WRMC Lease Almost Ready
The lease agreement for Wilkes Regional Medical Center is nearly finished. A 30-year agreement between the WRMC Operating Board and the Town of North Wilkesboro has been in negotiations since the Board was chosen in October. The Record reports the agreement should be finalized in time for the North Wilkesboro Town board meeting in February.

The Operating Board’s proposal was approved by the town board on Oct. 3. Commissioners Bert Hall, Debbie Ferguson and Robert Johnson voted in its favor. The decision followed weeks of heated discussions between town and hospital officials.

The Operating Board had previously held the lease on the hospital which expired last year. Renewal of the lease keeps the town-owned hospital under local control, under which it has been since it first opened in the 1950s.

The Operating Board will also partner with Carolinas Healthcare System and Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center (North Carolina Baptist Hospital), which can offer resources and development at WRMC according to hospital officials.

Tires, Rims Stolen
It was a dark and stormy night -- well, raining at least. And it wasn't really night, either -- it was about noon last Friday. But it was raining when a Hays repair shop owner noticed two men outside his shop stealing tiers and rims off vehicles in his lot. The rain is important, you see, because the thieves were loading the tire into the trunk of a 97 Cavalier. Sheriff deputies spotted the Cavalier not long after Gary Porter reported the theft. They pulled the drive rover, and walked up to the car to find 29-year old Eric Shumate and 39-year old Mark Shumate soaking wet. When they opened the trunk, deputies found the tires, rims, and a loose tire iron. All those items were drip-drying, too. The Shumates were arrested for stealing the tires and rims, worth a total of 180-dollars.

Radiators, Batteries and More Stolen
Sheriff deputies say they aren't done with the investigation into a burglary at a chicken house-turned-auto shop recently. Ruffin Dale Gambill reported the theft at his shop on Traphill Road about 5:30 Saturday evening. He'd left the shop that morning, and came back to find five radiators, 3 batteries, and 2 tires on rims had been taken from cars in the shop. Total value of the loss was 725-dollars. Gambill told deputies the name of a man he believed might have stolen that type of property, but when dupties went to that man's house, he denied involvement, and they found nothing when they searched the place with his permission. The case remains under investigation.

First a Victim, Then a Suspect
The suspect in a burglary reported Friday was the victim of a crime less than two hours before. We told you earlier today about the theft of tires from a Hays auto shop. One of the men arrested in that case was 39-year old Mark Anthony Shumate. Sheriff deputies had seen Shumate less than two hours before the theft, when he reported someone had stolen his Tan Carhart jacket from the back seat of his car. The doors were unlocked and the windows left down. Shumate said other items in the car looked like they had been rifled though, as well. There are no suspects so far.

Shooting Reported, Unexplained
Wilkes County Sheriff deputies aren't sure what to make of a shooting incident reported Sunday afternoon. By the time a deputy arrived at the home of 43-year old Grayson Keith Parsons in Purlear, Wilkes EMS and Fire/Rescue were getting Parsons ready to be airlifted to Baptist hospital in Winston-Salem. Parsons was found by Robin Black, who lived in the home, with a gunshot to the right side of his head. A crime report released yesterday doesn't speculate as to what happened. The gun, a 32-caliber revolver, was recovered at the scene. The case remains under investigation.

"Education" Lottery Leads to Crime in Wilkes
The Virginia Lottery has led to a crime in Wilkes county. A local convenience store reports several former clerks may have been involved in a scheme that led to over 7-thousand dollars disappearing from the lottery cash drawer in October. According to the owner, the employees in question have all quit since then. A log of all lottery payouts is kept by each store, and in several cases, more money went out of th register than was reported on the log. The three former employees face the possibility of an embezzlement charge.

Pickup Stolen, Found
Sheriff deputies were on the lookout for a White Dually Pickup stolen from rural North Wilkesboro over the weekend. James Micheal Brineger tells deputies he left the truck unlocked Friday night when he went inside his house . And, unfortunately, the keys were in the pickup, too. When he came out Saturday morning, the truck was gone. Deputies say the pickup was found later in the day along highway 268 East. It appeared to be undamaged, and was returned to Brineger.

New License Plates Coming
In April, the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles will start replacing existing license plates with an updated version. The oldest plates will be replaced first.
The new standard plates for private automobiles will continue the "First in Flight" design, but will carry red letters and numbers rather than the blue letters and numbers now in use.

Officials say that many vehicles car-ry license plates that are more than 20 years old. Their legibility and reflectivity have deteriorated, making identification difficult for law enforcement.

