Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

2025 town of Kvil Hills Board of Commissioners meeting. I call this meeting to order. Before we move on to the pledge, I'll just let everybody know that commissioners and Gray are not available this evening and we're also missing town attorney Barnell. But rest of us are here and happy to serve. So would everyone please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

All right. And now please join me in a moment of silence. All right. Um, our next item of business is our agenda approval. We have an agenda before us. I'll entertain a motion. So, move. Second. Have a motion and a second. Any discussion? It's going to be easy. Um all in favor please indicate by saying I I we all right we have an agenda.

So now is our first time for public comment. I will I will remind everyone this is a special meeting where instead of two public comment times we have public comment in the beginning and then once we wrap up the agenda we will be able to have a more open discussion for public forum. So if something if somebody's really pressing and let it get out now, by all means you're welcome to do so, but there will be more time for open dialogue later on this evening. So that being said, um we do ask anyone who is called upon to approach the podium, speak to the microphone, and identify yourself by name and address. And please keep your comments to three minutes if you're speaking as an individual or five minutes if you're speaking on behalf of a group. That being said, our first public comment time is open if anyone would like to speak. No takers. Now or later.

What would you prefer, Mayor? Uh, what work for you, sir? You uh you're you're

go for it. Yeah. Go. Before I get to the subject at hand, I want to thank the town for all the cards and best wishes and prayers for me when uh I just went on nearly went on the other side of the grass, but here I am right now. Not fully recovered. I have a way to go, but I'm getting there. Uh I want to talk about a draft law being considered by the legislature right now and it's uh Senate Bill 576 and it has to do with ebikes and some of the provisions of that bill are going to upset set people across the state and for that reason I would suggest that it' be a good thing for the citizens to write to the legislature and tell them how you feel about making it a law that no one under 16 can ride a ebike. That is one of the provisions that's being considered. Um, another provision that uh should concern us all, maximum speed for ebikes will be 20 m per hour. Anything over 20 mile per hour that may be sold as an ebike is actually considered to be the same thing as a scooter or uh a motorcycle and they're not allowed on uh multi-use pass. Something else to consider. Uh helmets will be required. Um,

I think I'm not opposed to ebikes. In fact, I'm a strong supporter of ebikes, but they can be very, very dangerous, particularly to the walking pedestrians on the multiuse path. Uh, we live on Bay Drive and many times we're walking and an ebike will come up behind us. we never know it's there cuz they're so quiet. Uh so, um I think you need to put considerable time into educating the public about these. Uh I have no nothing else to say about them.

Thanks, Jack. Would anybody else like to speak at this public comment period? Can we comment on what he's talking about? The floor is yours. Go for it. So, he brings up a great point, but it's not just e bites. Please identify Jones. Sorry. Yeah. Killer Hill. I mean, first flight.

So, he brings up a good point, but even a bigger point is there's an issue now. And what about golf carts and all that? The problem is where do they supposed to go? whether it's ebite, this is whole county and other areas as well. Um, you know, it is an issue and there's no real that I know of. There's different ebikes, there's different golf carts that go different speeds. So, is it a speed thing or is it a, you know, bike or golf cart? I mean, you got electric scooters. I mean, electric um I guess they're called scooters, little things, man. They go pretty fast.

They do. So, I think we got to come up with a plan on where they should drive for starters, whether it's the road or the bike path. But, I mean, golf carts are a lot and I, you know, I golf, so I ride golf carts all the time, but I mean, they're big, a lot bigger than ebike and they go pretty fast. They go over 20. I know some of them do, not all, but and they're street legal. So, I think we've got to come up with a plan on where really where they should ride. Great. Thanks. Would anybody else like to speak at this public comment period? Go right ahead. Thank you.

