Overview:
• The top two candidates advance to the November election and will likely win, as there are no Republicans running.
• District 1 includes Spring Lake, Fort Bragg, and parts of western, central and northern Fayetteville, the Murshison Road corridor, downtown Fayetteville, and the Cedar Creek Road area.
CityView interviewed the five candidates in the 2026 Democratic primary for Cumberland County District 1. Below are the questions and answers for Terri Thomas.
Interviews with the other candidates:
Candidate: Terri Thomas
Elected office experience: none
CityView: If elected, what are three things you would like to do or accomplish or work on?
Terri S. Thomas:
- Definitely stronger schools.
- Safer communities.
- Impactful growth and reasonable growth.
CV: The county is commencing with plans to expand water services countywide in a project estimated to cost $1 billion to $1.4 billion.
Some residents worry that they will have to pay fees for waterlines that pass their property, and that they don’t want to be forced to take the water. Some residents don’t want growth that water service may bring to their communities.
What are your thoughts on the effort to expand water service?
[Thomas said people annexed into Fayetteville have had to pay thousands of dollars to connect to the city water system.]
[If the county expands water service] “what can Cumberland County do as a whole to help the residents with this? Other than say, ‘We can set you up on a payment plan?’
… Access to “clean drinking water is something that should be given to every citizen” without hefty connection fees. “That’s health, that’s quality of life, that’s something that every citizen should be provided.”
CV: What are your thoughts on plans for the county to build a regional aquatic center?
I think that would be a great idea, not for just recreation but for economic and community impact.
CV: The school system says it needs $610 million for capital projects. How should county commissioners address this request?
They’ve got to sit down and think about how they’re going to do the money, as it hasn’t really passed. … If they promise E.E. Smith [High School] $150 million—which I’m a graduate of—if they promise that, they need to make a decision on what that looks like. … Where is it going to be? Where are they going to put it?”
[Part of the plan is to replace E.E. Smith High School, estimated at $150 million, on its current campus.]
In terms of the other infrastructure and issues, I think that, again: Where it needs to be placed is where they need it the most. But I also feel like the community needs to know why, what schools [could be closed and consolidated]. Because that is still not understood in this community. That’s still not understood.
CV: Now that the Crown Event Center project is canceled, the county is pursuing renovations at the old Crown Theatre and Arena, and wants to spark development there. Your thoughts and ideas? Do you agree or disagree with the cancellation?
What I’m hearing in this community is the taxes. … [People are] upset that the taxpayer money that we used to do that Crown downtown is now not happening. And now to move it to another location, they feel that the money or the property taxes that have been upped are going to up again.
So I’m against anything that’s going to up our property taxes any more than what they already have.
CV: There’s talk of private or public-private development downtown on the former parking lot in front of the county courthouse, where the Event Center was going to be built. But some people who work in and who patronize the courthouse want it returned to parking. What do you want to see there?
[The county should put] “whatever the people of Cumberland County want” [on the site downtown]. “I want what is in the best interest of small businesses downtown and cost of our taxpayers.”
CV: Some county residents are concerned about the vast amount of electricity that data centers use, plus their use of water, and other issues. What are your thoughts on data centers?
I think that all money is not good money. … Tarboro, North Carolina, did not want that center. That is an economically impoverished area. Why would Fayetteville want it? I am totally against the data centers.
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
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