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State of Community: From potential to momentum

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Tuesday, 01 September 2026

Written by Kirk deViere

Kudos to the Greater Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce and CEO Nat Robertson for presenting the most important and relevant event of the year: Fayetteville and Cumberland County's State of the Community Luncheon, which took place at the Crown Coliseum Complex on Tuesday, Aug. 25.
It featured an impressive lineup of speakers, including Congressman Richard Hudson and North Carolina State Auditor Dave Boliek. Each speaker delivered a fact-driven, relevant message to the hundreds of businesses and organizations in attendance. However, the most significant message running through the entire event was that Fayetteville and Cumberland County have many wonderful, energetic, economically driven projects and achievements benefiting our community—yet the news that our region is growing and thriving economically doesn't seem to be getting out.
Kirk deViere, Chairman of the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners, did an excellent job of defining that problem: "Stop defending Fayetteville and Cumberland County, and start describing it."
He was right on the mark. We must stop allowing other people and communities to define our narrative. Up & Coming Weekly took on that task 30 years ago and has been successful doing just that. From Cape Fear Valley Health System to Public Works Commission, Fayetteville Technical Community College, Methodist University, Fayetteville State University, the entire arts and cultural community and dozens of local nonprofit organizations, we have been proud to tell Fayetteville’s stories.
Believe me, these stories are important, and we are not doing a good enough job telling them. This requires a true multimedia effort—we cannot simply rely on social media or what I call "winking in the dark," where we check a box to make an announcement. We need to rally around broadcasting our achievements, accomplishments, and the good things happening in this community. We need to start defining who we are and stop letting outside agencies and communities define our narrative.
Below is Kirk deViere's impactful message. You should read it and heed it. He makes a great point. The leadership he provides, along with our other dedicated city and county leaders, makes all the difference in how we will define Fayetteville, Cumberland County and our future for generations to come.
Thank you for reading Up & Coming Weekly, Fayetteville's hyper-local community newspaper.
—Bill Bowman, Publisher
Last year, I quoted Tony Chavonne's challenge to our community from 25 years ago: "It's time to roll up our sleeves and improve our community's economic health." But I left out the second half of his sentence. He also said we must work "to restore our rightful place as an economic influence in the region and the state."
Tony gave us two assignments. Roll up your sleeves. And take your place.
For 25 years, progress has not always happened at the pace we hoped for. We have faced real challenges. Population growth flattened.
Median income lagged behind our neighbors. Investments in infrastructure and schools did not always materialize. For a long time, the word people used to describe Cumberland County was potential.
But potential is the word you use for a place that is not moving. What we are experiencing now in Cumberland County is momentum. Over the last two years, our county has begun to look very different from the Cumberland County of decades past. In just 24 months, we have:
• Opened the first new independent medical school in North Carolina in 40 years, a partnership between Methodist University and Cape Fear Valley Health.
• Welcomed a $26 million Army innovation outpost at Fort Bragg.
• Emerged as a statewide leader in cybersecurity workforce development, with Fayetteville Technical Community College leading the Carolina Cyber Network.
• Connected the XVIII Airborne Corps with Fayetteville State University for research and training.
• Attracted a major drone manufacturer that chose Cumberland County for its U.S. production facility.
• Begun construction on FCEDC's Defense Innovation Center to connect industry with local skilled talent.
• Broken ground on 325,000 square feet of industrial space in our Military Business Park, developed by an out-of-state firm investing on speculation.
Meanwhile, Cumberland County is investing three-quarters of a billion dollars in our public school system and a quarter-billion dollars in water and sewer infrastructure. We have also lowered the tax rate, making us more competitive for business and lighter on the families who live here.
Individually, any one of these achievements would merit a ribbon cutting, a photo op, or a press release. Taken together, they become something far more significant.
They become an ecosystem. Education. Research. Health care. Cybersecurity. Defense technology. Advanced manufacturing. Infrastructure. And one of the most consequential military installations in the world.
These are the elements beginning to connect here. And that matters, because companies are no longer looking simply for land or a building. They are looking for talent, research partners, testing environments, supply chains, and communities capable of helping them move from idea to testing to production.
Cumberland County is becoming that kind of place. There is one word that describes what all of this creates. Signal. Signal is not what a community claims about itself. It is what a community can prove when industry and opportunity come looking.
I see this every time I travel for this county. In Raleigh. At conferences. Across the table from companies. People are surprised by what is happening here. Not because they disagree with it, but because the Cumberland County in their heads is years out of date.
Our reputation has not caught up with our reality. That is something every one of us can help change. A press release from Cumberland County is not the signal. You are.
Nearly everyone reading this will sit in a room this year where Fayetteville, Fort Bragg, or Cumberland County comes up. You may be the only person there who can describe what is actually happening.
So describe it. Start with our challenges. We have them, and we all know what they are. Then explain what we are doing about them. Talk about the investments being made, the new medical school, the expansion at Fort Bragg, the innovation emerging from our colleges and universities. Share the stories of companies choosing to invest here and the infrastructure being built to support what comes next.
We do not have to oversell Cumberland County. We simply have to tell our whole story.
For too long, we have allowed others to tell that story and define our narrative. It is time the rest of this state, and this country, heard it directly from us.
My son Grey is nine. In 25 years, he will be 34, building his career and perhaps deciding where to raise a family of his own. He, along with every child in this community, will inherit the decisions our leaders are making today. The schools we build. The infrastructure we invest in. The industries we attract. The opportunities we create. And the reputation we leave behind.
I want them to inherit a Cumberland County that did more than talk about its potential. I want them to inherit a county that realized it.
That work is happening right now. We are focused on building a community that competes for the best talent, investment, and innovation. A place where ideas become companies, where technology moves from concept to capability, and where the talent connected to Fort Bragg strengthens a thriving private-sector economy beyond its gates.
A Cumberland County ready to take its rightful place as an economic influence in this region and this state. Cumberland County has momentum, and the rest of North Carolina needs to know it. They do not just need to hear it from me. They need to hear it from all of us.
Let's roll up our sleeves. Let's stop defending Cumberland County and start describing it. And let's take our place.

