Local News
Aberdeen ponders parking
The Town of Aberdeen and Walker Consultants conducted a Stakeholder Public Input Meeting on current and future conditions for the Town’s Central Business District’s public parking on May 5 at the Aberdeen Recreation Station.
In the first of three presentations, Walker Consultants outlined conditions and potential parking options.
“The town controls only 40% of public parking,” Walker Consultants Director of Planning and Municipal Operations Jim Corbett said.
Corbett discussed curbside needs, including needed additional handicapped parking, short-term and long-term parking, employee parking, shared parking with businesses after hours, walkability, lighting, placemaking, wayfinding, and biking.
Of the 683 public and potentially available spaces, 166 spaces are on-street, 120 are off-street, and are public. There are 397 private parking spaces, of which 273 have potential for after-hours share agreements.
The study’s focus area included U.S. Highway 1, Poplar Street, Sycamore Street, Pine Street, South Street, Main Street, Knight Street, Maple Avenue, Aberdeen Carolina and Western Railway, Aberdeen and Rockfish Railroad, and Norfolk Southern Railway.
Public feedback showed that employee vehicles filled most business parking spots by 9:30 a.m.
Business owners addressed short-term parking by relocating employee parking and enacting a town ordinance limiting parking to two hours.
“We can explain to employees that customers need parking, and employees can park somewhere else, or we won’t need you as an employee. In the evening, they can move their car closer, instead of two-hour parking,” a downtown property owner with three properties said about how ticketed customers would not like them and would not return.
The two-hour parking discussion garnered more positive feedback than negative, with six of the 25 guests speaking favorably against the one guest speaker.
“Density and demand create hindrance,” Corbett said about two-hour parking not being an ideal solution, but that it could be used as an honor system with warnings for at least a year before ticketing.
“By no means am I going to suggest paid parking,” Corbett said and added that one reason towns opt for paid parking is that revenue goes back to the parking fund.
Corbett said the study showed no major challenges on walkability or wayfinding. But the railroad crossings were cumbersome and the proposed funding through the railroad companies for crosswalks.
Public input relayed that when U.S. Highway 1 and N.C. Highway 5 are improved, a bicycle path leading to downtown would be ideal, and people would like to ride bikes to shop and dine from their existing neighborhoods.
“If you build it, they will come,” Corbett said about bike and walking paths.
The Town of Aberdeen and the North Carolina Department of Transportation would need to discuss bicycle and walking paths as part of highway improvement plans.
Walker Consultants will discuss the feedback with the town and return for a second presentation in about 30 days.
Feature Photo: Walker Consultants Director of Planning and Municipal Operations Jim Corbett discusses Aberdeen’s parking issues on May 5, 2025, with stakeholders.
~Article and photo by Sandhills Sentinel journalist Stephanie M. Sellers. Stephanie is also an English instructor at Central Carolina Community College. She is the author of When the Yellow Slugs Sing, Sky’s River Stone, GUTTERSNIPE: Shakespearean English Stage Play with Translation, Amagi, Amagi Study Guide, and EZ Essay Study Guide for Holocaust: A History.
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Two people were arrested in connection with a series of vehicle break-ins linked to a Felony Lane Gang operating across multiple states.
According to the Aberdeen Police Department, officers responded to OrangeTheory Fitness on August 4 after a vehicle was broken into and items were reportedly stolen.
“Investigators began following leads and linked the case to similar cases in Southern Pines, Pinehurst, Foxfire, Pittsboro, High Point, and Fuquay-Varina,” states the Aberdeen Police Department in a press release. “A multi-jurisdictional investigation began, and investigators verified suspects in this case were part of a Felony Lane Gang that was targeting vehicles at gyms across several states.”
Detectives identified the suspect vehicle as a rental car and located it at Raleigh-Durham International Airport. Surveillance footage from a bank in Cary helped investigators identify Victoria Tudor, 48, of Raleigh, and Ethan Smith, 33, of Youngsville, as suspects.
Warrants were issued on September 26. Smith is facing charges of felony obtaining property by false pretenses, and Tudor is facing charges of felony conspiracy to obtain property by false pretenses. On November 7, officers with the Fuquay-Varina Police Department and the Raleigh Fugitive Task Force located the pair. Both were taken before a Wake County magistrate and received $5,000 secured bonds.
Police said the case remains open as investigators continue working with surrounding agencies to identify additional suspects.
All suspects and persons charged with a crime are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
To sign up for the free Sandhills Sentinel breaking news e-newsletter, please click here.
Via Aberdeen Police Department.
Three people were arrested Thursday after Moore County Sheriff’s Office investigators executed a search warrant at a residence in the 100 block of Bell Fork Road in the Heflin Mobile Home Park in Aberdeen.
Detectives conducted the search on Nov. 13 and seized suspected cocaine, fentanyl, methamphetamine, psilocybin mushrooms, marijuana, multiple items of drug and marijuana paraphernalia, thirteen firearms, and more than $2,800 in cash.
Investigators arrested Jose Sanchez, 26, of Aberdeen, and charged him with felony possession of a Schedule I controlled substance; possession with intent to sell and deliver cocaine; felony possession of cocaine; possession with intent to sell and deliver marijuana; felony possession of marijuana; two counts of maintaining a vehicle or dwelling for controlled substances; and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was booked into the Moore County Detention Center under a $10,000 secured bond and is scheduled to appear in district court on Dec.10.
Tabitha Sanchez, 56, of Aberdeen, was charged with felony possession of a Schedule II controlled substance; simple possession of a Schedule VI controlled substance; and possession of drug paraphernalia. She was held at the Moore County Detention Center under a $5,500 secured bond and is also scheduled to appear in district court on Dec.10.
Brandy Grice, 50, of Aberdeen, was charged with possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia. She was committed to the Moore County Detention Center under a $5,500 secured bond and has the same Dec. 10 district court date.
All defendants facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Via Moore County Sheriff’s Office.
Two people were arrested in connection with a series of vehicle break-ins linked to a Felony Lane Gang operating across multiple states.
According to the Aberdeen Police Department, officers responded to OrangeTheory Fitness on August 4 after a vehicle was broken into and items were reportedly stolen.
“Investigators began following leads and linked the case to similar cases in Southern Pines, Pinehurst, Foxfire, Pittsboro, High Point, and Fuquay-Varina,” states the Aberdeen Police Department in a press release. “A multi-jurisdictional investigation began, and investigators verified suspects in this case were part of a Felony Lane Gang that was targeting vehicles at gyms across several states.”
Detectives identified the suspect vehicle as a rental car and located it at Raleigh-Durham International Airport. Surveillance footage from a bank in Cary helped investigators identify Victoria Tudor, 48, of Raleigh, and Ethan Smith, 33, of Youngsville, as suspects.
Warrants were issued on September 26. Smith is facing charges of felony obtaining property by false pretenses, and Tudor is facing charges of felony conspiracy to obtain property by false pretenses. On November 7, officers with the Fuquay-Varina Police Department and the Raleigh Fugitive Task Force located the pair. Both were taken before a Wake County magistrate and received $5,000 secured bonds.
Police said the case remains open as investigators continue working with surrounding agencies to identify additional suspects.
All suspects and persons charged with a crime are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
To sign up for the free Sandhills Sentinel breaking news e-newsletter, please click here.
Via Aberdeen Police Department.
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