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The Rant y l h t Mon JULY 2021
SANFORD, NORTH CAROLINA
THE RETURN OF
SPIN CITY
THE RICH HISTORY AND FUN PRESENT OF THE SANFORD SPINNERS
2 | July 2021
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The RantMonthly July 2021 | Sanford, North Carolina A product of LPH Media, LLC Vol. 3 | Issue 7 | No. 28
Editorial Gordon Anderson | gordon@rantnc.com Billy Liggett | billy@rantnc.com Jonathan Owens | jonathan@rantnc.com Advertising Brandon Allred | brandon@rantnc.com (919) 605-1479 Contributors Jordan Anderson, Charles Petty, Richard Sullins, Maggie Smith Editorial Board William Stone, John McFadden, Hoyt Clegg, George Bortz, Jimmy Wilson, Jim Guinn, Orville Nesselrode, Phalti Shoffner, Joseph Nessing, Bruce Hedrick, Bob Pugh and Guthrie Watson
Find Us Online: www.rantnc.com Facebook: facebook.com/therant905 Twitter: twitter.com/therant905 Podcast: rantnc.podbean.com
ABOUT THE COVER One of the first new murals to go up in downtown Sanford was a mural dedicated to Howard Auman and the Sanford Spinners, a professional team and founding member of the Tobacco League in the 1930s and 40s. The Spinners returned in 2021 in the form of a member of the newly formed Old North State League. A dozen games into the inaugural season, and Spinners games are proving to be a fun experience for baseball fans. Mural by Scott Nurkin, the Mural Shop
The Rant Monthly is located in beautiful Sanford, North Carolina. Please address all correspondence to LPH Media LLC, 3096 South Horner Boulevard #126, Sanford, NC, 27332. Editorial email: gordon@rantnc.com or billy@rantnc.com. Advertising: brandon@rantnc.com. The Rant Monthly is published monthly (obvs). The Rant Monthly is wholly owned and operated by LPH Media LLC, a North Carolina corporation. Submissions of all kinds are welcome. This publication is free — one per reader, please. Removal of this newspaper from any distribution point for purposes other than reading it constitutes theft, and violators are subject to public flogging and ridicule. Printed by Restoration News Media LLC in Raleigh, NC. Copyright 2021, LPH Media LLC, all rights reserved.
The Rant Monthly | 3
Chamber Annual Membership Banquet
• June 24, 2021 • VENUE:
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR AWARD WINNERS: Business Advocate of the Year
Duke Energy Citizenship & Service Award
Chamber Ambassador of the Year
DOWNTOWN SANFORD, INC.
HEATH CAIN, Lee County Health Dept.
DAVID MORSE, First Bank Insurance Services
Chamber Dedicated Service Award
Chamber Chairman’s Award
BRENDA CLEGG, Belflex Staffing Network
KELLY HAZEN KLUG, Central Carolina Community College
Thank you to our sponsors and attendees for making this year’s event a success! Sanford Area Growth Alliance | www.GrowSanfordNC.com | 919-775-7341
4 | July 2021
TAR HEEL TRAVELER WRAL’s Tar Heel Traveler came back to Sanford recently to highlight the work being done by Byron and Kim Wortham at Holly’s Nest, a wild animal rescue the couple founded and continue to operate in honor of their late daughter Holly. Watch the full segment at rantnc.com.
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PAGE FOUR SANFORD DANCER HELPS WELCOME BACK BROADWAY
DID YOU KNOW? Owls can rotate their necks 270 degrees. A blood-pooling system collects blood to power their brains and eyes when neck movement cuts off circulation.
ICYMI: REVISIT OUR JONESBORO STORIES We understand you might have missed our June edition of The Rant Monthly — summer vacation just started for many of you, and it’s not like we expect you to read EVERYTHING. But if you missed last month’s cover feature on the new businesses in the Jonesboro Heights area, go to rantnc.com and learn more about popular new businesses like Brick City Boba, Fonda Lupita, Eyelight Coffee & Comics, Merenda’s Kitchen and the future Valenti’s Italian Restaurant.
Sanford native and Southern Lee High School graduate Mariah Reives (center left) appeared as a dancer in a Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon opening sketch with Hamilton and In the Heights creator Lin-Manuel Miranda to celebrate the return of live audiences to Fallon’s show and to celebrate the announcement of Broadway’s return in September. Reives, who appeared on the Fox competitive dance show So You Think You Can Dance in 2014, has lived and worked in New York City since attending the University of North Carolina School of Arts and Marymount Manhatttan College. Photo: YouTube, NBC
FOUR NATIONAL PARKS IN NORTH CAROLINA We write about a Rant founder’s trip to Dry Tortugas National Park in this edition of The Rant Monthly, but if you can’t make it to the tip of Florida, North Carolina is home to 13 national parks and national historical sites. Here are our four favorite:
Smoky Mountains
Cape Hatteras
Blue Ridge Parkway
Wright Bro. Memorial
The only “traditional” national park in the state
One of two national seashores in the OBX
National Heritage Area encompasses 25 counties
Birthplace of flight (Screw you, Ohio)
The Rant Monthly | 5
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THE LEAD BRIDGES MOVES UP TO TAKE OVER AS PRINCIPAL AT LEE COUNTY HIGH Betsy Bridges, who has served as principal at SanLee Middle School since 2013, was named the new principal of Lee County High School. The move was one of several announced at a special called meeting in June of the Lee County Board of Education. Bridges, a 29-year veteran of public education, began her career as a teacher at the elementary level and served as Lee County Schools’ reading coach and intervention specialist before moving into administration in 2012. SanLee Assistant Principal Evan Roush will move into Bridges’ position there. Roush joined the administration at SanLee Middle in 2017 and began his career in education as an elementary teacher in 2005. In 2012, he moved into school administration and served as an assistant principal at two elementary schools in Cumberland County. “These administrative changes support the district’s goal of continued academic improvement,” said Lee County Superintendent Dr. Andy Bryan. “Betsy Bridges brings a proven track record of strong leadership that includes collaborative and supportive relationships, effective communication and high academic expectations, all of which build on Lee County High School’s previous success and moving the school to the next level of excellence.” Bridges and Roush will begin in their new roles on June 21.
CRIME
Police investigating murder at Prince By Billy Liggett
area shortly after. Detectives and forensic investigators were still at the scene hours later.
A 36-year-old Sanford man was found in the parking lot of the Prince Downtown Motel at around 6 a.m. on June 28 and later pronounced dead at Central Carolina Hospital.
The Prince Motel has long been a problem area for Downtown Sanford, as reported in an April 2019 cover story of The Rant Monthly. From January 2017 to February 2019, more than 130 calls were made to Sanford Police regarding complaints or alleged crimes at the motel, according to public records. From those calls, more than 40 arrests were made in that two-year span, many of them on physical assault and drugor alcohol-related charges.
Sanford Police are calling the death of Marquas Sintrell Roseboro a murder, and an investigation has begun. As of press time, no suspects have been publicly identified, and no arrests have been made. Police are asking anybody with information to contact SPD’s Investigative Division at (919) 777-1050. According to witnesses, police arrived at the troubled motel at 5:55 a.m. on June 28 and began taping off the perimeter of the
The most recent incident marks the second murder reported at the hotel in nine years. In September 2012, two men were arrested in the death of a 20-year-old Sanford man who was stabbed in the back during a fight at the hotel. Two other men received
stab wounds during the altercation. Since the April 2019 article — which laid out the crime statistics and testimonies of nearby homeowners and business owners who have dealt with thefts, panhandling and breaking-and-entering over the years — little has changed at the Prince. In the past year, a sign has been added to one of the front buildings announcing hourly rates. The victim, Marquas Roseboro, has lived on South Third Street and Ryan Avenue in recent years, but no address was given in the June 28 press release. Roseboro was arrested in 2015 on two counts of robbery with a firearm, two counts of possession of stolen goods and two counts of possessing a controlled substance, according to police records.
rantnc.com
The Rant Monthly | 7
8 | July 2021
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The Rant Monthly | 9
rantnc.com CITY GOVERNMENT
Sanford municipal elections pushed to April 2022 By Richard Sullins Governor Roy Cooper signed a bill in June that moves the scheduled municipal elections of Sanford and 34 other cities in the state from November to April 2022. As a result, the terms of Sanford City Council members Sam Gaskins (Ward 1), James Williams (Ward 3) and Chas Post (at-large) and Mayor Chet Mann are set to expire in 2021. Cities typically have plenty of time to redraw the ward boundaries during census years so that they can be rebalanced to account for shifts in population. But because Census workers were not able to do their door-to-door work safely during the COVID lockdown, delays in collecting an accurate count of the population ensued. Senate Bill 722 is a General Assembly mandate and not a local initiative. It also impacts cities such as Raleigh, Charlotte, Greensboro, Fayetteville, Cary and others
that utilize population-based districts and wards to apportion representation to city councils. The data from the Census that is needed to redraw those ward boundaries so that equal representation can be maintained won’t be received in time for the necessary public hearings to be held before the previously scheduled election date of Nov. 2.
