Commissioner Williams asked to represent Brunswick County’s citizens on rail relocation task force

In recent weeks there have been news reports about a proposal to relocate a CSX rail line out of the City of Wilmington.  The relocated rail line could skirt the edge of Brunswick County along the Cape Fear River, near the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge.

Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo recently appointed a task force to look into the issue.  I have since been approached about representing Brunswick County on this task force, and look forward to doing so if and when this appointment is finalized.

One of my foremost goals will be to ensure that citizens and municipal leaders in the areas that would be impacted are fully informed of and have a chance to ask questions about the proposal.  With that in mind, I encourage you to avoid jumping to premature conclusions about the desired outcome of this process.  The proposed rail relocation would obviously relieve congestion and reduce safety hazards in Wilmington, but we need to ensure that it does so without creating a new set of problems for those of us on the Brunswick County side of the river.