Hope Mills Commissioner Bryan Marley acknowledged Monday that residents likely don’t want to hear it, but it may be time for a property tax increase in the wake of a state audit critical of financial mismanagement.
“We’re building like crazy in this town,” he told Mayor Jessie Bellflowers, Mayor Pro Tem Hope Page, and fellow commissioners Grilley Mitchell, Cynthia Hamilton and Lisa Tremmel as board members discussed the coming town budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2027, which funds town services like police, fire, and inspections. “Everybody wants this stuff, but nobody wants to raise taxes. We tell the manager and the finance director to bring us a balanced budget with no tax increase… We’ve got to start having that tax conversation. We have got to raise taxes in this town. We should have done it years ago” with incremental taxes along the way. Marley said town employees are underpaid and overworked as it is. Marley could be right. It’s not the quiet mill town of long ago anymore.
Mayor Jessie Bellflowers has said in explaining findings of the audit, which highlighted spending $1.5 million from the town’s reserve funds in the FY 2025 budget, was not done with “malice” and it was not “embezzlement.” A matter, Bellfflowers said, that’s more about addressing unforeseen law enforcement costs, including School Resources Officers. Robbing Peter, you might say, to pay Paul.
Former Fort Bragg garrison commander Col. John Wilcox will be the keynote speaker for the 64th Fayetteville Technical Community College commencements, which are scheduled for 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. today at the Crown Coliseum. The morning ceremony will include graduates from the Allied Health Technologies, Funeral Services, Nursing, Continuing Education, Business, and Computer Information Technology programs, according to a news release. Graduates from the Arts & Humanities, Math & Sciences, Public Service, and Engineering & Applied Technology programs will graduate in the afternoon.
Retired Army Col. Elizabeth Goolsby will be the keynote speaker for a Memorial Day observance, which is scheduled for 10 a.m. on May 25 at Freedom Memorial Park in downtown Fayetteville. Goolsby is the former director of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The observance is sponsored by the Freedom Memorial Park Steering Committee led by Don Talbot, who is founder and park curator.
“Thank you!” Jean Pennell writes in an email about my May 10 column referencing the late Irene Temple Bailey’s 1933 A Little Parable for Mothers. “Your column brought tears to my eyes and made me miss my Mom, who left this world 28 years ago. Thanks again.”
“Marrilyn always was with a smile walking her dog Matilda, and a warm way,” neighbor Marla Finn said Tuesday at a celebration of life for Marrilyn Bowman at the Rogers & Breece Funeral Home chapel. “You could hear the love in her voice for sons Lennie and Grady. You could see her warmth and love for her boys, and (husband) Bill. Marrilyn taught us we just have to love well.” You could learn much about a woman’s life Tuesday simply by listening to those of the lives she touched. Merrilyn Elaine Harrison Bowman died at age 78 on April 30.
Julia Butler will be remembered Saturday as the Massey Hill girl who was devoted to teaching schoolchildren, her devotion to Massey Hill Baptist Church and the quiet woman behind the badge of late Cumberland County Sheriff Earl “Moose” Butler during his six terms and 22 years as this county’s lead law enforcement officer. A visitation is scheduled tonight from 6–8 p.m. at Rogers and Breece Funeral Home, with Mrs. Butler’s service set for 2 p.m. Saturday at Massey Hill Baptist Church. Julia Rebecca Sherrill Butler died at age 88 on May 8.
Cape Fear Valley Health (CFVH) has received a $410,000 grant from The Duke Endowment to support the development of a new Immersion Room within its Simulation Center at Cape Fear Medical Center on Owen Drive. “This investment allows us to take simulation training to the next level,” Mark Rose, CFVH’s workforce development director, said in a news release. “The Immersion Room will give our teams the opportunity to sharpen their skills, improve decision-making under pressure and strengthen teamwork, all of which directly benefits the patients and communities we serve.” The grant, which will be distributed over three years, will be used to build the Immersion Room and expand staffing needed to support the growing demands of residency programs and the Methodist University Cape Fear Valley Health School of Medicine, which will welcome its first class of 64 students on July 20.
Coming Sunday: “I love what I do,” said Wade Byrd, a voice for the “little guy.”
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
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