May 2024 | Sanford, North Carolina A product of LPH Media, LLC Vol. 6 | Issue 5 | No. 62
Editorial
Gordon Anderson | gordon@rantnc.com
Billy Liggett | billy@rantnc.com
Jonathan Owens | jonathan@rantnc.com Richard Sullins | richard@rantnc.com
Advertising Nate Ewing | advertising@rantnc.com | (919) 478-0560
Contributors
Ben Brown, Charles Petty, Jimmy Randolph, Matt Ramey
Editorial Board
Moose, Pal (both of them), Terry, Buddy, Soccer, Beasley, Kris, Rin Tin Tin, Spike, Higgins, Max, Peanut, Coco and Brownie the Wonder Dog
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It’s been a year of milestone anniversaries; here’s another
Sanford has always been somewhat of a “little sister” to its neighbor to the west, Seagrove, when it comes to pottery in North Carolina. This is nothing to be ashamed of — “pottery” and “Seagrove” have been synonymous since the late 1700s, when English and German immigrants arrived from Pennsylvania and other points north and discovered the region’s rich clay that, when fired, produced a beautiful reddish orange hue.
The clay in Sanford is better suited for brick — we’re not known as “The Brick City” for nothing. But pottery found its footing in Sanford in 1924 when Henry Cooper established North State Pottery on Plank Road. North State gained national attention when Cooper took part in the United States’ sesquicentennial celebration in Philadelphia in 1926. His on-site log cabin constructed in downtown Philly was filled with hundreds of pieces of handmade pottery and was a hit, putting Sanford officially on the pottery map.
It’s only fitting that in a year where The Rant has celebrated Sanford’s 150th anniversary, the city’s history and our own fiveyear anniversary as a print publication, our May edition of The Rant Monthly provides another history lesson on Sanford — this time with the focus on pottery.
An art and a craft, pottery is both an expression of human creativity and a functional object for humans since the beginning. Our history has been traced through our pottery.
Our cover of The Rant Monthly this month (and all inside photos of Sanford pottery) were made possible by our talented photographer friend Ben Brown.
It’s become a form of therapy for many, as the calming process has helped many battling depression, anxiety and PTSD.
And while the world around us become more reliant on technology and all things artificial, the basic skills that go into creating beautiful pottery have changed little over time. We find comfort in this, and we’re proud to highlight what pottery has meant to our region.
If you’re new to Sanford (and many of you are), we hope you learn something new in this edition and are inspired to get some pottery.
— Billy Liggett
Sarah Strong, a three-time state champion for Sanford’s Grace Christian School and the No. 1 women’s high school recruit in the nation, announced in April that she has committed to the University of Connecticut to continue her basketball career. Strong’s announcement was broadcast live on ESPN during halftime of the Montverde Academy, IMG Academy Florida high school championship game.
Strong, who was featured by The Rant Monthly in October before her senior year, led Grace Christian to its third straight state title in February when the Lady Crusaders beat High Point Christian, 82-33, in the NCISAA 3A title game. The win marked Grace’s 40th in a row dating back to last season. Strong scored 30 in the win, and she finished her Grace career with a 91-4 mark.
UConn, coached by the legendary Geno Auriemma for the last 38 years, is considered the most successful women’s basketball program in the nation, having won 11 NCAA National Championships and four in a row from 2013 to 2016. The program also owns the two longest winning streaks (men’s or women’s) in the nation with 111 straight wins from 2014 to 2017 and 90 from 2008 to 2010.
The Huskies’ 2024 season ended on Friday in the Final Four with a two-point loss to and the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer, Caitlin Clark.
In her announcement, Strong unzipped a jacket to reveal a Huskies shirt.
“I want to definitely get better and just grow as a person off the court, and I really want to be coached by [Auriemma],” Strong said.
— by Billy Liggett
U.S.
Before his sentencing, Jan. 6 insurrectionist David Gietzen of Sanford expressed no remorse: ‘I believe I did the right thing.’By Richard Sullins richard@rantnc.com
David Gietzen of Sanford was sentenced to six years in prison in April for his participation in the riot at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021.
Gietzen, 31, will face an additional three years of supervised release upon the completion of his incarceration.
U.S. District Court Judge Carl J. Nichols handed down the sentence after a hearing on April 23 at the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse in Washington in the same courtroom where Gietzen was convicted last summer on seven felonies and one misdemeanor charge for assaulting law enforcement and other conduct that attempted to disrupt an official proceeding of Congress, which had been convened to count and certify the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Offered the chance by Judge Nichols to express remorse or regret for his actions, Gietzen refused, saying, “I have to make it explicitly known that I believe I did the right thing.”
Before passing Gietzen’s sentence, Nichols said the Sanford man made it clear during the sentencing hearing, just as he had during his trial in August, that he still believes that the election was stolen from Donald Trump, despite evidence to the contrary.
“Mr. Gietzen essentially was unapologetic today about his conduct,” Nichols said as he gave Gietzen a prison term that will keep him behind bars through the term of the next president of the United States.
The six-year term includes a “two-level enhancement” for obstruction of justice for flouting an order by Judge Nichols on Oct. 19 to self-surrender in his Washington, D.C., courtroom the following day. Instead, Gietzen deliberately refused the order and became
a fugitive, apparently spending most — if not all — of the next 54 days in the home of his mother before being taken into custody by a United States Marshal on Dec. 12.
Documents filed on April 4 by both U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves and Gietzen’s court-appointed public defender Louis C. Allen III paint a portrait of a young man who overcame early hardship and found success, but also one whose life entered a downward spiral after becoming radicalized in his budding political beliefs.
His father enlisted in the Army when David was 1, and by the time he was 7, his parents had divorced. His mother and nine siblings lived in a 1,300-square-foot home until it was repossessed in 2003, moving then to a mobile home just outside Fayetteville. The court records indicate the family struggled financially for the next several years.
Gietzen dropped out of high school but over a period of several years, his mother enrolled herself, David and several of his brothers and sisters at Central Carolina Community College in Sanford. He earned his GED and his associate in applied science and enrolled at N.C. State in 2014.
After six semesters, he had earned two bachelor’s degrees in computer and electrical engineering. He was then hired by Extron, an electronics manufacturing company in Raleigh that specializes in audiovisual environments. At the time he quit a few years later, he was making $80,000 a year and frequently gave portions of his salary to members of his family to help them with expenses and bills.
Gietzen began listening to conspiracy theories in 2020 that the presidential election had been stolen from Donald Trump. Although he hadn’t voted in either 2016 or 2020, Gietzen was swayed by claims of voter fraud he began seeing through social media.
He was so moved by what he was seeing, hearing and reading that he quit his well-paying job and began attending several “Stop the Steal” rallies across the country
during the fall and winter of 2020 and prior to the one on Jan. 6 in D.C. Papers filed by his public defender said Gietzen began digesting “a flood of election information… three or four hours a day.”
Three law enforcement officers who defended the Capitol that day were called to testify in Gietzen’s trial. One officer, U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Justin Cohen, testified that Gietzen pushed a bike rack against him so hard that his shins and arms were bruised. After being pushed to the ground, Cohen looked up to see Gietzen grabbing the face mask of a fellow officer. A few feet away, Officer Chad Curtice was also trying to hold the line when he, too, encountered Gietzen, who shouted repeatedly, “you’re all a f—–g disgrace!”
Federal prosecutors sought to focus Nichols’ attention on Gietzen’s actions during the insurrection and upon the bragging he did to his friends and family after the event was over. One text message to a friend said, “I’ve never been prouder to be an American than today’s protest.” In another, he called Jan. 6 “a beautiful day” and spoke with excitement about what he felt would be the next step, the start of an armed civil war on the day of
President Biden’s inauguration, Jan. 20: “Unfortunately, it seems civil war is all but assured now. Word on the street is that the next rally is on the (Jan. 20), and people are bringing their guns this time. This rally is with or without [T]rump. We aren’t his employees, and if he chooses to concede to election fraud, that is treason.”
Gietzen is the only known participant on Jan. 6 to return to Washington two weeks later to attend the inauguration of Joe Biden as President. He was reached by an FBI agent by cell phone on Jan. 19 as he and his brother were making the return trip. Gietzen lied to the agent, saying he didn’t make it to the Capitol building on Jan. 6 because of the large crowds.
A number of photographs made public at the time of his arrest in May of 2022 showed Gietzen on the West Terrace of the Capitol Complex, as well as in the access tunnel just outside the West Entrance where some of the day’s bloodiest fighting took place. He also told the agent on Jan. 19 that he and his brother were just going to watch the inauguration, although text messages recovered later from his phone led the FBI
to conclude that “their plan was to force their way into the Capitol building to force Congress to hold another election.”
Another text message sent by Gietzen read, “Btw they are trying to give credit to storming congress on the news to Antifa….B——T, I was there in a hallway helping to push the line of guards back. Today was 100 (percent) what happens when you piss of(f) normal people, and the next protest is going even further.”
Public Defender Allen had asked for a prison term of no more than four years for his client. Graves had recommended 10 years on behalf of the government. Nichols ultimately settled on six years, an amount that is roughly equivalent to others who committed similar crimes in the spree that ran out of control for just over five hours on Jan. 6.
Since Gietzen was convicted on federal charges, his prison term will be spent in one of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Prisons facilities. The closest of those to Sanford is in Butner, but it will be up to the BOP to decide where Gietzen will serve out his term. No assignment had been made by press time.
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The Lee County Board of Commissioners should receive a report on May 6 outlining options the county may have as it begins to look at the current and future needs of its jail on South Horner Boulevard that is now three decades old.
The commissioners voted last fall to authorize a feasibility study by Moseley Architects of Raleigh to look at the effectiveness, efficiency, structural integrity, security and capacity requirements for the facility that was built in the early 1990s. Moseley was selected because of its recent experience in designing detention centers in Harnett and Orange counties.
