Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

All right, good morning, everyone. This is the Wednesday, August 5th, 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. Now if you'll stand as you're able and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Before we begin, I'd like to recognize former Mayor Bob Mueller is here with us today. Welcome, Bob. Always glad to see you. The next item on our agenda is the adoption of the agenda and note the retirement recognition of David Perry has been moved to the September 2nd meeting and a motion would be in order. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? I have a motion and a second. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Thank you. That brings us to recognitions and we'll start with Callie.

Good morning, mayor and commissioners. I'm pleased to introduce our new chief building inspector, Rick Godsey. Rick brings 12 years of building inspection experience, all with Coretta County, as well as two and a half years experience with a local home builder, BC Custom Builders. He holds level three certifications in building, electrical, mechanical, plumbing, and fire. And he is also a certified floodplain administrator and a licensed commercial drone operator, which is exciting. Rick lives in Dare County with his wife, Michelle. They have two daughters, Caitlin and Madison. Caitlin and Madison grew up and attended Dare County schools. and they now live in Marietta, Georgia, and Orange, California. Outside of work, Rick enjoys traveling, college, football, and music. We're very fortunate to have someone with Rick's experience and qualifications join our team. We're glad you're here, and we hope you stay here for quite a bit, and you're up here again for your five and 10 years.

Next with a new employee is Amy Miller.

Good morning, mayor and commissioners. Um, please help me in welcoming Jessica Gallup as our new tax collector. Um, she's been working with Jackie, who was our, also our tax collector right now, as Steve is here, he's retiring. Um, so she's going to be moving on, but we're actually very grateful for the notice that Jackie gave us, um, because we're able to time this with the tax bills going out. We actually received the tax scroll. this week, and so it's really good timing. We've also asked Becky, who is the tax collector of your county, to come work with us. So we've really been at this really good timing and we feel very fortunate. Obviously, we work hand in hand with their county. So this is just like really a good start to her career at at Nags Head. In addition to her great attitude and strong work ethic, great references when we reached out, she has really the perfect background to be the tax collector here. She worked in Camden County Tax Department as a tax specialist for 14 years, and she is certified as a personal property appraiser from the North Carolina North Carolina Department of Revenue. She primarily worked with personal property at Camden County. But, you know, we collect personal property in real property here and the personal property statutes fall under the umbrella of the real property statute. So it's it's just really a great fit. So she has a really strong background in knowledge and tax collection. So it's going to be a really smooth transition. And yes, she is aware of the high expectations we have with our high tax collection rate that always, you know, put that on the table first and foremost. So she's ready for the challenge and she's going to be a welcome addition to the team. We're really fortunate to have somebody so qualified to be able to step in in this position in this timing where it's really critical to learn how to do this when we're sending out the tax bills now. So I know that she's going to help set the town up for success in the future. We're glad to have you. I'm sorry to throw you in the fire. But welcome to the team.

That brings us next to a recognition for years of service and Chief Hale.

Good morning, Mr. Mayor and Commissioners. It's my pleasure to come before you today to recognize Sergeant J.C. Mitchell for his 10 years of service with the town. J.C. began his career in Kittleville Hills and joined our agency in 2016 as a patrol officer. In early 2018, Mitchell expanded his patrol duties and became a K-9 handler with the agency and was partnered with K-9 Amy, who recently retired in 2024 and now lives as a family member within the Mitchell household. Mitchell was promoted to sergeant in 2024 in March and has become a great leader within our department in a small timeframe of just two years. He's one of the agency's general instructors and oversees the agency's Governor Highway Safety Program. In his free time, J.C. loves to spend time with his wife, Ashley, his three children, and his three dogs that live with him. Congratulations, J.C., on your 10 years, and we look forward to many more.

And the Chief and Sergeant Mitchell are going to stay there for another presentation.

Absolutely. I'd like to take a moment to honor Sergeant Mitchell for receiving a very significant statewide honor. Sergeant Mitchell was named the 2025 DWI Per Capital Enforcer of the Year by the Mothers Against Drunk Driving of North Carolina. Mothers Against Drunk Driving, better known as MADD, was founded in 1980 after a 13-year-old girl was killed by an impaired driver. Since that time, MADD has grown into the nation's largest nonprofit organization dedicated to ended drunk and drug-impaired driving, supporting victims, and preventing underage drinking. Each year, MADD, North Carolina, recognizes law enforcement officers from across the state who demonstrate an exceptional commitment to impaired driving enforcement. This is not simply a departmental or regional award. It is a statewide award of excellence. This year's event was held in Selma at the end of April with eight officers from across the country attending for a meal presentation from the leaders of MADD. and recognition from several senators throughout the state commissioners i was unable to attend i hated that with jc we had an event going on at the end of april that i needed to be here for but it was an honor for jc to be able to to attend and recognize for his efforts and to be a part of our agency just goes above and beyond for what he does sergeant mitchell earned this award after making 35 arrests during the 2025 year. This means that 35 suspected impaired drivers were removed from our roadways before they could potentially injure or kill someone to take in perspective their workfully 22,000 sworn law enforcement officers serving throughout North Carolina. for an officer from the Nags Head Police Department to be selected and recognized is a tremendous accomplishment and something our entire community should be proud of. The award reflects the efforts that Sergeant Mitchell puts into his job every day. He is an extremely hard worker, a solid leader, and someone who consistently brings a positive attitude to work. That attitude is contagious and has a positive effect on the officers around him and those especially that he supervises. We're very proud of Sergeant Mitchell. and grateful for his dedication to the department and to the safety of our community. Please join me in congratulating him on his prestigious and well-deserved statewide recognition.

Congratulations.

We had some pictures in there. I don't know if we've got a little bit of a technical difficulty that it didn't come up.

And we're asking Sergeant Mitchell to stick around for a few minutes, if you will, for a photograph, a little bit. All right, thank you. Nags Head's very fortunate to have a number of officers who are recognized and who are specialists regionally or in the state, and we really appreciate their above and beyond level of service. The next item on our agenda is a recognition for 25 years of service. Andy and Roberta?

All right. Well, make this short and sweet. Got front and back today. Little did we know that on June 25th, 2001 would turn out to be a historic day for the town of Magsad. I know I'm being a little grandiose here. It was the day that Roberta Thuman walked through our doors for the first time and gave us her talent, her energy, and her heart. Roberta was hired by town manager Webb Fuller, originally as an executive assistant, but anyone who has worked with Roberta knows she didn't stay in that box for long. Over the next 25 years, she grew that role into something the town couldn't function without, our public information officer and quite simply the face of Nags Head. Think about what the world looked like in 2001. Back then, only half American households had internet access at home. Today, the number's around 93%. Facebook didn't yet exist. It wouldn't launch until 2004. Twitter came along in 2006, and Instagram didn't arrive until 2010. Roberta, when she started here, our website was little more than a digital bulletin board, the most basic tool we had for getting information out to the public. Roberta didn't just adapt to that change, she led us through it. In 2018, she spearheaded a complete transformation of the town's website, a full modernization that gave our residents and visitors a genuinely better way to engage with their local government and find the information they need. And she didn't stop at the website. Today, the town's Facebook page has grown to 48,000 followers and nearly 9,500 posts. I'm sure you did all of those. Our Instagram following stands at over 10,000, and for some perspective, that's more Facebook followers than some of our neighbors, Dare County, 14,000, and KDH, 30,000. That kind of reach doesn't happen by accident. It happens because one person understood that showing up where people actually are is how you truly serve a community. But Roberta's impact goes much deeper than this. She had many passion projects throughout her career that had a major impact on the town. Anybody who's worked alongside her on beach nourishment, they'll tell you that Roberta has been an absolutely vital part of that effort. She's procured more easements than she probably ever cares to remember, quietly, patiently doing the unglamorous work that makes the massive project successful. Her impact goes well beyond easement acquisition. She can talk dredge operations, project templates, surveying, doing management, and even her favorite word, equilibration. Right alongside our engineers and project team. She understood that this deeper understanding of the project is necessary to really communicate to our community. This is the, probably communications is the single most important aspect of this project, especially when you're doing it in the summertime. And she's done four of these now. Roberta has also been the storyteller of Nags Head's history. She has produced the vast majority of her government access videos, keeping residents informed about town services and projects. And beyond that, she's created many documentaries that capture pieces of who we are, most notably her documentary on the Ash Wednesday storm and the history of Nags Head Ocean Rescue, Both of those films premiered at Jeanette's Pier and both times the house was packed. That tells you something. People don't just show up in numbers for just anyone. They show up because they trust the person telling the story and because Roberta has spent 25 years earning that trust, one resident, one relationship at a time. And that might be the thing that stands out most about Roberta. Yes, she's mastered the technology. She's grown our digital presence beyond what any of us probably imagined back in 2001. But underneath that all is something simpler, a warm presence, genuine care for people. Roberta has built friendships here that will last a lifetime, professional relationships across the region built on respect and trust. She is in every sense of the phrase the face of the town, not because of the title, but because of the way she has shown up for Nags Head every single day for 25 years. Roberta, on behalf of the entire town of Nags Head, thank you for your dedication, your creativity, your patience with easements and equilibration, and for the countless ways, seen and unseen, you have shaped this town and tell its story. Here's to 25 remarkable years, and hopefully there's more still ahead, but probably not. No.

