Local News

The Care Clinic: keeping the community healthy

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Tuesday, 23 July 2024

Written by Amber Little

Anyone who has visited the doctor or dentist knows that charges can shoot through the roof depending on what procedures are performed and what personal insurance will cover.
Costs can become so high, medical financing brochures have become a common fixture at the receptionist desk. Those without medical or dental insurance are put more in a financial hole, coming out of pocket, sometimes for thousands of dollars.
For those who are uninsured and lack the funding or ability to secure funding, doctor visits and dental work are not an option, which only exacerbates the problem and can have significant effects on health.
Several resources in Cumberland County help with insurance, including the county itself, but with the criteria ever-changing and not accounting for the unhoused and the ability to secure an address, there are still those who walk around uninsured and unable to receive any help from government agencies. In 2022, a report by the National Center for Health Statistics found that 17.6% of North Carolinians were uninsured.
When that percentage is turned into a number, that is 1.9 million people in the state don’t have insurance. Fayetteville is home to an organization that is trying to close the health disparity gap by providing free basic health and dental services to the community.
The Care Clinic is a major resource for community members without medical or dental insurance. The clinic's mission is “to provide free quality health care to the uninsured, low-income adult patients who reside in Cumberland and surrounding counties.”
They provide basic medical care for adults: Dental Extractions, Chronic Care (Diabetes Management), Specialty Services (PT, Ortho, Nutrition), Medications ordered during clinic visits, Clinic ordered laboratory tests or x-rays, Education, and Referral to Other Resources.
What started as just an idea by 5 local health professionals, the mission took fire and gained support from The Catholic Social Ministries, Diocese of Raleigh. After a generous donation of $10,000 by the Diocese, Sister Jean Rhodes and the Daughters of Charity took the helm and combined with the support of 16 community leaders, opened the doors of The Care Clinic on November 16, 1993. They have been serving the community since that day. Located at 239 Robeson Street, the clinic only runs on certain days: every Tuesday and Thursday evening and every second and fourth Wednesday of the month. Appointments are made by phone at 910-485-0555 for medical appointments Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Friday mornings from 9 a.m. to noon for dental appointments.
Not in Cumberland County? Not a problem. Aiyana Lynch, Development and Marketing Director for The Care Clinic explained, “We service eligible adult residents who live in Cumberland, Moore, Hoke, Robeson, Sampson, and Harnett Counties. When we first started the clinic, it was only for Cumberland County residents and many people do not know that our service area has since expanded.”
Lynch has been with the clinic since March and has enjoyed her work at the clinic.
“I am originally from Elon, NC, and currently live in Pembroke, NC. I am a proud member of the Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe. I have been learning so much about the clinic and the community we serve! I have a strong passion for helping others and expanding my knowledge,” Lynch said of her short but rewarding time. Community members wishing to use the clinic services must meet certain criteria. Those looking for assistance must be an adult resident of Cumberland or surrounding counties, have no insurance, including Medicaid or National health insurance (Ex. ACA), meet an income requirement – household income within 200% of the federal poverty level, must provide household proof of income, must have a valid NC DMV or homeless photo ID, and then must call on the phone to make an appointment.
The Care Clinic is NOT government-funded and relies heavily on donors who give. Lynch emphasized the importance of donors and volunteers to the clinic saying, “The Care Clinic receives no government assistance, we rely solely on the generosity of our donors, grants, and annual fundraisers. To become a CARE Partner, there are many options that you may choose from to help us out. You can also help us by volunteering your time. We can use the following volunteers: Pharmacists, Pharmacy Techs, Physicians, Physician Assistants, Nurse Practitioners, Nurses, Nutritionists, Dentists, Dental Assistants, Chiropractors, and Social Workers.”
Fundraising is important to keep the clinic running and The Care Clinic hosts 3 annual events to raise money; the Care Dinner, Boujee Bingo, and the upcoming Annual Toast of the Town Wine Tasting and Silent Auction, set for September 20th.
Tickets can be purchased at https://www.toastofthetownfay.com/. There is also time to become a sponsor or volunteer for this event. Those interested should contact Aiyana Lynch via email at development@thecareclinic.org.
Lynch is grateful for all the volunteers and donors that currently or have supported the clinic in some way.
“We want to thank our numerous volunteers who help our clinic stay running, from the providers, nurses, pharmacy staff, office staff, all the way to the amazing people who come and keep the outside grounds looking beautiful each week,” she said.
Those interested in donating can do so in several ways:
• Individual Donations
Online at http://www.thecareclinic.org/, click the DONATE button
Checks should be made out to The CARE Clinic at PO Box 53438, Fayetteville, NC 28305.
• Honorariums and Memorials
Donations can be made in honor or in remembrance of someone. A card will be sent to the person or family member. If the donation is made during the holiday, they receive a holiday card.
• State Employees Combined Campaign
Campaign code #3746
• Business and Individual
Recommended minimum of $10, the donor receives an acknowledgment card.
• Stocks, Appreciated Securities, Depreciated Securities, Annuities, Trusts, Wills, Charitable Lead Trusts
• Custom Engraved Brick Paver
A custom brick paver will be placed on the sidewalk of the clinic.
Single brick $100, $110 with clip art, $10 off when you purchase multiple bricks
To purchase engraved brick pavers visit the website https://polarengraving.com/thecareclinic
• Giving Tuesday
November 25th- December 4th
For more information on The Care Clinic and the services they provide, visit the website, http://www.thecareclinic.org/.

