Board of Aldermen - Regular Meeting

Hello, I'd like to call to order the September 2nd, 2026 meeting of the Board of Aldermen of North Topsail Beach. Would everybody please silence your phones? I am silenced. And I would like to ask Mark to do the invocation, please. Please stand.

Please remove your hats and bow your heads. Bless this town and may it remain a beautiful and friendly place to live. We pray that this board makes fair and informed decisions this morning. We also pray that our police officers, firefighters, EMS, and members of our armed forces here and around the world remain safe as they risk so much for our security. We also pray that our town be spared the ravages of hurricanes and other natural disasters and that everyone associated with the town remains safe and secure. Amen.

I would like to ask for a motion to approve the agenda. Motion to approve the agenda. Do I hear a second?

Second.

Any discussion? And just to remind, well, I guess we'll go to the consenting general. All right, all in favor? Aye. All opposed? No. Okay, organizational meeting. So it is time that we swear in. The latest alderman. Fred, if you would come up here, please. Take the oath of office, please.

Repeat after me. I, Alfred Fontana. hi alfred fontana do solemnly and sincerely swear do solemnly and sincerely swear that i will support the constitution of the united states that i will support the constitution of the united states that i will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the state of north carolina that i will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the state of north carolina and to the constitutional powers and authorities which are or may be established for the government thereof and to the constitution and authorities of the powers that may be

Thereof. Which may or may be established thereof.

And that I will endeavor to support.

And that I will endeavor to support.

Maintain and defend.

Maintain and defend.

The constitution of said state.

The constitution of said state.

Not inconsistent with.

Not inconsistent with.

The constitution of the United States.

The constitution of the United States.

To the best knowledge of my abilities to help me God.

To the best knowledge of my abilities to help me God.

And I think, Lexi, you need to stay up there because we have to have Stephanie come up.

Fred? Get me the trophy up, Fred. That's my bad. All right.

I Stephanie Dollinger I Stephanie Dollinger do solemnly and sincerely swear do solemnly and sincerely swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the state of North Carolina that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the state of North Carolina and to the constitutional powers and authorities which are or may be established for the government thereof and to the constitutional powers and authorities which are and may be established For the government thereof.

And that I will endeavor to support, maintain, and defend the Constitution.

And that I will endeavor to support, maintain, and defend the Constitution. Of said state. Of said state. Not inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States. Not inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States. To the best of my knowledge and ability, so help me God. To the best of my knowledge and ability, so help me God. Woman in power.

All right, so the next item on the agenda is the formal, the former interim manager's report. Thank you, Mayor. Larry, we talked about this yesterday. Thank you again. I know that the board's very appreciative of, and I'll comment once again on, thank goodness you were with us through that budget process in dealing with the state.

That was fun like a root canal, Mayor. Um, uh, really, so, um, uh, this, this, uh, being my last, uh, report, um, I share it with profound appreciation, uh, working with, uh, the mayor, all the persons, the staff, the community, and the warm embrace that I felt throughout my tenure here with the, with the town. So I'd like to highlight a few items from a written report that I've shared with the board, uh, touch on community events, vacancy, and some admin administrative activities and projects. First off, um, community events. I'd like to elevate to the board's attention. Just a reminder, September 7th, uh, is labor day. Administrative offices will be closed. September 11th at 0 8 4 6 ceremonial commemorative stair climb at St. Regis hotel. Uh, or, uh, it's, I'm sorry, hosted by our own fire department and September 22nd, 6 PM, a hearing, uh, involving the, uh, draft environmental impact statement for the terminal groin and nourishment. This is a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hearing that we've been tasked with hosting and supporting and assisting. And I'll touch a little more on that a little bit later in these remarks. personal vacancies uh... actually it was a vacancy a building inspector position we have filled uh... individual by the name of john cassidy uh... his start date is the twenty eighth of this month we're happy to uh... be uh... looking forward to welcoming him uh... stephanie and staff and i collaborated on this recruitment and uh... it's been a uh... long arduous path to get to this point uh... a number of of of items and challenges that we've dealt with inspection area so we're we're really happy to see this uh... this position get filled uh... some administrative activities insights like to just elevate or or remind the board that parking ordinance continues to be in draft form. The parking committee took up the matter last, I believe on July 31st. We made some refinements to the draft policy. It's been shared with our team of town attorneys. And I believe it's been edited, and I would anticipate that it will go back to the committee for another look before it comes to the board for consideration. I mentioned a little bit ago about the Corps of Engineers public hearing. Again, this involves the environmental impact statement process for the terminal growing. We learned on August 19th from an email from Emily Hughes with the Corps of Engineers notifying us that a hearing would be conducted on the 22nd, 6 p.m., here in Chambers, North Topsail Beach. to hear the draft EIS. We expect that Dial Cordy, Steve Dial with Dial Cordy will present the preferred alternative for the terminal growing construction with beach nourishment and inlet management. In support of that hearing, our staff is responsible for securing a stenographer, recording the meeting, transmitting a list of adjoining property owners to the Corps of Engineers for public notification, and I understand that has happened, and subsequently posting the Corps' hearing notice on our homepage. during the meeting and then following the meeting uh dial courting uh steve steve dial will be responsible for preparing responses to the public comments heard at that session and the ensuing 45-day comment period afterwards so that's a long time in getting here vitex treatments a brief update About a week and a half, two weeks ago, learned from Michael Baxter, International MBI. Mr. Drew Powers reported the treatment had progressed. They plan to revisit a number of properties that were noted to have medium to heavy infestations and to monitor the retreatment status. The information gathered during the monitoring stage would guide MBI's subsequent treatments during the week. It would have been about a week or so ago. And they plan to do additional retreatments of properties in this month and conclude the project or conclude this cycle of treatments in September. So we expect the project to be closed out later this month. And there will be some site inspections and a final walkthrough and a report that that I'm sure will be shared with Stephanie. And comprehensive compensation study. So as a reminder, we published an RFP July 14th. Proposals were due August 21st, and to my surprise, we received 18 proposals. I would have checked the block success if we got five. We got 18. and oh shucks we got 18. so there's 18 proposals we get to go through score rank and so forth and i've recommended to stephanie that a panel staff panel be put together myself her and alexi to score the proposals and um rank them and determine whether or not we would interview them and subsequently to what degree to involve the board, whether to interview some or we bring a recommendation to you. And that's something that Stephanie will sift through over the next week or two. Let's see. So yeah, 18 proposals. I was very happy for the town. You will have options. Briefly, town hall improvements. Doesn't the front of the building look great? PAVERS ARE IN. I MEAN, THE LAST TWO, THREE, FOUR WEEKS IS ONGOING CONSTRUCTION PROJECT. PAVERS ARE DONE. EROSION, I THINK, HAS ALL BUT BEEN MITIGATED. NEXT STEP, NEXT PHASE IS GOING TO INVOLVE ADDRESSING THE DECKING, AND THERE'S SOME EFFORTS AND INITIATIVES THAT WE GO THROUGH. STAFF WILL GO THROUGH SOLICIT QUOTES. Maybe some redesign. That's not clear right at this point. It'll probably be a big number, and that big number will be brought to the board.