My name is Tamara Carbal. I'm actually speaking on behalf of my mother, Irene Anderson. We live Virginia Avenue and Kill Devil Hills. I live at that residence. Um I'm here tonight because um to request the completion of Virginia A to Clamshell Drive. We live at the dead end uh right next to the Paper Street and um we would like it to see it completed for several reasons. And last year um I initiated the process and I got in touch with Steve Albbright to find out how to go about it and he had told me that the police department and the fire department as well as sanitation were very much for seeing the completion of the street and also for other reasons. Um we have a lot of especially for emergency vehicles. uh Virginia AB is a very narrow lane and it's very difficult for them to turn around and also especially during hurricane season for ourselves as well as other people on our street or other residents um if a tree were to fall over it would block access for us to get out and also there's a lot of illicit activity taking place in the paper street And uh actually we experienced vandalism last June, June of 2024 where my mom's car the back her back windshield was blown out by a rifle and we filed a police report and even had detective Sudd come to our house and and and talk to my mom and uh that was that was quite an experience. So there's some yes elicit activity happening on

the paper street. Um so we would like to see about having that paper street completed. Thank you. Thank you.

Any more takers? Would anybody else like to speak at public comment? All right, we'll close first public comment period and please keep in mind we are having our public forum later so we could discuss these topics or any more at length. Um our response to public comment u but Senate Bill 756 we talked about that before when we first made aware of it last spring and it's something we are keeping a a pretty keen eye on. Uh Debbie, I know you've looked at it and you're keeping us a breast and as soon as the general assembly moves that forward. I think we're going to kind of be pretty proactive and in studying it, looking at what we can do. I agree with the first point you made. Uh limiting the age of 16 is pretty controversial, will have a very large impact on our town, but absolutely needs to be considered as mandatory helmets. um max speeds at 20 mph. I wonder how we can actually police that if uh the manufacturers would be required to put regulators on it or growing up there's a lot of ways to scoot around such things but um I'll open the any discussion around ebikes to the board any comments or questions

just same I same same concerns that we've talked about before so I'm interested to hear what the legislation comes up with and then in terms of golf cart skip we addressed this like a year and a half ago, maybe two years ago, when we were we had a request for um the golf cart like electric golf carts that are not regulated and we we did not by consent for denied that. So, you know, we did have a lot of discussion about it then and there are if I'm not mistaken, they are regulated in certain areas. Is that correct?

Correct. Those itself is low speed vehicles. Right. But not Yeah. Licensed and Right. Right. So there are some regulations for the licensed. All right. With I mean with ebikes. Yeah. I I share Mr. Jack's thoughts as well. like um I'm interested to see what the state will allow us to do and see what those options are, but having spent quite a few quite a bit of time walking down the multi-use path on Bay Drive, it gets a little sporty out there. Um you really don't hear them and all of a sudden, whoom, there comes one right by you. So,

and they do not stop at stop sign. No. No. So, some sort of, you know, get out more information campaign at minimum. Um, in regards to Virginia Avenue, uh, paper street being filled in, Debbie, what's like the process, if you could discuss that a little bit on somebody to applying to get a paper street kind of turned into a traditional street? I I think some conversation has already been had with Mrs. Anderson. Um, and she would be on the next agenda of the street improvement study committee

and um, Meredith had indicated to me that, um, she has the phone number and we'll call and let her know when that those meetings are going to be held. There's not a date set for one at this point. It probably be later this month or in November. Is that correct? December is when I mean November December. Yeah. I took a peek at the map when I got the email. How long is that paper street? It's not very big at all. Looks like the length of a It's about 125 ft long. Yeah. Okay. So, the depth of Great. And I would as this process works out, I'd also welcome, you know, staff's input on Sure.

accessibility and all the points that you brought up. So, thank you for sharing. Any other comments there? All right. Um, that being said, we'll move on to uh ongoing business. No, sir. All right. New business item number one, recommendation for engineering design for the 2026 2027 street, sidewalk, and rideway improvement plan. I see the all-star team is here uh to educate us all. Thank you.

Hi, good evening. Um, Mr. Mayor, board commissioners, Miss Diaz, and town staff. My name is Emily Zelman and I work with American Engineering. Here you have Patrick Lewis and Deeper Kheimimer. Um I'm here to present on the uh design proposal provided for the East and West first street project. Um as you seen in your package, this project will include the water main replacement, drainage improvements, pavement resurfacing and new sidewalk from the beach road to Karatan Highway and then from Publix to Canal Drive. Um, I am here to answer any of your questions that you may have on this design. Um, as always, it's such an honor to work for the town of Kville Hills and we're looking forward to design this project.

