Aberdeen has been the beneficiary for much of southern Moore County’s growth over the past 20 years, and it has been spending the past few years trying to catch up.
It’s taken the better part of three years, but finally the Moore County Board of Education may be out of the real estate business. Construction of new elementary schools in Aberdeen and Southern Pines allowed the board to consolidate students who, in each town, had been divided between two schools.
Birdie, by the team of local firefighters who traveled to Black Mountain last month to work a shift in support of a crew up there so they could mourn the death of a fellow firefighter.
The Southern Pines primary election this past week eliminated one of five candidates vying for two seats on the Town Council. But the bigger question may be whether the election’s anemic turnout may finally spur the town to eliminate this costly and needless step.
Southern Pines has changed a great deal since Pappy and Ginnie Moss and their party would climb atop horses and set off into the longleaf pine woods with their hounds in search of fox or perhaps just a beautiful ride on a fall morning. “Horse Country” has long been part of Southern Pines’ he…
The West Pinehurst Community Park is marked by a formal sign, a port-a-potty, a disc golf layout and a walking trail, but not much else. Activity for anyone who stumbles across the 75-acre site off Chicken Plant Road in west Pinehurst would best be described as “passive recreation.”
You can credit — or blame — politics for the reason why several military installations in Southern states are named for Confederate generals. Early in the 20th century, as the government sought to amass vast acreage for these bases, it appeased Southerners by naming these areas after general…
The General Assembly in the coming weeks will take up the task again of drawing districts for the state House and Senate, as well as boundaries for the state’s congressional representation.
Eagle, by MaryBeth Poplyk, who recently stepped down as executive director of the Sunrise Theater in downtown Southern Pines.
TV sitcoms and cop shows have long known what engages viewers when attention spans and ratings sag. New characters get introduced, car chases — and spectacular pile-ups — get written in and scripts get doused in plot twists.
FirstHealth of the Carolinas, a leader in health care across this region and state, is increasingly out of step with its peers. Every major health system in North Carolina, save for FirstHealth and one other — Mission Health in western North Carolina — have instituted coronavirus vaccine man…
The bricks, glass and stone of Sept. 11, 2001, belong exclusively to New York City, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pa. Solemn memorials mark those locations. They are special ground.
Successful businesses have a culture of finding a way to say “yes.” It’s called innovation or customer responsiveness.
On Sept. 6, 1936, having just returned from a trip across nine states to see the effects of the Dust Bowl and drought — two months before the next election, and with the country still in the midst of the Great Depression — President Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke directly to the American people…
Maybe you’re reading this while piled up in U.S. 15-501 traffic in Aberdeen. Or maybe you’re out on your back porch listening to the sounds of hammers pounding on yet another new roof on yet another new house behind you. Either way, you’re not going to believe what the new U.S. census has to…
North Carolina’s municipalities, from the largest cities to the smallest villages, are creations of the state. As such, they are granted only those powers that the state wishes to imbue. There is no “home rule,” a concept that 40 states grant their municipalities, in some form.
It was a moment of extraordinary pride last Thursday as local dignitaries gathered with the staff and supporters of Pinehurst Elementary School to “cut the ribbon” on the last of five major construction projects for Moore County.
Eagle, by Hampton Williams, for his many years of faithful service to Southern Pines as the town’s fire chief. Williams, who passed away earlier this month, joined the town fire department in 1986 when it was still mostly a volunteer force.
The sting from the school board’s decision on disposition of the former Southern Pines Primary School won’t pass anytime soon. But neither the town nor the Southern Pines Land and Housing Trust can afford to let that shortsighted act prevent what could yet be.
Judging by the homemade signs and harsh rhetoric at Monday night’s Board of Education meeting, you’d think the school district was instituting draconian coronavirus measures to start the school year.
The General Assembly’s “long” session, begun back in January, is now lumbering into its eighth month. In that time, lawmakers have stirred plenty of fights — most of them expected — over COVID protocols, school curriculum standards and Critical Race Theory; energy regulatory reform and tax c…
For almost 100 years, land at the corner of Carlisle Street and West New York Avenue has been a community cornerstone. Over all those years, in one iteration or another, it was a center of education, of pride, of support for the Black residents who lived in surrounding neighborhoods.
