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SANFORD, NORTH CAROLINA
LEE COUNTY ATHLETIC PARK
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The RantMonthly
August 2024 | Sanford, North Carolina
A product of LPH Media, LLC Vol. 6 | Issue 8 | No. 65
Editorial
Gordon Anderson | gordon@rantnc.com
Billy Liggett | billy@rantnc.com
Jonathan Owens | jonathan@rantnc.com Richard Sullins | richard@rantnc.com
Advertising Nate Ewing | advertising@rantnc.com | (919) 478-0560
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“They say in the end, everything will be OK. If it’s not OK, it ain’t the end.”
BOOK Signing
Please join me for an afternoon of inspiration, empowerment, and fun as I unpack and delve into a faith journey that catapulted me into a greater dimension of “love” and “trust” with the King of the universe based on His unconditional love for me as I relinquished my control and self-will over an insurmountable situation.
Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024
1-4 p.m.
Barnes & Noble Bookstore Glensford Commons 121 Glensford Drive Fayetteville, NC 28314 (near Cross Creek Mall)
Ruth Prince-Dukes, Author Awakened to His Voice! “God Said!”
Elizabeth Smith (919) 721-3303
esmith@smithgrouprealtyllc.com
Angie Hegwer (919) 356-6678
ahegwer@smithgrouprealtyllc.com
Leslie Oldham (919) 708-3138
loldham@smithgrouprealtyllc.com
Brenda Brown (919) 777-3297
bbrown@smithgrouprealtyllc.com
Randy Howell (919) 410-4785
rhowell@smithgrouprealtyllc.com
Jason Pate (919) 592-1570
jpate@smithgrouprealtyllc.com
Linda Vance (919) 499-8635
lvance@smithgrouprealtyllc.com
Sherri Garner-Diaz (478) 258-6322
sdiaz@smithgrouprealtyllc.com
Jean Moore (919) 880-4168
jmoore@smithgrouprealtyllc.com
Kristen Lind Rogers (704) 467-0866
krogers@smithgrouprealtyllc.com
Jennifer Williams (919) 353-1396
Jwilliams@smithgrouprealtyllc.com
Thank you for voting Smith Group Realty, LLC, Best Real Estate Company and Elizabeth Smith Best Realtor in Lee County for 2023! 131 Charlotte Ave., Ste 101 Sanford, NC 27330
A sneak peek at the future home of our young athletes
I’ve had two sons play soccer in Lee County, and I’m currently coaching one of those sons in the Sanford Area Soccer League. My involvement has meant several trips to cities like Wilson, Clayton, Holly Springs and Greensboro for weekend soccer festivals or tournaments.
And I’ll say this about all of those places — they fancy.
Take Wilson, for example. The J. Burt Gillette Soccer Complex is home to eight full-size soccer fields (which can be converted to up to 32 smaller soccer fields depending on age) and several Little League baseball and softball fields. When we’ve made the nearly two-hour trek east for games there, we’re usually one of dozens (or hundreds) of teams in town to play.
The complex has had a big impact on the city’s economy. Festivals draw teams from all over the state and mean big business to their restaurants and hotels. The fields are nice. The facility is big and nice. Wilson was thinking ahead when it opened it way back in 2005.
Soccer games in Lee County are played at the fairgrounds. I have no complaints with the fairgrounds (though those fields can get tore up after the September county fair). But the fairgrounds and its limited fields aren’t a draw. Teams aren’t excited to come here, and they’re not able to support large-scale tournaments like other cities Sanford’s size.
When the Lee County Athletic Park opens next year, that changes for Sanford.
This edition of The Rant Monthly provides a sneak peek at the Lee County Athletic Park, which is set to open its fields to the public next summer.
The Rant had a chance to tour the grounds in July, and already, we’re impressed. And we’re not just saying that because it’s our cover story this month. Sanford will be able to draw in baseball, softball and soccer. And with the walking trails, million-dollar playground and food trucks coming, the park isn’t going to be just for athletes.
If you’re excited about the potential, check out this month’s cover story, written by Gordon Anderson. Come next year, many of you will be spending a lot of time out there. May as well get acquainted with it now.
— Billy Liggett
LiveLiFeHealthiest
LiveLiFe
But sometimes your lungs need help. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death, and if you’re a current or former smoker, your risk may be much higher. That’s where screening comes in. A low-dose CT scan can detect cancer earlier, even before symptoms appear. With this quick, non-invasive screening, you can gain life-saving insight into your lung health. Get the screenings you need, so you can enjoy the things in life that matter most. With early cancer detection, we’ll help you live your healthiest life. Learn more about lung cancer screening at CentralCarolinaHosp.com
SANFORD AGREES TO TOP 5 LIST OF LOCAL HIGHWAY PROJECTS
Sanford’s city council has joined Broadway and Lee County by voting to approve the forwarding of a list that ranks the highest priority transportation projects within the county during the next ten years to the Central Pines Rural Planning Organization.
Here’s a look at the top five projects recommended by the Lee County Transportation Committee and which have now been submitted to CPRPO:
o 1: Widening of Colon Road between U.S. 1 and Deep River Road to multi-lanes and extending the road as two lanes on the four-lane right-of-way on a new location from Deep River Road to U.S. 15-501. This project is the highest priority for economic development purposes, with the Central Carolina Enterprise Park nearing capacity, a possible new industrial park off Deep River Road, and the continuing development of the Galvin’s Ridge subdivision.
o 2: Site development for the Phase 2 expansion of the corporate hangar apron at the Raleigh Executive Jetport off Farrell Road in Sanford. With industrial sites for Kyowa Kirin and VinFast just minutes away, this project is the highest priority for the Jetport during the next several years.
o 3:Improve bike and pedestrian access from downtown to O.T. Sloan Park, the Lee County Library, Lee County High School and Central Carolina Community College.
o 4:Construction of sidewalks and installation of median refuge islands at six intersections along Seventh Street from Weatherspoon Street to Bragg Street, improving pedestrian access in a neighborhood that has a high population of residents without personal vehicles.
o 5:Improve safety at the N.C. 87 intersection in front of Carolina Trace with “reduced conflict” design, due to severe crashes. The reduced conflict intersection design is increasingly used by DOT to reduce the potential for serious accidents in high traffic locations. A number of these were installed when the G.B. Alford Highway, or Highway 55 bypass, was upgraded in Holly Springs a few years ago.
— Richard Sullins
Under proposed changes to classification levels in North Carolina High Schools, Lee County High School would be considered a Class 6A school (out of 8), and Southern Lee High School would become a 5A school. Photo: Facebook/Lee County Schools
BIG CHANGE COMING
Proposed changes by the NCHSAA would classify state public high schools between Class 1A and 8A and update attendance rules for athletes
By Richard Sullins richard@rantnc.com
Beginning in fall 2025, athletes and coaches at Lee County’s public high schools will experience a number of changes that will impact who their teams play as part of a conference schedule and what playoffs schedules may look like.
Lee County Schools Public Information Officer James Alverson briefed the school board in July on changes adopted by the N.C. High School Athletic Association, the governing body for high school athletics in the state, that will impact high school athletic programs beginning in fall semester of 2025, with the number of high school classifications expanding from four to eight.
Where 4A was the highest number designation previously, the new system will classify high schools on a scale between 1A and 8A.
The new bylaw that was approved last November by the NCHSAA Board of Directors provides no more than 64 schools will be members in each classification. The purpose of the new structure is to give it room to grow, and eight classifications could potentially allow up to 80 new members to join over the coming years.
The NCHSAA asked its members last year which potential realignment method they preferred. The one that received the largest amount of support would group the 32 largest high schools into a Big 32 or Super 32 classification, and then split the remaining schools among the other seven classifications, with an average of 57 to 58 high schools per grouping.
Alverson said the NCSHAA has recently completed a memorandum of understand-
ing with the N.C. State Board of Education that spell out the changes in regulations that govern high school athletics, though most of those, he said, are relatively minor. But the impact on what athletes and their families are used to seeing may be dramatic at first.
“It means that there will likely be a new conference for Lee County High School and Southern Lee, potentially a whole new conference, depending on how things shake out,” he said. “But it is likely that Lee County High School will fall into the 6A classification, as the classifications will run from the smallest at 1A all the way up to the largest at 8A. Southern Lee will likely become one of the larger 5A schools.” Those designations aren’t set in stone just yet, since they will be based solely on
Another
proposed rule change from
the NCHSAA would require all high school athletes to attend 85 percent of their classes in a given semester. That equates to about no more than 13 absenses a semester for eligibility.
average daily membership numbers from the 2024-25 school year and that data is yet to come.
Until then, high schools — along with their athletes and coaches — will just have to be patient as all this begins to take shape. In a statement issued in March of this year, the NCHSAA said “we are not sure that the NCHSAA will even keep conferences. Going to eight classifications makes sorting the leagues out very difficult.”
Trying to wrap their heads around what a playoff schedule might look like with eight classifications is no easier. Some are already suggesting the thinner fields of teams to choose from could mean that every team should make the playoffs. If that were to be true, then what is the reason for having a conference at all?
Another change will create a cap on the percentage of classes athletes can miss and still maintain their eligibility to play. In fall 2024, local boards of education can establish their own standards for classroom attendance and how absences may impact the eligibility of an athlete to
participate in sports. Lee County Schools has had an attendance policy for years, so this semester will be no change from what is already in place.
But beginning in spring 2025 and continuing thereafter, the State Board of Education’s standards take effect, where no more than 13 absences will be permitted without loss of eligibility to participate (or the athlete must be in class for 85 percent of its scheduled time).
This new attendance standard becomes effective for student athletes when they return to classes after the holiday break in December of 2024. There will be an appeal process where student athletes who have more than the permitted number of absences can request a waiver.
Alverson said “a great deal of this is still very much up in the air, and we won’t start to get a clear picture until those enrollment numbers start coming in.”
Meanwhile, the North Carolina Coaches Association is meeting this week in Greensboro, and these changes are certain to be among the hot topics for discussion.
Photo by Ben Brown
EXTREME BELIEFS WERE RELEVANT TO THE STORY
On July 26, a 76-year-old man named Boyd Dale Cathey was arrested on felony charges of attempted statutory sex offense on a child 15 or younger and solicitation of a child by computer. In our coverage, published the same day, we noted that Cathey was a farright activist known for denying the Holocaust and espousing neo-Confederate ideology, among other things, and was included on a Southern Poverty Law Center website listing extremist individuals.