Lee County’s population was about 41,000 when the Lee County jail was built (it’s about 66,000 today), and its design fit the county’s needs as they existed then. Today, it suffers from overcrowding, outdated technology and other issues seen at similar facilities across the state, including the smuggling of illegal drugs among inmates.
As a result, space that was available for multiple purposes when the structure was built has slowly had to be claimed for other uses, and the building has since lost much of the flexibility it had when it was new. The commissioners authorized the expenditure of about $200,000 in October to improve video camera coverage within the building as a stopgap measure until decisions could be made on what to do with the current facility.
The facility has space for 125 inmates who are held in custody as they await trial or sentencing. Others are serving a sentence of up to two years. It contains a mixture of minimum, medium and maximum security, as well as special housing units and a female dormitory.
The commissioners approved a $58,000 contract for the study with Moseley in October, but turnover within the company got the project off to a slow start. An additional $11,275 was added to the project on April 1 at the request of Sheriff Brian Estes to include a review of the facilities needs of his office as a part of the project.
The planning documents that will be presented to the commissioners are expected to be wide-ranging in scope. Beyond looking at just the deficiencies of the current space, the study will also include studies of the demographics of the county’s inmate population over the past few years in order to provide a basis for projecting the numbers and types of beds that will be needed as Lee County continues to grow. Those numbers will help them identify trends to help forecast the jail’s future needs.
It is also expected to include detailed analysis and recommendations for dealing with the medical needs of inmates held in custody, including mental health and behavioral concerns. The commissioners have made mental health a point of emphasis in Lee County over the past few years, and it’s expected that Moseley will offer ideas to address increasing concerns in this arena.
A number of studies of county-level detention facilities across the country have cited the
booking process as a potential choke point where safety and security can quickly break down, and the commissioners have asked the consultant to offer options on how this process can be improved.
The options for the commissioners could include renovating or expanding the existing space or building a completely new facility. A decision on which path to choose won’t be made quickly. Months of input, discussion, and consensus building lie ahead and if the choice is for new construction, land must first be identified and acquired.
Then, there is the cost. An early estimate mentioned last year during budget season was that a new detention facility could cost at least $65 million, with the inclusion of the Sheriff’s Office adding to that amount. Inflation would push costs even higher, and some sectors of the construction industry are still experiencing significant supply chain issues. Dollars for a new jail would have to be provided by the county’s taxpayers in the form of a bond referendum somewhere down the road.
The saga surrounding Sanford city government’s purchase of the downtown Singer Building took a turn for the unexpected in April when it came to light that the purchase itself most likely made the site ineligible for the grant funding that would pay for the city’s proposed redevelopment of the site.
The revelation — buried in a court filing from attorneys representing developer Nick Jordan, whose lawsuit against the city claims it bought the building out from under him after years of allegedly stymieing his own progress in redeveloping it — came in the form of an email from state transportation officials to city planners. The message? The city’s purchase of the site was in violation of federal grant guidance, and therefore most likely ineligible to receive the $33 million city leaders had hoped would fund its “Sanford Central Green” concept which would include a multi modal transportation hub.
The email makes no mention of the lawsuit or any of the controversy surrounding the site. But it does let us know that city leaders must have known as early as March 1 — the date of the email — that the possibility of receiving the funds it had been touting since late 2023 was minimal. The Rant reported 20 days later that the city had been made aware it wasn’t receiving the funds.
We’ve said in the past that we don’t really care as much about who gets to redevelop the site so much as we care that it gets done. It’s hard to overstate how transformational either Jordan’s concept for the site — not dissimilar from the city’s — or the Sanford Central Green would be for downtown Sanford. But the new revelation about the Singer Building’s ineligibility for grant funding to pay for redevelopment casts doubt on the viability of the city’s plans.
Jordan and his attorneys have said that if the city would come to the table, they’re confident the parties could reach a “win-win.” Given the new information, and the current dilapidated state of a property that could be bustling with life, and an ongoing lawsuit that’s only costing Sanford’s taxpayers, we hope that can happen sooner than later.
In April, The Rant talked to local real estate agents about the recent landmark antitrust lawsuit settlement that no longer requires homebuyers to pay the set-in-stone 6-percent commission rate to agents. The move could lower the total costs involved in buying or selling a home in the U.S. Our readers sounded off:
As an active Realtor, the good news is that in North Carolina, buyer agency has been in place for close to 30 years. Buyers have been informed about how their buyer agent gets paid through this agency relationship and agreement. Commission rates have always been negotiable and not set in stone.
The need for consumers to have competent representation in a real estate transaction is still paramount.
Martha LucasSome of the statements [in the story] are what really irk me about some real estate agents. First of all, both buyers and sellers should be properly educated concerning commissions. Some agents apparently do not see any value in an educated client. In North Carolina, a seller is not required to pay a buyer’s commission. It is not “baked” into the transaction. And commissions in have always been negotiable; it is never set in stone.
So the 3 percent figure mentioned as relief for the seller is totally negotiable and could theoretically be 0 and up. And last time I checked, there is a specific line in the Buyer Representation agreement that specifies commission expectations, which may or may not become buyer responsibility.
“Agents will continue to articulate the value of compensating co-brokering agents to sellers, emphasizing the benefits of working with qualified buyers” means agents would push for sellers to continue to pay commissions to buyer’s agents. Huh? If a buyer wants proper representation, then to me it becomes the agent’s responsibility to explain and demonstrate why he/she should be hired and not expect another
party to pay for services received.
Should a prospective client decline, then let them get what they pay for.
Richard CobbIt’s so ridiculous when the media states “set in stone 6 percent.” It’s always been negotiable, and buyers/ sellers have always been able to represent themselves if they want. Media, just do better. Just my opinion.
Brandi OlhdamThe 3 percent to the buyer’s agent and 3 percent to the seller’s agent agreement isn’t so much when you consider the time a good real estate agent puts into a sale. Plus, consider all the fees agents are required to pay on many levels in the real estate world. And, consider what many agents pay out-
of-pocket for assisting in getting a home ready to sell. These things are not even brought up to the public’s eye in discussions like these.
Carol KellyThe change in fees sound like a good deal for homeowners; but hold on, as a buyer and seller for over 26 years of military moves, I am a little skeptical. In most cases, there will be new charges to negotiate for buyer and seller, and what was before a very seamless process could wind up costing more to both as they navigate the various pieces of the process.
I always felt that Realtors certainly earned their fees during our moves, so I am taking a wait-and-see attitude for what’s ahead for home selling and buying.
Ron HewettAs I type this out at my desk at home, Laverne and Shirley can be heard behind me clucking like chickens in what appears to be a futuristic kitchen while onlookers peer at them through an observation window.
Not the sentence I expected to type when I sat down to write a column this month.
The way my desk at home is situated, there’s a TV behind me. And often when I’m writing, designing or doing anything else work-related, that TV is on. I can’t work in silence — I need noise and occasional distraction or else I may actually get things done. I don’t know if this is strange or the norm.
I also have very specific stipulations when it comes to what is actually on the TV screen while I’m staring at my computer screen. It has to be something that can just play without me having to constantly change a channel or search for a new video (so YouTube is mostly out, unless I find some hours-long “walk through” videos that offer nice ambiant noise).
It has to be something somewhat interesting. I know this may sound odd and counter-productive, but I need to be able to turn around and tune out from work and watch whatever is on TV behind me for a few minutes without succumbing to boredom.
And finally, it has to be mostly mindless. Again, it’s counterproductive to the need for “interesting” stated above, but it can’t be too captivating. I mean, I am trying to get some work done.
There was a commercial that debuted during the Super Bowl this year that featured a farm with a field of TV sets and people dressed as potatoes parked in front of those TVs. The ad for Pluto TV touted its ability to cater to couch potatoes (get it?) with hundreds of channels, each dedicated to one thing.
I was intrigued. As a child of the 1980s, I didn’t have iPads and cell phones to feed me
junk all day. I had TV. And when I wasn’t outside playing (which we did a lot back in those days), I was usually on the couch watching sitcom re-runs. I fell in love with shows like Happy Days, Green Acres, The Munsters, Andy Griffith, The Jeffersons and so on, and so on.
My parents told me then that too much TV would rot my brain. As I now watch Laverne try to pry a toilet plunger from Lenny’s head in her apartment, I see that they were probably right.
But I’m finding comfort in this drivel. Pluto TV, Roku TV, Samsung TV and the growing number of other free online services are here because the way we watch TV today compared to 40 years ago is not the same. Primetime sitcoms are a dying breed — we’re in the era of prestige TV, where shows like Game of Thrones and Shogun are made with movie budgets and last only 10 episodes a season for anywhere from four to six seasons, tops.
Gone are the days of families gathering in front of the tube at 8 p.m. to watch their weekly shows — we stream the ones we like whenever we can or want to watch them.
I will miss the mindless sitcoms, but thanks to the Plutos and Rokus, they will live on. I’ve rediscovered the genius and comfort of Andy Griffith reruns, the surprisingly progressive plots of Little House on the Prairie and the 70s absurdity that is The Love Boat. I also recently caught the “Jump the Shark” episode of Happy Days that spawned the phrase and nailed the creative coffin of what was once a very well-written show.
Annnnd, I’ve gotten a lot work done. Thank you, television.
As a dad of three, I find myself telling my kids the same thing my parents told me. Too much TV is a bad thing. Only, the “TV” they’re watching is just YouTube, and the junk they’re watching (video game streamers with annoying voices and influencers offering money to people to stay in a room for multiple weeks) really is rotting their brains, I’m sure of it.
I’m sure how their kids will consume media will be completely different in 20-plus years. And I’m sure I’ll still be stuck in Hooterville with Mr. Douglas and perfectly content.
Head to Jamie’s Barber Shop on Steele Street in Downtown Sanford.
