Eastern Randolph, baseball
[themify_hr color=”light-gray”]
Graham played a variety of positions for the Wildcats, often in the infield as the third baseman. He also was listed as a pitcher.
The Wildcats reached the Class 1-A West Region finals before falling to eventual state champion Uwharrie Charter Academy.
Graham is set to continue playing baseball at Guilford College.
** During the summer, we recognize seniors from the past school year.
MONCURE – VinFast, a Vietnamese electric vehicle manufacturer, broke ground on their proposed billion dollar facility in Chatham County Friday, July 28.
In an event attended by VinFast executives, the Vietnam Ambassador to the United States, Gov. Roy Cooper as well as various government officials, VinFast laid out their future plans and goals regarding the factory located in the Triangle Innovation Point megasite.
“Just over a year ago, Vinfast announced the plan to build our first North American manufacturing facility and today we are here to start the construction of the first EV factory in North Carolina which will have an annual production capacity of 150,000 vehicles,” said VinFast Global CEO Le Thi Thu Thuy.
The plant, which will be the first ever automobile factory in the state of North Carolina, aims to create thousands of jobs and is just the latest example of the economic and business boom the state has been experiencing.
“I’m so happy to be here because I’m thinking about the great paying jobs that are going to be created right here in North Carolina,” Cooper said. “They’re going to put money in the pockets of working families and that’s a great thing.”
“Vinfast is leading an army of clean-energy companies coming to our state. It has helped us to set records for job growth and economic expansion over the last few years. When you talk to CEOs of automakers and truck makers, the private sector is moving away from gas and diesel and into the EV market at breakneck speed. The competition is fierce, so it’s important that we’ve been able to pull together to harness the economic windfall that is coming from that, to make sure that money goes into the pockets of North Carolinians.”
The process has been an all-hands-on-deck approach that has encompassed support from the federal government to the state all the way down to local authorities.
“This was a true bipartisan effort,” Cooper said. “We’re grateful to have everyone here working on this. Our entire team from transportation to environment to commerce to our community colleges, we have all been working on this.”
“We are well on the way to being the greatest state in this country and the most progressive state in the south in showing what you can do when you have great vision, not just taking what comes, but knowing what we need to look like,” said Chatham County Rep. Robert Reives II. “We didn’t just take anything that came. We wanted to make sure that the people of Chatham County and all of our surrounding counties had an opportunity for good jobs. Jobs that their children will have.”
VinFast, which is a member of the VinGroup conglomerate, was established in 2017 and currently boasts a selection of electric cars, luxury cars, scooters, motorcycles and fully electric SUVs and according to Madam Thuy, recently had its business combination cleared by the US Securities and Exchange Commission brining, it one step closer to its listing on the stock market.
“With the factory that we are building here today, VinFast wants to strongly contribute to the goal of establishing robust, clean energy supply chains throughout the US,” Thuy said. “We have been hard at work to cultivate an ecosystem of suppliers in North Carolina that will complement our facility and create cutting edge industrial processes here.”
Along with the manufacturing of EVs, Gov. Cooper expressed his desire and goal to expand the network of electric charging stations across the state as well.
“In North Carolina, we are moving fast on infrastructure,” Cooper said. “We have a coordinated effort competing for every single federal dollar. One of the main things we’re trying to do is to make sure we have charging stations all over the state to make sure we are ready for this EV revolution and that will be part of the infrastructure effort that we are putting forward.
“We want to make a real public effort here. Already, we’re getting $100 million from the federal government with the plan that we’re working on with our transportation plan. We’re also applying for significantly more federal dollars that we think can help us do this. What we want to do is to coordinate with the private sector here to make sure there are charging stations in as many places as possible to continue to encourage the purchase of EVs and make sure everybody is comfortable having one. We know how important and how critical this is to the EV market making sure there are chargers everywhere.”
VinFast has also made great efforts to weave themselves into the fabric of the local community, with VinFast’s CEO of U.S. Manufacturing Van Anh Nguyen becoming a resident of the state of North Carolina and a collaboration with Central Carolina Community College to develop a world-class training program at its new state-of-the-art facility to help train the future workforce.
“This partnership will open the door for the people of Chatham County and beyond to receive free training and start their careers at Vinfast manufacturing EVs that will improve our environment and revolutionize the automotive industry,” Thuy said.
In addition to those, VinFast announced that they plan to donate three acres of land to the Mary Oaks Baptist Church, which is currently located on the site, and the company will work to identify resources needed to potentially relocate the church if necessary.
