Local

Press photo/Mia Overton. Vecinos Executive Director Marianne Martinez (left) with Valeria Barrera Vizcarra, Farmworker Health Program manager, during an open house at the new clinic site. Vecinos was created to help the farmworker community of Western North Carolina but has expanded its mission to include low-income and uninsured people.

Press photo/Mia Overton. Vecinos Executive Director Marianne Martinez (left) with Valeria Barrera Vizcarra, Farmworker Health Program manager, during an open house at the new clinic site. Vecinos was created to help the farmworker community of Western North Carolina but has expanded its mission to include low-income and uninsured people.

Vecinos to open new clinic in Franklin

News Staff
Tuesday, July 19, 2022
Grace Mains, Intern Vecinos launched a capital campaign on July 15 to help fund the creation of a new Community Health Hub in Franklin. The campaign is slated to last four years with the help of board members, outreach teams, donors and partners.
Submitted photos

Submitted photos

Murder suspect flees to Franklin

News Staff
Tuesday, July 19, 2022
The Macon County Sheriff’s Office is looking for a man wanted for the murder of his estranged wife. Salomon Ramos Santos, 49, is accused of fatally shooting his wife in DeKalb County, Georgia, on July 11.
Press photo/Mia Overton The county will get the old Gulf gas station next to Town Bridge as part of a property exchange with the North Carolina Department of Transportation. The building could become the new home for the Friends of the Greenway.

Press photo/Mia Overton The county will get the old Gulf gas station next to Town Bridge as part of a property exchange with the North Carolina Department of Transportation. The building could become the new home for the Friends of the Greenway.

County, DOT trade property

Mia Overton
Tuesday, July 19, 2022
Macon County will now own the old Gulf gas station next to Town Bridge as part of a property exchange with the N.C. Department of Transportation. The exchange was approved during the July 12 Board of County Commissioners meeting. No money will be exchanged as part of the trade.
Press photo/Mia Overton Library supporters raised $30,455 to support salary increases for library employees. The effort came about after a request for a $20,000 increase in funding for the library was not approved by the Board of County Commissioners. Lenny Jordan said the original goal was to raise $20,000, but they exceeded that with 280 people making contributions over a 10-day period.

Press photo/Mia Overton Library supporters raised $30,455 to support salary increases for library employees. The effort came about after a request for a $20,000 increase in funding for the library was not approved by the Board of County Commissioners. Lenny Jordan said the original goal was to raise $20,000, but they exceeded that with 280 people making contributions over a 10-day period.

Donors support library salaries

Mia Overton
Tuesday, July 12, 2022
While the Macon County libraries did not receive the full amount they requested from the Board of County Commissioners, a private fundraising campaign has helped ensure the library staff will get salary increases.
Photo – Franklin Police Department

Photo – Franklin Police Department

Police chief requests officer recruiting incentives

Mia Overton
Tuesday, July 12, 2022
The Franklin Police Chief came before the Town Council on July 5 to ask that the town consider a more aggressive recruiting program for new officers. The Franklin Police Department is authorized for 17 sworn positions and currently has six vacancies.
Photo/The Wilson Times A Honda Odyssey van is vacuumed after gunfire shattered its back window at the Gillette Athletic Complex on Sunday morning.

Photo/The Wilson Times A Honda Odyssey van is vacuumed after gunfire shattered its back window at the Gillette Athletic Complex on Sunday morning.

Shooting at All-Star game: ‘Everybody was scared for their life’

News Staff
Tuesday, July 12, 2022
Will Woolever - sports@thefranklinpress.com Mia Overton - editor@thefranklinpress.com Franklin’s All-Star Little League baseball team was on the field when shots were fired at the Gillette Athletic Complex in Wilson on Sunday morning, July 10.
Photo submitted Jerry Sutton (right) served on the SCC Board of Trustees from 1983 to 2015. He participated in the swearing-in ceremony for his grandson Cory McCall (left) in 2019. They are pictured with SCC President Don Tomas.

Photo submitted Jerry Sutton (right) served on the SCC Board of Trustees from 1983 to 2015. He participated in the swearing-in ceremony for his grandson Cory McCall (left) in 2019. They are pictured with SCC President Don Tomas.

Sutton dedicated to rural communities

Mia Overton
Tuesday, July 5, 2022
Macon County lost one of its longtime native residents last week; a man who made a difference in many ways throughout the county and Western North Carolina. Jerry Sutton died on June 29, 2022, at the age of 85. After graduating from N.C.
Press graphic

Press graphic

Otto woman killed in wreck

Mia Overton
Tuesday, July 5, 2022
An Otto woman was killed in a three-car wreck June 29 on Hwy. 441 (Georgia Road). Trooper J.D. Gass said the N.C. Highway Patrol received a call at 4:20 p.m. about the wreck just north of the old Otto School.
Macon County Schools logo

Macon County Schools logo

New principals named for MMS, MEC

News Staff
Tuesday, July 5, 2022
The Macon County Board of Education approved the appointments of two new principals at the June 30 meeting. Mark Sutton was named principal of Macon Middle School, where he had served as interim principal since April.
Press photo

Press photo

Town approves tax increase

News Staff
Tuesday, June 28, 2022
Carter Giegerich for The Franklin Press The proposed fiscal year 2022-23 budget for the Town of Franklin passed almost unanimously on June 21, with Town Council member Mike Lewis casting the one dissenting vote.