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FEBRUARY 8, 2026

SNOW DAYS

Thanks to the sacrifice of firstresponders, law enforcement, health care workers and city, county, and state road crews, Wayne County residents got to enjoy a rare snow event — and weathered the storm.

BY RENEE CAREY / P .10

FEBRUARY 8, 202 6 Volume 3, Issue 29

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EDITORIAL

EDITOR Ken Fine

EDITOR Renee Carey

DESIGN DIRECTOR Shan Stumpf

PHOTOGRAPHY DIRECTOR Casey Mozingo

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WAYNE WEEK (ISSN 2993-9666) is published weekly — except the week of Christmas, Easter, and July 4 — for $125 per year by New Old North Media, LLC, 219 N. John Street, Goldsboro, NC, 27530.

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BIG WAYNE WEEK NEWS IS COMING!

We told you that we were going to be expanding Wayne Week this year — that we felt it was time to grow our paper and staff. Well, in the Feb. 15 edition, Step One of that expansion will be revealed as we welcome a new hire — and add a section to the paper. For those who want to know what is happening before you receive your paper, follow New Old North on Facebook and Instagram. And remember, none of this would have been possible without all of you!

4 Council to eye new noise limits

Monday, members of the Goldsboro City Council will likely decide whether or not to impose new restrictions on noise inside the city limits.

7 Our take

The 2025 Goldsboro crime statistics gave local leaders and residents a reason to be hopeful. But only five weeks into 2026, two gun-related homicides, including one that involved the death of a 61-year-old who was sleeping when a bullet entered his apartment and killed him, beg many questions about just how safe the city really is — and what the community can do to combat gun violence.

10 Special report: Snow days

Like most businesses and local governments, the snowstorm that paralyzed Wayne County had an impact on us, too. But thanks to Photography Director Casey Mozingo, we were able to produce a Feb. 8 edition — and get a lot of faces into the paper.

22 Public Notices

COVER PHOTO BY CASEY MOZINGO

NEWS + VIEWS

Goldsboro leaders could force residents to turn down the volume

A proposed amendment to the city’s Code of Ordinances would establish “quiet hours” in neighborhoods and prohibit groups like the drumline that often practices downtown from doing so on city streets after 7 p.m.

BY KEN FINE

The early evening sound of a drumline perfecting its craft in downtown Goldsboro could become a thing of the past if members of the City Council approve the amended version of Chapter 95 of the Code of Ordinances of the City or Goldsboro that will be on their agenda Monday.

But the musicians who have become a mainstay near the roundabout at the intersection of Ash and Center streets would not be the only ones put on notice.

Residential “quiet hours” would also be implemented and drivers who enjoy blaring music with the windows down would be forced to turn down the volume.

And owners of restaurants, bars, clubs, and other venues that utilize “outdoor amplified sound” would have limits placed on their establishments, too.

But while making noise in neighbor-

hoods would be permitted until late evening, the drumline — and any other musical act — would have to keep their noise indoors after 7 p.m.

In fact, it would be “unlawful” if its members practiced or performed “in any public street, park, sidewalk, or other public place within the city” after that time unless it had authorization from City Hall or Wayne County Public Schools.

A vote on the amendment was supposed to take place Monday, but the six council members who were able, despite hazardous road conditions, to make it to City Hall for the board’s meeting decided to recess the session until Feb. 9.

For informative purposes — and in the interest of transparency — many of the proposed additions to the noise ordinance have been included in this package. n

PROPOSED ORDINANCE

Stl YOUR Conservatve Voice !

Grounded in faith, service, Conservative ideals and family values, I will NEVER stop fighting for Wayne County!

Please vote JENNIFER STRICKLAND in the March Primary so we can win the County Commissioner At-Large battle, together, come November.

our TAKE }

WITH ONE EYE OPEN

We have to talk.

No, not just platitudes and more of the same old, same old.

And especially not the kind of line-drawing, inflexible, partisan blame-throwing that seems to become the result of any conversation about anything important or unimportant these days.

We have a problem that cannot be addressed anymore by sweeping pronouncements and generalized commentary.

