Council - Regular Meeting

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Good afternoon, and welcome to the town of Surf City. At this time, we're going to ask Mr. Nathan Schwartz to come up, and he's going to lead us in a prayer. And then if you would, all please stand. And when Nathan is finished with the prayer, we will pledge allegiance to the flag at that time. Thank you.

Let's pray together. God, we are so very grateful to be here. And Lord, we just pray that you just continue to give good discernment to the town councils and all the directors. And we thank you for the opportunity to be able to, you know, flex and use our freedoms here in this republic to be able to demonstrate your goodwill. So Lord, we thank you for the opportunity to care for and express our love for our neighbors and all that's going on in this community in which we love so much. We thank you, Lord, for the relationship that we have with you as Christians and certainly pray that that would grow within others who don't. So, Lord, give us good wisdom. Help us accomplish your will here on earth as it is in heaven. And thank you once again for the great opportunity to listen and speak and be a part of something that really matters. So bless the town and the council and all that they've got going on. Give them your favor, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Thank you. And this time I'm going to call up a special young man. His name is Preston Benefield, and he will come up and lead us in our pledge. 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. Thank you, Preston.

Well done. Good job, Preston.

At this time, I'm going to call upon Ms. Sandy Monroe, and she will come up with our Beautification Enhancement Committee Awards.

Hello, everybody. This is a packed house tonight. so every month we award a beautification and enhancement committee award for the business of the month and the home of the month and to be qualified for that all you have to do is be nominated by one of your neighbors or friends in the community and what we're looking for are folks that do that little something extra out in their yard to make the curb appeal look beautiful it can be all natural it can be totally landscaped we pick a variety of things And same thing with the businesses, something that they do to make their business stand out and look really nice so that our community continues to look beautiful. So first we're going to do the business of the month and I'm looking for Salty Surf Shack. Do we have any of the managers? I understand maybe Candace was going to be here or anybody. If not, they will be there tomorrow for photographs. So if we can give them a round of applause. Salty's, if you don't know, is part of Salty Turtle Brewing Company, and they are now renting out the old Welcome Center up on the beach. So now we have a beautiful oceanfront deck where they bring music and full-service bar and everything to the downtown area. It's just a wonderful addition. for our home of the month we have miss margie streifert and i thought she was going to be here and have a friend with her oh here they are wonderful and she has a beautiful home at 9 48 broadway and we give her a nice round of applause hello miss margie how are you i said i wasn't going to say anything but xander told me to say something

No, I want to thank Richard and the Beautification Committee for this award. It is, I had it years ago. It means a lot to me. My yard is, to me, is my second love behind my family. I want to take, accept this award in memory of Gary Schwartz of Pender Pines. He was responsible for a lot of yards around here. Thank you. These are my great grandkids, Hallie and Colin Williams, and they're from Smithfield.

Thank you so much. Here is your certificate, and we will be by tomorrow afternoon to take some pictures.

All right, now Sandy will present the Surf in the City business and the artists.

Okay, I get to just stay up here. This month we have one new surfboard that is out in the community. Hopefully a lot of you have had an opportunity to drive around town and see some of these beautiful surfboards and take note of the businesses and artists that are contributing to making our space so beautiful around here. um this month we're honoring the rusty relic and um the the owners are larissa and nicole and the artist is uh keely i know i'm going to say this wrong seinbenthal and is keely or the owners of rusty relic here oh come on up please

It's pronounced Siebenthal. Seven valleys in German for anybody who's wondering. Yeah, Nicole and Larissa are busy building out their new location. They moved from DDT to a location I think in Holly Ridge, actually. But they support a lot of local artists, small businesses such as myself, who do a lot of handmade local artisan crafts. And this surfboard features all local sea life under the pier. Everybody takes pictures above the pier. And I was like, I'm flipping it. We're going under. And I remember the first time I caught a puffer fish on the pier. And I traded this kid a brownie that I had to get it off of the hook for me. Because I didn't want to touch it. Yeah. Yeah, so hopefully you guys get a chance to check it out. I probably picked the worst location to put it. It's like right by a bush, so it's like hidden, but I think it's fun. And there's some hidden shark teeth to try to find in it, so the kids should have fun with that.

Well, thank you so much. And if any business owners or artists are interested in the program, there's information online on the town's website under the special projects tab. And basically you get to sponsor the surfboard for three years and then you can renew it. You can choose any local artists that you like. We have some suggestions online, or if you know someone, you can ask them to work with you and reach out to us and we'd love to get you started. Thank you.

Thank you. Well, thanks again to all the business owners and the residents for keeping their place very nice and neat and clean, and for the surfing in the city. Surfboards, it's a great view around town to see the local art that we do have. At this time, on the screen before you is our hometown hero. And I'll let you guys kind of wonder who I'm talking about for a second. So tonight, we honor a man whose name is woven in the very fabric of Surf City, a man who just didn't leave our town. He loved it. He walked the streets and gave nearly two decades of his life as mayor. After being first elected in 1999, Xander Guy went on to serve four consecutive terms as mayor. In 2017, he stepped down when he was called to the chair of the ABC commission. Prior to stepping down as mayor, Xander's work throughout town was not unnoticed. He had many accomplishments. I won't go into all of them because we would be here for hours, but just to tell you about a few. He established the Coastal Communities Coalition that started discussion about the school calendar and how it affects its tourism in our town. He helped establish our town website, where citizens could access information readily. He worked with Pender County to obtain the land for the Cape Fear Community College. He helped obtain the community center on JH Batts Road and the grant funds to have it built. He was very instrumental in acquiring the land at Soundside Park and the public boat ramp, which we all use. He helped acquire the Nova Albury Parkland and the grant money for the restrooms, the playground, and the shelter. He has also assisted in the establishment of the Topsail Island Shoreline Committee. These are only a few things that Zandra Guy did in Surf City. His fingertips are on so much of what makes Surf City what it is today. He was also very instrumental in bringing Lowe's Home Improvement to the town of Surf City, strengthening our local economy and giving our community a resource that made every day just a little bit easier. And his vision reached even further down the shoreline. laying the groundwork for our beach nourishment project, a project that took decades in the making that no one gave up on, and it finally happened last week. We got approved and we got funded. He understood that protecting our beaches wasn't just about today. It was about safeguarding the very thing that makes Surf City for generations to come. It is my honor, not only as the mayor of Surf City, but as a friend of Xander Guy, to name Alexander Duke Guy as the 26th hometown hero. If you would, please stand.

I've never seen you lost for words.

Life is all about relationships.

I certainly made a lot.

And I enjoyed every minute. Many of you are familiar with the JC organization and in the line of their creed it says serves to humanity is truly the best work of life. How true that is, whether we're serving our God or whether we're serving one another. And I truly, from the bottom of my heart, enjoyed my service. And I'll sit here and talk to you for a minute. There was some humorous times, and my pretty wife was my best supporter. She put up with a lot of crap, too. And I've got my brothers here with me tonight, Bundage and his wife, Nancy, and my youngest and best-looking brother, Brian. But I tell you, at my house, if you got a call at 2 o'clock in the morning when I'd answer the phone, the first thing I'd say is, what did you blow? Because there was a lot of truth to that. But again, these people, whether you agree with them all the time or not, they got a tough job. They really do. Their job is to listen to the facts and then come up with the best solution that they know based on this man on the end who does a great job. They've got a good attorney on the other end. I like him. There's not many lawyers I like other than Dan Martin, and I think he's here. But be kind to them. There's no need to be rude and ugly just because somebody disagrees with you. Another thing my dad used to tell me, he said, a man and woman that don't disagree at home once in a while don't have much of a marriage. And that applies to anything and everything. But we live in a great town, and you people make it what it is. And I'm proud to be a part of it, proud to have been able to work with the other members that I had in making accomplishments that we made. No one person makes the accomplishments. It takes a team. So I say to all of you, thank you. Thank you to y'all. God bless you all, and don't call me after two.