Jamie Norton has been cutting hair in Sanford since 2002. He works hard to provide great customer service and a friendly atmosphere so you can relax while he works on your hair.
Jamie is great with kids and has experience with all types of haircuts, so feel free to stop in and get a trim.
Renowned photographer and friend of The Rant Ben Brown provides the photos of jugs, bowls and other pottery pieces made in Sanford. See more of Brown’s work online at benbrownmultimedia.com.
SANFORD’S RICH POTTERY HISTORY, FROM NORTH STATE POTTERY TO THE ‘SANFORD COLES’ AND BEYOND
PHOTOGRAPHY BY BEN BROWN
North Carolina’s pottery tradition is celebrated by scholars and collectors alike, and a significant amount of this remarkable pottery was manufactured in Sanford.
The Cole family of potters is practically synonymous with North Carolina pottery, and the “Sanford Coles” — as Arthur Ray Cole and his family have come to be known — made substantial and lasting contributions to the North Carolina art pottery tradition.
North Carolina art pottery evolved from an older tradition, and many — even those from this area — may not realize that Sanford played a part in this older tradition as well. William Henry Hancock, whose wares were usually stamped WH Hancock, operated a large pottery shop in Jonesboro during the 1880s, when the naval stores industry was thriving in the region’s vast longleaf pine forests.
There was a great demand for jugs to supply the distilleries, in addition to the other traditional salt-glazed wares, and Hancock manufactured many thousands of jugs, pitchers and churns to satisfy the demand.
Artisans and craftsmen like Hancock in the southern Piedmont region of North Carolina were renowned for the quality and quantity of their handmade salt glazed utilitarian wares. They turned basic utilitarian forms such as jars, jugs, pitchers and crocks from clay dug on site or mined nearby and hauled in by the wagon-load. The forms took shape on a hand-built kick-wheel that was powered by the movement of the potters’ legs as they worked.
They fashioned their own bricks from native clay to build simple “groundhog” kilns, fired them with wood, and glazed their pots with a cheap and practical salt glaze, produced by pouring salt through openings in the roof of the kiln when the temperature was “just right.”
North State Pottery Company was founded in 1924 when Sanford resident Rebecca Palmer Cooper — so impressed by the pottery scene in nearby Seagrove — established her own shop and hired Jonah Owen as her first potter and designer. North State would enjoy 35 years of success, employing several highly accomplished potters along the way.
These traditional wares were in great demand throughout the region for food service, preservation and storage and for other practical purposes such as candlesticks, flowerpots and grave markers.
Demand for these wares declined in the early 1900s due to a variety of factors including Prohibition, the availability of glass jars for food preservation, mass production of molded factory wares and refrigeration. All of these factors conspired to reduce the demand for handmade utilitarian wares, and many of the old family potteries disappeared during this transitional era.
In the 1920s, a few of the old North Carolina pottery families — among them the Owens, Cravens, Aumans, Teagues and the Coles — began altering and updating the traditional forms and decorating them with colorful glazes and other decorations. Teapots and vases replaced churns and jugs, and tourists gradually replaced locals as the primary customers.
Capitalizing on this trend, Henry and Rebecca Cooper established North State Pottery in the mid-1920s along the Plank Road just west of Sanford.
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North State became a national sensation when Henry participated in the nation’s sesquicentennial celebration in Philadelphia by constructing a log cabin on site and filling it with hundreds of marvelous pieces of handmade pottery manufactured in Sanford.
In 1927, Maurice Sylvester Leverette established his Rainbow Pottery on the busy tourist route, U.S. 1 in Sanford. Leverette made regular trips to the Seagrove area to purchase the North Carolina art pottery he sold in his Sanford store, and a young potter named A.R. Cole quickly became his favorite supplier. Eventually tiring of the time-consuming and costly trips to Seagrove, Leverette convinced A.R. Cole to move his family to Sanford and become the sole manufacturer of the Rainbow Pottery wares.
In 1934, Cole made the move to Sanford and built his home and pottery shop on U.S. 1 north of Sanford, where the U.S. 1/N.C. 15-501 interchange is located today. By the late 1930s, Leverette had left the pottery business, and A.R. Cole gave his name to the pottery that would thrive here Sanford until his death in 1974.
Although he was highly skilled at making pottery on the wheel, Cole attained legendary status for his glazes.
He experimented with every color imaginable, and achieved glaze effects with his traditional methods that could not be duplicated by the large commercial pottery operations of the day.
From the book Southern Exposure: Long Journey Home | Folklife in the South in 1977:
The move [to Sanford] was very carefully planned; many years later A.R. Cole recalled: “When I came down from Seagrove, I drove up and down this road from Wake Forest to Southern Pines looking for a good spot.... I knew they’d be building up Fort Bragg and all and that a lot of traffic would have to come by here.”
The decision to leave the Seagrove area ... proved highly successful in terms of sales and reputation. In fact, in 1970 the Sanford Telephone Book featured A.R. on its cover, deeply engrossed in turning yet another piece of ware.
In 1972, he was forced by the State Highway Commission to move his shop about a mile down the road to make way for a new highway and interchange. He managed to rebuild the entire plant — even the large, upright kiln — almost exactly as it was, but the effort was enormous and probably contributed to his death just two years later.
Over the years, many thousands of visitors came to know Sanford as the place where A.R. Cole made his pottery. Right up until the time of his death, customers camped outside his shop when news of a kiln opening arrived, and most of his wares would sell out in a single day.
Cole’s influence did not end with his death, however. A.R.’s daughters, Neolia and Celia, continued to successfully operate the business for several decades with A.R.’s great-grandson Kenneth George. Their talents and personalities enhanced the legendary status of Cole’s pottery, and many more happy customers were born.
A.R.’s son, General Foister Cole, assisted A.R. in the shop for many years before moving away for a career in industry. Upon retirement, he returned to Lee County and established G.F. Cole Pottery in Broadway with his wife Peggy, further cementing the Coles’ place as leaders in the contemporary North Carolina art pottery scene.
Another skilled Cole potter, Sandy Cole Brown, operated North Cole Pottery for many years with her husband Kevin Brown along Horner Boulevard, one of Sanford’s busiest thoroughfares. Sandy and Kevin continue to be leaders in the local arts community, and they still make and sell their wares in a local artist’s colony.
The late Richard Gilson, founder of the Seagrove Pottery Festival and former operator of the Olde Pottery Shoppe, was also the driving force behind the creation of the Sanford Pottery Festival, along with Don Hudson of D.K. Clay, in 2001. The festival drew thousands and highlighted potters all over the state for just over a decade before ending its run in 2012.
The festival returned in 2013 in the form of the Arts & Vine Festival, which combined pottery with other vendors, more live music and more food and wine options, but that festival was short lived, ending after a twoyear run.
While Sanford is no longer home to a festival or large event celebrating pottery, the art still has a home here. For area residents and visitors alike, there is much to learn and celebrate in Sanford’s long and storied pottery tradition, and a significant foundation to build upon for the future.
Jimmy Randolph contributed to this story.
Gamecocks are building a dynasty in women’s college basketball, and a big part of their success is an impressive health streak under athletic trainer (and Sanford native) Craig Oates
CBy Billy Liggettraig Oates hit the big time in his field in 2019 when he was brought on as athletic trainer for the powerhouse University of South Carolina women’s basketball team. The program was two years removed from a national championship, and joining Oates that year was a group of young women considered one of the best — if not the best — freshmen classes in the history of the sport.
That team — led by future WNBA stars like Aliyah Boston, Zia Cooke, Mikiah Herbert Harrigan, Tyasha Harris, Destanni Henderson and Brea Beal and coached by the legendary Dawn Staley — would go 331, and under Oates’ supervision, that crop of freshmen wouldn’t miss a single game due to injury that year (or the three years that followed).
The only thing that could take out the Gamecocks in the spring of 2020 was COVID-19, which put a halt to all college athletics just as South Carolina was preparing for another NCAA Tournament run.
But even during a pandemic, Craig Oates proved his worth.
The following season, one that saw countless missed games and even cancellations across all sports due to positive COVID tests from athletes and coaches, South Carolina went 26-5 and advanced to the Final Four. More impressively, not one player or coach missed a game because of COVID.
When the Gamecocks would go on to win their second national championship in give years that following season in 2022, Staley would credit Oates and performance coach Molly Binetti for keeping her team together and healthy through uncharted waters.
She would call them South Carolina’s “secret sauce.”
“If [our players] are ill or hurt, he gets them right,” Staley told The State before the team’s Final Four appearance in 2023. “And the most important thing is he and Molly have a tremendous relationship. They work extremely well together. They’re probably the secret sauce behind our success.”
Back in his hometown of Sanford, there is a growing contingent of garnet-wearing South Carolina basketball fans interspersed with the light and dark blue jerseys that cover the area. Craig Oates has his mother — Mary Hawley Oates, a longtime (now retired) nurse for Lee County Schools — to thank for his cheering section one state away.
“A lot of people here are watching South Carolina basketball because of Craig,” says Mary. “They just get so excited watching these girls play, because they just play so well, and they never get ruffled. And, of course, they’re looking for Craig. They’re always asking me to tell him to stand up and wave at the camera. We can’t always find him on the bench.”
If Craig keeps a low profile during games, it’s on purpose. “If you see me [on TV], that’s a problem,” he told The State.
Craig Oates, as head athletic trainer for the University of South Carolina women’s basketball team, has cut the net for three Final Four appearances and two national championships in his five years with the program. Oates helped guide the program through the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, with no players missing time for a positive test. Photo
Craig Oates fell in love with sports at a young age. His mother says he learned to read and do math by picking up newspapers and poring through baseball stats. He played soccer and basketball throughout his childhood, but his first “behind-the-scenes” help with a team came in middle school when he did stats for his school’s basketball team. He helped Lee County High School head basketball coach Reggie Peace as a statistician as a freshman and sophomore before transferring to the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in Durham as a junior (where he also kept stats for the basketball team).
