Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good morning everyone. This the Wednesday, January 7th, 2026 regular meeting of the Nags Head Board of Commissioners is hereby called to order. If you will please join me in a few moments of silence. And now, as you're able, if you'll please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance.

I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please do. I always want to say amen at the end. [snorts] Can't have it back. The next item on our agenda is the adoption of the agenda. And I will note that a recognition of the new employee is uh being moved to our February meeting. And with that, a motion would be in order. So move. Do I have a second?

Second. I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Thank you. Uh that brings us to recognitions and the first will be uh Andy for 10 to recognize an employee for 10 years of service. All right. jump over there and take.

So, we are certainly honored today to celebrate 10 years of service by Britney Phillips with the town of Mags Head. Uh Britney started with the town on December 7th, 2015. Uh as most of you know, her first role was in administrative services as our primary customer service team member at the front desk. Uh if you know Britney, she's a quick study and is always looking to help in any way she can. This natural drive and curiosity is evident as she soon moved into another role as our water accounts customer service team member and helped us bring online our new smart metering system and all of our processes to leverage this new technology. Uh Britney didn't stop there. After a few years, you could see Britney talking to Carolyn, asking questions about her role as a town clerk. Uh her interest grew and partially due to the encouragement by Carolyn. Britney began to take courses at UNCC School of Government and elsewhere um to learn this aspect of local government. This grew into an obvious pathway in secession plan to fill Caroline's big shoes upon retirement. Uh Britney's been in this role just a few years or just a short time now, not even a few years. And her dedication, drive, and attention to detail has made this trans transition as easy as it pos we could have possibly hoped for. I know the board sees this. I see it every day. and so does everyone Britney comes into contact with. In addition to her day-to-day responsibility, Britney has completed or is working on numerous special projects, including organizing and digitizing our records, improving the security of this information, and making access to these records much more efficient both internally and to the public. Uh Britney grew up on the Outer Banks, currently lives in Cington with her husband, David. She has two sons, James and Aiden. Enjoys spending time with their families. Uh, for many years, Britney has been a dedicated volunteer with the

Veterans of Foreign Wars at the Collington Post 10950. I know she enjoys that. We think Britney's an excellent reflection of our values. Today, we thank her for 10 years of service and wish her many, many more years of service. [laughter]

So, thank you very much. [applause] Carol and Morris did indeed leave very big shoes to fill and Britney's done a fabulous job of doing that and we uh we we appreciate your service and We look forward forward to you being up here for a 20-year recognition. [laughter]

Absolutely. Um, and that does bring us to a 20-year recognition. And I'll call on Nancy. Good morning.

Good morning, Mr. Mayor and Board of Commissioners. Um, like to introduce Tony Windam, recognize him for his 20 years of service. Tony began his career with the town in 2005 with water distribution. In ' 07, he transferred to the sanitation division of public works. With 18 years of experience, Tony is the OG in sanitation. [laughter] Residential trucks, rolloffs, side load dumpster trucks, and knuckle boom are all the equipment used daily in sanitation. Tony can operate it all. His knowledge, ability, and patience are welcomed by sanit by sanitation team members as they learn the routes and the operations of sanitation. Comments made by his co-workers are always willing to go the extra mile when training us. Is patient when answering questions about routes and procedures. Tony practices the to the town's core values of doing what's right for the right reasons. Public services has received numerous compliments from residents about Tony. A resident commented so helpful and patient assisting me with curbside pickup. Another resident called in about how helpful a sanitation operator was to him and how he just wanted to let someone know how much he appreciated his help. He said he didn't know the fell's name, but he wore Alabama roll tag baseball [laughter] [applause] and we knew who it was. Some of you may also remember when Tony saved the Dunes restaurant by reporting the fire in 2013 when he smelled smoke and called it in. Thank you, Tony, for all you do for public works and the town

of Max. [applause] [applause] and and I'm gonna ask the board to come around. Tony, if you would for 20 year employees, it's their custom to get a [laughter] picture.

Tell you that. Thank you. We are King Nags Head's proud of its record of employees who spend uh many years with us and um and we appreciate their dedication. to air public and we're we're glad that they find this a good place to work. But occasionally the time comes when somebody has to leave. And so uh one of the things that we're going to do this morning is recognize a retirement and Perry Hail

Shane. Come on up.

