The repair of Hillcrest Drive from its intersection with Hickory Trail north to the SSCA tennis courts emerged unanimously at the March 7th Capital Infrastructure Improvement Planning (CIIP) Committee meeting as the committee’s current top recommended priority “target” for road improvements in Southern Shores in fiscal year 2019-20.

The seven-member committee, which is co-chaired by Mayor Tom Bennett and Town Councilman Jim Conners, will meet May 30 to take final stock of its recommendations, factoring in new road conditions in need of attention that may have arisen in the interim.

The Town Council considers the committee’s priority-target list when it makes a final decision in June on selected road improvements.

Also in May, the CIIP Committee will be considering any recommendations that members have for how to change the Town’s street standards to make them more environmentally friendly, particularly in regard to preserving the maritime forest. (See below.)

After Hillcrest Drive, which is beaten down by vacationer cut-through traffic every summer, the CIIP Committee unanimously approved the following projects, in descending order:

*(2) East Dogwood Trail, from N.C. Hwy. 12 east to Ocean Boulevard, a stretch of 670 linear feet (“LF”), which also requires stormwater improvement;

*(3) Sea Oats Trail, from 11^th Avenue north to Sea Oats Court (about 1,110 LF), although the committee also discussed repairing the road north to its intersection with Hwy. 12 and constructing a five-foot-wide sidewalk from Hwy. 12 to Sea Oats Court;

*(4) Dewberry Lane, a 230-linear-foot road off of Bayberry Trail near its intersection with East Dogwood Trail; and

*(5) Wax Myrtle Trail, from its intersection with East Dogwood Trail south to its end (about 2,720 LF), including Dolphin Run and Porpoise Run.

Town Manager Peter Rascoe said he had “redone” the latest list of priority targets “in light of recent meetings,” during which homeowners strongly objected to a proposed widening of South Dogwood Trail, a project that the co-chairs and other committee members had elevated to a high-priority status. (See The Beacon, 2/1/19, 2/8/19, 2/13/19, and 2/21/19.)

“Any reference to South Dogwood Trail, and any reference to a comprehensive plan” involving South Dogwood Trail, Mr. Rascoe said, “have been removed.”

South Dogwood Trail’s ranking as a priority target is now No. 11. There are 22 projects on the list, assigned to one of three groups: A, B, and C, with “A” consisting of the top four targets.

Mr. Rascoe, to whom the co-chairpersons usually defer in CIIP Committee meetings, also characterized the decision whether to rank the Hillcrest Drive project or the Sea Oats Trail project as the No. 1 priority as “a coin toss” for him and engineers with Deel Engineering, PLLC, with whom he consults.

Southern Shores has a contract with Deel Engineering that expires June 30.

Like Hillcrest Drive, the targeted section of Sea Oats Trail is also part of the well-traveled cut-through route.

In addition to the committee members and Mr.  Rascoe, Deputy Town Manager/Planning Director Wes Haskett, Police Chief David Kole, Public Works Director David Bradley, and Deel engineers Andy Deel and Joseph Anlauf also attended the March 7 meeting.

Mr. Rascoe announced that the projected budget for capital street funds in FY 19-20 is $662,340, which represents a levy of 5 cents (.05) on the current Town tax base value.

“You’re not going to get through one, two, three, four [on the priority list] in one fiscal year,” Mr. Anlauf said.

“Hillcrest Drive,” he observed, “will account for the full budget.”

SIDEWALKS ON HILLCREST, SEA OATS, AND EAST DOGWOOD, AND PRESERVATION OF THE MARITIME FOREST

The proposed Sea Oats Trail project seemed to grow with the CIIP Committee’s consideration of it. It remains to be seen how much of the road between its intersections with Hillcrest Drive and Duck Road (Hwy. 12) will be targeted for improvement, when it eventually is done.

Committee member Glenn Riggin suggested constructing a “walking path” on the north side of the street from Sea Oats Court to the intersection of Sea Oats Trail with Duck Road. Member Andy McConaughy supported that idea and suggested that a similar sidewalk be considered for Hillcrest Drive, near its intersection with Duck Road.

Police Chief Kole said he thought any sidewalk on Sea Oats Trail should go beyond Sea Oats Court, for safety reasons, and Mr. Anlauf said the preferred side for a sidewalk on the street, from an engineer’s perspective, is the south side. (Sea Oats Trail runs north-south until Sea Oats Court, when it curves east toward Duck Road.)

Flooding is a problem on Sea Oats Trail in this area. Because of “huge stormwater problems,” Mr. Anlauf said, “The shoulders of the road will have to change dramatically from what you see now.”

Mr. Rascoe reported that he also had evaluated the East Dogwood Trail block between Duck Road and Ocean Boulevard for sidewalk construction. Based on his and Mr. Bradley’s “eyeballing” of the road and the right of way, Mr. Rascoe concluded that “a narrow sidewalk,” of 36 to 48 inches in width, could be built on the south side.

After the discussion about priority targets ended, committee member Carlos Gomez brought up changing Town street standards to better “protect the value of the maritime forest.”

Mr. Gomez made a protracted motion—one of two he had in mind—that seemingly would have tasked the Town Planning Board, the committee, or another group, with reevaluating the Town street standards so as to “maximize preservation of the forest.”

In his presentation, Mr. Gomez referred to the conflict that arose in town recently with the proposed widening of South Dogwood Trail and suggested that the Town should do more to individualize street standards so as to protect the forest, which he called a “treasure” that gives Southern Shores much of its “identity.”

Committee member Al Ewerling, who lives on South Dogwood Trail, agreed that “the look and feeling” of a road, which are part of the “overall ambiance of the town,” should be factored into any road-design standards.

It was unclear what, specifically, Mr. Gomez was requesting in the one motion he made, which Mr. Ewerling seconded. Turning the discussion toward practicalities, Mr. Rascoe suggested that the emphasis be on “specific changes,” rather than on aspirations.

Theoretically, Mr. Rascoe pointed out, the Town could specify that no trees be removed during any road rebuilds.

Although Mayor Bennett expressed a willingness to consider changes to the street standards, his co-chair, Mr. Conners, opposed such scrutiny, defending the current standards as comprehensive.

The Mayor eventually proposed that committee members do their “homework” and come back in May “with recommendations on how to change standards or not.” Mr. Gomez accepted this approach and withdrew his motion.

A FINAL NOTE ON SUMMERTIME TRAFFIC: The CIIP Committee meeting ended with a note of divisiveness when Mr. McConaughy brought up diverting vacationer traffic away from the residential cut-through route and asked about last summer’s no-left-turn (“NLT”) weekend. He met immediate resistance from Police Chief Kole, Councilman Conners, and others.

In The Beacon’s opinion, the same biases that existed last June when the NLT weekend took place—and was a resounding success—still exist and do not bode well for residents.

Frankly, The Beacon does not understand why Chief Kole is not doing everything that he can to help year-round Southern Shores residents on summertime weekends. He is a public employee/servant. The Beacon also does not see the humor in the Chief’s reference to drivers speeding through our neighborhoods as “job security.”

It is undeniable that the traffic flow through the Southern Shores woods and dunes and along N.C. Hwy. 12 during the NLT weekend was vastly improved over the usual summertime traffic flow.

The cut-through traffic, which usually emerges at the intersections of Hillcrest Drive/Duck Road, 11th Avenue/Duck Road, and Sea Oats Trail/Duck Road, was not present to jam up Duck Road, so the thoroughfare traffic moved smoothly, as well. The only backup I witnessed on Duck Road occurred on the Saturday afternoon of the NLT weekend. Sunday was a breeze.

The Chief complained at the CIIP Committee meeting about the manpower his department invested in the NLT experiment and the few calls he received from residents on Wax Myrtle Trail and Sea Oats Trail, between East Dogwood Trail and Hillcrest Drive, who saw a slight uptick in traffic in front of their houses.

