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Updated at 4:48 p.m. Greg Smith, owner of Mitchell Hardware on Craven Street, died on Monday morning at work sometime between 7 a.m. and store opening at 8 a.m. A store worker found him unresponsive and called an ambulance, according to a source close to Mr. Smith. Cause of death was not immediately known. Some news media list the cause as a massive heart attack, although that has not been confirmed. The following statement was released by the staff of Mitchell Hardware this morning. “It is with deep sadness that we share the loss of a father, grandfather, and dear friend. This morning, Greg Smith,Read More →

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So what did you do on Jan. 1? City workers spent the day rerouting sewer lines and stabilizing the sink hole in a round-the-clock operation that resulted in no interruption of service and no sewage leaked into the Neuse River just a hundred yards from it. Sometime between Christmas and New Year’s Day, a sewer pipe gave up its 56-year battle against erosion and the forces of hydrogen sulfide. It gave way and the ensuing damage left a 50-foot sinkhole near the National Guard Armory on Glenburnie Drive. This wasn’t any sewer pipe. It was the Grand Central Station of sewer pipes, channeling the entireRead More →

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Two gateways into downtown New Bern are going to look a lot different within the next year or so. First Street, which is also N.C. 55, is going to be reconfigured from four lanes (two in each direction) to two traffic lanes and a center turn lane. Sidewalks will be added as well as bike lanes on both sides of the street. City aldermen approved the plan at their meeting on Tuesday night. Meanwhile, a traffic circle is proposed to replace the Y-intersection at Neuse and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. boulevards. That project could begin in October. Both plans have controversial predecessors on BroadRead More →

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CITY OF NEW BERN BOARD OF ALDERMEN MEETING JANUARY 23, 2018 – 6:00 P.M. CITY HALL COURTROOM 300 POLLOCK STREET   1.   Meeting opened by Mayor Dana E. Outlaw.  Prayer Coordinated by Alderman Bengel.  Pledge of Allegiance. 2.   Roll Call. All present, with Ward 6 Alderman Jeffrey Odham dialing in remotely. Consent Agenda – Approved 7-0 3.   Approve Adopting a Resolution Closing Specific Streets for the Annual Black History Month Parade on February 17, 2018. (Wards 1 and 2)  Victor Taylor, Chairman of Vision Forward, has requested streets be closed for the annual Black History Month Parade from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday,Read More →

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New Bern Parks and Recreation is holding a public input meeting to discuss the Martin Marietta Park Master Plan.  The public is invited to attend this drop-in style meeting anytime between 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 29 at New Bern Mall.  The meeting will be held at Center Court. The Public Input meeting is an opportunity for residents to review plans and share their ideas on what types of amenities and programs they are interested in seeing at the new park.  City staff as well as our planning partners, McGill Associates, will be on hand to answer questions. “We are excited aboutRead More →

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With more snow in the forecast for later Wednesday, folks may be thinking back a couple of weeks to the snow event that shut down much of New Bern for several days and left streets and highways coated with ice. But there are big differences between the snow predicted for Wednesday and the snow that fell on Jan. 3. “Snowmageddon” shut down the city for two days and schools for a full week, from Wednesday, Jan. 3, when the mere whiff of snow in the forecast was enough for jittery administrators to stop the buses, through Tuesday, Jan. 9. Country roads were in such poorRead More →

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A tradition within the New Bern Fire Department and its ancestors since 1879, threatened by a row over former mayor Lee Bettis, is now no longer a habit, a tradition, or a whim — it’s city law. Aldermen passed a resolution on Tuesday making it official city policy to add the name of the mayor in office when a fire truck is authorized for purchase. The policy gives a mayor the option to decline the honor. The resolution passed on a vote of 5-2, with Mayor Dana Outlaw and Alderman Jeffrey Odham voting against the measure. The controversy arose when the previous Board of AldermenRead More →

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A plan that includes enforced two-hour parking in Downtown New Bern cleared a hurdle on Tuesday. Following a public hearing during which a committee’s recommendations went largely unchanged, the board asked its staff to prepare an ordinance and bring it back for a vote at the board’s first meeting in February. A committee met over several months in 2017 to come up with ways to solve a perceived problem with downtown parking, with any decisions on the committee’s recommendations put off until the Board of Aldermen’s first meeting in January to enable new aldermen to weigh in on the issue. Alderman Sabrina Bengel, whose wardRead More →

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A notice from Craven County Schools: Craven County Schools will be closed for students on Monday, Jan. 8.  Essential staff (district maintenance, school custodians, school principals, and district executive staff) should report on time. All other staff are on an optional workday with a 2-hour delay.  If road conditions in your area prevent you from traveling at that time, please make contact with your school principal or supervisor to make arrangements.Read More →

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American Prospect, a non-profit website specializing in non-profit, independent journalism, has posted an article that is highly critical of GateHouse Media and explains much of what is going on at many of its properties, including the New Bern Sun Journal. The headline states: Saving the Free Press From Private Equity Navigating the digital transition is a huge challenge for newspapers. Absentee ownership by private equity predators makes it all but impossible.   It’s a long read, but it does a good job describing the toxic nature of private equity enterprises taking over local newspapers and running them into the ground. Here’s one example cited in the articleRead More →