Dare County had reported a total of 246 COVID-19 cases when Dr. Sheila Davies, director of the health department, posted her videotaped update yesterday. Of those 246, 140 are Dare County residents, and 106 are nonresidents.
What we find most significant about the case reporting of the past week is that two more local people were hospitalized with the disease, bringing the total current hospitalizations among Dare County residents to three.
According to Dr. Davies, two of these residents are hospitalized outside of the area. One nonresident is also hospitalized.
There also was a 71-percent increase during the past week in the number of people age 65 and older who tested positive locally for COVID-19.
On Friday, July 10, the Dare County Dept. of Health and Human Services dashboard showed that 14 people in the higher-risk over-65 age group had contracted COVID-19. As of yesterday, the number was 24. Overall, the age breakdown in the 246 cases is as follows:
Ages 17 and under: 38
Ages 18 to 24: 70
Ages 25 to 49: 78
Ages 50 to 64: 36
Ages 65+: 24
Based on the dashboard data, we roughly estimate the average number of cases being reported each day in Dare County to be 10.
According to Dr. Davies’s detailing of COVID-19 transmission, the majority of the people who have tested positive are being infected by direct contact with a person who has the virus.
Although she drew attention in her report yesterday to “an increased trend over the past few days of individuals who are unaware how they acquired the virus”—an indication, she said, of “an increase in community spread”—Dr. Davies’s recent numbers show that spread allegedly accounted for a little more than a third of the cases.
Just because people do not know how they acquired the virus does not rule out infection by direct contact.
The COVID-19 antibody testing that the Dare County DHHS is doing in partnership with Mako Medical Laboratories of Raleigh, so far, is turning up few positives.
According to Dr. Davies, 194 antibody tests were conducted of people who participated in Tuesday’s testing event, and only five proved positive.
The next COVID-19 diagnostic and antibody testing clinic will be held Tuesday, July 28, starting at 1 p.m., at the Dare County Center, 950 Marshall Collins Drive, in Manteo. You may schedule an appointment for the clinic, for one or both tests, by calling 252 475-5008, Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
COVID-19 STATEWIDE: We continue to monitor the key COVID-19 metrics on the state level, which are still moving in the wrong direction. Single-day case reports and hospitalizations continue to be high, with single-day hospitalization records being set and then quickly broken.
Today’s single-day case report of 2,481 is a new record high. Yesterday’s reported 1,180 hospitalizations also marked a record. Today, hospitalizations have been reduced by 26, to 1,154.
The single-day case reports have hovered around 2,000 since July 9. Dr. Mandy Cohen, Secretary of the N.C. Dept. of Health and Human Services, has said at media briefings that increased testing alone cannot account for the increased number of cases.
The positivity test rate continues to be consistently below 10 percent, which is a good sign. But Dr. Cohen would like to see the rate of positive COVID-19 tests from among the number of tests completed to be 5 percent or lower. The last time this metric dipped to that level was June 30
The NCDHHS dashboard today reports 1,629 deaths statewide.
We do not usually comment on individual behavior, but today we will say that until people “get” that it is the spread of COVID-19 that must be slowed, if not stopped, before the country can reopen and begin to function normally again, we will be stuck on the “pause” button, and cases and deaths will continue to climb.
Those people who believe that having to wear a mask and to observe physical distancing infringes upon their constitutional rights do not understand public health or the U.S. Constitution, which does not afford them the protection they think. (Talk to the ACLU, not The Beacon.) They are just hurting themselves.
Taco Bell has moved into the former Nu-Quality ice cream shop on U.S. Hwy. 158 in Southern Shores, in front of the Marketplace.
Taco Bell in Southern Shores is now hiring!
The Nu-Quality ice cream shop on U.S. Hwy. 158 in front of the Marketplace has closed—after less than two years in business—and Taco Bell is opening in its space. Its name went up on the building just today.
Deputy Town Manager/Planning Director Wes Haskett announced at last week’s Town Council meeting that the Town issued building and zoning permits to Taco Bell June 29 for its remodel of the Nu-Quality facility, which, he said, will undergo no structural changes.
The sale to Restaurant Property Investors IV, LLC, of Virginia Beach occurred on June 30, according to a special warranty deed on file with the Dare County Register of Deeds.
The franchisee is only installing new kitchen equipment and replacing existing signage, Mr. Haskett said. You may have noticed that the building was re-painted recently in Taco Bell’s signature purple.
Nu-Quality is of interest to us because the Town Planning Board and Town Council bent over backwards to accommodate owner Spiros Giannakopoulos’s application to develop a drive-through ice cream business on the small vacant lot at 5415 N. Croatan Hwy.
When Mr. Giannakopoulos proposed his development, it was illegal under the Town’s zoning code, which then required drive-through businesses to be located on commercial sites that are at least 2.5 acres in size.
