America is facing a national public health crisis. Each day, 22 veterans, service members, reservists and members of the National Guard die by suicide, totaling more than 7,300 deaths per year. Three veterans shot and killed themselves at Veterans Affairs facilities within five days late last month. While Veterans Affairs has been the public face of the issue, veterans are in many ways an amplification of the same factors that drive suicide in the broader American population: a shortage of mental health resources, a lack of funding for suicide research, and easy access to guns, according to the VA National Suicide Data Report.

The 2015 Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for Americans Act requires officials to provide annual reviews of mental health care and suicide prevention programs. It found that veterans receive good mental health care at many Department of Veterans Affairs centers, but that has not decreased suicide rates. Some programs to address veteran suicide are showing promise. A relatively new program, known as the Mayor’s Challenge, helps city and state governments reach more veterans through public health programs via Veterans Affairs partnerships. Separately, former Fayetteville Mayor Nat Robertson collaborated with retired Fayetteville VA Medical Center Director Elizabeth Goolsby to launch a local outreach challenge on veterans’ needs.

A study of nine VA emergency rooms found 45 percent fewer suicidal behaviors among patients who received follow-up outreach after suicide attempts. As a result of this study, all VA medical centers have put in place a safety planning intervention program. Yet about 70 percent of veterans do not regularly use VA access to federal facilities that may be viewed as central to suicide prevention.

Exposure to combat is considered a leading cause of post-traumatic stress disorder among veterans. PTSD is a psychiatric condition in people who experienced or witnessed a traumatic event. “We need to expand our understanding of mental health among veterans,” said Rep. Mark Takano, DCalif., chairman of the House Veteran Affairs Committee. “We need to commit to providing the resources needed to implement a comprehensive plan.”

A 2014 Veterans Health Administration audit unearthed rampant problems, including allegations that scheduling delays led to 40 Arizona veterans dying from lack of timely medical care by the VA.

“Providing same-day 24/7 access to mental health crisis intervention and support for veterans, service members and their families is our top clinical priority,” said VA secretary Robert Wilkie in an April 16 press release. “It’s important that all Veterans, their family and friends know that help is easily available.”

Yet myriad political, structural and cultural impediments exist far beyond Washington, D.C. Many suicide experts believe that a lack of proper training in suicide prevention in the broader mental health field, hobbled by a lack of research, is central to the issue.

The VA’s Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention is a national leader in making high-quality mental health care and suicide prevention resources available to veterans through a full spectrum of outpatient, inpatient and mental health services. Veterans in crisis — or those concerned about one — should call the Veterans Crisis Line at 800-273-8255 and press 1, send a text message to 838255, or chat online at VeteransCrisisLine.net.

The Cumberland County Department of Public Health has been notified by the state that a local individual thought to have been infected with tuberculosis did not in fact have TB. Parents, faculty and staff at Village Christian Academy were so advised in late April. The Cumberland County Health Department received updated information and a recommendation from the Public Health Division of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services about a TB contact investigation conducted in February. Some individuals at the school were believed to have been exposed to a case of infectious tuberculosis. An investigation conducted by the state revealed that the individual was not infected.

The determination was made just as a scheduled second round of testing was to begin. Initial positive lab tests needed to be confirmed by growing the TB germ in culture, which can take six weeks from the time a specimen has been collected. None of the specimens collected, including the specimen that had the initial positive test, have grown the TB germ.

“We are notifying everyone that a second round of testing is not needed, based on results received from the state lab,” said Cumberland County Interim Health Director Duane Holder. “The contact investigation and first round of skin testing was the best course of action to protect potentially exposed students, faculty and staff,” he said.

“The Health Department acted according to state protocol … we had to wait six weeks for the culture results from the state lab.”

Consumption, or the White Plague, as TB was once known, has been around since the dawn of man. In 2014, a DNA study of a tuberculosis genome reconstructed from remains in southern Peru suggested that human tuberculosis is less than 6,000 years old. But there is evidence that the first tuberculosis infection happened about 9,000 years ago.

By the 1960s, industrialized nations were seeing the health benefits of economic improvement, better sanitation, more widespread education and particularly the establishment of public health practices for tuberculosis control. The rate of deaths from tuberculosis in England and Wales dropped from 190 per 100,000 population in 1900 to seven per 100,000 in the early 1960s. In the United States during the same period, it dropped from 194 per 100,000 to approximately six per 100,000. In the popular mind, tuberculosis was then a disease of the past.

However, in the mid-1980s, the number of deaths caused by TB began to rise again in developed countries. The disease’s resurgence was attributed in part to increased immigration of people from regions where tuberculosis was prevalent, and the spread of HIV. In the early 2000s, as a result of the rapid implementation of global efforts to combat the disease, the incidence rates stabilized. Globally today, the mortality rate from tuberculosis remains between 1.6 million and two million deaths per year. Anyone with questions about TB testing should contact the Cumberland County Health Department at 910-433-3638 Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

A new election in the 9th Congressional District, which includes part of Cumberland County, will be held Tuesday, May 14. Only registered Republican and unaffiliated voters can vote in the primary election. One-stop early voting began April 24 and runs through May 10, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the Board of Elections Office, 227 Fountainhead Lane.

A second primary will be held Sept. 10, if necessary, followed by the general election Nov. 5. If a second primary is not necessary, the general election for the 9th Congressional District will be Sept. 10.

The 9th Congressional District covers most of eastern and southern Cumberland County. The State Board of Elections ordered the new election in the 9th Congressional District after determining that irregularities occurred to such an extent that they tainted the results of the general election last November and cast doubt on its fairness.

The Cumberland County Board of Elections office is located in the E. Newton Smith Center on Fountainhead Lane, Fayetteville. The office is open Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call 910-678-7733 or go to co.cumberland.nc.us/election-board for more information. 

Fort Bragg food spoilage compensation

A week after a cyberattack exercise shut down electricity on Fort Bragg, leadership is offering soldiers and their families a chance to recoup their losses. Post residents can file claims with the judge advocate general’s office, according to a May 2 Facebook post.

“Following the exercise, we’ve received a number of inquiries about claims for food that spoiled as a result of the power outage,” the statement said.

The simulated cyberattack, meant to coincide with an 82nd Airborne Division deployment exercise, was meant to test the community’s ability to rebound from an attack. The outage began the night of April 24 and lasted for about 12 hours, affecting everything from food to refrigerated medications, both those stored in homes but also at pharmacies on post.

Post officials issued an apology later that afternoon. JAG’s claims division is accepting reports for reimbursements. Peter Straub, the chief of the division, can be reached at 910-396-7505 or peter.j.straub.civ@mail.mil.

Army border support

The Pentagon may send another 300 troops to the U.S. southern border in support roles that could put them in contact with migrants and thus mark a break from current practice, officials said. Charles Summers, a spokesman for Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, said the proposal was developed as a response to a call from the Department of Homeland Security for additional military assistance. The new troops would be in support roles such as driving buses with detained migrants and providing meals to them.

There currently are about 2,900 active-duty soldiers at the border, plus about 2,000 National Guard troops. The policy includes a prohibition on direct contact with migrants, which is meant to emphasize that the military is not in a law enforcement role.

Summers said the proposal being considered by Shanahan would include an “amendment” to the current policy on avoiding contact with migrants.

Fayetteville Beautiful annual cleanup

The annual Fayetteville Beautiful citywidevcleanup is scheduled for Saturday, May 11.vDedicated to reducing litter, encouraging wastevreduction and promoting beautification projectsvthrough community engagement, FayettevillevBeautiful asks residents to pick up litter by signingvup at Fayettevillebeautiful.com, which is highlightedvon the Fayetteville Beautiful homepagevwith the words “Citywide Cleanup Map” in red.

Volunteers should meet at the entrance to CrossvCreek Park on Green Street from 8-9:30 a.m. Orangevbags, gloves and bottled water will be provided.

During last year’s event, 478 volunteers pickedvup 9,722 pounds of litter. Over the years, duringv14 citywide cleanups, more than 147 tons of littervhave been collected along 216 miles of roads.vFayetteville Beautiful, in partnership with KeepvAmerica Beautiful and Keep NC Beautiful, encouragesvcitizens to create and maintain a cleanervand more beautiful Fayetteville.

City citizen service

The city of Fayetteville has some vacancies to fill on a couple of citizen commissions. The Millennial Advisory Commission is new and has 13 openings. The Redevelopment Commission has one opening. Applications will be accepted until midnight May 16. Qualified applicants will be presented to City Council’s appointments committee in May. The Council will approve board and commission members at a regular meeting in June. The city accepts applications via the city website at www.fayettevillenc.gov.

