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Tuesday, 11 March 2025
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Written by Paul Woolverton, CityView Today
Cumberland County is pausing construction of the $145 million Crown Event Center for up to 30 days while an outside lawyer reviews the project.
The Event Center had been scheduled to open in spring 2027. A 1,100 space, $33 million parking deck to support the Event Center had been scheduled to open in April 2026.
The county Board of Commissioners met for about 70 minutes in closed session on Wednesday morning before returning to public session to vote 6-0 to suspend all Crown Event Center work. (Commissioner Jeannette M. Council was absent.)
The pause is “for the purpose of reviewing and also investigating the scope, schedule and the financial budget for this particular project,” Vice Chair Veronica Jones said in a motion to initiate the delay.
When the review is done, County Commissioner Henry Tyson told CityView on Wednesday afternoon, the commissioners may decide that the Event Center project will continue, they could postpone it, they could change its location, or they could cancel it.
“I think it’s just good that we have this review so that we know exactly where our position lies and what the status of the project is,” he said.
During a news conference on Wednesday to discuss the delay, reporters asked Commissioners Chair Kirk deViere if there was a specific problem that prompted the review.
DeViere answered by saying the Board of Commissioners has changed. “Three new board members. You have a new board,” he said. (DeViere, Tyson and Pavan Patel took office in December, so they had not previously been part of the decision-making for Event Center.)
The Event Center is one of the largest, most expensive projects in Cumberland County history, he said.
“This board feels that we want to have an outside review of the scope of this project at this time,” deViere said. “We want to ensure that every part of this contract, every part of this project is properly done, and it’s efficient, and all aspects are accountable, and we’re getting the best use of taxpayer dollars.”
As a new commissioner, Patel said he wants this assessment.
“We’ve got a $145 million project that has kind of shifted in various ways,” he told CityView. “So we just want to make sure before we move forward, that we’ve got everything tightened up, we’ve looked over everything with a second set of outside eyes. Basically, that we do our due diligence, because there are a lot of capital projects going on.”
The county is hiring attorney J. Scott Flowers of the Hutchens Law Firm of Fayetteville to conduct the review, deViere said. Flowers’ fee for the review has not yet been determined, County Manager Clarence Grier said in an email later Wednesday.
Event Center to replace Crown Theatre, Crown Arena
Construction of the Crown Event Center began in October in downtown Fayetteville on the Gillespie Street parking lot of the county courthouse. With a 3,000-seat auditorium and other meeting space and facilities, the Event Center is to be a venue for concerts, stage shows and other performances, and host banquets, conventions, and other activities.
It is to replace the Crown Arena and Crown Theatre at the Crown Complex on Coliseum Drive off U.S. 301 South and Owen Drive. The buildings are being replaced due to age (they were built in the late 1960s), lack of compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act, and the estimated costs of upgrading and modernizing the structures vs. building a new performing arts venue.
The much larger Crown Coliseum, built in the 1990s, is unaffected by the Crown Event Center project and will remain in operation. The commissioners voted on Wednesday to hire L & L Drywall & Construction of Fayetteville for $835,363 to modernize the coliseum’s bathrooms.
The Crown Complex and construction of the Crown Event Center are funded via the county’s hotel occupancy tax and by a 1% prepared food and beverage tax levied on food and drink served in restaurants and other retail outlets for immediate consumption.
When the review is done, the county commissioners will consider and bring the results to the public, deViere said.
“I want to ensure that everyone understands that this 30-day pause is a responsible and a pro-active step to ensure accountability and transparency,” he said. “Once this review is complete, you have my word that I will communicate the next steps on this project, and how we will move forward.”
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Tuesday, 11 March 2025
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Written by Alyson Hansen
Private First Class Roland Leon Bragg couldn’t be called anything but a hero for his actions during World War II. A native of Webster, Maine, Bragg enlisted in the Army at the age of 20 in July 1943. He was stationed at Fort Bragg and deployed to Europe with the 513th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 17th Airborne Division, XVIII Airborne Corps.
Bragg received a Silver Star for conspicuous gallantry and a Purple Heart for wounds he sustained during the Battle of the Bulge. The Silver Star is the third highest military decoration for valor, and Bragg more than earned it.
After he was wounded during the battle, Bragg and other wounded paratroopers were captured by a German soldier and brought behind enemy lines. Bragg and the German shared something in common: they were both Freemasons. The German soldier agreed to let Bragg go free, but only if Bragg would knock him out to make it look like a struggle.
“Wounded as he was, Pvt. First Class Bragg was more than happy to oblige,” said Lt. Gen. Gregory Anderson, current XVIII Airborne Corps commander.
Bragg took the German soldier’s uniform, commandeered an ambulance, loaded up the wounded, and drove for the American line. He made it through the day convinced that he was the sole survivor of the ordeal, as he was told all whom he had tried to save, died.
