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WENDY BYERLY WOODASSOCIATE EDITOR

Healthy living has alwaysbeen a focus for some peoplein the area and the country, butin the last several years, a newdrive has arisen in others tolead healthier lifestyles.

“I really do think people aremore aware of eating healthi-er,” said Carmen Long, familyand consumer education ex-tension agent for the SurryCounty office of the NorthCarolina Cooperative Exten-sion. “A lot of focus is beingdriven by insurance costs.”

She said with the ever in-creasing medical costs, peopleare having to pay more out oftheir own pocket, and privateindustry and the state govern-ment are playing a large role inthat area.

“In 2011, state employeescan’t get as good a state healthplan — they have to go to a70/30 plan if their BMI (bodymass index) is over a certainlevel,” she said.

Despite that new law,which started this year with ahigher cost for employees whouse tobacco, Long said thestate has “given you a lot oftime to make a change to yourlifestyle.”

“The highest rate is 70/30 ifyou are not trying to stop using

tobacco,” she said.One of the reasons the gov-

ernment and the public haveseen a need to adjust theirlifestyles is because “for thefirst time, the life expectancyof our kids is less than ours,they may not live as long aswe do,” Long explained. “Weare seeing longer term diseasesin our youth.”

How people are getting tothat healthier point in their lifevaries greatly though — fromdiet pills, to ordering speciallydesigned foods that promiseweight loss, to hitting thegyms, to eating a healthierdiet.

But Long said the best wayto create a healthier lifestyle isto stick to the basics that haveproven successful time andtime again.

“I think media has played abig role — where do we reallyget good factual information.Just because something isprinted somewhere doesn’tmean it is 100 percent truth.

“People will have better re-sults if people stick with thebasics that have been taughtfor years — eat a well-bal-anced meal — whole grains,fruit, drink water. We don’t al-ways eat all the servings weneed,” she said.

“Physical activity haschanged a lot, too,” Long ex-

plained. “It has not been thatlong ago we had only three orfour channels on the televi-sion, and if nothing was one,we went and found somethingelse to do. But now there is somuch to watch, you could en-

tertain yourself for hours.“Kids are playing virtual

soccer and sports, instead ofgoing out and playing and ex-ercising their muscles. It is

WENDY BYERLY WOOD/THE NEWS

Health officials recommend parents get out and be activewith their kids. Here, Sandra Love, carrying little KalleighLove, walks with her sister, Karen Lankford, and herdaughters, Sarah, center, and Brooke, on the Ararat RiverGreenway at Riverside Park.

www.mtairynews.com A Decade of Progress April 27, 2010 3A

Drive for healthier lifestylebrings many changes


North Carolina has set a goal — to be the healthiest state inthe nation by 2020. This means continued efforts toward get-ting people up and moving, eating healthier and living healthi-er.

Celena Watson, public health educator and supervisor for theSurry County Health and Nutrition Center, reported that the toptwo preventable causes of death in North Carolina can be alle-viated if everyone leads healthier lives. Those two causes areNo. 1, tobacco use, and No. 2, diet and physical inactivity.

April is public health month, Watson noted, explaining thatNorth Carolina is working on new goals and initiatives for itsHealthy People 2020 project.

“When I first started working public health 13 years ago, Idid a lot of one-on-one counseling, physical activity and I didlots of programs,” Watson said. “What changed over the lastdecade is the move away from individual behavior. The changeis toward policies.

“Officials realize when you do individual change modifica-tion, you are only targeting one person, but it is more effectivewhen you change laws and policies targeting a county, state, na-tion. It is called the socioecological approach.”

She explained that the socioecological approach targets thephysical environments and social systems around people sothey can make better choices supporting positive physicallifestyle habits.

For example, if a person wants to eat healthier, or if officialswant to make it easier for a person to eat healthier, then the ap-proach would be to offer fresh fruit and produce stands onevery corner.

“The biggest success we’ve seen in public health is the newstatewide law that protects thousands and thousands of peoplefrom secondhand smoke,” Watson said of the new law banningsmoking in public restaurants in North Carolina.

“We worked on that at the local level for years, and it finallybecame a reality.”

According to information she referenced, an estimated 46million people, or 20.6 percent of all adults, in 2009 in the Unit-ed States smoke cigarettes.

She pointed out that 72 percent of the state’s preventable

JOHN PETERSEDITOR

Entrepreneurship.Small business.Those are two catch words economic development folks

like to throw around, describing the wave of the future inbusiness growth in Mount Airy and, probably, the rest of thenation.

Those terms also describe Healthy Technologies, but onephilosophy which has always been at the forefront of suc-cessful business ventures gives a better picture of the MountAiry-based business: Personal challenges sometimes offerbusiness opportunities. Particularly for those who can adaptan existing business model to better fit their particularstrengths.

That is exactly what happened to Florene Miller and herhusband, Tim, nearly a decade ago.

The couple and their children were plagued by moldgrowing in their home, so much so that their oldest daughterwas hospitalized with pneumonia during this period, andboth Florene and Tim Miller suffered constant sinus prob-lems.

“Once we finally figured out where the mold was, in ourbedroom, we cleaned all of that up. Once we finished with it,we still had this musty odor throughout our whole house.”

A friend loaned the couple an air purification unit, whichis designed to not only filter air, but to actually attack thesource of the air pollution — in this case, the remnants of themold infestation.

“It (the purifier) removed the musty odor within 24hours,” Florene Miller said. “We left it in our bedroom forseveral days and one day I said to my husband ‘Wow, Tim, Ican breath.’”

The air purification system was the product, she said, thatgot her started in her chosen career as a business owner andoperator. However, she wasn’t crazy about some aspects ofthe business.

It is designed as a multi-level marketing company, wherethe independent contractors selling the air purification unitsbring new people into the business, selling under them.

“For the first year or two we did fairly well with the net-work marketing aspect of it, but I decided I’d rather go intothe sales end of it rather than the networking, not with a lot ofpeople working under me.”

Recognizing another opportunity along the way, Millerand her brother, Glen Coleman, received certification as in-door air quality specialists and mold inspectors. With the cer-tification, the two can go into a home or business, inspect thepremises for the presence of mold, and then go about remov-ing the mold.

The mold inspection and cleaning end of the business hastaken off, with a number of clients in the region, and nowMiller and her brother have taken aim at an even bigger prize— trying to land a contract to help eradicate potential moldproblems at Fort Bragg. The idea of getting government work


Nine years ago, the first county park was created, and eversince, there has been a growing demand for health and wellnessprograms and facilities in Surry County.

“I think there is a growing emphasis and a growing demandfor programs and facilities,” said Catrina Alexander, director forMount Airy Parks and Recreation, and former Surry CountyParks and Rec director. “I think the result has been since May2001 when the county park (Fisher River Park) began develop-ment. ... I think the park is something local people had workedon since the 1970s.”

The county facility is 60-plus acres and includes five shel-ters, a horse arena, trails, an amphitheater, a mountain bike trail,ballfields, a playground and more.

Just a couple years later, the Mount Airy Board of Commis-sioners appointed the first city recreation commission in late2002/early 2003, Alexander noted. “This is prior to the cityeven having a (parks and recreation) department.”

She said another catalyst for the county’s drive toward healthand wellness was a local group of people who decided to “BuildA Dream” in the form of a brand new, built-by-local-people anddesigned with local children’s input playground at the city’sRiverside Park.

“I think the Build A Dream project ramped up our communi-ty involvement and interest here when people realized what wecould do,” she said.

Now a similar grassroots effort is under way to develop askate park at Riverside Park.

“Westwood and Riverside parks were developed in the late’70s with some grant funding,” Alexander said. “Westwood wasbuilt with ballfields, a walking trail and a mountain bike trail.Between 2006 and ’08, we’ve added fitness stations, disc golf, anew trail to the reservoir and rebuilt the dam.”

The city has received millions of dollars in just parks andrecreation grants in the last few years for projects like the West-wood Park additions; the Ararat River Greenway, which is opento the public but should have a formal opening in the comingfew weeks; and improvements to Riverside Park for lighting thesoccer field.

“The Build A Dream project was completed when BenCooke made a donation to finish the shelter and restrooms bythe playground,” Alexander noted. “It makes a nice look downthere.”

With the Ararat River Greenway comes access to the riverfor water sports such as fishing, tubing, canoing and kayaking.

“The Emily B. Taylor Greenway (along Lovills Creek) wasprobably one of the most heavily used facilities in the county,which I think set the tone for the Ararat River Greenway,” shesaid.

The city completed a parks and recreation master plan as aguide for what the community wanted to see developed,changed, etc., in its own city several years ago.

“I remember going to Mount Airy Middle School and walk-ing across a huge map of the city. People could write commentsand make notes. It was a huge community effort,” Alexander re-called of the process that was completed shortly before she leftthe county to work at the city. “We are almost at a point where Ithink we’ve hit the majority of the goals in that plan, so we’re ata point going forward where we need to update that.”

As far as the city’s gym facility, Reeves Community Center,

Personal strugglesbecame businessopportunity

Parks, recreation largepart of staying healthy


One recent afternoon Louise Bowman and husband, HomerBowman, of Winston-Salem take advantage of the weatherand go fishing on the Ararat River at Riverside Park. Manypeople are taking advantage of the area’s parks and recre-ation facilities.

WENDY BYERLY

WOOD/THE NEWS

Sarah Mainerides her bicy-cle at River-side Park as ahealthy activi-ty with herfamily one re-cent warm af-ternoon.


Nicholas, left, and KamerynMcMillian rides bikes on theold tennis courts at River-side Park recently. Exercis-ing from a young age teach-es children good healthyhabits.

Public health takesturn toward policiestargeting healthier

environments

See DRIVE, page 7A

See HEALTH, page 7A

See BUSINESS, page 7A See PARKS, page 7A

MEGHANN EVANS

STAFF REPORTER

Four years ago the countyinstituted an innovative, newapproach to high school, andthis fall, the first class of fifth-year students at Surry EarlyCollege High School of De-sign will begin their final year.

These “super-seniors” willgraduate from the school afterfive years of free high schooland college classes. They willgraduate with high schooldiplomas and associate’s de-grees. In recent years severalcounties across the state have

started similar schools.Surry County was among

some of the early counties inNorth Carolina to try the pro-gram. Students and adminis-trators at the school like tosay, “We’re flying the plane aswe build it.”

Each year 80 students enterthe school as freshman, andthe school’s first class remem-bers the experience entering abrand new school.

Senior Chris Dorsey saidthey experienced the normalfreshman struggle of trying tofind their way.

“There were some ups anddowns just like any high

school,” he said.But unlike many freshman,

these students were entering aschool with only 80 people inthe entire school the first year.They say this helped thembuild a tight-knit community.

“I just like how we becamea family,” said senior RachelWhite.

Students in the early yearsgot to participate in Friday af-ternoon bonding activities.They would watch movies orparticipate in forensics labstogether.

“This is a tight group ofkids,” said Lowanda Badgett,an English teacher at theschool.

“Relationships are a bigpart of it,” said Celia Hodges,principal of the school.

She taught at North SurryHigh School for 16 1/2 years.She said, “You established re-lationships with students, butnot like this. They are morethan just our students.”

Badgett said it is tougher toprovide the same atmospherewith a larger number of stu-dents at the school. But seniorJeremiah Johnson said theschool still offers small class-es and personal attention fromthe teachers.

“I liked it from the very be-ginning,” said Johnson. “Ithought it was awesome.”

He did compare the firstclass to guinea pigs. Johnsonsaid, “We were the test sub-jects for a lot of new things.”

Hodges explained that staffat the school are trained in in-novative approaches to teach-ing and conducting highschool.

Senior Ethan Edwardspointed out that the programhas changed quite a bit overthe past four years. Studentsdon’t participate in the Fridaybonding activities, they takesemester high school classesinstead of year-long classes,they have to take differentclasses to meet requirements,and they are not as restrictedto the early college buildingon campus.

“I think it’s helped the stu-dents progress into collegemore, but I think it’s strippedsome of the family atmos-

phere,” said Johnson.Some of the seniors will

leave this year, as they havetaken enough classes to com-plete their diplomas and asso-ciate’s degrees early. Edwardsis one of those students.

“I’m very happy about it,”said Edwards. “I’m really gladto be done.”

He said it wasn’t easy tofinish early. Some semestershe had to take eight classes ata time. Badgett said the factthat some students are gradu-ating early is a testament tothe flexibility of the program.

“There are always thosestudents who want to movedown the road,” she remarked.

Johnson said it would bedifficult to see 11 early col-lege students graduate early,in addition to their friends atregular high schools.

“A lot of my friends areleaving this year,” said John-son. “That’s the bitter part ofit.”

Another thing many stu-

dents say they miss is highschool sports. They are notable to participate in sports atthe early college.

But students said one thingthey don’t miss is “typicalhigh school drama.” The stu-dents said there is drama, butJohnson said, “It’s nothinglike in typical high school.”He said there was no real bul-lying in the senior class.

“We all pretty much getalong,” he said.

Many students share thecommon bond of hoping tobecome first-generation col-lege graduates. Badgett saidthree out of four parents ofstudents at the school don’thave degrees. She explainedthat the school tried to targetthose types of families.

“That’s who we tried toreach, and we have,” Badgettsaid. “I think we’re going tohave more college graduatesbecause of this program.”

But not all early collegestudents will be the first to at-

tend college. In fact, some ofthem dislike the idea of theschool targeting those types ofstudents. One senior said theprogram should be for thosewho don’t want the typicalhigh school drama and format.

