Museum Prepares To Welcome Teachers And Students Back

The award-winning Tar Heel Jr. Historians Club will resume on September 8 at 3:30 p.m. and students in grades 4th — 12th are encouraged to join.

Alisha Griffin of Central Middle School and Cassandra Johnson, Director of Programs and Education at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History, are seen. Griffin was the grand prize winner of Treat-A-Teacher.

The staff at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History have been hard at work preparing for classes to start back in Surry County.

Last week, Programs and Education Director, Cassandra Johnson, went on a county wide trip to over 20 schools in a single day to personally invite educators back into the museum.

“We already have six schools signed up for a field trip this year, and I’ve already started getting the traveling trailer out to teach with. I have high hopes that more children from all over the county will be able learn about their history this year with us,” she said.

The museum takes pride in offering field trips, new and updated exhibits, free history talks, the traveling history trailer, a new traveling exhibit, more STEAM focused education opportunities, and much more this year. They are also excited that the award-winning Tar Heel Jr. Historians Club is starting back.

The Jr. Historians first meeting will be held at the museum on Thursday, September 8, at 3:30 p.m. and students in grades 4th — 12th are encouraged to join. The club meets weekly on Thursday, and kids get to learn more about local history while having “lots of fun.”

While spreading the word to schools, they also got to stop at Surry Central Middle School to personally congratulate Alisha Griffin for winning our Treat-A-Teacher grand prize. “Thank you to all of our local educators who visited us over the summer, and we’re looking forward to seeing teachers as they visit us with their students this year,”

For those with questions about scheduling a field trip, tour, or any of of the museum’s other opportunities, please contact The Mount Airy Museum of Regional History at mamrh@northcarolinamuseum.org or call 336-786-4478.

The staff at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History are hard at work preparing for classes to start back in Surry County! Last week, Programs and Education Director, Cassandra Johnson, went on a county wide trip to over 20 schools in a single day to personally invite educators back into the museum.

The museum is proud to be offering field trips, new and updated exhibits, free history talks, the traveling history trailer, a new traveling exhibit, more STEAM focused education opportunities, and much more this year. We are also excited that our award-winning Tar Heel Jr. Historians Club is starting back!

The Jr. Historians first meeting will be held at the museum on September 8 at 3:30 and students in grades 4th-12th are encouraged to join. The club meets weekly on Thursday, and kids get to learn more about local history while having lots of fun!

While getting this information out to schools, we also got to stop at Central Middle School to personally congratulate Alisha Griffin for winning our Treat-A-Teacher grand prize! Thank you to all of our local educators who visited us over the summer, and we’re looking forward to seeing teachers as they visit us with their students this year!

For questions about scheduling a field trip, tour, or any of the museum’s other opportunities, please contact The Mount Airy Museum of Regional History at mamrh@northcarolinamuseum.org or call 336-786-4478.

The Mount Airy Museum of Regional History is located at 301 N. Main Street in the heart of the downtown Mount Airy.

Downtown plan OK’d 3-2 before big crowd

In keeping with the intent of Labor Day, Mount Airy’s sanitation personnel will not be running routes on that holiday honoring the American worker with a day of rest and relaxation.

This will include no yard waste collections on Monday. The next such pickups are scheduled for Sept. 12 a week later.

In addition, commercial garbage routes normally run on Monday are to be serviced on Tuesday instead.

The same one-day delay also will be in place for the city industrial route in being moved from Monday to Tuesday.

Municipal offices also will be closed Monday in observance of Labor Day.

Gardening in autumn requires less work

Working in the garden in autumn is more comfortable with less humidity, lower temperatures, workable soil, less insects and also a slow down of weeds. All cool weather crops that will last through the winter can now be planted in the September garden plot. One thing that makes autumn gardening pleasant is the soil is workable and has just enough moisture in it to promote growth of the vegetables of autumn. Certainly the heat is not a factor in autumn’s garden.

Watch out for September wet dew

The wet dews of each morning now carry over from August into the month of September. Many are heavy and linger until the afternoon. The sun of September takes its time in burning off the cold morning dew. Avoid the mistake of mowing dew laden grass because it is not only wet but also sticky and will rust your mower as well as stick to your feet as well as pile grass clippings all over the lawn, it may take until mid-afternoon, but wait until the sun dries the dew from the lawn. Your lawn will be easier to mow and will also look a lot neater.

Onion sets can now be set out in garden

Onion sets are now available at most hardware’s, garden centers, and seed shops. A pound costs around three dollars and you can choose from white, yellow, or red sets. They can be set out in rows or beds. They will grow in cold temperatures and can be harvested all the into spring. Plant onions in a furrow about four inches deep and about three or far inches apart. Spread a layer of peat moss in bottom of the furrow before setting out the onions. Set the onions with the root side down. Apply another layer of peat moss on top of the onions and then apply a layer of Garden-Tone organic vegetable food on top of peat moss and hill up soil on each side of the furrow and tamp down with the hoe blade. They will sprout in about two weeks. When they sprout, hill up soil on both sides of the row after applying an application of Garden-Tone organic vegetable food. Water with water wand each week when no rain is in the forecast.

Keeping humming birds fed in September

As September arrives, the annuals of the summer are slowing down and cutting down on the source of nourishment for the hummers. Keep the feeders filled with nectar twice a week. In about a month, they will be leaving on their flight to Mexico for winter. Your nectar will help build the energy for the journey ahead. You can prepare your own nectar with a quart and and a half of water and four cups of sugar with several drops of food coloring (red). Store the nectar in the refrigerator in a half-gallon milk plastic jug. The nectar will last longer in the September temperatures that are more comfortable and most likely the appetites of the hummers will also increase.

Setting out a row or bed of turnips

Turnips are a root crop that needs a long growing period to produce a harvest. They need to be sown at least during the first half of the month of September. Purple top turnips are the most popular variety but you can also choose white turnip varieties, but we prefer purple tops simply because of their royal color! An ounce of turnips will sow a 4×8 bed or a 40 foot row and cost about two dollars. Sow thinly in a row or furrow about three inches deep. Apply a layer of peat moss in the bottom of the furrow and sow seeds on top of the peat moss and another layer of peat moss on top of the seed. All root crops need this double application of peat moss to retain moisture and improve texture of soil to develop healthy turnips. On top of the layers of peat moss, apply an application of Plant-Tone organic vegetable food and hill up soil on both sides of the furrow and tamp down with the hoe blade for good soil contact. After turnips sprout, side dress with a layer of Plant-Tone organic vegetable food on each side of raw and hill up the soil.

Making New England salmon chowder

Cool evenings in September pave the way for hot soups and chowder. This recipe calls for canned salmon which makes it simple and easy to prepare. You will need one envelope of beefy onion soup mix (Recipe Secrets), one can (large) Double Q Salmon, two cans Campbell’s cream of potato soup, one pack fried chopped bacon, two cans evaporated milk, half teaspoon black pepper, one tablespoon Old Bay seasoning. Fry the bacon and chop into small pieces. Add the canned salmon and liquid and chop or mash up the salmon. Add all other ingredients and boil over medium heat until hot and steaming. Thicken the chowder to the consistency you desire by placing eight to twelve ounces of cold water in a glass and adding six teaspoons corn starch to the water and mixing until creamy. Add two ounces at a time to the chowder until chowder reaches thickness you prefer. Serve with crackers, bread, or oysterettes.

September is the month of colorful sunsets

The days of September are getting shorter and paving the way into the makings of beautiful sunsets on the Western horizon. Cooler temperatures plus the sun going down earlier produces more and varied colors as the sun sets a minute earlier each evening. The earlier darkness causes these colors to have an enhanced glow in the western sky. Purple clouds also add to that display. Colors of red, orange, yellow, pink, and lavender add extra majesty. The rays of the setting sun produce a glow on the leaves of autumn and give them fiery glory.

Garden residue and autumn leaves equal up to great compost ingredients

The vines, stalks and foliage of spent summer crops are great ingredients to add to the compost pile or bin. Autumn leaves will soon fall and make another compost ingredient. Add to them the grass clippings from the lawn and you have the makings of a compost bin or pile. We have found out a pile is actually great because the sun shines down on it and it is easy to turn with a pitch fork. It can easily be watered to cool it down and it improves the soil underneath the pile.

Starting a row or bed of Siberian kale

The cooling soil of the month of September is receptive to a row or bed of Siberian kale which is one of America’s favorite greens simply because it can be prepared as a green and made into a salad. It is one of the most winter hardy of all the greens, and also the most tender and flavorful. It can even be harvested when snow is on the ground. An ounce costs a little over two dollars and will plant a 4×8 bed or a 40 foot row. Sow the seed in a furrow about two or three inches deep. Spread a layer of peat moss over the seed and hill up soil on each side of furrow after applying an application of Plant-Tone organic vegetable food. Tamp down the soil in the row with a hoe blade for solid soil contact. When they sprout, use a sprinkle can of water mixed with Alaska fish emulsion according to directions on the bottle and pour over the kale. Repeat this a month later. In late October, place a layer of crushed leaves between the rows of kale as a blanket.

Setting out cabbage, collards and broccoli

Cool September soil and also cooling nights make conditions ideal for setting out collards, cabbage, and broccoli. Plants are still plentiful at hardware’s, garden centers seed shops and nurseries. Make sure stems are bluish green and that plants have not damped out or legged out. Set plants in a furrow about five inches deep. Apply a layer of peat moss in the bottom of the furrow and set the plants about two to two and a half feet apart. Apply a layer of Plant-Tone or Garden-Tone organic vegetable food in the furrow and hill up soil on each side of the furrow. Keep soil hilled up every two weeks. Feed with Plant-Tone or Garden-Tone once a month.

The almanac for month of September 2022

The moon reaches its first quarter on Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022. We will be celebrating Labor Day on Monday, Sept. 5, 2022. The moon will be full on Saturday, Sept. 10, 2022. The full moon of September will be named “Full Harvest Moon.” Patriot’s Day will be Sunday, Sept. 11, 2022. Grandparents Day will be celebrated on Sunday, Sept. 11, 2022. The moon reaches its last quarter on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2022. Autumn begins on Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022. The new moon occurs on the evening of Sunday, Sept. 25, 2022.

“Home Cooking”- Customer: “Mam, do you serve breakfast here?” Waitress: “Yes sir, we do, what will you have?” Customer: “Let me have watery scrambled eggs, some burnt toast and some weak lukewarm coffee.” Waitress: “Well, whatever you say, sir.” Customer: “Are you doing anything while the order is being prepared?” Waitress: “Why, no sir.” Customer: “Then sit here and talk to me I’m home sick!

“Getting older!”- You know you’re getting older when you sit in a rocking chair and can’t get it going. You burn the midnight oil after 8:00 p.m.. You look forward to a dull evening! Your knees buckle when your belt won’t. Your little black book contains names of those that only end in M.D. Your back goes out more than you do. You decide to procrastinate and never get around to it. Dialing long distance makes you tired. You sink your teeth into a steak and they stay there!

Mount Airy rebounded from a tough two-point loss by trouncing Surry Central 54-6 on Sept. 2.

The Granite Bears forced three takeaways and scored eight touchdowns – all in the first half. Mount Airy ended the game with more than 400 yards of offense while holding Surry Central in the negative for most of the night.

Mount Airy (2-1) operated almost entirely on the ground. Junior Tyler Mason set new career highs by finishing with 209 yards rushing and five rushing touchdowns. Even more impressive was the fact that Mason did all that on just 11 carries.

On a night in which the Bears rushed for 403 yards, Taeshon Martin and Traven Thompson also set career highs.

Martin, a freshman, scored a career high three times on just four carries, also adding 54 yards rushing. Thompson set a career high in yards rushing with 92 on eight carries.

Nassir Lemon and Ian Gallimore rounded out Mount Airy’s 403 yards rushing. Lemon rushed five times for 34 yards, and Gallimore rushed six times for 15 yards.

Gallimore add 39 yards passing on three completions. Mario Revels caught two passes for 35 yards, and Connor Burrell had one reception for four yards.

Mount Airy’s rock-solid defense caused all kinds of problems for Surry Central’s young offensive core. The Eagles’ quarterback, top four running backs and second-leading receiver are all sophomores, while the No. 1 and No. 3 receivers are juniors.

Granite Bear Blake Hawks picked off Mason Jewell on the first play from scrimmage. Six plays later, Mount Airy got on the board with a Mason touchdown.

Central was held to one yard of offense. The Eagles (0-3) rushed 19 times for a loss of 23 yards, then added 24 yards passing on three completions. Not counting the two fumbles Mount Airy caused – one recovered Lemon and the other Cam’Ron Webster – the Bears held the Eagles to no gain or a loss of yards on 12 plays.

Gallimore, Revels, Josh Chavis, Walker Stroup, Deric Dandy and Logan Fonville were among the players to force tackles for a loss.

The only time Central moved the chains was late in the third quarter. The Eagles’ Ayden Wilmoth recovered a Mount Airy fumble deep in Bears territory, then Central moved into the red zone with a first down.

Mount Airy pushed Central back four yards to the 22 on the following first down, then Wilmoth caught a touchdown pass from Jewell to begin the fourth quarter.

The one area Mount Airy struggled with Friday night was penalties. The Bears were flagged 13 times: eight times on offense, three times on defense and twice on special teams.

Surry Central was flagged once each in all three phases.

Mount Airy concludes the nonconference portion of its schedule on Sept. 9 by traveling to Ashe County (2-1). Surry Central has a BYE next week, but will begin Foothills 2A Conference competition the following week against West Wilkes (1-2).

8:41 MAHS 7-0 – Tyler Mason 9-yard rushing TD, Walker Stroup PAT

6:33 MAHS 13-0 – Tyler Mason 38-yard rushing TD, PAT no good

4:33 MAHS 20-0 – Tyler Mason 12-yard rushing TD, Walker Stroup PAT

2:29 MAHS 27-0 – Tyler Mason 48-yard rushing TD, Walker Stroup PAT

1:18 MAHS 33-0 – Taeshon Martin 10-yard rushing TD, PAT blocked by Graden Spurlin

8:40 MAHS 40-0 – Taeshon Martin 34-yard rushing TD, Walker Stroup PAT

3:27 MAHS 47-0 – Tyler Mason 51-yard rushing TD, Walker Stroup PAT

2:30 MAHS 54-0 – Taeshon Martin 2-yard rushing TD, Walker Stroup PAT

11:41 SCHS 54-6 – Ayden Wilmoth 22-yard TD reception on Mason Jewell pass, 2-point conversion no good

Labor Day 1910 dawned bright and pleasant as people loaded up and headed in to town.

“People from the country came in wagons, buggies and carriages and hey came in great numbers,” reported the Mount Airy News that Thursday. “By nine o’clock the streets were thronged. All the factories and Quarry closed down in honor of the day and all the folks were out in the best of spirits.”

The Stone and Paving Cutters Union from the granite quarry allied with the Farmers Union to put on a celebration worth traveling for. There was a parade, a brass band brought up from Winston playing popular tunes, boys selling ice cream, watermelon and lemonade.

Speakers included the local Baptist pastor, Dr. Carter, and US District Attorney A.E. Holton who encourage those present to organize and work in cooperation. “Little he declared has ever been accomplished where there was no Union or cooperation.”

The farmers put out a spread on two long tables and, it was reported, “the young people sparked” while the older folks lounged and talked for hours, watching a series of athletic competitions at the “Gentlemen’s Driving Park” just outside of town.

Labor Day is a day to celebrate the workers of the nation. Made official by Pres. Grover Cleveland in 1894, the holiday has its roots in a New York City union workers’ march organized by Peter McGuire in 1882. He chose the first Tuesday in September because it fell nicely between the July 4th and Thanksgiving Day holidays. Two years later it was moved to the first Monday and it’s observance has been growing ever since.

America was a young, growing nation as the Industrial Revolution swept the Western World in the 19th century. With so much open land, immigrants expanding the work force, and a bounty of nearly-untapped natural resources, factories opened at a fast rate.

Labor unions in the US appeared in the late 1700s but really took hold in the mid- to late-1800s in an effort to improve workplace conditions and limit the length of workdays and weeks. The oldest union I find records of in this region is the Mount Airy Branch of the Granite Cutters International Association of America. It was at least nine-years-old in Jan. 1904 when the stone-workers’ trade journal, The Monumental News, reported “A settlement has been effected with the Mount Airy Granite Company, of Mount Airy, NC which provides that only union granite cutters shall be employed and that union wages and hours shall prevail.”

There were 14,000 granite cutters in the US at the time with 97% in unions. They worked 8-hour days, earned $3-$6 per day according to locality, and had emergency family, health and death benefits provided by the union.

Support for unions doesn’t seem to have been strong in this region. Newspaper articles, when they can be found at all, seem disdainful of the efforts as with the editor of the Elkin Tribune writing about the 1919 labor strikes in High Point. “Thousands of workers who are now idle because they joined the union will participate (in Labor Day celebrations) since there is little else left for them to do. Practically all factories, except the six or seven operating as ‘open’ shops are closed and the ‘open’ ones will be shut out of deference to union labor on Monday.”

The United Textile Workers called a general strike in 1934 but little mention can be found of it in Surry County papers. Asking around Mount Airy and on the “If You Grew Up In Mount Airy Then You Remember…” Facebook Group, a few strikes are mentioned; Elkin’s Chatham Blankets in the late ‘60s over wages and benefits, Fredrickson Motor Express and Federal Motor Express perhaps as part of the nationwide 1973 trucking strike, Essex Wire in the late ‘70s or early ‘80s, and United Elastics in the early ‘90s. But there doesn’t seem to be a very tumultuous labor history here.

