Government – Moore County Edition

Feb

22

2023

0 Comments

By North State Journal Staff

Hudson opens flagship office in Southern Pines

GovernmentMoore County, Richard Hudson, Southern Pines, us representative

SOUTHERN PINES — Moore County’s member of Congress now has his flagship district office located in Southern Pines. U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house for the 9th Congressional District’s newest office. Hudson, whose family moved to Southern Pines, is the first member of Congress to live and operate a primary office in Moore County in recent history. “As your Congressman, I am committed to delivering results for families throughout our region and providing top-notch customer service from our offices in both Washington, D.C. and North Carolina,” said Rep. Hudson. “With our new primary district office…

Feb

15

2023

0 Comments

By A.P. Dillon

State Health Plan releases all documents related to third-party contract change

Government, NewsAetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield NC, contract change, state health plan

RALEIGH — All documents related to the change from Blue Cross Blue Shield NC to Aetna as the State Health Plan’s third-party administrative services contract (TPA) are now publicly available. Last week, the State Health Plan (SHP) published all of the materials, including requests for proposals (RFP) and the responses, on a specially created transparency page on its website. “We are the most transparent and open agency in state government,” Treasurer Dale Folwell said in a statement. “I cannot be prouder of the work done by the staff of the State Health Plan and the bipartisan State Health Plan Board…

Feb

08

2023

0 Comments

By Ryan Henkel, North State Journal

Aberdeen swears in eight new, full-time firefighters

GovernmentAberdeen Town Board, firefighters, government, Moore County, regular meeting, swearing in

ABERDEEN – The Aberdeen Town Board began its Monday, January 24, regular meeting with some positive news by recognizing and swearing in eight new full-time firefighters. “I feel very blessed that we were able to hire eight,” said Fire Chief Phillip Richardson. “I’ve talked with FEMA and several other departments across the country that were awarded the SAFER grant, and they are having a lot of difficulty getting the people hired, and we were able to hire all of ours in one thing.” “Six of these personnel are through what we call SAFER. They are FEMA employed and paid by…

Feb

01

2023

0 Comments

By Ryan Henkel, North State Journal

Pinehurst Council approves fifth moratorium extension for Small Area Plan areas

Governmentlocal government, Pinehurst Council, small area plan, Village of Pinehurst

PINEHURST — The Village of Pinehurst Council met Tuesday, January 24, with the only action item on the agenda being just a single public hearing. The council held a public hearing for the proposed moratorium extension for the Small Area Plan areas – Village Place/Rattlesnake Trail Corridor and Pinehurst South/NC Highway 5 Commercial Area. “The current 120-day moratorium ordinance is set to expire on February 3, 2023,” said Director of Planning and Inspections Darryn Burich. “The original nine-month moratorium was adopted on February 10, 2021, and it has been extended four additional times. A 90-day extension is requested for Village…

Jan

25

2023

0 Comments

By Ryan Henkel, North State Journal

Southern Pines Country Club expansion hearing continued to next month’s meeting

Government, Newscommissioners meeting, country club, golf club, Southern Pines

SOUTHERN PINES — The Southern Pines Town Council met Tuesday, January 10, with multiple public hearings on the agenda. The first public hearing was for various text amendments to the UDO. “When we are engaging with the Unified Development Ordinance in our office, and we encounter problematic language or things that aren’t clear, we sometimes print off a page, sometimes scribble a note, throw it into a file, and set it aside. And then every so often, when we have an opportunity, we’ll run through what we refer to as a package of text amendments,” said Planning Director BJ Grieve.…

Jan

18

2023

0 Comments

By Ryan Henkel, North State Journal

Pinehurst approves new strategic goals

GovernmentGiven Memorial Library, library, Pinehurst Council, renovation, Tufts Archives, Village of Pinehurst Council

PINEHURST — The Village of Pinehurst Council met Tuesday, Jan. 10 with the a couple of contracts needing approval and a presentation of the Village’s revised strategic operating goals on the agenda. The council approved a contract with Oakley Collier Architects, PA for design services for renovations to the Given Memorial Library and Tuft Archives. “Last month we met and went over the proposal that Oakley Collier gave us and this contract was in line with what the proposal was,” said Assistant Village Manager Doug Willardson. “It will be $140,000 for the schematic design services which includes the existing conditions…

Jan

09

2023

0 Comments

By Matt Mercer

Moore school board moves to ban TikTok

Government, News

PINEHURST — On Monday, Jan. 9, the Moore County School Board moved to ban TikTok from county devices and internet networks. During the morning work session ahead of the regular meeting, a resolution from chairman Robert Levy was presented to the board. Among the reasons in the resolution are the "security concerns of TikTok and ByteDance, ltd. outweigh its educational value to our students." Many states have banned the service from government-owned devices and a ban was included recently for federal government devices in a bill passed late last year. It is believed that once formally approved, Moore County Schools will…

Dec

14

2022

0 Comments

By North State Journal Staff

Hudson announces senior staff

Government, NewsRichard Hudson, staffing, us house of representatives

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Last week, U.S. Representative Richard Hudson (R-NC) announced new senior staff positions in his Washington, DC, and North Carolina offices. Chief of Staff Billy Constangy has been promoted to leadership chief of staff. Constangy, who has worked for Rep. Hudson since 2017, will take on the role following Hudson’s election to a new position in House Republican leadership that places Hudson fourth in line to the Speaker. Before serving as chief of staff, Constangy was Hudson’s district director from 2017-2020. Prior to joining Hudson, Constangy served as a senior staff member under former Gov. Pat McCrory (R-NC)…

Dec

05

2022

0 Comments

By Moore County Staff

Many in Moore County remain without power as Duke, REMC work to replace damages infrastructure

Business, Government, NewsDuke Power, Mass Power Outage, Randolph Electric, Southern Pines

PINEHURST — Nearly half the over 2,700 Randolph Electric customers affected by the weekend damage to Moore County's power grid have regained power and Duke Energy crews have restored power to nearly 7,000 customers since Sunday night. As of Monday, approximately 38,000 Duke customers in the area remain without power – down from 45,000. Randolph EMC said in a release that the Moore County outage has affected 2,768 members and co-op has restored power to 1,276 total members at various times and for a limited duration. Randolph EMC has implemented a rotating restoration process for parts of the outage area.…

Nov

16

2022

0 Comments

By Associated Press

Army probes whether troops wrongly targeted in bonus scandal

Government, Newspentagon, united states army, us military

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Years after about 1,900 National Guard and Reserve soldiers were swept up in a recruiting bonus scandal, U.S. Army investigators are reviewing the cases and correcting records because some individuals were wrongly blamed and punished, Army officials said Thursday. The Army’s Criminal Investigation Division said it will complete a review of the bulk of the 1,900 soldiers by the end of this year to identify and begin to fix the mistakes. CID said agents during the initial investigation may have misunderstood facts or failed to follow proper procedures and erroneously added soldiers’ names to an FBI crime…