I'm I mean I we've looked at this at length and uh this is an easy one to conceptualize. So, I'm I feel pretty excited about it. I feel good about it. I think I live off of First Street, so uh it's a very a lot of pedestrian traffic. Even more people will get to the Halloween house now safely. So, it's it's right there where this will happen. So, extra candy.

Extra extra candy. So, um, yeah, I'm I'm excited about it and looking forward to, um, seeing this come to life and looking at how, you know, reminds me of what we invested on Third Street and it made that area such more easier to get around and safer to drive. And I'm happy to see same thing happen to First Street. I'll make a motion to approve the recommendation for engineering design for the 2026 27 street sidewalk and right ofway improvements project. I'll second. Have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All in favor, please indicate by saying I. I. I. I. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Moving on to new business item number two, appointments and nominations to the Dare Housing Foundation. Um, I'm happy to share the memo or Donna if you'd like to speak.

Okay. Noticed I was trying to pass that off, but um formed in January 2024, the Dare County Housing Task Force included a range of local government representatives and other community stakeholders to identify, analyze, and address all facets of housing in the Outer Banks. Uh Mayor John Wley and senior town planner Ryan Lang served as the town's representatives. The task force completed and presented its stair county housing task force 2024 report housing for now and future generations which was adopted by that group on December 16, 2024. The work of the group has concluded and um kind of encapsulating this um uh I was very you know happy to have been able to serve on that task force since it was started. Uh, I think Deer County has a good track record of when towns in the county collaborate and work together. Uh, problem solving seems to happen at a higher rate and, uh, I could I can't ever let an opportunity go by not to recognize Donna Cre who's our president and our leader and all the wonderful work she's done and helping this come to life. But the task force has grown as um moved into the their housing foundation uh looking to solve more of our long-term housing problems. Um I will throw my name in the hat to stay on as moving from the task force to the foundation. I've been there since the beginning. I have enjoyed the work and I have a pretty good understanding and uh welcome a nomination if you all see fit.

So nominated. Okay, there you go. Second. We have a motion to second any discussion. All right. All in favor, please indicate by saying I. I. I. All right, Donna. We'll keep up our work. Thank you again. It's a it's a complex and tough issue, but I I feel like we're heading in the the right direction, and it's nice having not just the county, but you know, all all municipalities and stakeholders buying in. Okay. Next item on our agenda, committee reports. Nothing. Commissioner's agenda.

Not for me, sir. All right. Um, under mayor's agenda, I have three resolutions and proclamations to share. Uh the first is a resolution in opposition to proposed limits on the landing of blue crabs by the division of marine fisheries. Uh second is a proclamation honoring North Carolina veterans active service members and their families in operation green light. And last is a proclamation declaring November 2025 as Alzheimer Alzheimer's disease awareness month. I will make a motion to approve all three and welcome a second. Second. Any discussion? All in favor?

I I

All right. U do have a few more things to uh share. Uh dog day at the splash pad. Uh having three kids, two being under 10. Um I'm a frequent flyer at the uh Meakans Park splash pad. And October 4th will be our town splash pass dog day. So, the kids have had fun all summer. Time for the dogs to have their turn. At the end of our splashback season, we opened the facility up to our furry friends and let them play in the water. Uh, lots of pups and their owners got very wet, so glad we got to have that. It got a little chilly to do that now, but still pretty fun. Uh, the fire department had his open house uh event at our fire station last Tuesday. There were educational activities, wonderful fellowship, and also excellent hot dogs and hamburgers provided by our police department. Uh, Chief AC, everybody, thank you very much. Always a great time. Um, what else do I have? The historic homes tour and ceremony. Over 60 people attended the town's historic landmark commission's designation ceremony and homes tour this past Friday. I know Commissioner Hikens, who used to serve on the HLC, was in attendance.