I don't know if I said behind, I know I've said it before, but behind every good man there is a good woman and Sabrina Guy is that good woman.

I do everything she says.

I know you do.

Margie, you did a good job too.

Okay, we're going to continue on with this good spirit and I'm going to call up Dakota Cottle. and his family that are here. And I want to call up Russ and George and any other surfers that come out and surf with Dakota. Come on up and stand with him.

At this time, we are going to present Dakota with a proclamation.

And I'm going to let Trudy start us off.

Yes.

Whereas Dakota O'Connell, who grew up in the Surf City area and is a graduate of Topsail High School, who began surfing at age three, and whereas he has won several titles since 2015, including the 2020 Eastern Surf Association Junior Men's Longboard Championship, the Men's Longboard Division Champion at the Eastern... surfing championship in 2023 and the college longboard champion title at the 2024 and 2025 national scholastic surfing association east coast regional championship i know you don't even know that you repeat all those titles Whereas the town of Surf City proudly recognizes Dakota for his outstanding accomplishment in the sport of surfing and for representing his community with exceptional skill, determination, and sportsmanship.

And whereas on Sunday, June 14, 2026, Dakota Cottle earned national distinction by winning the 2026 NSSA National College Longboard Championship, a prestigious competition held during the National Scholastic Surfing Association's National Interscholastic Championships. at Salt Creek in Dana Point, California, and whereas this achievement reflects countless hours of dedication, discipline, and perseverance, and serves as an inspiration to young athletes throughout our community, He strived to pursue excellence in competition and in life. And whereas Dakota Cottle's success brings honor not only to himself, but also to his family, friends, and the entire local community, which it takes great pride in celebrating one of its own on the national stage. And...

And now, therefore, be it resolved that I, Teresa Beebats, the mayor of the town of Surf City, North Carolina, do hereby proclaim that June 18, 2026 as Dakota Cottle Day in the town of Surf City. And on the behalf of the town, I commend Dakota Cottle and extend sincere congratulations and the best wishes for his continued success in all future endeavors.

Pass this deck.

Well, I don't really know what to say. I grew up in Surf City my whole life, used to stay down north and then moved to Surf City, and that's when George over here got me into contests whenever I was nine. He was there from the first day I stepped foot on a board when I was three years old over at the north end at Topsail. And the contest really did change my life. I never expected it to go this far. It was more as a hobby and everything. And my parent, I got dad here, my older sister. Younger sister couldn't make it because she's working. If you want ice cream, get a daily grind. You'll see her.

Got my grandpa right here and my mom.

I couldn't have asked for a better support team than my family. They have provided everything for me financially since I was a kid. Still do. Couldn't be happier. Extremely blessed to have the family that I do. Also, with Mr. Russ over here, ever since I met him, he has been probably the biggest emotional support I have ever had in my life with surfing. He has always pushed me and believed in me more than sometimes I did myself. Couldn't ask for more than Georgia over here has always pushed me and told me, no matter what, that I could be anybody I put my mind to. And right now, it's kind of proven right. And yeah, I don't know what to say about everybody in the community. I know Daniel Blevins is back there too. I grew up with his kids, and he's always pushed me to go harder, told me I could never say I can't do something. So I'm just grateful because everybody in the community has always pushed me to go farther and always kept my hopes up even when I'm down. So I just want to say thank you. It's an honor, honestly. I'm glad to be from Surf City.

If everybody could come back. And if you could get everybody to do a Surf City Shaka with you.

Okay. Everybody Surf City Shaka. Everybody. Thank you.

Okay, now we have this is parks and rec month in Surf City. So we have a proclamation for our parks and rec department. So if anyone and everyone that is here with parks and rec, if you would please come forward.

We have a proclamation for Parks and Recreation Month. Parks and Recreation is an integral part of communities throughout this country, including the town of Surf City. Parks and Recreation promotes health and wellness, improving the physical and mental health of people who live near parks. Parks and Recreation promotes time spent in nature, which positively impacts mental health by increasing cognitive performance and wellbeing, alleviating illnesses such as depression, attention deficit disorder, and Alzheimer's. Parks and Recreation encourages physical activities by providing space for popular sports like hiking trails and many other activities designed to promote active lifestyles. Parks and Recreation programming and education activities such as out of school time program, youth sports, and environmental education are critical to childhood development. Parks and Recreation increases a community's economic prosperity through increased property values, expansion of local tax base, increased tourism, the attraction and retention of businesses, and crime reduction. Parks and Recreation is fundamental to the environmental well-being of our community and is essential and adaptable infrastructure that makes our community resilient in the face of natural disaster and climate change. Our parks and natural recreation areas ensure the ecological beauty of our community and provide a place for children and adults to connect with nature and recreate outdoors. The U.S. House of Representatives has designated July as Parks and Recreation Month. And the town of Surf City recognizes the benefits derived from parks and recreation resources.

Now, therefore, let it be resolved that I, Theresa B. Batts, the mayor of Surf City, North Carolina, do hereby proclaim July 2026 as Park and Recreation Month here in Surf City.

I just wanted to take a second to acknowledge the council, town manager, and the staff here with the Parks and Rec Department. We have a lot going on all the time, and we're thankful to be busy. We have summer camp going on at the school right now. We'll be back at the community center in a few weeks. July 3rd just happened. I don't know if you heard, but we had it at Soundside Park and went off without a hitch. It went very well. Lori's running our center eight days a week and making sure everybody's in order. And so a very big congratulations to the staff in Parks and Rec. And we're very thankful for the community and the support that we receive from you guys. So thank you.

Okay. Before moving any further, our attorney has an announcement to make. Brett DeSims, it's all yours.

Madam Mayor, thank you. Item one on your agenda tonight is the special use permit related to the dry stack. I imagine some of the people here are interested in that matter. Shortly before the meeting today, we discovered that while the boat slip owners um they were not notified of tonight's hearing okay they they may they were notified of the actual um neighborhood meeting by the applicant they the applicant notified the boat slip owners but the boat slip owners themselves were not notified of tonight's hearing the yacht club was and the yacht club is kind of the the entity that is adjoining, at least according to the tax maps. But just to make sure that everybody who has an interest in this proceeding gets notified and is able to say their piece. Of course, that's everybody here who wants to talk. But certainly those boat slip owners would be folks that we would want to have notification of this. It's going to be my recommendation that we remove that item from today's agenda and reset it on August 4th. which is next month's agenda. Notifications will be going out to anybody who received notifications last time, as well as to the individual boat slip owners. There may have been some confusion there because they were notified of the neighborhood meeting but not notified of tonight. Of course, the recommendation is because what we want is to make sure that this is transparent, everybody has an opportunity to have their voice heard before any decision is made. So that would be my recommendation, Madam Mayor, is to remove it from tonight's agenda when you adopt the agenda. I've spoken to the Yacht Club owner's attorney as well as the applicant's attorney. Both are very good attorneys and understand the legal need for this continuance. I'm sure their folks wanted to proceed tonight, and certainly I apologize on behalf of the town for any inconvenience that this caused anybody tonight. But we'll get it right. We just want to make sure that everybody gets notified before we have this hearing.

