtown, further inhabited by the obligatory mini-cars that have a way of infiltrating just about every such event.

The legions of loyal “Andy Griffith Show” disciples who faithfully attend Mayberry Days also have become an attraction unto themselves.

Some, including Sullivan, the visitor from Tennessee, have been a regular part of the annual celebration since it began in the early 1990s, when his son portrayed Opie.

Similar to other fans of “The Andy Griffith Show,” Sullivan has a favorite character and episode. “You gotta love Barney,” he said, almost without hesitation.

And the episode he likes most?

Sullivan mentioned “Aunt Bee’s Medicine Man” as having that distinction, about a con artist named Colonel Harvey who comes to town promoting his Indian elixir — really just repackaged booze that Aunt Bee and her friends drink and become intoxicated as a result.

There generally are no such antics exhibited by Mayberry Days fans each year — who always draw praise for being a well-behaved, engaging bunch of folks.

“It’s a good Christian environment,” Sullivan observed.

Good things supposedly come to those who wait, and for fans of a locally based dessert it’s been nearly three years since they’ve been able to experience the Surry County Sonker Festival.

That pause will end next Saturday when the festival returns after being cancelled in 2020 and 2021 because of the coronavirus.

The Oct. 1 event, scheduled from 1 to 5 p.m., offers a chance to savor sonkers — its namesake deep-dish fruit dessert that originated in this area — along with old-time and bluegrass music performed by The Roaring Gap Rattlers. Other attractions are to include flatfoot dancing, quilters, basketry, a pottery display, 18th- and 19th-century artifacts and more.

All this will take place against the backdrop of the historic (1799) Edwards-Franklin House at 4132 Haystack Road west of Mount Airy, to also be open for tours.

Next weekend’s gathering marks the 41st year of the Sonker Festival spearheaded by the Surry County Historical Society.

And Dr. Annette Ayers, the group’s president, indicated that the event basically will pick up where it left off in 2019.

“I think the greatest problem, of course, is personnel,” she said of organizing the group of volunteers needed to stage the festival each year. Some of the older participants no longer are available after its lengthy interruption, but they have been replaced by a new contingent.

“Actually, the weather is a big concern,” Ayers said of an early October mixed bag that can include chilly temperatures in addition to the possibility of rain.

“We do encourage everyone to bring a lawn chair,” she said, which typically creates a laid-back setting of folks seated around the front yard of the house eating sonkers and listening to the music.

Ayers added that the focal point of the festival — the sonkers — will be just as appealing as ever for the hundreds of people who might attend based on past turnouts.

Flavors to be available include blackberry, sweet potato, peach, strawberry and cherry. Sweet potato sonkers tend to the most popular, with strawberry close behind.

“And I can promise they’ll all be delicious,” Ayers said.

While the event itself is free and open to the public, the price of the sonkers will be $4 each, with beverages to be sold for $1. As many as 800 to 1,000 dishes of sonker have been doled out from large trays laid out on a table under a tent on the grounds of the Edwards-Franklin House.

Surry County Historical Society officials also are excited about the musical talent.

“They are people that are very renowned in traditional and bluegrass music,” Ayers said of The Roaring Gap Rattlers.

One of the musicians to be involved is Mecca Jackson Lowe.

“And I think they’re going to have a group of young people — the next generation of artists,” the Surry Historical Society official said. “I think that was wonderful to include younger people.”

Organizers are hoping for a good turnout at the festival, especially by first-time attendees.

In past years, people have made their way to the event from areas both locally and throughout the Southeast.

Publications will be available for purchase.

Ayers also mentioned that membership is open for the Surry County Historical Society, which begins at $25 per year and can be done by mail at P.O. Box 469, Mount Airy, NC, 27030.

Two weeks ago Surry County resident Melissa Hiatt requested the county commissioners consider enacting a 45-day moratorium on rezoning and planning requests that involve discount or dollar stores.

Hiatt is one of the leaders of the Sheltontown group that recently won a victory over such development in their community, when the board voted against a rezoning request by a development firm to put a Dollar General at the intersection of Quaker Road and Westfield Road.

At the board’s Monday meeting the commissioners heard polling data from the opposition to retail development but also for the first time heard pushback from a resident saying public opinion has no place policing private enterprise.

Word had spread of the latest targeted location for another Dollar General at Westfield Road and Indian Grove Church Road, less than one mile from the last attempted location. Hiatt said it is a rumor no longer and that residents have pieced together the facts as neighbors talked to neighbors about the potential land moves taking place.

For some of them it is not deja vu all over again because they never got over it the first time. The previous attempt by Teramore Development LLC to have the corner lot at Quaker and Westfield Roads rezoned for commercial were defeated by the county commissioners in July.

At the board’s next meeting Hiatt again explained her standing objections based on that plan and asked the board to consider issuing the moratorium on rezoning, or planning board requests pertaining to “like-fashioned” retailers such as Family Dollar or Dollar Tree to permit the county time to reexamine its land use policy. Proximity of other like retailers to the one planned would alone negate the necessity of adding another discount retailer and may dissuade future developers from considering placing a full-service grocery store in a saturated area.

Two weeks removed from the request there was no agenda item pertaining to the moratorium at this week’s board meeting. A lack of movement did nothing to calm the nerves of residents fearing what may be coming.

“We thought we made it abundantly clear we do not want their store,” Teresa Levia said of Teramore Development LLC and their previous efforts to rezone in Sheltontown. Speaking in support of the moratorium and controlled growth however does not mean she is anti-development or business she said stating, “I am for free enterprise.”

Heather Moore, of Moore’s General Store, agreed and presented the board with data from a poll their group had conducted and found the answers to be consistent amongst themselves: the same percentage answered the same way across the questions.

Of the nearly 100 participants of the survey, she reported that 94% supported a county ordinance on like-fashioned retailers and that 97% said those stores hurt locally owned businesses. The survey was confirmed to have been open to all members of the public and Moore said it remains open at this time.

The survey is found at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/35TLV6C

Like a politician with a polished stump speech, the opposition has talking points they use to make their case. Often referenced is a moratorium in Wilmington on such retail growth that never came to be. The city council there dropped the proposed language change to their land use plan when the final version was approved.

It was reported that council members perceived that there was not enough research presented on the issue and it was removed from the final language that was approved. Melissa Hiatt said she has spoken to local representatives there who have told her the issue will be revisited.

“There appeared to be no consensus on council concerning those requirements,” a city spokesperson explained in an email that was cited by the Port City Daily of Wilmington on the same date. Melissa Hiatt said Friday she has had conversations with local authorities and that they are “continuing their efforts” to make a change.

Free will vs. public want

In a new twist to the recent discussions, there was an opponent to those seeking to limit dollar-type stores. Angela Leonard said her parents had worked hard to get the money together to open a business and that after many years they retired due to health reasons. That land though is her family’s and if they wanted to open a new business on land they own, and have owned, she feels that is their right to do so.

Leonard was the first to give voice to the counterargument that individual liberties are being infringed upon by the side opposing the dollar-style stores. She asked if it was fair for residents to have such power over the potential growth or expansion of private businesses.

Moore’s General Store is often mentioned as an example of one of the existing businesses that could be hurt by new retail grown, but Leonard asked if they too would be subject to judgment on the merits of expansion by the collective opinions of the neighborhood. She went a step further asking the board rhetorically if such opposition from residents may one day follow to home improvement projects as well.

The survey that was shown to the commissioners showed that on almost all questions the answers were 90% the same – meaning Leonard knew walking up to the podium she would be speaking for a minority point of view, but she felt that was exactly the point. She asked the board, “Who is looking out for the citizens who are afraid of the backlash and may be scared to speak out?”

William Lawrence sees it differently and was one of the property owners of the home on Quaker Road where Teramore Development LLC last attempted a new location.

He noted the strong opposition and the dozens of yellow signs that had dotted Sheltontown as perhaps being part of what changed the outcome of that scenario.

Townships and communities that lack strong representation are being targeted by Teramore, he claimed, adding that not all communities have the strength to coalesce as Sheltontown did for a coordinated fight. He feels residents have a right to have a say about the quality of life in their communities.

The official opening ceremony of Mayberry Days is usually a joyous occasion, with plenty of laughs and jokes, introduction of the show’s stars and other entertainers in town to put on shows, and the mayor’s proclamation recognizing Mayberry Days.

This year’s opening had all of that, but plenty of tears as well. Tears of emotion when describing friendships, and tears of longing and grief as fans said good-bye to one of “The Andy Griffith Show’s” favorite stars.

Perhaps the most emotional part of the opening ceremony was the Betty Lynn memorial. Lynn, famous for her portrayal of Thelma Lou and a Mount Airy resident for more than 15 years, passed away in October. Tanya Jones, executive director of the Surry Arts Council and a close friend of Lynn, said earlier this year that, instead of a memorial service held immediately after Lynn’s death, she wanted to include the service in this year’s Mayberry Days so that her fans could take part.

Many of those fans packed the Historic Earle Theatre Friday morning, with a standing-room only audience for both the opening ceremonies and the memorial to Lynn.

That service featured images of Lynn from her life — including pictures of her youth, on set with Andy Griffith and Don Knotts, promotional and on-set photos from various films and television shows she appeared in, along with photo spreads and other pictures. While the photos faded one to another, a recording of the song “Precious Memories,” sung by Andy Griffith, played over the theater’s speakers.

Among the crowd were fans of “The Andy Griffith Show” — some dressed as their favorite Mayberry character, or at least the character they most resembled — others dressed in Mount Airy or Mayberry t-shirts, and nearly everyone there watched in rapt attention, the only sounds that of Griffith’s deep baritone voice and the occasional sniffling or quiet sobbing from Lynn’s fans and friends.

Shortly prior to the memorial presentation, Jones and Allan Newsome, a long-time Floyd the Barber tribute artist and host of the long-running podcast “Two Chairs No Waiting,” led the opening ceremony. Guests who were in town — those who appeared on the show, their family members, or other entertainers here to put on a presentation for Mayberry Days fans — took their introductions, some making remarks, others simply acknowledging the fans.

Toward the end of the ceremony, after the mayor’s proclamation for the annual event, Jones became emotional as she described the person who would be this year’s You’re the Cats award winner, recognizing someone or some group which has made significant contributions to Mayberry Days and the effort in keeping the spirit of Mayberry, and the memories of those actors who starred in the show, alive.

Jones recalled how she had even played a role in his meeting the woman who would become his wife before revealing Jeff Koontz was winner.

Koontz said afterward he was shocked to be named the award-winner.

“I’m just a volunteer,” he said of his role in the annual gathering of the Mayberry faithful. Koontz, who lives in Brevard with his wife, Claire Armbruster, said he began volunteering with Mayberry Days in 1990, during the first such gathering when it was just a one-day event.

And he confirmed that Jones did, indeed, play a role in he and his wife meeting.

“She introduced us,” he said, adding they had been married since 2000. “I owe that to Tanya.”

While several hundred Mayberry fans were inside the Earle Theatre for the morning’s ceremonies, hundreds more were already outside, walking Main Street, taking in the sights and doing some shopping.

Among the sights many were checking out were no less than four autos made up to look like Sheriff Andy Taylor’s squad car, all parked along Main Street, while additional such cars patrolled the street.

Walt McClelland, of Johnston, Pennsylvania, was among those in town for the festival — an annual sojourn he makes with his wife and their Ford Galaxie gussied up just like one of Andy Taylor’s old squad cars.

“I bring that car down every year,” he said of the squad car, adorned with a life-sized photo of Deputy Fife in the back seat, along with pictures and flyers detailing places McClelland had taken the car. “We’ve been here every year since 2010,” he said. McClelland said he spends a good bit of the day sitting in a folding chair, next to his car, while others come along and sit next to him, ask questions about the car, striking up conversations about “The Andy Griffith Show” and untold other subjects that pop up.

Mike Pyburn and Pete Taggett were two local musicians spending their day on Main Street, next to Pyburn’s 1931 Ford Model A, while the two of them strummed a few bluegrass tunes — Pyburn on the claw hammer banjo and Taggett on the washtub bass.

Pyburn, who is retired, said he spends some time most days on Main Street, playing his music for anyone who passes by.

“I usually get a smile from people who pass by, which is all I can ask for,” he said. Pyburn said he regularly played in the downtown gazebo, but construction work at the partially collapsed Main Oak building is too much competition.

“My throat’s not strong enough to sing over that,” he said, so he moved several blocks down the street, where he and Taggett were set up on Friday.

There, Sue Creager, of Springfield, Ohio, was fascinated with the washtub bass, getting an impromptu lesson on playing the instrument from Taggett, and even a few tips on how to build her own when she returns home.

“I can’t get over the sound,” Creager said several times after stroking the long string of the instrument. Her husband, Kevin Creager, said his wife plays the dulcimer, though she may be pursuing a new interest in the washtub bass.

Kevin Creager said he and his wife have made several trips to Mount Airy, but his is the first time they’ve been able to visit the town during Mayberry Days.

“Usually, we’re working. But now we’re both retired, so we were able to come,” he said, both clearly having a good time.

And why not? Even during an emotional opening earlier in the day, Newsome, the ceremony’s emcee and resident Floyd the Barber, put it succinctly when he described what Mayberry Days means to Andy Griffith Show fans.

“It’s like going to Disney World.”