I made sure Roberta arranged for somebody to take pictures. The board will come that way.

I tried to get away. I know that. Would you like to say something? I'm really, really honored to work with you since 2001.

So we have a certificate of appreciation for Roberta, which I will read in part. Throughout your career as public information officer, you have demonstrated exceptional professionalism, creativity, and leadership in communicating vital information for promoting town wishes and fostering strong relationships between the town and its residents, visitors, and stakeholders. The Nags Head Board of Commissioners applauses the positive impact it has made on your town. Your dedication, expertise, and unwavering commitment to public service have not gone unnoticed and are deeply appreciated. Thank you.

Thank you all for all you've done.

And sadly, we have a retirement this morning. Kelly.

Thank you. Before I begin, I want to make sure that this is working. Thank you so much, Mayor, members of the board, and everyone here today. It's my honor and also very bittersweet to recognize Steve Szymanski on his retirement with the town of Nags Head. Steve began working for the town on January 3rd, 2013, and during his more than 13 years with us, he has served as a building inspector, our chief building inspector, and our floodplain administrator. Those are positions that carry a tremendous amount of responsibility. The work is technical, demanding, and not always appreciated, particularly when your job requires you to tell someone something they do not want to hear. But Steve has always done his job exceptionally well. Back in 2022, I nominated Steve for employee of the year. In that nomination, I described him as punctual, accountable, dedicated, dependable, efficient, consistent, approachable, responsive, and adaptable. A lot of adjectives, but Steve earned every single one of them. At the time, Steve's supervisor said that Steve knew the North Carolina building code better than any inspector he had ever worked with, and that his knowledge was second to none. In the years since, Steve has become the person that the rest of us has relied upon for that knowledge. If someone had a question about building code, flood plate regulations, or just how to handle a difficult situation within the town, Steve was the person that we went to. One of Steve's colleagues described him as steadfast and dependable, a true to his word friend. They spoke of his extensive knowledge, unwavering work ethic, fairness, trustworthiness, and his no-nonsense, get-it-done attitude, and that describes Steve perfectly. Steve's integrity was every bit as important as his knowledge. He administered the codes fairly and consistently, regardless of who was asking. It didn't matter if you were a first-time homeowner, a long-time contractor, a prominent property owner, or even a member of this board. Steve held everyone to the same standards. He didn't bend the rules based on someone's name, title, or influence. He treated people with respect and equity, and he took seriously his responsibility to protect the safety and welfare of all the people who live and work and play within the town of Nags Head. Steve was also incredibly dependable. He arrived early, ready to take the first phone call, or help the first person that walked through the door often before some of us, myself included, ever made it out of the house to come to work. If Steve told you he would take care of something, you knew that it would be taken care of. You rarely needed to follow up with Steve because Steve was always following through. In that 2022 nomination, I also wrote, and I want to be honest, that Steve was likely not the employee that you went to if you wanted to leave feeling warm and fuzzy inside.

I don't know, some of you might remember that from 2022, but I probably undersold him a little bit.

He's behind being the very direct building inspector who will often tell you to stay in your lane sometimes. He's incredibly thoughtful and caring. Steve began many mornings by sharing a beautiful sunrise photograph. One coworker told me that she will miss those photographs so much and that her inbox is probably over its size limit, sorry here, because she's kept so many of Steve's emails over the years. I think that says a lot. Steve didn't just notice the beautiful moments, but he took the time to share them with everyone and the people he cared about. If we were especially lucky, Steve arrived with something he had baked, cookies, cakes, pies, some other sweet treat would mysteriously appear in the office, and no one ever had the willpower to not dive in immediately. We are certainly going to miss Steve's knowledge and his dependability, but it would be dishonest if we said that we weren't going to miss all the baked goods as well. Another member of their team shared that Steve was always eager to answer questions and generously share his knowledge of building regulations and the code. They said they would miss working with him, miss those delicious treats, and hoped retirement would allow him to kick up his feet, go fishing, and do whatever he wants with his time. And then they offered that what might be the best retirement tribute that anyone could give Steve, quote, I can't believe I'm saying this, but go birds. When Steve first told me he was ready to retire, I'll admit that it was hard for me to process. Selfishly, I wasn't ready to lose him, not because of everything he brings to Air Department, but because of how much he means to all of us. But then I thought about pictures like this. Steve sent this to me about a year ago. Steve's dad lives in Delaware, about five hours away, and his dad loves playing hot shots at the VFW on Thursday nights. So every other week, Steve makes that drive and takes his dad to the VFW suite. Knowing that retirement means Steve will have more time for nights like this, more time with his dad, makes losing him to retirement a whole lot easier. Because as much as we will miss having Steve here with us every day, this is exactly where he deserves to be. Steve, thank you for your knowledge, your integrity, your loyalty, your consistency, and your friendship. Thank you for always being there when we needed you, for holding all of us to the same standard, and for leaving this department and the town better than you found them. We hope retirement brings you many more trips to Delaware, many more Thursday nights at the VFW, plenty of time to fish, and the freedom to spend your days doing exactly what you want to do. You have certainly earned it.

We are going to miss you.

And I'm going to ask the board to come around and Steve to stay up for a presentation. There's a small financial token, gas money. And a plaque which reads, to Steve Schifanski, a fun retirement, grateful appreciation of your loyalty. Mayor, do you have J.C. back?

Oh, yes, I do.

I'm sorry. Award, please. J.C., will you come with your award, please?

All right.

Oh my gosh, tearjerker. She really did.

She got him too.

I think that set of recognitions represents to the degree to which Nags Head is really also a family.

You know, people who really respect each other and enjoy working with one another. And it's one of the great things about our town. As we see employees come and go, it's pretty awesome.

That brings us next to public comment. Mr. Leidy? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. At this time, the Board of Commissioners welcomes members of the public to comment to the Board on matters of interest or concern. It's not an opportunity for dialogue, and the board rarely responds. But for anyone who wishes to address the board on matters that you're interested in, if you will please go to the podium, start by telling us your name and where you live, and then I will let you know when your time is almost up. Also, we do have one public hearing on the agenda for today. If you are here to provide comment for that hearing, you should reserve your comments until that public hearing is called. But for anyone else, if you wish to provide comment to the board, this is your opportunity.

Anyone?

Mr. Mayor, seeing no takers, I think we should conclude in public comment.

All right, very good. Thank you, sir. That brings us to the consent agenda, which you have before you with seven items, and a motion would be in order. So moved. Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Thank you. And that brings us to our public hearing, and I will turn this over to Mr. Leidy and Director Kelly Wyatt.

All right, thank you, Mr. Mayor. So at this time, we will begin the public hearing to consider a text amendment application that was submitted by Ms. Suzanne Bayer on behalf of BIPA LLC to amend section 7.32 of the Unified Development Ordinance in order to allow water-dependent recreational uses as a permissible use within commercial mixed-use developments, including shopping centers located within the commercial outdoor recreation overlay. And we'll begin the board's consideration of this by receiving the staff's analysis presented by the Planning and Development Director, Kelly Wyatt.