Just before you leave that, I was surprised having to run into Chris on two things on that. One is, on the side there, we're going to have to put rip rock or something. He's going to rebuild that. but the second thing that really amazed me and I wasn't here, apparently that decking and stuff is from when the original building was built, not when it was rebuilt after the storm. So that stuff is 30 years old. I mean, I was shocked. Yeah.

Yeah. And there's, uh, there's some, there's some work, uh, or our organic staff will be, we'll be doing, um, you know, rip rap is some of it. And, and then probably once the decking is done, some, you know, dressing up landscaping and so forth. But, um, The next big step is the decking. Thankfully, Stephanie will be on top of that one. I think that concludes my remarks. Yes.

I had a question. With the new building inspector, is this person also going to be doing code enforcement?

Is that part of it? Probably not. That's not necessarily a building inspector function, but that could be something that Stephanie and Deb talk about maybe expanding. All right.

I was curious.

Quick question on the compensation study. I know we don't have a crystal ball and we can't see the future, but for our staff and everybody else, timeline, six months, eight months before we would end up seeing any results?

I would paint the picture, expect about six months.

So that's something we can look at hopefully before next year's budget.

I would urge that in negotiating the contract with the firm that that that be a major issue.

I just don't want our staff to think we're kicking the ball, kicking the ball, kicking the ball. We're trying to grab it and run with it and take care of them the best we can. Thank you.

I mean, we have money for the study in this year's budget. Yes. But I don't think that we have money in there. No, we did. We put extra money in there to implement it as well. Yes. What? Yeah, there was an extra $150,000 in addition to the cost of this thing. Yes. But Mark makes a good point. It would be nice for us to know we approved the budget, what that number is going to be.

I just want our employees to know that we are actively pursuing this and pushing it so that they're not in limbo so that they can make decisions with their life.

So, Mark, are you saying when we go to award this, we give them a timeline for the study in whatever contract award we do?

To me, that's up to the board and the town manager, but I just want to make sure that the employees know that we are actively pursuing this and not another year and another year and another year.

Yeah, I think that's part of it. Part of the equation is that we're going to want a definitive timeline so that we can have some deliverables and probably do a final presentation to the board. with the company that we decide to go with.

In the RFP, we structured that expectation. I think we used up to 180 days, but that was just to kind of frame the conversation. Ultimately, as you all have already mentioned, it's what's in the final contract.

And now... The new manager's comprehensive report on her first day yesterday.

Yes. So as you know, I just started yesterday. So it's been a great 24 hours. And I wanted to thank the board and the staff and everybody for being so welcoming and helpful to me within these 24 hours. And I really appreciate the support as I get to know the town and get to know all of the systems and the projects better and everything. So I'm very much looking forward to that. The next two weeks, I have a lot of meetings planned. Larry's been great with setting up a fantastic transition plan for me. I think we have a meeting with the four towns. I think that's next week. The Onslow County officials. I'm going to be going to that meeting. I'm going to be meeting with all the department heads. Talk to Deb and Brady this morning. I'd like to be toward the town a little bit, see everything with my feet on the ground and my own eyes. So I'm going to be working on that. Still have some onboarding stuff to do. I'll be moving into my place this weekend, so I'm looking forward to being fully acclimated as soon as possible. And just looking forward to getting to work. I have a lot of ideas. I'm very excited, and I'm very grateful for the opportunity to be able to serve the board and the town. And I'm very happy to be here. Thank you. Thanks. All right.

All right, open forum. Anybody signed up?

Yes, we have two sign-ups. Up first, we have Sean Scanlon. I'm so sorry. And on deck, we have Jeff Meyer.

Hi, my name is Sean Scanlon. I live at 142 Segal Lane. Good morning, Mayor Grant and members of the board. I'm here today to ask the town to consider two traffic calming measures in our neighborhood. Speed humps on Segal Lane and stop control at the intersection of Segal Lane, Gunnery Sergeant D.W. Boatman Drive and New River Inlet Road. I'd like to focus on the traffic data. the town's own safety findings and practical measures we can take to reduce vehicle speeds. North Topsail Beach has changed and the numbers show it. In 2017, NCDOT measured approximately 4,800 vehicles per day just north of Town Hall. That was a 43% increase from the traffic level used in the town's 2009 plan. Growth continued. North Topsail Beach collected just over a million dollars in accommodations taxes in 2018 and 19 by 2024 at a grant them as 2.4 million. That's 134% increase. Commendation taxes are not a vehicle count, but they provide an indication of the growth and visitor activity. Our community and road support the town September 19th, 2025 crossroad inspection report identified Siegel lane and new river inlet road as a critical priority one location. The report found 7.3 miles of North Topsail Beach's main roads without designated crosswalks, including densely populated portions of Island Drive and New River Inlet Road. For Segal Lane specifically, the report described the area as a high-demand residential quarter with dense housing on the sound side. The town has therefore already documented pedestrian safety concerns at the entrance to Segal Lane. I'm asking the Board to consider the related issue of vehicle speed, both within Segal Lane and at the intersection of New River Inlet Road. Within Segal Lane, we are asking the town to evaluate properly engineered speed humps. Speed humps are an established traffic calming measure that provides a consistent physical mechanism for slowing traffic by nine miles per hour. At the intersection of Segal Lane, Gunnery Sergeant Boatman Drive, and New River Inlet Road, we're asking the town to request that DOT evaluate appropriate stop control, including whether stop signs are warranted for traffic approaching the intersection. DOT has already reviewed and indicated approval of the same intersection for a proposed crosswalk. We believe it makes sense to consider pedestrian access and vehicle speed control together. The request is straightforward. Evaluate speed humps on Segal Lane and pursue DOT traffic control review of the intersection at New River Inlet Road. The town has already identified this as a priority one pedestrian safety location. I'm simply asking the town to take the next practical steps to slow traffic and make the area safer. Thank you.

Up next, Jeff Meyer.

good morning jeff meyer 2224 new river inlet road unit 138 i personally have brought this up with one of our fellow aldermen and i know it's been spoken on before why can't we use our marquee to announce the various town meetings we did at one time i mean the planning board the board of adjustments and obviously the monthly town meeting, I think we may get more attendance if we were to post it on our marquee. And I can't see that costing the town anything to do, and it may be a way to improve our attendance. That's all I have to say. Thank you.

Just to clarify, what we do here is we don't, the board doesn't respond back. He's talking about the sign, yeah, which we've talked about as well. We can, using it for other things. So it's something you might want to take a look at. Okay, so it's already in the planning stage. Thanks.

That concludes our open.

Public presentations. Is Fran available? Morning.