Good morning, Mr. Mayor and Commissioners. Um [clears throat] as you said, we're very proud of Nags Head. Um it's a pleasure to work here. We enjoy everything the town does for us. Sometimes we have people that leave um that are bittersweet. Um this one's a little bit bittersweet. Um every one of our members of our department are like family. Um we rely on each other throughout the year through good times and through hard times. Um Shane started talking about retirement um about a year and a half ago and threw the date out there and at some point I don't know where that time went. And next thing I know he says, "Well, I'm turning my stuff in." And I'm like, "Bud, you got you got six more months." He said, "Well, I got, you know, I'm just starting to turn some of the items in and everything else." Um and it comes to realize that it's actually happening. Um Shane is the start of our retirement process uh over the next few years. Um but to me that says something about Nags Head that people want to stay here throughout their career and dedicate their their work ethic and everything to the town, to our department here. Um and it speaks highly um of the town itself. I met Shane um in 2000 when I started my career here. He was working with the sheriff's department. Shane's got uh 30 years of law enforcement experience in the last 15 a little bit over 15 years here in Nags Head. We used to joke with each other on the MDTs talk on the radio when he was in Hatteris and I'd be up here working just to see what's going on, see who could meet at the jail first, etc. Um and then Shane came up and started working at Kdova Hills. So we worked the streets there together. um spent many years there uh having a lot of fun uh going through some tough times. Um but we made the best of them.

Shane's always been one that is uh responsible, a good thinker, um doesn't act too quickly on decisions, and is an overall what you want in a law enforcement officer. Shane came to Nags Head in 2011. He worked the streets here in Nags Head with me again. Um he also worked our criminal investigations division. He was a member of our emergency response team. Shane's done a lot through uh his career. Um and we're proud to have him do over half of it here in Nagshead. Um in 2017, Shane uh was transferred and was assigned to the school resource officer position at Nagad Elementary. Shane exemplified these roles and duties as a resource officer. Um, I saw it when I would go and walk through the halls with him. The kids would come out and just want to high five him, say, "Hey, Officer Shane." And that even took to the streets. Even if he was at the grocery store, he's told me numerous times, or at a ball game to watch his kids or something, that kids would just come running up and say, "Officer Shane." That's what a school resource officer is supposed to be. Um, to bridge that gap, to let let the kids at a young age know that we're human. We're not robots. Um, and Shane did that uh every day. He did it with pride. He loved his job. He was a DARE instructor. Talked to children at fifth grade every year of the issues that come with narcotics, alcohol, and smoking. They would write essays and he'd bring a stack of essays to the department and we'd have to pick the winner. Those were hard to do. Um, but they got pizza and everything else in a reward and took a trip to uh Jamestown. Shane led those trips uh each year. Uh so this is a bittersweet time to see Shane go, but it's also a proud time to to see you um have such a successful career and be able to retire and enjoy your next chapter of life. Um

Shane, I thank you for your dedication to the Nags Head Town and to the Nags Head Police Department. We had a uh a lunchon for him in in November where we've already um issued him his weapon. um gave him several uh gifts to go away. But today it's official um that you have your retired badge and your retired ID. You wore our patch and uniform well and proud to have known you and proud to serve with you. Thank you. [applause]

Thanks.

Congratulations. Enjoy your time. Shane, I'll ask you to stay up. We have a presentation. I ask the board to come around. I can't remember. You look funny. [laughter] We also loyal and dedicated service to the town 2011. [applause]

[clears throat]

It's like every face here.

Thank you. That brings us to public comment. I'll turn this over to Mr. Whitey.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. At this time, the board of commissioners welcomes members of the public to provide comment to the board on matters of interest or concern uh to citizens. Uh this is not an opportunity for dialogue, and the board rarely responds to public comment. Uh but anybody who wishes to provide comment, if you would please come to the podium, start by telling us your name and where you live, and then uh address your comments to the board, and I will let you know when your five minutes is just about up. [clears throat] Five minutes. Hi, my name is John Cece, president of Nag said for 25 years. I'd like to briefly talk to you about what I perceive as the inequality of the funding for the proposed beach nourishment project in 2026. As you know, town's proposing to put 2.4 million cubic yards of sand on 10 miles of beach. Um, based on my calculations, that average cost is about 15 cubic yards. $15 per cubic yard. If you don't believe me, you could have to ask Mr. Ryan. Sorry, Dave. Ask me some more questions. And [clears throat] I'm going to be throwing out a lot of numbers here. Reaches one and two, which are the top eight miles of the 10 mile project. So that represents 80% of the project, will have a fill rate of approximately 30 cubic yards per foot. Reaches three and four, which are 2 miles only 20% of the project have an average fill rate of 150 cubic yards. That's five times the amount of sand that's being placed on the top eight miles. [clears throat] using the fill rate of about 15 fill cost of 15 cubic yards, $15 per cubic foot. A 90 foot lot in South Nex will have $218,000 worth of sand placed on their property. A 70 foot lot will have $170,000.

Based on those for the proposed fill rates and costs, the last mile of the proposed project reaches three south and reach four, you will spend 11,000 more than 11 million, 30% of the project on one mile. If you add in the last reach three south three north that's another mile you'll spend $15 million on the last two miles. That's 42% of the project on two miles of beach. [clears throat] My understanding is the funding is that all the ocean property owners pay the same rates. years ago, the board, previous board established municipal service districts, but they never had the courage to implement them. I'm asking you to please consider implementing and using those municipal service districts to have the folks in South NGA pay their fair share of the project. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Cece. Anybody else wish to comment to the board?