Oates attended the University North Carolina in Chapel Hill with the intent of going on to medical school after graduation. He remained a fixture on the basketball sidelines, becoming a manager for UNC’s junior varsity basketball team, while occasionally working the varsity games as security (during timeouts, he could be seen helping shield the coach and players while they talked strategy).
As a sophomore at UNC, he shifted his attention for pre-med to sports medicine and sports management. Instantly, he was hooked.
“He fell in love with it. That’s what he wanted to do,” Mary says. “When he left for the University of Delaware to earn his master’s, he worked as an athletic trainer for field hockey and baseball. He just loved the clinical side of it.”
After Delaware, Oates looked for jobs closer to home and found an opening at nearby Campbell University, where would work several sports, with a big focus on women’s basketball for longtime coach Wanda Watkins.
“I got a lot out of my time at Campbell,” Oates says. “And getting to know Wanda, I’ll always cherish that relationship. She’s one of the most genuine, kind people I’ve ever met. I considered this my first ‘real job,’ and the team we had there was just great. I learned how to communicate with coaches and athletes, I learned all about preparation and approach, and I developed skills that have stayed with me to today. Most importantly, through Wanda, I met a lifetime mentor and friend. Someone who will always be in my corner.”
He calls his move to South Carolina in 2019 a matter of being in the right place at the right time. After Campbell, Oates worked for the athletic department at the
University of Virginia, and while there, a colleague informed him of an opening with Dawn Staley at USC.
“They told me, ‘If you know of anyone who is interested, pass it along,” he says. “They didn’t realize I’d be the one who was interested. It was a little closer to home, and I knew what [Staley] was building down there. It just seemed like a great, unique opportunity.”
At his previous stops, Oates was required to take on several sports, because of the size of the athletic trainer programs there. At Virginia, he was able to focus more on women’s basketball, while also helping with women’s tennis. At South Carolina, his focus would be one team — a women’s basketball team with a historic incoming class and a chance at a multi-year championship run. He attributes his success as an athletic trainer at USC to the program Staley has built.
“She’s as good as advertised,” he says. Everything you hear about her in a positive light, I can attest to. She’s authentic and real. And she’s excellent to work for. She can be intense — and I know that’s the persona that comes across publicly — but when she says
her job as a coach is to be a ‘dream merchant,’ she means it. She’s there to set those women up to achieve their goals. She’s preparing them for possible generational wealth in professional basketball. If that’s what they want to do, she helps them do it.”
As for Oates’ role as athletic trainer, he says Staley lets him do his job without hovering and questioning his every decision. Trust and autonomy, he says, are important in sports medicine. Coaches who let professionals make health-related decisions — and coaches who trust those decisions — are every athletic trainer’s dream.
“The talent [at South Carolina] is undeniable, but their ability to stay healthy and on the court is important,” Oates says. “Look across the country, and you’ll see programs that have been devastated by season-ending injuries. We’re knocking on wood, of course, and there is certainly some luck to it. But it’s also all about preparation and buying into what we do as trainers.
“We’ve only seen two season-ending injuries in my five years, and one of those was at the end of the season in the SEC tournament.”
It’s not just Stayley (and Craig’s mom) who are singing his praises. Recent Las Vegas Aces draft pick Brea Beal told The State, “I love Craig. He’s always there. He’s always ready to go.”
Added Zia Cooke of the Los Angeles Sparks before she left USC, “Craig has been here ever since I got here and is literally the best trainer in the world. It’s gonna be very hard for me to find someone as good as him. He does his job the right way. … It’s nothing that he doesn’t know the answers to.”
Women’s basketball is enjoying unprecedented ratings and success, thanks in large part to superstars like Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and current dynasties in the sport like South Carolina, which won its third national title since 2017 in this year’s NCAA Tournament. Oates says he’s happy to be a small part of all of it.
“In 2021, when teams were playing in ‘The Bubble,’ there were a lot of stories coming out about the disparities between weight rooms for the men’s tournament and
the women’s tournament,” he says. “At USC, we had Molly and our social media people highlighting it. I think the sport has invested in resources for women’s basketball, and that’s part of why we’re seeing growth. We got 19.4 million viewers against Iowa in the championship game. That’s more than the men got.”
A small (but growing) chunk of those viewers reside in Sanford.
“I think my mom is running a Ponzi scheme to get more people to watch,” Oates says with a laugh. “She’s a very proud mother, and because of her, I feel like half of Sanford is hooked on USC women’s basketball now. Cousins, church friends. People who’ve never watched the sport before. At first, it was just so they could find me, but now they’re all invested in it. My girlfriend made a shirt with my face on it as a joke, and now there’s a bunch of ladies in Jonesboro watching games wearing my face on their shirts.
“It’s a bit absurd, but hilarious.”
It’s looking more clear that Lee County Schools enjoys broad support among the county’s commissioners, and that when County Manager Lisa Minter presents the first draft of the county’s budget to the board in May, it’s likely that the school district will receive much — if not all — of the additional funding that they’re asking for when the new budget year begins on July 1.
The confidence that commissioners have in Minter to develop a budget that will address the nearly $6 million in new funding Lee County Schools are asking for in the new year was on full display at the commission’s meeting Monday night when they voted down a motion that would have required Minter to come up with a plan giving the schools those additional dollars without raising taxes on county taxpayers in the coming year.
Republican Commissioner Bill Carver offered the motion and found support from
Democrat Cameron Sharpe. Carver argued that the commission had been unanimous at a planning meeting last December in agreeing to hold the line on property taxes in the coming year’s budget, and that with a fixed amount of money available to fund the school district’s request for an increase, bringing options to the commissioners on how to fund that growth made sense.
Carver even suggested several places in the county budget where Minter could potentially come up with savings, including reductions in the travel and conference budgets for commissioners and members of the county staff, delaying the purchase of new vehicles when possible, and even considering holding the line on potential increases in salary for county employees in the coming year. County employees got a 7 percent bump in their salaries last summer after years of annual adjustments that failed to keep up with the rising costs of living.
The remaining five commissioners expressed their broad support for the school district and promised to give serious consideration to what
it was asking for, but drew the line at telling their county manager, who had previously served as the county’s finance officer for years, how to come up with options for the board to consider.
Republican Vice Chairman Dr. Andre Knecht’s words seemed to sum up the feeling of that majority.
“I’m confident that our manager will give us the options we need, and I don’t think we need a motion to push her in that direction. It’s a little early to do that, in my book.”
Democratic Commissioner Robert Reives was in agreement. “We are all looking for ways to help the school system, but I don’t favor looking for ways to do that through trial and error,” he said.
Just before the vote was taken, Carver spoke up to say that all of the commissioners want the same thing — to find a way to help Lee County Schools with the additional priorities that it believes are critical to the success of its 17 schools in the coming year. What he hoped
to accomplish with his motion, he said, was to demonstrate in a tangible way how solid that commitment is.
“How the budget turns out has a lot to do with the priorities you set, and we set the priority in December that we don’t want to raise taxes,” he said. “I think that showing that there is consensus among us and that we are all rolling up our sleeves to do all we can to help is important. It also may mean that we have to tighten our belts elsewhere and that others may not get what they ask for.”
The school board has employed a different strategy in making their needs known to the commissioners after a disappointing result last year. Republicans took control of the school board in the 2022 election, but learned a hard lesson when it presented its request last spring – Republican control of the school board didn’t translate to support of its entire budget request. The county ended up giving the school district an increase of $523,500, about
20 percent of what they had requested. At the time they made their request last year, former Superintendent Dr. Andy Bryan had resigned on May 9 and Assistant Superintendent Dr. Chris Dossenbach was elevated to take his place on an interim basis. Then-Chair Sherry Lynn Womack and Finance Committee Chairman Alan Rummel, both stunned by the rebuke from their own party, went back and began to revise their approach next time. Their first act was to bring in Democratic member Jamey Laudate, whose knowledge of finance and technology has been needed in the school board’s retooling of its approach.
They have spent the last year building stronger relationships with the commissioners and county staff, meeting with them regularly to discuss the district’s goals and “educating” them on the challenges it faces. That includes a fire last spring at the old Jonesboro School and the work being done to address learning loss that came through the COVID-19 pandemic isolation.
And since last year, the school board has new leadership. In December, Womack was replaced by fellow Republican Eric Davidson as chairman of the school board. Davidson has
brought a different type of leadership to the board, one that is based more on thoughtful consideration instead of the shoot-fromthe-hip mentality that eventually doomed Womack’s time in the chair.
And last November, the board selected Dossenbach as its permanent superintendent. He has demonstrated several times since that he is very willing to take firm and quick action when it’s needed — one of the qualities that school board members were looking for when it hired him.
When the commissioners met for their annual planning meetings just before the Christmas holidays, they came to a consensus that their overarching goal for Fiscal Year 2024-25 would be to hold the line on the property tax rate and not have a tax rate increase. The budget for the current fiscal year is $105 million, the first time in the county’s history that its receipts and spending plan topped the $100 million mark.
Without an increase in taxes, the commissioners will have to rely on increased valuations of parcels that have been improved through new construction to fund any increases in this year’s budget. With new construc-
tion taking place in almost every imaginable corner of Sanford and increasingly in areas outside the city limits, the amount of new revenue that will be brought in through property taxes is an unknown quantity now, and Minter will have to rely on Tax Administrator Michael Brown and others of the county staff to make their best estimates of what that new revenue might be.
The county also faces the coming sunset of federal COVID funds through the American Rescue Plan Act, but it’s really the corner they painted themselves into last year that hangs over what they will be able to do this year. The commissioners cut the rate last June on property taxes from 73 cents per $100 of property valuation to 65 cents, a cut of 8 cents. In most years, this would have amounted to a sizeable reduction and more dollars in the pockets of Lee County taxpayers. But it didn’t happen.