Edwards said, “I think itshould be for those who wantto work hard.”

Johnson said he joined theschool because he couldn’t af-ford to pay for college nor-mally. He thought his only op-tion was working here for therest of his life or joining themilitary.

“This has given me a thirdoption,” Johnson remarked.

For students at the earlycollege, not only are collegeclasses free, but also the text-books, art supplies and otheritems used in the classes. “Thebenefit is financially savinglots of money,” said Hodges.

White decided to apply toget into the early college be-cause high school would be anew school regardless ofwhere she went, so why nottry something new and differ-ent. Plus, she had always feltlike her brother near the sameage was ahead of her. By join-ing the early college, Whitesaid, “I actually felt like I wasone step ahead of him.”

The students had to applyto attend Surry Early Collegeas eighth-graders, and John-son, Dorsey, White, and Ed-wards said their parents gavethem the choice.

“It was something new, ex-citing. We thought we’d checkit out,” Johnson explained.

Principal Hodges said the


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Early College makes a difference in students’ lives

MEGHANN EVANS/THE NEWS

Jenny Alyn Scott, an English teacher at Surry Early College, helps student Andrew Marionwith a project.

See EARLY, page 5A



Surry Early College seniors Ethan Edwards, Chris Dorsey, Jeremiah Johnson, and Rachel White, from left, hang out inbetween classes.

concept was new to her, too,when she became the princi-pal two years ago.

“But I believe that the earlycollege is what I have expect-ed,” said Hodges. “It’s an op-tion for kids who didn’t wantthe traditional high school ex-perience.”

The four seniors inter-viewed have high hopes fortheir futures. They have plansranging from staying at SurryCommunity College to trans-ferring to schools throughout

the state. Because they havebeen allowed to take collegeclasses in high school, the stu-dents said they have alreadybeen able to explore what theywant to do.

“They let you check out somany different things,” John-son said.

Hodges pointed out thatwhen the students enter a tra-ditional college for the firstyear, they will have junior lev-el credits.

“This is a great transition,and they’re less intimidatedwhen they move on to col-lege,” said Hodges.

Badgett said it’s a very dif-ferent mindset at the early col-lege. The students do not hear

the phrase “if you decide to goto college.” They take collegeclasses now.

White said, “I think we’vematured a whole lot faster thannormal high school students.”

They said they are held tocollege standards and will bebetter prepared to continuetheir degrees at the communi-ty college or transfer to otherschools.

“We have better studyskills,” Edwards said.

“They have to figure it outearlier,” Badgett noted.

Hodges said, “They’re treat-ed as an adult, because many ofthem are in classes with adults.I think here our students step upto that age difference.”

If given the choice all overagain between Surry EarlyCollege and a traditional highschool, most of the studentssaid they would choose theearly college again.

Edwards said, “I don’tknow. I missed a lot of myfriends and sports.”

Johnson said, “Yeah, I lefta lot of my friends behind, butI made so many new friends.”

Badgett said it would behard for the students to judgebetween the early college andtraditional high school, be-cause they were not used tothe regular high school rules.Early college students enjoyedless restrictions. They couldgo to the grill whenever they

want, hang out in-betweenclasses.

“They are so non-restrictedas compared to normal highschool students,” explainedBadgett.

The students describe theirhigh school experience as “ex-citing” with a “lot of new ex-periences.” Johnson likes tocall the early college model“super awesometacular.”

Edwards said, “It’s highschool on steroids.”

Hodges believes the earlycollege model is just the be-ginning of the innovations thatwill change the way highschool is conducted.

“It seems like the face ofhigh school is changing,”

Hodges noted. “The early col-lege to me is just one of thosebig steps ... Everythingchanges, so I guess school hasto change to meet the needs ofthe society.”

With the state high schoolgraduation rate at only 72 per-cent, Hodges said educatorsneed to do something to in-crease the graduation rate.

Hodges said, “It’s very ap-parent to me that (early col-lege) is right for some kids.It’s not right for every kid, butit was time for the state to of-fer something different forkids.”

Contact Meghann Evans [email protected] or

719-1952.

EARLY:Continued from page 4A

MONDEE TILLEYSTAFF REPORTER

As winemaking grows as anindustry in Surry and surround-ing counties, so does the de-mand for those who are trainedin that field. The viticulture andenology program at SurryCommunity College has grownover the years and more than50 students are now enrolled inthe program.

Gill Giese, viticulture andenology instructor at SurryCommunity College said thewine industry has grown fromabout 25 wineries in 1999, to80 to 100 statewide today.

The school has five acres ofvineyard and grows 15 differ-ent grape varieties. They havean additional 12 grape varietiesin collaboration with N.C.State University. Those vari-eties of grapes are also beinggrown in 23 other states, be-cause it is a federally fundedproject to look at different vari-eties in the eastern UnitedStates.

Students take care of thevines for N.C. State University.Giese said they are all RedVinifera, which is a traditionalEuropean wine grape.

Over the course of the pro-gram, students learn everythingfrom how to take care of thevines, to blending the wine andbottling.

Their 2009 Chardonel isabout ready to be bottled. The

Viticulture and enologyclasses growing at Surry

MONDEE TILLEY/THE NEWS

Will Faircloth is measuring out sulfur dioxide to be placedin barrels of red wine. The chemical is a antimicrobial andantioxidant.

MORGAN WALLSTAFF REPORTER

In 2000, students walkedinto a classroom, took a seatin a desk and took notes froman overhead projector.

Teachers wrote on dryerase boards. The lucky oneshad a computer, maybe two.Those who did were learninghow to use Microsoft Word,Powerpoint and e-mail.There were computer labs inthe schools the studentscould use but they were pret-ty basic. To communicatewith other staff and parents,teachers sent paper memos.

Students completed home-work and assignments usinga pen or pencil and paper. Totake a field trip, they had toboard a bus. To get on the In-ternet at school, most stu-dents had to go to the librarywhich had the only connec-tion and even then that con-nection was often dial-up.

In the mid-2000s, thetechnology revolution beganin earnest in Surry County.Since that time, the schoolsand students have flourishedunder all of the new equip-ment available. Their re-sources have become endlessand their classrooms are nolonger confined to a four-wall box.

Many schools havemoved from stand-alonecomputer labs to mobile

carts with wireless Internetaccess. In addition to themobile computer labs,schools have computer labsset up for specific purposes.There are Waterford mathand science computer labs,Scholastic reading labs andClasscape labs where stu-dents can go to work onspecific skills or even takeend of grade practice tests.

Millennium Charter Acad-emy started a 1:1 laptop ini-tiative for its middle schoolstudents five years ago whichthey have continued sincethat point. The school hasgone from about 50 comput-ers to 235.

“For the middle schoolers,the fact that we put technolo-gy in their hands allows themto do things they couldn’t doas easily before. It’s reallyopened a lot of possibilitiesto them,” said LuAnnBrowne, director of develop-ment.

Surry County Schoolsstarted a 1:1 laptop initiativein the fall of 2009. Theschool system distributed700 laptops to seventhgraders as well as to all sev-enth and eighth grade teach-ers.

The availability ofSMART technology hasgrown exponentially over thepast five or six years. It start-ed with SMARTBoardswhich are interactive whiteboards that allow teachers toproject images from a com-puter onto the board and thenhave students come up to theboard to complete assign-ments. Students can scrollthrough pages, write on theboard and even play games.

The first SMARTBoardarrived at B.H. TharringtonPrimary School for the 2004-

MORGAN WALL/THE NEWS

Matthew Eads performs a virtual dissection of a frog on a SmartBoard at Mount AiryMiddle School.

GETTING SMART GETS TECHNICAL


Technology is constant-ly changing. It is difficultfor individuals to keep upwith the latest trends muchless for school systems todo so.

However, given the factthat technology has becomean integral part of daily lifein a classroom, schools arehaving to make some deci-sions as to what to do inthat department.

They have to make a de-cision based on the knowl-edge they have at the timeand hope it is the correct

SCHOOLS

LOOKING TO

THE FUTURE

See SMART, page 7ASee FUTURE, page 6A

See CLASSES, page 6A


Students enrolled in the viticulture and enology program at SCC move wine from the bar-rels on the left to the barrels on the right. Moving the wine helps it breathe.

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2008 vintage won a silvermedal in November in the SanFranciso Chronicle Show.

“Chardonel is a white hy-brid with a lot of relativelyhigh acidity. It’s one that weare growing in the school todemonstrate to the area grow-ers if they are interested,”Giese said.

He said students typicallyproduce three or four red andwhite wines and one rosé.

One of the varieties beinggrown at the school is the Pe-

tite Mansang, which is fromthe Jurancos region of France.

“It’s a balanced wine andwas well received the last timewe made it, which was in 2008and we immediately sold out.This year our grapes are com-ing again, so we should be ableto make that wine again.”

Giese said harvest time atthe vineyard starts in Augustand runs through October. Hesaid the last harvest season wasexceptional in that studentsharvested the grapes until No-vember 24.

“It’s what they call a secondcrop. They jokingly call themChristmas grapes because theytypically don’t ripen so they goto waste. But last year, the fall

was pretty nice, so were able topick them and we made a roséout of them. Those grapes wereactually donated from SheltonVineyards. They were a Caber-net grape,” Giese said.

He said the new viticulturecenter at the college is pro-gressing nicely. The Shelton-Badgett North Carolina Centerfor Viticulture and Enology,will serve the grape and wineindustry, not only in North Car-olina, but the entire southeastproviding workforce trainingand industry support.

“They’ve got it all closed in.They’ve got the roof on, actu-ally they are working on the in-ner workings, the most impor-tant part as far as we are con-cerned because that’s the partwe have to work with. It lookslike it is shaping up very nice,”Giese said.

He said the center should befinished the end of this summerjust in time from harvest.

The reason behind the newviticulture center was to drawin winemakers from all overthe United States. Giese saideven though it’s not finished,people have already startedcoming in to the area becauseof the center.

“We’ve got people comingfrom all over. We have one stu-dent who commutes up fromAtlanta, Ga. This center is pastSurry and Yadkin, it’s gettingpast North Carolina. At onepoint it will become the region-al center for grapes and wineeducation wise. You can go tograduate school for six years atVirginia Tech or Cornell andget a master’s degree in enolo-gy or viticulture, but most peo-ple don’t want to spent sixyears of their lives doing that.You can come here and in ayear and a half, two years,know how to grow grapes andmake wine,” Giese said.


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one.Millennium Charter Acade-

my started its 1:1 laptop initia-tive five years ago with applecomputers. Since then, theyhave begun integrating PCsinto the program and have yetto see any major problemswith using both. In the comingyears, they hope to continuewith that initiative as well asfinding new opportunities touse them. In keeping withthat, they also hope to expandwhat is available to studentsonline.

“I see more Web-based ap-plications. Also I see the pos-

sibility of more distance learn-ing, maybe even with peoplein other countries throughSkype,” said Browne. “We’vealso toyed with the idea ofhandheld equipment such asGPS.”

Mount Airy City Schools isin the beginning phases of aplan to put iPod Touches inthe hands of students. Teach-ers in grades five through ninereceived MacBooks and iPodTouches this spring and havebeen undergoing professionaldevelopment training sessionsto learn how to use them andintegrate them into the class-room.

This fall, students in thosegrades will receive iPodTouches. One laptop will alsobe purchased for every fourstudents. The teachers are ex-

cited about the opportunitiesthat technology will provideand the students cannot waitto get their hands on them.

“Next year we’re gettingiPod Touches so we’ll be ableto download notes and home-work to our iPods,” said WillZeller, student at Mount AiryMiddle.

“It’s the most wonderfulthing every,” said Marcy Mar-ion, sixth grade teacher atMount Airy Middle. “Every-body in this entire school willhave them along with 100MacBooks that teachers cancheck out. When we have thestudents do presentationswe’ll be able to sync the iPodsso everyone will have a copyof them all.

Surry County Schoolshopes to continue with its 1:1

laptop initiative as well. Allseventh graders received lap-tops in the fall of 2009 alongwith all seventh and eightgrade teachers. Next year,they hope to distribute laptopsto all high school teachers.

“We plan to continue withthe deployment of laptops toinclude all seventh through12th graders over the span ofthe next several years. As thisplan continues to unfold, ourplan includes having mobilecomputing available in all K-6classrooms and 1:1 access tolaptops in grades 7-12,” saidJill Reinhardt, director oftechnology and career andtechnical education for SurryCounty Schools.

Contact Morgan Wall [email protected] or

719-1929.

FUTURE:Continued from page 5A


Teachers with Mount Airy City Schools are undergoing training on their iPod Touches. The school system has decided topurchase iPod Touches for students in grades five through nine for the 2010-11 school year.

CLASSES:Continued from page 5A


05 school year. Marcy Mari-on, who teaches sixth grade atMount Airy Middle School,was the lucky winner of theboard.

“We didn’t know what todo with it,” said Terry Pettry,who was in Marion’s classthat first year.

Now with SMARTBoardsin every classroom from pre-kindergarten through eighthgrade, Marion, and the otherteachers, know how to inte-grate the board into their les-son plans to keep their stu-dents engaged.

“The kids never get bored.There are a zillion and onethings you can pull out of thegallery that are already madeand you can make your ownprograms,” said Marion.

Kathy Howlett, first gradeteacher at Franklin Elemen-tary, received one of the firstSMARTBoards about sixyears ago.

