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.
Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/702414
JULY 13-19, 2016 UCW 9 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Stadium Committee Meets a STAFF REPORT by DON TALBOT NEWS DIGEST LETTER TO THE EDITOR Fayetteville City Council has until Aug. 19 to decide whether it wants a local minor league baseball team to affiliate with the Houston Astros. Consultant Daniel Barrett of Barrett Sports Group has repeatedly urged the Council to decide if it's prepared to meet what he calls the "yes or no" date. But the four members of the Council's stadium subcommittee say that may not be enough time to weigh all the considerations, including cost. The Astros want a for- mal memorandum of understanding from the city. BSG has proposed a $47 million ballpark on city-owned property behind the Prince Charles Hotel. Most Single-A stadiums on the east coast were built for far less than that. Council members who have spoken up, including Mayor Nat Robertson, want to keep the cost at no more than $30 million. Committee membe,r Jim Arp, seems to be the most reluctant to be hurried, saying the city must do its due diligence. Barrett told the committee he isn't sure if there are other major league teams that might be interested in locating a mi- nor league affiliate in Fayetteville. Committee members include Arp, Kirk deViere, Larry Wright and Mayor Pro Tem Mitch Colvin who serves as chairman. Building Business Rally Planned The Fayetteville Public Works Commission, City of Fayetteville and Cumberland County are co-hosting a Build- ing Business Rally that will present upcoming business opportunities for utility contractors. Water, wastewater and stormwater utility contractors are invited to attend the free event as are other businesses that support util- ity construction. PWC, the city's stormwater division and Cumberland County Public Utilities will provide information about projects that are planned over the next five years. Breakout sessions will be held to review bidding requirements and opportunities for minorities, women and veterans who may want to register for the Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Program. The Building Busi- ness Rally will be held Thursday, July 21, from 9 – 11 a.m. at PWC's Administration Building, 955 Old Wilmington Rd. To register, call 223-4337 or visit http://www. faypwc.com/purchasing . President on Opioid Abuse President Barack Obama has made combatting prescription pain medication abuse and heroin addiction a top priority for his administration. Fayetteville has the unenviable distinction of having the 18th-highest rate of opioid abuse in the country. It has joined with the VA to form an Opioid Reduction Task Force, which is designed to allow different agencies to share ideas and resources to better attack the opioid epidemic. The White House has asked Congress for $1.1 billion in new fund- ing to expand access to lifesaving treatment, particularly the drug buprenorphine. He also wants to strengthen prescription drug monitoring and accelerate research on pain and opioid misuse and overdose. Buprenorphine and the combination of buprenorphine and naloxone are used to treat addiction to opioid drugs, including heroin and narcotic painkillers. Buprenorphine alone and the combination of buprenorphine and naloxone work to prevent withdrawal symptoms when someone stops taking opioid drugs by producing similar effects to these drugs. "More people die of drug overdoses in the U.S. than in car crashes," said Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia M. Burwell. Government funds earmarked for treatment would be funneled directly to states. Pine Forest H.S. Teachers Honored Pine Forest High School teachers Linwood Starling and Pierre Cobb have been selected to participate in the North Carolina Business Committee for Education's Teachers@Work® program this summer. It's a joint initiative of the NCBCE and the North Caro- lina Department of Public Instruction. "Teach- ers know the hard skills to teach their students, but they also need to see first-hand how those skills are being used in their local businesses," said Sue Breckenridge, executive director of NCBCE. Starling and Cobb are science teachers and are paired with employees of Lenovo to learn the various aspects of the business. Today I Placed my S & W .357 revolver on the table right next to my front door. I left six cartridges beside it, then left it alone and went about my business. While I was gone, the mailman delivered my mail, the neighbor's son across the street mowed the yard, a girl walked her dog down the street and quite a few cars stopped at the "Stop" sign near the front of my house. After about an hour, I checked on the gun. It was quietly sitting there, right where I had left it. It had not moved itself outside. It had not killed anyone - even with the numerous opportunities it had presented to do that. In fact, it had not even loaded itself. Well, you can imagine my surprise, with all the hype by the media about how dangerous guns are and how they kill people. Either the media is wrong, or I'm in possession of the laziest gun in the world. The United States is third in murders throughout the world. But, if you take out just five cities: Chicago, Detroit, Washington D.C., St. Louis and New Orleans – the United States is fourth from the bottom, in the entire world, for murders. These five cities are controlled by Democrats. They also have the toughest gun-control laws in the US. It would be absurd to draw any conclusions from this data, right? Well, I'm off to check on my spoons. I hear they're making people fat. DON TALBOT. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910.484.6200 Hours: Mon-Sat: 11 a.m. - 8 p.m. • Sunday: 12 p.m. - 8 p.m. • Wednesday: CLOSED 5052 Yadkin Rd. Fayetteville, NC 28303 910 • 867 • 2227 or 910 • 867 • 6226 Your Choice for BEST of FAYETTEVILLE www.grilledginger.com