Regulatory entanglements regarding a sign initially disallowed for a new body shop in Mount Airy didn’t end with an August vote permitting it — now the owner must remove a banner supporting a candidate who aided him.

Frank Fleming recently had the banner placed on a metal sign structure in the parking lot of a former Winn-Dixie supermarket on Merita Street where he is developing the shop — a $2 million endeavor that will create jobs.

It states, “Jon Cawley For Mayor.”

Fleming says the banner was erected in response to the present city commissioner and mayoral candidate backing his efforts to finally get the existing sign approved after a lengthy ordeal surrounding municipal regulations which almost wound up in Surry Superior Court.

But a new wrinkle has materialized with Fleming being told to remove the political banner, which — yes — also violates a city ordinance, as was earlier the case with the metal sign structure. The longtime local businessman was advised of this latest development by Chuck Morris, Mount Airy’s codes enforcement officer.

“He called me yesterday,” Fleming related Thursday.

“I didn’t know there was a banner ordinance,” said the shop owner, who added that he would not have had it installed if he was aware such a regulation existed. He has been given until next Wednesday to remove the banner.

Fleming said he simply was trying to boost the candidacy of a person who assisted him during every step of the ordeal to get the metal sign structure approved.

“Jon played a big role in helping to teach me and guiding me in all this stuff,” said the local businessman, also a veteran modified race car driver of 43 years, who had little knowledge of local government beforehand.

Fleming had been denied a permit to re-use the existing sign framework Winn-Dixie left behind because it exceeded a 15-foot height limit imposed for new business developments under updated, appearance-minded municipal regulations adopted in 2016.

This led to the recent emergence of an amendment that altered distance requirements for such non-conforming signs which ultimately allowed Fleming to utilize the old one — already wired and sitting on a concrete foundation.

The Mount Airy Board of Commissioners approved that amendment in a late-August vote as a huge crowd of Fleming supporters — including state Rep. Sarah Stevens — watched from the audience.

Fleming mentioned repeatedly Thursday that he does not want to step on the toes of anyone at City Hall. He appreciates the attention everyone devoted to the sign case, even those who didn’t support his position, including members of the Mount Airy Zoning Board of Adjustment whose action led to a possible Superior Court appeal.

Yet Fleming thinks Cawley deserves extra support for his efforts in the sign issue and the sentiments behind that.

“Jon Cawley is for the citizens of this town,” the shop owner commented, including owners of businesses such as himself. Fleming has long operated his body shop from a location on Springs Road and many see the new project on Merita Street as serving to improve a long-unsightly area.

After becoming aware of the sign denial and learning that Fleming, a self-described “competitor” who planned to fight the initial ruling, Cawley assured him, “I’m going to help you all I can.” The veteran commissioner agreed that it made sense for the existing sign to be re-used, Fleming said.

His motive in erecting the banner during recent days was not to become a focal point of this year’s municipal election in which Cawley, Mount Airy’s longest-serving council member, is running against Mayor Ron Niland.

“I’ve never been a very political person,” Fleming said. “I’ve never got into politics too much.”

It was more a matter of timing.

Since the refurbishing of the old metal sign and its listing of the new body shop will take two to three months to complete, Fleming saw this as an ideal time to put up the banner promoting Cawley’s candidacy in the meantime.

However, the city regulatory bureaucracy has nixed that.

On Thursday, Morris, the codes officer, cited a restriction listed under Section 9.3-Temporary Signs in the City of Mount Airy Municipal Code of Ordinances. It states in part that such signs “shall not be affixed to a permanent sign or its supporting structure, including both building-mounted and freestanding permanent signs.”

The ordinance also makes specific reference to banners, which generally are limited to those promoting community events — while apparently ruling out ones that are political in nature.

Although the majority of the commissioners eventually came around to Cawley’s side, it was he who stood alone at first in supporting him, Fleming said.

His backing of Cawley is not intended as any disrespect toward the present mayor, Fleming stressed.

“Ron Niland has been nothing but good to me,” he said.

However, the whole sign episode has revealed special characteristics on Cawley’s part which Fleming believes are needed locally.

“Jon Cawley will be good for the citizens of Mount Airy,” the shop owner believes, if elected to its top position.

“I just think that without Jon Cawley,” Fleming asserted, “our city, our local government, won’t be as good.” `

Alma Venable made an impact here in Mount Airy and beyond as one of the most recognizable ambassadors of Mayberry and the proprietor of the Mayberry Motor Inn. She was an advocate for preserving the rich legacy of Mount Airy’s fictitious alter ego while welcoming guests into the community all year round.

Venable passed away Sept. 4 at her home in Mount Airy, she was 84 years old.

Donna Hiatt called her dear friend an “icon for Mayberry” while others who knew her called her granny despite no presence of a drop of familial blood. “People loved her and stayed from all over the country with her. She was an angel on Earth, and is now an angel in Heaven,” Hiatt said of her friend of 32 years.

Like Hiatt, Tanya Jones of the Surry Arts Council was an old friend of Venable’s, “Since the 70s when we were talking to hotels about the occupancy tax. Alma and her husband LP had the Mayberry Motor Inn before many things in Mount Airy had Mayberry in their names.”

That idea may have been prophetic and would predate unknown numbers of additional businesses over the years with the Mayberry moniker that is now almost interchangeable with Mount Airy.

Jones went on, “They were highlighted in the 1990 Washington Post article on Mayberry Days that was picked up by the AP and Mayberry Days was born as an annual event. Their purchases at the Frances Bavier estate auction became a tourist attraction before the others came about.”

The legacy and legend of The Aunt Bee room at the inn are well-known. After the 1990 estate sale of Frances Bavier, TV’s Aunt Bee, a reporter asked Venable what she planned to do with the artifacts she bought from the late actress to which she said, “I told him I was going to start an Aunt Bee Room.” The collection is an assortment of memorabilia belonging to Bavier, with certificates of authenticity, including hats, accessories, and an ashtray made by fan favorite George “Goober” Lindsey.

Jones and The Surry Arts Council coordinate the Mayberry Days festival, and she recalls Venable was always game for whatever was asked. “Alma and LP – and later the grandkids, Mikel, Josh, and Jeremy Snow, were always involved in Mayberry Days – the parade, Colonel Tim’s Talent Time and whatever the Surry Arts Council needed to make it work for the fans.”

Mount Airy’s visitors have memories of Venable that go back decades. David Browning, seen locally often as Deputy Barney Fife, made his first trip to Mayberry Days in 1991 and it was the next year he first took up a longstanding intermittent residence at the Mayberry Motor Inn at the suggestion of Jones. From 1992 – 2017 Browning said he was a regular guest of Venable’s at the Inn.

Of his first visit he said, “I arrived at night and when I woke up the next morning, Mikel was dressed in a deputy outfit, and he had one foot up on my bumper. He was writing me a ticket for being over the line,” he said recalling just one of the memories of good times in days passed. “Years later, I bought him a properly fitting deputy’s cap.”

He said he was made to feel like a member of the family by Venable. “I would sit and chat with her and after her husband LP passed, we got even closer.” Venable and husband poured a lot of hard work into the inn, he said, but they also had fun. “She loved the visitors, just loved them, and treated them like family.”

She had a plaque made up to commemorate his visits, something he said was not necessary. On subsequent stays he and his wife would look to the wall and see the plaque much to their continued amusement. “She didn’t have to do that,” he said of the honor, “Mount Airy is just that kind of place.”

“We were not related but our relationship, friendship, grew and grew. I know that as a place not just to lay your head — but also someone to chat with,” he recalled.

Her hospitality and gentility will be missed however they have not yet been lost to the winds of time. The traditions she launched at the Mayberry Motor Inn are being delivered even now during this week’s iteration of Mayberry Days.

An easy plan for success will be to “continue doing it the way Granny did it,” Mikel said. That includes honoring such long-standing traditions as the right of first refusal for guests who have been attending Mayberry Days since the beginning.

Some of those repeat guests, Snow said, have been coming long enough that his twin brothers Josh and Jeremy have known them nearly since birth.

Along with Jeremy, he will continue to operate the inn and hopes to keep it in the family for generations to come. “As long as there is tourism, we’ll be here.”

Tim White, the host of Song of the Mountain on PBS said Venable, “Was just the sweetest.” Tim White & Troublesome Hollow’s “Salute to Mayberry” show will have lots of Mayberry songs and a tribute to Venable herself that will correspond with Mayberry Days at The Historic Earle Theatre tomorrow, Friday, Sept. 23, at 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $15.

White was a fan of “The Andy Griffith Show” long before he first came for Mayberry Days. “I came to Mount Airy as a fan of the show before I ever came here to work,” he said, and he has a great fondness for both Mayberry and Mount Airy. A visit to Mount Airy several times a year remains on the docket for he and his wife – not just during Mayberry Days.

After many years of coming to perform in Mount Airy, White will miss the familiarity of his friend. “Granny, I would call her Granny – I know others didn’t, but I got it from the boys,” White reminisced. “I would call up sometimes and just ask to speak to Granny. It made her smile when I called her Granny.”

White laughed and said there was no suite or room named after him, but that was of no concern to him, “I think all the rooms were named by then. Besides, I don’t know who you would take off the wall. There’s a lot of great people up there.”

He recounted that Venable has been sick over the last few years of her life and people had not seen as much of her. “So, when she got dolled up and would come out and chat with folks, it really meant something.”

“I was at the Mayberry Motor Inn when she passed away and her grandson John came out to the gazebo to tell me. Just as he did, my phone rang, and it was Mikel calling to let me know.” To him, it seemed as though he was where he was meant to be to receive the news from two of her grandsons at nearly the same time.

White, Hiatt, and the rest are hopeful that the memory and spirit of Mount Airy’s Aunt Bee will live on. The legacy of the Mount Airy Motor Inn is continuing at this moment with visitors in for Mayberry Days and reservations lined up for the Autumn Leaves Festival.

Friday at The Earle, White and Troublesome Hollow will offer up the music as another living tribute to Venable whom White said, “Loved the music. I never saw her play an instrument, but she loved to sing.”

“A few months ago, the Surry Arts Council was contacted by the Piedmont Triad International Airport – requesting a photo for consideration on the wall in the terminal. A huge canvas is hanging in there of a past Mayberry Days Parade – Alma is front and center in a car with an Aunt Bee license plate,” Jones said.

Even now, Mount Airy is being represented by her unofficial ambassador and brand representative. Alma Venable is still working hard for Mount Airy even during her eternal rest.

“We all loved her – I loved her and LP, and valued their trust, loyalty, friendship – and love. We will miss them, but I am so grateful that Mikel is carrying on the Mayberry Motor Inn tradition,” Jones said.

In light of problems in Jackson, Mississippi — where residents have been left without clean drinking water — having that commodity is something to celebrate, which is the case for Mount Airy.

Both of the city’s H2O treatment facilities, F.G. Doggett Water Plant and S.L. Spencer Water Plant, have been honored by the N.C. Division of Water Resources for surpassing federal and state drinking water standards in 2021.

The division’s Public Water Supply Section awarded those facilities the highly coveted N.C. Area Wide Optimization (AWOP) Award, which is part of a state effort to enhance the performance of existing surface water treatment operations.

In all, 66 water plants were tapped for that award.

This might not seem noteworthy until one considers that in recent years North Carolina has been reported to have nearly 6,000 regulated public water systems as listed by the state Department of Environmental Quality.

Perhaps just as important is the fact that the awarding of Mount Airy’s two water-treatment plants for 2021 reflects an ongoing pattern of quality which spans the past decade.

S.L. Spencer Water Plant, located on Orchard Street, also received the same recognition for 2011, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.

F.G. Doggett Water Plant in the Laurel Bluff area did so for 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.

“The city of Mount Airy is extremely honored to be recognized once again for the AWOP Award,” Public Works Director Mitch Williams commented in reaction to the latest accolades for its two treatment plants.

Williams, whose responsibilities encompass municipal water-sewer operations, says quality is an ongoing mission for those manning the facilities.

“The fact that the city has been recognized for the past eight to nine years shows the dedication and professionalism of Water Treatment Supervisor Andy Utt and his team,” the public works director added.

“They do their best to ensure that water of the highest quality is delivered daily to the Mount Airy community.”

The awards are given each year to water systems around the state which demonstrate outstanding turbidity removal, a key test of drinking water quality, according to the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality.

Turbidity is a measure of the cloudiness or haziness of water caused by individual particles that can interfere with disinfection and provide a medium for microbial growth. Microbes are microscopic particles that occur naturally but can include harmful bacteria and viruses.

While all drinking water systems must adhere to strict state and federal standards of quality, those being recognized met performance goals that are significantly more stringent than state and federal standards.

In 2021, nearly 2.8 million North Carolina residents were served by the award-winning plants.

Mount Airy is not alone in terms of local facilities being recognized for quality.

Also in Surry County, the Town of Dobson Water Treatment Plant and the Town of Elkin Water Treatment Plant were awarded the N.C. Area Wide Optimization (AWOP) Award for 2021.

Of the 66 facilities cited for their efforts last year, the state recognized 16 with the “Gold Star” honor, which is set aside for systems that have received the N.C. Area Wide Optimization Award for 10 or more consecutive years.

The Town of Wilkesboro Water Filtration Plant was the nearest locality to Surry County making that list.

