Agencies that work with the elderly and their families have begun planning events and training to make Richmond County “dementia friendly.”

What county Department of Social Services Director Robbie Hall calls the “big, public ‘Notice us!’” event will be an Alzheimer’s-awareness walk — or, maybe, run; it hasn’t been decided — on Oct. 20.

Leading up to that will be training sessions for caregivers, agency representatives and others who wish to become “dementia friends” (merely knowledgeable) or “dementia champions” (trainers themselves).

“When we get more trainers, then we will spread out in the community,” said Jacqueline Welch, Richmond County’s director of Aging Services. This week, Welch set up the first training for agency representatives, so reaching the public is a ways away.

“Now that we’re doing (training), I feel like people will reach out to us,” Welch said.

Welch and Hall say they already have heard from representatives of the Civitan Club and Leath Memorial Library that their organizations wish to become involved. And Welch has developed an application for businesses that “are willing to move forward” with the budding movement.

In the meantime, those planning the push to make the county “friendly” to those with dementia — by providing and expanding services, and educating the community — will scope out the Cancer Society’s Relay for Life on May 4 to see how such things work. And they will commission the printing of cling stickers for the windows of businesses that vow to learn how to be more welcoming of those with dementia.

The actions have earned praise from Mark Hensley of the N.C. Division of Aging and Adult Services, who said when he presented the first of three recent workshops on understanding dementia that the county was “prime” for awareness programs. (Hensley since has taken a position with AARP.)

The programs would allow those with dementia to shop without fear of strange looks from neighbors or threats of action by police who might not understand their behavior, Hensley said. And they would allow caretakers more flexibility in where they could take their elderly charges.

According to the 2010 federal census, 14.3 percent of those 65 and older living in Richmond County suffer from Alzheimer’s disease, the main type of dementia. By 2025, state projections show, that percentage will rise to 15.2 percent.

Dementia can take as many as 50 forms, experts say, with Alzheimer’s disease being the most prevalent, at 65 percent to 70 percent of dementia cases. In North Carolina, Alzheimer’s is the fifth-leading cause of death, behind heart disease, cancer, lower-respiratory diseases and cerebrovascular disease.

Yet despite the prevalence of the disease, many people don’t know how to respond when they encounter it.

Several North Carolina cities and counties already have taken steps toward dementia friendliness, as Richmond County is doing now. Orange County has OCCARES; Wilmington, Dementia-Friendly WNC; and Durham, Dementia Inclusive Durham.

Wake Forest is one of the first communities in North Carolina to pursue the international “dementia friendly” designation begun by the United Kingdom’s Alzheimer’s Society. The city has held a number of workshops, and most downtown businesses in Wake Forest have stickers in their windows certifying that they have trained their staffs on how to act when they encounter someone with dementia.

But awareness is only the first step. Communities also must think about providing residential settings for those suffering memory loss; dementia-aware legal and financial planning; options for independent living and community engagement; dementia-friendly transportation; dementia-aware government services such as police and fire response; and dementia-sensitive health care that also seeks out the underserved.

Such efforts require a network comprising businesses, churches, civic and governmental organizations, financial and legal enterprises, and human-services agencies working toward a common agenda.

Hall of DSS said supporting those with dementia also would require everyday changes in things most people don’t even think about. For example, do agency and business brochures use big enough font sizes and colors that the elderly or color blind can see well?

In fiscal 2016, Richmond County spent $31 million on social services for those 60 and older, for such things as adult protective services, transportation and medical assistance. That’s the government and human-services sector of the network, and it counts only money — not hours devoted. Both of those bottom lines are likely to increase.

Those interested in becoming involved in any way with the campaign for “dementia friendliness” may call Welch at 910-997-4491.

Welch

https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_jacquelinewelch_mug.jpgWelch

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ROCKINGHAM — Richmond Senior High School will send three rising seniors to the Governor’s School of North Carolina this summer.

Emily Parsons and Gabriella Paoni will study English, and Kylie McDonald, social studies. The girls were among 1,700 applicants for the summer session, only 670 of whom were selected.

They will spend 5½ weeks at Meredith College in Raleigh.

North Carolina’s Governor’s School is the country’s oldest statewide summer residential program for academically or intellectually gifted high school students.

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ROCKINGHAM — A group of residents have banded together to put on the second annual Unity in the Community event which will promote entrepreneurship to an audience of all ages.

The event will have a panel of local business owners who will speak about their experiences and offer advice, and will include a representative from NC Works to speak about the organization’s free GED preparation courses. There will also be a bounce house, face painting, a three-point shooting contest and a dance contest.

The idea for this kind of event started as an effort to get a few families together for food and community, but lead organizer for the event Alexander Robinson said, “God started giving me different ideas … one thing led to another.”

The event will be held on April 14 from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. at 417 Hood St.

“I always wanted to start something like this,” said Robinson, a Rockingham resident. “With Richmond County being so small and limited, growing up I felt like I was ‘inside the box’ … it was never embedded in me to think outside the box and not be an employee but an employer.”

The event is not connected to the committee of the same name — Unity in the Community — started in Dobbins Heights as a partnership between the town and FirstHealth to promote holistic community health, but Robinson acknowledged that the goals are similar.

There will be a performance by a nine-year-old rapper and step performance by the Hustlers for Christ group from Southern Pines. Everything at the event will be free of charge, according to Robinson.

“When I grew up there was nothing like this offered besides football and the movie theater when it was here … little things like that kept us out of trouble,” Robinson said.

Rashard Holiday, a volunteer for the event, said the goal is to inform people in a safe place.

“We’re trying to bridge gaps between ethnicities and generations,” Holiday said.

The inaugural event held in Dobbins Heights had several hundred people in attendance, and Robinson is expecting a similar turnout this year. His plan is to move the event around Richmond County and the neighboring counties.

Reach Gavin Stone at 910-817-2674 or gstone@yourdailyjournal.com.

https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_unityincommunity-2-.jpeg

Contributed photo Unity in the community started in 2017 and was held in Dobbins Heights. Organizers plan to move the event around the county.

https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_unityincommunity.jpegContributed photo Unity in the community started in 2017 and was held in Dobbins Heights. Organizers plan to move the event around the county.

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HAMLET — Two hundred of Richmond County’s finest athletes aged 50 and older celebrated the opening of the 2018 Senior Games on Monday with an Olympic march, hot dogs and a good deal of booty-shaking.

That last came from the Delusional Divas, a group of hugely bossomed and bottomed women in house dresses and hats, using walker frames as as props and tissue paper to augment their “assets.”

“If you liked it, then you should have put a ring on it,” they lip-synced to Beyonce Knowles’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” as the audience hooted and snapped photos.

The extravaganza, moved indoors to Cole Auditorium at Richmond Community College because of the surging winds and lowering sky outside, came a bit after the start of the games, even though it was meant to be the kickoff.