“At first I thought what inthe heck is a SMARTBoard,”said Howlett. “But it renewsyour whole interest in teach-ing. The kids are so motivatednow.”

“It’s a visual society nowand that is one of the thingsthat motivates them,” saidTerry Marcum, principal atFranklin Elementary, of theSMARTBoards.

Even when the boardsstarted to arrive at Franklin,there were only three thatcould be checked out plus onein the media center. Now, theschool has a board in everyroom with the exception oftwo resource rooms. As aschool system, Surry CountySchools has more classroomsthat have SMARTBoards thanthose that do not.

Millennium Charter Acade-my started with one SMART-Board in the elementary wingcomputer lab. Now, the schoolhas 26 SMARTBoards, one ineach classroom, two in thecomputer labs and even one inthe media.

“That has changed things.It’s given teachers a way togive the students the world,”said Browne. “It changed theway they deliver informa-tion.”

Working with the boards,SMART technology has takenover in the schools. Teachersare able to use Senteos, Airlin-ers and document cameraswith the boards. A couple of

schools even have a SMART-Table.

Senteos are clickers withwhich students can answermultiple choice or true/falsequestions in class and instant-ly see the correct answer.Teachers can see how manystudents got the question rightand instantly know whether ornot they need to do more workon that concept. Airliners al-low teachers to manipulate theSMARTBoard as they walkaround the classroom meaningthey can monitor studentprogress as they teach.

Document cameras havetruly replaced the overheadprojector. The cameras allowteacher to project any objectonto the board whether it is abook, a worksheet or a three-dimensional object.

“They are top-of-the-lineoverhead projectors butthey’re so much more becausethey will project opaque ob-jects,” said Emily Niston, firstgrade teacher at TharringtonPrimary.

SMARTTables are makingan appearance in the lowergrades of elementary schools.The tables are similar to theSMARTBoards in that theyare interactive for students.However, unlike the SMART-Board, the table allows multi-ple students to work at thesame time. They can playgames in order to learn newskills but they have to learncooperation too becauseeveryone has to decide toswitch to a new activity. Thar-rington Primary and ShoalsElementary received their ta-bles in the fall and FranklinElementary just received one.

Teachers are also usingmore software than ever tokeep students engaged in classand help them learn newskills. In keeping up with thelatest software and program-ming, the schools have had toupdate their networks to ac-commodate the information.

“We are completing infra-structure upgrades and wire-less in our middle schools andare applying with eRate fundsto complete this in the highschools in the next two years,”said Jill Reinhardt, director oftechnology and career andtechnical education for SurryCounty Schools. “Much of ourcurrent plan is funded throughgrants and thankfully withmonies from the county com-missioners.”

“Ten years ago, our districthad one Internet connection tothe central office as well asone connection per school li-brary. At that point, only the

testing coordinator and eachschool has an e-mail addresseach. Today we have severalLocal Area Networks thatconnect to a Wide Area Net-work,” said Judy Walker, di-rector of technology. “Yearsago we only had dial-up con-nection and today we have100 Mbps. We are now to thepoint where all staff have ane-mail address and all of ourclassrooms have Internet Con-nectivity.”

With the improvements,teachers are able to use onlineresources in the classroomsfrom interactive educationprogramming to live-stream-ing videos to having studentstake online courses.

“We have a subscription toDiscovery Education andthat’s brought the world intothe school,” said Browne.“With the online classes, wehave students taking algebra Iand geometry.”

Students in Marion’s sci-ence class have been able touse technology for everythingfrom virtual dissections to cre-ating volcanos. They can doexperiments online that couldnever be recreated in theclassroom. Even with the vir-tual dissections, teachers savemoney by not having to pur-chase as many dissection kits.

“We’ve done labs for every

section. I like how we can seethings differently in sciencebecause of technology,” saidSkyler Flippen, Mount AiryMiddle student.

“The school system haspurchased licenses for onlineeducation resources. Educa-tion City allows them to com-pete and interact in gameswith other students across thecountry,” said Niston.

Skype, the program that al-lows people to community viacomputer with others whilebeing able to see the other per-son as well as hear them, hasbecome an invaluable tool forteachers and students.

“We did a video conferencefor the first time five yearsago. Now the kids are used toit,” said Tonya Fletcher, mediainstructor at Franklin Elemen-tary. “Now you can video orSkype lessons if you have tobe out.”

“You can record morningdirections or whatever youwant them to do. You couldeven Skype with a neighbor-ing teacher if they’re learninga new concept,” said Howlett.

“I Skype with other class-rooms almost on a weekly ba-sis. We talk with other class-rooms in the school system andacross the country,” said Niston.

Some schools are even us-ing Skype as part of their

morning announcements. Stu-dents can record the an-nouncements, they are sentout to teachers using Skypeand the teachers can play theannouncements wheneverthey want during the day.

“It saves on instructiontime because instead of hav-ing an assembly we can do itall on Skype,” said Marcum.

In Surry County Schools,the students in third througheighth grade are even learninga foreign language using tech-nology through the use of theRosetta Stone language soft-ware.

“We would have neverthought 10 years ago thatthey’d be learning a foreignlanguage in elementaryschool,” said Fletcher.

With the new and ever-changing technology, it is im-portant for the schools to keepstaff members up-to-date onwhat is available and howthey can use that technologyin the classroom. They do thatthrough professional develop-ment sessions held throughoutthe year.

“Providing staff develop-ment opportunities to staff tosupport their needs in theclassroom has been a focus ofours,” said Walker.

One of the reasons for thecontinuous changes is the de-

sire by the schools to help stu-dents to be successful lateron. By keeping up with tech-nology and allowing studentsto learn how to use it to theiradvantage, they are preparingthem to be 21st century learn-ers.

“The main point in all ofthis is that we are quicklymoving from a paper/pencilclassroom to a hybrid class-room with blended learningopportunities for our studentsthat includes paper/pencil butis becoming more and moredigitally enhanced,” saidReinhardt. “Students are giv-en more and more opportuni-ties to create and share digitalproducts in more collabora-tive environments and tolearn and interact with ourworld inside their classroom.”

“We’re preparing studentsnow for jobs that have nobeen created,” said Marcum.“We’re using technology butwe’re using it as a tool toteach them the standardcourse of study.”

“When I think of the stu-dents I taught then, these kidsof today are digital, 21st cen-tury learners. I have to stay ontop of the technology they usebecause they’re not afraid,”said Niston. “It’s easy to keepthe kids engaged with thetechnology around them. Ifthey’re engaged, I’ve gotthem hooked.”

The teachers have had toundergo a sort of revolution tokeep up with the students.They have had to completelyrework their teaching styles toinclude the new technology.However, all of them havelearned to embrace the toolsavailable even if they wereskeptical at first.

“The biggest thing I’veseen is a culture change, it’sbeen about embracing thetechnology for the staff,” saidBrowne.

“We’re allowed to use ouriPods and cell phones in thehallway or at lunch now aslong as we don’t have themout in class,” said KearaHalpern, of a new rule atMount Airy Middle Schoolwhich teachers were skepticalabout at first.

“The kids are so comfort-able with it. They learn a lotmore when they’re happy,”said Marion, who noted therehave been fewer problemswith students using cellphones and iPods in classnow the rule has gone into ef-fect.


719-1929.

SMART:Continued from page 5A


Mason Melton at Franklin Elemen-tary uses a Senteo to take an in-class quiz.

nice to have convenient food ifyou are in a hurry, but there areas many fruits and vegetablesthat are quick and convenient.”

She said she has noticed achange in recent years in par-ents and what they want fortheir kids, as well as in kids.“Last summer, during SummerExplosion, the fit and fun daywas the first to fill up, whichsurprised me, because typical-ly outside nature classes orhorseback riding fills up first. Ithink the parents thought thekids needed that day.”

It is a sign of the times, butLong also said, even with statemandates for 30 minutes ofphysical activity during aschool day, students aren’t get-ting as much running aroundtime as they did years ago.

“Schools are so focused onwhat kids need to be success-ful in testing in, but that haschanged some, too. We wantkids to have PE as much aspossible. When I was in

school, we got to have recessthree times a day, but thatdoesn’t happen now,” she said.

But some schools are put-ting a higher focus on physicalactivities and eating rightthrough programs like theUSDA Fresh Fruits and Veg-etables Grant at White PlainsElementary School and theHealthy Activity Log used bymiddle schoolers in SurryCounty Schools.

During the after-schoolhours and on weekends, Longsaid it is up to parents to berole models for their kids.

“Kids used to be excited ifthey got new balls and bikes,and now media is promotingthings that do not need activityto operate them like battery-operated vehicles and tractorswhere they just have to push agas pedal, they don’t actuallyhave to pedal.

“I encourage grandparentsto buy their grandkids the toysthat they would have liked as akid — and I encourage olderadults to go outside and play,too — not climb trees, but ridea bike,” Long said.

“We are probably in a gen-eration where adults started

families of their own wherethe parents both worked andthey didn’t do a lot of cooking.A lot of people think frozenpizza or microwave use iscooking, so we are limited tothe good healthy foods weneed to be eating,” she added.

For the first time in the 22years Long has been employedwith the Cooperative Exten-sion, the office is offering abasic cooking class curriculumwhich has been developedcalled Cook Smart, Eat Smart.

“The first class went well,and everyone learned easymeals the whole family wouldenjoy,” Long said.

In other healthy living is-sues, she said weight loss con-tinues to be a topic of concern,but “I don’t think it is anymore prevalent than when Istarted. We had a very success-ful weight management class-es 20 years ago, but I thinkthere are so many other timeconstraints people are dealingwith that is exhausting forthem to think about it becausethey have to put effort into it.They have to exercise andmake an effort to eat healthi-er,” she said.

DRIVE:Continued from page 1A

causes of death are made up by tobacco use anddiet and physical inactivity.

“One of the problems we have in our area,when we talk to people about exercising andeating right, we’ve had limited resources,” shesaid. “I would like to see produce stands onevery corner, more bike lanes, more greenways.

“I think it makes it difficult for them because ofthe built environment. It does not support exerciseand easy access to fresh fruits and vegetables.”

For those reasons, the county Health and Nu-trition Center works with the county’s four mu-nicipalities to help them get grant funding formore sidewalks and greenways.

“I’m very proud of Mount Airy and the re-sources they have. They have the Fit Communi-ty designation, as one of only eight in the state,and they got that twice now,” Watson said.

“Nearly one in three children are overweightand obese, and for the first time, North Carolinachildren may live shorter lives than their par-ents. That’s why it is so important we take ac-tion,” she explained. “That’s why we have to

focus on policies on a larger level to impactthousands of people.

“I think it is also important to advocate forhigher social norms like produce stands andphysical education to take place every day.”

In addition to children who are overweightand obese, in 2008, nearly two-thirds of adultsin the state were either overweight or obese.That is an increase from 58.8 percent in 2001 to65.7 percent in 2008, or 1,006,894 adults.

A pie chart she referred to shows that inNorth Carolina $57.36 billion is the cost of un-healthy lifestyles through doctor’s and hospitalbills. Excess weight tops the list at $15.57 bil-lion, with physical inactivity at $11.9 billion,high cholesterol at $10.33 billion, followed byhypertension, tobacco use, depression, diabetes,and low fruit and vegetable intake.

“The new health care bill has a huge focuson awareness and education. It includes $2 bil-lion per year for public health programs, begin-ning with $500 million this coming fiscal year,”she reported.

“We’re still focusing on nutrition and physi-cal activity, because that’s where the numberssay we need to focus, but it is a new innovativeapproach,” Watson said. “I’m so glad the newreinvestment and recovery act is putting pre-vention first.”

HEALTH:Continued from page 1A

is the holy grail for many businesses, and that’sprobably no exception for Miller.

“Our small little business here, that’s a verylarge, lofty vision kind of,” Miller said. But, bygetting out and doing the work, and networkingthrough other businesses, which in turn hasgotten her in touch with an organization whichhelps small businesses do work with the gov-ernment, Miller believes she has a chance atthe Fort Bragg work.

Still, her main goal is to simply run a smallbusiness, she said, which “helps people livebetter indoors.”

While she admits owning a business “wasnot on my list of endeavors to take on,” the op-portunity to take something that helped her inher own life, and turn it into a business oppor-tunity was too great to pass up.

“It has been a challenge,” she said. “Mybiggest challenge is that I don’t have any for-mal education in how to run a business.” Thatis a situation Miller said she is remedying, tak-ing accounting and marketing classes.

Healthy Technologies is an example of asmall business that, while not providing a greatnumber of jobs, is offering a way for a fewfolks to make a living. It has helped supple-ment Miller’s household income during somelean times in the area economy, and it has pro-vided the main source of income for Coleman.

A North Carolina native, Coleman lived inthe Midwest much of his life, until he lost hisjob in Indiana. So, he moved to Mount Airy in2007 and began working with his sister, somuch so that this is his full-time job.

That is the type of effect local economic de-velopers would like to see replicated over andover.

“We’re looking for more small technology-related companies,” said Todd Tucker, execu-tive director of the Surry County EconomicDevelopment Partnership. “Companies that,whether it be a small software developmentfirm, or that has some kind of hand-held tech-nology they’re trying to develop ... Those arerelatively small operations. One to two-manoperations, but you know, we’re going to workwith those guys, see where we can fit in, helpthem. Obviously, they won’t be huge employ-ers initially,” but he said they can grow, andmaybe spawn other businesses.

BUSINESS:Continued from page 1A

Alexander said participation iscontinuously growing.

