Local News

Unveiling the Mayor Beth Finch Monument: Fayetteville’s First female mayor

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Tuesday, 21 October 2025

Written by Dr. Shanessa Fenner

Fayetteville recently unveiled a monument to the first female mayor of our city, Beth Finch. The unveiling of the Mayor Beth Finch Monument took place on Wednesday, Sept. 24 at 10 a.m. at the Mayor Beth Finch Park on Green Street. In March 2021, the City Council unanimously approved the renaming of Cross Creek Park to the Mayor Beth Finch Park.
“The city has a naming policy that has to be adhered to, and somebody makes a motion that goes to the city council,” said Michael Gibson, director of Fayetteville Cumberland Parks & Recreation. “In this case, Mayor Pro Tem Kathy Jensen made the motion a few years ago that we should have some dedication of a park to our first female mayor of Fayetteville.”
He added, “It is mainly for people who are deceased right now, and there are some instances where that has been changed. For the most part, that is the criterion, and there has to be some significance.”
The commemorative structure is comprised of shiny black marble and exudes the sophistication and elegance of Beth Finch.
“We designed it. It was a playoff of our former mayor, J. L. Dawkins, so we wanted to do the same kind of black marble monument for Mayor Finch with her bust on the front, the name of the park and a brief history of her major accomplishments on the back of the black marble monument,” said Gibson. “The monumental event for the unveiling included dignitaries, Finch’s family members and others.”
Gibson added, “The mayor, mayor pro tem, and Finch’s family members made some good remarks, and then we did the unveiling.”
Sarah Beth Dail Finch was born on November 13, 1921, in Dunn, North Carolina. She attended school in Dunn and graduated from preparatory school at Blackstone College in Blackstone, VA, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After graduating from UNC, Finch became a news reporter for the Dunn Dispatch and later, the Fayetteville Observer.
Finch served as Mayor of Fayetteville from 1975 to 1981. She won by a 6-1 margin over Larry Buie in one of more than 400 municipal elections held across the state. Ten years before her win, Finch stated that “no woman would have had a chance at being elected mayor in any North Carolina city.”
She attributed her victory to “being in this place at this time with the necessary experience” and that Fayetteville voters are very “modern and not afraid of change.”
She was passionate about supporting young people, education, having a strong city of economic growth and development, equality and building ties. Under her leadership, the city strengthened ties with Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force Base.
In the early 1960s, Finch became actively involved in politics. She served as co-chairman of the campaign headquarters for gubernatorial candidate Terry Sanford, and after his election, she served on the State Democratic Executive Committee. She served as the first female president of the NC League of Municipalities, the first woman on the Board of Trustees for FTI (now FTCC), and the first woman on the Board of Trustees for Pembroke State College (now University of North Carolina Pembroke).
She served two terms on the Fayetteville City Council. Other civic duties include the Governor’s Crime Commission, Fayetteville Regional Airport Commission, Women’s Club, the Book Club, the Art Guild, Museum of Art, Boy Scouts, United Way, the Salvation Army Advisory Board and other groups. Some of her accomplishments include the Distinguished Citizen’s Award from Methodist College.
She married Tom Finch, and they had one son, Hank Finch. She was preceded in death by her husband of 64 years. She never wavered from her marital promise to her husband that she would fix his breakfast every morning at 5:30 a.m. In her private time, she was an avid reader, golfer, UNC sports fan and old-fashioned Southern cook. She was a devout member of Snyder Memorial Baptist Church, where she taught Sunday School for several years. After politics, she took an active role in the family business, Finch Oil Company.
Finch, who was known for her persistence, had a paramount concern for those less fortunate and never spoke unkind words about others. She was a mentor and role model for generations of women. She passed away peacefully at the age of 91 in December 2012. Her legacy will be remembered as one of courage, persistence, and the positive changes that she enforced to make a difference in the lives of the people in the Fayetteville community.