Bocce opened the event on Monday morning, at Hamlet’s Memorial Park. Competition will continue through month’s end, comprising art and dance, as well as individual, doubles and team sports.

It will resume today with pickleball.

Mike Deese, 68, of Rockingham is one of two men signed up for pickleball. Last year, Deese won a silver medal for individual play at the state games.

Deese and his partner entered in the doubles category but will have to play singles against each other, he said, because “you have to play somebody.”

Mary Coble, 69, will compete in line dancing and in bowling. She has been to the games before, bringing home prizes for quilting and bowling.

“(Participating) gives me an outing, since I’m not working anymore,” she said. “I’m not going to sit home and get stale.”

The Senior Games of Richmond County involve athletes from the Ellerbe, Hamlet and Rockingham senior centers. At 60,000 entrants, North Carolina has the largest participation in the nation.

Winners at this year’s state games in September may go on to national competition in Albuquerque next June, if their sports are included. State competition will be Sept. 17-23 in Raleigh, Cary and Durham.

Last year, Richmond County track-and-field athlete Pat Clemmons, then 57, won six gold medals at state. Line dancers Mary Baker, Daisy Brown, Elaine McLaurin and Luvenia Williams — performing as the Southern Ladies — also won a gold medal.

“We hope to go back to the state (games),” Brown said Monday. “We have everything together. We have our costumes. We have our steps in line.”

And they have a new name: Journey.

Athletes at the 2017 state games also won 10 silver and two bronze medals.

Ida Mae Malloy, who won silver in shot put and discus at the state games, hopes this will be her comeback year. She’s moving up in age groups and figures the competition may be getting thinner.

“I move up to the 70-year-olds,” she said, “so I hope” to win and, ultimately, move on to nationals.

The first National Senior Olympics involved 2,500 participants and took place in 1987 in St. Louis. In 1990, the competition took the name “National Senior Games” after a complaint by Olympics organizers.

Today, the games are a 20-sport, biennial competition for men and women 50 and older, the largest multi-sport event in the world for seniors.

Daisy Brown (in the hat) and Jerry Nelson dance and clap to the song “Do What It Do” as part of opening ceremonies for Richmond County’s Senior Games. Brown and Nelson line-dance with the groups Journey and the Silver Liners.

https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_seniorgames_18.jpgDaisy Brown (in the hat) and Jerry Nelson dance and clap to the song “Do What It Do” as part of opening ceremonies for Richmond County’s Senior Games. Brown and Nelson line-dance with the groups Journey and the Silver Liners.

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ROCKINGHAM — Richmond County sheriff’s deputies arrested five individuals on separate drug charges last week involving heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, Xanax pills and marijuana.

William Alexander Cox, 22, of 4th Avenue Aleo in East Rockingham allegedly sold a total of 0.9 grams of cocaine to a confidential informant between March 13 and March 14.

Deputies arrested Cox on April 10 and charged him with with two felony counts each of: selling a Schedule II controlled substance; delivering and Schedule II controlled substance; possession with intent to manufacture, sell or deliver a Schedule II controlled substance; and maintaining vehicle, dwelling or place for a controlled substance.

Cox posted a $25,000 bond on Friday and has been released from the Richmond County Jail. He is scheduled to appear in court on April 26. He has no prior convictions, according records with the N.C. Department of Public Safety Division of Adult Correction.

Christopher Wayne Schoonover, 24, is charged with one felony count each of: possession of a controlled substance on jail premises; possession of heroin; and possession with intent to manufacture, sell or deliver methamphetamine.

He is also charged with two counts of possession of drug paraphernalia, and one count each of resisting a public officer and failure to appear in court — relating to a misdemeanor larceny, according to the Richmond County Jail.

Warrants for Schoonover’s arrest were not available Monday afternoon. He is being held at the Richmond County Jail under a $33,000 secured bond.

He has never been incarcerated but was convicted on six misdemeanor charges of larceny over of $200 in October 2011, for which he was given probation. His most recent run in with law enforcement came in March 2015 when he was convicted on misdemeanor charges of possession of drug paraphernalia and resisting a public officer, according to state records.

Kevin Ray Strickland, 28, who has addresses listed on Mill Road and Sunset Belt, also was arrested on April 10. Deputies say he was in possession of a stolen Jimenez Arms .380 handgun worth $100 while having previously pleading guilty on a charge of felony selling a Schedule II controlled substance in March 2016 — for which he was sentenced to 18 months of probation — according to warrants for his arrest. He was also allegedly in possession of 33.3 grams of marijuana, scales, two glass pipes and cigarillos.

Strickland is charged with two felony counts of possession with intent to manufacture, sell or deliver marijuana; one felony count each of possession of a stolen firearm, possession of a firearm by a felon, maintaining a dwelling for a controlled substance; and one misdemeanor count of possession of drug paraphernalia.

Deputies say 22-year-old Cameron Lee Dunn, who has the same Sunset Belt address, had a small amount of Oxycodone.

Dunn is also charged with two felony counts of possession with intent to manufacture, sell and deliver marijuana, one felony count of maintaining a dwelling for keeping and selling marijuana one misdemeanor count each of possession of marijuana paraphernalia and possession of a Schedule II controlled substance, according to warrants for her arrest.

Dunn posted a $10,000 bond and was released from the Richmond County Jail on April 10 and Strickland, who was under a $15,000 secured bond, was bailed out April 12. Both are scheduled to appear in court on April 26.

Strickland previously served a year in prison for a May 2008 conviction for selling a Schedule II controlled substance and possession with intent to sell a Schedule VI controlled substance. A two-month sentence stemming from a May 2009 conviction for a DWI was included in this sentence, according to state records.

Dunn has no prior convictions, according to state records.

Deputies arrested Lisa Parker Hatcher, 45, of First Avenue Aleo in Rockingham, following an investigation into the sale of Xanax pills. Hatcher allegedly sold the pills to a confidential informant on March 13, according to warrants for her arrest.

She is charged with one felony count each of selling a Schedule IV controlled substance; delivering a Schedule IV controlled substance; possession with intent to manufacture, sell or deliver a Schedule IV controlled substance; and maintaining a vehicle, dwelling or place for a controlled substance.

Hatcher has no prior convictions, according to state records. She was given a $10,000 bond but never booked into the jail. Hatcher is scheduled to appear in court on April 26.

All defendants facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Reach Gavin Stone at 910-817-2674 or gstone@yourdailyjournal.com.

Cox

https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_williamcox.jpgCox

Schoonover

https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_christopherschoonover.jpgSchoonover

Strickland

https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_kevinstrickland.jpgStrickland

Dunn

https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_camerondunn.jpgDunn

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HAMLET — Police have charged two suspects wanted in connection to a Tuesday afternoon armed robbery of the 74 Fast Shop convenience store on U.S. 74 near Richmond Community College.