And um, it was a wonderful event and you can learn so much about our community's history. So, anything to report? It was wonderful as always. Video was extremely well done. Sandy runs a top tier operation there. So, you know, you couldn't have mentioned that name at a better time. Really,

uh, early voting. The town again volunteered for town hall. The town has again volunteered our town hall meeting room to serve as a site for early voting for all of our Dare County for the upcoming municipal elections. Early voting will begin uh Thursday, this Thursday, October 16th. U uh on weekdays is this spot will be open from 8:30 to 5:00 p.m. November 1st on a Saturday 8:30 to 3 and election day is Tuesday November 4th. I believe there's only two early voting sites in Der County here and in Mantio. Um and then election day we'll have the normal municipal locations open all throughout Der County. Just a reminder to everyone the town is not involved in the voting process. If anyone has questions about voting, registration, etc. Please contact the Dare County Elections Office. I also take a second to acknowledge Sandy Marklin who ran this place like a fine old machine many many years for voting and we will we're so happy that she's moved on the larger responsibilities but she did a wonderful job keeping us uh this place a tiptop shape during voting season. Uh, one more quick thing. Mark your calendars for the upcoming right lights illumination at Aviation Park, which will be held on Tuesday, December 9th from 4 to 7 p.m. That's all I have. All right. Town manager agenda.

No, sir. Thank you. All right. Consent agenda. Yes, sir. The minutes from the September 8th, 2025 meeting, the August 2025 monthly report, budget amendment to carry over contingencies for the West Martin and Ocean Acres Drive drainage and rightway improvements, acceptance of property donations to the town, zero North Virginia Dair Trail, and zero West First Street. Um, approval of the consent agenda will record the board's approval of these generous donations of property and authorize the staff and the attorney to draft and execute any contract and necessary fees associated with the transfer of the property. Staff recommends approval of the consent agenda as presented and motion will be in order.

So moved. Second. Um, any further discussion? All in favor, please indicate by saying I. I. I.

Thank you. We have a consent agenda. All right. So, uh, now all right. Our board of commissioners is committed to our citizens and getting feedback. We set aside two public forums a year, which is slightly different than our public comment periods at our regular meetings. A public forum gives the board an opportunity to speak casually with the public on town issues raised on the floor. Exchange exchanges will not be time, however, to allow everyone to be heard. I reserve the right to wrap up a topic and move on to the next item. Anyone wishing to speak should stand, give their name and address for public record. No discussions will be made uh during the form. No decisions, excuse me, will be made uh during the forum. However, the board may assign issues to other town boards or committees or to staff for additional review or action. All right, that being said, um little more relaxed than public comment. If anyone like to discuss anything with us, we're happy to do so. uh please uh return to the podium name and address and and you don't have to live in KD gauge anyone can speak so uh floor is open go ahead I neglected to identify myself the first time I stood up here Jack Mcomes uh live on Bay Drive and I'm almost a 30-year resident of Gild Devil Hills and very pleased to be so. I want to talk briefly about the Air Force Space Force memorial to memorial

bicycle ride as it happened in the three previous rides. The Kill Devil Hills Police Department did a superb job and everything starts with those guys. uh if they were not successful, the whole ride would collapse. We had almost 300 riders this year. Next year, they're budgeting for 400.

But what I want you to do is think about what the Air Force Space Force plans to do in the future. They are determined, and I have absolute confidence that they're going to achieve it. They want to have many, many thousands up to 20,000 cyclists coming here and riding to the Air Force memorial every September about the birthday of the Air Force. Wow.

Um last uh this past September was the first year we started to uh camping offering camping for the cyclists. We know that we can't get into the thousands by relying on hotels. So, that is already underway. So, I think most of the cyclists in the years ahead are going to be camping. Uh, again, thanks to the town, thanks to Dana and the chief for the great support they've given to this event. Thank you. Great.