If we are going to address what ails us, we must do it the right way.

And that means saying — and hearing — some tough things.

There have already been two major shootings in Goldsboro in 2026 — both of which resulted in a funeral.

It’s unacceptable.

As you probably know, the Goldsboro Police Department keeps track of shots fired in our community.

And if you been following Wayne Week for the last few years, you probably also know that those numbers have been horrifying.

So, as a community, we — thanks to the leadership of the Goldsboro City Council — decided to invest in our police department when the crime stats really started to scare us. We lost too many innocents and heard too many shocking stories, so we decided to do something.

And what we have done has made a difference. Last year, the numbers were down — dramatically.

But not six weeks into 2026, we have gotten

another wakeup call.

Just this Wednesday, a 28-year-old died from gunshot wounds.

And Jan. 27 at 5 a.m., a far more jarring incident unfolded.

ShotSpotter recorded bullets flying along a major highway that runs through our city.

Of course, as is the case in many places like this, there were houses in the area.

But when the GPD got there — literally the middle of a highway — they had no way to determine where the shots came from.

It was, to put it plainly, just another report of gunfire somewhere in our community.

Could it have been someone hunting?

Maybe.

Could it have been an ill-advised decision by some teenagers? That’s possible, too.

But law enforcement officials tell us that often, the recorded shots are a result of something far more nefarious.

Could it have been a confrontation between rival gang members or wannabes?

Absolutely.

A shooting from inside one car at another?

Probably.

And while we might not ever really know — without a witness or video footage, there isn’t much for law enforcement to use to figure that out — this time, there was a cost.

A big one.

Those shots claimed a victim, an innocent man who was caught in the crossfire as he lay sleeping in bed.

He wasn’t in the mix.

He did not provoke any attack.

He was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, and it cost him his life.

In fact, nobody knew he was a victim until the 61-year-old’s family got worried and found him dead inside his apartment on Oak Street.

And it is unlikely we will ever know how this tragedy unfolded.

All we can do now is hope that the victim’s family will get justice for their loved one.

But the truth is, they probably won’t.

It’s a sad story, but not an unfamiliar one.

We are losing innocents every day — children caught in the crossfire, young lives destroyed by gang involvement and a bullet, and young adults who decide that crime is the answer to escape a life of poverty.

And if we do not talk about why all of this has become such a problem in Goldsboro, we will never be able to find a way to stem the tide.

Let’s start with the most recent call from the peanut gallery.

As you can imagine, there are plenty of armchair quarterbacks who have plenty to say about safety and law enforcement.

Goldsboro police, they say, are not doing their jobs.

They are not in the neighborhoods where the crime is happening as a proactive force to stop gang members and drug dealers.

They are not protecting residents, especially in our housing projects.

More on that hypocrisy later — and yes, it is hypocrisy because those SAME people claimed, just a few months ago, that the GPD

was over-policing those same neighborhoods.

But just for giggles, let’s evaluate.

We have increased the number of police officers in Goldsboro, but it is true that the GPD is not fully staffed up.

And we still have a lot of work to do to attract and to keep officers — you know, like building the department a headquarters that isn’t infested with mold and mildew.

But the 2025 crime numbers prove that the decision to invest in law enforcement and to reinstate the gang unit and other key parts of the GPD has made a real difference.

Put another way, today, there are more criminals now who think twice before they act up because they aren’t sure who is watching.

And because we have sent a message that crime is a hot button issue in this community — and a priority — the word is spreading down to the youths resulting in fewer problems in our schools.

Those are good things.

But there is still a problem, one that cannot be erased in a day, and a serious barrier to make even more significant strides in preventing and solving crimes.

There are too many illegal guns on Goldsboro’s streets, and many of them are in the hands of young people, teenagers, and others who do not have the first clue how to handle them safely — or the judgment to make a better decision.

Tempers flare, egos get bruised, and turf wars rage.

Continued on page 8

A young person gets “disrespected,” and the result is violence.

Random shots fired along a highway and tragedy follows.

And what happens when there is a crime in the community — especially in our housing projects?

Silence.

