You’ll have to be up early to catch “Goldy’s Last Hurrah!” as Jeff “Goldy” Goldberg closes out a 45-year career Friday with his final radio cast of “Good Morning Fayetteville” on WFNC 640 News Talk Radio. “I am 80% excited and 20% nervous,” says Goldberg, 64, who has been with Cumulus Media for the past 18 years.
“Since I announced my retirement a few weeks ago, the outpouring of love and the good wishes from not only my listeners here in Fayetteville, but my listeners in Washington D.C., has been overwhelming,” says Goldberg, who worked in radio and television in the nation’s capital before arriving here in 2005. “It has been a privilege and a joy to live out my dream for these last 45 years, and to have a second chapter like the one I've had here in Fayetteville exceeded my wildest dreams.” Friday's radio cast is scheduled from 6 a.m. to 9. a.m. from the Cumulus Broadcast Center studio just off of Bragg Boulevard on Drayton Road.
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John Malzone cannot say enough about the turnout he estimates at between 6,000 to 7,000 people who converged on downtown for the 24th annual “A Dickens Holiday” on the day after Thanksgiving. “It was like the old days,” says Malzone, who has served as master of ceremonies and town crier for every “A Dickens Holiday.” “There were thousands of people shopping and walking down the streets. We had almost 90 vendors. I asked all the vendors at the end of the night” how they did, “and everybody said, ‘Oh, we did great.’ It was a fun evening, which is why I like to do it, because it’s fun and it makes me feel good to see that many people.”
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“I just love serving the people,” says D.J. Haire, who says he will be sworn into his 12th Fayetteville City Council term by former N.C. Supreme Court Justice Michael Morgan, who is a Democratic candidate for governor. Haire will join the late Eugene Plummer as the longest serving councilman in city history. Inauguration of the new council is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Dec. 6 at Seabrook Auditorium on the Fayetteville State University campus.
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“I’m ready to get to work,” says Lynne Bissette Greene, the City Council Dist. 5 councilwoman-elect, who says she will be sworn in by N.C. Rep. Diane Wheatley of the Cumberland County legislative delegation.
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Cumberland County Superior Court Judge Claire Hill will do the swearing-in honors for Councilwoman Kathy Keefe Jensen. Jensen will serve her sixth term.
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“I am disappointed I did not get to vote for the Special Forces Memorial Park Foundation project being proposed in downtown Fayetteville,” says Mayor Pro Tem Johnny Dawkins, who leaves the Fayetteville City Council on Dec. 6 after being defeated by challenger Lynne Bissette Greene in the Nov. 7 Dist. 5 council race. “I made the motion in 2004 forcing the Public Works Commission to forgive the $4 million debt the Airborne & Special Operations Museum owed the city, which if done, the U.S. Army would take over the operations of the ASOM in perpetuity. I am very proud I lined up the vote and got that done for our city.” Dawkins, who served four City Council terms, says he plans to relocate to Wake County, where political pursuits will not be in his future. “I’m ready to open the next chapter of my life, and it won’t involve politics,” Dawkins says. “The toll a campaign takes on a family is just not worth it anymore.”
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“It is evident that I am a beautiful Black woman and in certain spaces we don’t always get the respect that we deserve, but amongst us, I believe, and I felt that every single day that amongst us, we were always heard within each other,” outgoing Fayetteville City Councilwoman Shakelya Ingram of Dist. 2 says about Councilwoman Courtney Banks-McLaughlin, former councilwomen Yvonne Kinston and Tisha Waddell, as well as Ingram herself. Tisha Waddell earned enormous community respect for calling out Mayor Mitch Colvin and other council members for what the then-Dist. 3 councilwoman alleged was a nontransparent negotiation with a Louisiana-based investment firm to assume operations of the Fayetteville Public Works Commission. Waddell resigned her seat as a result of what she believed was an unethical and secret negotiation. A month-long CityView Today investigation by Greg Barnes in 2022 found no evidence of corruption, but it did find evidence that Colvin and others had worked behind the scenes in an attempt to close the deal and the evidence, Barnes concluded, indicated officials had purposely tried to keep the public in the dark.
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Spring Lake Alderman Raul Palacios has asked the town board to consider extending two-year terms for future aldermen to four years, and Mayor Kia Anthony concurs, saying four-year terms will allow board members more time to complete municipal projects. Mayor Pro Tem Robyn Chadwick disagrees with Palacios and Anthony, saying extended terms could keep potential board candidates from bringing fresh ideas to the town. If you are an effective elected official, no matter where you serve, you will likely be reelected.
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It was a grim-faced Kem Braden just before midnight Wednesday at a news conference, where the Fayetteville police chief would say that a second member of his department has been arrested and charged with criminal activity in the past 50 days. Officer Tamyra Billings, 31, was charged with misdemeanor obstruction of justice, one count of misdemeanor possession of marijuana and one count of willfully failing to discharge duties. Officer Izreal Gear-Johnson, 23 who was arrested on Oct. 10, is facing charges of two counts of willfully failing to discharge duties, common law obstruction of justice, conspiracy and maintaining a dwelling for keeping controlled substances. Braden says that, badge or no badge, he will hold his officers accountable to fellow officers and the community.