Thank you. I was hoping I would have more time before I was back at the podium. As you stated, this is a public hearing to consider a text amendment application submitted by Suzanne Bayer on behalf of BIPA, B-I-P-A-L-L-C. The request is to amend section 7.32 of the Unified Development Ordinance to allow water-dependent recreational uses within commercial mixed-use developments, including shopping centers, when those developments are located within the commercial outdoor recreation overlay district, or as we often call it, the CORD. Just as some background, this request originated from discussions concerning the property located at 7531, South Virginia Dare Trail. This is Caribbean Corners Shopping Center. It has Fresh Fit, Pizza Place, Lost Colony, just so you can get your bearings of where we're talking about. That property is located on the Sound Front. It's within the C2 General Commercial Zoning District, and it's also within the cord. It's developed as a shopping center, which is classified in our ordinance as a commercial mixed-use development. Although the property that prompted this request, I did want to emphasize that this is a legislative text amendment and the board is not considering a particular site plan or special use permit this morning. The approval of this amendment would not constitute approval of or support of any particular business or proposal at Caribbean Corners. That's just where the text amendment precipitated in the applicant in this scenario. Under section 6.6 of our UDO, water-dependent recreational uses are already considered within the commercial outdoor recreation overlay district. However, in section 7.32, which regulates commercial mixed-use developments it does not currently list water dependent recreational uses among the uses that can be included within those developments and that is the excerpt of the ordinance that we are requesting to amend but I did provide the entire 7.3 to within your packet so hopefully you've had a chance to look at that and if not I'm happy to bring it up on the screen Therefore, even though the underlying zoning in the overlay district may allow the use, it cannot currently be located within a development classified as a commercial mixed use development or a shopping center without the amendment that's before you today. There are several things that this amendment would not do, so I wanted to speak to those. It would not increase the maximum number of permitted commercial water recreational vendors that are allowed within the town. Based on the carrying capacity study that was also included in your packet, that number has been at seven businesses and it would remain at seven businesses. We're not looking to increase the number recreational businesses within the town it would not expand the geographic boundary of the commercial outdoor recreational overlay district that would stay the same that's right there in the whalebone area starting around lakeside going around whalebone and across the causeway this would not increase the number of personal watercraft allowed per vendor Right now, that's eight jet skis allowed per vendor. That came from the carrying capacity study for the Soundfront as well. This amendment does not change that in any way. That stays at eight. And this proposed amendment would not eliminate the requirement that anyone looking to take advantage of this would need to come back before the board for their special use site plan amendment. This text amendment would simply allow the existing category of use to be considered within an additional type of commercial development, specifically commercial mixed use developments, including shopping centers. The history behind the town's regulation of water-dependent recreational use is important. In 1998, the town began experiencing increasing concerns regarding personal watercraft rental operations on the Roanoke Sound. Those concerns included safety, congestion, conflicts among different user groups, potential environmental impacts, and the overall quality of the recreational experience. In response, the Board of Commissioners at the time adopted a moratorium on the expansion of personal watercraft rental operations while a comprehensive carrying capacity study was completed. That's included in your packet. The town retained PMA planners to conduct that study. During the summer of 1998, the consultants completed 317 interviews at 12 locations along the Naxahead shoreline of Roanoke Sound. The participants included personal watercraft users, powerboat users, non-powered watercraft users, and shoreline users such as swimmers, anglers, and crabbers. The purpose was not to prohibit personal watercraft or commercial recreation. It was to determine how much recreational activity the sound could reasonably accommodate before congestion, safety concerns, user conflicts, or impacts to the experience became unacceptable. The study found that users were generally satisfied with their experiences on the sound, that the sound was not experiencing widespread degradation or unacceptable congestion, and that the management measures in place at the time seemed to be working. Seven commercial rental operations existed when that study was completed and based upon those findings, the consultant recommended we keep that at seven businesses. Eight personal watercraft was also what was permitted at the time and that's why we currently have that and we're proposing to keep that in place. One of the more significant conclusions of this study was that the principal concern was not necessarily the environmental degradation of the sound itself, but it was the potential for conflicts among many different people sharing a finite recreational resource. The resulting regulations were intended to balance recreational opportunities with safety, compatibility, and the long-term management of the Roanoke Sound. Staff recognizes that recreational activity on the Sound has changed since that study was completed more than 25 years ago. We now have delivery-based rental services, more privately owned watercraft used by visitors, transient docking facilities, and a broader range of commercial activities. Businesses that may once have focused primarily on personal watercraft now frequently offer pontoon boat rentals, kayaks, stand-up paddle boards, parasailing, kite boarding, dolphin tours, and many other activities that have grown over the years. Therefore, even though the number of commercial operators has remained relatively consistent, the variety and the potential intensity of recreational activity has certainly increased. The history is relevant, however, the proposed amendment does not necessarily alter the town's carrying capacity limitations. It does not add vendors, it does not add personal watercraft or add territory to the overlay district. The question raised by this request is whether an otherwise permissible water-dependent recreational use should be allowed to seek approval within a commercial mixed-use development. and that raises somewhat different set of concerns. Unlike standalone waterfront recreational businesses, a shopping center is typically designed around multiple tenants that are sharing parking, drive aisles, pedestrian areas, and other infrastructure. Those tenants may include restaurants, retail businesses, offices, and personal service establishments. Adding a water dependent recreational use to that environment could raise some legitimate concerns about where watercraft and other equipment would be stored or staged, where customers would gather and receive their instructions, whether adequate parking would remain available for all tenants, how vehicles, trailers, pedestrians, and customers would circulate through the property, where docking facilities or related infrastructure would be located, where fueling would occur, and if so, how spill prevention and safety would be addressed. whether the operation would affect stormwater management, is it going to be compatible with the neighboring tenants, and whether the overall site would continue to function safely and efficiently. Staff believes those are very important questions. However, we acknowledge they are more site-specific questions. The legislative text amendment cannot tell us where the equipment will be stored on a particular property, how many spaces will remain available, et cetera, or how it might conflict with the additional businesses within the shopping center. Those are items that are gonna have to be evaluated through a special use permit and site plan amendment. That process would allow the town to examine the actual property, the proposed operation, parking calculations, circulation patterns, equipment storage, docking, fueling arrangements, storm water, and the relationship to the proposed other tenants. Any applicant would have to demonstrate independently that the proposed use satisfies all the applicable ordinance requirements and the special use permit standards. Staff also recognizes that the amendment could offer potential benefits. It could provide greater flexibility in the use of existing commercial properties, allow businesses to share existing infrastructure, concentrate commercial activities within established commercial developments, and provide convenience for customers who may be using other businesses at that location. Relevant comprehensive plan policies encourage the town to preserve Nags Head's character while allowing commercial development that serves residents and visitors and remains compatible with adjacent properties. The plan also directs the town to review its regulations for ocean and sound waters, commercial boating, and personal watercraft to protect the recreational, scenic, and environmental value of those resources. Staff believes that allowing the use to be considered while retaining carrying capacity limits the seven businesses and the eight jet skis, and requiring the site-specific special use permit, we believe that this text amendment is consistent with those policies. The planning board considered this amendment at its June 16th meeting, and after discussing all the potential concerns that we've gone over here as well, The planning board voted unanimously to recommend approval of the text amendment, noting that any business would require the site-specific special use permit to be reviewed and approved by the planning board and this board. That being said, staff's recommendation is the same. We do recommend approval of the amendment as it's been presented, noting that any individual business wanting to take advantage would require site plan review as well. So I am happy to answer any questions that you may have related to the text amendment. And we do have Suzanne Baer available in the audience. She is the applicant and the property manager for Caribbean Corners.

All right, does the board have any questions for Ms. Wyatt?

I don't.

I don't. Thank you for a very thorough presentation.

Yes.

Thank you, Kelly. Ms. Baer, do you have anything to present?

No, I just want to say thank you for your consideration on the text amendment. All right.

Does any member of the public wish to comment on the proposed text amendment? Does the board wish to receive any other information from staff or the applicant before you begin your deliberations? If not, at this time we will conclude the public hearing. The board may begin its deliberations on the proposed text amendment.

All right. Board, any comments before we entertain a motion? All right. Then we'll entertain a motion.

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

Thank you. Do I have a second?

Second.

I have a motion and a second. I will say I do appreciate the concerns that the planning board expressed about that will be site specific. I also appreciate the fact that multi-use allows people to be on the road a little less. In other words, you can enjoy, you know, whoever's in a car can enjoy multiple functions on the same site, which I think is the benefit of the mixed use, and so we will see how this goes. All right. I have a motion and a second. Hearing no further discussion, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Thank you.

All right.

Kelly, you're a busy lady today.

This next item will go much faster. I will just provide a few highlights from the Planning and Development Department's monthly report. The written report has information about permitting, inspections, code enforcement, septic health activity through June, and I can dive deeper into any of that if needed. The Planning Board did not meet in July. Its next meeting is scheduled for August 18th, and we're going to be hearing a text amendment submitted by Eddie Goodrich concerning cottage courts. The amendment would provide greater flexibility by modifying existing graduated size and design requirements for individual dwelling units. That sounds kind of vague, but essentially what that is is the last time we heard this, I think the applicant wanted to increase the size of cottage courts, and this is kind of going the other way. The current applicant is interested in providing smaller homes, one story, consistent with a loft, And because we have that graduated scale that says 1 3rd has to be single story, 1 3rd story and a half, 1 3rd two story with the scale of graduated habitable living space, this text amendment would keep that in place but allow an alternative option for something for more consistent one story structures. And we'll have more on that at the planning board's agenda. Also, at this next planning board meeting, the conversation about accessory dwelling units, that is on our strategic plan. We don't want to lose sight of it. We know it's a really large conversation. We have several new planning board members who may not be privy to all of the history behind ADUs and the discussions and the concerns. So we're gonna start the process of updating the planning board on the history so that possibly in the months down the road, if we wanna consider another ordinance, everybody's aware of where we've been. The Board of Adjustment met on July 9th to consider appeal from Sebastian O'Hongoran That was an appeal from an interpretation regarding front yard setback reduction and the board voted unanimously to uphold staff's administrative decision. The Board of Adjustment meets again August 13th to consider an appeal filed by Loretta Patrick regarding the denial of a permit to demolish an existing beach access walkway within the Pelican Park subdivision. Adjoining property owner notifications have gone out. The site's been posted and we'll be holding that hearing on Thursday, August 13th. As far as the DWMP, we continue to have strong participation in the septic health initiative during the past fiscal year. The town completed approximately 190 septic inspections, issued 158 water bill credits, and facilitated 10 septic repair loans. A recent outreach mailer generated approximately 70 inspection requests and introduced several new property owners to the program, so that was really exciting. Staff have also mailed targeted information about the new zero-interest septic loan program to those properties that are considered to be vulnerable based upon their proximity to a water body and elevation. Staff continues to work with OTT HydraMet on our groundwater loggers and we're meeting with researchers from ECU to learn more about their groundwater monitoring work and possibly explore opportunities to collaborate with them as well. Estuarine shoreline, there's been a lot of movement there. Harvey and Soundside event site permit application was submitted following completion of wetland survey and some minor design revisions. We're continuing to address access for kite and wind sport users. Permits are anticipated in September, bidding to follow, and construction is currently planned for January of 2027. We've also had productive engagement with property owners on Villa Dunes Drive, And Soundside Road, the project will focus on a nature-based resiliency berm and associated stormwater improvements intended to reduce overtopping of the roadway, improve habitat, and protect the infrastructure. Draft easement language has been shared with the affected property owners, and we're just continuing outreach with them at this time. Staff are also developing policy for technical assistance funding that the board allocated during the budget process for private property owners and small groups that are interested in living shorelines. We're gonna be putting a policy together on how that technical assistance will be awarded and that should be coming back to you in September. We have issued our request for qualifications to update the town's parks and recreation plan. That was the number one priority in the strategic plan update, so that is now underway and very exciting. Summer programming at Dowdy continues to be extremely successful. Great attendance at really everything, farmer's market, concerts, fitness, family fun, everything's just going really well, so very thankful for that. And we're also pleased to welcome a new employee, Erica Rohrabacher. She is the new part-time year-round events assistant. Most of you all have probably seen her by now. She's out there with Paige on Farmer's Market Days, and she's just been a huge asset to have her. So thank you. She's been wonderful. And I believe that's it.

