Natural and cultural resources are inextricably linked to each other and the landscape.

"Natural resources, for the most part, become cultural resources and serve many diverse life-saving functions," wrote Linda Carnes -McNaughton, curator, Cultural Resources Management Program, Fort Bragg Directorate of Public Works (DPW).

This is how Carnes -McNaughton opened a National Public Lands Grant application for a Native American Pollinator Garden on Fort Bragg. The grant was awarded in the Spring of 2019 for $9,500. Then COVID-19 lockdowns began in Spring 2020, and the garden project was indefinitely delayed. Eventually, the funds awarded for the garden were reallocated, and the project was in limbo.

That is until Carnes-McNaughton, and the Fort Bragg Arbor Board breathed new life into the project.

This new life has seen the project metamorphose into a three-phase plan and be located in a new place. Originally, the garden was to be placed near McKellar's Lodge, but with the inception of the Liberty Trail, a series of parks and green spaces planned to connect throughout Fort Bragg, the garden was moved to the Willow Lakes Park near Pope Army Airfield. A triangular tract of land at a trail intersection was selected, and the final part of what Carnes-McNaughton describes as Phase I was completed.

Phase I of the project involved the adaptation of the concept, planning, plant selection and purchase, and finally, planting the garden.

The choice of each plant and the placement of each plant are rife with meaning and importance. Carnes-McNaughton designed the garden with collaboration in mind. The plan was to engage and include local Native American youths and Army communities, building a platform for interaction between the military community and the Catawba nation. The garden will be a place for education, teaching the public about the types of native plants with cultural, historical and natural importance.

"It was correspondence back and forth with the Catawba nation, and they are one of our geographically closest federally-recognized consulting groups," Carnes McNaughton said. "They have helped us select the plants and narrow it down to the ten we are putting in this special garden."

While Carnes-McNaughton consulted primarily with the Catawba nation about the plant choices for the garden, this consultation was done in tandem with insights of the Fort Bragg botanist and DPW's Endangered Species Branch.

The ten plants were chosen, all serve a purpose as pollinators, and all have cultural uses. Butterfly weed, Asclepias turberosa, can be used for cordage, medicine and benefits the Monarch butterfly. American Beautyberry, Callicarpa americana, can treat malarial fever, colic and dysentery. Tea made from New Jersey Tea, Ceanothus americanus, treats upper respiratory illness, is a natural caffeine source, and the roots can be used for astringents. Purple Thistle, Cirsium repandum, is used to make blow darts. Woodland Sunflower, Helianthus divaricatus, is edible and a major pollinator. Blue Wild Indigo, Baptisia australis, is used for tea and is a blue clothing dye. Pawpaw, Asimina tribola, produces an edible fruit and can be made into a yellow dye.

"[Native peoples] used plants intimately in everything they did all their daily lives. Whether it was a medicinal, ritual or even cosmetically or eating," Carnes-McNaughton said.

With the help of soldiers, members of DPW and the military community, the garden was planted last Wednesday, April 6. In the next phase, Phase II, Carnes-McNaughton said visitors to the garden would see the addition of trilingual interpretive signage and the addition of a traditional wattle fence. A more prominent ign will be placed at one of the triangle's vertices. This sign will describe the garden. Additional signs will be placed with each plant species that will list the common name of each plant, the Latin name, and the Native American name and detail the plants' function and use within Native American culture.

"If we have the opportunity on the signage, it might include what I think is cool, illustrations of some of the hand tools that they [Native Americans] used to cultivate and harvest these plants," Carnes-McNaughton said.

The traditional wattle fencing will also be added and will likely be made using willow saplings. A wattle fence is created by weaving long green and bendable saplings through larger stakes. The result is a basketweave textured traditional Native American style fence. The hope is that Native American youths and perhaps an Eagle Scout group will be able to help build the fence; this would align with the themes of collaboration, education and public engagement central to the garden's inception and design.

Harvesting and maintenance are Phase III of the garden plan. This will ideally involve the Catawba and the public. The overall goal of the project is education.

"The educational component, think of it as an outdoor classroom or what we call a demonstration project to educate the public on the types of plants and not only for their wildlife value but their cultural and historical significance," said Carnes-McNaughton.

Last week, the Local Government Commission (LGC) wrote a letter to elected officials in Spring Lake, noting several concerns about the Board of Aldermen's choices in the past few weeks.

Their first concern is the hiring of a new interim manager. The Board of Aldermen held two closed session meetings where the board discussed and then swore in a new interim manager, Joe Durham. The problem lies in that the vote to hire Durham should be public. In addition, Durham was sworn in without having a contract in place. The LGC states that no payments can be legally made for Durham's services without a contract.

The second concern noted is the discussion of lifting a furlough on town employees put into effect on March 14. The furlough reduced pay for all general fund employees, reduced staff hours and closed Town Hall on Fridays to walk-in traffic. The LGC is concerned the Board of Aldermen did not consult them on lifting the furlough; the LGC still has complete control of the town's financial affairs.

"The town's board does not currently have the authority to make this decision unilaterally," the letter states.

The third concern involves the town's attorney, Jonathan Charleston. Charleston submitted a resignation letter on March 23 and provided a 30-day notice. However, the LGC states that the board has not officially accepted his resignation, nor has it determined the last date of Charleston's employment. The LGC asks the board to clarify the final date of Charleston's employment and that the town stipulates a plan for obtaining legal representation.

A fourth concern noted in the LGC letter is that the Board of Aldermen voted to remove the LGC's presentation of interim financial information at the March 28 board meeting. The LGC states that while the presentation and information were not available when initially requested by the town in preparing the meeting's agenda, it was available that night.

A fifth concern discussed during the LGC board meeting last week was the legality of a $1 million loan from the South River Electric Membership Corporation to build a fire station. The deal was consummated in October 2020, but work had begun on the construction before funding was in place. The contract was for $1.2 million, but the town only budgeted $1 million. The LGC notes that the original loan terms included an eight-year payback at $125,000 a year; however, LGC never approved the town to get the loan.

The LGC is requesting the town respond to these concerns by April 13.

"The LGC and its staff are committed to assisting the town in implementing policies and practices that will restore its fiscal health and establish a path to long-term viability. We ask the board to demonstrate that same commitment," the letter states.

Alderman Raul Palacios sent Up & Coming Weekly a comment via email stating that he hopes Spring Lake will propel forward.

"With the help go the LGC, Spring Lake is better off than it was a year ago. Because of their oversight, Spring Lake is in a better position financially. These accomplishments haven't come without their fair share of hiccups, but as a new board, we will work to get these things right," Palacios said.

However, on his Facebook page, Palacios said that the letter from the LGC was a one-sided condemnation. His post was shared by Mayor Kia Anthony and Alderwoman Soña Cooper.

In his rebuttal to the LGC concerns, Palacios stated that the board would vote on Durham's hiring when presented with a contract. He also clarified that the board had not accepted Charleston's resignation yet.

Regarding the March 28 board meeting and the LGC report, Palacios writes that the board did remove the financial report from the agenda because they did not receive the report in advance of the meeting after requesting it three times.

"The town of Spring Lake is better than it was a year ago because of internal control handling, LGC oversight and a change in leadership. My only hope is that the next town that receives an investigative audit report receives the help they need versus those hoping to gain political points," Palacios wrote.

At the Board of Alderman work session this past Monday night, Anthony said they would respond to the LGC's concerns this week, and that response will be published. Up & Coming Weekly will publish the response on our website at upandcomingweekly.com.

The board did hear from the LGC about the town's financials up through February. According to the memo from Susan McCullen, director of the Fiscal Management Commission, as of June 30, 2020, the town's general fund balance was $0. Rebuilding the general fund balance will most likely take years. Between 2014 and 2018, $1.88 million was transferred away from the Water and Sewer Fund to the general fund. This money will need to be paid back. The LGC is currently working on the best course of action to do that.

"With the LGC and contract oversight during the year, the town may finish the current year well. However, there is significant work to do to improve the town's general fund reserves," McCullen writes in her memo. "We will not consider any new programs, additional positions, or staff raises but will focus on building the town's fiscal health."

The LGC and Durham are currently working on putting together a budget workshop to go over the 2022-2023 budget and apply for American Rescue Plan Act funds.

Durham was officially appointed as interim town manager during Monday night's work session with the approval of Charleston for legal sufficiency and approval from the LGC.

This appointment comes with the approval of the contract between the town and Durham.

Child Abuse has affected so many children around the world. There are many different types of child abuse, such as physical abuse, sexual abuse and emotional abuse. Many children that have been abused are fearful of speaking up about what they are enduring in their daily lives. Many children need someone that will be their voice and advocate for what is right.

As a school social worker, I have seen first-hand the effects of child abuse, especially in the children that I come in contact with daily. It affects their ability to learn and retain information, the changes in their personalities, how they handle their emotions and their interactions with others in the classroom. The school is a safe haven for many of these children facing adversity.

