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Belk, the North Carolina-based retailer that relies so much on holiday receipts to meet investor expectations, got into some hot water over its decision to ban Salvation Army bell ringers, so much so that it has reversed course and decided bell ringers are welcome, after all. Here’s the Tweet that Belk sent out on Dec. 2: Belk‏Verified account @belk Dec 2 Christmas truly is the giving season and we’d like to welcome Salvation Army bell ringers to all 294 Belk stores. Merry Christmas!  Happy ending to a story that started badly for the retailer, which has a store at New Bern Mall. Belk was once a family-ownedRead More →

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New Bern has been selected as a top retirement destination by Where to Retire, the only magazine in America geared toward helping people with retirement relocation decisions. New Bern is profiled in the January/February 2018 issue, available nationwide on Dec. 12, the magazine announced in a news release today. New Bern gets promo’d on the magazine cover, left, under the headline, “Low-Cost Havens.” Where to Retire Editor Annette Fuller said New Bern possesses qualities important to today’s retirees. “Say hello to North Carolina’s stunning Inner Banks — the lesser-known cousin to the state’s Outer Banks. The star city is New Bern, at the confluence ofRead More →

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Counting down the days before a largely new Board of Alderman convenes in mid-December, the 2017-vintage board met on Tuesday for a routine meeting in which most agenda items received no discussion and everything passed unanimously. Mayor Dana Outlaw was absent from the meeting while he attended a funeral. (Sorry for your loss, Mayor Outlaw.) Had he been at the aldermen meeting, he could have been counted on for at least one or two no votes, as is his custom. Meanwhile, Mayor Pro Tem Jeffrey Odham presided over the meeting and kept things tame and orderly, with minimal shenanigans and tomfoolery while the boss was away.Read More →

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Click here, or, if your aim is good, click the bear at left to see the PDF of the Master Parking Plan Advisory Committee’s recommendations to the Board of Aldermen on Nov. 21. A public hearing will be held on Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2018 at 7 p.m. at City Hall to gather public feedback and input to these recommendations. (Note: The presentation says Jan. 8.  The public hearing is Jan. 9, 2018 at 7 p.m.)  Read More →

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The New Bern Police Department’s “Holiday Task Force” has been activated and includes a special deployment of officers to provide specific patrol in heavily trafficked areas during the holiday season. The task force operations began on Black Friday, Nov. 24, and will run through New Year’s Day, Jan. 1, 2018. The hours of deployment will vary based on seasonal activity and other factors that may affect the special operation. The task force is comprised of patrol and traffic enforcement officers, detectives, and others working in an undercover capacity to proactively monitor the targeted areas for opportunistic crimes. The Holiday Task Force is intended to provideRead More →

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The city and N.C. Railroad Company are extending an agreement to allow refurbishment of the disused Union Station Train Depot off Queen Street until 2021. The project began in 2009 with “a couple of hiccups” along the way, said Alderman Dallas Blackiston, who has been involved in the project from the start, predating his term as alderman, which began in 2013. New Bern Preservation Foundation is in charge of the project and funding. It has a goal to raise $1.2 million to pay for a five-phase project to rehabilitate the railroad station, which, for a time, was the hub of transportation in New Bern thatRead More →

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In its final meeting Tuesday before all hell breaks loose, the Master Parking Plan Advisory Committee (it only took me three weeks to get the full name right) plowed through last week’s draft of recommendations and added several more. The committee is delivering its recommendations to the Board of Aldermen at a workshop the board has scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 21. One new addition to the recommendations is that the Board of Aldermen not take any action, but leave the public hearing and final decisions to January 2018, after new board members take their seats and have had a chance to get settled in andRead More →

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Saltwater Creek LLC, a real estate company that lists New Bern lawyer Kelly Greene as its manager, has put in a bid for $109,000 for long-vacant commercial building on Broad Street. The two-story office building is on a half acre lot at 509 Broad St. The Craven County tax office puts the building’s value at $310,000. The building, constructed in 1950, was once the location for Craven County Council on Aging and more recently the Craven County Probation Office. The building has been vacant for years. At one point there was a plan to turn the building into a business incubator and work was started.Read More →

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The New Bern Planning and Zoning Board met Tuesday with two agenda items and one discussion item. 1 – Consideration of a General Plan for Miller & Brabble Properties, LLC/Robert Chiles Engineering; a proposed 2 lot major subdivision on a 9.98+/- acre tract, located at the intersection of Karen Drive and Neuse Boulevard. The property is further identified as Craven County Parcel identification number 8-241-025. (Ward 4). Plan is to build an apartment complex.Sept. 1 reviewed proposed general plan. City staff recommended approval. The board, meeting with a bare minimum quorum, voted unanimously to approve the subdivision. In short, the property owner wants to subdivideRead More →

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One item on the Master Parking Plan Advisory Committee draft list of recommendations that didn’t make the cut on Tuesday is euphemistically called “Trash Plaza.” Bear Plaza, the cozy, charming stretch of narrow open space that starts on Middle Street, comes to an abrupt end at Trash Plaza. The area doesn’t have a formal name, and consists of a meandering parking lot punctuated by concrete islands, random shrubbery, garbage cans, and the faint aroma of bat guano — all owned by something like 14 people or entities (see Craven County GIS map, right). “The MPPAC (or, advisory committee for short) recommends the BOA (or, BoardRead More →