(Photo: The Care Clinic building is located on Robeson St. in Fayetteville. Photos courtesy of the Care Clinic)

County subcontractor outreach event for Crown Event Center Project; Transloading Company opens facility in Cumberland County

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Tuesday, 23 July 2024

Written by Staff Report

Crown Event Center Project holds outreach event
Cumberland County will host a second outreach event for subcontractors, suppliers and vendors that are interested in participating in the Crown Event Center project.
TA Loving/Metcon, which is the Construction Manager at Risk for the project, will host an outreach event Thursday, Aug. 1, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the FSU HUB, located at 1073 Murchison Road, Fayetteville. The outreach event is intended to provide information related to bidding on the project.
The Cumberland County Board of Commissioners has approved a budget of $145 million and a building program of 134,000 square feet for the Crown Event Center, which will be located in Downtown Fayetteville in front of the Judge E. Maurice Braswell Cumberland County Courthouse. The approved construction budget for the project is $117,864,211.
The County anticipates breaking ground on the new Crown Event Center in September 2024 for demolition and early sitework with the majority of construction beginning in early 2025.
The new Crown Event Center is scheduled to open in early 2027.
For more information on the upcoming outreach event, contact Rusty Welch at 910-521-8013 or rwelch@taloving.com.
For more information on the Crown Event Center project, go to cumberlandcountync.gov/crowneventcenter.

Transloading company operations will remove the equivalent of 3,000 trucks per year from local roads
Strategic Transload Services, LLC has announced the opening of a new subsidiary in Cumberland County. STS of Fayetteville adds the corporation’s eighth location in the Southeast.
Through the CSX Rail line, the company will provide direct rail connectivity from ethanol plants in the Midwest to the fuel depot located off Murchison Road, which supplies the vast majority of Fayetteville.
“Supplying the terminal with direct rail will displace two hundred and fifty trucks per month coming into the Fayetteville market, making this a safe and more secure process for fuel transportation,” said Von Friesen, Principal, STS. “The Fayetteville Cumberland County Economic Development Corporation staff was extremely helpful with securing the right location for our expansion”.
The property where STS of Fayetteville will operate is part of an idle landfill.
“We were able to repurpose a piece of land, add a new customer to CSX’s Class 1 Rail network, and create a more economical channel for ethanol customers,” stated Rob Patton, Executive Vice President, of FCEDC.
“We are pleased to welcome STS of Fayetteville to our community,” said Kathryn Cox, FCEDC Board Chair. “Their cost-effective procedure is a great fit and will continue to strengthen the rail business”.
Read about this exciting announcement on their website at https://bit.ly/4dpChCH