When city government projects are planned in Mount Airy, officials typically solicit offers from contractors and award jobs to the low bidders — a procedure not followed with an $80,000 contract for landscape architecture services at the Spencer’s site.

The Mount Airy Board of Commissioners voted during a meeting earlier this month to engage the services of Sitework Studios for that sum to design plans for site development on the former industrial property the municipality bought in 2014.

Specifically, the Asheville firm is targeting a large chunk of land around the Sparger Building, where a Marriott hotel is planned, along with an adjoining spot eyed for a market center. The contract area also surrounds old Spencer’s buildings known as The Cube and Cube annex where additional facilities including a new visitors center and a conference center are envisioned.

The services to be performed by Sitework Studios include preparing grading and other plans for green spaces and additional amenities on what are known as Parcels A, B and C near those various structures where the transformations are to occur.

In addition to laying out locations of planters, the design work will include other site elements such as benches, retaining walls, trash receptacles, pedestrian lighting, drainage facilities and more. These plans will be relied on during the construction phase.

Although the contract with Sitework Studios eventually was approved unanimously during a city council meeting on Sept. 1, the move was questioned by one member, Commissioner Jon Cawley.

This included Cawley asking to have the proposal moved from the board’s consent agenda — where matters are lumped together and approved in a single vote without debate — to the regular agenda, thus opening the matter for discussion.

He used that opportunity to wonder aloud how the $80,000 contract issue had gotten to that point in the form it did.

“Did we at least take bids?” asked Cawley, who also said that with the way the contract is worded the total cost could exceed that sum for extra work provided.

Mayor Ron Niland said at the meeting that the landscaping services were included in an overall scope of work earlier agreed to involving the hotel and redevelopment efforts on the former Spencer’s property.

“This is part of the bigger budget of what we said we were going to do,” Niland said. He mentioned $2 million in state funding announced in July to fund outside improvements at the conference/visitors center site, along with money approved in 2021 for infrastructure work related to the hotel.

Surry County officials agreed to supply $1.5 million for needs involving the planned lodging establishment — which have a total price tag of around $3 million, including for parking spaces.

Both Cawley and Commissioner Tom Koch asked about the possibility of lowering the landscape-related costs before the contract was awarded to Sitework Studios.

“Is there any way we could do some in-house work on this and save some money?” Koch said.

Cawley specifically mentioned possible involvement by Mount Airy Parks and Recreation, since this city department has a landscaping unit that has lent its skills to various locations about town.

“I wouldn’t look any further than Mount Airy Parks and Recreation.”

However, City Manager Stan Farmer replied that the landscaping project at Spencer’s is beyond the scope of the city department.

Cawley also said Wednesday it was his understanding from the meeting that Niland made a case for Sitework Studios being one of the few companies equipped to handle such a task.

“I came into it blind, not knowing what credentials they have,” he added.

“What I decided to do,” Cawley said Wednesday in explaining his decision to ultimately support the contract award, “was to trust the information that I was given at the meeting.”

The North Ward commissioner also referred to the fact that this is an election year in which he is campaigning for mayor against Niland, and wants to stay positive regarding the contract issue.

“Since I’m running for office against him, I’m trying not to be critical.”

The city government does have a history with Sitework Studios.

In February 2019, the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners voted to allow the group Mount Airy Downtown (MAD) Inc. to have a site plan for the former Spencer’s property prepared by the Asheville firm. Its reputation as an experienced architectural firm was a deciding factor.

An anonymous donor agreed to pay half of the $10,000 expense, with the rest coming from Municipal Service District funds generated by a special tax on downtown-area property owners.

The plan resulting prescribed functional spaces including new housing, lighting, new streets and parking lots, storm water features such as attractive rain gardens also offering educational opportunities, greenway access and more.

A proposed relocation of YVEDDI was raised at Monday night’s meeting of the Surry County Board of County Commissioners. In a back-and-forth discussion that followed the board tried to find the balance between fiscal responsibility and doing the greatest good for the people of Surry County, while voting to approve funding to hasten YVEDDI’s move to a new home in Mount Airy.

Commissioners debated whether it was the fairest use of taxpayer dollars to fund renovations of a privately owned building who would then be the landlord for YVEDDI. The counter argument holds that funding the costs needed to move a nonprofit that serves so many people across four counties would be of the greatest benefit to the most people.

The Yadkin Valley Economic Development District Inc. serves Surry, Stokes, Yadkin and Davie counties in the administration of community service programs. From Head Start to Meals on Wheels to legal aid for senior citizens, YVEDDI offers a wide array of services from their headquarters in the L. H. Jones Family Resource Center in Mount Airy, but a change may be in the works.

Ownership of the former J. J. Jones High School passed from Surry County to the African American Historical and Genealogical Society of Surry County over the summer, a move that was met by the alumni of Jones and members of the Black community with great pride.

They have plans to see their former school converted into a mixed used site with spaces for cultural heritage, meetings, community events, and perhaps living spaces. Their goal is to preserve a piece of their shared history for future generations.

Those plans have taken an unexpected turn this week as YVEDDI Executive Director Kathy Payne came before the board with a half million-dollar request that would help convert the site of the former Mountain Valley Hospice & Palliative Care facility in the Ottenweller Building located on Technology Lane in Mount Airy into the new home of YVEDDI.

Payne said, “AAHGS have been very gracious to us, but we feel it would be better for our business to sustain our business to move into a more modern facility.”

She reminded the board, “The Jones Center as you know is an 83-year-old building in need of extensive repairs.” The facts remain the same as when the former J. J. Jones school, now the Family Resource Center, was added onto the county’s list of surplus properties last year.

The aging structure needs extensive repairs or renovations from windows, plumbing, wiring, floors, and HVAC. Surry County determined that the cost for upkeep of the Jones School building, as well as Westfield Elementary School, was simply more than the county could bear.

Those costs were only going to rise as those buildings continue to age with the same interior structures and internal fixtures that have reached or are nearing the end of their projected life cycle. Any cost estimates for construction or renovation projects these days are indeed just estimates as prices for materials remains in flux due to inflation or lingering constraints on supply chains.

YVEDDI has been presented with an opportunity to take over the former 16,000+ square foot hospice site with the owners of the Ottenweller building offering to cover the costs of the concrete work for YVEDDI.

Ottenweller has offered a 15-year leasing structure with YVEDDI with rent increases established at years three, six and 13 which will help the organization plan out budgets more accurately. Payne said, “They have offered us a rent that is very kind. In our research commercial real estate is $23/sq.ft. and they are offering this facility to us for at 66 cents/sq.ft. and have given us the option to sublet.”

Payne has received a quote of $500,000 from architect Tony Chilton for work that would need to be done to the proposed facility including walling off classrooms, adjusting the current HVAC and sprinkler systems, adding egress, kitchen appliances, a playground with fence, and child sized bathrooms.

One of the qualities the Ottenweller site offers that appeals most to Payne is that it is located all on one level. Ease of access will make things easier for mobility challenged seniors and children alike.

Payne asked the county to fund the renovations and offered that YVEDDI would reimburse the county as funding came in through grants. The board was hesitant to authorize taxpayer dollars to make renovations to a building the county does not own.

Commissioner Van Tucker noted that the county would be paying for renovations to a building where they would be a tenant. This would be tantamount to funding the renovation on behalf the renter he said, adding, “This is simply an issue that I am not sure is fair the Surry County taxpayer of being a lender. There are no guarantees in life… Money to upgrade someone else’s building is something I can’t support,” he said while thanking Payne and her organization for all they do.

The commissioners showed a bit of internal conflict with their deliberation, Commissioner Eddie Harris said difficult discussions like these are good for all parties involved. Even as a long-term member of the YVEDDI board, and one of the unanimous votes from their board who authorized Payne to investigate the relocation of the organization, Harris was one of the two nay votes on the motion joining with Tucker.

Commissioner Mark Marion echoed sentiments from his colleagues that all manner of funding for the renovations to the Ottenweller Building should be investigated. That should include discussions with potential lending institutions to see if YVEDDI could qualify for a loan outright as opposed to being funded by the county.

Commissioner Larry Johnson noted that any hesitancy from a lender could most likely be overcome, “I feel like between Surry County, our manager, our legal team, and our staff we could satisfy a bank’s terms.”

However, Johnson was ready to act and made a motion to authorize the funding for YVEDDI, “We’ve spread (Invest in Surry dollars) all over the county on ball fields, lights, gyms, shelters, medical ministries, you name it – and I feel y’all deserve an equal share.”

“I feel like we can back $400,000 so you can meet your timeline,” he said identifying a dollar amount lower than requested. Payne had identified YVEDDI cash on hand, a proposed grant from Mount Airy, and other private grants that may be coming that would help her with the costs – leading Johnson to the $400,000 figure.

He also suggested that the potential benefits to the residents of the four counties served would far outweigh any dangers in being the funding source for the renovations YVEDDI needs to make Ottenweller their home. “If we get three-fourths of it back, or we get zero back, I feel like its money well spent,” he concluded as the board voted 3-2 in favor of the request.

“We are very pleased that the commissioners recognize our dedication to providing support and services to the citizens of Surry County,” Payne said of Monday’s outcome. “We expect client outcomes to improve by being in an environment with greater accessibility, especially for those who may have cognitive or physical challenges.”

This weekend on Main Street in Pilot Mountain there will be a dinner event under the stars to benefit downtown revitalization and the arts. The Foothills Dinner on Main calls for a gathering Saturday that will feature, “Fine dining, fine music, and fine company.”

“Foothills Dinner on Main was created with the thought of showcasing culinary talent while simultaneously building on our dream of a more vibrant downtown,” event organizers said.

A cocktail reception with a wine and beer tasting will begin at 5 p.m. and will feature tasty bites along with live music. Meeting and greeting will give way to eating when the clock tolls 6 p.m. and a multi-course dinner service commences.

Organizers hope to entice the public to come to downtown Pilot Mountain to sample food from some of the area’s best. The meal will be prepared by local chefs featuring locally sourced ingredients and courses will be paired with selected local wines or beers while music from The Happy Ones will accompany the evening.

If the notion of a dinner on the street just sounds ridiculous to you, that is reasonable. However, take a gander with your eyes over the menu as your stomach sends messages to the brain signaling a desire to support downtown the arts in Pilot Mountain and satiate growing pangs of hunger.

Foothills Dinner on Main has a menu that cries for attention boasting such appetizer offerings as a quail egg tostada, a miso braised pork belly, or pickled shrimp ceviche in a lettuce cup with avocado mousse and smoke pepita. This is more than a BBQ or chili cookoff folks, this is elevated dining – Pilot Mountain style.

The stars of the evening shall be found among the main course entrees for Foothills Dinner on Main. A selection of five entrees with options from land and sea are to be found with oven roasted lamb chops being paired with poached rainbow carrots and seared tarragon creme filled potato flutes.

Braised short ribs will join with roasted root vegetables, spiced rainbow cauliflower and romesco, and a horseradish-honey gravy that is sure to tempt taste buds. Also, a honey and orange glazed cod with balsamic and bacon brussel sprouts will be offered.

Mouths will water at the site of braised pork belly served with some of the signature flavors of autumn such as roasted butternut squash puree, havarti and goat cheese grits, granny smith apples, toasted pumpkin seeds, pork gravy, and red pepper coulis.

Designing and implementing the meal requires the skill and effort from multiple chefs, and their crews, to make Foothills Dinner of Main a success.

Some of the names aiding in the event are known players to this event such as Nikki Farrington of Niki’s Pickles and 6th & Vine in Winston-Salem has been a pivotal part of the event since its inception, organizers said. Another local heavyweight, Mark Thrower of Harvest Grill at Shelton Vineyards, is lending his skills to the dinner.

Michelle and Michael Millan operate The Tuning Fork which is the food truck for Fiddlin Fish Brewery. The two have a history with Miami/Cuban street foods dating back to 2017 with Mojito Mobile Kitchen. More recently they have purchased farms to lower produce costs for themselves, and to sell locally grown competitively priced produce to other chefs in the area.

Erin Needham, co-owner of Viridescence Bottles and Bites, will also be a presenter at the year’s event. The event planners said she has a passion for plant-based cuisine, and she will be opening the first of its kind in Surry County plant-based eatery next month in downtown Pilot Mountain.

Olivia Jessup has run Liv For Sweets bakery in downtown Pilot Mountain for three years. She touts herself as a self-taught baker who can create everything from scratch and says when folks eat her sweets, “They know I put my love and passion into it.”

Also joining the dinner’s culinary team is Donald Mueller, the former owner of Mountain View Restaurant, now owns My Kitchen food truck which specializes in American cuisine.

Pilot Mountain Town Commissioner Scott Needham, who will be serving as the emcee for the evening, said that the money raised from will be used to fund art projects, “There’s a lot of different art projects that we are hoping to be able to fund in the coming years and we’re hoping this will be our seed money to start those projects and match grants for this new nonprofit organization.”

He said the town is starting a non-profit for the many projects that the town has envisioned such as 3-D art displays at the Civic Center, 2-D art in the alleyway between First Citizen Bank and The Country Store, and increase programming at the amphitheater at Armfield Civic Center.

Needham said there are even larger arts goals such as funding a new downtown amphitheater, but he acknowledged, “The profits from this dinner would probably only be a drop in the bucket for that.”