It's not a book, I swear. Good morning, mayor and commissioners. Uh, my name is David Bowen. I built a home here in Nags Head Acres in 2008 and moved here permanently in 2022 for retirement. My home is approximately 75 yards from the Croatan Highway. Since moving here permanently and the addition of the stoplight at West Adams Lane in Croatan Highway, I've discovered that there's a vehicular noise problem from the highway that is not necessary and can be easily eliminated with a basic change in town ordinances. And I'll stop and [clears throat] say I I got told last week that this has been brought up before, but hopefully I can provide some more content and resolution. Uh the issue is called engine braing or Jake braing. Uh this is an action where people who drive large trucks or tractor trailers specifically downshift their transmissions and release their clutch to slow down rather than to use their brakes. The compression that is built up in the engine that exits through their non [clears throat] baffled exhaust pipes. This creates an extremely loud noise from the exhaust at each downshift. While there is a need for this on steep downgrades to prevent overheating the brakes or even failure, it is only needed in the mountains or extremely steep grades of highways. None of this which exists in Nagad or any of the Outer Banks. As someone that lives near the highway, I can tell you that I hear this daily at all hours of the day, sometimes at night. It is a loud it is loud enough to drown out face-to-face conversations and phone conversations. I've had it rattle my windows if the wind's blowing in the right direction. And of course, this happens at stop lightss all along the highway in Nags Head. I can hear it several stoplights away from the Nags Head Acre stoplight. I'm sure there are many residents and business owners along the highway that would appreciate not dealing with that daily noise, especially businesses as banks, retailers, and restaurants trying to come conduct businesses with their customers. I have recently [clears throat] traveled to many places with my RV and noticed

that a lot of towns have ordinances that prevent engine breaking within town limits with fines for those who violate. Signs are put up with those ordinances and fines are placed at all roads that enter the truck enter the town limits that are frequently used by larger trucks and tractor trailers. Some of the recent towns that I have visited with those regulations are Boone, North Carolina, Streetsboro, Ohio, Salem, Massachusetts, Far Harbor, Maine, where fines can range from $100 to $250. If [clears throat] you do not live or work near C10 Highway, you may never realize this noise problem. I think it is a new generation of truck drivers fad because of the noise it creates, similar to loud motorcycles or high performance vehicles exhaust. My dad drove a truck, a tractor trailer for his all of his adult life. I rode with him often growing up and he never did this except in the mountains where he needed to use his uh save his brakes. I recommend that the town of Nagsad adopt a new ordinance to not [clears throat] allow engine braking within the town limits. We can educate and support our police force on enforcing the ordinance and installing signs on all major roads into Nags Head of this ordinance with the fines for violating. It would probably only take four signs. One entering from Manio, one entering from Cape Powder National Park, and entering from uh KDH side on the Beach Road and Croatan Highway. It could be easily enforced by officers that sit near stop lightss looking for red light infractions or just by driving down the road. This is where the noise is being uh create uh generated on the road and at stop lightss. The words needed for these new ordinances could be easily copied from one of these towns ordinance I have listed or I'm sure there are plenty others. This will reduce the noise pollution in our town along Cortan Highway. I encourage you to Google or YouTube engine breaking or jade breaking. I promise you, you will read and hear more than you ever wanted to know about this subject. [laughter]

Watch and listen to the videos. You will see why so many people are annoyed by it, but also that many people are obsessed with it. Because making the noise and how to make it louder is evidence for the compil because of the compilation of videos of people trying to make it louder. The supporters of this state it's an absolute safety feature to protect drivers on the highway from runaway trucks due to right failures, and I agree with that. But it's intended for steep downgrades of highways, not flat highways like we have here, and should only used in our area in the event of an emergency. I'm available to help with whatever is needed to support getting this recommendation moving forward for our town. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, sir. Is there anybody else who wishes to address the board? If not, at this time, we will conclude the public comment session. All right. Thank you, John. Thank you, speakers. That brings us next to the consent agenda, which you have before you. It's very short one today with only three items and a motion would be in order. So move. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Thank you. That brings us to reports and recommendations from the planning board and the planning and development director Kelly.

Good morning, mayor and commissioners. Hope everyone's doing well. My up on the screen quickly. Um [snorts] I don't have a whole lot um to go over today, just a couple of highlights. So the planning board last met uh December 16th um and we had two sketch plan reviews at that meeting to look at. The first um was for Coastal Bluewater Capital TWW's uh bait and tackle and that was for an expansion on the lot to the west. Uh it's a vacant lot currently. They're looking at putting some more retail with accessory storage um on that lot. And then we also had a sketch plan review um from Tar Hill Motel. Uh they're looking to develop a twotory six room um expansion to the existing hotel. So sketch plan is just a process very early on where staff and the planning board get to look at something before a lot of uh time, energy, money is put into it so we can identify um any notable flaws.

