Bald Head Island property owners earlier this week approved at the polls two multi-million-dollar bond referendums to back a beachfront erosion control project.
More than 60% of villagers who cast ballots passed the $13.5 million and $4.5 million referendums, according to the unofficial results of Tuesday’s elections.
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The bonds will be used to cover the village’s proposed 2025 Coastal Storm Damage Reduction Project, one that includes pumping material from Jay Bird Shoals onto the west end of the terminal groin down through a series of groin tubes, with fill being placed east of Muscadine Wynd and to the east end of the Shoals Club.
After the west end of South Beach is freshly renourished, the village will remove and replace groin tubes in the soft-tube groin field.
The project is being designed to offset chronic and episodic sand losses along South Beach’s western and eastern reaches and maintain the terminal groin fillet, according to a village release.
Bald Head’s village council has scheduled a special meeting March 28 to certify officials results of the March 5 votes.
The village has received a Coastal Area Management Act major permit from the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management and village officials say the next step is to obtain a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers. The village is expected to solicit bids for a dredging contractor by this spring or early summer.
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Village officials are also waiting word on whether the Brunswick County island will receive a $4.5 million federal earmark requested for the project.
Additional information about the project may be found here.