After having had to cancel the 2021 Foothills Dinner on Main due to lingering ill effects of the pandemic on local restaurants, organizers and presenters alike are ready to welcome guests back to, “Dine on the yellow line under the stars in this foodie’s delight.”

Event organizers advise that participation in this unique evening requires a reservation. Tickets are $100 each and seating will be limited. For tickets visit: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/381106408527

While the annual Mayberry Days may have seen crown numbers down over the past two years because of the coronavirus pandemic, this year’s gathering could be shaping up to be one of the largest ever.

The gathering of Mayberry faithful traditionally sees Mount Airy flooded with fans of “The Andy Griffith Show” from all over the nation — along with a few international fans — with the major festivities getting underway on Thursday. That is when the annual Mayberry Days Golf Tournament gets underway, and that night is a dinner at Cross Creek Country Club, complete with entertainment that will feature country music star T. Graham Brown this year.

This year both have already sold out, meaning the arts council has had to cut off selling additional tickets to the events. In more than 30 years of Mayberry Days Festivals, Surry Arts Council Executive Director Tanya Jones said that has never happened.

“I do anticipate great attendance for many reasons, but the weather forecast is perfect,” she said. That forecast calls for daily high temperatures to range between the low 70s to the mid-80s, with clear skies all week.

Another factor in a potentially record-breaking attendance is the expansion of events. Historically, Mayberry Days gets underway with Thursday’s golf tournament and dinner, followed by the official opening ceremony Friday morning. Both of those events remain in their customary time slots, but there are plenty of activities going on all week this year.

The 1958 movie “No Time For Sergeants” starting Andy Griffith along with Don Knotts, has been playing at The Historic Earle Theatre daily since Friday; and beginning Monday fans have chances to see “Murder in Coweta County” staring Griffith and Johnny Cash; catch a performance by comedian John Floyd as The Mount of Mayberry; along with three concerts at the Blackmon Amphitheatre Tuesday through Thursday featuring The Embers, The Band of Oz, and The Legacy Motown Review; along with a host of other Andy Griffith Show related displays, talks and activities.

Remembering those who have passed

While Mayberry Days is a time of celebration and renewing old friendships, there will be a tinge of sadness with a few activities this year aimed at remembering those the Mayberry community have lost over the past year, with events planned to memorialize Thelma Lou actress Betty Lynn and Charlene Darling actress Maggie Petersen Mancuso, among others. Betty Lynn passed away on Oct. 16 after a brief illness, at RidgeCrest Retirement Community in Mount Airy. Maggie Mancuso passed away May 15. She had been in declining health since her husband, musician Gus Mancuso, died the previous year.

Jones, whose Surry Arts Council sponsors and oversees the annual Mayberry Days festival — said several others who worked with the show or fans who were well-known to the Mayberry fandom also will be honored.

Gary Nelson, who directed an episode of “The Andy Griffith Show” as well as two episodes of its spin-off series, “Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C.,” will be honored by Dick Atkins, who is dedicating his annual presentation to the late Nelson. Atkins was a producer for “Murder in Coweta County.” His presentation will include screenings of the movie as well as question and answer sessions.

Fans Pat Bullins and Dewey Lamb will be remembered as well. Bullins, a multi-time winner and well-known contestant of the annual World Championship of Mayberry Trivia, will be honored with this year’s competition being dedicated to her. Lamb, a talented artist known for creating unique Mayberry-themed work, and for occasionally donning his Goober outfit, will be honored when this year’s WBMUTBB Silent and Live Auction — named for the sponsoring Who’s Been Messin’ Up the Bulletin Board? chapter of The Andy Griffith Rerun Watcher’s Club — is dedicated to his memory.

Jones said Maggie will be remembered in two ways. First, the Doug Dillard Tribute Band concert, featuring Rodney Dillard and the Dillard Band, will be dedicated to her memory. Maggie and the Dillards were part of the fictional Darling clan from “The Andy Griffith Show.” Those appearances often included blue-grass music, with Maggie singing, and she often sang with the Dillards during the band’s annual concert at Mayberry Days.

In addition to the concert’s dedication to her, there will be a presentation of photos and music from her career 30 minutes prior to the Dillard Band concert, open to ticket holders for the show.

There will be a more formal memorial for Betty Lynn on Friday at 9:30 a.m. in the Historic Earle Theatre on Main Street.

“We didn’t have a service for Betty when she passed away,” Jones said. “We wanted to be able to include fans as they were so important to her – the service during Mayberry Days is Betty’s memorial service.”

Jones said that Karen Knotts, daughter of Don Knotts and a frequent guest at Mayberry Days – was particularly close to Betty. “Karen and a couple of others who were special to her will say a few words,” she said.

Additionally, Jones said that singer and Elvis tribute artist Michael Hoover, who has several shows scheduled for Mayberry Days, will be singing during her service.

“Betty loved him and he performed on stage with her for several years during Mayberry Days shows,” Jones said.

During the service — which is open to everyone — there will be presentation of Betty’s career highlights projected onto a screen.

While fans and the Mayberry Days guests may have their attention focused on the various memorials for those who have passed away, Jones reminds everyone that there will be quite a bit of good, old-fashioned, Mayberry fun for those attending the event.

“There will be some new children’s activities, a new mural, several new shows including a Patsy Cline show and another featuring women in country music – more shows than ever,” she said.

For a full list of events, see look for copies of the Surry Arts Council publication “Mayberry Confidential” at various places around town, or visit the Mayberry Days website at https://www.surryarts.org/mayberrydays/index.html

ARARAT, Va. — Although Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart commanded the Confederate cavalry during the Civil War, a naval exhibit is to be part of an upcoming reenactment event at Stuart’s Laurel Hill birthplace in Patrick County.

But don’t worry, ground troops will still be highlighted in mock battles during the annual Civil War Encampment and Living History Weekend on the Ararat site which is slated for Oct. 1-2.

The overall goal of the event is to educate the public about the conflict that divided the nation and illustrate how the typical soldier of both blue and gray existed — in a sense allowing attendees to take a trip back in time.

Reenactment troops camp out on the grounds, where various exhibits and historical groups also set up shop and special programs are held during the weekend.

That’s where a replica of the CSS Hunley will play a key role. It pays homage to the first submarine in the world to sink an enemy vessel, in its case the USS Housatonic, which had been part of the U.S. Navy blockade of Charleston. The Hunley, only about 40 feet long, attacked the Housatonic with a torpedo in February 1864 and was itself lost due to the blast along with an eight-member crew.

The sunken sub was raised in 2000 and is displayed in North Charleston, South Carolina.

Organizers of the Civil War Encampment and Living History Weekend say the replica sub will be a welcome presence at the gathering.

“We are very glad to have it and make it part of our event,” said Tom Bishop a member of the governing board for the J.E.B. Birthplace Preservation Trust that spearheads the Living History Weekend now in its 30th year.

“We had it in years past, but I think there were some issues,” Bishop said, which prompted a redo of the exhibit that will surface again in Ararat. “This is the latest version.”

Gates are scheduled to open at 9 a.m. on both Oct. 1-2 for the Living History Weekend.

Admission will cost $8 per person, free for those 12 and under.

Laurel Hill is located at 1091 Ararat Highway, just across the state line from Mount Airy via N.C. 104.

Civil War battle recreations — slated for 3 p.m. on Oct. 1 and 2 p.m. on Oct. 2 — are always popular segments of the Living History Weekend and organizers are expecting healthy numbers of uniformed reenactors to participate with horses and cannons.

“We’re probably going to have in the hundreds, I’m guessing,” Bishop said of what has become a popular stop for those individuals who also lend authenticity to such events elsewhere.

“They like the reception they get, the facilities,” he added.

Other highlights of the Oct. 1-2 weekend will include guests portraying Civil War generals in addition to many others who’ll be there in period costume.

Live string band music, a ladies tea, a Saturday night dance, Civil War sutlers and and a church service that Sunday morning also are planned.

Two groups, The Fisher River Timber Rattlers and The Cedar Ridge String Band, each will perform multiple sets on Oct. 1, when the latter will headline a music and dance session at 7:45 p.m.

Music is to be performed Sunday by Herbert and Tina Conner, with the gates closing that day at 4 p.m. to conclude the weekend for another year.

Special speaker Sam Winkler also is scheduled to be on hand portraying Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

Other history-minded activities on tap include a generals council of war both days, a black rose memorial service and a grand review on Oct. 1 at 10 a.m. accompanied by a flag-raising ceremony and monument dedication.

A variety of food and other vendors are expected to be on hand in addition to representatives of area historical groups including the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

The Civil War Encampment and Living History Weekend returned last year after organizers reluctantly cancelled the 2020 edition of the event as COVID-19 was raging.

That interruption, along with negative public sentiments surrounding Civil War figures at that time, created a cloud of uncertainty for its return in October 2021 in terms of how the event would be greeted by the public.

Those fears proved to be unfounded as last year’s Civil War Encampment and Living History Weekend was one of the best-attended in recent memory, with nearly 1,000 people in attendance over the two days.

Preservationist Richard Moe is quoted as saying, “There may have been a time when preservation was about saving an old building here and there, but those days are gone. Preservation is in the business of saving communities and the values they embody.” ‘

Recent events have seen one of our historic landmarks and anchors torn down out of necessity. Sometimes we can’t save a building, but we can cherish the memories, hard work, and legacies they leave behind.

Quality Mills has a story that has been woven through the lives of Surry County and the surrounding area’s citizens, touching many lives as it branched out through the area. Personally, my grandmother, Jean Morgan, worked in the offices of Quality Mills for 15 years and her story is only one of many that surround the mill’s legacy.

Somewhere between 1934 and 1935, Howard Osler Woltz Sr. or H.O. as he is known, purchased a failing underwear company and took over the machines and stock of the Duke Knitting Mills. These machines were moved to the old Beasley Lumber Company building at the corner of Franklin and South Streets in Mount Airy.

W.E Lindsay, H.O. Woltz, and Matt Hines pulled together to get Quality Mills up and running by 1936. The mill provided hundreds of jobs for the community in its heyday, starting with the sewing/knitting plant on Franklin. Operations started under the supervision of John March, who had worked for the Hanes Knitting Company for 17 years, giving the starting operation a leg up on the competition.

Though the path to success looked gentle from the outside, that wasn’t always the case. In the early days, one Mount Airy article suggests that payroll was hard to cut and mistakes were made, however, the company persevered. One turning point was when Woltz, out of desperation, visited Macy’s Department Store in New York and offered a deal. A week later a contract for more than $200,000 in men’s shirts was placed with the company. The company soon needed to expand its operations and by the late 1970s eight different buildings were dedicated to mill operations, some in surrounding counties and other states.

The company continued to grow adding offices, community, and employee events and even having to up its protection against sabotage and espionage in 1942. In 1958 Quality Mills was handed over to Woltz’s son, John. The elder Woltz’s other company, Dixie Concrete (now Insteel Industries), was given to his other son, Howard, in 1953. The family even started Cross Creek Country Club in the early 1970s, giving Surry County its first 18-hole golf course, as H.O. Woltz Sr. believed it needed.

With the printing of the October 1988, “Quality News,” a newsletter sent to employees and community supporters, Quality Mills was making a big change. The larger Russell Corporation purchased the operation and began a merger that further expanded the company’s reach. Clothing lines such as “Cross Creek” continued alongside new Russell brands. At the same time, Quality Mills had opened a new plant in Pilot Mountain earlier in the year and acquired a sewing plant in Danbury.

By the early 1990s, the name Quality Mills Co. was changed to Cross Creek Apparel Inc. The subsidiary continued to be one of the major assets to the Russell Corporation. In 1998 the company claimed a net loss of $10.4 million on revenue of $1.18 billion. In August of 2008, the Cross Creek Apparel Plant closed its doors, laying off about 300 employees and changing lives again.

Here in the foothills, textiles and millwork were a way of life for generations. While the buildings, machines, and businesses may no longer exist, their histories continue.

Emily Morgan is the guest services manager at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History. She and her family live in Westfield. She can be reached at eamorgan@northcarolinamuseum.org or by calling 336-786-4478, extension 229.

While the timeline for a project to bring a Marriott hotel to downtown Mount Airy has been expanded 12 months from the original schedule, city officials seem as confident as ever about it reaching fruition.

The Mount Airy Board of Commissioners voted unanimously Thursday night to approve an extended development agreement between the municipality and Sunhouse Hospitality LLC of Cary.

Plans have been in the works by Sunhouse since late 2020 to transform the large, four-story Sparger Building on the former Spencer’s textile mill property on Willow Street into the new lodging establishment. The plan also has included developing a market center nearby.

City Attorney Hugh Campbell explained during Thursday night’s meeting that certain “slippages” or delays have occurred which prompted the revised timetable.

“There are lots of reasons why,” Campbell said, adding that these have been out of the municipality’s control.

One has involved the time needed for state and federal review of a Sunhouse application for historic mill tax credits to aid the project, which act to preserve the existing architecture.

Another delay is linked to a tremendous amount of time needed to work with Marriott, which paid off with that chain’s decision to enter into an agreement with Sunhouse to locate one of its highly regarded Tribute hotels in the Sparger Building.

“This should be the first Tribute hotel in North Carolina and the first full-service hotel in Surry County,” local Main Street Coordinator Lizzie Morrison said during a presentation at Thursday night’s meeting on the overall progress of the Spencer’s redevelopment.

