Up & Coming Weekly

December 14, 2021

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 DECEMBER 15-21, 2021 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM STAFF PUBLISHER Bill Bowman Bill@upandcomingweekly.com OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Paulette Naylor accounting@upandcomingweekly.com EDITOR Emily Sussman editor@upandcomingweekly.com ASSISTANT EDITOR Hannah Lee assistanteditor@upandcomingweekly. com PRODUCTION MANAGER/ GRAPHIC DESIGNER Dylan Hooker art@upandcomingweekly.com STAFF WRITER Elaina J. Martin Aly Hansen REPORTER Jeff Thompson MARKETING ASSOCIATE Linda McAlister Brown linda@upandcomingweekly.com DISTRIBUTION MANAGER/SALES ADMINISTRATOR Laurel Handforth laurel@upandcomingweekly.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Pitt Dickey, John Hood, Kathleen Ramsey, Thomas Kelsey, D.G. Martin COVER Deigned by Dylan Hooker. –––––––––––- 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 Army Airfield, 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 82 64 82 83 79 82 63 64 83 66 64 65 THU DEC 16 FRI DEC 17 SAT DEC 18 SUN DEC 19 MON DEC 20 TUE DEC 21 72 51 74 52 72 45 60 43 62 47 63 45 Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Partly Cloudy Cloudy PM Showers Association of Community Publishers On Nov. 24, I wrote about how our local elected officials in Fayetteville and Cumberland County could learn a lot about cooperation and team - work, recently demonstrated by our Cumberland County Legislative Delegation led by Chairman Rep. Billy Richardson, N.C. House, District 44. Undoubtedly, congratulations are in order to him and the other members of the delegation: Sen. Kirk deViere, Sen. Ben Clark, Rep. John Szoka, Rep. Di - ane Wheatley and Rep. Marvin Lucas, for their hard work and perseverance in passing North Carolina's first budget since 2018. anks to their efforts Fayetteville and Cumberland County will receive $412 million for projects and pro - grams that will impact the residents of Cumberland County for decades. is money will address local infrastructure needs and funding for health care, K-12 education, broadband expansion, Fayetteville Technical Community College, Fayetteville State University expansion projects, expanded medical research, etc. e tax policy portion of the new budget is pro-growth and low - ers personal income tax and corporate income tax rates. And, thanks to the perseverance of Szoka and Wheatley, who were co-sponsors of House Bill 83, North Carolina veterans' military pensions will no longer be taxed. HB 83 is a massive win for both our veterans and our state. According to Szoka, North Carolina will become more attractive to military retirees from all over the country and aid in retaining retirees here in our commu - nity. Another major budget highlight and a massive win for Fayetteville is the $59.6 million earmarked for the North Carolina Civil War and Recon - struction History Center. Here we have another example of teamwork, coop- eration and perseverance by project Chairman Mac Healy, Co-Chair Mary Lynn Bryan, and members of the North Carolina Civil War and Reconstruction History Center's board of directors. is state-run venue will bring hundreds of thousands of visitors to our community; create jobs, and infuse millions of dollars of economic growth and development. Undoubt - edly, at $412 million, this community has never achieved success of this magnitude. Why and how did this happen, you may ask? Because, today, we are fortunate to have in place a dedi - cated local elected Cumberland County legislative delegation that understands the importance and value of teamwork. But, what about tomorrow? With the new district changes and the prospect of an additional Congressional District, our Cumberland County Delegation and many of our city and county elected leadership will change, producing some new faces. Like many others, my question and concerns are whether these elected newcomers will embrace the same spirit of teamwork and co - operation when it comes to "doing the right things, for the right reasons" for the residents of Cumberland County; this is a very valid concern. After all, now that we have gained $412 mil - lion for improving our community, we must be confident that the people responsible for spending it are compe- tent. ey must have the talent, intel- ligence and common sense to execute their duties prudently and for their intended purposes. e haunting question is, will fu - ture leadership follow the bipartisan examples of our current leadership by working and cooperating to better the city, county and state? Or will they retreat to the safe havens of their self- serving "what's in it for me" silos? Only time will tell. We have much at stake here. Cumberland County is losing population, and more importantly, we are losing our young professionals to other more progressive cities. Making the community better and serving all the citizens of Cumberland County diligently and honestly should be the highest of all priorities. No one politi - cal affiliation has all the knowledge, talent or intelligence needed to move a community into prosperity. It takes everyone. It takes teamwork. As dem- onstrated by our current bipartisan legislative delegation, it takes working together for a common cause. Now is the time to pay attention to those seeking elected leadership posi - tions. e 2022 elections have been delayed again until May 17, 2022. We should now start vetting candidates and ultimately vote for those who have a platform to better the quality of life in our community and not be just elected placeholders. We must elect honest and trustworthy leaders who understand the importance of trans - parency and citizen involvement. With $412 million, we have an excellent op- portunity to transform Fayetteville and Cumberland County into a prosperous "Can Do" community, but only if we all work together. We must demand that our city and county elected of - ficials work together. We must demand positive, cooperative actions and not empty promises. e future of the Fayetteville and Cumberland County communities is in our hands. As demonstrated over the last decade, you can be assured that we will ultimately get the kind of leadership and local government we deserve. Let's all hope that we deserve the best. ank you for reading Up & Coming Weekly. $412 Million: What now? by BILL BOWMAN BILL BOWMAN, Publisher, UP & COMING WEEKLY. COMMENTS? BILL@upandcomingweekly.com. 910-484-6200. Photo courtesy of Pexels.

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