For some children, school is where they receive their only meal. School is the only place where they receive love and attention from their teachers and other school personnel. It is the only place they feel safe and secure.

Being a school social worker means that I use my mind to create different resources and avenues that will effectively meet the needs of the students that I serve.

I use my eyes to help them see a clearer vision of who they can become and remind them that they are not alone. I use my nose to teach them to inhale and exhale whenever they become overwhelmed, anxious or angry. I use my ears to listen without judgment to the daily struggles and trauma they face. I use my mouth to be the voice for those that cannot speak up for themselves and advocate for what is right. I use my hands to help guide them and show them a better way. I will use my feet to help walk with them along this journey.

School social workers were created to help people along the way to see that even though you had to endure many trials and tribulations and it left a hole inside your heart, it still does not keep you from becoming the beautiful masterpiece that you are.

Anyone who says there's nothing to do in Fayetteville doesn't have a clue about the town they reside in. Fayetteville offers concerts, live theater, sporting events, art shows, history museum reenactments, wine tastings, parks and walking trails, arts, entertainment and family adventures; the list is practically endless.

This week my focus is on the wonderful experience several hundred Fayetteville/Cumberland County residents and I had this past weekend when we attended the Child Advocacy Center's annual fundraiser, The Ultimate Lip Sync Showdown. The event was graciously hosted by Michael Thrash and the talented Nicki Hart.

After a two-year COVID hiatus, this fun and unique annual event raised thousands of dollars for a worthy cause.
The CAC provides services for the protection of neglected and abused children. In Fayetteville, Fort Bragg and Cumberland County, over 900 children a year are abandoned, neglected and abused. The CAC works diligently to meet the needs of these children and their families. The event was held at the Crown Coliseum Complex. It was well attended by hundreds of local businesses, organizations and CAC supporters. CAC Executive Director Roberta Humphries, the staff and their conscientious and supportive board of volunteers are to be commended.

It was great to see Fayetteville Mayor Mitch Colvin in attendance, but then extremely disappointing that he was the only city or county elected official in the room. That's the difference between our elected officials' quality, dedication and commitment today compared with a decade ago. Our elected officials today are elusive. You seldom see them mingling with the general public or actively participating in community-related events. There was a time when city and county elected officials prioritized being "front and center" at all the major community events.

They led by example, mixing and mingling with residents, getting to know them while listening to their ideas and concerns. Now, not so much. It's almost like they're hiding and afraid to face the general public and their constituents. And, given the poor decisions (or lack of decisions) they have made lately, you really can't blame them.

Specifically, I'm referring to the city council kicking the can down the road on a recommendation to repurpose the Market House. That discussion has gone on way too long with many involved people and agencies. For them not to be able to decide at this point, it becomes apparent they don't want to reveal that they are uninformed, ignorant, incompetent, lazy or all of the above.

Many feel they are incapable of making sound and reasonable decisions on behalf of the Fayetteville community. The parking meter issue in downtown Fayetteville is the perfect example. Downtown Fayetteville businesses and organizations want and need a friendlier, more accessible downtown. One solution is to reduce the parking fee hours, currently 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. like most other towns and cities in the U.S. But no, our city council chooses not to follow the regimen of what thriving other towns are doing successfully and decides to suggest a two-hour reduction compromise to 7 p.m. A change that accomplishes nothing has little benefit to the merchants and only serves to reduce the city revenues while not helping the businesses and organizations downtown at all.

These are near-perfect examples of how the existing city council accomplishes nothing, and why, come election time, they need to be replaced with people who care about the entire Fayetteville community and not just about themselves or their districts.

I cordially shared these same thoughts with Colvin during our brief encounter at the CAC event, along with the notion that remedies and positive solutions to the city's most complex situations are just a conversation away. All they need to do is listen.

Thank you for reading the Up & Coming Weekly community newspaper.

Fayetteville is making plans to address recurrent flooding in a neighborhood in the southeast part of the city.

The City Council last week unanimously gave approval for an effort to design a flooding mitigation plan for the Locks Creek area. It’s estimated to cost $8.8 million.

The project would improve drainage among roadways in the neighborhood, including the primary thoroughfare, Locks Creek Road, which will also be elevated as part of the construction.

Byron Reeves, the city’s stormwater manager, said the purpose is to give access to emergency help to households in the event of a flood.

“When you get certain storm events, you can’t get in and out of the neighborhoods, no emergency access, people can’t get in and out to their homes,” he said.

This is the first phase, the only one approved last week. A second phase would call for a bridge on nearby State Road 53.

If that second phase is eventually approved, the entire construction, including the initial phase, is estimated to cost $24.5 million.

Reeves said the primary purpose is to serve the 180 houses in the neighborhood that do not flood. The flooding among the homes along Bombay Drive and Turkey Run, however, would continue.

At last week’s council meeting, Mayor Mitch Colvin said the plan is a partial fix.

“You still have Bombay Drive, which is one of the most impacted ones,” he said. “Those are the folks that come in year after year — after the two hurricanes — about flooding.”

To address the flooding of the homes, Reeves said, little can be done in terms of new construction.

“We can’t fix everything out there; however, we can do some things out there to improve the infrastructure for some in the neighborhood,” he said.

FEMA flood plains
Another option presented to the council was to pay fair market value for the homes that flood and turn them into levees to prevent further flooding in the area.

However, this buyout cannot be funded federally as the Federal Emergency Management Agency does not consider the area a flood plain, a requirement for FEMA’s hazard mitigation assistance program.

The current flood designation only extends within the immediate area of the Cape Fear River, miles west of the homes.

If the houses were in a FEMA flood plain, a buyout could be issued in which the federal agency would pay for 75% of the costs. The rest would be paid by either state or local funds, if the homeowner agreed.

Since FEMA funds aren’t on the table, however, the council last week was presented with a second option, which includes all the roadway mitigation efforts from the first, whereby the city would front all the costs of property acquisition. It costs much more, $45 million in total.

If they wanted to consider that plan in the future, council members were encouraged to search for grant funding, as the stormwater budget wouldn’t cover such a price.

‘Water always wins’
Even if the city obtained enough funding for the $45 million option, it wouldn’t stop all the flooding in the area.

The levees wouldn’t completely stop waters reaching north of the neighborhood around L.A. Dunham Drive.

“It’s very challenging to mitigate all the flooding out there,” Reeves said. “You’re putting a lot of money in. It’s not solving the problem. You’re mitigating it, but you’re not completely mitigating it.”

Matthew in 2016 and Florence in 2018 were historic hurricanes for Fayetteville. They resulted in two floods that are typically only seen once in a 500-year span, according to research from the U.S. Geological Survey.

The study presented to the council last week for the Locks Creek watershed only accounted for 25-year flood events.

If another hurricane of the same magnitude hit the area, it would likely surpass these expensive mitigation measures, Reeves said.

“There’s some storm events that you just can’t design your way out of,” he said.

Mayor Pro Tem Kathy Jensen said at last week’s meeting that further discussion is needed before the council considers paying $45 million to address only a 25-year flood.

“Water always wins,” she said. “It always winds up taking.”

Fayetteville is set to start a grant program next month that aims to reduce the city’s crime rate.

Police Chief Gina Hawkins and Chris Cauley, the city’s economic and community development director, presented the City Council with plans for the program, known as the Community Safety Microgrant, on Monday.

Last fall, the council approved $250,000 to go toward the program, to be distributed in four cycles over the next two years, amid concerns of increasing violent crime in the city.

Violent crimes in Fayetteville increased last year as part of a national trend, Carolina Public Press previously reported.

The grant program was inspired by a similar program in Charlotte, Hawkins said.

“Charlotte had ideas of not just community involvement, violence and intervention, but they had microgrant programs as well,” she said. “We wanted to figure out how we could bring it here.”

Any eligible nonprofit organization or individual with an idea for community crime reduction that needs funding can apply for the program.

Council member Shakeyla Ingram showed support for the program at Monday’s meeting.

“Though there is a police effort, there also is a community side as well,” she said. “I believe if we really want to attack or address violent crime, the community has to do with itself.”

Applications for the program start May 2, and the deadline for submission is May 29.

How the program works
The program is limited to any individual or nonprofit organization that has an operating budget of less than $100,000. For-profit businesses cannot participate in the program.

Accepted applicants will be limited to those who pitch an idea that can be shown to limit community crime, which will be gauged through a scoring system. The details of that scoring criteria will be determined in a future council meeting.

All ideas for crime reduction will be considered though, Hawkins said.

“Education, empowerment, history of their community,” she said. “It even talks about family stability. But we’re not just limited to these criteria. When people are having an idea of it, these are just going to give a little bit more weight when the scoring comes up.”

