Political conservatism, say its critics, is less a rational movement to shape the future than an irrational impulse to flee the present.

Historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. famously called it “the politics of nostalgia.”

In reality, the temptation to romanticize the past is evident across the ideological spectrum. Politicians, activists, and intellectuals often wax nostalgic about mid-century America, for example, but for widely divergent reasons. Conservatives like the period’s low rates of crime and single parenthood. Progressives like its high rate of unionization.

If Marty McFly floated by in his flux-capacitated DeLorean and offered us a trip to the 1950s, however, few would take him up on it. We know we’d be poorer for it. We’d be giving up too much in the trade — from our daily conveniences, more comfortable homes, and higher incomes to modern medicine and equality under the law.

My fellow conservatives direct our gaze backward not to worship at the altar of some idealized past but instead to study and practice the lessons of history. We believe they reflect unalterable facts of human nature.

“Modern formulations are necessary even in defense of very ancient truths,” wrote William F. Buckley, one of the founders of modern American conservatism. “Not because of any alleged anachronism in the old ideas — the Beatitudes remain the essential statements of the Western code — but because the idiom of life is always changing.”

One historical subject it would profit everyone to know more about is the history of American conservatism itself. As it happens, two insightful authors have given us new books on the subject. Matthew Continetti’s “The Right: The Hundred Year War for American Conservatism” (Basic Books) describes the movement as a sprawling, intricately woven, but also somewhat-frayed tapestry of ideas, institutions and individuals. In M. Stanton Evans: “Conservative Wit, Apostle of Freedom” (Encounter Books), Steve Hayward offers a perfect companion piece: a loving and entertaining profile of an especially colorful thread in that tapestry, my longtime friend and mentor Stan Evans.

Continetti, an American Enterprise Institute fellow and editor of the Washington Free Beacon, begins his narrative of American conservatism in the Coolidge era of the 1920s and skillfully integrates the political, intellectual, and social history of the ensuing decades. Among the strengths of the book are Continetti’s careful study of documents, both published pieces and correspondence, and his accounts of the founding of key conservative institutions such as National Review and Young Americans for Freedom.

As for Hayward, a resident scholar at the University of California at Berkeley and biographer of former president Ronald Reagan, his book properly places Stan Evans at the center of many consequential events in the history of American conservatism, including the foundational moments I just mentioned. Named editor of the Indianapolis News in 1960 (at 26, he was the youngest editor of a major American newspaper at the time), Evans went on to write a syndicated column and many books, become a national TV and radio commentator, and train hundreds of budding journalists (including yours truly) as head of the Washington-based National Journalism Center.

Local readers will particularly enjoy the books’ North Carolina connections. For example, Continetti recounts U.S. Sen. Josiah Bailey’s efforts to organize opposition to the New Deal. While Bailey never achieved his dream of rolling back the federal government’s unconstitutional usurpation of state and private responsibilities, his proposed alliance of Republicans and conservative Democrats did come to pass after the 1938 midterms, blocking some of Franklin Roosevelt’s later and more-expansive programs.

Two other North Carolinians, scholar Richard Weaver and politician Jesse Helms, get their due in the books. And Hayward reveals the key role that Stan Evans played in Reagan’s surprising victory over Gerald Ford in

North Carolina’s 1976 primary, which helped ensure he would be the GOP nominee for president four years later.
In his conclusion, Continetti argues “the job of a conservative is to remember.” Quite right. And you’ll find no better memory aids than his and Hayward’s new books.

Cumberland County education leaders called for increased funding for schools Monday, June 16, during a public hearing, but the Board of Commissioners voted to pass the budget for fiscal year 2023 with no such increase.
In a meeting following the public hearing, however, the board voted to raise the salary of Vice Chair Toni Stewart by $2,000 over a previously planned increase. The measure passed 4-2 with Commissioners Jimmy Keefe and Michael Boose voting in opposition.

Before that vote, the board considered a similar pay increase for all commissioners, except Chair Glenn Adams, but that motion failed 3-3. Boose, Keefe and Stewart voted in favor while Adams and Commissioners Larry Lancaster and Jeannette Council were against the plan.
Commissioner Charles Evans was not present for either vote or the public hearing.

Under the newly adopted budget, Adams will earn an annual salary of $31,100, and Vice Chair Stewart will earn $25,297. The rest of the commissioners will receive $23,297.
It’s an increase from last year’s budget, when commissioners approved a chair salary of $30,194 while the rest of the commissioners earned $22,619.
This is not including a 3% and 4% cost-of-living raise on the fiscal year 2022 and 2023 base salaries, respectively.

The cost-of-living raises also apply to county employees
The board did not discuss comments during the public hearing that called for increased education funding.
Commissioners did not immediately respond to emailed questions from Carolina Public Press concerning the votes for salary increases and calls for increased education funding in the public hearing.

The board approved $84.3 million in funding for Cumberland County Schools, lower than the $88.2 million requested by the school system, but the approved funding is an increase of $1.3 million from last year.
Commissioners also approved a $95,000 work study that will examine how to best retain workers amid what County Manager Amy Cannon had described at previous meetings as an employees’ market.
The approved budget did not increase property taxes or solid waste fees.

Calls for increased school funding

During the public hearing, education leaders in Cumberland County spoke to commissioners, advocating for the $88.2 million in the school board’s original request.
Among them was Cumberland Board of Education member Charles McKellar.

“I come from the business world, and I know the responsibilities of any organization,” McKellar said. “You have to plan for the future.”
While McKellar had previously voted against budgets recommended by the majority of the Board of Education, he said he supported this year’s request.

“I’m in total support of this year’s (school) budget, and the reason is it’s been simplified,” McKellar said. “You can understand where the money’s going.”
Heather Kaiser, a schoolteacher and president of the Cumberland County Association of Educators, said the budget decisions made by the Board of Commissioners will have a “lasting and far-reaching impact” on students, teachers and the community as a whole.

“Those of us with our boots on the ground need you to know that expecting Cumberland County Schools to continue to do more with less is not the way forward,” Kaiser said. “We cannot make progress and positively impact children under those conditions.”
Cynthia Brent, chair of the Fayetteville NAACP’s education committee, said more funding was needed to address how some students are falling behind academically. She noted that the N.C. Department of Public Instruction had classified 23 schools within the Cumberland County system as low-performing schools.

“The pandemic has exposed the need for additional resources,” Brent said.

“These resources include additional social workers, counselors, nurses and teachers assistants and also includes access to broadband, high-quality child care, after-school child care, quality summer programs and a committed community.”

Leslie Craig, a schoolteacher at Max Abbott Middle School, said school staff needed more income to pay for increasing costs due to inflation, particularly housing.
Craig cited her personal experience with the high cost of housing. She told commissioners that her rent had increased by $250 in the past year and that more affordable housing was not available to her.
According to Apartment List, a nationwide apartment listing service that also collects rental data, the average monthly rent in Cumberland County has increased from $995 two years ago to more than $1,300 last month.

“If teachers and support staff cannot meet their daily life needs for themselves and their families, particularly for housing, how can they stay in their jobs?” Craig said.
Per state requirements, the new budget that commissioners approved includes a new minimum wage of $15 an hour for certain school employees, as well as a 2.5% increase for anyone already at that pay grade.

Changes to budget

Some changes were made to the budget proposal that was presented last month after a few weeks of deliberation.
This includes $30,000 and $3,000 in additional funding for Cumberland HealthNet and the county’s Vision Resource Center, respectively.
To account for this, $33,000 in funding has been taken from the Arts Council of Fayetteville/Cumberland County.

HOPE MILLS — The Hope Mills Board of Commissioners on Monday, June 26, approved the fiscal 2022-23 budget with a few adjustments to the wording of some entries.

The $15.5 million budget keeps the property tax rate at 46 cents per $100 valuation.

No one spoke during a public hearing on the proposed spending plan.

The budget was approved unanimously. Commissioner Bryan Marley was absent on official business but sent an internal note to Mayor Jackie Warner informing her of his confidence in the proposed budget should the board vote on it, Warner told commissioners.

“I think it's a really good proposal,” Town Manager Scott Meszaros said. “It’s a good framework to get us moving forward.”

Before the vote, several commissioners expressed concern about the wording in part of the document that said departments had the authority to move budget funds around without having to bring it before the board.

Mayor Pro Tem Kenjuana McCray asked the town manager to explain that section. Drew Holland, the town’s finance director, stepped in to answer the question. Holland said a department can do an internal budget amendment without having to bring it to the board for a vote.

“It’s an internal adjustment and doesn’t increase the overall budget and it's not moving it from one department to another,’’ Holland said. “It just moves funds within the department. It’s a standard and has been in our budget every year.”

