At the County Commissioner meeting on Monday, June 1st, Chair Julia Olson-Boseman opened with an acknowledgment of local and national demonstrations and urged residents to protest peacefully in an effort to maintain safety and security.
The Board also approved a program that will use CARES Act funding to provide 130 grants of $10,000 each to local businesses. Companies with fewer than 25 employees can use the money to hire or rehire employees and to pay for sanitation expenses that come with reopening. Applications are available on the county’s website and must be submitted by this Friday, June 5th. A lottery will select those who receive the grants.
County Commissioners also gave final approval to a $399.6 million dollar budget for next fiscal year. As passed, it restored some funding for New Hanover County Schools, Cape Fear Community College, and local non-profits that had been stripped from an earlier version.
In three land use issues, the Commissioners unanimously denied a special use permit to develop a parcel near Lendire Road and Market Street, approved a re-zoning to increase density of a 52-acre parcel in Porters Neck, and denied a re-zoning that would have allowed 499 units on a parcel north of the Tarin Woods development -- Commissioners Zapple, Olson-Boseman, and Barfield were opposed.