Deafening and discouraging silence. You know why.

The risk is enormous for those who have to live among those gangbangers and drug dealers.

If you talk, you could very well end up dead.

That’s why we have so many murders that remain unsolved — even though everyone knows there were witnesses who could identify who pulled the trigger.

They have no role models, and many lose the security of an intact family support system — a place where they can feel safe — turning instead to the false promises of “a posse” who will be there for them “forever.”

So, we turn to schools to teach them discipline and to get them the education they need to find a new life.

But it’s just not enough.

And when the bell rings, the streets call.

Of course, there are teachers and caregivers and parents all across this community who battle poverty, limited education, and bad neighborhoods who help raise children with limits, discipline, and values.

Thanks to their efforts, many children make it out.

KEVIN JOHNSON

COMMISSIONER AT-L ARGE

Kevin Johnson is a Wayne County conser vative leader committed to protecting agriculture, suppor ting militar y families, and ensuring responsible use of taxpayer dollars through practical, results-driven leadership.

No one wants to get involved.

Here’s another fact.

GPD Chief Mike West would like to create the kind of trust that makes community members more willing to come forward, to work with police to make their neighborhoods safer.

But in this day of anti-police rhetoric and distrust, that is no easy task.

Community policing — putting more officers in the city, in those neighborhoods that need the presence so desperately so that relationships can be built — is a daily charge for those under West’s command.

But it takes time.

And it doesn’t help that those who have placed the blame on the GPD aren’t talking about the really hard truth — the scary fact that too many of us don’t discuss publicly because we are not supposed to.

There are still too many young men in this community who think that the only way to get out of a life in the projects — to be successful, to get the respect they think money buys — is to be a part of a gang or to deal drugs.

They romanticize toughness and believe the lies they see on social media and the promises of loyalty and friendship they hear from the criminals.

They are immersed in video games where bullets fly and in music that speaks of disrespect, vengeance, and depravity — ignoring the implied messages of the consequences of bad choices.

They don’t worry about prison or jail or wasting their lives because they don’t think they will have much of a life anyway.

And many of them do die much too young — victims of the lifestyle and the false promises.

All too often, those stories end with a bullet.

The hard task is that we need to figure out how to stop losing them.

The hard truth is that for many of these young men — and increasingly now, young women — their families have failed them. They are caught in cycles of neglect, abuse, and loss.

But there are too many who don’t — and too many others who just perpetuate the cycle.

Raging at the GPD won’t solve the problem. And neither will trotting out the “racism” and “victim” mantras.

That’s what false prophets do when they want attention.

Frankly, their influence has made this problem worse.

So, if we want to fix this problem, we have to talk about choices and limits.

We have to ask ourselves why we have become OK with such a massive amount of segregated housing in our city, when every single piece of research suggests it breeds poverty and violence.

We have to emphasize that education has to matter — a lot.

And we have to acknowledge that we are not only losing kids from the projects.

There are more than a few entitled teens from wealthy or middle-class families who don’t understand limits or consequences, either — who have been sheltered from real world responsibilities and realities and end up wreaking havoc on college campuses and inside their workplaces.

We have failed them, too.

So, it is time to refocus, to reprioritize, and to decide that what is best for our kids is to stand firm on expectations of behavior and to keep an eye out for parents who are shirking that very important responsibility.

It is time to have a real conversation — an uncomfortable one — about the future of project housing communities in this city. It is time to stomp out the criminals who are stealing our children and claiming innocent lives in the process.

But we have to go in with eyes wide open, knowing that it might take time, and this whole community, to make a real change.

Maybe, if we do those things — and we are brave enough to say the quiet parts out loud and do something about them — we won’t have to sleep with one eye open tonight, wondering if a bullet meant for someone else might take our life while we are lost in dream. n

SNOW DAYS

Thanks to the sacrifice of first-responders, law enforcement, health care workers and city, county, and state road crews, Wayne County residents got to enjoy a rare snow event — and weathered the storm.

BY RENEE CAREY

Most of us can’t wait for a snow day.

