Once a year, Festival Park in downtown Fayetteville comes alive with the annual Blues n-Brews Festival, which features some of the best blues music and beer in the region. The Blues-n-Brews festival benefits the Cape Fear Regional Theatre. All the proceeds from the festival go toward helping CFRT realize its mission. According to Liz Thompson, development director of CFRT, many people who attend the festival each year do not even realize that the event helps CFRT continue to serve the community through its many productions and programs. Funds raised through the one day music festival go toward arts education, theater camps, production budgets as well as general operating costs for the theater. This year’s festival is slated for June 2 and promises to offer an interesting new spin on what has become one of the area’s premier events over the last 16 years.

Thompson describes Blues-n-Brews as “a one day festival benefiting CFRT where around 3,000 people come together and taste the best beer in the region and jam to the hottest blues in the area.” General admission to Blues-n-Brews includes five hours of live blues music, a souvenir sampling glass and unlimited beer tastings from nearly 30 different breweries, including some local and regional favorites.

There will also be a plethora of local food trucks and other vendors on hand. Thompson noted, “We are still making some tweaks, but the full brewery and vendor lineup is available online at bnb.cfrt.org”

While the festival promises the same quality interms of its musical acts and beer selection, longtime patrons of Blues-n-Brews will notice something new about the event. According to Thompson, “This year, we decided to do something a little different and give the festival a theme.” That theme is “Music City,” and it ties in directly to CFRT’s 2018-19 season.

Thompson explained the tie-in: “Next year, the theater’s season opens with a new musical entitled ‘Music City,’ which tells the story of three young songwriters trying to make it in Nashville. We thought this offered a unique opportunity to brand the festival as ‘Blues-n-Brews: Music City Edition.’” Thompson went on to explain, “Patrons can expect some great blues but with a little more of a country spin.”

The festival boasts a strong lineup of musical acts that will provide the soundtrack to the afternoon. The general festival opens with a performance by Nattalyee Randall, a veteran of the stage who played both Aretha Franklin and Nina Simone inproductions at the North Carolina Theater. Patrons of the arts in Fayetteville will recognize her from CFRT’s production of “Dreamgirls.” “Nattalyee is a vocal powerhouse,” said Thompson. “She will be singing the blues standards that everyone knows and recognizes.” The Tom Euler Band, which plays progressive blues/rock, is also slated to perform. The band, out of Virginia, was a semi-finalist in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee, earlier this year.

The festival’s music lineup culminates in the evening’s headlining performance by Casey James. James is from Fort Worth, Texas, and is probably best known for his season nine “American Idol” run, when he finished third place behind Crystal Bowersox and Lee DeWyze. James has shared the stage with notable performing artists like Taylor Swift, Alan Jackson and Sugarland. His new album, “Strip it Down,” was released in June 2017 and is available for download on iTunes and can be streamed on Spotify.

There is a fourth band on the bill for the Blues-n-Brews festival, but the performance is only available to those who purchase VIP tickets. Fayetteville’s own Guy Unger Band with lead vocals by Michael Pennink will be playing the first hour of the festival from 4-5 p.m., an hour that is available only for VIPs.

According to Thompson, there are plenty of other perks to purchasing the VIP ticket. Not only will VIP ticket-holders hear great music from The Guy Unger Band, they will also avoid the long lines of the general admission portion of the festival, which means they will get to sample more beer and talk to more brewers than the people who arrive at 5 p.m. Additionally, she said, “The VIP tent is sponsored by 96.5 BOB FM, and they are bringing in fantastic caterers like Carrabba’s and Mash House.” She added, “VIP ticket-holders have access to covered seating as well as complimentary snacks and swag bags. VIPs will also serve as the judges in the Best in Show Beer Tasting Competition.”

The festival is staffed each year by volunteers, and according to Thompson, there are still volunteer positions available. “We need beer pourers more than anything else,” said Thompson. “Volunteer beer pourers make it possible for the brewers to talk to the people sampling their beer about how that beer is made and all of the other things that people who do beer tastings are interested in.”

Volunteer shifts are available throughout the day, and there are major perks that come with volunteering at Blues-n-Brews. Anyone who volunteers for at least four hours at the festival will receive either complimentary general admission to the festival or two complimentary tickets to any CFRT opening-weekend show for the 2018-19 season.

CFRT provides summer theater camps for children, special matinee performances for students in the area, and a brand-new military outreach program that offers free theater classes to military children and families on Fort Bragg. More information on the work of CFRT and the 2018-19 season, which includes performances of “Annie,” “Memphis” and “Trumbo,” is available at www.cfrt.org.

Tickets for the 16th Annual Blues-n-Brews Festival in Festival Park are on sale now. General admission tickets are $40 in advance and $45 at the gate. VIP tickets are $80 and are only available in advance. Tickets are also available for $10 for those who do not wish to participate in the beer tasting. Advanced tickets can be purchased online at bnb.cfrt.org.

The Blues-n-Brews Festival is scheduled for Saturday,June 2, from 4-10 p.m.

Meetings

For details about all meetings and activities, including location where not listed, call Acting Deputy Town Clerk Tiffany Gillstedt at 910-426-4112. Most meetings take place at Town Hall.

• Veterans Affairs Commission Thursday, May 24, 7 p.m.

• Board of Commissioners Monday, June 4. A public hearing on the proposed FY 2018-2019 Budget will be held. Citizens Academy Graduation will take place that evening as well. Students will be presented with a plaque displaying their certificate of completion.

Activities

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

• Town offices closed for Memorial Day Monday, May 28.

• Memorial Day Ceremony at Hope Mills Municipal Park. 4 p.m. Free.

• Fall sports registration June 1-July 28. $30 per child; $15 late fee after registration deadline. Season begins Sept. 8. Call 910-426-4109 for more information.

• Daddy/Daughter Dinner & Dance Saturday, June 9, 6 p.m. $50 per couple plus $20 for each additional ticket purchased. Call 910-426-4107 to RSVP by June 1.

• First Annual 4th of July Pageant Friday-Saturday, June 22-23. Pageant registration deadline is June 1. For more information, call 910-426-4107.

Promote yourself: To include your business’s event, email hopemills@upandcomingweekly.com.

• After 51 years in various roles with American Legion baseball, veteran coach Doug Watts has decided to step aside.

Hope Mills Boosters coach Mark Kahlenberg announced that Watts retired from his role with the Hope Mills program just a couple weeks ago.

Watts, a member of the state American Legion Hall of Fame, has been the heart and soul of the Hope Mills American Legion program for years, keeping the team afloat as other American Legion programs in the Cape Fear region withered away and died.

The Hope Mills team will hold a special ceremony to honor Watts at its home game with Jacksonville on June 9 at 2 p.m.

All former players and coaches who worked with Watts over the years are invited to attend the ceremony.

All of Hope Mills’ home games this year will again be played at South View High School.

The team began regular season play last Saturday at Wilmington Laney. Their first home game is scheduled for May 28 at 7 p.m. with Apex.

• Congratulations to South View’s Nyneem Williams and Jaeil Daniels, winners in the recent 4-A Mid-East Regional track meet. 

Williams took the shot put with a throw of 49 feet 6 inches.

Daniels was the winner in the girls discus with a throw of 97-8. Both advanced to the state 4-A meet

Also winning were the Jack Britt boys 4x100 and 4x200 meter relay teams.

Members of both winning teams were Barry Elliott, Chancellor Johnson, Deangelo Davis and Malik Graddy.