Morning. Welcome. Welcome back Alderman Fontana and congratulations for the new town manager and we'll be meeting here soon. I will just get into my presentation. Okay, so here we have the September 2026 update for the North Topsail Beach. Just an overview of the shoreline. There's a little over 11 miles of shoreline that North Topsail Beach occupies. There's five different phases that have been historically designated 20 years ago. Phase one up near New River Inlet, phase five down near the Surf City town limit. As you can see, there's nourishment activity planned or just recently occurred pretty much on the entire shoreline, whether it's a beach nourishment or a dune project or the beneficial use project that the Army Corps of Engineers does. Back up to the phase one shoreline right near New River Inlet, The US Navigation Dredging, they did put out the bid package for the New River Inlet shoreline placement where it is the dredging of the AIWW and maybe sometimes it's the channels to Jacksonville, but it doesn't look like it right now. It is just the estimate now is just a straight up, oops, sorry, straight up 100,000 cubic yards of material. You can see in 2021, they're pretty much right at that. 2023, there was a 163, and you can see that was really nice. There's obviously a huge difference between this is out, they got halfway down the Topsail Reef condos, and they got a nice big wide beach down there. And then you can obviously see the 77,000 didn't even make it to the Topsail Reef condos. So you can see there's a significant difference between that 77 and that 163 on that shoreline. And, you know, the town, the board, Chris Gibson, we've consistently tried to get them to maximize this placement. And we just, we haven't had much luck with that. And obviously there is a little bit of a, they are trying their best to get this material But there's just not a wealth of material in here like some of the other inlets. Also with this one is related to the Camp Lejeune Marine Corps. When we met with the Marine Corps and the Army Corps back in July with Larry, The Marine Corps did indicate that they are going to bring in larger ships, 100-foot ships, ships that need the 12 plus 2 intercoastal waterway depths. And this is Mile Hammock Bay right in Camp Lejeune. They are going to use this placement area, but I do think a lot of this new dredging will ultimately end up using Disposal Area 143. So obviously that is, you know, they will probably try to use this a little bit, but using DA 143 for the non-compatible beach material, it will happen. This was just the most recent state shallow draft dredging project update. And as you can see back, as of July 1, there was 82 million. I looked at it and it says it doesn't include a million for aquatic weed. So it is about 81 million. currently available, which is, you know, obviously this is the money that the town is going for for that the DEA 143 project. So it is a good indicator that, you know, there is this much in there. And then for, this is related to the Marine Corps and the Marine Corps, this shoal in Cedar Bush Cut has always kind of been a problem where there has always been, navigationally, it's been a problem. And the Marine Corps actually coordinated with the navigation branch of the Army Corps. And they have started dredging this little area. They use this, the sidecaster dredge. It does the inlet. It comes up here. And it might be quarterly where it's doing that now. That is a good thing for navigation. And then for, you know, town residents, just water users in general in the area and just in the counties. Here's the latest surveys from August and July. Here we have, you know, the DA 143 that everyone's familiar with by now. And we have, you know, this is the material that will be dredged and put onto the beach here this winter. This is that area that did get dredged, but this is part of their inlet dredging, which uses that side caster dredge that, you know, just puts the material, you know, to the neighbor's yard. But, uh, So this is just kind of an overview of it. And this area is always kind of difficult to navigate as most of the board is aware. And obviously the water does get very deep right along the shoreline as the board is also aware where this is, you know, swimming risk, you know, pretty significant swimming risk as most inlets are. We'll just go over some of these older projects really quickly. This is that Phase 5 project. It's still holding up well. It was a beach and dune project. This is that Phase 4 project just south of the highway as soon as you get on. This was a couple years ago. The beach is holding up well. This is beach and dune. And actually, you can see kind of new, you know, pioneer dune vegetation growing out, which is a very good indicator that this material, you know, that the dune growth is expanding seaward. Here we have, I'll let Chris Gibson, I know he's talking later, he will give you the update on DA 143. There has been some progress in this. It is kind of a slow process, but most of these permitting and government agency projects are on the slower side. But this will be kind of the largest nourishment in North Topsail Beach history. you know, up to 1.9 to 2.6 million cubic yards. It will be a very significant, it will build a lot of beach and really help the town get kind of ahead of that erosion, especially up, you know, up near the phase one, phase two, phase, you know, the phase three is getting some benefit from that, the phase four nourishment. But yes, the phase one and phase two will really need, you know, just a full on beach nourishment. We have been doing a lot of dune nourishments. And this is kind of related to the Cobra stuff that when we're dealing with recovery from FEMA projects and that we're allowed to do dune restorations, but we can't do engineered beach restorations in this area. And here is the most recent dune restoration that is up in phases one, two, and three. This was just completed last spring, and the planting was done this spring and summer. It basically began right where the houses begin, near the County Access 4, and then all the way up to the Topsail Reef condos. There were a few spots where the dune was was healthy enough and we're not allowed to bury vegetation. So there were one or two spots where we did not place material and it was just a permanent restriction that we could not do that. The dune sprigging was completed with their turtle nesting and I'm sure Mayor Pro Tem will give us an update on the turtle nesting later. But obviously the turtles do enjoy this beach habitat and the nourishments are helping. keep this beach habitat good turtle habitat. I just keep bringing this up just to keep it on everyone's radar. The State Inlet Hazard Area proposed update. This is one of the State Coastal Resource Commission. This is one of their elements that they keep bringing up. The existing one is here and it stops right at the, you know, basically it doesn't even include the Topsail Reef condos. And now the proposed one gets all the way down to the St. Regis. So it's a lot more, Inland Hazard Area is more difficult for permitting, for state permitting. It is, it just, you know, just it gives you a few more hurdles that you have to cross to uh to do things uh and i know there are a lot some communities you know usually are generally not happy with this expansion in the inland hazard area but uh you know and there are some implications to it that that can make it a little more costly to to permit beach activities and some upland stuff as well uh just to hit back on the Larry, this is kind of the more of the major kind of update is that the draft EIS environmental impact statement for related to the terminal groin will be this month. The planned public notice will be, you know, a couple of days from now. And so that will be the public notice. Then there will be a 45 day comment period after that. The public draft EIS meeting will be at town hall. on September 22, I will be giving a presentation there and I will be there with Dial Cordy. And I think even some of the board was around when we were having some of these meetings back in 2018, 2019. So it is good to finally get this started up again. And then I know in the Coastal Resources Commission has groins and, you know, harder structures, not just terminal groins, but even groins in the Middle Beach have been kind of a recent topic. And it's obviously, groins are very controversial. For these public draft EISs, a lot of times opponents will come out a lot, but I do encourage Proponents of the project to also come out, because a lot of times the opponent, the people opposing the project really come out and make themselves heard. So we really do want those people who are for the project to also come out and make themselves heard. It does help with our process. Phase one, we'll get up to 100,000 cubic yards this winter. The bids will be back here, I think probably at the end of this month. And then the other things are just kind of just wrapping up these FEMA projects. There's lots of forms and things we have to hand in afterward, you know, just to get that reimbursement. DA 143, that's ongoing, and Chris will give an update on that here later. And then I'll just continue working with the North Topsail Beach staff regarding funding, accounting, reimbursement for FEMA projects. Uh, you know, the hazard area comment, and then, you know, obviously just permitting coordination and we'll just continue to kind of monitor her cane activity as well. And so that is my presentation.

At 1 comment, and then when we ask people for questions, Chris, when you're doing the update on yours. What he just talked about with 143 and the fact that it looks like they are going to use 143 is inconsistent with what the state had represented to you. So that might be something you want to tie back in in your presentation. So questions, Mark?