“We have not seen a de-crease in participation, despiterecent economic struggles,”she said. “We’ve seen an in-crease in the use at all our fa-cilities. People across the statehave been finding things to doin their own community, be-cause they maybe can’t affordto go on a four-day vacation,instead they are doing daytrips and still spending qualitytime with the family.

“And because they are notgoing off so much, then littleJohnny can play sports year-round,” Alexander added.“We’ve seen soccer increase,and we’ve started a well-re-ceived girls volleyball league.”

Just four years ago, the cityof Mount Airy became one ofeight communities in NorthCarolina to get a state FitCommunity designation,which was a three-year desig-

nation. In 2009, the city re-ceived its second Fit Commu-nity designation.

“This is where being a small-er community benefits us, be-cause it is based on how walka-ble/bikeable the area is, sportstourism like the AAU tourna-ments, and the initiatives goingon,” she explained. “When peo-ple’s budgets are in question, itdoes create more partnering andcollaboration, so we may cross-promote an event going on atthe museum, or vice versa.

Also, the city, Reeves andthe city schools work togetherto put programs on and hosttournaments. “We couldn’tprovide the programs we pro-vide without their help,”Alexander said of the schools.

“So sometimes economichardships allow and encouragepeople to work together.”

Another example she usedof collaboration is her hopethat the Greater Mount AiryChamber of Commerce usesthe Fit Community designa-tion as a plug in its relocationpackets. “It would be some-thing to benefit people alreadyliving here as well as attract

people to the area,” she said.“I know that the state health

system discussion about healthcare and insurance has peoplemore aware of their personalhabits and how they will berated,” Alexander said, refer-encing the state’s requirementthat state employees whosmoke will be charged higherinsurance rates, and later bodymass index/obesity will alsolead to higher insurance rates.

“The world is changing andmaking people more responsi-ble. I think it’s raised aware-ness big time,” she said.

“You have the national em-phasis, you have the FirstLady going after childhoodobesity, and Surry is seventh inthe state in highest obesityrates,” Alexander noted, point-ing out that the Ararat RiverGreenway goes right byMount Airy Middle School,adding outdoor classroomsand a bridge, and then ends atB.H. Tharrington PrimarySchool. “Three of our fourschools are linked by green-ways, with Mount Airy HighSchool beside the Emily B.Taylor Greenway.”

PARKS:Continued from page 1A

JOHN PETERSEDITOR

“Manufacturing is going tobe different in America.”

Todd Tucker, executive di-rector of the Surry CountyEconomic Development Part-nership, made that statementrecently when discussing in-dustry recruiting efforts in thecounty.

Not only is the economicclimate forever changedacross America, but he mightvery well have been talkingabout Mount Airy, with morethan 3,000 jobs lost over thepast several years.

What is often lost in that,however, is the fact that newjobs are being created — al-beit at a slower pace than thejob losses — but Tucker be-lieves the seeds for a healthy

local economy are beingplanted.

“What we’re looking on tolead us out of this economiccondition we’re here are smallto medium businesses, eitherexisting businesses or newones that come here.”

That, he said, is the Part-nership’s target. And whilethe organization will still seekto land the larger employers,as it helped do when GraniteTactical Vehicles announcedlast year it would be expand-ing to a Mount Airy location,with 200 new jobs created, itis shifting its emphasis to at-tracting, or helping to nurture,small to medium sized firms.

Some can be as small asone- or two-person opera-tions, or as large as the 80jobs announced in 2008 by Fi-browatt, or the 45 by CentralStates Manufacturing lastyear.

“We’re doing a lot of workwith entrepreneurs, workingwith local companies” to helpthem grow, he said. Tucker said the Partnership is trying to help area businesses be-

come more savvy when itcomes to seeking, and main-taining, government and mili-tary contracts.

In addition, he said thepartnership, along with otherlocal agencies, is trying totake a more measured,planned approach to businessrecruitment.

“We have a five-yearstrategic plan, we’re lookingat certain (economic) mar-kets, looking to see if thoseare the types of markets thatmight grow, if those are thetype of businesses we need,”he said.

“Traditionally, we’velooked at warehouse distribu-tion, plastics manufacturing,metal working, food process-ing, call center/data centers orservice centers ... and de-fense-related industry,” Tuck-er said. “Once we start doingour strategic plan, we’re go-ing to look at that list and ...


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EVEN WITH LOSSES, NEWJOBS ARE COMING

EDP head sees more success with strategy shiftNew jobs announced over the past three years. Not all of

the jobs have yet come to fruition, with construction, permits,and other issues to be resolved.

Jobs announced in 2009Central States Mfg. 45Catalina Tempering 20Wound About 6Advantage Industrial Svs. 7Vaughan Bassett 40Granite Tactical Vehicles 200

Jobs announced in 2008Bodet Horst 10Fibrowatt 80

Jobs announced in 2007Granite Tactical Vehicles 15Advanced Electronic Service 40Basalt Specialty Prods 15Alliance Display 10Johnson Granite 13Interlam 10Salem Logistics 40Nester Hosiery 30

Total 581

See JOBS, page 9A


JOHN PETERSEDITOR

There was a time when a town’seconomy could be measured by aquick walk downtown.

Hardware stores, restaurants,clothing and department stores,service businesses such as barbershops, pharmacies — virtually any-thing could be found on MainStreet.

Somewhere along the way manyof those businesses moved outsideof downtown business districts,landing in shopping malls or beingput out of business by big box oper-ators.

And downtowns everywhere be-came a collection of vacant, broken-down buildings.

Except Mount Airy.Today, Main Street and the rest

of the downtown area still representa vital cog in the local economy.

That is has not suffered the samefate as other downtowns is a testa-ment to a couple of factors.

“One, leadership from severalfolks who have made it their mis-sion to protect and help the areamaintain and hopefully thrive,” saidDowntown Business AssociationExecutive Director Paul Hodges.“And two, the business peopledowntown are really customer-ori-ented, really nice, very helpful, theytry to stock things that you can’t getin canned stores and malls. There’sa wide variety of businesses offer-ing a wide variety of merchandise.”

It’s important to recall just howdowntown Mount Airy developedover the past century.

Like many small towns acrossAmerica, Mount Airy experienced a

boom time shortly after the end ofWorld War II. Soldiers returninghome, pent-up demand for con-sumer goods that had been buildingduring the war years rationing pro-grams, and a newfound economicpower from women forced into theworkforce while men were fightingthe war, fueled an economic resur-gence across the nation.

In downtowns across America,struggling shops began prospering,new businesses opened, and timeswere good.

Mount Airy was no exception.Several hardware stores, clothingshops, and other businesses thrived.

Then came slower economictimes, followed by malls and largerchain stores, and many downtownssimply died.

But not Mount Airy. Business-men such as the late Flip Rees rec-ognized the need for private dollarsto help spur continued economic de-velopment. He and other business-men purchased buildings as theywere becoming vacant, refurbishedthem, and often rented them out atlower prices than comparable retailspace in malls, simply to givedowntown businesses a betterchance at success.

Others worked to save the sur-rounding residential districts, main-taining a good mix of residentialand business use in and around thedowntown region.

The city joined with local busi-ness owners to created the Munici-pal Service District, which is an ex-tension of the city governmentwhich imposes a special tax on thedowntown businesses.

That tax money, however, isspent based on the recommenda-

tions of an MSD board made up ofthose very business owners, whodecide what that money needs to bespent on, then asks the city for that.

The district is, in effect, a self-imposed tax zone, and once themoney is in city coffers, thosedowntown business owners worktogether to figure out what’s best forthe district as a whole, often takingon projects that the individual own-ers could not do, such as repavingthe parking lots, building the publicrestrooms, and similar work.

Hodges second point, the cus-tomer-oriented nature of the smallbusinesses on Main Street, is alsovital, and is a common themeamong those companies, somethingthat is often handed down from gen-eration to generation of owners.

Holcombe Hardware Inc. is in itsthird generation of family owner-ship. F. Rees Company clothingstore, founded by Flip Rees, is nowmanaged by his son, Gene Rees.Brannock & Hiatt Furniture store isanother second-generation business,with a third generation alreadyworking there.

“I’ve been working here for 40years,” said owner Tommy Bran-nock. “I started when I was 13. Idon’t know anything different. It’sfamily-owned. I’m here, my son’shere, so it’s in its third generation.”

That type of operation tends toteach, from those early days, the im-portance of customer service in adifferent way than larger chainstores emphasize the concept.

And when a multi-generationalbusiness becomes known for that,its reputation grows.

“We get a lot of our business lo-cally,” Brannock said. “We deliver

within a 50-mile radius, but we getorders from farther away. It’s notunusual to get people from Char-lotte, Lake Norman.”

A third component to the down-town area’s relative success as aneconomic center is the variety ofshops, and the way they all work to-gether.

There are, of course, a number ofbusinesses which cater almost ex-clusively to the tourist trade, asteady stream of people brought toMount Airy because of its impor-tance to fans of The Andy GriffithShow.

“Tourism is the key,” said JulieTeague, owner of Mayberry Con-signments and an active member ofthe Downtown Business Associa-tion. She said even though the win-ter months can be slow, the touristtraffic through the rest of the year isstrong enough to allow many ofthose businesses to thrive duringthat time of year. And the tourist-driven trade opens up the opportuni-ty for a wide variety of shops to beon Main Street, which attracts morelocal shoppers than many down-town business districts do.

“That local business is impor-tant, especially in the off-season,”Teague said. “If we were justtourism, we couldn’t survive be-cause the tourists don’t come thatmuch from December to April. Wewould all dry up.”

The wide variety of shops also isa drawing card because any givenstore can be a destination stop.

“You’ve got your people whowill come to the toy store, that’stheir main destination, but they’llshop at other places while they’rehere. There are people who come

here for the consignment shop, butthere are so many other places to gothey end up shopping all overtown.”

The business owners all seem towork together, more as if they wereall part of one large firm, promotingone another to shoppers. One storeowner may tout the variety in anoth-er store to shoppers, while still an-other owner might call around townon behalf of a customer, looking forthat one item the customer is seek-ing.

They also work together on proj-ects to draw people to the business-es.

“Individually, none of us are thatstrong,” said Gene Rees of F. Fees“But, collectively, we are.”

One example of that working to-gether is a bridal fair which oc-curred March 27, in which the busi-nesses join together to show whateach can offer to a prospective wed-ding couple.

“Then we have a dog day eventin August that draws dog loversdowntown,” Hodges, of the DBA,said. “Then, of course, we have theIndependence Day parade and theChristmas Day parade. We had aconcert series last year ... (we’re)hoping to have music regularlythrough the warm months. We havesomething going on all that timethat draws people downtown.”

And that, in the end, is the idea,Hodges said. To offer that variety ofshopping experiences, to work to-gether as a team, and to always havesomething special going on to givepeople a reason to visit Main Street.

Many factors keep downtown thriving

MONDEE TILLEY

STAFF REPORTER

Trees are a part of almosteverything in our lives, that’swhy the logging industry is sovital to people all over theworld, said logger Ken Hor-ton, who has been in the busi-ness for most of his life.

“People don’t realize thatthey wouldn’t have paper andother products without thewood that loggers provide,”Horton said.

Horton, who started out inthe logging business with achain saw and an old tractor,has moved up to state-of-the-art equipment which allowslogging to continue in theblazing hot sun, on a freezingcold day or even on a windyday. Today, he and his mencan sit inside cabs with airconditioning, heat and even aradio, making their jobs awhole lot easier.

“That machine, will do thework of five men,” he saidpointing to a buck saw, whichsaws the trees into the lengthshe needs. Another machinepulls the limbs off the treesand tops them in blazing fastspeed.

His feller buncher ma-chine, which was being run byhis son Joshua at a site nearKapps Mill Road recently,cuts down huge trees two andthree at a time, improving thesafety and the efficiency ofthe work they do. Chain sawsare now reserved for cuttingtrees that are in difficult areasto cut, such as on a hillside.

Horton says when they douse chain saws, the men eithercut early in the morning orlate in the afternoon to eitherkeep themselves out of sum-mer heat or the chill of a win-ter’s day.

According to Horton,there’s two types of timbering.There is clear cutting or selectcut. Clear cutting is when alogging company cuts every-thing down, either makingway for pasture land or to bereplanted for future harvest-ing. With select cutting, log-

gers only take out specifictrees, such as poplar or oak, asthey thin out the forest.

Willie Frye and her hus-band, Ralph, of Ralph FryeLogging, have been in busi-ness since 1984.

“I enjoy it, but it’s danger-ous work,” said Willie, whohad just driven a truckload offreshly cut timber to Indepen-dence Lumber Inc. on ZephyrRoad to sell her load.

From Independence Lum-ber’s log yard, the wood trav-els to the company’s headquar-ters in Independence, Va.,where the wood is processed.Kip Danley, yard manager andtimber buyer, said woodcomes into the Zephyr Roadlocation from a 50-mile radius.

After the wood is taken tothe Virginia facility, the tim-ber is turned into a variety ofproducts, from boards forbuilding, to mulch and woodchips. Every part of the log isuseful. Danley said about 100loads of wood come through

the yard in a typical week. Hesaid most of the wood that isbeing harvested locally is be-ing replanted less than twoweeks after the timber is cut.Mostly hardwood comesthrough the yard includingPoplar, Maple, White Oak andCherry. Danley can identifyeach one by the color of theinside of the tree or the shapeof the growth rings.