Thank you. So at this time, our attorney, Brett DeSelms, is requesting that we remove this item from the agenda tonight. Do I have a motion to do so?

I'll make a motion to do so.

I'll second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

All opposed, same sign. Do I have a motion to adopt the agenda as amended?

I'll make that motion to adopt the agenda as amended.

I have a motion. Do I have a second? I have a second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. Motion carries. This time, do I have a motion to adopt the consent agenda?

I, too, will make a motion to adopt this consent agenda, Mayor.

I'll second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

All opposed, same sign. Motion to adopt the consent agenda. At this time, we are going to move into public comments. This is not public comments concerning the rezoning. This is just, in general, public comments. So if you have signed up for public comments, Carla will call upon you to come up and speak. Peggy?

Peggy Arsenault, 288 Atkinson Point Road. Yay on the fireworks. You did a great job. I appreciate that. Being the 250th anniversary, I think everybody around here did a great job on the fireworks. So I wanted to thank you very much. We really, really enjoy everybody in the town. I've heard a lot of positives about it, so that's good. I also wanted to thank the fire chief and his staff and the police and all the people that have done so much work on the South Shore Drive house there. That was so sad. I hope they can get to the bottom of what the problem was that created it. Poor Ken next door had to go to work the next day to help him determine structural stuff or whatever. But I'm so glad that it didn't burn other houses. And I'm just like, yay for the fire department and town on that. So thank you.

Mike McCusker.

Mike McCusker, 1016 South Topsail Drive, Surf City, and a resident. Good evening, Mayor Batts, town council members, and the city manager, Mr. Brewer. First, I want to, again, thank you for the enjoyable professional job done in the safe observance of the 3rd of July fireworks for the town. BUT AS I MENTIONED IN MY SUNDAY EMAIL TO MAYOR BATTS AND TO MR. BREWER LAST FRIDAY AND SATURDAY WE ALSO WATCHED AS TOURISTS AND RESIDENTS ALIKE LAUNCHED HIGH EXPLOSIVE MORTIFIED WORK FROM THE BEACH AND ALL AROUND US FOR HOURS ALL NIGHT AND THEN THE SUSPECTED RESULTING DESTRUCTION OF THE PROPERTY AT 220 SOUTH BLOCK AND SOUTH SHORE DRIVE AND IT COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE AS SEEN IN THE SEPTEMBER 19TH INCIDENT WHERE SEVEN HOMES ALONG ATKINSON ROAD ENGULFED BY FIRE DUE TO CLOSE PROXIMITY AND STRONG SHIFTING BEACH WINDS Saturday night, I personally had to stop a local resident four doors down from my house firing high explosive mortars, rockets in between our houses right on 50 and South Topsail Drive. Our perception is not enough was overly done beforehand to prevent, deter, and then to enforce the protection of our town from this hazard. All it takes is one spark in a tightly packed wood home business due to wood homes and businesses with our normal dry and windy conditions to cause a major firestorm. Our officers must be more aggressive arresting, citing, ticketing those tourists and residents who are putting our town and lives at risk. I RECEIVED AN EMAIL FROM MR. KYLE WHICH WENT TO ALL OF YOU ALL IN COPY ON THE DATA OF THE ARRESTS AND I AM SURPRISED THAT OF THE 16 COMPLAINTS, NO CITATIONS OR ARRESTS WERE ISSUED DURING THIS WEEKEND. I ALSO WONDER Why didn't we as a town and our police conduct snap vehicle inspections the week prior to the 3rd to check for illegal fireworks coming onto the island? Why wasn't electric signage, banners, or social media posts put up early on stressing fireworks will not be tolerated and people will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law like we saw from Leland, Sunset Beach, and other North Carolina towns? This is not something to turn a blind eye to or this is not just let them have fun issue. So in just giving a warning isn't enough in this process. What if it's your house or business that gets destroyed? Can you really say that you have done enough to prevent it next time? You were all voted in or hired into your jobs for bold action and strong leadership, especially for tough situations like this, to step up, take action and protect our residents and not sit idly by and watch the travesty happen. We need to see real tough action and concrete numerical results, not just words from our town leadership and police force in the future on this critical safety issue. I thank you very much.

Hello, folks. Thank you for what you do. My name is Larry Rice. I live at 712 Cockle Street. I bring up an issue that I brought up 15 months ago. It is the multi-use path on JH Batts Road. DR Horton was supposed to be the company that installed that particular pathway. We have not seen in 15 months, I have not seen a shovel full of dirt turned. I know it takes a lot to do this type of thing, but 15 months I think is a little bit long for it to be dragging on for no progress whatsoever. There are multiple people that utilize JH Batts Road. You have a subdivision across the street that has 500 homes in it, 500 homes times an average of four people per home. That's 2,000 people. Out of that, how many people traverse to the skate park or to the community center by foot, by bicycle? Now mentioning bicycles, we have a problem with electric motorcycles, not necessarily electric bikes, but we have class three electric basically dirt bikes. I ride an e-bike and I traverse the bridge and I use the multi-use path. There is an ordinance in Surf City that says that no motorized bicycles are allowed on that path. A class three, I would say, should be in that category. Class two is a pedal assist and throttled bike that does not go over 20 miles an hour. A class one is just a pedal assist. I'm going to continue to ride my bike over that bridge. I've been a resident here since 1979. I think it's my privilege to be able to get across that bridge on a bicycle without having to get in the traffic that's on that bridge that does not do the 35 mile an hour speed limit. The bike lanes are not kept clean. I would not feel comfortable even riding a bicycle on them. So the e-bikes that are exceeding the speed limit of 20 miles an hour of the class three dirt bikes that can go 40, 50 miles an hour, those are being ridden by some young folks. And they are not being responsible. Their parents are not being responsible in teaching them the rules of the road. And that's really where it starts is at home. Mom and dad are buying them. I'm sure these kids can't afford to pull the money out of their pocket to be able to buy these bikes. So I think, I don't know what the answer to the question is or the answer to the problem is, but something's got to give. As I was leaving my driveway, there were six e-bikes going down my road, two of them on wheelies, and I just about backed into them. Before we have a travesty, we need to have something done about it. Thank you.

Thank you.

Beth Biet.

