Reprinted from Outer Banks Voice

Two days after Dare County commissioners failed to reach a consensus, a state Board of Transportation committee has recommended naming the new bridge over Oregon Inlet for former Senate President Marc Basnight.

The N.C. Board of Transportation’s Road, Bridge and Ferry Naming Committee made the decision Wednesday, according to Tim Haas, communications officer with Division 1 of the state Department of Transportation.

A sign underneath the name would say Oregon Inlet. The remaining section of the old bridge, which will be used as a fishing pier after the rest is torn down, would keep the name Herbert C. Bonner.

The full Board of Transportation will vote on the recommendation at the next monthly meeting, March 7.

Basnight was the top choice in a Dare County survey, but the county’s board of commissioners failed to vote unanimously Monday on naming the new bridge over Oregon Inlet in honor of the longtime state Senate leader.

The Basnight proposal earned three of five votes from commissioners. The state policy on naming a bridge, highway or ferry calls for a unanimous vote by the jurisdiction where it is located.

Dare sent the resolution to the naming committee anyway, along with an application and explanation of why Basnight deserved the honor, according to The Outer Banks Sentinel, and the panel approved it.

Last month, Commissioner Ervin Bateman proposed naming the bridge for Basnight, but only after gauging public opinion.

People were invited to vote in an online survey, and Basnight garnered 309, or about 48 percent of the total. Herbert C. Bonner, the name of the old bridge, was the choice of 266 people, with other names, including simply Oregon Inlet, receiving far fewer than either one.

An unscientific, reader survey by The Outer Banks Voice drew 3,290 votes. Basnight was the third choice. Oregon Inlet was the name most chosen, followed by Bonner. The Voice survey software allows only one vote per IP address.

On Monday, Bateman proposed a resolution to name the new span the “Marc Basnight Oregon Inlet Bridge.” The proposal also recommended including a plaque about Bonner on the 1,000 feet of the old bridge that will be left behind as a fishing pier after demolition.

With Rob Ross absent and Jim Tobin recused, the vote was Bateman, Chairman Bob Woodard and Vice Chairman Wally Overman in favor, with Commissioners Danny Couch and Steve House opposed.

“This has kept me up at night, but it has come down to a constituent issue with me,” said Couch, who represents Hatteras Island. “I support leaving things the way they are, Herbert C. Bonner. That’s my feelings. I’m representing my constituency, District 4.”

House said he favored the name Bonner-Basnight Bridge to recognize the state’s past and modern history.

Basnight was a state senator for 26 years and the longest-serving Senate president pro tem in the state’s history. He retired in 2011 because of failing health. He was known for consistently delivering for his district, which includes Dare County, as well as leading the state on environmental and education initiatives.

Bonner was a congressman from 1940 to 1965. He worked to establish the Cape Hatteras National Seashore and played a key role in securing funding for the old bridge, which opened in 1963.

The new bridge is scheduled to open by the middle of this month. The Bonner Bridge Replacement Project began in March 2016. The new $252 million bridge is 2.8 miles long and 90 feet high at its apex and is designed for a 100-year life span.

A community day is set for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 9. The public will be invited to walk or bicycle across the bridge.

This story is provided courtesy of the Outer Banks Voice, a digital newspaper covering the Outer Banks. Coastal Review Online is partnering with the Voice to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest about our coast.

Reprinted from Outer Banks Voice

Widening the full length of the beach in Southern Shores would cost between $9 million and $13.5 million if it is done at the same time that neighboring towns renourish their shorelines in 2022, according to a recently completed assessment.

Taking into account varying heights and widths of the primary dunes, the management plan looked at 3.7 miles of shoreline.

The Vulnerability Assessment and Beach Management Plan by Aptim Coastal Planning and Engineering of North Carolina looked at scenarios based on a storm similar to 2003’s Hurricane Isabel, which was so powerful it carved a new inlet through southern Hatteras Island.

Also taken into account were long-time erosion rates, the impact of storms, tide cycles and past, present and future sea level rise.

“The Beach Management Plan provides a long-term vision for the Town of Southern Shores to sustain the beaches that support a significant portion of their local economy and maintains the tax base of the Town,” a summary of the plan said.

The most expensive option looked at what it would take to protect the shoreline if a storm similar to Isabel hit at the estimated sea levels in 2048. The other two applied the data to 2018 levels.

Aptim summarized the three following options:

• 665,650 cubic yards at $11,593,000
• 492,300 cubic yards at $9,010,400
• 803,050 cubic yards at $13,557,000

Southern Shores will need to start planning soon. The study recommended an updated beach profile survey this spring, the same time as Duck, Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills, so that all would be working from similar data.

The town piggy backed on the north end of Kitty Hawk’s project in 2017 to pump sand onto 1,500 feet of severely eroded beach.

Learn More

• See the full study

This story is provided courtesy of the Outer Banks Voice, a digital newspaper covering the Outer Banks. Coastal Review Online is partnering with the Voice to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest about our coast.

Reprinted from Outer Banks Voice

Dare County wants to know what people think about a new name for the new bridge over Oregon Inlet after Commissioner Ervin Bateman suggested this week dedicating it to former state Senate President Marc Basnight.

Bateman, a former Kitty Hawk town councilman, said at Monday’s board meeting that “the name Marc Basnight has come up many, many times.

“I can’t think of a more deserving individual than him for having a bridge named after. He’s done a lot for the county, done a lot for the town of Kitty Hawk, done a lot for the people of Dare County for the last 40-plus years as a Board of Transportation member as well as senator.”

The board decided to put the question out to the public and revisit the idea next month. Commissioners can pass a resolution and submit it for approval by the state Board of Transportation.

Dare’s website offers a survey and a form for submitting ideas for names and the background of the person users would like to see honored.

Unresolved is whether the process can be completed in time for the formal dedication of the bridge, which Chairman Bob Woodard said is now scheduled for March.

Commissioner Steve House suggested continuing to honor the man the old bridge is named for, Herbert C. Bonner, by naming the stretch of the span that will remain as a fishing pier after him or putting up a historical marker.

A native of Washington, North Carolina, Herbert Covington Bonner was a World War I veteran who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1940 until his death in 1965.

Bonner was instrumental in gaining federal approval of the bridge project to replace the ferry service that was at the time the only connection between Hatteras Island and the rest of Dare County.

Basnight served 26 years in the state Senate — the last 17 as president pro tempore — and arguably became the most politically powerful man in the state before Republicans rose to dominance in 2010. He resigned in 2011 for health reasons.

In a September Outer Banks Voice story on the new bridge, the overwhelming choice of readers’ comments was to just keep it named the Herbert C. Bonner Bridge.

The next most popular suggestion was to  call it the Oregon Inlet Bridge, followed closely by naming it for Basnight. Several suggestions were made to combine the Bonner and Basnight names for the bridge.

