Wilmington Doesn't Pay Full Court-Ordered Attorney's Fee

StarNews:

The Wilmington City Council will consider [It passed] during its regular meeting tonight paying $16,500 in attorney’s fees to Fairway Outdoor Advertising for a legal battle over a Hardees billboard.  A New Hanover County Superior Court Judge ruled last year that a billboard near the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge can stay despite the city of Wilmington’s argument that it should be moved.

The city was ordered to pay $24,510 in attorney’s fees but has reached a compromise with Fairway for the lesser amount. The debate was over a billboard advertising Hardees chicken tenders located to the right of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge as drivers enter Wilmington. The city argued the billboard fell into the area covered by a 2008 ordinance removing signs from Wilmington’s gateway. The judge found it did not fall within that boundary set by the ordinance.

When the ordinance was passed the city ordered billboard companies to remove signs from the entrance to Wilmington at Dawson and Wooster streets. Then they had up to three years to remove signs from the two other gateways – North Third Street and North College Road.