The Nu-Quality/Taco Bell site, which sits between two banks—one of which is a First National—is only 18,260 square feet, or 0.42 acres.
According to county records, Mr. Giannakopoulos’s limited liability company, “5415 OBX-LLC,” purchased the site in late 2017 from First National Bank of Pennsylvania for $275,000 and granted the bank an easement.
Longtime Planning Board Chairman Sam Williams ensured, however, that inconvenient town law did not hinder Mr. Giannakopoulos, whose proposed 910-square-foot, flat-top-style drive-through ice cream shop was designed by architect Christopher Nason, then serving on the Town Council.
We recount the story. It ends with quite a payday for Mr. Giannakopoulos and any investors he may have.
The Williams Rescue
Operating as “5415 OBX-LLC,” Mr. Giannakopoulos applied to the Planning Board on March 14, 2018 for its approval of a conditional use site plan and zoning text amendment (“ZTA”) “package.” The ZTA, known as ZTA 18-05, proposed changing the Town’s commercial zoning to grant a special exemption to drive-through ice cream shops, and ONLY drive-through ice cream shops.
Prepared by Mr. Giannakopoulos’s representative, Quible & Associates of Kitty Hawk, ZTA 18-05 was not very ingenious, but it did not need to be. It simply stated that “drive-through facilities . . . other than Ice Cream Shops shall be located on a lot greater than or equal to 2.5 acres within the principal structure.” It then defined what an “Ice Cream Shop” is.
(We have a copy of the original ZTA, which you will not find on the Town website.)
Mr. Giannakopoulos, who is the proprietor of a Nu-Quality ice cream shop in Elizabeth City, appeared before the Town Planning Board on April 16, 2018.
The late Glenn Wyder, a Planning Board alternate who had just been appointed to the regular Board, immediately challenged the rather clumsy zoning exemption at this meeting, opposing its obvious preferential treatment. It was then that Chairman Williams stepped up to say that he had already worked out a solution.
The Beacon had just started publishing two weeks earlier, and we were not yet savvy about examining applications in the Town’s Planning Department before attending Planning Board hearings. Had we done so, we likely would have discovered Mr. Giannakopoulos’s connection to Councilman Nason, whose name did not come up in any public hearings about the Nu-Quality project until the last possible date.
To get around the formidable zoning obstacle, Chairman Williams rewrote the key provision of ZTA 18-05, which is to say he rewrote the Town Code. He proposed changing the Town Code to distinguish between small and large drive-through facilities.
Under Mr. Williams’s plan, a “small” drive-through customer-service facility could be located on a lot less than 20,000 square feet provided it fronted on Hwy. 158 and met other building requirements, all based on Mr. Giannakopoulos’s ZTA and tailormade for his ice cream shop.
A small drive-through facility had to have a “principal structure” that served items over “a general service counter for the customer to carry to a small seating area, to a motor vehicle, or off-premises.” (Now Town Code sec. 36-57.)
Mr. Williams’s ZTA 18-05 also specified that one parking space had to exist for every three customer seats, and each employee had to have an additional space. (Town Code sec. 36-163(3)(c)(12).)
Further, the drive-through facility could not exceed 2,500 square feet or be closer than 100 feet to any residentially zoned property, and it must allow for stacking of a minimum of six cars. (Code sec. 36-207(c)(2))
A “large” drive-through facility, under Mr. Williams’s scheme, would conform to the requirement of a location size that is equal to or greater than 2.5 acres, the then-current requirement for all drive-through facilities.
A Meaningless ‘Public’ Hearing
Mr. Williams’s unilateral, behind-the-scenes rewrite struck us as questionable when we heard it for the first time on April 16, 2018, as well as unduly preferential. But even more disconcerting to us was the lack of a public hearing before the Planning Board about the revised ZTA.
The Town had given notice of a hearing about Mr. Giannakopolous’s ZTA 18-05, and provided its text, but it had not noticed Mr. Williams’s version, which significantly altered it.
After a discussion of his new zoning plan with his Planning Board colleagues, the Chairman moved toward taking a vote on recommending it to the Town Council for enactment.
As we reported more than two years ago, Planning Director Haskett intervened to remind Mr. Williams that he needed to entertain public comment before he could take a vote. The Chairman was prepared to skip over that legal necessity.
But how could any members of the public comment on a ZTA that they had not seen or even contemplated?
Regardless, the Planning Board voted on the Chairman’s ZTA, and it passed 4-1, with Elizabeth Morey, who now sits as Mayor Pro Tem on the Town Council, dissenting without comment.
When we later asked Town Attorney Ben Gallop about the propriety of voting on Mr. Williams’s substitute ZTA without first giving the public notice of it and an opportunity to be heard on its merits, Mr. Gallop did not see a problem. He described what happened as ZTA-editing by the Planning Board—which is perfectly permissible—before taking a vote.
