Pope

A while back, Momo took us on a tour of Jackson Hamlet, a small Black community surrounded by Pinehurst and Aberdeen but not in either's municipal limits. They, along with a similar community on the other side of Aberdeen, Midway, have been trying to obtain municipal services, especially water and/or sewer.

Without going too deeply into why these communities are surrounded by, but not in, municipal borders, it comes down to historic settlement patterns, NC annexation law, and the high costs of utilities extensions among other things.

Much progress has occurred lately and it appears Midway will be getting services soon thanks to a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) obtained by Aberdeen. Midway will soon be part of Aberdeen, through voluntary or involuntary annexation.

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I have been doing some research on Joe Boylan. After attending the debate between Boylan, Galloway and Shaver, there was something he said that piqued my interest.

“I believe that most of my contributions have come from individuals.” To find out if this was correct, I went to the State Board of Elections (SBOE) website. They have this really nifty tool there, “View Campaign Finance Reports”. You just fill in a name and go to their disclosure reports.

The “individual” contributions do in fact out number the PAC and "other" contributions. Let’s look a little closer. His total individual contributions add up to $77,933.59, of that sum only $19,091.52 were donated by Moore County residents.