Editor's Note: The content included below was submitted by each candidate to Publisher Bill Bowman, and has only been edited by the production staff for spelling and punctuation.
Publisher's Note: These views are the candidates and their's alone and do not reflect the opinions of our newspaper. Up & Coming Weekly is not endorsing these candidates. These are views from citizens who want to contribute their time and talents to the community.

To Citizens and Residents of Fayetteville: I am a lifelong resident of Fayetteville, having raised my three daughters and built a successful family business here. Other than being a father, son and brother to my siblings, one of my greatest honors is serving as your mayor.

Over the past four years, our city and indeed our country, has faced unprecedented challenges including natural disasters, a global pandemic and social unrest relating to events which unfolded in Minneapolis and Washington, D.C. In addition, Cumberland County has been designated as a Tier 1 county which means that it lags behind the state’s largest cities in terms of the key indicators of quality of life such as unemployment rate and low tax base. If that is not enough, the residents of our city have unfortunately been confronted with baseless allegations about city leaders and private individuals which resulted in another community distraction and diverted our collective attention from the real work we must do to move our city forward.

As has been said before, these are serious times which requires serious solutions. One of my top priorities as mayor has been to strengthen our city through industry recruitment, job creation, higher wages, increased contracting with local and minority-owned businesses, investment in infrastructure and increasing the availability of affordable and workforce housing. My goal has been to be pro-people and pro-business.

In the last four years, more than $250 million in new private investment has been made in Fayetteville and over 2,500 new jobs created. In addition, our city is increasingly becoming a logistics center which supports e-commerce and takes advantage of our strategic proximity to major highway systems and the deep-water shipping ports in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

We have made historic investments to improve our streets, sidewalks, and stormwater systems. I’m particularly proud to have worked closely with the Public Works Commission to facilitate an investment of $70 million for a fiber-optic broadband network serving Fayetteville and also providing broadband internet access to much of Cumberland County.

The city has made unprecedented investments towards ending homelessness and housing affordability. Recently, we broke ground on a new $4 million Homeless Day Center on South King Street which was funded substantially by federal dollars. We also worked very closely with the Fayetteville Metropolitan Housing Authority to create approximately 300 new garden style apartments on Grove Street which presents an attractive gateway to the city. We also supported our seniors with $12 million in funding for new state-of-the-art senior wellness centers.

All of the progress we have made together is reflective of our “Can Do” spirit and our new branding strategy. Along with the Fayetteville Cumberland County Economic Development Corporation and other municipal partners, a project to rebrand our city from the old stereotype to our attractive new “Can Do” theme was commissioned and can be seen throughout the city.

We recognize that the city should be safe no matter where you live or work. In response to the national crime trends that are affecting the entire country, we commissioned the Gun Shot Detection software platform which allows city policeman to identify the source of gunshots. We have made significant in public safety infrastructure to reduce our street paving from an average 47-year cycle to 16 years [sic].

While it is true that the last four years has tested our city and the rest of the country, our city has had a good deal of success. I am particularly grateful for the way our city has come together to respond to the unprecedented global pandemic. In this regard, I am urging everyone to remain vigilant and take everyone [sic] precaution to protect your family and neighbors from this unforgiving COVID-19 virus and its variations.

My warmest personal regards, Mitch Colvin, Mayor