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OFFICERS -- The Rocky Mount Evening Optimist Club held its officer installation meeting on October 20th. Pictured (left to right) are: President Sam Toler, Board Member James Bowen, Secretary Cheryl Bowen, Board Member Tommy Peele, Internal Vice President Ed Taylor, Board Member Errol Warren and External Vice President Ray Goodwin.

ROCKY MOUNT -- With both squads out of the postseason picture, only pride was at stake last Friday afternoon when backyard rivals Nash Central and Northern Nash met in the final regular season boys soccer contest of the 2015 campaign.
Of course, pride is always a key intangible whenever Northern and Nash Central meet, regardless of the sport.
As expected, emotions were high for the matchup, and a huge crowd was on hand to bid farewell to the season since the Big East Conference Tournament was cancelled due to a scheduling backlog from poor weather.

Voters will have to wait until Friday afternoon to find out the winner of the unexpired term of Nashville's Town Council race, as two of the candidates were tied as of Tuesday night.
Michael Coleman and James "Butch" Mull, Jr. each received 166 votes.
Coleman received 102 votes on Tuesday during the election, compared to 112 votes for Mull. Mull received 54 votes during early voting, compared to Coleman's 64 votes. But the totals were 166 votes for each candidate.

At the request of Dr. Travis Twiford, Interim Superintendent for Nash-Rocky Mount Public Schools, the Board of Education approved on Monday a comprehensive administrative salary schedule study.
Twiford said since his time here, he's noticed discrepancies among salaries.
"As we've been filling positions since I've been here, we've noticed some pretty large discrepancies in compensation for people who are in comparable positions within our district," Twiford said.

The Nash County Sheriff's Office received the okay from Nash County Commissioners on Monday to apply for a grant that would fund the salary of a retired DEA agent to lead a regional drug and gang task force.
Major Dennis Wooten presented the request to commissioners on Monday, during the board's regular meeting.
The grant is through the Governor's Crime Commission and would fund a leadership position in the task force for the Seventh Judicial District, which includes Nash, Wilson and Edgecombe Counties.

Over 90 World War II, Vietnam and Korean War Veterans were given red carpet treatment last Wednesday in Middlesex, as Brenda Stallings hosted the seventh annual Veterans Luncheon.
Stallings has hosted the luncheon each year with help from friends and others in the community. This year, she said over 50 volunteers helped served the veterans who came out to enjoy a catfish lunch.

A month after the announcement that Nash-Rocky Mount Public Schools were considered a low performing district, staff unveiled a district improvement plan to help get the district back on track.
Robin May, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction for Nash-Rocky Mount Schools, said they had received the information about the school district being low performing the Friday before last month's meeting so there was not enough time to prepare information for the board's meeting.

Dedicated. Professional. Integrity. Leader. Innovator.
Those were just some of the words used to describe Nash County Emergency Services Director Brian Brantley in the 20 letters sent to the North Carolina Emergency Management Awards Committee endorsing him for the Colonel Philip Nichlos Waters Award.
Brantley received the prestigious award last month at the North Carolina Emergency Management Association State Conference.

This year's Monster Dash for United Way brought out over 200 monsters, ghouls and goblins, who raised around $6,000 in the third annual 5K run.
Sue Yerkes, Nash County Parks and Recreation Director, said the event went great and the weather was perfect. Yerkes said 221 participated in this year's event.
"I think the weather may have helped us out there," she said. "Perfect weather!"
"All in all, it was a good turnout," Yerkes added.

Cheerleaders from Nash County Parks and Recreation gave a special surprise performance between the Monster Dash 5K and one mile run on Saturday. Over 200 runners participated in this year's event.

Ernest Wood started the race as Clark Kent but finished as Superman on Saturday at the Monster Dash.

The North Carolina Highway Patrol ended its Operation Stop Arm campaign on Friday, October 23. The campaign, which began on Monday, October 19, was focused on promoting traffic safety around North Carolina schools, school buses and school bus stops.
According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Association (NHTSA), approximately 24 children are killed in school bus accidents in an average year. Very few of these fatalities occur on the bus. Sadly, one-third of all fatalities are a result of motorists who fail to stop for the school bus, and one-third are pedestrians who are killed as they approach or leave the school bus stop.