But nearly 50 years later, he received a letter. A former paratrooper had reached out, looking for information about a fellow soldier, who had loaded himself and others into an ambulance and had driven like mad to get them to safety.
“I remember sitting at that kitchen table reading that letter; chills went up and down my spine,” Bragg is quoted to have said.
That man, John Marks, lived to see the 50th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, a battle he only survived because of the heroism of Roland L. Bragg.
“They met, two ordinary men bound by an extraordinary moment, and found each other across the decades. This stands as a testament to the bonds forged in this place. Over 80 years have passed since Pvt. First Class Bragg was here,” said Lt. Gen. Anderson. “Eight decades of soldiers from Fort Bragg deploying to every major conflict defending America and her allies across the globe. They come home to Fort Bragg.”
On Friday, March 7, Fort Liberty was redesignated to Fort Bragg in Roland Bragg’s honor.
Editor’s note: I've been in Fayetteville as an Army spouse for over ten years, and I have experienced most of that time working on Fort Bragg in various capacities.
I worked in the Fort Bragg Garrison Public Affairs Office as part of the staff of the Paraglide for years. I have enjoyed my time on Bragg, photographing the first MLB game held on a military installation; interviewing and photographing Presidents Obama, Trump and Biden, and Vice President Pence; jumping out of airplanes with the Golden Knights and experiencing then Secretary of the Army Patrick Murphy's first jump out of a plane since he had served; covering medical training lanes out at the Medical Simulation Training Center as part of the Army Best Medic Competition; experiencing the wonderful Thanksgiving feast provided by the 2nd Brigade Combat Team's Dining Facility.
But something that I considered the most important, and special, thing I did as part of the PAO office was the 100th anniversary celebration of Fort Bragg in 2018. Thanks to the support of then Garrison PAO Tom McCollum, I literally got to write the history of the installation for the newspaper over the course of the year.
The renaming ceremony is another chapter in this history.
In 1918, when the military post was being created, the War Department cast around for a native North Carolinian who had served in the military. They did this all across the South with the different installations, but North Carolina was unfortunately a little short on supply of top notch generals, and so Braxton Bragg was chosen.
Braxton was far from a celebrated general. A quote from an unnamed Confederate soldier that often gets tossed around regarding Bragg says, “General Bragg proceeded to ask me ‘Do you know what a retreat looks like?’, to which I responded, ‘Yes, I ought to General, I’ve been with you during the whole campaign.’”
While not the ideal candidate of strength the War Department was hoping to find, Camp Bragg nonetheless became Braxton Bragg’s namesake.
One could argue, and I have, that naming the installation after Braxton Bragg was a political move. The War Department needed North Carolina (and other Southern states) to agree to these large military installations. The climate and soil were similar to what they were finding in Europe, where World War I was raging. The South was still feeling a bit of the sting of the Civil War, and by naming these installations after Southern generals, the War Department hoped to get a little goodwill.
Fast forward to 2020, when Congress pushed past a veto by President Trump to rename the installation. The political naming battle continued, with “Liberty” being chosen to replace “Bragg” in 2023. The moniker was suggested by a Gold Star mother who said, “My son didn’t die for Bragg, he died for liberty.”
The nation had learned who Braxton Bragg was, and what he represented: Not just a substandard general, who probably didn’t deserve to have the “Center of the Military Universe” named after him, but a slave owner.
And now we are back to Bragg, but this time the Bragg being honored is someone worth honoring. At the ceremony on March 7, Lt. Gen. Anderson was adamant about the legacy and tradition of Fort Bragg. He talked about the statue of Iron Mike, how it represents all soldiers who come and train in the crucible of the installation.
“Fort Bragg is where soldiers transform from ordinary to the extraordinary and where the call finds its answer,” he said.
While I certainly find that to be true, I also see that Bragg has a legacy of politics that it can’t seem to escape.
“The military is supposed to be apolitical. Politicizing the arm of the executive branch that is responsible for policy when diplomacy fails is dangerous. [We are] politicizing a good man’s name,” a soldier told me.
The family, however, doesn’t believe it’s political at all. Jennifer Bell and Rebecca Amirpour believe the renaming was done simply to honor their grandfather’s legacy.
Diane Watts, Roland Bragg’s daughter who was also at the ceremony, said, “They were looking for a man of good character, and they found my dad.”
Looking at Pvt. First Class Roland Bragg’s military career and quiet life after, it’s hard to disagree with her assessment.
“In his honor and in the shared legacy of all who call this home, we answer the call,” Lt. Gen. Anderson said. “Welcome back to Bragg.”
(Photo: The family of Roland L. Bragg unveils the new Headquarters XVIIIAirborne Corps Fort Bragg sign on March 7 at corps headquarters. Photo by Aly Hansen)
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