Logger Alan Walsh saidthat logging is in his blood.He is following in the foot-steps of his grandfather BillDula. He has been in the log-ging business for the past 37years and lives his life out of asuitcase because he has to gowhere the timber needs to beharvested.

“Once you get sawdust inyour shoes, they say you cannever do anything else,”Walsh said while his load oftimber was being unloaded atthe logging yard.

Contact Mondee Tilley [email protected] or

at 719-1930.

Logging industry providesvaluable asset to Surry County


Kip Danley, yard managerand timber buyer for Inde-pendence Lumber Inc.moves logs from one trailerto another at the log yardlocated off Zephyr Road.(Below) Joshua Hortonclimbs up into a fellerbuncher which cuts andclears timber in a fractionof the time it would take todo the job with chain saws.

be a little more industry-specific in those sectors, see if those

are the things we can go after.”

And, in the end, he said it doesn’t matter if a companypromises one job or 1,000, he said his agency believes there isa place for all businesses.

“We want a wide variety of companies who do a lot ofthings,” he said, whether they be small businesses investing aslittle as $10,000 in its start-up expenses to those which mightput $10 million into the local economy.

“We’re trying to help all those (businesses),” he said.

Tucker said diversification, not only in what types of busi-nesses operate here, but in their size, is vital for long-term sus-tainability. He explained by saying in a diversified businessmarket, if one particular industry — such as textiles — fails orleaves the country, its effect on the rest of the community ismuch less. But, if that particular industry represents 10 percentof the workforce, then that can have a devastating effect on thelocal economy.

JOBS:Continued from page 8A

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Since opening its doors, 13 Bones has created over 40 jobs in Surry County. 13 Bones has made giving back to the community our number one priority. 13 Bones teamed up with Mount Airy Meat Center and the local chapter of the Turkey Federation, Surry Longspurs, to feed over 1300 people last Thanksgiving and we hope to increase that number this year. 13 Bones has sponsored many local charity events and other group and individual benefi ts within the community. All of this has been made possible thanks to our customers and with your continued support and our drive to provide great food and service, we will continue our journey on making a difference in our community and surrounding areas. Words cannot express our thanks and gratitude to each and everyone of you that help make our dream a reality.

STARTERSCheese Sticks - Lightly breaded mozzarella cheese stick deep fried and served with a side of our tangy marinara sauce. 6.00

Homemade Chips - A heaping basket of hand cut potato chips sliced fresh daily in our kitchen. Served with our homemade french onion dip. 4.00

Buffalo Wings - A basket of our mouth-watering wings. Choose one of four homemade sauces. Sweet & Sour, Spicy BBQ, Hot or Mild. 7.00

Fried Pickles - A basket of our hand battered then breaded and fried for the extra crispy crunch. Served with homemade Ranch dressing. 6.00

Onion Ring - Lightly battered and fried. Served with horseradish sauce. 5.00

BIG SALADSAll salads available as house or caesar.

House Salad - Fresh crisp lettuce, tomatoes, red onions, cucumbers, and mixed shredded cheese. 4.00

Grilled Chicken - 6.50

Blackened Chicken - 6.50

Salmon - 9.00

Blackened Salmon - 9.00

Caesar Salad - Romaine tossed in our special Caesar dressing with croutons and Parmesan cheese. 5.00

Dressings - Oil & Vinegar, Fat-Free Italian, Bleu Cheese, Honey Mustard, Ranch, Thousand Island and 13 Bones House.

SANDWICHESServed with Homemade Chips. All sandwiches topped with mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, and red onion.

Blackened Chicken - Topped with tobacco onions. 6.50BBQ Cheesy Chicken - Served on a corn dusted Kaiser roll. - 7.00Grilled Chicken - 6.50

Philly Cheese Steak - Top with grilled onions served on a sour dough roll. 8.00

All 13 Bones Burgers are hand made out of 100% black Angus beef.

13 Bones Burger - Topped with crispy bacon, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion and mayonnaise. 7.00

Blackened Cheese Burger - Topped with tobacco onions, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise and pepper jack cheese. 8.00

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KIDS12 and under only.

Chicken Tenders - Served with fries. 5.00

Grilled Cheese - Served with fries. 4.00

Kids Hamburger - Served with fries. 5.00

Corn Dog - Served with fries. 4.00

SEAFOODAll dishes include two sides.

Citrus Tuna - Sushimi grade tuna rolled in olive oil with lime zest, cracked black pepper and garlic. 13.50

North Atlantic Salmon - Herb butter or lemon zest. 13.50

Sauteed Shrimp - Served over rice with sauteed veggies. 12.00

Blackened Salmon - Lightly dusted with 13 Bones creole seasoning. 13.50

Lemon Pepper Trout - Lightly breaded and fried or grilled with lemon pepper seasoning. 9.50

Salt and Pepper Catfi sh - Grilled or fried. 9.00

CHICKENAll dishes include two sides.

BBQ Cheesy Chicken - 8 oz. breast marinated in BBQ sauce covered with pepper jack cheese and apple wood bacon. 10.00

Blackened Chicken - Tender breast lightly dusted with creole seasoning and served over tobacco onions. 10.00

Chicken Tenders - Tender chicken strips breaded and deep fried. 8.00

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Teriyaki Chicken - 8 oz. breast marinated in teriyaki sauce, grilled and served over rice. 10.00

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8 oz. Filet Mignon - Finest choice cut of beef. 16.00

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Beef Tips - Trimmed from our hand cut steaks. 10.00

PORKAll dishes include two sides.

13 Bones Soon-to-be-famous Baby Back Ribs - 1/2 rack 12.00, full rack 19.00

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COMBOSAll dishes include two sides.

Surf & Turf - Grilled Shrimp and 8 oz. Sirloin. 17.00

13 oz. Ribeye and 1/2 Rack of Ribs - 22.00

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SIDESBaked Potato, Sweet Potato, Homemade Chips, Mashed Potatoes, Sauteed Veggies, Mac & Cheese, Baked Beans, House Salad, French Fries, Cole Slaw, Green Beans, Rice, Cinnamon Baked Apples

Loaded Potato (bacon bits & cheese) add 1.50


TOM JOYCESTAFF REPORTER

All things considered, es-pecially on the horns of a re-cession, beef producers in thisarea are doing well comparedto other segments of the econ-omy.

“Good” was a word fre-quently used by one local

farmer in assessing the presentstate of affairs.

“Well, the cattle industryright now is good,” said MikeEdwards, a Lambsburg, Va.,farmer who has about 500head. “The prices are good.The demand for meat’s goodright now.”

Speaking while trucksloaded with cattle were lined

up as far as the eye could seerecently at Mount Airy Stock-yards Inc., Edwards added,“It’s going to be a good sea-son, it looks like.”

However, the outlook wasnot so “good” earlier thisdecade, with beef producersstruggling with a range of is-sues, not the least of whichwas a persistent drought thatdepleted pasturelands and re-quired many farmers to importhay and increase operating ex-penses. Also, $4 per-gallongas prices raised productioncosts and further cut into prof-its.

“Inputs are cheaper thanthey have been in the last twoor three years,” said MikeMidkiff, the manager ofSouthern States in Mount Airyregarding the cost of feed,seed, fertilizer and other itemstied to raising cattle.

In addition to his work withthe farming-supply business,Midkiff owns about 80 head

of mostly Black Angus andAngus cross-breeds. He hasbeen a beef producer for 30 ofhis 44 years.

However, since many vari-ables are involved, a singlenegative event can upset thebalance for farmers and causeproduction expenses to sky-rocket, such as a major stormdisrupting fuel shipments. “Soif gas gets higher, naturally itcosts more to haul fertilizer.”

The weather is always afactor with any type of farm-ing, but “especially in ourbusiness,” Midkiff said. Thispast winter was particularlybrutal, requiring extra expen-ditures to supply cattle withfeed and hay to get themthrough.

“It’s tough to feed in themud and snow and stuff likethat,” said Danny Spence ofHillsville, Va., who hasworked at the local livestockmarket since 1991 and alsoowns about 30 head of differ-ent types of Black Angus.That breed is in high demand.

Spence said a constantproblem is receiving prices atthe market which cover all thecosts a producer can en-counter.

Small Farms DominateSurry remains a viable cat-

tle-producing county, but thenumbers can be misleading,according to Bryan Cave, di-rector of its N.C. CooperativeExtension Service office.

“We’re one of the top-10counties in the state, and sowe have lots of cattle,” Cavesaid. “But there are lots offarms and not very many perfarm.” The average herdranges from 25 to 30 head.

“There’s a lot of money incattle in the county, but it’s ina lot of different hands,” Cavecontinued.

It is harder for smaller pro-ducers to compete in the mar-ketplace, which has led to ef-forts including having localfarmers join together to selltheir livestock in groups.“There’s a lot of money (in-volved), but there could be alot more money,” Cave said.

Surry ranked 21st in over-all agricultural productionamong North Carolina’s 100counties in 2009.

Contact Tom Joyce [email protected] or at

2B April 27, 2010 A Decade of Progress www.mtairynews.com

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Cattle industry thriving — for now

TOM JOYCE/THE NEWS

Reavis Brim, longtime manager of the local livestock market, was nearly killed in an at-tack by an 1,875-pound Black Angus last fall.

www.mtairynews.com A Decade of Progress April 27, 2010 3B

TOM JOYCESTAFF REPORTER

While giving a visitor atour of Mount Airy Stock-yards Inc. on a recent Tues-day, Reavis Brim — longtimegeneral manager of the live-stock market — paused tolook down at a fenced-in areabearing the number 46.

“I won’t forget that pen,”Brim said of the small holdingarea for livestock, surveying itfrom a safe distance. On thisparticular occasion, Pen 46 satsilent and empty of any four-legged critters as well as thebrave men who herd themthrough the market each Tues-day.

But Brim’s mind soondrifted back to another salesday last October when thesame site was the scene of afrantic life-and-death struggleafter he was nearly killed by aBlack Angus bull that vicious-ly attacked him.

The 1,875-pound animalcharged into Brim, who neversaw him coming. “He backedup and hit me about threetimes and I went down,” thewiry 73-year-old recalled.Brim said, who has been inthe livestock business for 35years, had never been struck

that hard before by anythingbefore.

“I’d rather be run over by acar,” the market official ad-mitted. “He stomped me.”

Brim suffered numerousinjuries, including multiple

fractures. “It broke all my ribson the right side,” he said,running down a laundry list ofdamage resulting by the fero-cious bull. Several ribs on hisleft side also were fractured,and Brim’s back was broken

in two places and his skullfractured as well.

“I saw death,” said the vet-eran market official, who be-lieves he actually died duringthe incident as those aroundhim lent first-response assis-

tance and encouraged the se-verely injured man to hold onuntil paramedics could arrive.He remembers seeing “the pret-tiest white sky” at one point.

So critical were his injuriesthat Brim ended up at a re-gional trauma center, WakeForest University BaptistMedical Center, where doc-tors stabilized his conditionand gradually nursed himback to health. A Dr. Martinwho treated Brim there toldhim that he had to be “an aw-ful tough guy” to survive suchan ordeal, the victim said.

But survive he did, and onMarch 9, for the first timesince his brush with death,Reavis Brim returned toMount Airy Stockyards,where he was greeted by nu-merous well-wishers happy tosee the “old cowboy” back inthe saddle.

“I’m progressing realwell,” he said during his reap-pearance at the market filledwith area farmers, their familymembers and even a tourgroup from a school in Al-leghany County.

Although he still hadn’tbeen medically cleared to re-sume his full duties at thattime, “I want them to knowI’ll be back,” Brim said.

Unforgettable DayJust as Pen 46 is branded

into Brim’s memory, so arethe events of that fateful eventin October when he wasmauled.

It was toward the end of theday when bulls, which are al-ways the last cattle to be sold,were being processed throughthe market.

It is a giant maze of pens,corrals and chutes where theanimals are systematicallygraded, tagged and sold withthe help of computerized tech-nology. It tracks cattle fromthe time they enter to whenthey leave, either to farms ormeat-processing centers, withtheir movement constant.

Explaining that some newpersonnel were working in thebull area that day, Brim saidthe Black Angus that attackedhim had come through andsupposedly been closed off bythose workers in another sec-tion.

Thinking this had occurred,the general manager wasawaiting the next bull, un-aware that the Black Anguswas indeed unsecured and hadmade its way back to where hewas, ready to wreak havoc.

“All of them’s mean, but...”


In the past several years,the face of goat farming haschanged.

Previously, goats werelooked down upon. In the past

10 years, however, that men-tality has changed dramatical-ly.

“Having goats was reallylooked down on unless youhad a stomach problem. Nowit’s more acceptable and more

MEGHANN EVANSSTAFF REPORTER

Home gardening has longbeen a tradition in Surry Coun-ty, and local agriculture andhorticulture experts say gar-dening is on the rise in the area.

“There’s a lot of interest inthe county,” said Terry Gar-wood, agriculture and naturalresources agent with the coun-

ty cooperative extension office.He said gardening classes at

the extension service are ex-panding, and more people areinterested in growing their ownvegetables in the backyard.

Joe Lamp’l is a professionalgardener and national televi-sion show host who lives inMount Airy. He said the rise inhome gardens is a nationaltrend as well.

“Home gardening has be-

come cool again,” said Lamp’l.Lamp’l said the increase has

been caused in part by theeconomy, but he added, “It wasmore than that. People wantedto take more control of theirfood supply.”

He listed a desire to livemore sustainability and con-cerns about food safety as ad-ditional reasons why peoplehave been gardening more inrecent years.