Cities impacted by the change are required to revise their districts and have them approved by their county boards of commissioners and/or county boards of elections by Nov. 17. If they are able to meet that deadline, filing for office would then open on Dec. 6 and remain open until Dec. 17. However, a second option is available to any city that is unable to meet the Nov. 17 deadline. In that case, they can get an extension to finish their process by Dec. 17, with a much shorter filing window that would open at noon on Jan. 3 and close at noon on Jan. 7. In Sanford, the Census data for the city’s
new ward boundaries will be synthesized by Lee County’s GIS department and new maps will be drawn that will likely consist of several options. Public hearings will be scheduled in the fall and the final decision on the boundaries will be made by the city council. Because the election will be delayed from its usual November date to sometime in the spring, the Senate bill also allows Mann, Gaskins, Williams and Post to continue to serve in their posts until the election can be held in April. Regardless of who is elected on that date, they will serve out the remaining balance of the term that is left between election day and the next scheduled election in 2023, putting the City’s municipal elections back on schedule. The change for this year will have no impact on those running in 2023. Assuming that the city can meet the November deadline, any necessary primary to choose either Democratic or Republican party candidates would be held on March 8,
2022, and the general election that would determine winners would take place on the date of any second primary that might be required for federal or state-level offices, or on April 26 if a second primary is unnecessary. But a general election on the date of a second primary faces another challenge – historically low voter turnout. During the last five years, voter turnout in North Carolina during second primaries necessary for federal or state offices averages around only 10 percent of those persons eligible to vote. “I am concerned about voter turnout and how much people will tune in,” Mann said. “I am more concerned with the difficulty of getting one’s message out with the pandemic seemingly wreaking havoc on traditional news outlets and candidate forums. Moving the date only makes it harder for people to find and learn more about the candidates and their stated goals for running and what they plan to try and accomplish if elected.”
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10 | July 2021
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LOCAL NEWS COUNTY GOVERNMENT
Sans debate, county OKs budget NEW CHARTER SCHOOL TO BE RUN BY FORMER LCHS PRINCIPAL BATTEN Central Carolina Academy, Lee County’s third charter school which expects to open in the fall of 2022, has named veteran educator Gren Batten its lead administrator, according to a press release. Batten has twice served as principal at Lee County High School, most recently until last week, when he had been interim principal following the retirement of Steven Ross. Batten, according to the press release, will begin in the new position “as state funding becomes available.” Central Carolina Academy was approved by the North Carolina State Board of Education in April and will serve middle school and high school students. It will be a replication of the academic program at Chatham Charter School in Siler City, and the two schools will form a conglomeration of partner schools led by Dr. John Eldridge, who is currently the Head of School for Chatham Charter. Meanwhile, Central Carolina Academy’s board and school leadership are looking for a campus location. “The Chatham Charter Board of Directors and I are excited about two schools working collaboratively to meet the needs of our two communities,” Eldridge said. “We look forward to working with Mr. Batten and the Central Carolina Academy Board of Directors in this unique partnership.”
Unanimous approval will mean lower property taxes, but no teacher bumps By Richard Sullins After discussion that lasted less than five minutes, the Lee County Board of Commissioners on June 21 unanimously adopted — without debate — the county’s budget for Fiscal Year 2021-22. Totaling just over $84 million, the budget is a $4.1 million increase over last year and includes a decrease in the property tax rate from 77.5 cents per $100 of valuation to 76 cents. County Manager John Crumpton presented commissioners with a draft of the recommended budget ordinance at their May 3 meeting and a public hearing was held on June 7 with only three persons addressing the board. Yet when it came time to discuss the county’s spending plan for the next year, there was no debate on the merits of particular allocations or attempts to change them through amendments. Instead, commissioners used their time to offer thanks to staff who had worked to assemble the financial blueprint for the new fiscal year. When the vote was taken, all seven county commissioners raised their hands in favor. The elapsed time from the beginning of its consideration until final approval was fewer than 300 seconds. The county’s tax base has grown by an average of 3.1 percent over the past five years, but it more than doubled that rate of growth last year with an increase of 7.23 percent. Crumpton told commissioners
during a work session last month that the tax base growth had skyrocketed “largely due to growth in the Lee County Industrial Park.” The budget fulfills a promise made by some members of the Commission to cut property taxes. County employees will receive a 1.5 percent cost of living adjustment beginning July 1. But not everyone’s a winner in next year’s spending plan. Although commissioners provided an increase of $378,246 to the County Schools’ current expense fund over what was budgeted last year, they chose not to fund the School Board’s request for $1.41 million to provide a two percent raise in local supplements to certified teachers and classified staff (including custodians, child nutrition office staff, and others). The county also chose not to fund a request for $65,000 to increase athletics supplements, which have not received an increase for the past 21 years. The Commissioners did, however, fund the School Board’s request of $1.985 million for construction, repair, and renovation projects. Lee County Schools Superintendent Dr. Andy Bryan expressed gratitude for the commission’s overall level of support. “We’re certainly very grateful to the commissioners for fully supporting our capital outlay request and also for the additional funding that was provided,” Bryan said. “The largest part of our request was in terms of increasing local supplements available to teachers and classified staff. For us, that’s about retaining and attracting the very best employees to the district. We will continue to try to do that, to retain and attract the very best people, so that we can try to continue to make the best education possible available to our students.”
In May, The Rant reported on an email sent by board Chairman Kirk Smith to at least two members of the commission suggesting that teachers shouldn’t receive a supplement increase due to what he deemed a “rather mediocre performance” of Lee County Schools on North Carolina’s public school report cards. The April 23 email says that the County “provide[s] an average supplement of $4,585 when the state average is $2,842.” Smith said in an email to The Rant that Governor Roy Cooper bears the blame for any lack of pay increase for teachers, and that Lee can’t compete with other counties which have a larger tax base and population. “With the last budget vetoed by Governor Cooper, our teachers did not receive the pay increase our Legislators appropriated,” he wrote. “It is difficult to justify spending more tax payer money when student performance is below state averages.” Smith noted the commissioners added a “Special Line Item” of $10,000 “to promote Best Teaching Practices in order to assist in improving student performance.” Board of Education Chair Sandra Bowen doesn’t believe funding for Lee County teacher supplements should be compared to a statewide average. “Instead, we have to compete with Chatham County right around the corner,” she said. “We have to compete with Wake County 40 minutes up the road. And so, what it does when our supplements are significantly lower than those neighbors, it creates a brain drain, where we get high quality staffing and they quickly figure out they can make more money with a little bit longer commute. And so it siphons off some of the highest and best talent and so that’s what we are really competing against, a
The Rant Monthly | 11
rantnc.com turnover that we’d like our commissioners to recognize that potential.” Although Moore and Harnett counties provide supplements less than Lee County, they’ve been making up ground in recent years. Chatham County’s average teacher supplement is $6,481, Orange County is $6,522, Durham County is $7,487, and Wake County is $8,569. Word that the commissioners had given county employees a 1.5 percent cost-of-living raise while denying an increase to teachers and classified staff is already expressing itself in morale concerns. “We are already seeing some discontent expressed online through social media and so forth,” Bowen said. “But as we have learned in pandemic times, teachers are amazingly resilient. And they are aware of things that are out of their control, and I think our people will continue to do the job as they always have.” The Sanford Area Growth Alliance is another organization that came up short in this year’s budget allocation. The public-private partnership has been successful in bringing new industry into the county, including proj-
ects such as Pfizer, Caterpillar, Bharat Forge, Audentes, Through6, and Abzena. SAGA requested $355,162.50, a 10 percent increase over last year’s budget allocation, to hire and train additional new staff, IT and marketing geared toward attracting and retaining talent. These announced benefits to Lee County will include 1,759 new jobs, an increase of $83 million in local payroll dollars paid, and capital investments that total more than $1 billion. But despite Lee County’s growing stature in the competitive world of attracting new industry, commissioners decided not to grant an increase for SAGA and kept its allocation at the FY 2020-21 level, or $322,875. Smith, via email, said that SAGA had “performed above expectations,” but that he had expected the organization to rely more on private funds as time progressed. “The Board recalls during the formation of SAGA that it would evolve from a public-private venture whereas the private funding portion would grow over time and the public investments would diminish,” he wrote. “We agreed to maintain last year’s amount of funding for SAGA. We did agree to provide SAGA a $100,000 low interest
Jackson Electric
loan from the Revolving Loan Fund for them to continue site preparations for another ‘spec building.’” At the May 3 meeting, Crumpton said that almost $87 million in funding had been requested for the fiscal year that started July 1. In order to stay within the available funds after reducing the tax rate to 76 cents, $2.8 million had to be trimmed from the funds requested in order to balance the budget. He added that if all the requests for funding had been granted, an increase in the tax rate of 4.56 cents would have been required. Meanwhile, the county’s financial picture continues to be bright. The North Carolina Department of Revenue reported sales and use taxes collected in Lee County through the end of April have reached their highest level so far this year. April’s collection report shows that $4,993,289 was collected during that month, the largest sales tax collection in a single month this year. This comes as the economy recovers after last year’s economic calamities brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and commissioners were told that tax collections by the county remain on target for projections made through the end of the fiscal year that ended on June 30.
