VOLUME 145 ISSUE 77 | WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2025 | STANLYNEWSJOURNAL.COM
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Sister act The second annual Sisterhood of Success event drew crowds to Meadow Creek Farm in Locust on Sunday afternoon, featuring more than 30 women-owned business vendors, food trucks and live music. Proceeds from the expo will help Faith Alive Ministries provide transitional housing for foster children in Stanly County.
WHAT’S HAPPENING Nebraska joins Trump program to use public money for private school tuition Omaha, Neb. Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen has opted Nebraska into a federal program to use taxpayer dollars for private school tuition. The move comes despite Nebraska voters repealing a similar state law last year. The federal program is part of the federal tax and budget bill passed in July. It allows taxpayers to direct up to $1,700 in federal income taxes they owe to scholarship groups for private school expenses. Critics argue it undermines the will of the voters. Pillen insists the measure won’t affect public school funding, saying it benefits both public and private schools.
U.S. government starts phasing out use of paper checks Washington, D.C. The U.S. government is phasing out paper checks for most programs. The change started Tuesday and affects recipients of benefits like Social Security, Supplemental Security Income and tax refunds. Nearly 400,000 Social Security and SSI recipients still rely on paper checks. The director of Social Security and disability policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says many of these people lack access to digital services. President Donald Trump’s Republican administration says electronic payments and collections will speed up processing and cut costs. The Social Security Administration says it will continue issuing paper checks if a beneficiary “has no other means to receive payment.”
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Stanly school board revises grant application The total required funding for the project has been lowered By Jesse Deal Stanly News Journal ALBEMARLE — The Stanly County Board of Education unanimously voted on Monday morning to move forward with a revised Needs-Based Public School Capital Fund grant application. The potential funding for two major facility improvement projects would build a new elementary school to replace Oakboro Choice STEM School while also adding capacity at West Stanly Middle School. During Monday’s special-called meeting at the Stanly County Schools Central Office, the school board approved a $54.6 million plan consisting of $52 million in grant funding from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruc-
COURTESY STANLY COUNTY SCHOOLS
The Stanly County Board of Education held a special-called meeting on Monday morning in Albemarle. tion, along with a $2.6 million county contribution. The school board’s original $84.35 million plan, as presented to the Stanly County Board of Commissioners at a special-called joint session last week, would have needed a 38% local match from the county with a funding gap of nearly $30 million.
At that meeting, commissioners raised questions about the proposal, particularly the gap that would require additional taxpayer-backed loans. The board went on to approve a 5% county match that is required by the application’s guidelines. With a planned completion date of July 2028, the state
Albemarle’s grant program delivers downtown boost The city recently won an award for the program By Jesse Deal Stanly News Journal ALBEMARLE — Now in its fourth year, Albemarle’s Downtown Catalyst Grant Program continues to play a key role in revitalizing the city’s downtown municipal services district. ElectriCities, a nonprofit association of municipally owned electric utilities, recognized Albemarle’s grant program at last month’s city council meeting, presenting the association’s inaugural Innovation in Economic Development Award. “The reason we won this award was that multiple Elec-
triCities communities and my counterparts from across the state voted on what they thought was the most innovative program for economic development,” said Lindsey Almond, Albemarle’s economic development director. Although Albemarle makes up only 26% of Stanly County’s population, the city generates 67% of the county’s annual retail sales — a figure boosted by the Downtown Catalyst Grant Program. “It was really humbling that my peers saw how it had generated revenue,” Almond said of the program. “I’ve had some of them contact me to ask how it’s been working. It’s really simple, quite frankly, as See GRANT, page A5
“It was really humbling that my peers saw how it had generated revenue.” Lindsey Almond, Albemarle economic development director
“I can get behind $2.6 million more than $30 million.” Meghan Almond, board member grant would potentially rebuild Oakboro as a 600-student elementary campus, while West Stanly Middle would be expanded to hold 950 students. The size and scope of both projects were reduced from the original application to lower funding costs. “It’s uplifting to see that we can add an addition for a smaller amount, or we can renovate a school for a smaller amount because I know that we have other buildings coming after these two,” board member Carla Poplin said. “There are other areas of our county that we’re going to have to start looking at, and all four of those middle schools are built kind of on the same plan. If we’re lacking science labs and facilities at one, we’re like that at three more.” Board member Meghan See BOARD, page A5