Well played: Rep. Dixon steps up and scores for Seven Springs

Not much tops a Game 7 in any sport, much less the Fall Classic.

By the time you are reading this the 2017 Major League Baseball champs will have been crowned.

But as this is being written we've still got a few hours of delicious anticipation left to savor.

So we'll step off the rubber for a moment to spotlight someone who -- at least to the folks in Seven Springs -- has got to be the MVP in everyone's mind, at least locally.

That's right, an "attaboy" is due to one of this county's state legislators.

Rep. Jimmy Dixon, of Mount Olive, came through in a big way this week for the folks down in Seven Springs.

The town was hit hard during the record flooding of the Neuse River a year ago in the wake of Hurricane Matthew's torrential rains.

Lost among the devastation was the town's all-volunteer fire department. No, the volunteers didn't wash away. In fact, having survived Floyd however many years prior, the department was aware enough to move much of its equipment to higher ground prior to the flooding.

The department itself, however -- the original part of the structure has stood since 1958 -- did not fare as well.

And so, the chair of the Agriculture and Natural and Economic Resources Committee in Raleigh did what any good steward of the public trust should do -- he fought for and secured a chunk of the funding required to build a bigger, better fire department for a town desperately trying to hold on.

Dixon helped obtain $240,000 toward the $1.8 million cost of a new facility due to be completed two years from now in 2019.

A Golden-LEAF grant is being sought for additional funding.

Dixon had visited the area after the hurricane and saw the shape the town and the fire department were in. And when the time came that he could do something to help, he followed through.

"I went to bat for them and got a direct appropriation in the budget for them."

So, good on ya, Mr. Dixon. And anytime you get a good look at a pitch you can hit to secure more relief funding for Seven Springs or for Wayne County in general -- swing away, Jimmy. Swing away. 

Published in Editorials on November 1, 2017 7:00 PM