Lumberton, North Carolina

8 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 10 LUMBERTON, NORTH CAROL INA since,” illustrates Love. “It’s about a 10-acre site, and we’re working in concert with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission to install a boat ramp and some parking. We are going to do some selective demolition on the meatpacking plant and turn it into an open-air pavilion for the general public. There’s also some stream restoration and wetlands restoration with that project as well.” Completing a downtown river walk, and a continued effort to attract new business to the downtown will remain on the city’s agenda going forward, along with a focus on affordable housing and rebuilding from hurricane damage. Horne notes that the completed expansion of I-95, making it eight lanes throughout Lumberton will be “an economic boost for the community.” As for what comes next, Horne suggests, “There’s a lot of things happening. With the residential, industrial, and commercial part of what we’re seeing here, and then the educational benefits around a private manufacturing company, Rempac, and the other around the city’s water plant, which sustained $4 million in damage from Hurricane Matthew. Intended to protect these areas from major damage during future weather events, the hope is that this effort will save money and jobs. A set of floodgates are also being installed at an opening in the levee system, a $6 million investment in partnership with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Corps of Engineers, and the State of North Carolina. Also on the sustainability front, a $4 million Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant through FEMA will allow the city to purchase properties that were flooded during the hurricanes. This property will be used to create a 10-mile trail system, called the Lumberton Loop. “One of the components in that was the acquisition of an old meatpacking plant that sat right between the levee and the river. It was flooded and has sat dormant ever