Motorcycle security

The Fayetteville Police Department’s Property Unit reminds motorcycle owners to secure their bikes properly to avoid theft as warmer weather sets in. Most motorcycle larcenies reported to police occur in apartment complexes, where motorcycles have been left unsecured in the open. Owners are encouraged to lock their bikes to protect their investments. They are advised to park in well-lit areas.

Thefts of vans and trucks are often associated with the theft of motorcycles. Thieves sometimes use trucks to facilitate motorcycle thefts during this time of the year.

If you observe anything that appears to be suspicious, especially if you see vehicles driving slowly through an apartment complex during the hours of darkness or someone loading a motorcycle into a van, call 911.

At a recent North Carolina Department of Transportation committee meeting, my John Locke Foundation colleague Joe Coletti offered this blunt assessment to state policymakers: our system of road financing isn’t sustainable.

“There simply isn’t enough money to do it all,” Coletti told the committee. He observed that the amount of gas taxes collected per mile traveled is lower in inflation-adjusted terms than it was a generation ago. Our cars get more miles to the gallon, for one thing, so a per-gallon tax can’t keep up. And a growing, albeit still small, share of our cars are electric or hybrid vehicles for which the gas tax is obviously inadequate as a means of charging drivers to use government roads.

There’s really no doubt that we will have to move eventually to a system that charges drivers according to mileage and vehicle weight. Such a system should also vary the price according to time and congestion, just as utilities charge more for electricity during peak hours.

Getting from here to there will be tricky, however. Tolling new roads or lanes can be unpopular, at least at first, as policymakers in North Carolina and elsewhere have discovered. For the entire road-andstreet system as a whole, a GPS-based mileage charge could get the job done. But it would invite even more public scrutiny.

Of course, no system for funding transportation is free from major challenges. Raising gas and car taxes angers the public, as well. Dipping into general revenues, from sources such as sales and property taxes, may be more salable politically but has the obvious defect of severing the relationship between the cost individuals impose on the road system and the price they pay to use it. It is inequitable and inefficient.

Coletti’s point is not simply that we have a mismatch between tools and tasks. More broadly, we have a mismatch between means and ends. Because North Carolina and other states rely so much on transfers from the federal government, for example, and those federal dollars come with lots of strings, we end up using scarce dollars to build new roads rather than maintaining our existing ones, even though the latter ought to be the higher priority.

And the truth is that while transportation investment can be productive, it isn’t infinitely valuable. No matter how we pay for new roads, some of the ones currently on North Carolina’s wish list are unlikely ever to be built — and we should be okay with that. The extent to which their long-term benefits, expressed as greater mobility or safety or economic development, will exceed their long-term cost is unclear.

Just as most other valuable things do, roads have diminishing marginal utility. When North Carolina built its first true statewide road network in the early decades of the 20th century, the payoff was gigantic. During successive waves of road-building — during the interstate boom, for example, and the belt-andconnector program enacted during the administration of Gov. Jim Martin — the benefits also exceeded the costs, although not by as much.

There are still valuable roads and lanes to build, to be sure, and I’m happy to report that state policymakers have done their part to move such projects forward. North Carolina is spending hundreds of millions more a year on road construction and maintenance than we used to because state legislators and governors of both parties cooperated to reduce dramatically the transfer of gas and car taxes to nonhighway purposes.

But no reform of our financing system, no matter how carefully designed and skillfully marketed, can generate enough revenue to fund all desired roads at a cost that won’t provoke intense opposition from taxpayers. As Coletti put it, “because there is never enough money to do everything that everyone thinks should be done, the state needs to identify the core needs for transportation funding.”

Thus, policymakers must set firm priorities and stick to them. In many cases, the right answer will consist not of “how to” but, simply, “no.”

Who would not want a box of awesome? I know I do. I discovered the world’s greatest company name one afternoon while on walkabout through the wilds of Haymount. There is a company advertising on the internet named Box of Awesome. The name says it all. Buy our product and you will get a box of awesome stuff. The advertising genius who came up with this company name should win Advertising Age’s Grand Prize for 2019. I salute you, sir or madam. You have my undying admiration.

How did I discover this amazing company, you ask? To keep myself motivated while walking through the late afternoons of life, I listen to news channels, Howard Stern or the History of Byzantium podcast. The company Box of Awesome frequently advertises on the internet. The concept is brilliant in its effectiveness and simplicity. You sign up to pay $45 a month. You take a short, very simplified online version of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory test, which determines what sort of awesome stuff suits your personality. Box of Awesome then sends you a box full of different awesome stuff each month.

The Box of Awesome analytics formula does its magic by using your personal information you provided. Presto, the computer figures out what sort of stuff you would like to receive and then sends it to you.

It takes the worry and thought out of deciding what you want in life. Let the machine’s siliconbased analytics decide for you. In our brave new world, you don’t need free will. Determinism can be outsourced to the cloud. The computer knows better than you do what you want.

Box of Awesome digitizes impulse buying so you don’t have to think at all. The part of the brain that you used to use to make an impulse buy from the rows of candy in the checkout line at the grocery store can now safely wither away like the muscles you used to use to exercise. You do get a few days’ notice of the contents of the box. You can say no if you decide you don’t want what the computer says you want. But who is going to say no to the computer? It’s like the old Record of the Month club. You could notify RCA you didn’t want the next record, but no one ever got around to saying no before the new Burl Ives record hit your front door.

The concept reminded me of “National Lampoon’s European Vacation,” a movie in which the Griswalds compete in the Pig in a Poke TV quiz show. What is more fun than getting a surprise prize? Two families compete with each other dressed up in pink pig costumes. The theme song of the show has the immortal lines: “Pig in a poke. It pays to be a glutton. Oink, Oink!/You could win all or nothing, Pig in a Poke.”

The families don’t know what fabulous prize they are playing for. Could it be a year’s supply of Johnson Turtle Wax? A Kelvinator home freezer? No one knows until the end of the show. Fortunately, the Griswalds are not playing against “Jeopardy’s” newest phenomenon, James Holzhauer, who would have squashed them into the dust like an angry elephant tap dancing on a rhino poacher. For reasons too bizarre to go into today, the Griswalds win Pig in a Poke and get a free trip to Europe.

The Box of Awesome concept also borrows from the late, great Monty Hall’s “Let’s Make a Deal” TV show. With Monty, you could trade what you had in the box for Door Number Three or vice versa. You didn’t know what was behind Door Number Three. It could be a brandnew 1968 Chevy Nova. Or it could be a set of lawn furniture.

The lure of the unknown is a great motivator and inhibitor of common sense. With a Box of Awesome, you do get to see what is in the box before it arrives, but who in their right mind is going to say no to a box of awesome stuff?

The same principle applies to the upcoming 2020 presidential election. We know what we have in Dear Glorious Very Stable Genius Leader. We don’t know what Dear Leader will do next. What kookie thing will he do to entertain us? Vote for him and find out. It’s fun to be entertained and not have to think. The Roman Emperors did pretty well for centuries keeping themselves in power by entertaining the masses with bread and circuses.

From the Democrats’ side of the ledger, we have more than 20 candidates who each are promising a Box of Awesome to the voters. Free college? Check. Green bill of rights? Check. Fresh face? Check. Ability to lose close elections? Check. Oldest president to ever be sworn into office? Check. Abolish the Electoral College? Check. It’s Pig in a Poke once again, with both sides promising the voters a Box of Awesome.

So, what have we learned today? Thinking for yourself is such an uncool, antiquated, 20th-century concept. Let the computer’s analytics decide what you want. Big Brother knows what is best for you. As our old buddy George Orwell pointed out in “1984,” when Winston says: “But it was all right. Everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.” You, too, can love Big Brother.

Even Hollywood screenwriters would be hard pressed to come up with this wild scenario — even though it does have the makings of a hit movie. 

A top aide to the president of the United States and leader of the free world is married to a man who advocates for her boss’s impeachment on the op/ed pages of The Washington Post. The aide has the gift of gab and can spin anything for the president. Her husband practices law and wordsmiths the president’s demise on the side.

Meet Kellyanne and George Conway.

She is the aide who told ABC “the president is not going to jail. He’s is staying in the White House for five-and-a-half more years.” He is the spouse who takes a lesson from the president’s own playbook, referring to him as “Deranged Donald” and repeatedly calling for Trump’s impeachment.