Thank you. You Anybody else? [Music]

Hello. I'm Mickey Hansen. I live actually in uh Kittyhawk, but I was told I could come here. Um I'd like to speak or ask about the um I moved here three years ago, so I'm not very familiar with a lot of things. two years I started playing pickle ball, which is probably a weird word for you guys. Um, my concern is not merely the locals, but how do we continue to get those that come during their summer months looking for a place to play and facilitate that for them? I was just in Virginia Beach this last week where they had a uh major tournament, the best players in the world, 44 courts. Um, I did a little research. South Carolina has a bunch of places. Wilson just built a thing. Um, I understand that 6% of the revenue or a lot of the money we use for beach nourishment and the firehouse and the EMT station, which is right down for me, the the small one, uh, comes from those taxes. Um, I also understand that now pickle ball, like it or not, is in the top five of what people are looking to do on vacation. Um, I understand that the age of the normal pickle ball is not 60 anymore. It's 35 years old. Uh, f first flight, I believe, is trying to get a club or something started. ECU, a lot of clubs and everything. And all I'm doing is trying to throw out, do you guys have any kind of plan or, you know, create facilities? Uh, we normally go to the rec center right down the road here. Um, I know Chairman Woodward was there last week. Uh, we have three courts at our disposal inside and there are, you know,

four people play at a time. So that's 12 with 20 people waiting to play. So there I think there is a need locally, but more so my concern is for those people looking to vacation. um if there's anything in the plans or any foresight that you guys are thinking to keep those people coming to this area because that really what feeds everything, isn't it? That's enough. All right. Thank you, Mr. Hansen. Um Debbie, I'll ask you, maybe Steve, how many pickle ball courts do we have on KDH? I know we have like the tennis courts at Mikas Park have pickle ball on it.

Yes. Yeah. Uh what other pickle ball resources do we currently have available if people want to use them? I think just just me by the town of Kable Hills. Means Field is our outdoor facility that has we don't have indoor recreation in Kable Hills. So when we redid Makansfield, we put pickle ball at Meakans and then the Dair County Parks and Wreck has indoor and outdoor facilities. All right. And can I just are you speaking specifically to indoor? Just curious.

Talking in general trying to get an idea if you guys have any feeling of what you got to take uh you know if these people can't play they'll go somewhere else. They'll go South Carolina stay in Virginia. They'll go elsewhere. It's getting to be a high priority. It's the fastest growing sport in the world. Um you know it's just something that uh people are looking to do. It's It's just going up the bucket list there. And you may or may not have anything. That's fine. I'm just, you know, it's it's Yeah, I understand this is a town thing and you're looking at roads and that kind of stuff. You can't keep these people coming and things get a little more expensive,

right? Um, this isn't for the town, but I do serve on the, um, Dair County Parks and Wreck board. So, um, I would maybe be inclined to direct you there. Um I know we just Yeah, we did just

they did complete a massive survey recently um and come up with a plan um for parks and wreck because um I think we could all agree parks and recreation for the county, not for Kal Hills, but for the county has fallen behind a little bit. Um that's something that that everyone is recognized and is aware of. Um and so the commissioners are right now considering uh where the money will come from and how the plan will be funded. It is a very hefty plan. Pickle ball is in the plan. So what I would say to you is to encourage, you know, reach out to your county commissioners and, you know, ask them to take a look at the plan and fund the plan with what your priorities are. There are a lot of priorities in the plan. I will say that as well because there's there's a lot that needs to be done for recreation. But that's county. That's the county part in me answering, not the town. So think the the biggest problem we have, whether it's town or county, is land. I mean, there's no land left in in this count. There's just not. So,

um, if if we want an indoor pickle ball facility, it's probably going to be an East Lake. I mean, that's just the facts. That's just the reality of it. Could I add on that? So, um, so I've been speaking with Commissioner Woodard about this and one of the things I suggested is Could you please your name? People at home can't hear you.

Yeah. My name is Steve Chow. I live in Southern Shores and we also have a house in Kildell Hills for Reynold. Um, so I've been speaking with him about it and what I recommended as because I wasn't aware of this recreation committee until recently or I would have gone to you guys. Um, at the at the Der County Rec Center, there are actually six courts inside, but four months of the year it's used for gymnastics. And I think if we could find another location where gymnastics could be permanent and not have to take their equipment down twice a year, put it back up twice a year, that would be a win-win for everybody because that particular program is very difficult to get into. They only allow I think 15 children and I know there's quite a wait list to get in. So that would solve two things. But the other thing is, and I think all of the count or all of the towns would be able to benefit from this, is we have schools in the summer that are essentially sitting there with gyms that have the air conditioning on. All you got to do is turn the lights on and we could utilize that during the summer because in the summer it's usually way too hot unless you play very early in the morning. Um, and obviously in the winter time it's too cold, too windy, you just can't play. I know that they're looking at 10 courts in Nags Head that are outdoor and we'll take anything we can get, but indoor facilities we have we have potential where we have schools that we could utilize in the summer and that would solve a lot of problems as well. And again, I'm not just looking at this from a residence point. I'm looking at it from uh tourism as well. And we have a rental house, so we would love people to keep coming. A question for you you guys about pickle ball. Is there any leadership structure among the pickle ball community on the