Bryan Cave, cooperativeextension director for SurryCounty, also said that the econ-omy has driven more people togrow their own food. Garwoodpointed out that many peoplehave started growing food inorder to sell produce at localfarmers markets to earn someextra income.

“That’s definitely increas-ing,” said Garwood.


In many areas of the coun-try, the family farm has startedto go by the wayside.

However, in Surry County,that is not the case with severalfamilies still choosing to maketheir living off the land.

Still, the way the farm ishandled has changed in thepast 10 years, and certainly inthe past 20 or 30 years. Withadvances in technology, achanging demand and an all-together different market,

farmers have had to adapt orface going out of business.

For many of those farmersin Surry County, it started withcattle and still keeps that as afocus in some cases. Even ifthe contents of the farm havenot changed, the way in whichthey are handled has.

For the Hortons of MapleRidge Farms, business startedin 1947 with dairy cows. Theystill operate a dairy cow farmwith mostly Holsteins,Guernsey’s and a few BrownSwiss. Four family memberswork on the farm with Bill

Horton and his nephew Danielacting as the managing part-ners. However, they are quickto point out that they try to leteverything be a collective de-cision.

The biggest change in theirindustry came about 30 yearsago when the dairy farms inthe state began to disappear.According to Bill, there usedto be 25 dairy operations inSurry County. Mount Airy andElkin even had their own bot-tling facilities. Now, there area couple of smaller operations


While most farmers can only produce theircrops when the weather warms up, Tony Bonoand wife Joy have a whole different system thatallows them to grow lettuce year round.

At Flora Ridge Farm, just a few miles out-side of Mount Airy, the Bonos raise everythingfrom bibb lettuce, to spinach, to basil andchard. The family takes great pride in raisinghydroponic produce which they sell to localrestaurants and farmer’s markets.

Ten years ago, Bono said he quit his stress-ful job and opted to become a farmer. He saidthe work is still hard, but it is something that hereally enjoys.

“This keeps us busy seven days a week. Thewater and nutrients have to be tested daily,”Bono said.

And when they are not growing and harvest-ing their product, the Bono’s are busy takingorders and delivering to local chefs andfarmer’s markets. He sells his lettuce to CrossCreek Country Club, Salem Kitchen, Fourth

‘Cowboy’ returns from near-fatal encounter with bull

GOING TO THE GOATS


Bruce Smith’s dairy goats stand in the milking area as theyeat. He feeds them in the same place as he milks themonce a day so they are used to the area.

Home gardening sees growthSUBMITTED PHOTO

Jesse Childs stands proudly with his mini-garden last year, one of several completed by 4-Hers in Surry County.

Family Farming: a not so lost art


Bill Horton and his nephew Daniel look on as the cows eat at Maple Ridge Farm.

Farmer takes ‘going green’to a whole new level


Tony Bono shows how one of his lines feeds into the hydroponic trays where lettuce isgrowing.

See COWBOY, page 8B

See GOATS, page 8B

See HOME, page 7B

See FAMILY, page 7B

See FARMER, page 8B

TOM JOYCE/THE NEWS

Danny Spence, an employee of Mount Airy Stockyards Inc. and a cattleman himself, herdsan animal through during a recent market day.


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While Surry County offersmany things for those wholove the out of doors, MountAiry also has a number of of-ferings that appeal to thosewho don’t consider being acouch potato a fun way oflife.

From walking trails tofishing, Mount Airy has plen-ty of things to keep locals andvisitors alike busy with freeactivities.

Catrina Alexander, direc-tor of the Parks and Recre-ation department with the cityof Mount Airy, said there isso much to do and see in thisarea.

With two major greenwaysthat allow people to get out-doors and enjoy walking, jog-ging, bicycling or walkingtheir pet, Alexander saidMount Airy’s offerings havebecome a definite asset forthe city.

Westwood Park is a wood-ed site with nature trails, two

lighted ball fields, play-ground equipment, fitnessstations, a 9-hole disc golfcourse, six miles of mountainbike trails, a community fish-ing pond, shelter, rest roomfacilities and paved parking.There is also a reservoir thatis stocked with fish and has afloating dock from whichpeople can fish.

Alexander said the SkateMount Airy group has raisedenough funds to build a skatepart that will be built atRiverside Park sometime inthe near future.

On Friday nights there isan Ultimate Frisbee groupthat meets at Riverside Park,Alexander said.

Veteran’s Park hosts a lotof different events, fiddler’sconventions, offers campinghook-ups, great access toU.S. 52 and the Blue RidgeParkway, she said.

The Ararat River green-way is open and begins atRiverside Park and will con-tinue to Tharrington Elemen-tary School when construc-tion is complete by early

spring. Tharrington Elemen-tary Park development willinclude the end of the green-way trail, two soccer fields,canoe take-out area.

Benches and picnic areaswill be placed along the wayin addition to an educationalpavilion and rest room facili-ty at a Hamburg Street sitecalled the H.B. Rowe Park.

Alexander said there isnever a time when she drivesdown Hamburg Street whenthere are not people on thenew greenway.

“It’s been kind of neat tosee people using it. Rightnow it only goes to theBannertown bridge, but itshould be finished in thespring,” Alexander said.

The Ararat River green-way will be 2.2 miles whencomplete. Right now 1.8miles are open to the public.There will be parking forthe trail at Riverside Park,at the Rowe park and atTharrington ElementarySchool.

A canoe launch has beenadded at Riverside Park.

Alexander said that canoeing,kayaking and tubing will beallowed on the river.

H.B. Rowe EnvironmentalPark on Hamburg Street willhave an outdoor classroom,bridge to school connection,rest rooms, picnic areas, na-ture trails and fishing areas.

“The shelter there is in-tended to be an outdoor class-room. The middle school hadan interest in using it, that’swhy we put the bridge overthe river to the middle school,so that they would have ac-cess,” Alexander said.

The Emily B. TaylorGreenway is two and three-eights miles long. It spansfrom Worth Street at U.S. 52to West Lebanon Street be-side Veteran’s MemorialPark.

Alexander hopes that thecity will obtain a grant in thenear future that will make petstations available along thatroute.


at 719-1930.


Drive through PilotMountain on the first Satur-day night of each monthfrom May to October, andyou will see thousands ofcar enthusiasts gathereddowntown.

They come to see classiccars cruise down mainstreet, to shop downtown,and to sway to beach music.The monthly cruise-in willbegin its sixth season onMay 1.

“It brings a lot of peo-ple,” said Jerry Venable,chair of Mount Pilot NOW,the group that sponsors theevent.

Each cruise-in is sched-uled to take place from 4 to9:30 p.m., but Venable said,“That’s really not the case.”

He said many peoplecome before lunchtime toget good spots downtown topark their classic cars.Spaces along Main Streetfill up by lunchtime. Otherclassic cars have to park in

various lots along MainStreet.

Venable described thefree event as a “true cruise-in,” with cars cruising upand down the street allnight. People come to watchthe cars and admire thoseparked along the street. Af-ter cars begin cruising, abeach music band startsplaying at 5:30 p.m. A dif-

ferent band plays eachmonth.

“We have a great lineupof bands this year like we al-ways do,” Venable re-marked.

In addition to live music,there are also car-relatedvendors set up and a winegarden. Venable said thisyear organizers are trying to


From the Yadkin River to the rolling hills ofLowgap, Surry County has something to offereveryone, especially those who love the greatoutdoors.

Millie Hiatt, Surry County Parks and Recre-ation supervisor, said Surry County has manyoutdoor activities that don’t cost a thing to do.

“From Pilot Mountain to Fisher River Park,Surry County has so much to offer. Anytimeyou can get outside and get your heart rate up,it’s good for both your body and your mind,”Hiatt said.

Pilot Mountain is a remnant of the ancientSaura Mountains and was known as “Jomeo-kee” great guide or “Pilot” by the Saura Indi-

ans. Approach from any direction and see PilotMountain rising more than 1,400 feet above therolling countryside of the upper Piedmontplateau. Dedicated as a National Natural Land-mark in 1976, this solitary peak is the center-piece of Pilot Mountain State Park. Fun, fromrelaxation to exhilaration, is easy to find here.Treat yourself to a horseback ride through thewoods or challenge the river from raft or ca-noe. A seven-mile woodland corridor joins twosections of the park, each section offering awealth of opportunities for outdoor fun. Themountain segment, which includes the two pin-nacles, contains most of the visitor facilities.The more primitive river section centers on thelazy, meandering Yadkin River.

Among the activities offered at the park,

MORGAN WALL

STAFF REPORTER

When vineyards started poppingup in the county, they managed tochange the face of tourism in thearea. With a new draw, the wineriesbegan attracting different types oftourists who before had no reason tostop as they drove through.

Starting with Shelton Vineyardsplanting its first vines in 1999, severalmore followed suit, opening up SurryCounty to a new type of tourist. Thewinery at Shelton opened in 2000meaning the facility will celebrate its10th anniversary in August.

“The Sheltons were in the twilightof their careers and they wanted tocome back to their home county and re-vitalize the economy,” said GeorgeDenka, president of Shelton Vineyards.

Round Peak Vineyards planted itsfirst vines in 2000.

“If you look at us, you’ll see howmany people come that would not oth-erwise stop here,” said Ken Gulaian,

owner. “I think we’re having a decentimpact on Surry County. People arecoming out collectively to see us andmaking an impact on the county.”

Stony Knoll Vineyards planted itsfirst vines in 2001, selling its firstbatch of wine in 2004.

“I never envisioned the amount oftourists that would come here. Iknew that over time we would attractpeople interested in agriculture en-tertainment because they like visit-ing different personalities in thearea,” said Van Coe, owner. “Thearea has been really growing as faras people wanting to visit.”

The Old North State Winery start-ed in 2003 on Main Street.

“Most people are coming specifi-cally for a product. Others are com-ing to the museum, the arts councilor to see Mayberry. Being in atourist destination is a plus,” saidTom Webb, owner.

The vineyards and wineries in thearea attract local people looking toget out of the house or to attend spe-

cial events and festivals. However,they also attract a number of peoplefrom across the state and even acrossthe country. With locations just offInterstate 77 or NC 89, the vineyardsare in prime locations to attract thosedriving to other destinations whomay be looking to stop somewherefor a day or two.

“In the case of Shelton, we had75,000 guests last year. The lion’sshare of those were travelingthrough and they’re stopping nowbecause there’s a reason,” said Den-ka. “We get people from other partsof the North Carolina, but we alsoget guests from South Carolina,Georgia, Ohio, Michigan and Indi-ana. In years past they’ve just beentraveling down the interstate but thisgives them a reason to stop.”

At Stony Knoll, Coe estimates that60 to 70 percent of the visitors comefrom North Carolina. Another 20 per-cent visit from out of state whilearound five percent come from out of

Mount Airy offers lots of outdoor activities

SUBMITTED PHOTO

The Emily B. Taylor greenway is a popular place to hold 5K runs and charity walks. Thegreenway provides a free place for locals and visitors to get out an exercise whether it beon foot or on a bicycle.

WINERIES ATTRACT A DIFFERENT TYPE OF TOURIST


Stony Knoll Vineyards attracts tourists from the county, the state andthe country for wine-tasting and special events.

Surry County offers a varietyof outdoor activities


Parents and their children play on the playground at Fisher River Park. The park offers avariety of activities including a mountain bike trail, softball and baseball fields, a walkingtrack, a soccer field, two playgrounds, picnic shelters and an amphitheater.

CRUISE-INS DRAW THOUSANDS TO COUNTY

WENDY BYERLY WOOD/FILE PHOTO

People cruise through Pilot Mountain during the downtown cruise-in last June.

WENDY BYERLY WOOD/FILE PHOTO

A car enthusiast takes a look under the hood of a classiccar at the Pilot Mountain Cruise-In last June.

See SURRY, page 6B

See CRUISE, page 6B

See WINERIES, page 6B

the country.“Most of the time they’re

here on a mission to find thatspecial red or white wine. Wegrow cabernets and chardon-nays that other parts of thestate don’t,” said Coe.

Even as the wine industrycontinues to grow, vineyard andwinery owners are always look-ing at ways to draw in morepeople. Being located off the in-terstate allows them to attractspur-of-the-moment visitors butthey would like to see morepeople planning to stop.

“We want that customer tostay, have a picnic, bring theirdog,” said Gulaian. “We wantpeople to be comfortable here,to make it more an ambianceof relaxation.”

As people visit the wineries,they often ask about other desti-nations in the area and for din-ing and accommodations rec-ommendations. Area wineriesmake sure to point them in theright direction whenever possi-ble, meaning the wine industry

has helped others.“We have better hotels and

restaurants now. We’re seeingfine dining that didn’t exist 10years ago,” said Denka. “It allworks in conjunction with oneanother.”

“We engage people in awhole lot of conversation tofind out what wine they mightbe interested in. In doing that,we can find out what other ac-tivities they are interested intoo,” said Webb.

In attracting different types oftourists, the wineries play host toboth tour groups and individualsor couples. They also rely on ac-tivities such as local wine festi-vals to draw in more people.

“We do have people that dowine tours. The tour buses liketo hit groups. They’ll go to acluster and spend all day,” saidCoe. “We’re part of the festivalsystem. We’re working thecruise-ins. We’ve created aproduct to go and be a part ofdifferent attractions. It’s a differ-ent way of attracting tourists.”

A couple of area winerieshave also found that adding alittle something extra can helpattract more people. Some ofthem host weddings and manyprovide live music during the

warmer months. A couple alsohave restaurants nearby.

