NASHVILLE - In order to put some teeth in Nashville's two-hour parking limit downtown, particularly on "court days," the town planning department is looking into a parking ticket system based on license plates.
Planning Director Shawn Lucas brought up parking enforcement at the April 28th Downtown Nashville Strong Advisory Board meeting. His questions to board members were if there were still ongoing parking violations and if the DSAB might consider budgeting for parking enforcement software.

RED OAK - Anticipating slight increases in both sales and franchise taxes, the anticipated FY 26-27 budget for the town of Red Oak has increased by 6.73% over last year's.
Meeting April 27th for a council work session, minus commissioner Tony Bennett, who was ill, town council members had little comment overall with figures presented by Sandra Russ, commissioner and Finance Officer.

Nash Central High School students participated in the 2026 Senior Parade last week. Pictured, Tamaya Coppedge of Rocky Mount loads her unicorn bubble gun prior to heading out, trailing bubbles, with other Nash Central Seniors. After the annual Senior (car) Parade, seniors participated in "Senior Sunset.. Last Recess." The event involved games and activities on the footfall field and reading letters written to themselves at the start of the year. They also watched the sunset together and had their class picture taken. Graphic photo by Nancy West-Brake

ROCKY MOUNT - Nashville native son and former Governor Roy Cooper was enthusiastically received by a crowd of about 150 when he made an appearance Thursday at the Thornes Chapel Missionary Baptist Church in Rocky Mount. Multiple Democrat leaders and political candidates from both Nash and Edgecombe Counties were in attendance.
The stop was part of Cooper's statewide "Make Stuff Cost Less Tour," in which he addresses the need to make regular living expenses like groceries, childcare, health care and utilities more affordable and how he will work to address those needs should he be elected to the U.S. Senate.

One of the new apartment duplexes on the grounds of the Free Will Baptist Church Children's Home in Middlesex. Graphic photo by Nancy West-Brake

MIDDLESEX - A new option for young people exiting foster care has opened its doors in Middlesex on the grounds of the Free Will Baptist Church Children's Home (FWBCCH): two new apartment duplexes, unveiled during a ribbon-cutting April 29th, offer independent living for a total of eight people.
"Older youth in foster care often find themselves struggling to adapt to adulthood. They lack a stable support system to help them navigate finding housing, higher education, and career-minded employment," states a flyer for the Thrive Independent Living Program, so named because of the goal to "help youth thrive while moving towards independent adulthood."

SPRING HOPE - The town of Spring Hope is the first Nash County municipality to enact a moratorium on Data Center construction, with commissioners passing a resolution May 4th to "put a pause" on any such consideration until more information is available.
"This is a proactive measure," said Kyle Pritchard, Mayor, stating that the move was to protect citizens living both in town and in the ETJ.
Pritchard said he had doubts about the reality of long-term employment numbers from data center construction, as well as questions about increased wattage resulting in higher energy rates for residents.

Thursday, May 7
Nash Arts Blooming Kick-Off free concert at 7 p.m. featuring
Lynette Barber with Will Ellis
Carnival opens at 5pm

Madison Updyke wins the R. Sullivan Fisher award, presented by Fisher's daughter, Linda Fisher.

ROCKY MOUNT - Nearly 40 Nash County youth participated in this year's 89th annual Eastern Carolina 4-H Livestock Show and Sale, held April 6-8 at the East Carolina Agriculture & Education Center on Kingsboro Road, Rocky Mount. Also competing were youth from Edgecombe and Halifax Counties.
Nash County results are as follows:

NASHVILLE- As a result of collaborative local research on how to best use Opioid Settlement funding, Nash County will be paying for two mental health clinicians to work in Nash County Public Schools.
Tia Foula, Assistant Nash County manager, presented commissioners with a resolution Monday to release $700,000 total over the next four years to pay to hire two clinicians to offer behavioral health supports for school-aged youth.

ROCKY MOUNT- A ten-year-old Nash County boy is being praised by the Nash County Sheriff's Office for his responsible actions concerning the discovery of a loaded firearm in his bookbag.
The boy, whose name has not been released, a student at M.B. Hubbard Elementary School, "noticed his bookbag was heavier than normal" when he got on his schoolbus April 29th. Upon unzipping his bag, the student found a Diamondback DB9, subcompact 9 mm pistol, which was loaded but not chambered.