There were a number other names proposed by readers, including infamous pirate Blackbeard, actor Andy Griffith, and Toby Tillet, who operated the ferry that ran across Oregon Inlet for 25 years before the original Bonner Bridge opened.

And a few suggested giving the new span a new name, while keeping the Bonner name on the 1,000 feet of the south side that will be converted into a fishing pier, while the rest of the old bridge is demolished.

Learn More

• Make a suggestion and read about the process for naming a bridge

Reprinted from The Outer Banks Voice

Dare County has chosen for the public-private partnership a contractor that will build and operate a dredge to maintain Oregon Inlet.

One of two companies to respond to the county’s request for proposals, EJE Recycling of Greenville was chosen over a Massachusetts-based company primarily because of its experience working the inlet and its plans to base and maintain the dredge locally.

The county’s Oregon Inlet Task Force made the selection last week. Next, the panel will work out a contract to present to the board of commissioners, County Manager Bobby Outten said.

Dare County and EJE will work together to find a builder for the vessel. It would probably be a hopper dredge like the Army Corps of Engineers’ 150-foot Currituck or 156-foot Murden, which both work the inlet. But a combination dredge would also be considered if it can be designed and affordable, Outten said.

The two hopper dredges do the heavy-duty work. They pull out the sand and haul it to a spoil site, but they need deeper water to operate. Each can haul more than 500 cubic yards of sand, the equivalent of about 36 dump-truck loads.

Lighter maintenance is done by a sidecaster, which shoots the sand just outside the channel.

EJE’s competitor, Cashman Dredging, is a larger company. But it could not promise to base the dredge on the Outer Banks.

In its proposal, EJE said it plans to homeport the dredge in Wanchese and maintain it in Manns Harbor. Porting and maintaining the dredge locally is crucial because it will minimize turn-around times for maintenance and docking during bad weather, Outten said.

Another advantage is that the leader of the EJE division handling the project has long experience in the inlet with the Corps.

Plans for the dredge were included in the state’s updated budget passed earlier this year. The biggest local provision authorized $15 million from the shallow draft inlet dredging fund to create the partnership to buy the dredge, with Dare County paying for its operation in Oregon and Hatteras inlets and other channels.

The dredge funding requires the private company to also pay $15 million for the $30 million dredge and provide work to Dare County at a reduced rate in exchange for a state loan eventually being forgiven.

While Dare would likely be using it the most, the dredge would be available to help clear other waterways along North Carolina’s coastline. It could be operating in 18 months to two years.

Dredging has crawled to a near halt as federal funding for smaller inlets and harbors has been repeatedly cut by Congress and the White House for decades.

Dare County and North Carolina have since picked up the slack by paying the Corps to clean out the channels with its limited fleet.

In a formal resolution passed at their May 7 meeting, Dare County commissioners pledged $3,250,000, with $3 million already set aside from an occupancy tax allocation for dredging.

Matching money from the state that would bring the total to $10 million for operation of the dredge over a five-year period and would come from the shallow draft channel fund.

This story is provided courtesy of the Outer Banks Voice, a digital newspaper covering the Outer Banks. Coastal Review Online is partnering with the Voice to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest about our coast.

Reprinted from The Outer Banks Voice

NAGS HEAD — After 5 inches of rain over the weekend on top of the previous week’s deluge, Nags Head officials sought to assure visitors and property owners Wednesday morning that the town is moving as quickly as possible to attack flooding of streets and private property.

Drainage ditches overflowed and some streets were closed after the storms, but so far no serious damage has been reported.

In a statement released at Wednesday’s Board of Commissioners meeting, the town described how it responded to the flooding and what it was doing to improve the stormwater drainage system.

But some residents and business owners are concerned that not enough is being done. Barbara Ayars, who lives at the corner of Memorial Avenue and Driftwood Street, told the board that properties were inches away from being flooded.

She suggested that the town create a written plan for responding to known trouble spots such as Gallery Row, where she lives.

“Our roads were two feet deep in water, and we still had people joy riding through the neighborhood, taking pictures, creating wakes, increasing flood area,” she said. “There’s no excuse for that.”

When officers on the street saw that roads were flooding, they contacted Police Chief Kevin Brinkley, who called in reinforcements, according to the statement. Three officers, including the chief, were joined by four more.

Problems included a lightning strike that took out the traffic signal at Danube Street and U.S. 158. Barricades and no-wake signs were put up on side streets and one lane of U.S. 158 near Staples was closed.

“In Nags Head, most of the water drained away quickly, due in part to improved maintenance of the drainage system,” the statement said. “Some low-lying streets and yards with no or poor drainage continued to hold water about 48 hours later. One problematic neighborhood system was boosted using a portable pump.”

In addition to maintenance of the existing drainage system, the town is set to begin three impovement projects this winter after studies by an engineering consultant and a citizen committee. But future plans still depend on deliberate study of where they will do the most good and the ability of the town to pay for them, the statement said.

The plans are:

• Lowering and replacing the pipe with a larger one that runs under N.C. 12 and connects to the Red Drum area ocean outfall. The town said it would increase storage of drainwater in the area and help Nags Head Pond, Nags Head Acres, the eastern part of Vista Colony and blocks 2300 to 2700 between the highways.
• Lowering the groundwater level with pumping in the southeast corner of Nags Head Acres and the northeast corner of Vista Colony.
• Adding pipes in the 5000 to 5300 block of Virginia Dare Trail (N.C. 12).

Ten more projects are being examined for subsequent work at a rate of three to four a year, the statement said.

This story is provided courtesy of the Outer Banks Voice, a digital newspaper covering the Outer Banks. Coastal Review Online is partnering with the Voice to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest about our coast.

Reprinted from the Outer Banks Voice

With assurances of a substantial reimbursement from the federal government, Nags Head is moving ahead with financing for its first re-nourishment project since 10 miles of beach were widened in 2011.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has notified the town that it will pay $16 million of the $42.7 million cost to cover sand losses attributed to Hurricane Matthew in 2016.

But Nags Head will have to borrow the money upfront until FEMA provides a reimbursement after the project is finished.

On Wednesday, the Board of Commissioners approved two bond issues, one for the FEMA reimbursement amount and another for $11.38 million.

Local property owners will pay back the second loan over five years with an addition 2 cents per $100 of value, which they have been paying since 2011. Owners along the oceanfront pay an additional 17.5 cents.

Original plans were to get started this spring. But the board delayed the project after bids came in well over the $34 million budget for pumping sand onto the beach.

Great Lakes Dock and Dredge, which handled the 2011 nourishment project for Nags Head and last year’s sand pumping from Duck to Kill Devil Hills, was the low bidder for the new Nags Head project with their proposal of $36,644,500.