• Congratulations to the softball team from Riverside Christian Academy, which recently won the Carolina Athletic Association Schools of Choice State championship.

Riverside defeated Clover Garden 10-4 in the championship game.

Leading hitters in the finals for Riverside were Briana Wilson, 2-for-4 with a double and a home run; Kimberly Bordeaux, 2-for-4 with a home run; Trinity Hood, 2-for-4; Grace Draughon, 3-for-4 with two doubles and Amelia Edge, 4-for-5 with a double and a home run.

Riverside finished with a 14-4 record.

• A reminder to all middle school and high school athletes in need of a sports physical for the 2018-19 school year: Fayetteville Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine will be giving physicals Saturday, June 9, from 8 a.m. until 12 p.m.

The cost will be $10 per physical. Only athletes under the age of 18 are eligible for the physicals and must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian.

Please bring the physical form provided to you by your school athletic trainer, athletic director or head coach.

Fayetteville Orthopaedics is located at 1991 Fordham Dr., Suite 100. For information, call 910-484-3114.

Photos: Doug Watts; Nyneem Willians; Jail Daniels

Life is getting back to near normal at Fayetteville’s Mobile Manor mobile home park in Bonnie Doone. Electrical power will likely have been fully restored to all occupied trailers by week’s end. Many of the homes were hooked up late last week, and the only garbage dumpster serving the park was emptied. It was overflowing when code enforcement officers responded to an anonymous tip about dangerous electricity problems at a dozen trailers late last month. 

They found what officials described as “an imminent threat to life and property.” Duke Energy disconnected power at the single electricity meter that serves as the point of delivery at the park. City officials said inspectors found about a dozen instances of life-threatening hazards at occupied trailers after getting an anonymous tip April 24. 

Assistant City Manager Jay Reinstein said 37 families occupy the 45 trailers in the park. City police hand-delivered letters to residents the night before the power was turned off. “The information process should have started much earlier,” said Fayetteville City Councilwoman Tisha Waddell. She added that residents could have been alerted at the same time trailer park managers were told in April that they had to fix the problem or their power would be turned off.

“We’ve been dealing with concerns out there for a long time,” said District 4 Councilman D. J. Haire. City manager Doug Hewett noted that code enforcement violations, which he called “deplorable,” had been levied against property manager Sheila Monsour previously. He said emergency vehicles would be unable to negotiate a bumpy, virtually impassable dirt road that winds through the property. 

Hewett said Monsour was warned three times earlier this month about electrical hazards throughout the park. Issues ranged from exposed electrical conductors on individual meters to exposed energized terminals, according to Michael Martin, the city’s assistant development director

The main meter is located on the lot of Army veteran Dewey McLamb. He showed a receipt book where he had paid his $150 monthly lot rent two months in advance. McLamb has lived at Mobile Manor mobile home park for nine years and subsists on a VA disability benefit and Social Security. 

“Our code enforcement staff has limited knowledge of the electrical code, so we sent an electrical inspector out with our code enforcement staff to follow up on the complaint,” Martin said. He added that electrical hookups are not checked routinely when the city conducts sweeps of the city’s 17 mobile home parks.

Absentee owner Portia Covington of Glen Allen, Virginia, said she and her sister, Valerea Russ of Fayetteville, took ownership of the property last year. Since then, Covington said, she has tried repeatedly to get Monsour to make property improvements. Monsour has the management lease on the trailer park and has for years. 

City records indicate that Mobile Manor has been cited 219 times for code violations since 2010. Four fines of $200 each were levied since March of this year.

Hats off to Cape Fear Regional Theatre for wrapping up the season with a singing, shouting, footstomping good time with “Crowns, A Gospel Musical.” Cast and crew deliver a fantastic story of overcoming tragedy and finding one’s path.

“Crowns” runs through June 3. Don’t wait to get your tickets; there are sure to be sold-out shows.

The show, written by Regina Taylor, is adapted from the book “Crowns: Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats” by Michael Cunningham and Craig Marberry.

Seeing “Crowns” onstage is a little bit like going to church, and a little bit like hanging out with some of the coolest gals in town. There are a lot of laughs and a few tears as the characters recount stories of their lives associated with their hats, or crowns.

I attended a pre-show chat with playwright Regina Taylor, where she shared not only her thoughts on “Crowns,” but also her experience of being a Golden Globe award-winning actress, as well as her perspective from growing up with a single mother who encouraged her writing and creativity.

“Crowns is a celebration of African-American culture,” Taylor said. 

“The character (Yolanda) loses her sense of self with the death of her brother in Brooklyn,” Taylor said. “Her mother sends her to South Carolina to live with her grandmother (Mother Shaw).”

But as Taylor explains, and we see in the musical, her mother sends her South to reclaim her from her grief. Yolanda no longer knows quite where she fits into things without her brother, who was her other half.

With Mother Shaw and her “Hat Queens,” Yolanda starts hearing stories – markers in these women’s lives that shape them and point them ahead on their paths.

“These stories are stories we’ve all been touched by (baptisms, funerals, happy and sad moments)... about finding you have a community to lean on, to find your direction,” Taylor said.

“We can put that on a stage and different people of all walks of life can see themselves, see their neighbors, who they think are so different…” and recognize commonalities, Taylor said.

It is a story of finding yourself and your voice in this world through the collective memories of who we are and what we have experienced. Though the subject matter is serious, CFRT delivers a fun show with amazing music, dance and hats – oh, the hats! 

“Crowns” is worth the price of admission just to see the hats, and these characters wearing them, and I do mean wearing them – with style, with sass, with confidence. It’s the kind of confidence that comes from truly knowing your value.

“Crowns” is directed by Donna Baldwin Bradby (“The Wiz”). The cast includes Cassandra Lowe Williams as Mother Shaw, La’Tonya R. Wiley, Chasity McIntosh, Sha’Air Hawkins, Janeta Jackson and Walter Johnson with Ariel Neema Blake as Yolanda. 

All deliver terrific performances and shuffle between multiple characters as they switch crowns. Each has a turn to demonstrate their vocal talents, as well.

Everything about the show pays tribute to AfricanAmerican culture – from gospel hymns to dance moves. The songs are mostly traditional hymns sung in churches all over the South, with some blues and jazz. There’s even a bit of hip-hop. The songs carry the message that trouble doesn’t last, better times are ahead. 

Choreographer Tina Yarborough Liggins included West African movements that are also reminiscent of shouting in churches. It was interesting to see these movements performed by the whole cast at times when shouting can be such an individual experience. It seemed to be symbolic of a collective joining to share in enthusiastic worship. It was fantastic and a testament to the talent CFRT gathered for this production.

This is a show you don’t want to miss.

Tickets for “Crowns” range from $17 to $32 with discounts and group sales available. For more information about the show or special events, contact the box office at 910-323-4233 or visit www.cfrt.org.

We are almost halfway through 2018. Just 50 short years ago, we were half way through 1968, which was one difficult year. The 71st High School class of 1968 and I graduated the day Bobby Kennedy was assassinated. Climb on board Mr. Peabody’s Way Back machine to waste three minutes of your time reading this column. Most Dook graduates, being slow readers, will lose five minutes of their life reading this stain on world literature.

To give you some perspective of how long ago 1968 was, consider that in 1968 the TV series “The Lone Ranger” had been in reruns since 1957. High school graduates in 1968 grew up watching the Lone Ranger, who was a bit of a time traveler himself. Who among us of a certain delicate age can forget the opening lines of the Lone Ranger bidding us to travel back into the past?

