Ask a Journalist

Q: What's up with the county employee posted outside the New Hanover County building at 320 Chestnut Street?A: After contractors were found parking in spots reserved for county staff, the employee was temporarily assigned to monitor the lot.

For most local governments, budget negotiations are underway, as elected officials hash out details, and figure out what that means for their bottom lines. In our latest edition of Ask a Journalist, WHQR’s Ben Schachtman and Kelly Kenoyer answer the question: what’s going on with local taxes?

Question: What’s going on with law enforcement training on CFCC’s North Campus?Answer: We know there are many taking place, but – to be honest – it’s been hard to get more information.

On Monday, New Hanover County commissioners will vote to add $1 million in funding to help the City of Wilmington purchase a new park. For the edition of Ask a Journalist, WHQR’s Ben Schachtman and Rachel Keith tackle some questions about the plan.

A 90-day pilot project installed in 2023 has stuck around for two years.

Questions: Wait, the city hired a chief of staff? Is that a new position? Whose idea was this, and what does the new hire do? How much are they paid — and where is the money coming from after June’s tight budget negotiations?Short answers: Yes, the new city manager identified the need for a chief of staff to help execute her vision for the city’s leadership team; staff vacancies have freed up funding for the $195,000 salary.

WHQR's 'Ask a Journalist' is a simple concept that tackles occasionally complicated issues! We take listener questions and track down the answers. If you have a question you’d like answered, email us at staffnews@whqr.org.

Q: Why did the cost to replace the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge more than double? Is the final plan set in stone? What happened to that federal grant? Are we still getting a toll? Is the existing bridge going to fall into the river?A: Unfortunately, it’s complicated. The short answer is that while inflation and the requirements of federal agencies – like the Coast Guard and Army Corps of Engineers – have increased the projected cost, there’s still a lot of uncertainty around the final design for a replacement. The existing bridge, meanwhile, isn’t at risk of collapsing – but it is both increasingly expensive to maintain and increasingly falling behind the traffic levels coming in and out of Wilmington.

Q: Jefferson Griffin, a Republican candidate for the North Carolina Supreme Court, has been asking the courts to toss out over 65,000 ballots. Several readers and listeners have asked: what could that mean for other races involving those voters?A: Short answer: both the courts and the state’s election board have historically treated races as final once they’re certified. But officials can’t rule out what the courts might do in the future.

Q: This year it was quietly announced there would be no parade in Wilmington to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. What happened?A: Organizers didn’t go into detail, but suggested the overlap with Inauguration Day could be a “conflict, and potentially a security concern” for law enforcement. Police clarified that there are no threats on their radar — but they do have staffing concerns because they've committed officers to help with security for the inauguration in Washington D.C., as they’ve done in the past.