According to the Triad Business Journal the fastest growing municipality in the Piedmont Triad is my home berg of Lewisville. According to the article the town grew 48.3% between 2000 and 2006, ranking it as the 35th fastest growing town in North Carolina. A good chunk of that growth came from Lewisville’s annexation of certain parts of Forsyth County last year, but there’s also been a good size influx of folks from elsewhere, including yours truly.
Lex Alexander reports for his day job that a Lewisville-based businessman is getting ready to make bank on muscadines. From Lex’s article in the N&R:
Bob Dalton , who once blended tobaccos for R.J. Reynolds, is now
taking a nutritional supplement made of muscadine skins to market under
the brand name Vinetra . He believes it will help fight cancer,
rheumatoid arthritis and many other ailments.He grows
muscadines on land in the Yadkin River valley that has been in his
family for generations, land on which muscadines still grow wild.His
products — essentially, powdered muscadine skin that can be taken as
capsules or stirred into fruit smoothies or other drinks — have not
been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and make no health
claims.But resveratrol, a chemical found in muscadine skins, has
been widely studied in cancer research. According to the National
Cancer Institute , research suggests it may inhibit the growth of or
cause the death of leukemia cells and cells of cancers of the head,
neck, breast, ovary, prostate and colon, among others. It also may be a
potent anti-inflammatory agent…He had noticed that his wild muscadines were more resistant to
Japanese beetles than his cultivated varieties, such as merlot. A
doctor friend suggested he analyze the various types of grapes to see
what might be making the muscadines more resistant. Dalton was familiar
with such analyses from his work with tobacco.At harvest time,
he gathered a gallon of each variety, and his friend sent them to a
researcher. The researcher, Dalton says, called to ask where he got the
muscadine grapes."I’ve been a research scientist for 40 years
almost, and I’ve never in all my life seen anything with the amount of
resveratrol this has got in it," Dalton recalls the researcher as
saying.Dalton’s response? "Bill, what the hell is resveratrol?"
Dalton spent the next six weeks traveling the state, gathering muscadines from all over and sending them for analysis.
He
created a pin map with information on each batch of grapes. He found
that the farther west in the state grapes were picked, the higher the
levels of resveratrol they held — up to a point, about 1,400 or 1,500
feet above sea level, above which the grapes won’t grow well.The
Yadkin Valley grapes, he found, had the highest levels of resveratrol
and other antioxidants. Antioxidants are believed to benefit the body
by attacking molecules called free radicals that are thought to
contribute to aging and disease.Dalton also learned that he
could boost the levels of antioxidants in his grapes by subjecting them
to stress, such as by not irrigating them frequently. He also
discovered that grapes needed to be harvested sooner than wine grapes
normally would be if he wanted to maximize the resveratrol levels.
We’ve got some muscadines in our back yard, and I’m very good at introducing stress to all the vegetation on my land. Looks like we might have the makings of a secondary income source.
Now that I think about it Esbee’s written before that she has the mighty muscadines in her yard. I’ll need to clue her in on this new opportunity.
I’m not sure if Lewisville, NC has a town song, but since most places’ songs have "oh" in there somewhere I figured the title of this post would be a safe one. I just re-discovered the US Census website and there I was able to dig up a handy fact sheet about the town I call home (I’ve pasted a copy of it below; click on it to see a full version). The numbers in the fact sheet are based on the 2000 census which means they’re a little out of date, especially when you consider that the 2000 census showed Lewisville’s population as 8,826 and the Census Bureau estimates Lewisville’s 2006 population to be 12,444. That’s a 41% growth rate in six years. Of course a lot of that comes from last year’s imprisonment annexation of some innocent folks in western Forsyth County, but any which way you slice it the town is growing pretty fast.
Other interesting factoids:
You should check out your own town and see what you find.
The Raleigh Little Theatre is putting on The Battle of Shallowford from October 5-21, 2007. Here’s an overview of the play from their website:
Ed Simpson’s play is an endearing story about what happens when the
residents of the small town of Shallowford (based on Lewisville, NC)
believe Orson Welles’ radio broadcast of "War of the Worlds" to be
legitimate news. They fall hook, line and sinker, and grab their
pitchforks and hunting rifles, and run out to do battle with the
invading Martians and save the world.
