Upgrades are coming to the historic downtown Market House. Repairs scheduled include deteriorating woodwork, replacement of rotting louvers, windows, trim for four wooden columns and repainting the clock tower once new millwork is in place. “It’s a necessary repair to address the bad wood, shore up the framing behind the clocks and give the building a fresh coat of paint,” Loren Bymer, the city spokesperson, says in a news release. “We want to ensure it’s safe for decades without changing its historic appearance.” Work is being done by American Woodworkery, a Cumberland County contractor specializing in historic preservation. While the clock faces are down, a specialty vendor will overhaul the mechanisms and recalibrate the hands, according to a news release. Built in 1832 after a fire leveled Fayetteville’s first courthouse and market, the two-story brick Market House is a nationally recognized historic landmark.
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“I can understand that the events from this past Saturday during our Dogwood Festival weigh heavily on everyone’s mind,” Todd Joyce, the interim Fayetteville police chief, told the Fayetteville City Council on Monday about the gunfire on April 26 that resulted in the FPD closing the festival early for the safety of festival attendees, volunteers, entertainers and vendors. “I’m proud of the quick response of our officers on Saturday night who ran towards the gunfire within mere seconds. Their quick actions are a testament to their commitment to not only our city but the citizens we serve.” It should be weighing on the minds of all of us. The Fayetteville Dogwood Festival, which began with the late Jimmy Little, late Mayor Bill Hurley and longtime city businessman John Malzone, is about candy apples, cotton candy, sausage dogs, snow cones, music, families and out-of-town visitors enjoying our spring festival. It’s not about guns and misbehavior and violence in our downtown streets.
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Some good and long-awaited news from Andrew Barksdale with the N.C. Department of Transportation that the NCDOT contractor has opened the rest of the I-295/I-95. “So, if you are on 95 North heading from Lumberton, you can take Exit 38 to get onto I-295 North.” The remainder of the roadway from Camden Road to Raeford Road, Barksdale says in a news release, is on schedule for completion in spring of 2026.
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Wendy Nelson has been crowned the 70th Fayetteville Branch of the NAACP’s Mother of the Year. “She represented College Heights Presbyterian Church,” Jimmy Buxton Jr., the branch president, says about the event held on April 27 at College Heights Presbyterian Church at 1801 Seabrook Road. Marchella Jones, representing John Wesley United Methodist Church, was first runner-up; Meleney Eley, representing Second Baptist Church, was second runner-up. “Our dynamic speaker was none other than our own Religious Affairs chairman, Rev. Paula Battle-Young,” Buxton says. “And we are very, very happy to announce that our Lori Graham Recipient was our hard-working banquet chair Cardell Hunt. Elder Connie Pratt was mistress of ceremonies. Buxton also sends out a shoutout to Pratt and her mother, Joyce Malone, and Mother of the Year chair Bertha Elliott for their work in seeing that the evening was a success.
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Wonder if the city would ever consider scrapping “America’s Can Do City” for a more welcoming slogan – “City of Dogwoods.”
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Maintaining a healthy weight is a full-time job for some of us, and it takes discipline. And plenty of it.
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Listen graciously and quietly to the opinions of others and listen without interruption. You may learn something.
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Queesha Tillman will replace the retiring Scott Pope as principal of Jack Britt High School, according to a news release from Cumberland County Schools. Tillman has been the principal of Seventy-First Classical Middle School since June of 2022. She is the 2021 CCS Assistant Principal of the Year. She earned a doctorate in human services with a specialization in social and community services from Capella University, a master’s degree in school administration and a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Fayetteville State University, and a master’s in education with a focus on curriculum and instruction from the University of Phoenix. Tillman takes over at Jack Britt High at the beginning of the 2025-26 academic year.
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Ebony Chisholm has been named Cumberland County Schools’ 2025 Assistant Teacher of the Year, according to a news release from the school system. Chisholm is a teacher assistant and bus driver at Lucile Souders Elementary School.
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Latanya “Dee” Hardy, head coach of the girls’ varsity basketball team at E.E. Smith High School, recently was recognized as a recipient of the 2025 John Wooden Legacy Award, according to Cumberland County Schools, during the N.C. High School Athletic Association boys’ 4-A championship finals at Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem. Named for the late UCLA men’s basketball coach, the award is for teaching basketball skills and instilling in athletes the principles of academic achievement, character and integrity. Wooden coached UCLA to 10 NCAA national titles, including seven straight. John Wooden died at age 99 on June 4, 2010.
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“We are extremely pleased that the Kiwanis Club of Lillington found us worthy of their wonderful support,” Scott Childers, executive director for the Harnett Health Foundation, said in a news release about the club’s $5,000 pledge in support of Cape Fear Valley Harnett Healthcare’s new Dorothea Dix Adolescent Care’s 16-bed behavioral health inpatient facility for youth ages 12-17. “Their gift to Dorothea Dix Adolescent Care underpins their continued commitment to helping our youth, and for that, we are most grateful.” The waiting area, the release says, will be named for the club when the facility is scheduled to open in 2026 at Central Harnett Hospital.
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Vincent Castano, dean of Institutional Effectiveness at Fayetteville Technical Community College, has been named to the Association for Institutional Research board of directors. “Board members engage in high-level and future-focused discussions on governance, emerging practices and policy developments while building expansive networks and strengthening their leadership and communication skills,” Christine Keller, who is executive director and chief executive officer of the association, wrote in an email, according to a news release from FTCC. “Vincent’s participation on the board positions him – and by extension, Fayetteville Technical Community College – at the forefront of conversations around data-informed decision making in higher education.” Castano joined FTCC in January 2010.
Coming Sunday: “Enough is enough,” Fayetteville mayor says about city crime
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
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