and Sons
The commissioners also voted for a $1.65 million increase in general government expenses, about half of which are necessary to replace the servers on the county’s computer assets, which are approaching obsolescence. The budget will also see part-time positions in the county’s veteran’s services office and elections office made full-time and seven new positions will be created. The 75-page budget document also includes some fee increases. A food service plan review fee of $125 has been added for establishments planning remodeling or renovations. A pool re-inspection fee of $50 has been added, and participants at various San-Lee Park camps will be charged $70 per week for a half-day and $115 for a full day, while rentals for the park’s picnic shelter will increase to $35 per hour. The same rate will apply to Kiwanis Park shelters, while existing rates of $25 will be maintained at Buchanan, Horton, Kiwanis Gazebo, Childrens’ Parkplace, Lett, and Sloan Parks. o Richard Sullins covers local government for The Rant Monthly. Contact him at richard@rantnc.com.
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12 | July 2021 EDITORIAL
IT’S WELL PAST TIME THE CITY STEP IN AND SHUT DOWN THE PRINCE It’s an issue we feel so strongly about, we dedicated the cover story of our first edition of The Rant Monthly to it in April 2019. The Prince Motel — while it may serve a commendable service as a temporary roof for the city’s homeless population — is a detriment to our community, and it simply has to go (or change considerably). We stated as such over two years ago, pointing out the more than 130 calls Sanford Police fielded regarding crimes or potential criminal complaints during a 25-month period in 2017-2019. Of those calls, more than 40 arrests were made, many of them on physical assault and drug- or alcohol-related charges. And we included several testimonies from nearby residents of the Rosemount-McIver Historic District and local business owners who shared stories of breaking-and-entering, thefts, assaults and panhandling from Prince residents. The 2019 article also pointed out a 2012 murder — a stabbing incident that also injured two others. The June 28 shooting death of Marquas Roseboro in the parking lot of the Prince makes it two murders in the past nine years. We understand these crimes can happen anywhere, but the Prince has proven to be a magnet for this sort of behavior for the past 15-plus years. We naively believed our reporting on “The Prince Problem” would lead to some change. The motel changed ownership and added a coat of paint to the front steps a month after the story. Everything else has only gotten worse since. Our city simply must do everything in its power to close the Prince Motel. It will be a process, and there will need to solutions for the people who truly need the roof over their heads, but let’s get the process started and make Sanford a safer place for all of us.
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OPINION COLUMN | BILLY LIGGETT
Death of our dog provided life lesson for my children
M
y youngest son looked up at me as we sat on the floor — our hands stroking the fur of a dog my wife and I rescued nearly 14 years ago as he took his final breaths — and told me he’d never seen me cry before. “I’m pretty sure you have,” I said through a few sniffles, but then my mind raced to remember that moment. I’ve cried a lot in my life — I’m not one of those guys who thinks it’s a sign of weakness — but he’d never seen me do it. And as our Miles passed away in our arms barely a minute after the final shot administered by our veterinarian, my 7-year-old saw his old man cry. I feel like that’s what he’ll take away from that moment, despite the very real lesson in life and death he received that day. And I’m good with that. Emotion isn’t gender specific, and adults can (and should) cry, too. The death of our dog was an important moment for my family — my wife, myself and our three children, ages 11, 9 and 7. Miles was a big dog who joined our family three years before our first-born, and in those three years, he managed to destroy entire couches, entire backyards and any toilet paper or paper towel roll left within his reach. He cried all night during thunderstorms, got on the couch when he wasn’t supposed to, shed enough hair to build an army of big, fluffy white dogs and pooped no fewer than three times per walk in our neighborhood.
But when our family changed with the arrival of our daughter, Miles changed (except for the thunderstorms and the pooping). He became the big, gentle nanny who didn’t mind getting his ears tugged on or his fur ripped out by small baby and toddler hands. He was a pillow for them as they learned to sit up and a safety net as they learned to walk. We had three babies in a nearly five-year span. Those children have never known a life without Miles. So when his health began to deteriorate this year — it began in January with a droopy eye and progressed to trouble breathing, an awful cough at night and, in the end, severe weight loss — we had those conversations about death. And when the vet told us the X-rays weren’t good and that Miles was living in pain, we had to make that tough decision to end his suffering. We gave our kids the option of not being in the room for that moment. They all chose to stay and be there for Miles until the end. I learned a lot about my family as they cried together and said goodbye to an important member of our family. In my kids, I saw that love trumps fear — it would have been far easier to stay in the waiting room, but they were strong. Those tears my youngest saw for the first time weren’t just for Miles. I was touched watching my family come together and share a real moment like that. It showed me that while I hope nothing bad ever happens to my kids, they’ll be able to handle it when it does. o Email billy@rantnc.com to reach me.
READER RESPONSE Love for Jonesboro Heights Our June edition of The Rant Monthly highlighted the new businesses that are breathing new life into the Jonesboro Heights area, also known as “Sanford’s second downtown.” Readers said they enjoyed the series: ________________ Next time I’m in town, I can’t wait to visit all the new shops in this “revised” village. I have so many old memories — from Avent & Thomas, the drug store where Landmark used to be located, the Butcher Shop, and much more. Sharon Nixon-Escochea ________________ Love Eyelight Coffee & Comics! I love the house plants and the tea (the mango lemon berry is my favorite), and so many little small town businesses are being supported in one small shop. The staff is so friendly and helpful. Heather Gardner ________________ When the landlord put this property [Brick City Boba] up for rent on Facebook, I commented on how it would make the perfect cafe or coffee shop and how the small courtyard (if part of the property) would be great for outdoor seating. Either someone really liked my idea, or they had the same idea! It is adorable, and I’m so happy to see places like this pop up. Katherine Fletcher ________________ You forgot to mention how Ares BJJ [martial arts] started on Main Street in Jonesboro and has became so big that they purchased a store front in Kendale back in March! That gym is doing great things for the kids in this area. Jesse Fox
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rantnc.com Teacher pay and school grades Kirk Smith, the Republican chairman of the Lee County Board of Commissioners, said in an email obtained by The Rant that teachers in Lee County shouldn’t receive an increase in supplemental pay due to the “mediocre performance” by local public schools on North Carolina’s school report cards. The Rant disagreed with Smith’s assessment in our May edition, and this month, our readers have their say: ________________ This is so aggravating. The teachers and administration have done an exceptional job — especially this year when faced with all of the challenges. Our teachers should be heralded for their efforts, attention and care for the students of this county. How is it that we expect our students to be exceptional if we don’t put value in the people teaching them? Kyra Rodriguez ________________ The fact that Kirk Smith thinks the current supplement is substantial is a joke. Teacher pay in this entire state is bad, but the level of respect and support we get from so many elected officials is disgusting. He really has no idea what we did and the circumstances we do it in on a normal basis, let alone in there past year. Sandi Shover ________________ Mr. Smith is spot on. I believe the teachers are more than fairly compensated. Teaching is one of the most greedy professions out there. Save some money for the police, fire departments and EMS. Also, tax payers should demand a change in the EMS System. Wayne D. Smith
accomplishments
• Provided extra online tutoring for at-home students who were struggling with a subject • Conducted 16 virtual parent/teacher conferences • Provided snacks to in-person kids who had nothing with them • Used my own personal funds to buy materials, headphones, materials to make gifts for parents for Christmas and Mother’s Day • Sought out training on my own time and dime to ensure I continue to grow as a teacher (oh, and this is my 31st year) If Mr. Smith thinks this and the thousands of other things we as educators do is mediocre, I suggest he volunteer in a classroom (and try not to bring every single conversation he has back to his miniscule role in “The Patriot.”) Gwen Babcock ________________
• Recreated everything I teach to a digital format • Taught in person and online students simultaneously • Kept up with attendance for at-home and in person kids — it had to change if they were absent but managed to turn in a assignment a week later • Made at least a half a dozen home visits to each at-home student and a few to in-person students to take supplies and celebrate
! W O N E L A S N O TS
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Kim Jacobs
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________________ These teachers deserve the increase and then some after this past year. Maybe they need to re-evaluate our joke of a school board and superintendent. When you don’t give the resources to perform and the kids are allowed to be self entitled brats, then what do you expect?