Morrison called the coming of the boutique hotel a “compliment” to the viability of downtown Mount Airy from Marriott’s point of view.

The apparently unavoidable delays have not dampened enthusiasm among local officials, according to Campbell.

“We still feel like we’re in a good partnership with these developers,” the city attorney said.

Under the revised timeline, initial work on the Sparger Building is set to occur in early 2023 to next summer.

General hotel construction by the local J.G. Coram firm and completion of site work is planned from the summer of 2023 to early 2025, with the lodging establishment slated to open in the spring of that year.

This will be a shining star for the Spencer’s redevelopment, which has been in the works since the former industrial property was bought by the city government in May 2014.

The Spencer’s transformation has experienced its share of ups and downs over the years, while achieving successes including the building of the 65-unit Spencer’s Mill Apartments adjacent to the Sparger Building which have a long waiting list.

And the extension of the Sunhouse development timetable for the hotel should not be viewed as a sign that it will meet the same fate as earlier plans for a Barter Theatre expansion and hotel on the property that were abandoned.

“It’s my understanding they have spent a sizable amount of money to get the Marriott franchise,” Mayor Ron Niland said Thursday night of Sunhouse, adding that this figure — required up front — is between $700,000 and $1 million.

“They’ve got quite an amount of skin in the game,” Niland added in regard to how a company would not abandon a project with such an investment having been made so far.

City Manager Stan Farmer agreed.

“With their signing of the agreement with Marriott, it almost guarantees they can’t walk away,” he said.

Even so, certain performance milestones have been inserted into the extended development agreement which Sunhouse is expected to meet before January.

These included lining up financing for the project and the completion of architectural drawings for the hotel.

The city attorney explained Friday afternoon that this is needed because the municipality will be doing some construction in the parking lot area near the building and officials wanted an assurance that Sunhouse will complete such steps before that work begins.

Sunhouse is scheduled to close next year on the purchase of the property it agreed to buy from the city for the project, according to the amended development agreement approved by city officials Thursday night, covering 36 pages.

Christy Williams, a Mount Airy resident, is living her professional career’s credo of “Be The Change You Want to See in the World.”

A teacher in the Carroll County Public School system in Virginia, the start of Williams’ 28th year in the division was marked with the presentation of the Teacher of the Year 2022 award on Sept. 9 at Carroll County High School.

“Christy is a wonderful teacher. She’s a top-notch teacher and a top-notch person. Not just academically….she does so many other things for the welfare of the school,” said School Superintendent Dr. Mark Burnette. “She takes on so many things with the club sponsorships and everything she does….all of the things she does with the prom. She’s always been a member of the prom committee. She does a lot of extra things that make Carroll County High School what it is. To be in a job this long and to still love it as much is a testament to her. She has such a good relationship with the kids. You can see that in the classroom.”

William has served as drafting teacher at the high school since 1995. She has been married for 22 years to her husband, Mitch, who is a civil engineer and public works director for the City of Mount Airy, where they reside. The two have a son, Raleigh, and a daughter, Charlotte, who are both enrolled at Carroll County High School. According to information supplied by the division, they are a gaming family which spends quality time together on Mario Kart tracks or Animal Crossing islands.

She took drafting in high school after spending years watching her older brother draw plans on his drafting table at home. Williams quickly grasped that while she never considered herself artistic, with the right tools she could create realistic drawings of equipment and home plans with a pencil, a piece of paper and a few drafting tools.

Williams credits North Surry High School drafting teacher Melvin T. Jackson with kindling that vision by making the class fun and instructive, leading her to decide that Jackson had the dream job she wanted one day. That opportunity came in 1995 when college professor Bobby Shumaker called her to say he’d seen a drafting teacher job posted in the newspaper. It was a position left vacant when Burnette left that post to become an assistant principal. Williams has been with the division since then and said she has loved almost every minute of it.

“Oh my gosh you all, I am in shock. Oh my gosh, thank you so much.” Williams gushed as central office workers, high school and others surprised her in the classroom that morning with her award.

She recalled her first days in Carroll County, saying from the first time she walked into the school she felt like “I’m home.”

She fell so deeply in love with the school that when her former teacher, Jackson, retired from North Surry high School, he called her several times, trying to convince Williams to leave Carroll County and take his post there. Despite the fact that North Surry is a five-minute drive from her home, and Carroll County is 30 minutes, she couldn’t leave her present teaching home.

Williams’ many achievement including starting Motivational Monday videos where students are shown kindness expressed in various ways by everyday heroes. This sparked the creation of Intersession Class where students are taught how to manage stress and anxiety and that led to the AOK-Acts Of Kindness/Are You OK school club.

Williams is a member of the CCHS WOW committee where teachers come up with ideas to brighten the school and improve the mood of students and staff. Projects have included positive messages on restroom mirrors and outdoor sidewalks, decorating contests and a Friday the 13th activity where pennies are placed face up that day. Many examples of Williams’s students work are visible in the community with stickers, signs and banners made on the drafting lab’s vinyl cutter. Students have partnered with various businesses, churches and the Carroll County Board of Elections over the years to make parking signs and banners.

The Williamses are also locally known for a project straight from the movies. She and her husband involved students from the school’s drafting and engineering departments to create a real life replica of the Pizza Planet Truck from the film “Toy Story 4.” The truck has become a popular fixture at school and community events in the region. Williams also serves as the Skills USA advisor, which helps students with career planning and preparation.

David Broyles may be reached at 276-779-4013 or on Twitter@CarrollNewsDave

Necessity is the mother of invention, and it has led Melissa Hiatt to become as close to a subject matter expert on the Surry County Land Use plan as possible for someone without a planning background.

Hiatt appeared last week before the Surry County Board of County Commissioner to request they pump the brakes on the approval of rezoning requests for dollar-type stores or “like-fashioned” businesses.

“I am requesting you approve or enact a moratorium on zoning and/or permitting for 45 days on future business that there is already an existing like-fashioned business within five miles unless a need is proven. A moratorium will provide time to research the need, language, and legality of enacting and enforcing a zoning ordinance.”

“The request is made as a means to protect our citizens, preserve our communities and to produce growth and development that had the best return on investment to our citizens,” Hiatt explained to the board.

She asked the request to be considered, “In a timely manner as this is an emergent issue as the previously discussed developer has identified another parcel that sits within four miles of four already existing identical stores.”

Residents of the area say that Teramore Development is rumored to have identified the Old Indian Graves Trading Post at Indian Grove Church Road and Westfield Road as their next desired Dollar General location.

This is after the previously sought rezoning for a Dollar General location at Westfield and Quaker Roads was voted down by the commissioners.

“Citizens have continued to watch development in and around our community,” Hiatt said to the commissioners. “Unfortunately, reading and looking for answers in the land use plan has brought me back to you because defeating the rezoning of that particular parcel was not enough of a message to the developer that we do not want to same store every three miles in our county.”

As on previous visits to the planning board or the county commissioners, Hiatt was armed with the data to back up her presentation, “We currently have 32 of these like-fashioned stores either in operation, or approved for construction, in Surry County,” she said.

These ‘like-fashioned’ retailers she noted include Dollar General, Dollar Tree, PopShelf, and Family Dollar (which was bought by Dollar Tree in 2015 for $8.5 billion). “Surry County is 536 square miles; that is a lot of dollar stores in our community.”

These stores are built on the promise of being good for the community, providing jobs, being a community partner, and providing fresh food, Hiatt said. However, she has not found the proof to show those claims can be backed up.

When developers have spoken to the county commissioners in meetings, they have pronounced future Dollar Generals shall follow the new floor plan, offer produce, and stock more refrigerated/frozen options. For both Hiatt and Heather Moore, of Moore’s General Store, the evidence of such has yet to be found.

Hiatt told the commissioners her research has shown a trend toward placing retailers such as these in areas that would cater to the lowest income residents. She went on to say she found that Dollar General targets their stores in areas of high volume EBT (food stamp) use.

Retail insiders however are presenting data showing growth in discount retailers is on the rise across all economic levels. Dollar General has reported its largest growth in the pandemic era has been found in those making above $40,000.

Since the pandemic, the customer base has been shifting in these discount stores and Dollar General, along with the rest, reported that customers are coming in more frequently to buy fewer things per trip.

Analysts speculate this is a byproduct of inflationary purse tightening by consumers and some lingering fears of in-person shopping at grocery and larger retailers such as Walmart. Dollar General expects that pattern to remain in place at least through the end of the year, Dollar General CEO Todd Vasos said. He also suggested the value added for the customer is found in the ease of access as well as in pricing.

In a sign of how price increases have squeezed all shoppers, Dollar General said it is seeing increasing signs that its focus on low prices has emerged as a “survival tool” for many of its customers.

“Our core customer is running out of money that fourth week of the month. So, she’s told us that I really need that $1 price point to be able to feed my family,” Vasos said.

He added that shoppers’ habits have changed due to the global pandemic. They have been coming into stores more often but are spending less on each trip than they did at the peak of COVID when staying out of stores altogether was many shoppers’ goal. Vasos said he expects this trend of less items bought on more frequent visits to remain the trend for his business.

Dollar General has become a major player in the retail and convenience market and has placed 75% of its stores in towns with populations of less than 20,000 residents. As industry observer Jea Yu wrote, “They have carved out a niche in small locations where the big box retailers wouldn’t even consider.”

Retail trade writers noted that Dollar General “has been putting in the work over the last few years… and is growing faster than any other retailer in the county, with 1,039 new stores opened in 2021 alone,” according to Forbes.

Decision makers at Dollar General would point to their formula working for their business model and their customer by highlighting second quarter sales numbers showing 4.6% growth in same store sales year-over-year.

What is good for the Dollar General board of directors or shareholders may not be what is best for those on the ground, Hiatt said. Her moratorium request is meant to give the county time to look over the land use plan and make such updates as County Manager Chris Knopf said are overdue.

“This is not a step back in time or a speed bump for development and not a personal attack against a particular industry,” Hiatt said, instead presenting the pushback from her and other members of the community as the last line of defense from an onslaught of potential growth in an area saturated with these like-fashioned retailers.

“There is a silent assault on our community, just as there is in many communities across the nation. The assault is coming from big box retail stores that specialize in discounted merchandise, primarily from China,” she said.

Hiatt asked the board to weigh the potential benefits of lower prices and convenience against low wages, processed foods, and the boxing out of mom-and-pop retailers. “With these issues identified, I do not believe the tax base received in property tax and sales tax outweighs the payout to provide services from our county budget in combating the aforementioned impact to citizen.”

A group of local citizens is taking steps to express their dissatisfaction with a new master plan for downtown Mount Airy — literally — with an upcoming walk they hope will demonstrate a strong show of opposition.

“It’s actually going to be a friendly walk,” said Gail Hiatt, one merchant involved, “to save Main Street.” Copies of petitions to that effect also are circulating in the area.

Hiatt explained that the event scheduled for Oct. 9 should not be confused with the types of protests and marches that have rocked some U.S. cities in recent years — while at the same time plan dissenters want their opinions known.

“We just want to voice our opposition,” said Hiatt, the owner of Mount Airy Tractor Co. Toyland on North Main Street, who mentioned that a number of downtown merchants are planning the walk. “There’s probably about 15 involved in helping to get it started.”

They are not part of any organization. “We’re doing this on our own,” Hiatt said. “We have all come together.”

Martha Truskolaski, owner of the Spotted Moon gift shop downtown, another leading the effort, says the walk is aimed at preserving the existing quaintness of North Main Street rather than copying modern streetscapes of larger cities which the plan advocates.

Mount Airy is not such a place, “and we don’t want to be,” Truskolaski said Thursday afternoon.

“We’re Mayberry, we’re not Boone or somewhere like that,” agreed Hiatt.

Concerns also have arisen about the potential high costs of aspects of the plan to taxpayers.

The walk is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. on Oct. 9 from the upper end of the central business district, with participants asked to assemble between 1 and 1:30 p.m. in the Truist (BB&T) bank parking lot.

They will walk down North Main Street to the Municipal Building, where speakers including Commissioner Jon Cawley, who voted against the downtown plan during a recent meeting, and former Mayor Deborah Cochran, are expected to offer remarks.

Both are candidates in this year’s municipal election, Cawley for mayor and Cochran, the at-large seat on the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners.

Everyone is invited to participate in the procession, according to Hiatt, who said they may also ride in vehicles if desired. “A lot of people can’t walk that far,” she acknowledged.

North Main Street will be closed to regular vehicular traffic during the walk/ride.

With emotions running high after the city commissioners voted 3-2 in favor of the new master plan on Sept. 1 — which most speakers opposed during a public hearing preceding that — Truskolaski was hoping the walk could be held soon after.

But Oct. 9 was the earliest date for which a permit could be obtained, due to other events scheduled downtown.

The downtown plan, prepared by the Benchmark planning firm, updated an earlier one completed in 2004.

It contains recommendations for improvements in the downtown area as a whole, including not only the main drag but surrounding areas — yet changes eyed for it have sparked the opposition.

The general concept for North Main Street includes providing what are called “flex spaces” to create more areas for outdoor dining, tree plantings and other tweaks.

Flex spaces 20 feet wide are envisioned on each side of North Main Street, including sidewalks 12 to 20 feet wide, with a movable bollard system and options for parking along the way.