A reappraisal of real and personal property had taken place during the first six weeks of 2023, and the result was an average increase of 32 percent in property values across the county, with some landowners reporting increases of more than 50 percent on their tax bill. Expansions of that size simply swallowed up the 8 cents per $100 in valuation cut in the tax rate,
and many people were left owing more in the current tax year than in previous years.
It left a bad taste in the mouths of many when they paid their property taxes last year, but it also created a situation in which the only ways for the county to realize growth in the amount of dollars available for its budget were through increased growth in land development or raising the same tax rate they had just cut.
That’s the challenge that faces Minter and her team as they work to collect all the pieces that will help put the county’s financial puzzle together. It’s Minter’s second budget as county manager, and she faces a state-imposed deadline of June 30 for the final budget to be adopted by the commissioners.
The commissioners are set to hold meetings with department heads through May 31, with the budget possibly ready for adoption on June 3 or 17. The county spending plan they ultimately adopt will determine where its priorities will be for the coming fiscal year and with a limited amount of revenue available to fund those priorities, there will be winners and losers. It’s that way every year as budget season comes to an end.
Over a decade of planning and negotiating will come to fruition this summer when Sanford’s water and sewer utility completes a merger with Pittsboro, Fuquay-Varina and Holly Springs that will serve customers across the region.
The service will be rebranded as TriRiver Water, but aside from a new logo on water trucks and utility bills, city leaders have promised not much else will change for local customers. The most important changes have already taken place, but the “official transition” becomes complete on July 1, according to Vic Czar, Sanford’s assistant city manager.
The process began back in 2010, when Sanford city government started looking at expanding its wastewater treatment plant. At the time, a brand rating determined that Sanford’s water utility was strong from management, operation and financial perspectives. A major weakness, however, was the system’s revenue diversification — findings showed that Sanford’s top 10 water customers accounted for 30 percent of the system’s income. That caused leaders to start looking outward, and Pittsboro immediately made sense as a partner.
“It made sense because we have access to more natural resources than Pittsboro, and the developers in Pittsboro knew that,” Czar said. “They needed to have wastewater to do development. It just takes years to get our council and (Pittsboro’s) council comfortable with the idea.”
Without partners, Czar said the estimated cost to expand the city facilities was around $90 million. With partners, that number drops to around $50 million.
TriRiver, administered by Sanford city government, is the entity that will oversee the operation. Czar said Holly Springs and Fuquay Varina will have access to 10 million gallons per day of the plant’s 30 million gallon capacity, and the rest will be split between Sanford and Pittsboro. TriRiver will set rates, and “rate parity” between the various municipalities is a goal of the merger.
“We have to control the revenue because we’re responsible for the expenses. As Pittsboro grows and uses more water, we will collect more revenue. Their rate will bend down toward ours,” Czar said.
— Gordon Anderson
Students in AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) classes at Lee County High School are taking part in an anti-bullying campaign with the Lee County Partnership for Children. The program is important as harrassment of students and cyber-bullying have spiked in recent years. LCHS students are taking what they’ve learned and sharing it with students across Lee County’s three public middle schools.
The month of April was a busy one for educators in Lee County working with high schoolers on developing strategies to prevent bullying in the classroom and helping to spread this vital information to middle schoolers.
The Lee County Partnership for Children and Families is making efforts to provide necessary resources to combat negative behavior in youth who attend public schools. Its Anti-Bullying Campaign revolves around four fundamental topics: identifying bullying behavior, understanding the various types of bullying, promoting the role of being an upstander versus a
bystander and educating students on how to report incidents of bullying effectively.
Working in AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) classes at Lee County High School, the Partnership has been helping engage students with real-world understandings of how the age-old concern of mistreatment by peers can negatively impact their physical and mental health.
There are several programs within the organization. Among those is the Personal Responsibility Education Program. Since 2001, PREP has been working with helping to better break down the main types of bullying that are impacting students in today’s classrooms. Among these that have come up more in recent years is cyber bullying, which has spiked in addition to the
more traditional forms of harassment such as physical and verbal chastising.
Through a nine-month program, the high school AVID students are trained on how to implement anti-bullying strategy through lesson plans. This includes: group games, Q&A and reviewing best practices on combating bullying behavior. This helps to prepare them on how to teach their core principles to students in the middle schools throughout the county.
The reasoning behind using AVID classes to deliver this instruction is that they run on a year-long basis rather than by semester. This allows for a better immersion into the program and time to train the students on taking their lesson plans to the middle schools.
For Cristal Avalos, the community support programs manager at the Partnership, the main focus of the organization is to help spread awareness about bullying:
“We will define reporting and snitching,” she said. “Students will learn that reporting is done in order to make someone safe, like a classmate being bullied, snitching is when someone tells on someone just to get that person in trouble or to gain something for themselves.”
Charity McClean, the teen program outreach coordinator, said a major goal of PREP is to help give necessary resources to students and teachers.
“We empower teens with the tools and opportunities to build emotional skills, strengthen relationships, and avoid risky behaviors,” she said.
The biggest event for the high schoolers in the program is teaching what they’ve learned to middle school students during the spring semester.
East Lee had their event with the seniors on April 3, SanLee on April 11, and West Lee on April 17, with the AVID students
facilitating the lessons for middle schoolers during their elective classes. This partnership signifies a unified effort to address bullying across the entire community.
For West Lee Middle School Guidance Counselor Debbie White, the time PREP spent with students at her school was very informative.
“The presentation was very interactive and informative,” she said. “The high school students that led the lessons provided our students with lots of good and practical information to help them understand the effects of bullying and ways to respond, including telling a trusted adult.”
#StandupSpeakout is the trending hashtag for the program and the team is hopeful the awareness of their efforts will reach well beyond the county. The team’s website is www.pfcf.org.
After the events for each school, the program coordinators sent over information for teachers and staff to help distribute within the school. They also left teachers folders of resources for how to handle bullying in the classroom.
Getting a proposal for new housing developments approved by the Sanford City Council isn’t a cake walk. After a developer submits a proposal and pays the required application fees, there’s a review by a group of experts known as the Technical Review Committee to assure commercial projects and major subdivisions comply with the city and county’s codes for construction and development.
Recently, there have been instances where the council has refused to approve a handful of proposals because it didn’t think those projects were in the best interests of the city. In April of 2023, for example, the council voted down a plan for a 600-single family development submitted by D.R. Horton Builders called
Gum Fork that would have been situated at the intersection of U.S. 1 and Colon Road across from the city’s new fire station that is now under construction.
Horton had failed repeatedly to address concerns the council had raised about the project across the space of several meetings, but perhaps more importantly, it had not listened to the city’s leadership when they explained their priority of creating communities and subdivisions that consist of a variety of housing types and representing the income levels of all its 33,000 residents.
It was a different set of circumstances on April 16, when another developer, TMTLA Associates (Tony M. Tate Landscape Architecture) of Durham, brought three separate projects that would create a total of 212 townho-
mes to the council for a public hearing. One of the projects, a 9.11-acre, 60-home lot along Harkey Road to be known as South Harkey Towns sailed through its public hearing with no questions or objections raised.
A second community of 12.71 acres just across the road from South Harkey Towns, one which would be called North Harkey Towns, would be developed as an 83-unit townhome community, along with one single-family detached home for use of the caretaker.
Arnando Leak, a Sanford resident who has lived next door to the proposed North Harkey Towns project for the past 42 years, was the only person to speak against the proposed development. An earthen berm has given him privacy from the lots to the south that will make up the project, but conceptual drawings made by TMTLA Associates indicate that the berm will have to come down in order to make way for a required settlement pond.
Rob Bailey, a developer/builder with R&R Development Group in Raleigh who spoke on
behalf of TMTLA, said that the company has offered to put in a six-foot privacy fence and to deed him a small section of property that would assist Leak in his driveway access. Neither of these two options has been acceptable to Leak, who continued to insist during the public hearing that Bailey find a way to keep the berm in place.
“I can’t just stand back and not say things that I feel. These things can’t be explained by words. You have to come and stand in my yard to see what I’m talking about,” he said. “I’m not trying to speak against their project, but something’s got to give for me.
A third TMTLA project has brought on the most controversy. It is a proposal is for a 69unit development to be known as Keller-Andrews Towns located between 3310 and 3314 Keller Andrews Road, placing it adjacent to Lee Christian School and right-of-way for the northbound lanes of U.S. 1 near Tramway.
The property is owned by Jeffrey T. Miles. Bailey is the developer/builder for
the Keller-Andrews Towns, as with the two previous projects.
Andrew Ricabal, head of the private school, said that addition of nearly 70 new housing units would greatly increase traffic on the narrow rural road that was not designed to carry the large number of cars it is already seeing.
Ricabal said the heaviest traffic times of the day started around 1 p.m., when a line of cars would develop that stretched back to Carthage Street, forcing vehicles not in the school traffic line to go into the left lane around the traffic, creating the potential for a serious head-on collision. Traffic that heavy could potentially make it impossible for emergency vehicles to reach the school, or the development, in the
event of an emergency situation. It was a story that would be repeated later by other speakers during the hearing.
“This property is closely situated to a school, and there could be a time when a disreputable person could be living there,” he added. “There is not a large buffer area between the two, and it raises security concerns.”
The Rev. Bruce McInnes, chairman of the Board of Directors at the school, had other concerns he wanted to bring to the council’s attention. “I am not pleased to hear about this development,” he said. “I see residences going up. This one here – why does it have to go up? How much building are we going to do, and do we have to keep doing it?”
George Blanchard, a Richmond Drive resident who picks up his grandchild every day from the school, also has concerns about who might move into the development once it is completed.
“I don’t like the situation,” he said. “But our school was there originally. This property will be right on our front door step and as a grandparent, it makes me very uncomfortable about what type of person may live there.”
