Recent Articles

FRANKLINTON — A 77-year-old Youngsville man was killed Wednesday morning following a two-car wreck. James A. Sandling Jr., was driving east on Pocomoke Road when he pulled the 2004 Chevy pickup truck he was driving into the path of a sport utility vehicle traveling south on U.S. Highway 1.

Preliminary reports suggest that tourism’s economic effects grew across the state last year, and business people suspect the county will benefit from such a trend through its occupancy tax.

Preston Phelps on his Harley Davidson

An 84-year-old Youngsville woman has been charged in the vehicular death of a 19-year-old Louisburg man in a tragic wreck that police say accents the need for a low-profile median along the increasingly congested stretch of Bickett Boulevard.
Preston Phelps was riding his motorcycle north on the roadway in Louisburg on Wednesday just before 6 p.m when Emily Murphy pulled into his path, turning left from a turning lane, into the Wal-Mart parking lot, Louisburg Police Chief Rick Lassiter said.
Phelps dropped the bike to slide and crashed into the right front of the car on the passenger’s side, Lassister said.

The county has taken over airport operations this month. An arbitrator could determine at what cost. Former airport operator First In Flight Aviation agreed to hand over management of the airport effective April 1 after discussions to patch contract differences failed.

Congressman Bob Etheridge is pushing legislation that will give school systems an emergency preparedness lifeline that’s just out of reach at the moment.
Late last year, Etheridge, the only North Carolina member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, ordered a survey of his district to determine the state of emergency preparedness of local schools.

The school system will ask for a 10.37 percent increase in the county’s current expense appropriation, planning not to pull money from its fund balance to meet needs for fiscal year 2006-07.
The Board of Education unanimously approved a current expense budget of $11,644,356, an increase from the current fiscal year budget of $10,966,606.

Within the past two weeks, Franklin County sheriff’s deputies and Louisburg police have worked separately and together to take major drug traffickers off the street.
On March 20, sheriff’s deputies, members of the dangerous drugs, the Nash County sheriff’s office and the State Bureau of Investigation arrested Spring Hope resident Fredy Rene Cruz Santillan.

A former Louisburg College student has pleaded guilty to robbing the student bookstore, saying she was coerced into participating but didn’t actually steal from the store. According to Louisburg Police, Tiara Black, 21, waited outside the bookstore just before it opened on Dec. 12.

LOUISBURG - Donnell Brodie, 59, died Friday, March 31, 2006 at Duke University Medical Center in Durham. Funeral services will be conducted at 3 p.m. today (Wednesday, April 5) at Jones Chapel Baptist Church, Louisburg. Burial will follow in the Brodie family cemetery.

LOUISBURG - Funeral services for Mrs. Janie Rogers Driver, 86, of Virginia Beach, Va., formerly of Bunn, who died Wednesday, March 29, 2006, were conducted Tuesday, April 4, at Gethsemane Baptist Church, with the Rev. Everett Jenkins, pastor, officiating.

RALEIGH - Catherine Marie Gallagher, 91, died Wednesday, March 29, 2006. A memorial service is to be scheduled at a later date in Philadelphia.

A graveside service with military honors will be conducted for Army 1st Sgt. Douglas White Sr. at Fairview Cemetery in Franklinton on April 8. He died March 26, 2006 at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center in Fayetteville.

LEXINGTON - Dorothy Southerland Smith, 85, of Westside Dr., Lexington, N.C., went to be with her Lord and Savior on April 1. Funeral services were conducted at 11 a.m. Tuesday, April 4, at First Reformed United Church of Christ, conducted by the Rev. Mike Hooper.

The Board of Education has agreed to buy 114 acres at N.C. Highway 56 and Fred Wilder Road two miles west of Franklinton - a site that will be used for a new high school and elementary school. The offer is based upon a half dozen contingencies that include meeting wetland restrictions.

Artist Billy Farmer takes some time to chat with Evelyn Ward, center, and Ann Ray, right, while they examine a few pieces of his work during Youngsville’s Arts in the Community event downtown on Saturday. Artists, crafters and others set up shop in the town’s community building and across the street, giving visitors a chance to see their work and buy a few items.

The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office has involved the SBI in a possible hate crime against a sheriff’s candidate. Such a crime is a felony. Authorities discovered on the morning of March 26 that someone spray painted an intended racial slur on a Joe Lynch campaign sign.