Southern Shores’ springtime bulk-waste collection will be held on Friday, April 14. The Town asks that you not place any items on the roadside until April 7.

For more information about the collection, in particular, the items that are acceptable for pickup, and those that are not, see:

https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/community/page/semi-annual-bulk-waste-collection

We call your attention to the prohibition against building materials, which include lumber, windows, screens, roofing, doors, cabinets, toilets, and demolition debris. Rugs and carpets are also unacceptable.

Chicahauk Bridge Lane To Be Closed Wed.-Thurs. Next Week

A lane will be closed on Trinitie Trail in Chicahauk at the Trinitie/Juniper Trail Bridge Wednesday (4/5) and Thursday (4/5) for survey work to be done in preparation for reconstruction of the bridge and culvert, according to an announcement on the Town of Southern Shores website.

Contractor Kimley Horn of Raleigh has previously said that the bridge replacement project will take at least a year to complete.   

Town Manager Cliff Ogburn will give an update on the bridge/culvert replacement construction at the Town Council’s monthly meeting Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. in the Pitts Center.

The Town Manager’s report is the most newsworthy portion of the Council’s meeting. He provides updates on projects that you will not see in the Town newsletter or on the Town website.    

For Tuesday’s meeting agenda, see: https://mccmeetings.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/soshoresnc-pubu/ MEET-Agenda-a85b803f928b43bc97ebbc1a920c2148.pdf.

April 10 Groundbreaking Set for New EMS Station/SSVFD at E. Dogwood Trail

A groundbreaking ceremony for the new Dare County EMS Station 4 and fire department building at 28 East Dogwood Trail will be held Monday, April 10, at 10 a.m., according to an announcement by Dare County. The new facility is part of a major capital improvement project by Dare County to renovate or replace all of its EMS stations.

According to the Dare County website, the new East Dogwood facility will be completed by spring 2024.

Town Seeks Grant Manager

The Town is seeking an individual or firm to serve as its Grant Manager, an independent contractor position for which applicants must submit a proposal to the Town Manager by 5 p.m. on Wed., April 19.

According to a Request for Proposals posted yesterday on the Town website, the “Grant Manager will seek out and apply for grant funding that fits within the identified needs and goals of the Town. Tasks consist of grant writing and management and coordinating program initiatives in compliance with state and federal government requirements. Training and helping staff determine eligible projects and accounting for and reporting the use of grant funds [are] also required.”

The requirements of an applicant’s RFP are listed at:

https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/hr/page/request-proposals-grant-writing-services

The Town states that the position “requires a diverse experience with grant writing and management, as well as financial organizational skills,” and that it intends “to award a contract to a highly qualified firm or independent grant writer with experience in successfully securing grant funding and other grant-related services.”

Applicants are asked to provide a minimum of three references for grant writing services they have provided within the past five years and to describe their payment terms.

****

The Beacon is still on hiatus, but we thought we would pass along some town news tidbits.

Happy springtime.

THE BEACON, 3/31/23

The Southern Shores Civic Assn. will hold a volunteer and membership open house on Monday (3/27), from noon to 4 p.m., in the Pitts Center behind Town Hall. The event will provide an opportunity for people to learn about SSCA membership, spring and summer volunteer work for the association, and the SSCA itself.

The SSCA is an unusual organization of property owners in that it is not comprised exclusively of homeowners and its membership is not mandatory. Membership dues in part support a legion of volunteers who maintain many of the benefits of living in Southern Shores.

The SSCA is a major landowner in Southern Shores: Its holdings include the 33 beach access/dune crossovers, the town’s boat marinas and parks (except Chicahauk’s Trinitie Park), the Hillcrest Beach and parking lot, the Hillcrest Tennis Court, and a number of large tracts of vacant land.

The SSCA will hold its next general membership meeting on Monday, April 10, at 7 p.m., in the Pitts Center. Monday’s open house will give you a chance to ask board members in an informal setting about the SSCA budget, priorities, projects, etc., as well as how you can participate in its many activities, if you’d like.  

For more information about the open house, contact coordinator@sscaobx.org.

Despite impressions otherwise, The Beacon is still on hiatus with no definite plans to resume reporting, although we are aware that the Town Council will soon be discussing a property tax hike and expect to cover that news.

A SPOT OF HISTORY

Since we made an exception for the SSCA’s open house and are “on the page,” so to speak, we thought we would pass along some Southern Shores history.  

It occurred to us that newcomers to town, of whom the recent housing boom would suggest there are many, may not know the name, Kern P. Pitts, that adorns our town meeting center.

If you were here in the 1980s and 1990s, you probably recognize the name as synonymous with Southern Shores in that era. Everyone who was here then knew Kern Pitts.  

Mr. Pitts was the first elected mayor of Southern Shores—but he was not elected mayor by the people. He was elected by popular vote in November 1979 as a member of the Town Council and then chosen mayor by a vote of the five-member Town Council.

The Town did not hold mayoral elections until 2001, when voters elected Rear Admiral Paul E. Sutherland Jr. (1932-2017), who had been serving as the Council-designated mayor. Until the 2001 election, the Town Council chose the mayor, a system that the Town of Duck, which was incorporated in 2002, still employs today. (Hence, Duck Mayor Don Kingston has been entrenched in office since 2011.)

The November 1979 election was the first election held in newly incorporated Southern Shores. David Stick, the son of the founder of Southern Shores, artist and real estate developer Frank Stick, and Southern Shores’ chief planner/designer/visionary, served by appointment as town mayor until Mr. Pitts was sworn into office.

Mr. Pitts, a retired colonel in the U.S. Army, held the mayor’s office from 1979 until 1997, when he left Southern Shores for health reasons to be near family in Texas. He died in 2000 at age 80.

Don Smith succeeded Admiral Sutherland as mayor, followed by Hal Denny (2009-2013), Tom Bennett for two four-year terms, and now Elizabeth Morey, who was elected in 2021.

This year voters of Southern Shores will elect three people to the Town Council, as the terms of Leo Holland and Matt Neal, who were elected in 2019, and Mark Batenic, who was appointed  in 2022 to complete the Town Council term Ms. Morey was serving when she was elected mayor, are scheduled to expire.

The terms of the other two Town Council members—Mayor Morey and Councilwoman Paula Sherlock—will expire in 2025. 

And that’s your Southern Shores history lesson for the day.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 3/23/23