The plan prescribes large flexible outdoor spaces at street corners and the burial of above-ground utility lines along with street trees, new decorative street lights and strategically placed loading zones.

Although the possibility of altering the present one-way, two-lane traffic pattern on North Main to one lane was considered as an option while the plan was in its formative stages, the maintaining of two lanes was favored by workshop study groups.

The total travel area of the two lanes is 20 feet wide, under the plan.

While city officials who support the update say it is aimed at improving downtown Mount Airy to keep it economically viable for the long run, opponents believe they shouldn’t tinker with what already is a good thing.

A speaker during a public forum of a city council meeting Thursday night summed up the controversy.

Daris Wilkins said then that many members of the public are concerned about widening sidewalks and losing parking spots as a result, and also changes that would harm the existing aesthetics downtown.

Critics say that while the alterations — which Truskolaski called “a downtown makeover” — might be well-intended, they don’t want to risk damaging what’s there.

Many people who visit downtown Mount Airy are drawn by its charm, she contends, and the way it takes one “back to a quieter period of time.”

Truskolaski believes that in adopting the new plan, municipal leaders weren’t reflecting the views of downtown shoppers on the ground and merchants — most of whom oppose it, Hiatt said.

“They’re not on the streets,” Truskolaski said.

She also thinks the proposal was approved by the majority of the city board without full disclosure to the local populace.

“Not all taxpayers in the city were aware of the plan before it was pushed through,” Truskolaski said.

Some, especially older residents, might have been unaware of the recent public hearing due to not being engaged with social media or reading about it in the newspaper.

Truskolaski suggests that notices about such hearings should be included with citizens’ water bills to better spread the word.

The Spotted Moon owner admits her position on the downtown plan might cost the store some business.

“But I think it’s worth fighting to keep our town like it is,” Truskolaski said.

Mitchell Whitley — a Greensboro native and Raleigh resident — visited Mount Airy earlier this year, spending a few hours one Sunday afternoon in town.

He also visited Elkin in the spring, and more recently swung back through Surry County to spend a few hours in Pilot Mountain — and he has hopes of getting back to this part of the state to tour Dobson.

He’s also visited nearby Sparta, North Wilkesboro, and other towns flung across North Carolina, from the mountains to the coast. All totaled, Whitley has visited more than 150 towns in North Carolina, specifically meeting with the mayors of each community.

That is his goal — to meet with the mayors of North Carolina’s incorporated towns and cities.

His purpose? That’s a bit nebulous, though Whitley said he wants to learn more about what challenges local municipal governments are facing, how they are overcoming those obstacles, and he wants to be “A better advocate for local issues.”

He’s also developed a cool-looking website called Mitchell’s Mayors and he has his sights set on writing a book about his experiences once he has done.

Given that the project is a weekend-only pursuit, he probably has a few years before his work will be available on bookshelves.

“I’ve spent all my college years following political opportunities,” he said, explaining he volunteered for several state and federal campaigns, and interned for Sen. Thom Tillis, at the U.S. Secretary of Labor office in Washington, D.C., as well as for six months in the North Carolina General Assembly.

“But I never got a chance to experience municipal government.”

So, Whitley said he figured the best way to learn about local government, to get a feel for what challenges and opportunities face towns large and small, was to meet with mayors of those towns and cities. All of them.

“So, I started calling up mayors, seeing if they would meet with me. I thought they could give me great insight.”

This month marks a full year since starting his quest. Early on, he was free to visit a few towns during weekdays, but he was soon working fulltime, thus visiting the mayors became an every-weekend project.

In January, he visited Mount Airy and spent a couple of hours with Mayor Ron Niland. Unlike most mayors Whitley has met, Niland has served as a town manager and as a contractor offering services and advice to other towns, thus his experience was a little wider.

“We were one of his early visits,” Niland recently recalled. “It was a very interesting visit, he came up, it was actually on a Sunday. I met him down at city hall…I enjoyed our visit, we spent an hour, hour and a half, talking about issues in the city, other cities. This is a great undertaking; I think it’s kind of an interesting project.”

At that time, Whitley was out doing his thing, along with his father who is accompanying him on the trips, but few knew about his project.

“I encouraged him to do a web page, which I think he’s done,” Niland said. “He’s stayed in contact with me occasionally, mostly through messaging, particularly when he runs into a mayor that knows me.”

“My visit was amazing,” Whitley said of his time in Mount Airy. “My dad had been there plenty of times, but I’d never been there before. To visit the town that Mayberry is written after is really something special.”

He said despite the day being overcast and cool, he was surprised at the number of people shopping on Main Street downtown.

He particularly felt meeting with Niland was educational.

“He spent so many years in roles as town managers in other communities, working for towns across…the state. It gave him a really great idea and perspective of how he could come in as mayor and work well with people…positively get things done on behalf of everybody. When a mayor has experience like that, it’s great, they can get a jump start.”

Whitley was particularly impressed with the planned hotel and visitor center downtown, part of the larger Spencer’s reclamation project.

“I’m excited for your town, more people should be able to come and stay and learn just how special your community is.”

Whitley was equally complimentary of his time in Pilot Mountain, meeting with Mayor Evan Cockerham.

“I had been to the mountain, of course, to the state park, but I had never been to the town.”

He said Cockerham spent time with him, talking about changes in the town, all of the weekend events scheduled throughout the year, and walked him to what he called a “very, very good restaurant,” the Tilted Ladder.

“I hadn’t heard of his project until he reached out to me,” Mayor Cockerham said of their Aug. 27 visit. He was impressed with the scope of Whitley’s plan.

“It’s kind of a daunting task to make contact with every mayor, much less visit with them. I just thought it was a very fascinating project, I had never heard of anything that dealt with municipalities on that kind of scale. He spent a few hours with me…The majority of the questions were about 50/50, about my personal story, what leads someone to become a mayor, and then he gave me an opportunity to tell the story of our community, what brought us to the point we are today.”

Thus far, Whitley is nearly a third of the way through his goal of meeting all the mayors — and he has already come across some unexpected tales and people.

“There’s a lot of things that stand out,” he said of the towns he has already visited. Among those is being asked to drive the mayor’s car in a Christmas parade; meeting a man who worked on Air Force 1 for seven different presidents; learning of an as-yet unsolved passenger jet crash in the town of Bolivia in 1960; one of the largest Americana memorabilia collections in the U.S. — including a crushed beer can from the plane flight the band Lynyrd Skynyrd was riding when it crashed; a paranormal museum; and a mayor who spends some of his spare time hunting for Big Foot.

“Who would ever be able to see something like that unless he took the opportunity to travel across the state, talk to people in the communities?”

Whitley said the project has evolved since he began. First, it was just about meeting with the mayors, learning about their towns. Since starting, he’s begun the website Mayor Niland suggested, and has added plans for the book.

Whether the visits might springboard Whitley into a political career he can’t say.

“I don’t know myself exactly,” he said of any potential future in politics. “I wouldn’t want anyone to think the only reason I’m doing this is because I want a political career. I’m doing this because I love our state and I want to listen and learn from the mayors, be a better advocate for them.”

Mitchell’s Mayors, including photos and some information on all the towns Whitley has visited, can be found at: https://www.mitchellsmayors.com/

DOBSON – After missing three years due to the pandemic, along with some fear of a permanent cancellation, the Surry Old Time Fiddlers Convention returns later this month to celebrate the area’s string-instrument tradition this fall. The convention takes place Sept. 23-24 at the Surry County Service Center in Dobson.

The event, in its 11th year, usually takes place in the spring, but organizers hope a fall event will keep the momentum going until the convention can return to regular timing.

“Several of us older folks were fortunate to play with Tommy Jarrell and those famous musicians from this area, so we’re doing our best to keep the old-time music tradition going,” says Buck Buckner, event organizer.

The two-day event focuses on youth and adult instrument competitions, awarding more than $5,000 in prize money. Categories include fiddle, guitar, banjo, mandolin and more.

What had been an annual gathering of musicians and fans marked its tenth year in 2019, but was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 among public-gathering bans because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier this year, Buckner said it appeared the convention would not be returning. During its first ten years, the event was held at Surry Community College. However, he said the COVID-pandemic, along with the retirement and departure of some from the college, pushed the school to make some changes in how its facilities were used. That led to the cancellation of the spring convention this year, he said.

In May, he said Dobson officials had contacted him, expressing interest in potentially hosting the event there in town. At the time, they were discussing a town park or Fisher River Park just outside of town. Now, all parties involved have been able to secure the use of the Surry County Service Center for the event, at least for this autumn.

Friday night brings back the popular square dance. Slate Mountain Ramblers and Lucas Pasley & The Stratford Stringband provide live music for the evening. A 50/50 raffle and quilt raffle also take place.

Grounded Coffee Co. in Dobson brings snacks and coffee Friday evening, and area food trucks provide a variety of food on Saturday.

Doors open for the square dance at 6 p.m., Friday. Competitions take place throughout the day on Saturday. Registration begins at 10 a.m. Youth competitions run from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., with adult contests following and band competitions that evening.

“Several years ago, I was a little concerned about our music tradition here,” Buckner says. “It didn’t seem like many young people were getting involved, but with local school programs, and an emphasis on youth music competitions, we’re seeing a lot of young people getting into it.”

Admission to the Surry Old Time Fiddlers Convention is $5 per day. All contestants and children 12 and younger admitted free. The address for Surry County Service Center is 915 E. Atkins St. in Dobson. For more information: www.SurryOldTime.com.

Veterans Memorial Park in Mount Airy was the scene of a Veterans Appreciation event Saturday. Mount Airy Mayor Ron Niland along with Commissioners Steve Yokeley and Joe Zalescik were there to show their support for local veterans on the weekend that also saw the anniversary of the attack of Sept. 11, 2001.

Organizer Jerry Estes and the assembled were on hand during a drizzly Saturday that saw a lot of happenings in Mount Airy firing off at the same time. American Legion Post 123 sponsored the Veterans Appreciation event that also doubled as a collection for the items to be added into a 50-year time capsule which will be placed for posterity on the grounds of Veterans Memorial Park.

The time capsule was focused not just on local veterans but also on Veterans Memorial Park itself. Estes was seen displaying some of those items to the small crowd that gathered over the weekend, and discussing the significance of each. He held up a bullet casing and described it was from an officer’s side arm, he showed off a Veterans of Foreign Wars kerchief, and other items that had been donated to the time capsule from local veterans.

After Estes showed a photo depicting prisoners of war, Yokeley said, “I can’t believe human beings could possibly do things like that to one another.” War is hell, as the saying goes, and as those with the first-hand knowledge of such pass away, so too do their memories which is why the time capsule matters to the event organizers.

Included in the time capsule are dog tags, newspaper articles, medallions, bullet casings, and more. There are artifacts ranging from WWII, Korea, Vietnam, up through more modern conflicts in the Middle East such as Operations Desert Storm and Enduring Freedom.

With Surry County’s veteran population aging, the event and the time capsule are meant to create another way in which these veterans can leave a mark on history. Estes admitted with the aging population it was a little challenging at first to find veterans who were interested in donating items to the time capsule, however the artifacts came together in time to be placed inside the time capsule.

After 50 years when the Veterans Memorial Park time capsule is exhumed from the grounds of Veterans Memorial Park Estes hopes the artifacts inside will serve as a testament to the men and women who donned the uniform of the United States and fought to defend the nation.

“I want people to know we were here, and we cared enough to give back even after we served,” Estes explained.

In July 2010, Shirley Brinkley spoke at a public forum before the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners, complaining about the effects of annexation in her neighborhood — which would be a springboard for her election as a commissioner.

And though she has been displaying the same pattern recently in appearing at public forums to address various issues, Brinkley said this is not a precursor for any effort to rejoin the city council.

“If I ran again, my husband would either murder me or leave me,” she said when discussing a potential candidacy after one of her recent appearances before the commissioners.

“I don’t plan on running,” Brinkley emphasized.

A year after her initial public-forum comments — addressing yard and other damage resulting from construction crews installing utility lines in the wake of Mount Airy’s annexation of the Hollyview Forest area — Brinkley did decide to run for office.

A substitute teacher for Mount Airy High School at the time, she filed as a South Ward candidate for the city council election in 2011, defeating incumbent Todd Harris by capturing 67% of the vote. Harris was a three-term incumbent and the longest-serving member of the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners.

In 2015, Brinkley ran for re-election to a second four-year term in the South Ward, overcoming token challenges by two write-in candidates, Bill Clark and Joe Reid.

Brinkley opted not to seek a third term on the city council in 2019, with present South Ward Commissioner Marie Wood winning that seat then.

While Wood was viewed in 2019 as Brinkley’s hand-picked successor, the former commissioner recently has been at odds with Wood over the latter’s reluctance to support a property tax cut and disrespect Brinkley said Wood displayed toward Commissioner Jon Cawley.

For the first time since 2019, a municipal election is being held in Mount Airy in 2022, with the city’s every-two-year schedule interrupted by a switch from odd- to even-numbered years.

Despite speaking at a public forum last November on problems related to the new automated garbage collection implemented by the city government earlier in 2021, Brinkley did not adhere to her “pattern” of filing for office this year.

“I like the people that are running,” she said of the eight candidates seeking four offices altogether, including that of the mayor and three commissioner positions.

And based on her other recent comments, Brinkley is not interested in mounting a council return when the next municipal election is held in 2024.

