Today’s day-long Town Council retreat at the Pitts Center is not being live-streamed, as we earlier reported it would be. We regret making an erroneous assumption. (See The Beacon, 3/1/25.)
We attended part of the retreat this afternoon and were told that the business discussed would only be reported through official minutes. No videotape was recorded.
The Town Manager should be updating residents and property owners soon about the conclusion of the SSVFD study that the Town should incorporate the fire department into the municipal government. Cliff Ogburn told us that the change could occur as soon as July 1.
We also heard considerable enthusiasm by the Town Council for the creation of a Public Information Officer position.
Last night’s Town Council meeting was live-streamed.
We spotted an osprey on Monday, Feb. 24, in the nest closest to the Soundside Park shore (above) on North Dogwood Trail. Ospreys, which are birds of prey, return to their Outer Banks nests in late February or early March every year to mate, lay eggs, and launch their chicks into the world. The male arrives ahead of the female to prepare the nest for their months-long occupancy.
As many of you know, we announced on Feb. 2 an indefinite suspension of The Beacon’s publication, effective immediately, because of a significant change in our circumstances. Because of the suspension, we did not cover the Town Council’s Feb. 4 meeting.
We are publishing today only to advise you of a retreat the Town Council will be holding in the Pitts Center on Wednesday, from 8:30 a.m. until possibly as late as 3 p.m., to discuss a wide-ranging, “ambitious” agenda of issues confronting the Town of Southern Shores—or so the Council believes—in the future, both near and distant.
According to the agenda, the retreat will start at 8:30 a.m. with a light breakfast, and business will convene at 9 a.m. The Council will work through a lunch break starting at 12:30 p.m. and take up its last list of topics at 1:30 p.m.
Unlike at previous retreats, there is no public-comment period scheduled.
Printed atop the retreat agenda posted on the Town website is the note that not every item on it may be discussed. Assigned times for agenda items “are not meant to be strict,” the note reads, and the Council may choose to rearrange both times and items.
The posted agenda is as follows:
8:30 a.m. Light breakfast
9:00 a.m. Introduction: “13 Ways to Kill a Community” by Doug Griffiths*
Comments from the Southern Shores Civic Assn., by Board member Jeff Johnson, and the Chicahauk Property Owners Assn., by Karen Kranda, president
Budget summary
9:30 a.m. SERVICE LEVEL
1. Fire study report discussion
2. Are we providing the right level of service?
a. Do we need a Public Information Officer?
b. More use of social media
c. Access to information including digitally and use of AI
10:30 a.m. INFRASTRUCTURE
1. Stormwater
a. BRIC grant for project at 13th/Sea Oats *
b. Hickory/Wax Myrtle project
2. Access
a. Sidewalks
b. Linking to commercial sites
c. Golf carts
3. Community park/pockets parks
a. Purchasing property
b. Central gathering place
12:30 p.m. WORKING LUNCH
6. Discussion of items to reconsider
a. Tree ordinance
b. Speed limit on Route 12
c. Facility master planning
1:30 PLANNING
7. Entry Corridor Committee update
8. Non-conforming lots
9. Engaging outside resources
**Doug Griffiths, 52, is a Canadian who formerly served in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta as a Progressive Conservative and founded the consulting company, 13 Ways, Inc., 10 years ago.
According to Wikipedia.org, 13 Ways began as a book, “13 Ways to Kill Your Community,” that detailed in an entertaining satirical style the various ways in which one might “kill a community,” for example, through a failure to provide clean water, reliable Internet service, and a place where young people might return to raise families and retire.
(Beacon note: Clearly, a coastal resort area is different from the usual American community.)
**BRIC stands for Building Resilient Infrastructure in Communities. It is a funding program of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
We will not be attending or reporting upon the retreat.
If you view the video after the event is over, be sure to click on the “Live” link on the menu bar.
REGULAR TOWN MEETING ON TUESDAY, MARCH 4
The Town Council will hold its regular monthly meeting the evening before the retreat, starting at 5:30 p.m., in the Pitts Center.
Besides Town staff reports, Chairperson Donna Creef will be presenting the 2024 Dare Community Housing Task Force report.
Ms. Creef, a longtime member of the Dare County Planning Dept., who served for about a dozen years as Dare Planning Director, is currently director of government affairs for the Outer Banks Assn. of Realtors. She has been personally presenting the task force report to all Dare County town governments.
The Southern Shores Beacon 