Poss-Abilities unfold as recreation center builds adaptive playground

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Tuesday, 21 October 2025

Written by Anna White

The Dorothy Gilmore Adaptive Recreation Center is a lively place. Zumba classes, Gilmore baking 101, Special Olympics sports camps; there’s always something happening. Whether classes, sports, or social events, it’s a place where visitors can reach their potential and experience the Center’s tagline, “Where Abilities and dis-Abilities become POSS-ABILITIES.”
Originally known as The Teen Center & Glendale Park, then renamed in 1991 as the Dorothy D. Gilmore Youth Center and Park, and eventually closing to undergo extensive renovations, the center reopened in 2023 as the Dorothy Gilmore Adaptive Recreation Center. Along with the new name came a new focus—no longer a youth center, but instead a therapeutic recreation center. It now serves individuals with physical and cognitive disabilities, providing adaptive education, community and just plain fun.
Benjamin Kowalczyk, supervisor at the Dorothy Gilmore Adaptive Recreation Center, says they’ve been working on replacing the Center’s playground since they reopened in late 2023.
“It took time to do research and design a playground that will be more adaptive than the previous one,” he explained, adding that while he didn’t design the playground, he did contribute ideas that he wanted to see in the final product.
Made possible by funding from the City Bond and installed by the Fayetteville-Cumberland Parks and Recreation team, the playground will be “entirely different” from the previous one, Kowalczyk said. There will be sensory aspects and features designed with wheelchair users in mind, with the focus being “accessibility for all.”
According to Fayettevillenc.gov, the new playground will be home to the city’s first accessible whirl feature, “an amenity that sits flush with the ground and accommodates up to two wheelchair users, in addition to more users without mobility devices.” Other installations include opportunities for teamwork; an AeroGlider by Play World Inclusive Playground Equipment, where users sway back and forth together for a rollicking ride, and a side-by-side slide that allows children and parents or guardians to descend the slide together.
From musical experiences to physical challenges and social connection, the park can’t reach completion soon enough for many regulars.
“All of our parents and participants are excited to see the playground reopen,” Kowalczyk shared. “I don’t go a day without being asked when it will reopen.”
In the meantime, visitors can enjoy the center's other programs. Adaptive Recreation Social Club includes arts and crafts, exercise, and time with friends. Adaptive Aerobics takes things a little slower than traditional aerobics, focusing on range of motion and muscle movements. For peace and quiet, check out A Moment of Zen, where participants learn yoga and breathwork while experiencing nature and creating art. Stemspire with Josh is a chance for hands-on instructional building, getting creative juices flowing!
When asked whether the playground would be part of any official programs at the Center, Kowalczyk replied, “We have some things in the works.” To stay up-to-date with the Center’s programs, visit fayettevillenc.gov/Parks-and-Recreation.
“This is an exciting asset to our facility, and we can't wait for the community to enjoy it,” Kowalczyk concluded.

(Rendering courtesy of City of Fayetteville)

Health & Wellness: Bridging gaps: Community Paramedic Program celebrates 10 years of outreach and support

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Tuesday, 21 October 2025

Written by Roxana Ross

Since 2015, the Community Paramedic Program has helped patients who are at higher risk of falling through the cracks after hospitalization. Ideally, patients recover best at home after they are discharged, but what if they don’t have anyone at home to help them?
That’s where the Community Paramedic Program comes in. Started with initial funding from Cape Fear Valley Health Foundation, it is now celebrating a decade of care.
Manager and paramedic Alinda Bailey joined just a few months after it began.
“Initially, we focused on some of the prime diseases that we saw people repeatedly coming into the Emergency Department for, like congestive heart failure, COPD, and pneumonia, and we worked with discharged Medicare patients, following up once or twice a week for 30 days,” Bailey said. “We might make phone calls for them, or make sure they had everything they needed, like prescriptions and oxygen, and that they could use them. We’d visit their home and check in to do proactive education, making sure they knew how often to take their nebulizer or use a pulse oximeter.”
The program quickly grew, but the common thread remains the belief that some patients need a little extra hands-on follow-up to prevent extra Emergency Department visits or 911 calls.
“We’ve gotten into working with diabetes a lot lately,” Bailey said. “As our scope has expanded, we’ve written more protocols for how to help patients with different issues. We have more tools now, too. We often work with the Discharge Clinic, which helps patients who need a primary care doctor to follow up with, or can’t make their appointment, perhaps because they’re bedbound or lack transportation.”
The team has grown as well, from one manager and two paramedics to a manager, 10 paramedics, a social worker and a behavioral health peer support specialist. Beyond medical assistance, the program also looks at the social determinants of health, such as helping a patient look for insurance, food bank assistance, or connecting them to other community resources.
The Foundation continues to support the program by funding items needed for recuperation at home, such as pulse oximeters, blood pressure cuffs and scales.
“A hospital is a good place to be when you’re really sick, but when you begin to feel better, you recuperate better at home,” Bailey said. “People want to stay with their pets and live their everyday lives as normally as possible.”
Since starting, the program has helped more than 8,300 individuals, making more than 66,000 patient contacts via phone calls, home visits, community health fairs and other community outreach events. The program sees patients on a regular basis for anywhere from a month to several years, as long as they need to.
Chief Clinical Officer and Chairman of Emergency Medicine, Michael J. Zappa, MD, FACEP has seen how the program has made a difference.
“Our Community Paramedic Program demonstrates innovation in healthcare at its finest,” Dr. Zappa said. “It gets back to the roots of medicine by delivering care in the home, yet uses modern analytics and technology to identify those patients most at risk – and takes the critical step of the correct intervention at the right time. They help people get back to their normal lives more quickly and spend less time in the hospital.”