“A fiery horse with the speed of light and a cloud of dust, and a hearty Hi-Yo Silver away! With his faithful Indian companion Tonto, the daring and resourceful masked rider of the plains led the fight for law and order in the early West. Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear.” 

with the Lone Ranger, chasing bad guys. Some of you who came in late and are not yet calendar-impaired may not get the cultural importance of the Lone Ranger. Please stop reading this column and return to watching cat videos on your cellphone. 

The Lone Ranger, played by the excellent Clayton Moore, was the sole survivor of a troop of Texas Rangers who had been bushwhacked by bad guys. The Lone Ranger wore a mask, roaming the West, bringing justice and capturing the lonely hearts of pioneer women who endured unrequited love for him. 

He always rode away at the end of each episode, leaving a lovely lady pining for the handsome stranger behind the mask. It was an early version of “Fifty Shades of Grey.” At the end of each episode, after the Lone Ranger had solved the crime with the bad guys in the calaboose, someone would ask: “Who was that masked man?” A more knowledgeable someone would say, “It was the Lone Ranger.” The Lone Ranger would yell, “Hi-Yo Silver and away!” and ride off into the sunset. Fade to commercial. 

Some unkind critics said the Lone Ranger loved his horse, Silver, more than he loved the ladies. Not so, he was just too busy fighting bad guys to settle down on a ranch with a good woman. Fighting for law and order in the early West was a full-time job. His faithful Indian companion, Tonto, was played by Jay Silverheels, who was a Canadian Indian. Tonto’s job was to be the Lone Ranger’s sidekick, chasing bad guys or hanging out by a ranch or in a box canyon, waiting for the bad guys to show up. Mostly, Tonto would get captured and beaten up. Then the Lone Ranger would save him. Less frequently, Tonto would rescue the Lone Ranger from the guys in black hats. It was clearly a politically incorrect TV show. 

It culturally misappropriated Native American culture by making Tonto the Lone Ranger’s flunky. Tonto always called the Lone Ranger “Kemosabe,” which some amateur linguists said meant “Dumbo” or an even worse insult that is not printable in a family newspaper.

The Lone Ranger had a vaguely defined financial interest in a silver mine. As a result, he named his horse Silver and would only shoot silver bullets into bad guys. It is unclear whether being shot by a silver bullet was less painful than being shot by a lead bullet. It does seem classier to have silver bullets pierce vital internal organs. Even in 2018, thanks to the Lone Ranger, the term “silver bullet” remains in use when discussing some remedy for an intractable problem. 

In addition to plugging bad guys, silver bullets are very useful in killing werewolves. While the TV series never showed the Lone Ranger fighting a werewolf, the possibility remains that the Lone Ranger might have been born in central Europe, where werewolves were quite common.

One can never be too careful about werewolves. Gentle Reader, even you might become a werewolf, under the right conditions. Remember the ancient chant: “Even a man who is pure in heart/And says his prayers by night/May become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms/And the autumn moon is bright.”

If your significant other has recently purchased a magazine of silver bullets, buy a Kevlar vest and do not go outside during the next full moon. The life you save may be your own.

Hi-Yo Silver and away!

The town of Hope Mills is known statewide for opportunities it offers for athletics, recreation and senior citizens. Now Mayor Jackie Warner is trying to expand its cultural horizons by putting a little art on local display.

It’s been two years since Warner went to a meeting of the Arts Council of Fayetteville/Cumberland County on behalf of Hope Mills to learn about ways she might bring art into the community.

About the same time, her son, Teddy Warner, was working with the city of Laurinburg when it had a relationship with the University of North Carolina at Pembroke to try and do the same thing.

Warner’s idea was to get outdoor sculptures to be displayed in public locations like Hope Mills Lake and the park near Town Hall.

She spoke with Adam Walls, a sculpture instructor at UNC-Pembroke.

Walls came and made presentations to the Hope Mills Town of Commissioners. The plan was for the town to spend $3,000 on purchasing materials for Walls’ art students at Pembroke. In return, they would create original works of sculpture with the town-purchased materials and give them to the town.

Laurinburg didn’t have an agreement with the students on what happened to the art, so Warner and Hope Mills struck a deal. At the end of a year of display, the town could have the option of buying the art from each student, at a cost of $300 per sculpture, based on 10 sculptures for the total of $3,000 for materials.

If the town doesn’t buy the artwork, it will go back to the student and the town will get a new piece to replace it.

For future funding for the project, Warner said she spoke to Deborah Mintz of the Arts Council about writing a grant and getting funding from the council.

“The Arts Council would love to help fund this project so that it will instill in Hope Mills the same kinds of things they’re trying to do in Fayetteville and other areas,’’ Warner said.

The sculptures began showing up in Hope Mills earlier this month, some at Hope Mills Lake and some near Town Hall.

Warner said the various projects now on display are largely constructed from recycled metal, everything from old grate and drain covers to metal poles.

Warner said she hopes to continue putting art on display in other ways in the near future. Part of the upcoming lake celebration in Hope Mills will include art and jazz performances.

“We’re going to have artists down there painting and doing sculpture,’’ she said. “We’re just trying to promote art in Hope Mills.’’

For the time being, Warner said, the focus on art will be outdoors, dealing mainly with metal sculpture.

In the long term, she’d like to offer painting, but finding a place to display paintings is a problem.

“We have to come up with a venue or display area,’’ Warner said. There is a possible limited option for display in Town Hall, she said. The parks and recreation building wouldn’t be suitable because it’s so busy.

Warner said the town may have to limit art displays to those times when special events are going on like the lake celebration.

Once the town builds its long-awaited museum to celebrate its mill village history, Warner said that’s a possible location to display local art.

“I’m tickled we are doing this,’’ she said. “This was something I wanted to do way back when I was first elected mayor and couldn’t get the support for it. Once the Arts Council got involved and they started offering the opportunity for Hope Mills, it just fell into place.’’

The annual beauty pageant held in conjunction with Ole Mills Days in the fall has been a success for the past few years in Hope Mills, and town officials are expecting similar results from the new Fourth of July pageant that will debut Friday, June 22.

The new pageant is part of the extended celebration of both the Fourth of July and the return of Hope Mills Lake.

The Fourth of July pageant will take place over a two-day period from June 22-23, both times in the gymnasium at the Hope Mills Recreation Center. Both events will begin at 6:30 p.m.

Kenny Bullock, who heads up the recreation department for the town, will oversee the pageant, which will determine winners in five different age groups.

The divisions will be 3-5, 6-9, 10-12, 13-16 and 17-22. 

All contestants must be Cumberland County residents and pay an entry fee of $30 each. Entry forms are available at the recreation center

The deadline for entry is June 1, but this date may be extended if there aren’t enough entries in each of the five age groups

Bullock said they will be aiming for a minimum of five to six entries in each age group with a maximum of 20 per age group.

The entry fee is used to cover the cost of the competition since the town has not allotted any funds to cover the expense. Bullock said they will also seek outside sponsors to cover the cost.

Bullock said the gym at Hope Mills Recreation Center was chosen to host the pageant after the town was unable to find a local school where it could be held.

“We tried several schools,’’ Bullock said. “During the summer it’s hard to get into the schools because they are stripping and waxing the floors, trying to get schools ready. It was hard to fit the pageant in before the summer schedule.’’

In addition to issues dealing with regular summer maintenance at the schools, Bullock also said the summer schedule of the county schools is a problem since they are closed from Friday through Sunday during those months. 

