Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good morning everyone. This the Wednesday, November 5th, 2025 regular session of the Nags Head Board of Commissioners is hereby call to order. Um before we begin our business, I'd like to recognize former mayor Bob Mueller who's with us today. Welcome, Mayor. Um, if you will please join me in a few moments of silence. Now, if you'll please stand as you're able to join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

That brings us to the adoption of the agenda with which there will be some modifications. Mayor, I'd like to make a change to the recognation schedule. I would like to move the presentations right after the new employee and the 20-year uh and the Earl Murray Jr. employee of the year presentation after that the bottom to the to the top. All right. Very good. So, we will do the new employee, we will do the two presentations, and then we will do the 20-year and the and the Earl Murray um employee of the year. Uh with that, is there a mo is there a second to that motion? I have a motion and a second. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I.

Oh, sorry. Um, uh, so that brings us to our recognitions then and we will start with a new employee and Amy. Good morning, mayor and commissioners. Please welcome Steven Panero. our new deputy finance director. He has over 20 years of experience in accounting and finance, which aligns his expertise with the skill set needed for this position. He has worked in both the public and the private sector. Most recently, his position was in senior leadership at the West Virginia Board of Risk as CFO and in that he is very familiar with GA Gazby preparing all aspects of the ACER financial statements which actually currently working on. Um needless to say, he was able to jump right in and start working. Um he has experience with multifund budgeting, budget oversight, process redesign, team development, strategic collaboration. He's a CPA. When he interview when we interviewed with Stephen, we talked a lot about our town culture and values and both sides, we both felt like we would be a great fit for each other. Um he was even recognized at his previous position for employ of the month out of a large pool of many people for his positive attitude. We feel very fortunate with the timing of his job, this job posting that it fit into the right time frame for he and his wife Angela who is also a CPA. Uh she has a CPA firm. They had bought a house in Naget a few years ago and decided it was the right time to move here with her two dogs. And even after less than two weeks, I really have a good feeling about working and collaborating with Stephen as a partner. I just think it was all meant to be. Um, I'm really confident he will make

valuable and impactful contributions to the town. We're excited to use his expertise and continue to uphold the high standards we hold ourselves accountable to. Um, he's used to juggling a lot of demands. I really can't say enough good things about him. We are lucky to have him. I know he is excited about being able to contribute and give back to the community that he lives in full time now. So, welcome to Connected, Stephen.

Thank you. And that will bring us now to our presentations and we will have the Nag Headwoods annual report.

All right. Thank you. Good morning, mayor. Good morning, commissioner. Good morning, town ahead. Uh, staff and residents. Appreciate it. Uh, my name is Aaron McCall. on the northeast regional stewart uh for the nature conservancy and I'm going to give the 2025 annual report for Nex at Woods Preserve. Uh at any point you guys know ask any questions I'll kind of go through this you should have a lot of this in that was sent to you in your annual report and I'll just try to cover over it and hopefully there'll be some nice pictures for you to look at. All right, so uh just kind of going over the staff. Laura Eddie is our conservation story. There's myself. Eric is our restoration specialist with Carbon and Pete Restoration. Aaron Bunch is a new employee for us. He's actually out of Edon, but he's doing all of our coastal restoration, looking at fish, oysters, SAV, and coastal work like that within this area. And then a lot of you know Kevin Zor. He's our part-time uh preserve steward to help with a lot of stewardship around Nags Head Woods as our staff is being spread throughout the Northeast region. So, it's great having him on board and uh helping out around the woods part time. Uh, as you know, 90% of our annual funding is privately funded from TNC in North Carolina. We really appreciate what the town and Xhead and Killville Hills do to help with our operations around the woods and things of that nature. Uh, we also get stuff from the Outer Banks Community Foundation. gotten stuff from Dominion Energy, Outer Banks, Sphere, but so we appreciate all those grants and funding that help us deal with improvements and visitation from stewardship on trails to helping with biological management within the preserve trails and infrastructure. So, just to kind of review, we've got eight miles of hiking trails, uh, you know, five wooden bridges, boardwalks, benches. Um, we've got ADA, uh, capacity of a thousand foot of linear thing in the concrete, and we got 62 signs, uh, that includes an audio tour in English and Spanish. We also have multiple buildings that we take care of. We have our pavilion building that will talk a little bit more about

updating and getting more modern to our office facility. And we also have a preserve house that helps us have interns in the summer that helps us facilitate and having uh students out here to help with projects from visitor stuff all the way out to research and education. So, we've been trying to update our new signage around the preserve, trying to give it a holistic approach, making everything more modern, making it connect better and things like that. Most recently, we've updated our trail map and things up there at the visiting center. We redid the Y uh sign and things like that to do that. We've redone our logos at our buildings to just give people more information. And all of our trail heads around are very similar looking and matching now so that people can see. Uh we're looking at updating uh some of our trail signs within the woods, doing something on the town trail in next year, and then updating u the one over there at the town park in the next year in the next budget. So things to come. Uh, as I mentioned, the ADA trail, that's been a big one for us. It's a lot of boardwalk and a lot of concrete. And so, this past year, we really invested a lot of time and energy and money into redoing it, making sure that it stayed adequate for ADA use, for wheelchairs, and things like that. Uh, so that trail was built in 2011. So, now it's been over 15 years. So, we've had to redo all the boardwalk and all this handrails. And so, we've gotten to that point. Uh the reason we have this angle shown is a couple during some of our storms we've had actually that boardwalk lift up in places like that. So we've had to bring it down and get the level and we've had to grind out the concrete just get the bumps and things like that out to try to keep this trail. It's definitely a heavy use trail from handicap accessible to to people with strollers to people that maybe want to walk in the woods but don't feel as much comfortable maybe out in the in the wild so to speak. Uh and within that we've had a lot of volunteers. Um, AppState helped us do a thousand linear feet with uh, you know,

around that stuff, bringing in boards. They also helped us redo that bridge. If you've been out to the Rowan Oak Trail, we redeck that whole bridge and things like that and redid the benches. So, AppState was here for a week and uh, those young ladies really helped us move a lot of boards and screwed down a lot of boards. So, uh, it's good to have volunteer help and things like that. Trails and visitors. Um, so this kind of just breaks down the usage of our woods. And you've seen that we're getting on average, you know, 700 to a,000 hikers a month on these on the different trails. Uh we also these are all by laser counter by the way and that we've been having them since 2020. So we're kind of getting really getting some data now. We also have a laser counter that strictly is is set up for vehicle use right there in Ocean Acres. And so you're seeing 2,800 vehicles per month coming through there. Uh and then this is just shows you the numbers with our audio tour. you know, 1,300 have used the audio tour and then 25 have used it in the Spanish version. Uh, this kind of breaks down your five-year trends. So, you're looking at, you know, over 60,000 visitors have come through our counters. Uh, this kind of breaks down our busiest time. We definitely see it increase in that in the woods. You know, sometime around 11:00 we are full till about midday and then it kind of quiets out. But uh definitely we we have we have definitely seen our parking lot fill up and stay full in that midday time frame. Uh and then you can see here March to June we're around a thousand hike thousand hikers on the trails during this time and town the town Blueberry Ridge Trails and some of these ones that are a little further off are a little bit lower numbers but still we're averaging 800 hikers on that per month. Um, and then as you see 2020 we had probably our highest use, dropped off a bit, but still all in all we're still seeing quite a bit of hikers back in there around 10,000 and stuff like that. So, it's being used. This does not include people hiking the wood, hiking through the the road or using the gravel road for bicycle or any type of use like that, which is another use that we're

just not really recording. Uh, this kind of just goes over what I was talking about with interns, career development, and volunteers and stuff like that. Um, all in all, we had, you know, just under 800 hours of volunteer hours this past year in NXT Woods from from our some of our volunteers that are locally here to having students and stuff work with us. Uh, the past both spring and fall, we've been working with Coastal Studies Institute, both in their spring semester and fall semester. We'll have an intern that'll be in the woods working on a project at least one day a week. uh they could be helping with stewardship stuff uh or they could be helping with uh developing educational type information for us and things like that. We've also had uh students work on GIS stuff and working on our fire maps and things of that nature. So, we kind of work with CSI and the students and their and either the talents or the and the skills that they're looking at to to improve upon and or we kind of have set projects where some students they just want to be outside and they want to learn about managing a property and they do invasive work for us. This year we have a guy that's helping us do a lot of invasive work pulling Russian olive and and species like that in this time of thing. Uh we've been updating all of our staff from first aid training response. Uh like I said we've had app state out here working on projects and um you know a group of different people just all together just coming out and helping us and you know putting a hand into the effort to keep that preserve open, keeping it safe and things of that nature. uh education. Um so we've we've had uh was yes fifth grade class the past couple years and this past year we had 190 fifth graders come in. They do the seed to sign seat to sound trail thing. We work with the aquarium to do this. We use some of our education endowment to help pay for that so that these fifth grade students can do that or we use town funding in order so that we can have the fifth grade class come out and participate in this. And this is where

they kind of learn the ecology and the geology of the barrier islands and they work from the the the dowy street park thing all the way across through the town trail and things like that. Uh we work with the aquarium camps. We had the friends of mountains to see trail. They were down here this past spring and they had an event and we had all the hikers come in through the woods and use the woods, learn about the woods and stuff like that. Uh then we had our open house and we did also we did guided tours this summer and stuff like that. So we've had a total of 440 individuals reach out in the last year participate in these activities. Uh this is just into our conservation management you know biology part as as always to to manage nex woods uh keeping up with invasive plants and animals is always a priority to us. Russian olive, microthesium, nutria is a species of animals that we have to deal with that that can degraate our marshes and things like that if we don't keep them in check. So these are just some of the things that we're constantly working on and are seasonal things that we have to keep an eye on. As always, we have a bow hunting program. We have 45 participant in the thing. We've harvested four deers as of last year. We have 42 registered hunters for this year. And so that season is on its way. Uh the season will end January 1st for the regular season and then we do have an extended season that starts January 11th and goes February 16th. Um this is we're working with CSI this year their um their fall semester and stuff and one of the things they'll be doing is they're actually doing some vegetation monitoring in Nag Woods and they're also doing interviews with people that are using the woods and things like that. So, they'll be presenting their finding on December 11th at 3 PM over there at CSI. Uh, if anyone's interested and maybe some of you in the audience have participated in interviews, but uh this is something we're working with CSI just to learn more about the woods and our users and things like that.

