03/02/06 — Spring-like days send many outside

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Spring-like days send many outside

By Turner Walston
Published in News on March 2, 2006 1:54 PM

It felt like summertime Wednesday as temperatures reached the high-70s.

Parents and children, teachers and students took to playgrounds all across the county to take advantage of the early warmth. The swings, merry-go-rounds and tennis courts at Herman Park sprang to life.

More people played rounds at Goldsboro Municipal Golf Course Wednesday, too.

"We've had about 75 rounds," Jack Laughlin said Wednesday afternoon. Laughlin, a clubhouse assistant, was optimistic about the rest of the week at the course.

"We should have a good day (today), too, if it gets back up around 80," he said.

Gail Charles said most Goldsboro Parks and Recreation activities had not yet moved outdoors.

"It's a real pretty day, and it'd be a good time to go outside, but most of the programs we're doing are indoor this time of the year," she said.

The Kiwanis train at Herman Park usually starts around Easter, she said.

But Goldsboro Parks and Recreation staff members are getting in the sunny frame of mind, Ms. Charles said. T-ball registration is finishing this week, she said.

Rick Tharrington, county executive director for Farm Service Agency, said traffic in his office was slow on Wednesday.

"Day like this afternoon, they're busy doing stuff," he said of the farmers who frequent the Farm Service Agency.

Warmer temperatures usher in planting season for many crops.

"They've probably already gassed the tobacco land. It won't be long before you'll start seeing them bedding tobacco ground."

Although many farmers in the county have switched to no-till farming, Tharrington said conventional-till farmers would be preparing seed beds as temperatures got warmer.