Iron Banks to maybe form a pickle ball league? I think about the First Light Flight High School rents out its baseball field to a a pickup I guess a baseball team in a small eastern North Carolina league. Hard ball. Yeah. It brings in it. it the space is used in the summer when the school's not using it. It brings in some extra resources and income to their county. Could pickle ball form a league and be able to generate some sort of revenue that could not just maintain that community, but also go back into the school. So, you could get in there and the schools could really benefit more from you guys going in that space to rent it from them.

They may be able to help you, but they they're going to want something in return. And I agree. I think that it is a very popular growing sport. It would just take a few dedicated folks to kind of put it together and it it could happen. But schools pay to use the facility. Correct. Well, it's m I mean it's maintenance. They someone has to open it, someone has to close it. The fee really isn't isn't that much. I mean there's many people that have that use the facilities. There's, you know, travel soccer. There's indoor soccer leagues that practice there. The the facility use is very minimal.

Kitty Hall Elementary School, my understanding is that there was a $300 person fee utilize that again. Yeah. But you know as far as a league or anything there's west side by Mar has a group there's a group in Corola Pine Island I don't know you know in this area you know some outspoken people as you may know but maybe not necessarily

Duck Woods has their own courts and a nice they have a nice group that play all outside Yeah. And my my concern was more not as many locals. You know, this this reminds me of Iceland. We got 35 37,000 people in this county and 300 that come every week or every day during the summer months. similar to Iceland, you know, we we got to figure out if if uh 10% or 5% or 1% of that 37,000 play pickle ball, we got to figure out how we get 1% of the 300 that are coming to look to play and keep them happy.

So that's that's the big picture that, you know, it's not the locals, it's how you keep these people who now looking to play coming down and right in their houses. Mayor Not trying to interrupt the conversation, but if people don't speak in the microphone, people are streaming the meeting at home things cannot hear. So, we just want to make sure that everyone can Thank you, Mr. Adele. Everybody got the message. Um, well, thank you. Thank you, gentlemen. Uh, anybody else like to speak or to that or something else? It's open.

You just know where to talk from now. So, I've been here a pretty long time. Yeah.

So, th this isn't really I guess it's just a comment. I'm on the board of ENR for Dair County and we've been getting beat up all year because of the evaluation and Dair County is tax neutral. I know Kilb Hills isn't. So, their taxes on my house, which is probably an average house, 600, whatever, um, went up 10% in Derek County and Kilob Hills went up 45%. So, I'm just curious if everybody's going up 45%, do we need that much money in Kil Hills to keep everything going? I know we got some new stuff, but I was just curious if that's the average or it just happens to be my house or so I guess I'm just passing along a little bit what I've been hearing for all year for the meetings we've been having and people coming in and I know the tax evaluation is somewhat I mean we did have an increase but we did

different houses were valued in different properties at different levels of increase. So the the more your value went up, the more steep some of those increases may have been. They've been going up average of 50 to even more percent. I mean, I've been seeing it every meeting. So I pretty much know. I don't know about Kila Hills. I'm talking about Dear County in general and I don't know what the other towns are doing. I just looked at mine and went, "Wow, it went up 45." I mean, the valuation went up that much. And I know the rates came down a little bit,

but it still went up 45% in Kil Hills. So that I was a little disappointed just so I'm just passing along to y'all what I've been hearing for for months on end. So anyway, yeah, I know it's it's tough. Some people's houses had larger increases in value and yeah, it it come back to bite us. But that's a tricky part of living in a community that saw values go up that much over the last six years. I think that's my point because I mean their county is tax neutral and I get the difference.

