School put into
lockdown Thursday
MAXTON — The lockdown at Townsend Middle School that took effect early Thursday was lifted later in the day.
The school went into lockdown about noon after a suspended student was seen on or near the campus with what has been determined to be a BB gun, according to a Facebook post by Sheriff Burnis Wilkins.
Wilkins said the student is 14 years old.
Deputies and Maxton police are still looking for the student. No one has been injured.
Anyone with information should call 910-671-3140.
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FirstHealth grants
promote healthy living
ROCKINGHAM — Richmond County has seen much higher rates of mortality in diabetes cases than the state average for over a decade, but a series of grants awarded in 2016 aim to reverse that trend.
The 2018 State of the County Health Report showed the prevalence of diabetes in Richmond County is roughly level with the state average but has a rate of deaths from diabetes at more than double that of the state average of 22.2 deaths.
Richmond County is now in the third year of the Minority Diabetes Prevention Program, which is funded by a $230,000 per year grant from the North Carolina Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities, and the Healthy People Healthy Carolina grant funded by the Duke Endowment of $450,000 over three years.
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‘Poky’ moves into
people’s hands
ROCKINGHAM — After months of hard work, 8-year-old Ethan Glidewell shared his book “Poky the Dot and the Dot Pizza” with friends, family and community members during his first book signing at the Hive Recreation Center.
One-by-one, Ethan would carefully write his name in the book cover and place a Poky the Dot bookmark in each of the books, followed by a smile and “Thank you.”
Poky the Dot came about in 2017 after Ethan’s nana Wendy Huggins stopped at a red light and the car in front of them was slow, so she called it “poky.” Ethan then started coming up with stories about a character named Poky who went on all sorts of adventures.
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4 picked for county
Board of Elections
LUMBERTON — Four people were selected Thursday by the State Board of Elections to serve in Robeson County, leaving a fifth member, who will be the chairperson, to be named.
Chosen for the county board during the newly constituted state board’s inaugural meeting were Democrats Larry Townsend and Karen D. Nance, and Republicans Stephen Stone and Olivia Oxendine.
From AP and staff reports.