“I believe that you all share with me the hope that in the near future, Vinfast EVs produced in North Carolina, will be rolling out on roads across the United States and playing their part in keeping the U.S. clean and livable,” said Vietnam Ambassador to the U.S. Nguyen Quoc Dzung.
Randleman, softball
[themify_hr color=”light-gray”]
Roach played her final season with the Tigers in what was a softball career that began as a freshman.
She was listed as an infielder and pitcher.
The Tigers were off to a strong start to this past season, with victories in three of their first four games before fading to a 7-16 record.
Roach also was selected as an All-Piedmont Athletic Conference performer in girls’ swimming.
** During the summer, we recognize seniors from the past school year.
ASHEBORO — The Randolph County Schools Board of Education met Monday, July 17, with primarily recognitions and informational items presented.
The board opened the meeting by welcoming Randolph County Schools’ new public information officer, Amber Ward, who joined the staff following Tim Moody’s retirement after nearly 10 years of service to the county.
“She’s going to be good,” said Board Chair Gary Cooke. “She’s one of us. We’ll miss Tim, though. He did a great job.”
The board was presented with an update on their FY 2023-24 local budget.
“The county commission approved our budget on the 19th of June,” said Superintendent Stephen Gainey. “I’m very excited to announce that they approved everything we asked for in our local budget. It was $1,428,000, and it was all current expense requests. Our annual current expense request funding has increased by $6,588,974 since the end of the 2013-2014 school year. So that’s a pretty big jump.
“What’s equally exciting is that over the last ten years, our current expense funding has averaged an increase of $658,897.40 per year, and last year at this time, it was $573,000. It has not only gone up considerably, but we’ve significantly increased the average. I’m very excited about that.”
An important time from the approved budget that Gainey also pointed out was the increase in classified supplements.
“One of the special items in that budget request was increasing our classified employee supplements,” Ganey said. “So now when we start this school year, our classified supplements will have risen from 2.5% to 5.25%.
The board also recognized Shanna Good, a math interventionist at Trinity Middle School, who was named an NCCAT Honored Educator Scholar for Randolph County.
“Shanna Good has been named a 2023-2024 Lynda Petty Honored Educator Scholar,” Gainey said. “With this scholarship, she gets to go to a program of her choice at the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching. The scholarship will cover all expenses for instruction, program material, food, lodging, travel to and from and cost of substitute teachers. She also receives a $250 monetary gift to use on supplies in her classroom. I just want to congratulate Dr. Good for earning this great honor named after Ms. Lynda Petty, who was one of the all-time great people that’s ever been associated with our school system.”
According to the NCCAT website, the Randolph County scholarship “honors the late Lynda Petty, who dedicated her life to improving public education for the children of Randolph County. Mrs. Petty, known as the “First Lady of NASCAR,” supported the Randolph County community in many ways, but most commendably, she served as a local leader in education. During her lifetime, Lynda served as a school volunteer, and from 1984 to 2000, served as a member of the Randolph County Board of Education, including taking on the role as its Chairperson for seven years. NCCAT’s Lynda Petty Honored Educator Scholarship pays tribute to her lifelong commitment to the teaching profession.”
“Lynda did a lot for this school board,” Cook said. “She wasn’t on here when I came on, but her mark was here.”
The Randolph County Schools Board of Education will next meet August 21.
ASHEBORO – Earlier this month the North Carolina Zoo welcomed a newborn chimp. The baby girl still needs a name.
NC Zoo’s troop now consists of 17 chimpanzees – females Gigi, Amy, Ebi, Gari, Genie (the mother of the new chimp), Gerre, Ruby, Tammy, Asha and the new infant; males – Jonathan, Lance, Sokoto, Kendall, Gus and Obi and the new infant.
The North Carolina Zoo Society members will vote on the baby chimpanzee’s name in the upcoming weeks.
The newest baby has been active and nursing, according to Zoo officials.
“Genie is doing so well being a first-time mom,” North Carolina Zoo animal keeper Sarah Himmelspach said. “Genie’s childcare practice with her little brother Obi is definitely coming in handy. The baby girl is so strong and holding on tight whenever mom moves. Little girl’s uncle Obi has been very curious but respectful as mom and baby get more comfortable with the rest of the troop.”
Genie, who is 11 years old, is a first-time mother and was born at the Dallas Zoo in 2011. She arrived at the NC Zoo in 2012 with three other family members – mom Gerre, grandmother Gari and aunt Gigi.