Regardless, we here at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History hope you and your friends and family enjoy a safe and happy Labor Day Weekend and, remember, the museum is open regular hours. Come on in and see us. We’ll have the AC turned on!

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Perhaps fittingly right after Labor Day, workers are scheduled to begin the monumental task of tearing down the Koozies building in Mount Airy which has long been a concern locally over its deteriorating condition.

This is coming on the heels of a recent sale of the property at 455 Franklin St. condemned by city officials as a major safety hazard and deemed unfit for occupancy.

That transaction broke a stalemate between them and National Decon Holdings, a Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, entity that owned the structure and ignored repeated notices to either bring it up to code or have the building razed.

It was announced last week that the 1.34-acre site had been bought by Bobby Koehler, owner of Ultimate Towing and Recovery in Mount Airy, which is part of J&E Properties of North Carolina based on Park Drive.

“That is where the thanks needs to go,” City Manager Stan Farmer said Thursday night during a meeting of the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners regarding how the persistent problem is being solved.

Both Farmer and Mayor Ron Niland also applauded the board for voting in February to give the out-of-town owner 90 days to act or else the city government would proceed with the razing and seize the land left behind to help cover that expense.

Just before the sale, the commissioners had directed the city manager to seek bids from contractors for the job.

Officials agree that this seemed to spark action by National Decon Holdings which otherwise wouldn’t have occurred, culminating with the purchase.

The city manager added Thursday night that he is looking forward to seeing what is developed on the vacant site once housing a Quality Mills facility and most recently a private club called Koozies which has been closed for years.

Koehler has not disclosed what if any plans are being pursued along those lines.

Meanwhile, work has been occurring on the property in recent days in preparation for the tear-down. This included the removal of doors and windows and outside walls being painted with messages including “do not enter” and noting the demolition starting date.

Since last fall, the building has been the site of two fires linked to occupancy by the homeless.

Yellow caution tape also encircles the entire building, which is bordered by North South and West Pine streets in addition to Franklin Street.

Richard Herber, MD, has joined the medical staff of Northern Regional Hospital to serve as a Family Medicine physician for outpatients at Northern Family Medicine. Dr. Herber has more than 30 years of clinical practice experience in general adult medicine and pediatric medicine, as well as experience in occupational medicine and urgent care practice in Charleston, South Carolina, and more recently in areas in and around Winston-Salem and Kernersville, NC.

A board-certified Family Medicine specialist, Dr. Herber will be responsible for diagnosing and treating a wide range of medical conditions, as well as referring patients to specialists, as needed. Dr. Herber is excited about joining Northern Family Medicine, a clinic of Northern Regional Hospital.

“I am excited to have Dr. Herber join the Northern Family Medicine team!” said Dr. Danal Snyder, MD, Medical Director of Northern Family Medicine. “His experience, insight, and enthusiasm toward patient care make him an excellent fit for our busy practice. Welcome, Dr. Herber.”

Dr. Herber’s healthcare journey started at Wake Forest Baptist Hospital (now Atrium) Family practice residency. “I started out in local emergency room work in Davie Community Hospital, followed by urgent care work at Romedical Urgent care in Salisbury, NC as well PrimeCare in Winston-Salem, NC. I began my Family Medicine career at Kernersville Family Medicine with Novant Health in 1994 and continued at Lewisville Family Medicine in 2001. I then started my own Family Medicine practice, Old Town Family Medicine, in 2004 which lasted 7 years. My family and I moved to Charleston, SC and I worked in urgent care again at Doctor’s Care and Concentra Health for about a year before joining Medical University of South Carolina Family Medicine West Ashely campus in 2013. My family and I returned to the Triad in 2016 at which time I joined Wake Forest Baptist Health (now Atrium Health). I’m looking forward to a new chapter with Northern Family Medicine next month.”

Drawn to the Pilot Mountain area after his oldest daughter moved to the Westfield area, Dr. Herber and his wife now have farmland there. “I chose to continue practicing with Northern Family Medicine due to the uniqueness of the history Northern Regional Hospital (I like the fact that it independently owned/ operated), the personable staff, and management team, as well as the practice model of Northern Family Medicine. It seems to offer patients a more personal,family focused environment. I am looking forward to being a part of that experience,” said Dr. Herber.

When not treating his patients, Dr. Herber might be found listening to and playing various genres of music including classic rock, folk, bluegrass, and Indie music. He plays guitar, piano, some bass guitar, and a little mandolin. He also enjoys various sports, including softball, tennis, golf, and swimming, and plays basketball with his grandson.

PILOT MOUNTAIN — Even after losing a few multi-year varsity starters to graduation, East Surry has set its expectations high for the 2022 season.

The defending 2A West Regional Runners-up reloaded and are ready to make a repeat run at the Foothills 2A Conference Championship. The Cardinals took step one in that process by sweeping its first two FH2A games.

The Cardinals went on the road and topped North Wilkes 3-0 on Aug. 30, then beat North Surry 3-0 at home on Sept. 1.

“There was definitely a lot we still need to clean up, but it did feel good to start off 2-0 in the conference,” said East Surry coach Katelyn Markle, who is 40-6 as the Cardinals head coach.

“We’ve had moments this year where everything came together and we looked really good, like when we played at North Wilkes. Other times it’s been a little up-and-down, but we’re getting better and getting used to playing with each other so that’s the most important thing.”

The win over North puts East at 5-2 on the season.

Coming off a 26-2 season in which the Cardinals started 16-0, went undefeated in the conference play and came within a few points of a state championship appearance, Markle said she wanted to test the girls early with a tough nonconference schedule.

East Surry opened the season in the most challenging way possible: a road game at 4A Ronald Reagan High School. Reagan – who won the match 3-0 – is currently 9-0, hasn’t lost a set all season and is ranked No. 1 in the state by MaxPreps.

The match vs. Reagan was one of the 4A opponents the Cards have faced this season. East Surry also won a five-setter against Davie, and lost a five-set match against West Forsyth – ranked No. 15 in the 4A division.

North Surry coach Shane Slate is no stranger to grueling nonconference schedules meant to challenge a promising team. Slate is in his 24th season as North Surry head coach, during which he has guided the Greyhounds to more than 500 wins, multiple state titles and countless player of the year awards.

The Greyhounds, who drop to 3-5 with the loss to East Surry, began the season with matches against Davie and West Forsyth as well. The junior-heavy Hounds recently opened conference play with a loss to Wilkes Central, though every set was decided by four points or fewer.

In Thursday’s match, East Surry never trailed in either the first or third set.

The Cards led 4-3 early in the first before going on a 6-1 run. East Surry’s arsenal of attacking players took turns sending attacks over the net that were set up by Kate McCraw, though Greyhound libero Reece Niston and the North Surry back line did well to weather the early storm.

Callie Robertson and Aniya Joyce rallied the Hounds back by putting away Ella Riggs’ sets, though a service error derailed the team’s momentum. East capitalized with a 4-1 run that forced a Greyhound timeout, then put away the next two points to force another timeout.

The regrouped North Surry squad crossed into double digits to make it 18-12, but East closed the set with a 7-1 run to win 25-13.

The Hounds took their only lead of the night early in the second set. A kill from Madeline Dayton was East Surry’s only point during a 3-1 North run. The Greyhound girls held on to their lead until up 4-3, then East rattled off seven-consecutive points.

Bella Hutchens and Merry Parker Boaz combined for nine kills in the second set. The duo finished the night with a combined 21 kills.

North Riggs and Haylee Smith rallied the team back within a handful of points before East Surry went off. The Cardinals ended the set on a 13-3 run to win 25-10.

The final set began with a 4-1 Cardinal lead. East Surry service errors allowed North to fight back within two points at 6-4, then Lily Watson had a block and a kill to go with a Maggy Sechrist kill on a 3-0 run.

The Cards and Hounds continued to scrap until East took control late in the set. East Surry led 12-9 before going on a 5-0 run. For the remainder of the match, East earned two points for every point North scored, winning 25-14 to complete the sweep.

East Surry and Surry Central are the only FH2A teams undefeated in conference play. The Cards and Eagles are both 2-0, followed by Wilkes Central and West Wilkes at 1-1. Forbush and North Wilkes are both 0-1, and North Surry is 0-2.

East Surry is set to host Wilkes Central (3-5, 1-1 FH2A) on Sept. 6, and North Surry hosts Forbush (0-6, 0-1 FH2A) the same day.

Ralph Hardy of Hardy Brothers Trucking is seen celebrating ahead of his 90th birthday on Friday afternoon at the company’s facility in Siloam.

A group photo was taken with the man of honor Ralph Hardy, seen in center with birthday sash.

A vintage truck was on display during the birthday celebration of Ralph Hardy of Hardy Brothers Trucking.

Ralph and Payge Hardy, Jan Bowen, Jill Dockery, and Eddie Hardy pose for a photo at the 90th birthday celebration for Ralph Hardy.

Sometimes you must spend a little to get a lot and the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History has an upcoming event allowing the public to do just that.

What has been described as the chance to make a generational investment in this community is being cleverly disguised with some glitz and glam with a dash of roulette at the 2022 Casino Royale to be held at the museum on Saturday, September 17, from 6:30 – 10:30 p.m.

Executive Director Matt Edwards is excited for the upcoming event that he says is their single largest fundraiser annually. The casino night brings in around 12% of their total operating budget for the year and is the only event that puts dollars directly into the operating budget.

Having one big casino night fundraiser is a winner in his book as it helps him with the ease of planning the event, but also combats donor fatigue, something to which any fundraiser can attest is a real thing. Keeping money flowing into the museum from sources beyond tickets at the door is essential for its continuing growth.

“This is the big annual fundraising event of the year for the museum. All the sponsorships and money raised goes to museum,” board member Calvin Vaughn said. “We are currently in process of updating, expanding and building new exhibits that will benefit not only the community now, but the next generation.”

Games and adult libations will be found in the courtyard of the museum while dinner service and opportunities to enjoy the museum and its exhibits await players for whom Lady Luck went home to tuck the kids in.

This is the chance for anyone who has wanted to try their hand at games of skill, chance, and luck with the confidence that as Edwards said, “Its play money. Once people get over that and realize it’s all for fun – it makes it more fun, and the wagers get more interesting.”

What’s more he said it is a learning opportunity for people to really learn how a game like craps works, from the professionals who are running the table side of things. Caesar’s Palace is not going to teach people how to gamble, Edwards offered.

Entry is $100 which gets one ticket for the events and an entry in Drawdown which Edwards said was the raffle’s cousin. He said instead of drawing one winner, they are drawing 299 losers from the fixed number of entries. A package of two event tickets with one Drawdown entry will cost $125.

All the hullabaloo is well worth it with a meaty $5,000 cash prize going to the winner. Consolation cash prizes will be found during the Drawdown with the first number drawn confirmed to be among consolation winners.

Players do not have to be present to win the Drawdown only the ticket needs to be present. Edwards said if you plan to attend a football game that night or you’re going to sit under the lights for short track racing in Bristol to get a ticket all the same and send it to Casino Royale in your stead.

Wheeling and dealing may happen during the drawdown when the last five standing will have a choice to end the game and pool the winning between them. Or the ante may be upped again with one of the last standing players can make offers to buy remaining drawdown tickets from other players. That is high level maneuvering on a night meant to be fun and to fund the future of one of the cultural gems of this area.

Casino Royale was a 1920’s theme last year and it is a 1960’s theme this year, Edwards said that skinny suits and thin ties may be the dress code for some – but is not required. Dress for comfort and luck – if that is such a thing.

Businesses still have time to get involved and be a sponsor for one of the tables. Sponsorships are $500 and include praise, recognition, two event tickets and a Drawdown entry. Contact Matt Edwards at 336-

After missing a couple casino night in recent years due to some fuzzy law changes that made non-profit casino nights as these legally nebulous and the pandemic, getting back down to the business of having fun in welcome for Edwards and staff.

Fun and games will await players, but it is their long-term gift back to the museum and Surry County that is really no gamble at all. As Vaughn said, “With over twenty-five thousand artifacts, we have captured our history of buildings, events and individuals.”

“Thousands of school kids, hundreds of families, and more come and with what is being built, expanded, and improved upon it is a generational investment benefiting our kids and grandkids.”

• Two people were arrested on assault charges after a recent incident in the city, according to Mount Airy Police Department reports.

Patrick Wayne Robinson, 40, and Jennifer Diane Draughn, 32, both of 445 Culbert St., were encountered by officers during a domestic disturbance on Aug. 26 at that location, where Robinson allegedly shoved Draughn to the ground and she is accused of hitting him in the face and back with her hands.

Robinson was charged with assault on a female and Draughn, simple assault. Both were held in the Surry County Jail without privilege of bond, standard procedure in such incidents, with the case set for the Sept. 23 session of Surry District Court.

• Police were told on Aug. 13 that a Nintendo handheld game system valued at $550, owned by Elisabeth Danielle Kaye, had been stolen from her residence in the 400 block of Granite Street by an unknown party.

• Gary Carson Leake, 54, of of 706 Hamburg St., was charged with second-degree trespassing on Aug. 10 after he was encountered by officers during a civil disturbance at a residence on Linville Road from which he was found to have been banned on June 20, police records state.

Leake is scheduled to be in District Court on Sept. 19.

PILOT MOUNTAIN — East Surry and West Stokes got all tied up during a nonconference soccer match on Wednesday.

Both squads were looking for their first wins of the 2022 season, but instead both added a “one” to the tie column. East Surry is now 0-2-1 on the season, and West Stokes is 0-4-1.

“We’ve definitely still got work to do,” said East coach Samuel Lowe. “I’m not unhappy about the outcome, of course 0-0 was not what we wanted but it wasn’t a loss either. But, I’m still happy about how the boys are working. They’re still working hard at practice.”

East and West have been evenly matched for nearly a decade in the boys soccer chapter of the “Battle for the County Line.” Since 2013, the Cardinals and Wildcats have played 15 times: East Surry won four times, West Stokes won six times and the teams tied five times.

“That’s a well-coached team over there,” Lowe said. “They’ve got a great coach and they’re a disciplined team, so I knew it was going to be a tough game. But, I’m extremely happy with the way my boys played tonight.

“Tomorrow, we just have to go back to the drawing board, maybe watch some film and get some pointers to see where we messed up at.”

Both sides looked to utilize their speed up top, leaving each back line on their toes for the better part of all 80 minutes. For East, Alex Galvan and Logan Fagg were the primary center backs while Kevin Blakeney and Levi Watson manned the outside. Michael Youngblood earned his first clean sheet as East Surry’s keeper.

Lupe Chavez rotated to the back line when needed, but spent most of his time in the midfield.

The Cardinals struggled to time their runs throughout the game and were often called offside. East retaliated in the second half with a modified offside trap of their own that caught the Wildcats off guard multiple times.

East thought it broke the scoreless tie as early as 12 minutes into the first half. Fagg floated a free kick from midfield to the top of West Stokes’ 18-yard box where it was received by striker Jonathan De La Cruz. Cruz one-touched a pass to Mario Flores who placed a shot into the back of the net, but the goal was called back due to an offside call.

Galvan and Chavez each sent through balls to Cruz in the first half, but most were intercepted by the Wildcat keeper (note: West Stokes’ roster was not available on MaxPreps). Cruz had a few shots deflected out for corner kicks, but none of the corners led to shots on goal.

West Stokes pushed into East territory late in the first half and put a number of shots on goal. The Cardinals defense fended off some of the attacks up the middle, but the Cats’ best weapon was utilized when attacking up the wing. A West Stokes player with a cannon-like throw-in could place the ball inside the six-yard box easily, leading to a number of 50-50s in dangerous territory.

East Surry’s best chance to strike came in the 62nd minute. Chavez took a throw-in near the Cards’ bench and the throw was passed back to him on the sideline. The junior crossed into the 18 to Kade Talton, who redirected the lob to Cruz. Cruz zigzagged through three defenders to face the keeper one-on-one, but sent the shot over the crossbar.

“We’ve still got to work on our touches,” Lowe said. “Our touches let us down some tonight. We definitely should’ve had a goal; Jonathon, he got a little excited there and kicked the ball through the uprights. That’s something that we’ll get more comfortable with after more playing experience.”

The teams fought until the final whistle. West Stokes even had a long throw in as the announcer counted down the final 10 seconds of the game, but it was headed out by the Cards to keep the tie alive.

Though the Cards have yet to win a match this season, Lowe said he isn’t concerned and is instead focusing on the team’s progression from match to match.

”I really do think that we’ll be fine. We just need time and things will work out,” Lowe said. “I’ve got freshmen, and I’ve got kids that – I’ll be honest with you – have never played before that want to play, which is fine. I’ll take anybody that wants to come out here and play with us. But, it’s going to take time. Touching the ball always comes with time.”

The Cardinals do have experience mixed in with youth, but it’s been difficult to build team chemistry with only three matches through the first three weeks of competition. Two of those matches were against Mount Airy, a perennial powerhouse that’s only lost four matches since the beginning of the 2019 season.

“I hate that we didn’t have a better schedule than we had,” Lowe said. “Hopefully we can get another game scheduled next week. We’re working on that so we can give them some more practice before we actually start in the conference.”

Two schools of thought regarding downtown Mount Airy— a need to plan for the future vs. a “leave Main Street alone” sentiment — collided head-on during a passionate public hearing Thursday night.

And after listening to 18 speakers for more than an hour — most opposing or skeptical about a downtown master plan update — the commissioners voted 3-2 to adopt that document considered a blueprint for major changes in the central business district.

The unusually large number of citizens offering comments was matched by a huge crowd of spectators jammed into the Municipal Building for the occasion — which overflowed into an adjoining lobby.

