Data submitted by area towns last year to the N.C. League of Municipalities (NCLM) strongly suggest that Peter Rascoe is the highest paid town manager in Dare County, The Beacon has learned.

Mr. Rascoe, who has been Southern Shores’ top administrator for the past nine years, announced his retirement a week ago. His last day at work will be Aug. 16. (See The Beacon, 7/21/19.)

The towns of Duck, Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, and Manteo submitted salary data to the NCLM for its 2018 annual salary survey; Southern Shores and Nags Head did not.

Duck and Kitty Hawk provided a salary range for the position of town manager, whereas KDH and Manteo gave specific salaries.

As of Aug. 1, 2018, according to survey results posted on the NCLM’s website, the town managers in the four towns were paid as follows:

Duck (pop. 396): between a minimum salary of $90,786 and a maximum of $147, 583, with an average salary of $140,476.

Kitty Hawk (pop. 3,516): between a minimum of $72,605 and a maximum of $129,711, with an average of $106,080.

Kill Devil Hills (pop. 7,195): $139,199.

Manteo (pop. 1,563): $123,362.

As The Beacon previously reported, Mr. Rascoe was hired a few months after Mayor Hal Denny and the then-Town Council emerged from a closed session held during the Feb. 2, 2010 Council meeting and “accepted the resignation” of Town Manager Charles B. Read Jr., who also participated in the closed session. The Council appointed Police Chief David Kole interim town manager at this same meeting.

Mr. Rascoe, a former Chowan County manager, signed a contract with the Town on May 10, 2010, and started work June 9, 2010. His starting annual salary was $109,500, plus $36,187 in benefits, according to personnel records that The Beacon obtained through a public record request earlier this year. His employment contract term was three years, its termination set for July 1, 2013.

Town records show that during the past nine years, Mr. Rascoe’s salary increased about 50 percent. When he announced his Sept. 1 retirement, Mr. Rascoe had four years remaining on a 10-year extension of his initial contract.

As of Aug. 1, 2018, Mr. Rascoe’s salary was $151,356—$28,000 more than the comparable salary reported by Manteo; $12,000 more than the salary reported by KDH; and about $45,000 and $11,000 more, respectively, than the average salaries provided for the same position by Kitty Hawk and Duck.

In population, Southern Shores, which has about 2,900 year-round residents, is most like Kitty Hawk, but there the resemblance ends. At 8.23 square miles—according to the U.S. Census Bureau—Kitty Hawk has more than twice the area of Southern Shores.

At 5.5 square miles, Kill Devil Hills is much closer in size to Southern Shores, but it is much more densely populated, with about 2 ½ times the number of people.

Unlike Kitty Hawk, the other three towns that participated in the NCLM’s 2018 salary survey, and Nags Head, as well, Southern Shores has no mixed residential and commercial districts: Residential development is deliberately segregated from commercial development.

Compared to the other towns’ development, the commercial area in Southern Shores, which exists on its southern edge, is relatively small and self-contained. Problems of commercial traffic, noise, litter, hours of activity, etc., do not impinge upon residents, who might seek relief from Town Hall, and Southern Shores does not have to contend with the enforcement of zoning and other regulations that arise with commercial development.

The N.C. League of Municipalities is a self-described “member-driven” service and advocacy organization that represents the interests of N.C. cities and towns. It works “to promote good government and vibrant cities and towns.” Towns voluntarily provide the salaries of their employees in a spirit of partnership.

The Beacon is in the process of acquiring more specific salary information from all of the Dare County towns. We will report our findings.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, July 26, 2019

In a highly unusual move, Town Manager Peter Rascoe chose to announce his Sept. 1 retirement through The Coastland Times, which published a front-page story today, rather than first inform the people he has served for the past nine years through the Town’s website.

Mr. Rascoe, 62, gave the Southern Shores Town Council formal notice of his retirement last Friday afternoon, according to an informed source. His last day on the job will be Aug. 16. He has four years remaining on his employment contract.

Knowing about newspaper copy deadlines and judging from the length and detail of Coastland Times reporter Philip S. Ruckle Jr.’s above-the-fold article, The Beacon doubts that Mr. Rascoe’s tip to The Times came after his formal notice. Mr. Rascoe has long favored The Coastland Times as his local-media outlet for news dissemination.

Interestingly, The Times did not feature the story, headlined “Southern Shores Town Manager Announces Retirement,” on its online version or mention it on its Facebook page. The Beacon found it on the newsstand.

Mr. Ruckle also did not provide an explanation in his flattering tribute piece for the timing of Mr. Rascoe’s retirement, whose notice coincided with the termination of the Town Council candidate filing period.

Three of the five positions on the Southern Shores Town Council are subject to election in November. As The Beacon has previously reported, four candidates have filed.

In fact, Mr. Ruckle’s article contained no critical comment about Mr. Rascoe’s tenure as the top Town staff member. It was a career retrospective generously sprinkled with quotes by Mr. Rascoe.

Although he has never publicly discussed his retirement, Mr. Rascoe presumably has been grooming Town Planning Director Wes Haskett as his successor.

Mr. Haskett was promoted to Deputy Town Manager, effective with the start of fiscal year 2018-19, and has undergone formal training during the past year.

Neither state law nor town ordinance requires the Town to publicly advertise the town manager’s position, but municipalities that do not advertise and open positions up to outside candidates run a risk of being accused of discrimination. (See commentary by the UNC-CH School of Government at https://canons.sog.unc.edu/do-we-have-to-advertise-this-position/.)