The characters in the play are:
- Burton Mock
- Ruthie Mock
- Lonny Hutchins
- Clunette Campbell
- Roy Sprinkle
- Dewey Sowers
- Newsome Jarvis
- "Doodad" Jarvis
- Fred Martin
The playwright, Ed Simpson, is a native of Lewisville so it should come as no surprise that the characters’ names sound familiar. There are a TON of Mocks in the area (Mocksville is just 1/2 hour down the road) and we still have a Sowers on the town council. Heck one of the barbers at the barbershop I go to is David Sowers.
I stumbled across this listing for the production in one of my news feeds and after seeing that it is based on the small town in which I live I started to do some digging. I found a nice piece written by Mr. Simpson in 2003 upon his stumbling across a production of the play at Western Carolina University. In it he mentions that he’s returning to North Carolina after living in Pennsylvania for 27 years, and after a little more digging I found his website and lo’ and behold he’s moved to Winston-Salem. He’s now playwright-in-residence at High Point University.
In an interview that appeared in the LA Times in 2000 and is posted on his site Mr. Simpson states that Lewisville was a town of 500 residents when he was growing up (he’s in his mid-fifties now). Lewisville is up to around 13,000 residents today and I have a new-found appreciation for how much this area has changed in the last 30-40 years.
West Side Civic Theatre put on a production of the play back in 2003, so maybe they’d be willing to put on another one in the near future at Shallowford Square. There are enough new folks around, myself included, that I think it would be a winner at the box office. Oh, wait, West Side’s shows are free. Okay, let’s just say you’d see plenty of lawn chairs in the Square that weekend.
Last note: You can read a preview of the play here at Google Books.
One of the great advantages to living in Lewisville is all the free shows held at Shallowford Square. The last couple of weekends we had Jesus Christ Superstar being performed by the West Side Civic Theatre, and I heard it was quite good. What’s kind of different is that people show up early in the day to stake out their seats by putting their lawn chairs where they want to sit. When you walk or drive by it looks kind of like someone vaporized the audience. Here’s a pic to show you what I mean:
According to the report from WXII the investigation of Mr. Snow by the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Department is continuing, but by state law the school system had to make a decision about his employment status by last night so they gave him a non-teaching role within the school system. On the boob tube this morning the Fox morning show had a scroll at the bottom of the screen about Mr. Snow and I thought it said that he had been cleared by the sheriff’s office, but the story on their website is the same as WXII’s. The stories also say that Lewisville Elementary’s parents were notified of the decision yesterday, but since our kids are all now in middle or high school we didn’t get the message.
The Winston-Salem Journal offers more depth in their coverage. Here’s what they have about the school system’s move:
School officials
are allowed to suspend teachers with pay for 90 days. Yesterday was the
last day that Snow could be suspended, so school officials had to
either reach an agreement with him to extend the suspension or allow
him to return to work.“We have decided not to ask for an extension of his suspension,” Davis said.
“We were at the
90th day,” he said. “We simply felt, based upon the information we had,
that we had to move forward, so we certainly were in a situation where
we had to balance our interest in protecting students with Mr. Snow’s
right to be employed in some manner.”Snow’s new position is a lateral transfer, meaning that there is no change in his pay.
As an instructional technologist, Snow will help teachers develop ways to integrate technology into the curriculum.
“Our assistant
superintendent for technology was familiar with him. He’s not a techie
person, but he knows how to use technology in the classroom,”
Superintendent Don Martin said.Snow will work with teachers after school and occasionally will work in schools during the instructional day.
He will not work
directly with students, but he might demonstrate model lessons in
classrooms with the teachers present, said Betty Weycker, the assistant
superintendent for technology.
No matter what the sheriff’s office findings turn out to be the school system’s decision here is going to make for some interesting discussion. The fact that they are acknowledging that Mr. Snow will have interaction with students at some point is not going to please the parents at those schools since they don’t know anything about the man other than he’s been accused of something and since no one knows what that something is they’re going to do what 99% of humanity does and assume the worst. They aren’t going to be happy that their children will be exposed to someone of whom they assume the worst.
Here’s another quote from the Journal article given by the school system’s attorney:
“Based upon the information that has been provided to us, this is an appropriate resolution at this time,” Davis said.
It seems to me that the sheriff’s department (and maybe Tom Keith’s office) have put the school system in a tough spot by not getting this investigation done in a more timely fashion. By state law they had to either reinstate him or get him to agree to an extension of his suspension. Unfortunately for everyone involved they are not allowed to describe the charges against Mr. Snow, only saying that he’s been suspended due to accusations of impropriety. Everyone assumes it’s against a student, but it could have been a fellow teacher or employee at the school. Why does it make a difference? Because parents would be a lot less nervous about their kid being around an adult accused of cussing out a co-worker than one accused of inappropriate conduct with a student.