However, this doesn’t mean she will be a stranger at City Hall.

In June, she appeared before the council to ask that property taxes be reduced, a request that Wood, who also is mayor pro tem, rejected during that meeting.

This was followed with a public forum appearance by Brinkley during a commissioners meeting on Aug. 4, when she complained about the treatment displayed by some council members toward Cawley, a candidate for mayor this year, including Wood.

That involved a dispute over street changes that Cawley charged were made in violation of the city charter, which others sought to downplay.

“I tried to treat people with respect,” Brinkley said of her time in office. “That’s why I went to the board (on Aug. 4) — they don’t have respect for people, and it’s terrible.”

Brinkley indicated that this seems to be the nature of politics these days. “It can be vicious — people are vicious.”

Most recently, at a council meeting on Sept. 1, Brinkley spoke in opposition to a downtown master plan update during a public hearing. She specifically criticized the possibility of North Main Street traffic being reduced from two lanes to one through the central business district as a result.

Although Brinkley says she won’t run for city office again, there are strong indications the former commissioner will show up at meetings as needed.

“You’ll never get rid of me until I die,” she told officials during the Aug. 4 session.

RALEIGH — Two early voting sites have been approved for Surry County ahead of the November general election, through a unanimous decision by officials in Raleigh.

The N.C. State Board of Elections voted 5-0 Tuesday in favor of a plan to offer one-stop, early absentee in-person balloting in both Mount Airy and Dobson, thus rejecting a counter-proposal for the Dobson location only.

This intervention at the state level was required due to the Surry County Board of Elections failing to reach unanimous decisions on either option during a meeting in Dobson on July 20. Its members were all in agreement that two other recent early voting stations in Pilot Mountain and Elkin should not operate this fall.

Under state law, the lack of a unanimous decision at the local level automatically sends the matter to the N.C. State Board of Elections, which provided the final word on similar cases in a total of 13 counties during a monthly meeting in Raleigh.

The non-unanimous decision requirement also triggered a third debate Tuesday besides the two local proposals for early voting centers, which was raised by Tim DeHaan of the bipartisan Surry elections board.

DeHaan, who appeared before the state group along with fellow local member Drew Poindexter and county Director of Elections Michella Huff via a video conferencing set-up from the board’s headquarters in Dobson, said his main concern was that issue.

The Republican board member from Elkin was the lone dissenter in the local 4-1 decision to have early voting in both Mount Airy and Dobson, and officially was involved Tuesday to make the case against that. But DeHaan said by voting in opposition, he mainly was using that opportunity to question the unanimous-decision requirement when appearing before the state board.

DeHaan, a recognized expert in parliamentary procedure, said this requirement goes against principles of democracy in which a simple majority decision is all that’s required to settle things.

He believes the state board’s method also serves to suppress those who might have differing opinions on a proposal, prompting them to go along with the majority just to avoid Raleigh’s involvement.

“You’re stifling free speech,” DeHaan told the state board members, who he said are charged with ensuring free and democratic elections.

Despite DeHaan’s dissenting vote in July on having two local early voting stations, he expressed support for that move Tuesday.

Under the non-unanimous procedure, a representative from both sides of a contested issue in a county is selected to present each in remarks limited to five minutes, with Poindexter, a Democrat, advocating for the approval of Mount Airy and Dobson.

“I’m basically willing to concede to Drew that the majority plan is OK,” DeHaan said during Tuesday’s meeting in reiterating that his main concern was addressing the parliamentary aspect regarding non-unanimous decisions.

During his allotted five minutes in the spotlight for the video conference, Poindexter explained that Surry has maintained four early voting locations for recent countywide elections including in 2020 when a hotly contested presidential race was involved.

In retrospect, there was an assumption that heavy turnout in 2020 would carry over to early voting before a primary election this spring, on May 17, yet this did not materialize, Poindexter added.

He went on to say that providing the early voting service in Pilot Mountain and Elkin in particular did not justify the staffing and other expenses required.

In Elkin, for example — where only 515 people cast ballots over the 15 days of early voting this spring — $16,215 was spent, a cost of $31.49 per vote.

For Pilot Mountain, only 424 people voted, with the cost put at $$15,047 — a per-vote figure of $35.49.

To help illustrate the low turnout there, Poindexter pointed out that just eight persons came to the polling place on April 30 and seven did so on May 7.

“This makes for long days for election workers,” he said.

In contrast, 2,281 voters cast early ballots at the Mount Airy site in a county government facility behind Arby’s, which officials do believe was worthwhile from a cost standpoint.

Meanwhile, the Dobson site — at the county elections headquarters — is mandated to be open for early voting under state law.

In looking ahead to the general election, Poindexter suspects turnout also will be somewhat meager because of “an unusually low number of contested elections” on the ballot, further making the case for just two sites.

This includes present county office-holders such as the sheriff and others.

After hearing from the two Surry representatives, the state board approved the Mount Airy-Dobson plan with no debate.

In voicing his concerns about requiring unanimous rather than majority decisions on the local level for matters such as early voting, DeHaan said he wasn’t expecting an answer from the state board on Tuesday.

The local board member indicated that he wanted one at some point to reconcile his concerns about this being anti-democratic in nature.

DeHaan said he has talked to state legislators about the issue, who told him that he needed to address the state elections board instead.

Its chairman, Damon Circosta, said the board would take the matter under advisement.

However, Circosta mentioned that the unanimous rule is employed at multiple levels of government.

He gave the example of unanimous consent used in the U.S. Senate when lawmakers agree as a whole to circumvent normally required procedures for the sake of expediency.

Early voting is scheduled to begin on Oct. 20 at the two locations in Surry County.

The second annual 9/11 Day Flag of Honor Across America Memorials event was held Sunday in Dobson at the Children’s Center of Northwest North Carolina. The ceremony mirrored others happening across the country as the largest multi-site coordinated 9/11 Day project.

In total, 75 communities across the United States came together over the weekend in an event meant to commemorate the lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001, during the deadliest terrorist attack in United States history.

“We feel honored to have been one of 75 sites chosen to hold a commemorative event that was a meaningful and solemn remembrance of the lives lost on 9/11,” Children’s Center Community Relations Coordinator Valerie Smith said.

Regardless of the location or whether the honored were a victim, hero, or first responder, the ceremony seeks to create a connection to those who were lost. Also remembered were those lost in the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center.

The 9/11 Day Flag of Honor Memorials are volunteer-driven and meant to bring young people into the ceremony as well to share information on those who were lost. “Instead of saying 2,983 names at one memorial, each memorial is held in memory and honor of 50-65 victims and heroes. And, instead of only saying a name, 5-10 personal things are shared about each,” the event website said.

Part of what makes this event so different is that there is no specific local connection between the memorials and the names read. Organizers said this is a new way to honor those who were lost on that fateful day beyond just the recitation of names and the tolling of bells.

This year, the remembrance “extends beyond those honored in the first year, from everyone who lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001, to include nearly 5,000 more who lost their lives after that day.”

“As a result of federal law and other concerns, the federal government will not release the names of those who died following Sept. 11, only the monthly death totals. More than twenty 9/11-related organizations are assisting Global Youth Justice and have identified nearly 1,000 to be remembered by name.”

This memorial was the brainchild of the Global Youth Justice Inc. in 2020 and is co-sponsored by AmeriCorps, the federal agency that promotes national service through volunteerism. Participating sites were given a 9/11 Day Flag of Honor with the names of the 2,983 victims to display at the memorial ceremony.

The Mount Airy ABC Board is being expanded by city officials to avoid the kind of situation that occurred earlier this year when the death of a member left the group short-handed.

Unlike some more heavily populated bodies, the Mount Airy ABC Board contains just three members.

When one of those individuals, Dr. Hugh Sutphin, died in July, that left with the group with only two members to deal with board responsibilities.

These include overseeing operations of the city’s lone liquor store on Starlite Road, which opened in 1979.

“I don’t know that a three-member board is a good number to have,” Mayor Ron Niland said earlier this month during a meeting of the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners when a proposal to expand the group was considered.

After discussion, the board gave the nod to pursuing the addition of two more members to the group.

Although it is a volunteer unit, Niland pointed out that the ABC Board has a number of responsibilities including handling significant sums of revenue.

The overall goal of the board is to serve the community responsibly by controlling the sale of spirituous liquor and promoting customer-friendly, modern and efficient stores, as defined by state law. This includes stocking the store, hiring and firing its employees and guiding other functions.

Mayor Niland believes a five-member body would better serve the public interest in those regards.

State law allows a locality to have either a three-member or five-member ABC Board, with City Attorney Hugh Campbell confirming during the Sept. 1 meeting that the commissioners have the authority to expand the group.

City Manager Stan Farmer was instructed to prepare the necessary paperwork for formal consideration at an upcoming meeting. The process also will include suggestions on new members for the expanded ABC Board.

During the last meeting, the commissioners also appointed a replacement for Dr. Sutphin to fill out the remainder of his term.

Dean Hatley was named to serve until Oct. 31, 2023.

The terms for city ABC Board members run for three years, with Sutphin last reappointed in 2020.

Also, the commissioners appointed Tommy Brannock as chairman of that board.

John Sanders presently is the third member of the group, which has staggered terms that expire in alternate years.

Over the weekend Mount Airy joined in with more than 600 communities nationwide in the 2022 Walk to End Alzheimer’s. The Walk is the world’s largest event to raise awareness and funds for care, support and research surrounding Alzheimer’s.

Being properly motivated, it was going to take more than a little rain to stop the crowd Saturday at Riverside Park from doing what they could – one step at a time – in the fight against Alzheimer’s and dementia.

The Walk to End Alzheimer’s brought out walkers of all ages who assembled on a busy morning in Mount Airy with the Moonshiner’s Reunion happening just a few blocks west from the park, on Independence Boulevard.

Some participants brought the family along with strollers to take the trek along the Ararat River segment of the greenway. To make it a true family affair there were more than a few damp dogs along for the walk, but to a dog almost any walk is a good one.

Smiles on humans, canines, and even a llama or two were found as the walkers assembled, chatted, and waited for instructions to begin.

After the crowd had waved and displayed their colored flowers signifying why or for whom they were participating in the day’s walk, it was time to hit the Granite Greenway. Participants departed from the field where they had been assembled walking down through an assembly of cheerleaders with colorful pom poms who offered encouragement.

Signs along the path urged participants to take photos and share them across social media using the #Walk2EndAlz designation so the photos from Mount Airy could be added to galleries from other such events across the country.

No matter where the walk took place, the recurring message was that there is power found in the colorful flowers being held by participants. All walkers were asked to select a Promise Garden flower and to choose the color that best corresponded to their connection to the disease.

More than just a spot of color on an overcast Saturday morning, the color of the flower was meant to be a key in discerning the reason a walker was there to support the effort.

“The Alzheimer’s Association Walk to End Alzheimer’s is full of flowers, each carried by someone committed to ending this disease. Because like flowers, our participants don’t stop when something is in their way. They keep raising funds and awareness for a breakthrough in the fight against Alzheimer’s and all other dementia,” the association said.

Those who displayed purple flowers were showing they were walking for those who have lost a someone to the disease. The blue flowers represented someone living with Alzheimer’s, or another dementia.

Many yellow flowers were seen representing someone who is supporting or caring for a person living with Alzheimer’s. Orange was used as the catchall for those who support the cause and the Alzheimer’s Association’s vision “of a world without Alzheimer’s and all other dementia.”

To much cheering one young woman named Kate held up a single white flower which was the symbol for the first survivor of Alzheimer’s. Kate is the granddaughter of Hope Trumpie who has had her mother, sister, and a friend battle both Alzheimer’s and Lewy Body disease, another form of dementia that also needs public attention and research dollars brought to bear.

The color flower or the motivations for walking aside, the statistics on Alzheimer’s speak volumes to its impact. The Alzheimer’s Association reports there are more than six million Americans living with the disease and 55 million globally. By 2050 that number in the United States is projected to approach 13 million.

Alzheimer’s kills more annually than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined and the association states one in three Americans dies with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia.

In 2022 the organization said the cost of Alzheimer’s on the United States will be $321 billion a year but that number is expected to skyrocket to $1 trillion a year by 2050 as Baby Boomers continue to age.

Funds raised through the Walk to End Alzheimer’s predominantly go back into care, support, research, awareness, and advocacy efforts. The association states 79% of funds will go back into the fight against the disease with 17% supporting further fundraising efforts and just 4% going to the administration of the group.

The association is investing more than $300 million in projects spanning 45 countries to fund research initiatives that will help grow the understanding of the disease and advocate for those living with Alzheimer’s or dementia.

There are more walks to comed with Greensboro, Hickory, Charlotte, Asheville, Raleigh, as well as Salem and Danville, Virginia, all having Alzheimer’s walks in October.

One participant’s motivation to walk may get some other feet moving in future too. Jennifer Johnson said, “I want to help find a cure, so no one ever forgets themselves or their loved ones.”

Those moonshiners of the days of yore overcame some rough conditions back when — such as zipping down a dirt road with no shoulder in the dead of night with the sheriff on their tail. So, for those rough and tumble sorts the touch of rain over the weekend was nothing at all and certainly no reason to stay away from Mount Airy and the third installment of the Moonshine and Racers’ Reunion.