We did not agree. Although it retained much of the language of Mr. Giannakopolous’s ZTA, the new ZTA replaced the former’s intent and meaning with a different concept altogether, and it had an effect on more than just Mr. Giannakopolous’s business.
Indeed, it has directly led to Taco Bell’s move into Southern Shores. We doubt Mr. Williams would have promoted a change in the zoning to welcome this national chain of franchised fast-food restaurants to town.
Much later, after the Town Council had acted, we arranged to meet with Mr. Haskett for an interview at Town Hall. Upon arriving, however, we discovered that Town Manager Peter Rascoe was going to sit in on the interview, uninvited.
Mr. Haskett was forthcoming about meetings with Mr. Williams, the applicant, Mr. Rascoe, and other interested parties after the filing of the proposed ZTA, all of which he said were standard procedure.
But when we pursued the impact that Mr. Nason’s involvement may have had on the Town’s treatment of the Nu-Quality package, or whether Mr. Nason himself had participated in discussions, Mr. Rascoe quickly inserted himself into the conversation to ask if we were accusing him of “collusion.”
We did not pursue this line of inquiry further. Even when he was not being defensive, Mr. Rascoe specialized in giving non-answers to straightforward questions that he did not want to answer. The Beacon was still getting its feet wet then, and we were not prepared to take on Town Hall.
John Finnelli, the Planning Board’s Martin’s Point representative, explained at the April 19 meeting that the Town enacted the 2.5-acre zoning restriction because it didn’t believe a drive-through business “was appropriate for every location,” and it was “trying to keep congestion off of Juniper Trail.”
At the same meeting, Mr. Williams explained that he and Mr. Haskett had spent time examining the physical space and needs of the drive-through fast-food businesses across from the Marketplace in Kitty Hawk. He was careful to explain that he did not want to open the door to “burger joints” in Southern Shores and seemed surprised when his Board colleagues pointed out that “junior” burger joints could operate on the site.
Taco Bell is a Mexican food joint, not a burger joint, but we believe it qualifies as the type of business that Mr. Williams said he was trying to avoid.
Even more important: Unlike the fast-food restaurants across the street, access to the drive-through line at the new Taco Bell or any business occupying 5415 N. Croatan Hwy is directly off of busy U.S. Hwy. 158. There is no side street diverting traffic. We perceived this then, and still do, as a problem.
Town Council Approval; Williams’s ‘Retirement’
On May 3, 2018, a first reading of Mr. Williams’s/now 5415 OBX-LLC’s ZTA 18-05 was held before the Town Council, with Mr. Nason inexplicably absent. No mention was made of his financial interest in the Nu-Quality project.
The measure failed by a 3-1 vote, because Town Councilman Fred Newberry dissented. To pass on first reading the vote on the measure needed to be unanimous.
In dissenting, Mr. Newberry said he was concerned about the “process” that resulted in the Planning Board’s new zoning proposal and about possible traffic congestion at 5415 N. Croatan Hwy. (See The Beacon, May 3, 2018)
At the second reading on June 7, 2018, Mr. Nason was actually present, but recused himself. This was the first time that any mention was made in a public forum about his involvement in the Nu-Quality development.
This time the Town Council unanimously approved the small-large distinction in drive-through businesses in Southern Shores, and Mr. Giannakopolous received the zoning green light he needed. (A simple majority was all that was needed for approval.)
Ironically, before the second reading of ZTA 18-05, Mr. Williams announced that he would not seek reappointment to the Planning Board.
Mr. Williams served for nine years as the Planning Board chairman—from July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2018—and it is safe to say that he exercised a tight grip.
The announcement that he was stepping aside caught us by surprise. The Beacon had argued that he should be reappointed to another three-year term when his then-current term expired, but we discouraged his selection as chairman for a 10th year.
The Planning Board, which also sits as the Board of Adjustment, elects a chairperson and vice-chairperson at the start of every new fiscal year. During the years in which it repeatedly returned Mr. Williams to the chairmanship, it got into what we consider an indefensible rut.
Mr. Williams said he wanted to spend more time with his family, especially his grandson, as we recall he told us.
Just like the hearing for the first reading, the public hearing for the second reading of ZTA 18-05 focused on the Nu-Quality business and the desirability of ice cream, not on the change in the Town Code.
In all of his public comments, Mr. Giannakopolous emphasized that he was desirous of becoming part of the Southern Shores community and preserving the town’s family atmosphere and architectural traditions. He expressed an interest in moving with his family to Southern Shores and becoming a longtime business fixture.
We do not recall hearing anything further from Mr. Giannakopolous after Nu-Quality opened for business. Neither he nor Nu-Quality ever seemed to have a presence in Southern Shores, although the ice cream shop had its fans. The increased traffic we feared never materialized.
