Business View Civil and Municipal l January 2023

90 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 12 Shields says. “We are still awaiting what we hope is additional positive feedback on some grants we have applied for.” The airport is also the site of an aviation hub and a $7 million, brand-new aviation wing for the North Carolina Forest Service. This will help support more efficient firefighting efforts in eastern North Carolina when needed because it will be easier to send critical equipment to the region quickly by plane, Shields says. Duplin County is uniquely positioned a short drive from several larger cities in the Carolinas region, giving it a competitive advantage over other counties. For example, it is 75 minutes from Raleigh and one hour from Wilmington. It is adjacent to an intricate network of highways such as Interstate 40 and North Carolina Highway 24, the latter of which links to U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune and the U.S. Army installations at Ft. Bragg. Combined with