Bringing the total to $42.7 million are engineering costs, a contingency fund, ocean outfall work, turtle monitoring, beach profile monitoring, sand fencing and other fees.

Besides the bond money, $9.57 million will come from the Dare County Beach Nourishment Fund and $5.4 million from the town’s capital reserve fund.

About 4 million cubic yards of sand will be pumped by dredges from offshore borrow areas. Bulldozers on the beach will spread the sand around and the ocean will do the rest. Up to half the visible sand will slide into the nearshore to create a protective slope, according to coastal engineers.

A survey shortly after Hurricane Matthew in October 2016 indicated that the shoreline had lost a third of the sand — 1.43 million cubic yards — from the original project.

Town officials asked FEMA to reimburse Nags Head for the cost of restoring the beach to the contour recorded in a June 2016 survey, when about 90 percent of the sand remained in the system.

FEMA considers the beach and nearshore out to a 19-foot depth.

This story is provided courtesy of the Outer Banks Voice, a digital newspaper covering the Outer Banks. Coastal Review Online is partnering with the Voice to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest about our coast. 

Reprinted from the Outer Banks Voice.

Saying it was responding to complaints of cruelty to wildlife, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has sent an appeal to the town of Nags Head to use methods other than trapping to control the growing coyote population.

“Trapping and killing coyotes isn’t just inhumane and indefensible — it’s also ineffective,” Daphna Nachminovitch, the animal rights group’s senior vice president, said in a statement.

“PETA is urging Nags Head officials to take a common-sense approach to living alongside wildlife, rather than trying to exterminate animals who are simply trying to live.”

The town is limited to the trapping season from December through February because it is one of five counties under rules to protect red wolves and because of limitations on firing guns in a populated area. Elsewhere in rural areas of the state, the animals can be shot on private property and during daylight hours on public land with a permit.

PETA appealed to the town to use methods that discourage coyotes from roaming around populated areas, such as keeping pet food inside, minimizing places they can hide and even placing ammonia-soaked rags in their dens to “evict” them.

Town Manager Cliff Ogburn responded to PETA with a letter noting that the town had consulted with a wildlife biologist and provided information on coyotes in public presentations and on its website. The town has encouraged residents to take many of the same steps the group is advocating, he added.

“My point is we don’t intend to treat any animal in an inhumane manner,” Ogburn wrote. “We do, however, want to address the concerns of our citizens and are comfortable with the manner in which we have trapped coyotes as it strictly adheres to NC General Statutes and is done so with the full knowledge of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.

PETA said it wanted information on whether the town plans to trap the animals again next season.

Learn More

• PETA’s letter to the town
• The town’s response to PETA

This story is provided courtesy of the Outer Banks Voice, a digital newspaper covering the Outer Banks. Coastal Review Online is partnering with the Voice to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest about our coast.

Reprinted from The Outer Banks Voice

A licensed trapper hired by Nags Head left little doubt that coyotes are a growing suburban nuisance after catching eight males and nine females on town-owned property within the 13-week season that ended last month.

The town is limited to the trapping season from December through February because it is one of five counties under rules to protect red wolves and because of limitations on firing guns in a populated area.

Elsewhere in rural areas of the state, the animals can be shot on sight on private property and during daylight hours on public land with a permit.

Interbreeding has raised questions about how effectively the red wolf recovery program at Alligator River National Wildlife can maintain a pure strain and thus the need for limits on hunting coyotes.

“I don’t now what it’s going to show, but it would be my hope that it’s 100 percent coyote, there’s not any red wolf in it, and maybe that will help our cause and show them, look, there’s not any red wolves over here,” he said.

Coyotes can now be found in all 100 of the state’s counties. They have been on the Outer Banks since 2009, but only in the past two or three years have they become a noticeable nuisance.

Wildlife biologist James Turner said in a 2016 Voice interview that coyotes can live anywhere, and in spite of their carnivore reputation, they are actually omnivores and will eat berries, fruits, even insects.

This story is provided courtesy of the Outer Banks Voice, a digital newspaper covering the Outer Banks. Coastal Review Online is partnering with the Voice to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest about our coast.

Reprinted from The Outer Banks Voice

OUTER BANKS — As Gov. Roy Cooper checked the damage and offered assurances that every effort was being made to restore power, more details emerged Monday on how the only source of electricity to Hatteras and Ocracoke islands was severed in a construction accident last week.

Crews at the south end of the Bonner Bridge over Oregon Inlet were able to locate the last of three underground cables Monday afternoon and were working to expose it so final repairs could begin.

One cable was spliced back together overnight after losing a two-foot section. A third first thought to be damaged was later found to be intact and functional.

Cooper said he and his administration have offered the Cape Hatteras Electric Cooperative “all the resources that they need to get power back to these islands as quickly and as safely as possible.”

“Clearly when you’re talking about the economy of the Outer Banks, summertime is a great time for people to make their money and this situation has hurt,” he said. “So every day is important to the economy of this part of our state.”

The cooperative said today that it could be one or two weeks before full power is restored. But the company is trying to beef up its temporary generator system in hopes of allowing a staged return of visitors.

In the meantime, mandatory evacuations remain in place, which means visitors are not allowed onto the islands to get to their rental homes.

The power went out at 4:30 a.m. Thursday when the company building the Bonner Bridge replacement over Oregon Inlet drove a steel casing into the transmission system.

Casings are giant tubes that position individual concrete pilings as they are being installed in clusters at various angles to hold up the bridge deck, said Jerry Jennings, District 1 engineer for the North Carolina Department of Transportation. Workers were setting aside the casing for future use by driving it partially into the ground.

Susan Flythe, executive vice president and general manager of CHEC, said it was not long before they realized the problem.

“As they drove that casing down into the ground, they heard a pop,” she said.

Thousands of people are waiting to hear whether their vacation plans can be salvaged, but no projection for when power might be sufficient is

available yet. In a typical summer week, 50,000 to 60,000 people vacation on the island, according to Dare County Public Relations Director Dorothy Hester.

Ocracoke is running on three portable generators, and there is no word yet about the possibility of producing enough temporary power to allow visitors back in.

But in a statement Sunday, CHEC said it was working “to expand the temporary generation service on Hatteras Island, in order to accommodate a staged re-entry of visitors.”

On Sunday, the cooperative said testing showed that all three of the cables in the system were damaged when the contractor for the Bonner Bridge replacement project, PLC Construction, drove a steel casing into them. But on Monday, the cooperative said that one of the cables was intact and functional.

Two ideas for repairs are in play, the cooperative said. One is to splice the damaged cable back together, now that all three wires have been located. One was fixed Monday, and repairs will start as soon as possible on the second.

The second idea is to connect a new power line to the south end of the Bonner Bridge and run it overhead south on the east side of N.C. 12, then over to existing poles on the west side, Flythe said.