Um, and these are some management challenge and things that we're dealing with. Uh, you know, the some of these may actually be similar to what towns are dealing with. um for us bikes and ebikes on the trails is becoming uh more and more of a of of a problem that we're having to deal with. Uh you know, and I think it's just there's a more of a user in that nature and some of that thing. We're trying to sign it and just get the word out that you know, our trails are for foot paths only and things like that. But, you know, all in all, it's still a small percentage of these things that come up, but these are just the stuff that we deal with. Emergencies are on Old Nags at Woods Road and stuff like that. We had a couple of of incidents this past summer with vehicles and stuff like that. And then, you know, the dumping of people's yard debris andor white trash, you know, where they have, you know, their their refrigerators and things like that that show up in the woods. All in all, this is a small percentage of what we deal with. You know, I would say 98% of the people that use the woods respect the woods and follow rules, but these are kind of the three big things that kind of pop up for us. Uh, and so we're right now in the middle of refreshing our pavilion, our education center and our exhibits to make it more modern, to have that building open to the public so that they can learn about the woods. Uh, you know, and in the summertime they can come in there where it's AC and cool down and also still get an idea of what why the woods are important and things like that. Uh, we've gotten some funding. We've gotten some private grants to help do this stuff and facilitate this thing. So, uh, one of the things we're going to have is a 3D model. If any of you have spent any time in Ahead Woods, one of the things that makes Nag Head Woods special is the topography that goes through that. So, we'll actually have and you can kind of see a display down there. There will be this map model that people will be able to look over and you'll be able to see the trails and the topography and how and how the woods comes up and how the vegetation changes in the topography area. So, that's that's a that's a neat thing that we're looking at having out there that we can talk about the woods. And we're also going to have a touchscreen uh TV that people can go in there and

we'll be able to run things that will talk about maybe Naget Woods that may talk about, you know, uh some of the some of the things about the nature conservancy may have we'll have topics like prescribed fire species and things like that. So, we're hoping to have that so that people can come in there and learn stuff and we can update it and stuff and where it's just not the same stagnant thing that you produce once and then it's there. So, we'll be able to work on that. And we're opening having more displays and things like that. And we'll have other just stagnant signs that talk specifically about the woods and stuff like that. So, we're hoping to have all of this up and running come uh, you know, either sometime around spring and early summer. Um, and we, you know, really appreciate both the towns of Nex and Kilda Hills working on getting conservation easements on these two big tracks of land. I I don't I mean when you look at those maps and you look at that those that tan species tan spot where the nags head and you look at those red spots and by getting these these in conservation easement and now you include all the green that we have I mean we have basically secured Nag wood so that's that's an amazing accomplishment I you know for all the towns for the community to support this you know from dune to dune from Jockeyy's ridge south to run hill you know we have a thousand over,200 in protection perpetuity we can all get to use next woods forever generations. That's an amazing accomplishment and I mean that's and and we'll have all this to use and we have hunting and hiking and this place protected research and all this stuff to go on without any threats of it. That's amazing. So great appreciate y'all's support uh and getting that done. Thank you. This is a picture of Bobcats that one of our visitors that comes every day. That is a a mom and her little kite this year. and they are just they're using the boardwalk as well. So, thank you all. If you have any questions, happy to answer them. If not,

please come by and enjoy the woods. Great. Aaron, let me let me see if anybody has any questions before you go. Uh great, great report. Thank you. Glad to hear that you're dealing with the ebike issue um and that potential damage to the trails. Do we have any questions for No questions. Just thank you so much for all your hard work. Thank you. No, but I think the easement speaks volumes to what a good job you guys are doing back there and and all the new programs look really exciting. So happy for you and appreciate your work. Thank you. Great. All right. Thank you, Eric.

That brings us next to our OSHA safety and health achievement uh recognition program and Deputy Chief Height. Good morning, mayor and commissioners. I'd like to take just a brief moment to talk to you about our ongoing safety program. Um, each year our employees and our safety committee work pretty hard to look at what we're doing, look at our policies, try to make things better and keep our employees safe. Um, shows a a strong dedication to a safety culture within the town. U part of this process means that we invite the North Carolina Department of Labor in each year to basically do site inspections and look at all of our programs, look at our injury rates, and uh just help us out a little bit on making things safer and making a better workplace. Uh over this past year and just recently, we were received notification that we were in receipt of some awards from our most recent inspection. But it's not just the most recent inspection. It's for, you know, ongoing work for several years for several of the departments. So, I'd like to just take this time just to introduce uh Mr. Kevin Oar, consultative services bureau chief from the North Carolina Department of Labor to tell you a little bit about the program and to make some presentations of some awards for us. Kev, thank you.

Thank you so much for having me and allowing me this time. As he said, my name is Kevin Oar and I get the honor of managing a group at Department of Labor that provides free safety and health services to small businesses and high hazard employees all across the whole state. It's available for public sector and for private sector. And for the employers that like to go a little above and beyond, we have a recognition program, safety and health achievement recognition program. and the town of Nagsad has reached that milestone and has received that award. Um, now there's about 550 municipalities in North Carolina. There are only 10 municipalities that currently hold this award. So, you should be very proud of the staff um in the town. Uh, those 10 municipalities have 22 departments. So, like for in this case, we'll have the public works administration and a couple of fire departments. And um the just congratulations.

Great. Thank you.

I think we're going to do the picture. Can we do a picture later? Yeah. So, um Chief Deputy Chief Height, if you want to recognize any people, but we are going to do the pictures as a as a group up here just a little bit later. Okay. Uh if you would, you want to just call the department heads up real quick and give them plers. Yes, sir. Let's do that if you would. So our first award is public services administration. So this will encompass our new facility for recycling and administration building and all the work that takes place there. So

nice. I'll do one of these. But so both fire stations also receive the award. Chief, if you want

Thank you. Thank you. That brings us next to the uh recognition of a 20-year employee and Andy Kelly to the podium, please. Um, I I promised Kelly that I would make this sort of a roast, but I decided not to do that. I'm going to keep it serious today. But um yeah, I'm honored uh today to celebrate Kelly Wyatt's 20 years of service with the town of Nags Head. Kelly started with the town on October 10th, 2005. Uh she initially started as a zoning administrator, but over the years has served as deputy planning director and currently planning director. She's done almost everything in the planning department during her tenure. writing zoning permits, reviewing residential and commercial site plans, conducting inspections, initiating and dealing with numerous code enforcement issues, which are all very fun, writing zoning text and map amendments, working on special projects and town planning studies, including the comprehensive plan, the master plan for Dowy Park, parks and recreation plan, hazard mitigation plan, just to name a few. Uh Kelly is, as everyone knows, very community-minded individual. She was instrumental in the development of Dowy Park, including the programming of the park. Uh she helped create what is now the arts and culture committee, and has since helped to plan for our annual events, including budgeting and

assigning resources to those efforts. Uh she has also been instrumental in sustaining the town's Todd Draft septic health initiative, seeing through the last update to the decentralized wastewater management plan and is now working with the septic health advisory committee to implement recommendations from the plan. Uh she is currently working to launch a 0% interest loan program for the septic repairs using grant funding from the state. Um Kelly certainly understands coastal issues. She's a CAM permitting officer and has written too many flood permits to count. Uh Kelly's job is not easy. Kelly and I were speaking about this the other day. When you have to make a recommendation on a project or a policy to a board into the community, there's often no right or wrong answer. Planning can be very subjective. Planners live in the gray. It takes an understanding of the community and its vision and often being able to read between the lines of what the community is after. In many instances, you know, going into an issue, for every one person you make happy, there's going to be another person you don't. So, um, that is just the nature of things with planning. But being able to consistently uphold the town's values and culture is something that's not easy to do. I think Kelly is good at this. She is intuitive and valuedriven. Her passion and strength of character is what sees her through this. Um, a great example of this was the C5 resoning initiative the board completed a few years ago. Reszoning se several hundred properties is a challenging task to say the least. This was only accomplished through persistence and a willingness to continue to engage and listen to the community over several months to understand what would accomplish the town's goals. but also be acceptable to property owners and residents. Um, Kelly's a compassionate leader.

She's involved in a lot of volunteering activities. Um, some folks don't know this, she's involved with Meals on Wheels and SPCA and other charitable things. She cares about her employees deeply. She looks out for them. She's touched the community in too many ways to count. If you live here and enjoy the atmosphere of our town, the amenities and the services we provide, in many ways, Kelly has contributed to that. So, we appreciate everything you do. Our next item on the agenda is the presentation of the nominees for the Earl Murray Jr. Employee of the Year. These will be presented by the department heads. Uh I don't know if they have rehearsed the order in which they're planning to do this or if I should call on them. Um so let's start with administration.

Come on down. She always does such a good job. Some people she's used to being behind the scenes, but today she's in the spotlight.