In each of the four grant cycles, the city has allocated $50,000. Among that funding, three payment tiers are available for each applicant — up to $1,500, $2,500 and $5,000.

While nonprofits are eligible for the $5,000 tier from the outset, individuals must go through the other two tiers first.

As individuals progress through the tiers, the city will conduct classes that teach them how to organize and operate a nonprofit organization. The final $5,000 tier requires the grantees to be a nonprofit or be fiscally sponsored by a nonprofit.

“The nonprofit is a high barrier,” Cauley said. “That it is an IRS tax designation. Paperwork, you have to have an accountant and you’ve got to have an audit.”

Describing the classes, Cauley said, “We talk about the board composition and fundraising and the organizational development part of it. And then ultimately, we talk about the longevity and how you help your nonprofit continue year over year.”

Classes are a part of each six-month cycle. That cycle includes the first month when application vetting takes place. For the next four months, the program is implemented, and in the last, grantees report back with results.

In response to concerns from Mayor Mitch Colvin about the ability to adequately measure the success of the program, Hawkins said determining that isn’t entirely dependent on hard results.

“We know, it’s difficult to say,” she said. “The bottom line, if you got youth involved in your community, doing something different, that’s success.”

The council will appoint a committee to determine which applications are accepted.

Options on how to comprise that committee will be presented to the council in the next few weeks.

The Fayetteville City Council officially approved to reduce paid parking Monday, April 11, during a council meeting.

The new paid parking hours will be 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. instead of 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. This will be in effect Monday through Friday. Parking will remain free on Saturdays and Sundays.

The rates will remain the same, $1 per hour, and a maximum of $5 daily.

Lee Jernigan, city traffic engineer, told the council during a work session earlier this month that changing the times on the parking signs would cost about $8,000. 

The new times will be effective and enforced on May 2.

Visit parkfayettevillenc.com to see all parking facilities, parking enforcement rules and pay station instructions.

 

Fayetteville Police have a suspect in custody following a stabbing that happened early Thursday morning.

Police officers arrived at Bayfield Loop around 4:05 a.m. to a reported disturbance. While officers could not locate anyone at the scene, they did find evidence consistent with a disturbance. At 4:11 a.m., officers at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center noted that a young man arrived in a personal vehicle with stab wounds.

24-year-old Alan Trump was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Detectives have a suspect in custody, however, their identity is being withheld until they are formally charged.

Anyone with information regarding this investigation is asked to contact Detective J. Olsen at (910) 709-1958 or Crimestoppers at (910) 483-TIPS (8477). Crimestoppers information can also be submitted electronically, by visiting http://fay-nccrimestoppers.org and completing the anonymous online tip sheet.

When COVID-19 transformed day-to-day life over two years ago, people across North Carolina were suddenly forced to work and learn remotely to curb the spread of a contagious, deadly virus.

“The pandemic drove home how urgent access to a high-speed internet connection is to every part of modern life, the ability to work from home, learn from home, complete homework, access telemedicine services, apply for jobs or access government services,” said Nate Denny, secretary for broadband and digital equity for the N.C. Department of Information Technology.

That access to a consistent, high-speed broadband connection is a service that many in the state, especially in its rural areas, don’t have.

According to NCDIT’s broadband availability index, more than 92% of the state’s population has access to download speeds of at least 100 megabytes per second, but that’s concentrated in North Carolina’s major urban centers such as Raleigh and Charlotte.

In the Sandhills’ rural Sampson County, for instance, less than 60% of residents have speeds that high.

Among households in Rutherford County in rural Western North Carolina, fewer than a quarter have access to speeds of 100 Mbps or above.

That’s not accounting for upload speeds, which are often much lower than the accompanying download speeds. To get synchronized speeds, the installation of fiber optic cables is often required.

“Fiber projects can hit those speeds,” Denny said. “Not many other technologies can hit those speeds reliably.”

The rural-urban gap for fiber technology is even greater across the state, even in counties just below the most populous.

In Cumberland County, North Carolina’s fifth-most populous county, less than 10% of households have access to fiber technology.

Some investment in fiber is taking place within the private sector. Metronet recently launched its fiber service in Fayetteville with expansion planned for rural Cumberland County along with other parts of the state, Carolina Public Press previously reported.

But the state has a long way to go as less than 40% of households statewide have access to fiber.

State Rep. John Szoka, R-Cumberland, said bringing fiber access to rural North Carolina is an economic problem.

“There’s a cost involved in running fiber,” he said. “You got to pay for it. So, if you’ve got one house every half-mile opposed to one house every 200 feet, the economics don’t work.”

For many internet service providers, or ISPs, the cost isn’t worth the return on investment.

That’s where the American Rescue Plan Act comes into play.

Public-private partnerships
To address this gap in high-speed broadband access between rural and urban counties, North Carolina is committing more than $1 billion in federal funds from ARPA.

Per federal guidelines, ARPA dollars used to invest in broadband infrastructure must have not only download speeds at 100 Mbps but also that level of upload speeds.

With these federal funds, 98% of households in North Carolina can reach that connection standard, Denny said.

One part of that goal is the Growing Rural Economies with Access to Technology grant.

The GREAT grant, which started in 2018, is now revamped to include $350 million of the more than $1 billion in broadband ARPA funds.

The grant operates as a public-private partnership in which a county or municipality partners with an ISP to use ARPA dollars to fund the construction of high-speed broadband infrastructure in areas that didn’t have access previously.

One example is the ISP Brightspeed, which is working with Cumberland to bring fiber internet to rural parts of the county.

Electric cooperatives can also take advantage of the GREAT grant. Blue Ridge Energy, which covers parts of Western North Carolina, is working with SkyLine SkyBest to bring fiber to Caldwell County, much of which is along the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Crystal Spencer, director of marketing for Blue Ridge Energy, said the grant allowed the companies to reach areas that are expensive to cover.

“It is very cost intensive to have this infrastructure, particularly in our areas where everything is so mountainous and rocky,” she said.

Another $400 million from the ARPA funding is going to the Completing Access to Broadband, or CAB, program.

CAB allows counties to partner with NCDIT by matching each other’s ARPA dollars to procure an ISP to reach an area in need of broadband service.

“Governments need more flexibility to build those kinds of public-private partnerships, and we think the CAB program in particular is a really good new option for county governments to help more proactively address unserved parts of their community,” Denny said.

More flexibility
In 2019, Szoka helped pass Senate Bill 310, which allows electric cooperatives to lease fiber space on their electric grids to expand broadband access to their members.

Szoka said he saw the legislation as a way for cooperatives to reach rural parts of the state with high-speed internet, as they once did nearly 100 years ago with electricity.

He said internet access should be viewed as infrastructure as opposed to merely a service.

“We should look at this more like digital infrastructure,” Szoka said. “We have people that aren’t connected. How can they participate in what’s going on in the world? I’m not talking about Netflix and Hulu and all that kind of stuff. I’m talking about emails. I’m talking about running businesses online. I’m talking about things like that.”

The law from 2019 also allows electric cooperatives to build subsidiaries that service the internet to their members.

One cooperative that has done that is Roanoke Electric Cooperative, which covers Bertie, Gates, Halifax, Person and Northampton counties.

Roanoke’s director of broadband sales and marketing, Angela Washington, said that the co-op created Roanoke Connect as a way to bring internet access to the community as it once did with electricity.

“We saw a need years ago, given the digital divide, especially in rural areas in North Carolina and specifically our rural area, northeastern North Carolina,” she said.

Another similar bill in 2019, House Bill 431, would have allowed municipalities to lease fiber space to private ISPs.

That bill stalled in the General Assembly. Szoka, a co-sponsor, said he would have liked to see it passed to give municipalities more flexibility in reaching their rural residents.

But he said given the political will for broadband access amid the pandemic and the money being invested, he’s confident that many rural areas will start to see more access to high-speed internet.

“Two years from now, who knows, with all the money that’s coming in, I’m very encouraged that we’re going to be looking at a real different community,” Szoka said.

The Local Government Commission (LGC) has written a letter to elected officials in Spring Lake noting several concerns about the Board of Aldermen's choices in the past few weeks.

Their first concern is the hiring of a new interim manager. The Board of Aldermen held two closed session meetings where the board discussed and then swore in a new interim manager, Joe Durham. The problem lies in that the vote to hire Durham should be public. In addition, Durham was sworn in without having a contract in place. The LGC states that no payments can be legally made for Durham's services without a contract.

The second concern noted is the discussion of lifting a furlough on town employees put into effect on March 14. The furlough reduced pay for all general fund employees, reduced staff hours and closed Town Hall on Fridays to walk-in traffic. The LGC is concerned they were not consulted on lifting the furlough; the LGC still has complete control of the town's financial affairs.

"The town's board does not currently have the authority to make this decision unilaterally," the letter states.

