Abbi Overfelt

Staff writer

LUMBERTON — The City Council on Monday is expected to adopt a resolution supporting a Fayetteville police officer’s effort to name a new bridge in honor of Jeremiah Goodson, a Lumberton police officer who was shot and killed in the line of duty on July 17.

Detective Stig Larson, who lives in Lumberton, said he would love to see the words “Master Police Officer Jeremiah M. Goodson Jr. Memorial Bridge” on a sign placed at the new interchange that is yet to be built at Exit 22, the intersection of Interstate 95 and U.S. 301, in time for its grand opening. He has started an online petition to garner the necessary support.

“I’m not expecting this to happen overnight,” Larson said. “I know it’s going to take a while, but I wanted to get started on it now … I don’t want it to fall through the cracks, I want this to happen.”

The petition — at www.ipetitions.com/widget/view/491885 — had 276 signatures at 3:30 p.m. Friday. Larson said he thinks 2,000 signatures should satisfy the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s requirement of a show of “overwhelming support” from the community.

Larson, who has worked in Fayetteville for more than 10 years, begins and ends his day with an I-95 commute that passes the N.C. 59 bridge near Hope Mills, named after Highway Patrol Sgt. Ed Lowry and Cumberland County sheriff’s Deputy David Hathcock, both of whom were murdered while on duty in September 1997. Larson said the I-95 bridge, across which Goodson’s body was carried to its final resting place, would be a fitting place for a memorial that would remind people daily of Goodson’s sacrifice.

“Because of seeing that bridge every day, I thought, let me try to do this,” Larson said. “What better way to honor him than to have a bridge named after him?”

Also on Monday, the council is expected to:

— Approve $1,260 in community-revitalization funds.

— Approve bids for removal of asbestos from four properties at a cost of about $34,000.

— Rezone property on Griffin Street from R-7, single family residential/duplex, to R-3, residential multifamily. Plans are for two sets of duplexes to be developed on the same lot.