Port City baseball stadium petition falls short

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WILMINGTON, N.C.--The petition to put an end to using public funds to build a proposed baseball stadium in the Port City has fallen short.

The group against using tax payer funds for the proposed stadium gathered just over 3900 signatures. They needed 2842 in order to have the petition recognized by city council for possible adoption or be placed on the November ballot.

County Board of Elections Director Marvin McFadyen said 2828 signatures were validated, 14 short of the number they needed.

Mcfadyen says several names were duplicates and others did not live in the district.
Now it's up to the city to decide the next step.

City councilman Kevin O'Grady says while he is not sure at this point what plans of action the city will take next, he is turning to the city charter to form his opinion on the matter.

"As far as I can see, that's the end of it. It's invalid. They didn't follow the rules," O'Grady said. " I mean the rules mean something. Every word in this charter means something and that petition is not allowed to contain signatures of people who are not electors in this city."

Josh Fulton, one of the petition organizers, said he is planning on turning more signatures in to the city clerk's office and hopes it will make up the difference.

"It's on the petition itself. It says you have to be a registered voter and a resident of Wilmington. If for whatever reason some people are not aware and they sign their name and they are not, we can't do anything about that. That's their choice. We give it the Board of Elections and then they verify."

ruben studdard