THE COST TO THE TOWN

Inasmuch as The Coastland Times has thoroughly covered the biography of Mr. Rascoe, a Bertie County native, attorney, and 30-year member of the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve, The Beacon will address a more controversial point: His compensation.

Mr. Rascoe signed a contract with the Town on May 10, 2010, three months after Mayor Hal Denny and the then-Town Council “accepted the resignation” of Town Manager Charles B. Read Jr. after they returned from a closed session at a Town Council meeting.

Police Chief David Kole was appointed interim town manager, with a salary increase, and served until Mr. Rascoe started June 9, 2010. (See https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/wp-content/uploads/minutes-agendas-newsletters/Minutes_2010-02-02.pdf.)

Mr. Read’s forced resignation was never publicly explained by Mayor Denny or any other Town official. Mr. Rascoe came to Southern Shores from Chowan County, where he had been county attorney and then county manager.

Mr. Rascoe’s starting annual salary was $109,500, plus $36,187 in benefits, according to personnel records that The Beacon obtained through a public record request earlier this year. His contract term was for three years, the termination date set for July 1, 2013.

After his hiring, Mr. Rascoe made a rapid financial ascent. The records show that in nine years, his salary increased about 50 percent.

A year  after the new town manager started, the Town Council approved a 10 percent raise, bringing Mr. Rascoe’s salary up to $120,000 (plus $39,902 in benefits), effective July 1, 2011. The Council voted 4-1 in favor of the increase, with Councilman Kevin Stroud dissenting. (Mayor Denny was joined by Councilwoman Jodi Hess and Councilmen Jim Pfizenmayer and George Kowalski. See June 21, 2011 meeting minutes at https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/wp-content/uploads/minutes-agendas-newsletters/Minutes_2011-06-21.pdf.)

Mr. Rascoe received a roughly 7 percent increase in his annual salary just a year later when the Town Council unanimously voted on Aug. 21, 2012, to raise his compensation to $128,000 (plus $40,419 in benefits), retroactive to July 1, 2012. This time Mayor Denny, Mrs. Hess, and Mr. Kowalski were joined by new Council members, David Sanders and Larry Lawhon, in approving the increase. (See https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/wp-content/uploads/minutes-agendas-newsletters/Minutes_2012-08-21.pdf.)

On June 18, 2013 the same five Council members voted unanimously to extend Mr. Rascoe’s contract five years, until June 30, 2018. (See https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/wp-content/uploads/minutes-agendas-newsletters/Minutes_2013-06-18.pdf.) His salary was increased to $135,095, which included both a merit-based raise and a cost-of-living adjustment, plus $42,606 in benefits.

All three of these employment actions occurred at the end of a Town Council meeting after the Council had returned from a closed session during which it had discussed a “personnel matter.” After voting either to increase or to extend Mr. Rascoe’s contract, the Council adjourned.

It has been The Beacon’s experience that after the Town Council concludes its regular business and moves to go into closed session, the public disperses. The Beacon would speculate that these motions were made and approved without an audience, save for Town staff.

In a highly controversial move, the Town Council, under new Mayor Tom Bennett, decided just a year later—on July 1, 2014—that five years were insufficient reward for the Town Manager’s service. This Council, which now included Leo Holland, who had run unopposed for Mr. Kowalski’s seat, when the latter ran for mayor, extended Mr. Rascoe’s contract 10 years, retroactive to July 1, 2013.

Mayor Bennett was conspicuously absent from the July 1, 2014 meeting when the Town Council unanimously approved the 10-year contract extension to June 30, 2023. Instead, Mrs. Hess presided as mayor pro tem.

This time, instead of going into closed session and returning to make a motion in open session, before an empty room, the Town Council approved Mr. Rascoe’s 10-year extension as a matter of the consent agenda! (Other items on that agenda included approval of the June 17, 2014 minutes and a resolution about surplus Town property.)

The Beacon well remembers the furor over this unprecedented action that was executed in clandestine fashion. Using the consent agenda to make such a fundamental personnel decision was beyond inappropriate. It was audaciously objectionable.

The next year, Mrs. Hess, Mr. Sanders, and Mr. Lawhon lost their bids for reelection, in large part because of the Town Council’s lack of transparency.

(See https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/wp-content/uploads/minutes-agendas-newsletters/Minutes_2014-07-01.pdf.)

The records show that Town Manager Rascoe has been compensated as follows:

FY 2014-15: $138,472 plus $48,315 in benefits

FY 2015-16: $141,934 plus $50,506 in benefits

FY 2016-17: $145,482 plus $53,245 in benefits

FY 2017-18: $147,664 plus $54,166 in benefits

FY 2018-19: $151,356 plus $55,587 in benefits

FY 2019-20: $155,139 (estimated), plus roughly $57,000 in benefits [The Beacon’s public record request was submitted in February, before the increased salaries for FY 2019-20 were available. Every employee received a 2.5 percent cost-of-living increase.]

The Beacon hopes that, going forward, the Town will be open, transparent, and beyond reproach about its intentions and its actions in regard to filling and funding the town manager’s position.

