LUMBERTON — The City of Lumberton recognized a lifetime of service and multiple achievements of athletic excellence, with a large crowd inside City Hall giving rousing ovations for each during City Council’s monthly meeting Monday.

The board recognized Leroy Dixon with the Pride in Lumberton award after over three decades of service as a cook at Lumberton Christian Care, while also recognizing wrestling state champions from Lumberton High School and the Robeson County middle school wrestling MVP from Lumberton Junior High School with the same award. Council also recognized the Lumberton Junior High School boys basketball team for winning the county championship.

Dixon has cooked for the homeless sheltered at Lumberton Christian Care since 1992, becoming the sole head cook in 1998; in that time, he has worked over 11,000 days, providing three meals a day for the homeless to equal more than 850,000 meals served.

“These passions resulted in offering innumerable kids from his neighborhood both their first jobs and entering into lifelong careers in the culinary arts,” Councilman Leroy Rising said during the presentation. “He teaches others to find a job you enjoy, and love getting up in the morning to do so. For over 2 1/2 decades he has been able to do that at Lumberton Christian Care Center, and the mayor would like to present you with this Pride in Lumberton Award, and we would like to acknowledge your dedication and your contribution to all the work you’ve done in the City of Lumberton.”

“To me, the greatest joy is when I see children come into Lumberton Christian Care and I feed them, and the smile on their faces, that’s so much joy,” Dixon said. “I would tell the grown folks ‘don’t get but two plates,’ but if the children come in, they can eat as many plates as they want.”

The Lumberton High School wrestling team’s recognition came after three individuals won state championships on Feb. 17, with Jackson Buck winning the boys 4A 190-pound title, Travelian Hall winning the boys 4A title at 106 and Wyntergale Oxendine winning the 235-pound championship in the first officially sanctioned girls state championship. The Pirates girls also won the team state championship, while the boys finished second in the team competition.

“It’s impressive to see this many young people here tonight, and to see the things they’re doing that will impact those kids that are coming along behind you,” Rising said. “You’re setting an example, and they know they can achieve the things that you have done. You can carry this on with you as you progress in life.”

In addition to the three individual champions, state tournament placers James Ellison, Matthew Foil, Teresa Canady and Janya Rolland and state tournament qualifiers Jalen Terry-Winston and Kylie Brigman were also present and honored Monday.

“This has been a historical season, a lot of milestones have been passed, and I’m glad that Lumberton wrestling is getting the recognition that it deserves from over the years,” said James Bell, the team’s head coach. “One of the big things when I first started coaching, I wanted to make sure Lumberton was known for something positive — for having tough athletes, having champions, and not for the things that people like to put out there about us. I feel like we kind of met that in this season, with producing champions. The potential has always been there, but we gave an opportunity to actually put it out there and get the recognition that I think we deserve.”

LJHS wrestler Aaron Ellison, the younger brother of James Ellison, was recognized after an 11-0 season with the Vikings in which he won the Robeson County championship and was named as the county’s wrestling MVP.

“The next generation coming up, I’m sure ready for the high school,” Councilman Owen Thomas said. “I want to say congratulations, keep up the great work. We want to present you with the Pride in Lumberton Award and a pin and continue to represent us well. We thank you so much for all you’re doing in the community.”

Council also commemorated an undefeated and county-championship-winning season for the LJHS boys basketball team. The Vikings defeated Southeastern Academy 55-49 in double overtime to win the county championship on Feb. 8.

“The most impressive thing about these players in overtime was that they stayed under control and their sportsmanship was the best that I think I’ve ever seen,” Thomas said. “The cool thing about this is we get to watch them for another four years, in high school; so guys, continue doing what you’re doing.”

LJHS finished the season at 14-0, winning its second-straight county championship and its sixth in the last seven seasons.

“It was a pleasure coaching these young men,” LJHS head coach Quincy Johnson said. “Like you said, it takes discipline and education, doing great work in the classroom. … We were well-, well-disciplined. … When we played at Prospect and Fairmont, I think have never seen a team play as well as they played, and I’ve coached college ball, I played college ball, but I haven’t seen that other than these kids right here.”

“I especially love them off the court, away from basketball,” assistant coach Jay Williams said. “They’re respectful, they come to school every day, they do their best in class, and that’s all we want preparing them for the high school.”

City could recriminalize some ordinances

A state legislature statute in 2022 broadly decriminalized all municipal ordinances, but allows for cities to “recriminalize” some ordinances by specifically adding those penalties back in. Monday, City Council passed the first reading of an ordinance revision that would do just that.

Existing offenses which Council will look to respecify misdemeanor penalties for include: failure to comply with swimming pool regulations; animal control violations; Airport Commission rule or regulation violations; unfit building occupation violations; failure to comply with unsafe building provisions; parking-related offenses; failure to comply with noise ordinance/permit requirements; begging violations; discharging a firearm; loitering ordinance violations; minor curfew violations; failure to obey alarm regulations; graffiti violations; and solid waste ordinance violations.

Most violations will carry a small fine, with a maximum allowable fine specified in each revised ordinance.

“These can be tweaked, but it requires two readings so we want to get them in the pipeline,” City Attorney Holt Moore said. “This legislation took place some time ago, and ever since it did we haven’t been able to do any misdemeanor tickets under city code; we had to use a state statute, and for some things there aren’t state statutes. It doesn’t mean that we would use the misdemeanor power on all the different options, but it gives us the option after having not had it for a while.”

The revision will have to pass a second reading in next month’s meeting before becoming city ordinance.

Other business

In other business, Council:

— Passed revisions to the city’s begging ordinance which will ban panhandling at some of Lumberton’s busiest intersections and “aggressive solicitation” in the city. For more, see the related story here.

— Authorized the Lumberton Police Department to apply for the AKC Reunite Grant, which is for $12,000 and would allow the department to purchase a K-9 dog. Council also authorized for LPD to purchase a 2024 Ford Explorer to replace a recently totaled vehicle, at a cost of $44,268.07.

— Approved the rebuild/repair of a clarifier at the city’s Wastewater Treatment Plant. The current fiscal year’s capital budget included $50,000 for the project, but repairs will cost far more, with the low bid from Kemp Construction, Inc. at $162,226. The $112,226 balance will be paid for from the Water and Sewer Capital Reserve Fund.

— Approved the rebuild of a water plant transfer pump. While the clarifier project was far more than what was budgeted, this project came in far less, with $75,000 budgeted but the low bid from Charles R. Underwood, Inc. coming in at $47,004.92.

— Approved a change order for the Infrastructure Project portion of the Southeast Crossroads Industrial Park construction. In closing out this phase of the project, which includes street construction, drainage construction, water and sewer, along with an expanded scope to include county water system interconnection, a change order for an additional $49,348.58 in expenses was required. Public Works Director Rob Armstrong stated the water tank at the site is also very close to completion and should become operational soon.

— Granted permission to Main Street Lumberton to relocate the Robeson County Farmer’s Market. It will now be in the city parking lot at Third and Water streets, moving from the existing location at Eighth and Elm due to transfer of property ownership. The market will operate Wednesdays from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 12 p.m., from May to December.

— Approved a policy change to address meals purchased by city employees during day trips on city business. The existing policy only reimbursed employees for meals on overnight trips, but employees will now see reimbursement when travel requires them to purchase meals away from the city even during day trips.

— Scheduled a planning workshop for April 3.

— Designated the following in Community Revitalization Funds: $900 for the Cape Fear Council – Boy Scouts of America for a character luncheon; and $850 to Las Amigas for its annual Big Hat Brunch.