Reaction to the story from readers included comments about the hypocrisy of a man who has attacked groups he’s deemed to be “demonic” and against the moral fiber of America being arrested for allegedly trying to have sex with a minor. Others took a different approach. Wrote one reader: “Are you going to list the political affiliations of all criminals from now on or just the conservative ones?”
First, we didn’t list Cathey’s political affiliation. Nor did we suggest it was the cause of his alleged misdeeds. A search for his voter registration shows that Cathey is unaffiliated. But the answer, in any case, is no. Had Cathey “just” been a Republican or “just” been a Democrat, that’s not part of the story. Had he been a former politician — regardless of party — then, yes, that’s part of the story.
Had he been known nationally for his extreme views on sexual behavior and then arrested for alleged illegal sexual behavior, that’s a story.
Wait ... that last one is what happened.
A visit to Cathey’s blog, “My Corner,” turns up several posts espousing anti-homosexual views and perceived “demonic” activity. In 2018, he wrote, “Isn’t it time the ‘deplorables’ stopped giving support to such dubious characters” in a post about Republican support of a man accused of pedophilia. That same year, in supporting then Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, he wrote, “At this rate — as newly groomed and coached women appear, abused supposedly in the first grade by Kavanaugh when he was just 6 ... — as those ‘new’ women come forward as choreographed by the feminist #MeToo-ers, this process could well last for years.”
Cathey spent decades in public making his views known, and now he’s accused of a serious crime that’s very much at odds with those views. They are part of this story. A big part. Ignoring it, as other local news sources have, is careless. Extremism isn’t doing this country any favors, and any chance we have to point out hypocrisy, we’re happy to do it.
OPINION
FAR RIGHT ACTIVIST ARREST
Sanford police on July 25 arrested a North Carolina man who has apparently been linked to various right wing extremist groups on charges of soliciting a minor for sex. Readers were quick to point out the fact that Boyd Cathey was “not a drag queen,” while others questioned why his political beliefs were part of the news story.
Well, well, well. Not a transgender person? Not a drag queen? But a right wing evangelical? Oh dear, say it isn’t so. That’s the thing about these Qanon/MAGAs: Every accusation is a confession. Every finger pointed outward is really a mirror reflecting inward.
Will Rickard
So … not an immigrant drag queen?
Sharon Cox
If he is guilty of the charges, he certainly needs to be punished. But please don’t try to infer that we conservative citizens who love America, honor the American Flag, believe in God and obey the laws are far-right extremists.
Bob Garrett
I see that the man charged is listed as a far-right activist and conservative. Are you going to list the political affiliations of all criminals from now on or just the conservative ones? Just wondering.
Kevin McNeill
The headline is backward. This is a sex offender who happens to be a far-right extremist. Probably been a pervert all his life. Sickos tend to live hate-filled lives. He gives real conservatives a bad name … shameful.
Trish Freeland
“Hang on, dear. This image on the internet offended me. Let me share it with a thousand more people and tell them to stop looking at it.”
PRAISE FOR SHELTER
After years of fundraising and preparation, a crowd gathered on July 19 and broke ground on Outreach Mission Inc.’s homeless shelter. The Samuel J. Wornom Community Shelter, slated to open in 2025 at the intersection of Third Street and Oakwood Avenue, will be able to house 76 client beds which include four family rooms:
Praise be to God and thanks to Sam Wornom. He was a blessing to all that knew him. Blessings to his family for this incredible gift for our homeless. I’ve been praying for our homeless and our homeless veterans who gave their all and lost what was promised to them. Thank you, almighty God.
Anita Spivey
Sam Wornom was a kind and generous Christian man who served Sanford and Lee County. He loved his family so much and is missed by all who had the pleasure of meeting him. Great family.
Diane Moore
This is an answer to many years of work and prayer. Praise God for the blessings He has bestowed upon OMI.
Kenneth Smith
We also need a better animal shelter. I have rescued many cats from stupid people throwing them out down our road. One day, Imma catch the dipshits and it’s gonna be hell.
Clarence Eckert
Companies stepped up to fix our small natural disater
By Billy Liggett
It’s not a sentence you like waking up to. Billy … you gotta see this . I was upstairs when I heard it, getting socks out of my drawer in preparation for our morning dog walk. My wife, always the first to rise and first downstairs, was at the front door when she delivered the line with a sense of both shock and irony.
I didn’t really need to see this . In fact, my morning would have been better had I not.
The previous night was among the many that saw heavy thunderstorms during a stretch of bad weather that usually comes with midsummer evenings in North Carolina. This particular storm was more vicious. Continuous pounding rain for a full hour. Room-luminating lighting strikes. Foundation-shaking thunder.
I didn’t fall asleep until 1 a.m. that night, mostly because of the noise, but also because I wanted to be awake if bad things happened. The bad thing did happen, however, at around 4:30 a.m. based on the power outage texts we received. I slept through that like a bear in hibernation.
A giant oak — one of many that border our small acre of property— uprooted from the saturated ground and came crashing down where our driveway meets the road. The massive tree and its never-ending network of branches formed a barrier between our vehicles and the street. Most of the tree landed on our power lines and knocked down a street light.
Several heavy branches, however, found our two vehicles — a four-door sedan and a minivan.
Had we parked a few feet back, the tree would have split the vehicles in half. Instead, the damage in the car amounted to a huge dent and a smashed back windshield. The van was damaged on its roof and along the sliding doors (which, we learned, is a much more expensive repair), despite the lesser impact.
I don’t tell you this for a “woe is me” response. It’s what came next that’s the impetus of my story.
Once the initial shock of what we saw wore off, my wife and I were on the phone with insurance agents, a local tree removal service, a car rental company, my job (I had a good reason for not making it that day), and several friends whose wheels were needed to get our kids to various practices and events that day. We also lost electricity for hours, so there was that call. Then internet.
It could have been an awful, awful day for us. I don’t think there would have been many arguments if it was declared as such.
But a funny thing happened on the way to a terrible day. Everybody we dealt with in our effort to “fix” our mini disaster was an absolute joy to work with. It was unexpected, but much needed.
Harris Insurance walked us through the process of filing a claim. Duke Electric had several trucks on hand that morning to get the pole back up and power restored on our street. Phil Stone Tree Removal was out that morning to get rid of the tree and were done within hours. Enterprise in Sanford was slammed that day, yet the staff was courteous and quick to help replace our vehicles. Tramway Body Shop had a tow truck there for my car the next day. Friends stepped up. Neighbors offered their help.
Like most of you, I value great customer service. And when that customer service alleviates the burden of a small disaster like this, it’s more than appreciated. It’s reaffirming. I don’t always get to use this column space to applaud others, but I hope these companies and friends understand how much they were and are appreciated.
Thank you!
THE FIRST PIECES
Large stadium light poles have been installed throughout the Lee County Athletic Park, marking the first official “pieces” of the sports complex as crews begin work on fields and structures. The park is expected to open in the summer of 2025.
TAKING SHAPE
ONE YEAR OUT FROM OPENING, LONG-AWAITED LEE COUNTY ATHLETIC PARK SEES PROGRESS
BY GORDON ANDERSON
This time next year will mark nearly a full decade since talk of a new sports complex in Lee County really began swirling locally due to its inclusion as an item on then Sanford Mayor Chet Mann’s “Open for Business” agenda.
Although not a city initiative, Mann had challenged area leaders to come together and plan for a sports complex as one of several methods to bolster “quality of life” amenities locally, as well as for the entire community to benefit from the increased sales tax revenue that hosting tournaments for traveling teams could generate.
Lots has transpired since — the placement of a $25 million county bond initiative on the 2020 ballot, the creation of the “Grow Play Succeed” campaign that championed the project to voters, the passage of that bond initiative with almost 59 percent of the vote, a “pause” in planning as the post-COVID economy ballooned cost estimates from the original $25 million figure to more than $70 million, the authorization to re-start planning when inflation started cooling in 2022, the awarding of the project to Sanford Contractors for $26.8 million in September 2023, and, finally, the breaking of ground on the project three months later.
Now, with all of that in the rear view mirror, local leaders are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
Parks and Recreation Director Joseph Keel, County Manager Lisa Minter, Budget and Management Analyst Ben McQueary and Communications
Specialist Hailey Hall provided a walking tour of Lee County Athletic Park in July to show the progress of the sports complex one year out from its expected opening. The county awarded the construction project to Sanford Contractors for $26.8 million in 2022. Photo by Billy Liggett
COVER STORY
“Lee County Athletic Park is coming together fast. With continued good weather, we could have a completion date by July 2025,” Lee County Commissioner Cameron Sharpe posted to Facebook on June 27.
That caveat — “with continued good weather” — is important. In early July, County Manager Lisa Minter and Parks and Recreation Director Joseph Keel provided The Rant with a tour of the site and confirmed the project was ahead of schedule at that time. But they opted against making any hard predictions about an opening date (July, as you’ll remember, turned out to be a pretty rainy month). That said, both Minter and Keel were pleased with progress at the park and were confident that 2025 will see its opening.
“When the park opens, the playground will be open that day,” Keel said. “And the flag
football league will likely be the first league that plays out here. With the fields, we want to make sure the sod takes so it could be a little longer for those. The last thing we want is to build those fields and then get on them too early and ruin them.”
Keel sees the Lee County Athletic Park in a different light than those leaders who primarily touted its economic and quality of life impacts. For him, it’s absolutely necessary in order for the county to continue to provide recreational opportunities for everyone who wants access to them.
“We’re up to 700 kids between baseball, softball and tee ball,” he said. “In 2020 we were at 300, so we’re currently maxed out, which is why it’s so important that we can expand our capacity and have more offerings and not have to turn kids away.”
Construction has begun on the building that will serve as the centerpiece between the four new baseball and softball fields at Lee County Athletic Park. Photo by Billy Liggett
Ryan Patterson, executive director of Sanford Area Soccer League (SASL) — which will call the sports complex home since it serves as the “unofficial” county soccer league — said his organization is also growing at a rate that its current homes (the Lions Club Fairgrounds and other fields around the county) are also not big enough.
“As we continue to grow — we have doubled in size the last three years — we are outgrowing the current footprint of rectangular fields in Sanford,” Patterson said. “With the loss of the Northview Complex [in the Deep River area] looming, we really do not have any other options except to reduce teams practice times, limit registrations or give teams smaller areas to train on. The new complex alleviates this for us.”
Just as important, Lee County Athletic Park gives SASL an opportunity to host large-scale tournaments and festivals — a much more difficult task with its current facilities.
“The new complex will give us a facility to be proud of that can compete with any facility in the state,” he said. “We have already had conversations with North Carolina Youth Soccer Association about the Olympic Development Program coming here to Sanford. This makes sense due to Sanford being truly centered in the state. Currently they train in Winston-Salem or Greensboro, which can be a haul for a kid that lives in Wilmington or Jacksonville.