According to the wording in the budget, the departments were not required to inform the board about moving the funds.

“That’s the first time I’ve seen that language within a budget,” Commissioner Grilley Mitchell said.

The wording also said the funds could be moved “without limitations.” The ambiguous wording and “without limitations” bothered McCray, Mitchell and Commissioner Joanne Scarola.

Holland assured the board that the movement of funds was signed off by the head of the department. Mitchell said that’s not what the language states and said ”it’s very ambiguous.”

Scarola agreed with Mitchell, saying it didn’t matter to her that it has always been that way.

“That’s not very transparent,” Scarola said.

The board agreed the wording needed to be changed before approving the budget. The town’s legal counsel said the board could still approve the budget with those noted changes without having the new wording in place.

The commissioners agreed and approved the budget.

The board also met in closed session for personnel and contract discussion and attorney-client advice.

Developers will not have to deal with temporary restrictions on lot size and setbacks after a vote by the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners on Monday morning, June 6.
A motion to establish a 90-day moratorium for zero lot-line development failed to get a majority vote. Board member Jeanette Council made the motion for the moratorium to allow the county Planning Board to review the issue and make recommendations to the commissioners.

Council and Commissioners Toni Stewart and Glenn Adams voted in favor of the motion. Commissioners Michael Boose, Larry Lancaster and Jimmy Keefe voted against it.
The moratorium was one of two options the county attorney recommended in a memo to the commissioners. The second was to eliminate zero lot-line development without further input from the Planning Board and to amend the county’s subdivision ordinance accordingly.

Just before Monday’s public hearing on the subject, board Chairman Adams said the board never intended to stop zero lot-line development.

“That’s the furthest thing from the truth. We are for orderly development, not getting rid of zero lot lines,” Adams said.

He blamed miscommunication and misinformation for confusion on the issue. He said the board often has received conflicting recommendations from the Planning Board and its staff.

After the vote, Adams said the board will still ask the county staff to look at the issue and make recommendations.

Zero lot-line development allows subdivision developers to build on smaller lots and use smaller setbacks from adjoining structures. Rural residents in Stedman, Eastover and other communities adjacent to proposed zero lot-line developments had complained to the county about the smaller residential lot sizes.

Four people spoke against the proposed moratorium. No one spoke in favor of it.
Lori Epler, vice president of Larry King & Associates homebuilders, said that eliminating zero lot lines would be “stealing” the right of builders and property owners to maximize return on their property.
Amanda Smith, president of Longleaf Pine Realtors, said there is a shortage of houses in the Cumberland County market. Removing the zero lot-line option would “wipe away affordable houses” here, and it would take almost a decade to make up the shortage, Smith said.

Jamie Godwin, president of the Homebuilders Association of Fayetteville, said removing zero lot-line development would curtail thousands of jobs in the homebuilding industry and shift new construction to surrounding counties. He also said that because Cumberland County lacks water and sewer lines in some areas, zero lot lines rarely are used because there’s a need for septic tanks and leech lines. That requires builders in the county to use larger lots and have greater separation between houses.

Finally, former County Attorney Neil Yarborough, speaking on behalf of developers, said the process of reviewing zero lot lines should be transparent and involve the public. Doing so, he said, would result in greater acceptance of any policy on the issue.

After the June 6 public meeting, according to the agenda, the board was scheduled to go into closed session to discuss land acquisition and economic development.

The Fayetteville City Council on Monday night, June 6, voted unanimously to move forward with implementing a revised affordable-housing policy, including bringing back an incentive program and developing a housing trust fund.

The council funded an affordable housing study in fiscal year 2022 and adopted action plans on housing in 2022 and 2023.
In other business, the council discussed a request for financial assistance from organizers of the Fayetteville Dogwood Festival, which is trying to recover from financial hardships related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The festival’s board of directors has requested $15,000 from the city.

Some council members voiced concern about diversity, including in the festival’s traditional concert lineup.
The housing issue is about “how we preserve existing housing, how we help our seniors stay in their houses longer and how we produce more housing,” said Chris Cauley, director of the city Economic and Community Development Department.

A housing trust fund has two primary purposes, according to Cauley. They are identifying revenue sources, including federal and state grants, a potential housing bond and annual allocations from the general fund and setting policy guidelines on how to evaluate funding requests.
Most recently, the council directed the city staff to add a $12 million housing bond on the ballot in November.

“There’s a lot more work to be done,” said Cauley, who presented a report to the City Council on Monday, June 6. “So tonight, what we’re talking about is checking in with the work that your team has done for the city, making sure that the direction staff is going is the right direction council wants it … as we revise our affordable-housing policies and procedures.

“And then moving into the fall, we’ll be talking about our development finance incentives, which are a little bit different than economic development incentives,” he said. “We’re not talking about recruiting jobs. We’re talking about incentivizing certain kinds of development to happen in certain places where council achieves the specific goals that council has laid out.”
According to Cauley, housing goals include improving awareness and access to housing resources; increasing the number and diversity of affordable-housing options; supporting self-sufficiency; and ensuring housing quality.

Cauley noted that one of the biggest problems in the Fayetteville area is that rental housing is more expensive than in other cities.

“So, a lot of our problem, which is unique in Fayetteville, is that a lot of our housing challenge is at the lowest end of the spectrum,” he said.
Renters are significantly more financially challenged than homeowners, he said.

“I cannot emphasize enough that COVID did not do good things to these numbers."
City Manager Doug Hewett said after the meeting that moving forward on affordable-housing policies is a significant step.

“We don’t have enough affordable housing,” Hewett said. “It plays an integral role in the development of the community. The establishment of the housing and trust fund and bringing back the incentive policy incentivizes development in our redevelopment area.”

Cauley said the city has about $12.4 million available in housing resources.

"I cannot underscore that this is not enough," he added.

Hewett said the city “is putting money on this, making these plans real.”

During talks Wednesday, June 1 surrounding the county’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year, Cumberland officials voiced concern about low retention rates among the county’s workers amid rising inflation and stress from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Part of the reason that we’re losing employees is, first, the emotional stress of the pandemic,” County Manager Amy Cannon said.

Cannon said she’s hopeful that the situation is going to turn, leading to an employer market, but for now, she has concerns about county employees.

“They’re burning out,” she said. “They don’t feel like they can take a day off, because when they come back, it’s going to be difficult to then catch up.”

Beyond the pandemic, the ongoing labor shortage has contributed to high vacancies among county positions, Cannon said.

“It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep people,” she said. “You may bring somebody on, and then six weeks (later), when they realize what we’re asking them to do, they exit out.”

To address these concerns, county officials are adding a 4% cost-of-living raise to employees in the proposed budget. The proposal includes funds for a $95,000 study to best determine how to retain employees.

County Commissioner Jimmy Keefe expressed concern about the long-term solution to ongoing cost issues.

“Health care’s gone up, energy’s gone up, everything’s gone up,” Keefe said.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the consumer price index, which measures inflation, has risen 8.3%.

Current measures won’t completely address employee retention issues related to this inflation, Cannon said.

“That’s not going to stop the bleeding,” she said. “It’s not going to fully take care of their disposable-income loss.”

Keefe said the county needs to create new solutions in the future to fully address inflation.

“I would caution us on thinking that old ways of doing things are going to get us through in the future,” he said. “I think we have to be more creative.”

Public hearing

The county will conduct a public hearing on the proposed budget on Monday, June 6 at the Board of Commissioners’ regularly scheduled monthly meeting at the Cumberland County Courthouse at 7 p.m.

Further work sessions on the budget will take place on June 8, 13 and 15.

Residents can view the budget online on the county’s website.

Pictured: The Cumberland County Courthouse houses meetings of the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners in downtown Fayetteville. (Photo by Melissa Sue Gerrits / Carolina Public Press)

The Hope Mills Board of Commissioners on Monday, June 6 will hold a public hearing on the proposed fiscal 2022-23 budget.

The board meets at 7 p.m. at Town Hall.

Town Manager Scott Meszaros has proposed a $15.5 million budget that keeps the property tax rate at 46 cents per $100 valuation.

The proposed budget also includes a tax of 5 cents per $100 of property valuation to raise the revenue listed in Parks & Recreation fees.

The board could decide to adopt the budget after the public hearing. The new budget has to be adopted by June 30.

A public hearing also is scheduled on the annexation of 6 acres in the Horner subdivision on Corporation Drive owned by Beers N Trees LLC. This would be a contiguous annexation.

Those who want to speak at the hearings should sign up with the town clerk prior to the meeting and limit their time to 3 minutes.