Of course, The Beacon brought up in June 2018 the what-ifs of Nu-Quality’s closure and the ensuing commercial fallout. It was easy to foresee that a mini fast-food restaurant would one day be operating on the small site, but it was also safe to say that no one expected the changeover to happen so quickly.
In recent conversations with Southern Shores property owners, we have discovered that many people thought Nu-Quality did in fact receive a special zoning exemption, not that the Town Code was changed.
As you might surmise, The Beacon was not in favor of changing the Town zoning code to accommodate an individual business owner who knew, or should have known, that the commercial property he had purchased was too small to operate the drive-through facility he had in mind. We do not believe a decision made by five elected officials to restrict drive-through businesses to 2.5 acres should have been so easily set aside just to feather the cap of a businessperson who decides to come to town.
We also did not like the prospect of traffic tie-ups on Hwy. 158 in front of it, or sudden, un-signaled left or right turns of vehicles into it—a prospect whose likelihood increases with a Taco Bell.
That Mr. Nason had a financial stake in the outcome just made the deal a bit more fragrant for us.
When the mini-Taco Bell opens on the site—it has to be “mini” because of the “small drive-through facility” Code requirements—Southern Shores will have its first chain fast-food restaurant, drive-through or otherwise, because the Town’s planning watchdogs wanted to support a Mom ’n’ Pop ice cream shop.
Go figure.
For the Record: $1.2 Million
According to Dare County records, Restaurant Property Investors IV, LLC, of Virginia Beach, purchased the property from 5415 OBX, LLC for $1.2 million, an outlandish sum.
Mr. Giannakopolous could never sell that much ice cream, but thanks to Sam Williams’s zoning change, he did not have to. He pocketed a nice profit. We wonder who else did.
The latest assessed value of 5415 N. Croatan Hwy. for tax purposes, according to the Dare County GIS, is $710,900.
The sale did not occur through the multi-listing service, according to a local realtor we consulted.
W. Brock Mitchell, an Elizabeth City-based partner in the Outer Banks firm of Hornthal, Riley, Ellis, & Maland, which also employs Town Attorney Ben Gallop, prepared the deed.
But, according to the face of the deed available through the Dare County GIS, the Kill Devil Hills firm of Gray & Lloyd, LLP, electronically transmitted it to the Dare County Register of Deeds. Attorney E. Crouse Gray Jr. is well-known for representing SAGA.
All we can tell you about purchaser Restaurant Property Investors IV, LLC, is that its registered agent is Alan M. Frieden, a Virginia Beach tax attorney who has been in practice nearly 50 years. Mr. Frieden is RA for a number of limited liability companies, all of which use the same mailing address.
North Carolina “will continue to stay paused in safer-at-home Phase Two for another three weeks,” Governor Roy Cooper announced today in a media briefing in which he also advised that public schools will reopen in August under a plan that balances in-person and remote learning for children K-12.
“Our numbers are still troubling,” the Governor said about COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations statewide, in explaining why Phase Two will not expire Friday. Businesses that are currently shuttered will remain so until at least Aug. 7.
“We want to be done with the pandemic,” the Governor observed, “but it’s not done with us.”
Originally North Carolina’s Chief Executive was going to announce the school reopening plan on July 1—a deadline that he personally set and pledged to meet.
But that day the Governor chose instead to outline three reopening plans, known as Plans A, B, and C, which vary in personal restrictiveness, and then delayed choosing one, saying that he first needed a “buy-in across the board” from school districts.
Teachers and administrators were expressing concerns about their own health and safety, he said in explaining the delay.
Plan B, which the Governor chose, would “open our schools to balance both in-person and remote learning,” he said today, “with key safety precautions,” including limiting the number of people in a school building (“reduced density,” no more than 50 percent capacity); having fewer children in a classroom; and strictly observing social distancing.
Plan B also requires students to be screened daily for COVID-19 symptoms and everyone in the school to wear a face covering at all times and to wash their hands frequently.
Every student, teacher, and school staff member will be issued five free reusable face coverings, according to the Governor, “one for every day of the week.”
This marks the first time that the Governor has ordered children under the age of 11 to wear face coverings.
Although the State is encouraging Plan B and disallowing Plan A, which would have allowed all students back in the classroom with only “minimal distancing,” the Governor said that parents and school district may choose Plan C, which is all-remote learning.
A parent may even choose Plan C for his/her child in a district that supports Plan B.
Dr. Mandy Cohen, Secretary of the N.C. Dept. of Health and Human Services, called the Plan B-with-a-Plan-C-option a “balanced and flexible approach” to reopening schools that ensures “key safety precautions are in place.”
In her own pithy observation about the state’s COVID-19 metrics, she said, “We continue to simmer, but we’ve avoided boiling over,” as many other states have, such as Florida, Texas, and Arizona.