After the split decision for which Commissioner Marie Wood was on the winning side, she attempted to allay fears by some in the massive audience that the outcome will serve to severely transform North Main Street — the key downtown artery.

“I have no problem with this plan because it is a plan,” Wood said in arguing that a guideline is simply involved and not set in stone as far as definite changes. “It is a step forward for this city.”

Commissioner Jon Cawley — who voted against the proposal along with the board’s Tom Koch — offered a more-ominous view and wondered why it was so important to hold a vote on it Thursday night.

“It seems like we’re in a rush tonight to pass it — and I can’t figure out why,” Cawley said of the plan, pointing out that he likes many of its aspects, but also is concerned about what happens next.

“We could start tearing up the streets next week — I know that sounds facetious, but it could happen.”

The downtown master plan update, prepared by the Benchmark consulting firm based in Charlotte, has been in the works since last fall, when city officials agreed that an original one from 2004 needed refreshing.

Benchmark, a firm that has handled similar projects for other cities, completed the document earlier this summer and made it available for public consumption.

The Mount Airy Board of Commissioners voted last November to commit $67,000 in city funds for the update along with money from the group Mount Airy Downtown Inc. for a total cost of about $125,000.

After being commissioned for the project, Benchmark conducted a series of meetings to gain local input for the final document along with formally surveying the community.

But multiple speakers opposing the adoption of the updated master plan pointed out Thursday night that the citizens involved in that process represent only about 4 percent of the city’s population.

“Mayberry tourism is growing,” Main Street Coordinator Lizzie Morrison of Mount Airy Downtown, a plan backer, said during the hearing. “The charm of Mayberry remains on Main Street because downtown growth is planned, it’s intentional, it’s purposeful and it takes into consideration who we are and where we are going.”

After her comments, Morrison asked other supporters in the audience to stand.

This was followed by plan skeptic Martha Truskolaski, owner of the Spotted Moon gift shop downtown, asking those against it to do the same thing during her time at the podium.

There were conflicting opinions about whether the “anti-plan” group outnumbered the “pro” contingent, or whether their numbers were about equal.

Many speakers’ statements were greeted by applause.

While the downtown master plan update proposes major changes in the downtown area as a whole, including new housing, parking and other developments on adjoining streets such as Franklin and Renfro, its main drag was the primary concern of hearing speakers.

A key part of the update focuses on vehicular travel downtown and new streetscape configurations, with the plan recommending that one-way traffic be maintained along North Main Street — the chief artery through the central business district.

However, the new plan includes five different one-way options, three of which would involve switching from the present two lanes of travel to one with either angled or parallel parking on one side. The street itself would be 20 feet wide.

This reflects a desire to create “flex space” to allow more outdoor dining and other changes on sidewalks which would be accomplished by providing a 20-foot space on each side of the street.

Sidewalks of 12 to 20 feet wide are eyed, along with the addition of trees, burial of above-ground utility lines, strategically placed loading zones, new decorative street lights and a removable bollard system.

Many of those speaking Thursday night see such changes as detrimental to a downtown area they say is already appreciated by local residents and tourists alike who appreciate its quaintness and hometown qualities separating Mount Airy from large cities.

The opinion of Gene Clark, also embraced by others, was, “Why do we think we need to change the appearance?” of Main Street.

“We don’t need to look like Asheville or Charlotte,” added Clark, a city council candidate this year. “We need to look like Mount Airy.”

That was echoed by John Pritchard, another council candidate. “I don’t want us to be like a cookie-cutter town — we are what we are and it works.”

“Your downtown is a blessing — it takes you back in time,” said hearing speaker Devon Hays, who moved to the Pine Ridge community nearly two years again from California.

Hays praised the “nice wide street” existing now.

“You’ve got something special — don’t blow it,” he said, a comment that drew a shout of “Amen!” from a woman in the back of the room along with applause.

A similar view was expressed by Norm Schultz, who moved to Mount Airy one year ago because of its down-home qualities. He objected to the “gentrification” that seems to be involved with the master plan update — defined as a process to make something more refined, polite or respectable.

“I’m not against growth,” Schultz continued in reference to the suggestion that the proposals would foster economic gains.

“If you change the street, you take away small-town America.”

“The way it is now it’s so perfect,” hearing speaker Karen Armstrong remarked. “But to take it and change it completely, that’s heartbreaking to me.”

Also weighing in Thursday night was Shirley Brinkley, a former city commissioner who acknowledged that the updated master plan seems to contain good elements and ones not so good while also expressing a specific concern.

“I am totally and completely against making Main Street one lane,” said Brinkley, who is concerned how this might affect deliveries to businesses along that route and the hilly terrain of side streets which would preclude their use as alternatives.

And two downtown businessmen, Corky Fulton of Fancy Gap Outfitters and Mark Wyatt of Wyatt’s Trading Post, each expressed concerns about parking spaces on North Main being lost.

“The one thing you don’t want to do is take a single parking space away from downtown Mount Airy,” Fulton said.

Randy Collins, the president and CEO of the Greater Mount Airy Chamber of Commerce, another hearing speaker, supports the update, invoking the old saying “failing to plan is planning to fail” in doing so.

Collins said he initially was concerned about how streetscape changes might hamper large downtown events such as the Autumn Leaves Festival sponsored by the chamber, but said he was assured these wouldn’t be harmed.

“All of our questions and concerns were addressed,” Collins said.

“Change is inevitable, and we have to plan for it,” the chamber official observed, a point of view also offered by two other speakers favoring the plan update, Len Fawcett and Lauren Jennings.

Yet former Autumn Leaves Festival Director Travis Frye, now tourism coordinator for both Dobson and Surry County, was not as optimistic as Collins.

Frye questioned whether enough definitive study on how events will be affected has been undertaken.

“My concern is we don’t have enough detailed information,” said Frye, who believed this should be supplied before the adoption of the plan.

“Progress is not progress just because we want it to change,” he added. “The streets are a concern to me, especially where it affects tourism.”

Frye also said the street must be wide enough to accommodate a fire truck.

Local business owner Donna Hiatt said during the hearing that repairs to existing infrastructure — such as streets, sidewalks and the water system — should be undertaken before changing North Main Street.

There also were concerns Thursday night about where the money needed to do that would come from.

“Who is going to pay for it? — I think it’s going to be the taxpayers,” hearing speaker Grant Welch said.

The staff at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History have been hard at work preparing for classes to start back in Surry County.

Last week, Programs and Education Director, Cassandra Johnson, went on a county wide trip to over 20 schools in a single day to personally invite educators back into the museum.

The Mount Airy Museum of Regional History is located at 301 N. Main Street in the heart of the downtown Mount Airy.

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Local construction workers haven’t been sitting down on the job, judging by the progress made on new, much-needed public restroom facilities in downtown Mount Airy.

“It’s going well,” City Manager Stan Farmer said this week of the project unfolding beside Brannock and Hiatt Furniture Co. in a municipal parking lot between that business and Old North State Winery. It started about two weeks ago.

During a meeting on June 16, the Mount Airy Board of Commissioners voted to awarded a $104,900 contract to Colt W. Simmons Construction Co., a local firm, to build the restroom facilities.

When finished, these are to be similar to ones located on the Granite City Greenway behind Roses, city Public Works Director Mitch Williams has noted, which will include two bathroom units and a brick exterior.

Along with the contract sum of $104,900, a 15-percent contingency fund was included to cover unforeseen expenses, for a total project cost of $120,000.

Farmer added Monday that the construction so far has not been hampered by inclement weather, which always looms as a factor at this time of year.

“Presumably, they are to be done by the end of September, in plenty of time for the Autumn Leaves Festival” in October, Farmer said of work crews.

The availability of public restrooms is always an issue during that event at which thousands of people flood the downtown area, with facilities at businesses generally not open to the public.

Restrooms were viewed as a particular need for the 400 block, or northern end of the central business district.

Before the latest project was pursued, the nearest public restrooms to that section were reported to be almost two blocks away at the Greater Mount Airy Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center.

The only other such facilities downtown are even farther away, at the southern end of the North Main Street shopping area in the Jack A. Loftis Plaza rest area where an Easter Brothers mural is located.

Funding for the new restrooms had been approved last fall through a city budget amendment totaling $295,000. It was set aside for an array of downtown projects, including the new restrooms, the updating of a master plan and others, with the group Mount Airy Downtown Inc. also committing $297,000.

The city manager acknowledged this week that some people have questioned the time lag between that approval and the construction actually getting under way this summer.

This resulted from municipal officials considering a possible alternate location for the new restrooms at a site near Trinity Episcopal Church, north of the site beside Brannock and Hiatt Furniture Co., which ultimately was abandoned.

“We took about eight weeks to work with the church at their location,” Farmer explained regarding the delay.

This week the City of Mount Airy will be having a public hearing regarding the downtown master plan.

I have been a resident of Mount Airy and Surry County all my life. I have watched over the past few years a tremendous effort to make the city into something it is not. We say we are focused on tourism, but we seem more focused on modernizing our city to represent other cities and not our own. Mount Airy’s charm is the fact that it offers a glimpse into the past.

While we should update infrastructure, I believe this need for a total makeover and change in focus is unwanted by the majority of residents and will be counter-productive to what is trying to be accomplished.

Additionally, I believe we need to have the input of more than 4% of the total population of the city, which is not a true picture of the total city population. A decision such as this should be decided by all of taxpayers and not just a focused few (possibly a referendum).

Given the current economic conditions at this time, rising inflation, rising interest rates, and slowing economy to undertake this large expense at this time would be very unwise. I believe the city council should focus on making sure the promises made by the current leaders are promises kept. Too many times I have seen commitments made in public only to be changed when no one is looking.

Last, I certainly hope that all taxpayers will pay close attention to how this proceeds and voice their opinion for or against and make sure they also realize the tax implications of moving forward at this time with such an aggressive and large-scale plan.

At Tuesday’s meeting of the Rotary Club of Mount Airy Lenise Lynch introduced Detective Jake Hiatt and Chief Deputy Larry Lowe to the Rotarians. Hiatt was there to inform on the efforts of the Surry County Sheriff’s office at combatting substance abuse and specifically his new role into investigations of deaths from drug overdose.

Lynch said the Rotary joined with the sheriff’s office and the county’s office of substance abuse recovery last year in what she called a great partnership. “We are hopefully on our way to becoming part of the solution through promoting awareness, enhancing understanding, and changing perceptions of substance abuse in Surry County through public advocacy.”

New law holds sharp teeth

Detective Hiatt began with a simple explanation of a North Carolina law that went onto the books in 2019. What is commonly referred to as the death by distribution act, “Is a provision that holds narcotics dealers accountable,” he said and was interrupted by a spontaneous and vigorous applause break from the Rotary members.

Hiatt said, “If we are investigation an overdose now, we can charge the dealer with a Class C felony – death by distribution. With a previous history of narcotics distribution that charge can be upped to a Class B-2 felony.”

For context on classes of felonious conduct, he said second-degree rape or first-degree kidnapping would be found in Class C and yield a sentence of up to 231 months. Class B-2 felonies include conspiracy to commit any Class A felony or second-degree murder and may carry a sentence from 93 – 293 months. “Potentially if these dealers have history and the right factors and stars align, we can put them in prison for 30 years,” Hiatt said.

When a call comes in regarding an overdose, investigators will arrive to secure the scene and any evidence available that may prove an overdose has occurred. Hiatt said, “Most of the time it is pretty obvious for different reasons.”

“One thing we always look for right away to secure is a cell phone. It’s no secret cell phone is a lifeline to most people and there is no telling what you might find on it. Most of the time that is where we get our information.”

He said with the ubiquitous use of smart phones means users are leaving a data trail throughout social media that may help investigators later and be much more useful that call or text records. Phones have contacts, calendars, texts, photos, geo tracking information, voicemails, and even banking information available to law enforcement just behind a password.

“If we find a phone on scene and we can determine pretty quickly they have social media account we’ll do a preservation order before we do anything else just to get that stuff locked in.” He said social media companies are very responsive to court orders and a preservation order will freeze the account until a warrant is secured for the data.

“We have encountered situations where friends of the victim, or even in one case it was the person we charged for death by distribution, were going back and unsending messages where they had talked about exchanging money for narcotics. Had we not done the preservation order when we did there may have been even more information gone.”

Hiatt has been in this role for over month after more than ten years in law enforcement with both Elkin and Mount Airy Police before joining Sheriff Hiatt. His is not a one-person outfit and it requires help across the sheriffs’s office and interdepartmental assistance to find suspects and witnesses who may have false names, addressed, and phone numbers forever in flux.

Tactics are changing to meet the evolving nature of technology and communication. “Speaking of social media, people use these in messages to each other, and Facebook is probably the biggest and it’s even better for us than regular text messages,” Hiatt said of the wealth of data a warrant could yield from social media.

So much so it can overwhelm investigators, so they have learned to be more precise in their searches. An overdose death was not cause by drugs bought six months ago, Hiatt said, so investigators probably would not need to look back that far to find what they need to chase a suspect.

Thanks to Mark Willis and the county’s office of substance abuse management, Hiatt and the rest of the SCSO have access to Cellebrite which allows for local analysis of cell phones without assistance from the state lab. If there is no password, the software will collect and dump all data from the phone for law enforcement.

Should a cell phone be in a damaged state, cannot be turned on, or a password cannot be beaten the phone will be sent to the SBI lab in Greensboro. There the State Bureau of Investigation has access to a program that “runs numbers all day long” to get around passwords.

Hiatt dug through the data and reported that since last August, 221 calls came into the county’s communications center reporting an overdose of some sort. Of those calls, 138 needed law enforcement response to secure the scene for first responders or conduct further investigation. These numbers may be low, he said, due to people now addressing overdoses on their own who may never call 911 or seek treatment.

Wendy Odum of Birches Foundation agrees with his assessment and this week submitted her annual report to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services tracking all manner of data from overdoses to Narcan kits distributed.

“Concrete data is usually considered to be incidents that have been reported to law enforcement, EMS, the hospital. There’s a gap in those numbers that are gathered by direct reports from law enforcement and EMS, compared to the reported incidents that we as harm reduction practitioners in direct community health have access to.”

Odum said that between June 2020 through July 2021, Birches Foundation reported 502 overdoses in Surry County. “The great majority of the overdoses received Narcan and were resolved by someone in the home or community setting. Birches Foundation provided 3,250 Narcan kits during that same year.”

Since the death by distribution act was signed in 2019 Surry County has investigated 37 deaths from overdose, 16 of those coming in the last year. Three investigations have yielded charges under the new law and Det. Hiatt said all are still pending so he could not offer any more insight.

It takes more than a little effort for a scout to reach the rank of Eagle, so when Tyrese Kindle from Boy Scout Troop #49 decided to start working on his Eagle Project he immediately thought of his home church, The Church – The Body of Christ in Pilot Mountain. Pastors Floyd & Sharon Dodson were thrilled at his decision to contribute even more to the church and its members than he already has.

For his Eagle Project he took it upon himself to beautify the area around the baptismal pool that was recently built. Prior to the Eagle Project, Kindle took on a personal project of building several firepits in this area. As part of the beautification project, he built a large cross, several benches and did landscaping around the existing firepits. Due to Covid, the church met outside often, so he felt beautifying this area would give members another place to gather and talk while the fire pits would help them stay warm. It could also be used for any other church activities. “My project is to create a nice-looking place for the church to gather and use as they see fit,” he said.

As a finishing touch, he wanted to remember his late Grandmother, Rosaline Davis, who was also a member of The Body of Christ. He enlisted the help of his uncle, the Deacon Burnard Allen from The House of God in Mount Airy, to make a plaque to be placed at the foot of the cross he built. The granite plaque reads “TBOC Beautification Project by Bro Tyrese Kindle, Troop 49. In Honor of my grandmother Sis Rosaline Davis.”

“This project has enhanced the property around the baptismal pool. We are so humbled and appreciate Bro Tyrese Kindle being led to do this project to gain his Eagle Badge. We enjoyed watching him work and complete something that many people, including his church family, will enjoy for years to come. It was an amazing transformation and scripturally sound because in building the Cross, he gave honor to whom honor was due,” the Pastors Dodson wrote.

“We are so blessed to have Tyrese be an example to the young people who are in church with him. After finishing this project and earning his Eagle Scout badge, we believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that he will be used by God for the advancement of the Kingdom of God and also be a valuable young man as a future visionary and leader to all mankind. What a noble plan done with integrity.”

Scouting has been a part of the Kindle family, as Tyrese’s sister, Mycah Kindle, was also involved in Venture Scouting, a branch of Boy Scouts of America. Venture scouting was an important part of her life, as she dedicated many years to volunteering, going on adventures and generally having fun. She has held leadership positions within scouting, most notably being a youth staff member for National Youth Leadership Training (NYLT), a leadership training for scouts within her region.

She recently graduated as a part of the class of 2022, after spending the last two years pursuing a major of History – Pre Law and graduated Magna Cum Laude from Campbell University in Buies Creek with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Ms. Kindle is also a member of several honor societies for History and Academic Leadership. Her leadership reached beyond honor societies as she was a resident assistant for first year students during her second year.

As Chairman Bill Goins of the Surry County Board of Commissioners is always quick to point out when recognizing new Eagle Scouts – it is an achievement that still carries weight and the lessons learned from scouting have stayed with him to this day.

To find out more on scouting, visit: www.girlscouts.org or www.scouting.org.

• A Mount Airy man has been jailed under a $50,000 secured bond as a fugitive from justice from another state, according to city police reports.

Chadwick Lee Haynes, 47, of 337 Fairview Drive, whom officers took into custody last Thursday at the local probation office on State Street, was found to have been entered in a national crime database as wanted in Carroll County, Virginia, on an unspecified matter.