Under the consent agenda, the board will consider accepting a budget amendment to receive just over $5 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funding. The town has identified several projects for the funding, including nearly $2.4 million for street improvements, $1.4 million for ballfields at the Golfview property, $586,000 for police radios and $500,000 for a police real-time crime center and a license plate reader system, according to a memo to Meszaros from Finance Director Drew Holland

The board also will consider accepting a budget amendment in the amount of $97,500 for general fund expenses that include additional election costs and additional parking at the Lake Park. Of that, $9,000 is for election expenses and $88,500 is for the Fountain Lane parking lot, according to a memo from Holland.

The board also will consider a budget amendment in the amount of $16,000 for fuel expenditures as part of the consent agenda.

In general, items listed on the consent agenda are passed on a single motion without discussion.

Under new business, the town will consider the approval of the Cumberland County Joint Planning Board draft by-laws.

 

The Fayetteville City Council on Monday night, June 6 is scheduled to consider providing financial assistance to the Fayetteville Dogwood Festival, which is looking to recover from financial hardships related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The discussion has been tabled twice, including a request to drop it from last Thursday’s (June 2) budget work session.

The meeting begins at 5 p.m. at City Hall.

The 40th Dogwood Festival was held in downtown Fayetteville on April 22-24.
The Dogwood Festival Inc. board of directors has requested $15,000 to support the event’s expenses.

“As many know, the festival has been on a long hiatus since the COVID-19 pandemic, beginning in March 2020,” reads an April 7 letter addressed to City Manager Doug Hewett from festival Executive Director Sarahgrace Snipes. “Due to this hiatus, the annual festival has not been able to be held since 2019; fortunately, the festival has shown resilience.

“Throughout the pandemic, several small fundraisers were held and as mass gathering restrictions relaxed last summer, events have been able to continue.”

While the festival has been able to bounce back from the financial hardship, Snipes wrote, the support would be greatly appreciated. It is the festival’s intention to use the money to promote sustainability.

With the latest festival, Snipes said in an interview Friday, organizers were still working with some funds from 2020.

"We are still a little behind, and we would like a little bit of support to maintain financial sustainability for the next events for the remainder of 2022," she said.

The festival's overall budget for the year is close to $500,000, according to Snipes.

"All of our other financial support comes from sponsorships and grants," she said. "I would say sponsorships make up a considerable portion of our income. We do receive some grant funds from the Tourism Development Authority of Cumberland County and also The Arts Council of Fayetteville and Cumberland County. Any other funds that we don't receive from them we recruit sponsorship and ticket sales and other revenue... If we're looking to make up that money — the $15,000 or even more — we would have to add additional fundraising."

Snipes said the latest festival did not wind up in the red in terms of profit and loss.

"We have seen some profit but doing festivals like ours, it takes a lot of financial resources," Snipes said. "It sometimes comes down to cash flow."

Watershed study

In other business, staff members are expected to present the findings of a Blounts Creek watershed study. Part of the study focused on Blounts Creek into downtown.

The recommendations include improvements to the bridges at Russell and Person streets as well as stream enhancements, according to materials in the agenda packet. The estimated cost is $20.5 million, the agenda packet states.

The materials say the improvements to Russell and Person streets would keep more roads open during large storm events.

The project would require consulting and coordinating with the N.C. Department of Transportation, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality and other agencies, the materials state.

On another matter, Councilwoman Courtney Banks-McLaughlin is expected to discuss support of a proposed aquatic center.

The parks and recreation advisory board has expressed interest in an aquatic center and is requesting the council’s support, Banks-McLaughlin states on her agenda item request. No other information about the aquatic center, including where it would be located, was available in the agenda materials.

The Cumberland County Board of Commissioners on Monday, June 6 will hold a special meeting to hear comments from the public regarding the recommended fiscal 2023 budget.

The proposed budget calls for nearly $553 million in total expenditures across all funds — which includes school and capital investment funds — and has a $362 million general fund.

The tax rate would remain the same at 79.9 cents per $100 property valuation.

Cumberland County estimates it will receive nearly $171 million from property taxes this fiscal year, which makes up roughly 55% of the general fund. A penny on the tax rate earns $2.4 million.

The June 6 meeting seeks public comment regarding the proposed budget. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. in the Judge E. Maurice Braswell Cumberland County Courthouse. The meeting takes place in room 118 on the main floor of the courthouse.

Historically, representatives from outside agencies seeking county funding speak at the public hearings. This year, 17 outside agencies sought public funding. The recommended budget allocates $486,042 to outside agencies, the same amount as in the fiscal 2022 budget and $142,827 less than requested.

Initially, of the 17 agencies requesting money, the budget only allocated funds for 15 agencies. The North Carolina Symphony Society and Cumberland Health Net Inc. were not recommended for funding. However, during last Wednesday’s budget work session, board Chairman Glenn Adams requested that $30,000 of the recommended $68,000 be taken from the Arts Council to fund Cumberland Health Net, which had requested $41,000. He also asked that another $3,000 be taken from the Arts Council for the Vision Resource Center. The Vision Resource Center had asked for $10,000 but the budget allocated $7,000, the same as last year. The additional $3,000 makes the Vision Resource Center the only outside agency receiving what it had requested.

Adams said he believes because of the pandemic during the past two years, the Arts Council did not spend all of its money. Also, the Arts Council receives a portion of the county’s motel and hotel occupancy room tax, which he predicted has increased over last year.

County Manager Amy Cannon did not have those figures available at Wednesday’s (June 1) budget workshop.

The city of Fayetteville’s recommended fiscal 2023 budget allocates $75,000 for the Arts Council of Fayetteville/Cumberland County to partner for community art programs.

Members of Cumberland County’s staff unveiled their recommended budget to the public Thursday, setting up weeks of deliberation over how the county will spend its taxes throughout fiscal year 2023.

County Manager Amy Cannon and the rest of the county’s staff set the value of the proposed budget at just under $553 million, an increase of about 10% from the current fiscal year.

The property tax rate, which is 79.9 cents per $100 of property valuation, would remain the same. The county’s annual solid waste fee of $56 would also stay the same.

Property taxes, sales taxes, motor vehicle taxes and money from the federal and state governments are the county’s primary sources of funding for the budget — 48%, 17%, 7% and 21%, respectively.

Property tax revenue is projected to increase by more than $2 million while motor vehicle tax revenue would increase by more than $1 million in the new budget above the level of the current fiscal year.

For fiscal year 2023, the county is recommending that more than $60 million be collected in sales tax, a 4% increase in what is projected to be collected by the conclusion of fiscal year 2022 on June 30.

Even with these revenue increases, however, Cannon said during her presentation Thursday to the Board of Commissioners that overall growth in the budget is limited compared to expenditure increases.

“I had to make some tough decisions to balance this budget,” she said. “But our focus remained on three things: to maintain current services, to address unmet needs where possible within the funding available and to continue advancing the board’s strategic priorities.”

Those three priorities, laid out by Cannon, are the continued development of the Crown Event Center to replace the Crown Theatre and Arena, public water access for Gray’s Creek and addressing homelessness within the county.

To address homelessness, Cannon said the county had received $1 million from the N.C. General Assembly to construct a homeless shelter. She said the county is collaborating with the Cape Fear Valley Health System and Fayetteville Technical Community College.

‘The new normal’

Cannon said new realities associated with the COVID-19 pandemic have forced the county to push money in new directions to adapt.

“The last two years have been characterized by rapid, abrupt and constant change because of the magnitude of the pandemic,” she said. “Uncertainty continues as we transition to what I’m going to call this evening, ‘the new normal.’”

At the top of this list was inflation.

“The increased cost of goods and services and interest rate hikes will continue to reduce disposable income,” Cannon said. “Economic optimism nationally among chief financial officers has eroded in the first quarter of 2022.”

In the proposed budget, mandated increases from the state or those associated with health costs amount to $6 million.

One mandatory cost hike is the increased price of health insurance for county employees. Contributions that the county must make to the employee retirement fund have also increased.

The N.C. Department of Public Safety has required counties to increase their share of youth detention facility costs, Cannon said.

The state late last year also required that certain school employees in each county receive a minimum wage of at least $15 an hour. A wage increase of 2.5% of anyone already at the $15-an-hour mark is also required.

Due in part to this, the Cumberland Board of Education requested a school budget of $88.2 million, an increase of more than $5 million from last year.

Due to the new $15-an-hour minimum, the school sought the ability to address salary compression, a situation where the difference in wages between employees of different experience levels is minimal.

However, Cannon said the county is not required to address salary compression. Therefore, the recommended school budget is lower than requested, at $84.3 million.

General increased labor costs are also a cause of increased expenses in the county budget.

