Whiteville staff add local projects to state resilience blueprint and plan public workshops

City staff described efforts to populate a state resilience "blueprint" portal with Whiteville projects in order to make them competitive for grant funding and to document resiliency actions.

A staff presenter told the council the portal functions as a one-stop shop where staff can enter projects, attach action plans and generate cost-benefit outputs that many grant funders expect. "With just a few clicks, putting this information in, we'll get those results," the presenter said, and noted that two local projects were selected by DEQ staff for inclusion in the portal for further consideration.

Nut graf: Staff identified multiple projects the city has added to the blueprint—ranging from a high-level depaving concept for the south of town to street-level projects such as College Street, Bob White Lane and acquisition work on Baldwin Circle—and said the city will host workshops as concepts are refined and grant writers prepare applications.

Details: The presenter listed green-infrastructure techniques under consideration—flood-storage wetlands, bio-retention basins, rain gardens, multi-use flood plains and sand filters—while noting some ideas will require significant permitting. Staff said the portal includes cartographic layers, NOAA data and text fields that allow the city to document benefits and cost analyses for prospective funders.

Public process and next steps: The presenter said the blueprint will be published with public comment opportunities expected in August and that staff will advertise the portal and related workshops to solicit community input.

Ending: Council received the update; staff asked members to share project ideas so they can be entered into the portal and evaluated for grant opportunities.