“So it’s possible we could land the ODP program as well as State Cups in the future.”
As of the walking tour in early July, the complex was still far from complete, but you don’t have to squint to see the outline taking shape. As you enter off Broadway Road near the intersection with the U.S. 421 Bypass, a short but winding road leads to a traffic circle from which you can see the baseball and softball fields being constructed.
Tall lights surround the fields throughout, and moving south past the ball fields are multiple rectangular pitches that could be used for soccer, football, and even lacrosse. There are roughly 900 parking spaces to accommodate the hundreds of families expected to visit the facility. In a back corner sits an area that Keel calls the “$1 million playground.”
Get in, girls, we’re going to
Sanford!
With an eclectic blend of experiences, Sanford has the perfect spots for your girls’ trip
Spa Day at The Cabana
Unwind and rejuvenate by treating yourselves to a spa day at The Cabana. The Cabana’s skilled therapists and estheticians offer soothing massages, refreshing facials, and luxurious manicures/pedicures.
Sanford Farmers Market
The Farmer’s Market is a must-see, with all manner of fresh produce, artisan crafts, and tasty treats and promises an enjoyable day with friendly locals.
Retail Therapy
No girls’ getaway is complete without a little shopping! Sanford and Steele Street in particular are brimming with unique shops and vintage finds. With Love Boutique, High Cotton Couture, Fabulous Finds, and 2nd Glances are just a few. Shops of Steele Street contains close to 10 stores in one space, and there’s an array of vintage treasures on our Antique Trail.
Afternoon Tea
Pinkies up, ladies! Sip some tea — or mimosas — at Sanford’s very own tearoom, Mrs. Lacy’s Magnolia House. Enjoy specialty teas, coffees, sandwiches, and more in a charming Victorian two-story house decorated with artwork from the Brush & Palette Club.
Treat Yourself
Craving a sweet treat? Step into a sugary paradise by visiting Sandra’s Bakery. If that doesn’t satisfy your cravings, head over to Millie’s Mama Bakes to enjoy gourmet cookies, French macarons, and more tasty options. While you’re at it, grab a themed drink or rolled ice cream at Brick City Boba to really indulge your sweet tooth!
Happy Hour
Wine lovers won’t want to miss the diverse selection from Carolina Wine Merchants. Not a fan of wine? Enjoy a selection of 18 different brews from Hugger Mugger Brewing or the ever-rotating taps at Camelback Brewing.
Get Inspired
Commemorate a successful girls’ trip by finding the best Instagram-worthy spots to snap pictures. Get artsy on Sanford’s Mural Trail, and make sure you don’t miss the best photo locations! To end your trip on a high note, take in a performance at Temple Theatre which hosts an array of captivating shows that are sure to leave you spellbound.
If you are looking for more ideas for fun with your friends, stop in at the Visit Sanford Welcome Center, located at 229 Carthage Street, for more suggestions and itineraries.
Learn more: visitsanfordnc.com
Asked what getting to design a “$1 million playground” is like, Keel said there’s a lot that goes in.
“You want to make sure you have different levels, both different age levels and different contour levels,” he said. “And you want to make sure you have good sight lines, so you make sure parents can see the whole area.”
The Lee County Athletic Park will even have offerings for those who aren’t children or parents. On any given day there will be as many as 10 different food trucks on site — up to three near the baseball and softball fields, five or six near the playground, and two at the soccer fields. Because the park will be open to the public from dawn to dusk, anyone will be able to drop in on any given day and see what’s available to eat.
“We’re not going to have any concessions,” Keel said. “It’ll all be handled by food trucks. That way, the county doesn’t have to get into hiring people or purchasing a bunch of perishable food. Instead we’ll have agreements in place with food trucks.”
Other implications beyond strictly youth athletics include the potential for the Sanford Spinners — the collegiate summer Old North State League team which has now played four seasons at Tramway Park adjacent to Southern Lee
The county juxtaposed images of computer renderings of Lee County Athletic Park with recent drone footage of the constructiion progress in July.
High School – to make the biggest baseball field at the LCAP their home. And in addition, Central Carolina Community College has confirmed that it is now looking at expanding its own athletic offerings in a number of sports.
“With the addition of the sports complex, we are exploring possibly expanding sports, as we can afford to and as we see interest from potential local student athletes,” CCCC President Dr. Lisa Chapman told The Rant. “(We are) giving consideration to soccer, baseball and softball. We always want to ensure academics are our primary focus, but expanding where there is local interest and support is an important consideration with the development of the complex.”
Wendy Bryan, who heads the city’s Tourism Development Authority, isn’t directly involved with the county project, but she’s a key observer and even stakeholder in its success. That’s because it has the potential to change the face of the local tourism industry (something very few in Sanford and Lee County gave much thought to just a few years ago). Crews have begun work on the $1 million playground area that will be one of the features of Lee County
“There’s a lot that goes into that,” Parks & Rec Director Joseph Keel said of the playground’s
Athletic Park.
design. Photo by Billy Liggett
“It definitely has the potential to fill our hotels and maybe even create more demand,” Bryan said, noting that the recent opening of the Home2 Suites hotel in Northview represents the first new hotel room in Sanford since 2009. “And the opportunity to provide all kinds of services to visiting families is tremendous. A family is a very desirable visitor to have.”
Hotel stays in Sanford are taxed to provide funding for the TDA, meaning it’s the visitors who pay for its operations. The bulk of those visitors remain business visitors, but that’s changed as Sanford has gradually become a more and more attractive place to visit — and spend money — thanks to events like Carolina Indie Fest, the annual StreetFest and Fireworks,
the downtown Farmer’s Market, and even weekend mini festivals like Strawberry Jammin’, which continue to attract visitors from out of town.
Bryan said an analysis of tourism numbers from the most recent year available, 2022, shows the average taxpayer saved $105 thanks to sales tax revenue generated by tourism. It was a 10 percent increase from the year prior (2023 tourism numbers will be released this month).
Bryan said she didn’t expect the tourism picture to change overnight due to the fact that the sod fields will take some time before they’re able to be used, particularly for the travel tournaments leaders expect to become a big draw, but she said that given time, the Lee County Athletic Park could
Among the teams that will call Lee County Athletic Park home is the Sanford Spinners, who’ll likely play in the larger of the four baseball fields in the future.
help catalyze development in the area.
“We always want people to be thinking about how tourism helps them,” she said. “We have seven hotels, but we don’t have the hotel capacity at the moment to cover all the people that would come in for travel tournaments. So this could be a game changer as far as hotel demand. And even two new (hotels) would be a big increase in our revenue picture.”
The park will also include miles of walking trails, and plans have been floated to locate a gas station and a new hotel near the entrance, further transforming the character of the area.
The site totals 112 acres, 90 of which are being developed in this phase of the project — meaning there’s plenty
of room to expand later. That would, of course, take another round of public funding most likely a number of years from now, but some of the options include more fields, more open green space and possibly even an ampitheater/stage.
“You can visualize it on paper all you want,” Keel said. “But being able to get out here and see it taking shape — it’s really mesmerizing.”
So while it’s fair to say local leaders are cautious about being too optimistic about a firm date for the Lee County Athletic Park, it’s also fair to say they’re cautiously optimistic that 2025 will end the decade of waiting for the sports complex and become the year of the sports complex.
Lee County Athletic Park will include turf fields and grass fields, in addition to a lot of green space (turf will also be inserted into portions of the sidewalk).
FAMILY GROUNDS COFFEE | DOWNTOWN SANFORD
PLACE TO CONNECT
David and Jennifer Heimbecker’s downtown coffee shop has enjoyed big business since opening in 2023; the couple attributes their success to offering a place where people can interact (and enjoy good coffee)
Family Grounds owners David and Jennifer Heimbecker aimed to create a place where people could gather face-to-face and interact without a screen when they opened their coffee shop in downtown Sanford in 2023.. Photo: FamilyGrounds.com
By Annabelle Langford Rant Correspondent
Enter Family Grounds Coffee in downtown Sanford on almost any day of the week, and it’ll be bustling with people locked in conversations, working remotely, and of course, enjoying a fresh cup of coffee.
This was the goal of owner David Heimbecker when he opened the coffee shop just over a year ago. He aimed to create a place where people could gather together, face-to-face and interact off of social media.
“A lot of people feel connected online, but in reality they’re not,” Heimbecker said.
Because of this lack of human contact, he and wife Jennifer Heimbecker strove to create a space where people would want to come together, complementing the space with things that wouldn’t distract from the conversations and work at hand, but instead providing a comforting backdrop.
“That’s why we don’t post our WiFi password anywhere,” said Heimbecker. “It’s not so that you can’t use it, but instead so that you have to come up to us and ask, and have a human interaction.”
Along with the aesthetics and comfort that the physical space promotes, they wanted the coffee to speak for itself. Their goal was to source the coffee from people they really knew, so thus when beginning their business, they were able to find a farm that held their same values.
Anna Maria Donneys is from Colombia, where she is a fifth-generation coffee producer. She inherited her farm from her family, but wanted to change it from a place that produced bulk coffee for business to one that produced handmade, specialty, and sustainable coffee.
In 2019, she started to make this dream a reality by shifting her business model. It wasn’t an easy journey, “being a young woman trying to lead a team of all men,” Donneys said.
The past five years have been a “rollercoaster” she said, but through all of it she has been able to stick to her goal of creating a business that paid fair wages, was sustainable, and able to connect with the consumer.
The biggest challenge was trying to find businesses that would take a leap of faith in her product, and be willing to pay a fair enough price to allow her to be able to then pay her workers fair wage in return.
“We don’t post our WiFi password ... instead you have to come up and ask and have a human interaction. ”
— David Heimbecker —
After selling her coffee directly to coffee shops, she was able to connect with Yellow Roosters Importers, a business she felt most comfortable with because of her ability to get to know them as well as she has instead of a transactional relationship. From there, she was able to connect with Family Grounds.
“Family Grounds has the same heart of helping,” she said. “It makes my heart happy.”
From there, Family Grounds has handled the logistics of the business, but continuing the business relationships that both parties value. The coffee is even hand delivered sometimes, simply because each point of contact in the process wants to connect face-to-face.
Family Grounds sells good coffee, but they also want to educate people on good coffee, changing their view on what coffee is in America, to what it should be when it’s made with care. They have hosted cup tasting classes to educate consumers about how coffee goes from a farm to a cup.