Good afternoon or good morning, mayor commissioners. Thank you for having me back. Um, so the nominee, well, first of all, I'd like to congratulate all our well-deserving nominees. However, um I would like to advocate for the employee of the year representative for admin services and town manager's office, Karen Snyder. She's been with the town for close to five years now. She is our IT administrator responsible for coordinating technology with our IT vendors internally and managing the town's systems. Um we've been able to leverage our external IT vendor as a help desk and hardware implement. And so we've been really able to utilize Karen as more of an internal IT project manager. Um utilizing technology to bring greater efficiency and collaboration to our employees and to our customers. Um over the past year, Karen has assisted with implementing the town clerk agenda management software. She's launched the chatbot on our website. She's coordinated digitizing building plans, used GIS and munas to put our tax bills on the website. We also have building permits on the website. Um, we've she's helped us implement our resident and utilities access online payment system. She continues to be a catalyst in getting the town on SharePoint which allows really for collaboration among team members. It serves as an internal communication device for information between departments. Right now, she's working on something. she's kind of paving something new for us in developing policies for using AI, which is a big um theme right now. Um she obviously ensures that our IT infrastructure is secure. Um she's worked with the League of M municipalities to give us free subscription to Arctic Wolf, providing cyber security solutions to the town, which otherwise be very expensive. Um

and you know, when one project ends, we inev inevitably have several more lined up. Um we're in the middle of updating our internal and um public facing GIS right now. We're looking at fiber buildouts to eliminate some of our um individual internet bills that we have at our bath house and parks. Um she's working on a cyber security grant for us right now. So obviously never ending to-do list. Um which is kind of in line with our tal town values. Excellence requires innovation and curiosity. Um, our town values are an expectation in the way all our team members show up every day. So, it's a baseline that car Karen personifies these, but I think this award really demonstrate those that go beyond the everyday standards we hold ourselves accountable to. Um, and you know, when it comes to technology, usually government is not known for being ahead of the curve. Um, but thankfully Karen doesn't operate with that mindset. Um, this past year we kind of came to a point where our servers would be out of warranty. So, it was really a catalyst for a larger discussion about like where our IT infrastructure was headed in the future. Um, and Karen analyzed the options and we decided that we're going to completely we're not going to have servers anymore. Um, we're going with cloud-based storage for all our data and software systems and she's in the process of that implementation. Um, Karen's attitude, she's everybody's go-to person in the town. We're lucky to have her in admin services. She's a super approachable. Everyone feels comfortable asking her for help. Um, she has a very calm demeanor. Nothing seems to frazzle her. She's patient with everyone. She can solve complex technical problems and she also assists people that aren't comfortable using technology. And this is really empowering to our team members, you know, when they can embrace technology

and something new. Um, saying this, she operates with a sense of urgency because, you know, you have to quickly resolve questions that arise to allow us to keep up with our productivity and providing the best customer service possible by minimal minimizing downtime. Um, a lot most of the times I I'm not sure how she does it, but it means stopping everything she has to do pretty much all day long to help people while still keeping focus on tasks and projects she's working on. she really does a really wonderful job um of balancing that. Um and finally to our citizens and our customers, our technology really reflects all aspects of our organization. That's why it's one of our town values. It helps us have a professional appearance. It makes a good impression. Um it makes it easier to communicate with us and do business with the town. Um we have Cclick Fix integrated into our website for customers. We have integrated forms and payment platforms now and these were special projects that evolved over time in response to feedback and again they just give a good impression of the town. So I want to really recognize Karen and thank her and appreciation of her hard work and sense of curiosity and always thinking about how to make the town better. So thank you for considering Karen as the 2025 Earl Murray Jr. Employee of the Year. Congratulations.

Good luck. And that brings us next to planning. Good morning, mayor and commissioners. It's my honor to introduce the Planning and Development Department's employee of the year nominee, Connor Twitty. He is our environmental planner. Connor manages one of the town's most unique and important programs, the Todd Draft Septic Health Initiative. This program does so much for our community from providing free septic inspections and filter cleanings, water bill credits, and offering low interest repair loans and education that helps residents understand how their systems impact water quality and public health. When Connor stepped into this role, he knew he was following in the footsteps of his friend and mentor Todd Craft, who built the program from the ground up. That was no small task, but Connor embraced it with respect, humility, and a deep sense of purpose. He honored Todd's legacy while continuing to grow and strengthen the program in ways that will serve the town for generations to come. Connor's work extends far beyond the daily operations of the septic health program. He is leading efforts to map septic tanks and drain fields in town and connect that data with Dare County records, giving us the most complete picture we've had of how these systems function.

He also manages our water quality and groundwater loggers. Um, these collect critical data on how water moves throughout the town and impacts our community. This work is at the heart of our long-term strategy for water quality and resilience. And Connor's attention to detail ensures that data is accurate, reliable, and meaningful. He also coordinates the sand relocation and dune management cost share program. This helps oceanfront property owners maintain and strengthen their dune system that protects their homes and the town's infrastructure. He works closely with contractors and homeowners to make sure each project meets environmental and safety standards. He's earned their trust by being fair, consistent, and responsive. And that trust is a big reason that the program runs as smoothly as it does this year. Connor also took the initiative to organize a contractor workshop in preparation for our upcoming division of water infrastructure 0% loan. Um this meant walking through our local septic contractors through some very complex requirements such as the Davis Bacon prevailing wage certifications and the American iron and steel documentation. He made a very challenging process clear and approachable. And that kind of leadership helps build the relationships that make this program successful. Beyond his technical skill, what really sets Connor apart is the way that he represents the town. whether he's talking with a homeowner about their septic system, walking along a property with windb blown sand issues with a contractor trying to figure out how to navigate that. Um, or whether he's at Dowy Park speaking with visitors about the community and the septic health

program. Um, he does it with warmth, with patience and genuine care. People trust him because he's knowledgeable, yes, but also because he listens and he genuinely wants to help. When representatives from Mount Pleasant Waterworks in South Carolina visited the town to learn about our program in hopes of starting their own, towards the end of their visit, the director said the program itself was impressive, but what truly made it special was the person running it. He said that the hardest part of starting their own program would be finding their version of a Connor. That was probably one of the best compliments that um that I've ever heard. Connor is also a great teammate, the kind of person who is always willing to help pitch in whenever and wherever he's needed. And he does it all with a positive attitude, humility, and a quiet pride in everything that he does. Connor, I want you to know how much I appreciate you. Not only for how well you do your job, but for how you carry yourself, how you treat people within the community and and outside of the community, how you treat people within the office, um, and the heart that you bring every day to your work here within the town. You've strengthened one of the town's most meaningful programs, honored its history, and ensured its future. You represent one of the best Um, you represent the best of the town of Nags Head and we're proud to nominate you as the planning department's um, employee of the year and the nominee for the Earl Murray Jr. Employee of the Year.

Good luck. Um, next if we could have uh public services.

Good morning, Mr. Mayor and commissioners. Um, I'd like to welcome Rich Miles is our represent is our nominee for employee of the year this year. I'd like to welcome his wife Lynn and his daughter Abby. They're being here. Since Rich has started it with the town in August 2022, he has risen from tech one to crew leader in facilities maintenance. He obtained a CDL and has been certified as a traffic control supervisor and has his North Carolina pesticide applicators license. Rich represents public services in the teen advocacy group. I don't know the initials anymore. Rich has a positive k do attitude that is contagious. He is a motivator who is respected by his fellow employees as well as his supervisors. Rich uses his common sense of how things work and patience to solve issues that arise in the field. He welcomes input from his team when problem solving and isa is accountable for his decisions. Rich is always willing to help others in and out of his division. The clock does not dictate his day. Getting the job done does. Rich is in charge of the seasonal grass cutting in the town, and he and his crew take pride in keeping the town looking sharp and litter-free. Rich has taken it upon himself to learn the um and operate the new sign printer at facilities maintenance and is now the go-to guy when it comes to signs. He has volunteered this summer working holidays to make sure that the town's residents

and visitors enjoy clean beaches. Comments from his co-workers are, "Rich leads by example." There is never a time when he's standing around just waiting for us to finish or go to the next job. He will always have a rake or shovel in his hand, working just as hard or harder than we do to complete the job. Rich encourages us to be the best we can be and to keep m to keep improving ourselves and the town. He makes the work lighter and the day go faster with his upbeat attitude. Rich is an asset to our town and our department and his culinary skills endear him to our hearts in public services.

Nice. Thank you. Good. Congratulations.

Next, I invite Chief Hail with the nominee for uh police. May I got to say about Rich, uh, he's got some neat fish that he, uh, has a camera on as well that are pretty relaxing to watch there at the office. So, he's into his fish as well, along with cooking.

Uh, good morning, Mr. Mayor and commissioners. Um, I'm pleased to announce uh, the police department's 25 uh, 2025 employee of the year is officer first class, Joseph Michael Tatter. Tatterson has over a decade of law enforcement experience in North Carolina working with agencies such as Kover Hills and the Dair County Sheriff's Office. In April of 23, Mike began began his career with the Nag Police Department and has has been a valuable member of the patrol division. Ever since that time, Mike is the complete package when it comes to being a police officer. He's professional, motivated, proactive, thorough, and an excellent role model for our younger officers. In addition to his regular assigned patrol duties, Officer Tatterson is a former member of our emergency response team and a general instructor along with Radar who regularly trains not only our staff but hosts classes here at our agency which you have seen that we've had radar this week um for other agencies here in the area to get training as well. Some of the comments uh submitted by his peers who nominated Mike for this award are Tatterson consistently demonstrates a strong worth ethic each day he reports to duty. He is consistently one of if not the most pro proactive officers we have. Tatterson dedicates a significant amount of his personal time to instructing various law enforcement training programs many of which are conducted within our own department. Mike is a constant presence at work, always arrives with a positive attitude and looking to work and help others. His character alone is deserving of this award. We're very fortunate to have Tatterson join our department since 23. We're glad to have him here. He's a great mentor. Um it is for these reasons that we have selected him as the police department's employee of the year and nominate him to be the 2025 Earl Murray Jr. Employee of the Year award. Congratulations.