The third concern involves Town Attorney Jonathan Charleston. Charleston submitted a resignation letter on March 23 and provided a 30-day notice. However, the LGC states that the board has not officially accepted his resignation, nor has it determined the last date of Charleston's employment. The LGC asks the board to clarify the final date of Charleston's employment and that the town stipulates a plan for obtaining legal representation.

A fourth concern noted in the LGC letter is that the Board of Aldermen voted to remove the LGC's presentation of interim financial information at the March 28 board meeting. The LGC states that while the presentation and information were not available when initially requested by the town in preparing the meeting's agenda, it was available that night.

The LGC is requesting the town respond to these concerns by April 13.

"The LGC and its staff are committed to assisting the town in implementing policies and practices that will restore the town's fiscal health and establish a path to long-term viability. We ask the board to demonstrate that same commitment," the letter states.

Alderman Raul Palacios posted on his Facebook page Wednesday afternoon that the letter from the LGC was a one-sided condemnation.

In his rebuttal to the LGC concerns, Palacios stated that the board would vote on Durham's hiring when they are presented with a contract. He also clarified that the board had not accepted Charleston's resignation yet.

Regarding the March 28 board meeting and the LGC report, Palacios writes that the board did remove the financial report from the agenda because they did not receive the report in advance of the meeting after requesting it three times. He says the LGC will be presenting the financial report at the April 24 scheduled meeting.

"The town of Spring Lake is better than it was a year ago because of internal control handling, LGC oversight and a change in leadership. My only hope is that the next town that receives an investigative audit report receives the help they need versus those hoping to gain political points," Palacios wrote.

Up & Coming Weekly has submitted requests for comments to Mayor Kia Anthony, Durham and Charleston but has not received comments at the time of this publication.

After lengthy debate, negotiations, and an offering of a "friendly" amendment, the Fayetteville City Council, on Monday, moved to consider decreasing the time motorists must pay for downtown on-street parking by two hours at the end of a weekday.

The motion to change the paid parking times from the current 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. to the proposed 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. was made by Mayor Pro Tem Kathy Jensen.

The Council voted 6 to 4 to accept the idea of reducing the weekday on-street paid parking by two hours during its first work session held in the newly redesigned City Council Chambers.

Mayor Mitch Colvin and Councilmembers Antonio Jones, Chris Davis, Larry Wright, and D.J. Haire voted in favor of Jensen's motion.

Council members Shakeyla Ingram, Courtney Banks-McLaughlin, Yvonne Kinston, and Johnny Dawkins opposed the change.

Ironically, it was Ingram – participating in Monday's workshop remotely – who initially asked that that on-street paid parking be changed from its current 12-hour time frame to 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. She said her request was based on conversations she had with downtown business owners. At first, she considered asking that on-street paid parking ceases at 5 p.m. because it was hurting downtown businesses.

"Paid parking after 5 p.m. and during events on weekends has a negative impact on the cultural and economic vitality of downtown," she states in her written request to add the issue to the Council's agenda. The Council adopted the on-street paid parking fee structure in July 2021.

Ingram also asked that the special event parking times be reduced before and immediately after the event, specifically baseball games at Segra Stadium. Currently, a $5 parking fee starts two hours before a baseball game until two hours after the game. She asked that those times be shortened to one hour before the game and a half-hour after the game. Additionally, she asked that the city no longer reserve often unused and remote parking deck spaces for baseball game attendees. Neither of those two requests was considered by the council for inclusion in the upcoming agenda.

Lee Jernigan, city traffic engineer, said that changing the times on the parking signs would cost about $8,000 to keep them aesthetically pleasing. Before the vote, he told the council that the financial loss incurred by Ingram's proposal to cease charging after 6 p.m. would total $83,000 annually, although the city would incur a savings of $12,900 by not having to pay the third-party contract to enforce parking after 6 p.m.

Jernigan also displayed a 2019 baseball parking revenue chart totaling $92,799. He said he used 2019 figures because it was the last year not affected by COVID. The chart showed that Ray Avenue and Franklin Street parking were the greatest revenue producers coming in a $23,636 and $24,166 respectively. The city's parking fund provides $158,726 for debt services for Segra Stadium.

City Council members unanimously put their support behind a preliminary plan Monday to use federal dollars to fund local businesses, housing and infrastructure.

The funds are from the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act passed by Congress in March 2021, from which the city of Fayetteville will receive more than $40 million.

The city will receive the funding in two sets. The first arrived last May, and the next round will come next month, according to the city.

The council accepted a preliminary plan for the first set of dollars at Monday’s agenda session. Once city officials finalize details for the federal funding, a detailed report will be presented to the council.

ARPA can be used on initiatives involving response to COVID-19, local income loss due to the pandemic and investments in water, sewer or broadband infrastructure.

According to federal guidelines, ARPA funds must be earmarked for a specific purpose by the end of 2024, and the dollars must be spent by 2026’s close.

Where the money will go
Each focus area — business, housing and infrastructure — will get $5 million from the first batch of $20 million from ARPA. The other $5 million will be used for administrative purposes.

Plans for the business portion include loans and grants for businesses and child care assistance.

The $5 million for housing would go to nonprofit agencies that service low- to moderate-income households.

A portion of the housing dollars would also go to a housing trust fund that would, among other things, fund construction of housing for households earning 80% of the area median income or less.

Council member D.J. Haire asked that city officials focus on housing near Amazon’s new plant currently under construction. The online retail powerhouse is projected to create up to 500 jobs by the time operation begins, Carolina Public Press previously reported.

Infrastructure funds would be used as contributions to existing construction associated with stormwater mitigation and renovations to public buildings, among other projects.

Some of the dollars would be used as matching funds with other federal programs, which would allow for increased investment, Assistant City Manager Adam Lindsay said.

“We are facing an opportunity to make a major, major advancement ahead in those projects if we spend the dollars in a strategic way,” Lindsay said.

“We can take those same dollars and turn them into a match, which means that leverages those dollars into a potential 5-to-1 ratio.”

While most teenagers are spending their free time on popular social media apps, John McAllister Jr. spent 10 weekends of his spare time clearing and marking a long forgotten cemetery on Fort Bragg training lands.

“I felt that this was something that would be important to help preserve the history of the area,” said McAllister. “It seemed like a task that no one else was willing or able to take on.”

McAllister and members of Boy Scout Troop 746 worked together to clean and remap unmarked burials at Muse Cemetery on Camp Mackall during free weekends between February and September of 2021. The overgrown cemetery had only seven known graves, marked with headstones dated between 1912 through 1928. While raking, burning and leaf-blowing to expose the land, the team of volunteers was able to expose burial pits, known because of the linear east to west depressions, some in rows, of 136 new, unmarked grave locations. Armed with just GPS and colored pinflags, they numbered and mapped out the cemetery – updating Fort Bragg’s cemetery map from seven to 143 burials. The troop also cleaned the headstones, installed a new gate and repaired perimeter fencing and posts.

With the help of the Fort Bragg’s Wildlife Branch, the pinflags were replaced with recycled metal posts and then numbered with permanent metal signage for the burials in January of 2022. To increase the protection of the site during controlled burnings or possible wildfires, the Fort Bragg Forestry Branch created a new firebreak on the perimeter of the cemetery.

The project significantly helped alleviate the strain on Fort Bragg’s Cultural Resources Program’s budget by helping them stay in compliance with North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office (NCSHPO) regulations, explained McAllister. It also helped with Federal and Army regulations regarding the maintenance of historic cemeteries on Federal land.

The original 884 acres of land surrounding the cemetery was purchased as part of the Whitehurst Tract in 1985 by the Army as a buffer to Camp Mackall, a large training area for Special Operations and many other units. The cemetery sits on a boundary road between Moore and Hoke counties, near the community of Addor, located just to the north.
The land, of the now hallowed ground, once belonged to sympathizer, John A. Campbell. In a 1913 deed, Campbell granted the two-acre site to three African-American Churches (one church was the Poplar Springs Baptist Church, still in existence today) in the area to use as their graveyard.

The three churches appear to have used Muse Cemetery as a graveyard around the 1913 to 1928 era. The Fort Bragg Cultural Resources Management Program plans to conduct more research to determine the families buried here, the local community and why the graves are unmarked.

According to the earliest known grave marker, Hazel Muse was buried in 1912. Muse died at age six and the 2-acre cemetery is named for her.

Once the brush was removed from the cemetery, the volunteers discovered that at least 20-30 burial pits were marked with local sandstone, a common headstone seen at other Fort Bragg cemeteries and used when “store-bought” markers could not be afforded. Four graves were marked with temporary metal tags with patent dates but no names. Other burial pits appeared to have no markers or they were removed, deteriorated, burned or stolen - no one can say at this point, explained Dr. Linda F. Carnes-McNaughton, RPA, Program Archaeologist and Curator, Fort Bragg Cultural Resources Program.

