At a special meeting on Friday, the Spring Lake Board of Commissioners met with Cumberland County Commissioner Chair Kirk deViere, Vice Chair Veronica Jones and County Commissioner Henry Tyson to discuss collaboration efforts between the town and the county.
At the meeting, the group discussed several key community issues within Spring Lake, and brainstormed how the two entities can work together to improve Spring Lake and Cumberland County for residents. Here’s the breakdown.
Manchester Fire District
County Commissioners Chair deViere asked Spring Lake’s commissioners if they would be open to discussing Spring Lake resuming fire and medical services to the Manchester Fire District, should those services be fully funded by the county.
The service was halted in October 2024, and since that time Spring Lake and Cumberland County officials clashed over funding issues for the Manchester Fire Station, which caused a nearly $600,000 budget shortfall for the municipality. Spring Lake requested more funding to continue providing services, but was met with a much lower offer.
Spring Lake Mayor Kia Anthony said that the town would be open to such talks, as long as full funding for the station was on the table.
Parks and Recreation
Spring Lake officials also discussed the state of recreation facilities and town programs. Anthony stated that since the municipality joined with the Cumberland County Parks and Recreation Tax District in 2022, town officials have been looking forward to progress on promised upgrades to parks, baseball fields and other public recreation areas.
“Our parks are critically important, and our citizens have waited an extremely long time to see some real movement at the parks,” Anthony said.
Anthony said she has been asked whether the county will take care of all of the parks, noting that Mendoza Park, which sits on Little River Road, is the only one that has been addressed so far.
I-685 corridor
Mayor Anthony asked county officials for an update about the progress of the upcoming I-685 corridor, which could run directly through Cumberland County, connecting Greensboro to Fayetteville.
“We are actively advocating for 685 to come through Cumberland County,” deViere said. He explained that county representatives were in Washington, D.C. earlier in the week to meet with N.C. 7th District Representative David Rouzer and N.C. 9th District Representative Richard Hudson, both of whom expressed support for the corridor.
DeViere also expressed that the I-685 corridor would be a staple for military readiness operations should it run through Cumberland County. He said collaboration will be needed between entities in the area to decide how the I-685 route through Spring Lake could affect the town, and that he thinks Fort Bragg should have a say in that action.
At the end of their meeting, both Spring Lake and Cumberland County officials agreed that more frequent work sessions are needed, and unofficially settled on quarterly meetings to further the collaboration efforts.