She also said about the public schools, which are considered a “lower transmission setting,” because children are less likely to get infected by the coronavirus and, when infected, to spread it, that “We can mitigate, but not eliminate the health risks of reopening.”
According to the Governor, Plan B sets the ‘baseline for health and safety” in the school environment.
Both the Governor and Secretary Cohen again stressed the importance of people observing infection-control measures, especially the wearing of a face mask or covering.
“If everyone would wear a mask for the next six weeks,” the Governor said in quoting CDC Director Robert Redfield, “we would drive this virus into the ground.”
UPDATE ON COVID-19 IN DARECOUNTY
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Dare County reached 215 yesterday, with 124 being residents and 91 being nonresidents, according to the Dare County Dept. of Health and Human Services’ dashboard.
On Saturday, the dashboard expanded the age category of “17” to “17 and under.” Of the 215 cases, 31 are ages 17 and under; 70 are ages 18 to 24; 60 are ages 25 to 49; 34 are ages 50 to 64; and 20 are age 65 or older.
The number of COVID-19-positive higher-risk people ages 65+ has doubled in the past week. Between July 6 and July 13, 69 new cases were reported in Dare County..
Today, Dr. Sheila Davies, director of the DCDHHS, described some of the transmission details of the 35 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 since her Friday report.
Twenty-three of these 35 acquired the virus by direct contact, she said, and the other 12 presumably acquired it by community spread.
Coincidentally, 23 of the new cases are symptomatic, and 12 are not.
“We are seeing friends spreading the virus to friends, and then it spreading further to family members and close co-workers,” she said.
All of the new cases are isolating at home. No one was hospitalized.
Dr. Davies also reported on the results of last week’s antibody and diagnostic testing event in Buxton.
Of the 222 diagnostic tests conducted, seven were positive for COVID-19. Only two of the 127 antibody tests conducted were positive.
Results from today’s diagnostic and antibody testing event in Kill Devil Hills will be available starting July 24, Dr. Davies announced.
We will not be publishing today or over the weekend. We will resume reporting next week at a date to be determined.
Tropical Storm Fay is now soaking the mid-Atlantic coastline and expected to make landfall tonight in New Jersey. We should have a hot and mostly sunny weekend.
Fifteen people ranging in age from 17 to 65+ tested positive for COVID-19 today in Dare County, while a single-day record high 2,039 cases were reported in North Carolina, according to the dashboards of the respective departments of Health and Human Services.
Today’s staggering numbers locally and statewide attest to widespread prevalence of the new coronavirus. The 15 new COVID-19 cases reported today in Dare County represent the second highest single-day case total, after the 16 new cases reported on July 1.
It is hardly surprising that the NCDHHS also reported a record-high number of single-day hospitalizations of 1,034, an increase of 40 over yesterday’s total, which had broken the previous record for single-day hospitalizations.
Hospitalizations statewide have doubled in the past two months, according to NCDHHS dashboard records.
Of the 15 new cases in Dare County, 10 are residents and five are nonresidents. All of the residents are in home isolation, according to the DCDHHS dashboard, and it appears all of the nonresidents have transferred to isolation in their home counties.
Because some of the nonresidents who were previously in isolation, both in Dare County and in their home counties, have recovered from COVID-19, we cannot be certain by just looking at the dashboard numbers that all of the new cases are isolated outside of the area.
The 15 new cases—six men and nine women—range in age as follows:
*One is 17 years old
*Two are between ages 18 and 24
*Six are between ages 25 and 49 (the age group that is driving the case increase nationwide)
*Three are between ages 50 and 64
*Three are age 65 or older
The COVID-19 case total in Dare County is now 171.
Today’s 2,039 new cases at the statewide level are 8.1 percent of the 1,121,811 diagnostic tests that reportedly were completed. Twenty more people have died since yesterday in North Carolina because of COVID-19, bringing fatalities to 1,461.
Dare County Health Director Dr. Sheila Davies will give some details tomorrow about the COVID-19 cases that have been diagnosed locally since Tuesday. So far, there have been 21.
Five more Dare County residents and one nonresident have tested positive locally for COVID-19, according to today’s Dare County Dept. of Health and Human Services’ dashboard, bringing the case total to 156.
The six people vary widely in age, with two being 17-year-olds, one being between the ages of 18 and 24, one between the ages of 25 and 49, and two between 50 and 64. Three are males, three females, and all are in home isolation. The nonresident has transferred to his/her home county.
Statewide, the news is that hospitalizations continue to increase, reaching 994 during the last 24-hour reporting period, which is a single-day high.
The N.C. Dept. of Health and Human Services reports 1,435 new confirmed COVID-19 cases today, among 1,096,682 completed tests, for a positive-test rate of about 5.65 percent. Twenty-one more people died as a result of COVID-19, bringing fatalities in North Carolina to 1,441.
