Up & Coming Weekly

July 23, 2019

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.

Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1147528

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 18 of 28

18 UCW JULY 24-30, 2019 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM The Hope Mills dam, pictured left under normal conditions, has already withstood two hurricanes, pictured right. It recently won its second national award for its design and construction. Hope Mills News & Views EARL VAUGHAN JR., Senior Staff Writer. COMMENTS? EarlUCWS- ports@gmail.com. 910-364-6638. Hope Mills dam wins another national honor by EARL VAUGHAN JR. Meetings For details about all meetings and activities, including location where not listed, call Town Clerk Jane Starling at 910-426-4113. • Veterans Affairs Commission ursday, July 25, 6 p.m., Parks and Recre- ation Center • Board of Commissioners special meeting Monday, Aug. 5, 5 p.m., Members of the Hope Mills Board of Commissioners will hold ribbon cuttings at Hope Mills Lake and Municipal Park to accept donations of sculptures to the town. • Festival Committee Monday, Aug. 5, 6 p.m., Town Hall, front conference room • Board of Commissioners Monday, Aug. 5, 7 p.m., Luther Board Room, Town Hall • Historic Preservation Commission Wednesday, Aug. 14, 5 p.m., Parks and Recreation Building. Activities • Good2Grow Farmers Market Saturday, Aug. 3, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., between Town Hall and Parks and Recreation Building. • Hope Mills Area Kiwanis Club at Sammio's, second Tuesdays at noon and fourth Tuesdays at 6 p.m. For details, call 910-237-1240. • Hope Mills Parks and Recreation Senior programs at Parks and Recreation Building. Senior programs are for those ages 55 and up who are residents of Cumberland County. Various activities, especially Zumba classes, are scheduled Monday through Sunday throughout the day. For details on times and days, check the schedule at townofhopemills.com. Call the recreation center at 910- 426-4109 or e-mail Kasey Ivey at kivey@townofhopemills.com. • Hope Mills Parks and Recreation is currently accepting registration for men's and coed adult softball for the fall 2019 season. Registration will end Aug. 3 or when all leagues are filled, and the season will begin Aug. 12. e cost is $500 per team. For additional information, call 910-308-7651. Promote yourself: Email hopemills@upandcomingweekly.com. CALENDAR NEWS For a second time, the restored Hope Mills dam has been recognized with a national award for its design and construction. The town recently announced that the dam has been awarded the Envision Bronze Award from the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure. Don Sisko, head of public works for the town of Hope Mills, said the award is presented to projects like the Hope Mills dam on the basis of their resil- ience and sustainability. Sisko said the award was based on 64 grad- ing criteria. The dam has already been through two hurricanes since the water was impounded behind it, but Sisko said he's not sure if that was part of the grading criteria that earned Hope Mills the award. In his work with the dam, Sisko said it has been relatively carefree to maintain. "You always antic- ipate you're going to find a little glitch here or there,'' he said. "As far as actual operation of the dam goes, we've not had any problems with that. "We've done our standard maintenance. I haven't had to do anything out of the ordinary.'' Currently, the levels in Hope Mills Lake are low to allow for the installation of a permanent bulk- head along one shoreline, where the will public have access. Sisko said there has been no problem during that time with dissolved oxygen levels, nor any reports of fish kills downstream from the lake. It also hasn't interfered with any downstream work projects. "It's worked as advertised,'' Sisko said of the dam. "Like I tell folks, it was designed based on good scientific practices and built on good con- struction practices.'' The town's elected leaders, including Commissioners Jessie Bellflowers and Pat Edwards and Mayor Jackie Warner, all praised the work of Schnabel Engineering and ASI Constructors, builders of the dam. "The Schnabel engineering design team collab- orated with the town of Hope Mills Lake Advisory Committee, town officials and public involve- ment,'' Bellflowers said. "As a community, we are extremely proud of this national award-winning project that serves the quality-of-life needs of our community for years to come.'' Edwards praised the members of the previous Board of Commissioners who chose Schnabel and ASI for the building of the new dam. "The people we worked with and the geniality we had with everybody, and a board that worked together as a team, you can get a lot more accom- plished,'' she said. "The dam is beautiful. I love it. Everybody loves it.'' While proud of the award, Warner expressed sadness that town leaders like the late Edwin Deaver and Bob Gorman were not alive to see the result of their hard work. Warner, Deaver and Gorman were part of the traveling team representing the town that went to Concord, Charlotte and Raleigh during the pro- cess of choosing Schnabel and ASI to oversee the dam's construction. "It would have been nice if they had been around for that first ribbon cutting,'' Warner said of Deaver and Gorman, adding in the names of former mayors Al Brafford and Eddie Dees. "It's a sustainable design, meaning it should last for many years,'' Warner said. "It has already withstood two hurricanes and a whole bunch of bad weather. I think it has taken the test already (that) you might not have expected it to take for lots of years.''

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of Up & Coming Weekly - July 23, 2019