Overview:
• Commissioner Richard King lays out vision for city’s water, sewer and electric utility
• King says city, Cumberland County, PWC and developers should work together
• Commissioners elected King to be chair on Oct. 8
Richard King, the new chair of the Fayetteville Public Works Commission, wants the utility, the city and Cumberland County to collaborate with each other and developers to persuade more people to build here over neighboring counties.
“We need to make Cumberland County and the city of Fayetteville a destination area that people want to live,” King said.
The PWC’s board elected King on Oct. 8 to serve as chair for the next 12 months. He took over for Chris Davis, who served as chair for the past year. Davis is now the treasurer.
King is a contractor and electrician whose family owned the former King Electric until it was sold in 2021. He has been on the PWC board since October 2023.
The four-person board oversees the operations of the city-owned utility that provides water, sewer and electric services to Fayetteville and surrounding areas. PWC says it serves nearly 120,000 homes, businesses and other customers, with an annual budget of $450.1 million.
In addition to electing King to be chair and Davis to be treasurer, the board elected commissioner Ronna Rowe Garrett to be vice chair and commissioner Donald L. Porter to be secretary. Porter and Garrett were also sworn in to new four-year terms Oct. 8, having been re-appointed by the city council.
In remarks on Oct. 8, King announced his vision for the PWC.
“I’m tired of ’em building in Hoke County. They need to come to Cumberland County,” King said. “Hoke County can’t give ’em any more water. We got to work on something to make that happen.”
Hoke County, just west of Fayetteville, is a bedroom community for Fayetteville and Fort Bragg. In April, The News-Journal of Raeford reported, the Hoke County Board of Commissioners voted to halt approval of construction of residential subdivisions with six or more homes due to the limited capacity of the county’s public water system.
Before King joined the PWC board in 2023, he was a developer who was “upset with PWC,” he said. “And I said, ‘I’m a-gonna get on that board, and I’m gonna change things.’
“Well, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. And I got on this board, and I was like, ‘Okay. There’s more to it than meets the eye,’” King said. “However, there’s a lot more we can do.”
The PWC, city, county and developers should work together, King said.
“We need to bring everybody to the table. We need to have incentives. We have to give them a reason to build here,” King said. “And I’m all about it. And I want to do it. And whether or not we can make it happen, I don’t know. But I want to. And I know that PWC wants to.”
Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.
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