Haynes was scheduled to be in court Wednesday in Dobson.

• Shannon Lee Wall, 47, of 130 Chimney Rock Lane, Lot 24, was charged with second-degree trespassing on Aug. 20 at a Garden Terrace location from which he had been banned by the property manager last October.

Wall is facing a Sept. 12 appearance in Surry District Court.

• Lowe’s Home Improvement was the scene of a felonious larceny discovered on the morning of Aug. 17 which involved power equipment with a total value of $2,515 being stolen and carried away from the store by unknown suspects.

The items included EGO-brand products — a 56-volt, 18-inch chainsaw; a 56-volt, 21-inch self-propelled, select-cut lawn mower; and a 15-inch string trimmer — along with a DeWalt 13-point planer and a DeWalt 12-inch sliding compound miter saw.

More details have emerged for Family Day Friday at the former J.J. Jones High School in Mount Airy.

The event, open to the community, will be highlighted by the official unveiling of a plaque designating the auditorium as part of the National Register of Historic Places, scheduled between 5:45 and 6 p.m. at the Jones School Road site.

It is occurring in conjunction with the J.J. Jones High School reunion, an every-other-year gathering organized by graduates of the school that exclusively served area African-American students from 1936 to 1966.

Since the last reunion in 2019 (with the schedule for the biennial celebration interrupted in 2021 by the coronavirus), the former campus was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Friday’s plaque observance will be limited to the auditorium, which is owned by the J.J. Jones Alumni Association.

A similar commemoration for the rest of the school, owned by the African-American Historical and Genealogical Society of Surry County, was held in July. That group recently had acquired the property, which houses L.H. Jones Family Resource Center, after many years of ownership by the county government.

Apart from the plaque unveiling, other activities scheduled during Family Day on Friday outside the auditorium include a classic car show from 4 to 6:30 p.m., exhibits inside the building from 4 to 9 p.m. and a traditional winding of a maypole, between 6:15 and 6:45.

A storytelling session is scheduled from 7 to 8:30 p.m. during which former students will tell about their days at the campus.

Blast from the past music will occur from 8 to 9 p.m.

There is no cost to attend the activities, except for dinner on the grounds — a fish fry slated from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at a cost of $12 per person.

Fish fry tickets will be available at the door.

National Register T-shirts also are to be sold for $15.

Other activities are planned Saturday and Sunday at the auditorium as part of the school reunion, which has been known to attract former J.J. Jones High students from locations including Alaska.

The 2022 reunion theme is “Homecoming — Our Spirit Endures.”

Similar to episodes of “The Andy Griffith Show” itself, one never knows who might pop up in Mount Airy during Mayberry Days and this year the special guests for the festival will include actress Ruta Lee.

Lee, who appeared in two memorable episodes of the series and has enjoyed an accomplished television and movie career otherwise, is a newcomer to the event, as will be Daniel Roebuck, a cast member from the “other” show starring Griffith, “Matlock.”

And then there’s Dreama Denver, wife of the late Bob Denver — best known for his title role in “Gilligan’s Island,” another long-running 1960s sitcom, soon after appearing on “The Andy Griffith Show” — who also will attend Mayberry Days.

The annual celebration of characters, places and events associated with that program will be held this year from Sept. 19-25, spearheaded by the Surry Arts Council. Mayberry Days was launched in 1990.

Lee, Roebuck and Denver will be joining celebrities from episodes of the show who earlier have appeared here during Mayberry Days, including Ronnie Schell, Rodney Dillard, Margaret Kerry and Dennis Rush.

Surry Arts Council Executive Director Tanya Jones says that organization doesn’t actively recruit special guests for the festival, explaining that Schell was the catalyst for Ruta Lee’s upcoming appearance.

Schell, who guest-starred on “The Andy Griffith Show” along with playing Duke Slater on 92 episodes of the “Gomer Pyle” TV series, told Lee that she should come to Mayberry Days.

“She had known about it,” Jones said, and was able to work the festival into her schedule this year.

“We’re, of course, excited to have Ruta Lee, a new face from the show,” the arts official added. “We’re excited that she can join us this year.”

Lee portrayed Jean Boswell in a 1962 episode, “Andy on Trial,” an attractive young reporter who is sent to Mayberry to try to dig up dirt on Sheriff Taylor after he gives her publisher a traffic ticket.

She made a second appearance on “The Andy Griffith Show” in “The Hollywood Party” in 1965, basically playing herself, an actress the sheriff encounters while on a trip to California which makes girlfriend Helen Crump jealous.

Lee, both a dancer and actress, also is known for her roles in the movies “Witness for the Prosecution” (1957), “Funny Face” (1957) and “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” (1954).

The performer, now 82, has continued to rack up credits on TV programs on top of appearing in numerous episodic series and game shows dating to the 1950s.

“Even now, she looks nice and pretty,” Jones said.

During Mayberry Days, Lee will be sharing stories from the two episodes as the featured guest for Professor Brower’s Lecture on Sept. 24 and making other appearances throughout the festival.

The Surry Arts Council official also is enthused about the appearance of Daniel Roebuck, who made an impromptu visit to Mount Airy in June while on a swing through North Carolina.

“He is a very cool guy,” Jones said of the actor known for his role on “Matlock,” a legal drama that ran on the NBC and ABC networks from 1986 to 1995. Roebuck played Cliff Lewis, the junior partner of the law firm headed by Andy’s Griffith character, Ben Matlock.

Roebuck also is known for film work, including as Deputy Marshal Bobby Biggs in “The Fugitive” and “U.S. Marshals,” a sequel to “The Fugitive.” His other TV appearances have included the series “Lost.”

“He’s going to do a little show on Friday evening (Sept. 23),” Jones said of his involvement during the Mayberry Days week, “What it Was, Was Andy Griffith.” That title is reminiscent of Griffith’s comedy monologue “What it Was, Was Football.”

Bob Denver died in 2005, but his widow Dreama, who is an author, continues to carry on the actor’s heritage, including Mrs. Denver’s scheduled appearance at Mayberry Days from Sept. 22-24.

Her husband can be spotted in an episode of “The Andy Griffith Show” titled “Divorce, Mountain Style” as Dud Wash, a memorable character married to Charlene Darling.

This was about six months before “Gilligan’s Island” hit the airwaves. Earlier, Bob Denver had gained famed in the role of beatnik Maynard G. Krebs on the popular program “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.”

Dreama Denver’s planned appearance in Mount Airy is coming on the heels of a recent digital reissue of an audiobook for Bob Denver’s autobiography “Gilligan, Maynard and Me.”

She will be meeting fans and signing copies of her books, among other appearances.

While welcoming the first-ever special guests to Mayberry Days, the annual celebration also will remember those who long were part of the event.

“We are recognizing this year a lot of special folks we have lost in the past few years,” Jones said.

This included two people from the show who have died since the last Mayberry Days, Betty Lynn, the actress known for her portrayal of Thelma Lou, who passed away last October, and Maggie Peterson Mancuso (Charlene Darling), in January.

A special memorial service is planned for Lynn, who had moved to Mount Airy in 2007 and won many friends locally.

Jones mentioned that unlike a service held for Andy Griffith at Blackmon Amphitheatre after his death in 2012, the tribute to Lynn will take place at an indoor venue, the Historic Earle Theatre, to avoid any interference from rain.

Several local favorites will perform this weekend in Mount Airy. Jim Quick and Coastline return to the Blackmon Amphitheatre on Thursday followed by Phatt City on Friday and Cat5 on Saturday. All three bands are set to play at 7:30 p.m. each evening.

Pulling from the threads of Soul, Blues, R&B, and Americana, Jim Quick and Coastline weave together their own genre of music known as Swamp Soul. Delivered with precision by frontman Jim Quick and his band, this group captures the true, honest spirit of traditions born and bred in the small southern towns of America.

Phatt City is a nine-member band that plays the best of Beach, R&B, and dance music. Phatt City draws inspiration from the bands Chicago, Earth, Wind & Fire as well as the energetic audiences that attend their concerts.

Cat5 burst on the scene in June of 2019 from a trio of top East Coast Bands. The band performs everything from beach music, originals, top 40 country, ’90s country, old yacht rock, and classic rock. Cat5 is a group of professional musicians that have come together with a common purpose to provide the best music possible to audiences all over the world.

Each concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evening. Admission to each show is $15 or a Surry Arts Council Annual Pass.

Children 12 and younger are admitted free with an adult admission or Annual Pass.

The Dairy Center, Whit’s Custard, and Thirsty Souls Community Brewing will be at the concerts to provide food, snacks, drinks, beer, and wine for purchase. No outside alcohol or coolers are allowed to be brought into the Amphitheatre area.

Those attending are asked to bring a lounge chair or blanket to sit on.

Tickets are available online at www.surryarts.org, via phone at 336-786-7998, or at the Surry Arts Council office at 218 Rockford Street. For additional information, contact Marianna Juliana at 336-786-7998 or marianna@surryarts.org

Surry Central volleyball broke into the win column Tuesday by defeating West Wilkes 3-0.

The sweep of the Blackhawks, with set scores of 25-21, 25-14 and 25-19, gives the Golden Eagles a 1-0 record in the Foothills 2A Conference. Central’s first win comes after starting the season 0-4.

“Winning our first game means the world to me,” said first-year Central coach Maddison Payne. “I’m just glad the girls were finally able to show everyone what they are made of, and that their hard work finally paid off.”

Despite a rough start to the season, Payne had plenty of reasons to keep her eyes on Central’s bright future.

The Eagles recently graduated five players from a near-20 win squad, many of whom were multi-year starters. This meant the 2022 team would need time to adjust with new faces taking on some of the top roles.

“We played hard with everyone our first four games, but we were still adjusting to our new roles,” Payne said. “We are really young, and the nerves got the best of them when we played Mount Airy. Alleghany has a great program, and we played them tough but they made us a better team. We made a lot of changes, and I think that is what led us to our victory tonight.”

The Golden Eagles opened the season on Aug. 16 with a 3-0 loss at Mount Airy. Two days later, Payne saw improvement in Central’s home opener but the team came up short 3-2 against Alleghany.

The Eagles dropped a close match to West Stokes the following week. West won 3-1, but all four sets were decided by three points or fewer.

Surry Central followed with another five-set thriller against Alleghany, which also went the way of the Trojans.

“The girls have developed so much these first two weeks of the season,” Payne said. “Most of the girls have never played together, so it’s been a huge adjustment getting everyone to trust and play together. We are a really young team. I’m just so proud of the improvement they have made with each set and game they have played.”

Payne added that everything clicked for Central (1-4, 1-0 FH2A) in the match against West Wilkes.

After trailing early in the first set, Central used a 5-0 run behind Lily O’Neal’s serving to go up 9-8. The visiting Blackhawks (2-5, 0-1 FH2A) interrupted the run to tie the score at 9-9 before an Aubrey Hodges block started another big run for the Eagles.

West Wilkes cut Central’s advantage to a point at 17-16, but never tied the game up again in the set. Marissa McCann, who is Central’s leading returning attacker from last season, put away a kill as part of 3-0 run that forced West Wilkes to call timeout.

The Blackhawks never recovered an dropped the first set 25-21.

West took its only lead of the second set early on by going up 3-2. O’Neal got the Eagles going with a kill, then McCann went to the baseline and served up a pair of aces as part of the set’s only lead change.

A Central net violation put West Wilkes within one at 8-7. Then, the Eagles went off for a 10-3 run. Surry Central first-years Presley Smith and Mallie Southern put away attacks at the net to garner a few “she’s a freshman,” chants from the crowd during the run.

The Eagles won five of the final six points in the set to increase the lead to 2-0.

Like the two previous sets, the third set started close before Central went on a big run. The biggest of these runs came in the final set when the Golden Eagles won 14-of-17 points during one stretch.

West Wilkes took a 9-8 lead after an attack error from Surry Central, then the Eagles tied the score at 9-9 thanks to a McCann kill. The senior then served Central on a 5-0 run before West scored again.

Kylee Schendel had a big block for Central before serving an ace of her own during a 3-0 run. The Eagles committed an attack error to make it 16-11, then scored the next six points to go up 22-11. Smith had a trio of blocks during the final run.

West Wilkes rallied late with a 6-2 run before a McCann kill ended the set at 25-19.

“I knew it was coming, because with each set and game the girls have been improving so much,” Payne said on the Eagles’ first win. “I’m just so proud of them.”

Following a nonconference game against Elkin, Surry Central resumes FH2A competition against Wilkes Central on Sept. 1.

North Surry swept Mount Airy Monday to give the Greyhounds their third win of the season.

The Hounds won the opening set 25-18 before facing heavy resistance in the second. The Bears came back from a four-point deficit to lead 25-24, but the Greyhounds still managed to pull away for the win 28-26.

The third and ultimately final set was all North Surry. The Greyhounds never trailed and went on to clinch the match with a 25-17 victory.

Though North Surry has just two seniors on its roster, the team has more varsity experience that meets the eye. Last year’s team had four seniors, but – due to various injuries – a plethora of underclassmen received significant minutes throughout the season.

The Greyhounds continue their evolution as a junior-heavy team this season.

“The experience we have together helps us look toward advancing the level of offense we are trying to run,” said North Surry coach Shane Slate. “If we wish to continue to improve, our consistency passing the ball and not committing unforced errors are the two things that are better from last year but still need to get better.”

This year’s team has two seniors, seven juniors and a sophomore.

Both the Greyhound seniors, Aniya Joyce and Kyra Stanley, are multi-year varsity players. Stanley is an outside hitter, and Joyce a middle hitter.

Joyce has been the team’s top attacking option the past two seasons. She’s continued to develop her game, and has become even more deadly as a senior.

“Aniya has started to come into own and play with more confidence,” Slate said. “She has hit above .400 in three matches this year and has a run every match where she really pounds the ball.”

When Mount Airy mounted its comeback in the second set, it was attacks from Joyce that helped North Surry pull away for a 2-0 set advantage. Had Mount Airy won the second set, the match then becomes a best 2-of-3 with momentum on the Bears’ side.

North led 22-18 when a kill from Mount Airy’s Morgan Mayfield started a 3-0 run. Abby Epperson got an ace to cut the lead to two, and a block by Kinlee Reece led to Mount Airy coming within a point. North’s Callie Robertson kept the Greyhound lead alive with a back-row kill, but the Bears followed with two more points to tie the game at 23.

A kill from Joyce put North Surry within a point of winning the set, prompting Mount Airy to call a timeout. Isabella Allen and Alissa Clabo flipped the script for the Bears and then the Hounds used a timeout.

North came out of the timeout and tied things up at 25 with a Joyce Kill. Stanley aced the Bears to take an advantage, but an attack error from the Hounds tied the game once again. Yet another Joyce kill put North on top once again, and this time it led to the Hounds winning the set.

North Surry came out serving strong in the third set. The Hounds jumped out to a 5-1 lead and never looked back.

A key piece of the Greyhound offense is the team’s lone sophomore Ella Riggs. Riggs served as setter her freshman year and has continued her ascent at the position as a sophomore.

“Ella is getting more comfortable running the offense, and as her understanding of situations improves things will get easier,” Slate said.

A kill from Allen cut the lead to one point at 8-7, but then the Hounds followed with a 7-1 run. North Surry led by as many as eight in the final set, going on to win 25-17.

The Hounds still have a lot of work to do to get where Slate wants them to be. However, being able to building chemistry this season with a group of experienced players will help greatly as North Surry enters conference play.

“We need to just focus on some basic things being consistent so we can play faster and more aggressively,” Slate said.

Mount Airy and North Surry both opened conference play on Aug. 30.

The Bears traded sets with East Wilkes before winning it all 3-2. Mount Airy won its Northwest 1A Conference opener with set scores of 25-22, 22-25, 25-22, 20-25 and 15-11.

Mount Airy improves to 2-3 overall with the victory and returns to action Sept. 1 at South Stokes.

North Surry hosted Wilkes Central and fell 3-0 to the Eagles. Central won the Foothills 2A Conference matchup with set scores of 25-23, 25-22 and 25-21.

The Hounds drop to 3-4 overall and return to action Sept. 1 at East Surry.

There were hugs, handshakes, cheers and tears of happiness from Hamptonville residents on Tuesday night following a vote from the Yadkin County Board of Commissioners to deny a rezoning request that would have allowed for a rock quarry 1500 feet behind West Yadkin Elementary School.

“It’s just unbelievable. I cannot believe how well the commissioners supported us. It was not necessary here,” said Danny Steelman. Steelman was part of an organized group of neighbors who opposed the mine project from the start.

Real Estate Developer Jack Mitchell set off something of a firestorm in the community when he began test drilling on a nearly 500-acre property near 3641 Hwy US 21 last year. Neighbors immediately became concerned that the site could be used for fracking or a lithium mine. NC Policy Watch environmental reporter Lisa Sorg broke the story in December of 2021. At that time Mitchell told NC Policy Watch that his company Synergy Materials was doing “due diligence” to determine the best use of the property. As Mitchell had previously been involved with companies specializing in ‘frac sand’, there was great concern from neighboring property owners.

In March of this year, Mitchell announced in a letter to neighbors that the plan was for the site to become an aggregate quarry operated as Three Oaks Quarry. Community residents remained staunchly against the proposal, voicing concerns over property values, possible damage to wells and groundwater supply and the close proximity of the site to West Yadkin Elementary School.

Three Oaks Quarry held a community information session and presented multiple documents to the Yadkin County Planning Board detailing the many mitigation efforts that would be put in place to eliminate or minimize effects of the mining operation on the area. Even a suggested condition of an annual contribution to the school did little to dissuade residents from their position.