The site was last cleared in 1996. The standing headstones are surprisingly well-preserved and have a new “shine” to them thanks to the volunteers of Troop 746.
At least two of the readable markers show a 1918/1919 date, which suggests these deaths occurred during the 1918-1920 influenza epidemic. The graveyard is assumed to be a possible pandemic burial place that may have been hastily used, but no one knows for sure - yet.

“I hope that the fact that we identified so many more graves in the Muse cemetery than anyone thought were there will spur historians to look more closely at their records for the area to help determine how important the Muse cemetery was for previous generations,” McAllister said.

Carnes-McNaughton hopes that the project will generate interest and possible descendants to come forward to learn more about the known names that are laid to rest at Muse Cemetery, and possibly more about those who are unnamed.

Descendants of the occupants may be currently living in the surrounding counties of Fort Bragg and do not know that their ancestors are buried on what is now a portion of the military installation.

“Cemeteries are as much a part of the living communities in an area as they were when they were used,” said Carnes-McNaughton. “Engaging the descendants is how we gain more knowledge and keep the past present.”

NOTE: If upon reading this feature you realize the possibility of being a descendant or know someone who might be a descendant of one of the seven known buried at Muse Cemetery, please contact the Cultural Resources Management Program at, 910-396-6680. The seven known grave markers are:
Marker 1. S. V. CORE, Sept. 9, 1873 – Jan. 14, 1919
Marker 2. SARAH CORE, Aug. 1, 1865 – Aug. 20, 1915
Marker 7. ABAHARAM L. CLARK, Jan. 30, 1894 – May 30, 1914
Marker 20. HAZEL MUSE, Feb. 28, 1906 – Feb. 8, 1912
Marker 21. MARY ANN, WIFE OF D.A. BLUE, Sept. 1876 – Apr. 29, 1914, AGED 38 YEARS
Marker 30. ELLER, WIFE OF S.F. FERRELL, Mar. 1, 1855 – Aug. 3, 1918
Marker 33. MARTHA, WIFE OF FRED SHIPMAN, DIED July 15, 1928, AGE 26 YRS

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Photo Credit: Dr. Linda Carnes-McNaughton, Fort Bragg Archaeologist and Curator, cleans around Hazel Muse's headstone, the first known burial at Muse Cemetery located on Camp Mackall, Feb. 16. (Photo by Sharilyn Wells,Fort Bragg Public Affairs Office.)

You're an artist first, and then you marry an artist? So, how does that work? Is there a second when two "firsts" are involved? On April 12, Gallery 208 in Fayetteville opens an exhibit by two "firsts" in Situation and Location: Works by Katey and Dexter Morrill.

Katey and Dexter Morrill, both work in higher education, are professional artists and are happily married with one very young son. Anyone who knows the Morrills will readily report they live in harmony, share similar values and their co-parenting skills appear to be honed to perfect timing in all aspects.

The distinction is their choice of creative expression. Katey is a painter, schooled in the University of North Carolina -Greensboro figurative tradition — focusing on color as structure. Dexter's creative world is filled with his invented cartoon characters; "Game Night in Titan Towers," they are playing an electronic video game on a bright green couch.

Having an artist for a partner has its advantages. Katey shared how they both "were able to share their undergraduate and graduate experiences." During the long-quarantined COVID period, Katey decided to get out of the studio and go into nature to start a series of landscape paintings. For Katey, Dexter became a "major sounding board … when I questioned my landscape painting. His opinions challenged my perspectives, and while I do not always agree, his input made a huge difference in how I approached the landscape. We are each other's greatest critics and advocate."

Visitors to the gallery will enjoy the way Katey creates mood with color, mark-making and a pictorial push and pull. In an intuitive response to nature, Katey stated: "my mark-making investigates a combination of applied moments that exist as defined shapes while other strokes blend atmospherically. With attention towards intricate surfaces found in nature, I want the viewer to exist within the foreground of surface texture, searching for visual paths of contrast, chroma and illumination to guide them back towards the horizon."
Dexter echoed Katey's sentiments, how having an artist as a partner is special. "Especially someone with very different preferences and an alternate approach to creativity. It means you have someone that not only understands you and your creative impulses, but they also have a better perspective of your strengths and weaknesses."

As an illustrator and sequential artist, Dexter uses his talents to create characters who inhabit an unexpected and creative whimsical world. In sharp contrast to Katey, Dexter creates story narratives in his work. He shared: "I use my work to tell stories of adventure and heroism that evoke childhood nostalgia. My work is shaped by the stories that I experienced in the popular comics, animation, and video games of my childhood. I build my own stories and characters through my view of 1980's and 1990s pop culture aesthetics. Passing my ideas through this 'retro filter' allows my work to connect with others of my age group but also to reach out to inspire and inform future generations."

Visitors to Situation and Location will enjoy seeing what inspires Katey and Dexter and their approach to image-making. Their work is very different, but one has to be different to create what they do. At the end of the day, their commitment to share life and raise their child is a balanced creative lifestyle. It benefits them both, sharing all aspects of their life and having creative feedback and support for each other.

Both attended the University of New Hampshire. Katey earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Drawing and an Master of Fine Arts in Painting at the University of North Carolina. Dexter earned a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art (Drawing) and a Master of Art and Design degree in Animation and Interactive Media from North Carolina State University.
Katey is the full-time painting instructor in the Fine Art Program at Fayetteville Technical Community College. Dexter shares his professional training by teaching a full load of classes between Fayetteville State University and Methodist University.

Dexter has recently co-published an anthology with V. Santiago titled "Jack & Beans" in Breakneck Fantasy Anthology #1, published in February. Katey has participated in several one-person exhibitions in 2022: The Horowitz Gallery, Howard Community College, Columbia, Maryland, titled "Wandering Towards Ipseity;" The Wayne G. Basler Art Gallery at Northeast State Community College, in Blountville, Tennessee, and the Jeanne Hastings Art Gallery in Pinehurst, North Carolina.

Situation and Location: Works by Katey and Dexter Morrill opens April 12 at Gallery 208 on Rowan Street. The reception is between 5:30 to 7 p.m., and the public is invited to attend and meet the artists – two real-life superheroes!

The reception is always a pleasant time to meet the artists, listen to a short presentation by the artists, ask questions, and meet other artists and art advocates in the community. The exhibit will be in the gallery until June 20. Gallery 208 hours are Monday to Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For information, call Up & Coming Weekly at 910-484-6200.

The Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra will be closing out their 2021-2022 season with one last concert at Seabrook Auditorium at Fayetteville State University in a performance that will be sure to bring in film lovers of all ages.

The concert, "From Stage to Screen," will feature composers that began their careers writing for the concert stage but then shifted to writing for the silver screen. Some of these iconic pieces include Nino Rota's "Waltz and Love Theme" from "The Godfather" and Max Steiner's theme from the 1959 film "A Summer Place."

"It'll be a good show. We're really looking forward to finishing out the season strong, and we hope to see people there," Anna Meyer, community engagement manager for the FSO, told Up & Coming Weekly. "It will be the last opportunity to see us perform a large concert for a few months."

Looking at the 2021-2022 season, Meyer says that the season was very successful, especially in the latter half of the season. The "Too Hot To Handel" performance sold out, and the "Bohemian Rhapsody" concert had a strong audience turnout.

However, the FSO isn't taking a break during the summer. They will continue to perform at Symphony on Tap events scheduled throughout June. There will also be a planned community concert at Festival Park for the city's Fourth of July Celebration.

Summer camps will also be on offer for students of all ages. There will be three camps for elementary, middle school and high school-aged students. Registration for the camps is open and more information can be found at fayettevillesymphony.org.

The next concert season is currently being planned out and will start in September.

"We are currently planning our 2022-2023 season and hope to announce it within the next couple of months. You can expect to see a variety of chamber concerts, exciting programming and collaborations, and due to popular demand, a John Williams program," Meyer said.

From Stage to Screen will occur on April 9 at 7:30 p.m. Before the concert starts, the musicians will talk about the music they will be performing and explain the background of the composers. The pre-concert talk will begin at 6:40 p.m. The total concert run-time is an hour and 20 minutes.

A shuttle service will be available from Highland Presbyterian Church, 111 Highland Ave, to Seabrook Auditorium. Although reservations are not required, they are appreciated. To make a reservation for the shuttle bus, please call 910-433-4690. The shuttle will depart at 6:20 p.m.

Tickets may be purchased online, over the phone at 910-433-4690, or in person.

Tickets range from $5 to $25, and anyone five and younger can attend for free.

Alas and alack. I have become part of the fake news. I was suckered into publishing information that clearly was not so. Mea culpa. I would fall upon my sword if that would help recapture the tarnished wonder that is this column. Way back in November 2021, I wrote an article about Doug, the World's Largest Giant Potato, based upon information harvested from the esteemed British paper The Guardian.

