Kudos to the Greater Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce and CEO Nat Robertson for presenting the most important and relevant event of the year: Fayetteville and Cumberland County's State of the Community Luncheon, which took place at the Crown Coliseum Complex on Tuesday, Aug. 25.
It featured an impressive lineup of speakers, including Congressman Richard Hudson and North Carolina State Auditor Dave Boliek. Each speaker delivered a fact-driven, relevant message to the hundreds of businesses and organizations in attendance. However, the most significant message running through the entire event was that Fayetteville and Cumberland County have many wonderful, energetic, economically driven projects and achievements benefiting our community—yet the news that our region is growing and thriving economically doesn't seem to be getting out.
Kirk deViere, Chairman of the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners, did an excellent job of defining that problem: "Stop defending Fayetteville and Cumberland County, and start describing it."
He was right on the mark. We must stop allowing other people and communities to define our narrative. Up & Coming Weekly took on that task 30 years ago and has been successful doing just that. From Cape Fear Valley Health System to Public Works Commission, Fayetteville Technical Community College, Methodist University, Fayetteville State University, the entire arts and cultural community and dozens of local nonprofit organizations, we have been proud to tell Fayetteville’s stories.
Believe me, these stories are important, and we are not doing a good enough job telling them. This requires a true multimedia effort—we cannot simply rely on social media or what I call "winking in the dark," where we check a box to make an announcement. We need to rally around broadcasting our achievements, accomplishments, and the good things happening in this community. We need to start defining who we are and stop letting outside agencies and communities define our narrative.
Below is Kirk deViere's impactful message. You should read it and heed it. He makes a great point. The leadership he provides, along with our other dedicated city and county leaders, makes all the difference in how we will define Fayetteville, Cumberland County and our future for generations to come.
Thank you for reading Up & Coming Weekly, Fayetteville's hyper-local community newspaper.
—Bill Bowman, Publisher
Last year, I quoted Tony Chavonne's challenge to our community from 25 years ago: "It's time to roll up our sleeves and improve our community's economic health." But I left out the second half of his sentence. He also said we must work "to restore our rightful place as an economic influence in the region and the state."
Tony gave us two assignments. Roll up your sleeves. And take your place.
For 25 years, progress has not always happened at the pace we hoped for. We have faced real challenges. Population growth flattened.
Median income lagged behind our neighbors. Investments in infrastructure and schools did not always materialize. For a long time, the word people used to describe Cumberland County was potential.
But potential is the word you use for a place that is not moving. What we are experiencing now in Cumberland County is momentum. Over the last two years, our county has begun to look very different from the Cumberland County of decades past. In just 24 months, we have:
• Opened the first new independent medical school in North Carolina in 40 years, a partnership between Methodist University and Cape Fear Valley Health.
• Welcomed a $26 million Army innovation outpost at Fort Bragg.
• Emerged as a statewide leader in cybersecurity workforce development, with Fayetteville Technical Community College leading the Carolina Cyber Network.
• Connected the XVIII Airborne Corps with Fayetteville State University for research and training.
• Attracted a major drone manufacturer that chose Cumberland County for its U.S. production facility.
• Begun construction on FCEDC's Defense Innovation Center to connect industry with local skilled talent.
• Broken ground on 325,000 square feet of industrial space in our Military Business Park, developed by an out-of-state firm investing on speculation.
Meanwhile, Cumberland County is investing three-quarters of a billion dollars in our public school system and a quarter-billion dollars in water and sewer infrastructure. We have also lowered the tax rate, making us more competitive for business and lighter on the families who live here.
Individually, any one of these achievements would merit a ribbon cutting, a photo op, or a press release. Taken together, they become something far more significant.
They become an ecosystem. Education. Research. Health care. Cybersecurity. Defense technology. Advanced manufacturing. Infrastructure. And one of the most consequential military installations in the world.
These are the elements beginning to connect here. And that matters, because companies are no longer looking simply for land or a building. They are looking for talent, research partners, testing environments, supply chains, and communities capable of helping them move from idea to testing to production.
Cumberland County is becoming that kind of place. There is one word that describes what all of this creates. Signal. Signal is not what a community claims about itself. It is what a community can prove when industry and opportunity come looking.
I see this every time I travel for this county. In Raleigh. At conferences. Across the table from companies. People are surprised by what is happening here. Not because they disagree with it, but because the Cumberland County in their heads is years out of date.
Our reputation has not caught up with our reality. That is something every one of us can help change. A press release from Cumberland County is not the signal. You are.
Nearly everyone reading this will sit in a room this year where Fayetteville, Fort Bragg, or Cumberland County comes up. You may be the only person there who can describe what is actually happening.
So describe it. Start with our challenges. We have them, and we all know what they are. Then explain what we are doing about them. Talk about the investments being made, the new medical school, the expansion at Fort Bragg, the innovation emerging from our colleges and universities. Share the stories of companies choosing to invest here and the infrastructure being built to support what comes next.
We do not have to oversell Cumberland County. We simply have to tell our whole story.
For too long, we have allowed others to tell that story and define our narrative. It is time the rest of this state, and this country, heard it directly from us.
My son Grey is nine. In 25 years, he will be 34, building his career and perhaps deciding where to raise a family of his own. He, along with every child in this community, will inherit the decisions our leaders are making today. The schools we build. The infrastructure we invest in. The industries we attract. The opportunities we create. And the reputation we leave behind.
I want them to inherit a Cumberland County that did more than talk about its potential. I want them to inherit a county that realized it.
That work is happening right now. We are focused on building a community that competes for the best talent, investment, and innovation. A place where ideas become companies, where technology moves from concept to capability, and where the talent connected to Fort Bragg strengthens a thriving private-sector economy beyond its gates.
A Cumberland County ready to take its rightful place as an economic influence in this region and this state. Cumberland County has momentum, and the rest of North Carolina needs to know it. They do not just need to hear it from me. They need to hear it from all of us.
Let's roll up our sleeves. Let's stop defending Cumberland County and start describing it. And let's take our place.

Editor's Note: Kirk deViere is Chairman of the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners.

(Photo: Kirk deViere addresses the attendees at the State of the Community Address held by the Greater Fayetteville Chamber on Aug. 25. Photo courtesy of Cumberland County NC's Facebook page)