Chimps are very protective of their young, and mothers hold the infants exclusively to their chest until about four months of age; only then are they allowed on the ground to begin exploring.
The most recent chimp births were a male born to Gigi in May and male Obi and female Asha in 2019, who are now rambunctious toddlers.
This is the seventh chimp birth at the North Carolina Zoo since 2010, making the NC Zoo the most successful Association of Zoos and Aquariums for breeding chimps. The Chimpanzee Species Survival Plan, managed by the AZA, recommended this planned birth.
The gestation period for chimpanzees is 230 days. Chimps have an average lifespan of 35-40 years in zoos.
Chimps are one of the five types of great apes, along with gorillas, orangutans, bonobos and humans. They are well-known for their intelligence and tool use. Chimps communicate in a variety of ways, including vocalizations, gestures and body posture, and facial expressions, allowing them to maintain complex relationships within communities that can number over 100 individuals in the wild.
ASHEBORO — The City of Asheboro Council met Thursday, July 13, with several property matters on the agenda.
The council started out by continuing two legislative hearings from the prior month.
The first was for a rezoning request for property located at the intersection of Old Cox Road and Old Humble Mill Road from Randolph County zoning to R15 (CZ) in order to allow a residential and commercial planned unit development.
“The request is for a planned use unit development that consists of single-family detached, single-family attached, and initially there was a commercial element proposed with the initial application, but that particular feature has been withdrawn,” said Community Development Director Trevor Nuttall. “That particular area where that had originally been proposed is still a part of this annexation and would still come into the city limits and be part of the rezoning.”
“There are several changes that we think are meaningful with this proposal,” Nuttall continued. “The first relates to parking for the development. There was significant discussion and questions asked about the adequacy of parking for the project. In response, the application and the site plan has been amended to add 34 new off-street parking spaces to the project, and those will be dispersed throughout the project.
“The second change relates to the number of units being proposed. That has been reduced from 413 to 399. There are 398 new lots proposed, the 399th would contain the existing structure if it can be preserved and repurposed.
“There is also a new condition pertaining to a six-foot fence that is now provided along the perimeter of the property boundary closest to Old Humble Mill Road where the floodplain of Richmond’s Creek does not provide an element of a natural buffering. So, there is now a good deal of fencing being proposed, and lastly, we received some additional details from the applicant related particularly to the townhomes in Phase 1. What that means is that in addition to the extra off-street parking that the plans now show, each unit will also have the commitment of a dedicated driveway and garage just as other homes in the development.”
The second hearing was for an annexation petition requesting the satellite annexation of three parcels related to the previous hearing.
Following the hearings, the council approved both requests.
The council then approved a request by Ross Holt of the Randolph County Historic Preservation Commission to designate real property identified as Acme-McCrary Hosiery Mills, 1909, and located at 159 North Street as a local historic landmark.
“There are three components to the site,” Holt said. “The McCrary Mill Number 2 Parks Hosiery Mill Building, now the Church Street Loft Apartments, the Acme-McCrary Recreation Center, now the Asheboro Recreation Center, and the main Acme-McCrary Hosiery Mill on North Street.”
The council also approved a request for the city to take over the maintenance of the streets in the Sherwood Oaks Townhomes development.
The council then held three new public hearings, all of which dealt with rezoning requests.
The first hearing was to rezone a property located at 207 East Pritchard Street from B2 General Commercial to OA6 Office-Apartment.
“The bottom line is that for this application, in our eyes, it provides what we typically seek to provide between residential and commercial uses, and that’s a transitional zone such as the OA6,” Nuttall said. “For those reasons, we believe this is a reasonable request.”
The second hearing was to rezone the property at 3114 Zoo Parkway from R40 Low-Density Residential to R10 Medium-Density Residential.
“This doesn’t quite fit what the plan envisioned at this time for the property, but it is more consistent with what is happening in the area,” Nuttall said.
The third hearing was to rezone property located at 615 and 617 South Church Street, 2333 West Kivett Street, and 616 and 622 Hammer Avenue with an amended Conditional Zoning Office-Apartment designation for the purpose of developing a multi-family development for the elderly that is a whole block redevelopment project.
“The purpose of this coming back to you is because the applicant has determined that a layout significantly different than what had previously been proposed is warranted due to environmental and site constraints,” Nuttall said.