It is a fair guess that the Conways’ pillow talk is a lot different from what Hollywood screenwriters penned for Doris Day and Rock Hudson way back when. Even Trump has jumped into the Conway fray — on Kellyanne’s side, naturally enough — describing his loyal aide’s husband as a “stonecold loser and husband from hell.”

The Conways, worth $39 million according to financial disclosures, reportedly live with their four children in a 15,000-square foot home in a tony Washington neighborhood, which is probably a good thing. It is certainly understandable if they each need a little space to themselves.

In fairness, none of us knows what is going on in other people’s marriages, and certainly not in those of people we only read about and see on television. But is it fair and interesting to view the Conways as a metaphor for what is going on all over our nation — in marriages, in workplaces and among friends and neighbors.

No one is neutral on Trump. Some of us adore his candor, if you describe his public utterances as “candid.” Some of us are so repulsed by our president that we can barely listen to him. And some of us are just praying for this to be over soon. We all have our own opinions about Trump, and Kellyanne and George Conway are doing a great job of laying out and articulating our great national divide.

Our national landscape is now so deeply bifurcated that millions of us no longer feel the same way about friends, neighbors and even relatives who hold political views, and especially views about Trump, that differ from our own. We are now isolated in Camp Donald Trump and Camp Anybody but Donald Trump, and there appears to be little appetite for or interest in crossing the great divide from either camp.

This cannot be good for our nation today or for our democracy in the long run.

There is always the chance, of course, that the Conways are conning us. Maybe he is her insurance policy in case Trump does implode, and maybe she his lucky government charm in case we do face four more years. But I think not. The Conways seem deeply and seriously entrenched in their positions, very much lacking the humor and deftness of another politically divided long married couple. Republican Mary Matalin and Democrat James Carville have sparred with each other for years and do so with wit and affection. They do not name-call or aim for the jugular.

So, in the tradition of the cliffhanger, are the still-married Conways a sign that ordinary Americans might survive our ongoing great divide? Are Kellyanne and George symbols of hope for the rest of us? Or do they bode a more permanent schism in our national unity? Will they, as Buck Owens so poignantly sang, “split the blanket down the middle,” or will they find a way to be cozy as a family in their Washington mega-mansion?

Only time will tell.

Photo: Presidential adviser Kellyanne Conway

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia

Many Fayetteville and Cumberland County community leaders, elected officials and residents are scratching their heads. They’re wondering what in the world Mayor Mitch Colvin’s motives are for his abrupt 180 on supporting the $46 million North Carolina Civil War & Reconstruction History Center that has been destined for a statewide home here in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

I’m not a mind reader. However, my guess is it has something to do with some form of political maneuvering.

What sense does it make for a mayor who has led an aggressive charge for Fayetteville’s growth and economic development to suddenly and without cause object to a sanctioned economic tour de force like the History Center? It’s especially puzzling since Colvin initially endorsed the project and played a significant role in advocating for and advancing it. Colvin’s reversed position jeopardizes the chances of locating this state-owned museum in our community.

It defies logic when a smart man like Colvin goes on FakeBook (not a typo) and compares the combined $17 million budget requests of Greensboro and Asheville to a funding request for the construction of a $46 million state-owned museum. However, in the same post he did say something that was true if put in the proper context. He said, “Tell your state representatives we deserve more than this.”

How right he is. Fayetteville does deserve more. About $46 million worth — plus more jobs, more visitors via tourism, more statewide and nationwide recognition and more tax revenues from increased economic activity.

Colvin is a smart political operative, and his colleagues are all aware that this abrupt change of heart has an underlying motive. Unfortunately, it doesn’t make any difference what that motive is. Sudden, unexplained changes have never been good or beneficial to the taxpaying residents of Fayetteville. It is this kind of inside political baseball that has proven to be Fayetteville’s nemesis while reinforcing that haunting localized adage, “Fayetteville never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”

Besides abandoning his colleagues, Colvin may find it difficult to defend his position on several fronts. The most difficult will be his claim that Fayetteville residents have more pressing needs. Does he really want to go there? Especially when the city is confronting some pretty harsh criticism for spending $14 million of taxpayers’ money on a parking deck they cannot use? And, even more importantly, when the downtown development project — which includes the baseball stadium, the Prince Charles apartments and the classy hotel and office building housing those apartments — is completed, more money should be coming into the community. This economic stimulus plan publicly boasted it will generate $100 plus million of economic vitality to our city.

If this is still the case, then we are in the winner’s circle by adding this proposed statewide History Center to our city. Current estimates are that it will bring another $20 million in revenue to our community. If this isn’t enough to question Colvin’s decision and judgement, consider this: Colvin believes in education and awareness. In the past, he has joined dozens of local scholars, educators and community, civic and governmental officials in realizing the need for factual historical awareness and education about the Civil War and the Reconstruction periods.

Take a close look at downtown Fayetteville and you will see Colvin has provided us the leadership we desperately need to move the community forward. The question many are asking in response to his changed position is: Why stop now?

Next up, a Fayetteville Performing Arts Center? We’ll see. Let’s all hope the mayor sides with the people. Thank you for reading Up & Coming Weekly.

“It’s not easy, day to day, to get an upclose and personal look at what lineworkers do,” said Carolyn Justice-Hinson, communications and community relations officer at Fayetteville Public Works Commission. “In their day to day, it is very dangerous and you don’t want people observing in harm’s way. But (this competition) is a safe environment to watch what they do and learn more about it.” Thursday, May 16, the public is invited to the Military Business Park off Santa Fe Drive to check out the 2019 Annual North Carolina Association of Municipal Electric Systems Lineman Rodeo. The event is free to attend.

Fayetteville last hosted the NCAMES Lineman Rodeo in 2002. Before that, it hosted the very first rodeo in 1998. “Many years ago, (NCAMES) decided to do the rodeo to showcase what electric systems do here in North Carolina to keep the lights on,” Justice-Hinson said. Participants, in the division of either Journeyman or Apprentice, compete in events that display the specialized skills and knowledge they apply in their everyday work. They’re scored on safety procedures, work practices, equipment handling and timeliness.

The rodeo kicks off at 8 a.m. with a brief opening ceremony featuring the Golden Knights, which is the U.S. Army parachute team; the 82nd Airborne Division “All-American” Chorus; and remarks by Mayor Mitch Colvin. The competitive events begin around 8:30 a.m. and last until approximately 2 p.m. 

Events include the Hurtman Rescue, Transformer Load Switching, Three-Phase Fuse Replacement, 4KV Single Phase Pole Transfer, URB Elbow Replacement, and Alley Arm Center Phase Insulator Change. Most involve climbing, with equipment, 40-foot utility poles and remaining stable and in place while performing timesensitive, technical work — then quickly descending back to the ground. The longest events of the rodeo have “drop-dead,” or cut-off, times of 20 minutes. The shortest and most popular event, the Hurtman Rescue, has a drop-dead time of 6 minutes, with points being deducted after the 4-minute mark.

“You won’t see this anywhere else; it’s a one-ofa- kind event that you really have to come and see to appreciate,” Justice-Hinson said. “I personally am amazed when I watch them climb the poles because it takes so much physical strength to climb and stay on the pole, let alone actually do the work once they’re up there. It’s very athletic. … It’s a fun event.”

She added that people bring lawn chairs and blankets for comfy viewing, that there will be lots of interesting equipment on display, and that at least four local food trucks will be present, too.

Carey Jacobs, PWC’s senior technical resources technician, said organizers are expecting more than 100 competitors from electric system cities across the state. “These are cities that have their own electric systems, like Fayetteville,” Justice-Hinson explained. “Other cities (that have their own electric systems) include Rocky Mount, New Bern, Greenville, Wilson and High Point, to name a few.”

The first- and second-place Apprentice and Journeyman, the third-place Journeyman and the Journeyman alternate winners will be recognized at 6 p.m. at the nearby Embassy Suites Convention Center. The winners will go on to compete as a team representing NCAMES at the national level, at the 2020 American Public Power Association Lineworkers Rodeo in Kansas City, Kansas.

“I would love to see a lot of people come out and support not only PWC lineworkers but the ones coming from across the state,” Justice-Hinson said. “A lot of these cities have come to help PWC during emergencies, and we’ve done the same thing for other cities.