My name's Beth Biet. I live at 103B Blue Water Lane in Surf City. Dear Council, I'd like to address a few things here in town that I've noticed since becoming a full-time citizen last October. My husband came here a full year before I did, since he retired, and we've just noticed a few peculiar things about the town. We have owned our own house since 2015, so we were not newbies here. We're well-established, and we do not rent it out. Where do we recycle electronics? So I called the city and I was told maybe Lowe's would take a computer monitor, a computer, hard drive, or I could go to the landfill. Well, I called Pender County and I cannot go to the landfill unless I purchase a $200 ticket. sticker, which I'm probably not able to acquire since I live on the island and we have trash pickup. What do you want me to do with my electronics? Do you want me to just throw them away? Or is this something that maybe we can get a bin put somewhere on the land in Surf City to address that? Why do the town employees move the garbage bins back on the island to the houses? How do I get this service? I live on the island. Can I get this service too? Is it free or is this service something that the rental properties get because they otherwise would have their bins out in the road because the renters aren't going to pick them up? Does this happen twice a week, or I was just wondering who's paying for this. My life has become scheduled around tourists in the summertime. I cannot leave the island, and I live right behind the dry dock storage and make it up to Publix in less than 50 minutes. it just takes that long i know that but i do not leave my house in those weekends my life is centered around traffic the proposed boat storage looks nice on paper i have to say i think they did a great job on paper but we have to consider other places that could be located instead of bringing more people over the bridge in the summer to take out their boats in an already crowded channel And then they're going to come back in through the crowded channel to get into their car to go back over the bridge and to their home. It just doesn't make sense. There must be some land somewhere that is not on the island that is more appropriate for a dry dock. Also, Coconut Cove wants to add boat slips in the channel. If I was a tourist, I would say this is fantastic. I love boating up to restaurants. as we're seeing with Marina Joes. However, as a year-round citizen who has been here for 11 years and owns a boat, I think it's a really bad idea. Marina Joes already brings in a lot of people. The channel is narrow. The channel is shallow. It's, there's a lot of problems. Boats are going around. Our boat docks have been hit. The boat lift pylons, wooden pylons have been hit by people that can't control their boats in a narrow situation. The channel is a problem.

Thank you, Ms. Begut. Thank you.

Daniel Blevins.

My name is Daniel Blevins, 621B, North New River Drive-Thru City. So I'll say y'all killed it. Fireworks absolutely killed it. It was extremely impressive. Nothing but positive feedback from what I've seen. I know you guys had a hard time passing that budget. Y'all killed it on that too. You guys put a lot of good... good favor out in the community I believe from what everything that I've read you know it was a hard decision and you guys did that I'm here to eat a little bit of crow I know me and John have had a little back and forth about salty shack and the use of the building that's probably one of the best examples of working with other businesses their business model and what they did promoting other restaurants to be able to eat there and do good things that's phenomenal so I'm here to eat crow because I've been a I was a proponent of that and you know so I want to say that You guys make hard decisions all the time. Our fire department, police department, they did great this week. In the busiest times of the year, the fire department stepped up and really preserved a lot of damage. The police department, I don't think I've heard any complaints whatsoever. They've done phenomenal. Congratulations to Chief Voorhees, his retirement. So I think this will be his last meeting, maybe next meeting, but I wanted to say that. And the traffic on July 4th, obviously you guys have heard a lot about that. I know this is a NCDOT problem and this is something that they do, but I think that you guys as leaders have a little bit of at least input. It's horrible. Obviously three hours to get, you know, three miles is absolutely insane. It hurts businesses. It hurts the reputation of the Island. You know, they may make the rules and, and, and the ideas for the bridge, but they gave us a stoplight on a roundabout. You know, they gave us two roundabouts that are too small. You know, they've done bad the entire time that they have implemented this. They made the roundabouts bigger. People can make decisions easier. It's just they're too small, so by the time a car comes around, you guys know, it's too late to make that decision to pull out. There's what's called a zipper merge effect in Europe. where they have signs and it's a zipper. Everybody lets somebody in. Maybe that's something that they could try on the next experiment instead of shutting down our traffic lights and putting people in that aren't on the same page. So anyway, you guys are killing it. I appreciate all of you guys and what you do. So thank you.

Thank you. So it's not just a DOT problem. It is a Surf City problem, too, and a Topsail Beach problem, a Topsail Island problem. So I can guarantee you that there have been many conversations about the three-hour, four-hour wait on Saturday, Sunday, that is not going unnoticed. There was many conversations. Many phone calls today that were made to DOT. So it is definitely something that is being addressed. Before we do go any further, I just want to, I don't know if the attorney or Kyle wants to talk about the legislation on e-bikes that just got passed and how we are going to, Surf City now has authority to hopefully move forward.

Yes, I have this in my manager's report as well as an update on segment five of the multi-use path, Mr. Rice, and I took a note to give you a call if you did leave before that. It's up to you, Madam Mayor. I can go through my manager's report right now or just identify those two items.

You plan on staying the whole time? Yes.

We'll wait.

He's going to stay. He's going to stay, so we'll wait.

These other people get their business done.

OK, so we'll move forward to the public hearing was dismissed. The old business, there is none. New business resolution for the resiliency project. And I'll call up David Price, our utilities director, to present.

Good evening, Mayor, Council. This is an item, a project that you've seen many times before. We've been working on it since Let's see here. Look at my notes here. About 2020 is when we started going after these funds. We had been awarded many times because we kept on getting more and more funds as the project changed. We are now up to $6.8 million in a 0.01% interest loan with $701,000 of that loan forgiveness. This is the last act we need to accept these funds. The reason this came up is because the project is currently under construction, and we turned in a reimbursement request and realized THAT THIS IS A ITEM THAT NEEDS TO BE COMPLETED BEFORE THE FIRST REIMBURSEMENT. JUST REMIND YOU THE RESILIENCY PROJECT IS THE NORTH SHORE PIPELINE REPLACING THE 1960S UNDERSIZED PIPELINE WITH THE CURRENT ONE ALONG NORTH SHORE GOING UP GOING UNDERNEATH THE INTERCOASTAL WATERWAY BUILDING A NEW WELL SIX AND REHABBING WELL THREE. adding a much needed fire protection and water supply and About a thousand more gallons a minute per production Staff recommends approval to accept this money So you're asking us to accept six point eight million dollars, yes, please Okay, is there any discussion

OK, do we have a motion? It is requested that town council consider approval of the resolution as presented. Do I have a motion?

I'll make a motion to approve as presented.

I'll second. A motion and a second. All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

All opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Thank you.

Thank you.

Next item is the major site plan for Sugar Creek. And at this time before Jeremy, you can stay right there, Jeremy. But before you move forward, I would like to be recused from this site and the conversation if Mr. Brett DeSelms.

We just need a motion in understanding recusal due to a conflict.

Yes.

Yes. I'll make that motion to excuse the mayor from this proceedings.

I'll second. There's a motion and a second. All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

All opposed, same sign. I am recused.

Are you going to? Mr. Kennedy, it's your show now.