Cannon said increased labor costs are a trend across the country due to the pandemic.

“It’s impacted people both mentally and physically,” she said. “It’s caused employees to reflect on their priorities and life in general. Americans are seeking better pay, but even more than that, they’re seeking flexible work schedules that create a better work-life balance.

“The Great Resignation has had an impact on all organizations. Cumberland County is not immune from this workforce crisis.”

Cumberland has experienced worker resignations, Cannon said, that have resulted in an average employee age of 44 and an average of four years of experience with the county.

To help maintain its current workers, Cumberland is incorporating a 4% cost-of-living pay increase into the proposed budget.

The county is also increasing the annual pay of entry-level detention officers and deputy sheriffs to $40,457 and $44,000, respectively, both an increase of about $2,700.

Cannon said the county conducted an analysis of the salaries among Cumberland employees. The majority of workers made close to the minimum in their salary ranges.

“Our pay structure lacks a mechanism to move people throughout their range,” she said. “From a recruitment perspective, the minimum salary by many of our grades is no longer competitive in this employee-driven market.”

To address this, the county has included a $95,000 worker study in the proposed budget as a way to determine how to best retain employees.

Cannon said the city of Fayetteville had recently conducted a similar study. In Fayetteville’s proposed budget, the city is including merit pay increases for employees, Carolina Public Press reported.

Other counties, including Harnett, Durham, Guilford, Forsyth and New Hanover, are in various stages of conducting pay studies, Cannon said.

Deliberation over next few weeks

The Cumberland County Board of Commissioners plans to conduct work sessions to discuss the recommended budget on June 1, 8, 13 and 15.

Each work session will take place at 5:30 p.m. at the Cumberland County Courthouse in Room 564.

A public hearing, where residents can voice concerns over the budget, will take place at 7 p.m. June 6 at the courthouse in Room 118.

The Board of Commissioners may hold a work session immediately following that hearing based on community feedback on the budget.

Pictured above: The Cumberland County Courthouse houses meetings of the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners in downtown Fayetteville. (Photo by Melissa Sue Gerrits / Carolina Public Press)

Fayetteville police are investigating the death of a man and the wounding of two other people in a shooting at a hookah lounge early Monday.

Officers were called to Airborne Hookah Lounge in the 5000 block of Raeford Road about 2:15 a.m. Monday, according to a news release from the Fayetteville Police Department.

They found a woman with life-threatening injuries from a gunshot wound, the release said. Two other people also had been shot during the incident. One was in a vehicle on Raeford Road, and the other was at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center, the release said.

Antwain Maurice Hoskins, 22, of the 500 block of Trust Drive, died from his injuries at the hospital, the release said.

Detectives determined that there was a disturbance outside the lounge before the shootings. One victim was treated at the hospital and released. The third victim remains in stable condition at the hospital. Their identities were withheld.

The Fayetteville Police Department’s Homicide Unit is investigating the shootings and asks that witnesses or anyone with photographs or videos from the scene contact Detective S. Shirey at 910-751-3009 or CrimeStoppers at 910-483-TIPS (8477).

The prospect of a new name for Fort Bragg is getting mixed reviews from veterans and civil rights leaders in Fayetteville.

A federal commission tasked by Congress with recommending new names for military installations named for Confederate officers has suggested that Fort Bragg become Fort Liberty.

That’s fine with Jimmy Buxton, president of the Fayetteville branch of the NAACP.

“It’s somewhat mind-boggling that they came up with ‘Liberty,’” said Buxton, who was invited to share his input when representatives of the naming commission visited Fort Bragg in the fall for feedback.

“I knew it had to be changed,” Buxton said. “I think I can live with Fort Liberty - what ‘liberty’ stands for. And it’s what Fort Bragg has stood for for years. It brings a pretty good meaning to Fort Bragg.”

Buxton said he didn’t have a suggestion for a new name, but one of the men whose name he would have liked to be seriously considered was Gen. Roscoe Robinson, the first African American to command the 82nd Airborne Division.

Retired Army Gen. Dan McNeill, former commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, said he thinks the commission chose wisely, considering all the suggestions it had.

"If you named it after a person, which person would you have picked?” he asked. “If you picked one, as opposed to groups of others, you would have left others behind.”

McNeill said the commission spoke to a lot of diverse people while seeking feedback from the community.

"It was a good job of assembling a wide array of people," he said. "By the time the last meeting occurred, they all seemed to agree on ‘Liberty.’ A name is what caused this problem to start with. When someone said ‘Liberty,’ it made a lot of sense to me."

The naming commission announced its recommendations last week. They will be forwarded to Congress and, if approved, to Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III, who will have the ultimate authority to rename the installations.

Fort Bragg, with more than 53,000 troops, is home to the 82nd Airborne Division and Special Operations Forces.

The post, which opened in 1918 as a field artillery station, was named after Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg, a North Carolina native. The Army artillery officer was known for his role in the 1847 Battle of Buena Vista, Mexico. He later served as a Confederate general and was a slave owner.

Troy Williams, a legal analyst and criminal defense investigator, said at this point, he doesn’t see the renaming of Fort Bragg as a big deal.

Williams served in the Air Force from 1973 through 1977.

“I don’t like the Fort Liberty name,” Williams said. “It’s not going to sit well with some people. At this point, this far into the game, it’s a moot point … to change this because they were Confederate officers.”

Williams questioned when all the name changing would end in a period of political correctness. He said some military installations are named after Union Army leaders who “slaughtered native Indians” and the buffalo they hunted.

“They were slaughtering these people. They’ve got stuff named after them,” he said. “My challenge is, are we going to change everything?”
Williams doesn’t like the proposed name.

“If we’re going to come up with a name, at least make it a name that honors people,” he said. “Fort Liberty – what the heck is that? We honored Bragg all these years, and now we can’t honor another person?”

U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., whose district includes Fort Bragg, has suggested that its association with Confederate Gen. Bragg instead be with Bragg's cousin, Union Army Gen. Edward S. Bragg of Wisconsin, as a compromise.

Most historians rate Edward Bragg as the better military leader.

William Greene, 59, the quartermaster of VFW Post 10630 in Hope Mills, served five years in the reserve before serving on active duty in the Army from 1985 to 2005.

Greene agrees with Hudson.

“To me, personally, I’d call it Fort Bragg after the Union guy,” Greene said. “The Confederate general – they’ve got to get rid of that. All the Confederate history.”

But changing the name would be costly, he said.

“You’re talking a lot of money,” Greene said. “I don’t know how you’ll raise those funds to rename the roads, all the signs. Keep it simple, anyway, so we can save money.”

The name “Liberty” would reflect “all the things going on at Fort Bragg,” he said.

“I’m just trying to save some money,” he said.

Grilley Mitchell, 67, president of the Cumberland County Veterans Council, had a 20-year Army career that ended in 1993.

“You know what? They have already made the decision,” he said. “I have no opinion. … They’re going to do what they want to do. We just get in line with the marching orders. That’s the reality of things. The military makes the decisions.”

Mitchell said he’s on record saying that the post should remain Fort Bragg but named for Edward Bragg.

“He was an ambassador, a true patriot for the Union,” he said. “I thought there was a better option. Think of the money that was going to be saved.

“The young may call it Fort Liberty,” he said. “For us, the old school, it will always be Fort Bragg. If you told anyone you were from North Carolina, they say, ‘Fort Bragg.’ They know Fort Bragg. This should be an opinion made by soldiers who served in the military and their families and not the politicians.”

The federal commission recommended new names for eight other Army installations. Fort Bragg is the only one that would not be named after a person.

As friends and family gather for the holiday to grill or enjoy the beach, Col. Scott Pence reminded people to stop and think about the families who will have an empty seat at the table on Memorial Day.

Pence, 46, is Fort Bragg’s garrison commander. He was the keynote speaker Monday morning for a Memorial Day program at Freedom Memorial Park in downtown Fayetteville.

Inside the park, “All Gave Some … Some Gave All” is posted on one of the monuments. On Monday, flags were set at half-staff for the ceremony, and floral arrangements and markers had been placed in front of a podium.

“Ever since eight members of the Lexington militia lost their lives in the first battle of the American Revolution, nearly 1.2 million service members – soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen – have made the ultimate sacrifice,” Pence told those who were seated on the bleachers and in folding chairs. “We are reminded that the world remains a very dangerous place and that our soldiers are in harm’s way all across the globe.’’

Approximately 300 people attended the service to remember those who sacrificed their lives in the call of duty. The program – organized by veteran Don Talbot, the commander of Purple Heart Chapter 2226 – incorporated patriotic music, a bagpipe version of “Amazing Grace,” wreath presentations representing World War I up to the Global War on Terror, and the Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry Company.