And last, but certainly not least, Chief, if you'll come up with the uh fire department nominee. Before I begin, I'd like to thank and um appreciate all of the members here, but two of them I would like to talk about. Those two, Rich and Connor, spoil my Tuesday and Thursday night bowling every week by destroying our team. Oh, so congratulations.

Good morning, members of the board. It's my honor to stand before you today and nominate Fire Lieutenant Trey Simmons for the Earl Murray Jr. Employee of the Year. Trey is a dedicated leader in the fire department who consistently demonstrates professionalism, teamwork, and unwavering commitment to serving our community. As a fire lieutenant, he oversees his daily operations at the station, leads his crews during emergency responses, mentors new firefighters, ensures that the safety procedures are always followed. He is a steady leader. He's a calm presence. He has a very strong moral compass and he makes he is an essential part of our program. Trey goes above and beyond in every aspect of his work. He brings a positive can do attitude to every shift. Truly living out our town values. That attitude is key. His optimism and calm under pressure inspire confidence in those around him, especially in the most intense situations. He also keeps his team in the no by communicating clearly and often, making sure everyone understands not just what needs to be done, but why it needs to be done. That kind of transparency has built trust, strengthened morale, and made his team stronger as a whole. Trey also lives our values of doing what's right for the right reasons. Whether he's managing high-risisk call or guiding the new firefighters through their first training, he leads with integrity, fairness, and accountability. And beyond emergency responses, he is deeply engaged in our community, volunteering for public safety events, school visits, fire prevention programs that help build lasting relationships between the department and the people we serve. His dedication extends beyond the

firehouse walls. Trey is an active, valued member of the town's team member advocacy group where he represents the fire department with enthusiasm and professionalism. He contributes thoughtful input on benefit initiatives, staff engagement surveys, and in the design of our new wellness center. He also helps plan participate staff events such as our bowling YouTube and always brings positive energy and creative uh ideas that promote our people first culture. In addition, Trey has played a very key role in the work group that designed the town's workout facility, helping to ensure that it meets the needs of the first responders and to all town employees. These contributions show his deep commitment not just to his department, but to the well-being of every member of our organization. Trey truly lives the belief that our people matter. He checks in on his crew, offers guidance, encouragement, creates an environment where everyone feels valued and supported. His compassion paired with his high high standards motivates all others around him. He also embodies our values. Our value of excellent requires innovation and curiosity. Always looking for ways to improve training. I can't tell you how many times he's come up with a new tool or some idea and said, "Chief, can you find a way?" I'll try. Always looking for ways to improve training, modernize our department's practices to better serve our community. And as always, Trey represents our fire department's core values of courage, commitment, and compassion. He shows courage under pressure, commitment to his team and his mission, and compassion to people he serves. And I'm just going

to take one minute to tell you how he made his first impression on me. A few years back, we were ocean rescue had been off the beach for a while and Trey and we had an ocean rescue call and it was pretty heavy surf. We had a rescue swimmer in the water and all of a sudden someone was standing beside me with a pair of fins and it was Trey and he was looking and we we were bringing the person in and Trey and I was looking Trey what you call you what are you doing here and he's like my friend rent was renting a house down here and I was afraid that it was him and I was like I get it and um his friend walked up and Trey turned and just the look on his face and the hug that he gave the man just speaks to the character of the compassion and courage that you showed and it made a big impression on me and that's after 30 years of firefighting. So I just want to let you know that in every sense Trey Simmons exemplifies what it means to live our town values every day. His leadership, his empathy, his dedication reflect the best of us. For these reasons, I'm proud to nominate Fire Lieutenant Trey Simmons for the Earl Murray's Junior Employee of the Year Award. Thank you so much, TREY. CONGRATULATIONS. Thank you for I'm going to ask the um these nominees

to indulge us for just a minute. I know they're on their feet. Um but um you know, we've seen three things this morning that really um show the values that this town has. That we serve our public with passion and sincerity and that we care about our employees. Not only does the board care about the employees, the employees care deeply about one another. uh to see um us win a safety award of this caliber, put ourselves among a very small number of municipalities uh because we want each other uh to be safe at work. Uh to have a another 20-year employee um uh that shows that our our employees love their jobs. They they serve uh with longevity. Uh they love what they do. And to have these employees who not only uh show up for work every day uh but they they do their jobs um above and beyond and every year they present us with one of the most difficult things that this board has to do which is make a decision between uh five excellent very excellent people. And I just want to say thank you to to all of them and to the entire staff for um creating this kind of organization uh that we get to kind of sit here at the at the head of and I'll ask u board members if you have any comments before we before we uh recess and then we will take pictures with the nominees with Kelly Wyatt and then with our safety team.

Thank you. I'll echo what the mayor has said but just uh congratulations to every of you. I know this is a townwide award, but you still have won a tremendous award today and we're so thankful for everything you guys do. Would also echo what he's saying, but I would add in the fact that you all get together and bowl after work, you know, means that you do like your your co-workers. So, that's that's an honor right there. Thank you. Very good. No, I can't add much more. Good. Congratulations to all of you and we really appreciate everything that you do. Thank you.

All right. And so a motion would be in order to recess for photographs and to go in close session to consider the employee of the year award. Do I need to say which public which statute? Uh it's uh general statute 143-318.11a2. Very good. Thank you. So move. I have that motion. Is there a second? Second. All in favor say I. I. All right. The board will uh take our photographs and then we will be in close session.

the the board has returned to um open session. Um don't read anything into the length of that session. Uh, believe me, this is um it is it is far and away. I I have done this for eight years now, and this is far and away one of the hardest calls that that this board has to make. Um and often um sometimes it's just one thing um that that sets somebody apart. I I think this year, you know, it's unusual that a person becomes the face of a program. Um and um a a person who serves that with passion, who really takes an unusual job and loves it um in a way that um is unexpected and uh makes a huge impression on their fellow employees and the community. And um so the uh Earl Murray Jr. employee of the year this year is the planning department's Connor Twitty.

All right. So, that brings us uh next to public comment, and I will turn this over to Mr. Lighty.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh each month the board of commissioners invites members of the public to join in public comment. Uh this is an opportunity for members of the public to comment on any matter of interest or concern to them. It is not an opportunity for dialogue and the board rarely responds to public comment. We do have a public hearing on the agenda today and if you're here to comment on that, you should reserve your comments until we call that public hearing. But for anybody else, if you are interested in addressing the board, if you'll please uh go to the podium, uh tell us who you are, uh and then address your remarks to the board, and I will let you know when your five minutes is just about up.

Mr. Mueller, thank you counselor board. Thank you for the opportunity. Do not envy you that decision. I did that for a while and Mayor, you're absolutely right. It is by far the hardest. And it's but it's hard for a really good reason. It's hard because you have outstanding employees. The five who were up there are reflective of the entire deep bench of the town of Max. And it it makes it's one of the things that makes this town such a special place for all its residents and visitors to to live in to join. But there's something that doesn't make the special place to live in and that's hunger. And the town and the county are facing a very unique situation today as nutrition assistance benefits are at this time not being paid, which means that Maxad families and Deer County families will have to choose between paying their water bill, buying groceries, paying their power bill, buying groceries. And I call upon you as a board to stand up and lead in helping address that program. I suggest to you that you find a way to bring $1,000 a week to support assist nutrition assistance programs in the county. It could be the beach food pantry. It could be through the album food bank. It could be through other programs. the mayor uh participated uh in a program at the community care clinic on Monday as a volunteer for which I salute you. Um but at a time when others are not leading um I call upon you folks as leaders in our community to

set an example and find a way to bring $1,000 a week until such time as SNAP benefits are fully restored by through either state or federal action and set an example for how we and mag deal with situations when our people are in crisis. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Marlin. Does anybody else wish to address the board? If not, at this time, we will conclude the public comment session. Okay. Right. Thank you. That brings us next to the consent agenda, which you have before you with uh eight items, and a motion to approve would be in order. So, move. Second.

Have a motion and a second to approve. All those in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. Thank you. That brings us to a public hearing and I will turn this over to Mr. Lidy and Kelly Wyatt.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. At this time, we will begin the public hearing to consider proposed text amendments to the unified development ordinance that are related to the town's uh crowd gathering permit process. And we'll begin with the uh presentation of the staff's analysis provided by the 20-year employee and planning and development director, Kelly Wyatt. Thank you so much. It really does not feel like 20 years at all. It's like yesterday. That says a lot about everyone here in the town. So, I appreciate it. Um, moving into this, uh, as you mentioned, uh, this is a public hearing for a text amendment related to the town's, uh, crowd gathering process. Um, this item ties into the broader update of the chapter 4 town code, uh, which speaks to crowd gatherings, pickets, parades, outdoor amusements, and demonstrations. The review began earlier this year due to increasing demand for town use of um, for use of town facilities uh, such as Dowy Park um, and uh, the Southside event site. staff noticed that even with wellorganized events, sometimes um those were generating unintended side gatherings with impacts like noise, uh parking overflow and traffic issues. Um staff, the goal uh was to make the permitting process clearer and more predictable and easier to manage for both the town and the organizers of these events. So most of chapter 4 can be amended directly by the board. Um however there are two provisions that are located within the unified development ordinance and those required

this formal legislative process um requiring planning board review um and then adoption by the board of commissioners and adoption of a statement of consistency. Um, the UDO currently references a use called the designated public event site and that's in section 7.58 where you find the supplemental standards there. Originally, that language was meant only for the soundside event site, but over time uh it became ambiguous and people um felt like perhaps it applied to other properties within the town. Um, also the permitting timelines in the unified development ordinance um for crowd gatherings did not align with those timelines set forth in chapter 4. Um, so the amendments that are before you today would clarify that the sound event site is the only location classified as the designated public event site. Um it would align deadlines um between the unified development ordinance and chapter 4 so that there's one single consistent process for large events at the soundside event site. Um these changes do not add any new requirements. They're just to make the process more consistent. Um and looking at chapter 4, there were some additional recommendations that we had. Um, one was to just remove article one of chapter 4 in its entirety. Uh, that's sections four-1 through 4-5 and I included that in your packet. Um, the definitions were outdated and a lot of them were already included in the unified development ordinance. So, there was no need to duplicate them in both sections. Um, we did want to preserve the hours of