For the Heimbeckers, Family Grounds is “not about money, it’s about creating things for the city.”
Passion for the product, experience, and community is evident in everything that Heimbecker and Donneys are doing in their respective businesses, making them the perfect duo to unite and create a community space for Sanford.
Family Grounds owner David Heimbecker says not only do they want to sell good coffee, but educate people on what makes coffee good.
Photo: FamilyGrounds.com
FAR-RIGHT EXTREMIST ARRESTED IN SANFORD FOR SOLICITING MINOR
Sanford police on July 25 arrested a North Carolina man who has apparently been linked to various extremist groups on charges of soliciting a minor for sex
Boyd Dale Cathey, 76, of Wendell faces felony charges of attempted statutory sex offense on a child of 15 or younger and solicitation of a child by computer
Detectives arrested Cathey around 10:20 a.m. on July 25 following an “ongoing investigation” by the Sanford Police Department. According to the arrest report, Cathey was taken into custody in the Carthage Colonies subdivision.
The first result of a Google search of Cathey’s name is a profile on the website for the Southern Poverty Law Center, which among other initiatives tracks individuals involved with extremist groups.
The profile lists Wendell as Cathey’s location, although it puts his birth year at 1950 instead of 1948, the year given by SPD.
“For three decades, radical right-wing activist and author Boyd Cathey has worked to bridge mainstream conservative politics and the far-right fringe worlds of Holocaust denial, extremist Catholicism, and racially tinged neo-Confederate causes,” reads the profile, which also notes that he served as “North Carolina co-chair for the presidential campaign of anti-gay televangelist … Pat Robertson,” and was “state campaign manager for Pat Buchanan’s presidential campaign” in 1992.
The profile also notes that Cathey had been linked to the Institute for Historical Review, which it described as “arguably the world’s leading Holocaust denial organization.”
More recently, Cathey appears to have maintained a blog covering a number of current political topics from what appears to be a far right perspective.
A Lee County magistrate ordered no bond for Cathey, and the Lee County Jail’s website showed him as an active inmate as of July 25.
— Gordon Anderson
‘TRANSFORMATIONAL PROJECT’
Ground is broken on Samuel J. Wornom Community Shelter, which will soon house up to 30 men, 30 women and four homeless families when finished
By Charles Petty Rant Correspondent
After years of fundraising and preparation, a crowd gathered on July 19 and broke ground on Outreach Mission Inc.’s homeless shelter.
The Samuel J. Wornom Community Shelter, slated to open in 2025 at the intersection of Third Street and Oakwood Avenue, will be able to house 76 client beds which include four family rooms. A full kitchen and laundry room will also be available. The facility is being built after six years of raising funds from various organizations, trusts, and individuals.
The center is named after late local businessman and entrepreneur Sam
Wornom, who had been a major contributor to OMI and other charities for many years. The faith-based OMI has been a leading advocate for the homeless in Lee County for over 40 years.
The center will be cover more than 8,500 square feet and will have the ability to serve 30 men, 30 women and four families.
OMI’s goal is to help out members of the community that need support with food, clothing, and emotional support. Their mission statement is “helping people put their lives back together, one piece at a time, one person at a time.”
Since the 1980s, OMI has contributed to several mission efforts, including
housing homeless men in a shelter and providing them hot meals and a bath. By building this new homeless shelter, OMI hopes to tackle the current issues of poverty and homelessness in Sanford with rapid response and help to ensure their clients are non recurring by helping them get back on their feet.
According to the S3 Housing Connect, Sanford’s homelessness task force, the recent numbers show that approximately 157 people are currently housing insecure in Sanford.
Among the 157, at least four veterans are homeless, 33 percent are living in an emergency shelter, and 58 percent are currently in an unsheltered situation. After years of city council meetings and hearing
Ground was broken on the Samuel J. Wornom Community Shelter at the intersection of Third Street and Oakwood Avenue in Sanford on July 19. Photo by Charles Petty
from both community members and civic organizations, it was decided that a large shelter needed to be constructed to help better reach the needs of those facing housing insecurity.
Many members of community leadership both past and present were on hand for the breaking ground ceremony. Among them was former mayor Chet Mann, who during his time in office was a vocal advocate for bettering the lives of the homeless in Sanford.
“When we do things right in Sanford, it comes down to collaboration,” he said. “Everything gets done with the hard work of our community members. What we have been able to do is bring together the various agencies in Lee County and Sanford involved with helping people in need to collaborate together. The outcome is going to be this incredible facility that we so sorely lack and will greatly help our town tackle homelessness.”
OMI Board President Hamer Carter praised the work the OMI team had undertaken to ensure the homeless shelter would be constructed. He also thanked
the many volunteers who have dedicated their time and talents and money to seeing the vision of the center become a reality.
Current Mayor Rebecca Salmon said she was thankful that the addition would help those who have fallen on hard times find a place to start again.
“This is an amazing day for Sanford, this is a truly community transformational project that is going to help our community today and in the years to come,” she said.
Among the donors who gave for the center was the State Employees Credit Union Foundation, which has now for the first time funded a large capital project in Lee County. The SECU Foundation helped raise $1.2 million for the center.
It is part of the Foundation’s ongoing efforts to help North Carolina communities both big and tall serve the needs of its citizens. Other groups which helped to contribute were the Friends of Sam Wornom, FHL Bank, Fidelity Bank, and the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency.
Sanford’s newest hotel, Home2 Suites by Hilton, had a soft opening to accommodate U.S. Open guests in June. The facility, located on Amos Bridges Road near U.S. 1, is now up and running with room rates running between $160 and $200. Photo: Facebook, Sanford Contractors
Pfizer announces major layoffs at Sanford facility
Closure of selected manufacutring lines will mean 150 jobs cut at Sanford facility and 60 more at operation in Rocky Mount
By Richard Sullins richard@rantnc.com
Pfizer has informed the North Carolina Department of Commerce that it intends to close selected manufacturing lines at two of its locations in the state, Sanford and Rocky Mount, with hundreds of workers being laid off as a result.
The company said in a press release that some of these layoffs have already begun, with some workers having their jobs ending on July 31. The remainder of the job closures will take place at the end of September. The impact will be the loss of 150 jobs at the huge Sanford facility and another 60 jobs ending at the company’s Rocky Mount operation.
Pfizer currently employs about 2,000 workers at its Sanford facility.
The layoffs come as part of a multi-
year program within the company to reduce operating costs. In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in May, Pfizer said the layoffs are expected to save the company $1.5 billion by the end of 2027.
The legalese of the filing also said that the layoffs are part of an overall effort that will also include “operational efficiencies, network structure changes, and product portfolio enhancements.”
The press release went further, saying Pfizer is discontinuing its large volume solutions business and instead shifting production to a contract manufacturing organization.
The layoffs in Sanford follow the failure of its gene therapy drug Ciffreo in clinical trials for the treatment of Duchene Muscular Dystrophy, a rare genetic condition that results in progressive
Pfizer’s Sanford facility currently employs about 2,000 workers. The July announcement meant the loss of 150 jobs in Sanford and 60 in Rocky Mount.
muscle degeneration and weakness.
The drug failed in a Phase 3 study, with the company saying that it didn’t improve motor function in boys between the ages of 4 and 7 who received the treatment, and there was no difference between those who took the drug versus those who received a placebo.
— Pfizer spokesman Steven Danehy —
Ciffreo also failed in a secondary test, one that didn’t show a significant difference between patients who received either the therapy or a placebo when essential secondary endpoints were reached, “including 10-meter run/walk velocity and time to rise from floor velocity.”
Pfizer shut down two facilities last year in Morrisville and Durham due to similar conditions. The Durham plant had manufactured supplies in support of the company’s gene therapy and biologics collection of products and services.
The company has made Sanford an important part of its gene therapy strategies, investing more than $600 million dollars over the past several years in its facilities
here. The company built out its site just outside the northern edge of the city to support commercial production of its gene therapy assets, including Beqvez, which in April became the company’s first gene therapy to receive approval in the US.
Beqvez is a treatment for the rare genetic bleeding disorder Hemophilia B, and the company announced in late July positive Phase 3 results for another gene therapy program targeting Hemophilia A, a different rare genetic bleeding disorder that prevents normal blood clotting.
School board, commissioners meeting gets testy
By Richard Sullins richard@rantnc.com
It started as a rare meeting when Lee County’s two most influential governing boards came together to build trust between themselves and explore their differences.
But in just a few minutes, that goodwill seemed to disappear like an early morning fog, and the Lee County Board of Commissioners and the county’s Board of Education retreated back to the same positions that brought them to the table on July 25. The meeting showed how deeply the two boards were at loggerheads, and it became clear that the divisions are more stark and deeply rooted than many people might have thought.
The commissioners and the school board had agreed to discuss three topics so they might come to better understand how they impact funding for public schools. Much of the state’s allocation of financial resources to LCS is based on the metric of Average Daily Membership, which is essentially a snapshot of how many students were in attendance in
all county schools on any given day.
It’s a very important number, not only because the state uses it to determine how many dollars the county has earned for operating its schools in the coming years, but also because the county uses it as well when it looks at requests for funding new construction, repairs, and renovations, as well as the costs of utilities, insurance and legal services.
The ADM for the county has been stuck at around 9,000 for the past three years, down from the 10,000-plus average seen about 10 years ago — which has made the commissioners skeptical when the topic of new schools comes up. The COVID pandemic didn’t help those numbers, but the school board believes the numbers have bottomed out and are starting to trend up again as the county continues to grow and higher costs have made charter and private schools less attractive options for many families.
As the meeting went on and the question of why the commissioners have consistently
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refused to provide funding for priorities that the school board has seen as critical needs, the commissioners deflected those questions and instead asked the school board several times whether it had made its case to local legislators. Democratic Commissioner Cameron Sharpe asked twice whether the school board had written letters to its representatives in Raleigh about critical needs for funding.
Republican School Board Vice Chair Sherry Lynn Womack responded, “A letter is just another piece of paper that piles up on their desks and don’t get read. What you do is to call them. You go visit them. You sit in on their committee meetings.”
WHEEL COMES OFF
Nothing was agreed upon or decided during the discussion about membership numbers, but storm clouds started to form as the group moved on to talk about prospects for a new joint maintenance facility that would be utilized by both the county and the school board.
Some commissioners and school board members had recently visited a facility of this type in neighboring Chatham County, but the county presently has no available space for such a capability. That seemed to change when the abandoned Jonesboro Elementary School on Cox Maddox Road caught fire in April of 2023.
County Manager Lisa Minter took the lead in this conversation, saying if the two groups could come to an agreement on co-locating a facility there soon, it might be a way of creating an initial success that others could be built upon in the future.