Pence first spoke of the family of Dalia Munoz, a teenager attending high school in Fayetteville. She remembers hearing the doorbell ring, and the men delivering the news of her father’s death, Pence said. Her father was a former Golden Knight and member of the Special Forces.

The year was 2005, just four years following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

From that day on, Pence said, Dalia’s life forever changed.

Among others who have fallen, Fayetteville High School graduate and Eagle Scout Henry T. MacGill barely spent two weeks in Korea before he was gunned down by North Korean forces in 1950, Pence said. Only a few years before his death, he had graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

MacGill was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross – the Army’s second-highest decoration for valor. The citation reads that MacGill repeatedly put his life at risk to save his men.

Pence evoked the names of others who died while serving their country, including Master Sgt. Ralph Joseph Reno, who went missing in Vietnam on July 3, 1966, when his helicopter crashed into the mountains of Quang Nam province.
It would be 2011 before Army officials identified his remains and declared the 38-year-olf Reno killed in action.

“Take a look around these sacred grounds of Freedom Park,” Pence said. “The memorials here are a gentle reminder of those brave men and women who raised their hand to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. These monuments represent the sacrifices of those men and women – and it represents the sacrifices of the families who are left behind.”

Pence talked about a unique bond between the military and civilian communities.

“When we lose one of our own,” he said, “our entire town mourns. We come together to support one another. … We are a community who takes great pride to be home to the thousands of men and women in uniform.”

As a final example of that empty seat at the table on Memorial Day, Pence recalled Earl G. Dawkins, who served with the Army Air Force’s 444th Bomber Squadron, 320 Bomber Group. As he and his crew were on their way to Dijon, France, in November 1944, an unexpected storm caused his Martin B-26 Marauder to crash, taking the lives of Dawkins and his crew, Pence said.

Dawkins’ name is listed on a plaque with others who died near the crash site in the village of Plottes, France. It reads: “They died far away from their country because they came to help liberate ours.”

So, Pence concluded, “As we gather with friends and family, let us remember that Memorial Day is a time to honor our commitment to never forget those who served and sacrificed for America. And today, we do that once again.”

Ann Provencher, who is with the Rolling Thunder North Carolina Chapter 1, spoke during the program on the Missing Man Table, a symbolic gesture that pays tribute to the nation's POWs, MIAs and all of those who did not return while in service.

"Their patriotism, love of country and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good makes them all true heroes," she said. "We owe them a debt of gratitude that can never wholly be paid."

Ryan Jackson, 24, of Fayetteville, attended the ceremony with his grandfather, 60-year-old Army veteran Tim Katetianes.

“It’s a day of memory. Reflection,” Jackson said from the bleachers. “A day of empathy.”

Bruce Tyson, 72, of Fayetteville, called the Memorial Day program “extra special” as he left the park.

“It’s good to see so many come out,” he said. “More people are involved in grilling and beach travel. It’s warm but tolerable. I’m here because someone went somewhere else and sacrificed.”

Cumberland County’s homeless population rose by 178 from 2020 to 2022, according to an annual count of people who live on the streets and those living in homeless shelters.

The 2021 count, which was restricted to people in emergency shelters because of the COVID-19 pandemic, was 54.

The 2022 Community Development Point in Time Count records the number of people in temporary or transitional housing in Fayetteville and Cumberland County as well as those on the streets.

Overall, 475 people were reported to be homeless.

According to the January count, the area has:
● 392 unsheltered homeless people.
● 43 sheltered homeless.
● 40 people in transitional housing.

That adds up to 475 individuals, based on the count.

The 2020 count reported a total homeless population of 297 with 165 unsheltered, 38 in emergency shelters and 94 in transitional housing.

The final report, which will be submitted to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, will be available on Cumberland County Community Development's website at a later date, a news release said.

Neither Dee Taylor, director of Cumberland County Community Development, nor Craig Morrison, director of Fayetteville Area Operation Inasmuch, could be reached for comment on Monday.

Operation Inasmuch provides food, temporary housing and other assistance to the homeless.

The count is done each January to tally the homeless population during a 24-hour stretch, says a news release from Community Development. “It is designed to be a snapshot of both the sheltered and unsheltered homeless population in a particular area and should not be considered an exact count of homeless individuals,” the release said.

The 2022 count was conducted by 68 volunteers from Community Development and partner agencies, the release said. The volunteers included 19 Cumberland County employees.

At the time of the count, donated items such as gloves, knitted hats and hygiene kits were distributed to the homeless.

Cumberland County Community Development is the lead agency responsible for counting the homeless. Partner agencies include the city of Fayetteville Economic and Community Development and Fayetteville-Cumberland County Continuum of Care on Homelessness.

“The unsheltered homeless are those who are living in conditions that are uninhabitable for humans such as vehicles, under bridges, doorways, abandoned houses/buildings, parks and cemeteries,” the news release said. “The sheltered homeless are those who are in facilities such as emergency shelters; domestic violence shelters; motels and hotels paid by vouchers and charitable organizations; and those in transitional housing units.”

Homeless persons may live in transitional housing as long as 24 months and receive support services.

The count records demographics including race, gender, age and factors including mental illness, substance abuse and disability, the news release said.

Pictured above: Cumbrland County's homeless population rose from 2020 to 2022. (Photo by Jimmy Jones)

The Cumberland County Sheriff's Office has charged a man with throwing Molotov cocktails at two churches Sunday morning.

No injuries were reported, the Sheriff’s Office said in a release Sunday night.

On Monday, arson investigators charged Terry Wayne Raeford, 57, of Fayetteville, with two counts of manufacturing and possession of a weapon of mass destruction and two counts of malicious damage to occupied property by use of an incendiary device.

Raeford was held at the Cumberland County Detention Center on a $200,000 secured bond. His first appearance in court is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Raeford is cooperating with the investigation, the Sheriff's Office said.

Deputies responded to the first incident just after 10:30 a.m. Sunday at Grays Creek Church at 4750 Grays Creek Church Road. Deputies responded to the second incident just after 11 a.m. Sunday at New Calvary Missionary Baptist at 3862 Gateway Drive, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Arson investigators obtained video footage from both churches. Security cameras showed a four-door gray vehicle with tinted windows at both locations, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Pictured above: Terry Wayne Raeford (Photo courtesy Cumberland County Sheriff's Office

Today we shall stare into the void. Trigger warning: Before you read any further, remember what our pal Nietzsche said, “If you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”

Let us carefully descend into the wonderful world of caves. To quote the world’s most famous rooster Foghorn Leghorn, “I say boy, holes in the ground, my boy, holes in the ground.” Today we shall spelunk into what lies beneath. The abysses into which we shall exchange furtive but tasty glances are the fabled Cheese Caves of Springfield, Missouri. What? You have never heard of the famous Cheese Caves of Missouri? Pull up an ottoman and have a seat. Today will be a learning experience. Kindly bear with me; we will get to the Cheese Caves, but first, a brief survey of two other world-famous caves.

Among the most famous group of caves is the Lascaux cave complex in France. These caves feature about 1500 wall paintings done roughly 17,000 years ago by paleolithic cave dudes and cave dudettes. According to Mr. Google, the wall paintings show people, animals and mysterious abstract drawings.

The caves remained undiscovered until 1940, when a teenager was walking his dog. His dog Robot managed to fall into a hole that turned out to be the entrance to the Lascaux caves. If not for Robot’s fortuitous clumsiness, Lascaux might have remained hidden for another 17,000 years. Who’s a good boy? Robot’s a good boy.

A most excellent cave story was in the “Andy Griffith Show,” where Andy and Helen get temporarily stuck in a cave. Barney is not a fan of caves or bats. He tells Thelma Lou why going into caves is a bad idea.

Barney: “You know what you find in caves? Bats. That’s right — bats. You know what they do? They fly into your hair and get tangled up in there and lay their eggs, and you go crazy.”

Thelma Lou: “Laughs.”

Barney: “Alright, laugh, it’s happened. You want a head full of bat eggs? I don’t.”

I agree with Barney. Even if I had hair, I would not want a head full of bat eggs. However, if you choose to have bat eggs in your hair, that is no one’s business but your own. I will not think less of anyone sporting bat eggs in their hair.

Now let us return to the Cheese Caves. America may not have baby formula, enough gas to go around or flying cars, but we have a Strategic Cheese Reserve buried in Missouri. According to no less an authority than The Washington Post, the U.S. government has 1.4 billion pounds of cheese stored underground in various Cheese Caves. The Feds began buying and storing cheese during President Carter’s time to help dairy farmers sell their products. Cheese is easier to store and keeps much longer than milk. The Feds would buy all the cheese dairy farmers could produce. Naturally, the farmers kept producing more and more cheese. Pretty soon, this added up to a lot of cheese. When Reagan became President, he gave out 30 million pounds of government cheese to the hungry masses. Some of you who are a bit long in the tooth may recall the government cheese program. If you can remember this, please don’t drive after dark.