USIC LIVE M
02 R 9-26, 2 E B M E T SEP
I’d love for Mr. Smith to come spend a few days with me in the classroom and then tell me the supplement that we get is enough. The issues that we deal with on a daily basis as teachers go well beyond teaching curriculum!
________________ Here are just a few of the things that this “mediocre” teacher did this year:
E R T A E H T E TEMPL
• Created engaging activities that all my students could participate in
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Sean Pechota ________________ So what is the purpose of the supplement for those crying tears of outrage? Are we rewarding performance or trying to entice more teachers to fill shortages? The Rant’s article was biased left as always (even though I love you guys). But the question of what county teacher supplements are designed for is a valid question that has not been answered while the article somehow seems to accuse Kirk Smith of being nefarious for keeping the supplement at the same level (which isn’t even within the purview of the county board). David Smoak
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14A CLOSEUP | July 2021 OF THE HOWARD AUMAN SANFORD SPINNERS MURAL, FINISHED IN 2015 IN DOWNTOWN SANFORD BY SCOTT NURKIN.
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COVER STORY
SPIN CITY RETURNS BASEBALL IN SANFORD
The Sanford Spinners of the old Tobacco State League drew as many as 600 fans a game on average at their peak following World War II. The Spinners have returned as a member of the Old North State League 70 years later, bringing baseball (and a good time) back to the city. By Gordon Anderson and Billy Liggett
E
ven with a mural of one-time Sanford Spinners star Howard Auman going up along Horner Boulevard in 2015, evidence in the city that the Spinners ever existed had sort of hidden in plain sight. The old ballpark in east Sanford. The aforementioned mural. The memories and stories of those who remain from that era. Those few things accounted until just this year for much of the proof that Sanford ever had a baseball team to call its own. That changed in the spring with the announcement that a North Carolina-based collegiate summer league, the Old North State League, would be bringing a team to town. And what better way to pay homage to Sanford’s baseball history than to use the name of the team that made the region so proud all those decades ago? So as of June 7 of this year, the Spinners have not just a history in Sanford, but also a present — and a future.
Howard Auman started 33 games for Sanford in 1946 and went 22-8, with an ERA in the mid 3’s. He set a league record with 26 complete games.
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The new Sanford Spinners play in the Old North State League, a college summer league full of talented young players, some of whom played high school ball at Lee County and Southern Lee high schools. Photo by Billy Liggett.
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That was the day the Old North State League iteration of the Spinners took the field for the first time at Southern Lee High School’s Tramway Park against the Fayetteville Chutes. Sanford won its opener 8-7 on a walk-off double by catcher Nick Fakouri. Fakouri, a rising sophomore at the University of Arkansas at Monticello, is one of many talented Spinners that Head Coach Jeremy Palme has his eye on. “I’ll be putting the captain’s C on his jersey as soon as I can,” said Palme, who also serves as the Lee County Yellow Jackets’ junior varsity head coach. “His talent and his professionalism are all there.” Since that first game, the Spinners have had mixed success, with a record of 5-8 as their first month came to a close. And while winning is at the top of mind for everyone involved – certainly the players – Palme says there are plenty of other considerations.
“My big message to the team from day one has been maintaining health and to put them going into the fall in a better position,” he said. Still, Palme has been pleased with the atmosphere and the team’s performance so far, and he has a number of reasons to believe the squad will be able to build on its successes. “We’ve had a couple injuries, but for what we have I think the pitching has been better than what we thought it would be,” he said. “Even with the high scoring games, I feel like defensive miscues have led to that more than the pitching.” Additionally, the Spinners as of this writing have played the highest number of games in the league. Combine that with the fact that the team started its season five days later than the rest of the league, and the latter part of the campaign — regular play ends July 21 — looks far more relaxed for the Spinners than the first half.
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rantnc.com Palme’s approach on the field is one of positivity — when his team is at bat, he assumes the role of third base coach, and from there he can be heard during the games giving words of encouragement to each player who approaches the dish. “Let’s have an at bat here,” he might say, or “that’s a beautiful set of pupils” to a batter who takes a pitch out of the strike zone. “I try to be very positive,” he said. “There’s a lot of what we call chirping during games and I’ve just really tried to stress to my guys that we can talk, but we’re going to talk positive to our guys. I want this team to operate as a family, and we win and we lose as a family.” The return of the Spinners means more than competitive summer baseball in a growing city. It means the return of a team that has a rich history in Sanford —the Spinners were part of city’s rebuilding process in the years after World War II and at the peak of their popularity, drew about 600 people a game at old Temple Park. While that history may have been hidden for decades, bringing back the “Spinners” name inspired us at The Rant to learn about Sanford’s old professional team.
The Spinners are back, and so is fun baseball I was never an athletic kid, but I always loved baseball. I grew up just down the road from the Oakland Coliseum at a time when the Athletics pretty well dominated the game and count some of my earliest memories at that ballpark. Later, I got onto a local tee-ball team, and we got to be the Athletics! The home team! I can still recall the pride I felt at not having to be one of those other kids who had to be on the Brewers or the White Sox or something. I mean, I shudder to think. I really do. I quit baseball a few more years later, around fifth grade, because like I said before, I was not a very athletic kid, and I was not good at baseball. I could draw a walk because I had a habit of jumping out of the box at anything that looked slightly wild, which then meant I couldn’t swing (and miss). I think I recorded one hit during my years facing live pitching
and my career highlight was getting to play catcher one day and throwing a kid out who tried to steal third. He might have tripped. Anyway, all that’s to say that while I was never any good at the game, I’ve always loved it and the news that the Old North State League was bringing back the Sanford Spinners was pretty exciting for me. I didn’t grow up in Sanford, but even if I did, the Spinners would have been way ahead of my time. But it’s hard to overstate how cool it is to have a local team, even if at “just” the collegiate summer league level, which is very, very hard for a player to reach (an aside to explain the quotation marks around the word “just”: I keep a baseball card on my fridge of a guy named Pat Perry). Pat Perry “suffered a lot of baseball rejection in his 13 year professional
career,” according to the card, which also details a staggering number of consecutive failures, injuries, and outright insults. Still, Pat Perry made it to the major leagues and as such is among the very best to ever play the game. (Perspective, gang!). If you don’t like baseball, I guess this column isn’t for you. But if you do, give the Spinners a shot. It’s cheap, it’s fun, and frankly, it’s a new selling point for a small city that’s racking up new selling points at a pretty fast pace. In a few years you’ll be glad you got in on the ground floor. After quitting baseball, Gordon Anderson studied professional wrestling under Canadian legend Stu Hart. After suffering a VERY painful hangnail, he quit and helped found The Rant. Email him at gordon@rantnc.com.
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A HISTORY BOOK FOR THE TOBACCO LEAGUE The Tobacco State League played an important role in eastern North Carolina for five summers (1946-1950), giving small-town communities a chance to be a part of professional baseball and offering a return to normalcy after World War II. Years later, the players’ names were spoken with reverence, their exploits the subject of impassioned discussion. Author Chris Holaday’s book goes into great detail about the formation, the success and the ultimate end of the league that thrived from 1946 until 1950 in the years following World War II. Holaday talked about his book with NPR host Frank Stasio in 2017: “These games drew big crowds, especially on weekend nights. This was the big social event in these towns — there was not much else going on, and there was no television really at that time. So this is where people went to chat and to meet their friends, and it was a big thing, even if you didn’t really pay attention to the game. You still would have gone just because that was the thing to do in the town.” Holaday’s book can be found at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com or other sites where books are sold.
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Temple Park, located where McIver and Bragg streets meet in Sanford, was home to the Sanford Spinners in the late 1930s and into the early 1950s. At the team’s peak, the Spinners averaged roughly 600 fans a game in 1946.
BIG NAMES, BIG GAMES For five years following World War II, the Sanford Spinners were kings of the Tobacco State League, winning a title in 1947. And during that time, Sanford was even home to a few former and eventual big leaguers.
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oughly a fourth of the eligible men in the United States in the early 1940s fought in World War II, and the one game the majority of them knew before the war was baseball. America’s Pastime. So when nearly 16 million men suddenly had some free time in 1945, many of them returned to the sport they love, chasing the dream of one day making it to the Big Leagues.
The influx of returning ballplayers gave rise to several small professional and semipro leagues across the country. And in North Carolina, the Tobacco State League was formed. Formed in 1946, the Tobacco League featured teams like the Dunn-Erwin Twins, the Wilmington Pirates, the Angier-Fuquay Springs Bulls, the Smithfield-Selma Leafs and the Clinton Blues. But the most established team was the Sanford Spinners, which formed in the late 1930s and continued through 1942 in the Bi-State League, which eventually folded that year due to a lack of available players.
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@therant905 Sanford would win the Tobacco League in 1947 and finish second in three other seasons before the league disbanded in 1950 (due to lack of attendance, which one historian attributes to the rise in air conditioned homes and ability to watch teams like the Yankees on television at the time). That historian, Chris Holaday, author of “The Tobacco State League: A North Carolina Baseball History,” said that in its short time the Tobacco League drew big crowds and featured some big names who would later find success in the majors.