The prior plan had a four-story building with 60 units; now, it is down to 48 units. Plan deviations include: not having the required additional 10% overflow parking spaces, being slightly taller than the 45-foot cap (47.5-foot), and having an indoor recreational area to meet the required standard.
Following each hearing, the council approved the requests.
The council also approved two ordinances extending the corporate limits of the City of Asheboro. One was a petition by Duke Energy Progress, LLC for property located across from the intersection of New Century Drive and Veterans Loop Road in order for them to relocate their engineering office and storage yard, and the other was a petition for property located near the intersection of NC Highway 42 and Patton Avenue.
The council also established a public hearing in August for another annexation petition for property located at the intersection of Crestview Church Road and Zoo Parkway.
The Asheboro City Council will next meet August 10.
ASHEBORO — The Randolph County Board of Commissioners met Monday, July 10, with decisions on opioid settlement funding and project bids as the main items on the agenda for consideration.
The board was first presented with a final update on the design of the Farm, Food and Family Center from HH Architecture, the firm working on the project.
“With all of the updates that we’ve made, we’re still right around a $29.2 million total budget,” said HH Architecture Project Architect Daniel Jencks. “That’s a touch more than the $28.3 that we currently have secured, but it’s important to note that we are within 3.5% of that number which is well within the comfort zone where we would normally recommend folks to go ahead and bid.
“We’ve worked really hard to pull things out of the scope or to dial back to less expensive items, but unfortunately, we’ve really just kept pace with inflation.”
Following the presentation, the board approved the preceding of bidding for the project.
The board of commissioners also approved $900,000 for several opioid settlement funding applications, although much deliberation took place about which ones to approve and the perceived effectiveness of these programs.
The organizations recommended for $50,000 in funding with an option to renew for two additional years each that were approved were the Randolph County Juvenile Day Reporting Center for early intervention practices, Randolph County Detention Center for Naloxone distribution, Randolph County Detention Center for addiction treatment for incarcerated persons and Randolph County Department of Social Services for recovery support services.
Morse Clinic for evidence-based addiction treatment and Community Hope Alliance for Naloxone distribution also passed, but with dissent from Chairman Darrell Frye and Commissioner Kenny Kidd.
“We’ve heard that it is critical to accept people where they are and to build relationships because what’s part of what’s missing in their addiction is relationships and connections is the opposite of where they are, and we’ve not done a good job of that,” said Commissioner Hope Haywood. “We can criticize the way somebody else is doing this, but we haven’t done it. If we had, we would have had a greater impact.”
The recommended programs that failed to get a majority vote from the commissioners were Community Hope Alliance for syringe service programs and Keaton’s Place for recovery support services.
“This is a pretty conservative, common-sense kind of county, and for the average person that I talk to and even I, having studied this and researched it and going and looking at harm reduction and trying to understand that better, I can’t understand how we can say distributing 192,000 needles last year in Randolph County makes sense for Randolph County,” said Commissioner Kenny Kidd. “I don’t care if the other 99 counties in North Carolina are doing it; Randolph County is different.”
In both cases, Commissioners Allen and Haywood were the dissenting votes from the majority, instead voting to approve the programs.
“In attending the opioid summit, listening to commissioners who have had children who have lost their lives to this… to me, it’s the compassion of it,” Allen said. “If we can save a life or two, to me, it’s worth it. We seem to think that this is a moral failing, but people make bad decisions.”
“I would like to point out too that this is a reimbursement,” Allen added. “So, the funds are not being just given. There is a reimbursement process, and there is also accountability after the first year. It’s not as if we’re giving money to an organization, and we don’t know what happens to it. There is accountability for these funds when they’re expended, and it’s not just giving somebody a blank check.”
The board then approved an aging services bid utilizing Block Grant funding and the 2023-24 classification and pay plan.
The board was then presented with the rebid results for the historic courthouse elevator addition.
“The base bid is now just the elevator addition with four alternates,” said County Engineer Paxtor Arthurs. “Alternate 1 was for a preferred brand of door hardware; this is basically just a formality for specifying a single manufacturer. Alternate 2 is raising the landing at the front steps because of a safety issue when the door swings out over a step. Alternate 3 is to upgrade the guardrails on the north steps and also to enclose the west steps when that handicap lift is removed, and Alternate 4 is to replace the HVAC unit up in the attic.”
The low bid went to H.M. Kern Corporation, as their base bid was $1.9 million, and with the other alternates, came to a total of $2,162,000.
“By rebidding the project, we were able to save over $500,000,” Arthurs said.
