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 JUNE 20-26, 2018 UCW 7 e Aberdeen & Rockfish Railroad grade crossing on Skibo Road will likely remain under construction a few more days. It has disrupted local traffic since June 18. e North Carolina Department of Trans- portation closed Skibo Road (U.S. 401 Bypass) in both directions between Cliffdale Road and Chason Ridge Drive. It provides access to Best Buy, Target and other nearby shopping areas. e busy corridor is scheduled to reopen at 5 p.m. Friday, June 22. Local motorists will likely use Glens- ford Drive, which runs parallel to Skibo as a detour. Railroad workers are replacing the rubber-type crossing with more durable concrete panels. Aber- deen & Rockfish completed the same type of im- provement last year at Raeford and South McPher- son Church Roads. After the rail improvements are made, NCDOT will repave the crossing to make a smooth driving transition. Cumberland County Schools funding boost e Cumberland County Board of Commission- ers is increasing school funding by several million dollars for the fiscal year beginning July 1. e county is providing $80,150,000 to Cumberland County Schools for current expense funding. e amount is an increase of $686,891 above the current fiscal year. e school board and county commissioners settled a funding dispute during a mediation June 11. County commissioners also agreed to pay the schools 25 percent of tax revenues collected above the budgeted revenues for Fiscal Year 2018. Signifi- cantly, the county is also providing $1,315,299 for school nurses; $2,422,025 for School Resource Of- ficers; and $865,093 for Crossing Guards, for a total of $84,752,417 of local county dollars for current expenses next fiscal year. "It is our hope that both boards will once again develop a multi-year funding agreement, and we look forward to having those conversations with our new school superintendent," said Board of Commissioners Chairman Larry Lancaster. Downtown bridge repair delays Reconstruction of the North Cool Spring Street Bridge connecting Grove Street to Person Street will be delayed for several weeks. e city says re- pairs began in November 2017 and were expected to be completed by now. But problems that had not been found initially have added to the time sched- ule. is includes repairs to water and sewer mains, bank stabilization, storm drainage, curb and gutter and the sidewalk. A portion of North Cool Spring Street was washed away by flood waters from Hurricane Matthew in October 2016. Two other downtown bridges over Cross Creek are still closed, one of them – the Ann Street bridge – because of damage three years ago. Unattended cooking fires Fire officials say walking away from the range while cooking results in one of the most common causes of house fires. ere have been at least two instances in Fayetteville of unattended cooking resulting in fires this month. e most recent was at a home on McMillan Street off Campbell Avenue downtown. e first arriving fire engine "found a single story, residen- tial structure with fire showing from the front of the building," said Deputy Fire Chief Hieu Sifford. Firefighters were able to quickly find the origin of the fire and extinguish the blaze. e lone occu- pant of the house was not hurt. Sifford said the fire was contained mostly to the kitchen, resulting in an estimated $8,000 in damage. e same day, fire crews said unattended cook- ing resulted in a kitchen fire in Windsor Terrace off Hillsboro Street. e occupant left his cooking on the stove and laid down to take a cap. Chief Sifford said a smoke alarm woke him up to discover the fire. He was not hurt. Recycling is up in Fayetteville North Carolina's Recycling and Materials Man- agement Section has released recycling numbers for all 100 counties showing a 5.3 percent increase in paper and container recycling compared to the previous year. Local recycling programs collected more than 1.7 million tons of traditional and non- traditional materials last year. "Recycling collection in North Carolina has expanded alongside increasing demand for recy- clable material by in-state manufacturers," said Wendy Worley, Recycling and Materials Manage- ment section chief. "Counties and municipalities are targeting much more than paper, cans and plastics. ere are so many more materials that can be recycled, like construction debris, wood and electronics, and kept from going into the landfill." North Carolina recovered almost 27,000 more tons of paper than the previous year and 8,000 more tons of metal. Plastics and glass tonnages remained essentially unchanged. e state says Cumberland County's population has grown by 100,000 people since the 1991-92 fis- cal year, but recycling here has increased by 32 per- cent since then. e city of Fayetteville was among the first to make curbside recycling available. Section of Cliffdale Road closed to traffic a STAFF REPORT NEWS DIGEST