Spinners player/manager (and former Minor Leaguer) Gaither Riley (left) and star slugger Hank Nesselrode. Photo from author Chris Holaday’s book, “The Tobacco State League: A North Carolina Baseball History,” available at amazon.com.
had jobs in the offseason, too, but most of them made decent money, comparatively, playing baseball.”
“There was a big appetite for baseball after World War II,” Holaday told host Frank Stasio in a 2017 NPR podcast.
The team drew nearly 600 people a game at its peak, playing at Temple Park, located where McIver Street meets Bragg Street in East Sanford (Wilmington led the league in attendance with more than 1,000 per game). They were already an established brand by then — in 1935, Herbert “Doc” Smith, a Harnett County native and longtime Minor League catcher, formed the first Tobacco League featuring four teams. Sanford would advance to a national tournament in 1940 in Wichita, Kansas, and place fourth that summer.
“There were so many players coming back from military service — players who were promising baseball players before the war and had their careers interrupted. If they could sign with a small town team — maybe in their hometown and maybe even get paid for it — that’s better than working in a factory. Many of these guys
The Spinners made the jump to professional baseball and the Bi-State League in 1941, playing teams in North Carolina and Virginia like the Mount Airy Graniteers, Mayodan Millers, Martinsville Manufacturers, Leaksville-Draper-Spray Triplets, Danville-Schoolfield Leafs, Rocky Mount Rocks, Wilson Tobs and
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rantnc.com the Burlington Bees. They finished fourth in 1941 and third in 1942, advancing to the championship game the second season before falling to the Rocks. The Tobacco League got the Spinners back after the war in 1946 and lasted a solid five seasons before the league folded for good in 1950. Attendance dropped from 600 people a game in 1947 to just under 300 a game in the final year. When the league folded, Minor League Baseball in North Carolina remained strong in places like Durham, Wilmington and Winston-Salem, but smaller cities like Sanford, Angier and Mount Airy were left behind. Still, the Spinners’ time in Sanford was memorable. In seven seasons in the BiState League and Tobacco State League, Sanford never had a losing record. And several memorable men spent a season or two in Sanford and made their mark. HOWARD AUMAN A SEASON TO REMEMBER Howard Auman pitched only one season for the Sanford Spinners of the Tobacco State League in 1946.
But, oh, what a season it was. Auman was a star coming out of Campbell College in 1942 before postponing his baseball career to serve in World War II. He returned from war in ’46 at the age of 24 and set the Tobacco State League — a Class D league that would eventually have 12 teams in North Carolina — on fire. Auman started 33 games for Sanford and went 22-8, with an ERA in the mid 3’s. He also set a league record with 26 complete games that year, leading Sanford to a 71-48 overall record and a Tobacco State League title. Auman — the inspiration for the striking mural at the corner of Wicker and Horner in downtown Sanford by artist Scott Nurkin — died Saturday at the age of 93, just days before the painting’s completion. He was remembered as a “Southern gentleman” and a kind-hearted man at his funeral Tuesday. Once asked if he ever threw at a batter on purpose, Auman paused before answering, “Well, not so it would hurt him.” After baseball, Auman enjoyed a long career with Sanford (eventually Singer)
Howard Auman was voted “class favorite” his final year at Campbell Junior College (now Campbell University). Auman played baseball at Campbell and was a star before enlisting to serve in the Army during World War II.
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@therant905 Furniture Company before retiring at the age of 62. He was a longtime deacon and Sunday school teacher, a member of the Elks Club and regular Meals on Wheels volunteer. A native of West End, he was the last survivor of nine siblings — a distinction that allowed him to tell old family stories “without anybody correcting me.”
Lawrence “Crash” Davis — the inspiration for Kevin Costner’s character of the same name in “Bull Durham” — played a season with the Sanford Spinners in 1939 before his senior year at Duke and a year before making it to the big leagues to play for the Philadelphia A’s.
the AAA Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League. The stint was a disaster … 5 innings pitched, 9 runs (8 earned), 4 walks and a 14.40 ERA. He returned to AA Shreveport in 1949, but never regained his form. He went a combined 18-29 for the struggling Shreveport Sports in ’49-’50, and bowed out of baseball after a year as a relief pitcher for the squad in ’51.
Auman was the catalyst for the club’s success in its first season in the Tobacco State League. He averaged nearly 8 innings a start and once pitched a complete game that went 19 innings. He also once started both games of a double header. Perhaps most impressively, he hit a respectable .264 in 110 at-bats for Sanford, with 2 home runs and 3 doubles that year.
For his career, the three-time All-Star had an 82-84 record, a 3.48 ERA in 239 games pitched.
His year with Sanford caught the eye of the Chicago Cubs, who drafted him in 1947 and sent him to Class A Macon, where Auman continued his success with a 20-14 record in 38 starts. He was promoted to AA in ’48, going 13-11 with Shreveport.
CRASH DAVIS INSPIRATION FOR A FILM LEGEND
That same year, he made it to the doorstep of the majors — a short stint with
After Shreveport, he returned to Sanford with wife Maxine and had two daughters, six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Lawrence “Crash” Davis didn’t make a huge impact in the Major Leagues — in three seasons with the Philadelphia Athletics, Davis appeared in 148 games, hit .230 with 2 home runs and 43 RBI. Before that, Davis played the 1939 season with the
Sanford Spinners – statistics from that season are not available, but Davis was barely 20 when he played in Sanford before his senior season at Duke University, and he skipped the minors and made his Major League debut just the following season on June 5, 1940, in front of more than 18,000 fans at Philadelphia’s Shibe Park (a far cry from the few hundred who watched him in Sanford). The war paused his playing career when he was drafted by the Navy in 1942. He ran the ROTC program at Harvard, and Robert F. Kennedy trained under him at the time. When he resumed playing after the war, the A’s cut him in spring training and sent him back to the minors, where he played for several teams in the Carolina League until 1952. Davis’ legendary status in the game of baseball wouldn’t come for another 30-plus years, when he became the inspiration for Kevin Costner’s character, Crash Davis, in “Bull Durham.” Davis earned the nickname “Crash” as a teen when he crashed into another outfielder while chasing a fly ball.
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rantnc.com According to a WCNC article about Davis in 2011 on the 10th anniversary of his death, “Bull Durham” director Ron Shelton was thumbing through a baseball history book when he came across Davis’ name. He changed some of the facts around — Davis, a second baseman, was known for doubles in the minors, while the movie version, a catcher, he would be known for home runs — but the spirit remained. The real Crash Davis would enjoy fame for the remainder of his days — he was invited to throw out the first pitch at a Bulls game, was interviewed several times for several years as the movie obtained “legendary” status, and he even had a small part in Shelton’s 1994 baseball film, Cobb. He remains, perhaps, the most famous name to ever don a Sanford Spinners cap … even if just for a year. ORVILLE ‘HANK’ NESSELRODE SANFORD’S HAMMERIN’ HANK From 1946 to 1950, only three players in the Tobacco State League managed to
hit more than 20 home runs in a season. Two of those players did it for Clinton in 1946. Sanfore’s Orville “Hank” Nesselrode did it three times. The 6-foot, 3-inch West Virginia native who made it all the way to Class A ball in Oklahoma City in 1941 before the war, was an offensive juggernaut for the Spinners from 1946 to 1948, where he hit 30, 32 and 27 home runs in respective seasons. He drove in 150 runs in 1946 and 166 in 1947, and he batted a whopping .362 in 1948. According to Holaday’s book, Nesselrode never sniffed the big leagues after Sanford for a few reasons — he was in his 30s already, and his feet were badly damaged by frostbite during the war, and he never got his speed back (though he did steal more than 20 bases in ’47). Nesselrode felt at home in Sanford — in 1954, he opened up a service station, “Hank’s,” at the corner of Endor (Horner) and Carthage streets in downtown Sanford. His was one of several businesses along “gas station row” at the time.
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Images from a few of the first games played in June by the Sanford Spinners at Southern Lee High School’s Tramway Park. Photos by Jordan Anderson, Billy Liggett and Maggie Smith, courtesy of the Sanford Spinners. View more at rantnc.com
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Opinion: Spinners part of our growth At first glance, economic development and baseball might not seem to have much to do with one another. But make no mistake — the presence of the Sanford Spinners, a collegiate level baseball team named for a minor league team that operated here decades ago and which kicked off its inaugural season in June is another piece of the puzzle that will help Lee County continue to grow.
RANT NIGHT IS JULY 14 Join The Rant at the Sanford Spinners game 7 p.m. on July 14 at Tramway Park adjacent to Southern Lee High School. We’ll be at the game with copies of our July printed edition of The Rant Monthly, as well as a few goodies for those who want them. Some of us may also be throwing out a first pitch. Gulp.