Carry on, Jeremy. Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, pro tem, and members of council, good evening. Before you is item P-266 is a major site plan for Sugar Creek MC LLC, located at 13884 NC Highway 50. This project is requesting approval of a 39,300 square foot commercial and office complex divided over two buildings on 4.1 acres. Property is zoned extended commercial. This project as submitted is a by right development in the C3 district. It comes before council only because it was required a traffic impact analysis and meets the major site plan square footage requirement of 20,000 square feet or more. Before you on the screen is the vicinity map noting the location on three parcels. I would mention that if this project is approved, these properties would be combined into one. His location on NC50 is directly across from Charlie Medlin and Batts Storage and is adjacent to the now High Tides and Good Vibes Entertainment Center and is directly adjacent to the Waterside Residential Development. The zoning map before you shows that the property is zoned C3 extended commercial properties to the north, south, and east. west are also zoned c3 with the properties on triton lane part of a planned unit development the waterside development to the east is zoned a multi-family cluster and again is home to the waterside community For you on the screen, part of your packet is the proposed site plan. Your packet has the entire site plan in its entirety. The project, again, proposes 39,300 square feet of commercial and office complex. One building is proposed at approximately 32,300, and the other is at 5,000 square feet. This project, as presented, requires 193 parking spaces based on calculated demand of the proposed mixed formulary mix. The plan provides 213, 20 over the minimum, plus required 20 bicycle parking spaces in compliance with the zoning ordinance. TRC has reviewed landscaping, including the parking lot screening, perimeter buffering, and interior islands, meets section 2.7.4 of the zoning ordinance. A photometrics plan will be submitted at time of the building person mental and that the development will also construct a five foot sidewalk along its street frontage with crossings and handicap ramps as required by ordinance. As I mentioned before, this project required a traffic impact analysis. That analysis has been reviewed and approved by town staff and NCDOT. Before you go on the screen, as part of your packet are the noted required improvements for this project, which includes two turn lanes on their two proposed accesses, internal constructed stem as required by NCDOT that's internal, internal stem length of 100 feet And it's a full width access. That's their primary access. The secondary access, which aligns approximately across the street from Charlie Medlin Drive, will advance a stoplight that has already been identified as part of the NCDOT 5900 STIP project. Because this project would come before that, DOT has put that improvement on this project. So it will come in advance of the 5900. A neighborhood meeting was held for this major site plan on March 5 at the Town of Surf City Community Center. Staff attended that meeting. It was well attended. The planning board reviewed this at their June 11 meeting. They've recommended, along with the TRC, approval of this request. Your packet includes the site plan, the TIA approval letter, building elevations, as seen before you on the screen, and neighborhood meeting information. Representatives of MAC Canada, representative of the developer and his engineers are in attendance. They, along with staff, would be happy to answer any questions that the board may have.

Traffic study. I get overwhelmed with the town with anagrams. Stem, what's that for?

That is the interior. Let's see if I can turn on. Stem length is the neck of the driveway as it comes out. So there's enough stacking on that driveway so it does not create a traffic issue internally to the site.

And you said sidewalk or multi-use path?

Sidewalk on this side of NC 50. If it were proposed across the street. It would be multi-use path. Actually, no, it wouldn't. I'm sorry. It would still be five foot sidewalk. Our multi-use path doesn't kick in until you're on the other side of 210.

Understood. Thank you.

And the drainage swell remains?

You're talking about the ditch?

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. We use technical terms here. Yes, sir.

No, sir. No, but yes. They are required a state stormwater permit, state erosion control, state NCDOT driveway permits. And they may want to talk into that because they will have some improvements that impact that swell. But that will be reviewed by NCDOT hydrology through the NCDOT permit.

And I noticed that. The exit doesn't exactly line up with Charlie Medlin Drive. Correct. There is no way to mitigate that.

They have exhausted every efforts to work with the adjacent property to align it perfectly with Charlie Medlin. So their proposal right now is what they call a positive offset with DOT standards in mind. So the light will function right there, but it will not create a conflict as traffic will not move against each other.

and or so it's not going to create a new safety issue correct so and that light will go into effect when they get their occupancy permits yes not before not before it'll go it'll be part of their it needs to be in place before their ceo is there any rp59 money going into any kind of uh i guess uh landscaping around that that new intersection or

Not that I'm aware of. There is a great deal of landscaping that this development will bring to that entire property line in addition to the buffering and interior that they will have. Any signage that they propose will have landscaping around it per ordinance. But as far as DOT's project, I do not believe in landscaping is within their project. Just to make sure I'm not aware of that.

I'll say as the R5900 project goes through project development, we would anticipate being able to review a 25% plan once that is developed. So if that's something that council is interested, we can certainly talk about that and providing formal comments from the town when that comes up.

that's where I was going with yours I thought it was four and a half percent but there's 25% is the first design that we'll see Thank You Kyle through the construction process

That's probably more my concern with Charlie Medlin and the amount of traffic you have coming in. Everybody uses that center lane to turn left out of there. And they've never had to compete with anybody needing to turn in the opposite direction. So is there a way to try to push construction traffic to the other entrance? Because you're going to have somebody's going to get in an accident right there.

You're talking about making the primary construction access closer to Triton Lane there?

Yeah, on the other side, instead of the one that comes right across of Charlie Medlin.

Yeah, the second entrance, not the first one.

But Miss Robin Austin, the engineer from McKim and Creed, I think she's prepared to answer that.

They do call it a suicide lane for a reason.

Well, I mean, I've had a business over there. So I'm in and out of that road every day, all day long. And I'm surprised we haven't had more accidents there already. So by the time you have large construction vehicles that are having to wait even longer to get in and out, it'll cause issues for the residents and business centers.

I'm Robin Austin with McKim & Creed, the civil site engineer. Our erosion control plan that we saw. Can you hear me now? The erosion control submittal for the state that was sent in shows the construction entrance on the other entrance. So our temporary construction entrance is what is called on here access to the one to the south or the one on the right, plain right.

Okay.

Thank you. So this backs up to Waterside. I know we've had issues with light pollution and stuff from lighting on the back end of other businesses. Is that something that's been discussed in plans?

It was actually discussed at the neighborhood meeting, and the photometrics plan will comply to town standards, which requires all down-facing lights. cannot have glare that cross property lines. And so when we get that in and review the building plans, we will make sure all the lighting fixtures. Jones Onslow will most likely design the site lighting plan. Their lights meet our standards, but we will work with them to make sure that it meets our standards and that light pollution does not occur into the adjacent residential. The proposed fence and additional buffering will also help that.

I would say that if you were able to... exceed our light standards without any additional cost, I think that would be a great thing. Sometimes even our steel. I'm not trying to put any extra burden. I'm trying to put a thought in your head. If it doesn't cost any more, let's go with the one that's controlled.

There's supposed to be a loading dock area. Is that going to be in the back there? There are two loading spaces in the back side.

Yes, sir.

Yeah, which is, that needs to be lit. So yeah, we need to figure out a mitigation for the folks in Waterside then.

Yeah, so I have learned over the years working with Jones-Onslow that their LED lights can be angled and easily taken. If done from the initial onset, they can be angled and that full backwards cutoff will be in effect so they don't cast backwards. And if not, then they can't use the Jones-Onslow, then they would have to find something that does meet our standard.

Any other questions? Discussion?

All right. It is requested that the board consider approval.

Is there a motion?

I'll make a motion to approve it as presented.

First and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Motion carries. Thank you.

Moving forward to our manager's report. Kyle Brewer.

