Fayetteville City Councilman Derrick Thompson wants to change the length of terms of office for council members from two to four years and to stagger terms for future councils. He says doing so will help the city with long-term strategic planning and projects. Councilman Mario Benavente joined Councilwoman Kathy Keefe Jensen in opposing Thompson’s request. Benavente asked Thompson at a Monday work session of the council why the issue could not be decided by voters in a referendum in the ensuing election cycle. “Because we don’t have to,” Thompson smugly told Benavente. While Thompson may be right, his response to Benavente reeked with a pompous attitude from the freshman councilman. Thompson did at least ask for a public hearing on how city residents might feel about the proposal that was endorsed in a 7-2 vote, with Mayor Mitch Colvin, Mayor Pro Tem Johnny Dawkins and council members Shakeyla Ingram, Courtney Banks-McLaughlin, Brenda McNair, Deno Hondros and Thompson voting in favor. Councilman D.J. Haire left the meeting prior to the vote. City residents rejected a Fayetteville charter amendment in a 2018 referendum, with 35,711, or 64.58%, of residents voting against the measure, according to the Cumberland County Board of Elections. The vote in favor was 19,590, or 35.42% of votes cast. There’s reasonable argument for four-year, staggered terms, but if you have a council or a board with inept members, you are stuck with them. And therein can lie the rub.
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“Mr. Kirby, I liked your story in CityView this Wednesday morning,” Kevin Williams writes in an email about our column on the Hope Mills Board of Commissioners’ unanimous vote not to pursue changing the length of elected terms for commissioners and the mayor from two years to four-year, staggered terms. “I believe that the reason that the three who changed their position was not as they stated. It’s more likely that they felt vulnerable in the upcoming election. I will vote against them anyway. Your very polite response to (Mayor Pro Tem Kenjuana) McCray's attack will probably elicit another with help from (Commissioners Grilley) Mitchell and (Bryan) Marley. They may have thought they could get away with securing more power over us but won’t succeed as long as we are kept informed by honest journalists. Thank you.” For whatever reasons the mayor pro tem and Commissioners Mitchell and Marley decided to join with Commissioners Joanne Scarola and Jerry Legge in voting against pursuing a change to the town charter, I don’t know. But it was the right decision and only fair to Hope Mills residents, who should make the decision. Hope Mills belongs to town residents. Hope Mills does not belong to five commissioners or the mayor any more than Fayetteville belongs to Mayor Mitch Colvin and nine City Council members. As for the mayor pro tem, Mrs. McCray is a sophomore commissioner, and she will learn that a reporter’s role is to write and report about the work of elected government officials and not to write and report for them.
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There’s a familiar community face leading the Greater Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce in former city Mayor Nat Robertson, who was in office from 2013 to 2017. Robertson now takes over the chamber as chief executive officer and president. With apologies to LaVern Oxendine, a longtime mainstay, the chamber certainly needs someone like Robertson to bring more transparency and communication skills to its operation.
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“I’m truly honored and flattered the Beasley family thought I deserved to be recognized in this manner,” says Danny Highsmith, the longtime community radio icon for more than 51years who was honored on March 3 by Beasley Media Group, which named its broadcast studio in his honor. The ribbon-cutting included remarks from Chief Executive Officer Caroline Beasley, Chief Operations Officer and Executive Vice President Brian Beasley, and Mac Edwards, who currently is vice president and market manager of the company’s Charlotte and Detroit operations. Highsmith’s favorite saying long has been, “Remember, if you see someone today without a smile, give them one of yours,” which now is etched along with his image on the WKML studio window at the station. The station could not have honored a more dedicated and deserving community radio voice than Danny Highsmith.
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“I am sorry; we are not authorized to remove dead animals,” Tino Medina with Cumberland County Animal Services says about the dead possum in my backyard shed. “If it is on the property, it’s considered property owners’ responsibility. You need to call your sanitation company and they will advise of disposal. Normally for small animals, they just have you bag them up and place them in the trash, but call to get clarification first.” So, I called the city sanitation department and sent an email, too. They never called me back or responded to my email inquiry. So much for city sanitation and “America’s Can Do City” responding to a city resident.
