September is Emergency Preparedness Month, and Cumberland County Emergency Services is urging residents, businesses and schools to review respective emergency plans and refresh supply kits. “Whether it’s a natural event such as severe weather or an unplanned situation, preparedness starts at home,” Garry Crumpler, newly named director of Cumberland County Emergency Services, says in a news release. “This is a great opportunity for families to sit down, talk through their plans and practice them together. Deciding ahead of time where to meet, who to call and what to do if an evacuation is needed can make all the difference.” Prepare in advance, according to the release, by creating or updating a household emergency plan and establishing a meeting point, communication methods, evacuation routes, etc; putting in place an emergency kit for three to seven days to include water, food, medications and other essentials. Visit ReadyNC.gov for steps, checklists and online resources. County residents also can visit the county website to receive emergency notifications.
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Cumberland County has sent an online survey asking residents what they would like to see for the old Judge E. Maurice Braswell Cumberland County Courthouse parking lot along Gillespie Street, which was demolished in what would have been the site for a Crown Event Center until Cumberland Board of County Commissioners Kirk deViere, Henry Tyson, Pavan Patel, Marshall Faircloth and Jeannette Council voted to nix the project in June. I filled out the survey: parking, parking, parking, parking.
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While Cumberland County Schools Superintendent Eric Bracy is celebrating an increase in graduation rates now at 86.3% for the school system, he is not dismissing an uptick in low-performing schools. “Not where we want to be, and it is not where we will stay,” Bracy told school board members when they met earlier this month about what now is 27 low-performing schools. “Our students deserve better, and I believe with talent and dedication in this district, we will deliver better. I am confident that if we stay focused, hold ourselves accountable and keep ‘the main thing the main thing’ — student success — next year, we will be telling a different story.”
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A 60-year-old man is the latest city homicide victim after Fayetteville Police officers responded Monday to a pedestrian struck by a vehicle on Bragg Boulevard near the Martin Luther Jr. Freeway, and where further investigation reveals the man suffered possible stab wounds, which caused him to enter the heavily traveled boulevard, according to the FPD. A 36-year-old man has been arrested and charged in the case. It is, by my count, the 31st city homicide in 2025.
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Fayetteville City Council District 7 candidate Kathy Greggs says that, if elected, she will not accept the $21,422.50 annual salary for the seat, which includes an $8,500 yearly stipend for travel. “It’s true,” Greggs, 48, said Wednesday, “and I won’t accept it in memory of my brother, Ted Mohn. We were going to run with no salary together.” Mohn, who served three terms as a District 8 councilman from 2007-2011 and from 2017-2019, once had considered a run for mayor, but died at age 59 on Aug. 13, 2023. Greggs is one of four candidates bidding for the District 7 seat. Other candidates are incumbent Brenda McNair, Dwight France and J’Kwan Fulmore. A fifth candidate, Khalil Younger, has dropped out of the race, according to the Cumberland County Board of Elections.
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“As always, you demonstrated your writing ability with your column on Randy Boone,” former Fayetteville Times managing editor Tom English Jr. writes in an email about my Sept. 7 remembrance of the Fayetteville native who starred on The Virginian television series from 1962-1964. “I could not stop reading it. Very well done!” Clyde Randy Boone, 83, died Aug. 28.
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“I read your article about J.F. and wanted to thank you for the kind tribute to him,” Peggy Bond of Ayden writes in an email about my Aug. 31 column on J.F. Dunn, who was the late owner of Dunn’s Nursery and Garden Shop on Skibo Road. “He was one of the funniest people I knew. His quick wit was just like his mother’s. When I built my home over 34 years ago, my mother insisted I plant centipede grass. She bought my grass seed from J.F. He truly beautified many parts of N.C. I told J.F. I thought every seed he sold his mother germinated, because I have an acre of beautiful grass thanks to J.F. Thank you again for writing this beautiful article. You captured J.F. perfectly.” Peggy Bond says she is a second cousin to J.F. Dunn, who died at age 81 on Aug. 23.
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Descendants of the Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, are scheduled to be at the Airborne & Special Operations Museum at 6 p.m. on Sept. 18 for a 79th reunion commemorating heroes of the Emmy-award-winning Home Box Office miniseries Band of Brothers, according to a news release. George Luz Jr., son of East Company hero George Luz, will present a Through the Eyes of My Father special tribute as part of the reunion. Descendents will be honoring Easy Company heroes Mike Ranney, Eugene “Doc” Roe, Lynn “Buck” Compton, Don Malarkey, Alex Penkala, Charles Rinehart, Walter Gordon and Luz.
Coming Sunday: “Fayetteville is better today, because of Mayor Bill Hurley”
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
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