Of course, there is the dread and anticipation — the panic buying and the worries about the snow drifts, travel back and forth to work or school, and the ice, the ever-present and inescapable ice, and the consequences it wreaks.

Whoa, now that we look at it, maybe snow days are not that great after all.

So, when snow–maggedon hit Wayne County this past week, children celebrated the fact that they did not have to go back to school and we all tried to figure out how to pass the time as we watched and prayed that the ice and snow did not take down our power lines.

It was a rare storm, up to 10 inches accumulating in some areas of the county.

And we are sure you saw the reports from

PHOTOS BY CASEY MOZINGO

across North Carolina, including the massive disruption along the coast.

There are some who are saying that this much snow has not hit the area this hard since the early 1900s.

We should be glad that we did not beat that record — when more than two feet fell here.

And most of us heeded the warnings and the admonitions to respect the power of the weather system that buffeted Eastern North Carolina.

Continued on page 12

The point is, of course, that the smartest among us — and those who listened to the warnings about the impact of this record-breaking storm — were snug in our homes, ready to wait out the snowfall with our bread, milk, potted meat, and streaming services.

But there were many others who did not have a choice.

They had to get out — to get to work to make sure all of us stayed safe.

Of course, the most heroic were the first responders — the ambulance drivers, the EMTs, the doctors and nurses, the firefighters, and the law enforcement officers who were out in the elements throughout the storm.

When you called, they were there — even though they faced the same risks of travel that you had been warned about.

No Wayne County family had to worry that there would not be emergency care

for a family member because they made sure they could be on call.

And perhaps in the past you might have heard the stories about what it is like to be a firefighter battling a blaze in a home — or in this case, from a vehicle — in freezing and inclement weather.

There is no escaping the freezing blowback when you are trying to manage a hose.

And there is no escaping the hypothermia that can cause serious health concerns if not managed properly.

Yet our fire crews — volunteer and professional — stand ready, just in case.

And they were there this time, too.

And what about our highway patrolmen and sheriff’s deputies?

It could not have been easy navigating the conditions that almost made even major highways impassable.

Yet, they were there, for accidents, for

DID YOU KNOW?

The most snow recorded in Wayne County, North Carolina, during one storm was a 26-inch event that unfolded on March 2, 1927. Continued on page 15

MEETINGS RESCHEDULED

Members of the Goldsboro City Council made it to City Hall Monday but then recessed their meeting to allow members of the public to attend the public hearings that were on the agenda. The meeting will resume Feb. 9.

The Wayne County Board of Education will meet Feb. 9 as well, after its members opted to cancel and reschedule their monthly session.

Despite the closure of the Wayne County Courthouse, the Board of Commissioners held its Feb. 3 remotely. You can watch that meeting on the county government YouTube page.

cars stuck in the snow — or abandoned — and for anyone else who needed them.

And then there were the Goldsboro police.

You might not know this, but they were out, along with other local officers and emergency personnel, looking for those who needed some assistance in navigating the frigid conditions.

No senior went without medicine and if a driver got stuck trying to get home, they were there.

They even took some homeless to shelters and brought supplies to those they could not convince to come inside.

And they checked on your neighbors — making sure elderly residents had help if they needed it.

The conditions did not matter.

All of them had a job to do — and they did it well, even as they slid along icy streets and tried to dodge the snowflakes.

If you thought the city roads were bad, let’s take a moment to think about all the county backroads.

They were unplowed and dangerous.

But your local law enforcement officers

were there to make sure you were safe.

And we would be remiss if we did not mention some other unsung heroes, too.

There are dispatchers at the county emergency services center whose task it was to help coordinate and to connect emergency services with the residents who needed them.

They did not stay home either.

They were the first voices that many of us heard when we needed help.

Their service during this storm was vital.

And don’t forget the city, county, and state employees whose job started when the snow fell.

They have spent long hours not only making sure everything was running smoothly, but that plans were executed properly and that their employees made it home safe each night.

We owe them thanks, too.

And what about those roads?

They did not magically get plowed and salted.

The men and women who work in the city, state, and county street and highway departments were out in force, plowing

Continued on page 16

WHAT ABOUT MISSED SCHOOL DAYS?