To summarize that column, Doug was a 17-pound potato found in a New Zealand garden by Colin Craig-Brown. Farmer Brown put a hat on Doug, gave him a Facebook page, and hauled him around town on a cart. Doug became an internationally known celebrity potato. The story was beautiful until it wasn't.

Leave it to Jennifer Calfas of the Wall Street Journal to rain on Doug's parade. In a highly sourced recent article, Calfas blew the whistle on Doug. Tragically Doug turns out not to be a potato. He even was performing under an assumed name. The original story said his name was Doug, but it turns out his name is actually spelled Dug. Shame piled up on top of shame, like the Princess and the Pea. After investigating Dug's genetic heritage, the "Guinness Book of World Records" pronounced him a mere "tuber of a gourd," more specifically known as a part of the Cucurbitaceae family. As Colonel Kurtz, a.k.a. Marlon Brandon, once said at the end of "Apocalypse Now," "The horror, the horror…." Dug, like many others who have submitted their DNA to 23 And Me, discovered, to his dismay, that who you think you are can turn out to be who you think you aren't.

After a deep dive into Dug's endoplasmic reticulum by Big Potato, the New Zealand Plant and Food Research Department, Dug was drummed out of the potato family, like Chuck Conners in the old TV western "Branded." Chuck was falsely accused of being the coward of the cavalry and booted out of the Army. Recall the Branded Theme song: Dug was marked as one who ran/ What can you do when you're branded/ And you know you're a man (Or in Dug's case – a fake potato). It is unclear if there was a ceremony in which Dug's fake potato eyes were torn off, like Chuck Conner's epaulets in “Branded." (If you remember "Branded," kindly do not drive at night – you're too old to be on the highway after dark.)

Calfas quotes Dr. Samantha Baldwin saying: "He just wasn't behaving like a potato should. We couldn't identify DNA sequences that are specific to potatoes." Not one to give up on a vegetable mystery, Baldwin sent samples of Dug across the world to the Science & Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA) in Edinburgh, Scotland, for further study and advice. Once a would-be potato gets examined by the SASA, there is no holding back the truth. The SASA has ways of making you talk, which included Dug. SASA determined beyond a reasonable doubt that Dug was no small potato with a giant ego but, in reality, was a gourd.

When Farmer Brown learned the bad news about Dug's parentage, Calfas reports he said: "Initially we were both just gob smacked and quite deflated. … I felt, 'How can they say that about Dug? That's just blasphemy." Brown displayed his adeptness in rebranding Dug, telling the Wall Street Journal: "He's still the world's largest not-a-potato. I refer to him as Dug the Dominator from Down Under. My son said we should call him the 'Gourd Who Thought He Could.'" Dug is presently in Brown's freezer for safekeeping. Dug is chilling in good company. Walt Disney's head is allegedly cryogenically frozen underneath Sleeping Beauty's castle at Disneyland. Baseball Star Ted Williams' head was frozen and last reported resting on a tuna can, waiting for medical science to resuscitate him. If it is good enough for Walt and Ted, it is certainly good enough
for Dug.

If Dug is resuscitated, he will be able to defend his good name and biological identity. If Dug says, he identifies as a potato and not a cucumber, who are we to question him? If Elizabeth Warren identifies as a Native American and Schuyler Bailar, the Harvard swimming champion, identifies as a trans-woman, who is to deny Dug's identification as a potato? Potatoes can make a hash of things. Former Vice President Dan Quayle got into trouble by misspelling potato as 'potatoe.' The ancient Chiffon margarine ad warned people that it is not nice to fool Mother Nature. It is equally dangerous and insensitive to fool a potato into thinking it is a cucumber. Once Dug is unfrozen and restored to health, if Dug says he is a potato and not a cucumber, it is incumbent upon us to wake up, smell the coffee, and treat Dug as a potato.

Would be Tubers of the world, unite! Throw off your chains. Don't listen to the Man. As Ella Fitzgerald almost sang: "If you say potato/ And I say patahto / Let's call the whole thing off." Like a Viking, a potato by any other name would smell as sweet.

On Friday evening, April 15, Jews will usher in the festival of Passover, which celebrates God’s deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian bondage some 3300 years ago. The highlight of the week-long festival is the Seder, a ritual meal. The Hebrew word Seder means “order,” emphasizing the regularized structure of blessings, prayers, hymns and readings, accompanied by the consumption of ritual foods, all structured around a festive meal.

The formal text for the Seder is found in a book called the Haggadah, meaning “telling” (i.e., of the biblical exodus). In truth, it is not really a narrative of the biblical events but a series of ritualized experiences intended to explore the meaning and significance of those events for each later generation. The Haggadah text is not intended to be a mere liturgy but a scaffolding around which the Seder participants reflect on and discuss the meaning of the liberation God wrought for their ancestors and, most especially, its meaning for Jews today. Indeed, one of the central Haggadah teachings is to “see yourself as if you personally went forth from Egypt.”

If one engages the Seder honestly, it will be readily apparent that we are not exactly the same people we were a year ago. While current concerns, issues and experiences are unlikely to be identical to a year ago, we bring them to our confrontation with the same core text repeated each year. This Passover finds Ukraine in the midst of the horrific ravages of war. Most of us are so accustomed to relative comfort and affluence that we cannot truly relate to the cataclysmic upheavals confronting that eastern European nation. Millions are displaced internally, and millions more find themselves foreign refugees.

Perhaps the images and stories from Ukraine can, in a certain way, help us envision and understand the story of the exodus anew. What were the daily trials, tribulations and experiences confronted by the Israelites during their centuries of Egyptian captivity? What did it mean for them to have limited options, resources and hope? What was it like to depart one’s home at a moment’s notice, with a vague destination, a hardship-filled journey and countless unknowns (even as they were traveling towards a promised land)?
Perhaps this year, not only can the travails of the Ukrainians help us better grasp the experiences of the ancient Israelites, but maybe the biblical exodus can help us today clarify how we each think we should respond personally to the tragedy unfolding on the northern shores of the Black Sea.

The Jewish tradition teaches that we should be partners with God in the ongoing improvement of the world. The Seder experiences can be more than merely a time for celebrants to praise God and retell the ancient redemption of the Jewish people. And regardless of our faith, with the guidance of God’s teachings, perhaps we all can use the messages of the exodus to explore what it can mean to be partners with God in redeeming those in need of a present-day deliverance from affliction and suffering.

It's a dark, rainy and ominous night at Cape Fear Regional Theatre. The mansion has been cleaned. The dinner has been prepared. The weapons have been purchased. What is about to occur right in front of a packed audience is a murder … well, five of them to be exact — in the kitchen, in the billiard room and most definitely in the study.

And the audience will have the opportunity to guess if it was Mrs. Peacock or perhaps Colonel Mustard or Miss Scarlett that did the dastardly deed.

This week through April 10, "Clue: On Stage" appears at Cape Fear Regional Theatre. The most significant difference for usual theatergoers is that this production has a unique seating arrangement that immerses the audience in the play and makes them feel like part of the board game. The stage is surrounded on three sides by the audience's seats, with the actors being close enough to touch audience members in the bottom row during many scenes. Each row of seating has been built a bit higher than the next, and it gives the audience a great view of the action as the night unfolds. There's little chance of someone's head blocking any portion of this 90-minute, fast-paced production. However, the seating arrangement itself does have steep steps.

Due to the nature of the show, the crew at Cape Fear Regional Theatre had to get innovative. They created rooms that opened out of the walls or other rooms built on a turnstile. This set build allowed the entire audience to view various areas and rooms in the mansion while the actors ran around and the dead bodies stacked up. Parts of the stage would move while the actors dashed from one area to another -- speaking to the actors' precise movements. The actors do not take a break during the entire performance since the show has no intermission (a bathroom break would be well-advised before the show's beginning).

The show is quirky, humorous, and enthralling, just like the original 1985 movie, "Clue." Each of the actors delivered their lines well and really embodied the parts they played, down to how they would move across the stage or rush from one room to the next.

Wadsworth, played by Marc De la Concha, was a perfect match for his part. While he depicted a jollier version of Tim Curry's iconic character, it was a welcomed addition to this play. It did not seem like the humor of his role was outside the day-to-day norm for De la Concha. His part came across very naturally.

Miss Scarlett, played by Jennifer Newman, and Mrs. Peacock, played by Lynda Clark, were also notable characters in this production. Newman did well playing an upscale, sexy vixen who carries a biting wit to the party. Her character plays coolly against Mrs. Peacock's screams and hysterics, which often caught the entire audience's attention. Clark did not fail to deliver the theatrics of her character's role and embraced the neurotic and eccentric tendencies of Mrs. Peacock. While Mrs. Peacock's character is often ridiculous, the audience always wanted more lines from her or flops onto the floor, bloomers showing.

