Wilmington City Council Agenda Briefing Meeting - August 18, 2025
Wilmington City Council Agenda Briefing Meeting - August 18, 2025
The City of Wilmington Council held an Agenda Briefing meeting on Monday, August 18, 2025, at 8:30 a.m. at City Hall, Skyline Center, to review items scheduled for the August 19, 2025 Council Meeting. Mayor Bill Saffo presided, with Councilmembers present in person and Councilmember Kevin Spears attending via video conference. The meeting adjourned at 8:38 a.m.
Consent Calendar
The following items were reviewed and no objections were raised:
- C1: Approval of the minutes
- C2: Resolution accepting the plan for the Brookshire Lane/Bisby Road Stormwater Improvement Project
- C3: Resolution authorizing a service contract with PFB International Incorporated for Citywide Alarm System Monitoring ($36,060)
- C4: Resolution authorizing a contract amendment with Clarke Power Services, Inc. for emergency generator preventative maintenance and repair at multiple locations ($71,725)
- C5: Resolution authorizing application for a 2025 Department of Homeland Security grant ($269,000 with $67,250 local match) for the North Carolina Drug Tax Fund
- PH1: Resolution to vacate, close, and repair a structure, prohibiting its use for occupancy
- R1: Resolution authorizing delivery of a Notice of Intent to establish a Quiet Zone with the Federal Railroad Administration
Discussion Items
- Councilmember Rivenbark inquired about Item C4 regarding generator maintenance. Dave Mayes, Director of Public Works, explained that the generators are set on timers (e.g., every Wednesday at 10 a.m.) and the contractor will perform load testing quarterly; the contract covers preventative maintenance, not emergency repairs.
- Mayor Saffo inquired about Item R1 (Quiet Zone). City Manager Becky Hawke and Director of Economic Development Aubrey Parsley provided details: This is the first step in a multi-year process. The Quiet Zone would leverage NCDOT Rail Division improvements to grade crossings, funded by state and federal sources, to create a sealed corridor through Wilmington. Once upgrades are in place, trains would not be required to blow horns at crossings unless unsafe conditions exist. The process involves diagnostic reviews by the railroad and state regulators. The construction agreement with CSX is already approved.
Key Outcomes
- The council concluded discussion of all items scheduled for the August 19, 2025 regular meeting.
- No votes were taken during the briefing; items will be presented for action at the regular meeting.
- The meeting adjourned at 8:38 a.m.
Meeting Transcript
Order, I'm gonna do a roll call at this time. Are you here? Yeah. Council Robertsmark, are you here? Council Member Spears, are you here? I am here. Council Wadell, are you here? Council Member Andrews, are you here? Yes. Council Member Jordan, are you here? Here. All here and counter for C one is uh approval of the minutes, C2 is a resolution accepting the plan agement for the Brookshire Lane slash Bisby Road Stormwater Improvement Project. C three is a resolution authorizing city manager to execute a service contract with PFB, International Incorporated for Citywide Alarm System Monitoring from the amount of 36,060. C4 is a resolution authorized city manager to execute contract the member with Clark Power Services Incorporated One Street Generator Preventive Maintenance and Repair Services at multiple locations in the amount of 71,725. Yes, sir. We we we fire those things up on regular UFO would do. We fire those up on that. These folks don't do all that. This is just preventative maintenance. But we we check our generators on a regular basis. Is that correct? Yes, they there's a lot of them are set on timers, they'll go up like every Wednesday at 10 a.m. or something like that. Um they will load test on the quarter. Thanks, Dave. C5 is a resolution authorized city manager to apply for a 2025 Department of Home Master Point in the amount of 269,000 with the 67,250 local match for the North Carolina drug tax fund. PH1 is more destroyed in the house inspected to vacate close and repair college. There are prohibiting its use for occupancy. The last one is resolutions. Resolution authorizes the city manager to deliver a notice of intent to establish a quiet zone with the federal railroad administration pursuant to 49 CFR part 22. It's a big one. How long would it take to get this quiet zone in place? Yeah, it's a it's this is the very first step in a multi-step process. Um so uh there's additional research that needs to be done, but this is just an early indication. Looks like we will qualify with the NCD improvements that are coming to a lot of the intersections. Um I'm not sure if Aubrey or Chad's to a year plus, it'll take some time. There'll be noticed intent, the railroad and the state regulators need to come in and review, there's diagnostic review, and the improvements actually need to be in place for the designation to be applicable. So it's probably a multi-year process, and this is the first step. So this is all derived from NCDFT Rail division improvements to all the great crossings around town that they uh big sweeping project from the great separation study they did a long time ago, traffic separations they did a long time ago, back in 2014, that's now um received state funding and federal funding to implement a ton of safety improvements all across town. So it will effectively create a sealed corridor through the railroad to roaming tent, which is the key first step. Usually these programs are very cost prohibitive because you have to install a lot of signals across those, but in this case, federal government, the state government is funding those improvements, many many millions of dollars to do that. So we're trying to piggyback those improvements and leverage them uh for the slides now, but it will take it will take some time to put it in place. Um with the the program approved in our construction construction agreement in place with CSX, which Mr. May is present, make a few meetings back. They should be in place where we can get this process started so when those improvements show up. We can hopefully have the slides on around at the same time. So then we'll just that's the bottom line. That's the idea. Yeah, they can still blow the horns if something's unsafe. If they see something in the tracks, maybe in the engineers, but they are not required to by federal law anymore with this program in place to blow the horn at every crossing.
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