Recent Articles

Nash County Commissioners and the Nash-Rocky Mount Board of Education came to a compromise on Monday afternoon, following closed sessions by both boards.
Nash County Commissioners met for over two hours on Monday afternoon to discuss a resolution to the dispute over funding levels for the school system. School leaders have said they felt like they were not receiving enough funding from Nash County in the 2014-2015 budget.

Close to 60 residents showed up at a meeting last week to provide input on what recreation activities were needed in the county.
The Nash County Parks and Recreation Department is beginning work on updating its master plan and seeking input from the community.

It was 50 years ago a group of 30 men got together and formed the Momeyer Ruritan Club. The club has been making a difference ever since.
Ruritans celebrated the club’s 50 years on Monday night at a special banquet held at the Momeyer Ruritan Club. The event featured several special presentations to both the club as a whole and to charter members of the club.

A Nashville convenience store owner was arrested last week after being stopped with over 250 grams of cocaine.
According to the Nash County Sheriff’s Office, Anthony Marvell Evans, 42, of Rocky Mount, was arrested on Friday after investigators stopped him in the parkng lot of Nashville’s Wal-Mart.
Evans was found to be in possession of 254.6 grams of cocaine. Authorities also seized $7,970 in currency from Evans during the investigation.

Nashville’s Cooley Library is encouraging reading this summer as it prepares for its annual Summer Reading Program.
This year’s theme is “Fizz Boom Read” and the library will host several programs related to science to coincide with this year’s theme.
The Summer Reading Program will officially begin on July 1st at the library, said Library Director Brian Booth.

Middlesex residents voiced their concerns on a proposed tax hike at the board’s regular meeting last Monday night.
Commissioners were presented a $1.3 million budget at a budget hearing on May 27 and voted 3-2 to increase the tax rate from 50 to 52 cents per $100 valuation.
Three residents spoke last Monday during a hearing on the budget and said the board should be decreasing taxes instead of raising them.

It wasn’t quite the way they had imagined the birth of their son but what a story Angela and Leo Nieves have to tell.
The Rocky Mount couple are now home after Angela delivered their son, Victor, herself on the way to the hospital.
Leo, a teacher at Nash Central High School, said he woke up just after 3 a.m. on June 2 to his wife going to the bathroom again. Leo said he asked if she was okay and when she told him she was cramping, he got up. After a few minutes, the couple began timing the contractions.

Carrie Morningstar believes in education and even more so, believes in her role as an educator.
Morningstar just completed her first year as an art teacher at Nashville Elementary School and has made an impression on not only students but also fellow teachers, who voted Morningstar the school’s Teacher of the Year.
Morningstar, of Nashville, has been teaching for 13 years. She started her teaching career at Rocky Mount Prep School, where she worked for 10 years.

A long-time former manager of The Nashville Graphic recently passed away.
Jesse Lee Smith, 84, passed away Saturday, June 14, 2014.  He was born in Nash County on January 29, 1930 to the late R. Christopher Smith and Ella Clee Matthews Smith.
After graduating from Nashville High School in 1950 he worked as an assistant manager in retailing until he was drafted into the U S Army in 1952.

Carolyn Riley Howell, age 71, passed away on Friday, June 13, 2014. She was born in Savanah, Georgia on June 6, 1943. She was the daughter of the late Leonard Riley and Myrtle Riley. She was also preceded in death by her husband John Howell.

Alice Barnes Robertson, age 79, passed away Wednesday, June 11, 2014. A native of Rocky Mount, she was born May 26, 1935, the daughter of Guy Earl Barnes and Alice Abernathy Barnes.

Deveta Howard Tabron, age 65 passed away June 9, 2014.

Benjamin Franklin “Red” Carr 77, of Cartwright, Oklahoma passed away Monday June 2, 2014 at Texoma Medical Center in Denison. He was born October 4, 1936 in Nashville, North Carolina to Albert Council and Bettie Lee Breedlove Carr, Sr.

ROCKY MOUNT - Devonta Jaquan Eburg, 18, of Rocky Mount, died on June 13, 2014.

Rock Creek Baptist Church launched its first year of planting a community garden thanks to dedicated members and ministry partnerships.
Pastor Blake Dempsey said the church has about 45 acres and the church had been praying about how to be better stewards of what God had given them.

State Employees’ Credit Union (SECU) members via the SECU Foundation, recently presented a $10,000 four-year college scholarship to  Tyler Leigh Dangerfield (at left), a senior at  Southern Nash High School.   Tyler is the daughter of  Paula Driver.  This scholarship was awarded for study at  UNC-Wilmington, part of North Carolina’s   16-campus University of North Carolina System.

Earth, Wind & Water featuring the works of Andrea Horton-Morton and Wendy Ferguson-Whitehead. Exhibit: June 10-July 10.
Art Around the World: Summer Visual Arts Camp instructed by Wendy Ferguson-Whitehead June 23-26: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Camp Cost: $60

You can always see the signs of summer when they arrive. Final exams, end of grade tests, graduations, Memorial Day passes, public swimming pools start to open and the home and garden stores are swamped.
Many of us have already enjoyed the wonders of strawberry season — which once again was way too short. Blueberries are next, and the relatively mild climate this year has rushed along my blackberries.

Closed sessions are beginning to become the norm for the boards I cover.
It seems like every meeting I cover is concluded by a closed session and that typically means a super long wait followed by nothing, because most of the time, the board comes out of closed session and doesn’t do anything except adjourn.
Typically, only reporters stay behind to wait on closed session and we need something to do to pass the time while all these boards are meeting in closed session.

Nashville is saying good-bye to a man this week who touched the lives of thousands of people right here in Nashville and around Nash County. He shared many stories of people and events through his camera lens and also managed this newspaper for 30 years along side of owners Tom and Joe Wilson.
After completing a two-year course in Newspaper, Display Advertising and Management under the G I Bill, he was hired as advertising manager and at The Graphic and later promoted to General Manager.

INCIDENTS
An assault on a female and larceny (shoplifting) were reported on 6/9/14 at Family Dollar, 735 E Washington Street
An involuntary commitment was reported on 6/10/14 on Windy Oak Drive
An involuntary commitment was reported on 6/10/14 on Western Avenue

A larceny of a wallet was reported on 6/9/14 at 10601 E NC 97
A fraud was reported on 6/9/14 at 989 Swift Creek School Road
A breaking, entering and larceny of a residence was reported on 6/9/14 at 3035 N Browntown Road
A narcotics violation was reported on 6/9/14 at Jeffreys and Benvenue Road

Rocky Mount Police are investigating an assault that resulted in an 18-year-old being killed.
Police responded to an aggravated assault around 12:30 Friday morning in 700 Block of Branch Street. When officers arrived on the scene, they located two victims. Both victims were transported to Nash General Hospital.
According to a press release, two additional victims arrived at the hospital a short time later. Both of those victims had received injuries from the same assault.

The Rocky Mount Police Department arrested over 30 people recently as part of an undercover drug campaign.
The campaign is a continued effort by the police department to reduce crime in the area and was led by the Departments Violent Offender Investigation Unit. The unit targeted street level drug dealers who are known to be repeat offenders in the community.  Many of the persons arrested have extensive criminal histories in the area.

The Debu-ette Club presented 29  of  36 high school seniors at its annual gala May 31 at the Dunn Center for the Performing Arts at N.C. Wesleyan College.
The four-year program for high school students is a civic and social leadership, development and service organization.