Uninsured/ Underinsured Accident Injury Attorneys in Lumberton, NC

COMMUNITY CALENDAR

EDITOR’S NOTE: Send your Community Calendar items to Executive Editor David Kennard at [email protected].

Spring Community Outreach, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 15: The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-day Saints has invited local groups and agencies to set up a booth at the Spring Community Outreach event that highlights individuals, organizations and resources working to make Robeson County a vibrant & thriving community. The Robeson County Community Connect event is designed to raise awareness, connect resources that promote unity and uplift and help others. The event runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the Robeson County Fairgrounds. For more information, call 910-736-9909 or go to bit.ly/robcoconnect.

Bully Breed Dog Show, 10 a.m. on March 15: The Bully Breed Dog Show will take place at Southeastern North Carolina Agricultural Events Center in the annex. 1027 Hwy 74 East, Lumberton. Follow signs for the location. Call 910-736-0922 for more information.

Cruisin’ Pembroke Street Festival, 11:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. March 15: The Town of Pembroke, 100 Union Chapel Road, is planning a day of fun. This is a free event designed to bring the community together and give back locally. Call 910-521-9758 for more information. or go to https://www.pembrokenc.com/event/cruisin-pembroke-street-festival/.

Robeson Community College Classes begin March 17: Classes begin for second mini semester (Withdrawal Date, May 7)

The Feast-On the Table and Through the Lens – RCAC, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., March 18: The Robeson County Arts Council welcomes the community to view “The Feast-On the Table and Through the Lens” exhibition, now featured in the gallery. Potters are setting the table with beautiful original pottery and the photography on the walls reveal beautiful subjects that are favorites of the photographers. Call the Robeson County Arts Council at 910-474-6207 for more information.

Gene Locklear Art Exhibition, 6 p.m. March 18: Join friends and fellow artists at the Museum of the Southeast American Indian for an opening reception for the artworks of Gene Locklear entitled “From the Pitcher’s Mound to the Easel.” The reception is open at 6 p.m. at 1 University Drive, Pembroke. Call 910-521-6282 for more information.

Spring Festival – RAG, 6:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. March 20, The Guild House is displaying “Spring Festival,” a refreshing exhibition of the exciting season of Spring. The exhibition opens with a reception. Meet the artists, view the exhibition and enjoy some music and light refreshments.

Visiting Author & Social Event, 6:30-8 p.m. March 20: The Friends of the Robeson County Public Library are sponsoring a Visiting Authors & Social event. Meet Patrick Parker, a local author of a fantasy book, as he presents a reading and then enjoy some light refreshments at the Osterneck Auditorium, 102 N. Chestnut St., Lumberton.

Jeff Pitts, 7 p.m. March 20 at Your Pie Piza, Lumberton. Jeff began playing guitar at 15 in his hometown of Florence, South Carolina. After earning a college degree in journalism he began performing in Columbia where he co-founded the acoustic duo Prettier Than Matt with Jessica Sims in 2010. He plays both solo and with many different local musicians.

ONGOING

Open Mic Night at 219 Elm, 9:30 p.m. each Thursday at Legal Grounds Coffee Shop, 219 Elm. Callvening out with the fun at 219 Elm on Thursday nights.

Farmers Market: 3-6 p.m.m. On Wednesdays, the Robeson County Farmers Market showcases vegetables grown in Robeson County only. Local craft vendors are welcome as an addition to the MarMarketisit with the local farmers and get to know them. The market is open every Wednesday from 7 a.m. to noon on each Saturday or until the vendors sell out — through November.

Music Jam Session: Bring instruments and songs to The Barn at Risen Farms from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. on the first Friday of each month to jam the night away. There might be a dance or two.

Music, Rhymes and Storytime: 10:30-11:30 a.m. on the first Thursday of each month at the Robeson County Public Library, 101 N. Chestnut St., Lumberton.

Flock Swap—Robeson Co. Farmers Market: The Farmers Market will host a Flock Swap from a.m. to 5 p.m. every third Saturday of the month. The Swap will be held in the adjacent lot next to the Market Market and Water Streets. For more information, don’t hesitate to contact Marie at [email protected].

Lumberton Horse and Tack Auction: The Horse and Tack Auction is held on the first Monday night of each month. Mark your calendars for this recurring event. All events are held at the Southeastern NC Agricultural Events Center in Robeson County.

LUMBERTON — A state grant for $825,000 will allow the City of Lumberton to relocate electrical circuits in the Southeast Crossroad Industrial Park, where Cold-Link Logistics will build a cold storage facility.