Okay, great. Any questions for Kelly?

No. Thank you, Kelly. Thank you.

Thank you, Kelly.

That brings us to new business and committee reports. And I will start on my right with Commissioner Vaughan.

The tourism board does not meet in July, so I have not much of a report for you this month.

All right. Very good. Thank you. Mr. Sanders?

The DARE Housing Foundation is still moving forward with their Sandcastle weekly building contest. And it's in its first year. So we're still trying to get the word out about that and hoping that will grow. And also, more importantly, they're actively seeking some grants to get things going. So it's moving in a really positive direction. Good.

Glad to hear that. Commissioner Weber?

Kelly gave a great report update from the septic health committee, but I did just want to say an extra thank you to town staff. I've been on the septic health committee for years on planning board in this, and it's just rare to me to see so many staff members involved in what this loan program, the amount of work that Kelly, Joe, Amy, and Connor have been putting into it, and Andy has been immense. And it's just well beyond the traditional scope of work, I would think, with the septic health program. So thank you again. I'm really excited about the loan program.

Very good. Thank you. Commissioner Harrison.

Government access channel committee met in July and kind of business as usual if things are just rolling along. I just wanted to point out that Roberta's content from the past year since the committee's been developed, it's just been, it's been stellar. If you go and you look through all the videos of all that are there, a lot of the Nags Head videos really stand out and I just want to commend Roberta for that.

Yep.

Great, great work.

Very good. Thank you. That brings us next to consideration of resolutions authorizing fall 2026 fishing tournaments. These are long-standing tournaments for the Outer Banks Association of Realtors, the Fraternal Order of Eagles, and the Nags Head Surf Fishing Club, and I think that we can do that with a single motion.

Okay.

Okay, so a motion would be in order.

So moved.

I have a motion. Is there a second?

Second.

I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Thank you. Mr. Lighty, do we have anything from you today?

Yes, we have two things. One, I want to give you an update on the Cherry litigation. As you know, in that case, we've obtained a summary judgment last summer dismissing the case and Cherry appealed from that. So the case is pending in the Court of Appeals. Just last week we received notification from the Court of Appeals that the appeal will be considered on August the 27th without oral arguments. So they'll be considering it on the briefs that we submitted that the appellant submitted and that were submitted by

amicus from the Southern Environmental Law Center.

The other thing I want to point out is I just wanted to, since Roberta Thuman was recognized today, I just want to point out that in the easement acquisition process for beach nourishment, that's something we've spent a lot of time on. It couldn't be done without her assistance. I just want to give her that credit. Very good.

Thank you. That brings us to items referred to in presentations from the town manager. And first, Amy, with a financial update.

I mean although I will say it this is going to be about fiscal year 26 because there's really nothing to report in 27 we haven't even built taxes we're working on that obviously but so obviously this is unaudited we're not closed out we're still waiting on some things so just really a high level overview So in the budget, we kind of put a lot of work into discussing, you know, financial planning. And there was a supplemental narrative in there about the general fund balance projection. And so what we talked about in the budget was a 30% fund balance, which was a 3% increase from the fiscal year 25 unassigned fund balance. And we wrote that in March or April, so now that we're in August and we've progressed towards closing out the books in 26, I still think that that 30% holds true, if not 31 or 32%, which is great because, again, that is an increase from last year. And again, as above our fund balance policy, the general fund of 25%, but it is below the 35%. I do not think from every which way that I've sliced and diced it going back from March and April to last week, I don't think we will hit that 35%. But again, you know, something could happen. So I don't think we will be putting funds into the capital investment fund. Anything over 35% would go in there. But again, the capital investment fund does have its own fund balance policy. And this fiscal year, we will be above our policy of 20%. And the way that we did the budget, both in 27 and the financial plan, we were within that policy of the CIF as well. So I don't anticipate any problems there. The fund balance policy calculation for the general fund, the way you calculate that, open purchase orders that will be carried forward, that will be a budget amendment that the board will approve probably in October. That hits the fund balance, if you will, so that's taken into an account. The fund balance appropriation, I know we talked about that in the budget process for 27, that hits the fund balance. I took that into account. And we also have to account for the $12 million transfer made from the capital reserve fund because in the financial statements, the capital reserve fund, the capital investment fund, and the general fund are all combined for the front of the statements. So we do have to take that into account as well. So all those things were factored into that. And again, our fund balance policy does not include special obligation bond debt, which would be the public services complex. And that was 1.2 million. So we backed that out to get to our fund balance calculation of what the board policy is for fund balance. Some reasons for the increase is we did The revaluation, we did receive a half a million dollars more in ad valorem revenue because of our almost 100% collection rate. I think that was in the packet for this month. In the revenue neutral rate, we talked about that with the board with the appeals. The county, the towns, everybody accounted for a 5% appeal process. And the latest email I could find from the county was ours was less than 3.5%. So that accounts for some of that interest income over budget by $150,000. utilities, franchise tax over budget by about that same amount. And also with the grants, the timing of it, you know, we have to get reimbursement. We have to pay for it first, then we have to get it back. So we've been getting finally on the back end of some of those reimbursements. So that's helping us also the shared revenues. I think we're on an uptick. I hate to say that out loud. But we are, because at first I was like, oh, we're gonna be about 50,000 under. Well, now I think we're gonna be about 50,000 over, which is pretty much a net zero for budgeting. You know, land transfer tax was 5% less than it was last fiscal year. Sales tax was up 1%. Occupancy tax, 2% lower. So based on these figures, you know, we were transparent, I think, with the board and in the budget, how we did a very conservative, flat, for shared revenues, and based on this, I think that that's the appropriate decision that was made. Again, we're gonna say conservatively optimistic, if that's a word. And for utility, we budgeted about 4.3 million in revenues, and I think that's exactly where we're gonna land, maybe a little bit over. But the good news is that the water that we purchased from Dare County, that was 17 and a half percent under what we budgeted. So we're buying less water, but we're actually meeting our revenues. So to me, again, that says a lot about the conservation and the leak detection and the meter. So I think that's kind of a good thing. Tipping fees. About $800,000, that is slightly under budget. We met our budget for that pretty much, and we did reduce them by 6% in fiscal year 26, so we're forecasting a drop in tipping fees, and I think this year it was closer to $830,000 that we budgeted, but the fees are going up, the gas surcharge is going up, so it's not necessarily the tonnage, but more so the cost per ton. um and really that's it at a very high level um looking forward to working on the financials now and we do this quarterly but i'm always available to answer any questions but thank you for your time Any questions for Amy?

