Board to accept $150,000 in donations
By Steve Herring
Published in News on July 3, 2016 1:45 AM
Wayne County commissioners Tuesday are expected to accept another $150,000 in donations for the Maxwell Regional Agricultural and Convention Center.
They included a $100,000 pledge from the Mt. Olive Pickle Co. Foundation. As part of the pledge, the lobby of the new agricultural center will be known as the Mt. Olive Pickle Lobby.
It will be paid over three years.
G&M Sales of Eastern North Carolina is making a $50,000 donation.
Groundbreaking for the new center is set for July 14.
Tuesday's meeting will begin with an agenda briefing at 8 a.m. followed by the formal session at 9 a.m. Both will be held in the commissioners' meeting room on the fourth floor of the Wayne County Courthouse annex.
"We are pleased to be a part of this effort to bring a new agricultural and convention center to Wayne County," said Bill Bryan, executive chairman of Mt. Olive Pickle Co. "It represents the culmination of years of discussion and planning, and we believe it will serve the regional interests of agriculture and agribusiness for decades to come.
"Mt. Olive Pickle has been a part of the agribusiness community in Wayne County for 90 years. It is fitting that we should be a part of an undertaking that will both showcase and advance agriculture in eastern North Carolina."
In business since 1926, Mt. Olive Pickle Co. manufactures the best-selling brand of pickles in U.S. grocery stores.
Its operations encompass one million square feet of production and warehouse space spread over 150 acres in Mount Olive.
G&M Sales was founded in 1958 in Statesville to assist in selling and assisting the poultry industry.
Ralph D. Johnson joined the company in 1959 to open the Goldsboro location. Johnson later bought the Goldsboro location and changed the name to G&M Sales of Eastern North Carolina.
Locations were added in Ahoskie, Rose Hill and Clinton over the following 20 years that service eastern North Carolina with most major brands of poultry and swine equipment.
Johnson died in 2004 leaving the business to his daughter, Sandra Murphy, company president.
In 2009, Mrs. Murphy formed a new company, Johnson & Murphy Construction LLC to meet the need for a turnkey construction and equipment company.
"I want to help the ag community of our county in a very small way with this donation to the Maxwell Regional Agricultural and Convention Center in honor and memory of my father, Ralph Johnson, founder of G&M Sales of Eastern North Carolina," Mrs. Murphy said. "My dad dedicated his entire life to agriculture, first as a dairy farmer in western New York state, then as he moved south to Wayne County, working with and assisting poultry and swine growers with the advent of G&M Sales.
"This ag center is an outstanding and worthwhile endeavor on the part of our community, and I and G&M Sales are proud to be part of Wayne County agriculture and want to do our part to continue to support and encourage the future of our industry."
In other business Tuesday, commissioners will convene at 9:30 a.m. as the Board of Adjustment.
The board will hold a public hearing on a special use permit request for Jester Solar for a solar energy facility at 1002 Millers Chapel Road.
The facility will encompass 25 acres on two parcels and will be interconnected to the local distribution system owned by Duke Progress Energy.
The site currently is agricultural and is located on both sides of Millers Chapel Road just south of its intersection with New Hope.
Solar energy facilities are permitted as a special use in those zones.
Such facilities are also a special use in all areas of the county covered by the Seymour Johnson Air Force Base Airspace Control Surfaces as defined in the 2011 Air Installation Compatible Use Zone Report or subsequent reports. Special use permits must be approved by the Wayne County Board of Adjustment.
The county planning board is recommending that the special use permit be granted as submitted with the recommended mitigation requested by base officials.
Based on information filed on the project, the southwest face of the facility does not incorporate the base's recommended vegetative buffer.
The county is recommending that a vegetative buffer be required on that section as well.
The public comments portion of the meeting will start at 9:15 a.m. Those who want to speak must sign in at least 10 minutes prior to the start of the 9 a.m. session.
Comments are limited to four minutes for agenda items and two minutes for non-agenda items.