I think that's the question I was going to ask is your statement was that they are going to use noncompatible sand and put it on 143 and how that will impact What's the timeline? Are we going to have our job done before they bring the non-compatible sand into 143?

Just real quick, he'll address that, but 143 is full. They have to empty it. We would have to empty it before they could use it.

I just want to make sure our timeline is good and the viewers listening at home may have heard the same thing I heard. That's a lot of information to digest, and thank you and Chris for...

keeping it going straight for us but uh to people listening at home and me included the biggest thing i heard was non-compatible sand on 143. yes that is and i i'm assuming that the the marine corps with their you know 100 foot ships that need you know 12 plus 2 depths uh need you know aiww minimum depths i i'm assuming that that will continue If they all of a sudden pull back and say, no, we're only doing the amphibious ships that draft six or four feet or whatever the amphibious ships do, the landing craft, then it would change. But assuming that they're going to keep bringing in those larger vessels, they're already trying to dredge Mile Hammock Bay. And Mile Hammock Bay is incompatible material. They're putting it upland in the Camp Lejeune disposal area for now. But that's obviously the only one nearby that they can use at this moment. There are other areas of the AIWW and even in that area that there are non-compatible material. And DA-143, if it is available, they are going to use it. So there is no, you know, there's no concrete future use of it yet. But assuming that everything continues the way it is, it's pretty much inevitable that they will need that upland disposal area. And also assuming that my Heimlich Bay, I'm not sure about the management of that upland disposal area on Camp Lejeune, but I would think that if DA-143 were available, that would be the closest and the cheapest, the most economical option And that's usually what the Army Corps goes for.

I think Mark's point's well taken because the answer to that is if they want to use it, they have to empty it first. And so you can't use it unless you empty it. So, Kip, did you have anything?

Yeah, real quick, Fran. When we were talking before, I had asked or proposed, was there a way we could have them, you know, dredge that main channel just off the beach, just a few feet to give so it's not such a big drop-off? And I see that one of your slides has the current conditions, you know, with the dark blue really close to the shore. And we were hoping, you know, I don't know how much impact we actually have on their you know, proposed, but if we could recommend, because of the hazards that are existing up there, we have new signage, but to show that we're doing everything we can to address the safety up there, if we could tell them, hey, you know, can you move it off the shore, you know, another 6, 10, 15 feet, because you have a lot of space that they could dig out a little bit farther, you know, again, as a layman, I'm hoping that maybe we've at least relayed that to them and if it could impact them at all, you know, to at least enhance the safety up there on the north end.

Yeah, that's a tough one. But that area that you're mentioning is naturally deep, and they don't even have to dredge it. So assuming that, you know, obviously the change between the oceanfront regulations and the inland regulations, you would have to put some sort of, like, Well, one of the options would be put like a training dike or, you know, like a groin out there to push that channel, that deep channel away. Well, right now with just, you know, the hydrodynamics of that area, the current, the really deep area, the core looks at it, the navigation guys say that's plenty deep. We don't need to dredge it. And they just, you know, go to the outer shoal and dredge that. And so, yeah, they have really, there's no plans for them to deal with that really deep water right next to the shoreline where, you know, obviously where all the fishermen go and everything.

Thank you.

Thanks, Fred.

Next thing, I'm going to ask for a motion to approve the consent agenda. Do I have a motion?

Motion to approve.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Okay, and let me just explain to our new town manager. The way we do this, we generally won't pull something off the consent agenda, but what we do instead is, for example, if Laura's got a question for one of the staff, they will come up here and she can address it that way rather than pulling the whole agenda item off. So that's kind of the way that we process that. So do you want to start, Laura?

Yeah, I have a question for Chris if he can come up. For me? Other Chris. No, other Chris. Okay.

but don't go anywhere, Gibson. Good morning.

So I believe it's beach access 18. Is it the one that I, that I alerted you guys to? So for the community in that area, um, we found loose steps, loose boards. And then when you all took a look at it, it was not in good shape, right?

Yes, ma'am. That's correct.

Okay. And so for, folks in that area because it's cordoned off now you can't use it correct all right and the plan for that is oh we've currently reached out to vendors soliciting bids we're waiting on those responses and once we have them i would bring them to the board for presentation okay and that one um deteriorated so much and was not inspected. My hope and goal is that as we move forward, we'll get on a regular inspection of these before we have the steps fall apart like that one.

Yes, ma'am. We currently do have a regular inspection schedule. We go through them quarterly. The issue, especially during the peak season, is keeping up with the traffic on those crossovers. Both fortunately and unfortunately, access 18 was one that was identified that would need full replacement. We were just trying to hope to get it through this season and provide the public and access to the beach without cutting it off. And unfortunately, we didn't meet that threshold.

So for the community, is that something we can have done before next season? Is that on the schedule?

Yes, ma'am. My plan is to, for beach accesses and sound accesses, is target the off-season months to do the big projects. And anything else we can do in our department, we'll take care of.

Okay, perfect. Thank you. Yes, ma'am.

I have something for Chris. Anybody else got something for Chris? Go ahead, Mark.

Well, since you're up here and... Alderman Malcolm and I, we went to the Jumpo meeting the same day as the Planning Board meeting while we were there. We were informed that there's a transportation alternative program, and they are looking into Beach Access 2 to provide the crosswalk similar to that at Splash. That crosswalk is on their agenda. They assume, you guys know, dealing with state and government, it hasn't happened until it's happened. They plan on picking it up during that project with no local match and then after that's done Hopefully they'll be able to get beach access one on their agenda with no local match So I know we've already approved you to do a lot of crosswalk work and your report showed that that same information I'm sharing I'm trying to get out to the public and the viewers and that's why I attended the planning board meeting and presented that material as well and so that we don't spend $70,000 of our tax money that possibly can be spent by the state and the county. So thank you for your efforts, and we'll discuss some other things in the future, dealing with trying to slow things down on Seagull.

The big news up on the north end, obviously, is a lot of the signage, the new signage that you have up there. Yes, sir. It's gotten a lot of great reaction. Can you speak just briefly on the implementation in any future or ongoing work that still has to be done, just so everybody is aware of it?

Yes, sir. So the first chop at it was taking a look at the current signage and trying to remove as much of it from the elevation up there as possible to – Ease the traffic in terms of getting them the right information and emphasizing which information is most important so we flatten that signage topography up there and brought a lot of it down to the cab height level for vehicles that are entering the beach. And then we place two large signs on either side of the access with flashing beacons relaying that information. And then also along with that, as you traverse a river road extension, you'll notice on the left-hand side, there are culminating warning signs, basically adding to the narrative as you get further down the beach to where by the time you touch the sand, you've had iterations of warnings. So the only things left right now, we're still working on the solar panels charging for those beacon lights up there. Sometimes overcast and inclement weather will affect their ability to charge. And then we're repositioning a few of the English to Spanish translated signs to where we've got them on both ends of the beach. And then we'll probably end up putting one or two down by the high water line straight out onto the beach to where it's all right there for you when you enter the access.

Thank you.