Several people living in a housing development on the other side of the school, Savannah, complained that they did not receive notices of the community meeting held by the developer to answer questions about the planned use of the property. But Zoning Administrator Amy
McNeill explained that the city’s zoning ordinances require that those notices be sent only to those property owners whose land directly adjoins that of the project being considered.
Moved by the large numbers of people who spoke passionately about the traffic concerns on Keller-Andrews Road, especially as students are dropped off and picked up at regular times each day, Bailey asked the council to table the hearing until he could have a chance to observe those traffic patterns firsthand, and have an opportunity to talk with DOT about ways of possibly addressing the concerns of those who live in the area and those who drive daily to transport children and grandchildren. His request was granted and the council will take up the matter again on May 23.
Here is the Spinners’ 2024 roster, with each player’s position and college noted:
• Carter Vester (C/1B) Fayetteville Tech Community College
• Ashton Donathan (C/OF) UNC Pembroke
• Eli Snodgrass (C/1B/OF) Belmont Abbey
• Reese Ashworth (C/1B/OF) LSU Eunice
• Brady Byler (2B) Catawba Valley Community College
• Jackson Shaner (2B/SS) Guilford College
• AJ Ciaccio (SS/2B) Catawba Valley Community College
• Kaden Ethier (2B/SS/3B) Montreat College
• Landon Jones (2B/SS/3B) Belmont Abbey
• Levi Baker (1B/3B) Catawba Valley Community College
• Cade Martinez (3B/SS) San Diego State
• Aaron Kimbel (1B/OF) William Peace University
• Pierce Bouman (3B/SS) Transfer Portal
• David “DC” Ruth (Utility) University of California San Diego
• Abi Kadangot (OF) Lenoir Community College
• Christian Grino (OF) University of California San Diego
• Will Newton (OF) Stone Hill
• Drew Berenyi (OF) Catawba Valley Community College
• Nate Galloway (LHP) Wake Tech Community College
• Nick Pope (RHP) Southeastern Community College
• Nash Parsons (RHP) Catawba Valley Community College
• Austin Renn (RHP) Gaston College
• Jack Litt (RHP) Catawba Valley Community College
• Logan Mize (RHP) Apprentice School
• Drew Landmark (RHP) Catawba Valley Community College
• Riley Mullen (RHP) Undecided
• Bobby Osburn (RHP) UNC Pembroke
• Ethan Levy (RHP) Catawba Valley Community College
• Tucker Webb (RHP) Transfer Portal
• Cole Bowie (RHP) Undecided
• Eddie Thompson (LHP) Transfer Portal
• Cooper Chasse (RHP) Mary Washington
• Cranz Smelcer (RHP) Air Force
• Kaden Varela-Payne (RHP) Gaston College
• B.J. Brown (OF) UNC Wilmington
Collegiate level summer baseball comes back to Sanford on June 7.
That date marks the first home game of the Sanford Spinners’ fourth season as members of the Old North State League. And hopes for the team are high after two consecutive seasons making it to the league playoffs and coming up just short in the end.
The ONSL is a collegiate level summer league team formed in the late 2010s, with the Spinners — named for a minor league team that played here in the 1930s, 40s and 50s — joining in 2021. The league’s makeup has shifted a little bit each year, and this year there are 20 teams in four divisions, as well as two expansion teams. For 2024, the Spinners are in the southeastern division along with the Sandhills (Pinehurst) Bogeys, the Jacksonville Ospreys, the Hope Mills Rockfish, and the Brunswick (Southport) Surfin’ Turfs.
Spinners fans have other reasons for optimism as far as positive changes in 2024. Following the close of the 2023, it was announced that the team — previously owned by the Old North State League — had been sold to Philadelphia-area businessman Albert Anderson, who told The Rant at the time that he hoped to continue growing the team’s presence locally and add to the gameday experience, particularly by expanding dining options at games.
A few months later, Anderson hired local longtime educator and youth athletics booster Dr. Carl Bryan as general manager. Since then, Bryan has worked hard to bring in sponsoring businesses and to make Spinners games – already fun by any measure – increasingly attractive as a recreational opportunity for area sports fans. Head Coach Jeremy Palme will return in his role for 2024.
Bryan has said promotions will be announced for each home game, and he has worked to integrate the team’s sponsoring businesses into the games themselves.
The season runs from June 1 through July 23, with playoffs following.
The Spinners’ first three games are on the road on June 1, June 4 and June 5. The home opener — games are played at Tramway Park adjacent to Southern Lee High School, although plans are in place to move the team to the Lee County Athletic Park upon completion of that project — is at 7 p.m. on Friday, June 7.
Tickets ($8 for 13+, $4 for 6-12, free for kids under 5) can be purchased at games or online at www.sanfordspinners.com.
The Spinners celebrate one of many wins in 2023.
Photo: Sanford Spinners, Twitter
The Spinners’ home schedule is as follows (all games at 7 p.m.):
• Friday, June 7 vs. Sandhills Bogeys
• Saturday, June 8 vs. Hope Mills Rockfish
• Thursday, June 13 vs. Brunswick Surfin’ Turfs
• Saturday, June 15 vs. Jacksonville Ospreys
• Wednesday, June 19 vs. Jacksonville Ospreys
• Thursday, June 20 vs. Sandhills Bogeys
• Monday, June 24 vs. Oak City Gliders
• Tuesday, July 2 vs. Sandhills Bogeys
• Thursday, July 11 vs. Brunswick Surfin’ Turfs
• Friday, July 12 vs. Hope Mills Rockfish
• Thursday, July 18 vs. Jacksonville Ospreys
• Saturday, July 20 vs. Brunswick Surfin’ Turfs
• Sunday, July 21 vs. Oak City Gliders
• Tuesday, July 23 vs. Hope Mills Rockfish
The U.S. Census says the town of Broadway is home to just over 1,300 people. But on the third Saturday of every April, that number swells to many times that during the town’s signature event, the “Broadway Our Way” festival.
Mayor Donald Andrews told the town’s Board of Commissioners on April 22 that this year’s festival was “a huge success” and may well have been the biggest event ever.
Andrews said he hopes to have some data in May on how many people attended this year’s event. Those numbers should give the town what it needs to quantify just how big this year’s festival was.
Except for a brief period of rain, the weather cooperated for most of the day. Temperatures were in the mid-60s as the event began and reached near 80 by mid-afternoon. By the time the last performer had completed their closing set, it was still very pleasant for those who stayed until the end.
This year’s crowds found plenty of parking. Although some lots were filled from time to time, the many volunteers helping people to park were gracious and helpful to those who came. Andrews couldn’t put a number on
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the volunteers that helped out this year, but he said the festival couldn’t happen without them.
“The Broadway Our Way Festival would not have enjoyed its success without the dedicated volunteers who have worked since October planning the event,” he said.
A year’s worth of planning goes into each festival that the town puts on and it starts in October just as the leaves are beginning to fall.
Andrews said the 2024 festival featured 115 vendor spaces, 17 food trucks, more than 60 cars at the auto show, as well as 22 teams who competed in the cornhole tournament. Festival goers were treated to a great lineup of musical performances this year that included Jon Sykes, the Simpletones, NuBlu, the Dalton Davis Band and the North Tower Band.
The festival has been fortunate over the years to have a solid sponsor support base that helps pay the costs of putting the event on every spring. In the festival’s first year, the budget was $5,000. This year’s budget was seven times that amount — $35,000 — and Andrews said more than 35 sponsors contributed this year to show their support for the festival and for the town that gets a chance each April to show off the small town touch that people keep coming back for.
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Visitors to the Sanford Municipal Center have likely seen autonomous lawn mowers moving around the campus lawn. While they are fun to watch, these small, efficient robots offer more than entertainment, according to city officials.
Key benefits of using autonomous mowers include noise abatement, increased safety, decreased carbon emissions, less disturbance to natural habitats, decreased irrigation and fertilizer, and improved turf health. The city states embracing innovative technology “allows employees to focus on maintaining and enhancing the park and greenway system along with the many interchanges and medians in the city limits — which continue to expand.”
Before being deployed to the municipal center, Sanford officials tested the mowers at its water tanks, where they successfully took care of mowing grass so that employees didn’t have to.
On the heels of that pilot program, the city’s horticulture department has spent the past month honing the mowers’ boundaries, which are defined through GPS. The department has also worked through the challenges of the municipal center’s open space and diverse landscaping.
If the mowers wind up outside of the defined range, they stop working and an alarm is triggered. A tracking system allows employees to recover the devices and get them back to work. The mowers also shut off automatically if they sense a remote object or are lifted off the ground.
Ultimately, the goal is to use emerging technology to continue providing residents with the level and quality of service they have come to expect, despite the challenges that come with a growing city. As the program sees success, the mowers may be deployed in other public spaces.
— courtesy City of Sanford
Aloha Safari Park, a 66-acre zoo located along N.C. 87 just south of Sanford that is home to 300 unique animal species, is up for sale, according the website for National Land Realty.
“Aloha Safari Park represents the unique opportunity for a qualified buyer to purchase one of the largest privately owned and operated zoos in North Carolina,” the sales pitch on the site reads.
The sale includes the real estate, the business operation, all inventory and the animals, which include bison, zebra, ostriches, camels and water buffalo in the drive-through area and tigers, lemurs, wolves, monkeys, a giraffe and more in the walking area.
No price or projected value is listed on the real estate site. Owners of the park released a statement to The Rant on April 6 after the announcement went public and thanked those who expressed care or concern over the decision to sell.
“There was a big change here about two years ago when we got a new owner,” the statement read. “He’s a real animal enthusiast, having spent his life working with animals, and he brought that passion with him to Aloha. Since taking over, he’s been all about making the place better for the animals and visitors alike. We’ve seen some amazing changes, and it’s all thanks to his hard work and dedication.