Twenty-eight minutes into its meeting last night, the Southern Shores Town Council adjourned to hold a closed session with Town Attorney Ben Gallop, the subject of which Mayor Tom Bennett described only in terms of a N.C. law that addresses attorney-client privileged consultations by public bodies.
Nearly an hour later—54 minutes to be precise (from 5:58 p.m. to 6:52 p.m.)—the five Council members returned, and the meeting resumed without any mention of the closed session, much less an apology to the viewing taxpayer/property-owner public who waited patiently in front of a blank Zoom screen for the continuation of what was supposed to be a routine Town Council meeting with a closed session at the end of the business agenda.
Those hardy few spectators who had shown up to attend the 5:30 p.m. meeting at the Pitts Center were no longer there. That I still was did not make me happy.
I am going to abandon my editorial “we” briefly to say that I was angry and offended by this unnecessary and inconsiderate hour-long delay. What were Council members thinking? . . . Indeed, were they thinking?
The disrespect the Council showed the public left me, as I said in an impromptu public comment during the second comment period, “flabbergasted.” Council members apparently thought nothing of wasting an hour of people’s time while they “consulted.” I think what they did was grossly inappropriate.
In nearly six years of regular attendance at Town Council meetings, I have only seen the Town Council adjourn into a closed session with Mr. Gallop once during the conduct of business, and that was to discuss a zoning text amendment about non-conforming lots that was scheduled for a vote. That contentious issue consumed maybe 30-40 minutes behind closed doors and resulted in the Council devising a plan of action.
Last night, Mayor Bennett made a motion early in the meeting to amend the agenda to hold a closed session “pursuant to N.C. General Statutes sec. 143-318.11(a)(3) to consult with” Mr. Gallop “to preserve the attorney-client privilege between the attorney and the public body,” after the first public comment period and before the business portion of the meeting. Such scheduling is unprecedented.
The other four Council members readily agreed, without question, suggesting that they had all discussed this move before the meeting.
Before the first public comment period, Police Chief David Kole and SSVFD Chief Ed Limbacher gave their monthly reports and thus were spared the inconvenience and aggravation of the long wait.
Deputy Town Manager/Planning Director Wes Haskett also gave a report, but he returned for the business meeting. I know this because I heard his voice, but I never actually saw him.
The Town Council persists in using technology with a stagnant camera that remains fixed on only one angle. Most prominent in the picture are the backs of the Finance Officer and the Town Manager. Mr. Haskett was off-camera in the invisible periphery.
My thought at home, seated in front of my laptop, was that perhaps Mr. Gallop had to leave early. Why else would the Council interrupt a business meeting to discuss the “handling or settlement of a claim, judicial action, mediation, arbitration, or administrative procedure,” all of which constitute the subject matter of a sec. 143-318.11(a)(3) closed session?
Mr. Gallop did not depart early.
If, in fact, the closed session concerned an “existing lawsuit,” the Mayor was required by state law to identify the parties in the lawsuit when he moved to adjourn. This is black-letter law in N.C.G.S. sec. 143-318.11(c).
Not only did he not give a case name, he offered no explanation for why he wanted to move the attorney-client privileged closed session that had been scheduled at the end of the meeting—notice of which was given to all members of the public for more than a week—to the middle of the meeting.
When the meeting did end, about 7:45 p.m., the Mayor moved to go into another closed session, this time for a “personnel matter,” pursuant to N.C.G.S. sec. 143-318.11(a)(6).
N.C. law requires a “public body’s” motion to hold a closed session to “cite one or more of the permissible purposes” listed in N.C. G.S. sec. 143-318.11(a).
Nowhere in the (a)(6) subsection do the words “personnel matter” appear.
The statutory language proffered there is “to consider the qualifications, competence, performance, character, fitness, conditions of employment . . . etc.” and other such specific issues that may be discussed outside of the public’s purview.
In fact, the statute specifically says that “general personnel policy issues” may not be considered in a closed session.
The Mayor’s sloppy motion shorthand is unacceptable. It is just another way to withhold from the public information—to which it is entitled—about town business.
I abhor both the intrusive closed session, which placed an undue burden on the public, and the Mayor’s lack of professionalism, regardless of why it occurred.
‘ELECTRONIC MEETINGS’
Speaking about sloppy, it is long past time for the Town Council to cease perpetuating the fiction that it is holding “electronic meetings.” None of the Town Council members or Town staff members appear by electronic means. The Council is holding in-person meetings and relegating the public to remote status.
In so doing, once again, it is the Council’s convenience that is being served before accommodation and consideration for the public.
That the Town Council, Town Finance Officer, and Town Manager again sat last night at folding tables arranged on the Pitts Center floor in a square-like configuration, rather than on the dais and on the sideline (for staff), with chairs set out at six-foot intervals for audience members, is astounding. They are discouraging public participation with their coffee klatch setup.
