By Bill Kirby Jr.
Fayetteville City Manager Douglas Hewett, some might conclude, must do his grocery shopping somewhere other than where other city residents do. “I don’t support what’s been proposed,” Johnny Dawkins, the mayor pro tem, says about Hewett’s proposed 2023-24 budget that includes a 56.75-cent property tax hike per $100 property evaluation. The city manager’s proposal includes a jump of $40 to $265 annually for solid waste collection. “We have a lot of work to do,” Dawkins says, and that work might start with the city manager heading back to his calculator. The current property tax rate is 49.95 cents per $100 valuation, although Dawkins did tell CityView on Thursday he supports the proposed solid waste increase and some of Hewett’s other proposals to include raises for police, firefighters and other city employees. “Our solid waste costs continue to go up,” he says, “so I understand why we have to raise the (solid waste) fee.” Apparently, Hewett’s proposal relates, too, to the November 2022 city bond packages totaling $97 million in investments in public safety, infrastructure and housing. Approval of the bond measure, the city said in 2022, was estimated at a cost of a municipal property tax increase of 4 cents to residents. And a drop in the sales tax revenue from Cumberland County weighed in on Hewett’s proposal. City residents can tell the City Council and Hewett what they think at a public hearing scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday at City Hall. If you plan to tell Mayor Mitch Colvin, council members and the city manager how you feel, you’ll have to sign up by 5 p.m. Monday via email at pamelamegill@fayettevillenc.gov or by calling the city clerk’s office at 910-433-1312.
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Gotta give credit to Cumberland County Commissioners Jimmy Keefe, Marshall Faircloth and Glenn Adams for balking at the new county manager’s 2023-24 budget proposal to raise solid waste fees for county residents from $56 to $130 to offset capital improvements for the Ann Street Landfill. Faircloth told Clarence Grier, the county manager, he would like the $130 reduced in half, and Adams concurred. Call it a compromise, but Grier said he would reduce the cost to $93 in his ensuing budget draft proposal, and that’s just what the county manager did Wednesday as commissioners unanimously approved the county budget. Good for Keefe, Faircloth and Adams, because there’s an issue all of us are struggling with these days called inflation. And good for the county manager’s receptive ear to Keefe, Faircloth and Adams.
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Commissioners Jerry Legge, Bryan Marley, Grilley Mitchell and Joanne Scarola of the Hope Mills town board got it right Monday night in voting not to increase taxes in the coming budget, saying it’s just not the time with so many residents struggling financially. “I don’t take a budget increase lightly,” said Mayor Pro Tem Kenjuana McCray, who favored a tax increase, according to a CityView report. “I do understand, and it could cost me the next election, but I feel in my conscience for me and the town, it’s the right thing to do.” McCray could be right on both thoughts, and time will tell about the fate of McCray’s political future with the board. But Legge, Marley, Mitchell and Scarola surely did the right thing by residents’ billfolds and pocketbooks.
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A harsh rebuke late Wednesday from the Fayetteville Police Foundation regarding five City Council members’ vote not to represent and pay for legal services for two city police officers who are named in a civil lawsuit regarding the shooting death of a 22-year-old woman on July 1, 2022, at her grandparents’ Briarwood Hills subdivision home. “Regrettably, despite the attorney general’s decision and the officers’ exoneration, the family of the deceased filed a civil lawsuit against the city of Fayetteville and the officers involved, seeking damages resulting from the untimely death,” the foundation says in a news release from Melissa Reid, its executive director. “The Fayetteville Police Foundation finds the Fayetteville City Council’s decision deeply disheartening and contrary to standard practice and principles of employment. It is essential to uphold the principle that police officers, who put their lives on the line every day to protect our community, are entitled to adequate legal support and representation when faced with legal challenges. … It is vital to recognize that these officers acted within their professional duties and in response to a clear and present danger.” Voting to withhold legal representation, at least for now, were Mayor Mitch Colvin and council members Shakeyla Ingram, D.J. Haire, Mario Benavente and Brenda McNair. All say they want to see a police bodycam video of the July 1 evening, when an autopsy report says Jada Johnson was shot 17 times. Voting in favor of the city paying for legal representation were Mayor Pro Tem Johnny Dawkins and council members Kathy Keefe Jensen, Derrick Thompson and Deno Hondros. Council member Courtney Banks-McLaughlin was not present for the vote.
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“We are mobilizing to get the City Council to include funding for an office of community safety and a director in next year’s fiscal budget,” Lisette Rodriguez, a community activist, writes in an email on behalf of Fayetteville Freedom for All. Activists and advocates will gather at 6 p.m. Monday at City Hall, Rodriquez says, and speak in support of such an office at 7 p.m. during the City Council meeting. Speakers must sign up by 5 p.m. Monday by sendng email requests to pamelmegill@fayettevillenc.gov or by calling 910-433-1312.
