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/765699
DECEMBER 21-27, 2016 UCW 9 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM JEFF THOMPSON, Senior News Reporter. COMMENTS? news@upandcomingweekly. com. 910.484.6200. NEWS Action by Fayetteville City Council on a private hotel tax deal late last month shouldn't have taken place, says Councilman Kirk deViere. A request from developers of the Spring Hill Suites Hotel for final action on a request for a rare tax break was heard at council's Nov. 28 meeting. "The proposal was supposed to go to a council committee for study, and suddenly it appeared on the agenda," said deViere. Not only that; the proposal had never been considered by Cumberland County Commissioners. "The county board referred the matter back to FCEDC for review," recalled outgoing board chairman Marshall Faircloth. "Then Russ Rogerson left town to take another job and the issue never came back to the board," he added. Rogerson was the local industry hunter when the Spring Hill Suites request for tax breaks was broached last spring. He told the council that without the tax incentives, Springhill Suites would not get built. "He's full of crap," said Councilman Bill Crisp. In fact, construction work on the new hotel adjacent to the Embassy Suites had already begun when council decided to grant tax relief. The same company owns both properties on Lake Valley Drive off Yadkin Road. "Even though the tax incentive policy is a joint city/county agreement, it doesn't keep one entity from going it alone," Faircloth added. The owners of both local hotels have been granted forgiveness of one-half their property taxes for the first five years. In the case of Spring Hill Suites, it's not a lot of money — about $87,000 or $17,400 a year. "The project was going to happen with or without the incentive," said deViere. "Why give incentives to an industry that doesn't need them? This incentive doesn't produce jobs," he added. Only two other members of council agreed with him and the request passed 6-3. Crisp and council member Ted Mohn voted with deViere. Mayor Nat Robertson and council members Jim Arp, Mitch Colvin, Bobby Hurst, Kathy Jensen and Larry Wright were in the majority. Councilman Chalmers McDougald was absent. The company got an even bigger tax break when it came before city council six years ago proposing to build the Embassy Suites Hotel. Council was in agreement then that a first-class hotel was needed near Fort Bragg. Forces Command and Reserve Command headquarters had moved to Bragg. The new Spring Hill Hotel will add 121 rooms to the local inventory of 6,100. But deViere points out it does not provide the large convention space officials say is needed here. Mayor Pro Tem Mitch Colvin noted that a local group of 400 people took their convention to Raleigh because of a lack of space in Fayetteville. Fayetteville Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive-Director John Meroski declined to comment on the Spring Hill incentives arrangement but said "I am sure there is some heartburn from other developers and hoteliers. Between 2000 and now, we have grown from 49 hotels/motels, to 76," he said. That's 1,500 additional rooms, with more on the way. A six-story hotel on Sycamore Dairy Road is under construction. "Occupancy tax collections have grown from $1.2 million to $5.6 million," Meroski noted, "and tourism is up 54 percent in a decade." The general rule of thumb, according to the convention and visitors' bureau, is that hotels will make money with 60 percent occupancy. The current occupancy rate for the last 28 weeks is 73.6 percent, he stated. Hotel Tax Deal a Mystery by JEFF THOMPSON Eight to 10 years ago, a subject who became known as the "Ramsey Street Rapist" terrorized Fayetteville's north side. Detectives continue to investigate the half dozen attacks attributed to the man. None of the cases were cleared with arrests, and police hope new technology will help them solve the crimes. Matching DNA has been attributed to the same white male who committed at least three of the attacks. And Police Lt. John Somerindyke believes the other three outstanding rapes were also committed by the same subject based on physical descriptions given by his victims. The evidence has been uploaded to the national Combined DNA Index System known as CODIS. "But Fayetteville Police have not received any matches to a particular person," said Somerindyke who commands the FPD's Special Victims Unit. The rapist was described ten years ago as a white male is his 20s to mid 30s. He stood 5'9" to 6'3" tall and weighed as much as 230 pounds, perhaps less. He was described as of average build with short black or dark brown hair. Parabon Nanolabs, Inc., has produced likenesses of the rapist using a technology known as phenotyping. They call their product Snapshot and describe it on their website as "a revolutionary new forensic DNA analysis service that accurately predicts the physical appearance and ancestry of an unknown person from DNA." Snapshot is ideal for generating investigative leads, narrowing suspect lists and identifying unknown remains." The company says on its website that "It is possible to reverse-engineer DNA into a physical profile. Snapshot reads tens of thousands of genetic variants ("genotypes") from a DNA sample and uses this information to predict what an unknown person looks like." Here's how Parabon Nanolabs says the science works: "Using deep data-mining and advanced machine learning algorithms in a specialized bioinformatics pipeline, Parabon — with funding support from the U.S. Department of Defense — developed the Snapshot Forensic DNA Phenotyping System, which accurately predicts genetic ancestry, eye color, hair color, skin color, freckling and face shape in individuals from any ethnic background, even individuals with mixed ancestry." In the case of the Ramsey Street Rapist, the laboratory produced composites with and without facial hair. Two of them are as the subject appeared ten years ago. And using age progression, two show him as he might look today. Lt. Somerindyke and SVU Sgt. Kelly Berg are especially passionate about this case. Somerindyke displayed his handcuffs at a news conference, declaring he would put them on the rapist one day. He said, however, the police department has no idea of the rapists' whereabouts. Forensic and evidentiary information have been made available to law enforcement nationwide, he said. And he went on to say he will add $1,000 of his own money to the reward offered by Crime Stoppers. Somerindyke went so far as to challenge concerned businesspeople to consider adding to the reward fund. Potential New Lead in Ramsey Street Rapist Cold Case by JEFF THOMPSON Snapshot composites of what the Ramsey Street rapist might look like today. Spring Hill Suites is set to open a hotel in Fayetteville.