Editor's Note: Kirk deViere is Chairman of the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners.

(Photo: Kirk deViere addresses the attendees at the State of the Community Address held by the Greater Fayetteville Chamber on Aug. 25. Photo courtesy of Cumberland County NC's Facebook page)

Learning to Listen

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Tuesday, 25 August 2026

Written by Dan DeBruler

“What’s it about, Danny?”
The question came during the drive from a country home near Wamego, Kansas, to a small family farm about thirty minutes away. The ride had become routine. If I dozed off, the sound of gravel popping beneath the tires as we left I-70 and headed south on Snokomo Road was sure to wake me.
For a 13-year-old city kid, farm chores still felt like an adventure. My cousin Memory, a schoolteacher, had invited me to spend the summer with her and her husband, Tom, a Vietnam veteran who had returned to the quiet of his family’s farm south of Paxico.
Memory and I had met only a few months earlier. I have a complicated family history, so much of that summer was spent getting to know one another. The conversation that day began with a simple question.
“What kind of music do you like?”
Easy enough. I told her I liked rock music.
But in true schoolteacher fashion, she wanted me to think a little deeper.
“What do you consider rock music? Which bands do you like? Name one song. What are some of the lyrics?”
Then came the question that changed things:
“What’s it about, Danny?”
I had chosen a song widely considered an antiwar protest anthem. The trouble was, I had never considered what that—or any other song—was actually about. I could sing along, recite the lyrics, and air-guitar through the inevitable solo. But I had never stopped to consider the meaning of the words.
I didn’t know it then, but her question would shape the way I listen, choose, and regard the power of music to motivate, encourage, unite, or console.
I also learned that songs aren’t always as simple as they first appear. The same lyrics may be understood differently depending on the listener, sometimes even by the artists who wrote and recorded them.
But Memory’s question still matters. What’s it about?
That is a good question to ask about more than music. It belongs in our conversations, entertainment, ambitions, and habits. What is this saying? Where is it leading me? What is it teaching me to admire, excuse, fear, or desire?
We often believe we are merely listening, watching, or passing the time. But what we repeatedly welcome into our minds shapes how we see the world, and eventually, how we live within it.
Scripture tells us to guard our hearts because everything we do flows from them. That doesn’t mean fearing every message around us. It means becoming discerning.
Years later, I remain grateful that my cousin didn’t simply tell me what to think. She cared enough to teach me how to listen.
Perhaps that is part of our responsibility to one another, especially to those coming behind us. We can give them rules, or help them ask better questions. We can tell them what to avoid, or patiently teach them to recognize what is true, beautiful, and pleasing to God.
Sometimes one thoughtful question, asked with genuine care, can continue doing its work for a lifetime.

