City Council votes on money for Cross City Trail and two voluntary annexations

The City of Wilmington will get a financial boost from federal stimulus money to help create the Cross City Trail.

City Council voted Tuesday night to enter into an agreement with the Department of Transportation to get $350,000 that the DOT received through the stimulus plan. The money will be used mostly for design of the nine-and-a-half-mile multi-use trail that connects Halyburton Park to the beach. Using the money means the trail can be built sooner than

“This is an initiative that we’ve been working on for quite some time and anytime we can try to find any kind of monies to help construct it faster, that’s what we’re trying to do,” said Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo.

Also at Tuesday night’s meeting, Council voted to allow two voluntary annexations into the City of Wilmington for developers seeking to build under city ordinances and have city services.

The roughly 90 acres are part of the Monkey Junction area proposed to be involuntarily annexed. This would allow them to become part of the city a year early.