[clears throat]

So, um there was no action taken on these items, but they will be coming back to the planning board for their formal consideration um in the coming months. Um so, for our next planning board meeting, which is going to be on January 20th, uh we'll be nominating our chair and vice chair. Uh we'll hear the special use permit from TWWs for their expansion. Um and then it's not here, but it is also likely that we'll hear a text [clears throat] amendment request related to um lighting standards for pickle ball courts. Um that might also make it onto the planning board's agenda. So, we did not have any board of adjustment hearings for December um of 2025. Just moving on to the um septic health advisory committee. Um, since the update, we've continued to have um, a lot of people participate with the septic health program. Uh, we do have six water quality loggers throughout the town. They're above ground and there's we realize there's not a lot of information about what those are. So, we had some signage made and with the help of public services and Nancy, um, those signs will go directly on um, the piling for those water quality loggers so people can understand more about what they are. It also has a QR code where they can kind of do a deeper dive. Um I won't hit on the estrine shoreline management plan. Air deputy planning director Joe Pastello will be up here next to talk about that. Um our sand relocation and D management cost share. Um we have had at the time I wrote this report we had had um 103 sand relocation applications um which is um higher than usual for this time um and we've had 44 dune management cost share applications

um of the 400,000 allocated approximately 150,000 has already been allocated and I did speak with Lily Nebering our um permit coordinator who's handling the cost share aspect and she said the majority of people are qualifying for that 3500 this go around because of that threeyear cycle. Um and just quickly note as far as permit turnaround goes in the planning department for the first quarter we're um averaging three days which is great. I appreciate everyone for all those efforts um for Adi Park um farmers market and art and culture. Uh we had our fourth annual flashlight candy cane hunt on December 17th. Um in speaking with their event coordinator, it was the most uh well attended. I believe she estimated about 225 participants. Uh I actually have a picture down here um in the staff report. And I do want to give um recognize Sam Lock from the studio. She was the MC for the big event. And also want to say thank you to all the volunteers um and the commissioners and mayor for coming out um and participating and helping with that as well. Um winter markets, those are picking up uh this Saturday, this upcoming Saturday. We're going to have about six vendors there. And just want to note [clears throat] that our winter markets are smaller scale and they're food only and it's to try to keep that connection between our um vendors and who do uh produce consumables, things like that to connect them with the community. Um the art and culture committee, they will meet next on January 14th and we'll be talking about sort of next year's budget and um possibly some new things to consider. And I note that obviously with um Wellbone Park and the pavilion being

completed, we do want to talk about um programming for Wellbone moving forward. And that's all I have for you today.

Thank you. Um Kelly, I I'm glad that you um brought up the um candy cane hunt. I was there. There were there were other commissioners there and um I remarked to my wife as we were leaving that that kind of event is the thing that makes me it really makes me proud to be associated with the town of Maxad and be serving this community and to serve this the staff that we have and to um enjoy you know what we do as a community in part through the through the asset of the park. I just left there with the greatest feeling and I meant to drop an email to to staff to say please pass this around, but it was incredibly well done. Um and uh it's exactly the kind of thing a town ought to be using a park for. Um and so thank you for uh for highlighting that this morning.

Thank you so much. All right, that brings us to an update on our estine estine shoreline management project. And Joe

[snorts]

Hello. Good morning, Mayor, commissioners. Um, today I'm going to give an overview on our progress with the estuary and shoreline management plan. Um I thought I'd start with the Harvey site. Um this is adjacent to our [clears throat] um Harvey access and also the event center. Um this site the um plans are progressing to the permit application stage. We had our kickoff in August um of this year. We had meetings with the tourism board and um engagement sessions with some of the users of the site which helped us um basically have a design that fits the site. And you can see this is a little um sort of infographic that shows what it will look like. And in that top left you kind of have like a bird's eyee sort of overview. Um the northernmost portion of it will be these pretty large structures. Um about 50 feet long, 30 feet wide. They'll be about 2 and 1/2 ft above mean high water. Um the idea is that it will protect the marsh, it will protect the SAV behind it, it will stop erosion of that marsh. Um a little further south there, you see those nearshore marsh sills. They're about 9 ft wide, about one foot above mean high water. They're a little thinner. Um, they were designed to be behind the boardwalk and gazebo as that part juts out and [clears throat] then kind of wrap back in front of the boardwalk to protect the boardwalk from erosion, but also to remain outside of the view cone from that gazebo, which is intended to have weddings and people come and take photos.

I'm sorry to interrupt you. Is this the first gazebo or the second gazebo? This is um sort of the one Well, I guess it depends where you're looking at, but it's the um sort of the one I I guess it's the the first like looking north from the Harvey site, if that makes sense, that's going to be built. Okay.