Hamlet Police Chief Scott Waters said 17-year-old Jaylan Deshawn Smith, of Wadesboro entered the store but left when he saw another customer. Once that customer left, Smith returned and threatened the cashier with a gun, making off with what the store’s owner, who asked not to be named, said was “several hundred” dollars before police got to the scene.

Detective Capt. Randy Dover said a witness followed the alleged getaway vehicle long enough to jot down the license plate information and bring it back to police.

According to police, the driver of the car, 20-year-old Randi Sa’mone Rivers, of Billow Street in Wadesboro, heeded an officer’s siren in Anson County and pulled over without resistance, leading to the pair’s arrest.

The owner said the store would be closed for the rest of the day.

“We’re very fortunate no one was hurt,” Waters said. “We have a good working relationship with law enforcement in the surrounding counties (Richmond and Anson county sheriffs’ offices) who helped us on this.”

Both Smith and Rivers are charged with one count each of robbery with a dangerous weapon and felony conspiracy.

Smith was booked into the Richmond County Jail under a $50,000 secured bond.

Dover said Rivers was also served with an indictment on felony charges in Anson County.

Online court records show she is facing four counts of felony conspiracy, one felony count each of breaking and entering, larceny after breaking and entering, attempted first-degree burglary and a misdemeanor count of filing a false report at a police station in Anson County Superior Court.

She was jailed under a total $85,000 secured bond.

Rivers also has a speeding infraction pending in Union County District Court.

Smith has no other pending charges, records show.

Neither have past criminal convictions in the state, according to records with the N.C. Department of Public Safety Division of Adult Correction.

All suspects facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Reach Gavin Stone at 910-817-2674 or gstone@yourdailyjournal.com. Reach William R. Toler at 910-817-2675 or wtoler@yourdailyjournal.com.

Gavin Stone | Daily Journal Hamlet police officers stand in front of the 74 Fast Shop on U.S. 74 in Hamlet following an armed robbery.

https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_faststoprob-1.jpgGavin Stone | Daily Journal Hamlet police officers stand in front of the 74 Fast Shop on U.S. 74 in Hamlet following an armed robbery.

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HAMLET — Sitting on 10 acres of lush lawn within hearing distance of the trucks whizzing by on the U.S. 74 Bypass and the birds twittering in the neighboring pines looms Hamlet’s next big expenditure: its wastewater-treatment plant.

Built 38 years ago with money from a bond issue carrying a 40-year repayment date, the plant and its three operators perform yoeman’s work, processing daily 500,000 to 700,000 gallons of sewerage that flows from Hamlet and Dobbins Heights through vitrified clay lines and brick manholes.

Two years away from being fully paid for, the plant has experienced only one significant upgrade in those 38 years — in 1993, when the city built its second of two clarifying structures. It did acquire a new multi thousand-dollar bar screen for its clarifying ponds earlier this year, after an old one broke.

“It’s where the magic happens,” City Manager Jonathan Blanton said jokingly Tuesday, during a tour of the secluded plant.

And it’s where the city will have to sink $17 million in capital outlay within the next five years, according to a 2017 asset-management plan by the Lumber River Council of Governments.

The plan, released midyear, suggested that Hamlet spend an estimated $167,100 to perform four tasks that would help it determine how to proceed:

1. Examine aging lift stations with an aim toward replacing or rehabilitating them.

2. Inspect ancient pipes and manholes with the same aim in mind.

3. Develop a long-range plan to pay for improvements.

4. Rework the rate structure the city charges customers.

The COG report said that “the majority of assets in both treatment and collection (of waste) have aged beyond their useful life period” and that the city had no plans on how to “maintain the system in a sustainable manner.”

The city also “struggle(s) to manage inflow and infiltration of groundwater into the sewer system,” the report said — especially “during periods of high rain.”

While health and safety procedures, and customer service met standards, the report said, that situation would not last.

During budget meetings this month, Blanton proposed a new rate scale for both water and sewer services, with an eye toward capturing grants to help update aging infrastructure. That was COG’s issue No. 4.

But Hamlet officials have said they want to do more than just rehab the old sewage-treatment plant. They want what Rockingham has:

A belt press. Just one. (Rockingham has two.)

“(A belt press) ‘dewaters’ sludge to the point where they can haul it to a landfill,” said plant superintendent Darrell Lowery, who moved over from Hamlet’s water-treatment plant four years ago.

For now, Hamlet’s the sludge that remains after treatment is loaded into a truck, which carries it seven miles to land the city owns. There, the driver — the plant’s fourth employee — sprays the sludge over the ground.

If the sludge were dried instead, it could be carted off to a landfill in Anson County every so often — not several times a day, as the sludge necessitates.

Hamlet also wants to double its treatment capacity to 2 million gallons per day, which would allow it to recruit more industry. Current capacity seldom hits 1 million gallons per day, but it has, on occasion — usually during intense rains.

Increasing capacity “would make the city more marketable,” Blanton said. “(Providing enough) water isn’t the problem. Treatment of the sewage is the problem.

“The belt press is probably going to be the next big addition out here, but that’s anywhere from a million (dollars) to a million seven.”

On April 10, council members considered the $8,254,725 draft budget Blanton submitted and then proposed cutting or putting on the back burner about $113,000 of that, still leaving about $100,000 to come from savings.

They won’t make up the deficit, but starting July 1, water and sewer fees will be assessed by usage, plus a base fee — a schedule intended to bring in more revenue and equalize the way customers pay for service.

The new base fee for water will be $18 and for sewer use, $13. Users will be charged per 1,000 gallons, with the fees rising as use rate climbs.

COG recommended charging $33 per month per 5,000 gallons, which it emphasized would meet state guidelines and generate capital but would “NOT (COG emphasis) take into account the backlogged capital needs of the wastewater system.”

Darrell Lowery says he’s waiting for the day the clarifying unit at Hamlet’s wastewater-treatment plant yields a diamond ring an angry fiancee tossed down the toilet. So far, all he has found are small toys and golf balls. The plant, which Lowery supervises, is almost 40 years old and in need of updates.

https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_hamlet_watertreatment.jpgDarrell Lowery says he’s waiting for the day the clarifying unit at Hamlet’s wastewater-treatment plant yields a diamond ring an angry fiancee tossed down the toilet. So far, all he has found are small toys and golf balls. The plant, which Lowery supervises, is almost 40 years old and in need of updates.

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HAMLET — If you didn’t have a resume ready at Richmond Community College’s annual Career and Business Expo on Tuesday, you were in luck: the NC Works Career Center brought its mobile office along, allowing job-seekers to stop in and workshop their resumes for free.

“You need a resume instead of an application? Ba-da-boom you got it,” said Allison Melvin, manager of NC Works. “Resume building can be daunting but when you see how easy it is, for a job-seeker that’s huge.”

