A hand-stitched replica of George Washington’s sleeping and office tent, which served as the command center for the Continental Army, will be on display March 26-28 at Tryon Palace historic site in New Bern.

The First Oval Office Project travels the country providing interactive education and outreach programming that brings George Washington’s wartime headquarters to life. The full-scale replica of Washington’s Revolutionary War tent, often referred to as the “First Oval Office,” is the centerpiece of the project.

“Tryon Palace will be the only site in North Carolina to host the First Oval Office Project during 2026,” North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources Secretary Pamela B. Cashwell said in a release. “This immersive living history program can provide us a deeper understanding of the Revolutionary War by telling the story of General Washington and all those who served alongside him.”

The Museum of the American Revolution’s First Oval Office Project and its adjoining educational programming is a signature event for DNCRs’ America 250 NC initiative that commemorates the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and celebrates the state’s important role in the American Revolution.

A team of interpreters from Philadelphia’s Museum of the American Revolution, where the original sleeping and office tent is on permanent display, will be on site to guide visitors and answer questions about Washington’s military life while on campaign.

Tickets to tour the First Oval Office Project are $20 for adults and $10 for youth, and may be purchased online or at the North Carolina History Center Ticket Desk on Front Street or at the Waystation Ticket Office just across from the Palace’s front gates on Pollock Street.

Travelers using U.S. Highway 70 to cross the Trent River should expect nightly closures through the next six weeks while North Carolina Department of Transportation crews replace bridge joints.

Work began Sunday on U.S. 70 East near mile marker 417 and will continue for about three weeks from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Sunday through Friday. After the eastbound lanes are complete, crews are expected to begin March 29 maintenance work on U.S. 70 West, also near mile marker 417.

Work on each section of the bridge is expected to take about three weeks on each side of the highway, with the road fully reopened by late April, transportation officials said. This work is weather-dependent and could be rescheduled.  

For real-time travel information, visit DriveNC.gov or follow NCDOT on social media.

Editor’s note: The following is from historian David Cecelski’s “Working Lives: Photographs from Eastern North Carolina, 1937 to 1947.” The Carteret County native introduced the nearly 20-part photo-essay series earlier this year on his website, explaining at the time that the images he selected from the N.C. Department of Conservation and Development Collection were taken in the late 1930s into the early 1950s of the state’s farms, industries, and working people.

In this photo-essay in my “Working Lives” series, I am looking at several photographs that feature workers on a railroad that old timers, when I was a boy, still called the “Old Mullet Road.”

The real name of the railroad was the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad (A&NC). First in business in 1858, it ran from the coastal port of Morehead City, west to New Bern, Kinston, and finally Goldsboro.

Owned by the state of North Carolina, the railroad was usually leased to private operators and it played a vital role in opening the economy and communities of the North Carolina coast to the outside world.

In Goldsboro, at the railroad’s western end, other lines connected the A&NC’s passengers and freight to Raleigh and to distant markets and cities such as Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York.

Local people referred to the A&NC as the “Old Mullet Road” because of the seemingly endless barrels of salt mullet that its freight cars carried out of Morehead City in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

With the opening of the railroad in 1858, the local fishery for striped mullet — what we’ve always called “jumping mullet” — grew into the largest saltwater fishery anywhere in the American South.

Long a staple in local pantries, barrels of salt mullet were soon as common in the country stores of eastern North Carolina as pickled pigs feet and rounds of farmers cheese.

-2-

The construction of the A&NC and the building of the coastal town of Morehead City went hand in hand.

The town’s resort trade, its famous charter fishing business, the state port, the local menhaden industry (one of the largest fisheries in the U.S.), and really the region’s entire wholesale seafood industry — none would have been imaginable without the “Old Mullet Road.”

The same could be said for the truck farming business throughout that whole central part of North Carolina’s coastal plain.

Over the years, the A&NC’s trains became part of daily life in the towns and crossroads through which it passed.

For people who lived along the tracks, the coming and going of the train, its whistle, and the sense of curiosity and wonder about what lost soul might be coming home, or what trouble might be arriving, became measures of time passing as much as the tides and the changing of the seasons.

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Taken in Morehead City or New Bern in 1942, this photograph introduces us to one of the railroad’s employees who was something of a legend in that part of eastern North Carolina.

His name was J. B. Davis, people called him “Captain Davis,” and he was a conductor on the railroad for close to half a century.

On Nov. 30, 1924, the Raleigh News & Observer referred to Capt. Davis and the railroad’s three other conductors as “the most popular quartet in this part of the State….”

The paper went on to say, “They know more people than all the politicians in Wayne, Lenoir, Craven, and Carteret counties.”

A railroad conductor saw the best and worst of humanity. Capt. Davis came to know the high and mighty and the utterly defeated, those that were good, and those that were set on evil, people anxious to get back home, and those desperate to get away from home.

Along the railroad’s path, people often sought him out to get the latest news from other towns. Many a day, he was the first to bring word of births and marriages, shipwrecks, hurricanes and floods.

His own life on the railroad was far from uneventful: Capt. Davis was injured in a derailment in 1933, and he and the train’s brakeman were usually the first to reach the poor souls who were killed on the railroad tracks.

In 1939, when a new company, the Atlantic & East Carolina Railroad Co., took over the railroad’s lease, Capt. Davis was fired for allegedly not collecting fares from some of his passengers.

His discharge made headlines across eastern North Carolina, and he was eventually rehired, but there has to be story there.

Maybe he was just looking out for his friends. On the other hand, times were hard in the 1930s and I like to think that maybe now and then he looked the other way and let a penniless soul or two ride for free.

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I assume that this gentleman was one of the train’s firemen, whose job it was to maintain the fire in the engine’s boiler by shoveling coal and watching the boiler’s water levels as well.

A 1947 newspaper article concerning a derailment mentions an A&NC fireman named Henry Peterson. This may be him, but I cannot be sure.

Judging from the way he holds himself, I might have thought that he was the train’s engineer, but that was not possible in eastern North Carolina in the first half of the 20th century because he was African American.

At the turn of the 20th century, the A&NC’s president was a New Bern banker and real estate mogul named James A. Bryan.

Bryan was one of the leaders of the white supremacy movement that swept North Carolina in the period from 1898 to 1900. To attract New Bern’s white working class men to the white supremacy cause, he promised to discharge all of the railroad’s black employees and give their jobs to white workers.

After the Wilmington Massacre and the victory of the white supremacists in November 1898, Bryan lived up to his promise.

According to documents preserved in the Bryan Family Papers at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Southern Historical Collection, he discharged dozens of A&NC conductors, porters, brakemen, mechanics, blacksmiths, and other skilled railroad men in 1899 and 1900.

He also fired many of the company’s lowest level black employees, including the night watchman at the company’s rail yard.

In exchange for white workingmen’s support for a state constitutional amendment that took all voting rights from the state’s black citizens, Bryan also pledged to embed white supremacy in the railroad’s labor policies into the future.

In practice, that meant: the A&NC’s managers would hire and promote whites preferentially, regardless of qualifications or experience; would never pay a black worker as much as a white worker; would never employ a black individual in a management role; and would never hire or promote a black man or woman into a job–such as locomotive engineer– that gave them supervisory responsibilities over any white employee.

The railroad’s policies with respect to race were still in place in 1942.

You can learn more about James A. Bryan’s leadership in New Bern’s white supremacy campaign, and see some of the manuscripts related to his firing of the A&NC’s black workers, in my essay, “The Other Coup D’Etat: Remembering New Bern in 1898.”

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Only a few years before these photographs were taken, the railroad had seemed on its last legs.

The private railroad company that had leased the track from the State of North Carolina since 1904, the Norfolk & Southern, had defaulted in 1934, a victim of the Great Depression.

After the Norfolk & Southern’s default, state coffers could not keep up with the railroad’s maintenance and repair needs. Years of neglect began taking their toll: broken railroad ties abounded, embankments needed reinforcement, and much about the old railroad seemed frayed and worn out. Reports of derailments grew more common.