Thank you, Amy. It's really fun to see a win like the water meters. It continues to thrill me that something so technical, so sort of mundane, turns out to be not just a financial win for the town, but a win in terms of public perception because we've heard so many stories about people who have Where the town's been able to detect a leak for somebody that they didn't know that they had And be responsive. So so that that's really that's that's fun All right, David Update on the multi-use path Good morning mayor and commissioners

So we thought that this would be a good opportunity to go ahead and just provide a concept for the planning of the next phase of the Westside multi-use path. What I've got up on the screen is just an aerial overview of the section that we're looking at. I'll go ahead and zoom in. This is essentially to go ahead and fill in the existing gap within our multi-use path network. We have to the north, from Carolista Drive all the way up through A Street, we have a segment of multi-use path that currently exists. And so this would be a continuation of that from Carolista Drive all the way through to West Soundside Road, where we would then connect up with a section of multi-use path that was constructed back in 2020. So, a couple things of note with this section that is a little bit different from what we've come across with some of the prior projects we've got some existing constraints one being an existing drainage ditch network which spans from carolista drive to just south of conk street this is part of a drainage network that captures runoff from us-158 and then there's a cross culvert pipe at conk street which then flows through that network and through an ocean outfall at that location Additionally, we've got underground utilities that we're going to have to work around and topography I think is our biggest challenge. The topography from Jockey's Ridge State Park, especially when we get into this section, I've got Suey's Barbecue as a point of reference here along the east side of 158. This is really where the topography starts to encroach out close towards the existing edge of pavement. This may require some pretty extensive grading as well as some bulk heading in this area and this extends through to the crosswalk at Jockey's Ridge crossing and then to points south of that until that slope starts to taper off some. So just to give you a sense of what we're looking at as far as topography, especially in that area that we were just looking at on the north side, we start to see it really start to constrain in here. The existing roadway elevations are somewhere around an elevation of nine feet above mean sea level. And these contour lines represent a change in grade at one foot intervals. and you can see they go up to about 22 feet over a short span of distance and so due to that and the placement of the path that we would look at going ahead and starting our retaining wall we'd be looking at approximately about a thousand feet of retaining wall in length starting at about four foot high as an exposed height and maybe even increasing as much as eight feet in height to be able to keep that sand back and have an open pathway for us to place the path as well as any drainage improvements in that area. And that extends south through the crosswalk. We would have an opening here within the retaining wall to allow passage of pedestrians. And then also that retaining wall would then continue southward. Give me a second. southward up into a point where that slope really starts to taper back. And so we're looking at some pretty extensive grading in that area. We're also looking at a reduced width of the multi-use path. In the past traditionally we've had a 10 foot wide multi-use path, but because of these challenges and these constraints beyond the regulatory constraints that we have where we have a 10 foot wide separation from the existing edge of pavement, or as an alternative we could have a a vertical curb and gutter that would serve as a barrier where we can locate that pathway three feet on the backside of that curb and gutter. Those are some of the other constraints and we've been working with North Carolina Department of Transportation as well as Jockeys Ridge State Park to go ahead and discuss how we can navigate some of these things and still work within their permitting framework. I wanted to just show a visual representation of what this may look like. When we talk about the separation and having a grass buffer, this is what the path would look like. Conceptually, if we were to have a 10 foot wide grass buffer and have separation from the travel lane to where the beginning of the edges sidewalk would begin and then in some of those areas where it starts starts to tighten up we would look at the retaining wall where we would have potentially curb and gutter pathway and then a little bit of separation to where that retaining wall would would go ahead and start just to go ahead and give you an idea of what this finished product may look like So we are currently working with Withers-Rabenow, who's doing the engineered design for this, and still having these conversations with North Carolina Department of Transportation, as well as Jockeys Ridge State Park, to be able to come up with a final alignment, as well as a final walkway with, to be able to get to a point where we can submit for permits, put it out to bid, and start construction on the project. So I'll be glad to answer any questions that you may have.

Questions?

If that bulkhead gets to like eight feet in some areas, will there be, I imagine there'd be some sort of like guardrail to keep people from wandering over it?

or you know what i mean like if they come down yeah you'd hope they wouldn't but i mean it's we anticipate that some of those exposed heights where it's eight feet that they're going to be really concentrated and focused so it's not going to be over a large area so it would be over a small area and i don't know if some of those areas are actually accessible okay

so but it would it's definitely something that we'll go ahead and consider and look at to see if there's additional safety treatments that we need to put in place as a result of that is the park seemingly open to moving sand and these plantings look new so are they are they open to moving sand and planting stabilization plants on the dune so far

And in some of our initial discussions, they were really focused on vegetation preservation. And so with the alignment, we've tried to minimize the amount of vegetative removal. But we also understand that with the grading and the bulk heading that there will need to be some type of planning behind there in order to go ahead and keep that in place, so.

So that was my question. Are they seemingly open to new plantings on the dune?

Yes, and I think that's key for them because of the fact is if you don't have that vegetation, then it's gonna be that much more difficult to be able to stabilize those slopes.

And schedule?

So the schedule is once we go ahead and refine the plans, get all the permitting and regulatory agencies on board, then we can go ahead and submit for permits. Our plan is to try to be under construction this fall. but we do realize that that's really gonna be a function of the permit review. We realize that we're gonna have to go through the Division of Coastal Management and get a CAMA permit for the sand removal, as well as getting authorization through Jockeys Ridge State Park. We've got state sedimentation erosion control and there will likely be storm water management and through North Carolina Department of Transportation in a right-of-way encroachment. We engaged most all of these agencies to start this conversation so that when we submit, we can hopefully expedite those reviews so we can be under construction sooner rather than later. Andy, you were gonna add something.

Well, I was just gonna discuss the Discussions we've had with Jockey's Ridge State Park. Obviously, they're gonna have a lot of interest in what we're doing here. We sort of had some questions about getting some of the approvals if we were gonna work beyond the property line. Obviously, this is a CAMA AEC, Jockey's Ridge AEC, and so we know that Stan's gonna have to stay in the park. And we were advised to basically submit for our CAMA major permit application And then all of those things could be addressed as part of their review of the application, including where they would direct us to place sand inside the park. And so I think most likely, you know, we would be placing sand. They have a they have a sort of a disposal area inside the park on the north side of the park where they have been placing the sand that they've been moving. And so we would probably be putting it there. And so some of those things would be addressed during the permitting process. And I think there's some additional coordination with them on the plantings and the buffer strip and things like that that we've got to work out. We've got some issues we've got to work out with the retaining wall. the grading that's going to occur behind that as well we're talking with withers-ravenel about that but you know the grass strip between the sidewalk that's something that we may want to talk about how that that's gonna look I mean you know this picture right here it kind of shows this very uniform hardened edge And I don't know how folks are going to react to that. So I think we have to be mindful of that. And perhaps this grass strip is more not just regular grass, but something else and something we could talk about, maybe more of a natural type grass, like a love grass or something like that. The picture is a little deceiving because I think as David was saying, the path is not straight. The bulkhead is not going to be continuous at the same height. It's going to go up and down and then disappear in a section and then come back up. I'm just saying that if someone looked at that, that's not, I think, what the finished product is exactly.

I wonder if it's worth investing the time as we get a little further along to renderings that would address sort of the final configuration. I don't know how much of a special order that is given whatever kind of software they may be using to design this.