The event brought more than 400 people and representatives from 53 companies to the Cole Auditorium. Vendors included major industries like Enviva, Purdue and RSI, as well as the Hamlet Police Department and UNC-Pembroke.

At least 17 people used the NC Works services available in the mobile office — a bus with eight desktop computers inside — much higher than the average of 10 when it makes stops at colleges, according to Steven Finger, who operates the bus for the Department of Commerce. This was the first year that NC Works has had its mobile office at the expo.

Melvin said the one-on-one guidance that the center provides is the biggest help to job-seekers.

“In-person help is value added that you don’t see with online services,” she said. In addition to helping prospective employees, NC Works was looking to help employers in their search as well. Working with the Lumber River Council of Governments and with funding from the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, NC Works can fund training for new employees.

Director of Career and Transfer Services Patsy Stanley said vendors remarked that the level of talent at Tuesday’s expo was a step up from previous years, which she attributed to the college’s recent efforts to prepare students for the job market. The college created its Quality Enhancement Plan based on feedback from employers who wanted to see more graduates with speaking and writing skills.

Under the plan, the college has been adding more speaking- and writing-based assignments, including in math and science classes, along with cyclical assessments of students’ improvements in those areas. RCC has also put more of a focus on “ACA” courses which teach students the skills needed to be successful in college, as well as its Human Resources Development program which is designed to help people looking for work learn “soft skills,” like how to present themselves in a professional setting.

“That’s what’s really helping us out,” Stanley said.

Those “soft skills” employers need are often found in people they don’t expect — veterans, according to Jacqueline Yi, veterans supervisor with NC Works. Yi said veterans are often stereotyped in the job market as people who are only trained in combat, but she said the education provided by the military applies to civilian jobs as well.

“Most people can’t come to work on time or dress properly, show well in an interview, be courteous … with veterans this has been ingrained into them,” Yi said. NC Works helps veterans put their time in the military into terms that civilian employers can understand.

Mary Haley, 47, a veteran and former RCC student who hasn’t worked full-time since 2012, used the NC Works mobile office to update her resume and look for a new job. Haley said she currently works every other weekend, a job she found through NC Works, but wants a full time job in early childhood education or day care — and thinks she found a few leads.

“I was anxious and nervous but I’m so glad I went in there,” she said.

Reach Gavin Stone at 910-817-2674 or gstone@yourdailyjournal.com.

Gavin Stone | Daily Journal Takeesha Patterson, outreach specialist with the NC Works Career Center, helps a man look for a maintenance job in the center’s mobile office at the Career and Business Expo at RCC on Tuesday.

https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_jobfair_18.jpgGavin Stone | Daily Journal Takeesha Patterson, outreach specialist with the NC Works Career Center, helps a man look for a maintenance job in the center’s mobile office at the Career and Business Expo at RCC on Tuesday.

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ROCKINGHAM — They — whoever “they” are — say that nice guys always finish last. Apparently, they forgot to tell Kyle Goodwin.

A junior at Richmond Senior High School, Kyle will visit Boston next week to compete as one of 60 contestants for a $12,000 scholarship awarded by the fraternal Moose International. And in June, he’ll travel with clubmates to Savannah to see whether he can snare the vice presidency of the National Beta Club, after winning the statewide office earlier this year.

“I think he won by a good amount (of votes),” said Mary Davis, a senior who was Kyle’s campaign manager and self-proclaimed “mom” at the statewide convention.

“He was the most confident, the most put together,” she said at a Beta Club fundraiser this week, “and the fact that he’s cute didn’t hurt at all.”

Kyle is cute, even in the funereal black suit he wore for the fundraiser. He thought he might wind up “kissing babies” during the event. Instead, he moved about the room, greeting friends and acquaintances dining at Pattan’s Downtown Grille, finding no babies to smooch.

The event was a departure for Kyle: He usually isn’t in the front of the house at Pattan’s — he’s frying food or washing dishes in the back. But “he’d be great in front,” said Julia Pattan, co-owner of the restaurant and Kyle’s boss: “He’s the nicest guy.”

Kyle is so busy with sports and schoolwork, she said, that he can work only 10 hours a week; but the restaurant works him in whenever it can because he’s so reliable.

Competitive. Cute. Reliable. Make no mistake about it, says Beta Club sponsor Suzanne Hudson: Kyle “is going to do big things, he really is.”

“Big things,” that is, beyond winning a statewide Beta Club office.

“We cried so hard, we wound up on the floor” when Kyle became the first Richmond Senior High representative to win a Beta state office in 26 years, Hudson said. (Principal Melvin Ingram of Ellerbe Middle School won the post of secretary back in the day.)

It was something to celebrate, she said, but not necessarily a surprise because “we had to force him to eat (rather than campaign). Every time we turned around, he was (politicking) with another group.”

Yes, she said, Kyle also is ambitious. But …

“He’s believable. He’s the real deal,” she said. “He does have charm, but it’s not too much.”

One characteristic no one seems to mention is Kyle’s smarts, maybe because it’s pretty obvious.

He is in Beta Club, of course, the high school organization for students who possess at least a 3.5 grade-point average. (That’s a high “B,” for those who don’t know.)

Kyle boasts a 4.4 GPA, and although he says he “isn’t one of” those students who worry first and foremost about their GPAs, he does note that his likely would be higher had he attended public school through middle school and gotten a jump on honors and advanced-placement courses. Instead, he attended private school.

“I work real hard, (and) I’ve never made below a 95 in a class,” he said. And that’s on top of working part time; playing football (he’s the kicker/punter), soccer and golf; writing essays and performing publicly in scholarship competitions; and plotting his political future in Beta Club.

“I just want to have a bigger role” in the club, he said. “There’s not much you’re supposed to do,” but there’s a lot an officer can do. Kyle wants to plan a statewide service project for all Betas.

He got a taste for having “a bigger role” when he was in 10th grade and won an expense-paid week in Washington, D.C., where he watched congressional debates firsthand.

Now, he wants to major in political science in college, then enter the Army or Navy with a commission. If he can earn a spot at the Naval Academy or West Point, so much the better. (Did we mention ambition earlier?)

He has help — from parents, teachers, coaches — but Kyle doesn’t depend on anyone else but himself, he said. When he ran for statewide Beta Club vice president, for example, he didn’t even tell his (real) mother, Mary, until after he had written and practiced his campaign speeches.

“She was pretty mad about it,” he said with a shy smile. “(But) I wanted to do it more (for) myself, and that was the only way.”

So it’s difficult not to believe Beta sponsor Hudson when she says Kyle “is going to do big things — he really is.”

