Up & Coming Weekly

January 14, 2020

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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4 UCW JANUARY 15-21, 2020 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM STAFF PUBLISHER Bill Bowman Bill@upandcomingweekly.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Stephanie Crider editor@upandcomingweekly.com OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Paulette Naylor accounting@upandcomingweekly. com EDITOR Jenna Shackelford jenna@upandcomingweekly.com HOPE MILLS AND SENIOR SPORTS EDITOR Earl Vaughan Jr. EarlUCWSports@gmail.com REPORTER Jeff Thompson news@upandcomingweekly.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER Elizabeth Baker art@upandcomingweekly.com MARKETING ASSOCIATE Linda McAlister Brown linda@upandcomingweekly.com DISTRIBUTION MANAGER/SALES ADMINISTRATOR Laurel Handforth laurel@upandcomingweekly.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS D.G. Martin, Pitt Dickey, Margaret Dickson, Karl Merritt, John Hood, Jim Jones, Shanessa Fenner, Prudence Mainor, Avery Powers, Elizabeth Blevins, Crissy Neville ––––––––––– Up & Coming Weekly www.upandcomingweekly.com 208 Rowan St. P.O. Box 53461 Fayetteville, NC 28305 PHONE: 910-484-6200 FAX: 910-484-9218 Up & Coming Weekly is a "Quality of Life" publication with local features, news and information on what's happening in and around the Fayetteville/Cumberland County community. Up & Coming Weekly is published weekly on Wednesdays. Up & Coming Weekly welcomes manuscripts, photographs and artwork for publication consideration, but assumes no responsibility for them. We cannot accept responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts or material. Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. The publisher reserves the right to edit or reject copy submitted for publication. Up & Coming Weekly is free of charge and distributed at indoor and outdoor locations throughout Fayetteville, Fort Bragg, Pope Air Force Base, Hope Mills and Spring Lake. Readers are limited to one copy per person. © 2019 by F&B Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial or advertisements without permission is strictly prohibited. Various ads with art graphics designed with elements from: vecteezy.com and freepik.com. PUBLISHER'S PEN BILL BOWMAN, Publisher, UP & COMING WEEKLY. COM- MENTS? BILL@upandcomin- gweekly.com. 910-484-6200. The decision to demol- ish the old Christ Episcopal Church Parish House for less than $1,800 demon- strated the common sense and prudent leadership of the newly elected commis- sioners of Hope Mills. Com- missioners Pat Edwards, Bryan Marley and Ken- juana McCray prevailed as they rebuffed the efforts of Commissioners Jerry Legge and Jessie Bellflowers in their attempt to restore the 110-year-old building for a whopping estimated price tag of over $300,000 of Hope Mills taxpayers' money. Over the years, even with numerous repairs, additions and building modifications, it was difficult to identify much of anything that could be documented or classified as significantly historical about the building. This being the case, the commissioners demonstrat- ed the kind of logical think- ing and visionary decision- making that will move Hope Mills positively into the 21st century. Tough deci- sions are rarely ever popu- lar, no doubt about it. In this case, three Hope Mills commissioners evaluated the facts, completed their due diligence and made a decision based on what was best for the town and its residents. That's leadership. And, that's what they were elected to do. They will undoubt- edly experience boisterous pushback from distractors in the form of personal attacks, criticism, protests and whiney social media posts. However, with Hope Mills having 16,000+ residents, a dozen or so malcontents demonstrating this kind of behavior is mostly inconsequen- tial. Unfortunately, it has become more and more prevalent with the reckless popularity of social media compounded by the inability of the news media to wean itself away from the temptation of creating "fake news." I have written many articles about my disappointment with today's media and journalistic community, especially when so many of them disseminate, create and report fake news. Fake news is not only defined as creating and report- ing things that are not true. It is misrepresenting or elimi- nating known facts to add drama to a story, cause or person- al agenda. Fake news is also when only one side of the story is told, depriving the public of facts they need to under- stand an issue or situation at hand. This was the situation re- cently when The Fayetteville Observer and W T VD-11 both ignored major facts and circumstances influ- encing the ultimate deci- sion to demolish the Parish House. They chose the easy route and focused only on the sympathetic protesters and Jessie Bellflowers' dis- appointment over the deci- sion to demolish the build- ing. They covered the story without any mention of the actual time and energy that the board invested in doing the appropriate due diligence on the project. The Parish House has no significant historical value. Estimated revitalization cost is $300,000+. One hundred forty-thousand dollars plus must be paid up front just to stabilize the building before anyone can safely enter to get a detailed estimate on the work needed — an es- timate that could very well exceed $300,000. Hope Mills is not Wil- liamsburg, Virginia, nor is it Old Salem. Hope Mills has its own wonderfully unique blend of Southern hospi- tality and personality. Its current leadership is smart, caring and thorough. These leaders see the big picture of Hope Mills' future — eco- nomic development, safe neighborhoods, outstanding schools, clean streets, art, music, theater, festivals and fun, lakeside family activ- ites. What's not to like here? Three hundred thousand dollars less then $1,800 to demolish the Parish House can go a long way in building and maintaining a historically won- derful Cumberland County community. Thank you for reading Up & Coming Weekly. Hope Mills Commissioners demonstrate prudent leadership by BILL BOWMAN Fake news is not only defined as creating and reporting things that are not true. It is misrepresenting or eliminating known facts to add drama to a story, cause or personal agenda.

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