Pender County Commissioners hear update on advertising cost with local paper, pass several other items
BURGAW, NC (WWAY) — Pender County Commissioners had a full agenda for their meeting on Tuesday night, including an update showing the financial impact of their decision to stop advertising with a local newspaper.
Last year, the commissioners voted to move advertising from the Pender Topsail Post and Voice newspaper to the Wilmington Star News.
This led to a lawsuit filed by the Post and Voice publisher, Andy Pettigrew, saying they infringed on his First Amendment rights.
On Tuesday, figures presented by assistant county manager Margaret Blue showed the county spent more than $120,000 with the Post and Voice in 2024 and 2025 combined, compared to an estimated $17,000 they’ll spend with the Star News for fiscal year 2026.
But Pettigrew said the county’s figures are wildly misleading.
“When they look at our numbers, you’re looking at numbers for two different departments that are advertising,” Pettigrew said. “One is the county manager, one of them is the tax department, which is the larger of the two. The tax department spends more money. Now when they look at the Star News, it’s only through the county manager’s office. So they’re looking at our total figure but only a partial figure for the Star News.”
Pettigrew explains that the tax department would advertise foreclosure and tax notices, which took up a lot more space in the paper, compared to the space taken up by the county manager’s office.
Commissioner Brad George voiced his own concerns about the potential misrepresentation of the figures to the public.
” I think it’s very unfair to the citizens to not know the whole picture,” George said. “I mean, we’ve promoted, it was promoted that we were going to save all this money and yes, it appears that we saved a lot of money, but we didn’t compare a true comparison.”
But Pettigrew thinks the figures were shown for another reason.
“It looks like to me that its politically motivated. We are in a primary season and some of our board members there are running for re-election day.”
The board also unanimously approved a resolution opposing the expansion of the Fayetteville Chemours Plant.
The expansion would see an increase in the amount of PFAS productionat the plant.
Brunswick and New Hanover Counties, along with the Wilmington City Council, had previously passed similar resolutions.
Additionally, commissioners approved a $7.9 million construction contract for the new Hampstead Library.
However, several commissioners voiced concerns about the structure of the contract, saying they didn’t want a repeat of the issues that have happened with the Central Pender Park project.
The total cost of the project will be $10.8 million, down more than $4 million from original estimates.
And the board again tabled a resolution about possible redistricting or the redrawing of county districts.
It had been previously tabled last month, but county manager Colby Sawyer, who was going to present the resolution, was not at Tuesday’s meeting due to illness.
The resolution will be discussed again during the board’s next meeting on March 2nd.
