You cannot say that Cumberland Board of County Commissioners Kirk deViere, Veronica Jones, Glenn Adams, Jeannette Council, Marshall Faircloth, Henry Tyson and Pavan Patel are not covering every financial base regarding the $145 million Crown Event Center planned for downtown Fayetteville. But deViere, the board chair, says commissioners are doing their best due diligence to assure the county can sustain the price tag of construction that could include escalating the cost. Commissioners also have hired the Davis Kane architecture firm of Raleigh, deViere says, about the cost to upgrade the current Crown Theatre and Crown Arena (circa 1968) on U.S. Business 301. “We are asking for an updated cost to modernize and renovate the theater and the arena,” deViere told CityView this week. “Nothing more, nothing less. We feel that it’s a responsible action by the board to have that number [of the estimated cost].” Commissioners, some of us believe, are demonstrating responsible financial stewardship.
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Shana Cloud, the wife accused of killing her 50-year-old retired Green Beret husband, Clint Bonnell, on Jan. 28 at the couple’s Butler Nursery Road home in the Gray’s Creek community, was in Cumberland County Court on Thursday requesting a public defender. Jim MacRae Jr., according to published reports, has withdrawn as Cloud’s defense attorney. “She said she was currently unemployed and requested court-appointed counsel through Assistant Public Defender Amanda Briggs, who was standing in for the Public Defender’s Office,” County District Attorney Billy West said. District Court Judge Lou Olivera granted Cloud’s request. The former Special Forces soldier’s dismembered remains were discovered on Feb. 25, according to the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office, at a pond along Gainey Road, not far from Butler Nursery Road. The Kirby File reached out to MacRae on Thursday. He did not reach back. Cloud, 50, is scheduled back in court on May 7.
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A 22-year-old man is the victim in a fatal shooting at 5 p.m. on April 13 at the College Lakes Recreation Center in north Fayetteville, according to a news release from the Fayetteville Police Department. It’s the 17th homicide of 2025, according to the FPD. There were 27 city homicides in 2024.
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Speeding motorists, beware. “Speed limits are set to keep all roadway users safe,” Col. Freddy Johnson Jr., commander of the N.C. State Highway Patrol says in a news release about the “Speed A Little. Lose A Lot” safety initiative that is in effect until April 20. “Maintaining the speed limit not only reduces the severity of a crash, but it will ultimately minimize the likelihood of being involved in a crash in the first place. When the operator of a vehicle drives above the speed limit, they are putting their lives, their passengers’ lives and the lives of those they are sharing the roadway within harm’s way. Drivers have a choice to obey the speed limit, but it’s a choice that can have very big consequences if they don’t follow the law.” In 2024, according to the release, speeding was the fourth leading factor in crash fatalities in North Carolina. A preliminary report from the N.C. Department of Transportation states that 373 people died because of speed-related crashes.
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Motorists driving down Raeford Road near Highland Country Club toward Haymount won’t be getting far as the roadway is closed in both directions with construction underway for a new culvert for improved drainage of Branson Creek underneath the road. The $1 million culvert construction is anticipated to be complete in November, according to a news release from the N.C. Department of Transportation. Follow the detour signs if you are heading to Haymount Hill.
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White azaleas are beautiful when they blossom in their spring splendor, with one exception. They don’t last long enough.
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“That will preach!” the Rev. Ben West writes in an email about my April 13 column regarding concerns about President Donald Trump’s global tariff war that have sent 401(k)s and Retirement Investment Accounts into a tailspin.
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“Bill, I read with interest your April 16 column about the sunrise Easter service planned for Cross Creek Park,” former Fayetteville journalist Seth Effron writes in an email about the ecumenical Easter Sunrise Service scheduled for 7 a.m. at the downtown park. “Perhaps I’m the few who might be of such a decrepitude to recognize the name, but just curious of the preacher, Chip Stapleton, is any relation to Ruth Carter Stapleton, who as I’m sure you recall was the local woman, well-known evangelist and sister to the president as well as spouse to a prominent local veterinarian.” Well, Seth, when in question, go to the source. “My grandmother always said that ‘All Stapletons are related, because they only came from one place,’” says Stapleton, senior pastor at Highland Presbyterian Church. “However, if there is a relation, it must be very distant.” Ruth Carter Stapleton of Fayetteville was a noted Christian evangelist and sister to the late President Jimmy Carter. Mrs. Stapleton died from pancreatic cancer at age 54 on Sept. 26, 1983.
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“Bill, I just now got to read your [April 30, 2024] article in CityView from last year about John Daskal’s funeral,” Rick Hazlett, a Charlotte attorney, writes in an email about his late football coach at Reid Ross High School. “I was at the funeral with Mike Hoadley. We played on the 1972 team that lost the 4A state championship held at Reid Ross to High Point Andrews. While the funeral was a sad event, I know Coach Daskal was happy to see all his former players together again in one place. Gerald Stone’s remarks that day were terrific and captured a man coaching at an interesting time in our region and county’s history. Those of us in the class of ‘73 were lucky to get Coach Daskal to come to our 50th high school reunion in November 2023, where he gave an insightful talk to our group about coaching and race relations back in 1972. So, just wanted to reach out and connect on your article and say thank you for it.” You and your classmates, Mr. Hazlett, indeed were fortunate to play for Coach Daskal, who not only taught you the game but how to be young men of character. John H. Daskal died at age 89 on April 25, 2024.
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April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month, and the N.C. Department of Transportation is urging motorists to stay off their cellphones and avoid other distractions, i.e. texting, calling or scrolling, when operating a motor vehicle. It’s dangerous for not only drivers, but for other motorists on the highways. There were 261 fatalities, according to the NCDOT, in 2023-2024 because of distracted motorists. Nearly 16,000 people died, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, between 2018 and 2022, with an estimated 1.8 million injured in distraction-affected crashes nationally. We all do it. We all shouldn’t. It’s sound advice.
Coming Sunday: Downtown Alliance says Crown Event Center downtown is the right place
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
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