Republican Commissioner Kirk Smith, the board’s chairman, believed doing something about both garages is critical, but especially so for the school bus garage.
“The fact that our employees are still working there with conditions as they exist now is a tribute to them, and they continue to keep our fleet of school buses safe and on the road every morning and every afternoon,” he said.
Democratic school board member Jamey Laudate, one of those who had visited the Chatham County facility, said he asked one of the employees there about their secret for making it all work together, and he was told that it’s all about having trust between both groups — the sort of trust that comes with believing there are no hidden agendas and that every employee wants their coworkers to succeed.
CRASH AND BURN
From that point, the meeting went off the rails. Sharpe asked whether the school board had considered providing a one-time $1,000 bonus to the approximately 600 locally paid employees in the LCS district. LCS Superintendent Dr. Chris Dossenbach said there had been some discussions but nothing more at this point. Sharpe responded that he thought it would be a good idea and a way to improve morale. But when Womack asked whether the commissioners would be willing to fund the $600,000 cost of such a program, Minter said that the county has no funds available for bonuses.
The school board has asked the commis-
sioners to fund increases in teacher supplements in three of the past four years, as well as the costs for transitioning to a new salary schedule for locally paid employees. None of those requests ever got any traction with the commissioners.
Womack asked twice during the meeting whether the commissioners would also be willing to consider the possibility of building one library instead of two, an apparent reference to the new Lee County Public Library and coming renovations to the library on the campus at Central Carolina Community College.
The commissioners approved construction of a new public library almost two years ago and there were multiple opportunities before then for the public to speak about it. Womack continued to broach the subject of consolidating the college library with the county’s public library, and it eventually forced Smith to reply “that’s not the subject now, Sherry.”
Minter again sought to move the discussion forward.
“The joint garage could be a way to solve the problems of improving working
conditions and reducing operating costs if the trust issue can be resolved,” she said. “We are ready to put a group together to work with a companion group at the school board to start working toward a joint solution to the garage and transportation problem if you think that might be helpful.”
Republican school board member Chris Gaster jumped into the fray.
“I’ve always heard that two boards can’t get along, but I’ve never understood that. I would love for there to be a joint facility and have employees who were qualified that could work on either one, and have everyone come to Lee County to see how it can be done,” he said. “But tell me this: What was your original plan before the idea of this joint garage suddenly came up?”
Smith quickly polled his board and determined that all of the commissioners present were in favor of pursuing a joint maintenance facility, but by that point, the school board had already hit the brakes.
Unaffiliated Sandra Bowen was the first member of the school board to give voice to what some of her colleagues have expressed privately for months.
“We suddenly have something the county needs — the Jonesboro property — and yet our priorities keep getting pushed down? We are the school board of students, not of garages, and how is this going to help the students that we serve? Are we really going to serve students or are we at the beck and call of the commissioners when they want something?” she said.
Smith sought to regain control of the discussion by claiming he had not heard any discussion of the issues at the school garage for years. But Bowen pushed back.
“No, no, that’s wrong,” she said. “We told you about it more than once and that it might need to be declared as a brownfields contamination site. We are in the business of education, not in the business of transportation.”
After the meeting was over, Davidson told The Rant, “We had to start somewhere, and this meeting shows us just how much work has to be done if we are ever to attain the kind of trust that will be needed to move us forward in constructive ways. Tonight showed us there won’t be any quick fixes, but it also showed us that we share a common goal.”
NEW LAW FIRM LAUNCHES IN SANFORD
Sanford’s newest law firm began operations on Aug. 1.
deLambert Stone, PLLC consists of local attorneys Chris deLambert and Matthew Stone and is located at 1600 Elm St.
Both deLambert and Stone have been practicing law in Lee and surrounding counties for a number of years. Stone has five years of experience in criminal law, and deLambert has been working family and property law cases for the last four.
Associate attorney Dhruvi Barot has been handling criminal and immigration law cases for the last four years. All of the attorneys with deLambert Stone handle domestic violence protective orders and DSS parent defense cases as well.
deLambert Stone can be reached at (984) 977-8390. For more information visit DeepRiverLawyers.com.
BRUSH & PALETTE CLUB ART SHOW
The art show committee for the Sanford Brush & Palette Club, a Sanford-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, is in the process of planning the 59th Annual Art Show to be held Oct. 12-19. The art show will be held at a new venue this year — the Harper Center at First Presbyterian Church.
Organizers expect to have more than 500 pieces of art to show and sell. The Bowl and Vessel Show will continue to be held concurrently, as well as a Holiday Gallery offering one-of-a-kind art and gifts with a winter holiday theme. Art After Dark is being planned as a very special 60 th anniversary event.
Mickey Pace, Art Show co-chairman said, “We are excited to be planning the largest annual art show in our history in 2024. Our 60th anniversary coincides with Sanford’s 150th anniversary, which we plan to honor with a new art category: What Sanford Means To Me. Also, we are dedicating the show to Ruby McSwain, who was a long-time member and Benefactor.”
For more information about the Sanford Brush & Palette Club, to register as a new member, stay up to date on Annual Art Show plans or to become an Art Show sponsor, visit www.sanfordarts.org.
ROOM TO GROW
More new businesses are calling downtown Sanford home; the next step is getting the community used to the idea that downtown has a lot to offer
By Annabelle Langford Rant Correspondent
With the growth that downtown Sanford has seen in the past decade, many of the store owners are eager to see its continued evolution, while still maintaining the charm that brought them there in the first place.
In 2017, downtown Sanford started a project to revitalize the area, revamping storefronts, beautifying the sidewalks, lamp posts, and adding a number of murals around the area with the ultimate goal of attracting new businesses.
On weekend days and evenings, especially during events, the streets of downtown Sanford are bustling with life, shoppers, diners and people simply there to enjoy the environment that’s been created. While business seems to be booming, however, there is still growth to be had to accommodate the growing wants of the community.
“Downtown has a long way to go, but this is where people are coming,” said Jake Jacobs, owner of the Vinous Wine Bar. “I wish we could move a little quicker.”
Downtown Sanford houses a number of businesses, many of which have opened in the past few years, including Vinous, Family Grounds Coffee, Oxide Art Gallery, and Morgan’s Menswear. There are all new businesses continuing to emerge in the next year, including Sips & Sequels and Refined Designs.
Beyond what many locals would consider “downtown,” there are also new businesses Monkey Kat Books and Pies Pizza on Carbonton Road, that are aiming to expand what has always been considered the most walkable part of downtown.
“Getting people to know we’re here has been the biggest challenge thus far,” said Heath Buckmaster, owner of the Oxide
Gallery, which opened in May. The gallery has done good business, especially in drawing people from outside of Sanford and even the state to grow arts tourism locally.
Buckmaster wanted to fill a void in Sanford, as the city never had a fine arts gallery. He said a lot of his customers have stumbled upon the gallery, located on Steele Street, by accident.
Holly Beal, co-owner of Beech & Boon, a children’s clothing store on North Steele Street, said they opened their store in 2022 in an area of downtown that has seen slower growth in the last few years.
“I want to see this area of downtown continue to grow. The more investment that we have in this area, the more people that will come with foot traffic, and the more business we get,” Beal said.
Some of the more established businesses in downtown have been able to cross
Vinous Wine Bar on Steele Street in Sanford is one of a handful of new businesses that have launched in the downtown area in the last few years. “Downtown has a long way to go, but this is where people are coming,” Vinous owner Jake Jacobs said.
Photo: Facebook/Chad Spivey
the hump of finding their customer base, including With Love boutique, whose owners said it has been able to find “loyal customers and customers from out of town” who repeatedly shop at the store.
The boutique opened just after the pandemic in 2020, and while it was difficult to gain a footing, they successfully did so.
“Lee County has been good to her,” said Kim Love, mother of the owner.
One of the most successful new businesses downtown has been Family Grounds Coffee, so busy some mornings that you can barely find a table. David Heinembecker, the owner of the cafe, said his goal was to create a space for the city to gather and have face-to-face conversations.
“There are things that have been here a while, but we want to raise the bar,” said Herinembecker.
Like With Love boutique and other shops in the area, social media, events, and time have been how they have continued to attract a loyal customer base.
Jacobs, owner of Vinous, said he wants to elevate the offerings in downtown Sanford by providing a space where guests can
sample his collection of wines, host events and maybe one day soon have a fine dining restaurant.
“When you think of good wine, you think of good food, and there’s just no food,” said Jacobs.
A common wish from the community is a larger assortment of restaurants downtown, according to asked Kelli Laudate, executive director of Downtown Sanford Inc.
“What are we ready for?” Laudate said. “We’re ready for a diverse mix of restaurants that are affordable.”
Building codes are just one of the hurdles for potential restaurants. In order to be within code, they need to have a fire suppressant, something many of the older buildings downtown don’t have and that investors can’t afford to put in.
Many of the businesses downtown have begun to capitalize on the hosting of events to draw in customers. Family Grounds has hosted coffee tastings and classes, Vinous has held dinner and wine events, and Downtown Sanford as a whole has hosted events regularly for the past few years, with business owners downtown saying these are
some of their most profitable days.
Sanford is ready for more dining options, activities for children and families, and housing to utilize second story space, said Laudate. She isn’t certain what these activities look like, but there need to be options for kids and teens.
Housing in downtown Sanford is something that has grown in the past few years, especially with the opening of the Lutterloh, which is the only market rate apartment building in downtown Sanford. That’s something owner April Montgomery was warned might not be successful, but the building has had full occupancy since 2019 with a waiting list, proving that housing is a need to be fulfilled in downtown Sanford.
With the growing size of Sanford, more housing is needed, and apartments downtown could attract a new demographic, especially with growing businesses downtown. But with more people living downtown, there also comes the need for more restaurants and a grocery store to make the area truly walkable, said Montgomery.
Downtown Sanford is currently trying to expand what is thought of as downtown
from just the center of Steele Street. A study being done by Benchmark is assessing what the needs are of businesses downtown to be able to better succeed. In addition, the City of Sanford is looking for feedback on a mobility hub project, which would add transportation to the area.
The future of downtown Sanford is held in the hands of a few key players, including the governmental organizations in Sanford that are dedicated to growing the economy, and the building owners downtown.
Jim Goodnight, the son of SAS owner and founder James Goodknight, owns a total of seven buildings downtown, with two of them currently undergoing renovations. The others sit mostly vacant, with a few having existing tenants, and others have decor in their windows so as to still draw visual interest without businesses being there.