right and as as we near the the final planning then we can go ahead and modify and update it so it's a little bit more realistic and more in tune what that final design is going to look like yeah okay i think we may like to see that when the time comes okay thank you thank you all right thank you i think you're staying there for the stormwater master plan presentation Yes. Okay, so first off, I'd like to go ahead and apologize. In your packet, there was several packets of information included to include a rating sheet as well as a CIP summary sheet and then the individual project listings. And in going through that in advance of this presentation, was able to note that there was one project that was missing that was very integral to the overall planning in the Soundside Road area. And that was the third phase, which basically connects three other projects together. um this was presented previously to the board and it had a pumping station noted at the intersection of deering street and soundside road i think commissioner vaughn had commented that that property in that area likely would not be available for that so we looked at an alternate location to the north for the siting of that pump station but it was inadvertently left out in the packet that was in the board packet. And this information that I'm giving you today reinserts that back in there. It does not materially change the overall priority, but it coincides with the other projects in that way. So I just wanted to start off by stating that. Okay, so. The overall stormwater master plan, that framework has included many different items to include an asset inventory and assessment, which has been completed. There was also a public workshop, which we had last August. There is a geo database management and dashboard. I think that was previously presented to the board earlier this year. an asset condition assessment that was completed as well and also part of the work that was included was hydraulic analysis along South Memorial Avenue which is one of our main drainage trunk lines within the town and this analysis looked at identifying any deficiencies within that network and improvements that could increase the level of service from either a one year or two year and try to increase that up to a 10 year level of service. Also, what we're gonna talk about today is the capital improvement plan project prioritization and scoring. And then also in the works is a watershed action plan, which is part of the overall scope of work. And that will really enable us to focus in on grants, not only just related to stormwater, but also along the Esser and Shoreline. And lastly, all of this is going to be combined into a final report, which we would like to go ahead and bring back to the board at your November meeting, which ties all of this together. All right, so just for the prioritization summary, there is 22 project areas that were prioritized. They were evaluated based upon scoring that ranges from zero to 75. highest scored project was the ramp one outfall which is in South Nags Head and that came in at 64 points and the lowest scoring was one of the phases of the Dune Street improvements which was phase 2b and that scored at 40 points but most all of these projects scored between 55 to 45 points and Really the lowest cost projects with the highest number of residents really those were the ones that were scored the highest and All right, so included in your packet and included in the information that you have before you is a summary table which prioritizes and ranks all of the 22 projects along with the score and the cost for each one of these projects. And then there is also a graph which goes through the ranking for each one of the projects ranging from that 64 as a high to the 40 as a low for Dune Street Phase 2B. what we have up on the screen is an overall map of where all these project areas are located you can see we've got a high density of projects from the north end of town up along memorial avenue all the way through the whalebone junction and then in south nags head down at ramp one and you can see that it really does encompass primarily all of the town addressing many issues that we have seen historically and some that we've seen more recently that have validated that we continue to have problems in some of these low-lying areas. So the The criteria that was used for scoring was through a scoring matrix. And this is a matrix that the town currently has in the stormwater management operating procedures. And it looks at items like flooding frequency, flooding impact, existing system condition, water quality benefits associated with projects, maintenance, the number of residents impacted, safety, the sources of flood. It could be rainfall based. It could be overwash with consideration for that. Any constraints that may be associated with the projects, budgetary concerns, the location, whether it's within a town street, a private street, or within the North Carolina Department of Transportation right of way. And then lastly, flood reduction is looking at the reduction in flood time and recession. And all of those were assigned a there was three different scores for the rating. For example, for a flooding frequency, you had frequent had a score associated with it, occasional and infrequent. and then there was a weighted percentage that was applied to that item and so these were looked at for each project a score assigned in able to go ahead and develop the overall ranking for each of the individual projects So I'll try to go through this as rapidly as possible. You've got these sheets included in your packet, and these are the individual rankings for each one of the projects. The Ramp 1 outfall, which was ranked the number one project out of the 22 projects identified, it's got a cost of $85,000 associated with it. It's got the prioritization parameters and their associative scores and the total score. And in comparison to some of the other projects, it falls on the lower level of cost. It's got the highest number of residents impacted because of the west side ditch that spans from about James Street all the way down to ramp one. that that was one of the major contributing factor factors to the high ranking the frequency of flooding down in that area the need for maintenance and also the need for safety because a lot of the flooding that we see is within the roadway surface and that leads to safety concerns associated with vehicular circulation throughout that area uh... south memorial avenue as i had noted before there was a hydraulic analysis done on memorial avenue and it identified some improvements throughout that corridor and the highest-ranking one was up in the admiral street uh... area now this is broken out into two parts sidewalk improvements um that are ongoing that will continue this fall that we were able to go ahead and take care of a portion of these drainage improvements with that work and this would be the second half of that work which spans along the east side of south memorial avenue from admiral's admiral street and proceeding northward And that would be really upsizing the existing storm drain system within that area. And the cost of that is about $180,000. It's got some low site constraints. It's got some safety improvements. And also just the number of residences in that area that are impacted by drainage. and this being a critical segment for that, that this led to the ranking of number two overall of the 22 identified. the third ranked project is soundside road phase one we've seen that here most recently with rainfall runoff and extensive ponding along this corridor that this would comprise of putting in a 36 inch diameter trunk network which would span from the very south end of Soundside Road up towards the curve where we have existing infrastructure. This is a relatively high cost project at $750,000, but due to the frequency of flooding and the number of residences impacted, as well as other factors, that this was ranked number three out of the 22 projects. The fourth rated project is Dune Street phase one. That's another project where we've seen flooding at the intersection of South Virginia Dare Trail and Dune Street with a pretty high frequency. And so this would be potentially the first phase of a three phase project where we could go ahead and we could capture some of the runoff, most of this runoff, which is seen from the adjoining shopping center to be able to go ahead and capture that and infiltrate that locally this has got a medium level cost it doesn't have as many residents impacted by it but because of the frequency in flooding and the safety concerns with the flooding at this intersection it ranked number four South Memorial Avenue that again as part of this overall network and the number of residents that it serves along this main trunk line this is in the area of East Baltic Street And this would be increasing the existing pipe size of that storm network in order to increase that current level of service from a one year storm to a two year storm in some case and a ten year storm on the outermost pipes for this proposal. The Some of these projects you'll see they'll receive the same ranking and that is because they both achieve the same score. And so you'll see that in the summary list and that's noted on each one of these individual sheets. So East Epstein Street is an example of that where this is ranked number four with the South Memorial Avenue project This is a relatively low cost project. This finishes off some of the work that we started along South Virginia Dare Trail back in 2019 and this will go ahead and connect from Epstein Street down to the north side of Town Hall and then also continue on over to Fire Station 16 and make some improvements there since this is part of an overall network Within the village that starts at Seven Sisters and then flows all the way through the village through the golf course and out to the sound and so it's it's important to Have the downstream part of this network in place prior to making upstream improvements. Otherwise If you don't do it within that sequence, you'll continue to have flooding at the upstream ends. I The next project is Memorial Avenue. This is identified as Area 1, and this is a relatively low-cost project, and this is upsizing some culvert pipes at select residences just south of Atlas Street. There are several of the culvert pipes at that location that are undersized, and this would be upsizing and bringing more continuity to the overall drainage network. The eighth ranked project is West Lookout Road. This is an area over in the Northridge subdivision, especially during large rainfall events where they've had some significant flooding back on these residences. and so this is a high level of residences impacted it's got some high constraints because there's also the potential for backflow from the west side ditch along 158 and it will have some increased maintenance needs associated with it and the cost for this project is approximately three hundred and forty thousand dollars Also ranked eighth is the Seven Sisters subdivision. And as I had noted before, the focus would be on the downstream improvements first before you could see the impacts for the Seven Sisters subdivision. This is a subdivision where most of the building pads are up high and the road sits low. So after a rainfall event of two or three inches, you'll see some pretty extensive ponding within that subdivision. It does flood at a pretty high frequency. And so with the improvements that we've made and then also with the one scheduled for Epstein Street, that we could see some major improvement with the installation of a storm drain collection network to be able to drain out this subdivision after a rainfall event. Also ranked number eight is South Old Road Phase One. This is another street that's on the south side off of Lakeside Ave that floods with a pretty high frequency. and this could be part of a phased approach and so the phase one would consist of installing a drainage network in this area that could be made up of perforated sock pipe that would aid with infiltration in this area and and improve the level of service from what is currently being seen after a rainfall event Also ranked eighth was the Wellbone Junction area. This is an area that we see with a pretty high frequency of flooding. We have a lot of standing water, especially in the area of the Dune Burger and the surrounding area. And so this would be an attempt to go ahead and formalize that network with connections to an existing ditch network. that has existing conveyance out to the sound through the catfish farm. This is a relatively high project cost and only a minimal number of residences that would be impacted, but this could make a major improvement in that area, which I had noted does flood at a pretty good frequency. We've got Memorial Avenue, area number three. This is a low cost project. This is near the intersection of Bonnet Street and this is essentially just a replacement of a single pipe in order to increase that level of service. Project ranked number 13 is Buccaneer Drive. This is also over in the Northridge subdivision. This is very similar to the Lookout Drive project in that it has low-lying areas that backs up to the west side ditch along 158. And this would take a very similar approach with the improvement of infrastructure within this area and then conveyance out to the 158 ditch and the addition of a backflow preventer to ensure that we don't solve a problem and create a problem at the same time. Carolinian Circle is also ranked number 14. This was on the previous stormwater master plan and did not move forward. This would take a little different approach than what was previously proposed, and this would be the installation of a storm drain collection network that would tie into the existing drainage network out at 158. The estimated cost for this is approximately $425,000. This area does flood occasionally, but especially when we have significant rainfall, we do see extensive ponding back in this area. Also ranked number 14 is Soundside Road, phase two. And this is the area in the South Ridge subdivision. When we had our public workshop, we had several homeowners from this area along Ridgeview Way who had talked about some of the issues back there. So this would be improvements that would extend from from Ridgeview Way out to Soundside Road and connect up to the existing infrastructure there with Soundside Road phase one. South South Side Road Road phase 3 is the is the pumping station which we previously had at the intersection of during Street and South Side Road and have relocated this northward to an undeveloped parcel that would connect to the existing infrastructure from from South Ridge and from Soundside Road and be able to take that, pump that over to two undeveloped parcels along Soundside Road. This is a pretty expensive project due to the cost of property purchase. And that cost is about $1.8 million. But what it does is it connects the two other projects plus Deering Street to provide a comprehensive drainage solution in this area. And Deering Street, which was ranked at number 17, This is a relatively low cost project and it would be the installation of or the restoration of swells and the installation of some storm pipe in this area for conveyance to the Soundside Road system, which then is connected up to the pump system to be able to provide some relief in this area. Also ranked number 18 is West Blue Jay Street. The cost for this is $270,000. This is a medium project cost and this is the function of topography. You've got some very high elevations to the west that intersect there at Blue Jay Street and Pamlico Ave. And so by going ahead and capturing that runoff, minimize the impact to some of those lower-lying residences there on the south side of Blue Jay Street South Old Road phase 2 this was previously discussed as a potential second part of the phase 1 improvements and this would be a pretty costly project because this would tie into the existing infrastructure at Old Road and then it would use, it would incorporate a pump station and then pump out to several undeveloped parcels out by 158. All right, and lastly, we've got Barracuda Drive, which is ranked number 22, and this takes three different areas. This takes an existing issue out at Mackerel Court, with some lower-lying elevations to be able to capture runoff, as well as Salmon Court, and then near the intersection of Hesperides and Barracuda Drive to be able to capture that roadway runoff in advance of being discharged onto some of the adjoining properties. And a lot of this is just a function of topography. that we've got some really high elevations we've got water that flow is pretty rapidly through there and being able to capture and try to infiltrate that locally so it minimizes any impact on the adjoining residences you have to excuse me I that slide was out of sequence because we still have the last two are Dune Street phase 2a and then 2b and then this could be a second and third part of Dune Street where the second part would include the installation of a storm pipe collection system spanning from the intersection of Dune Street up to an existing ditch about a quarter mile to the north of there. That ditch then connects up to the 158 roadway network and then to the Soundside Road drainage network. And then 2B would be a project that would include, as needed, the purchase of a parcel, an undeveloped parcel there at the intersection of Dune Street and South Virginia Dare Trail and utilize that as an infiltration area if needed as part of the other improvements with the phase one and phase two eggs. Okay, so the key findings with all this is the ramp one outfall that ranked number one, followed by the Memorial Avenue area two, and then Soundside Road phase one. Those rose to the top just because of the fact of the frequency of flooding, the number of residents that served, and the lower end of the cost. the typically these projects scored higher as the cost decreased and so that in conjunction with the fact that you had a lot of surrounding residences that were impacted by it they had a tendency to go ahead and score higher so next steps in the process is that we would like to receive any board feedback as to the the ranking for these projects what staff would like to do is once we receive the feedback we would like then to refine the the priorities and then try to pair those up with other project work that we currently have in our cip over the next five years Similar to what we've done in the past. And then we would come back to you potentially at your fall retreat with that refined list to ensure that we follow that approach that we've taken over the past four or five years. And then lastly, we'd like to go and present the final report to the board here in November that encapsulates all the work that has been done associated with the stormwater master plan. There's a lot to cover there. And just any initial thoughts or feedback, we can have some time for you to go ahead and try to digest it and share it with the town manager if you'd like. But if there's any initial thoughts that you would like to share that maybe something seems out of place or something that we should start to look at sooner rather than later. Thank you, David.