Leon Hargrove | Daily Journal Richmond Senior athlete Kyle Goodwin, right, plays soccer, golf and is the kicker for the Raiders football team. His competitive edge has led to him vying for a scholarship and national vice president of the Beta Club.

https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_kylegoodwin_soccer-1.jpgLeon Hargrove | Daily Journal Richmond Senior athlete Kyle Goodwin, right, plays soccer, golf and is the kicker for the Raiders football team. His competitive edge has led to him vying for a scholarship and national vice president of the Beta Club.

Contributed photo Kyle Goodwin poses back-to-back with his campaign manger, fellow Beta Mary Davis.

https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_kylegoodwin_mary-1.jpgContributed photo Kyle Goodwin poses back-to-back with his campaign manger, fellow Beta Mary Davis.

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HAMLET — A Laurinburg man has been charged in connection with an attempt to kidnap his own children from their mother while wielding a machete the day before a domestic violence protection order between the two expired.

Early Sunday morning, 38-year-old Damon Mason Giles, of Laurinburg kicked open the door to a mobile home on Micha Lane in Hamlet and attempted to take his two children, ages 10 and 11, according to a search warrant. This awakened a man asleep at the residence who grabbed his rifle to confront Giles as he was loading the children into his car.

Giles then allegedly threatened to kill the man while armed with a machete and a knife, and at some point threw the knife at the man but was ultimately prevented from escaping with the children. After Giles fled the scene, deputies said, the man found that a tire on both his and the children’s mother’s cars appeared to have been stabbed with a knife.

The protection order barred Giles from going to the mother’s home and from taking the children, who were in her custody, according to the warrant. The order was set to expire the following day.

Deputies say fixed-blade knife was recovered from the scene.

Giles is charged with two felony counts of second-degree kidnapping, one count of first-degree burglary and one misdemeanor count of violating a protective order. He is additionally charged with two misdemeanor counts of injury to personal property and one count each of assault with a deadly weapon, communicating threats, larceny and injury to real property

He was booked into the Richmond County Jail under a $250,000 bond. His first court date is slated for April 30.

Giles was arrested in February in connection with a conspiracy to defraud the Rockingham Walmart by returning items that he had not yet paid for. Charges of attempting to obtain property by false pretenses and felony conspiracy are currently pending in Richmond County Superior Court.

Online court records show Giles is also facing a charge of misdemeanor larceny and traffic infractions of driving with a revoked license and speeding in Richmond County; and felony charge of breaking or entering a motor vehicle and misdemeanor charges of larceny and resisting a public officer in Scotland County.

His criminal history dates back to October 1996. His first recorded offense was felony possession of a weapon of mass destruction (a sawed-off shotgun), and two felony counts each of breaking and entering and larceny. He served 2½ months for these offenses, according to records with the N.C. Department of Public Safety Division of Adult Correction.

Seven months after he was released, he was charged with five additional felonies; three for breaking and entering, one larceny of a motor vehicle and one larceny. He was sentenced to a year and 10 months for those offenses.

In August 2000, Giles was sentenced to probation for four misdemeanors: two for assaulting a female, one for resisting an officer and one for simple affray (assault).

In March 2001, he was convicted of three more felonies: second-degree arson, second-degree burglary, and larceny after breaking and entering, along with six misdemeanors — two violations of a protective order, one count of breaking and entering, one count of injury to private property, one count of wanton injury to property worth more than $200, and one count of communicating threats. He served a year and four months for the offenses, court records show.

In December 2009, he was charged with assault on a female and assault with a deadly weapon, and in March 2010, with unauthorized use of a vehicle. While on probation for those charges, he was charged in April 2011 with 23 felony counts related to stealing and one misdemeanor count of trespassing.

The charges comprised six for breaking and entering, two for larceny of items worth more than $1,000, six for breaking and entering a vehicle, one for larceny of a motor vehicle, three for credit card theft, four for larceny after breaking and entering, and one for being a habitual felon, court records show.

Giles left prison last November.

All defendants facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Reach Gavin Stone at 910-817-2674 or gstone@yourdailyjournal.com.

Giles

https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_giles.jpgGiles

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ELLERBE — The Mineral Springs Improvement Council wants to lead visitors down the garden path during this year’s Mayfest celebration, but there’s no deception involved in the May 5 event — only delight.

The recent beneficiary of a $9,000 grant, the council is about to plot and plant a 2½-acre garden off Green Lake Road. Sales of the vegetables and other produce grown there will help it finance its after-school and summer enrichment programs, as the proceeds from Mayfest always have done.

“We hope to finish (planting) by May 5,” council secretary and program coordinator Barbara Moton said Thursday. Work is set to begin next week, after workers lay down plastic sheeting, spread the soil and get down and dirty.

Davon Goodwin of the Sandhills AGInnovation Center is in charge of the layout of the garden, which ultimately should include row crops, grape arbors and blueberry bushes.

The council hopes to link a walking trail planned for the outside edge of the garden to the Daily Mile trail at Mineral Springs Elementary School, Moton said, giving the community an extended path to health.

Mayfest again will stress healthy living, Moton said. Aside from the rhythm & blues stylings of Ray Charles Lindsay of Ellerbe, the day will include a 5K fun run/walk and cooking demonstrations.

Through its food bank and food donations to seniors, Moton said, the council has found that people eschew healthy options for less-healthy items they’re familiar with.

So, at the festival, “we’re going to show them how to make delicious meatballs” from ground turkey instead of beef, she said.

The day also will include free bingo and what promises to be as popular an attraction as it was during the fifth festival: a dunking booth featuring Sheriff James Clemmons.

Children’s activities will abound, as will food vendors.

Daily Journal file photo
While ribs have been a tradition at Ellerbe’s Mayfest, organizers plan to encourage festivalgoers to make healthier choices, including hosting a 5k run/walk.

https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_mayfest17_ribs-2-.jpgDaily Journal file photo
While ribs have been a tradition at Ellerbe’s Mayfest, organizers plan to encourage festivalgoers to make healthier choices, including hosting a 5k run/walk.

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ROCKINGHAM — An anonymous call made to Scotland High School Thursday morning described a “rumor” of a shooting threat to both that school and Richmond Senior High School, school officials said.

The caller said there was “going to be a shooting at Scotland High School and a Richmond County senior will be shot” and then hung up the phone, according to Capt. Chris Young with the Laurinburg Police Department.

No individuals were named nor were any specifics given in the call, according to Briana Goins, public information officer for Richmond County Schools.

LPD said there was no way to trace the call because it was an unknown number and they could not confirm the threat but dispatched officers to the school anyway as a precaution.

The Richmond County Sheriff’s Office responded by placing an officer at the front gate of Richmond Senior High School to check visitor IDs and verify the purpose of their visit.

Chief Deputy Mark Gulledge said the sheriff’s office takes potential threats to student safety seriously.

RSHS Principal Jim Butler said parents were notified and classes were proceeding as scheduled.

“The sheriff’s office is always extremely cooperative and they (stationed an officer at the front gate) very quickly,” Butler said.