operation that was listed in article one, um, section 4. We wanted to move that standard from section 4-2A into the UDO. Um, and that's the definition for outdoor place of amusement and entertainment. I would note that we don't have any businesses currently um that are non-compliant with this, but we just want to make sure that we maintain the language. Um we also wanted to update the definition of place of amusement and entertainment to eliminate outdated references. Um, and you'll notice that there's reference to beer halls and nightclubs, things um, that we just don't allow. Um, and just rely solely on our table of uses and activities, which is, um, section 6.6 of the UDO, as opposed to trying to list everything out. Um the cleanup uh is really just to make the code more consistent, modernized um and tracking with um uh the crowd gathering requirements for chapter 4. So I do have the ordinance language up on the screen um for you and the public. You can see these minor changes to the designated public event site definition. the outdoor place of amusement and entertainment definition. Um you can see here the proposal to strike through um those uses that are specifically defined and just rely on our section 6.6 table of uses and activities. Um, and this is uh amendments to section 7.58 just to ensure that the designated

public events site is aligning with our same requirements for chapter 4, which I believe you'll be hearing a little bit later on today. Um, so that being said, the planning board at their September 16th meeting voted unanimously to recommend approval. Um, as it has been presented and staff's recommendation would also be adoption as presented. And there's a statement of consistency included in an attachment um for your consideration as well. Happy to answer any questions that you

All right. Are there any questions for Miss Wyatt? Yeah, just to clarify, um, so so this is a a cleanup of definitions, uh, which I, which I appreciate, um, without any real change to the operation of the current event site. Um, it does make reference to chapter 4, which we will consider. So activities on the site could potentially be affected by whatever we adopt regarding later regarding chapter 4. Uh but this by itself does not correct modify the activities on the site.

Okay. Any questions, Commissioner Sanders? No, that was it. Se anything else? Uh Kelly? Yes, sir. Thank you, ma'am. Does any member of the public wish to comment on this proposed text amendment? All right. Um, does the board wish to receive any other information regarding this before you deliberate on the proposal? All right. If not, at this time we will conclude the public hearing and the board may deliberate on the proposed text amendments.

Okay. All right. Thank you, Kelly. Thank you, Mr. Lighty. Um, understanding that we would need both a motion to adopt and a motion of consistency with the land use plan. May that be done as one motion? Yes, sir. Okay. All right. Thank you. Any discussion or a motion?

Happy to hear a motion. I would make a motion to approve it as presented. Okay. All right. Thank you. Consistency uh with the consistency statement. All right. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Is there to be any discussion? All right. All right. Hearing none. Uh all in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. All right. Thank you. The motion passes. Uh, that brings us to reports and recommendations from the planning and development director. So, Kelly, just stay right there.

Um, thank you. I'll try to move through this pretty quickly. When the planning board met at their October 21st meeting, they had several items to review. Um, the first was a vested rights special use permit site plan amendment for Nags Head Church to expand their parking lot. um they voted unanimously to recommend approval of that. That's on your consent agenda today and that will be public hearing in December. Um the next couple of items are actually you'll hear later on um from me and that's uh an expansion to TWW's outdoor outfitters. Um an expansion at Outerbank Sports Club. Um and uh and then also they considered a text amendment to our flood damage prevention ordinance which that's also on your consent agenda. um to be public hearing in December. So, um the planning board's upcoming meeting November 18th. Uh we haven't had any citizen submittals. Um so, we'll just continue working with the items that staff has been working on including multifamily or existing commercial and um the commercial outdoor recreation overlay district. So there were no um board of adjustment hearings um in the month of October with regard to the septic health advisory committee. They met on October 13th. We had the intern um that was introduced to the board at the last meeting, Isabelle Pala. she was available and um she presented some of the work that she's been working on and some ideas for some new social media outreach tools. Um our environmental planner Connor Twitty gave a report on where we're at in terms of um the septic health initiative and their numbers. Um as of that meeting we had had 34 septic inspections um completed since July. two um

lowinterest septic repair loans have been processed and 35 water credits have been issued. However, um a townwide CRS mailer went out as well as um PIO Roberta's newsletter, the NAS headlines, which had an article in there about the septic health initiative. And Connor has said that the past two weeks he has gotten um a big uptick in people requesting inspections. So those two things have been very helpful. Um I did want to note that um Connor also um attended a and David Ryan was with him attended a um symposium down in Bowfort, North Carolina about water quality and fisheries. Um and it's my understanding that that went exceptionally well. everyone there was appreciative of our program, interested in how they would even begin to start something similar um where they're from. So, so that went well. Um the Estrin shoreline management plan, uh a lot of work continues to go on behind the scenes. Um we have been working on identifying a local environmental consultant to help us with some more community engagement because we realize um that that's going to be priority. Um the tourism board approved the revised concept for the Harvey Southside site. Um and they're looking at a rock sill um for that. Uh we hope to be back at your December meeting with a much more detailed update on the ESMP and and where we're at with that sand relocation. Um that's going to begin November 17th, but we're already accepting applications. Um and we we've received quite a few already. uh staff are already meeting with contractors on site. So as soon as um no November 17th rolls around um these contractors can

get to work. Um with regard to Dowy Park events and the art and culture committee, um the holiday market application window that opened on October 15th, it was open for two hours. Um we had over 107 um applicants from that. We selected 50 and that was based on their uh attending all three markets, a commitment to attend all three markets. Um their product, their variety, having a tax ID number and obviously um as noted previously, preference was given to those who resided in Nagad. Um holiday markets are set for uh November 8th, November 29th, and November 13th. Uh those are going to be from 9 to noon. The tree lighting ceremony coming up November 29th um is going to be pretty special. We've added some holiday decorations. Um and then we're going to have some um music from Mano High School students there to kind of set a festive tone. Um Tuesday morning yoga has wrapped up. Uh but we do have a movie night coming up this Friday. um that is going to be Fox and the Hound and um I'm going to be running that. So I hope everything goes smoothly. If the projector falls over, apologize. Um and what else? Art and Culture will be meeting um next week uh November 12th. So, and I have up on the screen um some social media that we've put together for our upcoming holiday efforts. Happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Questions? No questions. Thank you. Great. Thank you, Kelly. Thank you. I think you stay there. I do.

Um we are ready to uh consider the site plan for uh Coastal Bluewater Capital and TWWs. you're with me for one moment so that I can um show the site plan as we walk through the staff report. Okay. Um, so thank you. Uh, what is on the screen is a site plan that you're going to be considering today. Um, you we have US 158 um over here on the east side where the cursor is and Setterfield Landing to the north. Um, Just for context, this is the existing principal structure, retail structure. Uh this is the existing um accessory structure which is storage. And what we're considering today is this new area in between these two structures. Um so as noted, this is a site plan amendment submitted by Albamarl and Associates on behalf of Coastal Bluewater Capital and TWW's Outfitters. The proposal is for the construction of

a 4,774 square foot addition um dedicated to storage space. And as we noted, that's going to be located between the existing retail and the existing storage. Um this property is zone C2, general commercial, and that's consistent with the surrounding uses. The principal use, which is general retail, is permitted, and uh the request qualifies as a major site plan amendment due to the amount of added habitable square footage and the amount of additional lot coverage being proposed. Um the new structure will serve as accessory storage for the main retail operation and although the accessory storage um will nearly equal the size of the principal building, it does remain subordinate in use and in function. um meaning that it must fully support the primary retail business. In terms of lot coverage, the C2 district allows up to 55% lot coverage for the site. Um compliance with lot coverage is going to be achieved through the recombination of the subject lot, the one that um you see on the screen, recombination with the adjacent lot to the west, that is a vacant lot and it is currently under same ownership. So, um if you were to just look at lot coverage for this property, it would not be compliant. It would exceed that 55. So, in order to have additional area, it's going to have to be combined with that lot to the west. Um and so that was noted um in your staff report. The planning board considered that as well. And um It's been understood that no development

permits, no land disturbance permits would be able to be issued until such time as those lots are recombined and considered one property. Um otherwise lot coverage would not be compliant. Um in terms of building height, proposed height is approximately 30 feet. So that's well within the town's um height limit of 35 ft. Um the original building I'll try to scroll down and show some architectural renderings here um for context while we discuss it. Okay, hopefully that's helpful. Um, the original building which was constructed in 2005 was approved under older architectural standards. Um, it required 100 architectural design points. Um the UDO, the unified development ordinance now requires 150 points. um that alone essentially makes this structure non-conforming with regard to architecture and our non-conforming section of the UDO states that you can um modify non-conforming structures so long as that modification isn't increasing the degree of nonconformity in any way. And what they've done here is um proposed additional architectural elements over that um new portion over that new

storage. They have proposed a uh porch roof with um the same the same porch roof column trim etc. So that when you run the porch numbers um you're still at 100 architectural design points. So um the degree conformity was not increased. Um it stayed the same and they're actually a little over their 100 points. So um with that in mind, they are compliant architecturally. With regard to parking, um no additional parking is required because there is no um uh parking space requirement associated with storage when it is truly accessory to your principal. Um, but the site plan does show that they are restriping the existing parking. Um, they're going from the 10- foot width requirement down to the recently adopted 9 foot width requirement. Um, and that's going to allow them to um add two or three additional parking spaces, which is necessary um because when looking at the site plan, there were previously some parking in this area where they're now putting the storage edition. So, they're picking up those parking spaces um by restriping so parking remains compliant. Um there are no changes being proposed to lighting or signage. Um nothing about this request triggers additional landscaping, but if any is disturbed in the process of construction, they'll need to replace that um and bring it up to compliance. Um Dair County Environmental Health has reviewed this and approved the existing wastewater system um for this addition. Uh that's included in your packet. Storm water

calculations have been reviewed and approved by the town engineer. Um would note that this construction is in close proximity to their storm water basin. So their erosion and sedimentation fencing will need to be up and installed properly um prior to any activity occurring. Um the fire department reviewed and approved the plan. As we always say, it has to comply with North Carolina Fire Prevention Code. Um a new fire hydrant is going to be installed near the sprinkler p um sprinkler connection. And I did uh want to bring attention to the fact that part of this addition includes um sprinklering the entire building. So that um that will be part of this as well. Public Works also reviewed and approved this request as it's been submitted. Um the planning board voted unanimously to recommend approval of this site plan amendments at their previous meeting. Um noting that the recombination would have to occur prior to um any permit issuance and planning staff also recommends approval with that same condition. and I'll be happy to answer any questions that you may have. Um, we have John Deluchia with Albam Marorrow and Associates available. Um, and Mr. Casten with Kahun and Casten who worked on the architecture available as well.