“It’s hard trying to get someone to come in, open the building and stuff,’’ he said. They also looked into using recreation or community buildings at local churches but were unable to find one suitable.

In addition to housing the actual pageant, Bullock said the recreation center also offers space to have dressing rooms for the contestants so they can be split up according to age group.

Bullock said the seating capacity of the gym, with bleachers and chairs set up on the floor, is 400. Tickets, which are $5 each, will be sold at the recreation center. Staff will keep count of the tickets sold to make sure capacity isn’t exceeded, Bullock said.

Each contestant will get one free ticket to give to a family member or friend.

Bullock said the pageant judges will be chosen from outside Cumberland County to try to ensure that none of them know any of the pageant contestants. He said judges will be sought who have previous pageant judging experience, possibly even at the national level.

The pageant will begin on Friday evening, June 22, with the competition for the youngest age group. “They get tired early,’’ Bullock said of the smaller children. “That night, they’ll be done, and they won’t be there until 10 or 11.’’

The remainder of the contestants will take the stage the following day. Bullock said there would not be a talent competition, but the contestants in the two oldest categories will have an onstage interview question during the competition.

We’re looking at natural beauty and stage presence,’’ Bullock said. Contestants are not allowed to wear fake eyelashes or wigs, only naturally-looking, age-appropriate makeup.

For any questions about the pageant, call 910-426-4107.

A fitting cap to the wrestling career of former Jack Britt coach John DeWeese occurred this past weekend when he was inducted into the North Carolina chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame based in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

DeWeese’s nomination was pushed by some old friends in the North Carolina wrestling world, former UNC-Pembroke wrestling coach P.J. Smith and his longtime coaching partner when the two were at Seventy-First, current Pine Forest principal David Culbreth.

“You don’t realize after 28 or 29 years of coaching wrestling all the impacts you have,’’ said DeWeese, who, though he’s retired from coaching, still teaches earth science at Jack Britt High School. “I still get calls from my first wrestlers. They have kids and want to know what to do with them when they’re wrestling.”

He enjoys bumping into his former wrestlers when he’s around Fayetteville shopping. He still helps out in the wrestling program at Jack Britt, mainly with the operation of the annual tournament he founded, the Boneyard Bash. But other than that, he’s tried to deliberately stay away from frequent visits to the Buccaneer wrestling room.

“I think I’ve been in there three times,’’ he said. He said he learned a valuable lesson from Culbreth, who was supposed to be the first wrestling coach at Jack Britt after leaving Seventy-First, but literally walked away from the job to enter the business world before deciding to return to education some years later.

“I didn’t realize how much that would help me,’’ DeWeese said. “It helped me understand this is my job and what I need to do.’’

DeWeese literally got into the sport as a favor to a former wrestler. He was at Lewis Chapel Junior High when the previous wrestling coach unexpectedly stepped down. The late J.C. Hawk, who went on to win a state title at Seventy-First, came to DeWeese and pleaded with him to take over as coach, even though he knew nothing about wrestling

DeWeese said Hawk promised to teach him all he knew about wrestling, and DeWeese ordered some VHS instructional tapes to get an understanding of the sport. 

“I wore them out trying to get an understanding of what to teach a bunch of kids,’’ DeWeese said.

DeWeese went on to win 13 conference titles and only lose three home conference matches in 17 seasons as Britt’s wrestling coach.

His crowning moment came in 2015, when the Buccaneers won the 4-A state dual team championship in a match held on Jack Britt’s home court.

Although he won that state title and crowned multiple individual state champions during his career, DeWeese points to an accomplishment from the academic realm that remains his proudest achievement.

“I had three kids at West Point,’’ he said, referring to three of his wrestlers who attended the United States Military Academy.

The trio included Spencer Nick and brothers Andrew and Brad Wanovich. A third brother, Kevin Wanovich, is still enrolled at Britt and could become the fourth wrestler once coached by DeWeese to attend the military academy.

“I think they learned a lot and we put them in a position to be good leaders,’’ DeWeese said.

Looking back, DeWeese said his goal as a wrestling coach was pretty simple. “I never went into anything if I didn’t want to do it,’’ he said. “If I’m in it, I’m in it to win it, and win it as ethically correct as possible.

Photo: John DeWeese

On Tuesday, May 15, at 8:16 a.m., Gallberry Farm Elementary School in Hope Mills went under lock down. A man who was seen wandering the school had not checked in with the school’s office. Cumberland County Schools Chief Communication Officer Renarta Moyd said, “An unidentified man walked into the school cafeteria looking for his child and was acting strangely. As a precaution, the school went into code red lockdown. Cumberland County Sheriff’s deputies responded and took him into custody.”

Lt. Sean Swain, the Cumberland County Sheriff’s spokesman, explained, “The School Resource Officer from Grey’s Creek responded and had the unidentified man in custody at 8:26 a.m. When our K-9 officer arrived, the suspect was already in handcuffs.” 

The man, identified as 33-year-old Pierre Kevon Miller of Fayetteville, was charged with trespassing, damage to property, resisting arrest and assaulting an officer. He did not have a weapon. No one was harmed, and there was no further incident. Sheriff deputies investigated why the man was in the school. Lt. Swain added, “The school’s prep plan took place like it was supposed to.”

Will term limits increase?

Some members of Fayetteville City Council are contemplating a change to council members’ term limits from two to four years. The idea was discussed during a council work session on May 7. Councilman Larry Wright said he thinks it makes sense to give the elected official time to do policy. 

Councilman Jim Arp is against the idea. He said, “After what we’ve just gone through,” referring to the recent controversy with former Councilman Tyrone Williams, that it’s not fair to the citizens to not give them new options at the two-year point. 

Councilwoman Kathy Jensen expressed that voter turnout would be boosted in the years that the mayor would run. And she noted that the district where the mayor lives would see higher turnout

Mayor Pro Tem Ted Mohn mentioned the council previously considered four-year terms but the vote was deadlocked at 5-5.

May 28, City Council will hold a public hearing on its desire to extend members terms of office from two years to four years. If the city code is changed, the members’ four-year terms would likely be staggered, although that provision is not included in the resolution. The proposed changes would take place following the next municipal election in November 2019.

Opioid Use Disorder 

The use and abuse of opioids is now considered a chronic issue. The North Carolina League of Women Voters says nearly half the people with Opioid Use Disorder have no health insurance coverage. They cannot be accepted into rehab programs, pay for medications or receive longterm care. 

NC House Bill 662, dubbed Carolina Cares, proposes an affordable insurance-like program for working North Carolinians who are not eligible for Medicaid. Unintentional opioid overdose deaths have risen dramatically over the last 16 years, according to the NCLWV. Heroin, fentanyl and other synthetic drugs are outpacing prescription medications as the principal cause of overdoses.

The LWV urges the state legislature to conduct a hearing on the Carolina Cares proposal during the legislative session now underway.

Animal shelter pet adoption hours change

The Cumberland County Animal Control Shelter, located at 4704 Corporation Dr., has temporarily adjusted its weekday hours for adoption services. The shelter now opens at 11 a.m. and closes at 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, and is open Saturday from 1-5 p.m. Drop-off and owner claim hours remain unchanged. 

The change in adoption hours results from staffing changes at the shelter. The new schedule ensures adequate staff is available in the afternoons, which is the shelter’s busiest time. 

“The change in hours should have minimal-tono-impact on adoptions,” said Shelter Manager Jennifer Hutchinson-Tracy. “We would never do anything that would make it more difficult for an animal to be adopted or reclaimed.”