Tuesday’s meeting was a continuation of a public hearing on the matter that began at the Aug. 15 Yadkin County Board Meeting. The Yadkin Planning Board voted 3-2 in June to recommend approval of the rezoning request from Rural Agriculture to Manufacturing Industrial I. The matter then went before the county board where both sides were given 30 minutes each to speak. Attorneys for each side both indicated to the commissioners that it was their duty to vote on the matter based on the county’s land use plan. Tom Terrell, attorney for Three Oaks Quarry, noted that the county’s land use plan does indicate that quarries go in rural agriculture areas and also argued that the property in question abuts an area designated for economic expansion. Craig D. Justus, attorney representing Hamptonville residents, argued that despite the fact the land use plan states that quarries can go in rural areas that doesn’t mean that is always the appropriate place.

Justus also argued that the rezoning request was improper due to the fact that the proposed access road to the site was not part of the rezoning request and should be, however it would not meet set back requirements from homes near the road. A possible error in the documents approved by the planning board listing the acreage to be rezoned as 160 rather than 265 acres was also discussed at some length.

Bob Hagemann, an attorney for the county, informed the board that both of those issues could potentially be cause for litigation by either party depending on which way the vote went but said he did not think the board should put great weight on those matters when considering its decision. He reiterated that the land use plan was the main item that should guide the decision.

Commissioner David Moxley wasted no time in making a motion when the time came. Moxley’s motion was to adopt a statement of consistency and reasonableness finding that the rezoning request was not consistent with the adopted 2011 Land Use Plan.

Among the reasons noted in the motion was that the “adjacent land uses are predominately single family residence and agriculture operations with low development intensity.”

“The proposed mine is not low intensity and not in character with surrounding land uses,” said Moxley.

The motion also stated that there was “insufficient information available indicating the proposed operation would minimize potential impacts.”

The motion was seconded by Commissioner Frank Zachary and was approved 4-0. Commissioner Gilbert Hemric was recused from the vote due to a conflict of interest.

Kitsey Burns Harrison is the Editor of the Yadkin Ripple. She may be reached at 336-258-4035 or follow her on Twitter and Instagram @news_shewrote.

As Surry County students have returned to the classroom, the state’s Department of Public Instructions announced last week the youngest students across the state made strong gains in early literacy skills during the prior school year. The gains outpaced the performance of students in other states where the same assessment was used to measure student progress throughout the year.

These literacy gains were achieved during the first full year of a far-reaching statewide initiative to support elementary school teachers with extensive training in instruction based on the “science of reading,” a phonics-based approach that the state DPI felt had strong evidence of effectiveness.

State education leaders were encouraged by last year’s assessment outcomes, which they say are an early indication that schools across the state embraced the science of reading in the classroom. These achievements occurred even as many teachers are still learning about the new curriculum initiative through a two-year professional development program, Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling, or its clever acronym LETRS.

The early literacy evaluation, which is an updated version of an assessment called mCLASS, measures students’ proficiency in such key skills as phonemic awareness and phonics. It was used with all kindergarten through third grade students in North Carolina for the first time in the 2021-22 school year.

Assessment results showed students in all four grades made greater gains from the beginning of the school year to the end than students in other states using the same assessment. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt said the results show that the state is using the best approach to boost the literacy skills of all students.

“North Carolina took a huge step forward with the passage of the Excellent Public Schools Act in the spring of 2021, ensuring that all students learn to read based on the principles outlined by the science of reading,” she said.

“We still have a long way to go, but the results we’re seeing from last year are clearly pointing in the right direction. We’re going to reach the goal of getting students to be proficient readers by the time they finish third grade.”

The gains made by students last year were compared with the gains of 1.6 million K-3 students elsewhere in the nation whose progress was also tracked with the same assessment, according to the education company that provides the mCLASS assessment under contract with the Department of Public Instruction.

The assessment that North Carolina schools used during the previous school year more closely matches the science of reading’s emphasis on five critical components: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Consequently, comparisons from last year’s results to past years are not compatible as a new standard is being utilized.

It should be noted that these assessment results are not comparable to the state’s end-of-grade reading tests, which are administered beginning in the third grade. Those EOG exams measure whether a student has mastered grade-level standards, from a basic level to more rigorous comprehension, whereas the mCLASS assessment measures the essential, foundational skills that students need to become successful readers.

Teachers administer the new assessment with students individually at the beginning, middle and end of the school year. They are also encouraged to use it at other times to monitor student progress. In addition to student progress data, the various components of the assessment also help guide teachers in their literacy instruction and interventions for students in need of assistance.

Amy Rhyne, who leads the state’s early literacy program as director of the Office of Early Learning at the Department of Public Instruction, said she believes the state gains last year can be attributed to strong leadership and the commitment of teachers in school districts across the state to help drive the significant shift in early literacy teaching and learning.

“With the statewide focus in North Carolina on the science of reading, many districts jumped ahead of the formal LETRS training so they could learn more about the science of reading and establish aligned processes,” Rhyne said. “

She went on to say that in many cases the state is seeing positive trends where teachers and school leaders are onboard and advocating for this shift to the new standard, “As well as clear processes to support the implementation.”

Mount Airy librarian Rana Southern recalls her love of reading started incredibly early, “With my mama, Glenda Southern. She read to me and my brother every night, she made sure we always had books. My mama would read the stories with different voices, she would get gruff sounding for the big, bad wolf and sweet sounding for the little pigs, and I learned to use this in my story times – it makes the book come alive and develops a love of reading very early.”

Her suggestion for parents is, “Start them early, read to them every night, read a book yourself to model how enjoyable reading can be. And always take them to the library, to story time and any other literary event.”

Southern quoted children’s author Mem Fox, “The fire of literacy is created by the sparks between a child, a book and the person reading.”

Leaping over obstacles takes a toll on people, even those who have felt a call to serve others in need. After diligent work in fundraising, outreach, and awareness for the needs of homeless men in Mount Airy, the Mount Airy Men’s Shelter decided the obstacles to achieving their vision are insurmountable.

Project leader Ann Simmons said Monday, “We have faced many challenges and roadblocks trying to get the men’s shelter established here in Mount Airy. With a heavy heart we have come to the conclusion that without the support of the county and city we are unable to continue.”

“Unfortunately, there are those who think the money could be spent better elsewhere or that Mount Airy is not in need of a shelter. Or that it would bring more homeless to Mount Airy,” she said.

Since the shelter began their awareness campaign last fall with talks to the Rotary Club as well as Mount Airy and Surry County officials, Simmons has said repeatedly that she felt a call from above to serve those in need.

A need for homeless shelter space exists in the county and while groups are working hard to support women and families in crisis, she saw there remained a drought of services aimed toward homeless men.

For months there had been meetings, interviews, housing needs roundtables, and pleas to the leaders of Mount Airy and Surry County from the Mount Airy Men’s Shelter group to try and gain some funding assistance for the fights against a problem that is not unique to Mount Airy.

“I am sad to hear that the efforts for a men’s homeless shelter will not be moving forward. Homelessness for men is a reality in our community and we have not been able to fill that void,” United Fund of Surry Executive Director Melissa Hiatt said Monday. “The United Fund is committed to working with local non-profits to grow their awareness, strengthen their structure and provide leadership education.”

When the men’s shelter group started to find its footing and a possible location popped up for the shelter one opportunity fell through due to costs, on another then landowner simply changed their mind.

Some challenges were even harder to overcome. Simmons said she was also met with pushback from community leaders who suggested there was not a problem in need of fixing. However, on the shelter’s social media page one respondent offered another opinion, “Every small town has a large homeless population. Just because you can’t see them doesn’t mean they don’t exist.”

If people are not reminded daily of the need for homeless housing solutions in Mount Airy that does not mean no such problem exists, Simmons said. Nor will turning a blind eye to homelessness in hope that the problem will self-resolve.

“Some people can choose not to see the problem and others try to solve it,” Simmons said of her effort to get the shelter open.

When applying for American Rescue Plan funds through a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant Simmons was slapped with a harsh reality. The grant application was denied after a due diligence investigation of the shelter found that, through no fault of the organization, a member of the leadership team had been recently arrested.

She was told that, “Any current charges or convictions are considered disqualifying events.” To that she offered it feels like shelter received the punishment for something “a former officer has been accused of. We feel that is not very compassionate and forward thinking.”

For those who have been cheering on the concept and development of the Mount Airy Men’s Shelter Simmons said, “I assure those of you that have generously donated to support this endeavor that your donations will benefit the homeless in another way.”

“I’m done and I know I did all I could,” she said and although this chapter of her service journey is ending, the needs of those she has served will remain behind. The gifts of physical items for the shelter like bedding, kitchen, or office supplies will not go to waste but rather still be used toward the same end goal.

“The money will go to three different non-profits that help men: New Hope, New Beginnings in Mount Airy; Your Father’s House in Elkin and Open Air Ministries in Mount Airy.”

The donated clothing, furnishings and hygiene items are to be given from Mount Airy Men’s Shelter to New Hope, New Beginnings who under direction of Karl Singletary is constructing a new long-term transitional home for men in an existing structure on Rawley Avenue in Mount Airy.

Simmons added that the backpacks and sleeping bags donated to her organization will be going to Open Air Ministry for direct distribution to the homeless. “Thank you to each and every one that tried to help us with this dream. We are heartbroken that we were not able to make it happen. With your help we were able to help many.”

The United Fund’s Hiatt said, “Ann Simmons and The Mount Airy Men’s Shelter group have provided awareness and education on this problem, I hope that someone will step forward to initiate change and resolve so that no one in our community is hungry or homeless.”

Simmons reminds that those in need require caring, understanding, and empathy as well as the more obvious forms of support like clothing or food. “Please continue to support these other non-profit ministries in the area. And join us to continue to pray for the homeless of Mount Airy and the homeless everywhere.”

The Mount Airy tennis team took on its biggest challenge in years by facing Forsyth Country Day in a nonconference match on Monday.

The match was the latest obstacle in the Granite Bears’ gauntlet of nonconference opponents from higher divisions. The defending N.C. High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) 1A Dual Team State Champions, Mount Airy looked to push itself during nonconference play in preparation of another deep run this season.

A challenge is exactly what the Bears got in Forsyth Country Day: 4-of-6 singles matches were decided in third-set tiebreakers, Forsyth became the first school to win more than two singles matches against Mount Airy since the 2020-21 season, and the overall match went down to the final doubles competition.

Forsyth Country Day ended Mount Airy’s 27-match winning streak by defeating the Bears 5-4.

“I tried to stress to the team after the loss that I know it hurts right now and we could’ve played it safe and scheduled to protect our record, but that doesn’t make us any better,” said Luke Graham, who is in his third season as the Lady Bears’ head coach.

“I think you need to feel the pressure and the stress and be uncomfortable against a team as good as they are. Win or lose, you have that experience to draw on for the next time you’re in that situation.”

Mount Airy began the season with three matches against teams from higher divisions, taking on 4A RJ Reynolds, and 2A teams Surry Central and East Surry. After opening Northwest 1A Conference play with a win over East Wilkes – who ranked No. 4 in 1A at the time – the Bears defeated 3A Central Davidson before falling to Forsyth Country Day.

“I’m extremely proud of our effort,” Graham said. “I hate we came up short, but firmly believe we’ll be better collectively in the long term because of that match, along with the other teams we played in the first two weeks of the season.”

Forsyth Country Day competes in the N.C. Independent School Athletic Association (NCISAA), which features most of the state’s private schools. The Furies finished 15-3 in 2021-22 and reached the quarterfinals of the NCISAA 3A State Tournament.

Mount Airy came into Monday’s match ranked No. 1 in the NCHSAA’s 1A Division by the N.C. High School Tennis Coaches Association. The Bears were No. 1 in the NCHSTCA Preseason Poll, dropped to No. 3 in the Week One Poll then took the top spot back for Week Two.

No. 5 and No. 6 singles were the only singles matches to end in straight sets. Mount Airy’s Audrey Brown defeated Mary Brooks Hall 6-3, 6-3 on court six, and Forsyth’s Erika Choopani defeated Charlotte Hauser by the same score.

Courts one through four all needed third-set tiebreakers. On all four courts, the girl that won the first set went on to win the match.

The top two seeds followed a similar script. Forsyth’s No. 1 Sophia Spalcke defeated Carrie Marion 6-4 in the first set, and the Furies’ No. 2 Sydney Simmons topped Ella Brant by the same score.

Spalcke led 5-2 in the second set before Carrie won the next five games to win the set 7-5. Spalcke went on to win the tiebreaker 10-4.

Brant trailed 5-4 in No. 2 singles before winning three consecutive games, taking the set 7-5. The pair went back-and-forth in the tiebreaker before Simmons came away with the 10-8 victory.

The Bears No. 3 seed Kancie Tate pulled away from Julia Kincaid to win the first set 7-5. Tate dropped the second set 6-0, but then rallied to win the third-set tiebreaker 10-8.

Audrey Marion won the first set of the No. 4 singles match 6-4 for Mount Airy. Her opponent, Forsyth’s Zayla Smith, took the second set 6-3.

The Granite Bear senior won the third-set tiebreaker 10-7 to tie the teams up at 3-3 entering doubles.

Brant and Carrie Marion earned Mount Airy’s fourth win by taking No. 1 singles by an 8-6 score. However, the Furies won No. 2 and No. 3 doubles to come away with the overall win.

Simmons and Kincaid defeated Tate and Hauser 8-4 to win No. 2 doubles, and Choopani and Hall defeated Brown and Audrey Marion 8-6 to take No. 3 doubles.

Mount Airy’s next two nonconference games aren’t for another few weeks, when the team hosts West Stokes on Sept. 19 and travels to Wheatmore two days later.

The Granite Bears resume NW1A Conference Play on Sept. 1 by traveling to North Stokes.

Match results vs. Forsyth Country Day

1. Sophia Spalcke (FCD) def. Carrie Marion 6-4, 5-7, 1-0 (10-4)

2. Sydney Simmons (FCD) def. Ella Brant 6-4, 5-7, 1-0 (10-8)

3. Kancie Tate (MA) def. Julia Kincaid 7-5, 0-6, 1-0 (10-8)

4. Audrey Marion (MA) def. Zayla Smith6-4, 3-6, 1-0 (10-7)

5. Erika Choopani (FCD) def. Charlotte Hauser 6-3, 6-3

6. Audrey Brown (MA) def. Mary Brooks Hall 6-3, 6-3

1. C. Marion/Brant (MA) def. Spalcke/Smith 8-6

2. Simmons/Kincaid (FCD) def. Tate/Hauser 8-4

3. Choopani/Hall (RJR) def. A. Marion/Brown 8-6

The public long has been fascinated by moonshining and those manufacturing illegal liquor in the hollows of North Carolina and Virginia — with one of that craft’s most-colorful figures to be highlighted in Mount Airy soon.

Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton was a moonshiner, bootlegger and entrepreneur from Haywood County known as a rebellious individual who brazenly defied authorities in practicing and defending what many consider a natural mountain tradition.

Sutton, who suffered an untimely death in 2009, is to be featured by Neal Hutcheson, an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker, author and photographer, who will appear here for a pair of events on Sept. 11.

From 1 to 3 p.m. that Sunday, Hutcheson is scheduled to present his 2021 book “The Moonshiner Popcorn Sutton” at Mount Airy Museum of Regional History on North Main Street and discuss the unique place moonshining holds in the Appalachian heritage.

This is part of a History Talks series hosted by the museum, with admission free to public. The program will be held in the third-floor classroom of the facility.

“The Moonshiner Popcorn Sutton” won a 2022 National Indie Excellence Award and a 2022 Outstanding Book Award from The Independent Publishers Book Awards, the largest unaffiliated book contest in the world, according to promotional material regarding the author’s upcoming appearance.

Hutcheson recounts Sutton’s path to fame in “The Moonshiner Popcorn Sutton” and attempts to sort fact from fiction, concluding that “the accumulation of stories, songs, eulogies and tributes about Popcorn offers a fascinating illustration of the process through which folk become folklore.”

Later on Sept. 11, at 4 p.m., Hutcheson is slated to present his film that has become a cult classic “This is the Last Dam Run of Likker I’ll Ever Make,” at the Historic Earle Theater on North Main Street, hosted by the Surry Arts Council.

This is coinciding with the 20th anniversary of that production.

In “This is the Last Dam Run of Likker I’ll Ever Make,” Sutton demonstrates the art, craft and history of moonshine distillation.

The documentary originally was available only on VHS tapes bought from the moonshiner himself — which rapidly circulated as people made home copies and passed them to friends and family while laying a foundation for his growing fame, according to Hutcheson.

It eventually drew the attention of television producers in Boston and New York.

“This is the Last Dam Run of Likker I’ll Ever Make” was digitally remastered this year and it is that version of the film which will be screened at the Earle in a theatrical context.

The presentation is to include an introduction and a question-and-answer session with the filmmaker.

Tickets cost $8 plus tax, with proceeds to benefit the Surry Arts Council.

The local non-profit organization operates the Andy Griffith Playhouse, Andy Griffith Museum and Blackmon Amphitheatre in addition to the Historic Earle Theatre.

Surry Arts Council Executive Director Tanya Jones is enthusiastic about the upcoming presentation on a figure whom she agreed highlights a culture widely embraced in this region of the country.

Born in Maggie Valley, Sutton died in March 2009 at age 62 at his home in Tennessee, committing suicide via carbon monoxide poisoning while facing prison on federal charges relating to moonshining and illegal firearm possession.

Though he is gone from that scene, Sutton’s name comes up frequently on the popular “Moonshiners” reality-TV series on the Discovery network, which has broadened his fan base.