The Springfield News-Leader says that there are seven million pounds of cheese in the Springfield Cheese Caves. The caves have been turned into a giant 3.2 million square foot warehouse. Being about 100 feet underground, the caves remain about 60 degrees year-round. They can be cooled to 36 degrees which makes cheeses very happy. The cheeses can live long and prosper at 36 degrees. Unfortunately, the Springfield Cheese Caves are not open to the public.

Here are some cheese facts which might help you forget your inability to tour the Cheese Caves for a personal look. The federal government reports that 36% of Americans are lactose intolerant. Demographically 75% of African Americans, 51% of Latinos, 80% of Asian Americans and 21% of Caucasians are lactose intolerant. The Cheese Council reports that processed cheese was originally made for wartime use as it can last almost as long as a Twinkie. Pilgrims brought over cheese on the Mayflower. The first cheese factory did not manufacture cheese until 1851. One-third of all milk in the United States is made into cheese. The average American eats 23 pounds of cheese a year. The most popular cheese recipe in the United States is macaroni and cheese.

I am proud to have gotten through this column without a bunch of gratuitous cheesy puns. There were some Gouda ones I discarded. It could have been a Feta accompli to have riddled this column with bad puns like an overripe Swiss Cheese. But then the column would have smelled like a sweating Limburger cheese on a 100 degree-day. No dogs named Robot were injured during the writing of this column. As Mr. Spock would say,

“Live long and Parmesan.”

To quote Elvis, “I’ll have a Blue Christmas, but you can have a Bleu Cheese.” The Cheese stands alone. Got Cholesterol?

 

I was recently allowed to get a sneak peek at the Gilbert Theater’s production of “Fairview,” the 2019 Pulitizer Prize-winning play by Jackie Sibbles Drury.

Subsequently, I can say it was some of the most powerful, uncomfortable, and truly bizarre theater I have ever seen, though “experienced,” is a much better word.
The play opens into the living room of what could easily be any American’s home. Tasteful furniture, a nice rug, and a dining room table all speak to the banal existence of your average middle-class family.

“Fairview’s” take on this ubiquitous image is the Frasiers, an African American family who in their exaggerated wholesomeness, bring to mind the groundbreaking sitcom perfection of “The Cosby Show.”

There’s comically hysterical Beverly (Jacquelyne Johnson-Hill), who needs everything to be just so for her mother’s birthday dinner. Her long-suffering husband, Dayton (Shaun McMillan), works almost too hard to keep his exasperated wife happy. The arrival of Beverly’s passive-aggressive, meddling sister Jasmine (J. Ra’Chel Fowler) brings some laugh-out-loud dialogue, and the youngest Frasier, teenage Keisha (Jalani Rapu), completes a family that looks just like any other.

In her quest to “make everything absolutely perfect,” Beverly burns the birthday cake (of course), faints dramatically in poor Dayton’s arms, and the stage goes black.

At this point in the play, things go significantly off the rails.

Act II opens with the arrival of new voices, but the stage is dressed the same. A white man (Justin Gore-Pike) and a white woman (Amanda Briggs) begin a contentious conversation about race as a construct and what race they might choose if such a thing were possible.

The incredibly cringe-worthy dialogue here is uncomfortable but is one of the more interesting takes on benign racism that I’ve seen. It’s racism born of stereotype-driven ignorance that doesn’t seek to hate but is equally destructive as it seeks to paint minorities with a broad, incapable brush.
In the background of this racially charged conversation, the Frasiers repeat Act I without speaking any of their lines as another white man (Gabe Terry) and woman (Molly Hamelin) join the conversation happening in the foreground. The cast is now complete: four unnamed white spectators to comment and observe the lives of four black people, much like they’re enjoying a television show.

It’s a lot.

An increasingly angry conversation about what black people are or aren’t continues as the Frasiers go past the point of the previous action in the background. The silent blacks and the chatty whites make for chaotically fascinating theater as the audience confronts the larger conversation threading its way through the scene.
Act II ends in an unhinged monologue delivered to the audience by the play’s loud, swaggering, white, cis-male antagonist. The message, which I won’t write about here, will definitely ruffle the feathers of those listening closely.

Act III, the last in the play, is by far the most confusing. Culminating in a bizarre twist, the play arrives at its message with a shaken, disoriented audience in tow. Frankly, I was happy to see it end — I could finally release the breath I’d been holding.

Chosen for its contentious subject matter by the Gilbert’s artistic director, Lawrence Carlisle III, the play’s director, Deannah Robinson, meets the challenges of the material with a deft hand.
Creating some truly funny moments in a play that seems oppressively heavy at times, Robinson clearly understood the assignment and creates a space that’s hard to stay in but impossible to leave.
Hill, Fowler, McMillan, and Rapu do an excellent job of silently replicating their performances in Act II, while Hamelin, Terry, Briggs, and Gore-Pike commit to performances that are as grotesque as they are brilliant.

The chemistry evident between the play’s actors is a high point of the production. While the play’s commentary almost certainly made for some awkward initial read-throughs, we’re left with the feeling these actors became a little closer throughout rehearsals. It makes the tougher bits easier to swallow.

Technical director Vicki Lloyd’s tidy set and expert lighting design plunge the audience into a bizarre world of meta-theater where we, the audience, become the watchers of the watchers of a show not meant for either of us. Her skillful direction moves the play through transitions that seem simultaneously seamless and jarring. The haunting spotlight on newcomer Rapu in her closing monologue is an image that is sure to stick with audiences long after the play ends.

“Fairview” is a play of outrageous demands and unflinching permissions. It allows itself to be the crude, vulgar uncle at a family barbecue and demands you don’t dare leave the table.
I recommend that you grab a seat and settle in for a necessary conversation.

“Fairview”runs through June 12.
The Gilbert Theater is located at 116 Green St. above the Fascinate U Children’s Museum.

Tickets can be purchased at www.gilberttheater.com/ or 910-678-7186.

Sweet Tea Shakespeare will take audiences all the way back to "the rom-com that started it all" with their production of "Much Ado About Nothing" by William Shakespeare. This comedy, directed by Sweet Tea Shakespeare's Artistic Director Jeremy Fiebig, will open Friday, June 3, and run through June 26. Shows start at 7:30 p.m. Friday through Sunday, with a live music preshow at 6:45 p.m.

Written around 1598, "Much Ado About Nothing" focuses on the romantic exploits of two couples in the idyllic Italian countryside. Beatrice and Benedick are cynical individuals more interested in exchanging witty repartee than vows of love. A second romance in the story follows the maiden, Hero, and brave soldier, Claudio. A colorful cast of characters both aid and usurp the four would-be lovers, and hilarity ensues.

"I think this play is just wildly entertaining," said Jen Pommerenke, managing director for Sweet Tea Shakespeare. "It lends itself to any age group, and it's an accessible Shakespeare comedy. It's funny, witty and just a great storyline."

The play will receive a few updates — moving to the "Bridgerton" esque Empire period with some infusions of modern music. The source material has been cut down to fit a run time of around two hours. However, it's still "all Shakespeare," Fiebig assured Up & Coming Weekly.

Sweet Tea Shakespeare brings The Bard and the magic of his stories to old fans and newcomers alike. Over 500 years after changing the way humans engage with story craft, Sweet Tea Shakespeare believes Shakespeare is still extremely relevant today.

"I think Shakespeare gets humans," explained Pommerenke. "He understands our tenacious spirit and our desire for love. You can take Shakespeare and drop the story just about anywhere. We've seen Shakespeare take place in Georgia, seen it in army fatigues, and I'm sure there's one with robots," she joked. "There's a Shakespeare for everyone."

"We are all Shakespeare in a sense," said Fiebig, adding to the sentiment. "So much of [his] writing has become, over time, how we see and experience the world — how we laugh, how we fall in love, even how we think. Shakespeare has a really robust way of sticking with us — I think because there's such a depth to the ideas in the plays."
While some may be intimidated by the idea of Shakespeare and the language of the play, Fiebig feels confident no one in the audience will be left behind.

"At Sweet Tea Shakespeare, we work to make the Shakespeare as accessible as possible, and audiences will be able to follow along. We provide them some extra help on-site, too."
Pommerenke suggested the pay-off is worth it. "I think it's really good for people to be challenged by stories. You do have to pay attention to a Shakespeare play; you have to engage the head and heart; you can't go in and zone out — and it just sounds so lovely on the ears."
Sweet Tea Shakespeare strives to create a holistic experience for its audience that speaks to the mind and the celebratory spirit of theater.