We also trust that the Town will advertise the position publicly and have the new Town Council that is elected in November, not the current lame-duck Council, make the ultimate hiring decision.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, July 21, 2019

Matt Neal, a Southern Shores native who owns Neal Contracting with his wife Rachel, filed yesterday as a candidate in November’s Town Council election, a day after sitting Councilman Gary McDonald withdrew his reelection bid. Mr. McDonald declined to comment on his decision.

Mr. Neal’s opponents for the three available positions on the Town Council so far are Councilman Fred Newberry, Planning Board Chairperson Elizabeth Morey, and former Councilman Leo Holland. The filing deadline for all candidates is noon tomorrow.

Councilman Christopher Nason, whose four-year term expires in November along with those of Mr. Newberry’s and Mr. McDonald’s, has announced that he will not seek reelection. Mayor Tom Bennett and Councilman Jim Conners were elected to four-year terms in 2017.

Mr. Neal currently serves as president of the Outer Banks Home Builders Assn.

NOTE ON COMMENTS and NONCONFORMING LOTS: WHO’S ON FIRST?

After The Beacon published yesterday’s post, we received an uninformed and rude comment from a reader that we elected not to publish.

The Beacon’s policy is not to further misinformation by publishing reader comments that either encourage or state misinformation—especially when they’re personally antagonistic. We consider sarcastic insults personally antagonistic.

The comment concerned the nonconforming lots imbroglio. The reader was under the mistaken impression that The Beacon could go to the Dare County Register of Deeds office in Manteo—which we have done on many occasions to research specific deeds that are not available online—and easily uncover the identification of all nonconforming lots in Southern Shores. Not in his or our wildest dreams.

But the fact is, we don’t have to take on that impossible task because the Southern Shores Planning Department, in cooperation with the Register of Deeds office, has already done it. Planning Director/Deputy Town Manager Wes Haskett presented the results of this search, whose preparation consumed more than two months, at the Planning Board’s April 23 meeting.

You may access this data, which Mr. Haskett formatted with assistance from the Dare County Tax Dept. and the Tax Mapping Dept. and which The Beacon will summarize below, here: https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/southern-shores-planning-board-meet-april-15-2019/.

(The minutes of the Planning Board’s April 23 meeting are also informative regarding its ongoing discussion and decision-making about nonconforming lots. As of this morning, no minutes of any Planning Board meetings that have occurred since last September had been posted on the Town’s website , but Mr. Haskett informed The Beacon that all of the missing minutes would be posted “as soon as possible.”)

As The Beacon reported 2/6/19, the Town Council unanimously approved a motion made by Councilman Gary McDonald at its Feb. 5 meeting to direct the Planning Board and Town staff to comprehensively identify and equitably assess all vacant nonconforming lots in town, not just those on the oceanfront.

Mr. McDonald’s motion was made after Councilman Conners moved to approve Zoning Text Amendment 18-09PB, which was the Planning Board’s first attempt to define and exempt from the new nonconforming lots ordinance (Town Code sec. 36-132) all deserving “outliers.” No one seconded Mr. Conners’s motion.

Mr. McDonald asked the Planning Board to “look” at all of the vacant nonconforming lots in town and “come back with something [a revised ZTA] that works.”

Despite this direction by a unanimous Council, Mr. Conners tried again at the March 5 meeting to obtain approval of ZTA 18-09PB, which was a far less comprehensive version of the “outlier” amendment, ZTA 18-09PB01, that the Town Council unanimously tabled on July 9. (See The Beacon, 7/10/19, 7/17/19.)

As The Beacon previously reported, Mr. Conners’s motion to approve ZTA 18-09PB failed 2-2, with Mayor Bennett voting with Mr. Conners, and Councilmen Newberry and McDonald opposing it.

Mr. Nason did not vote because he had a financial interest in the outcome of the vote and was recused.

An architect, Mr. Nason has designed the house that the property owners of the 50-foot-wide lot at 64 Ocean Blvd. would like to build there. He also prepared the site plan and designed the house that the same owners built in 2016 at the adjacent 62 Ocean Blvd. (The Beacon has had reason to focus on the 50-foot-wide property in previous reports. See photo above.)

Mr. Nason’s business relationship with the property owners of 64 Ocean Blvd., a lot that was split off from a 137 ½-foot-wide vacant parcel previously owned and sold to them by a SAGA-owned limited liability corporation, has been a political wrench in the “works” ever since the Town Council enacted the new ordinance last September.

Members of both the Town Council and the Town Planning Board have identified this nonconforming oceanfront lot as deserving of an exception from the new Code sec. 36-132, which prevents the property owners from building on it. The Beacon does not consider it deserving and has said so.

Mr. Nason cast the only dissenting vote to ZTA 18-07, the amendment that created the new nonconforming lots ordinance, without disclosing either his relationship with these owners or the financial interest he had in the outcome of the vote.

He also participated in a closed session that the Town Council had on the nonconforming lots problem July 10, 2018, which resulted in the Council tabling a second reading of ZTA 18-07, which it ultimately approved, 4-1, on Sept. 5, 2018.

After enacting the new ordinance, the Town Council directed the Planning Board to continue working on it (“tweaking”) to ensure that individual property owners are not unduly harmed. Then-Board chairperson, Glenn Wyder, brought this matter up already at the Planning Board’s Sept. 17, 2018 meeting. See https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/9-17-18-FINAL-PB-Meeting-Minutes.pdf.

The Planning Board has been struggling with this Town Council assignment ever since.