The future of these buildings is unknown, but the potential for an even more bustling downtown Sanford is there. The community has a grasp on their wants and needs downtown; it’s only a matter of carrying out a long term vision.
LEE COUNTY SCHOOLS ANNOUNCES OPEN HOUSE DATES
Lee County Schools invites students and families to join teachers and administrators for Open House on each respective campus in the coming weeks.
According to the district, Open House provides an opportunity for parents and students to familiarize themselves with their new campuses, classrooms and teachers.
All high schools will hold Open House on Aug. 7, from 5-7 p.m. Each Middle School in the district will conduct Open House from 5-7 p.m. on Aug. 8. Bragg Street Academy will join the Middle Schools with their Open House on Aug. 8.
Elementary Open Houses will be broken up into two phases. Students in Grades 1-5 will be welcomed to Open House on Aug. 12 from 5-7 pm at their respective campuses. Kindergarten Open House will be one week later on Aug. 19 and will run from 5-6 p.m. Warren Williams Pre-K will hold their Open House on Aug. 19 from 10:30 a.m. through 5:30 p.m.
150 YEARS, 150 TREES
To celebrate planting 100 trees since being named a Tree City USA community in 2013, the Sanford Appearance Commission has set a goal to plant another 50 trees before the end of the year.
To reach this goal, the Appearance Commission is accepting donations of any amount. All donations will be used to purchase trees native to the piedmont region. A variety of native trees will be planted throughout the city limits of Sanford on public property.
Donations can be made online at www. friendsofsanford.com/appearance or by submitting a check made payable to Friends of Sanford, Inc.
LEE COUNTY GOVERNMENT
STUDY SHOWS URGENT NEEDS IN COUNTY’S FIRE SERVICES
By Richard Sullins richard@rantnc.com
When an emergency happens, seconds count. How quickly help arrives can be the difference between a limited amount of damage and a total loss, between saving a life and losing one. In Lee County, fire departments are often first on the scene of emergency calls because of their locations spread across the county, and the board of county commissioners received a report on July 15 recommending steps now to ensure communities can be certain their firefighters have everything they need.
Lee County’s population has grown by about 2,500 people since the last Census was taken in 2020, an increase of around 16 percent, and by the time the next decade rolls around in six years, around 72,500 are expected to call Sanford, Broadway, or the surrounding farms and fields home.
The county added several new industrial parks in 2023, and it seems it’s now closer than ever to reaping the rewards of all the growth that has taken place. It began to see the results of this growth almost six years ago in 2018 as the economy finally got back on the track after the Great Recession.
But along with that kind of rapid growth comes a demand for critical support services to support a thriving economy like Sanford’s and keep it growing. The commissioners were told that making some major investments in its system of fire services will have to take place over the next few years to keep all that growth from grinding to a halt very soon.
The commissioners were given an executive summary briefing of the results of a comprehensive fire services study for Lee County that had been recommended last fall by the Fire Advisory Board. The county then engaged the services of the North Carolina Fire Chief Consulting group to perform the study, a nine-month effort that included meetings with every fire department in the county, interviews with chiefs and firefighters, and an extensive review of performance data for the past several years.
The result was a 450-page exhaustive report
that the commissioners saw for the first time on July 15, presented by retired Chief Greg Grayson. The review found Lee County has many good things going for it already with its fire services. It specifically mentions the quality of leadership in its fire departments, the high quality of working relationships between the departments, and the overall condition of the fire apparatus fleet and response equipment.
But there are also some major challenges facing the county’s system of fire response teams. The number of volunteers wishing to join with a local fire department is declining, resulting in additional financial need for personnel.
Firefighters across the county reported major issues with communications between their departments and the county’s 911 emergency response center, and with radio systems overall that include difficulties hearing inside of buildings. The report also pointed to an additional need for the number of firefighters to keep pace with the growth the county is experiencing.
COMMUNITY RISK ANALYSIS
The study by the N.C. Fire Chief Consulting group found a number of factors the commissioners, as well as each fire department, will need to consider as they plan for the next decade. The county has a lower level of poverty than the state average, and the number of children less than 5 years old and those 65 years and older who do not have health insurance is very close to the state average.
But there are also some significant challenges. The county has a significantly higher number of owner-occupied residences than the state average, meaning there are far fewer homes available for rent. And the county has six times the number of mobile homes than the state average.
The report attaches some projected numbers to the growth that is forecasted over the next five years. It notes that 2,761 new residential units have been approved by local governments and that 7,179 new people will move into them. Those numbers will likely mean that 336 more emergency calls will be received and responded to in each of the next five years.
How quickly emergency help can get to the scene is often the key factor in how incidents turn out, and the study reviewed more than 6,700 incidents over a five-year period. It found that almost 84 percent of all fire calls were within a five-minute travel time from a fire station and that more than 98 percent of all calls were responded to in less than ten minutes. It recommends that some adjustments can be made to the county’s fire districts to create quicker response times for fire and emergency response.
But the data also contains cause for concern in those response times because they are trending upward when reviewed for the last five years. The quickest responses come as no surprise. Sanford’s three stations all had response time averages of less than nine and a half minutes, with Station 3 averaging just over six minutes. Tramway, Northview, Deep River, and Cape Fear were each under eleven minutes, with Pocket, Lemon Springs, and Carolina Trace under 12 minutes.
What’s causing these increasing delays? Grayson believes the decline in the number of volunteers wanting to join fire departments and committing to years of service in their community is a large part of the problem. Increased traffic brought about by growth is another factor, and the increasing number of new residential developments have resulted in more work for those who are donating their services.
‘A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE’
Complaints about the Sanford Police 911 Emergency Communications Center were heard by the Fire Chiefs Consulting group from fire departments and from members of the public who responded to online surveys.
Assistant Chief Greg Spivey of the Tramway Fire Department spoke to the commissioners at the meeting, bringing with him a folder he said contained negative reports about the Communications Center, most of them resulting from a failure to page firefighters correctly after an emergency call was received.
“We can have the best equipment and the best-trained firefighters, but all that doesn’t
amount to a hill of beans if we are not paged out correctly,” he said. The inability to receive a page when his department is called out to respond to an emergency “is a very big issue for us.”
The report makes eleven observations and recommendations about ways to improve communications between the Center and firefighters, both in receiving pages for emergency response and in the back and forth of conversations once crews are on the scene.
The evaluation looked at 48 large fire apparatus and 12 fire stations as part of its review. The overall state of fire equipment in the county received a rating of “good,” while the status of the stations themselves were considered to be only “fair,” mostly because of the inability to expand them to accommodate additional equipment as the region continues to grow, and also due to the lack of space to build dormitories that would allow stations to be manned continuously.
Of the 48 large fire apparatus that were looked at, 17 were more than 20 years old. An example of the types of issues found with the fleet can be seen in the records of a tanker truck that was purchased in 1989, 35 years ago. Its current issues include tires that are nearing the end of compliance with national standards, torn seats, a frayed ground ladder halyard line, an exhaust pipe coming out of the muffler, and a rusted exhaust hanger.
YOUR FIRE DEPT. WANTS YOU!
Perhaps the most attention-grabbing section of the report is its review of volun teerism. Like almost every rural county in North Carolina, Lee County continues to rely heavily on volunteers to staff its community fire departments, as it has for more than a hundred years.
Across the Tar Heel state, the number of volunteers at fire departments has dropped by an average of 3.5 percent over the past five and a half years. Lee County has been doing better, with an average of 2.5 percent being lost during the same period, but still having lost 33 volunteers since its high of 218 across the county in 2018 and 2019, and showing an 8.4 percent loss of volunteers on a year-toyear basis from 2022 to 2023.
The report compiled by the N.C. Fire Chief Consulting group offers a number of recom mendations for hanging on to current vol unteers and successfully recruiting new ones. Among these is the creation of a centralized firefighter recruitment effort within county
government that would include a retention and recruitment coordinator on at least a parttime basis, a position that could potentially be paid for through grant funding.
Another would be the creation of a high school fire program in Lee County, similar to one now in operation in Harnett County. Grayson said this model has been one of the most successful volunteerism models in the state, and he suggested a conversation with Lee County Schools to explore what opportunities might be available.
Longer-term, the study recommends fire departments work closer with Lee County Government to agree on retention and recruitment goals, to widen the scope of volunteers to include support personnel, and to make good use of social media in recruiting and in developing good community relations.
Finally, the report lays out three immediate steps the commissioners could take this summer to start the process of updating and upgrading the county’s fire services capabilities. The first would be to establish a fire apparatus replacement funding plan and a facilities improvement plan that would begin the task of improving the equipment and infrastructure necessary for emergency response teams.
Second, the report recommends the
City takes issue with proposal to nix public hearings
By Richard Sullins richard@rantnc.com
It’s not uncommon for members of a governing body to disagree and take differing sides on any given issue, but to see that same governing body take issue with recommendations made by its own staff is rare. But it happened in July at a regular meeting of the Sanford City Council.
About 75 members of the public had come to the council’s chambers to listen as two public hearings were held on updating the city’s Unified Development Ordinance, the document that governs the development of residential and commercial properties in Sanford, Broadway, and Lee County.
The city’s Planning and Development staff brought recommendations for updating the UDO to the council two years ago, but the council asked them to make several revisions to address concerns they’d identified. The draft changes to the UDO presented to the council Tues -
day were the result of those revisions.
At the first of the two public hearings on the issue, Zoning Administrator Thomas Mierisch explained the reasoning behind each of the proposed changes, almost all of which were received by the council and members of the public who had come to the meeting with enthusiastic approval.
Mierisch explained “the aim of these changes is to encourage more development within already-existing developed areas so that urban sprawl might be slowed down.”
The modifications would also make a number of changes for townhome developments intended to make them more self-contained communities that take on characteristics similar to those found in subdivisions. Parking lots would be limited to no more than 14 vehicles, and they must be interconnected with others, curbed and side walked, and screened from the view of existing streets by landscape buffers. Developers will be happy with the continuation of having latitude
within their own projects, known as conditional zoning, an allowance that will be renamed as “village neighborhood districts.”
But what may become the most popular addition to the ordinance is the proposed allowance of guest houses (sometimes called “granny flats” or “mother-in-law houses”) as long as they are located on the side or in the rear of an existing principal home. These would become known as “accessory dwelling units,” and would be permitted in all zoning districts.
These changes were received positively by the crowd and the council. But there was a definite change in the atmosphere when the second public hearing began.
This second hearing should have been a cut-and-dried affair. It was called to consider a proposed action that would have updated the city’s zoning maps to reflect the new zoning designations contained in the draft version of the UDO changes discussed in the first hearing, something that typically would have
taken no more than just a few minutes. Instead, the hearing took almost an hour.