Yes, sir. Before you leave that one, is that something you could put together as a PowerPoint for the county? Because we're working with them, as both chiefs knows, on doing stuff on the beach. I think that would be very helpful because I'm not sure they're aware that we've taken those steps. Yes, sir. And I've invited... Tim Foster the chairman of County Commission is going to be here for October meeting So that'd be a very good thing to talk to him about because I know they were they've been working with us and with the fire chief In terms of what we can do on the on the beach. So nice job. Thank you very much.

Nice job I Did go down there and saw all the signs drove around then walked around and actually took some pictures to to combat some of the things that were on social media. I appreciate all the messages you have. All the new signs have the circle with the line through it of don't swim. And in Spanish and English on some of them. You did a really good job. As far as I really wish we didn't have to have all the signs, cause it really takes away from the natural beauty of the area, but my goodness, we had to do something, but thank you so much. You did a really great job.

My question is the, the parking lot repair. Yes, sir. You and I were laughing about this. I know this is in your report. There's a lot of confusion about what's being done at Peters Park. It's not a parking lot. That is the drainage program that we've got the $1.2 million grant to increase the drainage there. Eventually, they'll be able to park on it. But I keep seeing emails from people saying, why are you fixing the parking lot? We've got other things. And the answer is, it's a drainage project. So you want to give it up? I saw it's in your report, but you're if you give us just a quick update Chris.

Yes, sir So we actually just had the monthly update meeting here in chambers about a week and a half ago The the parking lot that they started on as you're facing the town park is the left hand And they've actually got the the wall poured and they've backfilled with the the subgrade That'll look a lot. I don't want to say exactly the same but it'll look a lot like the front of our building now with the permeable paver system and Um, and then the intent behind that is it's a gravity fed system that will double as the town parking lot. Um, so it's kind of two birds, one stone, so to speak for that project. And then once they finished that left-hand side, um, they've actually, uh, requested to start on the right-hand parking lot, uh, sooner, uh, something we got to work out in terms of looking at, you know, visitors and the seasons, if it's, if it's an option, but, um,

It's just like I said, I don't know why there's confusion because it's actually in your report And it's in the finance report too that tracks the fact that we've got the grant for that So it's not town money. It's I think a million million to does that sound right? I think it's a million to grant that we got for the project. So anyway, thanks for clarifying that I know we talked about that yesterday Yes, sir. I know you got a chuckle out of it, but it's not a parking lot program. It's a drainage issue. Yes, sir with the grant emails either

Real quick, for those at home and for those here, I just want to reiterate what Connie said. You're dealing with a north end parking lot signage. You're dealing with a town hall drainage parking. You're dealing with a town hall. drainage here while trying to keep the grass cut the beach access is clean the garbage done the beach access decks done and this is an off season you guys are doing it during season so from the citizens and from me thank you very much for what you do and you've been using some inferior equipment while you've been doing it so thank you guys thank you very much questions for any of their staff that are here okay

Now, we've had a motion to second. All in favor of approving the consent agenda? I have a motion to approve the consent agenda. Second?

I'll second.

All in favor? Aye. Thank you. On this one. I've asked Lexi to give us an update on candidates openings and So I don't mess up the process again the process Lexi so So the process is fairly simple The board was given the applicants a

applications at the last meeting, or two meetings ago, I believe, 45 days ago. And we decided to table it until the next meeting, or 45 days later in that subsequent meeting, so that any alternates were able to apply if they wanted to. in that time we did not receive any additional applications so the board still has three remaining positions on the planning board open for full membership the board currently has three applications presented before them the board has the authority and it is their discretion to appoint any or all of these applicants um and anybody can make that motion

So just to clarify, so the board could make a motion to basically just say we appoint all three?

Yes, you could hypothetically do that. So we could do all three at the same time for three positions? I could make a motion to appoint all three applicants presented today to the planning board as full members, yes.

And just as a matter of... protocol, I have contacted all three to make sure that they all three are still interested in serving on the planning board. So we don't make that mistake. And all three have, have answered in the affirmative that they're interested in. So do I hear a motion?

Um, again, thank you to everybody that has put in for that. Uh, Mr. Mayor, I moved that Terry ward, Douglas winters and Teresa Hardy, uh, be appointed to the, uh, planning board. Do I hear a second?

I second.

Any discussion? All in favor?

Aye.

All opposed? Welcome.

Good morning. Mr. Ray has requested to continue his request again until October. So I can either proceed with the report

I would, I would just move it. Yeah. Since I think we've afforded him several continuances and it's not an inconvenience to us, I would move to continue this matter to the October board meeting or whenever he decides to put it on the agenda again.

Right. Any discussion on that? Just reviewing it. The only thing that came to my attention was the letter from camera for the variance was dated April 2nd and it expired 90 days later. Is this something that will be an issue when they represent or not?

I'll look into it and have an answer prior to. Good point.

Thank you. I would recommend if the board is going to table or continue this item to continue it to a specific meeting date instead of an open-ended tabling.

My only question on that, though, is how many times has this been continued?

This would be its, I believe, third continuance.

I mean, is the other thing basically to say... Do we have to continue it or can we just say?

The board has the authority to hear this item now. The board has the authority to table this item and the board has the authority to continue the item. If the board chooses to table or continue, it is my recommendation as clerk that you table it to a specific date rather than open-ended. Same with continuation, but it is at the board's discretion to hear the item with or without the applicant present.

Okay. My only question for you is, and I know you can't answer this, I don't have any problem continuing to a specific date, but I'd really not to have this happen every month. We do the same thing on the agenda and continue.

Can we have a, for a specific date, can we say no later than, like no later than the November meeting or the December meeting, or would you want

You hypothetically could, but just so that it is a concise motion, it's clear for minute purposes. I would prefer the board say a specific meeting. Okay.

I'd like to make a motion to continue Deb to the November meeting, giving you a chance to check.

Well, currently I have a motion from Kip on the floor. Until his motion either fails. I can withdraw my motion. Okay. There we go. Thank you. Continue? Sorry.

I'd like to make a motion to continue this item to the November meeting, giving Deb time to check on the CAMA.

extension since we know now that that was 90 days and now expired so here's second and that's for november 4th i will second that yes any other discussion all in favor thank you thank you the other chris the skinny chris