Now, the existing lines are carried over Oregon Inlet by the bridge, then run underground before emerging onto the power poles south of the inlet. The transmission system will eventually be moved to the new bridge.

“CHEC will actively pursue both of these solutions until it is clear which of these will provide the fastest and safest option for a full repair,” the statement said.

“Depending on which solution turns out to be the most practical, the timeline for a complete repair could vary from one to two weeks.”

A makeshift system of portable generators and a permanent diesel backup system in Buxton is now providing minimal power to Hatteras Island.

This story is provided courtesy of the Outer Banks Voice, a digital newspaper covering the Outer Banks. Coastal Review Online is partnering with the Voice to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest about our coast. You can read other stories about the Outer Banks here.

Reprinted from The Outer Banks Voice.

SOUTHERN SHORES — This Dare County town plans to assess the public’s mood for joining its neighbors in a beach-widening project that almost surely would mean a tax increase.

The town council set Jan. 17 as the date for a forum that will examine the pros and cons, the costs, the engineering and, most importantly, whether property owners are interested in pumping sand onto the oceanfront.

While erosion is a problem for all the town’s oceanfront, it is most acute at Pelican Watch, where surf from Tropical Storm Hermine and Hurricane Matthew this fall carved out half of the dune and exposed pieces of the old Sea Ranch hotel.

The surf has cut off parts of some stairways and left others dangling from the steep face of the remaining dune line.

Residents and property owners from the neighborhood told the town council during its November meeting that the loss of sand also threatened Ocean Boulevard — N.C. 12. They made an argument familiar to residents of other towns: That beach re-nourishment will benefit everyone by protecting tourism and the tax base.

But whether the rest of the town’s taxpayers are willing to pay to protect property where there is no direct public access remains to be seen.

Kitty Hawk’s beach nourishment project includes a 1,000-foot taper extending into Southern Shores at Pelican’s Reach. But if Nags Head’s five-year-old project is any indication, the tapered areas will be the first to go.

When Kitty Hawk held a forum early in its planning, a large turnout generally favored beach re-nourishment. But along that town’s beach, N.C. 12 routinely washes out during storms near Kitty Hawk Road, and serious flooding between the highways continues to be a problem.

At the request of Mayor Pro Tem Fred Newberry, the Southern Shores Council opted for a forum rather than the public hearing originally planned for December. The hearing had been set after the council tabled a proposal to hire Coastal Planning and Engineering to undertake an assessment of the beach, the dunes and rate of erosion.

Newberry and other council members said they wanted to know more about the engineering, cost and effects of a potential project and suggested that experts be included in the forum.

“And also, are the majority of Southern Shores property owners willing to take on beach nourishment and the costs … ?” Newberry asked.

Town Manager Peter Rascoe said that including the length of the town’s beach could cost as much as $25 million. But initial discussions are focusing mainly on 2,000 to 3,000 feet on the southern end of town, which would cost considerably less.

Kill Devil Hills, Kitty Hawk and Duck have joined together in a beach re-nourishment project that is scheduled to start next spring. It is using a combination of Dare County money from the Beach Nourishment Fund and bonds issued by the individual towns.

The towns will pay back the bonds with tax increases, primarily special assessments along the oceanfront. In 2011, Nags Head used a combination of a 2-cent town-wide increase and an extra 16 cents per $100 of valuation along the oceanside. The oceanside tax was suspended when the bond was paid off earlier this year.

Kitty Hawk’s property owners are paying an additional 2 cents town-wide and 12 cents in the oceanside municipal service district.

Illinois-based Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Co. successfully bid $38.95 million to use dredges to pull sand from offshore borrow areas and pump it onto the beaches of the three towns.

Southern Shores would see significant savings if it joined with Duck, Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills because deploying equipment is a big part of the cost.

The project in the three towns is scheduled to begin in early spring 2017. The forum in January and another 60 to 90 days for permitting leaves a small window for Southern Shores. The town would also have to obtain easements from oceanfront property owners to do the work.

Mayor Tom Bennett noted that when the subject of easements came up previously, the “opposition was strident.” But the easements would only allow access to put sand on the beach, not take the property, he said.

Bennett said the idea might have been miscommunicated.

“I’m concerned about that,” he said. “And it’s one of the obstacles we need to overcome.”

The forum will be 5:30 p.m. at the Hilton Garden Inn in Kitty Hawk.

This story is provided courtesy of the Outer Banks Voice, a digital newspaper covering the Outer Banks. Coastal Review Online is partnering with the Voice to provide readers with more environmental and lifestyle stories of interest about our coast. You can read other stories about the Outer Banks here.

Reprinted from The Outer Banks Voice.

NAGS HEAD – A decision on whether to close an oceanfront road or give property owners an alternative to pay for its upkeep will be the focus of a public hearing June 1.

The hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. as part of the town commissioners’ meeting.

The road, Seagull Drive, became a symbol of the severe erosion in South Nags Head that validated the need for beach renourishment and was the center of a years-long legal battle over houses heavily damaged in a November 2009 storm. The storm scattered concrete septic tanks, pipes, wires and lumber across the beach and left the homes at the edge of the surf.

Now that all but one of the structures have been torn down, the town sees the road as a poor investment to serve the remaining houses that have become, by default, oceanfront properties.

Of the dozen or so owners of the remaining houses, three so far are unwilling to grant easements that would allow access on either end of the block. On the south end, three owners have worked out sharing access.

The best the town has been able to do is grade the right-of-way to make it reasonably passable. But the crew on a beach renourishment project in 2011 was forced to work around the old houses before they were torn down, so now the ocean regularly washes over the right-of-way during storms.

John Leidy, the town attorney, told the town’s board of commissioners last week that the town could consider a special assessment on the property owners to reimburse the town for maintaining the road. But the process, he said, would be cumbersome.

“It’s something the town needs to go through every time it makes an expenditure,” Leidy said. “It’s not a very mechanically practical way of doing this.”

A second and easier option would be to create a municipal service district with an annual tax on owners there to pay for maintenance, Leidy said.  Such a district could be set up to also pay for hurricane protection and erosion control.

“We believe that repairs and improvements made to Seagull Drive if they constitute an erosion control mechanism or a flood or perhaps hurricane protection work — that that’s something that could be the basis for establishing an MSD,” he said. “Municipal service districts are a lot easier to establish and a lot more useful, or easier to use I should say, in raising funds. But there are some issues with respect to the level of maintenance that would be required in order to use that process.”

A legal mechanism known as easement by necessity would place the burden entirely on the property owners, Leidy said. It would allow an owner to acquire an easement over the property of someone else.

“The town would have no role in that particular kind of process,” Leidy said.

Six of the dilapidated houses were torn down after the town reached a legal settlement with the owners’ representative in March 2015. The town agreed to buy the homes for $1.5 million.

