The Nashville Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Citizen Award winner and Junior Achievement Award recipient will be presented at Nash Arts Center, downtown Nashville, on April 3, 2025. Refreshments will be served at 6:30 p.m. The program begins at 7 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
This year's keynote speaker Nashville native Mike Raley.

NASHVILLE - A Spring Hope man is jailed on felony charges after admitting that he shot at a car allegedly involved in a burglary at his home; the car contained four juveniles, one of whom was shot in the head and is now in critical condition.
Zachary Bryant, 30, of 7949 Savage Road, Spring Hope is charged with four felonies: assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill or inflict serious injury, a class "C" felony, along with three counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, which are class "E" felonies. Bond was set at $500,000 after Bryant had a court appearance Monday, March 17.

SPRING HOPE - Spring Hope's Museum has been chosen as one of four in the state this year to participate in a "travelling archivist program," with the goals of document preservation and instruction on how to improve museum functions.
Rocio Broyles dropped the news at the March 17 meeting of the Spring Hope Downtown Development Board (DDB) while requesting that both the museum and the Spring Hope Historical Association be included in the new town brochure.

A Great Horned Owl was also shown during the presentation. Graphic photo by Nancy West-Brake

NASHVILLE - Live owls, a decorating activity to make owl cupcakes, and a mini-science lab to dissect owl pellets for the bones of prey were enjoyed by all who attended a joint venture by Nash County 4H and the Town of Nashville Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources. Held at the Nash County Ag Center at 1006 Eastern Avenue on the evening of March 15, the event began with a presentation by members of the American Wildlife Refuge in Clayton, who brought two owls, had flexible time for crafts and science, and culminated with a free owl-themed movie, "Legend Of the Guardians," complete with hot dogs and popcorn.

NASHVILLE - An early start school calendar has been approved for traditional Nash County public schools for the 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 school years, but not without considerable debate and allegations of illegality.
Traditional Nash elementary, middle and high schools will begin August 12th for students and August 1st for teachers this year under a calendar exemption waiver requested from the state, which has a later mandatory start date of August 25.

MOMEYER- The town of Momeyer now has its own You Tube channel, and has posted its first video: the March 10 town council session, which ran for about 42 minutes and shorter than expected, because planning consultant, Mid-East Commission of little Washington, did not appear as planned.
The main topic of conversation was the town's new Patriot accounting software, purchased last July but not put into place until after the town's yearly audit.
Will Funderburg, Mayor, passed out copies of current budget information, including monthly and year-to-date Profit & Loss statements and Account Trial balances.

NASHVILLE- Nash County leaders are asking a state senator's help to see that a tragic incident in the Murraytown area which resulted in the deaths of seven children never gets forgotten.
The October 6, 1949 accident, involving a collision between an overloaded school bus and an ice truck, was the worst bus accident in state history.
It happened on what is now Bryantown Road on the Turkey Creek Bridge down from Highway 97.

NASHVILLE - A new county emergency services warehouse building is in the works, to be shared with the Nash County Sheriff's Office.
Nash commissioners chose Jonathan Boone, deputy county manager, as the staff design professional for the project at their March 10 meeting as part of the Design Build Bridging procurement project, which required the selection of a staff member to oversee the project. Boone is a professional engineer.

NASHVILLE - The Nash County Sheriffs' Office has been approved to buy fifteen new Axon in-car cameras, beginning the process of changing over the entire fleet to a camera system that syncs in-car cameras with body cams.
Alan Wilson, NCSO Chief Deputy, said that the current Digital Ally system "has been having some issues" and is outdated. In addition, the department had supply issues last year, leaving 15 patrol cars without cameras.

SPRING HOPE - The second 'Spring Hope Sweep', a volunteer effort to tidy up Spring Hope's downtown area, is coming up April 5, with a rain date of April 12.
The dates were finalized at the Feb. 18 meeting of the Spring Hope Downtown Development Board (DDB), as were the dates for the first 'Rock Your Block' competition, to be held from May 1 to May 17- but the Rock Your Block event will now be sponsored by the Spring Hope Garden Club.
The DDB also welcomed a new member, Lori Harris of MarZylo's Cocktail Lounge & Grill, to her first meeting March 17.