Thank you, Madam Mayor and Council, and for all those in attendance and watching online, it's my pleasure to give a brief overview of some things happening within town. First and foremost, I just want to report on the Army Corps of Engineers Coastal Storm Risk Management Project. That is our 50 year beach nourishment project. I'm not going to break out in song and dance, Madam Mayor, but why not? But I am proud to announce that the town has finally received the information that we've been seeking for years, which is that the funding has been validated after going through the general revaluation process. This signifies that construction funding is in place and the long-term project funding will be introduced through the WERDA process or the Federal Legislation and Water Resources Development Act. Staff are working with the district on the project partnership agreement review as well as real estate certification. We're meeting with the core real estate office tomorrow to go over process post project partnership agreement and take the steps necessary to certify that portion of the project. Just wanted to update the Mecklenburg and North Topsail stormwater project. This was a difficult project just because of all the coordination. Staff did an excellent job at working with the community on this, even though there was some things that were painful with it, but it is essentially substantially complete. Staff will add native plantings to the bioswales or technical term of ditch. adjust a couple of walkways once the sod has been established and to work with the property owner to help restore some of the yard in which the temporary road was established, if you all recall that process as part of the project. The Charlotte Avenue stormwater project is out to bid. Staff anticipate reviewing submittals and awarding a contract with the anticipation that work will begin shortly after Labor Day. Both of those stormwater projects were grant funded and implemented using state monies. Our subsurface phase two project, contractors will begin construction of the phase two subsurface project at the BATS Recreation Complex in the next two weeks. This will include excavation and installation of subsurface chambers to advance wastewater effluent disposal in that location As a reminder, this is a dual use project where the project will preclude the phase two parks project, introducing two new multi-purpose fields at this location. If you'll again recall, we have submitted grant requests on the parks and recreation side of this project to dovetail following the construction of the phase two subsurface project, saving a lot of time money in site work, civil work that's being completed with the wastewater project into the parks and rec project. JHBATS MEP Segment 5. I agree it's been a long time. Just letting you know that we expanded the scope of the project to go all the way to the park. The initial scope terminated at Community Center Drive. With that, our consultant engineer had to go back to DEQ and amend stormwater permits that are already on record for the town's Community Center project. as well as the parks project because of the installation of the multi-use path. Coupled with that, the town is still required to obtain permanent and temporary easements for drainage and construction along that path. I'm happy to report we have all but two of those easements, and I've been in conversation with the property owners necessary to get those. So the two easements and the stormwater permit approval will get us to putting this project out to bid. We're just as eager as everybody else to get the project done to eliminate the safety risks in that area. It's certainly recognized that a lot of folks from Waterside use that path or that road to get to the park. and we want to have a safe access to the park. But it's working with each of those property owners because they have been very generous to the town in providing those easements necessary to get us to putting that project out to bid. Once it does go out to bid and we can award a project, It should be about a 90-day construction timeline. So we're going to be looking for that project to advance. It would be a quick project. There's some drainage work, some site work that will need to be done along that corridor, but we are anticipating that project to be done once we can get that to bid. But we are working diligently on it and trying to get through each of the project development milestones that we need to get to to get it out to bid. Well, one of our property owners is talking with their attorney on the easement. The other one we met with, he asked for additional information. We've gotten that back to him. So I'm going to try to push them as much as I can over the next week or two to have those signed and recorded. And then DEQ stormwater permitting sometimes is very unpredictable, but it's just a modification to those permits. So we anticipate that coming soon. I'm reluctant to tell you a date because I don't know my optimism is 30 days, but we'll certainly keep everybody updated and certainly reach out to me and I can give you those updates. Um, the Vitex program. So Michael Baker, who's the company name, not an individual, um, their staff continued treatment of beach Vitex on June 23rd through June 26th site inspections are planned for the week of July 13th to assess retreatment status. Additional treatments are scheduled for the week of July 27th. And we'll include any newly added properties identified by the towns as well as continued retreatments across properties in all three towns. You've heard me say this before, if you know oceanfront property owners that may have vitex on their property or they may not, but they don't know, please have them reach out to the town. We need property owner acknowledgement forms to be submitted so contractors can go on site to treat vitex. Vitex is an invasive species that provides for non-conducive root structures that don't benefit the dune system. It's a thick root, not a, typical dune grasses that kind of spider web out into the dunes and provide protections. So it's critically important for the long-term safety of our oceanfront, but we've had a hard time getting folks to respond to numerous requests for property owner acknowledgement, so our contractors can come in and treat that VITEX. Funding for this is a 50-50 match with the state, and all three towns are participating in this program, so we are certainly eager to see participation and address the VITEX. The CAMA Public Access Grant, Just letting the board know in public that staff is going to present a final grant application to council at your July work session in anticipation of a final grant application being submitted to the state by July 31st. So we ask that the board consider a resolution of support for that application to move forward. We do have Um, so partners with that to provide for, uh, the cash match. Um, so hopefully limiting, uh, the town's financial contribution in that project and providing public access and, um, uh, view shed of, of the area. and provide additional canoe and kayak launch, even though we do have one in Soundside Park that provides direct access to the intercoastal. It's a very difficult navigation for anybody that would be on a canoe and kayak, and this will provide opportunities not to just get in the singular channel that I'm sure will be discussed very heavily at the next meeting, but also to the marsh and estuary that sits behind the island north and south. State legislative activities, there's been a lot of movement in this session, especially as it pertains to local government, not just state issues. The first thing I want to mention is that the shellfish lease moratorium was not enacted in this session. However, we will continue to work on other avenues to advance the town and Topsail Island Shoreland Protection Commission's position on this matter. We were successful in our efforts to be included in being accepted out of House Bill 162, which prohibits local governments from enforcing parking minimums. So all 20 coastal counties became an exception of that based on some efforts that the town and other jurisdictions had put in there. But the General Assembly was trying to restrict local governments' ability to enforce parking minimums. So again, getting into some local issues on the state level. e-bike legislation seems to continue to move forward, allowing towns the ability to regulate e-bikes within state right-of-ways within our municipal boundaries. So prior to this legislation, we don't have authority to regulate e-bikes within the state right-of-way. With this legislation, we will have that authority. House Bill 1094, which is the NCDOT omnibus bill, has been approved through the House and Senate and was sent to the governor's office on July 2nd. So he has a certain amount of time to either sign or veto that bill. I would assume that he will sign it, but it does have some other controversial language in there about tolling ferries statewide that may not already have tolls on them. Our multi-use path committee has formed a ordinance subcommittee, and we've already met twice on this matter. One of our committee members, Patty, is in the back, to make some recommendations. We're proactive on this, be able to draft recommendations, and we will then prepare to present these back to council for review and consideration things such as speed limits of e-bikes levels or classes is something that would that we certainly can look at loitering on a multi-use path etc so just like to give kudos to our multi-use path committee for being on top of that and already considering these types of things so that we are prepared when legislation is approved to be able to adopt and implement regulations and will probably be one of the quicker towns to be able to do that within the state. We've kept our eye on this and knew what our limitations were with state right-of-ways. So it's a challenge for the community. It's a challenge for our police department. Education, engagement, and enforcement is typically our three E's in which we try to follow. I couldn't agree with you more, Mr. Rice. This starts somewhere else other than the town just enforcing regulations. So we have to work as a community, I think, to affect that. But it certainly will continue to be a challenge within our community, I would predict, for the forthcoming future. But e-bikes do provide a benefit, I think, for youth and adults, transportation alternatives, which as we have seen, and we're not gonna get into it this month, but as we continue to gather data, having alternatives to move around the island in certain times is certainly critical for our residents. And the last thing I wanted to bring up was something that was brought to our attention just today. So we have been made aware that somebody nefarious is getting into our permitting system, not on the backend of security issues, but there's publicly accessible information that you can obtain through, through the online permitting. So you can go and search building permits and whatever's happening online. which includes applicant information, includes applicant email information. Well, people are turning this information around to send what looks like a very legit invoice to applicants that have applied through the town of Surf City for building permits or land use approvals, et cetera, asking people to wire those payments to the town. And the town does not accept ACH payments for reasons like this. We don't even accept ACH payments from vendors that we work with. So again, it's not a security breach of the town by any means, but I just wanted to bring it up for people to be vigilant about this. The town would never send an email in this form requesting payment through any sort of wiring of funds, et cetera. Our payment process goes directly through our system, which is established through secure connections. We would call you. We would email you directly from a town email, .gov email. This is coming from a... at usa.com, I believe, is the secondary portion of this. So that one's new. It's been referred over to our police department, so they're aware of it, and we're putting up a notice on our website letting the public know. Ma'am? No, ma'am, we do not. So just wanted to let everybody know that, that we do have that going on and we'll be as vigilant as we can with it. And with that being said, Madam Mayor, I'm happy to answer any questions from the board regarding the manager's report.

