Come 2027, the composition of the Nash County board of commissioners is likely to look very different after one major upset and a general shakeup as shown in primary results.
Robbie Davis, who has served 24 years on the board, including multiple years as chairman, was overthrown in the Republican primary by Jerry Barnes of Red Oak, who had a ballot count of 880 to Davis' 566. Barnes ended up with 60.86% of the vote to Davis' 39.14%.

BARNES

NASHVILLE - A "firm" request from Nash state legislators that county officials hold off on putting a state-funded public safety warehouse project out to bid may be putting the county in a bind and unable to use $2.1 million in grant funds before deadline.
Senator Lisa Barnes and Rep. Allen Chesser, in a Feb. 27th letter to the board of commissioners, focused on not only the warehouse project, originally slated as storage for both Nash County Emergency Management and the Nash County Sheriff's Office, but also carried strong words of criticism for how county officials are handling long-term planning for public safety infrastructure.

This photo of Joyner was taken by The Graphic at a 2023 veterans luncheon.

SPRING HOPE- One of Spring Hope's native sons, Roscoe Joyner, has a birthday coming up on March 11th, with a party planned the weekend before. Not so unusual, you might say- until you hear which birthday Roscoe is celebrating. It will be his 107th.
Roscoe's son, David Joyner, asked if he knew of any particular secret or habit his Dad- who was born in 1919- has to have enjoyed such full years, said he'd asked that himself. The answer, according to Roscoe, is "clean living."

NASHVILLE - With all parties involved willing to 'meet in the middle,' a contested conditional rezoning request for a Braswell Family Farms property has been approved by the Nashville town council.
The property, a vacant 2-bedroom, 2 bathroom house on a half acre lot at 505 S. Alston is across the street from Braswell Family Farms corporate headquarters. Trey Braswell applied for conditional rezoning to change the land from R-10 residential to CZNR-B-1, conditional non-residential. It was wanted for use as office space.

Carisma Deans of Nashville was named the Boys & Girls Club Youth of the Year last week.

ROCKY MOUNT - Persistence, planning and resilience may be qualities aspired to by every candidate for the Boys & Girls Club Youth of the Year, but Nashville's Carisma Deans is a "poster child" for those qualities. Deans, who had to attend last Thursday's ceremonies at the Booker T. Washington theater and give her speech via Zoom, triumphed nonetheless: she was crowned Youth of the Year while stuck at home battling Covid.
Deans, an 18-year-old Senior at Nash-Rocky Mount Early College, has been a member of the Nashville Boys & Girls' clubhouse for seven years.

NASHVILLE - Nashville's Downtown Strong Advisory Board (DSAB) Committee hit the ground running in 2026, allocating $26,000 in MSD funds use at their first meeting since October 2025.
Joanne Pope-Clark and Brian Hutson were readily re-elected as chair and vice-chair, respectively, at the Feb. 24th DSAB meeting, which was attended by two of its three newest members: Slade Woodard and Michael Aycock. Latanya DuBois, another newly-appointed member, was not present and had an excused absence.

NASHVILLE - Nashville's Police Chief is asking the Nash County School Board to move expeditiously with the sale of the abandoned W.L. Greene school, which he says is not benefitting the community in its current state.
Chief Caleb Shockley, equipped with printouts of police calls made to the large 12-acre property, appeared before the Nash board of education Monday night with the request to "move the sale up on the district's priority list."

The Momeyer Outreach Committee asked for and received approval to celebrate the National Day of Prayer May 7th from 7 to 7:30 p.m. at the Momeyer Fire Department. Organizers plan to ask permission from Momeyer Ruritans to use their parking lot for attendee parking.
"Designed to be simple, respectful and inclusive, and lasting no more than 30 minutes," current plans call for a welcome and opening remarks by an Outreach Committee rep, and invocation and moment of reflection, followed by prayers for community, town and nation. Speakers, most likely local pastors, are still to be determined.

Recently, I was asked to nominate a friend of mine for a very prestigious award. I went into painstaking detail to make a strong argument for his selection. Frankly, I was surprised by my own research to learn of the many things he had done for others. And when I read the other letters of nomination that had been prepared for him, I just couldn't see how he could lose.
The competition was keen and, in all truthfulness, any of the nominees would have made a fine choice.

Throughout this series of articles, there has been an underlying and heretofore unexplored question: Did the apostles make the whole thing up? Was the claim of Jesus's resurrection from the dead some grand hoax, some grand myth that quickly grew into a phenomenon placing the disciples in the grand spotlight of Christian stardom? After all, an empty tomb could have simply meant that the disciples (or anyone else, for that matter) stole the body.
However, since the traditional Christian answer to this question has much merit, it bears further explanation here. Historian Craig Keener has said that the "ancients also recognized the willingness of people to die for their convictions, verified at least the sincerity of their motives, arguing against fabrication."

I am truly enjoying studying the Old Testament book of Nehemiah. It has so much information about the value of seeking God in prayer and yes, fasting. We have leadership, courage, trust in God, sacrificing oneself for the betterment of others, and so much more. Every church would benefit from studying the ancient book.
The first two chapters are action packed. You may read chapter three and conclude it is not so important. We read about groups who are working on rebuilding the destroyed walls, but there is much more. Let me share some observations and important lessons for the church.

Cheryl K. Collie and Timothy G. Collie to Prestige Home Solutions, LLC; 5249 Highpoint Drive, Nashville; $100,000
JEC Construction, Inc. to Joseph Murray and Janie Murray; Jackson Fields Subdivision, Lot 8; $449,000
Adams Homes AEC, LLC and Don Adams to Lauren Elizabeth Bailey; Williams Grove, Phase VI, Section II, Lot 210; $376,000
Grand Oak Builders Wake Forest, LLC, Winslow Grand, LLC and Grand Oak Homes to Anastacio Garcia Hernandez and Flor Angelica Torres Salazar; Countryside Farms, Lot 1; $355,000

I've played sports, coached sports, covered sports as a writer and while there are plenty of sports-related cliches that drive me crazy, there is one at the top of the list.
"We /need to give/gave/will give 110% today."
Ugh.

It's obvious growth is on the minds of just about everyone across Nash County. Citizens are speaking out at just about every town council meeting across the county and at the county commissioners meetings.
Concerns range from large subdivisions popping up in rural areas, nibbling away at farmland, to high density subdivisions packing into our small towns.
Though growth is inevitable, I too have concerns of how fast it seems our rural fields are transitioning into subdivisions and our small towns are becoming less "small."

Dear Editor: Bill Hill is indisputably "A True, and Loyal Servant"! He had the toughest job in Nash County for almost 50 years. He 'lived' his job keeping Nash County citizens healthy and providing them sanitary places to eat. He always patiently listened to citizens concerns; and responded promptly, and in a polite manner. He is a gentleman.

This photo was contributed by the Roscoe Joyner family. Mr. Roscoe Joyner is celebrating his 107th birthday this month. (See story in today's Graphic). Pictured is Joyner's airplane he flew as a Forward Artillery Observer in WWII. He flew over German lines looking for targets for the Artillery batteries to shell he spotted for. Two men flew in the plane. Bone flew while the other was the spotter, used maps to determine the coordinates of the target, and worked the radio. They would watch the shells land and if required radio back adjustments to get the Artillery batteries on target.

BRANTLEY

Nash County author and longtime Nashville Graphic columnist Michael Brantley has a new book out about a legendary figure from North Carolina history who has largely been forgotten.
A book signing is scheduled for March 14th, 2 p.m., at the Nashville Exchange in downtown Nashville.