846 NONCONFORMING LOTS IN TOWN

In the research with Dare County that the Planning Board undertook at the Council’s direction, the Town staff looked at all nonconforming lots in town, not just vacant lots.

Mr. Haskett reported April 23 that there are 3,037 total lots in Southern Shores, 846 of which—or about 28 percent—are less than 20,000 square feet in size. He also reported that, of the 3,037 lots, 241 of them, or about 8 percent, are 50-foot-wide lots that are part of parcels consisting of two or more lots. According to The Beacon’s analysis, the data show that of these 241 lots, 28 of them are vacant.

The 28 vacant 50-foot-wide lots represent less than 1 percent of the total number of lots in Southern Shores. Not surprisingly, they are in the map of Southern Shores that was first developed: the oceanfront-beach zone from 0 Ocean Blvd. north to East Dogwood Trail and the soundfront on North Dogwood Trail.

Mr. Haskett informed the Town Council about this data compilation at its May 7 meeting. The Council, therefore, had ACTUAL notice of how many nonconforming lots exist in town, and where they are, for at least two months before it voted to table the Planning Board’s latest ZTA attempt, 18-09PB01. It did nothing publicly with this data.

It should come as no surprise to the Town Council that there are property owners who are aggrieved by the new Town Code sec. 36-132 of whom they were unaware in September. It did not come as a surprise to The Beacon, which has not taken a position on the equities of various property scenarios other than those the Planning Board has identified in the zoning text amendments it has recommended.

For the record, The Beacon does not support the practice of identifying exceptions to rules as soon as the rules are enacted. It is far wiser to invest time in ascertaining the fallout from rulemaking before the rule is made.

But no one associated with The Beacon serves as the Town Attorney, the Town Manager, the Town Planning Director, the Mayor, a member of the Planning Board or the Town Council, or anyone else who might have had influence over the drafting of ZTA 18-07.

Indeed, I have a sibling who owns two vacant nonconforming lots on Skyline Road, which, if she sought to develop or sell one of them would have to be combined under the new ordinance.

The irony is that our father bought this property as a single 30,000-square-foot parcel in the 1980s, and about 20 years later, Dare County informed my sibling, who became its owner in 1991, during a reassessment that it would be treated and taxed as two (nonconforming) 15,000-square-foot parcels. (I have not had a chance to research the deed history.)

The Beacon’s position has consistently been to oppose the development of 50-foot-wide lots, regardless of where they are located or how they were created. We believe that such development is detrimental to the town’s character, identity, and quality of life, especially when it occurs on or near the oceanfront.

Besides this opposition, we have sought only to analyze the proposed ordinances that the Town Attorney has drafted and the Planning Board has considered and approved. Had I spoken on the issue as a private individual, not as The Beacon, at the Council’s July 9 meeting, I would have endorsed Town Council candidate Matt Neal’s approach to the issue. And I would have urged the Town Council, whose leadership has been mired in politics, to step up.

WHERE TO FROM HERE?

ZTA 18-07, which replaced Code sec. 36-132, stopped the unfortunate trend by oceanfront and oceanside property owners of demolishing dwellings on 100-foot-wide parcels and selling the vacant land as two 50-foot-wide building lots, thus increasing the density of development.

It provided a stopgap.

The Planning Board, under longtime Chairperson Sam Williams, enabled this 100-to-50-foot trend over a period of several years by granting side-setback variances to owners of the resulting nonconforming lots. In fairness, the Town offered no legal guidance to the Planning Board, sitting as the Board of Adjustment, to deny the requested variances.

Throughout the current Planning Board’s months-long deliberation, Matt Neal has publicly argued at meetings that, because of how the town was platted, there can be no fair “one-size-fits-all” rule on nonconformities. (The 100-foot minimum width for lots in the RS-1 single-family residential district is set forth in Town Code sec. 36-202, which was originally enacted in 1988.)

Southern Shores, Mr. Neal has said, is “a town that’s full of nonconformities.” None of the lots in Seacrest Village,  he has pointed out, is 100 feet wide.

The vacant 90-foot-wide lot that Craig and Mary Ann Hurd bought on Sea Oats Trail in 1998 was platted at that width. This nonconforming lot is adjacent to the house that they bought in 1997.

Mr. Neal has brought maps of the town with him to Planning Board meetings and encouraged members to take a more holistic approach to the nonconformity issue. But up until now, the Board has declined to do so. It seems to have been working under the assumption that because the Town Council directed it to refine the new ordinance by identifying “outliers” and drafting/approving a zoning amendment to protect them, it was limited by that directive.

The Planning Board has authority under the Town Code (sec. 24-27) to do more, if it so chooses.

At its June meeting, Planning Board member David Neal, Matt’s builder-father, expressed an interest in starting over at “square one.” He previously has lamented that the Board has strayed far afield from the initial objective of the new ordinance. Nonetheless, Mr. Neal voted with his colleagues in favor of approving ZTA 19-01PB01.

So, The Beacon asks: Where does the buck stop?

We believe the answer is obvious—which is why we wrote yesterday’s column as we did. A five-month postponement will not change the obvious.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, July 18, 2019

Dear Readers:

I will be posting a blog tomorrow morning that combines an editorial about the Town Council meeting last week and news from last night’s Planning Board meeting. It needs just a little more editing. In the meantime, I thought you might like to receive an update on elections.

Former Town Councilman Leo Holland yesterday tossed his hat into the ring for one of the three Town Council offices up for election in November, after serving just one year as a Planning Board alternate and resigning June 30.