“Now, as he’s thinking about retirement, we’re starting to look at what the future holds. Nothing’s set in stone yet, but selling a place like this isn’t quick or easy. We want to make sure that if the zoo does get a new owner, they’re as committed to the animals as we are.”
The statement confirmed Aloha will remain a zoo and promised visitors it would continue open communications during the entire process.
Aloha Safari Park has been a popular spot for visitors for the last 16 years. Located at 159 Mini Lane east near Pineview (south of Olivia, west of Barbecue and north of Spout Springs), the park is home to abandoned
animals or those rehabilitating from injury or abuse. It’s considered a rescue operation, in addition to a public attraction.
Aloha has undergone several changes in the last two years, adding a two-mile drivethrough safari where guests can interact and feed the animals (using pre-approved safe treats). The park is open six days a week (closed on Tuesdays).
— by Billy Liggett
When students and staff return to West Lee Middle School to begin the 20242025 school year, they will be greeted by long-time Lee County Schools educator and veteran principal, Aimee Petrarca, who is moving from W.B. Wicker Elementary School to lead the school.
Superintendent Dr. Chris Dossenbach made the announcement in April following the decision by West Lee Middle principal Jamie Cox to leave the district at the end of the school year to pursue an opportunity that
takes her closer to her home and family in Chatham County.
In announcing the administrative change, Dossenbach touted Petrarca’s extensive experience and long record of academic success.
“Mrs. Petrarca comes with an impressive background in education, having dedicated her entire career to serving the students of Lee County. She brings with her a wealth of knowledge and administrative experience, along with a proven track record of fostering academic success. I am confident that her passion for education and commitment to our students will greatly benefit the West Lee school community,” he said.
Petrarca, a Lee County native, joined Lee County Schools in 1998 and taught at both Warren Williams Primary and B.T. Bullock Elementary Schools. In 2010, she moved into administration at Greenwood Elementary, serving as both an assistant principal and principal until her appointment in 2020 as principal of W.B. Wicker Elementary School.
As she looks forward to her new administrative role, Petrarca said, “I have been blessed to learn and grow as an educator in several Lee County Schools over the years. Throughout my 26-year career, I have learned valuable
lessons that I try to apply to school leadership and culture. I am excited to share those experiences with the outstanding team at West Lee Middle School to ensure parents and students share our belief that Lee County Schools — and West Lee in particular — is the best option for students to achieve academic success and thrive in their educational career.”
Following final approval by the Lee County Board of Education at their May meeting, the transition in leadership at West Lee Middle School will take place in June.
— Lee County Schools
A small single-engine plane made an emergency landing on U.S. 1 near Moncure, clipping at least two vehicles and causing several hours of traffic delays, on April 4.
The plane, a single-engine Lancair 360, experienced mechanical failure before it went down. The pilot, who was uninjured, clipped at least two vehicles while making his landing attempt without his landing gear deployed.
The vehicles sustained minor damage, but nobody was injured.
The plane remained on the highway for a full day before it was removed so federal officials could investigate the incident.
According to ABC11, the plane took off from Lynchburg, Virginia and was heading toward Ocean Isle Beach in North Carolina.
A doctor from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill was killed in a car wreck on N.C. 87 near Frank Wicker Road and the Carolina Trace subdivision on April 20.
According to the North Carolina State Highway Patrol, Dr. Davis Anugo, a 32-yearold medical resident doctor at UNC, was driving his vehicle south on the highway when the driver of a GMC Yukon crossed over the center line and hit him head-on.
According to highway patrol, Anugo died at the scene of the crash. He was an ophthalmologist at UNC’s School of Medicine. He was schedule do finish his residency in June.
The driver and passenger of the Yukon were taken to the hospital and treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
Work is currently under way to repair the home-side bleachers at Paul B. Gay Stadium, home of the Lee County High School athletics program. The Lee County Board of Education approved contracts to repair that side of the stadium for roughly $183,600. According to Board of Education member Jamey Laudate, the bleachers should be ready for graduation on May 31. The visitors’ side, which has been condemned and is in need of more extensive work, will remain closed. Photo: Jamey Laudate
Lee County’s chapter of Ducks Unlimited awarded a $1,000 college scholarship in April to a member of Lee County High School’s Shooting Team, senior Makyna “MG” Rouse.
“When MG showed up, she was shooting a 20-gauge,” coach Chris Setzer said at a ceremony presenting Rouse with the scholarship on April 22. “I wanted her shooting a 12-gauge. She was a little hesitant at first, but she stepped up and it was nothing but progress from there.”
Setzer said Rouse is more than just a great shooter, though.
“She’s into so much more than shooting,” he said. “She’s an amazing person, the example of the kind of person we want to see.”
The scholarship was made available through funds raised by Lee County Ducks Unlimited, which has been in operation now for about three years. President Chuck McDonald said the group started with about three people and now has about 30. The group focuses on wetland conservation and youth programs.
Setzer has been a coach for the LCHS Shooting Team, which consists of 15 students, for three years. Those interested in learning more about the LCHS Shooting Team should contact him at cjsetzer@outlook.com.
For more information about Lee County Ducks Unlimited, find them on Facebook @LeeCountyDU.
— by Gordon AndersonCentral Carolina Community College and Methodist University have signed an agreement that will allow CCCC students an assured-entry pathway to Methodist available upon graduation.
The program enables CCCC students who transfer to Methodist to carry with them the credit they have already earned for as much relevant study as possible.
CCCC students may apply to Methodist without incurring any application fees. In addition, students may take two courses, up to 8 credits, at Methodist while completing their associate degree at CCCC at the current tuition rate at CCCC. Students are guaranteed admission upon successful completion of the
Southern Estates by Adams Homes celebrated a ribbon-cutting ceremony in April with local business leaders and elected officials. The new community is located off of Fire Tower Road in Sanford and currently has several one-, two- and three-story homes on the market with prices ranging from the mid-$300s to the lower $400s. Learn more at adamshomes.com.
associate degree with a 2.0 grade point average from CCCC.
“As we continue to work with our education partners to ensure aligned career pathways for our students, this partnership with Methodist offers additional opportunities for our graduates,” said CCCC President Dr. Lisa M. Chapman. “The agreement not only assures admission to Methodist for Central Carolina graduates, but it also provides them with access to scholarship dollars to assist with their education expenses.
“Streamlining the transfer process, supporting student engagement in Methodist student activities prior to transfer, and providing dollars toward educational expenses all enhance opportunity and success for CCCC graduates. That’s a win for our community.”
The City of Sanford Appearance Commission invites the community to “Juneteenth: A Celebration of Freedom,” a free evening of performances that explore the impact of slavery while celebrating the fight for freedom.
“Juneteenth: A Celebration of Freedom” will be held on June 19 at W.B. Wicker Elementary School starting at 6 p.m. The event will feature African dance and drumming from Chris Thompson and the Cultural Ensemble followed by original music by Rod Brower and the Together-N-Unity Choir.
In conjunction with the event, the Appearance Commission is hosting a writing contest for high school students who live in Lee County. The contest topic is Line Bingham, a woman who had been enslaved in Texas until 1865 and then became part of the story of early Sanford. The first-place winner will be asked to share the top entry at the event.
“We are honored to be part of the history of resilience, determination, and achievement that Juneteenth represents,” said Liz Whitmore, historic planner for the City of Sanford and liaison to the Appearance Commission. “It is very
fitting to hold the event at W.B. Wicker School, which was a Rosenwald school that served as Sanford’s high school for African Americans until integration in 1969.”
Sharing the story of Line Bingham with a new generation is a cornerstone of the event, especially during Sanford’s sesquicentennial year. “Her story could be lost to history, but now students across the county will read about her and all that she accomplished,” Whitmore says. “It is very special for Sanford to have its own link to Juneteenth and for that link to be such a brave and determined woman.”
Writing contest materials have been shared with local high schools. The contest is open to all students (rising freshmen to senior), including those at public, private, charter, virtual and home schools.
In addition to the Appearance Commission, “Juneteenth: A Celebration of Freedom” is supported by the Lee County Arts Council and the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
For more information about the event and to find writing contest details, visitsanfordnc.net/ juneteenth or contact Liz Whitmore at (919) 718-4657 x5393 or liz.whitmore@sanfordnc.net.
Three students from B.T. Bullock Elementary School were finalists for the school’s first “Amazing Shake” competition, designed to promote and develop social skills at a young age. The final portion of the competition had the students — Kate, Evie and Noah — pitch their ideas about needs for downtown Sanford to Downtown Sanford Inc.
Sanford city government likely violated federal regulations with its purchase of the Singer Building in November 2023, potentially making the site ineligible for a $33 million grant leaders had touted as a funding source for the city’s Sanford Central Green concept announced last year.
That’s according to an email dated March 1, from North Carolina Department of Transportation Senior Project Manager Grady McCollum to Sanford city planners David Montgomery and Marshall Downey. McCollum’s communication explained that “the property acquisition process for (Federal Transit Authority National Environmental Policy Act) projects” stipulates that acquisition of project property “cannot be started prior to completion of the NEPA document” and that “purchasing the site prior to starting NEPA violates this guidance and likely makes this site ineligible for funding.”
Sanford’s purchase of the property occurred in November 2023 and has been the source of controversy since. Later that month, Durham-based developer Nick Jordan filed suit alleging the city bought the property out from under him, breaching a contract in the process.
Jordan, owner of Durham software development company Smashing Boxes, entered a memorandum of understanding with the city in May of 2021 under which the city would release its option to buy the property if Jordan was able to close on the property and enter a development agreement.
Jordan contends the city subsequently stymied his progress in working toward completing that development agreement which would have allowed him to develop the property as a multi-use hub for office space and retail like breweries, restaurants, coffee shops, and more, as well as a possible depot for the upcoming S Line passenger rail that’s expected to pass through downtown Sanford. Jordan had indicated plans to invest as much as $25 million in the project.
