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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WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM APRIL 6 -12, 2022 UCW 9 e Market House was a significant topic of discussion during Fayetteville's City Council meeting last Monday night and will continue to be for the next few months. e U.S. Department of Justice, which held two workshop meetings with 80 members of the community in October and January, presented a final report to the council. Dion Lyons, a specialist from the DOJ who oversaw the two meetings, says these meetings were different than his usual City-SPIRIT workshops. e city had already de- cided to repurpose the Market House, so the groups that met could not talk about demolition or moving the Market House. Instead, they discussed structural modification top- ics, art exhibits and themed events. "Both groups want to see the Market House as a symbol of education. ey want the true comprehensive story of the history of the Market House to be told. Both groups want to see the Market House handicap accessible and ADA compli- ant. ey want to see vibrant displays of art that connect Market House visitors with activities that promote positive emotional responses and insight. It would feature vari- ous genres of art that represent African-American culture and history and an alternate space that is representative of Fayetteville. ere were recommendations to enclose the arches to allow the structure to be secured once the pro- posed solutions are implemented," a spokeswoman for the Human-Rights Commission told the council. e goal of the DOJ report and the Human-Relations Commission was for the council to approve the report so the commission could go back and create a more detailed plan on which suggestions took the highest priority and make detailed plans on how to fulfill the requests. "We've narrowed down the community's input into a set of sort of action plans and recommendations for city council," Lyons said. "Instead of reconvening all 80 or more citizens who participated, we would now go forward with the recommendations that we have and a subcommittee on a subcommittee of those same 80 people now represented by five from the first group in October and five from the second group in January. ose would be the people on the committee now tasked to work with the City Council to implement the plans that they came up with." However, many council members felt that not enough community input was allowed for the DOJ meetings. Meet- ings were not open to the public, and the number of people allowed in the discussions was limited because of CO- VID-19. e Fayetteville-Cumberland Human Rights Com- mission also chose the people involved in the decisions. Councilmember Courtney Banks-Mclaughlin motioned for the council's staff to open these discussions back up to the public to receive more input about the repurposing of the Market House. at motion was approved 9 to 1, with Councilmember Johnny Dawkins voting against it. Fencing to come down e City Council also voted Monday night to take down the fence surrounding the Market House. e fence was put up around the Market House shortly after rioters set fire to the building following protests in May 2020. City Manager Doug Hewett says the repairs are com- pleted, and it was up to the council to decide whether or not to keep the fencing up. "We're having open dialogue on how to deal with it with the citizens of Fayetteville, and we trying to hear back from them because it is a sticky, sticky subject," Councilmember D.J. Haire said. "But I just don't see where the need to con- tinue to have it surrounded with the temporary fence with all of the work has been done, and the improvements has been done, and the fence doesn't make it look any better." Councilmember Antonio Jones said that he believes the fence is divisive, and this is the right time to take it down. "At some point, we have to trust the community to do the right thing, just like some would trust them to do the wrong thing," Jones said. e motion passed nine to one, with Councilmember Banks-McLaughlin voting against. e City Manager said that the fence wouldn't come down immediately but would probably happen within the month. "We would probably want to make sure we gave notice so that we had made everyone aware and probably several days for that. We would need to remove the fencing, clean up, probably brush and sweep the area," Hewitt said. Fayetteville Technical Community College starts search for next president e Fayetteville Technical Community College Board of Trustees has formed a Presidential Search Committee to lead the process of finding a replacement for President Dr. J. Larry Keen, who will be retiring in 2023. e committee comprises representatives of FTCC's Board of Trustees, faculty, staff and student body. e com- mittee will seek community input on the preferred qualifi- cations and characteristics of the ideal candidate through surveys and public forums. at input from the public will be factored into the committee's development of a Presi- dential Profile, which will be used in a national search for FTCC's next president. ere will be four public forums - three at the FTCC's Fayetteville Campus and one at the Spring Lake campus. e three public forums in the Cumberland Hall Audito- rium at 2215 Hull Road on FTCC's Fayetteville campus are scheduled for: Tuesday, April 26, from 10:30 a.m. to noon, Wednesday, April 27, from 2:30 to 4 p.m., and ursday, April 28, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. e public forum scheduled for FTCC's Spring Lake cam- pus at 171 Laketree Boulevard is ursday, April 28, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Former Cumberland County Sheriff's Office deputy arrested A former Cumberland County Sheriff 's Office deputy has been charged with discharging a firearm into an occupied property following an incident back in February. 40-year-old Luis Hernandez Jr. fired at a moving vehicle on Feb. 8 after responding to a call of a suspicious vehicle parked at the intersection of Mercedes Drive and Sara Lane. According to the press release, Hernandez approached the car, saw three people inside, and then asked them to show their hands - which they did. Hernandez then asked the front passenger to exit the car. After the passenger exited the vehicle, the vehicle fled the scene. Hernandez then allegedly shot at the car seven times. No injuries were reported, but the Cumberland County Sheriff 's Office initiated an investigation. Hernandez was terminated on Feb. 11 from the Sheriff 's Office. Hernandez turned himself in on April 1 and was booked into the Cumberland County Detention Center and held on a $10,000 secure bond. Prayer policy revised for government meetings in Spring Lake In a 5-1 vote, the Spring Lake Board of Aldermen decided to change the prayer policy to be more inclusive and com- pliant with federal law. However, the invocation will still be a part of government meetings. "is is simply a policy change to put us in compliance," said Mayor Kia Anthony. "We want to make sure we are be- ing inclusive." e board says they never intended to remove prayer from their agenda. e Mayor proposed a "non-sectarian" prayer that does not invoke any one religion, so we are not showing favorit- ism to one religion over the other. "My whole goal is to keep us in compliance; it is not to remove God from our meetings. at is not the intent," Anthony said. "We want to make sure we're covered because, as a unit of government, we have to abide by certain rules," said Alder- woman Sona Cooper. e board cites a 2017 publication from the University of North Carolina School of Government, which states that a state court identified four practices that violate the Constitu- tion. ese practices are: only board members deliver the prayer; the board members are all of the same religion' there is no opportunity for other faiths to be represented; and the board meeting occurs in the intimate setting of a local government meeting. e board uses information from an excerpt from the University of North Carolina School of Government that stated meetings during meetings "violates the Constitution." Alderman Marvin Lackman disagreed with creating a new prayer policy. "I'm a proud Christian, and people elected me to repre- sent them," he said. "I stand firm in my beliefs. I stand firm for the people of Spring Lake. I am firm against this." The Market House: Council wants more input by HANNAH LEE & JESSICA MAY NEWS DIGEST