Colonel Mustard, played by Ryan Eggensperger, and Wadsworth's banter throughout the play was light-hearted and funny and kept the dialogue flowing. Wadsworth often took digs at Colonel Mustard for his general aloofness. It was hard to tell if it was just the characters or if the two actors were made to play on stage with each other. Colonel Mustard was the male embodiment of a Marilyn Monroe character and just as lovable.

This play is a must-see for anyone looking for an entertaining night out filled with many laughs. While those who have seen the movie "Clue" may think they know how this show ends, it certainly was worth taking the trip to watch this murder mystery unravel right before your eyes.
"Clue: On Stage" will run until April 10. Tickets are $25 each. More information about the play and tickets can be found by visiting www.cfrt.org.

I recently had the pleasure of seeing one of William Shakespeare's most controversial plays, Othello, performed beautifully at The Gilbert Theater in downtown Fayetteville. The charming theater, found on the second floor of Fascinate U Children's Museum, cleverly transformed into Cyprus. In this seaside city, mischief lurks around every corner.

Though simple, the show's set, designed by Vicki Lloyd, is highly effective in creating a sense of claustrophobia and urgency throughout the show. While the story's events take place over several days and move throughout different locations, the minimalist set design suggests a shorter timeline, making the play's tragic end all the more shocking.

At the play's start, Barbantio (played by Michael Ormiston) is informed that his daughter, Desdemona (played by Brianna Little), has eloped with a Black Moor, Othello (played by Josh Anderson), and he is none too pleased. Othello, a general and decent man with a good reputation, falls victim to the evil machinations of Iago (played by Michael Carney), a lower enlisted soldier driven by petty jealousy. Using no other weapon save for defamation, rumor and psychological manipulation, Iago is a poison that destroys all who run afoul of him.

True to Shakespeare's tragedies, a few characters provide much-needed comic relief. The play hosts enough soldiers, suitors and servants to keep the audience entertained.
While each actor in this play is worth noting, standouts include Anderson as Othello and Carney as Iago. This central relationship is riveting and, at times, challenging to watch. Anderson and Carney have a natural ease with one another on stage, making Iago's betrayal of Othello difficult to witness. Anderson brings an emotional vulnerability to the tragic-hero role. Carney's turn as the duplicitous Iago is nothing short of chilling.

Directors Lawrence Carlisle III and Montgomery Sutton have put together a fantastic show with a clear focus and biting commentary. The language screams "Shakespeare," but at no point does the play seem unapproachable or hard to understand. Issues of race, misogyny and the corrosive nature of envy are approached boldly but thoughtfully. The audience is left with a lot to ponder by the show's end.

In addition, the lighting design of Vicki Lloyd skillfully supports the drama unfolding on stage. Her clever use of light and color is a rich accompaniment to the play's darker themes. The costumes feel purposeful as each character is dressed to suit the nature of their position while remaining accessible. The characters' khaki pants, suit jackets and skinny jeans remind the audience that they're not so different from the people up on stage.

I wholeheartedly encourage you to see this production. Sutton and Lawrence create a taut psychological thriller that pulls you in from the first scene. If you're looking for something thought-provoking, culturally relevant and just plain entertaining, then come out and support these fine actors!

Othello runs Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. through April 10th at The Gilbert Theater, located at 116 Green St. For tickets, call 910-678-7186 or visit their website at https://gilberttheater.com/.

Cape Fear Valley Health Foundation is back with an all-new fundraiser for 2022, the Step Up 4 Health and Wellness Expo. The race and health festival will be held from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, April 9, at Festival Park in downtown Fayetteville.

The new fundraiser is based on their previous annual event, Ribbon Walk for Cancer. The organizers increased the scope of the legacy event to inspire the community with more race day activities and additional ways to support local healthcare services.

“For many years, the Ribbon Walk for Cancer has been a fantastic fundraising and awareness event that has profoundly benefitted patients seeking care at Cape Fear Valley Cancer Centers,” said Sabrina Brooks, vice president of the Cape Fear Valley Health Foundation, in a press release. “We think we can use our rich history of providing well-executed fundraising events like this and create a new event that will benefit patients in even more of our service lines.”

The expanded event includes a 4k or 1-mile race through downtown. Participants who sign up for the trek can raise money for one of six organizations that support patient healthcare and make a direct impact in the community: Friends of the Cancer Center, Children’s Services, the Community Alternatives Program, Cumberland County Medication Access Program, Heart Care or Pediatric Endocrinology. The race will both start and end at Festival Park.

The Ribbon Walk was canceled in 2020 and held as a virtual event in 2021. Organizers saw the opportunity to celebrate its return in 2022 in a big way.

“This is going to be one of the most important fundraising events in our community since we have the opportunity to support several different patient-care areas at Cape Fear Valley Health,” said Brooks. “After two years of being unable to have an event like this in person, we’re back, and it’s going to be bigger and better than ever.”

In addition to the race, this year’s event will feature a Wellness Expo to provide health-related education and information to the community. Attendees can get a free wellness check and learn about hands-only CPR. Vendors will include informational booths of Cape Fear Valley Health services and sponsor tables. The expo will also have food trucks on hand and music during the event. Admission is free, and no registration is required.

Registration for the 4k or 1-mile race is $30 for adults and $25 for children, and participants receive a t-shirt. Race participants can run in honor or remembrance of a loved one.

The event organizers encourage people to create teams with their colleagues, running clubs, churches or other community groups. To register, visit www.cfvfoundation.org/stepup4health.

Companies interested in supporting the event as a sponsor can contact Kristen Sellan at (910) 615-1514 or ksellan@capefearvalley.com.

Cape Fear Valley Health Foundation is the philanthropic arm of Cape Fear Valley Health System, a private, not-for-profit organization comprised of 1000+ beds across eight regional hospitals that provide care for more than one million patients
annually.

The Museum of the Cape Fear Historical Complex will be hosting Pastimes and Professions of the 19th Century on April 9, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event will be held at Arsenal Park, next to the Museum of the Cape Fear Historical Complex.

The festivities will include music from the Huckleberry Brothers, tintype photographs from fine art photographer Harry Taylor and a "medicine show" from Shades of Our Past, a living history group based in Williamsburg, Virginia.

"Medicine shows were entertainment acts that toured the country touting 'miracle cures' and other products," said Megan Maxwell, 1897 Poe House education and events coordinator. "These 'snake oil' medicines were promoted by a 'doctor' who engaged the audience with jokes, stories and various entertainers to sell his cures. It is definitely a comedic performance meant to entertain and engage people."

Shades of Our Past will be performing at 11 a.m., and at 2 p.m. Bill Rose will be playing the role of the traveling salesman for the event.
In addition to a live show, Harry Taylor, a North Carolina photographer, will be producing tintype photographs for visitors. Tintypes are positive images created on a piece of tin inside the camera and then developed in Taylor's mobile darkroom. A 4x5 photograph will cost $50, an 8x10 is $100.

The Huckleberry Brothers, a group formed in 2002, performs at historical events throughout North Carolina and will be entertaining visitors throughout the day. The band plays several historical instruments, including bones, harmonicas, accordions, mandolins and a five-string banjo.

"They may even teach you a traditional square dance," Maxwell said.

The planning for the event has taken on several different iterations. Initially planned for 2020, the event was shifted to 2021 due to COVID-19. It was once again rescheduled, this time to the spring of 2022.

"It was a challenge to find new and creative interpreters who were available in April due to the fact that there are so many other Civil War events in North Carolina that month," Maxwell said. "We wanted to do a Civil War-era event that focused more on civilian life during that time period, rather than a traditional military living history event."

Women on the homefront will be a focus at the Pastimes and Professions of the 19th Century event. The museum will demonstrate everyday tasks and pleasures of the average home in the Cape Fear region during and after the Civil War.

In addition, Nicholle Young, Fayetteville State University Archives and Special Collections technician will be creating a display detailing the Howard School and black churches of the 19th century.

"Religion and church life were an instrumental part of supporting communities and encouraging activism during this time period," Maxwell said. "The creation of the Howard School following the Civil War highlights African-American professionals who were teachers, politicians and community activists, such as Dr. E.E. Smith."

The Culbreth House, part of the VanStory History Village in the N.C. Civil War and Reconstruction History Center, also in Arsenal Park, will be open for visitors to tour. Visitors can learn more about the History Center's mission and current projects, according to Maxwell. The History Village features two other homes, the Arsenal House and the Davis House.

The Davis House will also be open to visitors.

Food will be available for event-goers. Scotty's All American Food Truck will be present, as well as Cool Beans Coffee and Ice Cream.

The event starts at 10 a.m. on April 9 and is free to the public. For more information, visit https://museumofthecapefear.ncdcr.gov/events/pastimes-and-professions-19th-century.