Owners with registrations identified for plate replacement will be notified with their renewal notices. They will be automatically issued a new plate, DMV officials said. Owners renewing registrations through the mail or on the Internet will be mailed a new plate and registration sticker. The cost of vehicle registration will remain the same.

Police Investigate Theft
Wilkesboro Police are investigating the theft of property from a Wilkesboro man last week. Russell Faw reports that he went out to his carport closet around mid-day Tuesday to get some tools. When he opened the closet doors, Faw found a golf bag and club missing. He says the Adams golf clubs were worth about 800-dollars, while the bag was worth around 200-dollars. The closet was closed, but not locked, and the last time he'd been out to it was a week ago Saturday. So far, police have not arrested a suspect in the case.

Chain-Reaction Wreck
Three people were hurt, but only one was taken to the hospital after a chain-reaction wreck last week at Highway 421 and Winkler Mill Road. 41-year old Jennifer Melton, of Moravian Falls, tells police she was westbound on 421 Tuesday and was talking on her cell phone, so she didn't see the traffic back-up at the stop light.

Melton's 1999 Honda hit the back of a 2004 GMC Pickup driven by Shane Mitchell of Wilkesboro, pushing him into a 1976 Ford driven by Doris Wyatt of Roaring River. Wyatt was taken to Wilkes Regional Medical Center by EMS with minor injuries. Two other people were checked out by paramedics and refused treatment.

Break-In Attempt
It appears whoever tried to break into a Wilkes home recently didn't make it, but they caused plenty of damage in the attempt. The victim happened to walk out his front door about 9:30 New Years' morning and see the evidence of the break-in. Someone had used a pry bar of some sort to attempt to get in the house. Damage from the pry tool was valued at 200-dollars, and the victim says it appears nothing was taken from inside. He was unsure when the attempt might have happened.

Wreck Near Tyson Hurts One
A two-car collision caused minor injury for one of the drivers last week. The wreck was reported early Wednesday morning. Michael Kessler says he was making a delivery to Tyson just before 2 a-m. He had stopped the truck to open a gate, and left the truck sitting in the street as he usually does. While he was outside, a 19-92 Toyota driven by 19-year old Leeza Marie Handy hit the back end of the delivery truck. She says she had seen the truck at the bottom of the hill as she left the stop sign at Collge and Wilkes, but she was unable to stop just seconds later on the way down the hill. The crash report shows she left about 30-feet of skid marks. She was checked out by Wilkes EMS paramedics, but refused further medical treatment. Kessler was not hurt.

High-Speed Chase
Two men accused of stealing a car led sheriff deputies on a high-speed chase this weekend. The car was reported stolen about 6:30 Saturday morning from Mary Katherine Sevart's house in Millers Creek.She had started the 1986 Crown Victoria to let it warm up before she left for work, and gone back inside to finish getting ready.

About 8:15, a deputy that had been alerted to the stolen car encountered it eastbound along highway 268. When the deputy turned on his lights and siren, the driver cut left, passed another car in the no passing zone near Fairplains Road, and took off. Then the driver turned left onto Aaron Call Road, the deputy pursuing him at speeds reaching above 60 miles an hour.

The car turned right onto Bills Lane, and when they reached the end of the street, the driver and a passenger jumped out and ran to the woods. Deputies converged on the area and chased down one of the men, 19-year old Christopher Smithey of North Wilkesboro, who was arrested on an outstanding warrant and for his role in the chase.

Once deputies learned the identity of the second man, 17-year old Thomas Clyde Porter, they started looking for him. A deputy encountered him near 24 Park Road. As he tried to arrest Porter, the deputy was hit in the chest, and ended up wrestling Porter to the ground. Both were charged with a variety of charges relating to the chase and the earlier car theft.

Elkin Residents Arrested Outside Lowes
Shoplifting, only a more advanced form. That's what you might call the incident that landed two Elkin residents in jail over the weekend. Wilkesboro Police were called to Lowes Home Center Friday afternoon, where they arrested 23-year old Jeremy Poe and 22-year old Trina Johnson.

Here's how police say the scheme worked: Poe went into the store and bought a spool of electrical wire. He left, and a few minutes later Johnson showed up, put anther spool of the same wire in her cart, and sauntered out of the store without paying. When confronted in the parking lot. she showed Lowes security the receipt. But they were onto the scheme, and Johnson broke down, saying Poe had threatened her if she didn't help him steal the wire. Johnson was booked for obtaining property by false pretense, while Poe was charged with felony aiding and abetting, along with driving on a revoked license.