For an example of how the seating should be arranged, we refer them to videos of the June 17 and July 1 meetings of the Nags Head Board of Commissioners, with whom new Town Manager Cliff Ogburn is very familiar. There was ample space at both of these meetings for members of the public to attend and observe infection-control measures, such as safe physical distancing.
Nags Head also live-streams its meetings in real time. The camera moves with the speaker, who is not only visible, but clearly audible.
Southern Shores should consider doing the same. Last night again, four off-camera speakers—Mr. Haskett, Chiefs Kole and Limbacher, and a citizen speaker—were very difficult to hear. The audio on the meeting You Tube videotape, which has already been posted online, is not much better.
Nags Head’s commissioners also dress in business attire and are very mindful of their audience and of Robert’s Rules of Procedure.
I don’t recall a single time last evening when Mayor Bennett asked “All opposed?” after taking an “All in favor” vote and either hearing or assuming unanimity.
He also doesn’t bother to restate motions before calling for a vote.
Further, it would be a courtesy if the Mayor were to recognize at the start of the meeting who is present, inasmuch as the Zoom public cannot see everyone.
The Beacon has written before about what we call sloppiness in Town Council proceedings. Perhaps Mr. Ogburn, with the excellent experience he gained as town manager of Nags Head, can effect a change.
SOUTH DOGWOOD TRAIL CURBING AND WIDENING THE ROAD
Steve House, a member of the Dare County Board of Commissioners and a Southern Shores resident—although he did not state his address, and Mayor Bennett did not ask him to comply with this public-comment etiquette—complained last night about the new curbing on South Dogwood Trail that was installed because of the sidewalk design.
Mr. House described the new curbing as “very sharp” in areas and asked Town Council members to check out tire marks on the curbs for themselves.
(We have previously heard complaints from other property owners about the new narrowness of the road and scraps against the curbs.)
“I just replaced a rim on my truck,” Mr. House said, that was damaged when it came up against a new curb.
Unfortunately, Mr. House’s assumed answer to this problem created by Town Engineer Joe Anlauf, who recently had his contract extended two years, is not one that has enjoyed support among property owners.
“I know you’re looking at widening the road,” said Mr. House, when he put in a plug for fixing the curbs.
If that is the case, then Mr. House knows something the public does not know. The Town has never publicly said it would be widening South Dogwood Trail.
The Dogwood Trails Task Force, a Town Council-appointed committee that surveyed property owners about the possibility and design of sidewalks on the Dogwood trails, expressly concluded that the public opposes widening South Dogwood Trail. A wider road would encourage faster traffic and further nonresidents’ perception of the road as a thoroughfare.
That Mr. Anlauf could not figure out how to install curbs without narrowing the road is baffling to us. Couldn’t he have narrowed the five-foot-wide sidewalk, in certain locations, instead of the road?
(BTW, Mr. House is running against Democrat Kathy McCullough-Testa, also of Southern Shores, in November to retain his seat.)
RETURN OF CURBSIDE RECYCLING: On a positive note, Mr. Haskett reported that he expects to be able to deliver to the Town Council at its Aug. 4 meeting an amended contract with Bay Disposal & Recycling that would bring true recycling back to Southern Shores. The contract would provide for Bay Disposal’s collection of the Town’s curbside recyclables and their delivery to a recycling process center in Portsmouth owned by Recycling & Disposal Services, Inc.
Since last December, Bay Disposal has transported the Town’s recyclables to an incinerator at a waste-to-energy facility in Portsmouth, not to a recycling center. (The Beacon has written extensively about the recycling crisis in Southern Shores and on the Outer Banks, generally. Please scan the archives for background.)
We will elaborate in the days ahead about some of the business that arose last night after the closed session. As we predicted earlier, all budget amendments and resolutions passed unanimously.
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COMING UP SOON: “From Ice Cream to Tacos: How a Former Planning Board Chairman Opened the Door to Fast Food in Southern Shores.”
Yes, that really is a Taco Bell opening soon in front of the Marketplace.
Four more people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Dare County—all of them between the ages of 25 and 49—according to today’s Dare County Dept. of Health and Human Services’ dashboard.
The case total locally is now 150, 82 residents and 68 nonresidents.
“The majority of cases continue to experience mild to moderate symptoms,” Dr. Sheila Davies, director of the DCDHHS, also reported today, but a “few cases have experienced severe illness.”
Two of the currently 40 active cases—one Dare County resident and one nonresident—are hospitalized in critical condition outside of the area, Dr. Davies said in her regular Tuesday update. These hospitalizations have been long-term.
Of the four new cases reported today, two are Dare County residents, and two are not. Three are men, and one is a woman, according to the dashboard.
All four are in home isolation in their respective resident counties.
Since Dr. Davies’s last update on Friday, 24 new COVID-19 cases have been diagnosed locally—11 residents and 13 nonresidents. She detailed the circumstances of the 24 cases as follows:
Of the 11 residents:
*Two are family members: One acquired the virus by community spread and infected the other. They are both symptomatic.