Senior Planner David Montgomery explained that if the new zoning classifications are adopted, the zoning maps must also be updated to reflect the changes, making one consistent with the other. But Montgomery also explained the two proposed actions are more important than just changing a few designations.
“What we have brought to the council tonight is about more than just cosmetic changes to an ordinance. What we are suggesting is a hybrid approach that encourages growth in the urban core,” he said, and continued that this approach, known as “upzoning,” encourages infill development of existing empty spaces within the city instead of expanding every time through annexation.
It takes advantage of existing infrastructure, increases affordable workforce housing in and near the urban center, and decreases urban sprawl in ways that preserve agriculture and environmentally sensitive areas.
But discussion about the merits of making changes to zoning maps for consistency stopped when councilman Byron Buckels brought up a provision in the proposed changes that hadn’t previously been discussed. That section would remove the requirement for public hearings on smaller proposed developments. The staff recommended doing away with that requirement for small projects, saying the staff could handle those in-house, and that it would be a means of reducing the number of public hearings that the city council is required to hold now for proposed development projects.
Buckels said he wouldn’t go along with any provision that does away with the public hearing process because it “denies the public a chance to speak on how a development will impact their community.”
Planning Director Marshall Downey said the intent was never to take away anyone’s right to speak, but to keep
the process “as open and transparent as possible.”
Councilman Walter Ferguson saw things differently.
“If this passes, it will be open season on the public,” he said.
Mayor Rebecca Wyhof Salmon stepped into the fray to keep the discussion focused on its ultimate goal.
“This has been talked about for a long time,” she said. “And it’s about building the kind of city that all of us want. We are raising the bar on what we want our expectations to look like.”
Buckels refused to give in, responding that “if we don’t allow public hearings, we are shooting the very same bar down that we are supposed to be trying to raise. We want the people to have a right to say what they want when it comes to development, too.”
Mayor Pro Tempore Mark Akinosho said “what we see tonight is the first taste
of what the public thinks. We don’t want to discount the public.”
Councilwoman Linda Rhodes went even further, saying “this is a breaking point for me, to eliminate public input.”
In all, five of the seven members of the council spoke on the issue. Two others remained silent during the deliberations: Councilwoman Jean Dabbs and Councilman Charles Taylor.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
The council’s positive response to the changes proposed to the UDO make it likely they will receive approval soon. But that could be delayed until the issue of public hearings is resolved.
That matter could come up again at the council’s next scheduled regular meeting, now set for Aug. 6. If it’s placed on the agenda then, the council has
several options to choose from. A motion could be made to change or even delete the wording that proposes removing the requirement for a public hearing to be held on smaller residential and commercial projects.
Another option would be to send the draft back to the staff and ask them to come back with a change, along with potentially others that might have been identified. And there’s always the potential choice of just scrapping the proposal entirely.
By the end of the public hearing, Downey expressed an understanding of the council’s point of view and that the choice was ultimately theirs to make.
“This is purely a political decision that you have to make, and we will support whatever you decide to do,” he said, as the discussion came to an end.
NEW PRINCIPALS
NAMED AT DEEP RIVER, EAST LEE
Two vacant principal positions created in June by promotions were filled in July by the Lee County Board of Education, along with other administrative changes that were announced after the meeting.
Kelly Bancroft was appointed as the principal of East Lee Middle School, replacing Robert Newby, who was named last month as the new principal of Lee County High School. Emily Coggins will move from her position as assistant principal at B.T. Bullock Elementary to a new role as principal at Deep River Elementary, replacing Amy Lundy, who became principal at Southern Lee High School on July 1.
Bancroft comes to Lee County from Harnett County Schools, where she most recently served as assistant principal of Western Harnett Middle School. Her leadership there has been a key component of the school’s consistent growth and success, and during her time in Harnett County, Bancroft focused on fostering a positive learning environment and driving student achievement.
In making the announcement of Bancroft’s appointment, Lee County Schools Superintendent Dr. Chris Dossenbach said, “Her extensive experience, dedication to student success, and strong leadership skills make her an excellent fit for East Lee.”
Coggins’ appointment as principal at Deep River Elementary returns her to the school where she spent many years as a classroom teacher. A long-time educator in the Lee County Schools district, Coggins brings years of experience and a singular insight into the school’s culture and ideals.
“Emily’s love and dedication to the Deep River students, staff, and community are truly inspiring,” Dossenbach said. “Her deep-rooted connection to the school has equipped her with invaluable insights, enabling her to quickly contribute to the high expectations that consistently drive Deep River to achieve excellence.”
The Accelerate Learning Conference 2024 is in the books. The annual gathering drew more than 300 educators and administrators at W.B. Wicker Elementary School for three days of training, problem-solving and learning creative strategies to improve student performance.
GRACE CHRISTIAN STANDOUT COMMITS TO PLAY BASEBALL AT UNC CHAPEL HILL
Sanford native and UNC Head Baseball Coach Scott Forbes added another arm with Sanford ties to his roster.
Grace Christian ace Camron Seagraves announced in July his commitment to Forbes and the Tar Heels. He will join Lee County High School star Walker McDuffie in the freshman class in Chapel Hill.
Seagraves was named the Gatorade North Carolina Baseball Player of the Year this year for his season at Grace. The right-hander led the Crusaders to a 20-7 record and the NCISAA Class 3A state title while posting an 8-2 record on the mound, including a no-hitter. He struck out 127 batters in 65.1 innings
A 2024 All-State selection, he’s ranked as the nation’s No. 160 prospect in his class by Perfect Game. He originally committed to play for Campbell University, but re-opened his recruitment after Coach Justin Haire left for the head coaching job at Ohio State.
PERMIT: WINGSTOP LOCATION PLANNED FOR SPRING LANE
A Wingstop location is set to occupy the vacant space next to the Starbucks on Spring Lane, according to a permit issued by the Sanford-Lee County Inspections Division.
The permit, issued on May 28, allows for an interior remodel of the nearly 2,500 square foot space at 822 Spring Lane and lists the proposed use as “Wingstop restaurant w/ dining & take-out options.”
The permit expires on Nov. 24, so the restaurant should be open before the end of the year if work goes according to plan.
Wingstop was founded in Texas in 1994 and has more than 1,400 locations in the United States and elsewhere across the globe. Its menu is mainly wings and other chicken options like sandwhiches.
The closest Wingstop locations to Sanford are currently in Cary and Fayetteville.
COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT TO PROVIDE MOSQUITO DUNKS
The Lee County Health Department is distributing mosquito dunks to residents to help with dengue fever prevention.
Mosquito dunks are available for pickup on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 2-4 p.m. on the second floor of the Lee County Government Center, located at 106 Hillcrest Drive; the first floor of the Buggy Factory, located at 115 Chatham St.; and at the Lee County Animal Shelter, located at 1450 N. Horner Boulevard.
There is a limit of two dunks per household while supplies last. In addition to treating standing water, other steps to reduce your exposure to mosquito bites include applying mosquito repellent when outdoors and pouring or removing any standing water.
For more information regarding mosquito dunk pickup, call the Lee County Health Department at (919) 718-4640. BRIEFS
Karen Tatum’s paintings are described as being ‘fun, expressionistic and full of life.’
OXIDE ART GALLERY TO PRESENT ‘ART MY
WAY’ EXHIBITION IN AUGUST
Oxide Gallery of Fine Art will present Art My Way, new works in two and three-dimensions by Karen Tatum throughout the month of August. The gallery will be open for a First Saturday Public Reception on Aug. 3 from 5-8 p.m., with music, refreshments and an artist meet and greet with Karen.
Tatum is a self-taught multimedia artist who sees the world with strong colors and bold lines. Her paintings are created with acrylics, water colors and mixed media — sometimes all in the same painting. Her work is known for being fun, expressionistic and full of life.
Visit Oxide Gallery to explore regular exhibitions, the N.C. Art Gift Shop and Lee County’s only Art-o-mat where you can get a piece of artwork for only $5.
Upcoming Exhibitions
• August: Karen Tatum
• September: N.C. Landscapes group exhibition featuring over 30 North Carolina artists
• October: Galerie Macabre group exhibition and the Artstober Gala and Art Auction
• November and December: Holiday Treasures and Gift Boutique.
CAMPBELL MED SCHOOL AMONG BEST IN NATION IN RURAL PRACTICE
The Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine at Campbell University ranks second-highest in the nation for “Medical Schools With the Most Graduates Practicing in Health Professional Shortage Areas,” according to U.S. News & World Report rankings of top medical schools released on July 22.
U.S. News says 46.8 percent of Campbell graduates are practicing in medically underserved areas, the only N.C. medical ranking in the top 10 in this category. Further, and also significantly, Campbell’s med school ranks 11th in Most Graduates Practicing in Primary Care, with 41.1 percent of graduates practicing in primary care.
Serving rural communities in North Carolina with the goal of keeping physicians in those communities is a primary goal of Campbell, which boasts the only osteopathic medical school in North Carolina.
Osteopathic medical schools secured the top 14 positions for graduates practicing in primary care, and six osteopathic medical schools are ranked in the top 14 for graduates practicing in rural areas, says the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine.
NEW LEE COUNTY SCHOOLS APP NOW AVAILABLE
The new Lee County Schools mobile app is available to download for Android or Apple iPhones.
In July, the district announced new parent-teacher chat options within the app.
“Now it’s easier than ever to stay upto-date with the district, schools and with your student’s teachers and classes,” the district announced on July 16. “Parents and guardians will soon receive instructions via email to create their login to access rooms within the district app.
The app includes easy access to a calendar of events, the ability to subscribe for notifications on specific schools and the ability to share events, news or notifications with friends on social media.
Search “Lee County Schools” in the Android or Apple store to download.
Donations for Ken Moss can be made atcota.org/COTAforTeamKen.
Team members can also accept donations by check payable to COTA with “COTA for Team Ken” in the memo line.
CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED FOR SANFORD MAN’S LIVER TRANSPLANT
After nearly 18 months of dealing with a mystery respiratory illness, Sanford resident Ken Moss was recently diagnosed with alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) deficiency, a rare genetic disorder that can cause lung or liver disease. Moss was born with the deficiency, but never experienced any symptoms until he got sick in 2022 and couldn’t get better.
It wasn’t until extensive testing in 2023 revealed elevated liver enzymes that his care team at UNC Medical Center tested his AAT levels.
That’s when the Moss family got devastating news. Not only did Moss have AAT deficiency, but he also had liver disease — something that happens to only about 15 percent of AAT deficient patients.