Ask any police chief the hardest part of their job, and the answer you’ll likely hear is “staffing.”
Eagle, by Tom Beddow, Don Hunter and their able team at the Country Club of North Carolina, for their exceptional hosting of the recently concluded U.S. Junior Amateur Championship.
Here we go again. The ebb-and-flow cycle of the coronavirus pandemic is in flow mode again, as a result of the highly contagious “delta variant.” Across the country, the state and here in Moore County, positive test rates are on a new upswing, hospitalizations are rising, and much of the pr…
The worst thing you can do in the debate over Critical Race Theory is listen to the shrillest of voices on either side and stake your own position on that basis.
Most of us are fortunate, in that our lives and our families have not intersected with gun violence. For the prominence that shootings and deaths maintain in the media, it is still uncommon for most people to experience a personal connection to such an occurrence.
Developers are known for their visions of what could be. It’s an important skill to possess in order to take that vision to fruition.
Birdie, by the Kelley family of Southern Pines and the crew with Dave’s Tree Service in Vass for not taking the easy way out with an old tree.
If you get clever enough about it, and have the driving capacity to pull it off, you could almost play a round of golf across multiple courses and multiple communities in southern Moore.
Hello and welcome again to another edition of Dickering for Dollars, in which contestants face off in a needless argument that results in lots of money left on the table.
This is a partial text of the Declaration of Independence, adopted in Philadelphia 245 years ago yesterday, on July 4, 1776.
Sixteen in 26. That first number represents the U.S. Golf Association championships hosted in the Sandhills in the past 26 years.
Eagle, by the friends of Phil Menendian, who rallied around him and his wife after a freak accident in West End left him severely injured.
Remember the good ol’ days of two months ago when the school district seemed awash in extra money flowing through federal coronavirus relief programs?
The act of governments offering economic incentives to recruit new businesses to town is always a tricky thing.
In less than a month, Moore County and its municipalities will begin new budget years. Unlike last year, when the coronavirus left many impacts unknown, our communities are going into the new year in much better shape, aided in part by better-than-expected sales tax collections and lots of f…
It’s not every day that a hospital builds a new cancer center, and in mostly rural counties like Moore, it’s virtually never.
Birdie, by the town of Southern Pines, for its creative approach to environmental problem solving.
We’re losing them by the hundreds every day, the brave men who stormed the beaches of Normandy 77 years ago today. But remember D-Day we must.
Do you feel it? Out there, in the air. In people’s lively steps. Hugs, handshakes, heads thrown back in laughter and glee. The calendar may have us celebrating Independence Day three weeks from now, but there is no missing the palpable feel of freedom as the coronavirus continues to wane.
Congratulations, seniors. You are soon to turn your tassels and a corner in your life. The only thing left to do is post your celebration video on TikTok.
Memorial Day is an appropriate time to reread Abraham Lincoln’s sublime Gettysburg Address honoring Civil War dead.
“The nine most terrifying words in the English language,” Ronald Reagan once famously quipped, “are: I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”
Double Bogey, by school board member David Hensley and Whispering Pines Mayor Alexa Roberts, for letting their personal feuds overtake their elected roles.
Lately, you’ve had a greater chance of finding a debate about Critical Race Theory than an open gas station.
Maybe last year’s toilet paper shortage was the canary in the coal mine? A sign that we better buckle up for the new “shortage economy”?
A casino in Pinehurst? Anyone wanna give us odds on that? Yeah, we didn’t think so. Financially, North Carolina is doing quite well these days, with a projected surplus of $4 billion by June 30. But that hasn’t stopped some folks from looking at ways to generate new revenue, from legalizing…
We couldn’t let this weekend go without pausing to reflect that it’s been 25 years since the passing of Sam Ragan, one of North Carolina’s true men of letters — and poems, books and newspapers.
The Moore County Board of Education sought to bury their hatchets Monday, and for a change it wasn’t into each other’s backs.