And what if the charges against Mr. Snow are false and were made by a co-worker who doesn’t like him? Then the extended investigation prevents him from clearing his name and keeps him from a job he loves and away from kids who thrived under his tutelage.
I don’t know Mr. Snow personally, having only met him in passing at school functions, but my wife worked with him when she was a chaperone for the 5th grade trip to Camp Hanes and several friends have known him and his family for years. Two of my children were students of his. From what I know I can tell you that I would not hesitate to allow my kids in his classroom. And although a lot of my feeling is based on what I’ve heard from friends and family, part of it is based on my belief that if there was something to be found, if the accusations were true then the school system wouldn’t dare put him in a position with any interaction with students. If there’s one thing they fear more than breaking state law it’s opening themselves up to possible lawsuits from parents if they ended up putting students in harms way.
Let me end by saying that if the sheriff and Mr. Keith want to serve their community in this case then they need to light a fire under the butts of whoever’s running this investigation and get it done.
Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools announced the appointment of Debbie Hampton as principal of Lewisville Elementary. She was the principal of Fair Grove Elementary in Lexington, NC before being hired for the Lewisville position.
You may recall that longtime Lewisville Elementary principal Ron Rash requested a transfer to a new position at the end of last year and he was given the slot at South Fork Elementary. This came on the heels of the second suspension of Lewisville science teacher Alan Snow which is a case that is still being investigated by the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Department.
You also may recall that Rash asked for the transfer at the beginning of the summer, yet according to the Winston-Salem Journal article from August 19 they planned on interviewing three finalists for the position yesterday and having a hiring recommendation ready for the school board at last night’s meeting. Seems like a pretty quick process to me, but maybe that’s standard operating procedure. Either way I would have thought they’d want the principal in place before school started and also would have wanted the new principal to have time to get to know her staff before students hit the classrooms.
It should be a very interesting time for Principal Hampton over the next month or so, especially if the allegations against Mr. Snow are found to be without standing and he’s returned to the classroom. I wouldn’t want to be in her shoes, but I do wish her the best of luck.
We just received an automated phone call that stated that Lewisville Elementary School principal Ron Rash is transferring to South Fork Elementary. No mention as to why, but I’ve already gotten one comment on a previous post about the Mr. Snow situation asking if anyone knew why Mr. Rash was transferring. I think anyone with more than one functioning brain cell would assume that the transfer is a direct result of the events surrounding Mr. Snow’s suspensions this past year, but I doubt we’ll ever know for sure.
Also, I have to ask if anyone’s surprised that it’s been 28 days since the announcement of Mr. Snow’s second suspension and there hasn’t been an update from the schools or the sheriff?
Last Friday I posted a piece about the suspension of Lewisville Elementary science teacher Allan Snow. That post has garnered more comments (by a lot) than any other post I’ve written so I thought it would be interesting to see where the folks who are reading the piece are coming from. Thanks to Google analytics I can tell you the following:
The one that interests me the most is the school system number. Obviously there’s a lot of interest in this story within the schools, especially Lewisville Elementary, but unfortunately all I can offer is rumor, conjecture, emotions, etc. and most of that is contained in the comments and not anything that I’ve been able to "report." I would LOVE to be able to offer facts, findings and the like but that won’t happen unless or until the sheriff’s office and the school superintendent’s office release their findings.
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As more and more online college degrees become available the number of online degrees that you can earn also have been diversifying. You can not only learn about medical billing at a large number of online colleges you could also get yourself an elementary education degree online if you wish.
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Lots of interesting comments on the original post about the new set of allegations against Alan Snow, Lewisville Elementary’s science teacher. From a comment by "Concerned Parent":
I was speaking earlier on how people are repsonding to the accuser and
on the wxii website there was a person that was asking for the "names
of the accuser and he was begging so that he could contact them because
they were horrible people"…I contacted wxii and asked to have this
taken off and they did…the victim and family are now scared for their
safety by the way they have heard people respond.
This has the potential to get really ugly and it could tear at the fabric of this community. I’m begging the sheriff and the school system to handle this right and as promptly as possible for the sake of everyone.
BTW, the Winston-Salem Journal’s article has comments at the bottom. I’d like to thank the commenters here for being a little more civilized (and thoughtful) than those at the Journal.
Befuddled 