The 308 Bistro is located inthe same facility as the Old NorthState Winery. According toWebb, particularly on non-touristheavy nights, the temptation oflive music at the Bistro oftendraws people into the facility.

“It does help to have foodservice in the area,” said Webb.“It’s very important to pairfoods up. There are certainfoods that really go well withthe wines we have so we alwaystry to make a recommendationand find out what pleases peo-ple’s palates. It allows people toexperience food and wine at thesame time.”

Shelton Vineyards is alsothe home of the Harvest Grilland even has the Hampton Innand Suites nearby for accom-modations.

“The hotel, restaurant andwinery give a reason for peopleto make us a destination,” saidDenka. “Most people visit boththe winery and the restaurant. Ifpeople come for dinner and thewinery is closed, we can dotastings at the restaurant.”


719-1929.

camping, canoeing, picnick-ing and walking trails providevisitors with a way to explorethe great outdoors at nocharge.

Rock climbing and rap-pelling are favorite activitiesat Pilot Mountain where rockycliffs offer a challenge to ex-perienced climbers. Climbingis permitted only in designat-ed areas.

Fisher River Park haswalking trails, mountain bik-ing trails, baseball, softballand soccer fields. There is abeginner’s biking trail whereparents can watch their chil-dren bike without leavingtheir side. There are two play-grounds and several picnicshelters. The parks also offersa volleyball court, a basketballcourt, and a horseshoe pit. Thepark also boasts an amphithe-ater which is used for differentgroups throughout the year.

For those who prefer to en-joy the outdoors by way of cy-

cling, Surry has 470 miles ofdesignated bikeways that pro-vide access to all of our com-munities and attractions. Theroute provides challenges forall levels of cyclists and show-cases the beautiful geographyof our community.

Surry County offers a num-ber of well maintained outletsfor equine enthusiasts, espe-cially those wishing to com-bine nature with the slowerpace of yesteryear. This mayinclude a leisurely ride alongan abandoned railway along ariver or a steep climb along amountain trail. Some 10.5miles of hiking/bridle trailscan be found at Pilot Moun-tain State Park alone.

The Yadkin River Trail is apaddle trail along the YadkinRiver is an outdoor experiencestretching from downtownElkin to Pilot Mountain StatePark. The trail is full of histo-ry to be enjoyed by the wholefamily. Sites such as a majorIndian settlement, HistoricRockford, the Civil War site atSiloam, and Daniel Boone’shunting grounds are locatedalong the trail. Fishing oppor-tunities are also available

along the trail.Mitchell River Game Land

is a 1,716-acre game land locat-ed in western Surry County, in-corporating a portion of LittleMountain and more than ninemiles of Mitchell River tributar-ies, including Mill Creek. Theproperty is managed forwildlife, water quality and pub-lic access. The Mitchell RiverGame Land is currently openfor hunting and fishing.

Surry provides some of thefinest trout and bass fishing inthe region along with othervarieties, which can be reeledin at public sites such as Fish-er River Park near Dobson,the Yadkin River in PilotMountain State Park, theMitchell River in western Sur-ry County, and a number ofprivate streams, lakes andponds.

For more information callon the Surry Scenic Bikewaycall 401-8235 or go towww.surryscenicbikeway.com. For more information on theYadkin River Trail, look upwww.yadkinrivertrail.org.


at 719-1930.


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SURRY:Continued from page 5B

get a racecar there one monthand possibly some “oldmoonshine cars.” The GoodTime Charlie Trolly will runfrom 5 to 10 p.m. at eachcruise-in this year, shuttlingpeople from a park-and-ridelot.

The event began witharound 125 cars each month.Near the end of the HotNights Hot Cars Cruise-inseason last year, over 1,000classic cars could be seen atthe event. This brought inover 8,000 people per time.Venable said in future yearsthe cruise-in could possiblyexpand to farther down MainStreet to accommodate thecrowd if needed.

As the county enters a newdecade, Venable expects itwill continue to draw largenumbers to Pilot Mountain.He said, “The cars have al-ways been popular, but nowmore so than ever.”

Venable said there’s no

“rhyme or reason to why itworks.” People just love cars.He said, “Guys like to talkabout cars. Where there arecars, they congregate.”

Jessica Icenhour, directorof tourism for the GreaterMount Airy Chamber ofCommerce, has worked onmany car events in the coun-ty. She said the county is anappealing location for cruise-ins “because of its closevicinity to the Blue RidgeParkway and the abundanceof scenic and twisty roadsthroughout the county thatleads you to the Blue RidgeMountains and other beauti-ful vistas throughout the Yad-kin Valley wine region.”

She said there are somecurrent car projects in theworks for this year in MountAiry and Surry County.

“It is great that we havecar groups coming in the areathat are interested in visitingseveral sites throughout thecounty because when theycome to visit they will shop,eat, purchase gas and possi-bly even stay overnight in ourlocal hotels which directly

impacts our local economy,”Icenhour remarked.

Mount Pilot NOW, whichplans the Pilot Mountainevent, is a town committeethat has to approve any eventto be held on Main Street inPilot Mountain. Venable saidthe committee started theevent to boost the local econ-omy.

He said, “It’s a lot of work,but Pilot Mountain neededthe economic impact fromsomething like this ... ForMain Street especially, it hasassured those shops on MainStreet.”

Many people come fromfar away to attend the event.One man from Marylandcomes to at least one of thecruise-ins each year. Venablesaid some people spend thenight in town.

“It helps everyone,” hesaid.

Blair Knox, town managerof Pilot Mountain, said, “Thecruise-ins are probably one ofthe most effective economicdevelopment engines that thetown currently has.”

According to a survey

study conducted last year bystudents and professors in atourism class at the Universi-ty of North Carolina atGreensboro, 88.4 percent ofthe people surveyed at thecruise-in planned to revisitSurry County in the future.Fourteen percent of the re-spondents stayed one night inthe area, and 14 percentstayed two nights. The aver-age travel party spent$109.39 at the cruise-in. Thestudy estimated that the totaldirect spending by visitors ateach cruise-in was $236,502.

This year’s cruise-in sea-son will begin on May 1 andend on October 2, and thenMount Pilot NOW will host acruise down on the BlueRidge Parkway on October 3.

“The town and private sec-tor of business owes a greatdeal of gratitude to the volun-teers that spend their week-ends for at least six monthsworking on this, what is be-coming a longer and longerfestival,” said Knox.

Contact Meghann Evansat [email protected]

or 719-1952.

CRUISE:Continued from page 5B

WINERIES:Continued from page 5B



From harvesting by handto using multi-thousand dol-lar harvesters, from curingtobacco in stick barns tostoring them in bulk boxbarns — many local farmershave significantly changedthe way they grow and har-vest tobacco in recent years.

Dennis Coe has farmedwith his family for manyyears, and he rememberswhen people had to put to-bacco on sticks by hand andcure them in wooden barns.He said a looper or stringerthen came along that couldtie the tobacco on sticks,saving a lot of labor.

Now tobacco farmershave labor-saving equipmentfor most of the productionprocesses. Many farmers inthe county use automaticharvesters. This cuts downon the number of field handsneeded to harvest the tobac-co, which saves farmersmoney.

Dennis said that years agoit took 400 man hours peracre to harvest tobacco byhand. He said, “Modern ma-chinery has chopped that inhalf or more.”

“Everything used to bedone by hand,” he explained.“If you had to do it like itused to be done, you could-n’t. You wouldn’t make anymoney.”

Dennis said that eachfarmer has his own systemfor growing tobacco thesedays. They don’t all use thesame equipment. But regard-less of the type of equipmentused, it has changed a lotfrom what farmers wouldhave used decades ago.

“It’s come a long wayfrom what it used to be,”Dennis noted.

Many farmers say thesenew pieces of machinery area vital part of helping themmake a profit each year. Lo-cal farmer David Key said,“Anything you can do to cutout labor. It’s the only extramoney you can make any-more.”

“Tobacco growers overthe past decade have beenchallenged to look at ways tolower costs but still producequality tobacco,” explainedJoanna Radford, agricultureextension agent with theSurry County CooperativeExtension office.

“All input costs have in-creased, but the amountthey’re being paid has gonedown,” Radford added.

In the 1980s a tobaccofarmer could receive $2.25 apound for tobacco, but lastyear Surry County farmerswere paid $1.70 to $1.90 perpound. Radford said one ofthe main tobacco companieswill keep prices the samethis year. Prices from othercompanies had not been an-nounced in early March.

The rise in the cost of gasin the past few years hurtmany tobacco farmers, caus-ing them to look for ways toreduce these costs. Last yearthe Slate family in MountAiry bought a tank to storepropane so they could buy itin bulk and save money.

Surry County farmer Jer-ry Whitaker bought an auto-

matic curing system last yearto save fuel. The system hasautomatic dampers that reg-ulates the temperate in bulkbarns. The system monitorsthe temperature and humidi-ty in the boxes at all timesand cuts fueling costs. Key,who farms in Ararat, said heuses the same system.

Key said, “It also helpsyou with your curing.”

He has been running hisown farming operation for18 years, and he has wit-nessed the shift from the oldstick barns used to cure to-bacco to the newer boxbarns. The Coe family usesbox barns for their farmingoperation. They also use anautomated box loader thatweighs tobacco and distrib-utes it evenly into the boxesbefore storing it in the barns

Tobacco farmers use newerequipment to reduce labor


Tobacco farmer Dennis Coe explains how his automatic box loader works.


Zach and Isaac Slate show off their family’s tobacco har-vester which reduces the number of hands needed toharvest crops.


Some local tobacco farmers havestarted buying tanks so they canpurchase propane in bulk.

Cave believes that the newagriculture center, Pilot Moun-tain Pride, will encourage peo-ple to grow more produce, be-cause even people who onlyhave a one-acre garden will beable to sell their fruits and veg-etables to the center.

While some people startgardening with the help of ex-perienced family members,many county residents getstarted through programs of-fered by groups such as theN.C. Cooperative ExtensionService or public schools.

In recent weeks, Garwoodtaught master gardener classes,a pruning workshop, and fruitproduction seminars for the co-operative extension. In Aprilhe will hold a workshop oncomposting. Anyone interestedin any of the classes offered bythe county cooperative exten-sion office can call 336-401-8025.

Through the county 4-Hprogram that is also run by thecooperative extension service,many youth get introduced togardening each year. County 4-H offers a mini-garden pro-gram, which will begin in May.Through this yearly program,youth ages 5 through 19 get togrow their own small gardenand have it judged at the end ofthe growing season by agricul-ture experts.

The 2010 theme for themini-garden program is “Or-ganic Gardening.” At a May 4training, youth will learn thebasics of the program and gar-dening. They will also pick uptheir plants and materialswhich are provided through the

program that costs $10. In lateJuly or August, judges willevaluate each garden and pres-ent awards. Registration for theprogram ends on April 27. Gar-wood said 20 to 30 people usu-ally participate in the programeach year.

“It’s a great way to trainyoungsters,” said Garwood.

The local high schools alsohave programs that are intro-ducing young people to agri-culture. Aaron Tompkins is anagriculture teacher and FFAadvisor at North Surry HighSchool. He lets his studentscultivate plants in a green-house, and each year they havea plant sale to raise money forFFA. The fundraiser is comingup soon.

Of his horticulture class,Tompkins said, “I think thekids really enjoy it. It’s reallygrown.”

His main goal is to teachstudents something that theycan take home and use on theirown. Some of his students en-ter the class with no previousgardening knowledge or expe-rience.

Kayla Sechrist is aneleventh-grader at North Surryand secretary of the FFA clubthere. She is taking the horti-culture class and has now beeninspired to start her own green-house.

“I feel like the stuff we dohere is making me an inde-pendent person,” she saidwhile working in the green-house.

One of her peers, seniorLuar Martinez, also loves theclass. He said when he retiresone day after having a career,he wants to farm. He thinksgardening is on the rise amongyouth in the county. He saidthe horticulture classes atNorth Surry are getting so big

that they don’t have enoughroom in the greenhouse.

Martinez said, “SurryCounty depends a lot on agri-culture for it’s economy. It’sfun, too, learning aboutplants.”

Both Martinez and Sechristlove participating in the horti-culture class and working withplants. Sechrist said, “Doinghands on activities is betterthan being in a classroom allday.”

Each day more youth andadults get involved in garden-ing. Local enthusiasts and ex-perts believe that gardening asa hobby or career will continueto grow in the county andacross the nation. Lamp’l saidnow that many have begunfarming for practical purposes,they have discovered that it is afun and fulfilling activity.

“I don’t think it will go backdown,” said Lamp’l.

He has helped work on na-tional surveys for 2010, andonly one percent of respon-dents so far have said that theywill garden on a smaller scalethis year.

According to Lamp’l, 43million people grew their ownfood last year in America. Thiswas a 19 percent increase fromthe previous year.

“There’s nothing more freshthan something from your backyard,” said Lamp’l.

And the growing processcan be simple, said Lamp’l, ifpeople learn a few basic princi-ples, such as placing plants inthe right type of soil in theiryards.

With new technologies andprograms for gardening, Lam-p’l said, “It’s easier than ever.”


719-1952.

HOME:Continued from page 3B

in Dobson but Maple Ridge isthe only one left with morethan 100 cows.

“Surry County is a prettygood indicator of where it’sgone statewide,” said Bill.“There were 3,000 dairies inNorth Carolina but there’s noteven 300 left.”