Any immediate questions?

I have a question. With properties that are bordering waterways, like the Sound and maybe Ramp 1 on the ocean, why was no ranking given to water quality? They all have a none for water quality.

So for ramp one, that would include the installation of a backflow preventer at that location. And that doesn't have any treatment associated with it. But what that can do is that can eliminate the ebb and flow of water through that ditch system. which we see that consistently we don't have that here in the north end because there are some backflow preventers on some of the northernmost outfalls samsai road conk street curlew street as well as gallery row and so there is there's since there's not a specific treatment mechanism associated with that we can't say that it qualifies for water quality benefits i see okay

OK. So flooding, for instance, on Soundside Road or Old Road. You're saying because it's not going to be treated for water quality, we can't count it as a water quality project, is that what you're saying?

well currently as presented and and so these are just looking at the the stormwater aspect of it now if we get to phase four for soundside road there's going to be a water quality benefit to that since we're using infiltration practices which are natural practices that that can filter out pollutants and sediment but when you look at the three other projects that it's connected to that those are just those can have a water quality benefit through infiltration but if the ground is saturated it starts to lose that water quality benefit and that's a lot of what we've seen here recently okay and then another question i had for those same projects soundside road and old road

the the flooding source was only rain but i think both of those sites would flood from tidal water as well so is that not factored in i think it was on sunshine overwash yeah so yeah not tidal as much as overwash right yeah yeah so um overwash and tidal influence yeah should be considered for both okay

I think so. I have kind of a general question about the relationship between phases. So the value of one phase now and say we never got past phase one or two, how is that accounted for or is it just, I know it's accounted for in your mind,

There are different ways that we can approach this. If we were able to go ahead and secure some grants that we could look at these more collectively and we could knock these out all as a single project. But also looking at the cost of each one of these projects, is that it may not make it feasible to incorporate that into our annual cip so we just try to make it a little bit more digestible and that we can look at this in time and just spread those funds out over a period of time to incorporate these improvements and the soundside projects

For them all to really work, we need to get to that last one. Or for them to work well?

We need to get to the third phase.

The third phase. So I get off biting it off, but if a future board decides not to do the third, those first two are kind of.

there's so i think the critical component is going ahead and getting in in the infrastructure for that phase one okay once you have that in then you could swap out phase two and phase three so you could go ahead and put the pump system in then and then all the subsequent phases you could go ahead and connect up to it okay So there is some flexibility with each one of these phases and it doesn't lock you into a certain sequence. And it just gives us more flexibility to be able to adapt because my experience is we always change things up based upon the current conditions. That could be because of funding, that could be based upon other factors, but just trying to give ourselves the most flexibility to be able to work within the framework, I think is what we were shooting for.

But ideally, if we start fighting into the sound side projects, we would want to have the plan long term that we would be doing all of them.

yes and and i think the other thing too is with that watershed action plan it does open us up ourselves up to additional grant opportunities that we can go ahead and pair with some of the estuarine shoreline work if you if you want to qualify for some grants you're probably going to have to do phase three

because that has the water quality benefit, and the water quality benefit is what gets the money.

And the other phases probably make us more.

So that one might be one that you bundle together, even with the resiliency project on the shoreline. Yeah, I was gonna ask about that. And that's probably how we would look at it. And as David was mentioning, know this this prioritization of this stormwater projects is looking at this kind of singularly in a vacuum but we're not going to look at it like that when we do our CIP we're gonna look at how these tie together with the other streets projects like overlay work paving work waterline work and then we're gonna have to put things in order based on what we can accomplish you know financially but also what we can get grants for and so The one thing that I noticed about this is that once you get past the first couple of projects, the scores are so close together that you can really move them around because it's not like one has a drastic benefit over another. That's helpful when we go to do the CIP because we're going to be opportunistic in the CIP. if we need to move a project up because we only have that much money that year, then we'll do it. If we get a grant for a project and we're gonna combine it with some other work, we're gonna move it up. And so we'll try to do our best to come up with a plan for the CIP for the next five years, but then the board always looks at it every year. And so it ends up being an iterative process, even though we try to do our best Right. You're going to move things around. And that's what we've been doing with the sidewalks, with the streets. You know, over the years we've been doing that. And then David mentioned the retreat. And this is something we've been talking to the board about. You know, we're going to have to sort of build this into our financial model as well and figure out like, the funding levels we need to do what we want to do our hope is to try and model that for the board so the board can say okay we want to be able to afford to do x y and z and so that's how much money we're going to have to figure out how to come up with to do that and then the board can settle on you know that because that that leads into revenue and taxes and things like that

And with the phases, our grant eligibility probably increases if we're proactive with the other phases.

Yes, I think so. But like the water quality benefit, I think because when we with the grants we've gotten so far for a lot of these projects like our CCP and Land and Water Fund, David mentioned the Watershed Action Plan. they're going to be looking for a water quality benefit for for those grants. And so just doing a flood control project might not make us score as high as if you include a water quality component. And I think that's the purpose of us doing the watershed action plan is to make ourselves more position ourselves for those grants. Thank you.

That is correct. Really the intent of the scoring was to go ahead and look at this in an objective manner, noting that sequentially this may not play out like this. We've seen this on prior master plans where we've had to go ahead and adapt based upon other project work that we could incorporate this into. This was just an exercise to go ahead and come up with a ranking, noting that there are other factors that may take a little bit more weight to go ahead and shift things up, but like the town manager said, the scoring is so close on so many of these projects, it's like, you can go in many different ways.

it's a little scary too as you see these numbers but the um i've seen previous plans where it was worse than this but you know every time we um get into the the two-year budget and we start putting these projects in a two-year budget yeah i think what typically happens is these these are very high level looks at these projects once david gets a hold of it then you know he can start to really refine these projects into something that's manageable And so it's always evolving.

No, it's a very comprehensive plan. My question was about funding, but both of you kind of answered that for me, so I appreciate it. I appreciate it.

Yeah, this is very helpful and scary.

I wanted to say one thing. David and I talked about it because obviously it started raining right when David started speaking about this. But what we've been dealing with the past week with the rainfall and then obviously last week with the Conk Street area, we had an issue. and largely with the outfall, but that is probably an area that does need something, and it's not in this plan. And David's response to me was, well, we can't keep doing everything along NC-12 just in a vacuum. We've got to involve DOT and get their participation. And so I think that's really what our goal should be, however we can do that. David's already engaged them about the outfall and what's going on there. but I think that that may be something that we look at, maybe separate from this plan. And if we have to eventually come up with something and incorporate it into this, we can. But, you know, really getting them to sort of take the lead on some of that stuff. Yeah, and you can see on here, you know, virginia deer trail in the village you've got virginia deer trail at dune street i'm already proposing to put piping out along a lot of virginia trails you know as part of this

Yeah, we had the ability to log a lot of time out there by the Conk Street intersection here recently and see how that system works. Yeah, there's definitely room for improvement there, but there are some things that people don't always notice is the influence of groundwater rise, especially during frequent rainfall events. we're seeing a lot of that throughout town and We've gotten numerous phone calls from here in a village South Nags Head not so much in the north end of town but when you have Month of July we had 15 days of rain out of the 31 days South Nags Head I think got hit the hardest and then as you progressively went north it it was not as severe as some of the other impacts that we've seen throughout town but groundwater rise especially during saturated conditions limits our ability to infiltrate infiltration is our main way of managing stormwater runoff And conveyance really plays back up to infiltration. And when infiltration doesn't occur, then that's when we really have extensive flooding throughout our area. And we were able to observe the conditions post rainfall and just really see how much groundwater plays into some of the localized flooding. but it's been helpful that we've had our groundwater wells because it really gives us an indication of how much that groundwater comes up over a period of time connor shared some data here recently it was thursday friday we had back-to-back storm events we saw the water table rise two and a half feet over that period And what I don't have a sense of, because it's been very difficult, there's been more rainfall events after that, but it stayed up pretty high, and it's starting to come back down, but every rainfall event we have after that, it keeps on going back up. And that's primarily what we're seeing here recently that's led to a lot of concerns from a lot of people in this area that, hey, I've never seen this before. I can't recall in recent history having this amount of rainfall over this time period with this frequency. I can probably recite the rainfall that we had back in 2016, 17, and 18. back in 2012, back in the early 2000s. But I don't recall a pattern like this. And especially in the south end of town, which has got hit the hardest in the central part of town, that we've had this frequency of rainfall without having the availability to recover. and until we get that drying out period in that recovery period i think we're still going to see a lot of this water persist it would be if especially if there's more to it than what you just expressed because that's pretty fascinating

Some of our learnings from our wells, I think. I think I would love to hear some of that. I'd love to hear a presentation about that. I think that would be fascinating, what we're learning from that. I'd love to see a presentation in one of our meetings.