Hope Mills holds area land use plan meeting Oct. 28

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Tuesday, 21 October 2025

Written by Lena Simmons

“A true community is not just about being geographically close to someone or part of the same social web network. It is about feeling connected and responsible for what happens. The land is more than the ground beneath our feet.” — Yehuda Berg. Sustainability Directory 2025

The town of Hope Mills presents the Hope Mills Area Land Use Plan on Oct. 28. The kick-off meeting is located at the Hope Mills Recreation Center, 5766 Rockfish Road in Hope Mills, from noon to 7 p.m. For more information, contact the Town of Hope Mills at 910-424-4555.
“The Southwestern Cumberland Plan Area is now called the Hope Mills Area Land Use Plan. This planning document is for the region in Cumberland County that extends to the Robeson and Hoke County Lines. The plan outlines the recommendations for future development, aiming to balance rural, agricultural, and residential growth with the suburban and commercial needs in the area, which is also affected by the nearby town of Hope Mills. It includes specific boundaries such as being north of Fayetteville City Limits and east of 301 South (Gillespie Street). The study area is approximately thirty-nine square miles, bordered by Robeson County to the South, Hoke County to the west, Fayetteville City limits to the north, and 301 South, Interstate 95 to the east,” according to the SWC Southwest Cumberland County Land Use Plan, Cumberland County Government.
Long-term planning is vital for creating sustainability and economic prosperity. It involves planning growth, providing adequate housing, commercial and recreational spaces, infrastructure, while protecting natural resources, providing open spaces and mitigating crises from natural disasters. Strategic planning prevents irreversible damage to ecosystems, reduces pollution, and creates resilient, healthier, and more equitable communities for future generations. Long-term land use goals can be developed as comprehensive plans, to incorporate infrastructure, sustainable development, manage growth, strategically reduce future costs, smart economic growth, enhance property values, promote social equity, support public health and safety, and manage population growth, according to the Lifestyle Sustainable Directory, Fundamentals of Land Use Planning.
The Cumberland County role in the Hope Mills Land Use Plan is to lead the development of the plan as a reference for future land use decisions and implement it through its Planning and Inspection Department. The County planning staff, along with the Joint Committee Board, provides expertise and technical assistance to draft and upgrade the plan and guides the growth and development in this area. It is inclusive of properties within Hope Mills Municipal Influence.
Saragrace Mitchell, County Land Use planner, shared at the Hope Mills Commissioner’s Meeting, “Land use planning is a long-term planning tool used by town and county officials as a reference for future land use decisions. It is a thorough document that includes existing conditions, goals, and policy recommendations.”
Your voice is needed in creating a vision that reflects community values and goals. Together we can build a better tomorrow. Attend and share your views at the Hope Mills Area Land Use Plan kick-off meeting on Oct. 28, during the hours of noon to 7 p.m. The location is Hope Mills Recreation Center, 5766 Rockfish Road. For more information, contact the Town of Hope Mills by phone, 910-424-4555.