RCS is in the process of updating security at its schools in conjunction with the sheriff’s office and the school resource officers following the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine’s Day.

So far, five of the school system’s most vulnerable buildings are equipped with cameras and “buzz-in” doors, but Operations Director Dennis Quick said the goal is to have these measures in place at all Richmond County schools within the next two years.

All system schools practice “active shooter” drills twice a year, and law enforcement agencies use schools to stage tactical training drills, according to Superintendent Cindy Goodman.

Schools have already taken the step of enhancing lighting at the schools to improve visibility, according to Goins. Quick said other considerations in the security review include making sure that no trees or bushes provide hiding places on school grounds, inspecting the vulnerability of doors and windows to forced entry and whether there are structures a person could use to climb to the second floor.

Reviewers will also verify that there are appropriate signs to direct visitors to the front office before entering the school, as well as the more daunting task of reorganizing traffic flow to the school to make way for law enforcement should they be called.

Beth Lawrence of the Laurinburg Exchange contributed to this story. Reach Gavin Stone at 910-817-2674 or gstone@yourdailyjournal.com.

Gavin Stone | Daily Journal
A sheriff’s deputy checks visitor IDs at the front entrance to Richmond Senior High School on Thursday following an anonymous call saying that there would be a shooting at Scotland High School and that a Richmond senior would be shot.

https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_schoolsecurity.jpgGavin Stone | Daily Journal
A sheriff’s deputy checks visitor IDs at the front entrance to Richmond Senior High School on Thursday following an anonymous call saying that there would be a shooting at Scotland High School and that a Richmond senior would be shot.

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MADISON, Ga. — One of two local men facing meth-related charges in the Peach State is now considered a fugitive.

A bench warrant was issued Tuesday for the arrest of Gerald Allen Smith for failing to appear in Morgan County Superior Court on Monday. His $20,000 surety bond was forfeited on Wednesday, according to court documents.

Richmond County Sheriff James Clemmons said late Friday afternoon that his office had not yet been contacted about the case.

Smith, of Ellerbe, was indicted last September on one count each of trafficking in methamphetamine, possession of Oxycodone, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, criminal use of an article with an altered identification mark, receiving stolen property and driving while license suspended. He was also indicted on two counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.

Court documents show that Smith and Patrick Carlton Harrington, of Jackson Springs were arrested by the Morgan County Sheriff’s Office in June of last year.

Harrington was indicted one count each of trafficking in methamphetamine, possession of Oxycodone, criminal use of an article with an altered identification mark, theft by receiving stolen property and obstruction of an officer. He was also indicted on two counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime and three counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

The Morgan County Citizen previously reported that a safety worker witnessed two men fleeing from a 2000 Cadillac after it struck a guardrail on I-20 and called it in around 9:30 the morning of June 3, 2017. (The indictment report lists the arrest date as June 5.)

Morgan County Sheriff Robert Markley told the newspaper that he was at home when he received the call, but soon left to begin searching for the suspects — with other law enforcement agencies joining in.

Markley said he noticed two men matching the description of the suspects speaking to a woman in a white van in the driveway of a horse farm around 11:30 a.m., local media outlets report.

When the sheriff approached them and began a conversation, the men reportedly looked nervous and the woman gave “furtive glances” at the men.

At that point, Markley reportedly drew his service revovler and ordered both men on the ground.

Smith complied — while 3 Harrington allegedly took off running. He was later found hiding in an area of tall grass about 50 yards behind a barn after a K-9 unit from the Walton County Sheriff’s Office was called in to assist.

Officers say they found a backpack with more than 75 grams of suspected meth in clear plastic baggies, two guns, a bottle of suspected oxycodone and two cellphones.

The car reportedly belonged to Harrington, but had a stolen tag.

Smith allegedly told deputies that he had been picked up by Harrington as a hitchhiker when he fell asleep at the wheel and struck the guardrail. He also reportedly said that he fled the scene because his license was suspended, according to the Lake Oconee News.

When asked about the backpack, Smith said that a .22-caliber handgun that was found was his, but he knew nothing of the meth.

Harrington had a different story.

He reportedly admitted that he and Smith were friends and that he had been asked to drive from Jackson Springs to Douglasville, Georgia in exchange for meth.

Harrington said they had obtained the drugs and were on the way back when he fell asleep in the front seat and woke up after the crash.

Neither man has any pending charges in North Carolina.

Smith was convicted in 1992 of driving while impaired, a misdemeanor, in Brunswick County, according to records with the N.C. Department of Public Safety Division of Adult Correction.

Harrington has no previous convictions in the state.

It is not clear what state(s) their previous felony convictions (prompting the possession of a firearm by a felon charges) are from.

All defendants facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.

Smith

https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_geraldsmith.jpgSmith

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HOFFMAN — During an evening of repeated thank-yous, a plethora of paper certificates and a free baked-chicken dinner, inmates and their keepers at Morrison Correctional Institution this week honored the volunteers who bring with them weekly the hope of redemption.

But what brought the dozens of predominantly church folk in the audience to their feet Thursday night was not the recognition but the gospel singing of a quintet of prisoners who declared, “I’m a Friend of God.”

“Amen!” the crowd proclaimed.

“That’s all right! You better sing!” they cried, as they swayed and clapped along with the men at the microphones.

Prisoner/tenor John Singleton said the music “continues to help me with my rehabilitation process” — he has served 21 years and has four years and nine months to go.

“This is what God calls me to do.”

Volunteers also expressed a sense of calling, citing it as what spurred them to provide weekly Bible study and worship at the medium-security prison— efforts that Chaplain Kyle Fishbaugh called “so precious and so needed” by “these men who have erred along the way.”

“(By serving the prisoners), we fulfill what Jesus told us,” said the Rev. Jean Pierre Swamunu of St. James Catholic Church in Hamlet, who says Mass at the prison once a month.

“Also, (Jesus said), ‘I was in prison, and you visited me.’ The more I am giving to the prisoners,” Swamunu said, “the more they’re giving to me.”

Mary Hightower of Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church in Fayetteville also touched on what visiting the prison does for her.

“It keeps me humble,” she said. “I have two boys of my own, and (visiting) gives me compassion to see the young men (who are not free).

“I don’t judge them; I’m not here to judge — just to try to make it easier for them (and) let them know there’s hope.”

Two recovering alcoholics from Aberdeen — they wished to be identified only as “friends of Bill W.” — also attended, one saying he had been in prison “73 months and one day” and other, “in a prison of my own mind.”

“We carry a message of hope, a message of recovery,” one said. To which the other added: “The guys can leave prison and change their way of living.”