Shelter attendants will be better able to focus on caring for the animals and cleaning and preparing the animal housing areas. 

Learn & Burn Longleaf Pine Workshop

Private landowners are invited to an Evening Learn & Burn Longleaf Pine Workshop. The workshop will be held Thursday, May 31, from 5:30-8:30 p.m., at 535 Speight Rd., West End, North Carolina. Dinner will be included.

Grant funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (http://nfwf.org) makes this a no-cost event for attendees. There will be discussions and demonstrations (weather permitting) about the opportunities for prescribed burning during the growing season. Attendees will learn best management practices for pinestraw raking as well as converting from loblolly to longleaf. Beetle prevention will also be discussed. RSVP to Jesse Wimberley, Sandhills Area Land Trust, by calling 910-603-1052 or emailing jesse@sandhillslandtrust.org.

Some individuals in Cumberland County with traumatic brain injury, also known as TBI, could be getting some assistance. A TBI is classified as an injury to the brain that has been caused by an external force. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, “Effects of TBI can include impaired thinking or memory, movement, sensation (e.g., vision or hearing), or emotional functioning (e.g., personality changes, depression).”

The CDC estimates the prevalence rate of TBI to be 2 percent of the population, which is approximately 200,000 North Carolinians. 

Last November, the Joint Legislative Committee on Health and Human Services introduced an Adult and Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury Pilot Program (S.L. 2017-57, Section 11F.9; Senate Bill 582). According to a document prepared by Dave Richard and Mark Benton of the Department of Health and Human Services, “The purpose is to increase compliance with internationally approved evidence-based treatment guidelines. The goals include reduction in patient mortality, improve patient level of recovery and reduce longterm care costs.”

The General Assembly, last fall, approved $450,000 in funding to allow between three and five hospitals to participate in a TBI pilot program. Senate Bill 582 indicates that $150,000 was committed for the program in the 2017-18 state budget with $300,000 committed to the 2018-19 state budget. The funding was appropriated to the North Carolina Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse.

Alliance Behavioral Healthcare was selected by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services to administer the pilot waiver for TBI in its four-county service region. Cumberland County is one of the four counties. The other counties Alliance serves are Durham, Johnston and Wake. Medicare and Medicaid Services recently approved the waiver for implementation in late summer 2018. 

“This waiver is an important milestone in North Carolina’s commitment to improving the life and well-being of individuals who experience a traumatic brain injury,” said DHHS Secretary Mandy Cohen, M.D. “The waiver includes rehabilitation services such as supported employment, life skills training, cognitive rehabilitation and day supports.”

The TBI waiver program is designed to provide community-based rehabilitative services and support to help TBI patients with recovery. TBI patients will need to meet certain eligibility criteria to participate. The TBI will have to have happened on or after their 22nd birthday. They need to have cognitive, behavioral and physical support needs. 

The TBI patients will also need to meet certain financial eligibility requirements. A news release from NCDHHS states, “To qualify, the adults must require the level of care for a nursing facility or specialty rehabilitation hospital.” This pilot will last three years. In the first year, the waiver will include 49 individuals participating, increasing each year to 107 participants by year three. The TBI pilot program will launch in late summer 2018.

If you have questions about eligibility, call Alliance’s 24-hour Access and Information line at 800-510-9132. Alliance is asking that callers please specifically ask for information on the TBI waiver when they call. Callers should expect to experience a brief crisis screening initially.

Over the last 12 months, I have been a traveling fool. 

Perhaps I am making up for all the years I could not travel because of family and work obligations. Perhaps I feel the increasingly heavy press of time. Probably it is both, coupled with a real curiosity about the rest of the world and how others live.

My most recent travels have taken me to Africa on safari in Tanzania last summer and last month to Peru and Bolivia. I never imagined hiking in the Andes, but I did at 13,000 feet or so and lived to report it. Such trips add immeasurably to my understanding of the world in all sorts of ways, including what people eat in other places. 

My practice is to try most anything once – not quite CNN’s Anthony Bourdain, but I have tasted and enjoyed lots of new dishes. I drew the line only once in Peru, which has a signature delicacy called cuy. What exactly is cuy? Cuy is what you and I know as guinea pig, and a Dickson Precious Jewel had an albino guinea pig named Ace (Ventura) as a pet when he was in the second grade. That did it for me, and our guide consoled me with this thought. If you name it, don’t eat it – and I did not. We did discover a small village devoted to cuy restaurants. Note my facial reaction in the attached photo. Full disclosure. I never really loved Ace myself, but that does not mean I could eat him or any of his distant relatives.

Interestingly, though, I lost a little weight on both trips even though I ate almost anything that crossed my plate, including breads and dessert most days. 

The reason, I now believe, is that countries like Tanzania, Peru and Bolivia do not have the processed and preserved foods that are staples for us. Most families grow and raise most of what they eat and shop daily for the rest in small local shops. The fare is not especially gourmet, but it is absolutely fresh and prepared and eaten within a short period of time. What you and I think of as a full-service supermarket is almost nonexistent in these countries. The few that may be spotted in major cities still differ from ours in that they offer fresh local meats and produce, not products that have been preserved and transported thousands of miles to get to their tables.

All of this has reminded me yet again that food shopping in our mega groceries, offering everything from actual food to tooth brushes and insect repellant, must be strategic. Wandering around is rarely a healthy option. Planning ahead can keep you and your family healthier.

Here are a few tips I have gleaned over the years and try to practice, some days with more success than on others.

If what you pick up has ingredients that sound more like a chemistry lab than coming from plants or animals, you might consider putting it back on the shelf. Ditto if the words “processed” or “preservative” are on the package, especially if they appear more than once.

Shop the perimeter of your supermarket for produce, meats and dairy items. Skip the interior aisles filled with processed cookies, crackers, chips loaded with calories and low in nutrition

Keep an eye on people you know who are healthy and of normal weight. They are doing something right, so consider following their examples.

Acknowledge that restaurant portions are way too generous. Think about putting part of your order in a “to go” box at the outset. That way you will not over eat, and you will have another meal for later. Remember, too, that luscious as they may be, buffets are not your friends for healthy eating.

Try not to let yourself get too hungry between meals so that the next meal or snack turns into a total rout of everything edible within sight.

So, travel when you can to learn how others live, whether it is to the next state or the next continent. It will enrich your life, and – as a prescription drug TV spot says – “it may even help you lose a little weight.

Jaden Pone

Gray’s Creek • Softball •

Freshman

Pone helped lead the Bears’ softball team to a berth in the state 3-A playoffs while managing a grade point average of 3.5.

Angel Aviles

Seventy-First • Bowling •

Junior

Aviles has a grade point average of 4.0. In addition to bowling, he participates in Skills USA and is a member of the Academy of Scholars.

Terry Sanford finished a dominant year in the Patriot Athletic Conference by bringing home the Maxwell/Wells Fargo Trophy for overall athletic excellence.

The Bulldogs won or shared conference championships in seven sports. They won at least two conference titles in all three major seasons of the school year, and ended with a flourish in the spring as they took titles in boys tennis, baseball and girls soccer. All three of those spring teams made deep runs in the N.C. High School Athletic Association state playoffs, each making it at least to the third round or beyond.

Final point totals saw Terry Sanford outdistance second-place Cape Fear, last year’s winner of the trophy, with 137 points to 129.5.

Pine Forest was third with 122, followed by South View with 110, Gray’s Creek 107, Overhills 101, E.E. Smith 54, Westover 44 and Douglas Byrd 32.5.