In a discussion after the committee meeting adjourned, Mr. McConaughy suggested hiring a contractor to handle the erection of barrels, which the Town could purchase, to block the left-turn lane on U.S. 158 at the South Dogwood Trail intersection. Certainly, the Town has ample funds to dedicate to preventing cut-through traffic in the residential district, and, thereby, also improving flow on Hwy. 12,  if it so chooses.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 3/11/19

If the Southern Shores Town Council ventures into the sale and development of nonconforming lots in town, as its agenda for tomorrow night’s meeting suggests it will, it will be adding to procedural irregularities that already have occurred in the Town’s handling of these matters and which it sought to cure in a unanimously approved directive to the Planning Board just last month.

The Town Council meets tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. in the Pitts Center.

The meeting agenda currently online shows that both Councilman Jim Conners and Mayor Tom Bennett will be making proposals concerning nonconforming lots under “old business.” Mr. Conners’s proposal appears clearly out of order, and the Mayor’s proposal is questionable, in The Beacon’s view.

(You may access the agenda here: https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/wp-content/uploads/minutes-agendas-newsletters/Agendas_2019-03-05.pdf.)

The Beacon believes both proposals raise ethical questions for these Town officials relating to an appearance of impropriety, independence of their office, and special treatment given to a property owner.

The Beacon also believes that, if either or both of these proposals come to a vote, architect and Councilman Christopher Nason should be compelled to give a full accounting of his business and financial relationship, and that of his architectural firm, with allegedly former client-property owners who seek to develop a nonconforming oceanfront lot, but are currently prevented by Town ordinance from doing so.

At the Council’s Feb. 5 meeting, Mr. Nason said he was no longer “the architect of record” for Steven Love and his wife, Katherine Gorman, who own the nonconforming lot at 64 Ocean Blvd., through their limited liability corporation, For the Love of Pete.

The Beacon finds this characterization about Mr. Nason’s status both meaningless and specious in terms of assessing his conflict of interest. Mr. Nason designed the house that Mr. Love and Ms. Gorman have proposed building, and his building plans are on file in the Town Planning Dept.

That there is no sworn statement in the CAMA permit file for 64 Ocean Blvd. from Mr. Nason and Mr. Love disavowing any financial arrangement between them is of more significance to The Beacon. Instead, there is an unsigned typed statement purportedly from Town Manager Peter Rascoe saying that the Town was “notified on January 10, 2019”—by whom and how, he does not say—that Mr. Nason is no longer the “architect of record.”

The Beacon finds this assertion, like Mr. Nason’s own assertion at the Feb. 5 meeting, meaningless.

Other noteworthy items on what is otherwise a routine Town Council meeting agenda include a discussion about the makeup of the Capital Infrastructure Improvement Planning (CIIP) Committee, which Councilman Fred Newberry has requested, and a closed session between the Council and Town Attorney Ben Gallop, which will take place after all other business is concluded.

Mr. Newberry told The Beacon that he believes the Town’s CIIP Committee, which assesses and recommends to the Council the prioritization of capital improvement projects in a given fiscal year, should be a “citizens-only group like the Planning Board.” He expressed concern about the “undue influence” that the two Town Council members on the committee may have on the other five members.

The CIIP Committee is currently chaired by Councilman Conners and Mayor Bennett. The other five members are appointees of Mayor Bennett and Mr. Conners (thus giving them a presumptive majority of four); Councilmen Newberry, Nason, and Gary McDonald; and former Councilman Leo Holland.

At the committee’s Jan. 30 meeting, Co-Chairperson Conners made a motion to recommend to the Town Council that it consider the Town engineers’ design for widening South Dogwood Trail to 24 feet, even though three committee members were absent and the public, including the Dogwood Trails Task Force, has never supported widening this road.  (See The Beacon, 2/1/19)

The closed session between the Town Council and Mr. Gallop concerns a property owner’s appeal of the zoning permit that the Town issued to SAGA Construction and Development (acting as 134 Ocean Blvd., LLC) for 134 Ocean Blvd.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I filed the appeal paperwork and paid the $350 filing fee for the out-of-state property owner who brought this action. I know the property owner because she is a petitioner in the appeal of the CAMA permit issued to SAGA for 134 Ocean Blvd. ( See http://www.nominihotels.com.) Her lawyer, who is also my lawyer in a personal matter, prepared the appeal, and she reimbursed me for the filing fee. (I gave a brief report on this zoning-permit appeal in a March 2 Beacon Facebook post. The hearing before the Town Board of Adjustment has yet to be scheduled.)

IRREGULARITIES AND ZONING TEXT AMENDMENT 18-09PB

The Beacon has extensively covered attempts by both the Town Planning Board and the Town Council to restrict the sale and development of nonconforming lots in town—in particular, 50-foot-wide lots, which once were part of a larger, developed 100-foot-wide-or-wider land parcel.

The Town Council enacted a new nonconforming lots ordinance last September, replacing Town Code sec. 36-132 in its entirety. (This update is not reflected in the Town Code version that is currently online.) At the same time, however, the Council asked the Planning Board to make some refinements to the new ordinance so that certain property owners, some of whom were identified by name, would not be unduly burdened.

Thus far, the Planning Board has directed the drafting of three different versions of the “refinement” zoning text amendment (ZTA), known as ZTA 18-09. (See The Beacon’s report, 2/4/19, for background.) Its latest attempt is ZTA 18-09PB, which the Board approved in principle on Jan. 22.

ZTA 18-09 was not reduced to writing, however, until Jan. 25, so the Planning Board did not approve and recommend the letter of the ZTA.

By the time the Planning Board met again, on Feb. 19, the Town Council had given it new instructions. Pursuant to a motion that The Beacon described in its Feb. 6 posting as “rather convoluted,” the Council unanimously agreed, with Mr. Nason voting, that the Planning Board should comprehensively identify and equitably assess all (vacant) nonconforming lots in town. (The Beacon assumed it meant all such lots that are vacant.)

According to the March 5 Town Council meeting agenda, Councilman Conners now appears to be wanting to circumvent this unanimously approved directive by proposing that the Council adopt the “Planning Board’s recommendation” of ZTA 18-09PB, which the agenda item incorrectly states was subject to a “public hearing held Jan. 8, 2019.”

Mr. Conners made a similar motion to approve the so-called “PB” version at the Council’s Feb. 5 meeting, but it died without a second.

The Beacon believes Mr. Conners’s proposal is procedurally irregular for several reasons, the most significant of which is that this zoning text amendment has never been the subject of a public hearing.

The Planning Board does not hold public hearings; it only entertains public comments.

The Town Council met on Jan. 8, but it did not hold a public hearing on ZTA 18-09PB. How could it? The ZTA wasn’t drafted until Jan. 25.

The Beacon wonders what the impetus for Mr. Conners’s motion is. If he goes forward with it, he should give the public an accounting. The public deserves to know, in particular, if he is giving any citizen “special consideration, treatment or advantage . . . beyond that which is available to any other citizen,” as he is ethically prohibited from doing under standard no. 7 of the Southern Shores Code of Ethics for Council members.

The Beacon believes Mayor Bennett should provide a similar accounting for why he will be proposing that the Planning Board consider a ZTA that, according to the March 5 agenda, would allow the “sale or development of a nonconforming lot that is at least 20,000 square feet in area and greater than or equal to 50 feet in width.”

Is he seeking “special consideration, treatment, or advantage” for any citizens with this intervention? Why is he intervening at all?

According to a survey submitted to the Town for 64 Ocean Blvd., the lot area west of the vegetation line on Mr. Love and Ms. Gorman’s oceanfront property is 17,063 square feet. While Styons Surveying indicates that the entire lot area of the property is 23,770 square feet, this includes a dry-sand area east of the vegetation on which the property owners cannot build and which also is subject to public access because of North Carolina’s public-trust doctrine.

The Town’s minimum-required lot area of 20,000 square feet clearly pertains only to the building area.