There's one up 10%. And they lowered their rate substantially so that theirs only went up 10%. If Kila Hills, they lowered the rate a little bit, but not enough to make it even close to what it was last year. Sure. I'm assuming I've got an average home in Kell Hills. Anyway, thanks. Might be more of a I was curious. Well, that's a it's fair point. It is tough pill to swallow. Uh but you know, opposite side of that is equity we've all gained in the last few years as well. So, uh

well, and I think also it speaks to the what we're offering as a town as well. And know I I mean I'm I'm with you. I had actually had so that I could answer questions, I had um staff figure out what mine personally was and what the difference was. And I think it I don't remember but I think it was 400 $400 maybe around there. It's it's 400 to 400 up for by 400 your your tax bill. Right. Right. Right. Right.

Not right. So, you know, and yes, it's significant, but for me, it's worth it to see a new fire station, a new, you know, so you planning forever. Yeah. Right. Right. That's not this year. We're not planning for that now. But we have things like sidewalks and you know that we've been great. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now, I'm just Makes you wonder. Mhm. Yeah. Anybody else?

Well, um I uh had a thought. I wanted to circle back on the ebikes briefly. Um and Chief, a question for you and maybe for AC. In the history of our town, have we ever had any bicycle patrols? In this instance, we can even have like an ebike patrol. Um because we do Bay Drive is a very very hightraic area for ebikes and e- scooters and I mean because it's like a electric vehicle commercial over there some such so many go through and maybe a a visible presence of someone along on our police department especially during those hours when schools letting in letting out could ride up and down and not just making sure everyone's playing by the rules but also educate and demonstrate like the right way to utilize ize these newer technology. Just a thought of have we ever utilized that? Is it something we could potentially look into doing on in future? I think because Jack, we did talk a little bit about the need to educate. We can make, you know, content to go on social media and go online and some people see it, but a lot of the people who utilize these vehicles may never access that. But maybe seeing some of our officers in action. Mayor, when I when I first started to go to Chip Klet's Out of Banks bicycles in the early 2000s, he was taking care of a lot of police bicycles.

So I called him tonight and I asked him, "Was Kil Devil Hills a part of that?" He couldn't remember. He thought they were, but he said, "I definitely had bicycles from the Nagad Police Department." Kittyhawk Police Department. He thought he had it to kill devils, but that kind of dried up and went away. Um, like it or not, I think eventually, and maybe sooner rather than later, the police department is going to have to consider putting some police on bicycles to patrol them to keep it the situation as safe as it can be.

Yes, sir. I will remind us of Mr. Odell's rule, but um because that was a great point and I but AC I'll turn it over to you. Dana Harris, assistant chief police.

Yes, we used to have a bike patrol years ago and with shortages and training required, uh we're just too short staff presently to put people on bikes. It's all we can do now to keep the guys in the car to wrecks breaking and enterings and other things during the day. We hope sometime when we get fully staffed and we had talked about starting it back up again, getting the training. Uh we matter of fact had an officer done to go check the bicycles to see how they were had were holding up to see if we need to repair them because we have them repaired on a regular basis. But until we can get fully staffed at this point unless somebody tells me different um we can't really put anybody on bicycles at this time. Okay.

And there is training involved. It's not just a matter of putting them on the the bicycle. We had some to school. They got to ride on mic bikes. How to handle an incident occurs on the bicycle. Somebody gets hurt. How to do that and how to defend yourself on the bicycle. And I chief I believe there couple weeks the school that they get to a couple weeks they have to attend and have to pass. And we have had people injured doing the training too. Wow. Would it be possible and and maybe this is already done for us to do a safety demonstration at the high school and the middle school? is that I mean that's