How are y'all doing today? I was asked to come and do an update on the DA-143. Since it's all permitting, and y'all have seen all pictures, and Fran had great pictures, everything. I didn't bring all of that. But here's where we are, and we brought this up at the BISAC meeting the other day. We've been in communication as we've gone along with this process. You know, we've hit some roadblocks. particularly with North Carolina Wildlife Resources taking over management control for the state of DA 143 and not particularly wanting that island disturbed. They made a recommendation to the state. We have been looking at how we work around that. Since it is a site that has a federal easement for uses disposal, we've been working with the Corps of Engineers to either say, hey, we want to rehabilitate this site, We've looked at two options with them. One was, could they go ahead and grant us the consent since they have an easement on the island to do whatever they want? Or would they be willing, if we had to, to do it as work for others, meaning that we would pay the Corps of Engineers and they would do it as a project, which wouldn't require a consent because they're doing it themselves. We were originally without going through a long process, we're not able to do it as work for others because the cap on the current work for others contract they have with the state of North Carolina is $5 million a year. this was a 40 plus million dollar project so what we did was keep kept working with them talking with their land office looking through the easements etc roughly about two and a half weeks ago they said we're not going to hand you the easement per se but we we do believe we can grant the consent And so we have now filed for the consent with the Corps of Engineers officially. That went in yesterday. It was a 152-page document outlining all of the details that we've done, the geotechnical investigations, the EIS that was done on this particular site as a beach re-nourishment project back in 2014-ish. So we've provided all of that documentation for the court. We're waiting to hear back. Once we get any kind of acknowledgement from them, then we will go ahead and apply for the state permit because we can then get a completed permit application in place. We have known all along without the consent, we couldn't get a completed application in process. So a non-decision is really difficult. If you don't have a completed application, the state can't make a decision. You can't appeal a non-decision. You're just left in limbo. So this gives us the piece to even if the state says we don't like it, we still have an appellate. We now have an appellate process that we can go through. Very, very important state step. As Fran mentioned, there are all sorts of projects that are going to need capacity for non-suitable material. I was very surprised that they got this site up by Hammocks Bay. I didn't even know that one existed, and I'm pretty good about knowing what existed. The only other one I knew in Camp Lejeune was up the river. They used it once before, and we had a huge issue with that one because there was endangered goldenrod all around it. And threading that pipe, the drainage pipe, back through those woods was... arduous to say the least, without knocking over the plants. So I was surprised to see that. But with them having that program coming to fruition at Mount Hammock Bay with the larger ships, it's not something they do for a year. They're going to place ships here. This is a long-term investment. That bay, the way it's shaped, will not shoal with beach-quality sand. It will shoal with finer sediments. They're going to need places to put that material. da 143 taking that beach quality sand that originally came off of the beach back on the beach is the environmentally sound logistically most economical way to do this and it's great because we're actually working through another thing because the the state was concerned that there may not be future projects to use da 143 this program actually being out for bid right now changes that dynamic with the state so that gives us much more push with them as far as the funding with the with the shallow draft budget. They are, Kevin Hart has been working with us diligently to find a way, but he says, and he says his bosses say, you know, looking at this as doing this programmatically over a 50-year period in one shot is difficult for them to swallow putting out $35 million, you know, half of, essentially half of the shallow draft fund to one project. So they've looked at, is there a smaller, if we did this as say for a 100,000 yard project, how much would that, cost um there's economies of scale it's not a one-to-one it's still a 15 to 20 million dollar project to do enough for them to put a hundred thousand yards in so we're going through those numbers right now abe finished the redesign for me on friday so i've got to do the cost estimate on it now and we'll put that back into the state as well over the next week the next process that we're going to do is going to start working on easements for that area i call the golf course that's back in the back to come across the island to go ahead and get that easement from the private owner in place as well. Go ahead and start working on that and see what that's going to entail, whether there's a cost or et cetera on that. But that's our next step is that one. And hopefully we'll have enough information by October, say, from the Corps to go ahead and complete out the state permit. Probably have another one-stop meeting in October, early November, and a full application in. And then we're looking to start the clock, the 180-day clock. And look to be having, hopefully have everything done and have this out to bid late spring, early summer next year and get somebody on the docket. And if it happens, it looks like it's going to be a very busy winter, next winter on Topsail Island because all three towns are looking at programs being next winter. For us dredgers, it'll be an exciting time. Any questions?

I had a couple of questions. You mentioned the EIS was done in 2014.

Yes.

Does that have an expiration? I mean, can they say that that's too old?

Well, interestingly enough, in 2014, it was done as a supplemental EIS to the overall beach project, which was for a 30-year program. And that 2014 supplemental EIS was to add that as a borrow area in addition to the ones that had been found offshore. So the overall EIS was to continue through roughly 2042. So no, in all consciousness, I believe that that document is still valid and live.

And I had a second question. You mentioned the possibility of a reduced project down to 100,000 cubic yards. Does that still allow us to consider it an engineered beach? At what point does it threshold to where it's no longer considered engineered? You need to clarify that. That's not what he said.

Let me clarify. It was not to reduce the project to 100,000 yards. is that the state grant would pay for that amount. We don't believe that the town should back off any of the yardage, but it means that we're not going to get a three to one, we're not going to get 75% of it from the state. We're likely to get something more on the lines of, when we back down to that, on the lines of 25% of the project paid for by the state rather than, 75 so it's a financial thing not a project design but at some point if we do have to reduce the project because of funding since the town is going to have to make up the difference where is the line to where it's no longer considered engineered the line so okay that's a very reasonable question typically engineered beaches are on the order of 35 to 40 cubic yards per linear foot and when they're built. That's the small side. Topsail Beach, when it was originally done, was 38 yards of linear foot. The project as we've designed here is almost 100 yards of linear foot. So yeah, we could back off of it 60% and still fit well within quote-unquote engineered beach. There is no technical small side to engineered beach. It is about the life expectancy. Can you expect to get four to five years out of the project? Not necessarily how big big the project is, but what's its life expectancy. I believe we can maintain that life expectancy at 50% of the project. But when you do that, the economies of scale, because mobilization are the big chunk. I mean, out of this project, a solid 25, 28% of the project is going to be getting them set up. So if you distribute that over 1 million yards, it's a lot more expensive than if you distribute that over 2 million yards. So every unit extra you put out there is a unit that costs less. So the idea is to find that balance with what the town can afford. There will be some breakpoint. I know what y'all got financially. Could you do it all on your own? Possibly. There will be some breakpoint as you as politicians have to decide. My job is to bring you the most economical project that gives you the biggest bang for the buck possible. Let y'all decide if that's what y'all need to do. And I promise you that's what I'm going to do.

Just to follow up on that, I actually made my copy of Doug's presentation. You weren't at the meeting. But when Carter made a presentation for us, if you look at the alternative that he's got, one of the alternatives that we could pay for ourself, we could do the whole project on our own. Because what he's talking about, and there's a lot of stuff on, somebody posted on Facebook about the debt and everything else. what they're missing in that type of thing is all you're doing is saying, I've got cash of $20 million and I'm getting 3.5% at the state investment, or I can borrow $20 million and pay 4%, which means you're really borrowing at half a percent and holding onto your cash. And that's what Doug was pushing, is the whole idea of keep your cash sacred. But if you look at this, it's the slide presentation that Doug did a couple of months ago. And it talks about reaches one, two, and three, the three alternatives. And I actually talked to him. He's now on vacation for a month. But I talked to him the other day. He feels very good. We've got $48 million in cash right now. I'm 100% confident that he's the one that did the financing before, that we could finance this whole project if we wanted to. But it all depends on how much other money. And also, you've also mentioned going out and seeing if we can replenish the other state fund that has no money in it right now.