Cumberland County Social Services donates box fans

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Tuesday, 23 July 2024

Written by Anna White

On June 3, the Cumberland County Department of Social Services opened a program providing free box fans for eligible citizens. Eligible citizens include, “those who fall below 200% of the current poverty level and who have a family member in the home under the age of 2, over the age of 60, or with a heat-sensitive medical condition.”
The announcement heralded rising temperatures and a corresponding risk of heat-related illnesses that box fans could help stave. According to the Department, the program was enacted to provide relief to eligible citizens who do not have access to air conditioning during the hot summer months.
In 2023, the US Climate Resilience Toolkit found that almost 4,000 individuals in North Carolina visited emergency departments for heat-related illnesses. They believe this highlights an urgent need for heat safety education.
Summer 2024 appears to be on track for similar statistics with multiple July days breaking historic heat records and repeated heat warnings and advisories being issued. Weather.gov defines a heat warning as a heat index at or above 110 degrees and a heat advisory as a heat index between 105 and 109 degrees. Taking precautions against the heat is imperative. While box fans come with a few safety cautions, if used properly, they can provide crucial and life-saving comfort in the soaring temps.
Understanding heat-related illness and safe box fan use go hand in hand. The National Institutes of Health found that box fans may speed dehydration as they do not cool objects, but only move air creating a wind-chill effect that evaporates sweat from skin. This rapid evaporation of sweat combined with high temperatures can be problematic without countermeasures. They suggest countering sweat evaporation by staying hydrated or using simultaneous cooling strategies such as wetting the skin or garments with water. With these measures in place, they suggest that box fans “may yet prove to be an affordable and sustainable strategy for cooling down in a heat wave.”
Weather.gov has issued similar reminders as they publish official heat warnings, noting that heat-related illnesses do not discriminate. “This level of long-duration dangerous heat with little to no overnight relief affects anyone without effective cooling or adequate hydration.”
They recommend drinking plenty of fluids, staying in an air-conditioned room, staying out of the sun, and checking on relatives and neighbors.
The process of receiving a free fan includes speaking with a social worker and completing an assessment at the DSS office. If the process is completed in person, citizens can receive their box fan the same day.
For citizens who cannot complete their assessment in person, social workers are available via phone at 910-677-2388 or 910-677-2389. Citizens can also donate fans to the Fan Giveaway Program. Used fans are not accepted. Donations must be new and still inside the box. For donations, call 910-677-2388.
Social Services is located at 1225 Ramsey Street. For more information, go to cumberlandcountync.gov/social-services or call 910-323-1540.

With key attractions inoperable, funding down, U.S. Airborne & Special Operations Museum facing challenges

