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Below are my personal picks of news I would like to share.
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WCC Trustees Meet
10:20 am, July 11, 2008
Officials at Wilkes Community college have something to crow about today. WCC has earned a rating of "exceptional institutional performance" from the North Carolina Board of Community Colleges. It is one of only seven such institutions to do so as the state community colleges' rating system has undergone significant changes, making it more difficult for a college to earn this prestigious designation.
During their regular meeting yesterday, held at the WCC Allegheny center, WCC trustees approved the low bid for the Daniel Hall addition project from Kearey Builders from Statesvillle. The addition of 8,376 square feet will house state-of-the-art advanced manufacturing equipment, including high-speed CNC machines and electro-mechanical and automation controllers with robots. These new features will prepare students in our region for jobs utilizing new technologies in manufacturing.
The board also approved the WCC Facilities Master Plan (FMP) which is submitted to the North Carolina Community College System office. The top facilities projects identified in the plan include the following projects on the Wilkes campus: the construction of a new health technologies center; construction of classroom, office, addition to the shipping and receiving building; relocation of the child development center; renovation of the Beacon Building and other vacated spaces; construction of a new general classroom building accompanied by the construction of a parking deck; and energy conservation initiatives and upgrades of paving and sidewalks. The FMP also includes expansion of the WCC Ashe Campus.
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Lowe's aids Wilkes school Program
WILKESBORO, NC--(June 20, 2008) -LOWE'S CHARITABLE AND EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION gave the Wilkes schools at $10,000 grant to help expand the Wilkes school system's health occupations instructional program.
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Expo Holdings, Inc. Enters New Phase of Its Relationship With Industry Leader BLACK&DECKER
NORTH WILKESBORO, NC--(January 30, 2008) - Expo Holdings, Inc. (PINKSHEETS: EXPH), through its wholly owned subsidiary D&D Displays, Inc., enters a new phase of its relationship with industry leader BLACK&DECKER. Full Story, click HERE.
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Wilkes vies for aviation project; by: Jule Hubbard, Wilkes Journal-Patriot Staff January 18,2008
Local official are involved in discussions concerning a business project related to aviation "with big implications for Wilkes County", said Wilkes Economic Development Director Don Alexander this week. For the entire story, click HERE.
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HDTNW Receives National Main Street Accreditation
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The efforts of Historic Downtown North Wilkesboro (HDTNW) over the past year has earned its recognition for commercial district revitalization by meeting standards for performance set by the National Trust Main Street Center. HDTNW joins 650 other Main Street revitalization programs nationally recognized as 2007 Accredited National Main Street Programs.
“The national accreditation means the local Main Street program is meeting our national standards of performance for what a Main Street program should be doing,” said Doug Loescher, director of the National Trust’s Main Street Center. “The organizations we name each year as National Main Street Programs are those that have demonstrated the skills needed to succeed in Main Street revitalization.”
The annual accreditation process evaluates commercial district revitalization programs based on criteria ranging from having an active board of directors and paid professional manager to tracking economic progress and preserving historic Main Street buildings.
To read full story, click HERE.
Story taken from the www.downtownnorthwilkesboro.com website.
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WCC Trustees Work on Capital Plan
12:56 pm, January 11, 2008
Trustees at Wilkes Community College are moving forward with development of a long-range facilities master plan to guide how the college grows in the next several years. The plan, discussed at yesterday's board meeting, is closely tied to the overall long range plan approved for the school last year. With the help of the Little Diversified Architectural Consulting firm, trustees will develop a plan that identifies building priorities, discusses the necessary sequencing of capital projects, and provides broad cost estimates. Work is expected to be complete in the spring.
Trustees also learned the Northwest Fire and Rescue college continues to increase its enrollment, with 553 firefighters and rescue technicians attending programs through the college last year. That's an increase of 30-percent over the Fire College enrollment in 2006. The school is conducted in conjunction with the Wilkes County Firefighters Association and the Wilkes Rescue Squad.
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West Wilkes, Elkin Schools Among Nation's Best
10:55 pm, December 10, 2007
Some students in Wilkes county are attending one of the top schools in the nation. In the issue of US News and World Report that hit the shelves yesterday, West Wilkes High School was one of three named a bronze medalist in the first-ever Best High Schools Report. Elkin Schools received a silver medal, and West Caldwell, Allegheny and Ashe county schools also made the bronze medalist rankings. No North Carolina schools received gold medals.
According to the US News web site, the schools were scored in the following manner: "Using a formula produced in collaboration with School Evaluation Services, a K-12 data research and analysis business run by Standard & Poor's, we put high schools in 40 states through a three-step analysis. First, we measured how each school's students performed on state tests, adjusting for student circumstances. We next evaluated how well each school's disadvantaged students did. Finally, we looked at whether the school was successful in providing college-level coursework." The top 100 schools were given gold medals, the next 405 received silver, and 1-thousand, 86 received bronze.