Last Sunday, April 3, marked the return of the Dirtbag Ales Brewery weekly Farmer's Markets. Vendors set up tables, under fabric gazebos laid their wares out with care. Lines often form before the market has officially opened at some stalls. The markets at Dirtbag began in April of 2016 before completing the facility that houses the brewery and taproom. And they have only grown. Dirtbag Ales Brewery now hosts five different types of markets, and they will run all year long.

"They have turned into this whole thing," said Shannon Loper, operations manager and event and marketing coordinator at Dirtbag Ales Brewery.

Weekly Farmers Markets
The farmer's markets were born from a love of all things local.

"The Farmer's Market came from our love and desire to source locally for our beers. So, strawberries, herbs and any type of fruit that we can source locally any type of grain, hops, any of that stuff that we can get North Carolina made we purchase, and we put into our products," Loper said.

This love of all things local is also evident in their Heroes Homecoming Pilsner.

"It is completely North Carolina-made, from the yeast to the grains to the hops to the label that went on the front of the can that we collaborated with the city of Fayetteville. Every bit of it was done right here in North Carolina," Loper explained.

Open every Sunday from early April until late November; the Dirtbag Ales Farmers Market boasts a variety of well-vetted vendors. Great care is taken to ensure the vendors and shoppers are well protected, and the items on offer meet all rules and regulations.

"We have quite a few rules that we established from the beginning," Loper said.

The market requires relevant health or Department of Agriculture inspections, and all vendors must have liability insurance.

Dirtbag Ales Brewery Market Manager Michelle Bruening realized early on in her position that certain vendors were no longer participating as their businesses grew and shifted into full-time brick-and-mortar ventures.

"You have to think of us as like an incubator. People come here … and they grow, and you have to be proud of them when they move into a brick-and-mortar establishment, and you have to say, 'you guys did it, good job,' and now look for somebody to replace them," Loper explained.
Bruening and Loper have a lot to be proud of; Napkins chef Brian Graybill is set to open Pan, a new restaurant on Hay Street, Ambery Edge, owner of Authentique food truck, is opening Vibe also on Hay Street, Vagabond Coffee opened on Hay Street in November, and Fräulein Pottery is set to open tomorrow, April 7 in downtown Fayetteville, to name just a few.

Misfit Markets transform into Night Markets
"We would have all the applications from these beautiful artists and these wonderful vendors that were not necessarily a fit for the Farmers Market," Loper said.

After many applications from vendors that were not quite the right fit for the farmer's market, Dirtbag decided to create the Misfit Market to offer them a venue to sell, and they have now transformed this market into their new Night Market.

"The Misfit Markets, we are super excited about this year because we are turning [them] into a full-blown Night Market," Loper explained.

The new Night Markets will be held on the last Wednesday of every month from April through November.
Marketgoers ' favorites will be in attendance, and Dirtbag has added café lights to their building and around their pavilion to provide ambiance and light. The vendors will be set up in and around the parking lot and the pavilion.

Bruening and Loper said they have 27 vendors lined up for the New Night Markets at the time of this interview.

"I really like how small it is because you feel more like you can talk to the vendor about their passion. It's a lot of people who are very passionate about what they are doing," Bruening said.

Shop Small Market
Loper's origins in the Women's Business Center of Fayetteville led to the inception of the Shop Small Market. While at the WBC, Loper helped with their capacity as a Shop Small Ambassador.

"When I left the WBC, we did a small shop market at the Legion Road location, and then we carried it over to here," Loper said.

The first year they had 12 to 15 vendors and only used social media to advertise this year, they used radio ads, and Bruening organized 54 vendors. Since its beginnings in 2016, the market has also seen the addition of music and food vendors. All vendors come from within 100 miles of the brewery, and it is held annually on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

"The impact on the local economy of what a small shop market does like that is huge, especially right before the holidays for some of these small businesses," Loper said.

German Christmas Market
The German Christmas Market originated with Hyatt Hakim, the brewery's long-term yoga instructor. The event started in her yoga studio.

"Hyatt's German and she was looking for a little bit of home, and Tito [Vernanrdo 'Tito' Simmons-Valenzuela, co-owner and brewer] brews fantastic German-style beers, so it was originally just a natural co-host for us. We were providing the German beers, and she was providing the Germans," Loper Laughed.

Dirtbag Ales Brewery donated beer for the first event, and the following year the moved it moved to its Legion Road location. This past year marked the sixth German Christmas Market, and it will be back next year.

Mini Markets
The Mini Markets have just ended for the year. These Markets run every other Sunday from January to March. They are exactly what they sound like — a smaller version of the Farmer's Market. A small selection of vendor shops in the Dirtbag Ales Brewery pavilion.

"People still wanted to be able to get their groceries when the Spring and Summer markets went away," Loper explained.

Markets are busy days at the brewery, and Loper attributes this to the support of the local community.

"I think that when Tito and I came here, and Jerry and Eric, the partners, it was huge for us to be able to make a space that represented our community … and to try to help as many small businesses as we possibly can. And non-profits, we work with a ton of non-profits as well," Loper said. "It's just the community wanted us to succeed, so they are behind us 100%, I feel like."

This year the markets will be featuring different non-profits as well. Visitors can learn about Kids Peace, an organization that supports local foster families, the John E. Pechmann Fishing Center, and N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission education facility or Fizzy Friends Bath Bombs, a pair of young entrepreneurs who donate their proceeds to support local school children. Dirtbag hopes to feature a new non-profit in every market. Any non-profits interested in space are invited to email vendors@dirtbagales.com.

Regardless of what marketgoers are searching for, Dirtbag seems to have a market on their calendar to help them find it. For additional information on the Dirtbag Ales Brewery Markets, visit their website www.dirtbagales.com or their Facebook page, Dirtbag Ales Farmers Market.

Partnerships with Cumberland County and the YMCA will make an aquatic center possible in Hope Mills, according to the town's board of commissioners.

Hope Mills Commissioners met with the Cumberland County financial committee members, county commissioners, and the Cumberland County Board of Education to discuss and approve a partnership to build the aquatic center. All of the commissioners and committee members unanimously approved the partnership to help bring the aquatic center to Hope Mills.

"The YMCA as of today raised close to 2 million dollars to build a structure," said Mayor Jackie Warner. "So it's on and we're looking at about 18 months from when we can break ground. We can't break ground until we raise about 2.5 to 3 million dollars, but it's looking like that's going to happen."

The majority of the meeting was spent in closed session to hear reports on "investigations of alleged criminal conduct.’’

Cumberland County came one step closer on Monday to getting construction on a multi-purpose event center started.

The Board of Commissioners voted in the form of a resolution to establish a capital project budget for the center, and in an affiliated motion to hire a firm to represent the county in all its duties and responsibilities in getting the more than $80 million center built.

The county voted to contract with MBP Carolinas for “owner’s representative services” for $2.2 million. A Board of Commissioners’ committee, earlier this year recommended contracting with MBP Carolinas for owner’s representation services, but the county wanted to strengthen some of the agreements within the proposed contract before voting to accept the contract at today’s meeting.

County Manager Amy Cannon told the board that having an owner’s representative is a new approach to government construction and should speed up the construction of the facility. She made those comments after Commissioner Michael Boose complained that government construction projects take too long to complete. The multi-event center is due for completion in the fall of 2025.

As an owner’s representative, MBP Carolinas will be involved in developing a budget for the project, updating the board and the public on the project, hiring a construction manager and site analysis basically working with the county from inception to completion of the facility, Cannon said.

In other action, the board agreed to sell a number of county-owned properties, some of which were acquired through foreclosure sales.

The board approved the sale of ten parcels for a total of $36,369.85. However, some board members balked after realizing that the sales were well below the actual tax value, which totaled $86,001. The county attorney said the offers and acceptances are in keeping with current county policy. Board member Jimmy Keefe, however, convinced his fellow board members to take off the agenda for approval one parcel of the property consisting of 12 acres adjacent to the Cape Fear River until county staff and board members can more thoroughly review and familiarize themselves with the surplus property sale policy. The proposed sale of the property was for $14,368.98 and had a tax value of $62,000.

The Cumberland County Sheriff's Office is investigating what led up to a son allegedly killing his father Monday night.

Deputies arrived at a domestic disturbance along Manley Street on April 4 around 10:46 p.m. Deputies found 56-year-old Jason Albury unresponsive outside of his home. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The victim's son, 32-year-old Brandon Sessoms, had self-inflicted injuries and was transported to Cape Fear Valley Medical Center. He underwent surgery and is now being charged for 2nd Degree Murder. Sessoms has not been booked into the Cumberland County Detention Center at the time of publishing this article.

The circumstances surrounding this homicide are under investigation. If anyone has any information regarding this investigation, please call the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office Homicide Detective Sergeant R. Brinkley at (910) 677-5463 or Crimestoppers at (910) 483-TIPS (8477). Crimestoppers' information may also be submitted electronically by visiting http://fay-nccrimestoppers.org.