Things began to look up in 1939 however, when the state finally found a new private company to take over the railroad’s lease.

The new company, the Atlantic & Eastern North Carolina, invested in new engines and track repairs, updated at least some depots, and even repainted the cars a perky “Spanish blue” instead of the old dull black.

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Then the war came. Everybody was on the move. Soldiers, sailors, defense workers, and civilians of all kinds.

A new prosperity was in the air, heightening the demand for carrying passengers and hauling the region’s agricultural products and other freight.

Probably most importantly, the federal government began constructing two massive new military installations on the central part of the North Carolina coast in 1941 and ’42. To build the two bases, the railroad’s freight cars would carry enough lumber, brick, piping, and other construction materials to build two good-sized cities from scratch.

The railroad ran a short spur from Havelock Station into the construction site for the Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station (originally called Cunningham Field). To the south, the railroad carried construction materials to Camp Lejeune via a track that ran from New Bern to Jacksonville, then along a short spur owned and operated by the Navy.

By the time these photographs were taken, the railroad was making a profit again for the first time in recent memory.

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The war changed the railroad and the North Carolina coast in a thousand ways, some easy to get used to, and some that probably haunted the workers that we have met here — Capt. Davis, the fireman, the mail clerk, the brakeman, and the porter in the photograph above — for their rest of their lives.

More than 25 years ago, I interviewed an elderly woman named Gretchen Brinson in Morehead City.

During the early part of World War II, Ms. Brinson had been a nurse in the burn unit of the town’s little hospital when German U-boats were sinking merchant vessels off that part of the North Carolina coast.

This is an excerpt from that interview:

“I married Bull Brinson in 1937. While my daughter was still an infant, I started working at the hospital. Very shortly, we began hearing depth charges and if they had a strike we could see the fires, the ships burning.

“The debris washed up on the ocean front, and there were several years we couldn’t swim up there because of the debris and the oil slicks.

“We could see the ships burning.

“When there was a strike out there at night, we knew this had happened and that next morning there would be casualties come in. Bodies, corpses did wash in on the beach. And they were brought into the hospital: burns, all manner of traumatic situations. The hospital was full. It was only a 30-bed hospital. They lay in the hall on cots. We were not prepared for the onslaught.”

She continued:

“Many of the young men who came here, son, did not live. When the 3 o’clock train left town, the baggage car doors were most always open, and you could see several coffins in their wooden boxes, being shipped to other places. There was seldom a day for months, maybe a year or more, when there were not one or two or three or possibly more that went out on that 3 o’clock train.”

-End-

My story “Gretchen Brinson: A Born Nurse” originally appeared in my “Listening to History” series in the Raleigh News & Observer on June 14, 1998. You can find a copy of the story here. 

Anne Edwards’ grandmother rarely spoke about the young man wearing a Navy “Crackerjack” uniform in the photograph displayed on a table in the living room of her New Bern home.

As a child, Edwards would hear her mother occasionally refer to him as “uncle.” From what other relatives said, he was a sociable, kind man.

“There’s not a whole lot,” Edwards said. “My mother and grandmother really didn’t talk about it a lot. All I knew was that he died in Pearl Harbor.”

His photo from the table has since gone missing. The Navy does not have an official photo.

His death was untimely, violent — his remains could not be identified and returned to his family for burial. The pain of it all was likely too much for them to convey in conversation, Edwards assumes.

Last week, Edwards attended her great-uncle’s burial with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. The Oct. 8 ceremony was held more than 80 years after he was killed in the attack that thrust the United States into World War II.

Navy Fireman 1^st Class Edward Bowden was aboard the USS California on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, when the Imperial Japanese Navy launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii.

Early in the raid, two Japanese aerial torpedoes slammed the ship’s forward and aft, ripping a 40-foot hole in her hull. She would later be hit by a bomb that further opened her insides to flooding.

The attacks claimed the lives of 103 of her crew, including Bowden, a 29-year-old New Bern native. Bowden bore a striking resemblance to his sister who had raised him from the time he was roughly 10 or 11 after their parents died.

That would be about as much as Edwards would know about her late great-uncle, who died about three years before she came into the world, until a letter from the U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency arrived at her Onslow County home more than six years ago.

Edwards called the agency, which works to identify the remains of unknown prisoners of war and those missing in action. She wanted to make sure the letter, one that requested a sample of her DNA, wasn’t some kind of a hoax.

It wasn’t.

This past April, Edwards got the call that Bowden’s remains, long since buried as an unknown at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii, were officially identified as those of her great-uncle.

She now has a document some two inches thick that contains details about the young man in the black-and-white photograph that was a staple in her grandmother’s house.

Bowden was 28 when he enlisted in the Navy on Aug. 28, 1940, in Raleigh. He reported to the USS California by November of that year.

His sister, who was 18 and married when he moved in with the young couple, signed an affidavit as his guardian, according to the paperwork provided by the casualty office.

Records do not reveal where in the ship Bowden was when it was hit and eventually sank to the bottom of the harbor three days after the attack.

Navy personnel recovered the remains of the ship’s crew between December 1941 to April 1942.

“The problem with identification came because their remains were comingled and so they didn’t really know who they were,” Edwards said.

In all, there would be 20 unresolved casualties from the USS California and 25 associated unknowns buried at the National Cemetery of the Pacific.

Remains of servicemembers yet to be identified in the cemetery were all exhumed by March 2018. As of August, 10 had been identified as being from the USS California.

Edwards was given the discretion to decide where her great-uncle’s remains should be buried.

“Now he can always be found,” she said. “That’s the reason I chose Arlington. I want any family that might be out there related to him to be able to trace him and find out about him.”

Bowden’s military awards include the Purple Heart Medal, Combat Action Ribbon, and World War II Victor Medal.

Edwards was joined by more than a dozen relatives for the Oct. 8 burial. Nieces, nephews, their children, cousins and their spouses traveled from New Bern, Greenville and Maryland to the exceptionally manicured grounds of the cemetery marked by rows and rows of glistening white crosses.

“It was unbelievable,” she said. “Everything was perfect. I was very, very pleased that the young people from the family came. I was very pleased that they felt like they should honor him. I felt a sense of closure for him. He’s not just a name anymore.”

Tryon Palace in downtown New Bern will bloom with potential for green thumbs Friday through Sunday during its annual spring heritage plant sale and Spring Garden Lovers’ Weekend.

Part of its celebration of National Gardening Month, the plant sale is set for 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. both Friday and Saturday on the Daves House Lawn just inside the palace’s main gate.

Organizers said that there will be a selection of plants grown locally and in the historic site’s nursery yard, as well as a wide variety of annuals, heirloom vegetables, perennials, herbs and other spring favorites.

Admission to the gardens is being waved as part of Spring Garden Lovers Weekend from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday and from noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.

Also on Saturday, the Craven Consort woodwind group are scheduled to perform under the palace colonnades. The five-piece woodwind group performs pieces from the 17th and 18th centuries on period instruments.

Plein air artists will be painting in the gardens on both Saturday and Sunday, as well.

Tryon Palace was built in 1770 and served as the first permanent capitol of North Carolina and was home to Gov. William Tryon and his family. The Georgian-style structure was the site of the first sessions of the General Assembly after the American Revolution and housed state governors until 1794. In 1798, fire destroyed the original building. The palace was rebuilt in the 1950s, opening in 1959, according to the historic site’s website.

Tryon Palace is launching a new Community Class Series “that reach beyond the pages of history books.”

The first of three educational programs on eastern North Carolina is scheduled for Thursday evening at the North Carolina History Center at Tryon Palace.

Nancy Strickland Fields-Chavis, a member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, will present “North Carolina Before Tryon: Eastern North Carolina’s Indigenous Communities.”

Director and curator of The Museum of the Southeast American Indian at the University of North Carolina Pembroke, and a commissioner for the North Carolina American Heritage Commission, Fields-Chavis will begin the program with a moment in 1491, long before any European explorer set foot on what was to become Eastern North Carolina.

