After approval by Wilmington City Council, Wilmington City Clerk Penny Spicer-Sidbury, Wilmington City Attorney Bill Wolack and Wilmington City Manager Sterling Cheatham will receive cost of living and merit-based raises effective retroactively July 1, 2014.
Near the end of city council’s nearly five-hour meeting Aug. 5, Councilman Dr. Earl Sheridan said council’s evaluations committee determined those three employees should receive 1.5 percent Cost of Living Allowance raises with a 1 percent merit-based raise for Cheatham and Spicer-Sidbury, and a 2 percent merit-based raise for Wolack.
The evaluations committee includes Sheridan, Councilman Kevin O’Grady and Mayor Pro Tem Margaret Haynes.
With the raises, Spicer-Sidbury’s salary will increase from $74,984 to $76,889, Wolack’s will increase from $145,678 to $150,845 and Cheatham’s will increase from $181,636 to $183,452.
The two-step increases for each employee were unanimously approved by city council.
Wilmington City Council also unanimously approved additional funding for the city’s $1.2 million renovation to the Wilmington Municipal Golf Course.
Amy Beatty, Wilmington Parks and Downtown Services Superintendent, said the additional $162,100 would be used to purchase 6.8 acres of 419 Tifway Bermuda sod. That extra sod was originally included in the golf course renovation plan but was cut to reduce costs. Instead, golf course renovation contractor Duininck, Inc. planned to hand plant individual Tifway 419 Bermuda grass sprigs in the areas around the renovated fairway bunkers but the recent deluge of rainfall has caused those sprigs to wash away.
Even if weather permitted, Beatty said sprigging those areas now would not allow the grass to fill in enough before the projected reopening of the course in early October.
The funds were assigned from remaining unassigned funds in the city’s parks bond. After assigning the $162,100, the remaining unassigned parks bond fund totals $268,673.
The future traffic pattern of Market Street was also discussed with the approval of a study reexamining traffic along Market Street from Third Street to Covil Avenue, and 16th and 17th streets between Market and Wooster streets.
The study was originally completed in 2007 but the city has requested the Wilmington Metropolitan Planning Organization reexamine the area to determine the feasibility of implementing a road diet on Market Street. The road diet could include reducing that area of Market Street to a two-lane road divided by a median.
When the study was originally completed, it was recommended a road diet delay until the completion of the Independence Boulevard extension to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. However, the N.C. Department of Transportation has not included that project on its 10-year prioritization list, meaning the project would remain unfunded for at least that period of time.
The study cost the city $15,000, with a $15,000 match coming from the Wilmington Metropolitan Planning Organization.
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