CIIP COMMITTEE MAKEUP AND PUBLIC REPRESENTATION

Councilman Fred Newberry served on the Town CIIP Committee from Aug. 1, 2017 until Dec. 5, 2017, because he was mayor pro tem. On Dec. 5, Mayor Bennett succeeded in dispossessing Councilman Newberry of his authority in what The Beacon considers a display of bias that reflects poorly on the Town’s government.

In fact, the power that the CIIP Committee and its two Town Council members now hold on capital infrastructure improvements is a direct result of Mayor Bennett’s decision to abolish all four of the Town’s standing committees—yes, the Town used to have citizen committees—because of their alleged “ineffectiveness,” according to minutes of the Dec. 6, 2016 Town Council meeting. (See https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/wp-content/uploads/minutes-agendas-newsletters/Minutes_2016-12-06.pdf.)

On Dec. 6, 2016, the Town Council approved the Mayor’s proposal to abolish the capital improvement, finance, planning, and public safety committees, by a 3-2 majority, with Councilmen Nason and Holland joining the Mayor in supporting his motion; and Councilmen Newberry and McDonald opposing it. Thereafter, the Mayor fashioned the CIIP Committee to give himself substantial control over it.

At the Aug. 1, 2017 Town Council meeting, Mayor Bennett made a motion to name himself and the mayor pro tem, then Mr. Newberry, to the reconstituted CIIP Committee. This motion carried unanimously. Four months later, however, at the same meeting during which the newly elected Mr. Conners was sworn into office, Mayor Bennett moved to appoint Mr. Conners to the CIIP Committee in place of the mayor pro tem. This motion carried 3-2, with Councilmen Newberry and McDonald opposing it.

Making this display of bias even more egregious (in The Beacon’s view), Mayor Bennett made this motion immediately after he moved to appoint Councilman Nason to serve as mayor pro tem. This motion carried by the same 3-2 majority of Bennett-Nason-Conners.

In light of the Town Engineer’s designs for widening South Dogwood Trail, which Co-Chairs Conners and Bennett requested, and Mr. Conners’s motion Jan. 30 to “fast-track” this road project, which committee member Al Ewerling managed to table, The Beacon supports Mr. Newberry’s suggestion that the committee be changed to an all-citizens advisory board.

The public outcry that occasioned news of the committee’s tentative plans for South Dogwood Trail, and which compelled the committee to step back, is evidence enough that the committee is not serving the community’s interests as well as it should.

The people of Southern Shores deserve better than this.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, March 4, 2019

 

Although the Town Council has not approved initiating beach nourishment in Southern Shores, outside of Pelican Watch, and property owners were strongly divided two years ago at the Town’s public forum on the subject, the Town Council entertained options and financial planning for beach nourishment at its Tuesday morning special planning session as if it had decided to move ahead.

Publicized as a planning session, the Town Council’s meeting Tuesday played out, more so, as a series of presentations for how the Town can spend millions of dollars on special projects, without any real discussion of priorities and/or needs among the four elected officials who attended.

Town Councilman and Mayor Pro Tem Christopher Nason was on the road with his daughter’s high school basketball team for a first-round state championship game.

Most noteworthy among the presenters, a consultant from a Wilmington, N.C.-based coastal engineering firm reported the results of its “vulnerability” assessment of Southern Shores’ 3.7-mile shoreline and outlined three proposed beach-nourishment plans that it would recommend, if the Town were to invest in such a project. (For details, see next section, below.)

Homeowner Paul Borzellino seemed to speak for all Southern Shores property owners present when he told the Town Council in public comments: “My mind is just blown away by the costs.”

Mr. Borzellino, who lives on Seventh Avenue, which is north of the targeted oceanfront-nourishment area, later described the “numbers” as “daunting.”  The Beacon agrees.

The cost estimates for three beach-nourishment plan “options” submitted to the Town by Aptim Coastal Planning & Engineering of North Carolina, Inc. (APTIM) range from $9 million to $13.5 million, including a 10-percent contingency cost.

Earlier in Tuesday’s meeting, the Town Council also heard multi-million-dollar cost analyses from representatives of a Rocky Mount, N.C.-based architectural firm for options to renovate and add on to; demolish and replace; and/or otherwise improve upon the Town’s five facilities.

The five facilities include the Town Hall, which, at 31 years, is the oldest of the buildings; the Pitts Center, built in 1996; the police station (1998); the police training and storage building (2013), and the public works facility on Pintail Court (2001).

Cost estimates submitted in a written report by partners Tim Oakley and Ann Collier of Oakley Collier Architects, who conducted a visual inspection of the facilities last September, range from $2.6 million to over $6 million and cover several different design concepts. Ms. Collier and architectural intern Sam Eichhorn presented the firm’s assessment and design analysis to the Town Council.

Overall, Ms. Collier said, the facilities are “in fairly decent shape.”

APTIM Project Manager Ken Willson, who worked with Southern Shores on the 2017 Pelican Watch nourishment project and has arrangements with the other Dare County-Outer Banks towns, broke down the beach-fill cost-estimate options for the Town Council.

He also informed the elected officials, “The dune system in Southern Shores is in pretty good shape.” It is “fairly intact,” he said, providing protection against storms and erosion.

If Southern Shores were to make a commitment now to beach nourishment, which Mr. Willson projected to occur in summer 2022—when the Towns of Duck, Kitty Hawk, and Kill Devil Hills are doing their five-year beach-nourishment maintenance—it would be starting much earlier in the process than beach towns usually do, he said.

Also Tuesday, the father-son financial-adviser team of Doug and Andrew Carter, of DEC Associates in Charlotte, explained to the Town Council the various complicated methods available for beach-nourishment funding.

Popular among them are special obligation bonds, which permit a town to set up “municipal service districts” and to levy different tax rates within the MSDs, Andrew Carter explained, so that, for example, people who own oceanfront property would pay more than other property owners do for the sand fill/replenishment.

Once a beach town embarks upon a nourishment plan, said Mr. Carter, whose firm specializes in N.C. shoreline protection financial planning, it commits to “long-term planning” for future periodic maintenance and beach operating costs.

He echoed Mr. Willson’s earlier assertion that beach nourishment is “an exercise in adaptive management. . . . It is never seen as a one-time event.”

The Carters said their fees would be $35-$40,000 for developing a financial plan and setting up a “beach fund” for the earmarked funds; and $30,000 for working on finding the financing, which is typically for five years.

We have “significant financial challenges ahead of us,” Councilman Fred Newberry said, in a wrap-up comment period of the meeting that was allocated 30 minutes on the agenda, but lasted only about five minutes.

While Mayor Tom Bennett and one or two of the three other Town Council members present seemed prepared to choose one of APTIM’s plan options, members also expressed an interest in receiving input from the community. They did not confer at all about the architects’ facilities assessment.

Other than to suggest that a Town Council-Town staff committee convene to discuss the priority of expenditures and financial planning, the Council took no action.

THE HOW-TO OF APTIM’S BEACH NOURISHMENT PLAN OPTIONS

APTIM’S cost estimates for its three proposed beach-nourishment plans were based on its vulnerability assessment, which used something called a “Storm-Induced Beach Change Model” (SBEACH).

While one Town Council member referred to APTIM’s assessment methodology as science, it is not. It is engineering based on technology.

(Admittedly, I have not read APTIM’s 150-page report, which is on the Town website as at https://www.dropbox.com/s/md1vpdogfkk7ipw/December%202018%20Town%20of%20Southern%20Shores%20Vulnerability%20Assessment%20%26%20Beach%20Management%20Plan.pdf?dl=0. But the point of an executive summary is to spare the reader such pain.)

According to the executive summary of the report that Mr. Willson submitted to the Town in December 2018, APTIM “used the storm characteristics of Hurricane Isabel such as wave heights, wave period, water level, and duration to drive the [SBEACH] model.” The vulnerability assessment, therefore, focused on “potential damage associated with” an Isabel-like hurricane.

How did the coastal planning and engineering firm manage to do that? It simulated the storm, according to the December report, using three different sea-level scenarios: “(1) as [sea level] occurred in 2003; 2) the storm with water levels based on 15 years of sea-level risk (2018 equivalent); and 3) the storm with 30 years of sea-level risk from present day (2048 equivalent).” Sea-level rise rates were derived from a 2015 report by the N.C. Coastal Resources Commission.