Yes, sir.

The oyster moratorium getting shut down. I know it was tagged on with the continuation of the moratorium in New Hanover. Did that go through? Did everything get postponed?

No, the New Hanover County moratorium was extended through the budget bill. If I'm if I'm recalling correctly, it was limited to two years. So we're a little bit disappointed. But I guess, you know, if you're looking for any silver lining, the Carter County one did not get approved either. But what the town is looking at is Division of Marine Fisheries already has this area shown on a map that identifies it as being an area of conflict. So recognizing the density of oyster leases in the area, it's already shown, but there's no regulatory, anything tied to that. So that's the other angle that we're gonna try and look at. And again, it's really, if they would open it up everywhere, then the concentration most likely would not be just in the tops of sound area or stump sound area. So, yeah, it's a disappointment from our end. Thank you.

Our town attorney, Brett DeSalems.

Nothing to report.

Good news. All right, Mr. Andy Plow.

Oh, I get to go first. Okay. I just wanted to follow up. I know traffic was... Well, it's crucially painful this weekend, and I have a little bit of good news. We collected a lot of data, and we have some ideas, and we're going to run some analyses on the data that we've been collecting to see exactly where choke points are and what some of the perhaps the underlying root causes are. And there's another little bit of good news, too, is there will come a point in time later in July where we're going to shut everything down. In other words, there won't be guys directing traffic and there won't be a – well, there won't be a red light on the bridge. And we're going to collect data over a number of weeks so that we can compare with and without. So, nothing permanent is going to get done until we have all the data in, evaluate the data, and then come up with some logical recommendations on how to reduce the challenges. We're never going to have January traffic in July. I'm sorry about that. uh... and i experience it too so and at that the irony of the whole thing is that as hard as mister brewer has been working he himself had the three-hour experience on sunday so uh... he's well aware of what island uh... residents uh... experience uh... almost route to routinely during the summer months up uh... we have a uh... volunteer and he just left the room a jay and philly's an expert in in uh... discrete modeling and simulation. We're going to use the data that Mr. Brewer and the NCDOT have been collecting since May, and we're going to see what is the problem and is there and what is there to do to help at least reduce the problem. So we're not sitting on our hands. You're volunteering to be part of the rats in the maze over the last six weeks. Thank you very much. It was very necessary. You've got another four or five weeks of being rats, so I appreciate that help. With that, I'll stop. And John?

Yes. I'll start with Friday night fireworks, the event that we had at Sandside Park. I know we recognize Parks and Rec because Parks and Rec Month, but I'd just like to personally thank the people involved, Frank and Bella and Gabrielle and all their staff that was there that put that together because it went off without a hitch, as it usually does. But the good thing is there were no missing children this year.

That was a big plus.

Last year we had a couple missing children, and they were actually missing adults. The children were fine. It's the adults that didn't keep a good handle on them. But anyway, number two is the fire. Fire down on the south end towards Topsail Beach. I'd like to thank the fire department, police department, all the staff that Mr. Price was there. I mean, James was over there. Kyle was there. I mean, our fire department dispatched and got to that scene. an unbelievable fast time to secure the scene, prevent any further damage on the other two houses on either side, contained it as best as they could, which was an excellent job. I read a few things that were, you know, I mean, there's always, in a situation, there's always the good and the bad. You have the good people coming out and giving you praise, but then you also have a few people that try to find some fault or some sort of reason to complain about, well, they did it this way, this should have been that way. And quite frankly, when you put yourself in the shoes of a fireman, you can't really expect to be able to dictate how to do what they do. They know what they do. We have an excellent staff, highly professional, and they did a great job. And no loss of life, only one building. I mean, that's a big plus. I live on the street where, it was 2017, was it? 17, we lost six houses in 60 minutes. And fire department got there, record time. but circumstances prevailed and they couldn't go any further to take care of any other houses without risking life and limb so with that that's it for me and thanks for coming packed house tonight thank you john thank you

I hope everyone had a great Fourth of July weekend. If you've got your local knowledge, and everybody here is local, I'm not making fun of the traffic. I've been dealing with it since we've been here, too. Sometimes you just, if you know, you know, man. You've got to get your supplies on Wednesday and camp out until... Until the weather's clear, for lack of a better term. Again, Parks and Rec, the event, fireworks, wonderful. The fire department guys working their rumps off through the night. I don't know how many of our staff was up 24 hours or better. So keep that in mind that they're doing what they do, and they do it for you, and they do it for us, and they do a good job at it. I'll try to keep it a little short. Try to stay cool. There's a heat advisory coming. Stay in air conditioning if you can. Thank you.

Again, great firework celebration for the town of Sur City. Thank you, Mr. Almeida, for leading the charge and our flags on either side of the bridge. I know a lot of people had come and asked what the town was going to do. And you very graciously took that on yourself. And I think it was a beautiful display. And Mr. Koloski. Oh, he already got his time to talk. But no, with 250 flags on either side of the bridge, and I thought that was a great way to celebrate the 250th birthday of our country. I live in the neighborhood right at the fire, so I had... little bit more firsthand experience with that as a whole I watched all of the staff the first responders were out there not just overnight fighting a fire they stayed there all day the next day and through the next night to help divert traffic I took him some water we took him some snacks at one point just to tell them how much they were appreciated but To be there and see something like that, even after the fact, I mean, the home fell in on itself. And not just the fire not causing damage to the other homes adjacent to it, the fact that they were able to keep the structure from, during its degradation, doing damage to the adjacent buildings, just kudos to all of our staff. And the communication between Kyle and the homeowners and residents. there were people checking into the rental houses on either side of that home that couldn't get into them anymore. You think about people that maybe saved all year or years to be able to have a beach vacation to find out in the morning you're going to check in that you can't get to your beach home. Everybody did an amazing job, and our town does a good job rallying behind people when stuff like this happens as a whole. So just keep all those families in your prayers, and that's it.