This has included modern-day moonshiners making liquor runs at one of Sutton’s old still sites using his recipes, uncovering a stash of his liquor and sometimes working with one of Sutton’s associates, JB Rader.

Hutcheson’s best-known works center on Appalachian heritage in transition.

He has been the recipient of a North Carolina Arts Council Artist Fellowship, the Brown Hudson Award from the North Carolina Folklore Society, the North Carolina Filmmaker Award and three regional Emmy Awards from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

A Hutcheson documentary “Mountain Talk” (2002) also featured Popcorn Sutton, and along with “This is the Last Dam Run of Likker I’ll Ever Make,” he produced two other documentaries with Sutton, the Emmy-winning “The Last One” (2009) and “Popcorn Sutton – A Hell of a Life (2014).”

• In a type of case rarely occurring in Mount Airy, a local man was charged Saturday afternoon with abandoning a dog, according to city police reports.

Joseph Cole Simpson, 24, of 2015 Springs Road, is accused of dropping off an 8-week-old canine in the middle of a roadway earlier that day and driving off without returning, police records state. This occurred on North Hills Drive near Country Hills Drive, located off North Main Street in the vicinity of Springs Road.

A resident of Country Hills Drive reported the incident.

The breed of the dog was not listed, nor any information about its present whereabouts.

Simpson, who was charged with abandonment of an animal, a misdemeanor, is scheduled to appear in Surry District Court on Oct. 17.

• A break-was discovered Saturday at a city residence which involved the theft of miscellaneous clothing and a book bag with a total value of $425. Amanda Dawn Lara of Hamburg Street is listed as a victim of the crime that occurred when an unknown party kicked in a side door to gain entry to her home.

Gregory Wayne Childress Jr. of Newsome Street also is a victim of that incident.

• Police learned on Aug. 10 that scrap metal had been stolen from an unsecured dumpster at Scenic Chevrolet Buick GMC on Rockford Street. No loss figure was listed.

• Phillip Fitzgerald Mitchell, 36, of 536 Linville Road, was jailed under a $5,000 secured bond on Aug. 9 after a traffic stop on North Main Street near Taylor Street led to a revelation that he was wanted on four felony charges, for which Mitchell was the subject of outstanding warrants.

These include breaking and entering of a motor vehicle, attempted larceny, larceny and possession of stolen goods, which had been filed on Aug. 4 with no other details given.

The case is set for the Sept. 12 District Court session.

This summer, during one of our camps sponsored by the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History, I asked the kids, as we made biscuits, where do you think the pioneers got their flour from? Most said it was from farming or stores, but one child said, “we get it from factories but pioneers didn’t have those.”

Not only did they have flour-making factories, but they were one of our earliest industries in the region and they were called gristmills.

In the days of the pioneers, flour could come from grains of wheat, corn, rye, and oats, and if you were lucky, it was ground in a crucial community business, the gristmill. Gristmills get their name from grist being another word for grain and a mill or milling meaning grinding things.

Even without a mill, flour could be ground; but it was often a tedious and difficult task. Some pioneers used small hand mills, some made specialized mortar and pestle (a method they learned from Native Americans), and some used a quern. The quern is a tool that has been around since the stone age and is made with two flat stones. All of these techniques were labor- and time-intensive, so as early pioneers started to form communities and farming increased, there was a need for machines to help them grind flour and mills.

That need for mills had at least 37 of them operating in Surry County and employing more than 200 people by 1850. One of the biggest of this time was Kapps Mill in Mountain Park that was powered by the Mitchell River.

Kapps Mill started operations back in 1827, when it was run by a firm called Nixon and Jackson, but in 1843 John Kapp purchased the mill along with the 800-acre property it sat on. John Kapp luckily came from a family familiar with mill work.

His grandfather, Jacob Kapp, ran a mill in Bethabara (part of present-day Winston Salem) until his daughter and son-in-law took it over. Jacob even notably had his mill stones carved from local granite.

What did it take to be a miller? Most Millers had to be educated, physically fit, and skilled to be able to do their job. There were books to learn about milling and you would need to be able to measure and count well. A miller would also need to be able to carry sacks of flour, repair the machinery, and had so much to do they often had a full work day. All this hard work wasn’t without benefits though, many mill owners were often highly respected.

In Kapps Mill, like many mills, the bottom floor housed the gears and mechanics of the mill that kept the grind stones moving with the water wheel turning and powering it all.

Grain is crushed between two big flat stones called millstones. The distance between the two stones had to be adjusted for different types of flour, and getting it right wasn’t easy. Wheat traditionally needed less space than corn, and the stones could never touch, or the flour would ‘spoil.’

Even the design of the stones was highly detailed as many had furrows or engraved markings that helped take off the grain’s outer husk and move the flour to the outside of the stone where it would fall into a collection space.

Millers faced many problems from the constant threat of fire from machinery, pests, floods that could damage the milldam or the mill, and accidents from working with dangerous heavy machines.

Getting crops to the mill could also be difficult as there were few roads at this time and it could be a long trip, but it was worth the effort.

Gristmills were often not just places you went to have your crops ground into flour, but many included blacksmiths, workshops, and even general stores. The general store offered travelers a place to rest and eat while they waited, and they could even stock up on supplies and trade some of their flour (a usual form of payment for the mill’s work.) Kapps Mill in its heyday had a general store, blacksmith shop, and even a post office.

The mill went through many renovations, but was eventually closed around 1935 by John Kapp’s son-in-law, Ivry Wallace, because the mill was no longer profitable. Kapps Mill continued to have a place in the community even after it closed, and would become known for trout fishing and its scenic view of the 120-foot dam that had remained operational for more than 100 years. Sadly, the dam was blown out by Hurricane Michael in 2018, but that doesn’t mean all history is lost. Private owners are working to make the estate a space for the community once again.

Cassandra Johnson is the programs and education director for the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History with a background in environmental and natural sciences.

The latest figures on tourism spending in Surry County indicate that it is soaring — judging by a 45.4-percent increase reported — but still are below the pre-pandemic level.

Yet local officials see reason for optimism in a breakdown showing that domestic and international visitors to and within Surry County spent $136.99 million in 2021, which was slightly below that of 2019 — the last calendar year B.C. (before COVID).

“I think we’re on the upswing,” Mount Airy Mayor Ron Niland said of a segment of the economy hard-hit by the coronavirus both locally and elsewhere in 2020 when many large events were cancelled and venues closed.

Niland was encouraged by the fact local tourism activity seems to be returning to where it was before that crisis wielded its grip.

“I think people are getting a little more comfortable with the COVID protocols,” the mayor added Monday.

The local tourism-spending statistics come from an annual study commissioned by Visit North Carolina, a unit of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina.

While the $136.99 million figure compiled for 2021 seems lofty, the spending level failed to eclipse that of 2019, when $137.79 million was logged.

Another distinction is that while the 2021 numbers reflect both domestic and international visitation, those for 2019 were for domestic visitors to and within the county — and not internationally. It was not readily known how much of a factor foreign tourists are in Surry County.

Other highlights of the latest report show that:

• The travel and tourism industry directly employees more than 854 in Surry County, down from 880-plus in pre-pandemic 2019;

• However, the total payroll generated by the tourism industry in Surry County was $31.7 million in 2021, higher than the figure reported for 2019, $21.03 million.

• State tax revenue generated in Surry County totaled $6 million through state sales and excise taxes, and taxes on personal and corporate income, compared to $7.57 million in 2019;

• About $4.4 million in local taxes were generated last year through sales and property tax revenue from travel-generated and travel-supported businesses, higher than that reported for 2019, about $2.95 million.

Statewide, visitor spending in 2021 rebounded by 44.9 percent to reach $28.9 billion, representing about the same percentage increase from 2020 as the 45.4-percent gain in Surry.

Both Mayor Niland and Jessica Roberts, executive director of the Mount Airy Tourism Development Authority and Tourism Partnership of Surry County, believe the recent addition of various attractions locally are making a difference.

Niland mentioned as one factor the weekend events in the Market Street Arts and Entertainment District held during the warmer months, which include live music, along with the usual “Mayberry Experience” that also has been enhanced recently.

“Our new Andy Griffith Mural project in partnership with Mount Airy Downtown Inc. and the city of Mount Airy by the artist Jeks has brought in new visitors and those returning who are loyal to our various Mayberry attractions,” Roberts agreed.

Some segments of the local tourism economy also have been expanding, according to Roberts.

“In the last few years, Mount Airy and Surry County have seen additional lodging opportunities being offered through various online booking companies like Airbnb and Vrbo,” the local tourism official advised.

“And many of those opening in our various downtown areas throughout Surry County and also in and around the vineyards in the Yadkin Valley.”

Other growth has occurred despite COVID-19, Roberts mentioned.

“During the pandemic, we have also seen various renovations at local establishments throughout the county and additional wineries opening with more to open in the future.”

Mayor Niland believes this area is well-positioned for the future, on the heels of 2021 spending returning to some semblance of normalcy.

“I think we will do even better in the next few years,” he said, “particularly with the things we have in the downtown area.”

Roberts says the latest numbers are a testament to the important role tourism plays in the local economy year in and year out by providing jobs, tax revenue and other value.

“The ultimate goal of our tourism efforts in Surry County and Mount Airy is to bring in more visitors annually who will spend more money and stay longer in our region, including new and repeat visitors.”

Books available to check out at the Mount Airy Public Library include:

Aura of Night – Heather Graham

The Healing of Natalie Curtis – Jane Kirkpatrick

The Librarian Spy – Madeline Martin

The Ex Hex – Erin Sterling

Sugar and Salt – Susan Wiggs

Invention of the Heart – Mary Connealy

Unfailing Love – Janette Oke and Laurel Oke Logan

The It Girl – Ruth Ware

The Last White Rose – Alison Weir

In Honor’s Defense – Karen Witemeyer

Raising Lazarus: Hope, Justice, and the Future of America’s Overdose Crisis – Beth Macy

Reading time is here for kids of all ages. Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. is Toddler Time for children ages 2 and 3; Thursday at 9:30 a.m. is Book Babies for children ages birth to 2 years old; and on Thursday at 11 a.m. is Preschool Storytime for ages 4-5.

Full STEAM Ahead – Tuesday afternoons from 4 to 6. A new program for students in fourth through twelfth grades. Students will listen to a book and/or read the book. Activities will be STEAM-based, built around science, technology, arts, math, literature and history.

Hooked – Come join our crochet and knitting club, every Wednesday at 3 p.m. Bring your own yarn and make the group project or bring your own project to work on.

Tai Chi has returned to the library. Join us each Wednesday and Friday at 10 a.m. This class is beneficial for those with limited mobility.

The Community Book Club meets the fourth Wednesday of the month at 1 p.m. In September we will be reading and discussing The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins.

Pages and Petticoats Book Club — meets on the last Tuesday of the month at 6 p.m. For August, we will be reading Southern Comfort by Fern Michaels.

Chapters Book Club – meets the third Thursday of the month at 11:30. Members discuss the different books they have read.

Classic Movie Monday on Aug. 29 at 5:30 p.m. to watch Key Largo. Popcorn and water provided.

The first of a three-part education program on understanding Alzheimer’s and dementia will be held Aug. 31 at 2 p.m. at the library.

Surry Community College is offering a fun and free English as Second Language (ESL) class at the Mount Airy Public Library, Monday-Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Anyone interested should contact Jennifer Pardue at 336-386-3674.

September is Library Card Sign Up Month. “Find Your Voice at the Library.” To celebrate and encourage people new to the library to sign up for a library card, we are holding a daily raffle in the month of September. Each day, people who sign up for cards or check out books will put their name in a basket and we will draw at the end of each workday. The prizes may consist of different gift cards, books or other prizes. So, if you aren’t a member of our local library system, Northwestern Regional Library, come out and sign up in the month of September.

The library will be closed on Sept. 5 in observance of Labor Day, and on Sept. 16 for staff development.

Carmen Long from the NC Cooperative Extension will present a free food safety and food preservation workshop at 11:30 p.m. on Sept. 9.

Robin Portis with the Master Gardeners of Surry County will give a talk on fall gardening at 2 p.m. on Sept. 13. Call 336-789-5108 in advance to register.

The library will be closed for region wide staff development on Sept. 16

Keep up with all events on our FaceBook pages, https://www.facebook.com/groups/fmapl and https://www.facebook.com/mtapublibrary or our website https://nwrlibrary.org/mountairy/

Patrick County Receives Awards for Tourism and Economic Development (news release submitted by Rebecca Adcock, Director of the Patrick County Chamber of Commerce)

Several Patrick County, Virginia agencies recently were recognized with tourism awards presented by the Friends of Southwest Virginia.

During an awards ceremony on Monday,

For awards in Excellence in Tourism,

The Patrick County Tourism Office won an Excellence in Tourism award for Best Print Ad for their Our State magazine ad featuring trails. The tourism department also won the award for Best Long Video — more than 60 seconds.

In the categories of Excellence in Tourism Partners, Front Porch Fest won the Outstanding Festival of the Year with less than 10,000 in attendance. The event, sponsored by One Family Productions, is an annual music festival held at Spirithaven Farm near Stuart, Virginia.

Pickle & Ash Restaurant won Outstanding New Tourism Business of the Year. Pickle & Ashe is a resturant specializing in locally grown and sourced food.

In the category of Excellence in Tourism Leadership, the Patrick County Chamber of Commerce won Outstanding Tourism Partner of the Year.

Sunday, Sept. 11 will mark 21 years since terrorists attacked the United States in what has become known as the 9/11 attacks, and a local organization will commemorate the anniversary of that day as part of a nationwide program.

On Sept. 11 at 2 p.m. the Children’s Center of Northwest North Carolina will hold a service to remember those lost on the largest attack on United States soil since Pearl Harbor.

The event will include the reading of the names and short biographies of 50 victims of the attack – such as where they worked, if they had children, their hobbies. For some, there will only be names to read, and at a minimum, that they are not forgotten.

“It is important to let the public know this event is taking place and that we are taking time to remember all those who lost their lives,” said Valerie Smith, the center’s community relations coordinator. “This event is special and sacred, and we will never forget the men, women, and children who lost their precious lives that tragic day, and still are losing their lives.”

According to Smith, the event will include a key note address by Maj. Scott Hudson of the Surry County Sheriff’s Office and performances by members of the Surry Central High School Chorus. The East Surry High School JROTC will present the colors.

The impact of the two decades of war that followed the Sept. 11 attacks won’t be lost on attendees.

The center will host the event at its Pfc. Adam L. Marion Resource Center at 520 North Main Street in Dobson. Marion was killed in action during his service in support of the Global War on Terror.

Smith said the event is open to the public and free. It will be held outdoors at the center’s flagpole.

The Children’s Center received funding through a grant from Global Youth Justice Inc., a non-profit organization based in Boston. On Sept. 11, the center will be one of 75 sites chosen by that organization to hold a commemorative event.

The 9/11 Flag of Honor Across America Memorials is sponsored and funded by the federal agency AmeriCorps National Day of Service and Global Youth Justice. It is one of only two new federally sponsored National 9/11 Day Projects by the Federal Agency AmeriCorps, and largest nationally coordinated 9/11 Day Project since September 11th, 2001.

Additionally, the 50 names that will be read will appear on a Flag of Honor, which travelled to the World Trade Center prior to being delivered to the Children’s Center.

Staff and adult and youth volunteers from the center’s teen court and community service programs, which are spread across seven counties in Northwest North Carolina, will converge on Dobson to host the event.

“We are grateful to receive the funding to make this event happen,” said Smith. “We hope the surrounding community will come join us for what will be a meaningful and solemn remembrance of the lives lost on 9/11.”

The center is located at 520 North Main Street in Dobson.

Surry County has tremendous outdoor resources including parks, trails, rivers and more — but is hoping to elevate that to another level by participating in a new regional initiative.

This included about 25 people gathering Thursday afternoon at White Elephant Beer Co. on Market Street in Mount Airy for an introductory community open house meeting. It was organized by representatives of Mountain BizWorks, a non-profit organization based in Asheville.

Mountain BizWorks is spearheading a fledgling program known as Building Outdoor Communities, which seeks to maximize opportunities offered by the bountiful natural resources of western North Carolina.

The rural development partnership targets 25 counties in all, including Surry.

Building Outdoor Communities is designed to support affected communities in developing, prioritizing and implementing their individual outdoor infrastructure and economic goals.

This will allow the counties involved “to capitalize on their extraordinary outdoors and build places that people love,” according to a description of the new program that stresses drawing in people lured by the mountain culture.

“We’re looking to pull more of this business into western North Carolina,” said Joanna Brown, one of the Mountain BizWorks representatives visiting Mount Airy.

Based on the tone of Thursday afternoon’s meeting, the program seeks not only to fully develop outdoor resources to attract tourists but companies seeking to expand to places possessing such attractions that are becoming more and more popular.

“People around the world are infatuated with finding ways to connect with nature,” Building Outdoor Communities Specialist Bradley Spiegel told those gathered at White Elephant Beer Co.

“There’s just so many cool stories to tell to attract people to this place,” Spiegel said of the western North Carolina landscape and the high-quality outdoor recreation access it offers.

While this has always existed, the coronavirus pandemic seems to have heightened interest in areas with such scenic and recreational value among employers, he advised.

“Companies are looking to relocate to places with outstanding outdoor assets,” Spiegel explained in reference to a business expansion and recruitment component involved with the program.

The Building Outdoor Communities initiative is funded in part by the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC). It was established by Congress years ago to foster economic development in the depressed region of Appalachia.

Appalachian Regional Commission officials work with the people of that 13-state region, including North Carolina, to create opportunities for self-sustaining progress in areas such as economic development and critical infrastructure.