Troy's Perspective: Engage in election season

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Tuesday, 25 August 2026

Written by Troy Williams

The month of August typically marks the official start of election season for contests that are decided on the first Tuesday in November. In the 2026 election cycle, with less than 70 days until the general election and early voting on Oct. 15, political enthusiasts are eagerly anticipating the campaign ramp-up. However, some individuals are dreading the entire process: campaign signs, commercial ads, rallies and opponent attack tactics. Understandably, they would like just to cast their votes and move on.
This election is called a midterm because it does not coincide with the presidential election cycle. Much attention is focused on the U.S. Senate and Congressional races, as they determine control of Congress and influence the agenda of the current presidential administration. In this case, it’s President Donald Trump, a polarizing figure. Arguably, there is a lot at stake, and I won't suggest one side of the political spectrum is better than the other; that's a personal choice for each voter. We will wait and see which candidates emerge and, hopefully, do so honorably.
While national races attract much attention, local elections, such as at-large school board seats and board of commissioners' seats, are equally important. The Cumberland County Commissioner District One seats were decided in the primary, with the Democratic nominees guaranteed positions due to the lack of Republican opposition. Cumberland County Commission District 1 is drawn to ensure Black voters have their preferred candidate. County racial dynamics have changed, and a set-aside district especially for Blacks may no longer be necessary, but that's a discussion for another time.
Over a dozen candidates are competing for one of the three at-large seats on the school board. This race is likely to be very competitive and could significantly influence school policy in Cumberland County for years to come.
Downtown on Dick Street, the Cumberland Board of Commissioners at-large race has similar implications. In both races, citizens must decide whether Cumberland County is heading in the right direction or if a change is needed. There's no doubt that a lot is at stake. The key question remains: will voters support the status quo, or will they choose to continue down the path led by the current majority on the board of commissioners, chaired by former city councilman and state senator Kirk deViere?
There can be no argument about the importance of this local vote. Your vote will shape the future of Cumberland County. North Carolina is one of the fastest-growing states in the nation; however, Cumberland County's growth is behind our peer counties in terms of where individuals are choosing to work and live.
Acknowledging our Tier 1 status as a poor community is not a slap against our legislature; rather, it's an admission that there is much work to do and that it will take the whole community's effort to change the dynamics. We are good, but we can be great. We have a lot of talented and resourceful citizens, so it might appear that we have the right people on the bus, just not in the right seats.
Let's make it happen.

Angst all Around

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Tuesday, 25 August 2026

Written by Margaret Dickson

American demographers and I are among millions of others worried about our nation’s declining birth rate, and we should be. Women in the United States are having babies at a rate of 1.6 babies for women of childbearing age, well below the replacement rate of 2.1. What growth we have is coming largely from immigration, which is also declining through political actions. Demographers speculate that the number of Americans will begin declining in the 2050s.
Clearly, our overall baby population is statistically waning, even if you have a little one hollering in your household who loudly disputes that.
Not so at the other end of the age spectrum.
Baby Boomers, Americans born between 1946 and 1964, are swelling the ranks at the other end of the demographic snake.
Writing in The Dispatch, Eli Kronenberg cites statistics outlining the imbalance between old and young. Almost a third of Americans are now over 55 years old, with the median now almost 40, up from 35 in 2001. Life expectancy has increased slightly, up from 78 to 79, but our national birthrate has fallen a full 22-percent over the same period, 2007-2024. By 2031, all Boomers will have reached official retirement age of 67, becoming eligible for Medicare and Social Security, our nation’s large entitlement funds.
I know. There are a lot of numbers to digest, but their implications are stark.
Our nation spends tremendous resources on our senior citizens, far more than we do on families and young children. With declining numbers of children and young people and seniors edging out of their productive years and into entitlements, it will become more and more difficult for fewer working people to provide Social Security and Medicare to growing numbers of seniors.
Economists have long forecasted slowing economic growth because of this growing imbalance.
Hard questions loom in the coming years.
Do we shift our nation’s resources to younger Americans even if it means reducing entitlements to seniors? Are childcare, paid parental leave, public education and other services for young families more or less important than senior entitlements? Should entitlements for wealthier seniors be reduced even though they have paid into entitlement programs? Should the retirement age be raised as Americans live longer? Should wealthy Americans be taxed at higher rates to support both young families and aging seniors?
All of these are both legitimate questions with no clear answers and questions that are often addressed in opposite ways by Democrats and Republicans, historically resulting in sustained stalemates and increasing disparities. Americans on both sides of the political spectrum should be encouraging our representatives to begin tackling this situation not based on political ideologies but on pragmatic and quantifiable needs. Yes, young families need help with childcare and other services so parents can be productive workers. And, yes, seniors have been productive workers and paid into entitlement programs and deserve support in their retirement years, though some means testing may be necessary.
The only clear truth here is that fixing this imbalance in our national economics is a burning imperative getting hotter by the year.
It is not going to be an easy fix, but we cannot move forward without trying.