Tommy Wilson was named director of Curriculum and Instruction for Craven County Schools effective July 2. Wilson has been serving as principal at West Craven Middle School. As director of Curriculum and Instruction, Wilson will provide leadership and direction in the ongoing planning, implementation, development, review, and evaluation of the district’s curriculum and instructional services, DoDEA Grants, and Title II Federal Program.  His responsibilities as the director ensures that the district’s curriculum and instruction priorities are aligned to state standards and to instructional practices that yield the highest standards of student achievement and instructional excellence. Wilson graduated from West Craven High School as well asRead More →

The City of New Bern announced the hiring of Charles Bauschard as its new Director of Public Utilities. His first day with the City of New Bern was May 29.  His annual salary is $125,000. Bauschard comes from Coldwater, Michigan, where he was employed with the Coldwater Board of Public Utilities as Director of Technical Services and Electric Operations since November 2003.  In this position, he managed the electric distribution, service, generation, telecom and engineering departments. The City reviewed numerous resumes and assessed several qualified candidates for the position.  Bauschard stood out with his leadership and engineering skills, capital improvement and rate planning experience, andRead More →

The Entrepreneur Center of Craven County (TEC3) is holding Duct Tape Marketing™ seminars on Thursday, June 14. Two Sessions will be held at TEC3 at 233 Middle St #310, New Bern. Participants can choose the 9 a.m. – Noon or the 1 – 4 p.m. session. Lunch will be held from Noon to 1 p.m. The price for the seminar is $45 and includes lunch and materials. Current TEC3 members may attend the seminar and lunch at no charge. To register, visit www.cravenbusiness.com. Leading the seminars will be Dan Kraus, president of Leading Results, who is a Duct Tape Marketing certified consultant. Kraus has more than two decadesRead More →

Longleaf Politics The General Assembly is taking a highly unusual route toward accomplishing its even-year requirement, a budget adjustment bill. It’s a little complicated and hard to understand. But the way that House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger are choosing do to things has already drawn strong condemnation from Democrats, who are calling it a “sham” process. And while the state’s minority party is often hyperbolic and hypocritical in calling out political gamesmanship — this time, they might have a point. It’s all about November. Let’s get beyond the finger-pointing. Here is what’s actually happening. More  Read More →

REVEAL NEWS / Center for Investigative Reporting For years, North Carolina officials looked the other way while a rogue drug rehab program exploited people struggling with addiction and put disabled patients at risk. Recovery Connections Community, a two-year rehab program near Asheville, sent participants to work as unpaid caregivers at adult care homes throughout the state. Participants got little addiction help, but were ordered to work 16-hour days caring for elderly and disabled patients, often with disastrous results. Jennifer Warren has spent years recruiting the poor and desperate to her drug rehabilitation program in the mountains outside Asheville, North Carolina. She promised them counseling and recoveryRead More →

Boys & Girls Clubs of the Coastal Plain announced a partnership with the Chad Sittig Agency as a beneficiary of “Quotes for a Cause,” their Community Outreach Program. “Quotes for a Cause” is an initiative developed by Chad Sittig that provides an opportunity to support local non-profit organizations. Simply call or stop by his office for a quote and, in return, the agency will make a donation to one of the two organizations highlighted this quarter. No purchase necessary. Sittig says, “We are so excited about the ‘Quotes for a Cause’ program that the agency started earlier this year. Our team wanted to establish a unique wayRead More →

Updated with corrected information about enterprise fund. Headed into the June 12 meeting during which the Board of Aldermen will actually approve the city budget, as written, the spending plan is good for public safety without raising taxes, but does little to correct deficiencies that make it harder for people with disabilities to live in the city. The plan calls for the addition of six firefighter positions at the Thurman Road fire house, which will enable the outpost station to more aggressively attack structure fires (and save lives of people trapped in burning buildings) without having to wait for backup from the city’s other stations,Read More →

Alderman Barbara Best proposed that board members get a 30 percent raise.   Alderman Barbara Best took a brave stand during Tuesday’s Board of Aldermen meeting, one that critics would accuse her as being self-serving. Best made a motion for members of the board to receive a 30 percent pay raise over the remainder of their four-year terms in office. It amounts to $2,429 in extra income, bringing their annual pay (except the mayor and mayor pro tem, who each earn more) to just over $10,000 per year. Aldermen Jameesha Harris and Johnnie Ray Kinsey backed Best’s motion. Aldermen Sabrina Bengel, Bobby Aster, and JeffreyRead More →

North Carolina’s U.S. Senators Richard M. Burr and Thom Tillis urged the Chairs and Ranking Members of the Senate Armed Services and Defense Appropriations Committees to purchase 93 F-35 fighter aircraft during the 2018-19 federal fiscal year. This request, made in an April 11 letter to the Senate appropriators, would add 16 Joint Strike Fighters to next year’s budget. Senator Tillis is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s Personnel Subcommittee. Senator Burr is chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The President’s Budget included 77 F-35s for $10.7 billion. Senators Burr and Tillis joined with 23 of their fellow senators to urge that funding be increased asRead More →

Ben Kearns, second from left, Cape Fear Public Utility Authority water operations supervisor, explains water-filtration testing equipment during an August 2017 legislative tour of the authority’s Sweeney Water Treatment Plant in Wilmington. Kirk Ross / Carolina Public Press  By KIRK ROSS Carolina Public Press State House and Senate leaders announced a long-sought agreement last week on a statewide response to “emerging contaminants,” a class of new, unregulated compounds that have been found in North Carolina rivers and whose effects on human health are unclear. Close to 90,000 of these potentially hazardous substances are known to exist. For water-quality regulators at the state, federal and localRead More →