On 7/7/19 we wrote about Mr. Holland’s resignation: “The Beacon wonders if Mr. Holland, who won election to the Town Council when he ran unopposed in 2013, might be contemplating another run for Council.” We now have our answer.

Mr. Holland is the fourth declared candidate for Town Council. The others are current Councilmen Gary McDonald and Fred Newberry and Planning Board Chairperson Elizabeth Morey. The candidacy filing period runs until noon Friday. The Beacon will report upon filings as they occur.

Last night the Planning Board reelected Ms. Morey as its FY 2019-20 chairperson and named member Andy Ward vice-chairperson. Ms. Morey served as interim chairperson in FY 2018-19 until her formal election in January. Former member Joe McGraw previously served as vice-chairperson.

New regular Planning Board member Donald Sowder took his seat last night for the first time, and new Board alternate Tony DiBernardo attended.

Please return tomorrow for a further report.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 7/16/19

The Southern Shores Planning Board will meet Monday at 5:30 p.m. to elect new officers for the 2019-20 fiscal year and to discuss the town’s building and fill requirements, which it took up last fall when a builder requested a change in the applicable zoning ordinance that the Board tabled.

The membership of the Planning Board, which also serves as the Board of Adjustment, will look a little different when it kicks off the new fiscal year.

The Town Council filled three Board vacancies at its Tuesday meeting, unanimously reappointing Elizabeth Morey for another three-year regular term and appointing newcomers Donald D. Sowder and Tony DiBernardo to a three-year regular term and a three-year alternate term, respectively.

Ms. Morey has been serving as chairperson of the five-person Planning Board since chairperson Glenn Wyder’s death last November. She initially served in an interim capacity and was elected in January. The Board also has a vice chairperson.

Two public-comment periods will be held during the Board meeting.

Meeting agenda: https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/7-15-19-PB-Meeting-Agenda.pdf

Building and fill requirements: https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/7-15-19-Building-Height-and-Fill-Requirements.pdf.

TOWN COUNCIL ELECTION: Three four-year Town Council terms of office are expiring this year: those of Councilmen Christopher Nason, Gary McDonald, and Fred Newberry.

According to the N.C. State Board of Elections website, Ms. Morey filed yesterday to run for one of the Town Council offices, and Councilmen McDonald and Newberry filed earlier in the week for reelection. Applicants have until noon July 19 to file their notices of candidacy with the Dare County Board of Elections.

***

PLEASE EXCUSE THE DELAY

Dear Readers: Because of challenging circumstances this week, I have not had an opportunity to prepare a full report of Tuesday’s Town Council meeting. To quote the late John Lennon: “Life is what happens when you’re busy making plans.” I hope to be able to publish a meeting post this weekend.

You may view a videotape of the lively, well-attended, and politically charged meeting here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQwlIZWXVD0.

Many in the meeting audience attended out of concern that Southern Shores was considering unnecessary and burdensome special-event legislation. Some public officials have worried about the use of SAGA Construction Inc.’s proposed structures at 98 and 134 Ocean Blvd. as special-event houses that would be frequented by upward of 100 guests at a time.

The Beacon would like to remind everyone that these structures are still the subject of pending litigation. Please see www.minihotels.com for details.

Thank you. Have a safe and enjoyable weekend.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 7/12/19

N.C. State Representative Greg Murphy, who is a urologist in Greenville, defeated first-time candidate Joan Perry, a Kinston pediatrician, in yesterday’s runoff election for the Republican nomination in North Carolina’s third U.S. Congressional district.

With all precincts reporting, Dr. Murphy had 59.7 percent of the vote, which represented nearly 7,000 votes more than Dr. Perry.

According to the Raleigh News & Observer, 312,562 voters were eligible to vote in yesterday’s second primary, but only 11.5 percent of them did.

Dr. Murphy will face Democrat Allen Thomas, Libertarian Tim Harris, and Constitution Party candidate Greg Holt in a special election Sept. 10. The winner will serve out the two-year term of the late Congressman Walter B. Jones Jr., who was reelected to the third district seat last November and died in February.

CLOSER TO HOME . . . Last night’s Town Council meeting was both politically charged and divisive, and at times seemed more like a campaign rally than an ordered meeting of a government body. The boisterous crowd in attendance, seemingly drawn by the prospect of special-event regulation in town, often applauded public speakers.

For the second time in as many Council meetings, Mayor Tom Bennett did not enforce his well-known—and heretofore rigidly applied—rule requiring people who speak during the two general public-comment periods to sign up before the meeting.

On June 4, the Mayor made an exception for Porter Graham, the new lobbyist for the Outer Banks realtors and home builders association, whose highly inflammatory and factually inaccurate opinion piece in The Outer Banks Voice incited a pushback on “special events” from people in the real estate and/or tourism industries.

The Beacon is a strong proponent of the First Amendment; but we are just as strongly opposed to writing falsehoods and propagating misinformation.