The results that APTIM obtained with its model, the summary says, “informed the development [of the beach-nourishment plan options] with regards to what sections of the Town may be vulnerable to impacts from the design storm, and what amount of additional [sand] volume would be required to reduce that vulnerability.” APTIM also conducted a physical assessment of the Southern Shores beach in February 2018.

The Southern Shores shoreline, the summary states, is highly variable, in terms of the height and width of the primary dune, the distance that residential structures are set back from the vegetation line, and the rates of sand-volume change. Before analyzing storm scenarios with its SBEACH model, as The Beacon understands APTIM’s summary, the firm determined the “linear extent”—the length—of the proposed shoreline project.

Bottom line: APTIM recommends for future beach nourishment a “main placement area” on the Southern Shores oceanfront that extends from near Third Avenue south to about 450 feet south of where Chicahauk Trail intersects with Ocean Boulevard.

APTIM further designates as a “transition area” a section of the beach that extends from the southern border of the main placement area to the town boundary with Kitty Hawk. An area that APTIM refers to as the “taper” extends about 500 feet north of Third Avenue.

The Beacon defies anyone, including coastal engineers—and second opinions would be welcome—to understand how APTIM used its SBEACH model and its design storm scenarios to arrive at the target volume densities in cubic yards per linear foot (cy/lf) of sand that must be maintained along the Southern Shores oceanfront in order to sustain it. If anyone can make sense of pages ii-iv in APTIM’s executive summary, please send The Beacon an email. As I said before, it’s not science.

The following are APTIM’s recommended options for “managing” the Southern Shores beach:

OPTION ONE, which is projected to cost a total of $11,593,000, with contingency included, targets a volume-density goal of 846 cy/lf. The “average” density measured along the “main placement area” in a December 2017 survey conducted by APTIM was reportedly 801 cy/lf. Therefore, Option One posits a recommended “fill density” of 45 cy/lf. At this density, the main placement area would require 450,000 cubic yards of sand.

Option One also includes fill for the taper and transition areas. The average volume density measured along the transition area in December 2017 was 818 cy/lf. Altogether,  the total volume of sand projected for this option is 665,650 cubic yards.

OPTION TWO, which is projected to cost a total of $9,010,400, also targets a volume density of 845 cy/lf, but recommends adding only 30 cy/lf to the main placement and transition areas. The total sand volume for Option Two is 492,300 cubic yards.

OPTION THREE, which is projected to cost a total of $13,557,000, targets a volume density of 858 cy/lf. This option’s total design volume for the taper, main placement, and transitions areas of the shoreline would be 803,050 cubic yards.

Councilman Jim Conners sought to make these volumes more relatable by recalculating the cubic-yard figures as dump-truckloads. The average dump truck holds about 10 to 12 cubic yards of dirt or sand, he and Mr. Willson agreed. They then calculated that two dump-truckloads of sand would be required for each linear foot of beach.

The “biggest cost” in any beach-fill project, Mr. Willson said, is sand, especially if its source is distant.

The APTIM Project Manager advised the Town Council to initiate design and permitting for whichever plan option it chooses, in February 2020. This would enable projected construction to occur in summer 2022, when the Towns of Duck, Kitty Hawk, and Kill Devil Hills are doing their five-year maintenance. A collaborative effort would save on expense, he said.

The Beacon wonders why, if the dune system in Southern Shores is providing sufficient protection, the Town should undertake beach nourishment in summer 2022, rather than in 2027, when those same towns will be doing another five-year maintenance, or even later. As all speakers agreed, once a town embarks on beach nourishment, it has made a long-term commitment from which there is no return.

If APTIM’s reason for starting “more early in the process” of beach nourishment, as Mr. Willson said, has more to do with the timing of other towns’ maintenance than with the beach conditions in Southern Shores, then The Beacon does not see a compelling need to move ahead.

Prompted by Town Manager Peter Rascoe, however, the Town Council authorized the expenditure of an estimated $13-$15,000 for APTIM to conduct a beach-profile survey this June, in preparation for the 2022 construction.

THE HOW-TO OF THE TOWN BUILDINGS ASSESSMENT

According to their written report, Mr. Oakley and Ms. Collier toured the Town’s buildings on Sept. 26, 2018 with “County officials/staff,” including “representatives from each department who were familiar with the building systems and maintenance that has occurred throughout the years.”

That the principals of Oakley Collier Architects, P.A., did not include the names of the people with whom they toured or describe the methodology of their assessment are major omissions in their report. The Beacon would like to know how they compiled their data, if they only visited the sites once. How hands-on were they?

While the Oakley Collier report-analysis appears to be fairly comprehensive, its conclusions cannot be objectively assessed in the absence of the methodology.

The architectural team says it assessed the five facilities for their functionality, accessibility, efficiency of use, potential for expansion, and egress and life safety, among other factors, and also analyzed their sites for access and circulation, parking, and signage.

The Beacon did not attend Ms. Collier’s and Ms. Eichhorn’s presentation, but viewed the Town’s videotape of it. Ms. Collier made clear that she had worked with Town Manager Peter Rascoe and other Town staff for months. Mr. Rascoe reminded the Council that it had approved a budget item in the 2018-19 fiscal year for the facilities assessment.

A year ago, the Town Manager said, the Town staff identified three major deficiencies in the buildings in which they work, particularly Town Hall. They were work flow, confidentiality, and space. The Beacon agrees that the layout of the Town Hall is not conducive to “flow” and that privacy in the building is in short supply. There’s never enough space.

According to the consultants, each of the five facilities has a life expectancy of 50 years. In the three options that they propose, two of which involve some demolition, they also seek to maximize parking as much as possible. The options are as follows:

OPTION ONE: a total cost of $2,141,297, covering:

–Renovations and additions to the Town Hall and the police station;

–Correction of “Code” deficiencies in the Pitts Center and the police training building;

–General site work.

Option One represents an upgrade of the current buildings.

OPTION TWO: a total cost of $5,109.059, covering:

–Demolition of the Town Hall and the Pitts Center and construction of their replacements ($2.6 million);

–Renovation of and an addition to the police station;

–Correction of Code deficiencies at the police training building;

–General site work.

In this option, the assembly space that the Pitts Center now provides would be accessible from within the Town Hall.

OPTION THREE: a total cost of $5,917,190, covering:

–Demolition of the Town Hall, the Pitts Center, and the police station and construction of one building that would house everything ($4,850,000);

–Correction of Code deficiencies in the police training building, which would be connected to the larger complex;

–General site work.

To each of these options would be added the construction and sitework costs for renovating and adding on to the public works facility, for a total of $476,895.

Councilman Newberry asked the speakers if they uncovered any concerns that require “immediate attention,” such as safety hazards, and Ms. Collier said there were not. She did cite security, however, as a matter that should be considered now.

You may see the design schematics for the three options and read the analytical details in the full report, which is available online in a dropbox PDF at:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/h5x9ajce19wdi1w/18033%20-%20Southern%20Shores%20FCA%20-%2002.19.2019.pdf?dl=0.

AND FINALLY, SOME GOOD NUMBER NEWS: SSVFD Fire Chief Edward Limbacher reported Tuesday that the original interest rate for the financing of the new $5.4 million fire station has been lowered from 3.71 percent to 3.15 percent. The annual cost to the Town over the 25-year term of the loan, therefore, has been lowered from $333,551.96 to $314,020, for a saving of $19,531.96 per year. (See The Beacon, 11/23/18 for background on the fire station financing.)

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 2/28/19; slightly revised 3/1/19

Yvonne Sternberg of Hickory Trail made an observation about pedestrian crosswalks during public comments at the Town Council’s Feb. 5 meeting that struck The Beacon as worthy of followup. At last, here is the followup.

