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www.shelbyinfo.com Our 42ND Year • Issue No. 30 • July 24, 2025
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MountainTrue partners with NCDEQ to launch western NC river debris cleanup program
MATT HARRIS
Harris receives 2025 Southwest Regional Teacher of the Year On July 17, Cleveland County Schools (CCC) posted congratulations to Matt Harris for receiving the 2025 Southwest Regional Teacher of the Year award. The post shared, “We’re very proud to announce that Matt Harris, agricultural education teacher at Crest High School, has been named the
2025 Southwest Regional Teacher of the Year for Agricultural Education! Mr. Harris’s dedication to hands-on learning, student success, and agricultural excellence continues to make a lasting impact across our schools and community. Please join us in celebrating this outstanding recognition!”
MountainTrue, a nonprofit conservation organization serving western North Carolina, is partnering with the NC Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) to launch a comprehensive River Debris Cleanup Program to address ongoing impacts from Tropical Storm Helene. The program will utilize $10 million in state funding granted through the North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management and sub-granted to NCDEQ to help with Helene recovery efforts. The program is designed to supplement existing federal debris removal funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is restricted to debris posing an immediate threat to
public health and safety or tied to limited economic recovery efforts. While FEMA and United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) have prioritized major rivers and large debris, significant debris remains in smaller streams and tributaries—posing risks and threatening vital tourism and recreation industries throughout the region. To close this gap, MountainTrue will deploy paid cleanup crews across western North Carolina for the next 18
months. Since Hurricane Helene, MountainTrue staff and volunteers have removed almost 3 million pounds of trash and debris throughout the hardest hit counties of Western North Carolina. MountainTrue will expand this work by cleaning over 150 miles of river throughout Western NC. The crews will collaborate with MountainTrue’s existing volunteer programs to navigate affected waterways, remove waste, stabilize stream banks and strengthen local community engagement. MountainTrue currently has established volunteer operations on the French Broad, Green, Broad and Watauga Rivers, with strong community partnerships already in place.
“We’re committed to helping western North Carolina recover and rebuild, and this investment will help clean up debris still left in our rivers,” said Reid Wilson, Secretary of the NC Department of Environmental Quality. “This initiative represents a critical opportunity to restore our waterways, protect our communities and support local economies dependent on outdoor recreation and tourism.” “This is more than a cleanup—it’s a recovery effort that puts people back to work and brings communities together to restore the rivers we all depend on,” said Hartwell Carson, Clean Waters Director with MountainTrue. “We’ve already seen how much See CLEANUP, Page 2
NC Board of Elections launches registration repair project On July 18, the NC State Board of Elections formally launched its comprehensive effort to collect identification numbers — driver’s license numbers (DL#) or the last four digits of social security numbers (SSN4) — for about 103,000 voters missing them on the state’s voter rolls. The Registration Repair Project aims to ensure that North Carolina’s voter rolls are as accurate and complete as possible, bring them into compliance with recent state court rulings, and settle a pending lawsuit with the U.S. Department of Justice. The State Board unanimously approved the plan at its June 24 meeting. Under federal law (52 U.S.C.
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21803) and North Carolina law (N.C.G.S. 163-82.4), when a person registers to vote, they must provide their DL# or, if they don’t have one, their SSN4. This information is used to verify the person’s identity. However, faulty instructions on a voter registration form used in North Carolina for about a decade led some voters to register without providing either number. The voter registration form was corrected in January 2024 to
& BROAD RIVER HAMS
includes answers to frequently asked questions about the effort. • Detailed guidance to the 100 county boards of elections to immediately begin scouring election records for the affected voters to attempt to locate identification numbers that may not have been properly entered into the voter registration system, or other evidence that the voter has complied with state and federal laws. This process will reduce the number of voters who must provide information to election officials. • In August, the State Board will send letters to individuals who remain on the list of affected voters. Each mailing will include a self-addressed, post-
age-prepaid return envelope and a simple form for collecting the required information, as well as information about the secure online NCDMV voter registration portal, where voters can update their registration information. “This project will not result in the removal of any eligible voter from the voter rolls, as some have inaccurately suggested,” said Sam Hayes, executive director of the State Board. “Instead, it will result in cleaner, more complete voter rolls and full compliance with state and federal laws. We have gone to great lengths to make this process as straightforward and transparent as possible for the See BOARD, Page 3 Like Us On
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make it clear that one of those numbers is required. Thursday marks the official start of the Registration Repair Project, which includes the following efforts, among others: • A dedicated webpage — ncsbe.gov/registrationrepair — to provide information about this project. The webpage includes a link to the Registration Repair Search Tool, which allows registered voters to search the list to see if they are on it. The data in the search tool will be updated every morning to show only those registered voters who still must provide missing data. The webpage offers three options for voters on the list to provide the required information to election officials. It also
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