“So in 10 months, we have dedicated two years of our lives to the COVID response. It really hit me. I do think it’s pretty impactful.”

— Nina Oliver,  Rowan County Public Health Director on staff spending more than 19,000 hours on the pandemic when about 8,600 hours generally make up one year

“I hope that everybody will buy a pair of gloves, a toboggan, some socks and hang them on the tree.”

— Carol Comer, president of Rowan Redbuds Garden Club speaking of the ‘warmth tree’ put up at the library

  

“The King holiday is a day on, not a day off. Even in a pandemic, the council was really committed to trying to figure out how to serve the community, how we can support the community this year.”

— Anne Little, human relations manager for the city of Salisbury on Martin Luther King Jr. Day events

“I think that school is such a part of our kids’ lives, it’s a social center for them, it’s the norm for them, and being out of school just throws everything out of whack.”

— Tony Watlington, new Rowan-Salisbury Schools superintendent as he begins a tour of each of the system’s schools

“It won’t be the intimate sort of setting we’ve had at the Crystal Lounge, but this event has just about outgrown the Crystal Lounge anyway.”

— Jim Gantt, Catawba baseball coach on the annual ‘First Pitch’
fundraising dinner being held outside at the West End Plaza this year

“We’re hopeful that by
pushing the date back we’ll be able to move forward with this year’s festivities.”

— Joy Ritchie Harper, on the 2021 Cheerwine Festival being rescheduled for Sept. 18

“If it wasn’t for you guys, I wouldn’t be standing here talking to you right now. On March 22, I died in my living room and these guys saved my life; they brought me back, and I’m here tonight to tell you this is a first-class bunch of guys.”

— Kim Cress, alderman speaking as Granite Quarry became one of 16 fire districts in North Carolina
with an Insurance Services Office Class 1 rating