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“Poignant and wonderful,” Robin Jenkins writes in an email about our Sunday column regarding Lorry Williams, managing editor of CityView news and CityView magazine, who died Feb. 28 at age 59 after a two-year battle with breast cancer. “Made my heart open and pour out respect and appreciation for an amazing, gifted news professional and lady. Readers can feel your connection with her, and indeed your journalism brothers and sisters. Such a tough loss. She would be humbled yet beam with pride over your approach. Well done.”
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“Bill, I didn't know Lorry well, only to speak in passing or at a gathering, but after your tribute Sunday, I feel like she was a longtime friend,” Neil Buie, a former Fayetteville resident now residing in the mountains of Transylvania County, writes in an email about Lorry Williams.
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“Bill, I didn't know Lorry well but we shared time together at the Health Pavilion North Cancer Center,” longtime radio newsman Jeff Thompson writes in an email about Lorry Williams. “Getting to know her personally contributed to my appreciation of her work professionally. As you expressed so eloquently, Lorry Williams was one of a kind in our community.” Lorry was your kind of journalist, Mr. Thompson, who held local government officials accountable. She was that way as our CityView managing editor and that way from 1988 to 2021 as a reporter, regional news editor, assistant city editor, city editor and executive editor of The Fayetteville Observer.
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“I just read your column on Lorry, Bill,” Beth Hutson, news director for The Fayetteville Observer, writes in an email. “It's a beautiful tribute. I’m in tears. She would be so touched.” It’s OK, Beth, to cry. I know from my days at the newspaper how close you worked together. And I know Lorry would be telling me, too, that the column was too long and to cut it to 20 inches.
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“I imagine the Heavens Gazette has a new angel keeping that publication improving daily,” George Breece says about the late Lorry Williams. And that from George Breece is just too heartfelt for us not to share with our CityView subscribers and readers.
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The Cumberland County Board of Elections will need 1,200 volunteers for the next election cycle. “Because it's a presidential year and we need to staff our 75 precincts with at least 10 to 12 people and have extras in case some drop out,” says Angie Amaro, director of the county elections board. “The term for a precinct official is two years, 2023-2025. We have had a lot resign after last year’s election.”
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Volunteers are needed as well for the Special Olympics Spring Games for Cumberland County that is scheduled for April 3 at Methodist University, according to a news release from Fayetteville-Cumberland Parks & Recreation. Visit Special Olympics volunteer sign-up for more information. More volunteers, I understand, make the games all the more special for participants.
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Whatever would some of us do without Jimmy Townsend, the owner of Townsend Real Estate who always sends many of us an annual reminder this time of year. “Remember to set your clocks forward one hour on Sunday, March 12,” he writes in a postcard. “And also remember that if you be anything … be kind.”
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Achoo! Pollen, pollen and pollen everywhere. Achoo!
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Steve Aldridge was the ever-happy-go-lucky professional photographer who joined the photography department of The Fayetteville Times in 1973 with chief photographer Ken Cooke, assistant chief photographer Bill Shaw, veteran photographer Dick Blount and Johnny Horne. All were later joined by Cramer Gallimore and Cindy Burnham, working with the Times and The Fayetteville Observer. Steve Aldridge was full of life and loved taking photos for the newspaper, and he did so with a gusto. “After only a year of work, it seemed like he knew just about everyone in Fayetteville,” Johnny Horne, the retired chief photographer for the newspaper, writes on his Facebook page. “As so many of the online tributes state, Steve ‘never met a stranger,’ and nothing could be truer. What a character Steve was,” and how true that, too. Johnny Horne reminds us that it has been a tough week for “us longtime Fayetteville Observer folks” with the loss of Lorry Williams on Feb. 28 and Steve Aldridge on March 2 after his battle with dementia. “My time spent with both Steve and Lorry is one of the true treasures of my life,” Horne says.” A service for Steve Aldridge, 72, is scheduled for noon this Saturday at Grace Lutheran Church in his hometown of Liberty in Randolph County.
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
