A local store owner is having to repair damage made to a sign and the building over the weekend. It happened at Chris Feed & Seed on Sparta Road, sometime between Saturday night and Monday morning. An employee says she left Saturday night about 7pm, and when she returned to open Monday, she found the damage. About 1-thousand dollars damage was done to the gas sign outside and about 25-hundred dollars damage was done to the building. Someone in the area told the deputy he had seen a semi trying to turn around in the parking lot Sunday morning, and he suspected that maybe the driver had hit the sign and building unknowingly. He identified the semi as being blue and white, and thought it was pulling a Family Dollar Store trailer. But the deputy checked with both Dollar General and Family Dollar, and both businesses said they did not have a supply truck in the county any time Sunday. The case remains open for investigation.

The Wilkes United Way Kickoff Luncheon is today. Officials say the kickoff luncheon will feature Wilkes native John Swofford, now the commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference. The United way hopes to raise $1 million this year.
Swofford, son of the late Jack and Helen Swofford of North Wilkesboro, became the fourth full-time commissioner of the Atlantic Coast Conference in July 1997. He was a two-time all-state football player and three-sport MVP at Wilkes Central High School. Swofford played quarterback and defensive back for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1969 to 1971. The 1970 team went to the Peach Bowl and the 1971 team won the school’s first-ever outright ACC title and appeared in the Gator Bowl.
Wilkes United Way Executive Director Rick Stegall told the Journal-Patriot Swofford has been a strong supporter of United Way.

North Carolina Governor Mike Easley joined Crae Morton and other members of the Morton family yesterday to announce that the State of North Carolina has purchased Grandfather Mountain and will add the site to the State Parks System. The deal included the peak of the mountain and about 2,600 acres surrounding the summit. The state spent $12 million to purchase the site from the Morton family. Easley said this move will help protect the site from development by putting it under the North Carolina State Parks umbrella.
Easley expained, “North Carolina will protect and preserve Grandfather Mountain forever and in such a way that would make Hugh Morton proud… and that’s a pretty doggone high standard, but we’re willing to accept that.” Morton said the entire family came together for this decision and said, “My family is unanimous in this. We are all 100% behind these efforts.”
Easley explained this transaction will not change the way the park is run very much.