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CAPE FEAR MEMORIAL BRIDGE CLOSURE: UPDATES, RESOURCES, AND CONTEXT

Now that baseball is dead, O'Grady is ready to move on with other City business

Wilmington voters spoke definitively last night on the issue of whether the City should fund a 37-million dollar bond to pay for a minor league baseball stadium.  WHQR’s Rachel Lewis Hilburn reports that because the measure was roundly defeated, the City’s lead negotiator on the deal says Council now has a clearly defined agenda. 

70% of Wilmington voters said “no” in a referendum on a City-funded ballpark that would host an Atlanta Braves minor league team. 

City Councilman Kevin O’Grady, the primary dealmaker on behalf of the City, says although he saw a swell of late support for the project, it’s time to move on.

“We’ll go on to the other priorities of the city – finishing infrastructure improvement…finishing 3rd Street, trying to get a riverfront park built.  There’s a lot of other priorities and we’ll just work on those.”

O’Grady echoes Mayor Bill Saffo’s earlier public assertion that baseball is now a dead issue for the City – with no plans for reincarnation. 

Rachel hosts and produces CoastLine, an award-winning hourlong conversation featuring artists, humanitarians, scholars, and innovators in North Carolina. The show airs Wednesdays at noon and Sundays at 4 pm on 91.3 FM WHQR Public Media. It's also available as a podcast; just search CoastLine WHQR. You can reach her at rachellh@whqr.org.