Happy to answer questions. Thank you. Questions? No questions. No questions. Sounds like everything's pretty much compliant, huh? It is. Okay. All right. Thank you. I see John. Anything you would add, John?

We are working right now on that that lot for some development. So, you'll see another site plan coming in in December. It's coming in in December and uh and we'll be talking about this site again. Okay. But we really need to get the storage one started now so that it's ready before the season. Okay. Very good. Thank you. All right. Um then um a motion might be in order. Um and then we'll ask for any discussion if there is any. But a a motion to uh approve the site plan would be in order. So moved. Right. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second.

Is there we have a motion and a second. Um, a lot of folks probably know this already, but for the benefit of the public or anybody who decides to look at this and says the name Kahun is on this plan and he didn't recuse himself, I no longer have any financial interest in Kahuna cast architect. So, congratulations. Um, all right. So, is there any discussion? Motion uh and a second to force us. All right. All those in favor signify by saying I.

I opposed. Great. Thank you. Uh then we will move to a site plan for Gawbasa Holdings and the Outer Bank Sports Club. Okay, thank you. I apologize again. I was wanted to just have the site plan up there um for people to be able to review while we walk through this as well. Um this is a site plan amendment submitted by Albamarl and Associates on behalf of Galasa Holdings and the Outerbank Sports Club. The request is to expand the existing fitness facility um which is located at 2423 South Croatan Highway. This includes a new twostory 4538 square foot edition. um 1,795 square feet of new floor area within the existing building plus an outdoor gym and training area and you can see on the south side a tennis court but that can also function as um multiple pickle ball courts as well. So, um the property is zoned C2. Uh general commercial and indoor fitness and gymnasium is a permitted use, but because of the um added lot coverage or not the lot coverage, but the added habitable area, um it does elevate this to a major site plan review. Um, in

terms of lot coverage, you can have up to 55 square feet of lot coverage in the C2 district. Um, the existing site here was actually over that. It was at 56.6%. But this project will actually reduce lot coverage to 53.8% by using u permeable paving and removing some unnecessary imperous surfaces out there. Um, With that, the um the lot coverage is now in compliance. Um for building height, the proposed addition has a height of 31.6 ft. Um so that's going to be meeting our 35 foot maximum height standard as well. Um try to get to some architectural renderings. Here we go. Um, so the existing building here was built in 1992 and that was before the town had any architectural design standards at all. Um, so the new twostory edition does have to comply with our current architectural design standards. Um, and I've said this multiple times, but there's two paths to doing that. that there's either the point system or just meeting some um standards under the division 2 building design. So what they have done is gone under the um article 10 uh building design standards. What they've proposed is uh compliant with that. It has a first story awning and they do have some faux dormers included for articulation. They've got the minimum 412 roof pitch.

They're including residential style windows that meet that 10% and 40% max. And they're showing lap siding that's going to be consistent with the town's design guidelines. Um I did want to note that the design it was a thoughtful integration into trying to add something new to something old. Um and I just I just want to recognize that um the time and effort that went into um integrating this and bringing it up to today's standards was um appreciated. So um a lot of a lot of time and effort went into that. So uh with regard to parking, the total indoor area plus the new um is about 19,425 square feet. That requires 65 parking spaces. Um we don't have a requirement outdoor gym, but just trying to include it just in case. Um, even that outdoor fitness area would require eight additional spaces. They have 81 spaces out there. So, they do um exceed the uh required parking standard. There's no additional landscaping being required um based upon this proposal. As I mentioned previously, if any is disturbed during the course of construction, that will need to be restored. Um there is no new lighting proposed at this time. However, um there will be some lighting proposed at the uh tennis court pickleball area. Um when they're ready for that, they'll need to submit their information for their light fixture, their photometrics, etc., and um and have that approved. And there is no new signage being proposed at this time. Um, environmental

health has approved the wastewater capacity that was included in your packet. Uh, storm water management and traffic circulation have all been reviewed and approved by the town engineer. Um, the fire department has reviewed the plan. Um same as TWWs, the entire building will now be protected with um sprinkler system and the applicant has noted that they will coordinate on future hydrant placement um with the fire department. Public services um has also reviewed and approved the plan as it's been proposed. Um when the planning board met in October, they voted unanimously to recommend approval. Um and staff recommends approval as well. and happy to answer any questions. Again, John Delucha and Mr. Castton are available.

Any questions? Commissioner Sanders? No. Thank you, Mr. Sears. I have a question for John.

Yes, sir. John, the the elevation of the retention pond on the side occasionally, more often than not, exceeds water exceeds that. I don't notice any changes in elevations on this site plan have I'm sure it's been considered in storm water, but with the added roof and most of this parking lot already being pvious, um, how do you contain that extra? The way that storm water was originally designed for this site um was everything went to the pond. The pond overflows to the DOT rightways and you can see there's an overflow structure on the lower right hand side of that pond. Um since the shopping center went in next door, their storm water basin is just on the other side of this. And what's happening is we do have some problems with the parking that is along the east side of the quad because the water comes up. We're eliminating that parking at this point.

Joe, elevate the tennis court and we've also reduced the lot coverage so we shouldn't have as much water going to the pond. Um I will tell you a couple of things. The John John, can you lean a little closer to the mic? Sure. Um does that answer your question, Commissioner? for for the most part. Yes, sir. There's a couple of things I just want to make everyone clear about. The new two-story edition, um the owners are planning on doing a youth gym, which I think is really unique for for what we're doing here.

Um the upstairs will be an aerobics room. The internal uh square footage addition will have um will be on the second floor and connect to the existing second floor. It'll be more cardio equipment. There will be an elevator put in this building now so that both floors will be ADA compliant. The outdoor um recreation or outdoors fitness area, we've assumed that that's going to be 100% lot coverage um because we probably will pour that in concrete and then put um artificial turf grass on top of it to make it look nice. Um it's been accounted for in storm water also and in coverage.

Thank you. Okay. All right. Very good. Thank you. See no further questions, then um a motion would be in order. So move. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. All right. Any discussion?

All right. Thank you. Appreciate staff. And and I know this is probably a little bit of a of a difficult thing to do to get the lot coverage down and make all of that work. So appreciate the good work. All right. All in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. Great. Thank you. All right, Joe. That brings us to the Hart Sound Event Living Shoreline Project.

All right. Thank you. Good morning, Mayor Commissioners. Let me get this up. Don't know how that happened. All right. Thank you. Um, just wanted to give a brief update on the progress on the Harvey site living shoreline design. Not sure where that went again. Okay. Um, sorry about that.

So, um, last month showed you guys a sort of marked up concept drawing. Um, not sure why that keeps going out. um that basically um incorporated the comments from the initial concept design that was presented to the tourism bureau and then we had a stakeholder engagement meeting with users of the site um provided they all provided comments. Um this drawing is the schematic drawing that was approved at the tourism board in October. You can see some changes and adjustments from the design that you saw last month where there's this larger access sort of box instead of the trivial pursuit pipe um that was there. Um and that was a direct result of the feedback received from those stakeholders on the deep water channel access for kite boards and catamarans. Um then also you can see the sill has sort of been moved behind the gazebo which um comments from John and the tourism board about the viewshed and you know people getting married and taking photos off of that gazebo. Um so this design was approved um unanimously at the tourism board in October. We are moving forward um with putting our permit package together. We have our pre-application meeting later this month. Um and then we will be able to submit for permitting.

Happy to answer any questions. I appreciate John working with the town on behalf of the tourism board. Okay, great. Any questions, folks? Observations. These uh are these designs primarily hardened structures? Are they partially hardened and living or

um the tourism board did choose to go with a rock sill um which um and then this is a this is a marsh sill but rock is the preferred option. Um, it provides some habitat value to my understanding. Maybe not as much as some of the proprietary materials, but also replacement and maintenance of proprietary structures. You know, that that might be challenging in the years ahead. Um, but the idea is that hopefully this will extend the marsh um and and protect further erosion of land behind it with environmental benefits.

All right, understand. Thank you. Great. All right. We get and uh timeline um generally hopefully we'll have permits um submitting for permits in the next couple months and then by June we have to be under contract for construction and then hopefully construction will be complete sometime late August or in the fall. Okay. Of 26.