After thanking the Council for the “nice” new sidewalk on East Dogwood Trail, Ms. Sternberg observed that pedestrian crosswalks now exist on East Dogwood at its intersections with Wax Myrtle and Sea Oats trails and Hillcrest Drive, where the road is divided, but not at its intersections with Woodland Drive and Hickory Trail. (See above photo.)

“I was just wondering,” Ms. Sternberg said, “why these two streets were not connected to the sidewalks as the others have been.”

Ms. Sternberg did not receive a response from any Town Council members, who generally do not interact with the public during the comment period. But no one returned to her inquiry later in the meeting, either, when response would have been appropriate.

The Beacon believes Ms. Sternberg raises an excellent point insofar as the Hickory Trail-East Dogwood Trail intersection is concerned, less so with the Woodland Drive-East Dogwood Trail intersection, which is controlled by a single stop sign on Woodland.

Further, The Beacon believes the same point, which has to do with public safety, could be made about the intersection of East Dogwood Trail with North and South Dogwood trails (hereinafter referred to as the “Dogwoods intersection”).

(Full disclosure: I live on Hickory Trail near the street’s intersection with East Dogwood Trail and often talk with Ms. Sternberg when we are both walking our dogs.)

Like the Dogwoods intersection, the intersection of Hickory Trail with East Dogwood Trail is controlled by a three-way stop. During summer weekends, these intersections teem with vehicles cutting through Southern Shores en route to the northern beaches.

Drivers turning left (going north) onto Hickory from East Dogwood Trail often run the stop sign there, as do drivers turning right (going east) from South Dogwood Trail to East Dogwood Trail. In fact, it’s the rare driver who comes to a full stop at either location.

The Beacon has not read any residential-street data that assess the comparative safety of pedestrian-crosswalk-controlled intersections versus intersections without crosswalks, but it stands to reason that crosswalks and signs indicating them would alert drivers to the presence of pedestrians and slow them down. They also would enhance the safety of walkers and joggers seeking to cross the streets.

So why aren’t there crosswalks at the two major cut-through intersections with East Dogwood Trail? It surely can’t be because the cost of “installing” them is prohibitive. If the answer is “it’s an oversight,” then the Town needs to correct it. If there’s another answer, then residents deserve to hear it.

YESTERDAY’S CIIP COMMITTEE MEETING: PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS ABOUT SOUTH DOGWOOD TRAIL AND DRIVING ON OUR ROADS

I attended two hours of yesterday afternoon’s Capital Infrastructure Improvement Planning (CIIP) Committee meeting, which focused on the future “improvement” of South Dogwood Trail. Because of a family commitment, I had to leave before its conclusion. The Beacon’s correspondent, who has engineering experience, will be filing a report on the meeting soon, and I will augment it. Today, I’d just like to make a few personal observations.

I have a strong emotional attachment to South Dogwood Trail. I fell in love with South Dogwood Trail and the grand and glorious maritime forest of Southern Shores when I was an adolescent in 1968-69 and saw both for the first time. As corny or as sappy as it may sound, I told my family later when I was in high school, “I’m going to live in the Southern Shores woods when I grow up.”

I didn’t say I would live in the Outer Banks or in Southern Shores. I specifically wanted to live in the woods, whose beauty and allure captivated me 50 years ago. That was my goal, and I made my future in Southern Shores happen.

You would not believe how lush, full, and beguiling the “uninterrupted” moss-laden forest once was. It truly spoke to me, and it still does, in spite of the unabated clear-cutting of lots that the Town has allowed to occur and what I would characterize as the suburban sensibilities of some homeowners, many of whom have primary homes elsewhere.

The canopy was especially fabulous. Today when I use that word, many residents don’t even know what I’m talking about.

The tree cover of the roads—which has been destroyed in too many areas of South Dogwood Trail—is the canopy

You don’t see ugly utility poles in the maritime forest. The utilities were installed underground to preserve the trees and protect the canopy they create over the quaint residential roads. The developers showed vision.

To hear Town Engineer Joe Anlauf of Deel Engineering PLLC speak at yesterday’s CIIP Committee meeting of the Southern Shores woods as if they existed in any ole “subdivision” and of historic South Dogwood Trail as just another “collector street” is to hear the voice of someone who is unappreciative of, and estranged from, Southern Shores.

Every time he talks about the number of trees that he envisions destroying, I see many more becoming casualties, and Mr. Anlauf doesn’t deny that his numbers are minimum numbers.

Yes, I know he’s an engineer. Yes, I know he has a bottom-line interest. No, it’s not his job to preserve what’s left of the Southern Shores maritime forest. But he’s been driving the discussion about South Dogwood Trail—with the Town Manager’s and the CIIP Committee’s complicity—and that has to stop.

Carlos Gomez, who was appointed to the committee by Councilman Gary McDonald, is also an engineer, and he had no difficulty yesterday in advocating for preservation of the maritime forest and protecting what he called the “human resources.”

“The maritime forest is a treasure,” he said. It is our treasure. The human element should not be a mere afterthought in infrastructure planning for Southern Shores.

“We’re missing the community,” Mr. Gomez said, urging that landscape architecture be part of the planning for South Dogwood Trail and other residential streets and that guidelines for preservation be developed.

I thank Mr. Gomez, who is a civil and structural engineer, as well as a land surveyor, for his many contributions yesterday, and I join him in urging the Town Council to think first of preservation before it decides upon “improvements.” If elected officials are not stewards for nature, there soon will be no nature to protect.

*****

Having evoked my past, I now state unequivocally that I do not live in the past. I live in the now, and I feel a responsibility for the future. The future to which I refer is the future of this place we call home, not only for the benefit of my family, who will be here long after I’m gone, but for the benefit of the thousands of people I will never meet.

As for the now, I am going to do something that I have never done before in print—because I’ve always thought it was pompous to do so—and that is criticize other people’s driving. I promise you I won’t name names.

I am astonished by how selfishly some people drive on Southern Shores’ residential streets, especially on South Dogwood Trail.

The section of South Dogwood Trail that Mr. Anlauf and the CIIP Committee talked about yesterday consists of 1.4 miles.

One-point-four miles. One-point-four measly miles.

To drive it slowly, carefully, and alertly, stopping at all of the stop signs, and giving walkers, joggers, and bicyclists, a wide berth, takes how many minutes out of someone’s day? Ten minutes, maximum?

Last week I discussed with two acquaintances, whom I do not know well, the possibility of South Dogwood Trail being widened. One of them, a thoughtful lawyer, immediately suggested lowering the speed limit to 20 miles per hour, which was a suggestion that I made yesterday to the CIIP Committee.

I don’t think there’s any doubt that a lower speed limit, if observed and enforced, would enhance public safety.

The other acquaintance groaned. He dislikes the current 25-mile-per-hour limit and complained that the Southern Shores police have stopped him for speeding.

Just how fast does he need to drive to get to the Duck Woods Country Club? And why does he think his convenience should be part of any discussion about “improving” South Dogwood Trail?

Good drivers—here you may think me “pompous”—don’t speed or run stop signs, and they don’t crowd walkers, joggers, bicyclists, and anyone else on the side of the road. They slow down. They stop, if they have to. They wait for an oncoming car to pass before they go around pedestrians, giving them a full 10-foot cushion.

How hard are any of the above to do?

It has been my experience as a dog walker that most local drivers are courteous. I always wave and say thank you to the drivers who give me ample space, and I try to keep my dog off of the road and in the grass.

But I have seen two pickup truck drivers, or two SUV drivers, traveling in opposing directions, pass each other when a dog walker is on the side of the road near one, and I have blanched. If that dog were to become spooked for some reason and dart out into the road, the driver who hits him would feel heartsick.

Why push it? Don’t crowd pedestrians and their dogs. Just wait.

Often when I drive South Dogwood Trail and other residential streets in Southern Shores, I think back to my driver’s education days in high school, when I sat at a simulator and had to be on guard for the dog who jumped out in front of me or the rolling ball that surely preceded the playing child. It only takes a split-second for a hazard to appear.

