Ena Sellers

WALLACE — The town of Wallace is one step closer to a brand new inclusive playground, thanks in part to a $150,000 grant from Trillium Health Resources. 

Victoria Jackson, vice president for Trillium Health Resources’ south central region, presented the check to Mayor Jason Wells and Parks and Recreation Director David Bizzell during a special ceremony on Nov. 20 at Clement Park. 

“This playground would not only be a place where children can play, it will also be a place where everyone can feel welcome and supported, regardless of their abilities,” Jackson said. 

The project stems from a request made by the Parks and Recreation Department in December 2021, which emphasized the need for recreational opportunities for all children, including those with disabilities. “It started as a request for a handicapped swing,” Bizzell said, “and grew from there to include an entire playground.” 

The playground will feature updated equipment, rubberized flooring, fencing, and improved sidewalks and parking for ADA accessibility. The existing playground equipment at Clement Park will be relocated to Dobbins Park, giving the town one more playground area for local children. 

“When David first came to the town board a couple of years ago and started talking about building an inclusive playground, it sounded like a great idea,” the mayor said. “We have a lot of great ideas in the town of Wallace, and the biggest challenge we usually have is, ‘how do we pay for these things?’” 

In addition to the $150,000 grant from Trillium Health Resources, the town council allocated $75,000 to the initiative, while fundraisers organized by Parks and Recreation have added an additional $25,000. The town also has received a $400,000 PARTF (Parks and Recreation Trust Fund) Accessibility Parks Grant.

“Next year, we plan to apply for a $150,000 matching grant from Cunningham Recreation,” said Town Manager Rob Taylor. “Together with the funds already allocated by the Town Council, this will bring our total funding for the playground and accessibility enhancements at Clement Park to $800,000.” 

Bizzell said he hopes the inclusive playground will be finished and operational by late 2025. 

Mayor Wells talked about how important it is for the town of Wallace to have an inclusive playground. “If you think about kids having a place to go where they can feel included, the word inclusive says a lot,” he said. “They get to feel included, and participate in everyday activities, but it’s not just the kids that need this. It’s families that need to be teaching their kids how do you treat others with respect, how do you include others, and it just from a moral standpoint, it’s an educational opportunity, not just for the kids that need special equipment but for the kids who are learning how to socially interact with others who may be a little different from them.” 

Trillium Health Resources is a managed care organization (MCO) that oversees mental health, substance use, traumatic brain injury, and intellectual/developmental disability services across North Carolina. Their Inclusive Playground Grants have enabled the creation of 35 inclusive playgrounds for individuals with special needs throughout eastern North Carolina, though the closest one to Wallace is at Wrightsville Beach. 

“We are especially excited because any time we can partner with our communities, it just brings forth so much excitement,” Jackson said. “We commend you for building a place where everyone can belong. It reflects the mission of our agency and what we want to accomplish.” 

Wells pointed out that without grants like the one from Trillium, an inclusive playground can’t become a reality. “None of this is possible without the generosity and support that your organization has shown us,” he told Jackson. “A special thanks to our Parks & Rec, our town manager, our town staff… without all the hard work that has taken place, none of this would be possible. I look forward to seeing the vision come to fruition.”

KENANSVILLE — The Duplin County Sheriff’s Office unveiled its new body scanner for contraband detection — Tek84. This new technology allows a four-second head-to-toe scan to detect drugs, weapons, and contraband hidden in body cavities.

Sheriff Stratton Stokes told Duplin Journal that about a year and a half ago, they experienced issues with contraband entering the jail despite their best efforts, resulting in several overdoses. He explained that despite conducting strip searches, some individuals managed to smuggle items by hiding them in body cavities.

“An actual strip search is probably the most invasive thing you can do here, as far as our staff, but even that does not keep contraband from getting in the back,” said Sheriff Stokes.

To address the problem, Sheriff Stokes worked with Commissioner Wayne Branch, the Board of County Commissioners, and the Opioid Settlement Funds Board, so they could get funding to purchase the body scanner.

“Everybody who comes into the facility now is scanned,” said Sheriff Stokes, adding that in the short time they had the scanner they’ve already stopped contraband and drugs from getting into the jail. “If there’s anything that we question, we’ll send them over to the hospital and once they clear them, they can come back.”

Sheriff Stokes explained that in the past when they conducted a strip search on someone suspected of concealing something, they had to establish reasonable suspicion, obtain a search warrant, and then take them to the hospital for a more thorough examination. He added that the challenge was that they had no way of knowing whether people had drugs in their system or hidden in their bodies.

Another challenge they have faced is that individuals who have been incarcerated for a while often have reduced tolerance to substances, and if someone enters with drugs, it can lead to other problems.

“If [inmates] get a hold of it, that’s when you have an overdose and possibly a death,” said Sheriff Stokes. “Everybody here at the jail has been trained with Narcan. Unfortunately, we’ve had to use it several times,” said Sheriff Stokes, adding that since they installed the body scan, they haven’t experienced any overdose incidents and hope that continues.

“We wanted an extra level of protection for everybody,” said Sheriff Stokes. “We’ve even had officers exposed to possible fentanyl. It’s just dangerous for everybody, the staff, the inmates.”

Commissioner Wayne Branch, who serves on the committee responsible for opioid funds allocation, told Duplin Journal that when it was brought to their attention that other counties effectively used these funds to purchase similar scanners, it was an obvious choice.

“It was somewhat of a no-brainer. And the end result is safety. Is safety for the sheriff’s department, the staff, as well as the individual that’s coming inside of the facility, anything that’s going to make us more safe, make us more efficient. I’m all about it,” said Branch. “We voted unanimously in support of moving forward with the funds to purchase this device. I’m really happy that it’s here, it’s installed, and it’s already doing things to help keep the Duplin County Sheriff’s Department and their staff, as well as those inmates that come in here, safe. So it was easy peasy to go ahead and do what’s right and what’s in the best interest of our citizens to keep everyone safe.”

Sheriff Stokes shared that they began working on this project in April, coordinating with the Opioid Settlement Funds Board, County Commissioners, and the Health Department to obtain the necessary license from the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure safety since it involves radiation.

“All the staff got these little cards they wear just to protect them against exposure. We got to turn them in every three months,” said Sheriff Stokes. “It’s taken a long process, but everybody worked together. And now we have it.”

Sheriff Stokes explained that the body scanner also enables them to keep track of how many times a person is exposed to radiation and that if they were exposed to the maximum safe dose in a year, the machine would not scan them. He also shared that the body scanner is straightforward and takes about two hours of training.

“The biggest thing is once you start getting the photos of the individuals, that’s where you have to have training and really look and try to see if there’s any type of drugs or contraband inside the body,” explained Sheriff Stokes. “A lot of it is just on-the-job training. You’ve got to get in there and look at it because every person is different. And you have to know the anatomy of the human body.”

Captain Will Thurton noted that operators don’t need to take immediate action other than recognizing something suspicious in someone’s body. He explained that if an officer identifies something unusual, the individual will be evaluated by a certified X-ray technician at the hospital, who can determine if what’s observed is normal or requires further investigation.

“And let the medical experts actually dig a little deeper into it. All this is pretty much an awareness level, recognizing that something does not appear to be right. Now, of course, like weapons or knives, things like that will immediately show up and they’ll be completely visible, no question about that,” said Thurton. “But if they’ve swallowed something internally or put something into a body cavity, you know, if it looks abnormal to one of our officers utilizing the instrument, then we’ll carry them for further review and let a medical technician actually take a look at them and see what’s going on.”