Just like high quality schools and community colleges, just like the sports complex passed by voters in 2020 (which the Spinners anticipate moving into upon completion), just like unique dining options and craft breweries and farmers markets, and just like new modes of transportation like the passenger rail station that’s almost certainly coming to downtown, the Spinners are more than just what they are — they’re a quality of life amenity. Something the community now offers.
be sure the Spinners will get mentioned. That’s because these companies employ people, and people want something to do. By themselves, any of the things we listed above might be just another thing. But taken together, they paint a picture of a community that offers recreation, dining, culture, and more. In other words, an attractive community.
So when the economic development team at the Sanford Area Growth Alliance is meeting with prospective businesses looking to relocate or expand in our community, you can
If you haven’t yet, check out a game (the season runs through July 21). You’ll enjoy yourself and you’ll be helping Sanford and Lee County grow.
We hope to see you there!
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NEWS 2-CENT CITY TAX HIKE WILL FUND NEW FIRE STATION ON US 1 The Sanford City Council voted in June to increase property taxes by two cents, with City Manager Hal Hegwer saying that the new revenue would be used to fund a fourth city fire station. The city property tax rate for 202122 will 62 cents per $100 of valuation, an increase of $40 on a home valued at $200,000. The $59,476,879 budget, in addition to funding a new fire station, includes a 2 percent cost of living adjustment for city employees. The new fire station will be at the intersection of Colon Road and U.S. 1 in the Deep River area, located on land donated to the city by the developers of the Galvin’s Ridge subdivision, which is set to bring 1,000 new homes to the area. Hegwer said the tax increase was necessary to fund the fire station because tax revenues haven’t caught up to growth. “It catches up and then over time maybe we should be able to see a reduction in that tax rate,” he said.
COUNTY NOW OFFERING CASH TO GET VACCINATED The Lee County Health Department is now offering $25 cash cards to residents 18 and up who get their first COVID-19 vaccination, or to someone who transports a person to get their COVID-19 vaccination (drivers for taxi companies and ride sharing services are not eligible).
To schedule a vaccination, call (919) 842-5744 (English) or (919) 718-4640 option 8 (Spanish) between Monday and Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
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COVID WHACK-A-MOLE Lee one of six counties in state experiencing ‘substantial community spread’ of COVID-19 By Richard Sullins Masks are coming off and restaurant tables are back in place. Churches have reopened and handshakes have returned. For the first time in a year, we can see people smile, and we hear them greet one another with the words, “I’ve had my shots!” But perception is not always reality. While it may seem that we have beaten the Grim Reaper of COVID, he’s still at work in the background and this time, the ones he’s most likely to come for are those still unvaccinated. After the pandemic hit its peak in early January and shots started going into arms, the number of COVID cases dropped sharply across the country. The number of persons testing positive for the virus has dropped in North Carolina to 1.9 percent as of the latest data release on June 25. But in Lee County, the percentage of positive tests is almost 3 times higher than the state average — 5.2 percent — and despite the county’s best efforts, it has stubbornly remained above 5 percent almost since the pandemic began. Until the last week of June, Lee was one of six counties in the state that were still experiencing “substantial community spread” of the virus, meaning that there have been at least 21 cases in the last 14 days for every 100,000 residents and that there remains at least a moderate impact on county hospitals.
The NC DHHS’s COVID-19 dashboard shows that Lee County has reported 34 cases per 100,000 residents and the impact on the local hospital remains moderate.
The database further indicates that 25,307 Lee County residents have had at least one dose of the vaccine as of June 25. Digging further into the dashboard’s data shows that the highest vaccination rates in the county are in some of the western townships (as high as 54.2 percent), while the lowest percentages of persons having received the vaccine (29.7 percent) are located along either side of the US 421 by-pass corridor on the east side of Sanford. The data doesn’t give a clear answer why this circumstance exists, and local leaders are left guessing as well. Some believe that at least some of the hotspot activity came from manufacturing, where people worked closely together and then went home with lots of people living in the same home. Whatever the reason, Sanford Mayor Chet Mann said communication is the first step forward. “Unfortunately, getting our message out today is a real challenge,” he said. “Social media is about the only way that people in those areas are able to get the message and if they are not following the channels of the city’s website, the county’s website, and if they are not on the Sanford Area Growth Alliance site, where will they get their information?” It was precisely that lack of information among some populations that was the impetus behind the City’s mask mandate imposed in 2020. The idea was that those persons who went into businesses would all get the message about the importance of mask wearing, social distancing, and good hygiene if they wanted to enter those establishments
to conduct business. Mann said that the City didn’t write a single ticket for mask violations, but they did do more than 700 educational visits to stress the importance of taking steps that would help control the outbreak.
The data also shows that persons aged 65 and older have the highest rates of being vaccinated, with the lowest being those ages 30 and under. Vaccination rates are particularly lower in areas with high minority concentrations within the population. As soon as the vaccine became available in late December of 2020, sites were overrun by people wanting to get vaccinated. But as the percentage approached the 40 percent number, lines and waiting times have disappeared, leaving county health departments with large stocks of the vaccine and few showing up to get it. This phenomenon is not unique to Lee County. It’s being seen across the country, leaving health officials to speculate why more people won’t take action to protect themselves and their loved ones. For some, it’s a choice governed by personal health concerns. For others, it’s belief in a conspiracy theory that the virus doesn’t exist, and that the vaccination program is another example of government overreach. And there are some who want to wait and see if there are unforeseen and potentially deadly any side effects from the shots that haven’t shown up yet. But whether you believe that the pandemic is real or not, the statistics are set in stone. 6,151 cases have been reported in Lee County since the outbreak began 15 months ago. The virus has claimed 83 lives here since March of 2020. And the county’s percentage of COVID tests that are positive remains among the highest in the state. Officials across the county who spoke to The Rant agreed that educating people
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rantnc.com from all walks of life about the efficacy of the vaccine and the importance of taking steps to protect yourself and others from COVID is similar to how you protect yourself against other illnesses, like colds or the flu, and staying informed about what is happening in the community. Lee County Schools Superintendent Dr. Andy Bryan says the key to a successful reopening of schools was in keeping people informed through transparency. “As we opened back up for in-person learning in our schools, we kept a dashboard on our website to show students and staff numbers that had been tested positive, quarantined, and so forth, and we also had to keep that information for our partnership with Duke University’s ABC Collaborative, so we were retaining all that information as we went through the course of the pandemic,” he said. School Nurse Supervisor Mary Hawley Oates said that quarantining was key to controlling the outbreak. “Total staff quarantine for that period was 697 with 127 staff testing positive,” she said. “The total number of students was 1,873 quarantined with 133 who tested positive. In summer school, there have been quarantined 10 to 15, with 2 or 3 who have tested positive. And who they had exposure to.” No Lee County students died as a result
of the pandemic, but the district did lose one staff member. Vaccinations played a critical role in the reopening of Lee County Schools during the year just ended. Oates said that exact data is not available because staff are not required to report their vaccination status, but about 65 percent of last year’s teachers and staff have received the vaccination. “Now, we will have new staff coming in next year and we don’t know their vaccine status,” she said. “We don’t know how that will change the landscape of our schools. Mind you, some sites had as few as 15 percent of their staff vaccinated, whereas other sites had 74 percent of their staff vaccinated. So, it varied. It wasn’t 65 percent of every school. That’s the cumulative number.” Oates says that despite all the work that has been done, it’s the unknowns that can throw all the county’s progress off the track. She believes that a surge in known COVID cases late in the 2020-21 school year might have been caused by a variant of the virus. “In the last month of school, we saw a real increase in the number of students who were testing positive,” she said. “We probably had 35 to 40 cases during the last month who tested positive. And that’s what we were seeing in the community.” Last October, 11.7 percent of the total
COVID cases seen in Lee County were from school-aged children ages 17 and under. That number has never gone down. It continues to rise and today stands at 12.9 percent, meaning that children in school are the most vulnerable in the county because only a small percentage have had the vaccine. That’s elementary and middle school children, since students as young as 12 years old are now eligible to get vaccinated. Oates believes that it may be January 2022 before the youngest children are declared eligible by the CDC. County Health Director Heath Cain says his department is continuing to provide multiple vaccination options for individuals who want to get them. These include every Thursday and Friday from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Government Center, by calling (919) 842 5744 to register for an appointment, and from drive-thru clinics that will be available until July 20. Cain said that the Health Department is also providing through DHHS a COVID-19 Vaccine Incentive in the form of a $25 card for all persons ages 18 and older who want to receive their first COVID vaccine. More information about this incentive can be found at http://covid19.ncdhhs.gov/vaccines/ covid-19-vaccine-incentives. Other organizations, such as the United Way, are promoting and providing opportunities for vaccinations to increase the number of people vaccinated and help prevent the further spread of the
virus. Mann applauded the tough door-to-door work done by the Health Department. “While I’m disappointed by the overall COVID response, I think our Health Department has done a super job, especially in the last six months, of trying to make it easier for people who want it to get vaccinated. Right now, the Health Department has called every member of the Chamber of Commerce, 600 members, and asked them if they would like a nurse to come to their business and do a free coronavirus vaccination. That’s great.” Officials are unanimous on this point: the vaccine works and there is no reason not to get it. Oates observed that “vaccination is the only way we are getting out of this pandemic. I personally didn’t hesitate. I fought to get my first vaccine just as quickly as I could get it into my arm, and to get my whole family vaccinated as quickly as we could. I say as a scientist said on television recently, ‘I’ve been to funerals of people who died from COVID but I haven’t been to any who died from taking the vaccine. Because there aren’t any.’” o Richard Sullins covers local government for The Rant Monthly. Contact him at richard@rantnc.com.