"The main difference at Sweet Tea Shakespeare is that the play is part of a larger event," said Fiebig. "We have a preshow with music and other fun entertainment, beer, wine and a specialty cocktail just for the show. Our productions fold in modern music. We like to think of our work as a party where a play breaks out."
The company travels with its own playhouse set-up, and the play will be performed outdoors when weather permits. Attendees are encouraged to bring camping chairs, quilts or blankets to spread on the ground. Light fare will be for sale from local vendors.

General admission tickets are $22 in advance, and day-of tickets will cost $30. Tickets can be purchased on the website, https://sweetteashakespeare.com/tickets/, by calling 910-420-4383 or email tickets@sweetteashakespeare.com.

Information regarding performance locations can be found at https://sweetteashakespeare.com/much-ado-sweet-tea-shakespeare-rom-com/.

For 24 years, the Up & Coming Weekly community newspaper has proudly showcased the people, businesses and organizations that have invested their time, money and expertise in our community. One of the ways we do this is by publishing our Best of Fayetteville Readers Survey and asking our newspaper readers to identify and ultimately determine who is Fayetteville’s Best of the Best. They have what makes Fayetteville and Cumberland County unique, enjoyable and livable.

Well, it is that time of year, and beginning with the June 8 edition of Up & Coming Weekly and running through July 3, our readers will be able to cast their ballots for the Best of the Best two ways. They may fill out a ballot located in the newspaper and return it to Up & Coming Weekly, or they can go online to the Up & Coming Weekly website, www.upandcomingweekly.com. While there, you can sign up for a free electronic subscription of Up & Coming Weekly and receive your copy every week on your home or office computer.

Using time-tested and enforceable voting rules and guidelines, such as one ballot per reader, we have elevated the honor, integrity and prestige of the Best of Fayetteville designation. This process continues to be a respected, well-organized, informal and non-scientific survey. By monitoring and auditing the ballots, eliminating the nomination process and conspicuous ballot stuffing, our survey has proven to be incredibly accurate and extremely valuable to residents and the businesses and organizations that have earned the honor of being voted the Best.

No doubt about it, this has been a challenging year. Businesses continue to operate in full recovery mode. This makes the Best of Fayetteville recognition even more relevant and valuable by highlighting those who have managed their businesses through high gas prices, supply chain shortages, a challenging labor market, confusing COVID-19 restrictions and rising inflation. Under these circumstances, operating a successful business is a real challenge, and achievement deserves recognition. Your vote is very important to your favorite business or organization. The winners will be recognized and celebrated on September 27 at the Crown Coliseum Complex. The Best of the Best will congregate to celebrate their achievements and contributions to our Can-Do community.

Our newspaper has changed immensely over the past 26 years, especially in the last nine months. However, the Best of Fayetteville reader’s survey has not. It continues to reflect the best aspects and amenities the Fayetteville community has to offer. Annually, we receive thousands of ballots and painstakingly record the comments and sentiments of our readers. This process allows us to get to know the who, what and why our readers value these businesses. We showcase these people, businesses and organizations to Fayetteville, Fort Bragg and Cumberland County residents. Your vote is important! Our readers will determine who the 2022 Up & Coming Weekly Best of Fayetteville winners are.

For area newcomers and those not familiar with the Best of Fayetteville format and guidelines, this is a sanctioned, time-tested reader’s survey. The survey is designed and audited to provide residents, local businesses and organizations the recognition they deserve for their dedication, expertise, trustworthiness and perseverance in their quest for excellence.

And we make it easy to participate. Participants must vote in at least 15 categories to validate a ballot. Since the survey began more than two decades ago, the Up & Coming Weekly newspaper has successfully told the stories of our Best of Fayetteville winners. Then we invite the winners to join the Up & Coming Weekly staff, and our 2022 Best of Fayetteville sponsors at a very special recognition celebration party. This begins the Best of Fayetteville winners 24/7, 365-day exposure in the Fayetteville/Cumberland County community, and year-long presence on our official website www.upandcomingweekly.com.

Thank you for supporting local businesses and for reading Up & Coming Weekly.

 

What were the two most used new words in the news last week?
The term “Great Replacement.”

I admit that I had never heard of the term until the recent attack in Buffalo by a white 18-year-old man that left 10 people dead. A long document, found with the attacker’s property and presumably written by him explained his motives and concerns about the "replacement" of the "white race" and "white culture."

CNN reported that, “The author also writes about his perceptions of the dwindling size of the white population and claims of ethnic and cultural replacement of whites.”
In an article published by CNN, Dean Obeidallah, a former attorney and a columnist for The Daily Beast, writes that what the document found with the shooter “espouses is, in essence, the white supremacist concept known as the Great Replacement Theory. This ‘theory' is meant as a warning to white people that soon, people of color — typically immigrants, Latinos and African Americans — may outnumber white people and in essence ‘replace’ them.”

A recent article in The Wall Street Journal gave the following summary: “The great replacement’ is a conspiracy theory that asserts elites — politicians, business executives, media — are using immigration and other policies as a tool to reduce the white population.”

The Journal article continues. “Interest and belief in the idea has increased in the U.S. in recent years, researchers say, as the percentage of white Americans, compared with nonwhite people, shrinks. The nation’s non-Hispanic white population dropped 2.6% between 2010 and 2020, according
to the Census Bureau. Projections by the bureau indicate that the total population of nonwhite people in America will exceed the white population by 2045.”

The replacement theory is not new. The idea got its modern start in France in the early part of the 20th Century. More recently, a 2011 article by French writer Renaud Camus and titled “The Great Replacement” is used by white supremacists in the U.S.

According to the Journal, Camus wrote that “white Europeans will eventually be extinct because of immigration and since some nonwhite populations, particularly those of Africa and the Middle East, have higher birthrates. People from Africa and the Middle East have emigrated to France from former French colonies in increased numbers in the postcolonial era.”

The increase of immigrant populations in Europe and the U.S. is fact, not a theory. There are consequences in terms of a rise in influence of immigrants and their children in Europe and the U.S. and the corresponding loss of power and influence of white Americans.

But there is more to the theory than these facts.

Versions of the theory allege a conspiracy among some people to replace the long-time white residents of Europe and the U.S. with people from Africa and Asia. The conspirators, it is said, are politicians, elitist people and institutions. They promote policies that open the doors to immigrants and empower people of color and other minority groups. These people would become voters who would do the will of the conspirators.

I could find no credible evidence about the “elites” exerting control over the votes of immigrants and minorities.

I confess that I have hoped that the changing makeup of North Carolina’s population that is under way would help my political party more than the other party.
Does that make me part of some conspiracy?

I don’t think so.

Taking what you see and reversing its concept of form — that’s the basic description of Reverse Reality art. Turning organic items like people and trees into geometric shapes and turning man-made objects into more fluid shapes. This type of art made by Jonathon Shannon will be on display at Dirtbag Ales throughout June in the new exhibit, Bringing It Back.

Shannon lives in New York City but has roots here in Fayetteville, growing up in a military family. He spent much of his childhood in our local city before graduating from Savannah College of Art and Design.
Shannon traveled to France and Hong Kong during his college years to expand his understanding of art. He moved to New York City afterward and currently works as an art handler outside of being an artist.

His work has been featured in art shows and exhibitions in New York City, North Carolina, Savannah, Atlanta, Miami, Hong Kong and France.

However, Fayetteville is home. Shannon still has family in the city and came back to live here in the early months of the pandemic.

Bringing it Back is inspired by Shannon’s desire to bring his art in New York City back to his hometown to inspire his friends, family and community to dream big.

“This series is based on me living in New York City at the time. I basically go around the area within Brooklyn Manhattan area, just walking around and just painting on-site throughout the city,” Shannon said. “I do my own interpretation. Where in the past, I used to paint the way I see things, more like impressionists, and then that kind of coupled with that style. But I just kind of thought I was just repeating history. I developed a style called reverse reality.”

This isn’t the first art exhibit Shannon has had in Fayetteville. In 2016, his exhibit, NightLife: A Reversed Reality at Gallery 116th, was on display, and it was during this exhibition that Shannon met the owners of Dirtbag Ales for a sponsorship.

“So I reached out to them and see if they would be open to doing like a small sponsorship, or like drinks at my show. And they agreed to it, and it worked out amazing, and they really enjoyed the interactions with all my friends and family,” Shannon said. “I just enjoy that collaboration so much that when I came back down to visit, probably like, three months ago, I checked out their new location because they expanded because they’re doing so well and opened a new location from the ground up. And they wanted to keep that art theme to have some art in there. So I reached out to them after seeing their available space to have a show.”

