Nickel brings dollars home

Congressman Wiley Nickel was in his home district last week to deliver checks to leaders in four towns.

“I was excited to be in Johnston and Harnett counties to celebrate the $2.8 million in federal funding that I secured for the people of North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District,” he said.

The money will support public safety, job training and infrastructure. Selma received $330,000 for body cameras, dash cams and data storage for the police department. Smithfield got $124,000 for police body cameras and data storage. Benson received $959,752 for water system improvements. In Harnett County, Dunn got $1,466,279 to equip the new advanced manufacturing and biotech training center.

Wiley said he was happy to deliver the aid to the communities. “We made a commitment to do everything we could for Johnson County, and today’s four stops are just an indication of what we can do when we work with our local and county partners,” he said.

In Selma, Police Chief Jamie Hughes said he would put the money to good use. “It is for body cams for all my patrol division, as well as in-car cameras and the technology for the data storage,” he said.

“So it’s huge,” the chief said of the money. “Since I took the job as police chief, my goal has been to show transparency with the community and gain the trust of citizens. This is just another tool that helps us do that.”

The cameras will hold both police and the public accountable, but it will do more than that, Hughes said. “It also acts as a tool for us to train other officers,” he said. “We can take that video back to use it to train and to try to fix any problems out there or even to pat one of our guys on the back.”

During a celebration at the Selma Civic Center, Nickel said he wasn’t done trying to get money for the town. “I’m requesting $1.5 million for Selma’s electric substation and infrastructure upgrades,” he said. “Selma will use these funds to upgrade the electric green infrastructure to improve the resilience and reliability.”

Like his counterpart in Selma, Smithfield Police Chief Pete Hedrick welcomed the money for body cams. “The use of body cameras in law enforcement is well known as it helps us do our job more efficiently and more effectively,” he said. “It opens transparency and accountability. But I think the big thing for us in Smithfield is it lets our community know the wonderful job that our police officers are doing.”

During a celebration at the Smithfield Police Department, Nickel announced he was trying to secure money for another town project. “I have requested $4.9 million for a fire station in North Smithfield,” he said. “The north fire station will be located much closer to the Town of Selma. We’re gonna have a much quicker response in Smithfield and Selma.”

Benson will use the $959,752 for pipe repairs and water system upgrades.

It takes a collective effort to win federal funding, Nickel said. “We’ve got a great county and local leaders that worked real hard to get this,” he said. “I think the message really is just that Johnson County’s on the move and growing in a responsible way. We’re just trying to help with every dollar that we can get to make sure we’re leveraging those federal funds to help stay ahead of the curve.”

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