The City of Clinton’s new fire chief Jordan Hill was sworn in and began his duties this week, starting a new era for the department.

The City of Clinton’s new fire chief Jordan Hill was sworn in and began his duties this week, starting a new era for the department.

The Sampson County group of NC A&T alumni recently hosted a panel discussion in observance of National HBCU Week at First Baptist Church, 900 College St., Clinton, highlighting the theme ‘Why HBCUs Still Matter’with an emphasis on getting youth to better appreciate HBCUs. The panel, moderated by Larry Sutton, consisted of Helen Bronson, NCCU; Charlotte Murphy, Livingstone; Marcus Bass, NC A&T; Edward Faison, NCCU; Nicholas Green, NCCU; and Raymond Smith, Jr., NC A&T. On Thursday, Sept. 22, members of the Sampson County HBCU community conducted a balloon launch in recognition of the NC10 HBCUs. This event was in conjunction with a panel discussion held during National HBCU Week at First Baptist Church, 900 College St., Clinton.

On Saturday, Oct. 1, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Snow Hill Missionary Baptist Church of Roseboro, N.C. Men’s Ministry will be hosting Family and Friend’s Day. Come out and join us for games, food, gospel D.J. and more. Sunday school begins at 9:30 a.m.

RALEIGH, N.C.– A new pilot program through the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services aims to give landowners in five North Carolina counties the tools they need to remove invasive pigs from their land. The 5-County Trap Loan Program, which is now available in Anson, Davie, Haywood, Montgomery and Randolph counties, provides high-tech corral traps that can be borrowed for up to one month. The pilot program is funded through the U.S. Farm Bill and is available to qualifying landholders through August 2023.

Clinton’s newest public art project is emblazoned across the side of a building on Ferrell Street, courtesy of artist Seraphim Smith. The mural, across the street from Fastenal, can be seen from the Hwy 55 parking lot. Grand Rental Station of Clinton assisted in offering a lift to hit some of the high spots for the mural, which is just the latest art addition to the downtown and surrounding area. It is the most recent display for Ferrell Street, which has received its fair share of dressing up in recent years, as plastic cap murals designed by artist Denise Hughes and created by Sunset Avenue and Roseboro Elementary students adorned what officials would ultimately call the Downtown Recycle Art Walk (DRAW) along Ferrell Street, a project between the Clinton Main Street Program, the Sampson Arts Council and the Clinton Public Works Department.

TURKEY — Officials with Montauk Ag Renewables, LLC, the animal agriculture waste processing facility that is planning to develop a site in the town’s extraterritorial jurisdiction to convert waste into renewable energy, returned to town for a recent meeting to listen to continued concerns from town residents regarding the potential of odors, traffic and pollution. Company officials assured residents they would continue to follow all rules and regulations, and take into account all concerns, but stressed — as they did at the end of 2021 — that the facility was still very much a work in progress before it gets close to being operational.

A Wednesday morning meeting played out like a State of Sampson County Address turned court proceeding as county administration delivered an exhaustive review of the budgetary process, current financial and staffing challenges, employee compensation and an outlook that will see Sampson continue to face impacts administrators say, while serious, are similar to what is being experienced by other local governments.

CLINTON — During the month of August, at the turn of the new fiscal year, Sampson Community College (SCC) bid farewell to six longtime directors of the SCC Foundation: John Baxter, Roland Hall, Gary Mac Herring, Lethia Lee, Merrie McLamb, and Amelia Surratt. Their departure comes after the Foundation Board’s decision to adopt new policies in 2020, limiting terms for their directors to three years and the opportunity for re-election to two additional terms.