A surprise item was discussed at Thursday’s Cumberland County Board of Commissioners’ agenda session: an unearthed casket in a Spring Lake cemetery.

Board Chair Glenn Adams passed out printed versions of an article from The Fayetteville Observer that yesterday reported the casket was exposed during Hurricane Florence.

The casket is in the Hillside Cemetery along Bragg Boulevard. The 2018 hurricane hit the cemetery and much of Spring Lake particularly hard.

Hillside Cemetery is maintained by the Bethel AME Zion Church. The church is worried further exposure to the elements will cause more damage to the coffin, according to reporting by The Fayetteville Observer. The paper also reported on the church’s concerns about the coffin falling and opening.

Bethel AME Zion Church is hosting a fundraiser on Sunday to raise money to repair the cemetery and rebury the casket, but Adams said it’s time for the county to step in.

“Nobody wants somebody’s loved one to be floating around in Spring Lake,” Adams said at the meeting.

Adams proposed up to $15,000 from the county’s general fund be offered to help the church relocate and rebury the casket. He emphasized the funds were just to help with the casket and did not imply the county was taking on care of the cemetery. He also said the county would seek reimbursement for the costs from state hurricane relief funds. 

The board approved the motion to be moved to the Nov. 18 meeting agenda.

Other items moved to the consent agenda for next week’s board meeting included the most recent round of recommendations for the use of national opioid settlement funds. The nine new recommendations ask for another over $8 million of the county’s over $31.6 million total share of national opioid settlement dollars.

The recommendations include:

  • Continued funding for the Cumberland-Fayetteville Opioid Response Team (C-FORT), distribution of overdose-reversing drug naloxone, the county’s new Recovery Resource Center and other ongoing projects 
  • New funding for prevention education in Cumberland County middle and high schools
  • Funding for ongoing and new community-based projects

A bid for well construction in the Gray’s Creek Sewer and Water District was also moved to Monday’s agenda. The wells are key to bringing drinking water to Cedar Creek, one of the areas still dealing with PFAS-contaminated water, Adams said. Wells will be constructed in the southern portion of the district to evaluate the underground aquifer that will supply the district with drinking water.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated the wells were being built in the Cedar Creek Sewer and Water District. While the wells are being built to bring water to Cedar Creek, they are in the Gray’s Creek Sewer & Water District. This article has been updated with the correct information. CityView apologizes for this error.

CityView Reporter Morgan Casey is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Morgan’s reporting focuses on health care issues in and around Cumberland County and can be supported through the CityView News Fund.