Roc Sansotta, owner of Cove Realty, sued the town in 2010 after Nags Head declared the row of houses on Seagull Drive an obstruction to public access and emergency vehicles.

The town, in a prior settlement, agreed to give another owner, Matthew Toloczko, $200,000 and a nearby lot worth $3,500 at the north end of the remaining row of properties to be used as a drain field for his house’s septic system.

Reprinted from the Outer Banks Voice.

NAGS HEAD — While Nags Head’s wider beach is more than holding its own three years after an unprecedented 10-mile nourishment effort, plans should start now for the next step, which ideally would include a jetty on the south end of town, the contractor who led the project says.

Tim Kana, president of Coastal Science and Engineering, told town commissioners last week that dunes are bigger than expected and sand loss has not been nearly as substantial as historic erosion rates might have suggested.

But on the extreme south end of the project, the surf is taking its toll, Kana said. The losses there were expected because the beach tapers down to its original width at the border with the Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

Waves are taking their toll at the south end of Nags Head, which shows higher rates of beach erosion than its north end. The contractors who led the 10-mile beach widening project in 2011 suggest  the town start making plans to put in a jetty at its south end to hold the sand in place. Photo: Rob Morris

Ideally, a groin or jetty would minimize sand loss in South Nags Head, where the rate of erosion is much higher than it is north of Whalebone Junction, Kana said.

“The most cost-effective, long-term strategy for reducing your sand maintenance costs is to nourish and place a sand-retaining structure at the south end of Nags Head to hold the sand in place to reduce the erosion rate there down to a comparable rate to what north Nags Head is,” Kana said.

Legislators have eased a statewide ban on hardened structures along the shoreline, but only terminal groins are now allowed with limitations. Terminal groins are small jetties designed to stabilize inlets.

Whether the state would eventually consider allowing jetties elsewhere remains to be seen. Also worth considering is that the town borders federal land and environmental groups would more than likely mount legal challenges.

In the meantime, Kana said, the town should plan for adding more sand to the beach by starting the permitting process soon. Replenishment was originally projected to be needed after 50 percent of the sand was lost or in six years.

Overall, about 96 percent of the 4.6 million cubic yards of sand pumped onto the beach in 2011 remains in the system out to a depth of 19 feet, the distance the federal government uses to determine if a project qualifies for money to replace losses after a named storm.

The visible beach is narrower than it was after the sand was first placed, but on average it’s still about twice as wide as it was before nourishment, 80 feet compared to 40 feet, Kana said.

Whalebone Junction, at the north end of Nags Head, is holding up well since the town’s beach re-nourishment project in 2011. Photo: Rob Morris

Some of the sand was blown west to build up dunes, and some, as expected, slid into the water close to shore, where it acts to buffer  storm surge and can wash back onto the beach depending on weather conditions.

A downside of the westward migration of sand is that it has blown onto property and into swimming pools in some areas. Moving it required an exemption from a Coastal Area Management Act permit and monitoring by the town.

Hotspots, including a segment where six houses close to the ocean are still the focus of legal action by the town, have seen much more erosion, Kana said.

Coastal Science’s survey last June showed that more than one million cubic yards of new sand remains between the dune and water. Eight miles of northern Nags Head gained around 10 percent while south Nags Head lost 30 percent.

Any planning should consider that sand retention will be exponentially higher the longer the project is. So pumping sand into one problematic area would not justify the cost of deploying dredges and equipment, Kana said.

Reprinted from the Outer Banks Voice

NAGS HEADS – This Outer Banks town went on record last week opposing seismic testing for oil and natural gas off the East Coast.

The Board of Commissioners passed a resolution on Wednesday, April 2, declaring its objections after hearing a report from Caroline Wood of Oceana, the environmental group leading opposition to the use of air guns to look for oil and natural gas deposits below the sea floor.

Oceana’s presentation showed ships towing air guns and monitors to look for oil and gas deposits. Photo: Outer Banks Voice

Wood said the guns, which are towed behind ships, emit 190 decibels, or noise that is 100,000 times that of a jet plane engine. The sound travels to the bottom, and then bounces back data to monitors also pulled by ships.

The problem, she said, is “all of the marine life that gets caught in the crossfire.”

A federal environmental review released at the end of March sets broad standards for companies to use seismic testing and other methods to look for oil and natural gas under the ocean floor.

The environmental study by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management encompassing coastal waters from Delaware to Florida does not authorize seismic surveys. Instead, it sets up a framework for “additional mandatory environmental reviews for site-specific actions” and measures to govern the surveys.

A North Carolina State University study estimated that energy exploration off the coast would produce 1,122 jobs and $181 million annually for the state during its first seven years, a statement from Gov. Pat McCrory’s office said when the federal review was released.

McCrory supported the use of seismic testing, saying that the review, called a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, included extensive safeguards for marine life.

But Wood said last week that some of the information is outdated. She said seismic testing would put thousands of dolphins and whales at risk of injury. The loss of just one female right whale, a highly endangered species, could put the entire population of about 500 at risk, she said.

Testing would also affect commercial fishing, she said, because it would drive some species away from traditional areas. In addition, fishing would not be allowed where the testing is being done.

The board made its decision after several weeks of researching documents and hearing the presentation from Oceana, according to Commissioner Susie Walters.

The prospect of using air guns to survey the seafloor has touched off a debate along the coast. The Sierra Club criticized the testing, and the town council in Carolina Beach in Brunswick County unanimously passed a resolution last month in opposition to it. The Kure Beach council, after listening to hours of public comments in February, split on the topic and didn’t pass a resolution. Mayor Dean Lambeth came under severe criticism for writing a letter endorsing the testing off the N.C. coast.

Reprinted from the Outer Banks Voice

Gov. Pat McCrory welcomed a new federal environmental review that sets broad standards for companies to use seismic testing and other methods to look for oil and natural gas under the ocean floor.

The study by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management encompassing coastal waters from Delaware to Florida was released last week.

A N.C. State University study estimates that energy exploration off the coast would produce 1,122 jobs and $181 million annually for the state during its first seven years, a statement from McCrory’s office said.

Gov. Pat McCrory

But one environmental group warns that damage to marine life from seismic air guns probing for pockets of oil and gas would mean bigger losses for commercial and recreational fisheries, tourism and coastal recreation.

“Seismic air gun testing isn’t simply a method of surveying a coastal area for its energy potential,” Oceana said in a statement after the review was issued. “The blasts from seismic air guns are 100,000 times more intense than a jet plane engine and are emitted every 10 seconds, 24 hours a day, for weeks and months at a time.

“It’s disruptive, destructive, and directly threatens the survival of marine creatures like dolphins, whales, and turtles.”

