“Our community should be proud of what we’ve accomplished together to reduce crime.”

— Jerry Stokes, Salisbury Police chief on early numbers showing overall crime stats at or below last year’s   

“What I would like to do is to get more proactive with recognizing the people in our community that have made a difference to China Grove.”

— Charles Seaford, China Grove mayor on plans to honor people like     beloved elementary school custodian Carl Wilkerson before they are gone

“I really, really enjoy seeing the homeless part in there. It’s obviously the invisible part of our city.”

—  Tamara Sheffield, Salisbury City Council member on $40,000 allocated for efforts to prevent homelessness

“Our vision for Rowan
County is that every child will receive the education, nurturing and support
needed to provide the foundation for them to grow into healthy, productive citizens.”

— Sarah Paynter, Smart Start
Rowan’s outreach and development specialist after the first baby of the year was born in Rowan

“She’d just bought a
suitcase that was packed with everything she’d owned in it.”

— Alissa Redmond, on bringing newly adopted daughter Tin Yan home to Salisbury from Hong Kong

“I’m here today to caution the commissioners of changing the structure of the current system, especially during the pandemic.”

— Dan Mikkelson, former Health Board member on plans to consolidate the Department of Veterans Services and Health Department under a new human services director

“I think we were all worried over the holiday season there may be a larger spike in COVID cases.”

— Andrew Smith, assistant
superintendent of transformation for Rowan-Salisbury Schools on plans for students to return to class since
infection numbers remained low

  

“After Christmas, people just throw out their Christmas trees, but we can use them as enrichment items for our animals.”

— Aubrey Taylor, director of wildlife at Tiger World

“Back then when you got there, whatever you could do that’s what your title was.”

— Kenny Miller, firefighter who saw East Spencer change from an all
volunteer force to a more structured unit during his 20 years of service