Of the 23 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in Dare County, nine are men and 14 are women; eight are between the ages of 25 and 49, and seven are age 65 or older; and 18 are Dare County residents, while five are non-residents, according to an expanded dashboard posted today by the Dare County Dept. of Health and Human Services.
Two Dare County residents continue to have an active COVID-19 status, with one being hospitalized and the other in home isolation, according to the dashboard.
Of the five non-residents who have tested positive, four have recovered, and the fifth has been transferred to his/her home county for isolation.
The latter appears to be the most recent laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 case in Dare County, case no. 23. [In a videotaped message posted today, Dr. Sheila Davies confirms that it is. The Beacon posted more details 6/3/20.]
A further breakdown of the ages of the people who have tested positive reveals that one is between the ages of 18 and 24, and seven are between the ages of 50 and 64.
Southern Shores property owners have until June 12 to submit written comments to the Town about beach nourishment, in response to a mailer. Be sure to include your address! (A public hearing June 16 will give you another opportunity to comment.)
Dear Readers: I will be out of pocket this afternoon and during much of this week, attending to work and life outside of The Beacon. I will post further reports about yesterday’s Town Council meeting and about news of interest to Southern Shores property owners and residents as my time allows.
By now you should have received a mailer from the Town requesting your opinion on a potential town-wide beach nourishment—from the Kitty Hawk/Southern Shores line to the Southern Shores/Duck line—in 2022. You are being asked to submit your comments by June 12, via email to info@southernshores-nc.gov or by mail to the Town Hall, 5375 N. Virginia Dare Trail, Southern Shores, NC 27949.
Please include your property’s address with your comments. This point was not made in the mailer, and it is very important because the Town Council is considering funding a beach nourishment project by imposing new taxes on property owners according to their property’s proximity to the ocean.
Oceanfront and “ocean-zone” property owners would bear the lion’s share of the tax burden for the Town’s financial investment in an estimated $14 million to $16 million-plus project. (Dare County also would be a contributor.)
The Town staff will compile the comments in a report to the Town Council, which will be holding a public hearing about beach nourishment at 9 a.m., Tues., June 16, in the Pitts Center during its workshop meeting. If you would rather not send in written comments, you may speak at the public hearing, the details of which The Beacon will provide later.
The Beacon just learned from Interim Town Manager Wes Haskett at yesterday’s Council meeting that municipal government meetings are not restricted by the 10-person maximum occupancy limit that Governor Cooper has imposed on other “mass gatherings” indoors. We intend to follow up on this exemption ASAP.
We believe that the relegation of the public to Zoom videoconferencing in order to join a Town Council meeting—while all Council members and Town staff are physically present in the Pitts Center—has adversely affected public participation and the flow of public information in Southern Shores governmental affairs.
Yesterday, I was one of seven Zoom audience members for the Council meeting. By the meeting’s conclusion, I was one of five.
I have wondered before whether the Town Council meetings were being attended by more than 10 “in-house” people.
Because meeting participants who sit on the sideline or in the front of the Pitts Center meeting hall are not visible on a Zoom videoconferencing screen, I have not been able to verify my counts. I trusted the Town that it was adhering to the 10-person maximum occupancy. Last evening it was clear that at least a dozen people attended the meeting simultaneously.
I would like very much to see accommodations made for the public to attend the June 16 workshop meeting, with seating arranged so that social distancing can be observed.
DISAGREEMENT ABOUT TOWN ENGINEERING CONTRACT
The Town Council unanimously approved yesterday the proposed fiscal year 2020-21 budget and an amendment to chapter 16 of the Town Code that updates the Town’s flood damage prevention ordinance, after holding public hearings on each during which few remarks were made.
Differences of opinion arose, however, when the Council took up implementation of the no-left-turn initiative this summer (see The Beacon, 6/1/20) and the selection of a new engineering contractor from among applicants to a Request for Qualifications issued by the Town. The Beacon will delve into these differences in a later post. Today, we would simply like to share with you a most unusual occurrence.