“These guys go out in some of the worst conditions — whether it be cold or rain or wind. They’re the ones out there getting services back on and keeping your services on.”

Speaking of the most recent major weather emergency lineworkers had to deal with, Hurricane Florence, she said, “In that one, we had municipal electric workers from other states. Because so much of North Carolina was impacted, everyone was kind of dealing with their own system. We had lineworkers from Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia that came and helped in North Carolina.”

Another plus to the event, Justice-Hinson said, is it provides an exploration opportunity for those considering a career in the field. “There is a shortage of lineworkers,” she said. “It’s kind of an aging workforce. Every company is going to be looking for lineworkers in the future.... (This event) is a way for people to come out and see what’s happening and talk to lineworkers.

Fayetteville Technical Community College, which PWC collaborated with to create a lineworkers training program, will also be at the rodeo with information. “(PWC) has hired several people from this program, and this last FTCC class (to graduate from the program), every one of them was placed and got a job,” Justice-Hinson said. “I think there were 10 or 12 of them.

“It’s a really inexpensive course, it’s provided here locally, and it’s a really good bet for getting a job.” The course lasts eight to 10 weeks. To learn more, visit www.faytechcc.edu/corporatecontinuing-education/corporate-industrytraining/ and scroll down to “Line Worker Basic Training Course.”

The two days leading up to the rodeo, May 14 and 15, NCAMES will host its 58th Annual Engineering and Operations Conference, which draws 300-400 utility directors, engineers, linemen and all types of municipal employees involved in electric systems each year. The conference will be held near the rodeo grounds, at the Embassy Suites Convention Center, 4760 Lake Valley Dr. Attendees will receive industry updates on topics like issues and trends within public power, mutual aid response and new technology.

The rodeo grounds in Military Business Park will be easy to spot, with rows of 40-foot utility poles in place. The park is located off Santa Fe Drive. FTCC’s CollisionU center, at 2821 Procurement Circle, is located within the park for people who would like an address to put into their GPS. For more information, visit www.ncames.com or call PWC at 910-483-1382.

Do you have a favorite car wash/stylist/restaurant? Do you just love a particular nonprofit organization/entertainment venue/veterinarian? Now is your chance to tell us about it. Once a year, we reach out to our readers through our Best of Fayetteville readership survey to ask what you love most about this area.

We don’t pre-sell advertising to promote or nominate specific businesses and organizations for Best of Fayetteville. But we do encourage them to promote themselves and encourage their friends, family and customers to vote in Best of Fayetteville.

We do not sell or require businesses or organizations to participate with advertising purchases in pre-contest special sections to get their business officially printed on the ballot.

We do not have pre-ballot advertising sales.

After the survey is complete and the ballots are tallied, there is only ONE winner in each category. The winners are given the opportunity to purchase advertising/marketing programs to thank their customers and supporters and to market and brand their companies, capitalizing on and taking advantage of their Best of Fayetteville achievement.

Voting lasts through May 24. Visit http://uandc.brainboxdev.com/ and fill out a ballot online. Or, find a paper edition of Up & Coming Weekly and fill out the ballot and mail it in.

Once all the votes are counted, we throw a big party congratulating the winners, and we publish an entire issue celebrating them that resides on our website and in businesses all year long.

Minor league baseball functions as a farm system for the major leagues, which pay the players and set their salaries and bonuses. Players in the majors start at $545,000 per year this season, and the pay goes up from there, thanks to the Major League Baseball Players Association.

In the minor leagues, players don’t have a union and perform under a standard league contract that provides a fixed salary starting at $1,100 per month. Major League Baseball is considering a significant increase in salaries for minor league players, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported in March.

According to Passan, MLB officials suggested raising the pay for minor league players during a recent meeting with the group that oversees the minors. But the pay situation is likely to remain as is for now, thanks to a deal the team owners got from Congress in the omnibus spending bill passed in March.

There have been years of criticism and lawsuits regarding minor league wages. The Toronto Blue Jays are reportedly in the process of considering a 50% pay increase for all players affiliated with their MiLB clubs. “We have received many questions regarding the decision of the Toronto Blue Jays to increase the salaries of minor league players,” MLB said in a statement to ESPN.

The major league commissioner’s office is presently in negotiations with the National Association of Professional Baseball on the terms of a new agreement to replace a contract that expires in September 2020. “The working conditions of minor league players, including their compensation, facilities and benefits, is an important area of discussion in those negotiations,” the league said.

With rare exception, major league clubs do not own minor league teams but have affiliation contracts with them. The Fayetteville Woodpeckers organization is one of the exceptions. The team is owned and operated by the Houston Astros, which is beneficial to the Woodpeckers organization and the city of Fayetteville. The city has a 30-year agreement with the Astros to provide minor league baseball at the new stadium.

Parent major league clubs pay minor league players’ salaries and benefits and provide bats and balls. The minor league teams pay for in-season travel and other operational expenses. The maximum a first-year minor leaguer can make is $1,100 a month. After the first year, there is no monthly maximum so the player can make more.

The major league teams negotiate all the contracts. Hometown families sometimes adopt minor league players and provide sleeping quarters and meals. “The Woodpeckers are all living in a high-end apartment building in Fayetteville,” team President Mark Zarthar said. He would not say whether the players pay rent.

At the Single A level, it’s difficult for a player to make ends meet. This is the reason that when players are drafted, they often ask for larger signing bonuses. As players move up in the organization, new contracts are negotiated. Minor leaguers are not paid well until at least the next level. AAA players make much higher salaries.

Each year, people living on Fort Bragg and in the surrounding communities wait for the announcement of the Fort Bragg Fair. This year, the fair runs May 1-12. There are games, amusement rides for all ages, food vendors and entertainment. The best part about this midway is that the rides and entertainment are all included in one admission price, and parking is free.

Although the fair is a Fort Bragg event, the Fort Bragg Fairgrounds are open to the public via easy access off Bragg Boulevard. The installation also provides free Americans with Disabilities Act parking for persons with disabilities, which is accessible from Bragg Boulevard through Howell Street.

Fort Bragg Morale, Welfare, and Recreation has quite the entertainment lineup for carnival goers of every age and background. Children can enjoy a live appearance by a Sesame Street favorite: Cookie Monster will appear live May 2 at 5:30, 6:30 and 7:30 p.m. Various music performers will appear onstage, covering music genres from country to rock and everything in between.

Bands or performers are scheduled May 2-5 and May 9-12. Weeknight performances start at 5:30 p.m. Weekend performances begin at 3:30 p.m. Performers for this year include Corey Lutchen, the Mango Band, The Fifth, the Island Time Band, Steel Country Express, and the Phaze Band. Also performing is a local Fayetteville band, Rivermist, voted Best Local Band by Up & Coming Weekly for 2017 and 2018.

“Like always, we’ve got a variety of rides for all ages, (and) food, games and prices providing a fun and safe environment right here on Fort Bragg for our soldiers and their families,” said Keagan McDonald, Fort Bragg MWR event lead.

Admission varies by day, age and a couple other categories, but each admission includes unlimited rides and the prospect of enjoying the live music and other scheduled entertainment. Children shorter than 36 inches are free when entering with their group.

Fort Bragg MWR also hosts customer appreciation days each Monday through Friday of the fair from 5-7 p.m. Admission is $9. Or, come celebrate Mother’s Day on Sunday, May 12, when all mothers are admitted for free when they are accompanied by a paying child who is 36 inches or taller, up to age 17.

Fort Bragg Fairgrounds is located at Howell Street and Bragg Boulevard. For more information, call 910-396-9126 or search “fair” on the MWR website: https://bragg.armymwr.com.

SEGRA is the name of a new communications company made up of a pair of established affiliates. Lumos Networks Corp. and Spirit Communications merged, and the two companies have rebranded as SEGRA. It’s pronounced with a short e — SEH-GRUH.

“This new brand marks the official launch of a single company with a mission and culture that are dedicated to providing winning solutions for our customers,” said SEGRA CEO Timothy G. Biltz.

In April 2018, EQT Partners completed the purchase of a majority stake in Spirit Communications and announced it would combine Spirit assets with Lumos. EQT says on its website that it “invests in good companies across the world with a mission to help them develop into great and sustainable companies.”

Over the last year, the two firms have integrated their operations, expanded their fiber-optic network and product sets, and made further investments in existing and new markets in the mid-Atlantic and Southeast. New markets include Fayetteville, Raleigh and Greensboro, North Carolina.