Yes, all the same topics we keep bringing up, which many of you talked about tonight, too, and we appreciate that. So we do greatly appreciate when you come here and you spend your three minutes when you call us, when you text us, when you email us. I know all of us talk about how we're available, and we really sincerely mean that. I'm happy to meet anyone for coffee or come to a meeting early or whatever or stay in that chat later. But really, that's how we – if we're going to truly do our job, that's how we're going to know what the public wants and thinks. We do hear both sides of the stories of all these different topics, but it's very valuable for you guys to be here, so thank you. And I also – with that being said, I think our – town department of providing information on email and on our website and things like that, or on our social media and all has been just phenomenal this year. We have a social media plan each week of all the things that we feel like we need to get out to y'all. And and I really encourage you to go to the town website and the town social media pages to get your information instead of just maybe reading it on some of the other pages first and going with that. We work We work a lot. A lot of our time is spent trying to help y'all find the right information and decipher what you may have heard or read somewhere else that we don't even know what you're talking about. I don't want to be like that, but yeah, but sometimes I don't know what anybody's talking about because it wasn't anything that was official or truthful. Friday night was fantastic. I can speak for myself that I, at the park events, I think get better and better and I enjoy them more and more as they've been coming along and, think the staff has just done an incredible job of meeting the needs of the community and coming up with some wonderful ways to celebrate and to get together and to the shopping of the sound and all the little events have been great so And we do talk about the fire a lot. And I live on the same road, not as close as Alicia, but live on the same road. And I just commend the fire department. I think a lot of people were certainly grateful for their response and how they handled it. We always want to find the best practices to tackle these emergencies. And so I trust that our fire department is recovering and also evaluating their performance and I hope we can spend some time congratulating them and thanking them. And then, like I said, there's always going to be some time that we might say, well, what if this or what if that? But I don't think that we're too egotistical that we won't spend time wanting to do that for the better of our town and evaluate that. And so I love to hear, you know, what we learned because there's always more training needed. There's always more equipment needed and there's always different employees involved. And so I just have a lot of faith in the organization, the fire department and the police department for how they handle things. And we have to make big decisions. We talked about that tonight about providing what we can from a budget perspective. And so that was a lot of discussion this year of what we could provide the police department and the fire department. So I know they'll do well with what's been budgeted this year. And then traffic, I was just going to comment. I'm on the island, too, and I kind of agree with some of the folks who say you kind of make plans. And I've lived here for over 20 years. But, yes, the weekends I just tend to enjoy my neighbors a little bit. And we hang out in the yard and we just don't drive anywhere. My husband and I make it kind of a challenge of see how long we can keep our car in the driveway. And we bike and walk everywhere. And so that's kind of fun. But I think that's it. It's always been a beauty of living in a really beautiful place and walking over to the beach or finding a park nearby or something like that. And so I kind of get excited that everybody is jealous that we live here and they want to come and visit it too. So I don't know. It doesn't bother me as bad, I guess. But I did get stuck in traffic too. I mean, I know, you know, I... there's times that you do have to get out and go places and I agree it's not it's not like this all year round and there's a time that comes when the offseason comes I am so ready for everybody to go home and leave and then when after it's been kind of quiet for a little while I'm ready to see some of the tourists again too so I enjoy all the the yin and yang of that but um thank you for being here tonight um so

Yeah, I could go back and forth. And I do want to because I don't want to leave out some people. So, you know, thank you to Parks and Rec. You know, you did an amazing job preparing the park looked great. Our streets, our flower beds, everything. I mean, I could go down to every department. So, the Parks and Rec, the utilities. Thank God David Price gave us water. Thank you. Not just because we're thirsty, but to fight the fire. Thank God that we have that water. We have that pressure. To James Horn and Ashley Riffle. James, please.

Emergency management. Stand up.

He puts us all together. With the fire department, the police department, the IT, the parks and rec, he flies those drones. He's been looking at traffic on drones. We're getting so much data. The guy sitting back there in the corner, his name is Chris. That's Chris. And he does an amazing job. We just opened up our utility facility. Utility facility, wow.

Just up the street here.

it's true but um you know i look out and i say a lot of a lot of people that live here some of you come here on weekends some of you live here full-time tim tim yeah tim yeah He has helped us for years. He lives in Topsail Beach. He's helped us with the Topsail Island shoreline protection for many years. I'm going to talk about that in just a minute. But I just want to say thank you. Cal Brewer puts in an amazing amount of time.

You just don't know, over the last

Five and a half, six years, Cal has been going back and forth from me to Washington because our board has supported moving forward with beach nourishment. When I say it's redundant, I mean, we just beat it to death until we're like, hey, when we went back, when we went in April, we were standing in front of Congressman Rausser and the senators. We went, me and Kyle got invited to the Pentagon. When we got there, we're like, what's happening? We're going to the Pentagon. And, you know, then we went to the Office of Budget and Management. I mean, at any minute, we thought maybe we were on candid camera. We didn't know if a big check was going to come out. But it was different. When we left from that meeting in April, it was a different feeling. We felt like hey, this is finally going to happen. Trudy was with me last summer when we were out on the beach with the general of the United States Army Corps. He said, this is going to happen. Just give us a little bit more time. Give us a little bit more time. I talked a lot about turtles. She did.

She did talk about turtles, and he liked it, too. He didn't know any of it, but we have a lot of information to share.

So last week when we announced that Surf City was moving forward with, that we had got approval and funded. David Rauser's office, we got a call from Washington. You've been approved. And you've been funded for a 50-year project that Surf City has been working on for 20 years. If you live here and you pay parking, if you're a visitor and you come here and you pay for parking, you're helping pay for this project. You pay ad valorem taxes, you're help paying for this project. Visitors that come here and pay accommodations tax, you're paying for this project for an investment on Surf City beaches. We may not see all of it, but our grandchildren will. My grandchildren will see it, and hopefully their children will see it. It is sustainability. It's being resilient, and that's what we're planning for. We have been planning for 20 years. We have been saving that $0.10 you know, for many years, from accommodations tax to the paid parking. Thank you. Thank you to our local, our state, our federal that have seen us get through what is going to be the largest East Coast project, 6.5 million yards of sand. So there'll be a new dune with a 50-foot beach in front of it. from line to line, from the south end to the north end of Surf City tail lines. So I can't say thank you to everyone that has participated in this project. So we are very blessed to see this moving forward. Unless anyone else has something to say about the project? Does anyone else have anything to say?

I was going to say something because I am one of the beach coordinators for the Topsail Turtle Project. So we have the island divided up into five areas, and I manage one of them. I manage the area from the Surf City Pier to the Topsail Beach line and manage all the volunteers. So we're talking 300 volunteers that probably more, whatever, because we've got volunteers at the hospital too. So just a ton of people who work every morning with the turtle nesting season and hatching and all. And that's what I do every morning at 5.30 in the morning. And a lot of people who spend their time and energy protecting and conserving our marine life here. And so that's been something that people reached out to me a great deal about, asking how is this going to affect our turtles. And I just want to let you know that Kathy Zegsewski – such a hard time saying her name terry meyer and all the people at the turtle hospital have been involved in these conversations so this is not anything that's that's being pushed for at a national or you know federal and state level or federal and local level that they haven't been a part of but the truth is if we don't do this project we're we just we can't even keep doing for the turtles what we need to do. And we have a state requirement that we only relocate 30% of our turtle nests now. Sometimes they're laid really low on the beach and we move them up on the dune. Topsail Island in general, we're moving more of our nests than any other area in the state because we don't have any good spaces for them. The turtles don't come up high enough and they don't know where to go because there's just no dune and all that. So anyway, in the long run, I know that it's going to be challenging while there's there's renourishment going on while it's turtles nesting season and such. But Topsail Beach has dealt with that before. This is not a mystery to us. And so I want people who have a big heart for our our nature and our wildlife here to. please be assured that we've got a lot of plans for handling that. I mean, it's not going to be pretty. It's not going to be perfect. But we know it's necessary. So I hope everybody understands that.

Thank you. Yes. So it's a huge investment. It not only gives the turtles a place to lay, it's going to protect the oceanfront homes. It's going to protect the road, the infrastructure, the water and sewer behind it, the second row homes, protect tourism. It's going to continue to do all of what we want it to do for many years to come, hopefully. And with that being said, we're going to make a motion to adjourn. And Chris is going to play the song that we put together for our beach management. All the communication that we've had over the last 20 years has been put together in a little song.

Everything you said was in the song.

And it's called Sand Money Honey. And so we'll make a motion to adjourn. After that, you'll feel free not to sit and listen to the song, but if you want to, you can.

I'll make a motion to adjourn. I'll second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Cue it up. Cue it up. Cue it.

Thank you.