I think about the principles of safe driving that I learned as a teenager:

“Get the big picture.”

“Leave yourself an out.”

The one that I see violated every day in Southern Shores instructed drivers to know what’s ahead of them, and not just five feet ahead of their vehicles, but as far ahead as they can see. A lot of safe driving has to do with anticipation. It’s not just put your foot to the gas and go. You never assume that your path will be free of obstacles.

For example, if you’re going to run the stop sign at East Dogwood Trail and turn left (south) on to South Dogwood Trail—as I observed a woman in an SUV do earlier this week—you have to anticipate that you could run smack into an oncoming vehicle in your lane that is going around two dog walkers on the side of the road.

You’re driving in a residential neighborhood, not on a highway.

By running the stop sign, you have not given the driver of the oncoming vehicle the time she expected to have to clear the dog walkers. Fortunately, she knows to anticipate that you will run the stop sign and be talking on your cell phone, as this woman was, so she stops (I stopped) to wait for you to pass.

The good driver anticipates that hazard. But she still can’t help but wish that you would think first about the hazard that you present down the road when you run the stop sign.

SUMMER IS COMING: It’s not too early to start lobbying the Town Council to take action to prevent the cut-through traffic from ruining our weekends. Mayor Tom Bennett and the rest of the Town Council represent the people of Southern Shores, not Currituck County or the Outer Banks Chamber of Commerce. Our elected officials and Town staff can do far more than they have done in recent years to protect our safety, quiet enjoyment, and quality of life.

PLANNING BOARD MEETS ON FEB. 19, 5:30 P.M.

I conclude with notice that the Town Planning Board will meet Tues., Feb. 19, at 5:30 p.m., in the Pitts Center.

The Beacon thought the Board would be reviewing and approving the high-occupancy/large single-family dwelling zoning text amendments that it has directed Town staff to prepare, but the meeting notice posted Monday on the Town website does not say that. The notice says only that the “Board will continue discussion of ZTA-18-09,” which is the nonconforming lots ZTA, and “may also continue discussion of high occupancy/large single-family dwellings.”

See https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/planning-board-meet-february-19-2019-530-p-m/.

If the notice changes before the meeting, The Beacon will report the changes.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 2/13/19

Six homeowners spoke to the Town Council last week about coyotes in Southern Shores, expressing fear and discomfort about these predatory canines living in our town.

“I’m fearful, not for myself, but for my pets,” Susan Stroud, who lives on Wax Myrtle Trail, told the Town Council during its public-comment period at Tuesday’s meeting.

“Something has to be done so I can feel comfortable,” said Steve Weeks of Chicahauk, who also spoke of his wife being fearful for her safety.

According to Town Manager Peter Rascoe, Town Hall has received reports of coyote sightings for at least the past three years. He has a “full library of photos,” Mr. Rascoe said, but he has never received a complaint about aggressive coyote behavior or an attack.

If a resident witnesses aggressive, threatening behavior by a coyote, or “foaming at the mouth”—a symptom suggesting rabies, which is rare in coyotes, according to the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission—Mr. Rascoe advised him or her to call 911 and report the animal to the police.

When Europeans first arrived in North America, coyotes were largely confined to the open plains and arid areas of the western part of the continent. These animals, variously known as prairie wolves, barking dogs, and American jackals, have evolved substantially over the centuries, adapting and migrating; they now live throughout the United States, except for Hawaii, and have 19 subspecies.

The first coyote sighting in North Carolina was in 1938, according to the state wildlife commission. By 2005, coyotes inhabited all 100 N.C. counties. Dare County has the distinction of being the last N.C. county to confirm a coyote sighting.

The Town’s response to homeowners’ concerns last week was clear: Residents need to learn how to cohabitate with coyotes, just as they do with other wildlife, in Southern Shores. Coyotes are “here to stay,” Mr. Rascoe said.

“Human interaction cannot be avoided,” Mayor Tom Bennett agreed.

HUNTING OF COYOTES NOT ALLOWED IN DARE COUNTY

The hunting of coyotes is not permitted in Dare County or in nearby Beaufort, Hyde, Tyrell, and Washington counties. This five-county area is the only remaining U.S. habitat and recovery area for the endangered red wolf, which once lived as far north as Pennsylvania, as far south as Florida, and as far west as Texas.

Coyotes are their own species, but they look enough like wolves that hunters may mistake wolves for coyotes and kill precious red wolves. According to the Southern Environmental Law Center, healthy red wolves pose no safety risk to humans, pets, or livestock.

Although they may have similar coloring, wolves are larger than coyotes, which generally top out at 40-45 pounds, and have broader snouts and short, rounded ears. Coyotes have narrow, pointed faces with small nose pads and taller, pointed ears.

Although hunting coyotes is not allowed in Dare County, state-licensed trappers can kill them here by trapping them during the fur-bearing season that runs from Dec. 1 through Feb. 28, Mr. Rascoe said. According to the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, a trapper must obtain a “depredation permit” in order to kill a coyote in this county.

The Town of Nags Head hired trapper Leary Sink during the 2017-18 season to trap coyotes within its limits after receiving numerous resident reports of coyote sightings and complaints of small pets being killed. Mr. Sink reportedly trapped 17 coyotes.

After coyotes are ensnared in leg-hold traps—which can trap other wild and domestic animals, too—they are required to be killed at their trapping sites, Mr. Rascoe said. Usually an animal control officer shoots them.

Unfortunately, wildlife biologists agree that seasonal trappings and other permissible hunting methods will not rid an area of coyotes.

Coyotes, like dogs and wolves, are pack animals. When pack animals are killed, biologists say, the social structure of their packs breaks down. A breakdown leads to females becoming more likely to breed and pups being more likely to survive. Because packs generally protect their territories, a breakdown also results in new animals coming in to replace those that were killed.

TOWN RESOURCES ABOUT COYOTES POSTED ONLINE

The Town of Southern Shores has posted quite a few resources about coyotes on its website, including most recently a copy of a brochure titled “Living With Coyotes,” which a Denver-based wildlife program, Friends of Animals, published. (friendsofanimals.org)

Among the Town’s helpful educational resources is a videotape of the Coyote Conflict Management workshop with N.C. coastal biologist J. Chris Turner that the Town held Dec. 6, 2017. See: https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/?s=coyotes.

Here are just two of the other links:

Coyote species profile: https://www.ncwildlife.org/Portals/0/Conserving/documents/Profiles/Coyote_Update033017.pdf.

Coexisting with coyotes:

https://www.ncwildlife.org/Portals/0/Learning/documents/Profiles/Coexist-Coyotes-v2.pdf.

Mr. Turner, who is employed by the state wildlife commission, also spoke recently to the Kill Devil Hills Town Council. The Beacon refers you to a videotape of his talk and other resources about hunting and coexisting with coyotes on the Outer Banks that KDH has posted online at: https://www.kdhnc.com/651/Coyotes-on-the-Outer-Banks.

Town Councilman Gary McDonald suggested last week that Southern Shores residents may benefit from an encore presentation by Mr. Turner. Mr. Rascoe advised that, if that were done, it would be best done after “the heat of the summer.”

All public officials seemed to concur that the key to successful human cohabitation with coyotes is human awareness: of one’s natural environment and of one’s behaviors and habits that put oneself and one’s pets in harm’s way.

Coyotes do not seek confrontation with human beings. But if you are putting food out for deer, raccoons, or other wildlife—or feeding your pets outside of your home—you are inviting them into your territory. They’re hungry, and they will go where they find food.

Similarly, if you are letting your dog out at night, off of a leash and without your supervision, you are putting your much-loved companion at risk. A big dog may fight off a coyote attack. A Chihuahua or Pomeranian doesn’t stand a chance. Responsible cat owners know that if you want to be sure you don’t lose your cat to a coyote, you have to keep him or her indoors and close the cat door permanently.

The Beacon believes Town Councilman Jim Conners, who seemed to speak for a majority of the Council when he said he does not favor trapping, had the best last word on Southern Shores’ coyote population.