Ahead of the storm, Gov. Josh Stein declared a state of emergency, which will likely give Wayne County Public Schools flexibility as it determines whether or not to require students to make up the days missed this past week.

In fact, during a state of emergency, the North Carolina Board of Education, in conjunction with the General Assembly, can authorize the waiver — or modification — of the required instruction time that would, without action from state leaders, force WCPS to require make-up days.

Some school districts, though, chose to err on the side of the caution by holding remote learning days instead of class cancellations.

But according to WCPS spokesman Ken Derksen, the district no longer has a remote learning plan like the one utilized during the COVID-19 pandemic in place.

day and night to make sure we could get around in an emergency — even as we sat comfortably in our homes watching the snow fall.

Many of them worked double shifts, heading out for another run even after hours.

They did not hesitate, because their communities needed them.

So, they hit the road, with a thermos of coffee or a cold Coke in tow to make it through the night.

These heroes do not get enough credit for the hours they put in and the service they perform.

So, we thought it was important they heard “thanks” in this week’s edition.

And don’t think we forgot about the many, many churches, organizations, and other groups who volunteered their time to make sure we got through this storm.

There were volunteers at the ready.

They welcomed strangers and neighbors with nowhere else to go and made sure they had a temporary family to look after them.

And there were legions of them who put their community first.

We shouldn’t be surprised.

Wayne County is the kind of place where people help one another.

We saw quite a bit of that, too.

You checked on your friends, family, and your neighbors.

There was snow shoveled, errands run and offers of a shared meal or a warm bed if the power went out.

No one gets left behind in this community.

That’s pretty special.

But there were, of course, some hiccups.

Wayne County children have missed quite a bit of school, and although the State Board of Education and General Assembly could give us a pass on making up the days, some have questioned why there was no remote learning in place to keep the kids from falling behind.

Well, the answer is really simple.

We learned a lot in this county from COVID-19.

Remote instruction was an abject failure — and accomplished little to keep kids on track.

And because the Wayne County Board of Education brought its students back as

Continued on page 19

quickly as possible, we were one of the counties that saw one of the highest postCOVID bounce-backs in the state.

Our superintendent knows how much in-person instruction matters, and that is a top priority.

So, while we hope that we will get some reprieve from the severe weather, if we don’t, the extra days in the classroom are what we will need — even if a few teacher workdays are lost to makeups.

Until then, maybe a few reinforcement activities and learning opportunities at home might be the answer.

And that could start this weekend with turning off those screens.

It could be as simple as reading a book or reviewing lessons or homework.

Remember, education is a priority in this community now, and many parents, children, and guardians are sending that message loud and clear.

GPD STORM RESPONSE — BY THE NUMBERS

The

Hitting the ground running is the plan for when classes are back in full swing — and that is a message that we need to send to our children.

We know Dr. Marc Whichard and his staff will be ready to rock. And that is what we need — not another garbled, dodgy, and ineffective remote learning Band-Aid, no matter what the critics say.

So, we hope you enjoyed the snow while it lasted.

Pretty soon, we will be complaining about our air conditioning bills and how hot it is as we dream of a few days on the beach.

Just keep your sights on that groundhog.

Word is, he is predicting another six weeks of winter.

But the good news?

If what our community just showed us reflects how we would handle another unprecedented snow event, we will be in good hands.

And for that, we owe all of the above a debt of gratitude. n

NOTICE TO CREDITORS OF SHIRLEY W. PATE

All persons, firms, and corporations having claims against Shirley W. Pate, deceased, of Wayne County, are notified to exhibit them to the undersigned on or before the 20th day of April, 2026, or this notice will be pleaded in bar of their recovery. All persons indebted to the estate will please make immediate payment to the undersigned.

This 18th day of January, 2026.

Chris Anthony Pate, Executor of the Estate of Shirley W. Pate

c/o Mark J. Hale, Jr.

Baddour, Parker, Hine & Hale, P.C.

Attorneys for Estate P.O. Box 916

Goldsboro, NC 27533-0916 (919) 735-7275