The meeting began at 1:02 PMin the District 3 Conference Room located at 1194 Prison Camp Road in Whiteville, NC.

In attendance:

  • Sam Alsup, Columbus County Planning
  • Joe Bailey, NCDOT Division 6
  • Claudia Bray, Town of Sandyfield
  • Jimmy Capps, NCDOT Aviation
  • Drew Cox, NCDOT Division 6 – District Engineer
  • Kristen Dwiggins, NCDOT Aviation
  • Nastasha Earle-Young, NCDOT Transportation Planning Branch
  • Phil Edwards, Columbus County Airport
  • Brian Gackstetter, NCDOT Rail
  • Randy Hill, NCDOT Transportation Planning Branch
  • Michael Lee, Monarch Columbus Industries
  • Hiram Marziano, City of Whiteville
  • Suzette Morales, NCDOT Transportation Planning Branch
  • Charles Patton, Columbus County Public Transportation
  • Allen Serkin, Cape Fear RPO
  • Kimberly Smith, Columbus County Public Health Department
  • Steve Smith, Resident, Columbus Trails Alliance
  • Johnathan Williams, Columbus County Schools

Welcome and Introductions

The meeting began with introductions and Nastasha thanked everyone for their attendance. The committee was provided the agenda and other documents for the meeting to be placed in their binders.

Meeting Minutes

Nastasha reviewed the meeting minutes with the committee. In addition to the meeting minutes, the committee reviewed CTP maps from the previous meeting.

Public Transportation

Charles states the bus service available in Columbus County and the major groups that utilize it: general public, working class, those with medicaid, child care trips (children 5 and under are free), veterans, and the elderly/handicap. In addition to the local bus service, the committee is informed of the Greyhound bus service that travels across Southeast North Carolina from Wilmington to Charlotte every day, stopping in Whiteville twice a day. Charles then goes into the pricing system for the bus fare and its discrepancies. 40% of the fare comes from people that pay out of pocket. 1/3 of the people are DSS and 1/3 is Medicaid pays for. The cost is $3 one way per person within Whiteville and Brunswick Township and $10 per person one way outside of Whiteville and Brunswick Township but within the county. Many people feel like the cost is too much. Charles explain to the committee that they are not making enough money from the ridership to fund the operation of transportation and he adds funds from one of the Public Transportation Budget every year to continue to provide transportation. Nastasha asked if there was a desire to see a fixed route in Whiteville in the future and if so where would it be. The committee agreed that they would like to see a fixed route in the Whiteville. Charles told the committee that he already has an idea of where the route should go and that he would bring that information to the next meeting.

Division of Aviation

Kristen provided the committee with information pertaining to the Division of Aviation’s completed economic development impact study of 2016. A video was shown to the committee that displayed the affect that airports have on the state of North Carolina and its growth. Kristen outlined the monetary contribution to the economy provided by the aviation industry in the amount of $31.1 billion as well as the 123,000 provided by the industry.

Kristen presented the committee with the 2015 Individual Airport Summary from the North Carolina Airport System Plan for Columbus County. This statistical plan outlined the following for the county: 380 jobs provided, 17,200 annual aircraft operations, 27 based aircraft, $22,580,000 annual payroll income, and 121,980,000 in output. The use for airports were outlined including the following: Military, Agriculture, Tourism, Employment Opportunities, Medical Transport, Services to the Business Community (travel, meeting space, etc.), and local or regional emergency response management. A thorough airport layout plan was displayed, showing future improvements and updates for the airport in Columbus County. A list of previously completed, on-going, and future projects were discussed which included: Runway Rehabilitation, Widening, and Strengthening, New Terminal Buildings, and Relocation of Existing Hangers. One project in particular took special attention, a runway extension with an RPZ (Runway Protection Zone) very close to a local roadway. Additional attention was needed to that area to ensure that the RPZ was fully clear of the road to avoid any possible issues in the future. There was a request to reference the consultant company to ensure a safe distance from the roadway. Nastasha requested the GIS file for the RPZ to be emailed to her for clarity of the possible issue. Future recommendation were presented to the committee at the closing of the presentation in regards to the aviation industry including the following: Airspace Protection, RPZ, Airport Layout Plan, Designated Zoning Overlay, and Height Ordinance.

Rail Division

Brian presented to the committee Columbus County’s expressed interest in wanting to re-establish the rail line between the Port of Wilmington (Davis Yard) and Whiteville. He explained the interest in the old Georgia Pacific site in Whiteville with and the possibility of exporting 4-5M tons of material per year to Europe (approximately 1,000 trucks/day operating 200 days/year). He gave the committee briefly about the meeting held March 7th, 2016 between NCDOT, Columbus County ED, Cape Fear Council of Governments, and NC State Port Authority representatives to discuss the proposed connection and develop a scope to study the project.

Brian went explained the specifics of the conceptual study of the project which included: a literature review, benefit-cost analysis, sector analysis, economic impact analysis, site analysis, environmental screening, as well as the final report and executive summary. The cost of construction for the connection ranged roughly from $80M-200M with regards to the preferred alternative route and permitting requirements. Brian continue in the discussion of the project with the amounts of money already put into the project. RJ Corman has invested $2.5M to refurbish track west of Chadbourn in addition to $765,625 in matching funds from NCDOT. He stated that $12.4M is the estimated need to bring the line to modernized railroad FRA Class 2 (25 MPH) between Tabor City, Chadbourn, Fair Bluff and Mullins, SC. He also added the info about the $9.7M TIGER grant that was awarded to Horry County for the upgrades to the line and the additional rehabilitation work that is needed between Chadbourn and Whiteville including spur tracks leading to the former Georgia pacific plywood facility. Provisions in HB 1030 allows for NCDOT to participate in the rail upgrades for this area.

Survey Distribution

Nastasha informed the committee of the current distribution status of the surveys for Columbus County and the Town of Whiteville. The areas that surveys had been distributed to so far included the following: the School Systems in both Columbus County and the City of Whiteville, the Christian Private Academy, the Senior Center in Whiteville, the Highway Patrol office, the DMV, the Board of Elections office, the Housing Authority office, the Natural Science Museum, the Chamber of Commerce, the Dream Center, the Animal Shelter, the Whiteville Library, and the JobLinks office. A proposal by the committee was made to send out surveys with the utility bill for the coming month of September as well as sending a link to the county employees through the county IT technician.

Title VI Follow-up

To follow up from the previous meeting, the Title VI documents were presented towards the closing of this meeting by Sam. This statistical information provided a comparison amongst several areas of information in the state of North Carolina. In addition to outlining those areas of interest, a comparison of Columbus County was conducted against the counties of Bladen, Pender, Roberson, and Brunswick counties. The following items were outlined in the Title VI documentation: Hispanic/Latino population, Zero Vehicle population, Race, Census Population Data, English proficiency, and Education Status (displayed in percentage values).

Next Topics and Closing Remarks

The committee would like to see the SPOT p4.0 Safety Scores mapped.

The proposal was made by the committee to skip the November and December meetings due to the holiday season and not yet receiving the traffic data.

Based on how fast the committee has been going it has been projected that adoption of the maps be in May of 2017.

The importance of school and health department’s participation in these meetings was expressed due to their high activity with the roadway.

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The next meeting will be on Wednesday, September 21, 2016, 1 PM

The meeting adjourned at 2:57 PM.