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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8 UCW MAY 9-15, 2018 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Fayetteville City Council is preparing to install a new member, following the resignation of District 2 Councilman Tyrone Williams. He had refused to step down when asked to do so last month by his colleagues. at resulted in city attorney Karen Mc- Donald preparing rules and procedures for what's known as an amotion by which the council could forcibly remove Williams. e freshman member of council stepped down last week. Williams had been accused of attempting to bribe PCH Holdings project manager Jordan Jones, asking for $15,000 to "clear a cloud" hanging over the deed of the former Prince Charles Hotel. Jones' firm is renovating the eight-story Hay Street build- ing. Williams claimed he was owed the money by former property owner John Chen. But his attorney, Kris Poppe, advised him the debt had been "extin- guished by the bankruptcy court." "is is an unfortunate situation and one that was negatively affecting our city's image," said Mayor Mitch Colvin. "It's behind us now, and I would like to encourage our Fayetteville City Council and citizens to move forward in a positive tone, realizing that we have a very bright future ahead of us." Colvin said he would have discussions with council and the administration to select someone to temporarily fill the vacancy created by Williams' resignation. Instacart arrives in Fayetteville Over 112,000 Fayetteville house- holds can now have groceries hand- picked and deliv- ered the same day, and in some cases, in as little as one hour. Customers go online to w w w.Instacart.com or open the Instacart app on their mobile device (available on both Android and iPhone), select their city/store, and choose the desired items, which are added to a virtual cart. en the customer chooses a delivery window and checks out. Choices for delivery are as soon as within one hour, or up to five days in advance. An employed Instacart shop- per accepts the order on his/her smartphone, goes shopping at that store and delivers the order to the customer in the designated delivery timeframe. "Over the past year, we've seen incredible demand in the Fayetteville area," said Sam Donoghue, gen- eral manager at Instacart. "We work with a variety of local retailers to provide the freshest, highest quality groceries to our customers. Launching in Fayetteville gives us an opportunity to expand ser- vice in the North Carolina market. We're also excited to build a world-class shopper community, where we can offer fun and flexible income earning oppor- tunities for our shoppers, who ultimately deliver this amazing service to the community." Retailers participating in Fayetteville include BJ's Wholesale Club, Publix, CVS and Petco. Service areas include: Fayetteville, Fort Bragg, Hope Mills, Stedman, Judson, Vander and Eastover. Fayetteville rated top performing city e city of Fayetteville has been recognized as the top- performing city overall in the 2018 Equipt to Innovate national survey of American cit- ies. Equipt to Innovate is a joint initiative launched by the nonprofit Living Cities and the magazine Governing. "I'm excited that Fayetteville has been selected as the top performing city overall in the 2018 Equipt to Innovate national survey of American cities,"" City Manager Doug Hewett said. "e results of the Equipt to Innovate survey exemplify that we are a well-run city on the move, and we are humbled to receive this award."" e award was presented to the city of Fayetteville Tuesday, May 1, at the 2018 Summit on Government Performance and Innovation, an annual gathering of 650 innovators, public sector change-agents, disrupters and civic entrepreneurs from around the country interested in making gov- ernment work better for local communities. Multi-purpose lanes Signs along some of Fayetteville's inner-city streets designate roadside lanes as bike paths. But, they're multipurpose lanes for joggers, baby strollers, pedestrians and bicyclists, according to city traffic engineer Lee Jernigan. Vehicles are not supposed to park in the lanes, and police have been known to warn motorists not to do so. Jernigan said, however, there are no city ordinances prohib- iting parking in bike paths. Fayetteville has a reputation for not being pedes- trian-friendly, and a new state program is designed to educate the public to encourage safe and secure places to walk and bike. Each year, more than 3,000 pedestrians and 850 bicyclists are hit by vehicles in North Carolina, according to the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center. at makes our state one of the most dangerous for walking and bicycling. Another dam repair funded e city of Fayetteville says it has received a FEMA com- mitment for reimburse- ment of the cost of repairing the Devon- wood lower dam, which was damaged during Hurricane Matthew in October 2016. e dam beneath McFadyen Drive holds back Fleetwood Lake in the Devonwood neighborhood off Morganton Road. It was drained following the storm. "e fluid number (cost of repair), meaning it could change, is $1,429,420," said city spokesperson Nathan Walls. e city originally estimated the repair cost at $2.9 million. e city is getting design work underway now that it has a pledge of reim- bursement from the federal government. Walls said that will take the rest of the year. W.K. Dickson company has been retained to design and repair the dam. "Construction will start in 2019 and is expected to take approximately eight months," said Walls. Fleetwood Lake won't be im- pounded until the dam is repaired. It was one of six dams and city streets that were heavily damaged during the hurricane. FTCC recognized as a leader in technological education Fayetteville Technical Community College is ranked fifth in the nation in the annual Digital Community College Survey of large institutions. It's the 13th consecutive year FTCC has been rec- ognized by the Center for Digital Education. e survey acknowledged that Fayetteville Tech uses a range of technologies to improve services to stu- dents, faculty, staff and the community at large. Colleges surveyed indicated that mobile devices and application support are top priorities followed by cyber security tools and testing, website redesign, classroom upgrades and curriculum among others. Tyrone Williams resigns a STAFF REPORT NEWS DIGEST Tyrone Williams