Local

The first attempt to recover the Bald Head Island ferry that slammed into a sand bar yesterday has failed.  At 10:30 AM, which was high tide Wednesday morning, crews tried to re-float the 64-foot passenger vessel “Adventure”.   

It was just after 9 AM Tuesday morning when the Bald Head Island Ferry "Adventure" traveling to Bald Head Island from Southport ran aground near Battery Island. 

The impact of the grounding injured thirteen people – one potentially seriously.  That person was taken to New Hanover Regional Medical Center.  Eleven others went to nearby Dosher Hospital in Southport for treatment.  

WWAY’s Sarah Murphy was on the scene and spoke to some deeply-shaken passengers.

If the Wilmington Housing Authority is to receive a thirty-million-dollar federal CHOICE Neighborhoods Grant to revitalize Hillcrest, they’ll be charged with infrastructure and education improvements to improve not only the housing development--but the surrounding city. To make this happen, they’ll need help from a wide range of community partners. As WHQR’s Katie O’Reilly reports, the Housing Authority is hoping to secure these partnerships by appealing to investors’ sense of social equity.

Exactly one year ago, Cape Fear Community College student Joshua Proutey was robbed and fatally shot outside Wilmington’s community arts center. Today, the local man who pulled the trigger was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in a prison cell. Because today’s prosecution transpired from a citizen tip, WHQR’s Katie O’Reilly reports that local law enforcement is working to reverse the stigma of “snitching” in criminal cases.

It’s a busy time of year for most, but especially for the Wilmington Housing Authority. Not only is the Authority gearing up to apply for a massive federal grant to revitalize areas of the city surrounding the Hillcrest community, but it’s also angling for competitive state tax credits to enable new construction. These credits, reports WHQR’s Katie O’Reilly, would provide housing for a burgeoning low-income demographic: senior citizens.

Thanks to a grant secured by UNCW’s Office of Cultural Arts, DC Virgo Middle School has become a hotbed of original poetry. Throughout this week, the sixth- and seventh-graders are work-shopping personal poems under the guidance of a teaching artist from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. WHQR’s Katie O’Reilly reports that New Hanover County Schools are one of only two districts in the state to enjoy such opportunities through the Kennedy Center.  

Legions of local residents could intelligently articulate the importance of recycling. 

Health insurance can be tricky to navigate, what with the difficulty many experience enrolling in care, and North Carolina’s decision not to expand Medicaid in 2014.  And that’s why the Southeast Area Health Education Center, or SEAHEC, and the New Hanover County Health Department are holding free information sessions on the Affordable Care Act—also known as “Obamacare.” WHQR’s Katie O’Reilly reports that until the March 31 deadline to enroll passes, these educators will be hosting these sessions around the region.

For the first time ever, the Wilmington Housing Authority is applying for a competitive, thirty-million-dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD—and they want to make it a community affair. Today the Housing Authority gathered city and county leaders at the Hillcrest development to strategize on winning a Choice Neighborhood Grant. It’s part of an effort, as WHQR’s Katie O’Reilly reports, to transform housing projects into areas indistinguishable from the surrounding city.

The controversy surrounding the ongoing impact of coal ash pollution from Wilmington’s Sutton Energy Plant is intensifying.  A biologist commissioned by the Southern Environmental Law Center released a report today claiming that coal ash waste is elevating levels of selenium pollution in Sutton Lake. Environmental advocates say this is killing and deforming thousands of fish, and thus threatening local fishing and tourism industries.  WHQR’s Katie O’Reilly reports.