Edward Miller, center, leads fellow inmates Vassie Raynor and John Singleton in singing “I’m a Friend of God” as the audience stands to join in. Prisoners at Morrison Correctional Institution performed and served dinners Thursday evening to dozens of people who organize weekly Bible study and religious services.

https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_prisonsingers.jpgEdward Miller, center, leads fellow inmates Vassie Raynor and John Singleton in singing “I’m a Friend of God” as the audience stands to join in. Prisoners at Morrison Correctional Institution performed and served dinners Thursday evening to dozens of people who organize weekly Bible study and religious services.

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The detectives, officers and dispatchers of the Hamlet Police Department have voted Stacey Sparks their dispatcher of the year.

Sparks, a 2012 graduate of Richmond Early College High School, has served with the department for two years.

She received her award at a recent recognition dinner honoring law-enforcement dispatchers throughout Richmond County.

https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_sparks.jpg

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ROCKINGHAM — An investigation by the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office Narcotics Unit into alleged cocaine and marijuana dealing resulted in the arrest of a Rockingham man last week.

Detectives used two confidential informants to purchase cocaine and marijuana from Steven Jones, 45, of Skipper Street in Rockingham on April 11, arresting him on the April 13, according to warrants for his arrest.

Jones was found with 31 grams of cocaine, 284.6 grams of marijuana (10.04 ounces) and four Xanax pills. He was also found with prescription opioid addiction treatment drugs — 11 strips of Suboxone and five Zubsolv tablets — as well as one oxycodone pill, according to warrants.

These drugs, along with assorted drug paraphernalia and $4,991 in cash, were found in a black bag in Jones’ car, a dresser in his home or on his person and seized by the sheriff’s office, warrants show.

He is charged with one felony count each of trafficking in cocaine; possession with intent to manufacture, sell and deliver a Schedule VI controlled substance; possession with intent to manufacture, sell and deliver a Schedule IV controlled substance; possession with intent to manufacture, sell and deliver a Schedule II controlled substance; and two felony counts of possession with intent to manufacture, sell and deliver a Schedule III controlled substance.

Jones is additionally charged with two felony counts of maintaining a vehicle, dwelling or place for the purposes of keeping and selling a controlled substance and one misdemeanor count each of possession of marijuana paraphernalia and possession of drug paraphernalia.

He posted a $100,000 bond at the Richmond County Jail and was released on April 13.

Jones has one previous conviction for a February 2006 misdemeanor charge of maintaining any place for a controlled substance, for which he was sentenced to probation, according to records with the N.C. Department of Public Safety Division of Adult Correction.

The sheriff’s office also arrested a woman last week wanted in a Pennsylvania fraud case: 27-year-old Carla Star Elaine Brown, of Ellerbe Grove Church Road in Rockingham. REM Staffing, Inc., a company in Lemoyne, Pennsylvania, contacted their local police in regard to a large number of unauthorized withdrawals from the company’s bank account on Oct. 12 of last year, according to a warrant for her arrest.

Following a review of company bank statements, investigators determined that there were 10 payments made to Sprint, nine payments to Nation General Insurance, two payments to Planet Fitness and four PayPal transactions all made under Brown’s name. Brown’s Sprint account was linked to a New York address and numerous other previous addresses — including the Rockingham address — but none in Pennsylvania.

The Rockingham address was determined to be Brown’s current residence because the same account had been used to pay the Charlotte branch of Time Warner Cable.

Brown is charged with one count of receiving stolen property and the judge in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, has requested that she be extradited to face charges there.

She was arrested on April 13 and placed under a $25,000 bond at the Richmond County Jail. She posted bail the following day and was released. She has no prior charges in Richmond County, according to state records.

All defendants facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Reach Gavin Stone at 910-817-2674 or gstone@yourdailyjournal.com.

Brown

https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_carlabrown.jpgBrown

Jones

https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_stevenjones.jpgJones

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NORMAN — Richmond County’s smallest municipality is planning a big event on April 28 — its Chick-n Pick-n Bluegrass/Country Jamboree — but it couldn’t plan the path one its performers took to get back to her former home.

Abigail Dowd always wanted to be the best, or at least that’s what she was told. Growing up she had to be the “smart kid,” and as she got older that translated into a need for that “big job” — which she got.

At 26, she was elected to the Southern Pines Town Council where she fought and won a zoning dispute with a major land developer that wanted to build 400,000 square feet of commercial retail she believed would threaten an already thriving downtown, putting her in the spotlight in a way she’d never been.

But even when everything seemed to be going right, she felt like she was moving further away from what she really wanted to do: play music.

“We’re almost conditioned to not really listen to our natures,” Dowd said. “I was always fighting on the council … but I didn’t know who I was.”

BORN TO SING

On those same report cards that told her she was excelling, her teachers would leave notes about how much she was singing in class. She sang at her church in Norman when she was 3 years old, and started to teach herself to play on her great-grandfather’s guitar, later studying classical style. Music was always the way should could cut through the troubles in her life.

“Nothing matters when you’re singing, everything dissolves,” she said.

She had a moment of clarity in a conversation with her mother, and decided to quit the council and move to Florence, Italy with her great-grandfather’s guitar, a piece of Norman she kept with her. After that, it was on to Maine where she began to hone her musical talent.

Norman doesn’t always bring up fond memories for Dowd. Her debut album, “Don’t Wake Me,” released in January of last year, deals heavily with the loss she experienced in her youth growing up in Moore County. Her father died when she was 12, her great-grandfather, who owned a combined barber and music shop in Norman, died when she was 13.

In “Goodbye Yesterday” she sings “goodbye yesterday/see you here tomorrow at the same time/meanwhile I’ll be here staring you down … goodbye sorrow/time to leave this old friend behind.” She calls this song a turning point in her music because it coincided with her meeting her fiancé — Jason Duff, who now plays on stage with her — and newfound ability to write happy songs.

“It was a very conscious goodbye to all that struggle and all that sorrow,” Dowd said. “(The death of my father) was always part of my story, I had to let go of that.”

The song “Some Divine” deals most directly with Norman. It describes a home that “wasn’t always full of love,” and a place to get away from, but still a place God is listening to with the final line, “born and blind/there must be some divine who can see you and me.”

“Norman has this mystical quality to me … it was a magical place to me as a kid but the not-good things — I was three, I didn’t know,” Dowd said.

In her new album to be released later this year, she says she gets more upbeat, pushing her vocals even further to reach the “underlayer” of emotions dealt with in her first.

When she plays on Norman’s prized stage on the 28th, she’ll be looking at her grandfather’s house across the street. Her great-grandfather’s barber and music shop (where, according to a family story, the Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards once stopped to buy guitar strings) was right next to where the stage now sits before it was torn down.

She only lived in the town for a little over six months when she was a toddler, but was nearby, visiting her great-grandfather frequently over the last few months of his life. This will be her first time performing in the town since she was 3 singing in church.

“To get to play in Norman and share that vibration and music … I’ll feel like a 3-year-old — the same little being I always was,” she said. “There’s no good, there’s no bad — it just is.”