*Four are close contacts who acquired the virus by direct contact with cases whose results were previously reported on the dashboard. They are all symptomatic.
*Four are not connected and acquired the virus by community spread. They are all symptomatic.
*One is asymptomatic and acquired the virus by community spread.
Of the 13 nonresidents:
*Six are close contacts who acquired the virus by direct contact with the people who infected the first group of four residents above. Four of them are symptomatic, and two are not.
*One is asymptomatic and acquired the virus by direct contact with another person whose result was previously reported on the dashboard.
*Five are not connected and acquired the virus by community spread. All of them are symptomatic.
*One acquired the virus by direct contact with a family member and is asymptomatic.
What jumps out at us is that 50 percent of these 24 people are believed to have acquired the virus by community spread. One more acquired COVID-19 after coming in direct contact with a family member who had acquired it by community spread.
UPCOMING TESTING EVENTS
COVID-19 diagnostic testing appointments still remain for Thursday’s testing event at Fessenden Center in Buxton, which starts at 10 a.m. All of the antibody appointments have been filled.
Of the 344 antibody tests conducted at the first local antibody testing clinic, held June 30 in Kill Devil Hills, only eight were positive. Seven people tested positive for COVID-19 among the 379 diagnostic tests done at the same event.
Another COVID-19 antibody and diagnostic testing clinic will be held next Tuesday, July 14, at 1 p.m., at the Dare County Parks & Recreation facility, 602 Mustian St., in Kill Devil Hills.
Appointments are required of all registrants, and only permanent Dare County residents age 10 or older may register. To schedule an appointment for this Thursday’s or next Tuesday’s event, you may call (252) 475-5008, Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Future no-left-turn weekends in Southern Shores this summer will be discussed at the Town Council’s meeting.
We would like to remind you that the Southern Shores Town Council meets for its regular monthly meeting today at 5:30 p.m. in the Pitts Center. Please see The Beacon, 7/4/20, for a preview of the agenda, or click on the following link:
In-person attendance at the meeting will be limited by physical-distancing requirements. If you have a Zoom account, you may access the meeting in real-time on that website with the meeting ID 985-6739-9679 and the password 623394.
For any questions about participation in the meeting please contact Town Clerk Sheila Kane at skane@southernshores-nc.gov. All public comments that you would like to have read into the record should be emailed to Ms. Kane, too.
This will be new town manager Cliff Ogburn’s first Town Council meeting since he started work last month. The Council will hold a workshop session on Tuesday, July 21.
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LOCAL MEDIA have reported that the Dare County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved yesterday a settlement in a federal lawsuit filed by non-resident Dare County property owners who claimed that their constitutional rights were violated when the County prevented them from accessing their properties from March 20 until the week of May 4.
According to The Outer Banks Voice, Dare County agreed in the settlement to classify and treat non-resident property owners as if they were residents in future public-health emergencies and to pay $16,500 in legal costs.
The settlement only applies to public-health emergencies as defined by the World Health Organization, Dare County Attorney Bobby Outten told The Voice, and does not affect how non-resident Dare County property owners will be treated during hurricanes or other natural disasters.
Mr. Outten also told The Voice that the settlement is not an admission of fault or liability on the part of Dare County.
This lawsuit, known as Bailey v. Dare County, is separate from the class action lawsuit, Blackburn et al v. Dare County et al, filed in federal court May 15 that seeks monetary damages from the County and the six beach towns for denying non-resident property owners access to their properties. (See The Beacon, 6/6/20.)
Ten more people tested positive for COVID-19 in Dare County, most of them under the age of 25, according to today’s Dare County Dept. of Health and Human Services’ dashboard, while hospitalizations statewide hit a single-day record high of 982.
The case total in Dare County is now 146.
Of the 10 new COVID-19 cases in Dare County, four are county residents, and six are nonresidents; five are males and five are females.
Seven of the new cases are between ages 18 and 24; and the remaining three are a 17-year-old, a person between ages 25 and 49, and a person between ages 50 and 64.
The four Dare County residents are in home isolation locally, as are four of the nonresidents. Two nonresidents have transferred to isolation in their home counties.
The North Carolina COVID-19 dashboard reports 1,546 new COVID-19 cases today, out of 15,008 completed tests, for a positive-test rate of 10 percent—the first time the rate has been in the double-digits since June 8.
In the past two months, the single-day positive-test rate has been 10 percent or higher only twice. (The Beacon’s records do not go back before May 4.) Any rate above 5 percent is worrisome to public-health officials.
Dr. Sheila Davies, director of the DCDHHS, will detail the mode of transmission in the COVID-19 cases reported since last Friday in her videotaped update tomorrow.
The Southern Shores Beacon 