Oh, so that was the other one, too. And Kevin Hart administers the same one. I get CSDM and CSDR mixed up. They're the same term. Coastal Storm Damage Mitigation, Coastal Storm Damage Reduction. One's a state, one's a federal term. Mean the same thing, beach re-nourishment. There is a separate fund other than the shallow draft that is the CSDR fund under the state. It's a one-to-one match. It has had in years, this is the fund that we got the money for phase four out of. We got 10 million out of that fund. That fund has not been re-upped. The fund still exists, but it has not been funded. If we can get legislative money funded, This project is a direct, easy-peasy, one-to-one match on that. So 50% can come from the state if the legislature will fund that particular fund.

And we're reaching out. You and I have talked about this. We're reaching out to Lazaro to have a meeting with the senator to find out if we can get him to sponsor that. He also, believe it or not, has a groin. piece of legislation, which I think Chris, when you and I were in Raleigh, I was shocked. I didn't realize he told us, he just decided to put that in.

Yeah. One thing to note, one of the things, the differences in the two funds that you should know as politicians and working with your politicians as well, the shallow draft navigation fund is a user funded fund. It's different. It does not come out of the general fund. Okay. Very important. When we, when we, I came up with this idea. I'm very proud of this idea. So the fund, when we did it, we used boat registration and figured out how much gas tax was paid on boats and said, this is a boat's highway, not the asphalt. So there is a penny and a half out of the gas tax that everybody pays because we found out, they calculated, this is what goes to marinas or typically goes to boats that are buying at the go gas. Out of the 31 cents, one and a half cents of that comes from boats. That money is put into the Highway Fund for Boats, known as the Shallow Draft Navigation Fund. They also up the boat registration. And money from that goes into that and the aquatic weed fund that is designated for the internal part of the state. So that one is like a trust that is not legislated from state congress to state congress. They don't really have any pull on how that's done or how it's used. It is a trust that is implemented. The CSDR fund has never gotten a trust set up per se. And so that money has to be legislated every two years to go into that. So it's a little bit different, and that money comes out of the general fund, so it's a little more awkward to get that. It takes a little more work for a community to do that. Just something y'all should know as politicians, that that's the background on those funds.

Any other questions?

Two things. Real quick. During the Topsail Island Shoreline Protection Commission meeting the other day, I found it interesting to relay that beach renourishment, pre-storm beach renourishment, a study in 2016 revealed that for each dollar spent, saves $2 to $3 on the back end as far as town and homes and all the cost. Whereas in 2025, that return on investment is now $2. up to $13. So for every dollar we invest on the shore saves everybody $13 on the return on investment. So I found that very interesting and an important reason why we do these beach nourishment projects. Now, do you think that the Coastal Conservation Association of North Carolina lawsuit that the Superior Court of North Carolina filed Determined that North Carolina failed to adequately protect coastal fisheries could have an impact on our da 143 project including its environmental review design permitting or timeline Because that has a 45 day Window for the state to respond and we haven't crossed that but I'm just curious if you've considered that or if that's gonna be an issue No, I don't believe I'm gonna tell you I've read I've read through it.

I haven't read through the whole entire legal document. My understanding of it and the skim that I did on it, this is more an issue with actual fisheries considerations such as size limits, seasons, regulation of the commercial fishing industry, etc. Not what we're doing at say a DA-143. DA 143 itself is an upland site. So that steps out of that CCA issue. Anyhow, it's contained within a dike. You already have an EIS for the beach that is settled for the next 30 years. So I don't see where that would come in. Again, I saw more issues with that as a fisherman than I did as an engineer.

Thank you.

Yes, sir. And welcome, Stephanie. Yeah, we met a couple weeks ago. And one other, I'm going to throw in Attaboy. I'm glad you all like the stuff out front. Jason Anderson, who's head of that committee, grew up next door to me. So I've known him since he was, like, this tall, and, of course, he's this tall now. So it's great. I'm glad you all are happy with his work. He's a good kid.

Thanks, Chris. Lexi, byways.

Yes. So the board has put in their budget $1,200 for the silver sponsorship. I am just asking the board to reconfirm that they would still like to proceed with the $1,200 silver sponsorship. And then... Just let me know who they'd like me to sign up for it. That is two registrants within that. Typically, I believe it's been the mayor and the manager in the past. But it's the board's discretion on who to send.

For the new board members, I don't think the additional cost is very much if we want to send other people, correct? I believe additional members. I'm not playing a stain down there. But I would suggest that anybody that has not attended it in the past would be a good idea for you to do it. It's a lot of, there's public officials, but a lot of the presentations and stuff down there makes sense.

Yes, so the dates for this will be on Thursday and Friday, October 22nd, 23rd, 2026th.

It'll be at the Aloft Hotel in downtown Wilmington, North Carolina. I can tell you in just a moment, it would be 250 each additional member that attended. And I can sign you up at the same time that I paid our sponsorship. I would just need to be notified.

Just email her so you can look at your schedules and stuff. mean I'd like to go and like I said it's a really good way to get a feel for what's going on the other areas and stuff and because it's right here it's kind of an easy easy peasy type of thing so if you'll check your schedules I would suggest whoever can go go and then let you know within the next week yes if the board would like if it's cheaper to do a higher membership

uh to allow more members to go based on the responses i received from anyone after this meeting that makes sense would the board be okay with uh doing a different sponsorship let me ask a dumb question is there anybody that doesn't want to go i want to go but i can't go okay i would reiterate what the mayor said um some of the things that you learn

at these conferences are invaluable. In some of it, you might think it doesn't pertain to our town, but it does in some ways, and there's a lot of experts, a lot of a lot of legislators, a lot of people there getting some good face time, making these connections.

Army Corps people.

Army Corps people. It is so invaluable. Of course, it's a conference, so you're going to have some times where it's a yawn fest too.

other than that it's i i really agree you need to go if you can how about just by a show of hands who would who would like to go so you might want to check out all right i will evaluate the other sponsorships and bring that forth to stephanie uh since it falls within her purview for her and obviously i'm willing to pay the difference in whatever that cost is to offset the silver to whatever we upgrade more economical

this could also fall under your training budget line which there are funds for okay all right thank you lex all right um open forum alexi anybody else open forum i have no sign ups for second forum playing planning head sorry all right uh nothing to report today mr mayor mark