The land was the home of the Tuscarora, Secotan, Chowanoke, Aquascogoc, Neusiok, Dasamongueponke, Pamlico, Chesapeake, Roanoke, Weapmeoc, and many other Algonquin, Iroquoian and Siouan speaking peoples. Fields-Chavis will go into the politics, lifeways, and culture of a people who governed this land for time immemorial.

A light reception is to kick off the evening at 5:30 p.m., featuring a menu influenced by the food sources known available to the Indigenous peoples, followed at 6 p.m. by a call to order and cultural presentation by Reggie Brewer of the Lumbee Tribe. The main presentation begins at 6:30 p.m. in the Cullman Performance Hall.

All are welcome to attend. Community Class is free, but advance registration is required as seating is limited. Plan to arrive by 6 p.m. to secure a seat. To register, call 252-639-3527, or go to www.tryonpalace.org/events.

The next Community Class Series will be on Sept. 26 on “A Tangled Web of Trade: 16th and 17th Century Atlantic Trade and American Indians in Eastern NC” and on Nov. 19, “Tuscarora: The Indian War that Reshaped Eastern North Carolina.”

NEW BERN — An estimated 41,418 gallons of untreated wastewater was discharged Sunday from a manhole into a storm drain that leads to Renny’s Creek, a tributary of the Neuse River.

The overflow at the manhole located at 213 Trappers Trail is the “result of the influent pumps at the wastewater treatment plant becoming completely disabled from excessive debris in the sanitary sewer system,” New Bern officials said Monday.

The city notified the North Carolina Division of Water Resources of the discharge on Sunday and the division is reviewing the matter.

The news release distributed Monday fulfills a state requirement for an owner or operator of any wastewater collection or treatment works to issue a press release when an untreated wastewater discharge of 1,000 gallons or more reaches surface water.

For more information, contact New Bern at 252-639-7526.

The United States’ 250th anniversary is July 4, 2026, and Tryon Palace is jumpstarting the celebration.

“Rev War Day: Here Comes the 250th!” is set to start at 10 a.m. Saturday with a parade that will begin at the intersection of George and Broad streets, in downtown New Bern onto the Tryon Palace grounds and to the South Lawn.

The 1st Regiment of the North Carolina Continental Line will lead the parade followed by the Tryon Palace Fife and Drum Corps, and area chapter members of Daughters of the American Revolution and Sons of the American Revolution.

After the parade, the Fife and Drum Corps will perform, and the 1st Regiment will fire the Verbruggen 3-pound cannon. Attendees will be able to engage with soldiers at the military encampment on the North Lawn, watch and participate in musket drills, and about the horseracing that was going on in New Bern and vicinity during the 1770s.

At the neighboring North Carolina History Center from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., there will be crafts and activities for all ages, including mapmaking, watch spinning, weaving, knitting and sewing demonstrations, as well as apothecary and medicinals in the American Revolution, which took place in the 1770s.

Two lectures are scheduled for that afternoon in Cullman Hall inside the center.

Frank McMahon, assistant site manager for Historic Halifax site, will present at 1 p.m. “North Carolina’s Black Soldiers in the American Revolution.” Hank Parfitt, Chair, Farewell Tour Bicentennial Planning Committee of Fayetteville, will speak at 2:30 p.m. on “Lafayette, the French, and Yorktown.” 

For more information, visit Tryon Palace’s website.

This year’s North Carolina Association of Metropolitan Planning Organization annual conference will have a twin-riverfront view.

The conference scheduled for April 17-19 is to be held in the downtown New Bern Riverfront Convention Center at the confluence of the Neuse and Trent rivers.

It comes as highway projects appear to be happening at almost every turn in Craven County, though a study on flooding appears to be on the backburner because of funding challenges.

A Metropolitan Planning Organization, or MPO, is a transportation policymaking organization composed of local government representatives and governmental transportation authorities.

The 2024 state MPO conference theme is “Gridlock to Green Lanes Transforming Urban Transportation.”

“Emerging technology is transforming how planners identify and plan projects. Planning now for the future is imperative for successful integration and connectivity between all modes of transportation while maintaining continuing, cooperative, and comprehensive planning,” according to the association’s website.

The conference is presented by the New Bern Metropolitan Planning Organization, the North Carolina Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations, in cooperation with North Carolina Department of Transportation. Organizers said the conference “will attract a diverse range of transportation planning and engineering professionals,” including planning organizations, transportation, consultant firms, transit agencies, and other organizations.

Online registration closed March 20 but those interested can still register at the conference. Government, association and public sector cost is $450, and attendance is $550 for those in the private sector.

New Bern Area MPO Administrator Deanna Trebil told Coastal Review that the conference is an opportunity for elected officials, transit administrators, land use planners, public health professionals, students, and others to learn more about transportation.

Trebil explained that the Metropolitan Planning Organization in Craven County was established in 2013 as a result of the 2010 Census.

“The New Bern Area MPO is responsible for regional transportation planning for all modes of transportation within the urbanized area,” Trebil said. That area includes Trent Woods, River Bend, Bridgeton, New Bern and other parts of Craven County. “Most of our work is focused on long-term improvements.”

The creation of MPOs is required by federal law to ensure that existing and future expenditure of funds are based on a continuing, cooperative, and comprehensive transportation planning process, Trebil said.  The 1962 Federal Aid Highway Act mandated the formation of an MPO for any urban area with a population greater than 50,000.

“We use this philosophy when working on any plans or projects by encouraging public engagement and comment throughout the entire process,” said Trebil.

The town had planned to apply for a grant to conduct a New Bern rail corridor planning study. Trebil said it would supplement the city’s hazard mitigation and resiliency planning efforts and provide needed documentation of infrastructure that may be influencing flooding.

“In addition, it would identify the locations of culverts and other stormwater systems that could be better served by the incorporation of stormwater best-management practices and green infrastructure measures such as rain gardens, bioretention basins, or simple grassy swells,” she said.

The information gathered from this study would have been incorporated into the city’s geographic information system, or GIS, and utilized to develop strategies to eliminate flooding within the city and the adjacent residential communities immediately contiguous to the rail corridor.

“Initially, the city estimated the cost of the study at $200,000 with a federal grant that would fund about $150,000 of that,” she said.

The New Bern Board of Aldermen in November gave the go-ahead to apply for federal funding, but as staff worked to finalize the grant application, the revised project cost significantly increased. That resulted in the city’s decision not to apply.

Trebil explained Wednesday that staff continues work to improve stormwater runoff, as evidenced by the Henderson Park Project. She said the area was identified in New Bern’s Resiliency and Hazard Mitigation Plan as experiencing tidal flooding while susceptible to other floodplain hazards.

“Restoring the Duffyfield canal while also improving the recreational area will allow the neighborhood to truly enjoy this space. Engineering and design efforts are underway to implement the Board of Aldermen approved plan,” she added.

The plan is funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the North Carolina Land and Water Fund.

Trebil said that the New Bern Area Metropolitan Planning Organization has several opportunities for the public to get involved, including joining one of its committees that help guide activities and efforts.

The technical coordinating committee is made up of staff from member agencies as well as subject-matter specialists. The other committee, the transportation advisory committee, includes elected officials from member agencies. It serves as the organization’s policy board.

Projects underway

There are a handful of transportation projects going on in the area, according to the New Bern MPO website.

Work includes improvements to a 5.1 mile stretch of U.S. Highway 70 from east of Thurman Road to the Neuse River Bridge in James City.  Expected completion date is late this year.

Construction continues on the U.S. 70 Havelock bypass, beginning north of the Havelock city limit and extending south about 10 miles to north of the Craven-Carteret County line. Expected completion date is also late this year.

There’s also an ongoing effort to upgrade a 6-mile stretch of US 70 to interstate standards, the final connection from New Bern to the Havelock Bypass.

NCDOT proposes the final phase of improvements to N.C. 43 between U.S. 17 Business and existing N.C. 43, south of U.S. 70/U.S. 17 in Craven County. N.C. 43 will be a four-lane divided highway with a grass median. Construction is to begin next year.

New Bern is commemorating Arbor Day at 11 a.m. Friday with a ceremonial tree planting at Martin Marietta Park, at 700 S. Glenburnie Road.