The Sierra Club also criticized the review, and the town council in Carolina Beach in Brunswick County unanimously passed a resolution Friday in opposition to seismic testing. The Kure Beach council, after listening to hours of public comments, had earlier last month split on the topic and didn’t pass a resolution. Mayor Dean Lambeth came under severe criticism for writing a letter endorsing the testing off the N.C. coast.

But McCrory, chairman of the Outer Continental Shelf Governors Coalition, noted that the study, called a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement, included extensive safeguards for marine life.

A summary by the bureau said: “Mitigation efforts include requirements to avoid vessel strikes, special closure areas to protect the main migratory route for the endangered North Atlantic Right Whale, geographic separation of simultaneous seismic air gun surveys and Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) to supplement visual observers and improve detection of marine mammals prior to and during seismic air gun surveys.”

The summary went on to say that the environmental statement does not authorize seismic surveys. Instead, it sets up a framework for “additional mandatory environmental reviews for site-specific actions” and measures to govern the surveys.

People packed the town council chambers in Kure Beach to tell the council members what they thought of offshore seismic testing.

“We have the technology and the environmental expertise to responsibly explore the oil, gas and wind resources off our coast,” McCrory said. “It’s time the states be allowed to get off the sidelines and start producing jobs and energy for our economy.”

The review was ordered by Congress in 2010 to update old data and examine the environmental consequences of offshore testing. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is part of the Department of the Interior.

“Analysis of this scale is a significant undertaking that has involved extensive public input and coordination among several federal agencies and state governments,” BOEM Director Tommy P. Beaudreau said in a statement.

“The Department and BOEM have been steadfast in our commitment to balancing the need for understanding offshore energy resources with the protection of the human and marine environment using the best available science as the basis of this environmental review.”

Included in the review, the bureau reported, are analyses of “deep-penetration and high-resolution seismic surveys, electromagnetic surveys, magnetic surveys, gravity surveys, remote-sensing surveys and geological and geochemical sampling.”

Reprinted from the Outer Banks Voice

KITTY HAWK – This beach town in Dare County is still many months from a possible beach widening project, but municipal service districts that might help pay for it are coming into focus.

A proposed map depicting three districts was presented recently to the Town Council as the town considers whether and where it will levy additional taxes to help pay for pumping sand onto the beach.

Town Manager John Stockton emphasized that the map is not official until every property owner is notified, a public hearing is advertised and the council passes a resolution adopting the map.

It could be changed during that process. A public hearing is possible by the fall, Stockton said.

Flooding crossed the U.S. 158 bypass in Kitty Hawk during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Photo: Outer Banks Voice

So far, the town is working with the county and the towns of Duck and Kill Devil Hills to explore where sand would come from, how much would be affordable and the permitting process. The county provided Kitty Hawk with the money from its Shoreline Management Fund.

“Phase two is when the town starts obligating money in addition to what the county has,” said Mayor Gary Perry. “And at that point, we’re going to have to have the municipal districts set up and taxing for this project. We’ll have a better idea how much we need to tax.”

A probable scenario is that districts will pay additional taxes according to their risk to ocean overwash and flooding.

The preliminary map shows District A running from the oceanfront to U.S. 158 and including commercial properties. District B would include what is being called the ridge area and District C is the village to the sound.

Under a plan outlined in October, the Dare County Beach Nourishment Fund would provide Kitty Hawk with $13.2 million of the roughly $17 million it needs to pump sand onto its severely eroded beaches.

The Town Council has already approved an agreement, which basically declares that it wants to participate in a financing plan involving multiple towns and the county.

Duck and Kill Devil Hills are also planning to widen their beaches after seeing Nags Head’s 10-mile project appear to be holding up two years after it was completed. The county is developing its own project on Hatteras Island.

John Stockton

The preliminary financing plan calls for the county fund to provide Kitty Hawk $10.3 million up front and another $3 million to help pay off a six-year bond. The beach re-nourishment fund is made up of a portion of occupancy taxes paid by visiting renters.

Kitty Hawk’s share of debt service would be $3.9 million, which would be financed by an average property tax increase of 7.82 cents per $100 of value. Kitty Hawk’s payments after the first year would be $765,977 annually.

Some property owners would pay more, some less depending on where they live based on a final municipal service map.

Towns could see savings of up to 17 percent if their plans allow simultaneous use of dredging equipment and offshore borrow areas, town and county officials believe.

Towns are also seeking legislation that would give them condemnation power in the event that easements for placing sand cannot be obtained.

Reprinted From the Outer Banks Voice

KILL DEVIL HILLS — What the federal government refused to fund, towns on the Outer Banks have committed to tackling, and more — pumping sand onto beaches in Duck and from Kitty Hawk to South Nags Head.

With the help of money from the Dare County Shoreline Management Fund, Nags Head was first two years ago with a 10-mile, $36 million beach nourishment project.

Now, three more towns have signed an agreement to share county funds and to foot part of the bill for their own projects.

Dare County Manager Bobby Outten presented the plan to the Kill Devil Hills commissioners Monday. Photo: Outer Banks Voice

Monday night, Kill Devil Hills added its name to an interlocal agreement accepting $6 million from the shoreline fund and making a commitment to borrow $5.475 million to cover the balance of the $11.475 million estimated total cost.

Commissioner Bill Pitt said the town originally wanted to pump 100 cubic yards of sand per linear foot onto the beach, but that was when Kill Devil Hills was planning to do the work on its own.

The new funding plan, outlined Monday by County Manager Bobby Outten, limits that to 75 cubic yards, based on the average in Nags Head. But it also ensures that the towns will receive money to do the work simultaneously, lowering costs and adding longer stretches of shoreline.

Engineers have said that chances of success increase with the length of beach widened. Sand on the Outer Banks also tends to migrate southward.

“This proposal does, essentially, the entire oceanfront of Kitty Hawk,” he said. “And that is going to be a super boon to the town of Kill Devil Hills.”

The $10.9 million plan in Kill Devill Hills will depend on raising property taxes 5.78 cents per $100 of value. That is a little less than the 7.82 cents other towns will need because Kill Devil Hills has a larger population and a smaller project.

Oceanfront taxpayers in two special service districts will pay more, while the rest of the town will pay less — no more than 10 percent of the cost. Paying back the loan at 3.5 percent interest will cost a little over $1 million annually for five years.

Earlier this month, Duck and Kitty Hawk OK’d the interlocal agreement, which calls for the projects to start in 2016.

In Kitty Hawk, the total cost is estimated at $16.5 million. The county fund will provide $10.3 million up front and another $3 million to help pay off a six-year bond. The beach nourishment fund is made up of a portion of occupancy taxes paid by visiting renters.

Kitty Hawk’s share of debt service would be $3.9 million, to be financed by an average property tax increase of 7.82 cents per $100 of value. Kitty Hawk’s payments after the first year would be $765,977 annually.