All right, Alderman's report. Real quick, and the other fellow board members may slap me on the hand for this, but anyway, it's very close to my heart. I've been here about 11 years, and about eight years ago I brought up the issue with Segal and New River Inlet Road back then. A lot of people have short-term memories. There used to be yield signs down on Coastal, Oyster, and Port. That is the 35 mile an hour limit down there. Everybody knows that you can barely walk down there, much less deal with a car and a golf cart. I do want to push towards slowing the speed down on Seagull. I am concerned about speed bumps and humps due to people that haven't been to the area in four or five years and they come back because they say, hey, we had a great time at North Top, so let's go back. Next thing you know, they got car damage. I would love to see a stop sign there at New River Inlet Road before you make that right. I'd love to see the crosswalks, but we need to look at drainage there as well, especially on the southeast side there. But with that being said, I really don't want to keep spending a ton of time and money on this. You go to other beach towns when they have certain roads that people are using as get-arounds. There's a way to possibly take a 12-foot road sign that says, detour local traffic only. That area is a three-lane road, so you could basically put the sign up there and detour everybody across New River Road to the reef. and then a detour sign on the other side of seagull so when they're coming back but anyway we'll move forward uh that's something i would like to push moving forward and i'd love to see that after the stop sign it turned to 20 miles an hour i've got golf carts coming around there uh on two wheels and the age of the drivers is very questionable um and that's that's on the new river inlet road sign uh i'm sure they're doing worse on seagull side anyway moving forward uh number two I wanted to say the town hall work looks great. The town park work looks great. I already covered that with Chris. Labor Day this weekend, be ready for a lot of traffic. It's going to be slow today, but I guarantee you tomorrow they're going to start rolling in. And by Monday evening, it's probably going to be almost a ghost town. September 11th stair climb at St. Regis. Please go support the fire department. For those of you that aren't aware, the Shrimp Festival is September 25th and 26th in our neighboring town. Well, not neighboring town, but neighboring community, Sneeds Ferry. If you haven't been, please help support them. Before our next meeting, October 3rd, the Real Housewives of Topsail Island will be doing their annual bike ride on Saturday, October 3rd. So be prepared to see a lot of bicycles and a lot of pink for their cancer victims. I'm sure they've already done a special event permit with us as well because they use Surf City and us. Let's see. And I'd like to thank Larry. Great job. We really appreciate you holding the reins during this interim. Welcome, Stephanie. Glad to have you. And a big thank you to the mayor and to the attorney. A lot of people don't know the number of hours that these guys have spent behind the scenes dealing with a ton of transitions since the last election. I know I've spent a lot, and I have not even come close to the number that they have spent. So thank you, Mayor. Thank you, attorneys. And thank you, board, for navigating a difficult time this last year. And look forward to actually putting some feet in front of the other and getting more things done with you, Stephanie. So thank you.

Mark took all the good stuff.

I didn't say anything about the turtles. No turtles.

I can't say the T word. No, listen, the Coffee with the Chiefs event on August 12th was very well received, great dialogue, some great discussions. So thank you to the Chiefs for putting that together. Also this month attended the Planning Board, BISAC, JMPO, as Mark said, and the Topsail Island Shoreline Protection Commission meeting earlier this week. You know, obviously we've had a very successful peak season now as we're kind of moving into local summer, so I want to extend my sincere thanks to our public safety staff, our town staff, for their diligent work and dedication to our residents, owners, and visitors. While the summer is ending, hurricane season is not completely over, so we must remain vigilant and storm-ready. As Mark also mentioned, this month marks the 25th anniversary of September 11th attacks. Reflecting on my response to the Pentagon on September 11th, that morning and the weeks that followed, I want to memorialize all those that were lost that day, as well as the many first responders fighting cancers associated with Ground Zero and the Pentagon. including two of my former co-workers that I lost, Harvey Snook and Barry Faust. I've been invited to the memorial ceremony at the Pentagon on September 11th, but if I'm unable to attend, I do plan to attend the stair climb at St. Regis, but I do encourage all of our residents to please attend and remember this solemn date. And, again, thank you to the fire department who is not here today, but thank you for organizing that event. It's a very meaningful thing at a very meaningful time. Thank you, and that concludes my report.

No, I just do want to thank the board for their support. choosing me as a replacement. I know Larry, I cannot fill Larry Struthers' shoes. We lost quite a gentleman. But I will do my best to keep things going. And I do thank you all for your support in choosing me.

So everybody stole everything, but that's okay. I got one more. I got two more actually. So Ricky, I was supposed to pull him up out of the consent agenda. So let me just mention that we do know our website hosting contractor is looking at doing some upgrades and changing the platform. So just wanted to let folks be aware of that, that there could be a new look and feel. And we're thinking probably before the October meeting or so. Okay. So we do know that's coming. Um, and then also I wanted to let people know that, um, On Wednesday, September 10th, if anybody's interested in the history of Operation Bumblebee, there's going to be an expert that's speaking on that at the Missiles and More Museum, the luncheon from 11 to 1.30 that day. You can sign up online at the Missiles and More Museum website. But that is that Operation Bumblebee has tremendous history here on the island. So if you're in the history of the island at all, that's a great luncheon to attend. And that's all I have on here.

I want to reiterate what everybody else said. They took all the good stuff, but that's good. I also want to extend my thanks to Larry. He has been just fantastic and welcome Stephanie. I know you're going to do a great job and welcome Fred back to the board. and I'm sure everybody's waiting for the turtle report. As always, it is not a contest, but if it were, we're in first place. At the end of the turtle monitoring beach early morning is over, and the total nests for this year on Topsail Island is 150. Of those 150, Topsail Beach got 34, Surf City got 21, And North Topsail got 95 nests. They like us. Oh, they do like us.

We're a warm welcome. Oh, yeah.

And Fred found five of them. Fred and his wife, yes. Right now they're hatching, so we still ask people to keep their beach side lights. Interior ones, keep your shades drawn. Exterior ones, please think about replacing your bright white lights with amber color. We sell them here. at the town hall, incidentally. And just, we really appreciate all the support that we had the last, last month we did have a sea turtle release from the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center, right over there at the Jeffries parking lot. Keep your eyes peeled. We may have another one coming up. Just watch on Facebook. And that's all I have except for please have a safe Labor Day weekend. All right.

Larry or Stephanie, do you guys want to add anything before I do? turn back on Onslow County went to actually Fred happened to be there Onslow County approved they've got three new EMS locations that they're gonna spend money on two were approved one was not approved which was the sneeze ferry one and the reason that's not approved is because they're going to work with us to see if we can combine our EOC with them and use it on property that will not cost the town anything and will cut the cost of us doing the EOC. And both the chairman and the county manager have committed to work with us to see if we can use that. And I'm looking at Susan, because remember we looked at this before, and buying a million dollars worth of property to do the EOC. It looks like, knock on wood, we'll be able to use Onwasa property to be able to put this on. And they're going to build a really nice EMS station in Sneeds Ferry. But right now, It's under advisement. They're going to work with us, and they've committed to work with us to see if we can coordinate that together. So that would be a great coup. Because as you know, we're using the library right now. Welcome to new planning board members. The other thing that the county has done, and Larry, you were part of that call that we had with them. What they would like to do is put together, I'm going to call it an ad hoc group, to work on legislative matters. And they've invited us to be part of that so that, I think Tim called it a... Was it a fire squad or something like that, Larry? So that when there's a call for somebody to go to Raleigh on a specific issue that we've got people that are combined together, they would like to coordinate with us specifically on the things that are being done on the legislative side, which is good for us. I'm trying to think what else I had. Welcoming the new planning board. And you guys took all the other notification stuff. Encourage people to stay involved. Encourage people to... To the extent that you can attend these meetings or watch them is appreciated. So with that, I would like a motion to go into closed session.

Mr. Mayor, in accordance with North Carolina General Session 143-318.11, subsection A, subsection 3, subsection 6, I move that we enter into closed session. We are second. Second. All in favor? Aye.

We're in closed session. Thank you. All right, motion to come out of closed session.

I'll make a motion to come out of closed session. Second.

Second. All in favor? Aye. All right. No decisions were taken in closed session. Do I have a motion to adjourn? Motion to adjourn.