“We came to Southern Shores for the nature,” Mr. Conners said. Now, we have to “learn as humans to adapt to the nature.”

And so do our visitors, who need to made aware, as well.

EXTRA: U.S. CONGRESSMAN WALTER B. JONES JR. DIES

Walter B. Jones, Jr., who has represented the U.S. Congressional district that includes Dare County since 1995, died yesterday on his 76^th birthday. According to an obituary in The Washington Post, Mr. Jones died in hospice care after a fall in which he broke his hip.

Mr. Jones, a Republican, ran unopposed and won reelection to the U.S. House of Representatives last November. He was sworn in as a member of the 116^th U.S. Congress in January from his home in Farmville.

By unanimous consent, the U.S. House granted Mr. Jones a leave of absence in December for the remainder of the previous session for an “unspecified illness,” The Post also reported.

Mr. Jones’s father, Walter B. Jones, Sr., a Democrat, served the first U.S. district in North Carolina, holding office from 1966-92. Mr. Jones Sr. also died in office. Democrat Eva McPherson Clayton, an African American who had served on the Warren County Board of Commissioners, defeated Mr. Jones Jr. in a special election run-off to fill Mr. Jones Sr.’s unexpired term.

Thereafter, Mr. Jones Jr. switched parties, becoming a Republican, and ran in North Carolina’s third congressional district, instead of its first. He became a fixture in that congressional office.

Mr. Jones gained national attention in early 2003 when he suggested renaming French fries “freedom fries,” after France opposed proposed U.S. military action in Iraq. With the deaths of thousands of U.S. service members in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mr. Jones later came to regret his hawkish position on the Iraq invasion, changing his stance on the war, The Post said.

A special election will be held in Mr. Jones’s congressional district to elect his successor. Until this occurs, the third district will have no voting representation in Congress.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 2/11/19

 

Southern Shores Town Manager Peter Rascoe devoted much of his report to the Town Council Tuesday night (Feb. 5) to explaining the “procedure” by which a road or other infrastructure project recommended by the Capital Infrastructure Improvement Planning (CIIP) Committee becomes a project adopted and funded by the Town Council for the fiscal year.

The Beacon strongly doubts that anyone ever thought the CIIP Committee could usurp the Town Council’s authority and call the shots on road construction. Historically, however, the Town Council has rubberstamped the CIIP Committee’s recommended priority listing of capital projects, which, Mr. Rascoe noted, is made “around April or May.” This CIIP Committee started talking about FY 2019-20 projects last November!

The Beacon would characterize Mr. Rascoe’s belabored explanation about how the CIIP Committee functions as damage control: After word got out among residents that committee members had discussed at their Jan. 30 meeting widening South Dogwood Trail–and even had gone so far as to make a motion to recommend to the Town Council a design for a 24-foot width–the community response was swift and angry.

Were it not to CIIP Committee member Al Ewerling, who convinced the other three committee members present to table the motion, it probably would have passed, 3-1, according to Mr. Ewerling.

But first, a digression.

The CIIP Committee is scheduled to meet Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2 p.m., in the Pitts Center, expressly to brief committee members on the “costs and lateral impacts of a potential walking trail along a portion of the east side of South Dogwood Trail,” not to discuss road widening, per se. See https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/notice-committee-meeting/.

Notice how the Town doesn’t even think it’s the public’s right to know before the meeting which portion will be discussed.

The work on the so-called “northern” end of the proposed sidewalk, running south from the North-South-East Dogwoods intersection to Fairway Drive, Mr. Rascoe said Tuesday, is “about all completed.” That portion has a “fully engineered preliminary design,” which is available on the Town website. The problematic “southern” end, from Fairway Drive to the cemetery, which has irregular terrain and numerous trees, has not been engineered.

Now, back to the damage control.

THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES

There is no doubt that the CIIP Committee discussed widening South Dogwood Trail at its Jan. 3o meeting and that committee Co-Chairperson Jim Conners  made a motion to “transmit to the Council . . . an affirmation of a design for a 24-foot street width,” according to Mr. Rascoe’s minutes of the meeting. Mr. Ewerling confirmed this discussion and Mr. Conners’s motion. (See https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/CIIP-Jan-30-2019-Meeting-Minutes.pdf.) 

The minutes also clearly state that Mayor Bennett asked the Town engineers to brief the committee on a design and the estimated costs for a South Dogwood Trail “walking trail”; and on a “potential” design and estimated costs for “capital improvements” to South Dogwood Trail with concurrent walking-trail construction.

There is no factual dispute that Town Engineer Joe Anlauf, of Deel Engineering PLLC, informed the committee about “construction of a 5-ft. walking path along with a proposed 24-ft-wide asphalt rebuilt street,” as Mr. Rascoe wrote in the minutes.

South Dogwood Trail is between 17 and 18 feet in width.

Mr. Anlauf didn’t prepare preliminary design plans and cost estimates for widening South Dogwood Trail simply because he felt like it. CIIP Committee Co-Chairperson, Mayor Tom Bennett, asked for them, according to Mr. Ewerling.

Despite the committee-council role distinctions that Mr. Rascoe sought to make Tuesday, the fact that the two co-chairpersons of the CIIP Committee, Mayor Bennett and Councilman Conners, also represent two-thirds of the voting Town Council strongly suggests that its recommendations will be adopted. The Beacon believes that their presence is potentially coercive, inasmuch as the other members may feel pressure, because of their elected offices, to agree with them.

Although the CIIP committee has seven members, only four attended the January meeting. Besides Mayor Bennett, Mr. Conners, and Mr. Ewerling, who lives on South Dogwood Trail, Jim Kranda, who was appointed by former Councilman Leo Holland, was present. Mr. Kranda seconded Mr. Conners’s motion about “transmitting” the road-widening design plan to the Town Council.

The Beacon sees no reason to continue an appointee by Mr. Holland on the committee. Once Mr. Holland left the Council, Mr. Kranda should have been replaced. The Beacon also strongly urges the Town Council to remove one of the co-chairpersons. Their control of the committee appears highly improper. Certainly, it is undemocratic.

PUBLIC DISSENT AT FEB. 5 TOWN COUNCIL MEETING

The South and East Dogwoods Task Force recommended in its Jan. 17, 2017 final report that the Town “continue its policy of not widening roads unless emergency vehicles cannot gain access to their desired location.” (p. 4) That is a fact. It is also a fact that Mr. Conners served on that task force.

In public comments Tuesday night, Michael Fletcher, who chaired the Dogwoods Task Force, said: “I deeply oppose any . . . expansion” of South Dogwood Trail.

The task force, he said, concluded that widening the road was “impractical and unwise to do so due to the narrowness of the right-of-way and the impacts on adjacent properties.”

Mr. Fletcher also cited the severe “impact” on the trees and other vegetation on the road that “residents rightfully treasure,” referring poetically to the “peaceful overhang and tree canopy.” He also said that the task force reviewed “numerous studies” about the impact of road widening on safety, and they all “uniformly” concluded that expansion “decrease[s] safety by increasing speed and potential traffic volume.”

“Under no condition,” Mr. Fletcher stressed, should the Town Council “consider broadening South Dogwood Trail.”

Echoing Mr. Fletcher, homeowner Tommy Karole, who lives near the Dogwood Trails intersection and has presented studies about road-widening in previous comments to the Town Council, pointedly asked: “Who even brought up, and for what reason would you bring up, widening Dogwood Trail? Where does that come from?”

The answer is: Mayor Bennett. The idea comes from the Mayor. The Mayor, Mr. Ewerling confirmed, brought it up at the CIIP Committee’s Nov. 15, 2018 meeting.

IT’S ALL IN THE COMMITTEE MINUTES, JAN. 30 AND NOV. 15

The Beacon reported on the committee’s road-widening “discussion,” as Mr. Rascoe referred to it, in a 2/1/19 blog headlined: “Town Committee Tries to Fast-Track Widening of South Dogwood Trail by up to 7 Feet in Sections.”

