The decision as to whether and how the Southern Shores canals and Ginguite Creek will be chemically treated this year to eradicate Eurasian milfoil, a noxious aquatic weed that smells like sulfur when it dies, was delayed by the three Town Council members who attended Tuesday’s meeting until the Council’s June 4 meeting.
Town Councilman Mark Batenic and Councilwoman Paula Sherlock did not attend the May 7 meeting. No reason for their absences was given.
Town Manager Cliff Ogburn informed the Council that the N.C. Dept. of Environmental Quality had not performed a requisite survey of the Southern Shores waters to determine how much territory should be treated with a herbicide before presenting the Town with a treatment plan. Sentiment among the Council was that a survey of the milfoil must be performed before the Town can make a commitment to partner 50-50 with the NCDEQ for herbicide treatment. (See The Beacon, 5/4/24, for background.)
Homeowners from Martin’s Point and Southern Shores presented differing views at the Council’s meeting on how much milfoil exists in the Southern Shores canals and Ginguite Creek and whether the herbicide the State proposes to use could do harm to other aquatic plants and fish, as well as to humans.
Mr. Ogburn said he had been in touch with Rob Richardson, a professor at North Carolina State University who is an expert in aquatic weed management, and Dr. Richardson vouched for the safety of NCDEQ’s herbicide, which contains 2,4-D, an ingredient in Agent Orange pesticide that is currently the subject of a lawsuit filed against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (See The Beacon’s 5/4/24 post.)
RECOMMENDED FY 2024-25 BUDGET
Also Tuesday, Mr. Ogburn presented a recommended fiscal year (FY) 2024-25 budget of $12,773,492, an increase of $3,042,042, or about 31 percent, over the recommended FY 2023-24 budget presented at this time last year.
With budget amendments made by the Council throughout the current fiscal year, the actual budget for FY 2023-24 grew from $9,731,450 to $12,005,501, according to Town data.
More than $2 million of the additional expenditures in 2023-24 were covered by funds from the Undesignated (aka Unassigned) Fund Balance, which, according to Mr. Ogburn, totaled $7.8 million, as of the 2023 audit. The Town Council has resolved that $3.5 million must be held in reserve in the UFB and designated for emergency and disaster-relief purposees.
The remaining additional expenditures were covered by higher-than-anticipated revenues, particularly interest.
We would expect the FY 2024-25 budget, which covers July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025, to similarly grow over the course of the fiscal year.
We will take a closer look at the recommended FY 2024-25 budget before the Town Council’s June 4 meeting, when a State-mandated public hearing on the budget will be held.
The expenses in the recommended FY 2024-25 budget, by department or category, are:
$1,465,842: Administration (the largest line item is salaries, $476,346)
$426,067: Planning & Code Enforcement (salaries, $281,296)
$2,409,492: Police Department (salaries, $1,301,457)
$5,235,462: Streets, Bridges, Beaches and Canals ($1,161,237 in debt payment for the beach nourishment project; $3,480,000 for infrastructure, which includes $2.1 million for the Juniper Trail Culvert replacement project, according to Mr. Ogburn. The Town Manager previously said the bridge project would cost $1.6 million.)
$733,924: Public Works (salaries, $381,892)
$991,125: Sanitation ($208,025, for residential solid waste collection; $238,500 for recycling collection; $280,900 for a landfill tipping fee)
$1,207,335: Fire Department ($868,315, for contracted fire protection services; $314,020 for debt payment on fire station)
$229,245: Ocean Rescue
$75,000: Capital Reserve Fund (for canal maintenance)
As of June 2023, the Southern Shores Cemetery Fund had a balance of $92,244 and anticipated expenses of only $3,750 in the next fiscal year. The Town intends to upgrade the cemetery, which is located on South Dogwood Trail next to the Duck Woods Country Club, but it did not budget for improvement expenses.
You may read Mr. Ogburn’s message to the Town Council about his recommended FY 2024-25 budget and the budget itself at:
For more background, see The Beacon, 4/7/24, and our breakdown of the “big-ticket” items in next fiscal year’s budget.
BALLOONS AND LOT WIDTH
Mayor Elizabeth Morey, Mayor Pro Tem Matt Neal, and Town Councilman Rob Neilson unanimously passed an ordinance banning the release of balloons into the open air in Southern Shores, with the exception of balloons used for scientific or meteorological purposes. The ordinance adds section 22-12 to the Town Code and includes a civil penalty of $250 for each violation of the balloon ban.
The three Council members also unanimously voted to “table” Zoning Text Amendment 23-05, which redefines the measurement of lot width, for purposes of establishing minimum lot width for lots created after June 6, 2023.
The Beacon has written extensively about the long-term effort by Deputy Town Manager/Planning Director Wes Haskett, the Planning Board, and the Town Attorney to rewrite the language in the Town Code about lot width to make it less ambiguous. Our last salvo was written 4/23/24.
Before Mayor Pro Tem Neal made a motion to table the ZTA, citing its “lack of clarity,” Mr. Haskett advised the Council during Tuesday’s public hearing on ZTA 23-05 that he did not recommend approval of the version of ZTA 23-05 before it and would like to withdraw the ZTA for further discussion with the Planning Board.
“I don’t think there’s any rush” to finalize the ZTA, Mr. Neal said.
It goes without saying that the unanimous quorum vote on the balloon ordinance was known in advance of the meeting, otherwise the ordinance would not have been on the agenda. We are certain that postponement of the Council’s action on ZTA 23-05 was also known, and we believe that the postponement should have occurred before the meeting. It is conceivable that some of us would have prepared remarks about ZTA 23-05 for the public meeting, unnecessarily so.
We have never known the May meeting of the Town Council, during which the next fiscal year’s budget is presented by the Town Manager, to be attended by only three elected officials.
ARTY, THE TOWN’S K-9 OFFICER
If you’d like to see K-9 Arty eagerly in action with his handler, Southern Shores Patrol Officer Thomas Long, go to the Town of Southern Shores You Tube site, click on the “Live” link, and tune into the first 20 minutes of the May 7, 2024 meeting. (See https://www.youtube.com/@ SouthernShores/streams)
Arty is a friendly 2-year-old Dutch Shepherd who was born in Poland and came to the United States in August 2023, when he met Officer Long and went through basic training. The sleek 57-pound “single-purpose” canine was originally trained with Dutch commands and still responds to them.
Arty’s expertise is in narcotics detection and tracking, which he does by “scent discrimination,” Officer Long explained. The officer took Arty through some basic obedience commands and a narcotics detection exercise at the Town Council meeting, and he enthusiastically responded to every task asked of him.
Arty is one of nine K-9s working in Dare County, according to Officer Long.
By Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 5/10/24
The Southern Shores Beacon 