SEGRA is powering organizations of all sizes with state-of-the-art voice, data and internet services. It has an advanced fiber infrastructure network of more than 21,000 miles that connects more than 9,000 on-net locations and 44 data centers throughout nine states. It is one of the East Coast’s largest fiber networks.

The expanded company said its customers will begin to see the SEGRA logo on company vehicles, buildings and elsewhere over the next few months. Baseball fields are a part of the identity process. SEGRA bought the naming rights for two SEGRA stadiums. SEGRA Park in Columbia, South Carolina, was formerly known as Spirit Communications Park.

It is the home of the Columbia Fireflies, a minor league baseball team playing in the South Atlantic League. SEGRA Stadium in Fayetteville was patterned after the Columbia ballpark. Now they share a name. Neither SEGRA nor the city of Fayetteville would disclose the signature naming longevity term or purchase price. Based on similar stadium projects, SEGRA’s purchase likely topped the $1 million mark.

SEGRA Park in Columbia and SEGRA Stadium in Fayetteville both are 365-day-per-year multi-use sports and entertainment venues. They were designed for baseball, concerts, soccer, football and other activities. SEGRA Stadium is smaller than SEGRA Park. The Columbia venue seats approximately 9,000 for sporting events, while the Fayetteville stadium can accommodate 6,000.

“SEGRA is making an investment by expanding their business into Fayetteville, providing a state-of-theart fiber network that will improve connectivity for current businesses and also potentially increasing our economic development efforts as we continue to attract new businesses to our city,” Mayor Mitch Colvin said.

The Houston Astros organization said that with SEGRA having the ballpark’s naming rights and operating as its official communications services partner, the stadium may be the most connected venue in minor league baseball. The new state-of-the-art stadium is outfitted with cutting edge 802.11ac Wave 2 Wi-Fi coverage powered by redundant 10 Gbps fiber connectivity, allowing fans to enhance their game-day experience with seamless, lightning-speed video and social media, Houston Astros officials said.

Brad Allen will begin his fifth year as a referee in the National Football League this fall. He’s one of a select group of full-time officials working for the NFL. But when he learned his old friend and mentor Neil Buie was pondering retirement as the regional supervisor of baseball and softball officials for the Southeastern Athletic Officials Association, Allen wanted to honor Buie by joining him on the field to call a final game together.

It happened April 22, on the second day of the annual Bulldog Invitational Baseball Tournament at Terry Sanford High School.

The Bulldogs faced South Caldwell in the day’s final game. Allen registered as a baseball official with the SAOA so he could call the game behind the plate while Buie worked as the field umpire.

Buie said the final hurrah with him and Allen calling together just kind of happened. “I was talking to Brad about this being my last year, and he told me, ‘if you’re going to retire, I’m going to register. Because when you go out, I want to be on your staff.’’’

Allen and Buie have been working together since 1989, calling some 150 games at the high school, college and American Legion level. They’ve called multiple state championship events.

Allen described his relationship with Buie as being like family. “I got started in high school baseball at 19 with Neil and Leon Maynor, my mentor in Robeson County who is no longer with us,’’ Allen said. “This is very, very special to me to work with someone who taught me so much.’’

Allen recalled some of the great baseball umpires he’d worked with in addition to Buie, men like Angus Watson, Jimmy Ratley, Charlie Council and Mike Parnell.

He recalled Buie taught him about the six things you’re there to do in a baseball game: Fair, foul, safe, out, ball, strike. There were also things like character, mechanics, philosophy and hustle.

“All of those things epitomize what Neil Buie has meant to me,’’ Allen said. “But away from the field, it’s also a lot of life lessons about how to be a man, how to be a good father.’’

Buie said he was encouraged to get into officiating by a college classmate, when he realized his days as a player were ending.

“My first game ever was with Greenville Parks and Recreation,’’ Buie said. That was in 1967. He’s been hooked on it ever since.

One of Buie’s most memorable nights of officiating took place at a game where he wasn’t even scheduled to work. It was in the late 1980s, and the Fayetteville Generals minor league baseball team had just started operation.

J.P. Riddle Stadium, the team’s eventual home, wasn’t finished when the regular season began, so the Generals played their first few games at what is now Arnette Park on old Highway 87. The game had to be played in the afternoon because the lights at the baseball field didn’t meet South Atlantic League standards.

Buie was a spectator in the stands when the late Calvin Koonce, general manager of the Generals, called him down to the field.

The umpires hadn’t been told about the switch in game time and weren’t there. Could Buie call the game behind the plate?

They scrounged up umpiring gear for him, found someone else in the stands to call bases, and off they went.

During the game, the base umpire and the manager of the Asheville Tourists got into a heated argument about a call, and the base umpired ejected the Asheville manager.

He initially refused to leave the field. Then, Buie walked up and said he’d give him 60 seconds to leave or he’d forfeit the game. The manager told Buie he couldn’t do that. Buie replied, “You’re down to 45 seconds. It’s up to you.’’

He left. Buie said Fayetteville won 10-9 in 10 innings. His pay for the day was some tickets to future Generals games.

When the current baseball and softball season ends, Buie will step down as regional supervisor but will continue in a similar role in football. He said he may return to umpire again, if his health will allow it, but that’s a decision he’s yet to make.

Buie said he’d been pondering giving up the regional supervisor role because the weather has been so bad the last few years, especially this one. He estimates that leading up to the Easter break this season, he’s had to reschedule officials some 400 times because of the weather.

“When the weather’s 75 degrees and the sun’s shining, it’s pretty easy to do what I do,’’ Buie said. “But when it rains three days out of five, it makes it very difficult and makes for long hours.’’

Buie said his biggest thrill over the years is seeing young officials like Allen come out of high school and college and develop into good officials. “The training part is what I’ll miss the most,’’ he said.

He’s especially proud of an official like Allen who has risen to the highest level of officiating as a fulltime NFL referee. “I’m so proud of Brad and what he’s done,’’ Buie said. “If I had some very small part in it, even better.

“It’s my belief that whether Brad had chosen baseball, basketball or football, he could have reached the highest of professional levels in any sport.’’

Photo: Brad Allen (left) and Neil Buie (right) called their last baseball game together April 23. Photo credit: Ken Kassens

When transfer student Tiffany Dampier first came out for track at Seventy-First High School, coach Jay Jackson wanted to make her into a runner.

“Just looking at her, she looked like a runner,’’ said Jackson, a 2001 Seventy- First graduate. “I didn’t know she did field events.’’ He soon learned she did them exceptionally well.

Dampier, a sophomore who came to Seventy-First from El Paso, Texas, was the only winner of two individual events, male or female, in the 20th annual William Carver Invitational Track Meet held recently at Reid Ross Classical High School’s John Daskal Stadium.

Dampier, who has been competing in the shot put and the discus since she was in eighth grade, won the shot with a throw of 35 feet, 1.5 inches, a personal best. 

Her winning throw in the discus was 113-2.5.

Jackson said his strength in coaching track and field is in the running events, so with the field events like shot and discus, he tries to focus on making sure his athletes have the right form and that they have fun.

“She needs to have fun,’’ Jackson said. “She’s real hard on herself. Once she started having fun, she started increasing her throws every week.’’

Dampier said a coach in El Paso first introduced her to both the shot and the discus. She finds the shot more of a relaxing event, although adding it requires her to focus.

Dampier thinks she can have fun and be serious about the sport at the same time. “My seriousness comes from my dedication and leadership in the sport,’’ she said. “Not only can we have fun, we can put in the work too.’’

Her favorite event is the discus, which she describes as being more free-flowing. She feels there’s more pressure in the shot because you throw it a shorter distance and there’s more weight involved.

She doesn’t think athletes who compete in shot and discus can be placed in any particular body type. “Not all throwers have a particular size or appearance,’’ she said. “I’ve been with girls who were taller and skinnier. I don’t take it personally.’’

Jackson said Dampier’s performance in the shot at the Carver meet was a surprise because it was her personal best. He thinks she has a shot to be competitive at the state and regional levels in both events, but he feels her best chance of winning will be in the discus.

“If she has fun, she’s going to win,’’ he said.

Dampier thinks she’s got a fair chance, but she’s not trying to get her expectations up too high. “There are different divisions and competition I haven’t seen,’’ she said. “I’m going to keep pushing myself and continue to enjoy the sport.’’

Photo: Tiffany Dampier

Meetings

For details about all meetings and activities, including location where not listed, call Town Clerk Jane Starling at 910-426-4113.

