The Wilmington City Council held an agenda briefing on Monday, May 18, 2026, at 8:30 a.m. in City Hall to review items for the regular council meeting scheduled for May 19, 2026. The council reviewed all consent agenda items, public hearings, and ordinances without questions or discussion. The main focus was a presentation on the temporary Celebration Pop-up Park at Third and Chestnut Streets in honor of the nation’s 250th anniversary.
I'll bring the meeting to order. We'll do a roll call at this time. Mayor Pro Tem is in the flesh. In here. Councilmember Joyner is in Charles, so he is absent with an excuse. Councilmember Andrews, are you here? Here. Councilmember Laura you here? Here. Councilmember Santa Greater, are you here? Here. Councilmember Clinton Quintana, are you here? I am. And the chair is here. Everybody's here in the counter for. We'll start off with the consent agenda. We have one presentation tomorrow night. C one is a um resolution authorized city manager to enter into an agreement with Hazen and Sawyer PC for hydraulic modeling professional services for 116,900. C2 is a resolution authorized city manager to enter into a three-year agreement with SHI International Corporation for the renewal of the Microsoft Enterprise Agreement in the amount not to exceed $2 million. C three is a resolution authorized city manager to execute a contract amendment in the amount of $1,860,000 to New Pipe LLC for the annual needs stormwater infrastructure repairs and rehabilitation contract. C4 is a resolution authorizing the Hammerhead Soccer Club to serve alcoholic beverages and at an event at this in Cena Sports Park. C5 is a resolution providing approval of a multifamily housing facility in the city of Wilmington, North Carolina, and the financing thereof with multifamily housing revenue bonds in an amount not to exceed 32 million nine hundred and fifty thousand dollars. C6 is approval of the minutes for the regular council meetings of May 4th, 2026. Public hearings, PH 1A is an ordinance making appropriations to the general fund grants, projects, financial plans, enterprise fund, debit service fund, special tax district, and convention center for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026. PH1B is an ordinance making appropriations to the Capitol Projects Funds for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026. And PH1C is an ordinance amending various chapters of the City of Wilmington fee schedule for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2026. Ordinances 01 is an ordinance amending Wilmington City Code Section 8 5 on criminal history, background checks and or credit history checks required of applicants and employees, and this was continued from our May 4th meeting. 02A is a resolution authorizing the city manager to accept the Great Trails State Grant Award for the replacement of the Lions Bridge in Greenfield Park. And then O2B is the ordinance making the supplemental appropriation in the amount of $500,000 for the Great Trails State Grant Award for the replacement of the Lions Bridge in Greenfield Park. That is all of the items on the agenda that we'll be hearing tomorrow night. Are there any questions from council? Or if not, what it um Madam Clerk, do you have any? I mean, not Madam Clerk. Yes, Mr. Mayor. Uh, we do have one presentation this morning. Deputy City Manager Mary Vigue is going to give council an update on the celebration pop-up park that is coming together at Third and Chestnut in honor of our 250th anniversary of this country. Good morning. I almost wore my red, white, and blue today, but I figured I would be a little bit early. Uh I wanted to just provide a brief update because I know there's an item on your calendar, uh, and there's a lot of moving parts uh on where we are. Um, but I wanted to take us back just a brief moment, and staff will appreciate this. So just as a reminder, this is our 305 Chestnut Street site. Uh the city owns this property. Uh it was supposed to be sold uh last year. Uh there have been delays in that. And so this is some aerial views of this property. Uh I wanted to talk about how this project came to be. And so as you drive down third street, uh, this is the site. Uh and this is the way it currently was about a month and a half ago. Uh, there was a temporary fence that has been surrounding the property for I want to say about two years now.