Even then, business contin-ued to thrive for the Hortons asthey expanded the operation toabout 400 cows. They canmilk 18 at a time and it takesjust over six hours to milk allof the cows once. The cowsare milked three times eachday every day, totaling about20 hours a day spent milking.In 60 years, the Hortons havenever missed a milking.

Even considering that, thereis no way the farm could keepup with the demand, whichleads to the changes seen inthe past 10 years. Most of themilk produced at the farm goesto South Carolina or Georgiawhere it is marketed either inPublix supermarkets or by thePET brand. The Hortons arepart of the 16 farm co-opbased in Chatham, Va. and arerequired to produced 6,000gallons of milk every 48 hours.Even considering that, thestate of North Carolina cannotproduce enough milk to meetthe demands of its residents.

“About 60 percent of themilk here is from out of state.Some comes from as far awayas New Mexico. We just can’tproduce enough here to meetour needs,” said Daniel.

“All of the cows left in thestate probably wouldn’t servethe needs of the Raleigh areaalone,” added Bill.

Even with such a high de-mand, the economy has takenits toll on the dairy farmers inthe past couple of years.

“For dairies, 2009 was theworst year since the Great De-pression. It was probably thetoughest year we’ve ever had,”said Daniel. “There was aprice drop from 2007 untilmid-2009 by 55 percent butour input stayed the same. Idon’t know where we’re goingto be six months from now.”

In 2009, the Hortons werepaid roughly the same priceper 100 pounds of milk thatthey were in 1975.

Still, in order to keep upwith the times, they have cometo rely more on technology inrecent years. From building anew facility to using some ofthe latest technology, the fami-ly has had to adapt. Daniel hasa four-year degree in dairy sci-ence from Virginia Tech so hehandles most of the technolo-gy and computer work.

Each cow at the farm nowwears an electronic identifica-tion tag on its leg. The devicetells the Hortons how muchmilk the cow gives each day. Italso includes a pedometer sothey know how far the cowwalks each day. When thecow’s activity increases, theyknow it is time to breed, if itdecreases, they know the cowmight be sick.

Instead of having to walk

through 400 cows, they canjust look at a computer. Thesoftware also looks at cows’numbers for seven days at atime to get an average. If any-thing is abnormal, it will auto-matically pull that cows num-ber into a health report.

“It wasn’t really necessarywhen we milked 40 cows.With over 400, it becomesnecessary,” said Bill.

Despite the hardships, theHortons plan to keep goingwith the dairy as long as theycan. They also hope to keepthe business in the family asthe next generations comealong.

“It’s real stressful, but I re-ally enjoy it,” said Daniel.

The dairy industry is notthe only one that has seen achange in the last 10 years.C.L. White and his four sonshave taken to farming a littlebit of everything in order tokeep going. White has beenfarming for 55 years and hasseen a great deal of change inthat time from using a muleand a plow to a more comput-erized age. He has also seenthe disappearance of some ofthe land he tended for otherpeople.

To help off-set the changes,the Whites have diversifiedtheir farm to have grain, hay,cows and pigs. They are alsoin the process of building apoultry house. They are havingto take up the slack from thefailing tobacco industry in oth-er ways.

“The tobacco industry waspretty well booming. Now it’sawful close to being dried upcompletely,” he said. “Thedairy industry is basically overwith. It’s impossible to survivewith the price of milk. Thepork industry is at a stale-mate.”

Still, the Whites have seena change in crops over the pastfew years due mainly to achange in genetics.

“The genetics havechanged and there’s an in-crease in yield coming fromthat. There are new varieties ofcorn and soy beans,” he said.

Even with all of the strug-gles surrounding having afarm, the Whites are still man-aging to survive and hope tokeep the farm going into thefuture. In all, five families sur-vive off the farm.

“This business is awfullyhard to get started in today. It’sawfully close to impossible tostart from scratch. It’s hard tomake enough profit,” saidWhite. “It’s a family opera-tion. We all work. I’ve beenblessed with good health, butone of these days I’m going tohave to give it up.”

Doug Holyfield approachedthe farm industry from a dif-ferent angle. His family farmin Rockford, Bent Creek Farm,has been around since the1700s, making it a North Car-olina Century Farm, one ofabout 1,600. However, he didnot become actively involvedin farming until the 1990s.

He started out mainly withcattle but when he bought theRockford Inn Bed and Break-fast from his mom in the early2000s, he added a small vine-yard behind the house. Due tosome factors outside his con-trol, including a late freeze and

property owners deciding togo another direction with theirland, his operation haschanged a little over the yearsto become more specialized.He now has one acre ofchardonnay grapes and fewcows, mainly Gelbvieh or Bal-ancer, an Angus-Gelbviehcross, breeds, which he sells asherd replacement cows insteadof taking them to the market.

As the head of complianceand enforcement with the stateHaz-mat and the Environmen-tal Protection Agency, Holy-field has taken a different ap-proach to his farm since 2000.He has focused on making theoperation environmentally sta-ble and increasing conserva-tion.

He has identified the heavyuse areas on his farm and in-stalled a filter membranetopped with a layer of gravelunder the soil. This keeps theland from eroding into thecreeks and streams that liedown the hill from the pasturesused by the cows. He also cre-ated a fence line to keep thecattle away from the creek thatcuts through his property.

“Everything I have isfenced off,” he said.

Occasionally he will rollthe hay as well, pushing around bale of hay across dif-ferent areas of the pastures.That allows all of the cows toeat at one time and keeps themfrom being congested in onearea and tearing up the soil.

He uses four or five pastureson a rotational grazing system.He moves the cows from pas-ture to pasture, allowing themto grow up for three or fourweeks in between grazing. Thisyear, he is trying a new practiceknown as intensive grazing. Hewill pull the cattle off one pas-ture beginning in Septemberand leaving it alone through thefall. Then, the cows will be al-lowed to graze a 10-foot stripof the overgrown grass everyday or two. He hopes that thiswill keep him from having touse as much hay.

As the latest generation torun the farm, Holyfield isaware of the history of the landwhich has seen everythingfrom a grist mill to a tobaccofactory to an egg farm beforehe introduced cows andgrapes.

“It’s the pride of knowingit’s been here since the 1700s,”he said of keeping the farm inthe family. “Just being a partof it, knowing my ancestorslived here and worked heretheir whole lives has been asense of pride.”

Other Century Farms in thearea have also seen changes asthe newest generations movein. Van Coe’s family has twocentury family farms. One, hehas turned into Stony KnollVineyard. The other still oper-ates as a farm which is in grainthis year.

However, both started as to-bacco farms.

“Tobacco was the maincash crop, but the system ofmarketing and growing tobac-co has changed. The regula-tions in place now have basi-cally changed the face of to-bacco forever,” said Coe.


719-1929.

FAMILY:Continued from page 3B

See LABOR, page 8B

economical,” said BruceSmith, a dairy goat farmer.“They have found a useful-ness now.”

Smith got his first goat infifth grade when he told hisgrandfather that was what hewanted for Christmas. When

he was 16, he traded the cou-ple of goats he had acquired infor two dairy goats whichstarted him on the path he nowfollows.

“From there I just kept go-ing,” he said. “It’s somethingI’ve always done. I was raisedon a dairy cow farm so I guessyou could say it’s in myDNA.”

One of the reasons for thechanging face of the goat in-dustry is the increased desireby consumers to have farm

fresh goods. This particularlyrelates to the production ofgoat cheese, which has pickedup in recent years with the es-tablishment of some small-scale cheese dairies in thestate.

Smith mostly has Swissbreed dairy cows. Accordingto him, the Saanen goats givemilk that contains a lot of but-ter fat. The Toggenburg goatsalso give a great deal of milkbut it has the least amount ofbutter fat of any dairy goat. Healso kept a Boer buck forbreeding for a while. Bybreeding the Boer with theothers he has found that thegoats make better mothers andraised kids that had more meaton them.

As the goat industry hasgrown, nowhere is that moreprevalent than at the NorthCarolina State Fair. Accordingto Smith, goats make up thelargest exhibitor with 800 en-tries last year.

Now, he enjoys helping outothers who are looking toraise goats whether on a largescale or just to have a few foruse by their family.

“I’ve been doing this 30years. We’ve all got our littleniche and I guess this ismine,” he said.


719-1929.

Street Filing Station, WestEnd Cafe and others. He alsosells his produce at the SandyRidge Farmer’s Market andDowntown Curb Market inGreensboro and three otherarea farmer’s markets.

Bono’s slogan is “It can’t

be any fresher, cause it’s stillgrowing.” The lettuce andspinach he grows start outgrowing on a product calledrock wool, which comes fromvolcanic rock. Other seeds arestarted in “Sure to Grow”which is a recycled plastic thatfeels like cotton.

Once the seedlings start togrow, he transplants them tolong white trays where theycontinue growing without anysoil. The temperature con-

trolled greenhouses allowthem to grow most of theirproduce year round.

He said spinach is harder togrow in the warmer climatesbecause it requires cooler tem-peratures. During springmonths he has to cover thespinach greenhouse with ashade cloth, and while thatcuts down on the temperature,it also cuts down on theamount of sun the plants arereceiving.

One of the unique thingsabout Bono’s heater for thegreenhouses is that he uses awaste-oil heater than runsmostly on used motor oil. Hesaid the machine is actually anEPA machine and produces noemissions. He said the heateralso will run on used veg-etable oil. But, he said, themotor oil is easier to find. Hesaid local garages call himwhen they want to get rid oftheir old motor oil.

Another green aspect ofhow Bono’s farm operates isthat the food travels less than100 miles from farm to plate.He said chefs love his lettucebecause it stays fresher longerand has a better flavor.

“One of the things peopledon’t realize is that by thetime they bring the storebought lettuce home, it waspicked probably two weeksearlier. We try to leave the rooton and that keeps the vitaminsin the plant,” said Joy Bono.

And while growing lettucewill most likely never makeBono and his family wealthy,it’s something they truly enjoyand at the end of the day,that’s all he really wants —that, and a really good salad.


at 719-1930.

FARMER:Continued from page 3B


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Brim’s voice trailed off as hedescribed how bulls are dis-agreeable in general. “It’s justborn and bred in them.” Yetthis particular one seemed tobe filled with nastinesssteroids.

Brim said he later learnedthat the man who brought the

bull to the market had done sofor a neighbor who’d been try-ing to catch the boisterous ani-mal for three years.

“Nothing like this had everhappened to me before — andI’ve worked with a lot of cat-tle,” Brim said. “It’s just afreak thing.”

Along with the pain fromhis numerous injuries, Brimhad difficulty breathing due tothe broken ribs and had to beadministered oxygen while

being rushed to Winston-Salem.

One thing the 73-year-oldcredits for his survival, and re-covery, is the fact that he wasin pretty good shape physical-ly. “Before this happened, Iexercised a lot,” he said,which included many miles ona bicycle. Brim says what hap-pened to him is a testament toother senior citizens about theneed to stay fit.

Just then, another group of

elated well-wishers greetedBrim in a hallway outside arestaurant at the livestockmarket which was busy withlunchtime traffic. A youngwoman with long blond hair,carrying a small boy namedLevi, gave the old cowboy abig hug.

“Maybe that bull’s ham-burger somewhere,” she toldhim reassuringly.

Contact Tom Joyce [email protected] or at

719-1924.

COWBOY:Continued from page 3B

GOATS:Continued from page 3B

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to be cured. Barry Coe, Den-nis’ son, said not many farm-ers have the loader.

“It’s new to us, and it’s oneof the best things we’ve evergotten,” said Barry. “It cutsout a lot of work for us ... Youcan almost grow tobaccowithout touching it anymore.”

Of the loader and otherequipment, Barry said, “It’sreal expensive equipment ...It’s kind of risky right now tobuy.”

With farmers receiving lessmoney now for their product,Radford fears that the highcost of equipment could pres-ent a problem in the future.

“It will be very difficult toreplace equipment when itwears out,” she said.

Last fall, Radford said thenumber of farmers has beengradually declining in thecounty over the past years, butthe total number of tobaccoacreage has remained close to3,500 acres for the past fewyears. Still, this number is afar cry from the 7,700 acres oftobacco that was grown in thecounty a little over a decadeago.

And this year the amountof tobacco purchased from lo-cal farmers could go down.Radford said she has heardthat one big tobacco companyis cutting their tobacco pur-chases by 22 percent. Somegrowers may even be cut outcompletely. And the Stabiliza-tion Corporation plant in Rur-al Hall that many area farmerstook their tobacco to is clos-ing, so they will now have todrive to Danville, Va.

“Less tobacco is neededfrom the tobacco companies,”Radford explained.

Farmers had to start grow-ing tobacco under a contractafter the government boughtout tobacco five years ago.Two main companies that Sur-ry County farmers contractwith are Philip Morris Interna-tional and R.J. Reynolds.

Although the price paid fortobacco these days has de-clined, tobacco is still themost profitable crop in thecounty according to farmers.There has been no replace-ment crop.

“I’m still making money,”

said Key. “There’s nothingthat I see that I could raise andget as much money.”

Barry Coe said, “Tobacco’sgoing to make you more mon-ey than everything else. It’sjust a lot more valuable crop.”

While the way tobaccofarmers produce their cropshas changed over the lastdecade, Radford said farmersstill have the same work ethic.

“They are trying to makethe best quality tobacco possi-ble. That has not changed,”she remarked.


719-1952.

LABOR:Continued from page 7B


New innovations in equipment allows local tobacco farmersto produce a crop each year with the help of less field hands.

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