For its part, the city claims Jordan hadn’t moved fast enough and that it needed to exercise its own option to obtain the property and use it for a “Sanford Central Green” concept that would also include a mobility hub. The city at the time indicated it hoped to obtain the $33 million federal grant to fund the project, and claimed in response to Jordan’s lawsuit that it needed to own the property to be eligible for the grant.
The email from McCollum to city planners, which was disclosed as part of the lawsuit’s discovery process, indicates that’s not correct.
Wrote Will Gordon and Jackson Wicker, two of the attorneys representing Jordan, in a court filing dated April 19: “The March Email lays out how Defendant violated federal regulations by purchasing the Singer Property, and, therefore, the Singer Property would be ineligible to receive federal funds to plan and construct (a) mobility hub. Defendant’s disclosure of the March Email confirms that the central allegation of Defendant’s Counterclaims (ownership of the Singer Property was necessary or receipt of funds under the 2023 RCN Application could be in jeopardy) was categorically false.”
A story in the April 20 edition of the Sanford Herald revealed that Lee County Superior Court Judge Winston Gilchrist had ordered the parties into mediation, which is a routine action in lawsuits of this type and not a guarantee the case will be resolved in that manner. The story went on to describe Sanford’s counterclaim against Jordan, noting that the developer had been accused of filing a malicious lawsuit, making misleading comments to the media, and bullying city officials. The counterclaim included the allegation that Jordan’s lawsuit created a “potentially insurmountable obstacle to receiving $33 million in grant funding.”
A motion from Jordan’s attorneys to dismiss that counterclaim, however, was argued on April 8 in front of Judge Clayton Somers. Somers granted the motion to dismiss the counterclaim two days later.
MAY 5: Hugger Mugger Brewing and Sanford Yoga Center team up for Yoga and Beer the first Sunday of each month. Cost is $20 for a session and drink.
MAY 3: Relay for Life returns to the Lee County Fairgrounds from 5 to 10 p.m. The theme is “We’re Back for a Celebration of Hope.”
May 4: Oxide Gallery Fine Art will celebrate its grand opening in downtown Sanford from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. with a catered reception featuring music, refreshments and a chance to meet the artists starting at 5 p.m. The grand opening will feature works by artist Karen Rushatz. Fifty guests will receive a gift bag with Oxide Gallery branded items and a note card.
May 4: Buchanan Farms’ Strawberry Festival will run from 5 to 10 p.m. at the farm, located at 2508 Broadway Road. Tickets are $12, with ages 2 and under free. The festival will include food, treats, craft vendors, games, inflatables, a wagon train, a mobile petting zoo, face painting and berry picking, in addition to live music.
MAY 9: Join Downtown Sanford Inc. in the streets of downtown Sanford as they welcome the return of spring weather with their Downtown Alive! concert series. Bring your lawn chairs and settle in for some great music or wear your dancing shoes for some serious fun. This free concert is located on Steele Street (with free parking available nearby). Food trucks and breweries will be on site.
MAY 10: O.T. Sloan Park will host Friday Night Movie Magic at 6 p.m. Enjoy food trucks, games and inflatables, then cozy up to a starlit movie night featuring Disney’s “Wish.” Film kicks off at dusk.
MAY 14-16: Expressive Portrait in Watercolor with Dylan Scott Pierce will be held at the Mann Center from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily May 14-16. Workshop
fee is $375 for members and $425 for nonmembers. In this intermediate level class, Pierce will guide the class in how to layer and juxtapose beautiful skin tones. He will demonstrate how to create depth and realism but also focus on design principles to capture the unique personality, mood, and expression to bring the portrait to life.
MAY 15: As part of Sanford’s 150th birthday celebration, artists are invited to “Paint Your Own Railroad House” at the historic building in downtown Sanford beginning at 5:30 p.m. Art teacher, 16x20 canvas and paint will be provided. Cost is $45 per person, and refreshments will be included. Register at wineanddesign.com.
MAY 18: The Splash Pad at Kiwanis Family Park will hold its opening day celebration from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The pad itself will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on this day. DJ, giveaways, selfie station, face painting, dancing and more.
The free, fun music festival that is Carolina Indie Fest returns to downtown Sanford. This fourth annual event features 10 bands playing a variety of musical genres on stage on the lot behind Hugger Mugger Brewing in downtown Sanford. Acts this year will include Newspaper Taxis, Blue Cactus, Chris McGinnis, Gooseberry Jam, Tuatha Dea, Katie Basden, The Culper Ring, Julia, Paleface and Jive Talk.
The Rant Monthly's community calendar has returned, and we're doing our best to track down everything going on in Sanford and Lee County. Send us your events by email at billy@rantnc.com and include the date, time, location and a brief description.
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Join Downtown Sanford Inc. for Strawberry Jammin’ — a weekend of all things strawberry. From events at the Sanford Farmers’ Market to cocktail crawls and food strolls, downtown Sanford is the place to celebrate the fruit of the season. This year’s event will run alongside Carolina Indie Fest.
MAY 18-19: The Lee County Community Orchestra will perform the majestic Symphony No. 1 by Russian composer Kalinnikov and will premiere an LCCO-commissioned piece from composer Ash Stemke. Event will be held at the Mann Center at 7:30 p.m. May 18 and 3 p.m. May 19.
MAY 18: The second annual Motorcycle Charity Ride & Pet Adoption Event will be held at Pit Stop Sports Bar. Registration begins at 10 a.m., and the ride will start at noon. Food trucks, raffle prizes, vendors and adoptable pets. Registration fee is $20.
MAY 18: Family Farm Day will be held at the Pint Sized Pasture on Fire Tower Road from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets are $7.
JUNE 1: San-Lee AACA will host its annual Classics to Custom Car Show in front of Old Town Hall on Charlotte Avenue in downtown Sanford from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Check out vintage cars on display, some over a century old.
JUNE 7: Mike Edwards & His Friends will perform at The Smoke and Barrel in downtown Sanford at 8 p.m. Mike brings the acoustic trio for their Sanford debut.
MAY 18-19
The 43rd annual Ole Mile Crank Up at Ole Gilliam Mill Park will run all day May 18-19. See an old saw mill, grist mill and motor-driven log splitter in action, and watch a blacksmith at work. Ice cream, live music food from Stubbs BBQ will be on site. For more information, visit olegilliammill.org/
JUNE 7: The Sanford Spinners will play in their home opener at 7 p.m. at Tramway Park against the Sandhills Bogeys. Complete schedule available at sanfordspinners.com.
JUNE 8: Lee County Government Public Health will host a Wellness Walk at Kiwanis Family Park from 9 to 11 a.m. Have questions about your health? Get them answered by health professionals as you take a walk in the park.
JUNE 8: Hugger Mugger Brewing will be the starting point for the 2024 MS Spring Fling Charity Bike Ride, beginning at 9 a.m. New venue, new routes, same fun … all to fight against Multiple Sclerosis.
SATURDAYS: The Sanford Farmers Market runs from 8:30 a.m. to noon each Saturday through Nov. 9. The market features locally grown produce, locally raised meats, local vendors and artisans and more. The market is located at 115 Chatham St. in downtown Sanford, across from Yarborough’s.
THURSDAYS: Wild Dogs Brewing hosts a “pop-up bookstore and bottle shop” every Thursday from 4 to 10 p.m.
ACROSS
1. Bars 6. Escape or flee
9. Green gemstone or Heather
Graham in “The Hangover”
13. Turning point
14. 34th U.S. Pres
15. Actress Sophia ____
16. Each and all
17. Lake, in France
18. Roof overhangs
19. *Lovable mother of seven in “Harry Potter” Mrs. ____
21. *Mother in “The Terminator,”
Sarah ____
23. Not safe, in baseball
24. “Hold on!”
25. Uno ____, in Mexico
28. Iranian monarch
30. Be a go-between
35. Kind of cuckoos
37. Passing mention
39. Dwelled
40. TV show “____ 911!”
41. *”Beloved” mother
43. Like a tennis skirt
44. Scottish kinship groups
46. Spare in car
47. Email folder
48. Vertical dimension
50. Turf alternative
52. Morse Code dash
53. Hippocratic ____
55. Three, to Caesar
57. *Margaret White’s telekinetic daughter
60. *Elizabeth Zott of “____ in Chemistry”
64. Vernacular
65. R&R hot spot
67. Capital of Vietnam
68. Yours is as good as mine?
69. Tennis retry
70. Cause anxiety (2 words)
71. Bookie’s quote
72. Well-kept secret, for some
73. Teatime treat
DOWN
1. Do like volcano
2. Honey home
3. Iris holder
4. Human trunk
5. iPad “pen”
6. *Matriarch, ____ Munster of “The Munsters”
7. *Nadezhda of “The Americans,”
____ Elizabeth Jennings, acr.
8. Muhammad’s birthplace
9. Melissa Rivers’ mom
10. Australian slang for afteroon
11. Widely hunted ruminant
12. Follow ems
15. A particular legume
20. Not pathos
22. Second O in EVOO
24. Kinda white
25. *Mrs. ____, a.k.a. Marmee
26. Anoint
27. Red Sea peninsula
29. Drive a getaway car, e.g.
31. Goals
32. Like a Harvard building?
33. Plant-based laxative
34. *____ Bunker, mom to Gloria in “All in the Family”
36. Dance partner
38. Drive-____, for short
42. Like a haunted house
45. Daisy dukes, e.g.
49. ____ chi
51. Casts a line
54. Popular electric car
56. Newton’s first name
57. Foul substance
58. Matured
59. Bob of “The Joy of Painting” fame
60. Better than never?
61. On top of
62. “High” time
63. Cosine’s counterpart
64. In the past
66. *”Married... with Children” mom
