Want march or ride a float in this year’s North Mecklenburg Christmas Parade? Applications for the 31^st annual parade are now available online www.townofdavidson.org/parade. Read the full story

Horticulture students at North Mecklenburg High School will host their annual Fall Plant Sale this Saturday, from 9am to noon.

The sale will be at the Greenhouse behind the bus parking lot at the high school, 11201 Old Statesville Road (NC 115), Huntersville.

They’re selling  pansies for $2 per 4-pack of pansies and $12 a flat. Snapdragons and veggies are $0.50 each. Download an order form here.

Matthew Reker has taken over as aquatics director at the Lake Norman YMCA, a role long filled by Davidson’s Eddie Beach until his retirement last March. Reker brings a simple philosophy for running aquatics: Set your people up for success and you cannot fail. Reker comes to the Lake Norman Y from Greensboro. He’ll be offering a swimming assessment at the YMCA Saturday.

Read more about this new face in town in HEALTH & FITNESS» 

Also on this week’s page:

• “New favorite of youth: flavored cigars” – A new report from the CDC highlights the trend a side-effect: Little cigar users are less inclined to try to quit smoking.

A variety of Halloween events are on tap in the Lake Norman area beginning this weekend, from the annual downtown Davidson Halloween march – this year with a Concert on the Green, too – to a “Trunk or Treat” event at Ramah Presbyterian Church. There’s a “Ghostly Tales” history walk Sunday in downtown Cornelius, as well as events in Mooresville and Huntersville.

Read the full story

Ten years and thousands of patients down the road, the Free Clinic of Our Towns at the Ada Jenkins Center in Davidson isn’t showing any signs of slowing. Founded with just two physicians and a handful of Davidson College student volunteers, the clinic of Our Towns has come to offer free medical care, including endocrinology, urology, dermatology, and other specialized services, to an average of 30 patients per week. The clinic staff celebrated with a reception Tuesday at the Brickhouse. See Jon Cox’s story and photos on our HEALTH & FITNESS page»

 

The NC Department of Transportation says it will temporarily close the entrance ramp from Poplar Tent Road to I-85 Southbound from Monday, Oct. 28, through Nov. 11 as part of the 6.8-mile I-85 widening project in Cabarrus County. Read the full story

The mayors of Cornelius, Davidson and Huntersville will host a public forum at Cornelius Town Hall Wednesday night on Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools’ proposed $290 million bond package. The proposal, which has been endorsed by a variety of local officials and business leaders, includes money to expand Davidson IB Middle School to K-8 and to replace J.M. Alexander Middle School in Huntersville. Read the full story

By YEEVA CHENG
DavidsonNews.net

A bond referendum scheduled for November will determine if Mecklenburg County schools will be receiving $290 million for new projects, including two in our area: Davidson Elementary and J.M. Alexander Middle School.  Meanwhile, 12 local students were named semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program.

LOCAL SCHOOL PROJECTS TO BE ON FALL REFERENDUM

On Nov. 5, Mecklenburg County will be holding a bond referendum in which voters will decided whether to approve $290 million worth bonds for new projects. Two will be in north Mecklenburg.  One would spend $7.5 million to upgrade Davidson Elementary School and expand it into a K-8 school.  The second project will be a $30 million investment to build a new J.M. Alexander Middle School in Huntersville.

To keep the community informed and updated with information about the 2013 bonds, CMS created a bond information section on the district website. It includes a closer look at bond requests, a list of frequently asked questions, bond highlights, a voter information fact sheet, contact information and more. Learn more about the 2013 CMS   request.

Meanwhile, mayors from Davidson, Huntersville and Cornelius are co-hosting a school bond information meeting this week with representatives from Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools. The session is Wednesday, Oct. 23, at 6:30pm at Cornelius Town Hall, 21445 Catawba Ave. See our Events Calendar for directions.

See more about the schools’ long-range plan in our March 2013 report, “CMS long-range plan would make Davidson Elementary K-8″

NATIONAL MERIT SEMINFINALISTS

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation recently released the names of its 2014 semifinalists.  Of the 16,000 Semifinalists selected from across the nation, 12 are local students.

The semifinalists were selected after 1.5 million juniors in more than 22,000 high schools entered the program by taking the 2012 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT).  According to the National Merit Scholarship Corp., about 90 percent of the Semifinalists will attain finalist status, and more than 50 percent of the finalists will win the National Merit Scholarship.   Check out the list of local semifinalists:

• Anna K. Estep (Cannon School)
• Jacob Bringewatt (Davidson native, North Carolina School of Science and Math)
• Aurora K. Taylor (Davidson Community School)
• Peter A. Yukich (Davidson native, homeschooled)
• Joseph J. Andry (Woodlawn School)
• Michael L. Clark (Lake Norman Charter)
• Morgan J. Sammler (Lake Norman Charter)
• Sravya Uppalapati (Lake Norman Charter)
• Hannah P. Benslay (North Mecklenburg High School)
• Jack A. Bradford (North Mecklenburg High School)
• Christopher J. Pirrung (North Mecklenburg High School)
• Joshua W. Shoulders (Mooresville native, homeschooled)