Time will tell Our county commissioners are running out of plank — and soon enough it will be revealed whether they are serious about the slashing that is required for the commissioners in arguably North Carolina’s poorest county to no longer be the state’s best compensated when pay and benefits are totaled.
If that doesn’t happen, then it will be clear that the commissioners’ strategy — employed successfully a decade ago — was that if they stood stubborn...
Another one, please There are jobs — and then there are JOBS.
The 150 that were announced this week as headed to Robeson County clearly fall into the second category.
Cape Fear Arsenal, in picking Robeson County and Lumberton, says it will put the old Outer Banks building on Starlight Drive back to work with the manufacturing of ammunition — something folks around here will surely support. According to company officials, the average wage for the workers will...
Elementary problem Mike Smith, chairman of the Board of Education for the Public Schools of Robeson County, doesn’t think the transfer of fourth-graders from Tanglewood and Rowland-Norment elementary schools to Carroll Middle School is a big deal. Should that happen, he says, the children will adjust fine.
We are sure they will.
Dwayne Smith, a member of the board and the father of a son who would attend Tanglewood as a fourth-grader in the fall, has pledge...
DOT meeting could be key If you are a Robeson County resident who travels Interstate 95 routinely and are worried about the possibility of having to pay tolls, you might want to save a date.
On May 20, which is a Monday, the state Department of Transportation will hold a meeting from 4 to 7 p.m. at Robeson Community College’s Workforce Development Center during which information gathered during a recent assessment of the best way to pay for the widening of and impr...
Tough call, right call The Robeson County Board of Commissioners added to its growing list of critics on Monday night.
But in this instance, we believe they acted correctly — and even courageously.
Five county commissioners, acting as the county’s Zoning Board of Adjustment, reversed a decision last month by the full board to deny a conditional-use permit that a company needs to place a solar farm just outside of Rowland. Commissioner Hubert Sealey, who represe...
Simple math made hard Our county commissioners have demonstrated that they are better at addition than subtraction.
They have had no trouble incrementally adding onto their pay and benefits, specifically between 1996 and 2008. Because this was all done in the dark, out of the public purview, we don’t know if it was managed with haste and little thought or only after consideration and conversation.
When it comes to rolling back their pay, benefits and discretio...
GOP to call election shots Tuesday was a historical day in Robeson County as Joshua Malcolm, an attorney at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke, became the first Robeson County resident and first Lumbee Indian to serve on the state Board of Elections.
Malcolm joins the board at a tumultuous time, when there are questions about $235,000 in political contributions to Gov. Pat McCrory and others from a sweepstakes games operator who has been indicted on felony ...
The real state of Robeson Co. As he should have, Noah Woods, chairman of the Robeson County Board of Commissioners, on Thursday brought plenty of lipstick to apply to his annual State of Robeson County Address.
To his credit, Woods spent a moment on some of the problems facing this county and looming challenges related to a new governing philosophy in Raleigh — one that bristles at government dependence — but his presentation was mostly upbeat.
Woods is an elected off...
Times are a changing The political strategy of divisiveness is thriving in this country, and neither party has the stronger grip.
On the national level, criticisms from the right of twice-elected President Obama are that he is a communist, foreign born, a Muslim, or all three — charges that reveal much more about the accuser than the accused. The left counters by embracing class warfare, saying that Republicans are for the rich, and don’t care for the middle cl...
A new use for prison? It is paradoxical that at the same time Robeson County residents are bracing to pick up a bill for a new county jail because the current one is too crowded, the state is considering closing the minimum-security prison just outside of Lumberton because there are too few inmates.
An earnest effort began last week to keep the Robeson Correctional Center open, with supporters asking local legislators to return to Raleigh and share with their pe...
Name calling It’s easy to read between the lines when Jimmy Gilchrist, the president of the local Black Caucus, complains about how the Robeson County Democratic Party spent money for the get-out-the-vote effort during the recent General Election.
Election days in this county are like a trip to the ATM machine for key leaders who can shepherd sheep to the polls with implicit instructions on how to vote a straight ticket for Democratic candidates. Althou...
A vote for transparency Robeson County residents don’t need to be schooled on what happens when elected officials do government business out of the sunlight. That is how our county commissioners have made themselves among the highest paid commissioners in the state while enjoying benefits that this newspaper can find nowhere else.
It was all done legally by our commissioners, through the budget process, but never discussed or debated in the public. Instead, their ...
Soon enough, we will know In 2007, the Robeson County Board of Commissioners voted to allow health benefits to follow commissioners when they left the board, and four sitting commissioners — Noah Woods, Raymond Cummings, Tom Taylor and Hubert Sealey — were instantly eligible for the benefit. This was done in the dark for a reason.
A few words spring forward — avarice, cowardly and hubris.
But, unfortunately, there was little exceptional about the county commission...
Hall pass A good bet is that the Lumberton City Council will put on pause an effort to raze the old City Hall today when it holds its monthly Policy meeting.
Let’s hope so.
The council acted without due deliberation recently when it asked City Manager Wayne Horne to get information on how much it would cost to demolish the 96-year-old building, which is at 104 N. Elm St., and then remove the debris. When news of the city’s plans became public, an e...
Winning strategy Sheep, being essentially mindless, are easily herded, but not so with cats, who have their own ideas.
That is why get-out-the-vote efforts in Robeson County are so fruitful. There are too many of us accepting of being driven to the polls with implicit — if not explicit — instructions on how to mark that ballot.
During the last election cycle, local Democrats had more than $60,000 to spend on get-out-the-vote efforts that now include a 17-...
