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/1343128
4 UCW FEBRUARY 24 - MARCH 2, 2021 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM STAFF PUBLISHER Bill Bowman Bill@upandcomingweekly.com OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Paulette Naylor accounting@upandcomingweekly.com EDITOR April Olsen editor@upandcomingweekly.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER Dylan Hooker art@upandcomingweekly.com EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Keyuri Parab REPORTER Jeff Thompson news@upandcomingweekly.com MARKETING ASSOCIATE Linda McAlister Brown linda@upandcomingweekly.com DISTRIBUTION MANAGER/SALES ADMINISTRATOR Laurel Handforth laurel@upandcomingweekly.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Margaret Dickson, Pitt Dickey, D.G. Martin, John Hood, Jim Jones, Shanessa Fenner, Prudence Mainor, 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. © 2020 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 Congressman continues visits to vaccination sites by REP. RICHARD HUDSON 82 64 82 83 79 82 63 64 83 66 64 65 THU FEB 25 FRI FEB 26 SAT FEB 27 SUN FEB 28 MON MAR 01 TUE MAR 02 64 38 46 36 56 48 63 53 66 46 57 40 Showers Showers Showers Showers Showers Mostly Sunny Association of Community Publishers As we continue to grapple with this pandemic and work to improve our vaccination efforts, I toured two vaccine deployment locations in Harnett and Moore Counties last week. ese visits are important for me to learn what's happening here at home so when I go to Washing- ton, I am able to advocate for the needs of our community. I also visited a Cabarrus County vaccina- tion site earlier this month, and will continue keeping in touch with our county officials and local health providers to stay up to date with how to best serve our region. While at Harnett Central Middle School in Angier, I received an up- date from Harnett County Health Department Director John Rouse, Emergency Services Director Larry Smith, County Manager Paula Stew- art, County Commission Vice-Chair Lew Weatherspoon and County Commission Chairman Brooks Matthews. e day I was there, the Middle School administered 980 doses, getting vaccines in arms at a rate of 200 per hour. is was the first time this mass deployment had been used at the Middle School on a day when students were in virtual learning. It's amazing to see how successful it was and important for us to know that this method can be used in the future as more doses of vaccine become available. In Moore County, I toured the Fair Barn which is being used as a vacci- nation site and received an update from First Health CEO Mickey Fos- ter and First Health CMO Dr. Jenni- fer Bruno. We discussed the chal- lenges with getting enough doses in areas like Moore County where the population of people aged 65 and older makes up nearly a quarter of the county, much higher than the average statewide. It is critical for our district to protect our seniors and I will work with my federal partners and the Governor to make sure we have adequate supply across our state. At both vaccine sites, I discussed efforts I have helped with to ensure the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services now gives provid- ers 3 week's notice of how many doses to expect, as opposed to one week's notice that they were previ- ously providing. North Carolina has administered 1.5 million doses so far and re- ceived $95 million from the latest COVID-19 relief legislation passed in December. In our district, the vaccine statistics look like this: •Cabarrus County: 22,350 people have been vaccinated. •Stanly County: 5,500 people have been vaccinated. •Montgomery County: 3,900 people have been vaccinated. •Moore County: 11,725 people have been vaccinated. •Lee County: 8,750 people have been vaccinated. •Harnett County: 17,200 people have been vaccinated. •Cumberland County: 35,700 people have been vaccinated. We still have a lot of work to do, but working together we will get there. Seeing the vaccine rollout in our community firsthand provides valuable feedback on what our re- gion needs. I commend the leaders in our counties for working together across health departments, EMS, school systems and other entities to successfully administer vaccines. Rest assured, I will continue to work with the Governor and at the fed- eral level to ensure you, your family and our communities get the vac- cine doses and resources we need. (Left) Rep. Richard Hudson visits Harnett Central Middle School, a COVID-19 vaccination site in Angier. (Right) Hudson meets with health care workers at the Fair Barn, a vaccination site in Moore County. REP. RICHARD HUDSON, (NC-08). COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomin- gweekly.com. 910-484-6200.