• Festival Committee Monday, May 6, 6 p.m., Town Hall

• Mayor’s Youth Leadership Committee May 6, 6 p.m., Town Hall (in conjunction with Festival Committee)

• Board of Commissioners Monday, May 6, 7 p.m., Luther Board Room, Town Hall

• Citizens Academy Tuesday, May 7, 6-8 p.m., Town Hall

• Historic Preservation Commission Wednesday, May 8, 5-6 p.m., Parks and Recreation Building

Activities

• Hope Meals Food Truck Rodeo Thursday, May 2, 5-8 p.m., Town Hall rear parking lot

• Veterans Outreach Day Friday, May 3, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., VFW Post 10630

• Hazardous waste collection, shred event and spring litter sweep Saturday, May 4, 9 a.m., Town Hall

• Good 2 Grow Farmers Market Saturday, May 4, 9 a.m., Town Hall

• Hope Mills Area Kiwanis Club at Sammio’s, second Tuesdays at noon and fourth Tuesdays at 6 p.m. For details, call 910-237-1240.

• Hope Mills Parks and Recreation Senior programs at Parks and Recreation Building. Senior programs are for those ages 55 and up who are residents of Cumberland County. Various activities, especially Zumba classes, are scheduled Monday through Sunday throughout the day. For details on times and days, check the schedule at townofhopemills.com. You can call the recreation center at 910-426-4109 or email Kasey Ivey at kivey@townofhopemills.com.

Promote yourself

Email hopemills@upandcomingweekly.com.

New research by two North Carolina State University professors has brought into stark relief the following facts: America is in a debt crisis, our economy is suffering as a result, and politicians of both major political parties bear responsibility.

Economists Thomas Grennes and Mehmet Caner worked with a third author, Qingliang Fan of China’s Xiamen University, to produce the paper. Published by George Mason University’s Mercatus Center, it examines decades of fiscal and economic data for the United States and several other developed countries.

Their key finding is that when the indebtedness in a country reaches a certain level, it becomes a drag on economic growth. Low levels of debt don’t necessarily have this effect. If institutions borrow in order to finance valuable investment — to build or expand plants and equipment, improve infrastructure, etc. — that enhances productivity. The resulting gains can more than offset the cost of the debt.

But investments contain built-in uncertainties. Not all capital projects pay off. We generally borrow to fund the best bets at first, then the next-best bets, and so on. The more we borrow and spend, the less likely the spending will be worth it. What’s worse, we don’t always borrow to invest. We use credit to buy things for immediate consumption.

That’s not a big deal in small amounts. And it’s not necessarily disastrous even in large amounts if the good we purchase lasts a long time and has resale value, such as a house. But largescale borrowing to fund large-scale consumption is foolish.

The temptation is particularly strong, and the consequences particularly grave, government. Those who make the initial decision, the politicians, can get credit for what gets funded without getting personal blame years or decades later for the taxes or foregone expenditures required to pay off the resulting debts. And because governments don’t face the same competitive pressures that private institutions do, they are more likely to use borrowed funds either for questionable capital projects or for expenditures that are unquestionably consumption.

Generally speaking, states and localities are less guilty than Washington, D.C., is. Their rules require that operating budgets be balanced every year, which limits (but does not fully preclude) the use of public debt for consumption. Moreover, bonds that pledge the full faith and credit of state and local governments often require voter approval by referendum, which again serves as a brake, however imperfect, on reckless borrowing.

The federal government lacks these precautions. Even so, Grennes and his colleagues found that for most of its history, the federal government used debt sensibly. “During wars, spending increased, the government borrowed, and the debt ratio increased,” they observed. “After wars, the debt ratio gradually reverted toward the prewar ratio, without a clear long-term trend.” There may have been no formal constraints, but there was an “implicit contract that functioned as a coherent debt policy.”

That ended in the late 1960s, as the federal government took on new spending obligations, most involving immediate consumption rather than investment. Each new obligation had a powerful constituency, and often gained popular support (think Medicare). But the total effect was to boost federal spending above projected revenue. Rather than resolve the problem, Washington borrowed. What’s worse, during the same period federal tax and regulatory policies incentivized an increase in private borrowing, too.

The bill is now due. According to the new study, the annual rate of economic growth in the United States from 1995 to 2014 was more than a percentage point lower than it would have been in the absence of America’s debt explosion. That’s a very large effect.

What can be done about this? Previous attempts to use moral suasion or legislative pressure, such as the Simpson-Bowles Commission and debt-ceiling shutdowns, have fizzled. Another NCSU professor, Andy Taylor, advocates an intriguing set of federal budgeting reforms that may help. Or we could try devolving federal programs to the states, trusting that their preexisting safeguards will hold. As Johnny Mercer put it, something’s gotta give.

Nyielah Nick

Seventy-First • Basketball • Junior

Nick has a 3.9 grade point average. In addition to playing basketball for the Falcons, she participates in Find-A-Friend with Fayetteville Urban Ministry and the Student 2 Student organization, which welcomes incoming military students to their new school.

Trenton Finley

Jack Britt • Soccer, lacrosse • Senior

Finley has a weighted grade point average of 4.36. During soccer season, he recorded three assists for the Buccaneer soccer team.

I cannot quite remember how old I was the first time I realized my mother’s words were coming out of my mouth, but it was quite a shock. It was even more shocking when I heard myself telling the Precious Jewels the same advice my mother gave me.

For example, good manners will take you places money cannot go. Education is a gift no one can take away from you. Pretty is as pretty does. And, this gem attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt: “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”

Nor can I remember not knowing about the importance of thank-you notes, timely RSVPs, please and thank you. Today’s parents have different ideas on this, but my mother was a stickler for “yes, ma’am” and “no, sir.” Apparently, her generation had no angst about class or age distinctions or subservience, although today’s parents of young children may not be as keen on “ma’am” and “sir,” even in the South.

I can still hear my mother’s admonishment as well to always look an adult in the eye, something I still do — even though I have clearly been one myself for decades.

Food means love to most everyone, and mothers offer both several times a day. My mother worked in our family business, so gourmet cooking was not really her thing. But she had dinner on the table every night, and some of it was memorable. Red snapper baked with tomatoes, onions and peppers. Tunnel of fudge cake and Japanese fruit pie. She even introduced us to English kippers for breakfast.

I think my Precious Jewels see my cooking much the way I saw my mother’s — sustenance but generally nothing to write home about. I am gratified, though, that they still want my carrot cake for their birthdays and occasionally request some dish from the past. Their baby sitter definitely won the fried chicken contest, though.

Few people in life have more influence over us than our mothers, even when we do not know it. The Precious Jewels have no idea that some of the words out of their mouths are actually mine, and very likely my mother’s. Our mothers kept us warm, safe and full, from our first breaths. They were our security blankets from our childhood troubles at school, and they gently let us know when we were in the wrong. Our mothers know us better than almost anyone else. They know our strengths and weaknesses, what we enjoy and what we don’t, how we are likely to react to whatever life throws at us.

And, if we are lucky, our mothers instilled in us the essence of good manners, not just the outward signs of manners like “ma’am” and “sir” in the South. Good manners mean always treating others with respect and kindness, whether they are princes or paupers, the president or a garbage collector. It means not embarrassing or running down others. Good manners are the epitome of the Golden Rule — do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

If your mother is around, do something special for her on Mother’s Day. Flowers are always nice as is a meal out, but most precious of all is your time and attention. Nothing means more to a mother than feeling like she is a meaningful part of her children’s lives, no matter how old they are. And, if you really want to hit a home run, make sure to say something that came from her lips and pretend you thought of it yourself

With designators that range from “Fayettenam” to “America’s Hometown: History, Heroes, A Hometown Feeling,” Fayetteville’s story is a rich and colorful tapestry. It includes heroism and tragedy, darkness and light and all the shades and colors in between.

And this community’s journey continues forward. Polls and surveys from outside sources and their wacky metrics and logarithms can throw down whatever claims, ratings and analytics suit their fancies. When it comes down to it, they don’t know Fayetteville.

They don’t feel the pulse of the crowd when the Dogwood Festival is in full swing. They don’t feel the sense of community and empowerment the International Folk Festival and A Dickens Holiday foster. They don’t come and dance on the promenade at Fayetteville After Five concerts in Festival Park or savor the flavors of the culinary genius that prospers here — in food trucks and in restaurants and at the many farmers markets that dot the landscape.