The exhibit will be free to the public. The opening reception will be on June 3 from 5 to 10 p.m. Bringing it Back will be on display at Dirtbag Ales until June 30.

“Everyone’s welcome. Don’t feel judged. Art should be for the masses... that’s kind of why I did it in more of a public area instead of a gallery,” Shannon said. “Galleries sometimes could make people feel a little bit secluded or cut off from society.”

More information about the gallery and the opening reception can be found at bit.ly/3wSQTqd.

The Gallup Poll first measured LGBTQ data within communities in 2012. At the time, the population who identified as LGBTQ was around 3%. In the latest poll, Gallup reports the number of people who identify as LGTBQ has risen to 7.1%, with higher percentages among those born from 1981 to 2003.

“If you take in the population of Fayetteville, that means there’s about 15,000 people in Fayetteville who identify as LGBTQ,” said Katrinna Marsden, president, Fayetteville PRIDE. “In Cumberland County, that’s like 24,000. If you look at the surrounding areas, that’s around 60,000 people who identify as LGBTQ, and that’s just the general percentage.”
Fayetteville PRIDE began in March 2017 with a PrideFest interest meeting at the Cliffdale Library. Previously, a Facebook group had been what connected LGBTQ individuals in the area, but during the meeting, it became clear to attendees a nonprofit group could really help the community.

By April 2017, a board was set up; Marsden, a founding member, wrote the bylaws, and they were signed into action. The organization achieved nonprofit status in October 2017.
According to its website, Fayetteville PRIDE’s mission is “to instill pride, celebrate unity and embrace diversity and inclusiveness in our LGBTQ community and allies, and provide a support network and educational advocacy group dedicated to increasing awareness and acceptance.”

“We sat down as a board and decided that yes, having a PrideFest was a goal, but we didn’t want that to be our only emphasis. We knew pretty quickly that we wanted to have community service projects, we wanted to have events for the community, we wanted to be involved in more ways than just putting on a party,” Marsden said.
Community projects for the organization have helped groups such as Seth’s Wish, a homeless center in Fayetteville. They organized a uniform drive for school uniforms. This year, the focus of Fayetteville PRIDE’s community project will be to help feed the hungry.

Fayetteville PRIDE also has a youth engagement group. Meetings are on the third Saturday of every month and are open for kids aged 12 to 19. The meetings are run by a board member who is also a social worker.

“The group focuses on learning about empowerment and living authentically,” Marsden said. “They explore that through artistic expression, and they work with a local artist.”

A long-term goal of Fayetteville PRIDE is to open a community center. Marsden expressed the desire to have a library with LGBTQ reading materials for all ages, spaces to have meetings more often than once a month and space more available for walk-in hours.

“It can be hard for people to find resources,” she said. “We are increasing awareness and acceptance for the community. It has been our goal since the beginning to have a community center. We’d use that as an umbrella for other LGBTQ organizations to use that space and for people to have meetings.”

Fayetteville PRIDE helps out the local civilian community and the soldiers of Fort Bragg. One of the very first events for the organization happened on the military installation. The group was invited to a panel discussion of transgender rights in the military during Fort Bragg’s LGBTQ observance day in 2017.

The organization has put on PrideFest every year since 2018, with the exception being 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, PrideFest will be held at Festival Park on June 25. PrideFest is the largest fundraiser in the Fayetteville PRIDE calendar, but Marsden wants the community to know Fayetteville PRIDE is more than PrideFest.

“We aren’t just a festival, we are an organization that is year-round, and our mission is about embracing diversity. It’s about being a support network and being an educational advocacy group,” she said.

“I think that most people who are LBGTQ have spent some part in their lives, and that time varies for everybody, where they’ve wondered how they fit into the definition of what normal is. I think that when you are kind of figuring yourself out, finding out that there is a group of people who have a similar experience to that makes you feel like you have a place in the world,” she said.

For more information, or to donate to Fayetteville PRIDE, visit www.fayettevillepride.org/. For more information about PrideFest, pick up the next edition of Up & Coming Weekly on stands June 8.

Free live music, food trucks and southern summer nights come together every second Friday evening of the month for a concert series starting on June 10.
From 6 to 10 p.m., Fayetteville After Five, held at Festival Park in downtown, will open its gates to couples looking for a fun night out or families looking to beat the summer doldrums.
While outside food and drink, canopies and coolers are not permitted on-site — camping chairs, blankets and service animals are more than welcome as attendees experience an evening of good vibes, good food and good music.

A summer staple for the last decade, Fayetteville After Five has the successful summer bash down to a science. Park gates will open at 5 p.m., followed by an opening act at 6.
For those coming to rock, the live music offering will not disappoint. Fayetteville After Five will feature a range of tribute and cover bands. From the Eagles to Led Zeppelin, there’s a little something for everyone.

Opening acts taking the stage this summer include Southern Haze, Throwback Collaboration Band and 10 O’Clock High.

A rotation of five to seven food trucks will be on-site with plenty of options, including dessert and several types of beer.
At 8 p.m., the night’s headlining act will grace the stage, and the lineup this year features crowd favorites such as On the Border, Rivermist and Zoso.

As an extension of the Dogwood Festival, Fayetteville After Five offers those still crowd-shy after the precautions of the past two years an opportunity to get out and have a good time. Sarahgrace Snipes, executive director of the Dogwood Festival, sees it as a great way for people to reengage without battling the overwhelming crowds often present at other events.

“It’s a bit more relaxing,” she told Up & Coming Weekly. “This is a great event to not be right on top of people. We’ll have lawn games; kids can run around, people can interact with each other and enjoy live music without a huge crowd.”

While Fayetteville After Five will have a lot to offer those looking for something free, fun and local to add to their summer plans, Snipes is most excited to share good live music with the public.

“I am most excited about On the Border,” Snipes admitted. “It is the ultimate Eagles tribute band, and people love them. They usually bring in the largest audience, and it’s very fulfilling to see the park full, people having fun and seeing the happiness our events bring to the community.”

The concert series will take place over three dates throughout the summer: June 10, July 15 and August 12.

“I hope to hear that everyone had a wonderful time,” Snipes said. “And I hope to hear that they’re coming out to the next event, and they’re excited for the Dogwood Festival in October.”
Festival Park is located at 335 Ray Ave. in Fayetteville.

For more information regarding vendor and music lineup, visit the event website at www.thedogwoodfestival.com/fayetteville-after-five.

 

Youth from the Boys & Girls Club have a chance to play baseball thanks to the Fayetteville Woodpeckers’ recent donation of $10,000. The newly formed “Junior Woodpeckers” will be showcased at the team’s home game against the Fredericksburg Nationals on Saturday, June 18, at Segra Stadium.

The initiative is part of the Fayetteville Woodpeckers Community Leaders Program, which generates donations through corporate partnerships with area businesses and through fundraising events throughout the year. Their goal is to provide support to youth sports and military service members and their families.

The Junior Woodpeckers were formed to give children the opportunity to participate in youth sports without having to worry about the costs usually associated with extracurricular activities.

“The Junior Woodpeckers initiative was something I wanted to put in place to be able to give children in Fayetteville the same opportunities and kind of level the playing field,” said Kristen Nett, Fayetteville Woodpeckers community relations manager. “I saw that it was harder for some families to be able to pay for their children to be involved in sports.”

The donation to the Boys & Girls Club pays for uniforms, equipment, registration fees and other expenses related to playing in a baseball league. Junior players will receive a custom jersey with the Fayetteville Woodpeckers logo on the sleeve.

The “Junior Woodpeckers” is a 12U team that can compete in the Fayetteville Parks and Recreation youth baseball league. This year’s team formed in April.

“The goal is to have it be a yearly (opportunity),” said Nett. “My goal is to form a totally free baseball league in Fayetteville. So, this is just the start.”

“The Woodpeckers are really excited. I feel it’s our responsibility to be able to come into this community and give back and do everything we can to help others.”
The Woodpeckers minor league baseball team was established in Fayetteville in 2019 as a Single-A affiliate of the Houston Astros. The team was formerly known as the Buies Creek Astros and played on the campus of Campbell University.

When the franchise moved to Fayetteville, they got a new name and a new home at Segra Stadium. Fans were invited to suggest a new name for the team, and the Woodpeckers was selected in honor of the red-cockaded bird that was once found throughout Fayetteville but is now an endangered species.

For more information on the Fayetteville Woodpeckers or to buy tickets for the game, visit www.fayettevillewoodpeckers.com.