New Bern Parks and Recreation is hosting the event being held at no charge for the public that will include remarks from special guests and refreshments. Attendees are encouraged to commemorate the event by taking home free flowering cherry tree seed packets, while supplies last, to plant, nurture and grow at home.

The Tree City USA program is sponsored by the Arbor Day Foundation, in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and the National Association of State Foresters. North Carolina Arbor day is the first Friday after March 15, according to the Arbor Day Foundation.

“If ever there was a time for trees, now is that time,” Parks and Recreation Director Kari Warren said. “Communities worldwide are facing issues with air quality, water resources, personal health and well-being, energy use, and extreme heat and flooding. New Bern is doing its part to address these challenges by focusing on our environment, encouraging the planting of trees, preserving soils, and supporting local wildlife.”

2023 marks the 28th New Bern has been awarded the Tree City USA designation. The city is one of 74 cities and towns in the state and one of over 3,600 in the nation to receive the recognition.

To receive this recognition, the city must have a tree board or city department responsible for caring for and managing the community’s trees, a public tree ordinance that establishes policies for managing street and park trees, a community forestry program with an annual budget of at least $2 per capita, and an annual Arbor Day Observance and Proclamation to celebrate trees and the many benefits they provide.

A new airline has committed to offer nonstop flights from the Coastal Carolina Regional Airport in New Bern.

Representatives from Breeze Airways and the New Bern airport, whose code is EWN, announced Tuesday plans to begin offering flights to Orlando, Florida, and Hartford, Connecticut. The flights are aboard the airline’s 137-seat Airbus A220, starting May 24. Fares are to start at $49 one-way, the company said.

The addition of Breeze Airways, which began flying in 2021, “creates a one-of-a-kind opportunity for EWN to offer the only nonstop, ‘Nice Low Cost Carrier’ flights in the region,” airport officials stated Tuesday.

Breeze President Tom Doxey stated that the company “seeks to connect underserved markets and city pairs without existing nonstops” and travelers from New Bern can “enjoy affordable and convenient new service to Connecticut and Florida.”

Coastal Carolina Regional Airport, Craven County Government, the Craven 100 Alliance and the Craven County Tourism Development Authority worked together on the project.

Note from the author, North Carolina historian David Cecelski: This is an updated version of a short essay that I first published two years ago. To write this version, I drew on additional research that I did in preparation for giving a special lecture to mark the New Bern Historical Society’s 100th anniversary. That event was held Nov. 12 at Craven County Community College in New Bern. The event was sold out and I was deeply impressed at the local interest in the subject. 

A friend in New Bern recently sent me an issue of the Raleigh News & Observer that he found in his family’s old papers. The newspaper’s date was Nov. 5, 1898. A front-page article was about a large white supremacy meeting at the Craven County Courthouse in New Bern.

That was only a few days before the massacre of Black citizens in Wilmington that was in the news so much a few months ago.

Wilmington, the state’s largest city at that time, was 90 miles from New Bern. However, as I read the issue of the News & Observer that my friend sent me, I couldn’t help but feel that what happened in Wilmington could easily have happened in New Bern, too.

‘White Supremacy Plum’

On that fifth day of November 1898, the News & Observer featured a large drawing of a plum on the top of its front page. The artist had labeled the fruit “White Supremacy Plum.”

Above the drawing was a headline: “A Fruit We All Like.”  Below the drawing was another headline: “We Will Pluck It on the 8^th.”

The Nov. 8, 1898, was the date of the fall elections. At the time, the News & Observer was playing a central role in a white supremacy movement that reached across North Carolina.

The story from New Bern appeared under the drawing of the “White Supremacy Plum.” Its headline read:

PATIENCE CEASES: Ringing Resolutions Adopted by White Men

With a summary of the story’s content appeared beneath those words.

WHITES WHO VOTE WITH THE NEGROES DENOUNCED

as traitors to race and country

Will have Nothing to do with them, White Labor To Be Employed Instead Of Colored, Strong Speeches by Shaw, Bryan and Others

The story began below those words. According to the newspaper’s correspondent, a mass meeting of “the white men of Newbern [sic]” had been held at the Craven County Courthouse. At that meeting, many of the town’s wealthiest and most influential white citizens had gathered to make a statement on white supremacy.

The chairman of the meeting was Alfred Decator “A.D.” Ward, a prominent local attorney. He was originally from Duplin County, where he had been mayor of Kenansville and where he had been elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives.

Probably the most prominent of the city leaders at the meeting was James A. Bryan. At the time, Bryan was the president of both the National Bank of New Bern and the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad Co.

He was also one of the largest landowners in the state of North Carolina. His holdings included, but were not limited to, more than 57,000 acres in what is now the Croatan National Forest.

Bryan owned and resided in what is now known as the John Wright Stanly House, which is one of the historic sites at Tryon Palace. Educated at Princeton, he later chaired the Craven County Board of Commissioners for two decades and served a term each as mayor of New Bern and state senator.

According to the story in the News & Observer, both James A. Bryan and A.D. Ward were among the local leaders that gave “enthusiastic and patriotic speeches” during the white supremacy meeting.

‘Deliverance from Negro Domination’

At the Craven County Courthouse, the white leaders passed five resolutions that were very similar to ones that the white supremacists in Wilmington passed that same week, just prior to the massacre and coup d’etat there.

In the first resolution, they resolved that:

“It is the duty of every white person, male and female, to do everything in their power to achieve an honorable deliverance from negro domination and its accompanying ruin and disgrace.”

At that time, African Americans made up about 65% of New Bern’s population. In any free and fair election, Black citizens would inevitably have held a significant number of offices.

The town’s African Americans did hold some elective offices, but relatively few. Black citizens held three of the 11 positions on New Bern’s board of aldermen, for instance. That was a large number compared to many other North Carolina towns, but far from what one could reasonably call “negro domination.”

In this first resolution, the white supremacists were announcing that they would no longer tolerate even that degree of Black participation in politics in New Bern or the rest of Craven County.

‘Traitors to their race and country’

The meeting’s second resolution read:

“That it is the sense of this meeting that from henceforth all white men who vote and ally themselves in politics with the negro shall be denounced and regarded as traitors to their race and country and as public enemies, and not to be associated with.”

A duly elected political coalition of Republicans (largely Black) and Populists (largely white) had governed North Carolina since 1894. In this resolution, the city’s white supremacists were threatening their white neighbors who persisted in supporting that coalition of Black and white voters.

The language of the resolution is noteworthy. In many parts of the world, and at many different times, extremist political movements have begun to refer to their political opponents as “public enemies” and “traitors to their race and country.” It is never a good sign, and of course it is often a prelude to great violence and widespread persecution.

The white supremacists in Wilmington also used that kind of language just before the shooting started.

‘Traitors to the white race’

The meeting’s third resolution read:

“That we denounce such traitors to the white race as make a business of organizing the negro, and we hereby warn [them] to desist from their efforts to further ruin and humiliate the white people ere the day of forbearance shall pass and the time shall come when an outraged people shall realize that such creatures are nothing more than beasts of prey to be driven away.”

In this resolution, New Bern’s white supremacists continued to use language that demonized their opponents. In this case, they were threatening local white leaders of the Republican Party.

Calling them “beasts of prey” also sounds very much like Wilmington just before the shooting started.

‘Brave and honorable men’

The meeting’s fourth resolution read:

“That while our brothers of the white race in other communities are bravely daring all danger to rid themselves and us of the dark cloud of negro domination, it behooves us to encourage them with the assurance that we, too, have resolved to use every means that brave and honorable men may for the deliverance and salvation of our State from the horrible fate which threatens.”

In this resolution, the white supremacists in New Bern were making clear that they knew what was about to happen in Wilmington and they supported it.

That they knew what was going to happen in Wilmington was not surprising. By the Nov. 5, 1898, it was widely known that white supremacists were planning to take control of Wilmington three days later, even if they had to resort to violence in the streets, massive electoral fraud and military rule.

