A dozen arrests have been made in connection with violating Graham County’s 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew, Sheriff Joseph Jones said during the April 22 Emergency Management Coordination Committee teleconference.
Jones added that verbal warnings were given
to each individual beforehand, but repeat offenders gave officers no choice. He gave one example of a call he received at 2 a.m. from an officer, who explained that a man was in the Shell parking lot and told authorities he was just getting back from doing concrete work in Ranger.
The man was given roughly four verbal warnings before being incarcerated.
“They were not doing what they were supposed to be doing – work or going to a medical facility – but they were out doing their normal, nightly routine of being out and about,” Jones said of the violators. “We’re going to keep enforcing it.”
Warning signs
Graham County Emergency Management Services Director Larry Hembree brought the committee’s attention to digital signage, which would flash – in three segments – “All visitors to Graham County must isolate 14 days upon arrival.”
Hembree is working with the N.C. Department of Transportation to determine proper right of way for each sign. At press time Wednesday, the only sign placed thus far sits in the parking lot of the Quality Inn, but Hembree said he hoped to have signs up at all of the county borders soon.
Road closures
Andy Gaston with the U.S. Forest Service wanted to stress that while checkpoints have been eliminated at the county borders, developed campgrounds and recreation areas are still closed.
Gaston added that Santeetlah Road, Long Hungry Branch Road and Slickrock Road are all still closed. Gaston polled several members of the committee on how to proceed, with Hembree saying he had no objections to opening the roads for hunters and hikers.
Joyce Kilmer Road – near the entrance to the namesake forest – will also be closed “for a while,” Gaston said. Several trees have fell, and a timetable for when it will re-open is unknown.