Gov. Roy Cooper talks grant program, Confederate statues and more

BLADEN COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — Governor Roy Cooper was in our area Thursday, heading from Bladen to Brunswick county. During his visit, he addressed some hot button issues.

The governor was in Elizabethtown around 1 p.m. He visited the Bladen County Rebuild NC Application Center.

He says he wants to bring awareness to the facility, and make sure people know how to apply for hurricane relief.

He met with workers and also toured the new Emergency Management facility, formerly the Bladen County Correctional Center, and says he’s happy with the progress so far.

While there, he addressed accusations by state lawmakers yesterday saying Hurricane Matthew aid money has not been properly distributed to North Carolinians.

“We’re ahead of schedule in a number of areas. The one that’s slower than we want it to be is the community development block grant disaster relief. A lot of red tape that’s been involved at the federal level. The general assembly moved it from the department of commerce to emergency management so now they’re having to rebuild it,” said Gov. Cooper.

After he was finished in Bladen County, the governor went to Brunswick Community College.

He met with students, took pictures, and spoke about his Finish Line Grants program.

“Hearing college instructors saying some of their best students had to drop out because of expenses, I think this can help that situation,” said Cooper.

The grant is aimed at helping students finish school when they are faced with unexpected financial problems.

“We’re hoping this is something that all of our community colleges take advantage of,” he said.

While there, the governor also addressed some issues at the top of peoples minds, including the future of Confederate statues in our state.

“I think that we can learn from and document our history without idolizing painful symbols in our most public places,” said Cooper.

Cooper says he believes the monuments should be placed in battlefields and museums.
he also addressed his efforts to block constitutional amendments from being put before voters this fall.

Amendments that would take away some of the governor’s powers and give them to the legislature.

“This republican leadership has a history of passing laws that are declared unconstitutional, they come back and tweak them, they’re declared unconstitutional again, and then they try to run out the clock,” he said.

North Carolina’s five living former governors came together on August 13 to criticize the proposed amendments.

The first hearing for Cooper’s new case against the amendments is Friday at 11 a.m.