Newspaper reporters from as far away as Chicago were already on their way to Wilmington because they had gotten wind of the coming storm.

In this resolution, New Bern’s white supremacy leaders signaled that they knew what was coming in Wilmington, too. They also seem to be saying that they would take similar steps in New Bern if necessary.

‘Preference to white people’

The white supremacists in New Bern intended the fifth and final resolution to encourage New Bern’s poor and working class white men to support their efforts. The resolution read:

“That we, the employers of labor, will give preference to white people in all cases wherever practicable.”

In this resolution, the town’s leading businessmen were promising white workers that they would hire them in their shops and factories over Black workers, even if the Black workers were more qualified and had more experience, if the white workers supported the “white supremacy ticket.”

They were, in effect, cutting a deal: side with us, and not your fellow Black workers, and we will look out for you.

The same thing happened in Wilmington.

The business leaders in both cities proved true to their word. In the coming years, that kind of racial discrimination in employment became universal, and as much a part of Jim Crow as separate drinking fountains and segregated lunch counters.

A different kind of coup d’état

The Nov. 8 election was said to have passed peacefully in New Bern, though we know very little about what might have happened there and gone unsaid.

We do know though that the white supremacists prevailed. There was a bright spot or two for the town’s Black citizens: Isaac H. Smith, a prominent local Black businessman, for instance, won a seat to the NC House.

But he was the exception. The white men at the meeting that the News & Observer described on Nov. 5, 1898, became the town’s mayors, aldermen, county commissioners, educational leaders, state legislators and U. S. congressmen for the next generation.

We also know that, in the weeks after the election, the white supremacists did not wait for the town officials that had not been up for re-election in 1898 to serve out their terms before they moved to replace them. They instead convinced the state legislature to dissolve the city’s charter and throw all of their political opponents, both Black and white, out of office.

The North Carolina General Assembly voted to repeal New Bern’s charter on Feb. 3, 1899. At that time, the legislators put the city’s assets under the authority of a small group of trustees.

The act went into effect a week later, Feb. 10, 1899.

Ten days later, the General Assembly passed another act to incorporate the City of New Bern. The legislators named a new board of aldermen, purged the city’s voter rolls, and set a date for elections later that spring. When the new charter went into effect Feb. 20, 1899, white supremacists held all the power in the city.

For the sake of white supremacy, the City of New Bern did not exist for those 10 days.

For more on that chapter in the city’s history, see Dr. Thomas Hanchett and Ms. Ruth Little’s excellent 1994 report on the history of two of New Bern’s African American neighborhoods, Long Wharf and Duffyfield.

In that way, the white supremacists in New Bern accomplished their own kind a coup d’état, much like what happened in Wilmington. Their coup was bloodless, as far as we know, but just as effective.

It could have been even worse. Judging from the Nov. 5, 1898, issue of the News & Observer that my friend shared with me, I find it hard not to think that, if things had gone just a little differently, and if a spark had been lit, we might well be talking about bodies in the streets of New Bern, too.

~

Coastal Review is featuring the work of North Carolina historian David Cecelski, who shares on his website essays and lectures about the state’s coast. He brings readers along on his search for the lost stories of our coastal past in the museums, libraries and archives where he visits in the U.S. and across the globe. 

Dec. 1, 1922, was an overcast day with a strong wind from the south in New Bern. It was the day after Thanksgiving — it was not until 1942 that the holiday became the fourth Thursday of the month.

Also, it was the day a quarter of the city went up in flames. A fire that, according to New Bern historian Bill Hand, is still the largest urban fire in North Carolina history.

For most of the residents of the city it was a workday, although hundreds were in Raleigh to cheer the high school football team on to victory in the state tournament.

At the time, lumber and wood product factories were some of the city’s biggest employers, and along the Neuse River, sawmills lined the riverfront.

Sometime around 8 a.m. the Morning New Bernian reported in its Dec. 2, 1922, edition that a fire had begun at the largest facility in the city, the Rowland Lumber Co., and quickly engulfed the business.

“The blaze is said to have originated from friction caused by a belt on the leg jack in the saw mill building. This was discovered shortly after it had originated but the spread of the flames was so rapid that before an alarm could be sounded and water gotten to the fire, the building was a mass of flames,” the newspaper reported.

The Rowland Lumber Co. fire was the beginning of a series of seemingly unconnected coincidences that led to an estimated 900 to 1,000 structures destroyed, leaving as many as 3,000 people homeless.

At the time, there were two volunteer fire companies protecting the city: the Atlantic Fire Co. and the Button Co. There was tremendous rivalry between the companies and in hope of toning down the competition, the city decreed that the chief of each company would alternate odd and even years as the city fire chief.

“So, we know that the chief on the day the fire was actually the chief of the Atlantic Volunteer Fire Company as well,” Pat Dunleavy, a volunteer at the New Bern Firehouse Museum said during a recent presentation at the firehouse.

Both companies responded to the fire, and Atlantic Chief James Bryan decided to keep his company on hand and send the Button Company home.

“The standard practice at the time was that if the chief decided he didn’t really have to have both companies, they’d send one back to their fire station in case there was another fire alarm,” Dunleavy explained.

Around 9 a.m., an alarm came in for a fire at a home in the city’s housing area for Black residents.

Chief Bryan left the Rowland Mills fire and after arriving on the scene, found that the residents had formed a bucket brigade and extinguished the flames themselves.

An hour later, a third alarm sounded at Kilmarnock Street.

“The chief breaks away, comes down to take a look and discovers that it’s not a single house fire, but three houses have already burned down and three blocks of houses are on fire,” Dunleavy said.

Bryan faces a dilemma. Unlike the white sections of the city, the Black neighborhoods do not have municipal water. In 1922, “If you were Black living in this area and you wanted to get water you (would) send your kid outside with a bucket to go to the hand pump and get a bucket of water.”

The lack of water pressure and the rapidly spreading flames were not the only problem the chief faced. There was also a critical shortage of trained personnel.

“New Bern High School was on their way to the state championship. Over 300 people loaded the train and others drove to Raleigh that morning,” New Bern historian Carol Becton noted during a lecture she delivered earlier this month at Tryon Palace.

Numerous accounts estimate the wind at 30-40 mph with stronger gusts. Around the periphery of the Black neighborhoods, the fire companies had the water pressure they needed to keep the fire from spreading to the white homes, but their fire trucks had neither the capacity in their tanks nor the water pressure to battle the blaze. Bryan had his two companies, but neither was at full strength, with quite a few firemen in Raleigh for the big football game.

And there was one more factor, perhaps the most significant of all.

“These houses are almost all wood construction. Almost all have cedar shake shingle roofs, the whole building was just a fire waiting to happen,” Dunleavy said.

The chief saw the fire burning out of control, realized the wooden homes were tinder and made a drastic decision. The only course of action, he determined, was to create a fire break.

“So, he decides he’s going to blow up all these houses on Queen Street (on the south side of flames) to remove the fuel from the air,” Dunleavy said. “Of course, that won’t really remove the fuel. What it will do is lower the fuel so the sparks will be not so easily blow onto the roofs.”

The firemen waste no time in placing either dynamite or gunpowder under homes, though newspaper accounts differ on which explosive it was. The firemen were moving so quickly they may have endangered lives.

The Coast Guard Cutter Pamlico’s homeport was New Bern and as the fire spread, crewmen from the ship came to help.

In his book “New Bern History 101,” Edward Barnes Ellis Jr. tells of Coast Guard officer William Montague who entered a house to help a woman out as the firemen were getting ready to blow it up.

“With the woman in his arms, Montague saw three men placing explosive charges. He shouted to tell them he was in the building (but) to no avail. The blast blew Montague and the woman through a wall and into the yard,” he wrote.

Montague was unconscious for several hours, but other than that he and the woman suffered only minor injuries.

The fire, according to the New Bernian, had originated in the home of Henry Bryan, a Black itinerant barber on Kilmarnock Street, in the section of the city occupied mainly by Black residents.

