by Clyde Parker

EDITOR’S NOTE: Looking Back features past articles from The Tidewater News with commentary by local history buff Clyde Parker. The series commemorates the 50th anniversary of Franklin becoming an independent city.

AUG. 12, 1961

TOWN PLANS RECORD BUDGET

No tax increase will be needed to finance the Town of Franklin’s record-high budget for the fiscal year beginning Sept. 1. Projected revenues are $963,978 compared to budgeted expenditures of $940, 379, leaving an expected surplus of $23,599. The Town Council approved the budget as presented by Town Manager Harold Atkinson.

For the upcoming fiscal year, over $200,000 is ticketed for capital improvements. Some of the improvements include completion of curbing and guttering on Pretlow, North High, Fair and Pine streets. In addition, some curbing and guttering along with sidewalk repair is scheduled for Main Street.

Fairview Drive will be widened from North High Street and extended to Old Sedley Road to accommodate increased traffic due to the construction of Southampton Memorial Hospital and increased residential development

TWINS NAMED EGG FESTIVAL QUEENS

Brenda Faye and Sandra Kaye Bulls, twin daughters of Mr. and Mrs. C. W. Bulls of Black Creek, have been chosen by the Virginia Egg Council to reign as queens of the Golden Goodness of Virginia Fresh Eggs Festival in Richmond in September.

The 19-year-old graduates of Franklin High School are employed by the Virginia Department of Agriculture in Richmond. The girls will be presented at a kick-off banquet on Aug. 30.

RAWLINGS TO RUN FOR STATE SENATE

William V. Rawlings of Capron will become a candidate for the state Senate seat held by Mills Godwin, Jr. of Chuckatuck, if Godwin, a Democrat, is successful in his bid for the position of lieutenant governor when he runs against a Republican candidate in the November General Election.

Albertis Harrison of Lawrenceville, a Democratic nominee for Governor, will face a Republican candidate in November.

Harrison and Godwin were winners in the July Democratic primary and polls indicate their victory against Republican candidates in November.

Rawlings, executive secretary of the Association of Virginia Peanut and Hog Growers, announced his candidacy after the association’s board of directors gave its consent.

COUNTY CROSSING ROAD EDGING TOWARD REALITY

Work is moving ahead on a linking of Boykins and Franklin on a distance-shortening, straight-through highway. The portion of the road linking Newsoms and the Hercules Powder Co. has been completed, cutting three miles from what used to be a 10-mile trip between the two points.

Next on the list is an extension of the road from the Hercules plant straight through to Franklin, knocking another two miles from the distance a motorist must travel from Newsoms to Franklin. State forces have surveyed a route from Hercules through the woods and swamps emerging in Franklin near the St. Regis Paper Co. plant, a distance of 2.5 miles.

When the job is finished, the distance between Boykins and Franklin will be about 16.5 miles, and less than 10 miles between Newsoms and Franklin.

Up until a year ago, it was 20.5 to 22 miles from Boykins to Franklin and 15 or more from Newsoms to Franklin.

(All of this, now designated as Route 671, eventually facilitated development of a once wooded and low lying area into shopping centers, an industrial park and what we now know as Armory Drive. Prior to the above-described project, the future Armory Drive, coming from downtown Franklin via Gardner Street, was a dead-end at the St. Regis Paper Co. plant.)

HOG SHOW BIGGEST AND BEST YET

Clifford A. Cutchins III of Franklin and John Barlow of Smithfield waged a running battle for top honors in the successful second annual Virginia Hog Show and Sale at Courtland last week. Cutchins exhibited the show’s grand champion, a 185-pound Hampshire sow.

Barlow, representing G.A. Barlow and Sons of Smithfield, exhibited a 204-pound Hampshire sow.

Dr. Paul D. Sanders, editor of Southern Planter magazine said Virginia hog raisers are in an ideal position to tap a new and growing market for lean pork.

BROTHER ACT

Franklin High School senior Chester Blythe and his brother, Dwight, a sophomore, are counted on to provide the Broncos with a solid battery of signal callers this fall. Both are quarterbacks. Dwight is given the edge as a passer. Chester is a runner.

The Broncos just started practice for the upcoming season.

CLYDE PARKER is the retired human resource manager from the former Franklin Equipment Co. and a member of Southampton Historical Society. He can be reached at 757-647-8212 or ParkerC@seva-redcross.org.