When it was created in 1979, the Maxwell Cup was an all-sports trophy for Cumberland County schools. Since that time, as schools have been moved into different leagues, it’s become a joint all-sports award with the NCHSAA’s Wells Fargo Cup that goes to the best overall athletic program in each conference. Now that eight of the 10 Cumberland County senior high schools are in the Patriot Conference, the Maxwell is presented to the best school in that league along with the Wells Fargo Cup.

“We encourage multi-sport athletes,” said Terry Sanford athletic director Liz McGowan. “There’s a lot of truth that kids who play sports have to be more organized with their time. They end up being stronger students because they are using their time wisely.’’

McGowan said the coaching staff at Terry Sanford works together to make the sharing of athletes between different sports successful. “A lot of our kids end up going Division 1 or Division 2 after they leave us,” she said.

A couple of multi-sport athletes, Maggie Hodge and Dante Bowlding, share McGowan’s view of the coaches at Terry Sanford.

Hodge participates in cross-country, swimming and track and field. “I’m with smaller teams, and you really get to build a tighter connection with your coaches,” she said.

Bowlding was part of two conference championship teams for the Bulldogs, basketball and football. 

A junior, Bowlding will have a chance next year to help keep the Maxwell Cup at Terry Sanford. He already knows what the key will be to doing that.

“Leadership,’’ he said. “Leading by example. Doing everything I can to help my team.’’

Photo: L to R: Maggie Hodge, Dante Bowlding and Terry Sanford athletic director Liz McGowan.

It began innocently enough in November of last year. Political newcomer Tyrone Williams was elected to an open District 2 Fayetteville City Council seat. He placed first in a crowded field of 10 candidates to replace councilman Kirk deViere, who decided to run for state senate rather than seek re-election. 

A few weeks after his election, Williams and his campaign manager, T.J. Jenkins, met with downtown Fayetteville commercial developer Jordan Jones. Jenkins had arranged the meeting with Jones, indicating there was an apparent problem with the legal title to the former Prince Charles Hotel, which Jenkins indicated Williams could clear up.

The firm, in which Jones is an investor, had purchased the building in bankruptcy for $200,000. Jones became suspicious, and that may be when the FBI’s Public Corruption unit was called in by the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina. It isn’t known if any indictments will come out of the federal investigation. 

“I know that my meeting with Mr. Jordan Jones of Prince Charles Holdings, LLC, in December 2017, has caused turmoil for the city,” Williams said in a lengthy statement issued when he resigned. 

“It’s unfortunate that things worked out the way they did; the people of District 2 just didn’t know him,” former Cumberland County Commissioner Billy R. King said of Williams. According to published reports, Williams has a checkered past when it comes to business dealings. And he lied when he said publicly that he had a financial interest in PCH Holdings, the firm restoring the Prince Charles.

Jones’ firm had conducted a title search and found the iconic eight-story Hay Street building is clear of any issues. A title search is performed primarily to answer three questions regarding a property on the market: Does the seller have a saleable and marketable interest in the property? What kind of restrictions or allowances pertain to the use of the land? These include real covenants, easements and other equitable servitudes. Do any liens exist on the property that need to be paid off at closing? 

A title search is also performed when an owner wishes to mortgage property and the bank requires the owner to insure the transaction. Jones’ firm acquired two bank loans totaling $13 million to pay for the renovation of the building. He told Up & Coming Weekly that interior restoration of the 90-year-old structure is on schedule. It will be followed by about five months of work to restore the historical facade. Jones hopes to have 61 apartments available by the end of this year. 

Some plans for the former eight-story ballroom have changed. A posh, high-end apartment was planned originally, but Jones said it didn’t appear the market would support a $3,000 monthly rental fee. So, it will be converted into an office. At least two restaurants, a coffee shop and a couple small retail stores will occupy the first floor. Jones’ greatgrandfather built the hotel in 1924. 

After resisting demands from his city council colleagues to resign, as well as a legal procedure to remove him from office, Williams finally caved and stepped down early this month. 

What about Jenkins? Fayetteville Mayor Mitch Colvin asked him to resign his position on a city council advisory committee. Entrepreneur Wilson Lacy said Jenkins was removed from his recently acquired post as president of the Fayetteville Business and Professional League. 

Williams’ resignation brought relief for city council and was accepted. “If you’re an elected official, you ought to understand the importance of avoiding ethical lapses and the perceptions most likely to accompany secret meetings asking for money if you expect to be successful in the political arena,” said civic leader Troy Williams. 

Fayetteville Observer columnist Myron Pitts said of Williams, “He lied to his council colleagues about having a financial interest in the current Prince Charles project, forcing the council to retake some key votes on the stadium and the other projects. He also lied about informing the mayor and city attorney about his alleged conflict of interest in February.”

Five people interested in being appointed to fill the District 2 position recently attended a meeting at Second Missionary Baptist Church on Old Wilmington Road. Patricia Bradley, Len Brown, Sharon Moyer, Paul Taylor and Dan Culliton asked the more than 100 people in attendance to support them. Several others spoke, some of them in support of the interested candidates. Others who filed to seek the District 2 seat were Vernell Cruz, Mary “Bunny” English, William Gothard, George Mitchell and George Turner.

Two-term Cumberland County Commissioner Charles Evans organized the public meeting and was joined by Mayor Colvin, who served as master of ceremonies. Evans once served as District 2 councilman and has since become one of the community’s influential political figures. In addition to Evans, immediate past District 2 council member deViere and former council member Mabel Smith were in attendance. Williams was not mentioned at all during the hourlong meeting. 

District 2 is the largest and most racially diverse of the city’s nine districts. It encompasses the downtown area, much of the impoverished inner-city residential areas and a portion of Haymount Hill.

The application process to succeed Williams has ended, and now it’s up to city council. Each applicant will address city council at a meeting on May 29. Council will hold a hearing to take citizen input June 5. They’ll make their decision June 11 and will install the new member June 25. 

The city of Fayetteville’s next fiscal year will begin July 1 with a new governing body and fresh hopes for a better community.

Come on, folks! Four years terms for our elected officials? Are you kidding? Is this community so sadistic and hellbent on fulfilling that predetermined and haunting conclusion that Fayetteville and Cumberland County will always find a way to rip defeat from the jaws of victory?

No doubt Fayetteville is experiencing a growth spurt stimulated by the new $38 million baseball stadium and the Houston Astros’ 30-year commitment to play ball in the city. Currently, we have about $100 million of new economic development in downtown Fayetteville. This is a good thing, but the prevailing question in the minds of many residents is “does this community have the dedicated, intelligent and business-savvy leadership capable of managing growth of this magnitude?” Many think not. 

And this comes on the heels of the unfortunate situation Fayetteville just endured with ex-District 2 Councilman Tyrone Williams. Williams resigned his position several weeks ago in disgrace after the city council voted to start the process to officially remove him from office for perceived ethics violations that took place within weeks of his tenure. 

Many city and county residents feel this situation demonstrates the prevalence and permeation of the problem of having unqualified and incompetent people in leadership at municipal and county government levels. Political correctness and apathy are major disincentives for nurturing good, honest and well-educated people to seek offices of leadership. 

If our community is to move forward and achieve social, cultural and economic stability on par with our North Carolina counterparts, we must find a way to encourage strong and capable citizens to step forward to serve this community while discouraging those opportunists who only intend to park themselves in those positions for convenience and prestige and to enjoy a source of supplemental income. 