The Beacon will publish a full report of the meeting later in the week. Among the results were:

*A 3-2 decision to take no further action now on the possible regulation of special events in Southern Shores residences, an about-face from the posture the Council unanimously took June 4 when it directed the Town Attorney and the Town Planning Director to prepare a proposed Town Code amendment and the Planning Board to have a “community discussion,” as Councilman Jim Conners phrased it;

*A 3-2 decision to move ahead swiftly with the South Dogwood Trail sidewalk project— with no design modifications—seeking construction bids and giving Town Manager Peter Rascoe “sole discretion” for project management, according to a lengthy prepared motion that Councilman Conners read as soon as the perfunctory public hearing was over (The Beacon will quote this motion in full after the meeting videotape is available);

*A decision to table the Planning Board’s unanimously approved latest effort to address nonconforming lots, known as zoning text amendment 18-09PB01, until December, when Councilman Christopher Nason, who has had reason to recuse himself from voting on nonconforming-lot ZTAs and who made the motion, will no longer be in office; and

*A unanimous vote to approve, without any comment or discussion, Mayor Bennett’s motion to reappoint Elizabeth Morey to a three-year regular term on the Planning Board and to appoint the Mayor’s friend and Southern Shores newcomer Donald D. Sowder to the other vacant three-year regular membership on the Planning Board and highly qualified longtime homeowner Tony DiBernardo to a three-year alternate term on the Board. (Yes, there’s opinion in that statement, and it goes to cronyism. At the very least, the Council should have discussed the relative qualifications of the candidates.)

For background and context for last night’s meeting, please see The Beacon’s preview posted 7/7/19.

AS OF THIS MORNING, only two candidates had filed with the Dare County Board of Elections for the three four-year terms on the Town Council that are expiring this year. Both Councilmen Gary McDonald and Fred Newberry have filed for reelection. As previously reported, Councilman Christopher Nason has announced that he is not seeking another term. Mayor Bennett and Councilman Conners were elected in 2017.

The Board of Elections’ candidate filing period for the three nonpartisan Town Council offices continues until noon on July 19.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 7/10/19

Scooby, the elderly, deaf Chihuahua (mix, it appears) who ran off after his owner and he were involved in yesterday’s four-vehicle collision in Point Harbor, was found last night and is now safe at home. The Beacon hopes Scooby’s and his owner’s recovery from their traumatic incident will be swift and uneventful. We wish the same to the other victims of the crash.

With the high volume of traffic that we have on the Outer Banks, its stop-and-go nature, the tendency of some drivers to speed when the road opens up for a few car lengths, and other hazards unique to our roadways (sudden turns without signals, e.g.), we have to be alert to all that is happening around us when we drive. I often muse that some drivers don’t see farther than the bumper in front of them.  Those are the people we have to be aware of and stay clear of.

On rainy days, like today, when people abandon the beach for the shops, such drivers are seemingly everywhere. They put me in mind of a “rule” I learned from my driver’s education instructors many years ago when I was in high school: Always leave yourself an out. There were more “outs” on the roads when I was learning to drive.

I often visit the Washington, D.C. and Baltimore metropolitan areas. They are former stomping grounds for me, and I love “getting away” to the city for a few days. Before I go or upon my return, my friends always ask me: “How can you stand the awful traffic?”

I typically respond by extolling the public-transportation system and explaining that the worst part of my trip is the coming and going on the interstates. Once I’m in the city, I have no trouble getting around.

When you spend 2 1/2 hours crossing the Wright Memorial Bridge, as Chicahauk homeowner John Booth did yesterday, you might as well be on Interstate 95, stuck behind a multi-vehicle pileup. Actually, the bridge is far worse, because you can’t bail to U.S. Hwy. 1. Even the D.C. Beltway moves faster than 3 miles per 2 1/2 hours during the worst Friday rush hour.

Have a safe and relaxing Monday, folks. And if you have to drive on the congested roadways, please try to leave yourself an out.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 7/8/19

Tuesday’s Town Council meeting promises to be a marathon session, with three public hearings scheduled, and further consideration of whether and how to regulate “special events” in residences, on the agenda. Three Planning Board appointments also are expected to be made.

The meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. in the Pitts Center, overlapping for two hours with Republican primary election voting there. (For more about the primary, see The Beacon, 6/27/19.) According to Michele Barnes, director of the Dare County Board of Elections, voting will take place in a room other than the main meeting room.

SOUTH DOGWOOD TRAIL SIDEWALK & PRIORITY CAPITAL PROJECTS

Among the public hearings will be the first and only town-wide forum of any kind on the sidewalk proposed to be constructed along the east side of South Dogwood Trail, from the Dogwood trails intersection to the Southern Shores cemetery.

On June 4, the Town Council, by a 3-2 vote, appropriated $1 million from the Town’s undesignated fund balance to pay for this sidewalk project because the annual capital infrastructure improvement budget, which consists of monies set aside for streets and sidewalks, is insufficient.

The undesignated fund balance is intended principally for emergencies, but it has a sufficient surplus above the $3 million that the Town Manager has advised the Town Council to maintain to pay for the sidewalk, provided no major natural disasters occur.

The Beacon believes the South Dogwood Trail construction project merited a separate special meeting later this month, during which the Town’s contractual engineer could have presented his design, discussed the impact it would have on the environment, and answered any questions that Town residents have.

The Beacon would have liked to have been given more than just links to diagrams on the Town website.

We believe that addressing the project during a busy regular meeting as just another item of new business is giving the project and all homeowners short shrift. We hope that the majority of the Town Council that approved the $1 million appropriation will not regard the public hearing as merely pro forma. The aesthetics, as well as the safety, of South Dogwood Trail are of concern to all Town residents, regardless of where they live.