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“At the end of the third quarter, we had a total of 60 vacancies to our sworn full-time employees,” Fayetteville Police Chief Kemberle Braden told the City Council on Monday about the 431 budgeted police officers hired to serve and protect the city. Non-sworn officer vacancies make up 23 out of a budgeted 175. Upcoming graduating classes, the chief says, will help fill the vacancies. Sixty vacancies is a hefty number in a city to include north and west Fayetteville, and the City Council needs to be looking hard at those numbers.
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The United Women of Faith at Hay Street United Methodist Church is heating up the ovens for the Fifth Annual Christmas Cookie Walk that is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Dec. 9 at the church fellowship hall. “It is a really festive and fun event,” says longtime church member Martha Goetz, who is co-chairing the fundraiser along with Dee Stafford and Julie Carter. “We have 80 bakers who make homemade Christmas cookies. They are displayed on trays and labeled. People purchase a bakery box, then we tie the box up with a bow and they leave with a delicious, pretty gift for someone or homemade cookies for a party or family gathering. It is a very festive event and allows our United Women of Faith to support numerous worthwhile projects and charities throughout the year. Last year, we made over $4,000, which we donated to international missions like Rise Against Hunger and local charities like Fayetteville Operation Inasmuch, Connections of Cumberland County and Child Advocacy.” Look for Hershey Peppermint Swirl Blossoms, Iced Sugar, Cranberry Orange Shortbread and Dipped Ginger Spuds among the many delights. “It’s a box full of Christmas goodies,” Dee Stafford says, “and it’s a lot of fun.”
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Volunteers will be out Saturday as part of the Cumberland Clean Litter Pick-up scheduled from 8 a.m. to noon throughout the community. “With the plastic pollution crisis, we should all make an effort to reduce plastic that is released into our environment,” Amanda Bader, Cumberland County’s general manager for Natural Resources, says in a news release. “Microplastics can be ingested and inhaled by humans and animals, causing health concerns. One way we can help is by removing the plastics in our homes and community, and making sure they’re not littering our roadways and outdoor spaces.” You can select an area of your choosing for cleanup, the release says, and Cumberland County Solid Waste staff will collect and dispose of the refuge. Visit tmiddleton@cumberlandcountync.gov or call
(910) 321-6920 if you wish to volunteer.
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“Bill, just read your article about the 60th anniversary of President Kennedy's assassination,” Mary Mac McLean writes in an email about our Nov. 22 column about our 35th president who was assassinated in downtown Dallas, Texas. “Thought you might like to read the notes Roger and I wrote to each other that day” when she and her future husband were students at Seventy-First High School in 1963. Mary Mac: “How did you all find out about this?” Roger: “Over the intercom.” Mary Mac: “I walked by the office at the other school. Mr. (Bill) Harmon called me in, told me and said maybe Miss Currie would like to know. When I got over here, several people were in the office with the radio on. How serious this is! It really gave and gives me a funny feeling inside, you know?” Roger: “I feel that I should know him from the feelings I have. I hope so much Johnson will continue to keep up the good work.” Mary Mac: “I do, too. I would hate to have the job & responsibilities that Johnson has all of a sudden. Someone must surely be mentally unclear. Even if they hated Kennedy, surely anyone with common sense would know that to suddenly lose a country’s leader is tragic! I feel almost emotionless sometimes. I can hardly believe that it has happened, and it just doesn’t seem real.” Roger: “It seems like something that would happen in a disrupted, strife-torn nation; not in one like ours. It’s something you read in history books; not hear on intercoms.”
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Former Cumberland County Sheriff and Cumberland County Commissioner Morris Bedsole will be remembered at a memorial service scheduled for 1 p.m. on Dec. 8 at Southview Baptist Church, 4089 Elk Rd., in Hope Mills. Bedsole was a county commissioner from 1980 to 1987, when as board chairman, he cast the deciding vote for himself to succeed the late Ottis Jones as sheriff. Bedsole was sheriff until 1994, including president of the N.C. Sheriffs’ Association in 1993. Roger Morris Bedsole was 88 when he died Monday at his home in San Marcos, Calif.
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More than 100 Gold Star military families of fallen soldiers since Sept. 11, 2001, are scheduled to depart Fayetteville Regional Airport at 9:10 a.m. Saturday on an American Airlines flight for an all-expense-paid vacation to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., as part of The Gary Sinise Snowball Express. I never will forget 26-year-old Ana Wood, who became a widow at 20 and was a participant in 2014 with her 7-year-old son, Brayden. It was one of the more poignant moments of my journalism career. Gold Star spouses and their children will be arriving at the airport at 6 a.m., according to a news release. The families return Dec. 6.
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