These posers are easy to identify. They contribute little or nothing by way of innovative thought or vision while mastering only the art of getting elected. Anyone who attends Fayetteville City Council or Cumberland County Commissioners meetings on a regular basis or watches them on TV can easily identify these governmental freeloaders. Here are the three of the most common and conspicuous signs:

1. They lack intellectual capacity, which makes them appear confused on the simplest matters, rendering them helpless to reasonably evaluate the magnitude of situations affecting the city and county.

2. They have an impulsive and constant need to grandstand for the gallery or TV cameras. This manifests itself in the asking of dumb and irrelevant questions while elaborating on Mr. Obvious-style observations. This kind of conspicuous behavior wastes time and serves as a motivated diversion to cover up the fact that:

3. They have shown up unaware of priorities and unprepared for the meeting. This is obvious to the informed public and even more obvious, distressing and annoying to those commissioners and councilmen trying to rightfully serve their constituents. The most frequent and recurring complaint we hear is “…they just don’t read their packets.” Packets refer to the information provided to them in advance of the meeting about the topics and details of what is going to be covered in that meeting. They receive these packets so they can be informed of the issues and business of government.

Four-year terms should not be the remedy or reward for those whose talents lie only in knowing how to get elected in a mostly protected district. Nor should this kind of behavior go unchallenged or be accepted by constituents. Two-year terms are plenty long enough to learn proper policies and procedures of our local government. 

I’ll close with these related thoughts and warnings of sorts: Political correctness inhibits free speech and restricts our right to free expression. This is what gave us Tyrone Williams. There was no vetting. Way too many people, including prominent, well-positioned citizens, knew of Williams’ character (or lack thereof), his reputation and dubious business dealings. Yet, no one came forward. 

Additionally, our entire community should always be skeptical of people who show up on the political scene seeking office without any previous community involvement, voice, presence or involvement in the process of government. At some point, we need to ask why and not be afraid of the answer or consequence. 

The answer needs to be much more substantial than “it’s a white district” or “it’s a black district” or whether it’s a Democrat or Republican seat, or “wow, I could use the money.”

Fayetteville and Cumberland County need people who care. We need leaders who have integrity, competence and intelligence. We need leaders who are visionaries.

If our elected officials don’t have these qualities or can’t prove their worth in two years, they will not be able to do it in four years. Let’s be realistic and practical in this decision. 

Let the people decide. In the meantime, think about this: What cost- or tax-saving measures have been introduced or initiated during the last two years?

Thanks for reading Up & Coming Weekly

Eli O’Neal

Jack Britt

• Basketball

• Junior

O’Neal has a gradepoint average of 3.5.

He enjoys basketball, math and riding the bicycle.

Summer Powell

Gray’s Creek

• Softball

• Sophomore

Powell has a 3.83 gradepoint average.

She has been chosen toplay for the Region 4 team in this summer’s Powerade State Games.

The N.C. High School Athletic Association playoffsThe N.C. High School Athletic Association playoffs in a number of team sports began last week,and schools anxiously awaited the reveal of the playoff brackets that would be seeded using the process incorporating the statewide rankings calculatedby MaxPreps.

Two teams with especially high expectations were the girls soccer squad from Terry Sanford and the softball team from Cape Fear. Both completed the regular season with perfect records.

But when the rankings came out, Terry Sanford was only seeded third among the soccer teams in the Eastern half ofthe state. Cape Fear fared better, but likeTerry Sanford, was behind teams that suffered losses on their overall recordsand also took the third seed.

So why the lowered rankings for both? The answer lies in something called strength of schedule.

One of the critical factors incorporated into the ranking process is how good the teams you play against are. If you’ll takea look at the MaxPreps statewide rankings, you’llsee they’ve got a low opinion of the teams Terry Sanford and Cape Fear faced this season.

Of the top 20 soccer teams in North Carolina in the MaxPreps 3-A soccer rankings, Terry Sanford was the only one with a negative strength of schedule. Cape Fear and Hillsborough Cedar Ridgeare the only top 20 3-A softball teams with negative strength of schedule ratings.

A big part of the problem for both Cape Fear and Terry Sanford is the teams they are forced to play in the Patriot Athletic Conference. Twice a year, both the Colt softball team and the Bulldog soccer team are forced to line up against multiple league opponents with really bad overall records.

In games where both teams often win by the mercy rule, they take a beating in the strength of schedule computations and it drags them down in the seedingfor when it really counts, the state playoffs.

Is there a cure, since it appears statewide rankings and strength of schedule calculations aren’t going to be disappearing anytime soon? Possibly, but it’s a complicated one and could create another headache for some other schools.There have been informal conversations among some county coaches and athletic directors in sports where teams play each other twice in the conference to make a radical change in the conference schedule.The change would be to just play one conference game with each team in the league and possibly even eliminate the conference tournament.

What does that accomplish? For the schools with serious designs on the state playoffs, it gives them up to six or seven more games they can schedule, allowing them to shop around the region and state and tryto find nonconference matchups with competitive programs that wouldn’t take the air out of their strength of schedule.

But then you’ve got the other sideof the coin. What happens to those conference teams with sub-par programs that suddenly lose half their conference slate? How can you guarantee them enough games to fill out a schedule? Would they be limited to trying to find other struggling teams to play against?

These discussions have been completely informal so far, and no one is proposing anything concrete.But I think it’s at least worth exploring, as long as both strong and weak programs can be assured of getting enough games to fill the schedule and charge admission. That’s because paying the bills is crucial,and you’ve got to have a full slate of games to do that,even for a small crowd.

The other option, and this is the better one but would take a lot more work to accomplish, would be to upgrade the struggling teams in the various sports that are dragging down strength of schedule for the other ones.This whole thing may be a knee-jerk reaction to the problem, but whatever is done, it’s obvious coaches and athletic directors need to be thinking outside the box long-term and trying to find an answer to this problem.

The days of just putting one cookie-cutter schedule template together for all sports are over.If seeding and strength of schedule are going to bea part of the playoff process annually, it has to be addressed in the schedule process sport by sport to give everyone a fair chance of the best ranking possible.

When Cape Fear athletic director Matt McLeanWhen Cape Fear athletic director Matt McLeancame to assistant football coach Joe Grates with theidea of starting a team in something called UltimateFrisbee, Grates first thought it was a joke.

But when he had an interest meeting and 100students showed up, he realized there might besomething to it.

Cape Fear recently completed its first season ina Raleigh-based Ultimate Frisbee league, compilinga 9-4 record and finishing fifth place in the16-team league.

Ultimate Frisbee is a hybrid sport that combineselements of football, basketball and soccer accordingto Grates. It’s played on a field about half the sizeof a football field and involves advancing a Frisbeedown the field and moving it over the goal line toscore a single point.

Games usually take about 90 minutes to play, andthe first team to 15 points is the winner.

Moving the Frisbee up and down the field is thecomplicated part.

“Once you catch the disc, you can’t run with it,’’Grates said. Just like in basketball, you can be calledfor traveling, but you are allowed to keep your pivot foot in place and turn while standing on it.

You advance the disc with short or long passes to teammates.

Another tricky thing is this is a no-contact sport.You can defend and impede the progress of opposing players, but not by bumping or jostling them around.

Throwing the disc may be the biggest challenge,Grates said. “There’s two types of throws, backhandand forehand,’’ he said. The backhand, or flick, is the tougher of the two. “It’s a skill and has to be practiced,’’he said. “It’s not as easy as it looks.’’

There are five players per team on the field at atime, no officials. “It’s totally self-governed by the kids,’’ Grates said. “They have to resolve disputes ontheir own. That’s kind of the spirit of the game.’’