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THE MASSIVE FORT JEFFERSON IS THE CENTREPIECE OF DRY TORTUGAS NATIONAL PARK, BUT FAR FROM THE ONLY ATTTRACTION.
DRY TORTUGAS
AN AMERICAN PARADISE, ASIDE FROM THE ISLAND RATS By Billy Liggett
creature comforts like air conditioning and proper bedding.
Almost 70 miles west of Key West lies the remote Dry Tortugas National Park. This 100-square mile park is mostly open water with seven small islands. Accessible only by boat or seaplane, the park is known the world over as the home of magnificent Fort Jefferson, picturesque blue waters, superlative coral reefs and marine life, and the vast assortment of bird life that frequents the area.
e drove to the tip of the Florida Keys and took a ferry another 70 miles west to spend three days and two nights at Dry Tortugas National Park — home to white beaches, clear blue waters and the massive Fort Jefferson, a 19th Century military remnant crawling with history and hermit crabs.
In return, we experienced the closest we’ve ever come to “natural paradise” and true isolation, away from cell phone signals, WiFi coverage and other distractions that seemingly control our lives. Dry Tortugas is the hardest national park to get to in the U.S., but the hard work is worth it.
Did you know? Fort Jefferson was not only a base, but a prison manned by the Union Army to control trade routes during the Civil War. Its most famous prisoner was Dr. Samuel Mudd, who was sent there for treating and aiding John Wilkes Booth after the assassination of President Lincoln.
What we were searching for was something new. An adventure. We’re not what you call a camping family, but three days on Dry Tortugas requires not only camping know-how, but the will to “rough it” with no access to fresh water or other
We made our reservation to camp on Dry Tortugas and load our gear onto the Yankee Freedom ferry more than a year before our trip. And you pretty much have to plan that far out, because seats on the ferry for campers go fast.
Learn More
W
GETTING THERE
If you’re planning on going for just a day, your purchase can be a little more “last minute” — on the day we left, several people were on stand-by for tickets that morning, and they all got a seat. Tickets aren’t cheap — they’re $210 per adult and $155 per child under 16 for campers and just $20 cheaper for day-trippers. But the trip itself (70 miles and about two-and-a-half hours from Key West to the Fort Jefferson dock) is comfortable, with air conditioning, breakfast and lunch all served. There are other ways to get there — sea planes fly out from Key West each morning if the weather’s right, and you can always take your own boat, should you
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rantnc.com know the way. THE ISLAND We went in June, and it was hot. And when our boat docked, we were met with an unfortunate smell of dead fish and oppressive heat. The smell, we learned, isn’t year-round … just the unfortunate effects of decaying seagrass (common in the Keys). Fortunately, the smell is mostly relegated to the dock area and isn’t noticeable on the beaches or in the fort. The fort itself is massive, and your first thought when seeing it on the horizon is “Why is this here?” This is answered if you tour the fort and learn the history. We could have spent hours exploring each level, but we were there to camp and to snorkel. And fortunately, the snorkeling is great. Without a doubt, the highlight of the trip for us. The water never gets seriously deep, and the sea floor is visible nearly everywhere. Certain areas around the fort are home to live coral, and even in the bare areas, we saw barricudas, tropical fish, groupers, a few jellyfish and a shark (who we saw from the wall, thankfully). THE CAMPING We spent both evenings on the island hanging out on the moat wall, facing west and watching two of the most beautiful sunsets we’ve ever seen. But when the lights go out on Dry Tortugas, the one negative arrives. Island rats. We’d read several blogs about camping on the island, and they all mentioned the rats. But none of them described just how loud they are at night and just how annoying they can be. On our first night, we both woke up several times to shoo away a rat trying to climb the pole you’re given to hang your trash. On the second night, we locked our trash in a thick plastic bin and had a much easier night. Still, the rats are real (as ar the thousands of hermit crabs that skitter across the island at night … but at least they’re cuter). Camping on the island is a challenge, especially for those who don’t do it often. But the payoff is the night sky. Seventy miles from any city lights, Dry Tortugas’ sky is void of light pollution, and the stars are magnificent. On our second night, we could see the Milky Way so well, we took pictures with our iPhone (and they came out great). If it weren’t for the rats, it would have been the perfect experience. Still, even with the rats, it came pretty close.
Dry Tortugas National Park is home to beautiful sunsets, ideal snorkeling and tons of history at Fort Jefferson. It’s also home to hermit crabs, island rats, countless species of fish and several species of bird that stop by during migration. Learn more about visiting the island at DryTortugas.com. Photos by Billy Liggett
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MAKE-A-WISH OF EASTERN N.C.
Organization celebrates 4K wishes, plans ‘Wish Day’
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To volunteer or donate to the Make A Wish Foundation of Eastern North Carolina, visit wish.org/eastnc or call (919) 821-7111. Eastern NC Chapter President Chris Winter pictured above.
ust a year ago, the Make A Wish Foundation of Eastern North Carolina granted the 4,000th wish in the chapter’s 30-plus year history. But for Chris Winter, the chapter’s president and CEO, there’s always more to do.
introduce himself and re-introduce the charity he represents. To be clear, Make A Wish of Eastern North Carolina has been granting wishes in Lee County for as long as the chapter has existed, but Winter’s efforts are aimed at establishing more of a permanent presence.
“Our first wish was a wrestling wish, the child wanted to see wrestling at Dorton arena in Raleigh,” said Winter, who has been in his role for about two and a half years. “A 4,000th wish is a pretty momentous occasion. But what we’ve found is that we have a significant portion of our volunteers and our donors, kind of living in Wake County and then in New Hanover County, Wilmington. Those are population centers so they’re always going to have more, but what we want to do is really spend the next several years establishing our home across the chapter.”
“Our office may be in Raleigh, but that’s secondary,” he saidd. “We’re at a point where we’re really working to think globally about our chapter, so wherever we grant wishes is home. The money that we raise here grants wishes here, and volunteers that are here grant wishes here.”
For Winter, that means targeting places like Lee County, where he attended the June 24 Chamber of Commerce banquet to sort of
One of the efforts to establish more permanency in Lee County will take shape in a yet-to-be scheduled Community Wish Day held in partnership with the Sugarneck event venue in the Buckhorn community. “We’d be here in Sanford, Lee County and we’d reach out to our current wish families, wish alumni, volunteers and have kind of a carnival environment for the day,” he said. “It’s
an opportunity to celebrate the children that are in our wish pipeline and from this area, but it’s also a way to connect to our community. Because what we know is that the actual delivery of the wish is the central moment in our relationship obviously with our wish families, but our relationship carries on hopefully forever.” The biggest need for an organization like Make A Wish of Eastern North Carolina is volunteers, who are instrumental in working with families to deliver the wishes for sick children, Winter said. “We truly stand on the shoulders of volunteers. Pre-pandemic, we were granting about 200 wishes per year, and each of those wishes generally will have two wish-granting volunteers assigned to those wishes,” he said. “(Volunteers) put together incredible celebrations for these children and you can imagine it takes a lot of volunteers with 200 wishes in the course of a year.”
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es of a nefarious nature” while “providing a controlled substance for the purposes of having her earn additional monies for additional controlled substances.”
MAN ACCUSED OF TRAFFICKING, HOLDING 18 YEAR OLD KILLED AT GIRLFRIEND INVOLUNTARILY GRADUATION PARTY; Lee County sheriff’s deputies arrested JUVENILE IN CUSTODY a local man in June on multiple counts of human trafficking and involuntary servitude.
