The agenda for the Town Council’s regular meeting Tuesday ranges broadly from a special presentation by Dare County EMS Chief Jennie L. Collins and the swearing in of new Police Officer Austin Jones to an update by the Town Manager about the Juniper/Trinitie Trail Bridge Replacement Project to proposed amendments to the Town Code ordinance governing the Southern Shores Cemetery to a Town proposal to reduce the number of public-comment periods held during Council meetings from two to one.
And, of course, as we have written in reports on 1/28/25 and 1/31/25, the Town Council will hold a public hearing on Zoning Text Amendment 25-01, which gives a wealthy investor from Fredericksburg, Va., a personalized exemption to the nonconforming lots/recombination ordinance, Code sec. 36-132, in order for the Town to avoid going to court.
You may access the agenda and the packet for the meeting here: https://mccmeetings.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/soshoresnc-pubu/MEET-Packet-cc965c7d6ab545919063799e0f400de8.pdf.
The meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. in the Pitts Center and may be live-streamed on the Southern Shores You Tube website.
In addition to the above agenda items, the Town Council will be:
• Approving appropriations from the Unassigned Fund Balance of $9,975 to fund the Southern Shores Volunteer Fire Dept.-Town merger feasibility study (see The Beacon, 1/8/25) and $4,965 for unspecified commercial garbage collection as part of its consent agenda;
• Supporting a resolution by the non-profit N.C. Beach, Inlet, and Waterway Assn. (NCBIWA) to update the 2016 Beach and Inlet Management Plan, also part of the consent agenda;
• Recognizing Southern Shores Police Sgt. Eric P. Brinkley for his years of service;
• Moving forward with renting the Town-owned flat top at 13 Skyline Road to the Southern Shores Civic Assn. and the Chicahauk Property Owners Assn., which currently rent space in the Pitts Center; and
• Discussing “meeting specifics and topic ideas” for the Council’s March retreat, which is open to the public.
REDUCTION OF PUBLIC-COMMENT PERIODS
The Beacon strongly opposes the Town’s proposal to amend the Town Council’s Rules of Procedure to eliminate the requirement that two public-comment periods must be held at the Council’s regular meetings. Under the proposal, the language of Rules Section 17, which is titled “Public address to the Council,” would be changed from:
“The Council shall provide two periods for public comment at regular meetings . . . for anyone to address the Council on any matter not on the agenda for public hearing.”
To:
“The council shall provide at least one period for public comment per month at a regular meeting of the council . . . [etc., as above].”
Although Section 17 cites a section of North Carolina General Statutes Chapter 160A, which pertains to cities and towns, this action is not mandated by it.
NCGS sec. 160A-81.1, which is the public-comment section of Chapter 160A, specifies the language that the Town seeks to adopt (i.e., “shall provide at least one period for public comment”), but it does not prohibit the Town from mandating more than one public-comment period.
We do not believe the scheduling of a second public-comment period should be discretionary.
The two public-comment periods that have been held for years have not been disruptive to Town Council meetings nor have they consumed an undue amount of time. Speakers are limited to three minutes, and they respect that limitation.
We would think that Town Council members would want to hear more from the public they have been elected to serve, not less. With two public-comment periods, Southern Shores property owners and residents are able to comment before the Town Council’s business agenda, as well as after, thus offering an immediate response to action that the Council may have taken.
Mayor Elizabeth Morey has been gracious about allowing members of the public to speak during these comment periods, even though they did not sign up to do so. She has invited people to the lectern. We urge her to continue this graciousness and not curtail the Council’s commitment to allotting time for public comments.
CHANGES TO SOUTHERN SHORES CEMETERY ORDINANCE
The Town has introduced Town Code Amendment 25-1 to amend the ordinance establishing and governing the Southern Shores Cemetery, which is Section 10-1 of the Town Code.
Regrettably, we have not had an opportunity to do more than skim the proposed changes, which are numerous. The only change that leaped out at us as inappropriate is a limitation on the number of cemetery lots that a family can buy. That number is four.
Is the Town trying to conserve space in the cemetery for more families by legislating this restriction? Certainly, it’s not trying to “break up” families.
Eventually, the cemetery will run out of space, but with cremation becoming more popular, that may not be for quite some time. We do not approve of an arbitrary restriction that discriminates against large families. If the Town is trying to prevent the hoarding of lots by families, it should find another way to do so.
You will find a report about TCA 25-1 and the proposed amendment on pages 33-38 of the meeting packet.
HEARING TO EXTEND BAN OF HOMEOWNER FROM TOWN PROPERTIES
The Town Council will hold a public hearing at 3 p.m. Tuesday to extend a temporary ban of homeowner Anthony Mina, of 75 E. Dogwood Trail, from all Town-owned properties. As evidence for the hearing, Town Manager Cliff Ogburn has posted in the hearing packet 37 of the more than 1,000 emails that Mr. Mina has sent to the Town.
We wrote about Mr. Mina’s property situation, which is the source of his complaints, on 10/19/24 and 10/22/24. Starting Dec. 23, we, too, have been on his email list.
If you have been to a Town Council meeting in recent months, you will have noticed an increased police presence. Mr. Mina is the reason why.
We hope he is not the reason for the proposed change in the public-comment periods.
The hearing will be live-streamed on the Town’s You Tube website.
TAKING A BREAK
We are unable to cover either of the Town Council’s meetings Tuesday. In fact, because of changed circumstances, we are taking an extended break from publishing The Beacon, effective immediately.
We regret having to make this decision, but we need to focus our time and energies elsewhere. In the event that something momentous happens in town that demands coverage, we may step back into reporting temporarily to cover it.
PLEASE NOTE: Dare County’s property reevaluation notices are now scheduled to be mailed in March, not February.
By Ann G. Sjoerdsma, The Southern Shores Beacon, 2/2/25
The Southern Shores Beacon 