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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STAFF bbowman@upandcomingweekly.com PUBLISHER Bill Bowman editor@upandcomingweekly.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Janice Burton stephanie@upandcomingweekly.com MARKETING/SALES ASSOCIATE EDITOR Stephanie Crider beverly@upandcomingweekly.com kristy@upandcomingweekly.com Beverly Pone Linda McAlister Brown ltmcmd01@aol.com Kristy Sykes OFFICE & DISTRIBUTION MANAGER Laurel Handforth officemanager@ upandcomingweekly.com accounting@upandcomingweekly.com Paulette Reinhardt ACCOUNTING art@upandcomingweekly.com GRAPHIC DESIGNER Alicia Miller CONTRIBUTING WRITERS D.G. Mar tin, Pitt Dick ey, Margaret Dickson, John Hood, Erinn Crider, Karen Poppele, www.upandcomingweekly.com 208 Rowan Street P.O. Box 53461 Heather Griffi ths ––––––––––– Up & Coming Weekly Fayetteville, NC 28305 PHONE: (910) 484-6200 FAX: (910) 484-9218 Up & Coming Weekly is a "Quality of Life" publication with local features, news and infor- mation on what's happening in and around the Fayetteville/Cumberland County community. Up & Coming Weekly is published weekly on Wednesdays. Up & Coming Weekly welcomes manuscripts, photographs and artwork for publication consideration, but assumes no responsibility for them. We cannot accept responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts or material. Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. The publisher reserves the right to edit or reject copy submitted for publication. Up & Coming Weekly is free of charge and distributed at indoor and outdoor locations throughout Fayetteville, Fort Bragg, Pope Air Force Base, Hope Mills and Spring Lake. Readers are limited to one copy per per- son. Subscriptions can be purchased for $30 for six months or $60 for 12 months, delivered weekly by first class mail. ©2007 by F&B Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial or advertisements without permission is strictly prohibited. INSIDE PUBLISHER'S PEN As I sat down in my warm home to write this column, hundreds of thousands of residents in New York and New Jersey are still suffering and without electrical power and basic services as a result of the devastation caused by Super Storm Sandy. The storm smashed into the northeast more than two weeks ago, and many are still reeling from its impact. Adding insult to injury, those whose homes were not totally destroyed are mad and frustrated at the way relief is slowly seeping into the destroyed and devastated neighborhoods. Poor communications, a slow reaction from FEMA, the Red Cross seemingly missing in action, looters and the apparent apathy shown by utility management and the organized union workers of the Long Island Power Authority are compounding the problems. Let me put this in perspective for the uninformed. Three million people lined the streets of New York City to view the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade last year. Fifty million watched it on television. That's a total of 53 million. In comparison, Sandy left 60 million people in the dark, homeless, cold and hungry. Now, more than two weeks later hundreds of thousands are still suffering. This is unacceptable. We are not a third-world county. This is not even New Orleans or some remote wilderness in America. This is New York City!!!! Most of the frustration is focused on the Long Island Power Authority and its chairman, Howard Steinberg. He is taking most of the heat admitting that the utility's preparedness, equipment and communications are a huge problem. The LIPA was not prepared for a disaster like Sandy, and they knew it as far back as 2006. Sadly enough, they took action and approved a $150 million appropriation for new equipment and a computer system that could handle such emergencies and power outage situations the magnitude of Sandy. The only problem is that these improvements were not planned for implementation until 2013. What? 2013? Makes you wonder who sets the priorities and who is really in charge doesn't it? I wonder how many salary increases and added benefi ts union bosses and workers received during that same period. Long Island residents really have a lot to be displeased with when it comes to the LIPA. It is hard to imagine these conditions in a suburb of one of the largest, most populated areas in America. Perhaps this is why the residents of Long Island have made such an exerted, sincere and heartfelt attempt to reach out to us here in Fayetteville to let us know how much they truly appreciate the men, women and equipment that our "Hometown Utility, PWC" committed to help them through this awful time. It is hard for us to imagine what they must be going through. No electricity, no heat, gasoline shortages, water and food shortages, not by BILL BOWMAN Fayetteville's Weather Forecast Friday November 15 November 16 November 17 Saturday Fayetteville's Weather Forecast Thursday Calendar ........................................... 14 Concert Connection ........................ 18 TV ..................................................... 20 Movie Review .................................. 21 Free Wheelin' Feelin' ....................... 22 Horoscopes/Advice Goddess ......... 23 Classifieds ........................................ 24 Games .............................................. 26 PWC's Outreach Stirs Emotions of Sandy Survivors able to return home and, in many cases, no home to return to. It makes your heart ache. So, you can imagine, when the PWC utility crews rolled in, it must have seemed like the cavalry riding to the rescue. Thankful, and emotionally moved, Long Island residents took the time to call and email messages of appreciation to the PWC offi ce here in Fayetteville. PWC Communications Director Carolyn Justice-Hinson was kind enough to share a few of these with me: Long Island resident, last Monday: "My power was out for seven days. When the [PWC] trucks rolled in, I cried. They were the fi rst electric crews that we have seen in our neighborhood. They worked like dogs and didn't stop until everything was on. The whole crew was unbelievable and operated like a well-oiled machine. They were extremely nice, explained what they were doing and we are very thankful to them all for coming to help us." From Facebook, Brad writes "... my friend Cindy called me yesterday (from Long Island) and said "Brad — I love me some Fayetteville, N.C. boys"... they had just restored her power." Special Note: Cindy is a Long Island resident with two young special-needs children who had a very diffi cult time understanding and dealing with no heat or electricity. Phone call from Huntingon, Long Island resident Pamela Schmidt: "Thanks PWC for helping Huntington, Long Island recover from Hurricane Sandy! We're so grateful for all you are doing to restore power to thousands." Email from Jose Suarez: "Thank you for sending your crews up to Long Island to help us with the storm damage. Your crews are working round the clock and doing wonderful work." As they work to restore the power distribution lines (which are the lower power lines that we see along the road or in neighborhoods), they too are cold, hungry and living and working under pretty primitive and dismal conditions. They have been away from their families since Oct. 31, and no telling when they will return. It is a marvelous point of pride for our community that the very people who were affected by the storm are reaching out to thank us during their time of trouble. It only confi rms that these loyal, talented, highly trained and hard-working PWC professionals are not only doing their jobs well, but also serving as ambassadors for our community, which is a refl ection of a good organization and great leadership. Coming Weekly, COMMENTS? editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. BILL BOWMAN, Publisher, Up & November 18 CalCall 910.354.1679l 910.354.1679 Sunday November 19 Monday November 20 Tuesday Partly Cloudy High 55° Low 37° Partly Cloudy High 62° Low 43° 4 UCW NOVEMBER 14-20, 2012 Mostly Cloudy High 62° Low 44° Forecast available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. High 63° Low 45° Cloudy Mostly Sunny High 64º Low 43º Mostly Sunny High 65º Low 45º WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM 24 24 / 7