Aside from the hearing about South Dogwood Trail, the Town Council will hold public hearings Tuesday regarding the latest zoning text amendment on nonconforming lots, ZTA 18-09PB01, which carves out exceptions to the Town Code for certain individual property owners; and adoption of the Capital Infrastructure Improvement Planning (CIIP) Committee’s recommendation for target improvement projects in fiscal year 2019-20.

The Beacon has written extensively about the exceptions to the nonconforming lots ordinance that the Planning Board identified as deserving, most recently in blogs published June 20 and June 21.You will find the text of the proposed ZTA here: https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/ZTA-18-09-PB01-Nonconforming-Lots.pdf.

There are aerial photographs of the properties that are being excepted in Tuesday’s meeting packet, which you may access here: https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/wp-content/uploads/minutes-agendas-newsletters/Meeting-Packet_2019-07-09.pdf.

The Town has $662,340 in its FY 2019-20 budget to spend on capital improvements. The CIIP has recommended that the following projects be given priority status for these funds:

1. Hillcrest Drive: from the intersection of Hickory Trail to the SSCA tennis courts, a length of 3,700 (+/-) linear feet. During this project, the width at the hilltop once known as Lookout Point would be reduced.
2. East Dogwood Trail: from N.C. Hwy. 12 east to Ocean Blvd., a length of 670 LF (+/-), including stormwater improvements.
3. Sea Oats Trail: from Eleventh Avenue north to N.C. Hwy. 12 (no length provided).
4. Dewberry Lane: 230 LF (+/-).

In their most recent meetings, CIIP Committee members have indicated that the $662,340 in the capital budget will likely not cover more than the first two projects, i.e., Hillcrest Drive and East Dogwood Trail.

For the full list of the committee’s 24 recommended capital improvement projects, prioritized in three groups, and for more background on the South Dogwood Trail project, see: https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/CIIP-May-30-2019-Meeting-Minutes.pdf.

POTENTIAL SPECIAL EVENTS REGULATION: A CONTINUED DISCUSSION

Southern Shores has been maligned in recent weeks on local social media because of a grossly inaccurate article/press release written by Porter Graham, a non-resident paid lobbyist for the Outer Banks realtors and home builders associations, that The Outer Banks Voice published, without fact-checking.

Mr. Graham falsely asserted that an ordinance to regulate all special events attended by more than 25 people has been “proposed” in Southern Shores.

Although I commented on The Voice’s blog beneath Mr. Graham’s distorted and biased story about the many errors he committed, and many of those errors were corrected by The Voice, the damage was done. Uninformed people writing on various social media sites have applied the snob label to Southern Shores, saying that the Town is anti-party, anti-fun, anti-the-masses-having-a-good-time-on-the-beach.

The truth is that the Town Council is considering regulating “special events” so as to require residential property owners to obtain permits and to provide information designed to ensure public safety; but the Council has done nothing more than discuss various options. The Town is not forming a Fascist regime intent on quashing birthday parties.

The matter of special-event regulation came up at the request of Town Councilman Gary McDonald, who asked Town staff to present for discussion at the Council’s June 4 meeting a “Special Events and Occupancy Limitation Ordinance” that Town Attorney Ben Gallop drafted in December 2015, and the Council rejected in January 2016.

You will find the text of this ordinance in the minutes of the Dec. 18, 2015 meeting, on pp. 8-12, as well as in Tuesday’s meeting packet:

https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/wp-content/uploads/minutes-agendas-newsletters/Minutes_2015-12-18.pdf

Mr. Gallop prepared this ordinance as a means by which the Town Council could prevent SAGA Construction Inc. from building a threatened 16-bedroom wedding-destination house on the oceanfront at 64 Ocean Blvd. Instead, the Council defeated the event house by enacting the 6,000-square-foot maximum house size ordinance.

On Tuesday, the Town Council is expected to hear from Town staff about a new version of the 2015 Town Code amendment (TCA) on special events and from the Planning Board about its suggestions. (The Planning Board has no authority in regard to Town Code amendments, but the Town Council asked for its advice.)

The new version of the special events ordinance is being called TCA 19-01. Both it and a redlined version of the 2015 TCA, which shows the changes suggested by the staff, are in the Town Council’s meeting packet.

In 2015, the THEN-proposed ordinance defined special events as “temporary public or private gatherings,” including, but not limited to, “pre-planned events, community uses, private parties, and traditional family events.” It imposed permitting requirements on property owners who hold special events that they expect will be attended by more than 25 people.

Pursuant to the THEN-proposed ordinance, permit application and inspection requirements would have varied and increased according to the number of attendees, with 25 to 75 people being viewed as a “small” special event; 75 to 125 as a “limited” special event, and over 125 attendees as a “large” special event.

The THEN-proposed ordinance also provided, significantly, that no more than three special events requiring a permit could occur during a continuous 12-month period on any parcel of property. If more than three occurred, then the property’s use would be considered commercial, rather than residential, and, therefore, in violation of the Town’s zoning code.

The CURRENT definition of an “event facility” in the Town Code is “an establishment, structure or property designed, maintained, advertised or actually used for the primary purpose of hosting pre-planned events.”

Event facilities are not permitted in Southern Shores’ residential districts, only in its commercial district, which is on the south edge of town.

Nearly four years ago, the THEN-proposed ordinance did not subject “traditional family events” to this three-within-12-months limitation.