Critics, including former Mayor Bill Harris, are skeptical that adding 40 feet of width to Kitty Hawk’s severely eroded beach will do much good. Last week, Harris urged the town to give the project more consideration. But the council voted unanimously to move ahead, saying doing nothing was not an option.

Flooding between the highways in Kitty Hawk has worsened in recent years, and the town is already building a pumping system at Hawks Street to get rid of overwash and rainwater after storms.

Chart: Outer Banks Voice

Duck’s project comes to $14.4 million. The county fund will supply $7.7 million up front and cover about $1.1 million annually for five years to help the town pay back debt for the balance.

Dare County embarked on studies in conjunction with the Army Corps of Engineers in the early 1990s to determine if it qualified for federal nourishment projects.

In 1998, Congress approved a 50-year project for Dare County, but it was never funded. Unlike the latest local plan, the project included only a sliver of Kitty Hawk because the value of property that would be protected did not reach a required threshold.

Duck was not included. Back then, it wasn’t even an incorporated town.

Outten told Kill Devil Hills commissioners that the county’s plan would provide equitable funding and save 17 percent of the total cost of projects. Separately, he said, the total for the three remaining towns would come to $50.8 million. Working together, the total is $42.6 million.

The funding plan, he said, would leave enough money in the fund to help cover maintenance and future re-nourishment. Figures in the current plan vary slightly depending on whether interest rates are included. It could also be adjusted slightly as the projects come together, he said.

Dare County also wants to add sand to beaches in Rodanthe and Buxton. The cost will be around $25 million with the county drawing money from the nourishment fund for debt service but none up front.

The Dare County Board of Commissioners and the state Local Government Commission, which oversees town and county financing, must also approve the plan.

“We divided among the towns not as an edict from the county but in collaboration with all the towns to try to come up with a fair way,” Outten said. “The consensus of those that have been in the discussion is that this model works.”

Reprinted from the Outer Banks Voice

NAGS HEAD — A line of decrepit cottages along what was once Seagull Drive in South Nags Head has stood for more than three years as testimony to long-running legal battles between the state, the town and property owners.

Mostly in dispute have been the town’s orders to remove what it describes as “nuisance structures” and its regulatory power over the public-trust beach.

Now a new ruling by the state Division of Coastal Management has added another wrinkle. It will make it easier for the owners of houses like the ones on Seagull to replace septic systems lost to storms on the beach as long as they are 50 feet from the water at low tide.

Beach erosion exposed a septic tank at South Nags Head before the beach was widened. Photo: Coastal Care

The ruling grew out of a challenge from the owner of one of the Seagull cottages, who contended that a septic system should not be classified as a structure separate from a house when regulators consider the right to rebuild in coastal zones.

State rules generally prohibit rebuilding a structure that has lost 50 percent or more of its value to storm damage without obtaining a new Coastal Area Management Act permit. Tropical storms and nor’easters historically have taken out septic systems buried in the sand in front of oceanfront houses. That usually meant the systems had lost more than 50 percent of their value and could not be replaced.

“They don’t do a whole lot of damage normally to the house itself,” said Nags Head Town Manager Cliff Ogburn.

In a memo to the Coastal Resources Commission, Frank Jennings, district manager in Elizabeth City for the Division of Coastal Management, said a septic system would no longer be considered separately from a house when an owner applies for a permit to rebuild in a coastal zone.

So if the rest of a house is relatively undamaged by a storm, the septic system, even if was destroyed, would easily fall within the 50-percent standard.

Coastal Management is a division of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The Coastal Resources Commissions sets standards under the Coastal Area Management Act.

“The division, the department, and the members of the Attorney General’s staff agree that the Commission’s rules regarding repair/replacement, and the Ocean Hazard Areas of Environmental Concern, do not clearly state whether septic systems and houses should be treated as one structure for the purpose of the repair/replacement rule, or as separate structures,” Jennings wrote.

Mayor Bob Oakes

Nags Head Mayor Bob Oakes has sent a letter to the Coastal Resources Commission urging the panel to reconsider the new interpretation.

Ogburn appeared before the commission last week to present the town’s case on the issue. He said the commission has directed the Division of Coastal Management to specifically address septic tanks in the rules so the state does not have to rely on an interpretation.

The houses on Seagull are still under condemnation because of their condition, Ogburn said, not because of failed septic systems. Once they were in the surf at high tide; now they stand a good distance from the ocean since the beach was widened in 2011.

While the houses would still need to get local permits, they would have no trouble installing septic tanks 50 feet from the water, he said.

“On a nourished beach, it’s not hard at all,” he said.

Meanwhile, legislators in coastal areas have submitted a bill that addresses questions about the public trust beach, the area along the surf line that is private property but considered a right of way for public access.

A court ruling last year declared that localities have no regulatory power over the public trust beach. It nullified local ordinances like the one in Nags Head that allowed the town to order the removal of structures blocking the public trust beach.

The ruling grew out of a challenge by the same owners who questioned the septic tank policy.

Localities would have the right to establish policies and ordinances regulating the public trust beach under the bill.

“We’re just trying to get authority to regulate what’s on the beach,” Ogburn said.

Reprinted from the Outer Banks Voice

Sandy flattened sand dunes in Kitty Hawk. Photo: N.C. Department of Transportation.

NAGS HEAD — Two years ago, Hurricane Sandy would have been big news in South Nags Head.

For years, the narrow shoreline from Jennette’s Pier south to the National Park Service border took a pounding from winter storms and tropical systems.

Left behind were pitiful images of half-collapsed houses and a beach strewn with broken septic tanks, twisted pipes and pieces of decks and stairs. Dozens of houses were routinely condemned as uninhabitable until repairs were made.

The scenes were perfect for a television news standup.

But after Sandy raked Outer Banks beaches for three days at the end of last month, South Nags Head was little more than a footnote. Last year’s $36 million project to widen 10 miles of the Nags Head shoreline did its job. This time, at least. Still, the results were good enough to warrant some bragging.

Critics had to stretch to make a case that nourishment wasn’t working. Renee Cahoon, a Nags Head commissioner, noted the difference between photos during the storm, which showed heavy surf to the dune line, and those after Sandy revealing a wide, flat beach.

“I’d like to remind everybody that blogs represent opinions, not facts,” she said at a recent Board of Commissioners meeting. “And that contrary to what goes out, the beach was never meant to stop the water. The beach was meant to absorb the impacts of the ocean before it damaged all the structures behind it.”

Contrasts can also be seen in the numbers. After Sandy, repairs to Nags Head beach accesses cost $93, town officials said. After Hurricane Isabel in 2003, damage to Nags Head accesses amounted to $300,000 to $400,000.

Images like this one after 2009′s hybrid storm like Sandy at the same time of year were typical of South Nags Head. Photo: Outer Banks Voice.

