By Mark Starling
Lines At WNC Gas Pumps After Pipeline Shutdown
(Asheville, NC) There are lines at gas pumps in western North Carolina. Fears over price jumps and fuel shortages have arisen since the major distributer, Colonial Pipeline, shut down its main lines after a cyberattack last week. Governor Roy Cooper declared a state of emergency yesterday, which suspends fuel regulations statewide. Colonial Pipeline said most operations are expected to be restored within the week.
FDA Approves COVID Vaccine For Middle, High Schoolers
(Raleigh, NC) Younger kids across North Carolina could soon be lining up for COVID vaccines. The CDC is expected to give the final go-ahead tomorrow after the FDA authorized use of the Pfizer vaccine for kids age 12-to-15 yesterday. The acting FDA commissioner says it brings us closer to returning to a sense of normalcy. Close to 45-percent of North Carolina adults are fully vaccinated.
Brunswick sand mine could be used for future housing, businesses John Orona, Wilmington StarNews
A Brunswick sand mine going back before the county planning board this week could be rezoned for conditional residential and commercial use.
The property, located at 3940, 3950, and 3954 Southport Supply Road SE, has been used to supply infill material as part of a North Carolina Department of Transportation project, making it exempt from Brunswick County zoning restrictions that wouldn t normally allow mining in the area.
With a successful rezoning from Commercial Low Density to Commercial Intensive Conditional Zoning, the applicant would be allowed to continue mining activity outside the scope of the NCDOT project, and could eventually use the area for planned development or small scale commercial uses.
NC Highway Maintenance Is Behind and Won’t Catch up Any Time Soon
$3.4 billion. That’s how much bad roads and congestion in North Carolina costs its drivers in higher vehicle ownership costs, according to a report commissioned by the North Carolina Department of Transportation.
Fixing those roads as well as repairing and replacing bridges, building new highways and any other large projects the NCDOT has on its schedule takes money, and lots of it. Steve Abbott, a spokesperson for the NCDOT, said that to bring every bridge in the state to “good” condition would cost $3.8 billion, roughly 71 percent of the department’s $5.3 billion budget for the year.