Whether the Bryan house was the first to catch fire may be difficult to determine. It was certainly one of the first, and Hand, the historian, had an opportunity to interview Dr. Samuel Bryan who was 4 at the time in 1922.

“He was a child in that house on Kilmarnock Street and remembered sitting there. Everybody runs out and he’s still sitting at the table eating his breakfast, which is Thanksgiving leftovers, and they had come back in and drag him out,” Hand said.

Bryan, a dentist, died in 2014.

The firebreak does little if anything to stop the spread of the flames, and the chief realizes he has neither the resources nor personnel to fight the fire.

“He starts calling neighboring towns to ask for assistance,” Dunleavy said. “Kinston 35 miles west says yes, they’ll send a fire company and a fire truck down, but they have to travel over 35 miles across the (dirt and gravel) roads to get here. So it’s not going to be quick. Little Washington responds and says yes, they’ll send the fire truck in there. But they have to wait and get a flatbed railroad car.”

Washington firefighters do not arrive until 3 p.m., and Kinston makes it to the fire an hour later.

In the Black neighborhoods, people are grabbing what they can from their homes and fleeing for their lives. Many of them retreat to the Cedar Grove Cemetery. With its stone walls and open green space, the cemetery nearest the southeast side of the area that burned became the overnight refuge for hundreds if not thousands of residents.

They often arrived with flames hard on their heels. In “The Great Fire of New Bern of 1922,” a compilation of oral histories gathered in 1992 by the Memories of New Bern Committee, Joe Gaskill McDaniel recalls running for his life with a friend.

“Frank and I were standing in a patch of collards growing in a vacant lot across the street. Wind caught the flames on the roof and carried them across the street. We fled from their path and you could hear the collards crackling as the fire consumed (them),” he said.

It was not until late afternoon or early evening that the fire was finally brought under control.

What greeted New Bern residents the next day was a scene of unimaginable destruction. Block upon block of charred wood, some smoldering, with the brick chimneys still standing to mark where homes had stood.

Yet there was only one reported fatality, Harriet Reeves, purportedly 105 years old and born into slavery. Exactly what happened is unclear. Some reports cite her weakened condition and an inability to escape. Others say she was escorted from her home, but went back to get personal belongings and was overcome by smoke.

The misery from the fire did not end Dec. 1, 1992. One quarter of the population of the city was now homeless, in many cases with only the clothes on their backs.

Help begins to arrive almost immediately.

“In the days following, Fort Bragg sent eight freight cars of tents, cots and mattresses, and other equipment for the homeless, with other organizations contributing clothing, money, and food to assist. A temporary ‘Tent City’ was established in Cedar Grove and at the Greenwood Cemetery for the homeless …” Nancy Figiel wrote earlier this year for Yes! Weekly.

Each family was issued two tents; one for sleeping and the other as a common area for cooking and gathering.

In “The Great Fire of New Bern of 1922” oral history, Mary Barden points to another tragedy.

“Losses were estimated at two and a half million dollars and about a third of this was covered by insurance,” she said, a figure that is consistent with newspaper accounts of the time.

Retired schoolteacher Dorcas Carter recalls in the oral histories what the aftermath was like.

“The town has changed, because three thousand people were left homeless, and out of this they became quite disheartened,” she said. “No jobs, property condemned …”

It was the condemnation of the properties by the city that for many Black residents created a bitter legacy. Rather than allow all the homes to be rebuilt, New Bern used the opportunity to create city parks, widen streets and create government buildings.

“They did not allow the blacks to rebuild on their home site … This was upsetting … not returning to your birthplace,” Carter said, and described in detail what would happen when someone would try to rebuild.

“I’m recalling now a nearby neighbor who was a Mr. Richard Sawyer … attempted to rebuild. His homesite was on the condemned section … Each time he would get his frames up the city would make him tear it down. Finally he built up to the second story ready for a roof … He was ordered to tear down,” she recalled.

Becton in her lecture described how confusing it would have been for the residents of the area, showing a notice that read: “All owners of property located in the area that has been condemned by the by the Board of Alderman of the city of New Bern or parks, cemeteries and playgrounds and extensions and widening of streets would please file their claims with the City Clerk of the city of New Bern at the city hall at once in order that claims may be paid, adjusted and settled by the board of appraisals”

For many of the homeowners in those neighborhoods at that time, Becton explained, the notice was like a foreign language.

“Keep in mind, this is segregation, Jim Crow, and a lot of people may not be able to read well or at all or understand a lot of the terminology and were not even able perhaps to execute some of the requirements,” she said.

The loss of homes and property were not the only troubles confronting the Black community of the city.

“When the Rowland Lumber Company closed, many people were left unemployed. As a result many moved North,” Mary Chapman was recorded as saying in the “Great Fire” oral history.

“The demographics of the city before the fire was 60-65% Black with 35-40% of white population after the closing of tent city — all those Black people leave,” said Dunleavy. “There’s no choice. They need to get jobs.”

U.S. Census estimates show a shift to 55.6% white, 33.1% Black.

Becton, in her lecture, focused on more than the horror of the fire, also calling attention to a community hospital for the Black residents and a library that became a part of the community. Pointing to a mural that had been painted on the side of a building on Queen Street that depicted a Phoenix flying above a burned-out city, she described it as representing how the community recovered.

It was, as she recounted it, a “Phoenix rising out of the ashes. And so that’s exactly what happened for those victims of the great fire.”

Three-time Emmy Award-winning television personality Bryce Lane will explain the “History of Gardening: How Cultures, Events, and People Made Gardening What it is Today” during the July garden lecture at Tryon Palace.

The program is at 10:30 a.m. July 9 in Cullman Performance Hall at the North Carolina History Center, 529 S. Front St., New Bern.

Lane is a national award-winning instructor in the Department of Horticultural Science at North Carolina State University. Lane has been with NC State since 1981. He hosts “In the Garden,” a 30-minute weekly educational program that introduces viewers to the science behind gardening.

During the program, Lane will cover who is considered the father of American Horticulture and why, the origins of greenhouses and how the tulip ended up in the Netherlands.  

The program has been funded by Mitchell Hardware.  It is offered free, but donations are welcome. For more information, www.tryonpalace.org, or call 252-639-3500.

New Bern will begin Friday, June 10, a weeklong celebration of Juneteenth.

Throughout the week, there will be festivities, educational programs and cultural activities offered for the community and visitors. 

Juneteenth is a federal holiday that commemorates the end of slavery in the United States, observed every year on June 19.

Juneteenth of New Bern, a volunteer group with the mission to actively preserve and promote African American heritage, has organized the events that conclude on Saturday, June 18, with a parade at 11 a.m. beginning at Henderson Park, proceed to Broad Street and ends in CT Big Field.

The festival will follow from noon to 4 p.m. along Broad and Roundtree streets, and CT Big Field. Fireworks are at dusk at Henderson Park.

Tryon Palace is one of the organizations participating in New Bern’s Juneteenth celebration. The historic site will host “The Journey to Juneteenth” at 7 p.m. June 16 in the North Carolina History Center’s Cullman Performance Hall, 529 S. Front St., in New Bern.

The program features Sauuda Eshe, who will offer song, recitations and historical data. Eshe will present a case for why we should celebrate Juneteenth, but also realize that the enslaved were not liberated, but participated in their own liberation, according to Tryon Palace. There’s no cost to attend.

In addition to “The Journey to Juneteenth,” Tryon Palace’s 35^th Regiment, United States Colored Troops interpretive group and Jonkonnu group will be participating in the Juneteenth Parade at 11 a.m. June 18.

Dr. Erroll L. Royal, from New Bern, is set to give a virtual presentation on his most recent book, “Traces of Places and Faces of African Americans from the New Bern Community,” as part of Tryon Palace’s African American Lecture Series.

The program will begin at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 17. Though offered virtually, reservations are required to participate. Email Historic Interpreter Krystal Eldred at krystal.eldred@ncdcr.gov or call 252-639-3512.

Royal will highlight past and present African Americans from the New Bern area who have made or continue to make significant contributions to the city, the surrounding areas and nationwide.