Um and then further south, um there was historically a beach. Um there was a sandy beach when you look back at the Google imagery in the 90s and 2000s. Um, so we are looking to put some sand back and basically renourish about 260 feet of sand sandy beach there. Um, this may or may not sort of pass muster with the regulatory bodies, but my understanding is that since it was a historic sandy beach that KMA that's a necessary component for KA to consider. Um it's sort of been taken over by marshland over time as you know you click through the imagery but um this is you know the North Carolina Land and Water um fund who is funding a port grant wanted to see and this kind of uh support for public use and public access. So, we intend to um sub submit permits either this week or next um and then um look for bidding in the late spring and hopefully we'll be under contract by June and construction could take place in after September of this year because of the um moratorum during the um summer months. [clears throat] Um next is our Nags Headwoods Preserve Villunes Drive site. Um for this site you know we followed the methodology set out by our consultants. We collected data such as the um bethometric data um survey data collected data along SAB. We developed a schematic design which you're basically looking at and um there was this concept of developing sort of large offshore breakwaters that provided a lot of habitat and nature benefits. We had

stakeholder meetings. Um there was a lot of concern I think from the stakeholders that when we presented this about you know sholing in their boats and we would need construction access easements as well as long-term maintenance easements. We also received an opinion of probable costs at the time um shortly after this was developed and the cost was approximately $5 million to um construct these islands. Um it is staff's opinion after talking with um our on call consultant Withers Ravenel and then going through our preliminary conversations the Harvey site that it would be difficult to get permits um because of the proposed amount of fill and in some cases the unavoidable impacts to SAV in this area. Um, so when considering these factors together, the overall cost, the low permitting feasibility, the long-term maintenance challenges and the potential impacts to adjacent properties and the um, you know, depending on individual property owners opinions, maybe not the best design choice. Um, we felt that it was best to move on from this design and hire a consultant to begin listening sessions and working with property owners to come up with an implementable design here that um would receive permits, is a little more cost-effective and provides the same natural habitat benefits and erosion protection, water quality benefits, but hopefully without the cost and potentially at a more local individual level or group of individual levels and maybe not rising to the level of this townwide RCCP project. Um similarly for the southside roads section, we followed the same process.

We collected data, we engaged property owners. Um there was again a lot of concern about the offshore breakwater specifically. We received um letters from multiple property owners along that section basically saying we don't want any sort of shoreline treatment or offshore breakwateraters adjacent to our property. Um this is a kind of project where you need easements um to to do the project. Um we would um need that to be able to move forward. Um, and so staff is proposing that we reconsider this project. And one thing we did hear from residents was there's a lot of storm water issues along Southside Road. We feel there's a path forward to do a revised resiliency burm, engage the property owners in that section. Um, and as a part of the stormwater master plan that David is working on, incorporate the shoreline protection element with a larger stormwater master plan project in in this specific area and um to use our RCCP funds um to further that goal. And so um that's all I have. We um probably will have a little bit additional RCCP money. We have considered um basically choosing an alternative site to further design. Um the design the area we're considering is sort of that catfish farm, sugar creek causeway area. Um given the town owns a lot of property, there's only one other property owner, Urban Baitman. um the project would be really visible from the highway and as you can see as you you know go down the causeway there's other sections where that marsh land has

eroded and it's just sort of a rip wrap that's likely what NC dot would do as that marsh land erodess adjacent to Sugar Creek and I think it would be you know a much easier project to design to implement and hopefully be a really nice gateway highlighting project of what a nature based solution can do to protect the roadway and um provide all of the habitat and erosion and um protection sort of benefits that um was originally envisioned in this plan. Um, so I'm happy to answer any questions if um you [clears throat] could please uh sort of eventually if if if it pleases the board to pass a motion basically allowing staff to pursue um the path set out in the staff report and as I just described. And then it was also my hope that there might be a general consensus among the board to um basically for staff to come back and pro um present a sort of program that we would work with individual property owners and um look to do some of these living shoreline elements at a sort of individual or collective of individual um sort of level rather than maybe these very large projects.

Very good. Thank you. Board members, any questions or comments? Um, I appreciate what staff has done [clears throat]

um up to up to this point. um understand this is a little bit of a learning process on on some of these stretches and and um but I I also appreciate staff's willingness to sort of reiterate and step back and look for other approaches and I think that's that will serve us well and I'm also excited about the possibility that we might be able to do something down at the catfish farm that would um be a nature-based solution for that part of the roadway. Um, so I will ask um ask the board if um if we can get the motion that um Joe asked for, which is to endorse this um revised approach, I guess I would say. Um to um as as outlined in the in the staff report.

Yeah, I would make that motion. Um, I'm a little surprised that the residents didn't want to move forward with this, but it's great that the town is doing something on the town property and we could see how it works out and I think it'll work out pretty well. So, I would make that motion that we move this to the town property and see what happens from there. Okay. Could we um maybe include a little bit of information that as part of the RCCP grant funding we received that we would focus that effort on this resiliency burm area of Soundside Road and to no longer look at the um offshore breakaters.

