The Fayetteville City Council met on Monday, April 28, 2025, at 6:30 PM in the Council Chamber. The meeting included recognitions, announcements, consent agenda items, staff reports, a public hearing, and several other business items. Council members discussed and voted on a new ordinance prohibiting blocking of streets and sidewalks, a resolution supporting Powell Bill funding, and a utility assessment appeal, among other items.
Thank you for the gift of leadership and the responsibility and trust it to those who serve here. Grant us wisdom to our city officials as we seek the common good. May every decision, every discussion that is made be guided by integrity. We ask for hearts to be opened and a spirit of collaboration to fill this place. And may your grace be so evident in the way words are spoken and how people act and how they lead. Amen. Stayed there for about five years, moved around, took two, three schools, and then eventually we built the church that we're in now at 71st School Road. So glad to cooperate and just collaborate with uh several community programs, and we just our mission is to reach those who are further away and bring them into a relationship uh with with Jesus Christ. And um, and God is just doing great things uh in our collaboration with different programs throughout the community. Pastor, we thank you for the service to the community for 22 years, and thank you for uh giving us our invocation tonight. If we can give him a round of applause. Thank you. Council, as we move forward, we have uh some very special guests and some well, all of you are special, but we have some guests that we're gonna acknowledge tonight uh in a number of ways who've rendered service to this community in so many different ways, and we will have uh Mr. Scott Embry of the United Way, if the executive director, also Tony Wild Harbor uh Development Director of the Spirit of North Carolina for the spirit of North Carolina Award. Uh, also Miss Jacqueline Abbott, if they could please come to the podium at this time, or any of those representatives here. Uh good evening. Hello, Mr. Mayor, City Council. My name is Jacqueline Abbott. I'm actually a community development specialist here in economic and community development. The United Way couldn't be with us tonight. Um, they will be here on May 12th, but I still prepared a speech anyway. So thank you for your time. And you are actually the recipient. Yes, so it says that uh let me read this. The Scott Embry, United Way of Cumberland County Executive Director and Tony Wild Harbor Development Director will present the Spirit of North Carolina Award to Miss Jacqueline Abbott for exceptional service and leadership in the city's United Way campaign. So we thank you, Ms. Abbott for a worthwhile cause. Let's give Ms. Abbott a round of applause. And uh as you get into your speech, tell us a little bit about the United Way program that the city has where we help them in their fundraising. Sure. So for those of you who don't work for the city, um, the city manager's office is known affectionately as the CMO. And so the campaign that we've had for the past two years is called the CM Olympics, where I've had the assistant city managers all competing with their portfolios to see who can raise the most money for United Way. And then that assistant city manager has to go over the edge in the United Way fundraiser. This year it was assistant city manager Jody Phelps who went over on Saturday. And last year, in our first year of the CM Olympics, I was extremely pleased that my assistant city manager Kelly Strickland was the first to go over. Uh oh. And the first year of the United Way campaign, um, as me chairing it, we raised about 22,000. This past year, we more than doubled that. We raised over 50,000 for the United Way. That's great. So I'm truly humbled to receive this uh award from the United Way. And first, uh, I want to offer my sincere thanks to the city council for fostering this community collaborative spirit and everything that you do to make our community a better place. To City Manager Hewitt and the assistant city managers, thank you for being open to my ideas and jumping in to help bring them to life. A special thanks to my department director who was just up here with me, Chris Collie, and my assistant director, Alex Baker. Your encouragement and support have meant the world to me. And to every city employee who donated their time and resources in making a difference. Thank you. To my parents, thank you for teaching me the importance of serving others before myself, and to my partner, thank you for your encouragement.