Granted, I know I've bought some of this on myself. Since my illness earlier this year, I'll admit that my step is a little more leisurely and that I drive a bit more downtempo. So much so that I've even been criticized, goaded and mocked about my acumen behind the wheel by my own family.
I get what the leadfeet I love most are trying to tell me: they are obviously envious of my caution and expertise. Or something like that.
Apparently though, motorists of the greater Nash-Rocky Mount area is less impressed. I've had horns blow at me and I'm certain that the words being muffled from inside other autos were not words of praise or respect.

These few column inches of copy are sometimes intended to impart wisdom, not just overpowering knowledge.
Knowledge, a guillotine chopper to cut picture frame moulding is sharp. Wisdom, there are two kinds of people who operate moulding choppers, those who have been cut, and those who are going to be cut.
Oh, Yogi, we miss you. It's deju vu all over again.

Dear Editor:
I wanted to take this opportunity to publicly thank Mr. Richard Tyson for his generous contribution of 210,000 pounds of sweet potatoes to the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina and to local needy families during the annual "Yam Jam" held on October 24, 2015.

Dear Editor:
A recent letter in an area newspaper talks about fairness in the current debate over splitting the Nash-Rocky Mount Schools (NRMS) along county lines. What is fairness? To most common sensed people fairness is where everyone is treated equally. Fairness is not where you burden one group more than another or require one group to bear the burdens that belong to another group.

RED OAK JAYCEES -- This photo originally published in The Graphic on November 15, 1977. Officers had been elected for the newly charted Red Oak Jaycees. Displaying the club's charter are Ben Ricks (left), president, and Rudy Shearin, treasurer. Back row: Ronnie Batchelor, external vice-president; Richard Pitt, secretary; John Saunders, internal vice-president; and David Leonard, state director.

A Rocky Mount man was sentenced last week in federal court for trafficking cocaine.
Chief United States District Judge James C. Dever, III sentenced Benjamine Fitzgerald Ransome, 42, of Rocky Mount on Friday, October 23 to 45 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.
Ransome was named in an indictment filed on March 3, 2015 charging him with distribution of a quantity of cocaine base (crack); possession with intent to distribute a quantity of cocaine; possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime; and possession of a firearm by a felon.

An Elm City man was sentenced to 204 months in prison for drug trafficking.
Chief United States District Judge James C. Dever, III sentenced in federal court Terrance Lamar Carr, a.ka. Lil Bud, 23, of Elm City to 204 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release.

A Rocky Mount man was found guilty last week of trafficking heroin.
A jury convicted William Eldridge Askew, III, of Rocky Mount, of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 100 grams or more of heroin and aiding and abetting the possession with intent to distribute heroin. The jury returned the verdit following a trial in federal court before United States Chief District Judge James C. Dever, III.

INCIDENTS
A damage to property (vandalism) and hit and run was reported on 10/24/15 at S First and East Church Streets
A larceny after a breaking and entering and breaking and entering a motor vehicle was reported on 10/26/15 at 532 Westwood Circle
An uttering a forged instrument and obtaining money/property by false pretense was reported on 10/29/15 at Southern Bank, 902 S Barnes Street

A driving while license suspended and possession of drug paraphernalia were reported on 10/26/15 at W Tarboro Road and Church Street
A possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia was reported on 10/26/15 at 4230 Green Hills Road
A larceny of a firearm was reported on 10/26/15 at 4285 Taylors Gin Road
A possession of heroin, drug paraphernalia and misdemeanor larceny was reported on 10/26/15 at Sharpe Road and Halifax Road

Nash County Planning and Inspections issued the following building permits from October 26 through 30.

The Nash-Rocky Mount Board of Education continues to interview candidates to lead the school system, Board Chair Evelyn Bulluck reported on Monday.
Bulluck said the board had interviewed multiple candidates for the position of superintendent of schools over two days last month. The candidates were both from North Carolina and out-of-state.
"The board is in the process of scheduling another day of interviews for late November," a press release stated.

A couple of financial decisions were made at the Town of Castalia's regularly scheduled board meeting on Tuesday. First, the board unanimously approved a budget amendment that would increase the recreation line item by $600, bringing the new total to $14,500.
The board also decided to continue charging the Castalia Volunteer Fire Department for its water usage. At the October meeting the board had heard from AC Daniels, chairman of the board of directors of the Castalia Fire Department.