However, the commissioners vetoed tabling the decision in order to take more time to research the bidder due to concerns over how much cheaper they were than the other bidders.
Finally, the board approved the bid offer for the Northgate wellness center construction. The bid went to Lomax Construction and will have a total project cost of $349,500.
The Randolph County Board of Commissioners will next meet August 7.
Asheboro, boys’ golf
Elliott wrapped up his high school career by tying for 57th in the Class 3-A state tournament this spring.
Elliott was a member of the Mid-Piedmont Conference all-conference team for the third year in a row. He was a three-time regional qualifier (while his freshman season in 2020 was cut short by the pandemic).
Elliott has competed in numerous youth and amateur tournaments.
** During the summer, we recognize seniors from the past school year.
ASHEBORO — The Randolph County Schools Board of Education met Thursday, June 29, with primarily discussions and presentations on the agenda.
The board was given an update on the status of the Randolph Virtual Academy following the decision to emphasize endorsing the school rather than closing it.
“Since May 1, enrollment has continued to grow,” said Superintendent Stephen Gainey. “On May 10, it had grown to 59, and it has continued to grow since. [On] May 17, it went to 70. May 24, to 83. June 4, to 86, and the last enrollment number I have for this week is June 27. We have grown to 94 students, and the number of students who will be new to the school next year continues to grow as well. We are up to 45.7% of those 94 students being new to that school next year.
“Obviously, there’s been some big changes in the growth from 35 students since May 10. In 2021-22, there were four in-person activities on the campus. We were still dealing with a lot of pandemic restrictions then. For 2022-23, that number increased to six. The staff is working to further increase those in-person events as well.”
Gainey discussed that even though it’s a virtual academy, the staff believes that an increase in the availability of in-person events can only help the school grow and continue to build that school’s culture.
“We’re in a very different position than we were on May 15,” Gainey said. “There’s still a lot of work to do, and we’ll continue to work at it. We’ll continue working to promote it.”
The enrollment deadline for the Randolph Virtual Academy is August 1.
The board was also presented with the quarterly student assignment report, which showed that as of June 9, there were 15,227 students enrolled in RCS.
Also in the report was the fact that RCS has a net loss of 18 students between releases to other school systems of students within RCS’ attendance zone and additions to their school systems from outside attendance zones.
“When we started down this road with this report and the student assignment rules were put in place in 2014-15, in the first quarter of 14-15, we had a difference of 153 students,” Gainey said. “So, it’s been pulled in. It’s taken a while, but we’ve worked with people that have been released and tried to work with them.”
Finally, the board discussed some of the growing concerns with middle school athletics involving discrepancies in team size and overall consistency of participation.
“High school athletics are governed by the North Carolina High School Athletic Association. Middle school athletics are governed by the Department of Public Instruction,” Gainey said. “There are a lot of similarities. Right now, we have our seven middle schools, two from Asheboro City Schools and Uwharrie Charter Middle School, that gives us a 10-team conference.”
According to Gainey, rules from the NCDPI dictate that all middle school sports other than football can play up to 14 games plus a single-elimination tournament or 16 games overall. For football, teams are allowed to play in seven games plus a tournament or eight games overall.
“We will talk to the leadership of the other school system because that comprises their representation in the conference, to share our concerns about the teams and how we’ve had some situations where we’ve had low participation and either our teams didn’t participate or played with the low numbers, and we want to talk about our concern with the longevity of this conference should it continue,” Gainey informed the board. “I think that we need to talk to the conference members about if we get to the point where we know a team is not going to be fielded, we don’t want our kids missing play dates any more than we want their kids missing play dates. If it means playing somebody three times, then sure, because that’s really what middle school athletics is about. More than winning. I get they want to win and win championships, but you need kids at that level playing.”
The Randolph County Schools Board of Education will next meet July 17.
HIGH POINT — Miss Randolph County Tori Gross earned a Top 16 finish at the Miss North Carolina competition last week in High Point. Taylor Loyd, Miss Statesville, was the winner. Gross received two scholarship awards during the week of competition totaling $2,750.
“My work as Miss Randolph County is not finished, and I cannot wait to finish out my year as I serve our great county,” said Gross after the competition. Gross, of Trinity, is a graduate of Randolph Community College.
Archdale native Hannah Welborn-Lewis, competing as Miss Sandhills, was a preliminary evening gown winner and finished second runner-up to Miss North Carolina. Parker Sterling, of Randleman High School, represented Randolph County in the Miss North Carolina’s Teen competition.