Town Councilman Matt Neal was in the middle of making a motion during the meeting about delaying a decision on a new engineering contract when Town Councilman Jim Conners interrupted him to make his own motion to approve awarding the contract to current engineering contractors “Deel and Anlauf.”
Mr. Conners’s interruption was a shocking breach in professional courtesy and the rules of procedure. But, rather than rebuke Mr. Conners for his breach, and disallow his intervention, Mayor Tom Bennett seconded his motion, ignoring Mr. Neal!
I have never seen such a sequence of events occur in a Southern Shores Town Council meeting. When former Councilmen Gary McDonald, Chris Nason, and Fred Newberry were on the Town Council, Councilman Conners often asked not to be interrupted, and the offender would always apologize and desist. That Mr. Conners would interrupt another Council member and not stand down was quite shocking.
Town Attorney Ben Gallop, who might have stepped in to restore order, chose to say nothing, until after the Mayor attempted to amend Mr. Conners’s motion to somehow incorporate Mr. Neal’s request.
The Beacon will elaborate on the interests at stake in this disagreement when we have sorted it out better. Neither the RFQ nor the applications received by the Town were in the meeting packet for public perusal nor are they on the Town website.
Town Councilman Leo Holland spoke about verbal presentations made by the applicants, but The Beacon is unaware of when such presentations may have occurred and before whom. Council members also repeatedly referred to a “scorecard” for applicants—which Mr. Neal called too subjective—but that scorecard also has not been publicly disseminated.
Bottom line: The awarding of the Town’s engineering contract will occur at the June 16 workshop meeting.
We agree with Councilman Neal that new Town Manager Cliff Ogburn should be involved in this decision, but he will not be in office by June 16.
In fact, we believe he should make the choice, and the Town Council should approve his choice, unless there is a clear problem with the qualifications of the engineer he chooses.
It is Mr. Ogburn, not the Town Council, who will be working directly with the town engineer.
By a vote of 4-1, the Town Council approved at its meeting today a budget amendment in July to pay for three no-left-turn weekends this summer.
The sole dissenting vote was cast by Mayor Tom Bennett.
Councilman Matt Neal, who made the motion at the April 21 budget meeting to discuss what he called “the no-left-turn initiative” at today’s meeting, and Mayor Pro Tem Elizabeth Morey took the lead in the Council’s discussion. They enthusiastically supported the three-weekend initiative, which involves gathering vehicle count data on cut-through residential streets, as well as easing the traffic congestion that results when northbound vacationers turn left on to South Dogwood Trail from U.S. Hwy. 158.
Shepherded by Mr. Neal, who framed the discussion and the motion, the Council directed Finance Officer Bonnie Swain to prepare a budget amendment to the fiscal year 2020-21 budget, which it unanimously approved earlier at the meeting, to pay for the weekends, rather than to add a line item to next year’s budget. Mr. Neal expressed his preference that the money for the initiative come from the Town’s unassigned fund balance.
Although the budget amendment will not be adopted until the Town Council’s July 7 meeting, the Council, at Mr. Neal’s suggestion, discussed scheduling the weekend left-turn prohibitions at the U.S. Hwy. 158-east and South Dogwood Trail intersection on July 4-5, July 25-26, and Aug. 1-2.
Police Chief David Kole, who backed the initiative, saying, “Manpower-wise, we’ll do the best we can,” agreed that some of the worst traffic occurs on these weekends, especially the July 4 weekend.
“I want the data, too,” the Chief said.
Mr. Neal and Ms. Morey, who were elected to the Town Council last November, are co-sponsors of the citizens’ committee to address cut-through traffic, which is chaired by homeowner Tommy Karole.
According to Ms. Morey, Mr. Karole contacted her today to say that his committee, which was unable to meet to prepare a final report because of the COVID-19 crisis, supports the three-weekend left-turn prohibition and traffic study this summer. It also apparently has some other thoughts on traffic control.
The committee expects to reconvene in the fall.
The Beacon will add to this breaking news report when we can.
A new positive test result has been added to the Dare County COVID-19 dashboard, bringing the total number of positive test results to 23.