Sure, statistics tell a story. So does compassion, innovation, hard work and inspiration. Fayetteville has all that in spades — and it doesn’t always register on an analytics scale. But it does bring flavor and personality to this international city that so many choose to call home.

People who don’t live here often have no idea about the talented performers and firstrate theaters and music organizations that call the Sandhills home. They don’t see the generosity of the multitude of nonprofits here. They don’t know Fayetteville. And they don’t get to define her or tell her story to the rest of the world. Why would we give them that power?

It’s time for people actually living and working here to own this community’s narrative, to speak the truth and project it out into the world with pride and confidence. Stop trying to outrun decades-old reputations and fallacies. Stop accepting false information from out-of-town number-crunchers looking for search engine page rankings.

Fayetteville is undertaking a new initiative to come up with a branding strategy that accurately reflects the goodness that resides here and tells the true story about the opportunities here. This isn’t about a new logo or a new motto. This is about defining what makes this place special and telling this community’s story.

The Fayetteville Cumberland Collaborative Branding Committee is taking the lead in the effort. It consists of representatives from the city of Fayetteville, Cumberland County, the Cumberland County Tourism Development Authority, Crown Complex, the Greater Fayetteville Chamber, the Arts Council of Fayetteville/Cumberland County, Fayetteville Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, Vision 2026, Cool Spring Downtown District and the Fayetteville Cumberland County Economic Development Corporation.

The first step in accurately telling any community’s story is to gather information. That’s where we are in the process. The branding initiative wants to hear from you. Tell the committee what you think, what you want and what matters to you. This community’s story is your story, too.

Visit www.brandingfcnc.com and take the branding survey. It only takes about 15 minutes, and it covers just about every aspect of life in Cumberland County that you can imagine. Be brutally honest. This is our chance to not only counter the misinformation but to shape the future.

Thank you for reading Up & Coming Weekly.

The town of Hope Mills will hold its annual observance of National Day of Prayer on Thursday, May 2, at noon at the flagpole at Town Hall.

In the event of inclement weather, the ceremony will be moved indoors to the nearby Parks and Recreation Department building.

Clergy and lay people from various denominations in Hope Mills will participate in the ceremony, according to the Rev. Bob Kretzu of Hope Mills United Methodist Church.

“I think we tend to forget the spiritual aspect of our national life,’’ said Kretzu. “We watch the news or listen to news or read the news, and we complain. We think, what can we do?” 

Kretzu suggested the answer is prayer. “We can have a huge influence through prayer,’’ he said. “I think most Christians believe that. You can accomplish things in prayer long before they are manifested physically.’’

The theme of this year’s National Day of Prayer is “Love One Another.’’

“That is such a need for both our community and our nation, to stop being divided and treating each other like enemies and pariahs, to love one another as Americans, whether or not people are Christians,’’ Kretzu said, “to start showing that by the way we respect each other.’’

Kretzu said anyone who believes in prayer, regardless of their faith, is welcome to attend the Hope Mills event. “I’ve joined in worship services at mosques and synagogues,’’ he said. “I think people of faith in prayer have a lot in common, even if they’re not members of the same religion.’’

Pastor Wesley Holmes of the Hope Mills Church of God agreed with Kretzu that prayer brings people together and helps unify both the community and the nation.

“I think a lot of times we can learn from one another and see we don’t have as many differences as we think we do,’’ Holmes said. “We’re serving the same God, coming together to pray to the same God. We may use different methods of doing that, different backgrounds we come from, but we’re praying to the one, true God.’’

Holmes is also appreciative that local government leaders come to take part in the National Day of Prayer observance in Hope Mills. “It’s on our money: In God we trust,’’ Holmes said. “If we don’t trust in God, we’re never going to make it in this life.

“Jesus said to love your neighbor as yourself. If you serve God, you’re going to have love in you. In 1 John it tells us that God is love. I think loving one another brings unity to the faith and understanding that God is all about love. We need to love one another as well.’’ 

Hope Mills Mayor Jackie Warner signed the proclamation recognizing the National Day of Prayer in Hope Mills. She has been a regular participant in the event since she was first elected the town’s mayor.

“The National Day of Prayer in Hope Mills is significant because of the number of denominations that participate,’’ she said. “We have a great turnout of all the churches in the area as far as pastors that are leaders.’’

Traditionally, prayers are offered at the Hope Mills observance for a variety of things, including the town’s mayor and Board of Commissioners, first responders, the military and schools.

“As a leader and as a Christian, I think it is important we take the time and opportunity any time we can to pray and also to be an example for others,’’ Warner said.

“I’m a United Methodist, but the Baptists are there, the Catholics are there, the Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Church of God, we have everything. We’ve had a rabbi before. We represent all religions in Hope Mills, and that’s what I think is important, too.

“I think that show of strength in prayer is one way we can come to some solutions for some of the issues we are facing.’’

The board of directors of the Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra has announced Christine Kastner’s departure as president/CEO of the orchestra, effective in June. Kastner has accepted the position of executive director of the North Carolina Master Chorale in Raleigh. The announcement appeared in a news release issued by symphony board chair Joy Miller.

“Chris has played a critical role in the development and success of the orchestra since assuming the position in November 2011,” Miller said.

Under Kastner’s leadership, the FSO increased the number of concerts performed and expanded its youth outreach with the addition of the Fayetteville Symphony Youth Orchestra, youth summer camps and an after-school Suzuki violin program. Miller added that the symphony has made significant progress in its endowment, providing a source of long-term sustainability for the FSO.

Crime Stoppers solves major drug cases

Fayetteville’s Crime Stoppers tip line has recently contributed to the arrest of six people in three separate instances. Fayetteville Police received anonymous tips about suspicious residences. The most recent case came to light April 23.

Police received a Crime Stoppers tip about a residence on Rodwell Road. Officers were able to obtain a search warrant for the house and seized 5,188 dosage units of LSD, 8.9 grams of heroin, 2.6 grams of fentanyl, 12 grams of MDMA and $1,185 in cash.

Anthony Michael Maerten, 31, and Cindy Vanessa Caballero, 20, both of the Rodwell Road address, were charged with numerous felony drug counts and given $530,000 secured bonds.

Similar investigations resulted from Crime Stoppers tips on Lawrence Avenue and Suzanne Street. Leonard Davis, 40, of Lawrence Avenue, was charged with trafficking and manufacturing cocaine, conspiracy, and felony maintenance of a dwelling for narcotic use. He posted bond. Michelle Whitaker, 42, was charged with identical crimes and, also posted bond.

In the other case reported by city police, officers got a lead about a home on Suzanne Street. Investigators found an AK-47 style assault rifle, nearly 1 pound of marijuana and various items of drug paraphernalia. Sergio F. Weeks, 32, and Alysha J. Smith, 25, face numerous drug charges.

Weeks was also charged with possession of a firearm by a felon and endangering the life of a child. Police discovered his rifle under the bed of a 2-year-old. Both posted bond and were released from jail pending trial.

“The anonymous tipsters are eligible for cash rewards from the Fayetteville/Cumberland County Crime Stoppers Program,” Police Sgt. Shawn Strepay said. 

Community branding survey

The city of Fayetteville, Cumberland County, and nine partner organizations have banded together to create the Fayetteville Cumberland Collaborative Branding Committee and are distributing a survey to gather residents’ input for a community branding project. This research is part of an undertaking to create an updated image of the area’s strengths, assets, diversity, vision and potential. Community members are encouraged to take the 15-minute anonymous survey at www.brandingfcnc.com.

The FCCBC commissioned North Star Destination Strategies to help create a new brand. North Star has an extensive background in developing cooperative brands for both governments and organizations, having worked with more than 250 communities in 44 states.

“Understanding the diverse perspectives of our respondents will help North Star bring the real story of this community to the surface,” said Will Ketchum, president of North Star.

North Star will use its research to develop a brand that showcases what makes the community unique with the potential to attract new residents, businesses and tourists.

Social Security telephone scam

Fayetteville Police are warning the public about a telephone scam targeting local citizens. Fraud Detectives have received reports that a subject is calling unsuspecting victims claiming they have outstanding warrants for arrest.

The scammer declares he is calling from the Social Security Administration and that the citizen must pay a fine immediately or be subject to arrest. The suspect then requests personal information and payments. Police say the caller may sound professional and courteous while waiting for the recipient to release information. The caller may also suggest that the citizen purchase prepaid credit cards or gift cards.