26. All right. Very good. All right. Great. Thank you. All right, that brings us uh to old business and items tabled from the previous meeting and Andy. Okay. Thank you, mayor and commissioners. So, back in August, we came to the board um requesting to uh conduct a project to amend several sections of our code that deal with u events, crowd gatherings, and group demonstrations. And we stated some several reasons for that. Um obviously, the sections of the code that dealt with these things hadn't been updated in a long time. and we felt like it needed to be updated based on circumstances surrounding a lot of the events we had seen. Um there's certainly been a growing number of events in the town over the years and it's starting to u burden the town's capacity to deal with the events and so we felt like we we needed to really take a look at the ordinance and see how it could support our ability to plan for orderly events but also to be able to apply resources to the events. So, with that said, uh, Kelly did a good job talking about the first part of this, which was modifying, uh, part of chapter 4 and putting it into the UDO, um, dealing with the public event site and also dealing with the outdoor amusements. Previously, chapter 4, the beginning of that section, talked about outdoor amusements and really regulated the hours of operation for those and dealt with certain lighting and signage issues related to those. I I think that ordinance was written a really long time ago and there's been a lot of changes. You know, I think since that time the uh commercial outdoor recreation overlay district was adopted and the majority of

our amusements have been directed to that area of the town. Um and as Kelly said, uh none of the current businesses currently violate the hour hours of operation and the lighting and signage is also regulated by the zoning ordinance in the UDO. So we feel like it's pretty well covered uh that aspect of it. So that was taken out of chapter 4. So what remains in chapter 4 we're proposing is a revised crowd gathering ordinance and also group demonstrations. And so we've provided that ordinance in your packet and I'll kind of go through that briefly. Um, so what we're doing is suggesting that chapter 4 of the ordinance be replaced in its entirety. So rather than providing you with an underlined and strike through version of that, you have a brand new ordinance, we've got a new definition for crowd gathering activity. Um, and I would say the majority of the change surrounds um creating tiers for events. And previously, we didn't uh break events up into tiers. We simply said that if you're proposing to have an activity with a hundred or more persons, you have to get a crowd gathering permit, which has to be submitted three weeks prior to the activity. Uh now, we're suggesting that several different things would trigger a crowd gathering permit. obviously having a hundred or more persons, but also if you propose to um close a public street, if you want to locate an event on the public beach, if you want to have a concert or live performance or uh use fire fireworks or um amusements, then all those things individually would trigger a crowd gathering permit. And then if you look at the tiers we've created. So the tiers are based on the size of the event meaning the number of total participants. U but also uh depending on if you have certain things incorporated

into the event you become either tier one, tier two or tier three. Uh for instance if you want to have a a concert with a live music with with amplified sound that automatically becomes a tier two even if it's less than 250 people. So a tier one is 100 to 250 people, tier 2 250 to 750 and tier 3 750. So now the seafood festival for instance would be a tier three activity.

The primary difference between these is that the submittal timelines for these things changes depending on the size. So a tier 2 activity now requires the application to be submitted 60 days ahead of time. Tier one is 15 days and a tier three is 90 days. And there are also different fees for each tier. Uh so the fees essentially $100 for tier one, 200 for tier 2, and 300 for tier three. Obviously, that's to cover the town's costs for reviewing the applications. Uh we do have an internal review committee that reviews every application. For the larger events, we have meetings with staff. And so to cover the staff's time, the the previous fee of $100 really didn't do that. And so, um, you know, you can kind of look through that section of the ordinance. There's a section that talks about the town manager's office is the the responsible, uh, agency for reviewing the applications. Uh, we reference a crowd permit coordinator, which is a deputy town clerk, Katie Anzalone. That that would be the designated person to to be the coordinator. And then, obviously, uh, the applications once they're received are circulated to all the departments. uh we bring the applicant in, we we meet with them, we go over all of our concerns. Sometimes we suggest modifications to the event or we ask for more information. That's all part of the process. One of the things I'll say about uh the ordinance, the way it was written previously and then this new ordinance, um there there is an appeal process if your event is denied and that appeal is handled by the board of commissioners and that's the way it was written previously. uh we hadn't proposed to change that but with the previous submittal timeline of 3 weeks it didn't really allow for enough time for that. So that's why we've increased the timelines for the larger events to 60 and 90 days. So that not only gives us enough time to plan to to resource the event but also to get the application or the appeal to the board if that's required if that happens. Um I

will say that we've rarely denied any permits for events. we've usually been able to work with applicants to to modify the event or to ask them to provide additional resources for the event and that that process generally works pretty well. Um there could be some circumstances where we would uh consider denying event in the future. Obviously, if they haven't met the requirements of the ordinance, that would would be a denial. Uh but if there's an there's a a chance that the proposed event would result in violations of any local or state laws. Um and that could be based on what they're proposing to do or say it's an event that's occurred in the past and there's been a history of violations with an event. Those would all be factors that could be considered in reviewing an application and considering denial. So that's all included in the ordinance. Uh there is a section on insurance requirements which has always been in there. Uh there is a an ability to request a waiver for the insurance depending on whether the event would would uh sort of not require insurance based on the circumstances. So that is in there. Um we have a section on standards of review. Um essentially your event um is only valid for seven consecutive days and you can't have the same event more than once every 25 days. U there are a few other things in here deal dealing with signage with the noise. It it references other sections of our code. Um obviously any event has to apply comply with any section of our town code. Getting a crowd gathering permit doesn't wave any of our current code requirements. Um one of the things we've added to this ordinance is uh some special requirements dealing with parades which we didn't have previously. This is just providing a little a little bit more information to the town on how the parade's going to be organized, who's going to be in charge, uh how how um the parade's going to be structured in terms

of the number of uh marshals that are in the parade managing what's happening, the order of the entries or the units and and who's going to be operating vehicles and the types of vehicles in the parade. And so we done a little research uh with some other communities. Uh there have certainly been some issues nationwide and also in North Carolina with parades and so we feel like we we needed to do this in order to sort of protect the town if if we're issuing permits for a parade. Um it's obviously a very large event. There is a special insurance requirement for a parade that's it's greater than an insurance requirement for any other type of event. So that's that's in here as well and that's something we found from other communities. Um, so certainly this is a lengthy section of the code. It's something that you'll want to look at closely. Um, some of the sections we had in here previously about events exceeding expected attend attendance or liability remain unchanged. Um, town attorney John Leidy and his staff helped us review the group demonstration section of this ordinance and we've provided some uh revisions to that. Um, some of the things we've looked at, if if you have a a group demonstration or picket line of 15 or fewer persons, that doesn't require a permit. Um, if you have an event that's 15 to 100 persons, that is um something that requires a permit from the police chief and they have to submit that 72 hours in advance. However, if it's 100 or more persons, it has to meet the requirements of a crowd gathering. So then you also have to get a crowd gathering permit and meet some of the ordinance requirements including the timelines. So if you're going to have a large group demonstration, say 500 people, that application would have to be submitted 60 days ahead of time. So it allows for a little bit more planning uh than we had previously in the ordinance for a large group demonstration.

Um and I think that in large part covers the chapter 4 revisions that we're proposing. Um, there's another section in here that deals with town of Nags Head Park use regulations, which is town code section 26.13. Uh, the simple amendment to that regarding firearms. Previously, um, didn't prohibit them. We wanted to make sure that was included. There's a section on the use of Dowy Park. This is something that's been discussed amongst staff quite a bit. Dowy Park has become one of the most popular places on the Outer Banks to have events. We obviously program program Dowy Park heavily in the summertime with all of our events. We have farmers markets, concerts, movies. There's a whole variety of things that happen. And so we've already burdened Audi Park quite a bit in the summertime with the things the town is doing there. And then we we're we're getting requests to use the park all the time u from churches, from other organizations for benefits for, you know, for fundraising activities, for demonstrations. And so it's it's getting to the point where we really have to think carefully about how it's being managed. And so what we're proposing in the town uh town park use policy is that essentially between June 1st and September 30th, we're really going to just reserve the park for the town's events. It's a town's facility. It was really designed to be um a central gathering point for our community and and for community planned events. um we're we're already pretty much tapped out in the summertime with our resources and so we feel like it's best to reserve the use of the park uh for town sponsored events during the time frame from June 1st to September 30th. And then what we're proposing is to limit the number of non-town related events that we would approve uh during the period outside of that time frame. and we sort of proposed some options for

the board to consider either one or either two or three non-townrelated events uh per month outside of the summer season. Um and then limiting how many activities any one organization could request within a month. And so th those things have been uh suggested in the town's dyu dowy park policy. Um there is a a a revision to the town park policy um to add the skate park and also to add Whale Bone Park which we have a new pavilion that I believe is opening up today. Thanks Nancy. Um very good.

So um it would include Whale Bone Park in the in the reservation system we already have for for some of the parks. And so that's a fairly simple amendment we include it here. And then uh finally we have a fee schedule amendment which I already went over based on the tiers. So you know I would say that the changes being proposed with chapter 4 with the policies with section 26 of our code. It's a lot.

It's a lot to digest. Um it affects applicants who've done events in the past. They're going to have to consider doing things a little bit differently. we are going to have to develop some new forms and some newformational pieces to give out to applicants with this ordinance. Um, so sort of throwing this out there for the board's consideration. Perhaps you take a month to review all these changes and understand them and ask questions and perhaps we can have a vote on this in December. Um, you know, the more we look at this, the more we see. You know, we'd like to think that we write a perfect ordinance on the first try, but that never happens.

And so, um, I think Perry already saw one thing that, uh, we should change after we publish the packet. It's a minor change, but still it's a change that makes it accurate. And so, um, I'm sure when you you review it, you'll see things too that you'll either have questions about or you'll want to change. And so, um, just throwing that out there for your consideration, but happy to receive any feedback or comments on what's been done. I want to thank all the staff that worked on this. It was a a team effort. Really want to thank town clerk Brittney Phillips for she kind of led this. And then Katie, our deputy town clerk, Kelly Wyatt and planning, and Chief Hail, Deputy Chief Montgomery, Fire Department, Nancy, everybody participated in reviewing this. So, appreciate all their help. Great. Thank you, Andy. I do appreciate the work the staff has done. It's a very thoughtful, I think, u approach to all of these issues. I do have several questions and an observation. Um, John, this is something we can act on without public hearing.