I don't see a problem who I see who could use a few extra words of safety. Um and and I know I mean I was at the high school a couple weeks ago and there's over a hundred ebikes really in in that I mean everywhere if one ebike falls in that area where they all park it's it's like dominoes and maybe it's already being done. And I just thought that go that would go directly to the source or at least some of it. So we have bicycle rodeos that we do at the middle school. Um the high school is a little more advanced. Um and

you know it's a different audience obviously. Yeah. Um, and they don't really care

about, you know, because right after Bri was killed at the stoplight back here. Um, we started or the school started enforcing, you know, helmets, you must have helmets on and then over time that kind of dissipated and went away. um you know, but we do do bicycle uh rodeos uh for safety uh such um and as far as the uh bike patrols, we still have the bicycles. Uh but as AC was saying, we just are short staff and you know, we um every time we take two steps forward, uh we take two steps back as far as staffing goes. And you know, it's a competitive uh industry out there as far as keeping uh police officers. So,

and like you were saying, you know, you have to be we have to have an instructor to teach uh police bike. And so now, you know, we're in the realm of is teaching bicycle how to ride a regular bicycle is that the same as riding an ebike and are we going to have to, you know, transition over to purchasing ebikes maybe? Um, so it's a it's a cost analysis that we'll just have to we'll keep a breath of. Thank you. But it's interesting to learn that it was something we had before bike patrol. Oh yeah.

Yeah. K Hills is a very bike friendly town, so it makes sense. There's a history of that. Well, um, last call for public forum. Anybody else like to speak? I actually have one thing.

Go ahead. Um, so speaking of crosswalks and bike safety, um, something I've noticed, whether it's when school is letting out or, um, whether I'm trying to cross the the street, but the crosswalks at the schools, there's three, I believe, um, people I mean, it happens on the beach road as well, but it particularly scares me by the schools. People just aren't stopping. they don't seem to be stopping as much anyway um as they used to. And so I was doing some research on it and found a couple studies and coloring having colored sidewalks actually reduces um accidents or potential accidents by up to 50%. Um and so I was wondering if that was something that we could maybe talk with towns about. I know there's been a lot of movement with the schools to sort of brighten up and spruce up the area. There's the new banners at the schools. Could be cool to our colors match the school's colors. It could be cool to incorporate some blue, maybe a blue white stripe or

I don't know. And it is allowed in the t in the state of North the state of North Carolina does allow it. There are some regulations. We're looking for it. Maybe it's something we can look at to draw attention just exactly. Yes, ma'am. Might that might wear off eventually too, but it would get a lot of good attention. Yeah. Stop to look. Right. Right.

Skip Jones. Um, a couple places like Hilton Head was one I noticed. You know, I think you were saying that the stop signs on a bike pass, they never stop ever. Yeah. In Hilton Head, they've got a thing said stop signs and it kind of lead goes into what you're saying about the colors. When you get to the end of the bike path or the path and you're hitting the road, it's on the it's on the path itself. there's some kind of different colors and stripes, but it says stop or whatever. But I think it seemed to work a lot better. And they got a lot of bikes in Hill. I mean, when I go down there for vacation,

we ride miles and miles. Even the beach, you can ride there. But, um, it seemed to work a lot better than the stop signs. Half the time they think the stop signs are for the cars. Yeah. I've had people actually yell at me because I didn't stop at one of the little stop signs. Another thing in Florida, but they've got it a little bit more expensive. And I brought this up. I'm on the streets committee, too. But they've got a thing where you if you come to a crosswalk, you push a button and then it flashes.

That is extremely communicative to to the drivers. And it's not like, you know, the people on the beach road, like you say, you know, we go all winter, you pretty much ignore it almost. And all of a sudden, summertime, you got to pay attention. And it's scary because one car will stop and they've almost got a flash of lights with a guy coming the other way. And the people walk across like that 5,000lb cars because it's illegal to pass. It's not going to kill them. So, but that that is a tremendous communication device. Kind of like the ones in Kittyhawk, which we've talked about recently, where the flashing light comes on before you get to the the stoplight. That to me, that is an incredible

Yeah. communication for the driver and it, you know, it sets you up that it's getting ready to change. And it's kind of a similar idea, I think, but it's something that's worth looking at. It's probably a little expensive, I'm sure. But I think there's solar type of things, you know. Anyway, a couple Curry talks got a couple of those flashy lights before the intersections that are I do find that handy, too. Yeah. [Music] Anybody else?

Hearing no takers. Um we will close this public forum and I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. So move, Mr. Mayor. Second. All in favor, please indicate by saying I. I. I. We'rejourned. Thank you, everybody.