Grates had about 18 players on the team as the season was winding down, and there was quite a mix as far as the types of players.“We’ve got football players, soccer players, band guys, basketball players and swimmers,’’ he said,“guys looking to get a workout and have a good time.’’Grates added the competition offers skill development in a variety of areas. “It’s great agility for football,soccer and basketball,’’ he said. “It’s the same kind of skill set with the cuts and movement.’’

He also said it provides great conditioning for big guys like Cape Fear football offensive tackle Caleb Krings. “He’s deceptively fast, and he’s slimmed down playing this, too,’’ Grates said. “It’s an amazing aerobic workout.’’

Krings said he thought the game was a little funny at first but that it’s a great way to stay in shape and gives him a sport to play in the spring instead of going home after school.

“It’s not just going out in the backyard and playing,’’he said. “We get out here to stay in shape.’’

Trace Cannady, who plays center for the Colt football team, said the game helps him with his footwork.“The competition is there but it’s relaxed,’’ he said. He said there’s plenty of conditioning because of all the running.

Grates said he can attest to the last part. “It’s helped me lose 20 pounds,’’ he said.

There’s no swimming in Hope Mills Lake for the time being, but it appears town officials will be swimming through a lot of red tape in the weeks ahead to get approval before residents can take advantage of the restored town landmark. 

According to Beth Brown, the town’s stormwater administrator, there’s no one on the town staff with a background in lake management. Brown said her background is in stormwater and stream standards, adding that the rules governing lakes are considerably different.

Microbac Laboratories on Hope Mills Road, which does stormwater testing for the town, was asked to conduct a test of the water in the lake.

Town manager Melissa Adams shared a report on the results of the test at the most recent meeting of the town’s board of commissioners.

The swimming area tested over the regulatory limit for fecal coliform, a form of bacteria commonly found in the intestines of humans and animals.

The bacteria itself isn’t likely to cause illness, according to information on the N.C. Public Health website, but its presence in water indicates other disease-causing organisms could be in the water.

The next steps involved in determining the quality of the water in the lake are in the hands of outside agencies, Brown and Adams said.

Those two agencies are a company called Mogensen Mitigation and the North Carolina Division of Water Resources.

When water returned to Hope Mills Lake earlier this year, the town was required to have a contract with Mogensen Mitigation starting on May 1.

Mogensen will test the lake for dissolved oxygen, temperature and water depth for the first year water is impounded in the lake.

This is done in accordance with requirements from the Division of Water Resources and the U.S.Army Corps of Engineers.

However, these tests have nothing to do with the safety of the water for human swimming. They are involved with determining the quality of the water for the aquatic life in the lake.

How safe the water is for swimming falls under the jurisdiction of the Division of Water Resources.

“We have reached out to the Division of Water Resources to try to find out who is responsible for testing and what parameters we need to be testing for to determine if it’s safe for public swimming,’’ Brown said. There is a Fayetteville office for the Division of Water Services, but as of May 8, Brown said no one from that office had responded or given any indication when they would respond.

Swimming in the lake was suspended immediately, effective May 4. Adams said the town was caught by surprise that people were already swimming this early and decided to institute the ban for the safety of everyone.

While swimming is temporarily banned, Adams said people are not prohibited from using the lake for boating and fishing as long as they don’t go into the water.

All fishing at the lake is catch and release until the fish population is allowed to grow.

If the safety of the water becomes a greater concern, Adams said there could be later discussion about curtailing boating activities as well.

Meetings

For details about all meetings and activities, including location where not listed, call Town Clerk Debbie Holland at 910-426-4113. Most meetings take place at Town Hall.

• Citizens Academy every Tuesday through June, 6-8 p.m.

• Lake Celebration Committee Monday, May 21, 5 p.m.

• Board of Adjustment Monday, May 21, 6 p.m.

• Mayor’s Youth Committee Monday, May 21, 6:30 p.m.

• Board of Commissioners Monday, May 21, 7 p.m.

• Appearance Committee Tuesday, May 22, 6:30 p.m.

• Veterans Affairs Commissioner Thursday, May 24, 7 p.m.

Activities

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

• Town offices closed for Memorial Day Monday, May 28.

• Fall sports registration June 1-July 28. $30 per child; $15 late fee after registration deadline. Season begins Sept. 8. Call 910-426-4109 for more information.

• Daddy/Daughter Dinner & Dance Saturday, June 9,6 p.m. $50 per couple plus $20 for each additional ticket purchased. Call 910-426-4107 to RSVP by June 1.

• First Annual 4th of July Pageant Friday-Saturday, June 22-23. To be held at Hope Mills Parks & Recreation Center Gymnasium. Friday is for ages 3-9 and Saturday is for ages 10-22. Pageant registration deadline is June 1. For more information, call 910-426-4107.

Promote yourself: To include your business’s event, emailhopemills@upandcomingweekly.com.

Hope Mills has a lot of projects to bring to the table when the town takes part in the upcoming Building Business Rally at Fayetteville Technical Community College on May 22 in the Horace Sisk Gymnasium. 

The event, which runs from 3 p.m. until 7 p.m. that day, offers local builders and contractors the chance to connect with representatives from local municipalities and schools to learn about various projects they’ve got in the works and, hopefully, increase the chances of the two working together.

Registration is available online at faybids.com or at the door the day of the event, said Chancer McLaughlin, the development and planning administrator for the town of Hope Mills.

“It’s an event intended to bring area purchasing offices together, to be able to provide opportunities for local businesses to bid on municipal projects,’’ he said. “It’s almost like a one-stop shop in terms of businesses being able to come and find out about these opportunities.’’

While, in most cases, municipalities are required to take the low bid in a competitive search for the best deal, McLaughlin said what the rally does most of all is make smaller local contractors aware of the projects that are available.

“Basically, you have 10 purchasing offices, 12 business support programs, everybody from the town of Hope Mills, PWC, city of Fayetteville, Cumberland County Schools, Hoke County, city of Spring Lake – all of us will be there to provide information to any local business that would like to do business with these municipalities.

“We’re definitely trying to push for an increase in local participation so they can be prepared for these opportunities as well,’’ McLaughlin said. “It’s not about being able to get a lower bid. It’s really just to know about the bid opportunity. I don’t think there’s anything we’re going to provide that will allow someone’s light bulb to go on and say, ‘This will teach me how to become a lower bidder.’’’

McLaughlin said the gathering could be a real plus to small builders and contractors who might encounter a larger contractor they could connect with. “Local contractors will know who the big contractors are, so they can link up that way,’’ he said. “There may be bid packages for those smaller businesses, things they can do directly. It’s definitely an opportunity for these smaller businesses to grow.’’

McLaughlin said Hope Mills has a five-year list of projects that it will be sharing at the meeting.

“Our total from fiscal year 2017 to 2022 is $34 million, so that’s what we’ll have in terms of available expenditures we’re projecting,’’ he said.

Some of the bigger projects on the Hope Mills list are a joint services building for the fire and police departments, the future construction being discussed on the old Hope Mills Golf Course property, the planned Heritage Park and the proposed town museum.

“It’s really a projection of upcoming opportunities and trying to find the best way to get this information out there so it increases their opportunity to bid on these projects,’’ McLaughlin said.

“The town of Hope Mills is definitely committed to supporting local businesses. We are eager to be apart of this program.’’

For further information on the Building Business Rally, visit faybids.com or call Lexi Hasapis at PWC at 910-223-4607.