“His stories serve to remember the legacies of these African Americans as their lives will have lasting impact on the lives of many for generations to come,” organizers said.

Royal, a New Bern Senior High School graduate who, in addition to his doctorate, earned master’s in several areas of study, is a retired educator with more than 40 years as a school administrator.

He is author of other books including “Pembroke: The Road Less Traveled,” “No Pain, No Rain, No Gain: Understanding the Meaning of Suffering” and “Twenty Steps to Effective Prayer.”

Royal is working on a sequel to “Traces of Places and Faces of African Americans from the New Bern Community” to remember other prominent individuals not mentioned in the first book.

Projects to preserve and protect habitat and improve water quality in eastern North Carolina have been awarded a total of $866,591 in grants through the Environmental Enhancement Grant program, Attorney General Josh Stein announced Tuesday.

This year, the program is awarding nearly $3 million to 27 grantees across the state.

The grant program began after an agreement made in 2000 between the North Carolina attorney general’s office and Smithfield Foods, which provides $2 million to the state every year to be distributed among environmental projects across the state. Including this year’s grants, listed below, the attorney general office’s has awarded nearly $37 million to more than 190 projects in the state.

Jacksonville

Jacksonville is to receive $175,000 to continue efforts to preserve and protect the New River.

The grant is to help the city expand 12 of the existing New River Estuary Oyster Highway sites, construct 1,850 small patch reefs and add nearly 2.5 million oysters to improve biofiltration.

“The City of Jacksonville is committed to preserving and protecting the New River, a process which began 21 years ago with the close of the City’s Wilson Bay WWTP (waste water treatment plant) and the immediate cleanup efforts utilizing an innovative process called bioremediation,” said Pat Donovan-Brandenburg, stormwater manager for city.

“We continued those efforts three years ago with the “New River Oyster Highway” where we created 12 half-acre artificial reefs or stepping stone habitats for oyster and fish populations in the region between Wilson Bay and Stones Bay within the New River, Donovan-Brandenburg continued. Using funds these funds will enable the city to expand the 12 existing New River Estuary Oyster Highway sites by adding more than 2.48 million oysters and constructing an additional 1,850 or so patch reefs across all sites.

“This grant will help safeguard the New River,” said Stein. “It will help marine life thrive and help improve the quality of water sources.”

New Bern

New Bern is getting $134,000 to build stormwater infrastructure in an underserved neighborhood that has long been subject to flooding. The grant is a part of the city’s larger resiliency and revitalization project.

“The Attorney General’s Environmental Enhancement Grant Program award supports the city’s overall resiliency initiatives and one of the primary goals of our Resiliency and Hazard Mitigation Plan, to improve conditions for our most underserved and socially vulnerable populations,” said Jeffrey Ruggieri, Development Services Director for New Bern.

“Flooding is the biggest concern and most frequent hazard experienced in the Greater Duffyfield Community. The Stormwater Enhancement Project is a representative mitigation solution to retrofit sustainable practices and nature-based solutions in our older neighborhoods that have been plagued with disinvestment. The project will make the neighborhood safer, improve water quality, and add an amenity for the surrounding residents,” he continued. “EEG funds have been imperative to the city’s broader planning efforts, which encompass a holistic approach toward building the resilience capacity of New Bern and being better prepared for the future.”

Stein said in a statement that New Bern is making smart investments in improving water quality and preventing flooding in historically underserved neighborhoods. “I hope this grant will help improve the quality of life for people in New Bern.”

North Carolina Coastal Land Trust

The North Carolina Coastal Land Trust is receiving $50,000 for the Hoggard’s Millpond Conservation Project, which will help the trust acquire 348 acres of Hoggard’s Millpond Tract and transfer it to the town of Windsor in Bertie County to create a new public park.

“Coastal Land Trust is ever appreciative of this recently approved EEG grant for our Hoggard’s Millpond Conservation Project which represents a unique community conservation partnership to protect a site with significant wildlife, historic, water quality, and recreational resources,” said Janice Allen, director of land protection, adding that the trust’s primary partner, Windsor, is one step closer to having a new nature, historic park for all to enjoy.

“Public parks make our communities stronger and happier,” Stein said. “I’m pleased to distribute these funds to help the town of Windsor create a new public park that the community can enjoy for decades to come.”

Ducks Unlimited

Ducks Unlimited is getting $75,000 to restore wetlands within the Goose Creek Game Lands in Pamlico County, a project to increase water exchanges between Smith Creek and its estuary.

“The Environmental Enhancement Grant award serves as a critical funding source in support of our project to enhance 25 acres of tidally-influenced managed wetlands,” said Ducks Unlimited Regional biologist Ethan Massey.

“The grant funds will be leveraged with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) and Ducks Unlimited matching support to complete the project. Wetland restoration projects like these are important to maintain and improve wetland function and water quality in North Carolina,” Massey said, adding that the project will also allow the commission to manage the area more effectively to provide high quality wildlife habitat and public outdoor recreational opportunities.

“Wetlands protect our communities from flooding and enhance water quality,” said Stein. “I’m proud to partner with Ducks Unlimited to preserve this area for more people to enjoy in the future.”

Bertie County Hive House

Bertie County Hive House is receiving $74,350 to improve a 4-acre greenspace in Lewiston Woodville through cleaning, stormwater remediation and planting. The greenspace provides recreational and educational opportunities for the underserved community.

“Public green areas are vital to our community health,” Stein said. “This grant will help create a community space people can visit and enjoy.”

Other EEG awards in eastern North Carolina:

Pollocksville will receive $114,000 to construct publicly accessible wetlands in Riverfront Park to help protect flood-prone properties.

Kinston Cares, a nonprofit organization run by the Center for Community Self-Help, is receiving $95,000 to rehabilitate Federal Emergency Management Agency flood buyout property in east Kinston through research, community planning and environmental education.

East Carolina University will receive $149,241 to identify and evaluate stormwater control measures throughout Greenville. The project will help the city determine which locations are at a higher risk for flooding and poor water quality and take steps to reduce the environmental damage caused by stormwater runoff, especially in underserved communities.

Eight residences in New Bern flooded during 2018’s Hurricane Florence will be demolished.

The state and Federal Emergency Management Agency approved $964,806 to help the city of New Bern acquire, demolish and remove the residential structures. FEMA’s share of the cost for this project is $723,605 and the state’s share is $241,201.

“The City of New Bern has been on a long road to recovery since Hurricane Florence,” said Amanda Ohlensehlen, Community & Economic Development manager in a statement. “The announcement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) will provide these homeowners the assistance they need to move out of the floodplain to reduce their risk in the future. The program supports the city’s resilience initiatives to improve community preparedness and mitigation against the effects of future disasters.”

Once the structures located within a Special Flood Hazard Area are removed, the parcels will be converted to an open space in the natural floodplain. Purchase of the properties will also help the homeowners to relocate to an area where they won’t face an ongoing flood risk.

“We appreciate the continued partnership in assisting all homeowners across the State, especially those impacted so hard by Hurricane Florence. It is always good to provide residents with an opportunity to move out of harm’s way and save lives and money over the long-term through this process,” said Steve McGugan, state hazard mitigation officer in a statement.

FEMA covers 75% of eligible costs and the remaining 25% is paid for by the state. The federal share is reimbursed to the state which disburses the funds to local governments.

FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funds projects that reduce risks from repetitive hazards. This mitigation planning breaks the cycle of disaster damage, reconstruction and repeated damage.

The public is invited to review and comment on a proposed redistricting plan for New Bern.

Redistricting became necessary after data from the 2020 U.S. Census showed unbalanced growth among the city’s wards, a common problem as cities and towns expand, according to the city.

The proposed changes can be viewed online.  A survey is included at the bottom of the page for feedback.

A public hearing on the proposed redistricting plan is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday at city hall during the board of aldermen meeting. 

Updated census information is published by the federal government every 10 years. In North Carolina, general statutes require municipalities with districts, or wards, from which public officials are elected, to look at population numbers to determine if there are imbalances within those districts, city officials said. With New Bern’s growth over the last decade, the city’s wards require adjustment. The goal with redistricting is to proportionately balance the population with consideration given to community contiguity and racial equity.