Okay. All right. So, if you would amend your motion to include that. I amend my motion to what he said. [laughter] All right. All right. Thank you. All right. Is there a second? Second. All right. Any further discussion then? Joe, does that give you all what you need? Yes, sir. Thank you. Okay. All right. Thank you, Joe. Um, hearing no discussion and all those in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. All right. Thank you. [clears throat]

Um, that brings us to old business or any items tabled from the previous meeting. And this is blank. So, I'll just before I proceed, confirm there is nothing. All right. Very good. Um, [clears throat] that brings us to new business and the first will be uh committee reports and I'll start to my my right with um Commissioner Vaughn. I don't have a report yet, but I was appointed to the tourism board on Monday and I'll have an orientation this week and my first meeting next week. So, I'll report back to you next month. All right. Very good. Thank you for taking that on. Really appreciate that. Uh, Commissioner Sanders. Well, I don't have anything to add to the eastern shoreline management plan. So, Joe went over that very well. Thank you.

Very good. All right. Commissioner Lambert. Uh, Miss Wyatt gave a great report with the septic health committee. The government education access channel committee. We met right after our last report. Um, so I don't believe I have a new report, but we are meeting again in January, and we're going to be talking a lot about the 250 celebrations. So, there'll be more reports of Commissioner Harrison. No committees. Yes. Okay. All right. Very good. Send me to work.

Um, and I will say ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra rather than save this uh for the uh for the mayor's agenda because only this item um I have been invited by the league of municipalities later this month to uh to go to DC with a group to um to advocate for uh towns and uh specifically resiliency uh projects, funding for resiliency. So hopefully that'll give me a chance to put in a plug for uh beach nourishment as one of those things that should be uh funded um by FEMA in case of u in case of damage to engineered beaches. Uh that brings us to consideration of an amendment to the ocean rescue pay plan and an associated budget amendment and Chad. [snorts]

Uh good morning everybody. Good morning. Um so come before you've got kind of break this down into two items. Uh the first one is to kind of keep pace with uh other local agencies to raise our base pay from $20 an hour to $20.50. Um seems to be consensus of what the majority of uh our local agencies are doing. Um and then the second one is to adjust our compensation for returning staff and supervisor staff. Uh the current structure had been in place going back through my pay scale record since 2002. um which basically is a 25 cent raise for returning guards per year up to five years and then a$125 uh raise from supervis from lifeguard to supervisor. Um so based on some feedback from our entities and survey and discussing with with Jan and uh the manager um we've recommended to double that structure. So it would be 50 cents per year for returning guards. Uh up to five years and then um instead of a$125 it would go to uh 250 for that jump from lifeguard to supervisor pay. So those are the overview of the recommendations that are before you. Um total impact to the budget currently um for those two things would be uh projected at about $34,000 for the season uh spread over two fiscal years. Uh current fiscal year impact would be about $10,000.

Okay. Is that correct? Plus taxes. Um you you reference local agencies. I know you also do a little bit of benchmarking, I think, with uh with your neighbors in Virginia Beach and and South Carolina. Um where where do they stand on?

Yeah. And every year kind of leading at the end of the season, um there was a survey sent out just in our region um just about where everybody was standing and what recommendations were going. So everybody's kind of doing the same kind of jumping through hoops and that sort of thing. Um I would say we probably stand as far as pay kind of um near the top in our region, but um also Maryland, Ocean City, Maryland, Delaware beaches typically a little bit higher than where we are. um agencies down in Florida typically a little bit higher and then uh North Carolina, South Carolina, it's we're probably sitting kind of near the top of where that structure stands.

Okay. Yeah. All right. Very good. Sounds like where we ought to be. Commissioners, any questions or observations? All right. So, let's we'll do this as two steps. Um first to approve the lifeguard pay plan and second to approve the budget amendment. Um, so if I could have a motion for to approve the lifeguard pay plan, please. I'll make a motion to approve the lifeguard pay plan. All right. Thank you. Do I have a second? Second. All right. Thank you. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All right. Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I.

Opposed. All right. Thank you. Um, and that would bring us to the related uh budget amendment. um which I think is the next item in the next item in the agenda and a motion would be in order if you would please reference the the amounts. I think you gave those uh yes sir to us as well. So uh $33,811 over the two fiscal years. Um, and then the cost, current cost of the current impact would be $10,369.

Okay. All right. And we also have it up on the screen at this point. So, thank you. So, a motion would be in order. I'll make the motion to approve the budget amendment for the $10,369. Okay. Very good. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Pl Can we amend that to say plus the related uh tax plus the I'd like to amend my motion to say plus the applicable payroll taxes. Okay. Thank you. And who was the seconder? I was second. Okay. All right. Very good. Any discussion? All right. Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I.

I opposed. All right. Great. Thank you. Thank you, Chad. Appreciate Appreciate that and look forward to the day we get to meet all these folks. Yeah. All right. Um, that brings us to consideration of a residential reflective address signs program and Chief Wells. Good morning, board. Happy New Year.