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Tuesday, 23 July 2024

Written by Evey Weisblat, CityView Today

As its operational nonprofit struggles to find new funding sources, Fayetteville’s U.S. Airborne & Special Operations Museum may be unable to sustain its current offerings to both the community and the thousands of visitors who come to Fayetteville each year to see it.
ASOM, located next to Segra Stadium in the center of downtown Fayetteville, is the first U.S. Army Museum built outside the perimeter of an Army installation. It is consistently ranked among the top museums in the state and is often considered Fayetteville’s number one tourist attraction. Admission is free.
Many of the programs that enhance the museum’s experience and ties to the community are provided by the Airborne & Special Operations Museum Foundation, its Executive Director Renee Lane told CityView. While the Army’s staff handles the core functions, or the “meat and potatoes,” of the museum — like managing the exhibits and collections and securing artifacts — the ASOM Foundation supports the museum by hosting events, planning educational programs, managing its website and promoting ASOM on social media, Lane said.
The museum was originally owned by the foundation, but the foundation gifted it to the Army in 2005 “to better manage and grow the collection and maintain exhibits,” according to the foundation’s July newsletter.
The foundation’s operating budget for this fiscal year is expected to be around $1 million, Lane said, though this could change as the budgeting process progresses. The nonprofit faces additional challenges as it looks to cover a nearly $200,000 shortfall that arose when the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners in June denied funding the foundation previously used to cover outstanding operating expenses.
The board’s decision to cut off the ASOM Foundation’s perennial funding in the county’s fiscal year budget was not an isolated decision. The county denied funding for several other nonprofits that had previously received the government grants — and now have to scramble to make up for the unanticipated loss of funds.
Funding problems
The ASOM Foundation raises funds for the museum to bring in new and special exhibits, as well as gallery renovations and other projects that enhance visitors’ experiences of the museum, Lane said. It also operates the museum’s gift shop and maintains outdoor grounds, including the landscape, monuments, statues, pavers, and puts on the annual “Field of Honor” display.
Lane said this year’s operating deficit has been caused partially by two of the museum’s major attractions and the foundation’s revenue streams being out of service: the Pritzker Motion Simulator and the museum theater. The 244-seat theater closed after a car ran off the road and crashed into the ASOM in February 2023, killing the driver and setting off the museum’s sprinkler system.
The simulator closed in November 2023 because its electronics aged out, Lane said, describing the loss of revenue as a “huge hit to our bottom line.”
Fixing the ride is not an option at this point, Lane said, given the cost and technological know-how that would be required.
“It’s beyond anybody’s expertise here, so we kind of have to close the door on that and look to the future for a new experience,” Lane told CityView.
The Army is assessing the theater’s repair needs, Fort Liberty spokesperson Cheryle Rivas told CityView.
The ASOM Foundation receives the majority of its funding through non-government grants and individual contributions and donations. But much of the money the foundation receives from grants or fundraising is restricted to specific projects, Lane said, and cannot be used to fund salaries or other recurring expenses in the operating budget.
What happened this budget cycle
This year, the county denied the foundation’s initial request of $200,000, submitted in early 2024 during the annual 2024-25 budget request for outside agencies. Lane said she discovered the request had been denied when County Manager Clarence Grier presented the county’s recommended budget to the commissioners on May 23.
The new vote came during the meeting following the budget hearing on June 5, after Commissioner Jimmy Keefe made a motion to provide $60,000 to the foundation, instead of zero. The recommended budget allocated “no new funding” to the ASOM Foundation and two other agencies, citing budget constraints.
The board of commissioners voted 5-2 against Keefe’s motion, with Keefe and Commissioner Michael Boose casting the votes in favor of the funding.
The county commissioners ultimately provided the foundation with $25,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds this year for science and technology educational programming, though this was awarded prior to the county’s budget approval.
Commissioners’ response
During the June 5 commissioners’ meeting, Adams argued denying funding for the foundation “doesn’t impact the museum” and the general fund money given to the foundation was not meant to continue “in perpetuity.”
“I want people to understand that this doesn’t impact the museum,” Adams said. “This is a foundation. This is not the museum. This money is not to keep the museum open. The museum is going to be open regardless, because the government pays to keep this museum open.”
There was some debate and confusion among county commissioners during the meeting about an internal rule they had made to not provide general funding to nonprofits who had already received ARPA funds.
In response to a CityView inquiry as to where the ARPA funding rule came from, county spokesperson Diane Rice said it had originated in a budget work session last year. At the time, Keefe raised concerns about nonprofits who had not applied to receive ARPA funds but had applied for general funds. Stewart then suggested that if nonprofits were getting funded through ARPA, they shouldn’t be eligible for general funds as well. There was no official motion made.
Regardless, the commissioners broke this internal rule when they provided the Child Advocacy Center with $1,000 in general fund money, despite also giving that organization ARPA money earlier this year. The other two nonprofits who had received ARPA money and requested general funds — the ASOM Foundation and the Partnership for Children of Cumberland County — did not receive any budget funding.
Lane said she received no indication on the ARPA grant or in communications with the county about this funding rule for the ASOM Foundation.
“There’s nothing that we have found in any of the information that was sent to us that if we applied for that county annual budget community funding grant, we wouldn’t be eligible for one or the other, because the ARPA really was specifically for COVID-19 relief,” Lane said. “It was not for annual programming, operational relief, that sort of thing.”
Lane said while the county’s funding denial was a setback, the foundation has other sources of funding it can draw from.
“The county has been very generous,” she told CityView. “We know that there are some restrictions on what they can do this year. If a grant program opens in the future, we’ll take a look at it. Will we need it? I don’t know. I don’t know what the future is going to look like. But, like I said, we have other sources of funding, and we don’t rely on them 100% for an award.”
The city of Fayetteville allocated $56,250 for the foundation, according to the fiscal year 2024-25 city budget. That amount is consistent with the past several years, budget records show.
Fayetteville’s budget also includes revenue the city attains from providing maintenance and custodial services at the museum for the Army.
Editor’s note: This article has been edited for space from the original. To read the article in full, visit https://bit.ly/3WtSK34.

(Photo: Photo courtesy of the Airborne and Special Operations Museum Foundation Facebook page)