Daniel Lee Linder, 25, of 5233 N.C. Highway 87 faces six counts each of human trafficking an adult victim and involuntary servitude. According to Captain Jeff Johnson of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, the victim was Linder’s 21 year old girlfriend, who passed away in March from what authorities believe was a drug overdose. Johnson declined to give further details, citing an ongoing investigation, but warrants obtained by The Rant indicate that Linder is alleged to have made the victim “perform labors by means of repeatedly requesting money through various internet applications to include imag-
An 18 year old was shot and killed at a graduation party in Sanford on the morning of June 5, and a 16-year-old suspect was arrested. Sanford police responded between midnight and 1 a.m. on June 5 to the Baymont Hotel at 2614 S. Horner Blvd. and found Jason Lamont Harrington, 18, in the parking lot with gunshot wounds. Harrington was taken to Central Carolina Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Police said “a parent” had rented a room at the hotel for her son to have a graduation party, although there was no information provided regarding the identity of the parent or if the child in question was the victim, the suspect, or neither.
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rantnc.com Around 7:20 a.m. on June 5, police located a 16-year-old suspect and charged him with juvenile petitions for murder and possession of a firearm by a minor.
MAN WANTED IN S.C. MURDER ARRESTED Drug agents with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office along with officers from other law enforcement agencies arrested a man on June 2 who was wanted in connection with a murder in Florence, S.C. Deputies received word Wednesday from the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation’s criminal apprehension team that Eric Dequan Timmons Jr., 25, was possibly in the area. Timmons was apparently wanted in connection with a murder that occurred “just hours prior” in Florence, according to a press release. After being provided with a description of his vehicle, agents located it at the Econo Lodge at 1403 N. Horner Blvd. At that time, the drug agents were joined by officers from the Sanford Police Department and the Florence, S.C. Police
Department, who were able to take Timmons into custody without incident.
NEW HILL MAN CHARGED WITH IMPERSONATING A POLICE OFFICER Sanford police arrested a New Hill man on May 26 on charges of impersonating an officer after he allegedly tried to pull over another driver several days earlier. A woman reported around 2:15 a.m. on May 22 that she was being pursued south on U.S. 1 near Spring Lane by a vehicle with a flashing blue light. According to police, the woman was able to pull off the road safely “without further interaction with the suspect,” who apparently fled the scene. Further investigation eventually led to the arrest of Kevin Christopher Lawrence, 18, of New Hill. He was charged with unlawful use of a blue light and impersonating a police officer by use of a blue light. The second charge is a felony.
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CUOC’s food pantry has grown with the community By Charles Petty Back in 2004, Thomas Simpson was the associate pastor at Jonesboro Heights United Methodist Church. One day that year, he asked the gathered congregants a single question. “How would the community respond to the needs of those who are searching for food, clothing, and shelter?”
Christians United Outreach Center began a partnership with Food Bank of N.C. three years ago to create a ‘healty pantry” for the community. Photo: CUOC
For Grace Aiken, it was a life changing moment — a moment of spiritual clarity. All of her life, Aiken had volunteered and helped when and where she could. “For me, I am able and I feel like I am
useful,” she said. “It’s also enjoyable to be able to reach out and help others in a meaningful way.” From her Sunday school class at church, her class began to collect food to help out with food insecurity in Lee County. From that small classroom, the food drive moved to the 20,000-square foot Christian United Outreach Center building in 2007. For Grace and her friends and other fellow volunteers, seeing the space grow has been miraculous. Three years ago, the CUOC began a partnership with the Food Bank of North Carolina to create a “healthy pantry” to help with food insecurity in the Lee County community. The process is worked through a
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rantnc.com system known as “client choice.” Client choice is the ability for a person or family in need to receive food that works best for them. Often, food is distributed in bulk to families without much input from the needs of the families themselves. The Food Bank and its pantries allow those who are food insecure to pick out what food items meet their diet and health needs. The pantry is located in what used to be the thrift store section of the CUOC headquarters. It now houses numerous food shelves and refrigerators. Currently around 14 percent of North Carolina residents are food insecure, including nearly 10,000 in Lee County who wonder where their next meal is coming from. The food pantry is set to directly help those in need by allowing them to create meal plans and come in directly to find food items that best serve them and their families. The nutrition department at the food bank has been working hand-in-hand with CUOC. Anybody who is a Lee County resident can qualify for the food pantry. Once they come in they will be screened and processed and instructed on how to utilize the food
pantry on a monthly basis. The Food Bank designates pantries by three levels depending on the amount of food they can give to clients. The ranks are bronze, silver, and gold level status pantries. Currently the CUOC pantry is now a gold level food distributor. The gold level status comes with access to a mobile kitchen which the CUOC will use to help teach clients about food wellness and for other events. Grace Aiken’s husband Larry was able to get his Rotary chapter to help install the shelves for the food and put down the industrial grade flooring needed for the pantry, as well as to clean, paint, and reorganize the space that was once the thrift store. Through a grant, they were able to secure the shelving for the center. CUOC Executive Director Teresa Dew Kelly said she’s thankful for the volunteers, the Rotary Club, The Food Bank of North Carolina, and the community outreach to help make the food pantry become a reality. “We are thankful for our partners and volunteers to help make this pantry a space where those in need can come and make good use of our expanded services,” she said.
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BROADWAY
Teen’s life honored at suicide prevention cookout By Charles Petty In the summer of 2020, Sierra A’lese McLean took her own life, shocking her family, her church, her friends, and the community. Just 19 years old, McLean was a beloved young woman. Her friends and family describe her having a big heart and a caring spirit. To commemorate McLean’s memory, Cameron Grove AME Zion Church in Broadway and the Lee County Sheriff’s Office teamed up on June 15 to host the first of what McLean’s mother hopes will become an annual suicide prevention cookout. “I want to celebrate life, her life, and help get out into the community raising suicide awareness. To reach one and teach one in regards to mental health issues,” said Latishea McLean, Sierra’s mother.
Pastor Kenneth Swann of Cameron Grove AME, had served as McLean’s pastor and was a friend of the family, and so was glad to help host the event. “Through this tragedy, it is very important that everyone knows that there are people willing to stand in the gap with you. People need to know that there is support in the community and within the church,” he said. “We need to start talking because too often we are busy sweeping mental illness under the rug. We need to address it head on so that way we can save lives.” He also has stated that he hopes fellow members of the clergy will step up to better address the conditions of mental well-being in their congregations. Several deputies from the sheriff’s office attended the cookout, including deputy Adam Kindle, who is the resource officer at Broadway Elementary School. Kindle said that having lost a brother to suicide, he felt compelled
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Family and friends of Sierra A’lese McLean gathered at Cameron Grove AME Zion Church to honor her at the first Suicide Prevention Cookout. to attend the event and show his support. “We need to be a help to our community and to help especially young people who are struggling,” he said. “You might be that
person that a kid needs to talk to about what’s going wrong and can be a help to them. I’m glad the sheriff’s office came out to support this because this is a big issue.”
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38 | July 2021
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PETITE MISS DANCE OF NC
Young dancer area’s first to win title in 16 years
I
t’s been almost two decades since a young dancer from Lee County earned the Petite Miss Dance of North Carolina title.
Riverlyn Thomas changed that this year.
The 9-year-old, who has been dancing at Dancer’s Workshop on North Horner Boulevard since she was about one, brought the distinction home after a recent statewide competition in Greensboro. The event is overseen by the Carolina Dance Masters organization. During the first week of July, Thomas will compete in Dallas against girls her age from all over the country for a national title awarded by Dance Masters of America. “(Dance) Masters is super fun,” Thomas said. “They always make sure you have the best time, and of course you do. You have classes to learn combos and see how fast you can pick up choreography, interview, where the judges see how well you can talk to each
other, and performance.” Thomas said she hopes to dance professionally when she grows up, but hasn’t yet settled on what exactly that looks like in terms of career. She describes her style as “more of an acrobatic musical theater type,” but said she’s interested in lots of different types of dancing. “She’s a very talented little girl, but we’ve known that for a couple years,” said Tori Melby, Thomas’ coach at Dancer’s Workshop. “But she works. She works hard. She’s here to work, she’s not here to play. It certainly has been an effort on her part, and she has not let much of anything stand in her way.” Thomas said she’s even applied the lessons of dance to her academic studies. “In dancing we count eight,” she said. “That comes to mind when I’m in math class, I’ll be like, ‘oh, what is this, oh wait, I’m just going to my jazz dance. What’s
this count?’ And it’s really easy to focus and learn new stuff when you’re in dance. You can apply that to school.” The last dancer from Lee County to be named Miss Petite Dance of North Carolina was Mariah Reives, who won the title in 2005. Since then, she’s gone on to compete on television’s “So You Think You Can Dance?” and recently appeared on The Tonight Show. But she’s also been able to come home and help teach at the Dancers Workshop, including with Thomas. Thomas said the feeling of winning was an inspiration because she wants to be an example to others who may have an interest in dance. “Mariah, Tori, everybody was super excited,” she said. “I was really glad to know that I had even placed in the top 10. And then when I heard that I won, I was just over the moon about it. I’m so excited that I get to show to people that anybody can dance.”
Riverlyn Thomas became the first Petite Miss Dance of North Carolina from Lee County since 2005, when Mariah Reives won the title.
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