CityView Magazine

Co-Chairs Tony Chavonne Mayor of Fayetteville Wilson Lacy PWC Board of Commissioners Leadership Team James Anderson Fayetteville State University Steve Blanchard PWC George Breece Greater Fayetteville Futures II Jimmy Buxton NAACP (Local Chapter) Tom Conway Fayetteville State University Delmas Crisp Methodist University Kirk deViere Greater Fayetteville Futures II Paul Dordal BRAC Regional Task Force Sandy Godwin Cape Fear Valley Health System Mary Holmes Cumberland Community Foundation Dale Iman City of Fayetteville Jimmy Keefe County Commissioner Larry Keen Fayetteville Technical Community College Mike Lallier Greater Fayetteville Futures II James Martin County Manager John Meroski Fayetteville Area Convention & Visitors Bureau Deborah Mintz Fayetteville/Cumberland County Arts Council Mike Nagowski Cape Fear Valley Health System Jon Parsons Sustainable Sandhills Doug Peters Fayetteville/Cumberland County Chamber of Commerce Carrie Rice Fort Bragg, Garrison Commanders Office Floyd Shorter Fayetteville Business & Professional League COL Steve Sicinski Garrison Commander Frank Till Cumberland County School System Greg West Cumberland County School Board 24 | May/June • 2011 it can be. About 500 citizens – more than double the number who attended the first meeting in 2001 – gathered at the Crown Coliseum and witnessed the unveiling of Greater Fayetteville Futures II. Mike Lallier, who runs the Reed- Lallier Chevrolet dealership in a very competitive environment, is among those who has given his time to the effort. Lallier serves as GFF II Grants chairman. “Greater Fayetteville Futures II has brought together community stakeholders to solve community issues through the best examples of cooperation and collaboration.” This time the challenges identified were drawn from two noteworthy studies: The BRAC Regional Task Force’s Growth Development Plan and the Chamber of Commerce’s Pathways to Possibilities study. The two studies outlined the community’s challenges and provided the framework necessary to prepare for BRAC and the continued positive transformation of the community. Hundreds of citizens assembled in small groups to provide their views on the issues and make recommendations as to how to make positive changes. From there, dozens of community action groups were established and periodically met to hammer out the details of the objectives they identified. Again, successes of varying sizes were numerous following the efforts to address these challenges. In the area of economic development, the Chamber of Commerce, in October 2009, announced the $20 million, 239-unit Vellagio apartment complex. Another announcement followed in September 2010 that an Embassy Suite and Conference Center will be built near the mall. In the area of creating a model education system and healthcare, Fayetteville State University and Fayetteville Technical Community College aligned their nursing program curriculums. Also in healthcare, Cape Fear Valley Health Systems teamed with Womack Army Medical Center to coordinate and collaborate for acute care capacities affected by the BRAC-driven population growth. Additionally, Cape Fear Valley Health Systems initiated a proactive physician recruitment program and has recruited 41 doctors in critically short specialties. Fayetteville Mayor Tony Chavonne, who co-chairs the steering committee for Greater Fayetteville Futures with Fayetteville Public Works Commission member Wilson Lacey, said the timing was the key to success for both ventures. “In phase 1, the community had come to recognize the problems over a multi- year span with the Chamber leading the information and communication effort,” Lacey said. “Phase 2 took the BRAC Regional Task Force’s Regional Growth Plan recommendation and built around those.” Room to Grow However, Chavonne pointed to some areas that lacked the success he and the steering committee had hoped to see. “We were less successful in communication and keeping citizens engaged and informed,” he said. Chavonne and the steering committee met in January to review the successes and to reestablish a commitment of the steering committee to move forward. The steering committee determined that the GFF process needed to be simpler and less dependent on technology, and that internal and external communication needed to be improved. A key decision at that meeting was that the steering committee’s work group would collect the strategic goals of various community organizations and agencies and assign them against the broader community objectives and coordinate a reporting process through GFF to keep the community informed and engaged. Kirk deViere, strategic planner for GFF, said keeping citizens engaged is key to sustaining the GFF movement. “Community involvement is critical to the momentum and overall success. Community development is not easy,” deViere said. “The hardest thing to do is to continue to keep the community engaged and informed during the process. This is a critical component of the overall success and community development doesn’t happen without an engaged diverse group from the community.”CV

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