SHARING THE STAGE

Norman Mayor Kenneth Broadway said he wants to make the event a regular music series for the small town and hopes to make it the spring version of Norman Fest, which is held in October.

Dowd will be the third to take the stage (2 p.m.) during the event, sandwiched in between two performances by Flint Hill Bluegrass. Uwharrie Pickers, another bluegrass band, will kick things off at noon with The Rusted Rails, a rockabilly band, closing the show.

The Jamboree will also feature antique tractors, classic cars and trucks and a motorcycle ride. For more information on the ride, contact Sally Ingram at 910-997-1524. For more information on the Jamboree, contact Broadway at 910-997-1524 or kenneth@etinternet.net.

Reach Gavin Stone at 910-817-2674 or gstone@yourdailyjournal.com.

Courtesy photo Abigail Dowd performs at Herman’s Hideaway in Denver, Colorado in May 2017. Dowd, who has Richmond County ties, will be performing at Norman’s Chick-n-Pick-n Bluegrass/Country Jamboree next weekend. “Nothing matters when you’re singing, everything dissolves.”

https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_abigaildowd.jpgCourtesy photo Abigail Dowd performs at Herman’s Hideaway in Denver, Colorado in May 2017. Dowd, who has Richmond County ties, will be performing at Norman’s Chick-n-Pick-n Bluegrass/Country Jamboree next weekend. “Nothing matters when you’re singing, everything dissolves.”

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ROCKINGHAM — Two-hundred and forty-seven Richmond County residents have already cast their ballots for the upcoming primary and school board elections since early voting began Thursday.

The polls are located at the Richmond County Cooperative Extension office, 123 Caroline St., Rockingham. Polls are open weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, May 5.

The early voting period will end May 5. Election day is May 8.

If you haven’t registered to vote, it’s too late at this point. For those who are voting, there is no need for photo ID following a supreme court ruling against the requirement.

In the Republican primary, voters will choose if U.S. Rep. Robert Pittenger makes it to the November ballot or if it will be either challenger Mark Harris or Clarence Goins Jr. They will also decide if state Sen. Tom McInnis or Whispering Pines Mayor Michelle Lexo faces off against Democratic challenger Helen Probst Mills.

Democratic voters will send either Christian Cano or Dan McReady to face the winner of the Republican congressional race; and pick four out of five candidates — Peggy Covington, Don Bryant, Tavares Bostic, Herb Long and Rick Watkins — to run for county commissioner in the general election.

Unaffiliated voters can cast ballots in either the Republican or Democratic primary.

Seven candidates are vying for one of four spots on the Richmond County Board of Education, including incumbents Irene Pittman Aiken, Bobbie Sue Ormsby and Joe Richardson, and challengers Pat Campbell, Daryl Mason, J.L. McCulers and Statha Osborne.

The school board election is non-partisan.

Gavin Stone | Daily Journal Richmond County residents vote at the county Extension office at 218 Carolina Street during lunch hours on Friday.

https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_earlyvote_april18-1.jpgGavin Stone | Daily Journal Richmond County residents vote at the county Extension office at 218 Carolina Street during lunch hours on Friday.

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ROCKINGHAM — Sheriff’s officers approaching the home of a man suspected of cocaine trafficking were forced to draw their weapons to keep him from running, law-enforcement records show.

Narcotics detectives say that when they approached the Sandhill Road home of Hikeem Byrd, 23, to serve an active warrant, Byrd saw them coming and turned to the back of the house to flee. He claimed to be fetching his crutches, the warrant says, but the devices were clearly visible near the front door.

The detectives say they had reason to believe Byrd was hiding drug money when they pulled up to his house Thursday. Byrd allegedly had sold 58.3 grams of cocaine to a confidential informant on two occasions between Jan. 31 and April 19.

He was wanted in connection with a Dec, 9 armed robbery that netted $1,075 and 3 ounces of marijuana worth approximately $1,825, warrants for his arrest show.

Byrd is charged with four felony counts each of selling or delivering cocaine, and possession with intent to manufacture, sell or deliver cocaine. He also is charged with two felony counts each of trafficking in cocaine and maintaining a vehicle, dwelling or place for keeping and selling a controlled substance.

Additional charges include one felony count each of robbery with a dangerous weapon and possession of a firearm by a felon, as well as misdemeanor counts of assault by pointing a gun, possession of a Schedule VI controlled substance, possession of marijuana paraphernalia and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Byrd was out on bond after a Dec. 20 arrest stemming from an attempt to elude sheriff’s deputies by driving 95-mph in a 55-mph zone, arrest warrants show.

He is being held at the Richmond County Jail in lieu of a $300,000 secured bond and is to appear in court May 3.

In July 2013, Byrd was convicted of felony counts of discharging a weapon into an occupied property and larceny from a person, for which he served three years in prison, state records show. He was release in August 2016.

Byrd

https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_HIKEEM-IDRISE-LAMAR-BYRD-1.jpgByrd

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ROCKINGHAM — Police have charged two Hamlet men with trying to cash fraudulent checks.

Stephen Patrick Culler, 52, of Plymouth Circle allegedly forged and successfully cashed at a bank two $150 checks from two people — one of whom shared his last name — on Jan. 17, warrants for his arrest show.

Culler was arrested April 16 and charged with obtaining property by false pretense, identity theft and forgery of instrument, all felonies. He also was charged with one misdemeanor count of larceny.

Culler was jailed in lieu of $20,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court May 3.

In 1982, he was convicted of one felony count of larceny of firearms, one felony count of breaking and entering. In 1986, he was convicted of felony common-law robbery. He served a combined sentence of five years and five months, state records show.

Culler also has convictions on felony of larceny of more than $200, receiving stolen goods, possession of a Schedule II controlled substance, manslaughter and possession of a firearm by a felon. He also has been convicted of a misdemeanor count of larceny of more than $200. He served a combined five years and six months for the charges beginning in 1989.

He was incarcerated again in March 1997, following convictions for two felony counts of second-degree burglary, for which he served a year and nine months in prison.

Culler’s most recent conviction was his longest, stemming from June 2003 felony convictions for breaking and entering and for being a habitual felon. He served 11 years and nine months in prison for these charges and was released March 1, 2015.

In the second fraud case, Rodrick Powers, 27, of Taylor Street allegedly tried to cash a counterfeit check for $997.54 at the Rockingham Walmart on June 26, 2017, arrest warrants show. He was arrested April 18.

Powers is charged with felony counts of attempting to obtain property by false pretense, forgery of instrument and attempted uttering.

He was being held under a $5,000 unsecured bond and is scheduled to appear in court May 3.

Powers has no prior convictions, state records show.

Cullers

https://www.yourdailyjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/web1_STEPHEN-PATRICK-CULLER.jpgCullers

Powers

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