City police remind residents that legitimate businesses and government agencies do not threaten arrests or make demands for information and money. Authorities say to never provide any information to unsolicited callers.

Local governments honored

The city of Fayetteville, Cumberland County and the City of Fayetteville’s Public Works Commission were among 28 North Carolina governments to earn recognition in the 12th annual North Carolina City and County Excellence in Communications Awards. The local organizations won a combined 11 awards, to include recognition for the city and county’s collaborative efforts in the Hurricane Florence Joint Information Center and PWC’s Carolyn Justice-Hinson winning the Chris Coulson Communicator of the Year Award.

The program was held April 11 at the NC3C’s Spring Conference in Durham. “It is my honor to congratulate all the winners of the NC3C Excellence in Communications contest this year, said President Dana Kaminske. “The work that city and county government communicators do is impressive and is worth recognizing.”

Photo: Christine Kastner

Editor,

I am asking your readers to tolerate my response to Hope Mils Commissioner Jessie Bellflowers’ Letter to the Editor in the April 17-23 edition of Up & Coming Weekly concerning the proposed construction of the Hope Mills Lake bulkhead (retaining wall). Full disclosure: I am married to Mayor Jackie Warner and I am her biggest cheerleader. She will not be pleased with my thoughts and opinions that follow.

Hope Mills Commissioner Jessie Bellflowers or any “stiff necked” politician can rationalize away the reason they sometimes make stupid or illogical decisions in an attempt to regain the confidence and trust of constituents. Unfortunately, for Commissioner Bellflowers it’s “too little, too late” on this bulkhead issue.

Our Hope Mills summer is all but ruined. Not because of the need for a safe and sturdy bulkhead but because of the irresponsibility and mismanagement of the project by you (Bellflowers) and fellow Hope Mills commissioners. As a result of their inept leadership, disappointed Hope Mills residents had to forego Easter sunrise services at the lake, and they will forego all the traditional family fun-filled events and activities surrounding Memorial Day, 4th of July and Labor Day. Yes, their (the commissioners’) poor decisions have inconvenienced residents and put Hope Mills taxpayers in peril.

Make no mistake about it, the real issues are not about the construction of the bulkhead, Jessie, so don’t patronize us. Instead, why not address the questions and real concerns we have like: Why is the bulkhead costing Hope Mills taxpayers $500,000 as determined by a single bid? Why was this major construction project request for proposal not sent out for a rebid? Why was this initial proposal hastily approved with very little discussion or empathy for the burden (of the) taxpayers who will be responsible for paying for it? Was this expensive bulkhead in the town’s budget? Who made the recommendation to cover the expense out of the town’s emergency reserve fund and what is the plan to replenish these funds?

There are so many questions and no sufficient answers. Many of us fear a tax increase is in our future. Yet, very little discussion or due diligence has been done by our elected. So, again, don’t patronize us, Jessie.

These kind of haphazard, irresponsible decisions, proposals and knee-jerk reactions by you and the commissioners are not sound business practices or decisions. And, they are unacceptable.

In closing, I want to remind the voters of Hope Mills that, all too often, elected officials become experts at spending other people’s money — like us — the taxpayers. And, I’m not even a C.P.A.

Alex Warner

Hope Mills, NC

Photo: Hope Mills Commissioner Jessie Bellflowers

There are no words sufficient to describe the depth of my sadness, dismay, and even anger, in response to how far too many people are reacting to the report by Robert Mueller, special counsel. I think he was assigned to search for Russian interference in our 2016 election and any collusion by the Trump campaign with Russia in that election. I say “I think” because I repeatedly read that the full scope of his mandate has never been made available to the public. A redacted version of the report was released to Congress and the public Thursday, April 18.

The report clearly stated that insufficient evidence was identified to show collusion with the Russians by the Trump campaign or any American. Given that, for nearly two years, we were told by a multitude of Democrats, and seemingly every liberal media outlet, that Russia controlled our president, it would seem there would be celebration in finding that he did not collude with Russia. Instead, the same people and media outlets that pushed the collusion narrative immediately shifted to arguing that the report gave ample reason for Trump being guilty of obstruction of justice.

The Mueller report said there were actions by the president that could indicate obstruction, but other actions countered reaching that conclusion. In the end, Mueller said he would not charge the president with obstruction but would not exonerate him. The obstruction decision fell to Attorney General William Barr. In a press conference shortly before releasing the report, Barr explained the process that he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein went through in deciding not to charge the president with obstruction. What Barr explained made total sense to me.

However, the rage regarding obstruction goes on full bore. Even as I started writing this article on April 19, The Fayetteville Observer has two articles that reflect this focus on obstruction while hardly mentioning the finding of no collusion. Here are those headlines: “Report provides layers summary could not” and “Analysis … Mueller paints damning portrait of Trump.”

After listening, on the radio, to the Barr press conference on Thursday and watching TV news reports and commentary, I was in bad shape by 6:10 p.m., when my wife Denise and I headed off to a Maundy Thursday service. The service was at First Baptist Church on Anderson Street, where Rev. Rob James is pastor. This service was filled with meaningful music, instructive and reassuring scripture readings and a sermon that reminded me there is only one way to overcome the division and hopelessness generated by, and reflected in, the Mueller report response.

James defined “maundy” as referring to a command, of being equal to a mandate. He said, “During Maundy Thursday, we are called to remember the last moments of freedom of Jesus before he is betrayed by one of his closest friends, before he is arrested by people he has seen every day in the temple, before he is mocked and ridiculed, before he is abused and spit on, before he is crucified and killed on a cross, before he is laid in a tomb.

“The commands that we are called to remember this night, the maundy of Maundy Thursday, are the things that Jesus told his disciples during those final moments of freedom: his commands, his mandates … in a very real way, his last wishes.”

James followed this by sharing his experience with his father as that father had been told he only had six months to live. His son was just a teenager. Thankfully, despite the doctors’ projection, his father lived three years. Over that time, he took the pastor on rides and talked about his (the father’s) life: the good, the bad, everything. When that father was at death’s door, he requested that his teenage son make some promises to him. James reviewed those promises with us, and then came to the last words his father spoke to him. He said, “Don’t ever forget that I love you and will always be proud of you.”

James kept the promises he made to his father. The critical point is that he kept those promises not because he expected reward but because he loved his father. This experience with his father clearly gives the pastor exceptional understanding of, and appreciation for, the last wishes of Jesus. One of those wishes appears in John 13:34-35 (New International Version): “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

I left this sermon profoundly reminded that loving one another is our only hope for healing the divisions that threaten our very existence and for dispensing with the hate in our midst that is so obvious and destructive. However, reality challenged my capacity for believing that we can lay hold of loving one another. That is especially in doubt if our loving one another is to be driven by our recognition of Jesus’ love for us. In a nation where church membership is on the decline, especially among young people, and Christians are being pushed to the fringe of society, it does not seem likely that this “love one another” arrangement is possible.

Inspired, but still wondering if the “love one another” arrangement is possible in our time, Denise and I headed to the first baseball game being played by the Fayetteville Woodpeckers in our beautiful new stadium. Once in our seats and enjoying the game, we started talking with people seated around us. I was amazed that the atmosphere was so relaxed and welcoming.

Midway through the game, our team was down 5-2. At that point, there was a sense of concern throughout the stands. Despite being down by three, we kept pulling for our team. By the top of the ninth inning, the score was 5-5. We celebrated throughout the stadium. In the end, the Woodpeckers lost 7-5.

The point of sharing my baseball game experience is to acknowledge what happened in that stadium and how it speaks to loving one another because we love Jesus. At the low point in the game, when the outlook was not good, we kept pulling for our team. When the score was tied, we celebrated. When the Carolina Mudcats scored two in the ninth and went on to win, the crowd was still appreciative and supportive of our team.

Granted, this was just an entertainment event, but what happened there highlights the principle that common focus promotes unity. The fact is everybody in that stadium was committed to, and felt a connection to, the Woodpeckers. The result was a kind of unity that is missing in our country when it comes to the difficult issues that we face. A baseball game cannot fix what plagues us as a nation. But, if we have the common focus of loving Jesus because he loves us, we will follow his command to love one another. Therein is our only hope for overcoming the divisions and hatred that are wringing the very life from our nation.

Do not be fooled; no other focus will suffice. If you doubt the truth in that statement, consider what have become the objects of our focus, the Mueller investigation among them, and the results wrought by focusing on myriad subjects other than Jesus.