Among the ways the new program will help targeted communities by driving outdoor industry growth are providing financing, training and mentorship for existing businesses and entrepreneurs — balancing that with conservation, organizers say.

Technical assistance and connectivity opportunities also will be offered.

Building pathways to a “robust and talented workforce” is among the goals of the new program.

Determining what Surry County wants to be from a branding standpoint is listed as one of the questions to be asked as part of the process, along with assessing what’s here now and what else is needed.

Local tourism official Jessica Roberts says one concern in Surry involves taking the load off Pilot Mountain State Park — which tends to be overflowing with visitors — by getting them interested in under-used attractions locally they might not even know about.

Roberts says another focus should be on providing more access points for local waterways.

Surry County Parks and Recreation Director Daniel White said Thursday that there is also a need for more mountain biking facilities locally, along with supporting ongoing pedestrian and biking opportunities and the possibility of connecting these in the future.

White further pointed to another outdoorsy opportunity: developing the 34 miles of the Mountain to the Sea Trail course that runs through Surry.

In addition to Roberts, White and Jenny Smith from Mount Airy Visitors Center, others in attendance Thursday afternoon were Mount Airy officials including City Manager Stan Farmer, Commissioner Joe Zalescik and Darren Lewis, assistant city manager.

A Pilot Mountain town official, Scott Needham, also was there, as were representatives of Stone Mountain State Park and the Piedmont Triad Regional Council that aids economic-development efforts in this area.

Surry County Economic Development Partnership President Todd Tucker was another person who attended.

Tucker was enthusiastic about one key starting step, building a local working group of citizens who represent a cross-section of stakeholders in the outdoor recreation industry to advance the Building Outdoor Communities initiative.

“Who wants to be involved?” he said of a key question needing to be answered as part of that process.

The following marriage licenses were issued in Surry County:

– Mckaden Avery Murray, 20, of Surry County to Jordan Alexis Quesinberry, 20, of Surry County.

– Duvalier Ramsay Hernandez Silva, 29, of Surry County to Carolina Yamilet Guarneros, 21, of Surry County.

– Corbin Levi Bullins, 25, of Surry County to Savannah Starr Holt, 28, of Surry County.

– Frank Anthony Fontana, 54, of Surry County to Stephanie Lynn Zellers, 37, of Surry County.

– Joshua Edward Toler, 41, of Logan County, West Virginia to Leeanna Michelle Clark, 33, of Logan County.

– Rex Calvin Younger, 66, of Surry County to Melonie Lynn Hamby, 55, of Surry County.

– Travis Adam Price, 30, of Surry County to Sarah Danielle Runion, 28, of Surry County.

– Austin Mclean Dillon, 24, of Stokes County to Haley Elizabeth Bryant, 23, of Surry County.

– Caleb Andrew Cockerham, 25, of Surry County to Carly Elizabeth Crisafulli, 24, of Surry County.

– Walker Zane Bowman, 23, of Surry County to Suzanna Brook Flynn, 23, of Surry County.

– Timothy Michael Hayes, 44, of Yadkin County to Monique Atkins Whisenhunt, 51, of Surry County.

– Brady Jaye Tilley, 23, of Surry County to Karli Rachael Bullins, 25, of Surry County.

– Jose Luis Salazar Silva, 37, of Surry County to Elvia Pacheco Hernandez, 51, of Surry County.

– Corey Tyler Wood, 31, of Surry County to Kayla Suzann Hatchell, 29, of Surry County.

– Anthony Lewis Maroni, 40, of Surry County to Rebecca Nichole Wyatt, 31, of Surry County.

– Michael Anthony Sykes, 31, of Wilkes County to Hannah Marie Johnson, 31, of Wilkes County.

– Jimmy Edward Shearin, 51, of Surry County to Reagan Lee Calloway, 45, of Surry County.

– James Bailey Eidson, 26, of Surry County to Elizabeth Marie Roten, 24, of Surry County.

– Garrett Ryan Matthews, 26, of Yadkin County to Callie Jeanine Trivette, 22, of Yadkin County.

– Alexander Matthew Wilmoth, 25, of Surry County to Allison Nichol Snow, 40, of Surry County.

– Tyler Monroe Minor, 27, of Surry County to Ashlee Dawn Huybert, 25, of Surry County.

The Surry County Community Corrections office is seeking information on the whereabouts of the following individuals:

• Cory Lee Sutphin, age 32, a white male wanted on probation violations who is on probation for felony possession of methamphetamine and driving while license revoked;

• Amber Nicole Moore, 30, a white female wanted for failing to appear in court on probation violations who is on probation for felony larceny, felony breaking and entering and two counts of felony larceny of firearms;

• Sherri Leann Hudson Meeks, 38, a white female wanted for failing to appear in court on probation violations who is on probation for possession of methamphetamine and use/possession of drug paraphernalia;

• Brian Nathan Childress, 35, a white male wanted on probation violations who is on probation for 11 counts of felony breaking into a coin/currency machine and seven counts of felony larceny.

View all probation absconders on the internet at http://webapps6.doc.state.nc.us/opi and click on absconders. Anyone with information on any probation absconders should contact Crime Stoppers at 786-4000, county probation at 719-2705 or the Mount Airy Police Department at 786-3535.

The Surry County Sheriff’s Office is seeking information on the whereabouts of the following people:

• Nathan Dean Wray, 32, a white male wanted on a charge of failure to pay child support;

• Joshua Allen Settle, 34, a white male wanted on a charge of failure to pay child support;

• Justin Trae Richards, 30, a white male wanted on two counts of failure to pay child support charges;

• Stacey Lee Phillips, 39, a white female wanted on a charge of failure to pay child support.

Anyone with information on these individuals should call the Surry County Sheriff’s Office at 401-8900.

J’s HVAC Unlimited, a Mount Airy-based heating and cooling services company in operation since 2005, announced this week that it is rebranding its image with a new look and new name.

“But (the company) will continue to build upon the excellent customer care that has earned it the best HVAC company in the Mount Airy News’ (Mounties Award) for the past 10 out of 11 years,” the company said in a statement announcing the change.

The firm is changing its name to Jay’s Heating, Air & Plumbing to reflect its new focus.

“We’ll be sporting a new brand, new truck wraps and a new website for our new era of continued outstanding customer service,” said Jamie Vaughan, owner of Jay’s Heating, Air & Plumbing. “We’ve been known for our fire and ice logo for years but felt it was time to modernize our brand with an updated look that is sure to turn heads. Our new name also reflects some of the expanded services we plan to introduce over the coming year.”

Vaughan’s love of the trades comes from a long family history of working in the HVAC industry. His grandfather started a heating and cooling company in the 1920s where Vaughan’s father also learned the trade before starting his own company. Then Vaughan followed suit, working for his father for more than 10 years before starting J’s HVAC in 2005.

“I learned the trade from a young age and have always sought to provide the best customer service I can for my customers,” he said. “That includes keeping up with new technology and trends that help the customer get better service. We want our image to reflect our commitment to industry innovation.”

Vaughan said some of the new trucks are already out on the road and the Mount Airy community can expect to see the new logo soon. A new website explaining the company’s services will soon follow.

The company’s employees have more than 50 years of combined experience in the industry and its team members carry a number of certifications from the top manufacturers in the HVAC industry. Jay’s provides a number of services including residential and commercial HVAC care, planned maintenance agreements, Aeroseal duct sealing, generators, duct cleaning, mold removal and more.

For more information about Jay’s Heating, Air & Plumbing, call 336-690-5253 or visit their website at www.jayisontheway.com.

Four o’clocks still going strong

Four o’ clocks are still going strong in the last days of August. With Daylight Savings Time still in effect, these flowers could actually be named five o’clocks! Usually they open their blooms around five o’clock or later. The four o’ clocks could be called the longest lasting of all summer annuals because they are in bloom from mid-spring all the way until a hard freeze in November. We have several that are perennial and come back every year. One of these varieties is speckled and has wine and white features while others are solid wine.

A late summer cool off for the birds

On steamy hot mid-summer afternoons, empty the sun-heated water from the bird bath and refill it with fresh cool water. When the late summer sun shines down, it dries water in mud holes or puddles and a lack of thunderstorms, makes it difficult for them to find water. You’re providing them a fresh cool source of water that will continue to attract all types of birds to your lawn.

Making a cool summer fresh carrot salad

This is a great salad for a summer supper. It doesn’t require much prep time and is tasty and colorful. You will need two cups of finely shredded carrots, one can pineapple tidbits (drained), one cup golden raisins, half cup of mayonnaise, half cup sugar, two teaspoons lemon juice, one teaspoon of real vanilla, half teaspoon orange flavoring. Drain and save juice from pineapple tidbits, soak the golden raisins in the pineapple juice for 30 minutes. Mix sugar into the drained pineapple. Refrigerate the pineapple and sugar for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, drain the juice from raisins and discard. Drain juice from pineapple and discard. Mix all ingredients and stir in mayonnaise vanilla, orange flavoring and lemon juice. Cover and keep in refrigerator until ready to serve. This salad is better when refrigerated overnight and has a life of a week in the refrigerator. The colder it is the better it is.

Crows of late summer making noise

The crow population seems to be getting larger and the crows don’t seem to be shy around humans. We have several nests of them in our area. Some of them even visit the birdbaths. They don’t seem to bother anything in the garden. They seem to find plenty to eat from road kill along U.S. highway 52. With all the nests, they must be hatching plenty of young. Like the buzzards, they are useful scavengers and help the environment.

A nip in the night air of late

When the evening sun goes down the late August porch has a comfortable nip in the twilight air. Birds are more active and the humidity is lower. The sunsets are getting a bit more colorful. Squirrels are beginning to harvest the first of the acorn crop. There is a hint of yellow and orange in the maples and red in the dogwoods. All these are signs that we are nearing the advancing season of autumn.

Recycling potting soil from summer

The annuals of summer are winding their way down and the time to plant the annuals of autumn has arrived. The medium that the summer annuals are planted in can be recycled and used for planting the annuals of autumn such as pansies, mums, and ornamental kale and cabbage. Empty the medium from containers, pots and hanging baskets into the wheel barrow and add the same amount of new medium and half that amount of peat moss and stir it all together. Add two quarts of Flower-Tone organic flower food and stir it in. Use this medium to plant the annuals of autumn.

Making a batch of pear preserves

The season of the pear harvest is now here. It is the time to take advantage of the harvest and prepare a batch of honey pear preserves to use on toast for breakfast on a cold winter morning. It will certainly taste like none you purchase at any supermarket. It is easy to prepare and all you need are pears, sugar and water plus time and patience. Just peel the pears and cut into two inch chunks and place the chunks in a canner of salted water (to prevent pears from turning brown). After peeling and cutting all the pears into chunks, allow them to soak in salt water for 10 to 15 minutes, drain the water from pears and rinse with fresh cold water and soak for 15 minutes. Measure the pears into the canner. For each cup of pears, add three fourth cup of sugar. And three quarts of water to the pears and sugar and stir well. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer. Stir the mixture often until it becomes syrupy, reducing heat and continue to stir to avoid sticking. Keeping a close eye on the mixture and reducing heat as needed. Dip a spoon into it every few minutes check for thickness. As it begins to turn golden brown and begins to thicken, place a drop of the syrup in a cup of cold water when the syrup forms a ball in the cold water, pour it into pint or jelly jars and seal. Process for five minutes in a hot water bath canner or in a pressure canner, bring the jars up to five pounds pressure and turn off the heat.

August ends and colorful sunsets begin

August only has three more days in it and when September begins we can look forward to the beauty of some colorful sunsets as an attribute of one of the many of the splendors of the month. As the days get shorter and cooler, it paves the way for color in the western sky as the sun sets. The colors of red, orange, yellow, pink and bluish purple will tint the western horizon as the sun slowly sinks into the west and it casts a glow on the trees that have leaves already beginning to turn to some of the same colors that are showing up in the glorious sunsets.

These ornamental come in the colors of red, cream, yellow, mint green, wine and burgundy as well as pink. They can replace some of the annuals of summer. These ornamental will last through the whole winter with a small amount of protection such as placing them toward the back of the porch to avoid extreme winter wind from the north and hard freezes. A cloth or towel for protection on below freezing nights.

Filling late summer annuals with pansies

The tough autumn and winter flowers of pansies are brightening up the hardwares, nurseries, garden shops, Home Depot, Lowe’s Home Improvement, Ace Hardware and Walmart. Pansies have beautiful dark green foliage that will endure winter as well as unusual colors of flowers with faces on them. You can purchase them in six and nine packs and most are already in bloom. You can choose from yellow, purple, white bronze, wine, tan, maroon, and lavender. Buy a bag of pansy booster to give the pansies a good start into cool weather

Bulbs for spring can be planted now

With September only four days from now, the bulbs of tulips, jonquils, crocus, narcissus, daffodils, and hyacinths can now be planted. Planting them now will assure them a good start. Buy bulbs in mesh see-through bags or from individual bins so you can see and feel the bulbs and know they are not molded or rotten. You can also buy a bag of bulb booster to get bulbs off to a good start.

Working in the autumn garden

In autumn, the garden is more comfortable to work in with less heat and humidity. Not many insects and not much weeds to contend with. The soil is workable and the choice of cool weather vegetables is great and now is the time to get all of them off on a good start.

“Pay Up Time.” Wife: “There is a man at the door who wants to see you about a bill you owe him. He wouldn’t give his name.” Husband: “What does he look like?” Wife: “He looks like you had better pay him!”

“Wrong Knock.”- On a moonlit country road, the car coughed and came to a halt. The young driver said, “That’s funny, I wonder what that knocking was.” The young girl sitting next to him said, “I can tell you one thing. It was not opportunity!”

“Bluffing.” Bill: “If you refuse to be mine, I’ll jump off that cliff.” Jill: “That’s just bluff.”

Pilot Mountain Middle School teachers and administrators are making a point this year of recognizing and praising positive behavior.

When a faculty member finds a student displaying exemplary characteristics of a “great leader,” the student is given a Positive Office Referral Ticket.

“This is all part of the school’s leadership framework to celebrate student success in exemplifying leadership qualities,” school officials said.

Editor’s Note: Reader Diary is a periodic column written by local residents, Surry County natives, and readers of The Mount Airy News. If you have a submission for Reader Diary, email it to John Peters at jpeters@mtairynews.com

Ever think about going back to the old home place where you grew up? Is it still there? If so and it’s not too far away, maybe you should before it’s too late. Should you go, take along a camera, “sit a spell,” picture in your mind how it used to be and you will be glad you did, I guarantee.

I grew up in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains; about as close to the land as it was possible to get. As our ancestors had done for generations, we plowed the land, sowed the seeds and prayed for rain, without which the crops would not grow. On many a day, I hoed corn in the hot summer sun; vowing to grow up and get away. Lo and behold, I finally married and moved away; knowing the old folks and the old home place would always be there when I went back.

Thomas Wolfe tells us in his novel, “You Can’t Go Home Again,” but thanks to memory and some old photographs, I beg to differ. On a day to remember, I drove back to the family homeplace on Banjo Lane just off Pine Ridge Road in Surry County; where (in 1936) my parents built a log cabin home that was the beginning of the place we called “home” for some 48 years.

Sad to say, the only remains of the home and buildings were some broken cinder blocks from the underpinning, some bricks from the flue, the old well and a hole in the ground where the cellar used to be. A small black walnut tree beside the yard was now a huge black walnut tree and the pasture where the horse and cow once grazed? Now full of trees.

The chestnut oak tree that hung over the road? Still there; the same tree we hung the hog from at killing time to clean it out and wash it down. I could almost see Pa making hams, tenderloin and side-meat with his axe and butcher knife, right there under the tree. There was our house nearby: our safe haven from the storm, our sanctuary, the place we came back to at the end of the day when tired and worn; to sleep the night away safe from harm. I could feel the heat from the wood heater on cold winter mornings when Pa fired it “as hot as she’ll run.” I could taste the “out-of-this-world-good” meals Mama cooked: stacks of buckwheat pancakes yea’ high, white-sop gravy, biscuits that floated in the air, along with pies and cakes; all made from scratch. To top it off, I could smell the coffee perking on the wood cook stove.

I fought honeysuckle and blackberry jungles down to the spring we once carried water from. On the way down, four wild turkeys flew up almost in my face and I almost ran. The old spring that was once so bold? Now just a trickle and almost gone like the spring box, the old garden place and the cow shed made of sawmill slabs that stood nearby.

I could see it in my mind; Pa plowing the ‘tater patch nearby, while my brother and I hoed dirt up around the plants. There was Mama washing clothes in the wash-tub beside the spring and hanging them on the garden fence to dry.

Just down the valley, I could see maple trees blooming red again, as spring came again to the land. Up on the hillside? Apple, pear and peach trees blooms lit up the whole world; assuring us we had survived another “hardest winter I ever seen.” It was just like being there in the old days and I was glad.

Maybe Thomas Wolfe could not go home again, but (as I learned) you and I can and the old home place and the old folks will always be there, if only in memory.

Dobson Elementary students and staff recently celebrated the start of the school year with their eighth annual Parade of Success through the town of Dobson.

They were cheered on by family and friends who lined the streets. The Dobson Police Department, with Chief Shawn Myers, the Surry Central high School band, directed by Jordan Martin, Surry Central cheerleaders, and the high school’s ROTC with Sgt. Greg McCormick led the parade.

Two Surry County businesses were honored this week when the Piedmont Triad Business Journal held its annual Triad Family Business Awards lunch.

Shelton Vineyards, of Dobson, was presented with the 2022 Heritage Award, the top award given at the event.