I stand before you to request board approval to add a reflective address sign program to the town fee schedule. Um, we're going to talk a little bit about that. Um, with every public safety program, you should be hearing two specific factors, time and outcome. Um, the quicker that we can put the proper amount of trained responders on an emergency, the better the outcome. And what we're trying to do with this program is reduce that time. So, what we have here is if you've ever been down in South Nag and drove and tried to find a an address down there, you'll see numerous signs with various different um just everything from this house is Seoom West and it's number 1221 and and it's not their address. Not even close. So, what we're doing is trying to reduce the time it takes for our responders to to locate the address and then to to get to the scene. So, um what we're looking for here is um what you see here is go to the next one. Let's go next. What we're looking for is a resolution that allows us to um put reflective signs that can be oriented either vertically or horizontally uh on houses and um they're reflective. So, at night, at bad weather, um anytime there's a medical emergency where where s where seconds just count, uh we can locate the sign. They're green. They're highly visible. The numbers are are are reflective. Um the the next slide, please. So what we're doing is taking an existing program that basically started

in planning from Chris Trembley, bringing internally to the fire department. It has two versions of this. It has an external version facing the customers and the citizens that would be uh located on the um town website. What we're proposing is a cost of $30 per reflective sign plus taxes. Um, and then on those houses that have a large setback, we're proposing that we can put go out and put a 4x4 post and again put the sign closer to the uh the house so we can identify it. [snorts] The program itself is going to be costneutral after we begin the actual program itself. Uh we're not going to be getting [snorts] any um additional monies from these programs. It's completely voluntary for the citizens. So, we're trying to be as cost transparent as possible. Um, so what we're the ask here is we would like to um get approval for the program and add the listed fees to the town's uh fee schedule and your continued support in enhancing our emergency capabilities.

Okay. All right. Great. Thank you, Chief. Um so this is completely voluntary. Yes sir. Um and [clears throat] um the question because in my past life I've had clients in South Nagad and going down there you get to those some of those really close driveways it's really hard to find addresses. Um how do we encourage folks down there to adopt this? I mean, you know, it's a great idea. The the additional visibility is is great. The cost is reasonable, but how do we get folks to participate?

Uh, these programs are actually done in numerous different municipalities. Uh, focusing on on South Nags Head or Nags Head in general and all of our citizens, we can start this with just public education. Um, we can put it on our website. Every time we go out, we'll do um meet and greets. One of the things we've been thinking about is maybe talking to the property management companies and trying to, you know, encourage them to to to get into the program as well. Um, and that would be one of the quickest ways to do that.

Yeah. Yeah. You also get into the contractor community perhaps because every time there's a renovation project there, that's a, you know, to tack on, you know, $30 or $40 is not that big a deal. get that done while you're in the middle middle of a project. Would be a good time to do that. Board members, any questions or concerns, Mr. Vong? No concerns. I think it's a great program. I think it would be really helpful. There's a few people on my street and it's they're very visible. Oh, yeah. I'm looking forward to getting one. Okay. Very good. Who would install them? The uh

We actually What will happen is the um property owners can access the town website. There'll be an internal process where they request it. they have an option to self-install or they can have us come out and we'll help install it. Um, which will also allow us time to interface with the citizens, talk to them about, you know, safety, hope hopefully encourage their neighbors to join the program. Um, and just show the the value of what what we can do with it. Nice. Cool. That's good. That's a good opportunity because whenever you guys show up at somebody's house, the neighbors are watching. So, Absolutely. maybe give a couple out for free just

um I think it's a great program. The amount of houses that have name signs for the names of their houses. Um I I can't imagine the headache and those minutes are very important. So I would love to see this on every house and I like hear maybe them seeing a firefighter install it I think with more people to do it. Yeah, I like the program. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Jump back in. I just thought of maybe reach out to homeowners associations. Absolutely. Wherever we can get help, we'll we'll be glad to take it. All right. So, u a motion would be in order to approve the proposed fee structure um and to have that fee added to the town's fee schedule. Is there a motion?

I'll make a motion to approve that fee structure and add it to the town's fee schedule. All right. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Right. Hearing none. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Chief. Appreciate [snorts] that. Uh that brings us to consideration of a board policy and a um property management services agreement for the ocean rescue housing. Andy.

All right. Thank you, Mayor. So, we reached a milestone here where we're we're starting to actively recruit lifeguards for the coming year. You just heard from our ocean rescue captain Chad Moes about our pay scale and this is the next thing he needs to get started since we have new housing for our seasonal staff. Um, he would like to be able to offer this to individuals who apply to work with the town. And so, we need to get all this in place. We've been working through a process to figure out how to manage the housing we built. Just to reiterate, we built um a duplex essentially at the site of the community care clinic which the town owns at 425 West Health Center Drive. It includes two four bedroomedroom units and the idea is that we would have two uh individuals per bedroom for a total uh maximum occupancy of of 16 people. And so uh we want to figure out a way to manage that. Uh these are our employees. So you know we don't really want to deal with them directly in in the housing space although it is our our our project you know we want to have an intermediary to deal with the tenants. And so u with that said we have a a new policy we're proposing which establishes what this particular housing can be used for. Um it establishes the basic principles and the tenants behind the operation of it. Basically states the uses that can occur there. U the management structure, some of the rules and then it establishes the rent for the tenants which would be $500 per month. Um we would ask for the tenants to commit to four months. Uh beyond that they can stay there uh some of them could stay as as long as six months or more depending on the season and whether or not they're supervisors.

