Front Page: Wilmington StarNews is now Pender County's Newspaper of Record

The regular Pender County Commissioners Meeting on Tuesday, April 22nd in Burgaw led to some significant changes in the county, including management. In a meeting that ran over four hours, the Commissioners voted 3-2 in favor of making the Wilmington StarNews (the oldest daily newspaper in continuous publication in North Carolina) the newspaper of record for the county, removing Pender Post & Voice. The decision was reached after a discussion during the meeting regarding circulation reflected that the Wilmington StarNews had approximately 10,000 subscribers compared to the 1,500 subscribers for the Pender Post & Voice. In a county of 70,000 people, that difference was significant enough commissioners Jerry for Groves, Randy Burton and Brent Springer to vote in favor of changing to the Wilmington StarNews.

 Jimmy Tate, a former District One commissioner who had previously resigned and had been recently appointed to fill District Four’s commissioner Ken Smith’s seat, and Brad George voted against.

 In a closed session meeting directly afterwards, Pender County commissioners voted to fire the current County Manager, Michael Silverman, effective immediately.

 If you are interested in viewing this particular agenda item, the video is available to the public at: https://penderconc.portal.civicclerk.com/event/504/media at approximately 2:12:00.