The new case is “active,” according to the Dare County Dept. of Health and Human Services’ dashboard, which was updated today.
The DCDHHS has not yet issued a bulletin explaining the circumstances of the person who tested positive.
The DCDHHS also has not followed up on the results of the undetermined nine tests remaining from the 178 tests done in last week’s drive-thru event in Kill Devil Hills.
The Town Council will decide tomorrow whether or not to add an estimated $19,500 to proposed fiscal year 2020-21 budgetary expenditures to pay for holding three no-left-turn weekends this summer in order to curb and count northbound cut-through traffic through Southern Shores’ residential areas.
The Council will meet at 5:30 p.m. tomorrow in the Pitts Center for its regular June meeting. The public may join the meeting through a Zoom videoconference.*
The no-left-turn cost estimate is based on per-weekend expenses of 1) $6,700 to set up, maintain, and retrieve 60 traffic barrels, as well as to erect signage and windstands, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the intersection of U.S. Hwy. 158-east and South Dogwood Trail, and 2) $2,800 to have two Southern Shores police officers monitor the intersection for traffic violations from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
In June 2018, when the Town held its first successful no-left-turn weekend, it paid $6,200 to block the left-turn lane on U.S. Hwy. 158 during the same hours.
The Town received a quote dated March 4, 2020 from P.D. Brooks Traffic Control, which is included in the meeting packet (p. 75), requesting $500 more per weekend. No other quotes appear to have been obtained by the Town. Police department expenses were $2,800 two years ago and apparently have not been increased.
A majority of the Town Council decided not to decide whether to fund three no-left-turn weekends at its April 21 budget meeting because of COVID-19-related concerns about both an anticipated revenue shortfall and an anticipated drop-off in vacationer traffic.
Mayor Pro Tem Elizabeth Morey, who was one of the co-sponsors of the citizens’ committee to address cut-through traffic, said at that meeting that committee chairperson Tommy Karole discouraged having no-left-turn weekends this summer because of the aberrant times.
Town Councilman Matt Neal, who is also a co-sponsor of the citizens’ committee, wisely suggested delaying a vote on the no-left-turn funding until June 1. Because of COVID-19, the citizens’ committee never met to vote on a formal recommendation, according to Mr. Karole.
See The Beacon, 5/27/20 and in April budget reports, for more background.
You may express your opinion on the no-left-turn funding at tomorrow’s meeting during the public hearing scheduled on the proposed FY 2020-21 budget or in public comments. We recommend the latter.
The Council must approve a balanced budget for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, by June 30.
The Town Council also will hold a public hearing tomorrow on adopting the new flood maps and updating the Town Code flood damage prevention ordinance.
The Beacon has not covered the considerable efforts expended by the Town Planning Board in dealing with the new maps and drafting an amendment to chapter 16 of the Town Code. We refer you to extensive materials in the meeting packet.
There is no time limitation on remarks given during a public hearing, although speakers are asked to be as concise as possible. Public comments outside of a hearing must be kept to three minutes.
You may submit your remarks to Town Clerk Sheila Kane at skane@southernshores-nc.gov. before 5:30 p.m. tomorrow, and she will give them to a Council member to be read aloud at the meeting. You also may speak during the meeting through Zoom by requesting time in a chat message to Ms. Kane.
If you email Ms. Kane, be sure to indicate in the subject matter line: “Southern Shores Town Council Meeting June 1, 2020—Budget Public Hearing comments” or alternatively, “Southern Shores Town Council Meeting June 1, 2020—Public Comments.”
Also on the Council’s agenda is a verbal update about the Town’s efforts to renew actual curbside recycling.
Currently, all “recycling” that Bay Disposal & Recycling picks up is being taken to a waste-to-energy facility in Portsmouth, Va., for incineration. The Town is considering contracting with Recycling and Disposal Solutions (RDS) of Virginia, which operates a materials recycling facility in Portsmouth.
The Beacon has extensively covered the Town’s recycling crisis and will report in detail on tomorrow’s update.
The Southern Shores Beacon 