Um after four months it would be on a monthly basis and then the utilities would be included and there's a particular reason for doing that. you know, we would envision using this this housing for our own purposes outside the season and so we would want those things to stay in place and so it makes it much easier um if we pay for the utilities and we already have all those services set set up. So essentially we have a policy for the board to consider that includes all those things and we also have arranged for Harel and Associates, a local property management company in Nags Head to to manage the property. And so we have um a management agreement essentially they would charge us based on the rents that we charge. It would be a 12 12% fee based on the rents and then they would handle all the leases and and enforce the regulations and then um handle check in checkout and deal with day-to-day um responsibilities and questions from the tenants. So, u those are the two primary things we're asking for the board to approve today. And outside of that, we'll develop a set of rules and regulations. And then we'll be working through, you know, how we communicate to our tenants about what we expect. And um not saying there won't be issues along the way, but it'll be a learning process. Um hopefully, you know, that we'll get get some good principles in place. And then uh this summer, we'll finish our second uh housing project and by next summer, 2027, we'll have uh space for up to 32 guards.

So wonderful. All right.

Appreciate the board's consideration. Thank you, Andy. So, so the first thing that we have before us is the is the uh uh board of commissioners policy for operation. And just to hit the high points of that, it uh outlines the property use that this is for essential personnel. Um that it's um used by could be used by government officials involved in training activities, not intended to serve as a long-term place of residence by employees. Um, this policy establishes the basic management, does establish that rent at $500 per month for tenant. Um, outline some basic conduct and responsibilities and um along with termination of housing related to employment along with some other things. You have that before you was in the packet. Um, and so a motion would be in order.

Motion to adopt. So move. Is there a second? Second. Uh any questions or um discussion? Any discussion? No. Okay. All right. Thank you staff for for putting this together. U very thoughtful and um we will get surprised. [laughter] Something will happen that we don't expect but uh you know that's the that's the nature of the game. Um so hearing no further discussion all those in favor signify by saying I. I

I opposed. All right. Then the second thing that we have um is the actual agreement um with the property manager um which is pretty much a standard property management agreement uh between the town and Harold. Um you have that before you and a motion to approve would be in order. I make that motion. All right. Is there a second? Second. And any further discussion hearing? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I opposed. All right. Great. Thank you. Thank you.

That brings us to consideration of appointments and reappoints to town boards and committees. And the first of those being the appointment of the board of adjustment chair and vice chair. And I believe I don't have that open, but I believe I recall that both of those folks are interested in being reappointed. Um, and so a motion would be in order. I'll make a motion. Can we make a motion to reappoint both in the same motion? We can. I'll make a motion to reappoint the chair as well as the vice chair to the board of adjustment. Okay. All right. Those being Margaret Suppler and Bob. Yes. All right. Very good. Is there a second? I'll second it. All right. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion?

Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. I. Opposed. Great. Thank you. We also have the uh fireman's relief fund board. Um and I believe I recall and I see that those folks are interested in reappointment as well. An farmer. Yes, just an all right. So a motion would be in order. I'll make a motion to reappoint Anne Farmer to the firemen's relief fund. All right. Very good. Is there a second? Second.

Have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. All right. Great. Thank you very much. And uh thank thanks to those folks for their willingness to continue to serve. Uh that brings us to items referred to and presentations from the town attorney. Mr. Ry, Mr. Mayor, other than the closed sessions that I've requested, I have nothing to present at this time. Very good. Thank you. Uh [snorts] Mr. town manager items referred to in presentations from the manager. Nothing. Nothing else today. Thank you. All right. Very good. Thank you. Uh board of commissioners agenda. Um does anybody have anything for us this morning? Okay. No, thank you.

All right. Very good.

Um uh I've already covered what whatever the mayor's agenda might have included. And so that brings us before we go to close sessions, let's I'll just ask about item N. Is there any other business that we expect to come before the board? Hearing none, then we will move to move to our closed sessions. I'll be happy to make those motions. So, I make a motion that we uh go into close session to consider the July 2025 to December 2025 close session minutes and their disposition pursuant to general statute 143-318.11a1 and also a close session to consult with the town attorney regarding matters protected by the attorney client privilege and to preserve that privilege to include the Cherry Incorporated litigation and potential legal issues that could occur during ing beach nourishment pursuant to general statute 143-318.11a3. So moved. Is there a second?

Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. All right. Thank you. The board will be in close session.

Okay. All right. The board has returned to open session. Mr. Lighty, will you please report? Uh, yes, sir. Mr. Mayor, the board did uh approve the close session minutes and approve the opening of those uh in accordance with the schedule that was approved. Um, no other action was taken. Okay, we already resolved other business and so a and we'd have no midmon meeting. So, a motion to adjourn would be in order. So, move motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Very good. See you next month. Okay.