Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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24 UCW OCTOBER 10-16, 2018 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Hope Mills News & Views NEWS EARL VAUGHAN JR., Senior Staff Writer. COMMENTS? EarlUCWS- ports@gmail.com. 910-364-6638. Florence forces Hope Mills to move one-stop voting by EARL VAUGHAN JR. Fall Festival institution at Gallberry Farm Elementary by EARL VAUGHAN JR. Dawn Collins, left, braces to kiss a llama at last year's Gallberry Farm Elementary School Fall Festival. Damage caused to the Hope Mills Parks and Recreation Center offices will force this year's fall one-stop voting to relocate from there to the Gray's Creek Recreation Center. Both Cumberland County Board of Elections offi- cials and representatives of Hope Mills are hopeful that voting will return to the recreation center on Election Day in November. If it can't, Election Day voting will move to Town Hall. Terri Robertson of the Cumberland County Board of Elections said she was informed there was dam- age to the center that could not be guaranteed to be repaired by the time one-stop voting begins Oct. 17. Robertson said nothing about one-stop voting will change in Hope Mills except the location. Hours of operation will be the same. To confirm what those are, visit the Board of Elections website at www.co-Cum- berland.nc.us/departments/election-group/elections. Adams said the recreation center had already been scheduled for repairs caused by possible conden- sation from the air conditioner before Hurricane Florence arrived. The storm did further damage to the roofing, which led to interior leaking and damage inside the building. The repairs of the earlier damage have been rescheduled to coincide with the repair of the roof. Adams said the town is in the process of getting bids on the repair work. While insurance will pay for some of the cost, she said the matter will likely have to go before the Board of Commissioners for approval. If the bids are obtained in time, she hoped to make the presentation at the board meeting sched- uled for Oct. 8. If the bids weren't available by then, she indicated a special meeting may have to be called since she didn't want to wait until the next scheduled meeting on Oct. 22 to get approval to begin the repairs. In addition to forcing a change in one-stop voting, the damage to the recreation center has forced parks and recreation staff to temporarily relocate to space in Town Hall so they can continue planning for the town's big Ole Mill Days and Trunk or Treat events coming up later this month. The damage has also disrupted the schedule of many regular activities held at the recreation center. "We are terribly sorry for the inconvenience for events scheduled at parks and recreation,'' Adams said. "We are trying to work as quickly as possible so they don't have to be disrupted any longer than they have to be. "We apologize and ask for the public's patience.'' In past years, Gallberry Farm Elementary School Principal Dawn Collins has kissed a rabbit and a pig at the school's annual Fall Festival. Now she's bracing to puck- er up for a llama. Again. The vote to determine if Collins or Assistant Principal Natasha Norris gets to be a little too personal with the llama is one of the highlights of this year's annual event. It's scheduled for Friday, Oct. 12, from 5-8 p.m. at the school of about 1,000 students. Collins started the festival about eight years ago after becoming principal because she felt they needed some kind of community outreach that would involve the school and surrounding area. "We talked about a spring fling, but so many chil- dren are involved in sports in this community (that) we decided the response would be better in the fall.'' The event is always scheduled on the same Friday when Gray's Creek High School has an open date on its football schedule. Collins said that's because she borrows a host of volunteers from the high school student body, pulling from organiza- tions like Future Farmers of America, Student Government Association, National Honor Society, JROTC and the school's technology academy. "We truly do not have enough staff to pull this off on our own,'' she said. She was briefly worried that Hurricane Florence was going to disrupt this year's football schedule and possibly wreck the festival, but she remained hopeful things would work out, and they did. After Hurricane Matthew hit the area in 2016, Collins said Gallberry had the most successful fall festival in school history. She's hoping for similar results this year. "People were looking for something happy and positive to do,'' she said. "That's what we're hoping now. We know there is a lot of loss in the community. We are hoping we can bring them back together for something lighthearted.'' For Collins, that probably means kissing a llama again this year. Last year she lost the vote to Norris, and she's already fearful it will go against her again this time. She plans to use the same strategy for kissing the llama as last time. "I tried to go to the side, kiss him on the side of the mouth, and when I did, he turned his whole face to mine,'' she said. "The kids love it.'' Anyone from the Gallberry or Gray's Creek com- munity is welcome to attend, whether they have a child attending the school or not, Collins said. An entry fee of $10 gets you an armband that pro- vides admission to a host of activities, the highlight of which is the haunted hallway, a hallway in the school building that features child-friendly scares and thrills. There will also be a trunk-or-treat event and unlimited access to an assortment of games. The armband also covers a hot dog, drink and chips. There will be additional food items on sale that can be purchased either for cash or with tickets that can be bought on-site, $5 for 20 tickets. All transac- tions on site will be cash. An ATM will be available. Collins said the festival is by far the school's big- gest fundraiser each year and holds a special place both for faculty and students. "It makes me feel very positive about the culture of our school,'' she said. "It's just a great commu- nity event.'' Damage to the recreation center's roof caused by Hurricane Florence exacerbated existing issues and led to interior leaking.