NASHVILLE- Infinity Cabinets, a Bailey-area business, has been approved for expansion under a conditional rezoning amendment.
Nash commissioners approved a site plan amendment March 10 for the company, located at 9340 Winters Road west of Bailey and north of US Highway 264 Bypass.

RED OAK - A pair of well-loved veterinarians have been put out of their home after a lightning strike caught their house on fire Sunday, but an RV is being brought in to allow them to stay on site and care for their animals.
The Loop Road home of Drs. Cole Younger and Kim Logner, who operate Full Service Mobile Veterinary services for large animal care, caught fire Sunday night while no one was home. A neighbor called it into Nash 911 at about 6:09 p.m., according to 911 records.

Many people have asked me through the years, "What made you decide to start writing devotions"?
It started after I took a course called "Experiencing God." It was an eye opener! For the first time in my Christian life - which was comparatively short at that time - it planted the notion with me that God had more planned for me than I thought. Like most of us, we just don't give him the chance to work through us.
That Bible study series brought me down to earth. You see, when I became a Christian, I expected God to do great things through me. But how could he?

The cross is not a symbol of defeat. It is a banner of triumph. Paul makes this point even more powerfully in Colossians 2:13-15.
In this section of Colossians, Paul refutes false teachers who claim Christ is not enough to make salvation complete. Colossians 2:8 warns: "See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to the human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ." Paul issues this warning because of the sufficiency of Christ.

The Outdoorsman Banquet at Red Oak Baptist Church was well attended on Saturday, March 8! Guests enjoyed dinner and dessert and special guest speaker, Mike Tison, who gave a humorous and inspiring message. Funds from the tickets will go to support the people in western NC. Mike Tison also shared a message on Sunday, March 9 during the morning worship service. Thanks to all who made the event a success.
Several churches from the area attended the Area wide WMU Spring Meeting at Dortches Baptist Church on Monday, March 10.

Robbin A. Vester, William C. Anderson, Jami R. Solano, Rowland Solano to Jerry R. Couick and Lucinda L. Couick; 79.04 acres, W Castalia Road; $695,000
Four Seasons Contractors, LLC to Andre Cooper and Kimberly Cooper; Pinewoods Farm, Phase 1, Lot 9; $420,000
Larry K. Williams, Pamela Y. Williams, Pamela Yvette Williams and Terri L. Williams to Education is Paramount Foundation; 35 acres; $215,000
Michael L. Baker and Mary S. Baker to Charles E. Baker and Theresa L. Kallal; one acre in Oak Level Township

Addition (covered) 1967 Red Oak Rd., Nashville; $120,000
Addition (covered); 3119 Bass Rd., Nashville; $79,000
New single family dwelling; 3165 Wollett Mill Rd., Battleboro; $430,000
Multi-sectional; 13140 Thrasher Ct., Zebulon; $35,000

MJ Brown, 7, of Nashville creates an owl-themed cupcake during the event.

You may have seen in the news last week that a pair of astronauts that had been stranded in space are being retrieved by a private company. It's pretty amazing.
I avoided reading too much about the story because of the anxiety it caused. Astronauting has to be the worst job in the world and I wonder why so many of my childhood friends wanted to be astronauts.
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were supposed to go to the International Space Station for 10 days and then return.

As you can imagine, when thumbing through the archives each week for a Backward Glance photo, I always come across quite a bit of interesting history. Honestly, it takes quite a bit of discipline to just match up a negative with the edition and not sit for hours reading. Looking through The Graphic's historical archives can be as addictive as social media is today.
Last week, Nancy and I pulled the 1949 archive for The Graphic's coverage of the 1949 Samaria school bus accident. (See story today).

Across the land this week the press is observing National Newspaper Week, October 18.
It is a week, perhaps, in which it is not altogether improper for newspapers to stop and pat themselves on the back for the important job they are doing in helping to keep the public informed, in promoting worthwhile projects, in working for better communities and a better nation.
But it is also a week in which the press should take new stock of its responsibilities.

This photo published in The Nashville Graphic on March 19, 1964.