Johnson Granite, of Mount Airy, was among a dozen other firms in the Greater Triad Area honored with a Family Business Award.

During a round table discussion at the awards gathering, co-founder Ed Shelton described the winery start-up as “a hobby that got out of hand.”

He and his brother, Charlie Shelton, founded the winery, which began when the brothers purchased 400 acres of farmland outside of Dobson.

“He thought that opening a winery would be a good thing for our hometown that had been suffering after losing manufacturing and textile mills jobs to companies in Mexico and overseas,” Ed Shelton said of his brother’s push for them to begin a vineyard and winery.

The winery is one of the oldest in North Carolina, having opened in 1999. In previous interviews, the Sheltons have said they felt the Yadkin Valley region of North Carolina offered opportunities for a wine industry to develop and thrive, a prophecy which came true.

The Yadkin Valley became North Carolina’s first federally approved American Viticulture Area in 2003, and opened the doors for converting much of the area’s former tobacco farmland into vineyards.

Since Shelton’s opening, more than 150 wineries across the state have opened.

“We were far from an overnight success. After such a huge investment in land, infrastructure, machinery and vines it took us 20 years to turn a profit,” he said at this week’s awards ceremony. “That’s not the formula most North Carolina wineries follow, most of them start small with family members growing grapes and working the business and then they expand. We did the reverse of that, and luckily for us, it paid off.”

Johnson Granite was among 12 other family businesses recognized at the awards ceremony.

The business began in 2000. Larry D. Johnson had spent much of his life in the stone business, and his son, Brian H. Johnson, was selling building supplies after finishing college, when the two considered the idea of opening a business together.

“The demand for granite countertops was just starting to catch on in our area, so we decided to take a leap of faith,” the younger Johnson said.

So the pair, along with Linda Johnson who manned the books and the schedule, opened Johnson Granite.

The firm grew, and over the years other family members joined, starting with Lisa Johnson.

“I started out sweeping the floors and other odd jobs like that, and eventually, they’d give me a little more to do and then a little more to do until I worked my way up to being a stone polisher, and I’m proud to say I got pretty good at that,” she said this week.

Karen Johnson Coalson came on board next. With a background in bookkeeping she signed on as a secretary, while her twin sister Kimberly Johnson Marshall followed, working on the sales floor. Four of the five Johnson kids eventually joined the family business, with the oldest sister, Mary Johnson Holt, electing to follow her heart by continuing in her career in healthcare as a registered nurse.

Larry Johnson, now retired from the business, said the company has done well, but it was not always easy. He recalled some lean times during the aftermath of the 2008 housing crisis.

“It was tough,” he said. “We had grown and there were more people than just our family depending on us. We were forced to make sacrifices, and that started at the top, but we promised our employees that if they’d stick with us, we’d make it right in the end. I’m proud to say we didn’t lose a single employee during that time and were able to return all that had been lost to our team…and then some.”

Jennifer Slate, a member of the Johnson Granite staff, contributed to this story.

WESTFIELD — A community group doesn’t often get the chance to celebrate a major longevity milestone, and the South Westfield Ruritan Club made the most of that occasion with a recent event marking its 60th anniversary.

Many local residents attended the drop-in gathering on Aug. 13 along with several out-of-towners drawn to the big celebration, according to Barbara S. Collins, a club representative.

“They enjoyed browsing the history and pictures of the club,” Collins added.

The drop-in format was employed for a three-hour period as opposed to having everyone gather en masse at a specific time, in order to lessen the COVID threat.

Those attending got a chance to view displays of plaques, pictures and newspaper articles documenting the club’s history, in addition to sharing memories and enjoying the fellowship.

The origins of the South Westfield Ruritan Club date back more than six decades, when Bob and Hallie Flippin donated land to benefit the community by being used for a local Ruritan club.

This occurred during a growth period for the Ruritan organization nationally, after the emergence of its first club in 1928 in the Suffolk, Virginia, area.

The Ruritans now are known as America’s top community service organization with more than 23,000 members in nearly 1,000 clubs in small towns and rural areas.

While the recent event was focused on celebrating its 60 years in existence, members of the South Westfield Ruritan Club also engaged in public service. This included not only serving free food to all who attended but sending some to shut-ins of the community, Collins reported.

Along with helping others there, the South Westfield Ruritan Club has provided scholarships to local students over the years, including two annually for youths continuing their education at Surry Community College.

The group also operates an ongoing backpack program to supply area students with backpacks and food, donates money and provisions for families undergoing hardships and engages in many other similar efforts.

The Greater Mount Airy Chamber of Commerce will host its annual Job Fair on Friday, Sept. 9 at Mayberry Mall in Mount Airy from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The job fair is open to anyone looking for a part-time or full-time job, or for those already working but perhaps looking for a job change. Admission is free to all job seekers.

“This will be our sixth year doing a job fair,” said Randy Collins, chamber president and CEO. Additionally, the chamber has held a student job fair the past two springs for area high school and college students.

Collins said the fair still has spots open for area employers looking to recruit for current or expected job openings.

The chamber official said even in the relatively short window the organization has been holding job fairs, the labor market has seen some major shifts.

“We’re obviously in a labor shortage,” he said. “There are more jobs than there are people to fill, there’s no doubt about that…Years ago people were complaining the labor rates were so low, saying ‘I can’t live on X.’ Now those people are way above minimum wage. Whether it’s a livable wage, I’ll leave that to others…labor rates are up, even manufacturing plants that were paying X amount…let’s say $14-$15 an hour, are now paying $18 or $20 an hour. The employers are doing everything they can to attract people.”

While some still point to federal stimulus money that allowed individuals to subsist while out of work as a reason the job market was initially tight once COVID restrictions began to ease, he said that is not what is happening now. The available labor pool is simply not keeping up with job growth and demand.

“On the federal side, my understanding from the state and federal contacts I have, the federal money from COVID or the Recovery Act or whatever have pretty much run out,” he said.

Despite the tight labor market, he said job fairs such as the one the chamber is providing are still important

“We feel it’s necessary to provide an opportunity for these companies to promote the jobs that they have,” he said.

In addition to the jobless, Collins said the job fair may attract people who are employed, but “Who are looking for something down the road, something else. Maybe something more fulfilling, or they’ve always dreamed of being an auto mechanic or a wielder, and now they’re making changes to do that.”

Because of the tight labor market, he said this is a great time for those in the market for a new job. He said this year’s job fair, with employers set up at the mall between Belk’s and Hobby Lobby, will be open until 6 p.m., giving individuals who already a job a chance to visit after 5 p.m. The chamber job fairs usually attract more than 50 employers who will have information on open jobs.

The chamber’s upcoming job fair still has openings for local businesses wishing to set up and recruit prospective employees, and still has opportunities for area agencies to take sponsorship roles for the event.

Interested employers or sponsors should contact Jordon Edwards at the chamber for vendor and sponsorship fees. Email her at jordon@mtairyncchamber.org. Registration is open on the chamber website at www.mtairyncchamber.org or www.mtairyncchamber.org/events/job-fair-2022.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Mount Airy and East Surry last played in April 2021. In the 16 months between meetings each school graduated two classes of seniors, one of the schools made two regional championship appearances and one state championship appearance, and both football programs shattered records as part of 13-1 seasons last fall.

Despite many new faces on both sides, the 58th edition of Mount Airy-East Surry went a lot like the previous installment: a low-scoring defensive battle at Wallace Shelton Stadium in which the winner scored all of its points in the first half, holding a double-digit lead at halftime. Then, the other team rallies late to make it a one-score game, but comes up short in the end.

East Surry emerged victorious on both occasions, winning Friday’s game 14-12.

The Cardinals have now won four consecutive meetings against the Granite Bears and eight of the past 11.

“We knew coming in that East Surry returned a lot of starters from a team that was very good last year,” said Mount Airy coach JK Adkins. “Had hoped that we would have been more effective moving the ball in the first half. We were so proud to see our defense play like they did. I thought our defensive coaching staff did a phenomenal job and our kids played with tremendous effort.”

Cardinal coach Trent Lowman called Friday’s game “eerily similar,” to the April 2021 battle between East and Mount Airy, saying he felt like he had déjà vu at points.

“I walked off the field at halftime and, looking at the score, it struck me that we’ve been here before,” Lowman said. The Cards had scored their first touchdown late in the first quarter, then added another score with less than 30 seconds remaining in the second to go up 14-0 at the half.

“We did some good things offensively and we got a touchdown in late in the half, so much like that game in the spring. You kind of knew what was coming in the second half. You knew they were going to come out with some fire, they were getting the football and they were pumped up.”

The coach was correct, and the Bears stormed back and scored on the opening drive of the second half. Colby Johnson jumped in the way of the PAT to leave the score at 14-6, which would come into play later in the night.

Mount Airy’s offense went on to move the chains nine times in the second half after doing so just twice in the first 24 minutes of play. The Bears were also able to move on the ground more after being held to -25 yards rushing in the first half.

East Surry, alternatively, moved the chains 10 times in the first half, but only twice in the second half. The second instance didn’t occur until there was less than 60 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.

Following the 2021 Bears-Cardinals game, Adkins said he felt his defense played well enough to win the game while the offense’s struggle to move the ball on the ground ultimately hindered them. He echoed that sentiment after Friday’s game.

“A lot of different factors contributed to that,” Adkins said. “East Surry’s defensive speed, our inability to protect the passer to hit big plays in the passing game, confusion up front and a couple key injuries all played a part.”

“Their defense out-played our offense,” Lowman said. “But, we made some mistakes and let them outplay us. So we’ve got to go in and get some things fixed.”

Down eight points entering the fourth quarter, Mount Airy began a drive on its own 20 following a Stephen Brantley punt. The Granite Bears’ drive started with 11:43 on the clock and spanned 8:45 of game time over 17 plays. During the drive, the Cardinals where flagged for disconcerting signals, pass interference and encroachment, while the Bears were flagged for a false start and assisting the runner.

The Bears faced fourth-and-12 on the drive and survived thanks to an Ian Gallimore pass to Taeshon Martin. Later in the drive, Mount Airy faced third-and-goal from the 10 and Gallimore once again looked to pass. When pressured by Cardinal defenders, Gallimore scrambled and ran the touchdown in himself with 2:58 to play.

Mount Airy lined up to go for two down 14-12, but had to burn a timeout to set a play up. When lining up after the timeout, the Bears’ coaching staff noticed something was off and had to use another timeout. The Cardinals were still able to stop the Bears short on the conversion and maintain the lead.

Mount Airy’s Walker Stroup took a short kickoff in hopes of recovering it for the Bears, but the Cards’ Gabriel Harpe dove on the ball.

Two short runs from Cardinal QB Folger Boaz set up third-and-5, then Devin Williams converted the first down to effectively end the game. Williams added another short run to force Mount Airy to burn their final timeout, then Boaz kneeled twice.

Lowman said he didn’t really get nervous during Mount Airy’s comeback, but added that it wasn’t for the reason one might expect.

“I didn’t really have time to get nervous during the game. I was just focusing on what we needed to do to win,” Lowman said. “If anything, I was more anxious this week about coming into a place like this where, yeah, it’s a rivalry, but you’re also going up against a really good football team. They’re in the hunt for a state championship every year for a reason.

“They’re extremely well-coached, they play extremely hard and they have good players on the field – and that’s a deadly combination.”

Both sides had defensive standouts in the rivalry game.

Mount Airy’s defense forced 13 plays of either no gain or negative yards. Gallimore, Stroup, Tyler Mason, Cam’Ron Webster, Blake Hawks and Deric Dandy each picked up tackles for a loss, while Gallimore and Dandy each picked up sacks.

The Bears also held Boaz to 9-of-21 passing for 120 yards, marking just the third time in Boaz’s three-year career as a starting quarterback that he was held to single digit completions while playing an entire game. Boaz did throw for both Cardinal touchdowns, but was picked off by both Stroup and Logan Fonville.

East Surry’s defense forced 21 plays of no gain or negative yards. Brett Clayton, Kyle Zinn, Trey Grubbs, Anderson Badgett and Hatcher Hamm each picked up tackles for a loss. Zinn and Badgett recorded multiple sacks, and Eli Becker added one.

The Cards held Gallimore to 4-of-10 passing for 64 yards. This is Gallimore’s lowest completion percentage in 16 games as a starting QB, and is just the third game in which he hasn’t thrown a passing touchdown. Gallimore was picked off once by East’s Will Jones, and the QB lost a fumble that was forced by Zinn and recovered by Colby Johnson.

East Surry (2-0) finished the game with 240 total yards coming from 120 yards passing and 120 yards rushing. Matthew Keener led the Cards in yards receiving with three receptions for 74 yards a touchdown, followed by Johnson with four receptions for 43 yards and a touchdown, and Williams with two receptions for three yards.

Williams led East Surry’s ground game with 13 carries for 75 yards. Boaz was next with 17 carries for 25 yards, followed by Zinn with four carries for 14 yards and Johnson with one carry for 6 yards.

Mount Airy (1-1) finished with 118 total yards coming from 64 yards passing and 54 yards rushing. Stroup grabbed two receptions for 50 yards, Martin had one reception for 20 yards and Mario Revels caught one pass for a loss of six yards.

Mason led the Bears’ running backs with 18 carries for 56 yards and a touchdown, followed by Martin with four carries for three yards, Gallimore with 15 carries for -2 yards and a touchdown, and Traven Thompson with one carry for -3 yards.

Both squads have big expectations for the 2022 season and look to use this game as a jumping off point.

In the preseason, Lowman said the goal for the Cardinal coaching staff is to have the team peaking at the end of the regular season and beginning of the postseason. Playing Mount Airy, one of if not the outright toughest team they’ll play in the regular season, just two games in didn’t change that strategy.

“We didn’t change much before this, and we’re not going to change,” Lowman said. “We’re doing it the same way this year as we always have. Our entire playbook is in, and we’re just trying to get better at everything as the season goes as opposed to trying to do two things now, a third thing next week and a fourth thing after that.

“We’re not changing because our method has worked, and I hope it works again. I hope we’re peaking in late October/early November for a run. It’s on our guys to stay healthy, and take care of their bodies and keep learning what we do and just get cleaner and crisper as we go along.”

For Mount Airy, the loss breaks an 11-game winning streak of regular season games. The loss itself stings, but Adkins said he believes this game – much like the season opener against North Surry – will be extremely beneficial to the Bears in the long run.

“There is no such thing as a good loss, but our team grew exponentially tonight,” Adkins said. “Things like this galvanize a team and a coaching staff.”

Mount Airy’s focus now shifts to getting players healthy, while also maintaining a “commitment to basics and fundamentals,” Adkins said.

“I’m proud of our guys. We move forward from here.”

2:29 ESHS 0-7 – Colby Johnson 9-yard TD reception on Folger Boaz pass, Joshua Parker PAT

0:22 ESHS 0-14 – Matthew Keener 22-yard TD reception on Folger Boaz pass, Joshua Parker PAT

7:19 MAHS 6-14 – Tyler Mason 1-yard rushing TD, PAT blocked by Colby Johnson

2:58 MAHS 12-14 – Ian Gallimore 10-yard rushing TD, 2-point conversion no good

• An Elkin woman was arrested in Mount Airy Tuesday on a felony charge of obtaining property by false pretense, according to city police reports.

Meghan Danielle Macemore, 27, of 130 Hill St., was taken into custody at the probation office on State Street after she was found to be the subject of that charge, which had been filed by Elkin authorities on July 27 with no other details listed. Macemore also is accused of second-degree trespassing in a warrant issued on the same date in Elkin.

She was confined in the Surry County Jail under a $1,000 secured bond and slated for a Sept. 9 appearance in District Court.

• Michael Shane Dodd, 40, of 1710 S. Main St., No. 14, has been arrested as a fugitive from justice wanted in Georgia and jailed under an $80,000 secured bond

Dodd, who was taken into custody on Aug. 18 in a parking lot at 182 W. Pine St., was found to be the subject of an outstanding warrant from that state on an unspecified matter, apparently including the theft of a vehicle, according to local arrest records.

Dodd also was charged at the time of his apprehension with two felonies, possession of a stolen motor vehicle (a 2017 Ford Explorer valued at $22,000), owned by Janice Robertson of Clarkesville, Georgia, and possession of a firearm by a felon, identified as a handgun.

The suspect is slated to appear in Surry District Court on Monday.

• Michael Andrew Marshall, 38, of 130 Rocky Lane, was jailed under a $20,000 secured bond on Aug. 18 for two counts of assault on a government official and resisting, delaying or obstructing a public officer.

Marshall was encountered by authorities on Worth Street near South Main Street in reference to a suspicious-person investigation, during which he allegedly swung a closed fist at Officer Dillon Harris, striking him in the head.

The suspect then tried to run away, arrest records add, before being taken into custody and transported to the police station. While being processed, he again allegedly struck Officer Harris in the head with his fist. Marshall is scheduled to appear in District Court next Monday.

• A North Carolina dealer’s plate, serial number ID055096, was discovered stolen on Aug. 16 from a vehicle at H&H Auto Sales on West Pine Street. It is valued at $39.

• Christopher Dillion Bobbitt, 29, of Galax, Virginia, was served with outstanding warrants at the police station on Aug. 10 for a series of charges including felonious breaking and entering, felony larceny, assault on a female, assault on a child under 12 and injury to personal property.

No other details were listed regarding the charges, for which Bobbitt was confined in the Surry County Jail without privilege of bond. The case is slated for the Sept. 26 session of District Court.

• A Sony Playstation game console valued at $250 was discovered stolen on Aug. 8 as the result of a break-in at the Broad Street residence of Amber Caudill Kelly, the victim of the theft.

Entry was gained by kicking in a side entry door.

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