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West dancers perform in Macy’s Parade
By REBECAA TRIPLETT-JOHNSON For The Record (December 2007)
Every little girl who takes dance lessons has dreams of someday being on Broadway, high-kicking with the Rockettes or performing in lavish costumes on television.
For five West Wilkes Dance team members, all those dreams came true on Thanksgiving Day when they performed at Herald Square in New York City in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
 Becky Miller Gresham started the West Wilkes Dance Team when she transferred to West from Wilkes Central where she had been directing the Central dance team for two years.
“I wanted to have a program available for girls who wanted to participate in the performing arts rather then compete on a sports team or cheer on the cheerleading squad." said Gresham. "The first year was rough in getting it off the ground and raising funds for uniforms and dance camps. Some girls had never had formal dance training while others had taken dance from an early age."
For the entire story, click HERE.
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10/1/2007 - Comprehensive Suite of Solutions Streamlines High-Quality Patient Care in Wilkes County Press Release taken from Wilkes Regional Hospital. Click HERE for the pdf format.
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The following article is taken from imageswilkes (2007 publication)
Wilkes Leaders Prepare for Increasing Residential Growth
The Wilkes Chamber of Commerce has advocated progressive growth since its establishment in 1946.
In 2006‚ a property developer purchased 6‚000 acres between Wilkes and Watauga counties‚ and will construct 1‚500 high-end homes on lots selling for $500‚000 apiece.
Another developer bought 1‚400 acres to build homes in Wilkes County‚ and yet another developer has acquired 1‚300 acres for a large-scale residential project.
“In the last year or so‚ huge developments have begun to crop up in Wilkes County – and that’s all new for us‚” says Linda Cheek‚ president of the 700-member Wilkes Chamber of Commerce. “Many people from Florida are purchasing second homes so they can live in our mountain setting during the summer‚ plus several other people are discovering Wilkes as a retirement destination for year-round living.”
Cheek says neighboring Watauga County has always been a popular place for retirees and second-home owners‚ and now Wilkes County is being discovered 30 miles down the road. See full story HERE________________________________________________________________________________________
Following Article is taken from imageswilkes (Spring/Summer 2007)
Wilkes Regional Medical Center Opens New Diagnostic Center
Wilkes Regional Medical Center’s new Diagnostic Center combines the latest in technology with pleasing aesthetics. When Wilkes Regional Medical Center officials began planning a new diagnostic imaging center‚ certain things were must-haves: convenience‚ state-of-the-art equipment and a wide range of services. But there was something else on the drawing board as well – the ‘wow’ factor.
“It’s gorgeous‚” says Tammy Love‚ director of marketing and medical staff development for WRMC. “It’s hard to believe you’re in a clinical facility. And that’s what we were after. People don’t want that sterile‚ clinical feel.”
The $6 million center‚ which opened May 21‚ replaces an in-house area that handled mammography and other procedures. The 25‚500-square-foot facility is in a former Heilig-Meyers furniture store in what is now West Park Medical Plaza. The layout addresses two major issues targeted by the hospital at the outset of the project. First‚ it allows for expansion while services such as cardiovascular testing and nuclear medicine are relocated from the main hospital campus‚ and second‚ it provides easy-access parking thanks to its mall-style location.
Read entire story HERE
Story by Joe Morris
Photo by Wilkes Regional Medical Center
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From the Magazine | Nation
There's Trouble--Lots Of It--in Paradise
Restless locals call Miami a corrupt, exorbitant mess, and many are leaving
By TIM PADGETT
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Posted Sunday, Nov. 19, 2006
Jewelry, an actress once said, takes people's minds off your wrinkles. So too has Miami's necklace of pearl beaches and aventurine waters long distracted residents from the city's notorious imperfections. Crime and corruption were a small price to pay, people told themselves, for an otherwise affordable existence so near paradise.
That logic may no longer apply. Crime is down, but the city's old dysfunctions have been joined by acute new economic pressures on Miami's middle class and retirees. Now that the city's jagged growth spurt is showing signs of sputtering, regular Miamians are taking stock of their new city: traffic jams, half-built high rises, struggling schools. And more than ever, they are voting with their flip-flops. They're leaving town.
When Brenda Powell, 61, retires next year, she plans to leave Miami, where she has lived for 30 years, and perhaps head for North Carolina. A retiree moving away from Florida might seem as odd as an Everglades egret flying north for the winter, but Powell, an administrative assistant, says she has had enough. "Miami has become an overcrowded mess," she says. "It takes me an hour to drive less than 10 miles." Joseph and Teresa Burke and their four children are also moving to North Carolina. Although the 2006 hurricane season, ending in a few weeks, has been merciful, insurers have been less so. Premiums have been going up as much as 1,000% since 2000 for some home- and business owners. The Burkes watched hurricane and other insurance costs on their Miami Beach house skyrocket from $3,500 a year in 2000 to $17,000 today. "I'm leaving everything I've known my entire life," says Joseph, 43, who runs a small ocean-freighter business. "But if the rest of the country was based on the same out-of-whack economic-fluid levels Miami's on these days, America would be a Third World banana republic."
For the entire article, click HERE
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