New Hanover Co. commissioners approve funding partnership with City of Wilmington for new park

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The New Hanover County Board of Commissioners has approved a funding partnership with the City of Wilmington for a potential new park.

Last month, the Wilmington City Council passed a resolution earmarking up to $1 million in city funds to acquire an unidentified 120-acre piece of land.

The commissioners’ approval on Monday ensures the county will match the city’s earmarked funds.

The city has also reached out to groups such as the New Hanover Community Endowment to help cover the acquisition cost.

The exact details of the piece of land the city and county are looking to acquire has not been revealed, nor how much it will actually cost to acquire.

During the meeting, commissioners also heard a presentation about the water quality of the 8 creeks located throughout the county.

Brad Rosov is a marine biologist for Coastal Protection Engineering.

He gave the presentation and said the county has done a good job putting programs in place to help these creeks.

“They’ve implemented a number of measures and procedures, including developing some watershed, watershed studies, watershed planning efforts,” Rosov said. “And in those efforts come a variety of different actions that citizens can take and the county can take on to help reduce the amount of runoff and input of some of these things into the creek.”

The program monitors several factors, including the amount of bacteria caused by fecal contamination from any warm-blooded animal.

Rosov said a source tracking study will be done to determine where this contamination in several creeks is coming from.