For this project, 63 jobs and an investment of $10,000,000 are tied to the grant, according to a prepared statement from the Office of the Governor through the North Carolina Department of Commerce.

“North Carolina’s success is rooted in our rural communities,” said Gov. Josh Stein. “When we look for and create opportunities in every corner of North Carolina, we are creating more jobs, more investments and more economic prosperity.”

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The grant for Lumberton is coming from the North Carolina Rural Infrastructure Authority’s Industrial Development Fund – Utility Account program.

The program provides grants to local governments located in the 80 most economically distressed counties of the state, which are classified as either Tier 1 or Tier 2, according to Monday’s statement. Funds may be used for publicly owned infrastructure projects that are reasonably expected to result in new job creation, according to Stein’s statement.

The IDF – Utility Account is funded through a process tied to the state’s signature Job Development Investment Grant (JDIG) program. When JDIG-awarded companies choose to locate or expand in a Tier 2 or Tier 3 county, a portion of that JDIG award is channeled into the Utility Account, according to the statement.

In total, Stein announced that the Rural Infrastructure Authority (RIA) has approved 13 grant requests to local governments totaling $9,627,500. The grants include commitments creating a total of 785 jobs, 414 of which were previously announced. The public investment in these projects will attract more than $165.9 million in public and private investment, according to Monday’s statement.

In Lumberton, the plan securing Cold-Link Logistics was celebrated as a major addition to the city’s resurging manufacturing industry.

A subsidiary of family-owned Mandich Group, Cold-Link Logistics is a full-service third-party logistics cold storage company.

Headquartered in Florida, the company’s cold storage locations provide “customized product handling, storage, order picking and load preparation, blast freezing, and other value-added logistics services,” according to information in the company’s original announcement earlier this month.

According to the company, Cold-Link Lumberton will be a modern 233,000-square-foot temperature-controlled building that will serve the local and regional poultry business, as well as a broad variety of other food companies, manufacturers and distributors.

The company expects to build on 55 acres in Lumberton’s new Southeast Crossroads Industrial Park.

David Kennard is the executive editor of the Robesonian. Reach him by email at [email protected].

LUMBERTON — A proposed Christian School in Lumberton was unanimously rebuffed Monday by Lumberton City Council members after impassioned arguments on both sides of the issue.

Monday’s hearing and eventual council vote was a continuance of a previous meeting that provided more detail on the planned K-6 school expected to draw about 60 students from the area.

RELATED STORY: Lumberton delays permit vote for proposed Christian school

School organizers came before the council on Monday seeking a special use permit before they purchased the historically significant religious building that originally served as the meeting place of Lumberton’s original Jewish congregation as early as 1908. The building at 1106 N. Water St. is now owned by Bethel Baptist Church, which has said it would be willing to sell the building.

A historical marker placed a little south of the church reads, “Robeson County’s first Hebrew congregation was established on this site circa 1908.” That marker, which for years sat at North Water Street and West Elizabethtown Road, was put into storage when the Water Street traffic circle was constructed.

City officials have said that the marker will be returned to the now-in-construction Memorial Park to be located on property immediately adjacent to the traffic circle to help tell the story of the early Jewish connection in Lumberton.

“I really believe God wants to do something with these children,” said Sebrina Leshore-Cummings, an attorney representing the planned Jireh’s Remnant Youth Bible Training Academy.

Several neighbors of the property spoke against the plan, claiming that an expected increase in traffic generated by pick-up and drop-off of students would be detrimental to the neighborhood.

Erich Hackney, who lives across the street from the church property, submitted a petition with the names and signatures of residents from around the neighborhood opposed to the special use permit.

“God wants it to be a house of God, not a school,” Hackney said, countering Leshore-Cummings’ statements that she felt inspired to pursue the Christian school.

After some polite back and forth between Leshore-Cummings and those opposed to the plan, council members ultimately passed a motion to deny the special use request.

Despite the city’s action, Leshore-Cummings said the focus remains to have the school open, whether it’s in the Water Street building or somewhere else.

“We definitely have some questions on due process,” she said, referring to how the city conducted the public hearing on Monday. “You have man’s law and you have God’s law. We trust the Lord and will see what happens next.”

The school has had a plan to offer a school for grades kindergarten through 12th grade, but more recently stated that the Water Street building would offer just K-6, with the older grades likely housed in another building.

With that in mind, Leshore-Cummings said the long range plans continues to be to accommodate all grade levels, but the focus now remains to have a K-6 faciltiy open for the start of the next school year.

David Kennard is the executive editor of the Robesonian. Reach him by email at [email protected].