The Beacon has reviewed both the new redlined version of the 2015 Town Code Amendment (TCA 19-01), prepared by the Town Attorney presumably with the assistance of other staff members, and the suggestions submitted by Planning Board Chairperson Elizabeth Morey and member Andy Ward. Most noteworthy in the new version are the following:

1. The exclusion of all traditional family events from the definition of special event;
2. The imposition of permit and other requirements only on those property owners who hold events with at least 75 attendees;
3. A limitation of 10 special events per property owner during a continuous 12-month period.

Ms. Morey and Mr. Ward also suggest exempting traditional family events from the definition of special event, but they propose a permit-requirement “threshold” of 50 attendees, not 75. They also recommend limiting property owners annually to no more than six special events with 50 to 100 attendees and no more than three special events with 100 or more attendees.

You will find the Morey/Ward suggestions on page 40 of the Town Council meeting packet.

The Beacon supports the Morey/Ward suggested threshold of 50 attendees and is undecided about the annual limits. We would like to know more about how many special events are currently being held in Southern Shores and what kind of events they are.

There are many more details contained in TCA 19-01 and in the Morey/Ward suggestions, all of which, The Beacon is certain, will receive the Town Council’s attention in due course. The public will have ample opportunity to comment on any special-events Town Code Amendments that are “proposed.”

PLANNING BOARD VACANCIES/APPOINTMENTS

The three-year terms of two regular members on the Planning Board expired June 30: those of Ms. Morey and Joe McGraw, who also served recently as vice chairperson. The Beacon has previously reported that Ms. Morey would like to be reappointed to another three-year term and that Mr. McGraw has elected not to seek reappointment.

The Beacon was unaware until reading a memorandum from Mr. Haskett to the Town Manager, which is in Tuesday’s meeting packet, that Planning Board alternate Leo Holland resigned, effective June 30.

Mr. Holland was appointed to a three-year term just one year ago. The Beacon wonders if Mr. Holland, who won election to the Town Council when he ran unopposed in 2013, might be contemplating another run for Council.

The filing period for candidates interested in one of the three Southern Shores Town Council seats up for election in November started July 5 and continues through noon on July 19.

According to Mr. Haskett’s memorandum, Planning Board alternate Michael Basilone has said he cannot serve as a regular member. Mr. Haskett further writes that previous Board applicants Anthony DiBernardo, of Ninth Avenue, and Donald D. Sowder, of Ginguite Trail, have expressed an interest in being appointed to a three-year term, i.e., to Mr. McGraw’s seat.

Whoever is appointed to the vacancy created by Mr. Holland’s resignation will serve until the expiration of his term, which is June 30, 2021.

The Planning Board will select its chairperson and vice-chairperson at its July meeting.

Mr. DiBernardo is a retired hearing examiner in the Pennsylvania criminal justice system. He received a B.A. in anthropology from Temple University in 1972.

Mr. DiBernardo has been active in Southern Shores Civic Assn. affairs, serving for three years as chairperson of its Architectural Review Board and on the SSCA committee that developed a vegetation ordinance for Southern Shores. He has been vice-chairperson of the Southern Shores Historical Landmark Commission since its inception.

Mr. Sowder is a retired colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves who spent his career in pharmaceutical and health-care industry management. He received a B.S.degree in food science from Virginia Tech in 1959. He previously served on the Chesterfield County, Va. Board of Supervisors.

Colonel Sowder is currently commodore of the Southern Shores Boat Club.

Town Council agenda: https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/wp-content/uploads/minutes-agendas-newsletters/Agendas_2019-07-09.pdf

Town Council meeting packet: https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/wp-content/uploads/minutes-agendas-newsletters/Meeting-Packet_2019-07-09.pdf.

See you at the meeting.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, July 7, 2019

A four-vehicle collision occurred today on U.S. Hwy. 158-west around 8:30 a.m. near the entrance to the Parker’s Landing development, just east of the BP service station in Point Harbor, according to witness reports.

No fatalities occurred, and a report of injuries could not be obtained.

The collision caused a miles-long backup in traffic exiting the Outer Banks that extended across the Wright Brothers Memorial Bridge to the North-South-East Dogwood Trails intersection, for those drivers using the Southern Shores cut-through route, and to U.S. Hwy. 158 and N.C. Hwy. 12, for drivers traveling on these roads from the northern and southern beaches.

A Southern Shores Beacon correspondent who was driving east on U.S. 158 came upon the aftermath of the crash, above, and interviewed some people on the scene. She learned that the driver of the gray pickup truck, seen on the tow truck, was allegedly at fault, and that alcohol may have been a factor. The truck had an OBX license plate.

According to witnesses, two of the vehicles ended up off the road, in the woods, after the collision.

A resident of Parker’s Landing involved in the crash was transported to Chesapeake Memorial Hospital for treatment of her injuries. Witnesses said she had an old, deaf Chihuahua traveling with her who escaped from an EMS responder. If you see this frightened dog or know anything about his whereabouts, please contact The Beacon, and The Beacon will contact the owner. The dog’s name is Scooby.

The Beacon also invites you to contribute to this report if you have factually reliable information to share.

This section of the highway is becoming increasingly dangerous. Beacon editor Ann Sjoerdsma witnessed the aftermath of a collision in the same location at 6 p.m. last Tuesday, and other correspondents have reported accidents there this summer.

SUBMITTED BY BEACON CORRESPONDENTS, 7/7/19