Along Main Street the racers and modified moonshine running vehicles began to park early in anticipation of a day showing off their cars and swapping stories. Before the opening ceremony there were signs Mother Nature was not going to win any best supporting actress award. The skies were dark, and drizzle gave way at times to heavier rain leading spectators to look for cover where it could be found.

Some of the cars on display were true classics whether the condition of the exterior showed it or not. A few rust patches or peeling paint did not matter at all to the enthusiasts who showed for the Moonshiner and Racers’ Reunion – in fact quite the opposite as they may be seen as a badge of honor for a life well-lived.

With tarps and trash bags covering some of the exposed hoods or interiors it was hard to get a good look at some of the cars on display. More than a few onlookers were seen on one knee or squatting to view an engine obscured by a plastic sheet.

The foot traffic and participation may have been lower than what organizers had hoped for but there was no point in telling that to those on the ground Saturday. For every scrunched up wet face that hid a look that seemingly asked, “What am I doing here in the rain?” was another raucous laugh or hearty greeting as old friends saw one another and reconnected or new connections were made.

This was after all a reunion of like-minded folks, so it was easy to spot who was walking around looking at the ‘shiners and race cars versus those who were there to see, be seen, and swap a story or two.

Along Main Street it did not matter to the kids squealing at the sight of Deputy Barney Fife or to the couple dancing in the rain outside of Uncorked what the agenda for the day was.

Some had no agenda at all as a group of four men stood beneath the awning at North Main Street and Moore Avenue holding court with one another as the onlookers floated quickly by them without a second look. They were locked in a conversation about who knows what – but appeared pleased to be in each other’s company despite the cool temperatures, damp conditions, and the bustle around them.

Thankfully, there was a large tent in the parking lot between Old North State Winery and Brannock & Hiatt that served as the epicenter for the autograph sessions and the Mount Airy Stock Car Racing Wall of Fame inductions, as well as the best refuge spot to escape the rain.

One of the pros on hand was 1983 Winston Series Champion Bobby Allison who entered the NASCAR Hall of Fame in the class of 2011 along with the likes of Lee Petty, Ned Jarrett, and David Pearson. With three Daytona 500 wins among his 84 top series wins, it may be The Fight at the 1979 Daytona 500 for which he will be best remembered.

Over the weekend though the fight was a memory of almost 45 years past. The Winston Cup champion smiled broadly at everyone who approached him for an autograph at one of the many long tables set up under the tent allowing spectators to wind through and get autographs from the world of racing or from the moonshiners in attendance.

A trio of women stood outside the autograph tent and pointed at a brick box like structure rising from the parking lot. As a work crew was seen hard at work on plumbing at the under-construction building, one woman told the others that a new outdoor bathroom was being added to which her friend laughed adding it, “Will be a popular stop this time next year.”

The elements failed in dampening the spirits on the ground but were successful in canceling the evening’s concert. Sons of Bootleg had been set to perform but the organizers felt it was the best move given the weather to cancel the show and got word out early that a change to the schedule had been made.

Organizer Bill Blair was seen making the rounds all day smiling, laughing, and shaking hands. He worked hard to get the event publicized and grow it from the previous year. His efforts were noticed as Richard Eudy, up from Concord, praised the event on social media, “A little bit of rain did not deter me and many others from having a great time. Thank you very much Bill Blair for all your hard work and dedication putting on this awesome show.”

Bryan Nivens also said he had an awesome time in Mount Airy, saying, “Beautiful town and locals are so nice and friendly to all of us.”

Mother Nature did not show up with her best but the people of Mount Airy turned on the charm to welcome back the moonshiners and racers for another successful, albeit wet, reunion. The 2023 Reunion will hopefully have better weather that this year’s event, but Blair and the rest anticipate the event will be even bigger next year.

When was the last time you ordered something off Amazon? Was it practical or fun?

For years the online shop platform has dominated the shopping scene, offering discounted items and cheaper or free shipping to the masses. Customers can practically buy anything and everything their hearts desire with a click of a button. For many people around the world, this is the best way to shop, there is no need to drive to a store, encounter crowds, or feel pressured to complete your shopping in a single session.

While Amazon’s rise to fame is a relatively new phenomenon, it wasn’t the first shopping experience of its kind. Sears, Roebuck and Company offered anything and everything people needed or wanted in everyday life. Substantial catalogs were delivered straight to customers’ doors simply waiting to be opened.

The company started in the late 1880s with a man named Richard W. Sears, who sold gold watches for $14 a piece out of a mail order catalog. After finding the mail-order business so successful, he partnered with Alvah C. Roebuck and Julius Rosenwald to create the monolith of a book that sold everything from wheelbarrows to houses.

The Rural Free Delivery Act of 1896 and the rise of disposable income created a rise in rural consumerism. Items could now be delivered straight to families outside of city or town limits. For many Americans, these large catalogs allowed them to view a different culture, that may have been different from their own. Not only did the company advertise singular items, but they also offered choices. Customers could choose colors, styles, and makes that differed from their neighbors, allowing individuality to also reign true in buying choices.

As the company continued to grow so did its customer service, by the turn of the century the company boasted “Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back,” saying that “every article in this catalog is honestly described and illustrated.”

Richard Sears himself wrote all the copy for the catalog until his retirement in 1908. In 1906 a three-million-square-foot distribution warehouse was built in Chicago, helping to organize and distribute the majority of its wares. In 1908 the company began to sell house kits of prefabricated supplies, with explicit instructions on how to set them up.

With the rise of automobiles, the company saw itself changing once again. The first Sears brick-and-mortar store opened in 1925, and the company launched Allstate Insurance in 1931. It wasn’t until the late 1970s and early 1980s that the company was challenged as the forerunner in retail experiences. The famed catalog continued until 1993 when the company leadership decided to switch its priorities to match the changing times of the world.

For years the Sears and Roebuck catalog brought the world to everyday people. Through the seasons, especially Christmas, the catalog allowed people to dream and hope for the extra things in life. Here in the Hollows and surrounding counties catalogs such as Sears provided a new way of reaching necessary and some unnecessary products.

Some of the older catalogs are hard to come by, seeing as most people used the valuable paper for other things as new catalogs came in. Cracking open one of these catalogs is a step back in time and while we just have a few pictures here, Ancestry.com and the Library of Congress websites have multiple uploads that can help paint a better picture of all the catalog had to offer.

Emily Morgan is the guest services manager at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History. She and her family live in Westfield. She can be reached at eamorgan@northcarolinamuseum.org or by calling 336-786-4478 x229

A challenge has been set for golfers of the area to bring their “A-game” to the 10th Annual Garry Scearce Memorial Special Olympics Golf Tournament. The tournament will be held on Thursday, Sept. 22, at the Cedarbrook Country Club located at 25 Country Club Drive in State Road.

While it may be the marquee events such as this year’s Spring Games held at East Surry High in April that grab much of the public attention, Bradley Key from Surry County Parks and Recreation says it takes both planning and practice year round to run a successful Special Olympics program.

The annual golf tournament is the biggest fundraiser that will generate proceeds to support Special Olympics programs in Surry County.

“The golf tournament has a great turnout every year, but we’ve got a little bit of room to make it grow and make it even more of a feel-good event,” he said.

Tournament entry fee for a four-player team starts at $300. An additional $100 will get that same foursome entry to the tournament but will also get a one-hole advertisement sign featuring their company name as well as four raffle tickets and four mulligans.

Businesses are invited to sponsor a hole starting at $100.

Teams can choose between the morning round that starts at 8 a.m. or may choose the afternoon round that tees off at 1 p.m.

The entry fee will include the cost of lunch and proceeds support Special Olympics efforts in Surry County including sports equipment, uniforms, transportation, special events, meals and accommodations for events requiring travel.

Special Olympics North Carolina held the first Games in 1970 with 400 participants and the group’s website says since that time it has grown to be recognized globally as one of the largest Special Olympics programs in the world. Nearly 40,000 children and adults with intellectual disabilities participate in Special Olympics North Carolina.

Key said that the raffle had several big-ticket items donated including a Blackstone 36” griddle, power generator, Milwaukee Packout Modular Storage System, Granite Fire Pit, Weber Grill, Vizio 50” 4K UHD LED Smart TV, RTIC 52 Quart Cooler, Reeves Community Center membership, Fisher River Park all day shelter reservation, and there will also be cash prizes. To enter the raffle tickets are $1 a piece, or $10 will nab a dozen entries.

Parks & Rec director Daniel White encourages people to come by and check out the tournament, “Come out and see it, it’s a good time. Foothills Hardware and several other groups participate in a silent auction on the day of and they donate tools and equipment.”

“We have a lot of fun right around noon and have a big old silent auctions with some really good deals to be had.” The public is welcome to attend the silent auction even if not golfing.

Everyone is welcome to attend the event and the Special Olympics athletes themselves will be on hand to participate in the tournament. Key said, “We like to get our athletes who are participating in our year-round programs to the tournament that day so that the people out there playing and those raising the money can see what we are raising it for.”

Raffles and door prizes are great, but this is to be a golf tournament. White said they are working to have a hole-in-one opportunity available this year and they have given away a John Deere Gator at a previous tournament.

“We were about five to six inches away from someone sinking a hole in one last year. It would have gone in if it were an afternoon round because the greens were still wet that morning and it was rolling right toward it. Had it been in the afternoon and the green firmed up, we would have given away a Toyota Camry,” Key recalled.

Surry County Parks & Recreation officials see themselves as providing a necessary service to the residents of the county, “With the high prices we run into at the store, we are continuing to offer high quality programs at little to no cost to members of the community,” Key said.

The 10th Annual Garry Scearce Memorial Golf Tournament is a chance for the public to get into the swing of helping others while enjoying a day out on the links. The raffle, silent auction, or donations directly to Special Olympics are all ways for those who hear the word “golf” and fall directly asleep to participate and help Surry County’s Special Olympians train and compete without lifting a golf club.

Sponsorships are available and volunteers are still needed for the tournament. Those interested in participating or sponsoring are directed to contact Surry County Parks & Recreation at 336-401-8235 (Ext. 3) to register of for more information.

While the Marines have built their ranks by looking for a few good men, Mount Airy officials are seeking 15 good citizens for a new program.

Mayor Ron Niland announced a procedure Friday for what is being termed the City of Mount Airy/Mayberry Citizens Academy, which will be launched this fall.

The program is aimed at helping Mount Airy residents better understand how local government operates and benefiting the community overall.

“It is no secret that citizens across the United States possess little knowledge about their government or its operations,” Mayor Niland said in a statement accompanying his announcement.

“This is particularly true at the local government level,” he added. “Ironically, residents know least about the level of government closest to them.”

This paradox can create challenges for local government leaders in engaging citizens, particularly when addressing complex issues such as new ordinances, funding capital projects or rezoning decisions, according to the mayor.

“Although articles in the local newspaper, (on the) city website, social media and Board of Commissioners meetings can help local governments connect with residents, public sector leaders have long sought better methods for promoting engagement and information sharing,” Niland stated.

“To this end, (they) have initiated programs promoting a better understanding of local governments.”

One way in which this has been accomplished is through what are variously referred to as citizen academies or leadership institutes. These programs seek to educate residents through direct contact with public officials, site visits and hands-on activities and are fairly common throughout the nation, according to information from Niland.

“I have some experience with that,” City Manager Stan Farmer said during a meeting of the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners on Sept. 1, when the idea for the Citizens Academy, not on the agenda, was hatched during an impromptu discussion.

Farmer explained that such a program was undertaken in Horseshoe Bay, Texas, a town where he served as manager before assuming the post in Mount Airy earlier this year.

A Citizens Academy was launched here in 2007 but discontinued for unknown reasons, based on discussion at the commissioners meeting. Meanwhile, a similar Citizens Police Academy has enjoyed many years of success in Mount Airy.

The first Citizens Academy class is scheduled for Oct. 4, with a total of eight sessions planned each Tuesday evening over nine weeks until Nov. 29, skipping the week of Thanksgiving.

Each Tuesday from 5:30 to 7 p.m., different subject matter pertaining to local government will be covered by the city manager or department heads.

Classes will include a range of topics such as city and state government relations, fire, police and code enforcement, public works/utilities, finance, parks and recreation and planning. The last session will be a graduation ceremony.

Persons interested in learning about their local government and having a little fun in the process are asked to complete a short, half-page application on the city’s website (at mountairy.org) and submit it to sfarmer@mountairy.org or drop off the application at City Hall.

Applicants must be city residents. If there are remaining seats available, non-Mount Airy residents might be considered. Emphasis will be given to creating a diverse class from many different neighborhoods within Mount Airy, officials say.

An attendance policy will be in place for the class to ensure there is a full and dedicated group. Participants missing two or more classes do not graduate. They will have the option of making up sessions missed when the next academy takes place and if they do so may graduate with that academy.

During the graduation ceremony, each student is to be presented with a certificate of completion signed by the mayor, and a class shirt embroidered with the city logo. Plans call for their pictures to be taken with the mayor and classmates and sent to the local newspaper and other media outlets.

Along with residents becoming more educated about local government in general, the mayor pointed out during the recent meeting that the knowledge gained will provide a basis for those wishing to serve on various advisory boards and commissions of the municipality.

About 10 such groups now exist.

Commissioner Steve Yokeley recalled that Mount Airy’s initial Citizens Academy in 2007 “was really well-received.”

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