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“I was honored to be asked and served on the local community renaming committee,” George Breece says about the redesignation ceremony of Fort Bragg to Fort Liberty held June 2 at the Main Post Parade Field. “And I couldn’t be prouder of Bragg becoming Fort Liberty. Fayetteville and Cumberland County are blessed to be America’s front door to freedom and liberty.” Among other members of the local renaming committee were Lt. Gen. Christopher Donahue, who is commander of the 18th Airborne Corps; Col. John Wilcox, the military base’s garrison commander; retired Gen. Dan K. McNeill; retired Command Sgt. Maj. Steve England; retired Army Maj. Gen. Rodney O. Anderson, who is chairman of the N.C. Military Affairs Committee; Gold Star mother Patti Elliott of Youngsville; Fayetteville City Councilwoman Kathy Keefe Jensen; and Cumberland County Commissioner Glenn Adams. It took an act of Congress to rename Fort Bragg as Fort Liberty, and to be honest, it is taking something akin to an act of Congress to find out the complete list of members of the local renaming committee.
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Lt. Gen. Christopher Donahue, 53, is commanding general of the 18th Airborne Corps on the newly named Fort Liberty, and let there be no mistake that Donahue is a soldier’s soldier tried and true. And remember, Donahue was the last U.S. soldier to leave Afghanistan in August of 2021.
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Residents wondering about the Babe Ruth historical marker that was removed from Gillespie Street for repair and cleaning need not worry any longer. “NC DOT has gotten the repaired Babe Ruth sign back, and it will be installed by NC DOT later Tuesday at the same spot,” says Andrew Barksdale of the N.C. Department of Transportation. And sure enough, the marker commemorating the baseball legend is back in place.
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Three Southern Pines sisters and the driver of another vehicle are fatalities in a deadly head-on collision in which speed reportedly is responsible for the deaths on N.C. 690 in Moore County near Woodlake Country Club. Some of us have traveled the winding roadway all our lives, and it is a highway that calls for alertness, caution, respect and defensive driving of every motorist for every mile of travel from Spring Lake toward Lobelia and Vass.
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Cam Stout says his late father, Dr. Frank Stout, was passionate about Methodist University and its future. “He believed in the mission of Methodist University, and so today we continue with his passion for the university by doing something my mother and I felt he would be very proud of,” Cam Stout says in a news release about the unveiling Thursday of the Dr. Frank P. Stout Physician Assistant Complex. “We felt like it was appropriate that his name be associated with a program like this that is dedicated to the health and well-being of the residents of our community.” The complex is financed as part of a $1.5 million gift from the Stout family. A longtime city orthodondist and real estate developer, Frank P. Stout died at age 77 on March 6, 2021.
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“We are so proud of this achievement, as it shows our level of dedication and commitment to provide the best level of perinatal care to our patients in the community,” Kathya Gavazzi, corporate director of the Women and Children Department at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center, says in a news release about the department receiving an advanced certification in perinatal care from the U.S. Joint Commission, the nation’s oldest accrediting nonprofit in health care. “This is a real badge of honor.” The medical center, according to the release, delivers approximately 4,800 babies annually. The certification, the release says, is awarded in collaboration with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologist.
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A civil rights marker unveiling is scheduled for 11 a.m. June 16 commemorating protests in 1963 by African Americans calling for an end to segregation in downtown Fayetteville. “I am elated we are able to have Fayetteville placed onto this significant and innovative trail highlighting historic advancement throughout our state,” Mayor Mitch Colvin says in a news release about the city being included as a part of the North Carolina Civil Rights Trail. “This accomplishment is a true testament of collaboration between our community, our city and the great state of North Carolina showing what we can achieve when we work together.” The marker will be located at 116 Green St., the release says, where City Hall was in 1963, when racial unrest led to protests, marches and sit-ins calling for downtown businesses to end racial discrimination, and the city did enact a policy to do just that. Some of us remember those downtown protests, and they were tense. The federal Civil Rights Act was adopted in 1964. Brook Redding is the special projects manager for the city, according to the release, and worked with community stakeholders in applying to the N.C. African American Heritage Commission to be included as a part of the North Carolina Civil Rights Trail. The stakeholders, according to the city, are Dorothy Fielder, chairwoman of the Cape Fear-Fayetteville Black Social Workers Association; Joann Adams, Cape Fear-Fayetteville Black Social Workers Association; administrator Angela Taylor, historian Ricardo Morgan, and Desdy Paige, of First Baptist Church on Moore Street; Wanda Wesley, Umoja Group; the Rev. A. Jamale Johnson, Mount Sinai Missionary Baptist Church; Nicholle Young, historian at Fayetteville State University; and Jimmy Buxton, president of the Fayetteville branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
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Keywords
Fayetteville,
City Council,
County Commissioners,
Methodist University,
Babe Ruth,
Fort Liberty