Overall, damage to homes throughout the town after Sandy added up to about $413,000, Elizabeth Teague, the town’s Planning and Development director, said. All of it was minor — mostly water in ground-floor enclosures.

Commercial damage was estimated at $202,000 to 11 properties. The only major damage — about $30,000 worth — was next door to the Nags Head Fishing Pier, where the surf blew out a bulkhead and a patio collapsed.

“Considering what happened in other places, we did very well in terms of damage,” Teague said.

Kitty Hawk is still mopping up after Sandy’s surf flattened a dune line north of the Black Pelican restaurant, sending water two blocks west and across U.S. 158. The section of U.S. 158 was closed for two days, and N.C. 12, the beach road, was buried in sand with asphalt in some places left crumbling.

Town Manager John Stockton said Kitty Hawk saw $63,500 in commercial damage and $1,608,800 in residential damage.

Houses in Kitty Hawk have been removed from the beach over the years, and a weak point — where the waves found an opening — appears to be near the one that remains. The town might qualify for beach re-nourishment funds from the county to buy and remove the house, but so far the owner is not ready to negotiate, Stockton said.

Beach re-nourishment is not under consideration right now. Most of the damage in recent years has been to N.C. 12, which the N.C. Department of Transportation maintains. The weak section of the beach appeared to have gained some width during the storm, but the dune line was unable to hold the surf back, Stockton said.

Meanwhile, Kill Devill Hills is still considering a two-mile widening project.

A Nags Head maintenance plan submitted to FEMA calls for re-nourishing the beach after five years or a 50 percent loss of new sand, whichever comes later. So the real test will be how the beach holds up over at least five years.

After Hurricane Irene in August 2011, measurements showed that about half the visible sand from the project was underwater but still within the system. FEMA considers sand offshore to a depth of 19 feet part of the system.

Coastal Science and Engineering, the town’s consultant, is putting together a new survey of the beach to see how it has fared. Town Manager Cliff Ogburn said that judging from the accumulation of sand along fencing, it appears that 2 to 3 feet of elevation have been added at the base of the dune line.

Reprinted from the Outer Banks Voice

NAGS HEAD — Nags Head and the N.C. Nature Conservancy have bought a 20-acre tract that was the center of a dispute last year over development in the Nags Head Woods Preserve.

The land, previously owned by Andy and Laura Deel, is on high ground in the center of the maritime forest.

“This is great habitat, and with the work of our partners, donors and willing land owners it will remain that way,” said Conservancy Steward Aaron McCall.

Most of the maritime forest is a protected area owned by the town and the Nature Conservancy. But there are some homes and privately owned parcels.

Nags Head commissioners approved spending $25,000 toward the purchase last month. Commissioner Doug Remaley voted against the contribution, calling it appeasement to avoid legal entanglements with the owners.

Together, the town and conservancy paid $545,000 for the land. The two lots were assessed in July at $467,700.

Town officials acknowledged that the Deels had initiated legal action over Nags Head’s handling of a site plan and conditional use request for a cluster housing development on the site last year.

At the time, conservation zoning in Nags Head Woods allowed cluster housing, which calls for development on concentrated pieces of large lots to preserve open space.

Most of the maritime forest is a protected area owned by the town and the Nature Conservancy. But there are some homes and privately owned parcels.

Plans by the Deels to build three homes — one they would live in and the other two rentals — touched off an uproar over what some saw as commercial development in the Woods.

Laura Deel is a wedding planner and concerns centered on the prospect of traffic and reception parties in the small development.

But the roadblock turned out to be not zoning but whether the project needed to be connected to town water and if a fire hydrant system that would use water from a swimming pool offered sufficient protection.

Commissioners, in a split vote, turned down the plan. Questions were subsequently raised about phone calls and e-mails exchanged before the vote.

In April, six weeks later, the Deels came back with plans for two homes, which were approved.

Commissioners later tabled a request by a lawyer for the Shaver Family Trust to do away with the cluster housing provision in the Woods zoning district.

The Shaver Family Trust owns a home near the property and had argued against the Deels’ plans.

Reprinted from the Outer Banks Voice

NAGS HEAD — A 50-year-old network of ditches, culverts and pipes in Nags Head dramatically showed its age after more than 3 feet of rain this spring and summer.

Town Manager Cliff Ogburn has identified as many as two dozen spots around town where rain and runoff inundated a stormwater drainage system that dates back to the Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962.

Downpours from Tropical Storm Beryl contributed to as much as 10 inches of rain in May. Then a stubborn weather pattern settled in, generating heavy showers and thunderstorms for the next three months. Some streets and neighborhoods saw flooding for most of the summer.

The state Department of Transportation has cleared some ditches along the bypass, but more work needs to be done, Ogburn said.

Water from heavy rains all summer formed small ponds all over Nags Head. Photo: Outer Banks Voice

Ogburn plans to come back to the Dare County Board of Commissioners with specific plans and priorities as well as cost estimates. But he added at a board meeting last week that any improvements cannot practically handle a once in 100-year or 500-year storm.

“We can build for a 10-year storm or a 25-year storm, but at some point the projects, no matter how well they’re engineered, are going to become overwhelmed,” he said.

Still, several problems areas need immediate fixes. Efforts to minimize flooding in Nags Head Acres and neighboring Vista Colony, for example, have been hampered by poor drainage along U.S. 158.

Runoff from the two neighborhoods is supposed to flow into a ditch, then under the bypass to an ocean outfall. But a difference of about 18 inches in the grade means the water collects on the west side of the bypass and eventually back into the neighborhoods.

Ogburn said that the hope is to channel some runoff south to another outfall, but state environmental rules and DOT regulations complicate efforts to move water.

Rainfall this year at Town Hall hit 36.87 inches through August. That is more than fell in 12 months every year since 2007 except 2010. That year, the measurement for the entire year was 38.03 inches.

So far this year, 50.37 inches have been recorded at 8th Street.

Town officials have surveyed several neighborhoods, cleaned out ditches and culverts and in some cases have pumped out water. They have met with the DOT and the National Park Service, which have jurisdiction over several ditches and canals.

The Department of Transportation has agreed to contribute $20,000 for a modeling study in South Nags Head. The town would have to cover any added costs.

East-west ditches on Park Service land, Ogburn said, can be returned to their original depths without an environmental impact statement. But an environmental assessment might be needed.

In others areas, lowering groundwater levels with pumps, a technique used in Kill Devil Hills, might provide a solution. But that will depend on where the water goes and if state environmental regulations will allow it.

Ogburn said the $4 stormwater fee assessed property owners raises only $150,000. He said the town will have to look at other sources of money for fixes throughout Nags Head.

“We’ve got to prioritize and spend the public dollar where it will do the most good,” said Mayor Bob Oakes.