“New Bern continues to grow, particularly to its northwest and south,” said Mayor Dana Outlaw in a statement. “While we welcome that growth, from time to time it means we must redraw our wards. These changes could impact your voice in the next election and your representation within the Governing Board, so we encourage the public to participate in the redistricting process.”

The board of aldermen worked with leadership and staff to create a draft map of proposed changes, with a 10% population differential, according to the city. 

GIS staff designed the map and presented the changes during the Sept. 14 board meeting. Under the current proposal, every ward would see some changes and around 1,700 people will be affected. 

Once the public has an opportunity to review and provide feedback on the maps, the board of aldermen is expected to vote on a resolution to adopt them. The final maps are to be be drawn and the Craven County Board of Elections and all affected registered voters are to be notified of those changes.

Printed maps and handheld paper copies can be viewed at the following four locations:

• West New Bern Recreation Center, 1225 Pinetree Drive, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.
• Customer & Payment Services, 606 Fort Totten Drive, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday.
• City Hall, 300 Pollock St., 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday
• Craven-Pamlico Regional Library, 400 Johnson St. 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2-6 p.m. Sunday.

New Bern officials and staff are launching a flood mitigation and resiliency planning effort and is calling for the public to get involved.

The first public meeting will be held on Zoom from 6 to 7 p.m. Sept. 10 and will include a discussion on resiliency and hazard mitigation as well as introduce the city’s consultant partners. Join the Zoom meeting by clicking here. Meeting ID is 830 6589 2514 and Passcode is 802088 or watch the Virtual Public Meeting live on Facebook at @cityofnb.

Hurricane Florence in September 2018 caused New Bern about $100 million in residential and commercial damages, mostly due to flooding. Since the storm, New Bern has sought many grants to repair and restore infrastructure, replace city equipment, and improve New Bern’s resiliency, according to the city.

There is a project webpage housing all the information related to the initiative, including the project schedule and resources available that will be updated with the latest information and news.

Earlier this year, the city began working with the consultant partners on a multi-phase, long-term hazard mitigation and resiliency plan that will include significant public input, according to the officials Friday.

The public can get involved by completing this survey  launched Friday that will close Sept. 24 and by signing up for emails with updates, meetings using this form.

For questions, comments, or concern about the resiliency plan contact resiliency@newbernnc.gov.

NEW BERN — Lois Cantlow of New Bern is featured in a The Washington Post series that looks at new data behind Hurricane Florence’s flooding and how rising seas contributed to the damage of her home, the news outlet announced Tuesday.

Her story is part of “Gone in a Generation,”a multimedia reporting series published Tuesday by The Washington Post that explores how climate change is affecting the United States and how it alters the planet. The series features reporting, data visualizations, scenery and video footage of families from five different states.

Cantlow, whose family has lived in the Craven County town for six generations, said that her home was under 5 feet of floodwaters, which closely matches the findings from storm surge modeling by researcher Rick Luettich at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, according to the series.

In Cantlow’s case, scientists say that climate change wasn’t the biggest driver behind the water that flooded her home but did worsen the flooding, according to the announcement. “Experts calculate that rising seas made flooding at Cantlow’s address ‘at least two-thirds of a foot deeper.’ In her Sunnyside neighborhood, the rising seas caused 15 percent more homes ‘to experience significant flooding’.”

This solar farm in New Bern is one of about 100 solar farms developed by Strata Solar in North Carolina. The state is the second top producer of solar energy after California. Photo: Strata Solar

NEW BERN — As solar energy has taken a surprising leap nationally, North Carolina is sitting pretty as a top producer, behind California, of utility-scale solar energy in the country.  In 2013, the state overtook New Jersey and Arizona with the second largest increase in solar capacity.

Strata Solar, which will complete its farm in New Bern next month, is the No. 1 producer, as far as installed megawatts of solar energy, in North Carolina, with a total of about 100 solar farms.

But all is not sunny in the solar industry in North Carolina, with dark clouds hovering over the state Utilities Commission, the state legislature, the U.S. Congress and even on the international front.

Solar power, meanwhile, is literally transforming the landscape in North Carolina.

Until a few years ago, farmers leasing 45 acres of land Joe Thomas owns off N.C. 43 outside New Bern harvested cotton, beans and corn.  Now, those same acres will be harvesting enough energy from the sun to theoretically power 750 homes and remove 780 cars from the road.

“I think this is a resource for producing electricity that is good,” said Thomas, owner of Thomas Development Co. in New Bern, adding he has heard nothing negative from the community. “I think the construction has gone fine.”

Chapel Hill-based Strata Solar had approached him two or three years ago about leasing the land for a solar farm, and as a businessman, Thomas liked what he heard. The offer included a long-term lease – he declined to provide the details– that provided a bit more income than farmland and would be paid consistently.

“It’s a good income related to the farm,” Thomas said.

When the 6.4-megawatt project is completed, the land, just north of Bridgeton, will be covered with 22,556 slate-blue photovoltaic modules that will produce at its peak about 10,048 megawatt hours of electricity a year.

The Craven County site is about the same size as most of Strata’s projects that are built on land formerly used to farm. And once the lease is up, the land can be farmed again with minimal evidence of the solar project.

Blair Schooff

“We tend to, as a practice, try to do as little grading work as possible,” said Blair Schooff, the company’s vice president of sales and marketing. “We like to be good stewards of the land, primarily.”

Schooff said that Strata, which has started expanding into other states, does not use gravel or cement at their projects, and fencing is minimal.

“We think this is a very good use of land, and farmers who have been active farmers agree with us,” he said. “You can pull all this stuff out of the ground, and be left with what you had before.”

Strata has a trained workforce that moves in teams from job to job in regional clusters, Schooff said, so jobs that are created are not necessarily from the area of the specific project. Last year, there were as many as 1,500 total workers on all the solar farms, he said, averaging about 60 to 90 per project.

Industry-wide, North Carolina last year employed 2,400 people in solar energy jobs, according to N.C. Sustainable Energy Association.

Craven County Manager Jack Veit said that the county has had little to no interaction with Strata – Craven has no zoning — and he is not aware of any specific benefit to the county. On the other hand, he said he has not heard any objection to the solar farm, which is about a 10-minute drive from New Bern, the county seat.

Whatever energy produced at Strata’s farms is sold to Duke Energy or Dominion North Carolina Power, Schooff said.

“Both utilities are fantastic to work with,” he said. “They’re very much embracing the new developments in solar.”

Growth in the solar industry coincided with passage of the state Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard in 2007, said Steve Kalland, executive director of the N.C. Solar Center. It really kicked into high gear about three years ago, he said.

These 45 acres of farmland in New Bern will be harvesting enough energy from the sun to theoretically power 750 homes and remove 780 cars from the road once the solar farm is completed. Photo: Strata Solar

The law required that by 2021 large utilities have 12.5 percent of their electric supply produced by clean energy sources.

“North Carolina suddenly became a very good place to do large-scale, utility-scale solar farms,” Kalland said. “The residential side in California is kind of driving the train there.”

An issue with net-metering that is being considered by the N.C. Utilities Commission is relevant in this state not because it would have an effect on the utility-scale solar projects, but because of its future potential, Kalland said.

Net metering allows people with residential roof-top solar to be credited for excess energy backed into the power grid. Because of regulatory strictures, there is very little residential solar power being produced in North Carolina.

From the utility company’s perspective, Kalland said, it’s a loss of revenue that was calculated to cover its infrastructure costs, despite the current miniscule scale of residential solar in the state.

“They’re looking out 30 years,” he said. “They’re worried about it.”

Kalland said that it would benefit the state to have a discussion about regulatory issues that could hinder the future of residential solar power, but it is premature to worry about its immediate impact on North Carolina’s solar industry.

Despite murmurs from legislatures of repealing the state’s renewables standard, Kalland said he is “reasonably” comfortable that it will remain in effect.

“I think the state would be foolish to kill the goose that laid the golden egg,” he said.