Yes, and I think just trying to figure out that recovery time and how long that takes, that's important to know too, so we can go ahead and set up an expectation when people come across these conditions, what that recovery time may look like.

One thing I just want to add, and I was planning to bring up on the commissioner's agenda, was I think we've all heard from a lot of people, and we've seen a lot on Facebook about stormwater and people see ponding water. But I have also heard a ton of praise for our staff. You guys have been very visible over the weekend with Conk Street. I know you guys probably hear people complain more than anything. i think that a lot of residents that have seen the changes over the years and the leaps and bounds nags head has made in stormwater is apparent and i just want to relay that because i have heard so many people reach out that have seen you guys working on the weekends in the rain at conk street i've seen it i've seen the improvements and other people have too i know we constantly have new challenges but it's clear that we're taking them on and we're very very proud of everything you guys have done yeah

Well, thank you, and I think from what I've seen in the north end of town where we've made some significant improvements, we're not seeing that reoccurrence of flooding, not to the levels that we've seen in the past. We've got some improvements down in South Nags Head. They're probably not as quick as people would like it, but we have seen some improvements. And I think that's important, especially long term when you have saturated conditions that you're able to go ahead and drain that off. And so not only aesthetically does that look better, but you don't get the mosquitoes, you don't get the groundwater mixing in and having that brown water standing for an extended period of time.

This is also a great time to remind people. I know a lot of people have been pumping because the water table is so high. But it's a great time to remind people about the water credits that we offer. Because from what I've heard from Jimmy, they've been pumping like crazy from alarms going off and stuff. And just getting ready for that next rain, it's a good time to pump your tank and get ready for it. Yeah. Cool. Good point.

excellent great thank you dave thank you appreciate it yeah that weekend you know that you were referring to you know we were waking up in the morning and all right, what's going on. And well, 6 30 AM, he's already been out looking at things in south mags head on a Sunday. Steven's already cleared the conk street outfall, you know, first, first, first line, you know, they're all, and then Steven was checking the pumps at like midnight on Saturday.

Wow.

You know, so it, it, they were working hard and the whole, the whole public services crew was out there. water and public facilities everybody working on the pumping and so and David you know it was just around the clock so it you know it's nice to know that you're you can trust that you're gonna be covered like that it's very appreciated nice great thank you that brings us to our beach driving season update chief

guess we've been having fun because time has flown this summer and we're talking about beach driving as usual the season is going to open this year october 1st and run through april the 30th with a half hour before sunrise and a half hour past sunset for those with a pass either online or through the town or tackle shops. We'll start selling permits about two weeks before actual driving date. That way it gives those the opportunity to go ahead and acquire, but also keeps people from being too anxious that want to get out there a little bit before the driving season actually starts. This year we're going to request to keep the section from Nags Head Pier north to 8th Street closed as in prior years. This request comes to do the sand conditions up there, a lot more shell beds or in that area that makes the sand softer, looser, and it's hard to navigate in that area. During certain times it's not as wide as well. But keeping this closed also gives an area for beach goers to be able to be on the beach and not have conflicts with vehicular traffic. i believe it's been closed for the past four or five years that we've kept it closed just because of the conditions if not a few years longer than that due to the conditions of the sand auto waves that's been the main reason but we have also seen that as the weather stays a little bit warmer in October and starts warming up a little bit earlier in April. Some years, the amount of people that are on the beach that gives them a space that they don't have to worry about traffic. So that's what we're requesting. With the nourishment project just finishing up, the southern portion last year was closed from Junkos to Ramp 1. With this project just being completed, we see no need to keep that closed as the condition of the beach is back wide as it was before. Last year we had several weather systems that came through that caused some dune erosion and just the conditions itself were too narrow to keep that open down there. So we don't see any problems with keeping that closed this year and should be open and good to go. Permits this past season, 25-26, we sold 288 permits. We were 14 off from the year before. From reading the printouts, it seems all 14 were Nags Head residents. But of the permits sold this year, 129, or last year, excuse me, 129 were Nags Head residents or property owners. And the remaining 159 came from our surrounding area and the state of Virginia.

Have we got that map that we can pull up? Karen.

It's an attachment on the agenda.

So we have our drive over accesses. Everything is marked on the map that we've got that'll be on the website. And people can get copies of it or print copies of it. Our drive over accesses that will be open will be Conk, Enterprise, Forest, Gulfstream, and Junkos. um those north of the pier will remain closed obviously open for emergency vehicles we will have signs posted up at 8th street that designates as we put out in the years past the driving season is closed in this area and at each access there will be you know a sign displaying that a permit needs to be displayed so we're looking forward to another good driving season we'd like to remind everybody that use the mark accesses display your permit on your driver's side windshield um obey the speed limit of 15 miles per hour and most importantly to reduce the tire pressure down to at least 20 pounds a lot of people seem to forget that and when you don't reduce it it does tear the beach up a lot more than giving you a little bit wider platform for your air pressure to be out of the tires i'd be happy to answer any questions that you may have all right great thank you perry any questions

So Junko Street to Ramp 1 was closed last year. And then the Pier North was closed last year as well. So that means this year we'll actually have more room for people to drive.

Yes. And I believe Nags Head Pier North, it's been at least five years, I do believe, if not a couple more than where we've closed it. Due to numerous vehicles getting stuck up there, it's not that wide doing a lot of the nor'easters that kept it done. um and that's sand up there with that shell beds and it's just i mean i get nervous when i drive out there if i have to go out there for an emergency call so um it is kind of tight up there so that will stay closed but from the exit pier all the way south to ramp one we see no issues this year that any anything will be closed um hopefully we don't have any weather systems that would do anything differently um but yes junk goes to ramp one that'll be an extra area this year um being that it was closed last year all right thank you it really started after covid

you know that fall you know you remember the admiral street yeah when we added the walkway because we had people very dangerous using the drive over to walk to the beach and people were driving up and they were almost getting hit so we added the walkway sort of in the middle of a year with some of the extra money we had and then we just saw so many people on the beach in october the weather was still nice and people were here so it's kind of continued since then but it really has worked well to give people an area of reprieve from from the vehicles and that's a heavily traveled trafficked area of the beach and you get a lot of people that come from killable hills to use those accesses too so it's worked well and i don't know you know obviously if you've heard from people that

I've heard sometimes people complain that they pay for the permit and some of their access has been cut off, but hearing that Junkos is open, that's a great thing to respond to, let them know that they actually do have extra area this year.

It leaves about 10 miles of beach that you can drive.

Have we ever considered adding signage during beach driving season to not walk over those ramps? Because I have seen some very hair-raising signs. encounters with pedestrians and then a vehicle flying over, similar to what was happening at Admiral.

Admiral, the walkover, really, because there was lots of close calls. I think Forest Street, that walkover helps a lot, too.

But still people walk there. I don't know. Some people, surfers like to. I don't know. Excuse me. I made a note of that.

All right. Great. Thank you. All right. That brings us to our Board of Commissioners agenda, and I think I'll start down here with Commissioner Harrison.

I don't really have anything I just wanted to say that thank you to everyone involved in beach nourishment Andy and Roberta and David and everybody and all the people who have been so involved in the beach looks amazing it's very wide and beautiful and I think everybody's enjoying it very much and also to public services our town looks really good it's clean it looks great thanks to everyone who handled the flooding and just it's great summer out there and staff is responsible for that. Right?

Yeah. Thank you.

No comments. Just echo Commissioner Harrison said.

Okay. All right.

We'll have anything to add. Thank you.

I concur. And I'll throw in 4th of July because our last meeting was obviously it was actually before that. And that was a great day and event and evening. I was out and about. And again, staff always does a fabulous job. It was safe and beautiful. Fireworks, all of it. So, of course, we appreciate the peer. Yes.

We do. All right. Thank you. I do not have anything for us today. We do not have any closed sessions published. I don't believe a need for one has emerged. So is there any other business to come for the board? And we do not need a mid-month meeting. So we will be back in September, and so a motion to adjourn would be in order. So moved. Do I have a second?

Second.

Several seconds. Anybody want to stay for a little while longer? I have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Thank you.