Wrightsville Beach Bridge Traffic a key issue online ...at the Chat!

For some WB citizens the premier event for this past  Thursday evening  was the online "Chat with the Chief". 

For an hour and fifteen minutes the Chief chaired a lively interaction between meeting participants both in the room and in cyberspace. 

Using the new Livestream system setup in Town Hall Chanbers, the Chief gave a short presentation covering the status of plans to improve traffic flow headed both on an off the island. An especially contentious issue raised by attendees and acknowledged by Chief House are those drivers who speed up the right hand lane and then cut into the line of waiting traffic. Clearly a road rage inducing behavior given the frustrations building over the traffic snarl that's bee with us for many months now. Great weekend weather has brought out the best of us out physically and at times the worst of us mentally. 

Traffic Cones

WBPD, working with Wilmington & NH County, Plans call for cutting down the right lane, with traffic cones, as well as officers directing traffic on both side of the bridge. There are also plans to adjust the traffic light sequence along Eastwood  road as may be needed. It must be underscored that State roads 76 & 74 are just that State roads and that means NCDOT... they are also in charge of the bridge project which is a root cause of the traffic.

The Chief took a range of question from the room and as well from email, phone-in and text-in... 

"pretty cool how this cyber- technology has quickly taken hold in the Town of Wrightsville Beach" 

Questions, many all to familiar, ranged from late night noise, littering and obnoxious behavior, to speeding, bicycling issues, using 911 and illegal drug issues and trespassing..

My personal opinion: (I was a Livestream & email participant)

• Chief Dan House, once again, proved his commitment to communicating and being accessible to the community. This brief quarterly opportunity, through the "Chat" format, is an easy and productive way to gain understanding and to have a direct impact on WBPD focus. Fell free to give your feedback directly to him dhouse@towb.org

• The use of the new electronic tools of video streaming and phone-in/text-in/email... while they may need a little tweaking, will greatly expand the possibilities of engagement across our community. (The Chief acknowledged afterwards offline that they would be looking at improvements in audio especially). 

Finally: If you need to contact the WBPD, even for a non-emergence complaint, use 911 ... if it's not an emergency... say "This is not an emergency" the dispatcher will determine if they can take the call at that moment or not. That's how the system for Wrightsville Beach is designed to work.

Till next time,thanks for reading.  Noah