We did not fabricate this story. We wrote it based upon Mr. Rascoe’s minutes of the meeting and upon information provided by Mr. Ewerling, whom The Beacon contacted.

The Mayor was noticeably silent Tuesday night at the Council meeting when the public objected to this discussion. He said nothing to Mr. Fletcher, Mr. Karole, or Joe Van Gieson, a third homeowner who spoke in opposition to widening Dogwood Trail, nor did he comment on Mr. Rascoe’s damage control. His co-chairperson, Councilman Conners, also didn’t comment.

Why do our elected officials not feel that they are obligated to respond? They’re not members of a corporate board. They’re public servants.

Regardless of the preliminary status of Mr. Anlauf’s road-widening plans and cost estimates and who actually “owns” them, they were presented at a public meeting of a governmental committee and should be included with the minutes as part of the meeting record. The public has a right to know what is in these plans, even if, as Mr. Rascoe sought to clarify at the Council meeting, the committee is not “considering anything at this point until it gets more information and more members of the committee” are informed. That’s not the issue.

It is also undisputed that at the Nov. 15, 2018 CIIP Committee meeting, according to the minutes, “Co-Chairman Bennett requested the Town Engineer and Town Manager go over the Priority List of needed capital street improvements already adopted for FY 18-19 as a preamble to planning for recommendations to be made for FY 19-20.”

(Nov. 15, 2018 committee minutes: https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/CIIP-Cmttee-Meeting-Minutes-Nov-15-2018.pdf.)

A preamble? In November? So, just five months into the 2018-19 fiscal year, the Mayor is asking Town staff to review the priority list for the next fiscal year. Is this part of the committee’s “procedure”? Mr. Rascoe certainly didn’t mention it.

“Much discussion ensued” after the Mayor brought up the FY 2019-20 priority list, according to the Nov. 15, 2018 minutes, regarding “whether the trail improvement [on South Dogwood Trail] should occur simultaneous [sic] with a corresponding street improvement.”

At Tuesday’s Council meeting, Mr. Rascoe stressed that after the CIIP Committee makes its recommendations for priority projects in April or May, its ranking list is placed on the Town website, transmitted to the Town Council, and “noticed” in the newsletter. The implication was that the public has ample time to comment on it before the Town Council makes its final decision in July.

Mr. Rascoe also said that the priority list is “based on the condition of streets”—in April or July, yes, but not in November.

A ‘MEETING’ HELD AFTER THE COMMITTEE MEETING?

It is also a fact that the Nov. 15, 2018 minutes state that “Based on committee discussion, a new prioritization was developed post-meeting, and is attached to these meeting minutes as an information item . . ..”  [The italics are the Beacon’s.]

The minutes do not explain unambiguously when and how the “new prioritization” occurred “post-meeting.” This strikes The Beacon as highly irregular. Who drafted the new prioritization? Under what circumstances?

The attachment shows that South Dogwood Trail has jumped from 13^th place, in the lowest Group C, on the FY 2018-19 priority list, to sixth and seventh places, at the top of Group B, in FY 2019-20. Is this truly what a majority of the committee members decided?

Described on the FY 2018-19 priority list as “South Dogwood Trail—entire length 12,408 LF (+/-),” the listing for the road in the recommended “targets” for FY 2019-20 reads, according to the attachment:

“6. South Dogwood Trail—Street and Walking Trail Construction from Dogwoods Trails Intersection to Fairway Drive (“Segment North”)—3,540 LF (+/-)

“7. South Dogwood Trail—Street and Walking Trail Construction from Fairway Drive to Southern Shores Cemetery (“Segment South”—3,800 LF (+/-).”

The underlining was inserted by Town staff, who would not have done such editing without authority from the CIIP Committee.

According to The Beacon’s correspondent, who attended the November meeting, Mr. Conners referred to South Dogwood Trail as a “thoroughfare.” All of The Beacon’s sources report that Mayor Bennett promoted widening of the street, along with the walking paths, and that Mr. Conners supported him.

Although Mr. Rascoe said Tuesday that South Dogwood Trail “has been on the [priority] list for several years,” he neglected to mention that 1) its item on the list has either referred simply to “improvements,” which The Beacon always assumed meant repairs, not widening, or has omitted any reference to the nature of the work contemplated; and 2) its item has always been ranked very low in terms of the Town’s priorities.

In response to a question by Councilman Fred Newberry Tuesday, Mr. Rascoe said that the CIIP Committee “did not consider anything but information that the engineer gave the committee with regards to the street itself. . . .

“There was a discussion,” he repeated. “They did not take any action.”

This is a distinction without a difference.

Further, according to the Jan. 30 meeting minutes, the four attending committee members actually reviewed the revised draft priority list of capital improvements that came out of the Nov. 15 meeting and “may now have consensus on a Group A target priority list for FY 19-20 of” . . . drumroll . . . no. 1, at the top of the list, “South Dogwood Trail Walking Trail and Street Rebuild (Intersection to Sassafras Lane).”

Street rebuild? Funny, Mr. Rascoe didn’t say anything about this at the Town Council meeting, nor did either CIIP Committee chairperson report at a Council meeting since Nov. 15 that a draft capital-improvement-project reprioritization had occurred.

(And yes, it’s up to the Town Council to make the final decision.)

THE BEACON’S BOTTOM LINE: FOUL!

The Beacon cries foul! We demand a public accounting from the committee chairpersons as to why they are considering “information” from the engineer about widening South Dogwood Trail—an action that the people of this town told the Dogwood Trails Task Force they do not want—and why they are promoting such “discussions.”

The Beacon also would like to know why neither of them is reporting the business of the CIIP Committee at Town Council meetings.

In addition to advocating for the replacement of Mr. Kranda and the removal of one of the CIIP Committee co-chairpersons, The Beacon demands that someone other than the Town Manager—a neutral scribe with an interest in clarity—take the minutes. Surely, the Town is not paying Mr. Rascoe to be a secretary. If it is, it should get a refund.

I conclude with a personal observation. When I ran for Southern Shores Town Council in 2015, Mr. Conners asked me at the League of Women Voters’ debate in October, whether I would respect the results of the Dogwood Trails Task Force. I objected then, and I still object, to the biased manner in which the Mayor and Town Council selected the members of the task force. But that’s grist for another blog. The people on the task force had nothing to do with the blacklisting that occurred.

I told Mr. Conners more than three years ago, that, if the task force reached conclusions based on what the people of Southern Shores want—if it canvassed the town—I would respect its recommendations. I am satisfied that it did.

Why, I wonder, isn’t Mr. Conners doing the same?

JUNIPER TRAIL REPAIR WILL CLOSE STREET FOR A WEEK

On Jan. 3, a Spectrum cable installer bored under the new Juniper Trail roadway, near 30 Juniper Trail, and hit a Dare County water main. This error resulted in “a complete washout of a section of the new street,” according to Mr. Rascoe, who has been advised by the Town’s engineers that the 20-by-25-foot section of the road that was affected will “settle” and eventually collapse, without proper repair.

The Town Council unanimously approved repairing the damaged roadway so that it is in the condition that it was in before the flooding. This repair will necessitate a full closure of the road for seven days, according to the contractor hired to do the job. The date for the construction work is dependent on the weather and the contractor’s schedule, Mr. Rascoe said. The Town Manager will give the public as much notice as he can, as will The Beacon.

AND FINALLY, THE TOWN COUNCIL WILL MEET TUES., FEB. 26, AT 9 A.M. IN THE PITTS CENTER FOR A PLANNING SESSION . . .

Beach Nourishment: Among the agenda items that will be discussed is the Beach Vulnerability Assessment and Management Plan, which was completed Jan. 3 and is now on the Town website.

Mr. Rascoe reported that the engineering consultant on the beach vulnerability plan will attend the planning meeting, as well as representatives of Doug Carter [&] Associates, who are financial consultants. You’ll want to hear what all of these consultants have to advise our elected officials about “developing their final plans and methods for beach nourishment,” according to the Town Manager.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 2/8/19