“We were just in shock,” said his wife, Meg. “Not only is the deficiency rare, but Ken also has one of its rarest complications.”
In just six months, Moss has gone from learning about AAT deficiency to being approved for the liver transplant list. “It is a progressive disease that will only get worse,” said Meg. “His only hope for survival is a new liver to correct the deficiency.”
Moss is preparing to be in the best physical condition to accept a liver when the time comes. He’s limited his diet to liver-friendly foods and focused on regaining
his strength and endurance after being sick for so long, shedding nearly 50 pounds in the process.
Meanwhile, a team of his friends are fundraising for COTA in Moss’s honor to assist with transplant-related expenses throughout his lifetime. COTA is a national charity dedicated to organizing and guiding communities in raising funds for transplant-related expenses. All of the funds generated by COTA community fundraising campaigns are available for transplant-related expenses.
COTA helps transplant families avoid financial devastation. Transplant procedure costs range from $100,000 to more than $800,000. Once the transplant is complete, families face significant transplant-related expenses, including medication, transportation to and from the transplant center, lodging, and expenses while patients are out of work. In cases where a financial shortfall exists, COTA helps bridge the gap.
“We are hoping to raise $50,000 in the next six months for COTA for ‘Team Ken,’ to assist families like the Mosses as they face this challenge head on,” says Campaign Coordinator Abby Miles. The team’s full goal is to raise $85,000 for COTA in the next year.
Online donations of $5 or more are accepted atcota.org/COTAforTeamKen. Donations can be made by phone at (800) 366-2682.
EVENT CALENDAR
AUGUST 17
POP!-CON RETURNS
The 2024 Lee County Libraries POP!-con and Renaissance Faire will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the library in downtown Sanford. Vendors, entertainers, artists, authors and activities planned, as well as the return of the cosplay contest and fashion show (which is getting a makeover this year). Learn more at library.leecountync.gov/popcon.
SEND YOUR EVENT
The Rant Monthly's community calendar has returned, and we're doing our best to track down everything going on in Sanford and Lee County. Send us your events by email at billy@rantnc.com and include the date, time, location and a brief description.
AUGUST 2024
SATURDAYS: The Sanford Farmers Market runs from 8:30 a.m. to noon each Saturday through Nov. 9. The market features locally grown produce, locally raised meats, local vendors and artisans and more. The market is located at 115 Chatham St. in downtown Sanford, across from Yarborough’s.
AUG 1: 80’s Unleashed will perform at the City of Sanford Summer Concert series at 6 p.m. at Kiwanis Family Park.
AUG 2-3: Temple Theatre’s Children’s Musical Theatre Conservatory (session 2) will present Aladdin Jr. Tickets are available online at templeshows.org.
AUG 2-11: Magic Midways will host 10 days of “super fun free admission” for the midway at 3004 S. Horner Boulevard (in front of Tractor Supply). Sanford Family Days will run through Aug. 11.
AUG 3: House in the Horseshoe will host the 243rd Anniversary Reenactment - “The Best Defense We Can,” the annual reenactment of the Tory and Whig skirmish during the Revolutionary War. Battles begin at 2 p.m. Activities and demonstrations will run throughout the day from 10 a.m. to 4 pm.
AUG 3: Oxide Gallery of Fine Art will present Art My Way, new works in two and three-dimensions by Karen Tatum, throughout the month of August. The gallery will be open for a First Saturday Public Reception on Aug. 3 from 5-8 p.m., with music, refreshments and an artist meet and greet with Karen.
AUG 3: With Love Boutique will celebrate its fourth anniversary with surprise discounts, a free T-shirt, drinks, giveaways and fun at its location on 148 S. Steel St. in downtown Sanford. The celebration will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
AUG 4: Hugger Mugger Brewing and Sanford Yoga Center team up for Yoga
and Beer the first Sunday of each month. Cost is $20 for a session and drink.
AUG 4: Faith Bardill will perform at 5 p.m. at Kiwanis Family Park as part of the park’s Acoustic Sunday Series. Concert is free to the public.
AUG 5-9: Seva Yoga in downtown Sanford will host Yoga Camp for rising kindergarten through third-grade students from 1:30 to 3 p.m. Cost is $80 a student. The camp is led by yoga teacher and mom Katie Brownfield. Space is limited. Sign up at sevayoganc.com.
AUG 6: Lee County Library will host Lego Masters at 3 p.m. in the main library auditorium. Registration is no longer required, but seating is limited.
AUG 8: Band of Oz will perform at the City of Sanford Summer Concert series at 6 p.m. at Kiwanis Family Park.
AUG 8: The Lee County Library Teen Anime Club will meet at 4 p.m. Registra-
tion is not required, and teens ages 13-1 are welcome. Earn badges and prizes for attending.
AUG 9: Solar Illusion will perform at Temple Theatre at 7 p.m. The band will play its entire discography plus a few unreleased singles. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at templeshows.com.
AUG 9: Whiskey Pines will perform at Smoke & Barrel in downtown Sanford at 8 p.m.
AUG 10: Lee County Government Parks & Recreation hosts Pop Up in the Park every second Saturday of the month April through September. Free hot dog lunch, inflatables for the kids and other games. Event starts at 11 a.m. at O.T. Sloan Park.
AUG 10: A Downtown Walking Tour will be held every second Saturday of the month, starting from Sanford Farmers Market and led by Lee County Library. The tours are free to the public, and no registration is required. Each tour will begin at 11:45 a.m.
AUG 11: Abby Leigh will perform at Kiwanis Family Park as part of this summer’s Acoustic Sunday Series. Bring your chairs, food and drinks and dance along to this free concert. Show starts at 5 p.m.
AUG 15: Downtown Sanford Merchants will host their Third Thursdays event from 5 to 7 p.m. Come enjoy a fun after-hours experience and sales galore. Plan to stay and dine at one of the city’s restaurants after you shop.
AUG 15: The Mixtapes will perform at Kiwanis Family Park as part of the free Summer Concert Series. Show begins at 6 p.m.
AUG 16: Rodney Brady will play your favorite cover songs and some original rock music with a soulful American feel at Smoke & Barrel in downtown Sanford at 8 p.m.
AUG 18: Tonk Honky will perform at Kiwanis Family Park as part of the Acoustic Sundays music series. Free concert starts at 5 p.m.
AUG 22: Dalton Davis will perform at Kiwanis Family Park as part of the free Summer Concert Series. Show begins at 6 p.m.
AUG 23: Family Farm Day returns to the Pint Sized Pasture on Fire Tower Road in Sanford. Unlimited access to walk around and visit all the farm animals; pet, brush and feed the larger animals and more. Yard games for the kids, an expanded corn pit and more. Tickets are $7 (babies are free).
AUG 29: Shawn Mullins will round out the Kiwanis Park Summer Concert Series at 6 p.m.
SEP 5-22: Temple Theatre’s first main stage production of the 2024-25 season is Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. The show will kick off the theater’s 100th anniversary. For ticket information, visit templeshows.org.
SEP 11-15: Sanford Lions Club will present the award-winning Lee Regional Fair at the fairgrounds. Much more information to come on this year’s big event.
SEP 19: Welcome the arrival of fall weather with the start of Downtown Sanord Inc.’s Downtown Alive Fall Concert series. The free concert series will be located on Steele Street, with food trucks and breweries on site. Concert line-up coming soon.
SEP 20-21: The fall edition of Carolina Indie Fest returns to Hugger Mugger Brewing in downtown Sanford. Line-up announcement coming soon.
WEDNESDAYS: Lee County Libraries will host Baby Story Times (0-18 months) and Toddler Story Times (1-3 years) at 10 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. respectively on Wednesdays throughout June at the library in downtown Sanford.
THURSDAYS: Wild Dogs Brewing hosts a “pop-up bookstore and bottle shop” every Thursday from 4 to 10 p.m.
THURSDAYS: Lee County Libraries will host Family Story Times for all ages at 10 a.m. on Thursdays throughout the month of June. The videos will be posted to the library’s YouTube channel on Mondays at 1 p.m. The library is located at 107 Hawkins Ave. in Sanford.
FRIDAYS: Lee County Libraries will host Baby Story Times (0-18 months) and Toddler Story Times (1-3 years) at 10 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. respectively on Fridays throughout June at the Broadway branch library at 206 S. Main St. in Broadway.
CROSSWORD: Summer Olympics
ACROSS
1. Delhi dress
5. *Individual Neutral Athlete at 2024 Olympics, acr.
8. Mother in #48 Down
12. Joie de vivre
13. Fodder holder
14. External
15. ____ Grey tea
16. Gulf V.I.P.
17. Edible cannabis substance
18. *Famous Olympics basketball team (2 words)
20. 90 degrees on compass
21. Like Al Yankovic
22. Popular deciduous tree
23. College treasurer
26. Balaclava (2 words)
30. Compass point between E and NE
31. Nullify
34. Diva’s delivery
35. Smart ones?
37. Two halves
38. That is, in Latin
39. First queen of Carthage
40. What ivy does
42. ___ chi
43. Hindered
45. Alternative form of a gene
47. Band aid
48. Diet inspired by prehistory
50. European erupter
52. *Michael Phelps predecessor
56. “In the Hall of the Mountain King” composer Edvard ____
57. Black and white killer?
58. U.S. lake
59. From then on
60. Bank claim
61. Decomposes
62. Against, prefix
63. a.k.a. acid
64. State of vexation
DOWN
1. Bird feeder morsel
2. a.k.a. Daminozide
3. Hard to find
4. Family addition, pl.
5. *Archer or shooter, e.g.
6. Homer’s classic
7. Accepted behavior
8. *a.k.a. Cassius, 1960 gold medal winner
9. Greek H’s
10. Landlord’s due
11. Heat unit
13. Certain style of humor
14. Obelus, pl.
19. “The end justifies the ____”
22. ____ out, as in a win
23. Mardi Gras souvenir
24. Dark
25. Full of cattails
26. Petals holder
27. Rocky ridge
28. Like certain rug
29. *Swimmer Ledecky
32. *Like 23 out of Michael Phelps’ 28
33. “Wheel of Fortune” request (2 words)
36. *Nadia of perfect 10 fame
38. Archipelago
40. Large edible mushroom
41. *Like Bosnia and Herzegovina or Bulgaria
44. Mental portrait
46. Trotters
48. *2024 Olympics host city
49. Formed a curve
50. Sportscaster Andrews
51. Windshield option
52. Gangster’s gal
53. *Xander Schauffele club option
54. South American monkey
55. Gusto
56. Geological Society of America