MOMEYER- While formal planning has not yet begun for the town of Momeyer's FY 27 budget, a standby generator for the town hall has already been mentioned-again.
"According to FEMA, we've already done this," said Will Funderburg, Mayor, who brought up the generator as a potential new line item to be considered.
Speaking at the April 13 town council meeting under an agenda item, "preliminary budget discussion," Funderburg noted that town officials were on record in 2015, 2020 and even last year as discussing the need for a generator.

NASHVILLE - A March 14 shooting incident outside a Nashville laundromat in which a girl was shot in the leg has resulted in additional charges against a girl and a second adult woman.
Initially charged was 53-year-old Michelle Murphy of Crescent Meadows Drive, Nashville, but now charged is Murphy's daughter, 33-year-old Kiahira Reshona Murphy as well as the unnamed 15-year-old girl.

"Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another - and all the more as you see the day approaching." (Hebrews 10:25)
Robbie and I became members of a wonderful church last Sunday. After caring for her mom for a long period of time, we were finally able to commit to attending church on a regular basis. We had been visiting there for several months. We love the pastor, the sermons, the music, and the people. We even found a Sunday School class with about 50 others which we really enjoy.

Is Christianity just a copycat religion? Many critics answer, "Yes," and argue that much of the Old Testament is nothing more than rewritings of Ancient Near Eastern myth. One particular reason they answer yes is that the biblical story of the Great Flood in Genesis is not the original story, they say, but is, in fact, a copy of the much older flood tale from the Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh. Sure enough, The Epic of Gilgamesh, written in about 1800 BC, predates the Genesis account by some 1,000 years! Not only that, the similarities between the Genesis flood story and the Gilgamesh flood story are striking:

Women in Action of Red Oak Baptist Church hosted a Missions Celebration on Tuesday, April 28 at the church. The theme was Go Fish! based on the verse in Matthew 4:19 which reads, "Come follow me', Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." Ladies enjoyed delicious fried chicken supper with sides and desserts.
Following the meal, our speaker, Donna Upchurch, shared with the group about her missions trips to Jamaica.

From left : Trey Mills, for Best Steer award; Jessiyah Taylor, for Best Sheep; Barrett Vandemark for Best Meat Goat; Reed Crunsenberry for Best Swine. At right is Linda Fisher, representing the Nash County Farm Bureau. The highest placing animal in the 4-H Show & Sale that was born and raised in the county is selected as the award winner.

It's come up with readers a few times in the last year --remarks about how much they used to enjoy reading about our kids growing up in these pages.
For the better part of two decades on a regular basis, Holly, Kent and Lowell made life crazy, and fended off many a case of writer's block.
I realized how many times they had been main characters when I collected all their column appearances in 26 of the last 29 years and made them each a book when they graduated high school. Those things are the size of small encyclopedias.

We will celebrate the 28th Nashville Blooming Festival this weekend, an event founded, and still organized, by the Nashville Chamber of Commerce.
The chamber launched the first event in 1997. The event number is 28 due to missing two years during the pandemic shutdown. The entire event is still organized by volunteers - not a paid staff. That speaks volumes of the level of commitment people have poured into our hometown festival.
Over the next few days we will witness a million smiles and giggles from thousands of children and adults alike. We will watch thousands of people dance in the street or pull up a chair to listen to some amazing live music.

Dear Christians,
This Thursday, May 7th, 2026 is our annual National Day of Prayer. The leaders of this annual event have named this a day of national Praise & Repentance using II Chronicles 16:23-24. V23 "Sing to the Lord all the earth; Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day. V24 "Declare His glory among the nations, and His wonders among the people." They are asking all Americans to take a few minutes out of our busy lives and bow our heads and submit our will in solemn repentance and praise recognizing that only God can save our nations.

This photo published in The Nashville Graphic on May 23, 1968. New FFA (Future Farmers of America) officers were elected at Northern Nash High School. Pictured, left to right: Kenneth Craft, sentinel; Roger Barnes, treasurer; David Manning, secretary; Randy Pendergrass, president; Jim Reges, Jr., vice-president; Bruce May, reporter; and Gene Evans, chaplain.