Correct. It's a police power ordinance. Yes, sir. All right. This part of it is what y'all did earlier was the part that goes into the UDO, right? So, um do we know um what the visitors bureau as a user of u the event site um have they had a chance to to consider this? Okay. We have not shared this with them directly. Okay. Other than publishing it in the packet, that's certainly something we could do now that we have the draft. Okay. All right. Um, I have a question for the chief if you wouldn't mind coming to the podium. Y'all can move those tables further away.

Um, what was what was the what was the correction you wanted to to make on this? Do you recall? on the spot. Um there was one for continuous motion under the group demonstration. Um obviously pickets and um other ones like that was constant moving back and forth. Group demonstrations, they just kind of stand there with signage, right? Um that was the one thing.

Okay. Just talk just a little bit about the level of planning that y'all need in terms of time and effort for an event that is 100 or more people and generally all either in close proximity to 158 or u crossing 158. How deep do you want this? I'm I'm sure you could write a thesis on this, but uh um I'm sure it's significant. Nag Head's a great place. I love working here.

Everybody loves coming here. Sometimes too many people love coming here. Um and without proper notice, I don't have the staffing needs to handle things when um it's short notice. Um, I like the 15-day rule um for small events because we can m we improvise, adapt, and overcome every day. Um, but when we have large events and the manager is pretty correct, we've basically never told anybody no, we make it work. Sometimes making it work puts a lot of stress on everybody involved. Um, with our staff, um, they've got kids have days off and trying to pull people in. last minute notice trying to do things. Um, we already outsource a lot of offduty um with the with the sheriff's department for the large events at the at the event site being with I've got staff that's already had plans in place for school travel, baseball, softball, family events, um, or either we've got injuries or somebody's out sick. So, we rely on the sheriff's department a lot being that they have countywide jurisdiction. So, we don't have to get into any types of agreement with other municipalities to be able to bring their law enforcement in. Mutual aid kind of works as it's got to be at an emergency. We could work under that. Being that we have numerous amount of people today's um the world that today is in where people are are always looking for opportunities to be able to staff things, we can look at that as an emergency to to do an agreement with them. Um it's just easier obviously to to contact the sheriff's department um to supplement our staff. Um we have to look at the the number of people there. Um any obstacles that are with the roadways. Um if people are are too close. Um, it doesn't take anybody but

to change the radio station or look at a phone or spill your coffee and you might veer three or four feet and if people are at close to the edge of the roadway, that can turn into a nightmare on on everybody that's involved, those responding, those that are there. Um, so we try to look at everything. My my biggest gold uh when crowd permits come in is the overall safety. safety for the participants, the safety of those traveling around and that will be affected and our staff. Um, so it it takes a little bit of planning and it it gets stressful. Um, the biggest thing with this is that time frame.

The way it's written, I like it, but I'm sure there's going to be push back if we deny somebody that they didn't meet that timeline. And that's got to be understood by everybody involved that if you don't meet the timeline, then I mean to me, you don't if you bring me something three days when it's a 15-day minimum, this to me it should automatically be stamped denied. Yeah. There's no other questions. So, and and I'm sorry that they didn't do it, but I mean I'm I mean, if you're putting on an event, you need to prepare yourself and just don't dump it on someone else. Yeah. And I know I'm being frank.

No, thank you. No, that's exactly what I wanted to hear. Thank you. Um and and then before I pass it off to the rest of the board, I um I'll make an observation. Um how many years has the parade, the St. the Kelly's St. Patrick's Day parade been running the town? 31 32 skip a year with CO somewhere in there.

Okay. So, it's been a long time. The town has never charged them, you know, for the services we provide on that day. I mean, and a lot of people are involved in that. And I know it's a cherished tradition, and they're going to feel like they're being picked on you, no matter what we do. Um, we are remarkably lucky that we haven't had something happen in the past. Um, at at an event like that, it gives me the willies. Um, you know, small children, candy, and vehicles and that kind of proximity just gives me the willies. Um and so so um I I appreciate the fact that we are going to hear some push back on this probably related to that. That's a lot of paperwork for a lot of units in a parade. But anywhere else in the world, it's what you would do. And uh the fact that we've done it this way for 30ome years doesn't mean we need to do it for one more. Um if we should fix it, we should fix it. And we are going to get push back, I think, from groups that think that we are picking on them about their events at one park or another for for reasons that are outside of public safety and they're not public safety. And I I for one I'm ready to back up staff. You you know that that we have to do this for public safety reasons. Um and finally, I don't I appreciate um your concern, Andy, about the the scope of this. Um uh so I it's up to the board whether you all want to act and give plan people who are planning events a little more time or whether we think a month uh doesn't matter in which case a new board will will take this up. Um but I'm I'm prepared to to move either way. And I think I should start on this end. Commissioner Sanders,

I'm good with it. I mean I think you know you need time to prepare. um especially if you have to have a review committee that comes to the board of commissioners if you have a denial. So, right. I mean I mean it's something we can consider and something we can talk about, but I think they put some effort into it so far. Okay. All right, Commissioner Sears. I like the safety of it. Um I think if you pass it today, maybe you do a 90-day probationary period for those who weren't planning on doing it until three days before, right? Um, and that gives them opportunity to get a 60-day permit if they wanted a 60-day permit.

All right, Commissioner Lambert. Um, I appreciate I echo what uh Commissioner Se said about the safety. I do have one question for the police chief. Um, typically how many police officers do we have on duty on a given day during the day for a 24-hour day or we we do 12-hour shifts. So in 12 hour shift um our patrol division

um will have five out. There'll be a squad as a sergeant and two patrol officers. We have a K9 that works a 12 to 12 and then with the positions that we added two years ago. Um we put them on a midto mid so that way they can assist with dayshift and night shift. Um we are one short right now. We have one that is in retirement. So basically we're two short. Um and then we have our CD out um in administration as well. Okay. And then typically for a tier three event, I know this is new, but for a tier three event, say 750, how many officers would you need for that event? Basically with large say a large scale, if we referenced the parade, everybody that's off usually working.

Okay. And then I pull some from the mid shifts to help cover within there as floaters, etc. We put people at at intersections. um to monitor um to deal with different things that might arise um large events at uh the event site. We have six um and then the duty shifts will help monitor as well, but six working um four of them dedicated to a crosswalk. Okay. If if we could get a stop light there, that would cut four out for, you know, a crosswalk because that doesn't do anything. But I mean, it's not any safer. We're just going to get hit before anybody else does. I mean, if you look at it, I mean, we do our best with it.

Yeah. Boy, I really want to get y'all out of the road with that answer. I do appreciate the safety concerns, just hearing how many people we have on and how many people we have to assemble if something's not, but I also do appreciate the town manager suggestion on waiting a month so that we can digest all of this as well. Okay. All right. I'd rather do it cleanly than sort of with a promotionary thing, too, if you don't mind. So, um, there there's there's one more thing that we talked about the other day. Um, when we talk about possibly having no more than two or three events per month at Dowi Park, we need to write in there something of how how we determine priority,

you know, because I think in some cases it would be first come, first serve, but you have if you've had a long-standing event that's existing, one example would be outrageous, right? You know, we want write something in to deal with that. All right. Um, so it sounds like probably we're going to deal with this next month. Um, can you get your forms and paperwork ready so that if the people start walking in the door middle of December, you can start taking applications?

Well, um, we we can certainly try. I think when the ordinance was first suggested, one of the one of the goals was by the end beginning of the calendar year to have the process in place. Okay. And I know the board when they first heard that suggestion said, "Well, let's try to get it here in front of us in November so in case we have changes or things to work out." All right. But so whether we have all of our forms ready by no December or January 1 there, there's no reason to squeeze it. So let's if if just without a motion, just if the board's okay, we will deal with this at our meeting in December. um January

on that schedule and and hopefully get it done. Y can you add a sample what do you call it? Um emergency sample emergency u something happens where they go can you a add something into your packet for that? So emergency action plan. Yeah. It's in there.

It's required but I'm Most some people might not. Mike Kelly is not going to know what an emergency action. We weren't with him last year. All right. Okay. All right. Very good. All right. All right. We're good. All right. Thank you. Thank you. All right. That brings us to uh new business and that we'll start with committee reports and I'll start with Commissioner Lambert. Kelly gave an excellent report in septic health. We do not we have not had a government education access channel meeting yet. Uh, I don't believe we are actually going to have one in November, but we should have one in December. All right. Very good. Commissioner Sears,

they reported we Joe reported that we passed the event board. That's it.

All right. Very good. Um, we did have a Janette's peer advisory board committee that I was able to attend and um, uh, they had a great summer. I am very impressed with um uh the activi the level of activity that they support there in terms of school groups and visitors um and folks uh fishing there. Um a real brief aside, I was there uh giving I went there to give blood yesterday. There's a guy walking up with his uh wagon getting ready to go fishing. He sees my tag on my bicycle that says mayor. He says, "Are you the mayor?" I said, "Yes." So, we struck up a conversation. He was a planning commission member from Flint, Michigan, who comes down here every year to go fishing and takes him two days to drive down here, but he loves Janette's Pier, he loves Nags Head. So, that was a that was pretty neat um interaction. You will hear uh they are going to be in the process of replacing the planking. Um, and uh, that's going to be that's going to take part of the pier out of commission at some point. So, you're probably going to hear about that. Uh, but it's going to be a very durable uh, solution once it's finished. Uh, the the, uh, memorial fish that people put in that are cut into the boards. uh there is going to be an alternative display for those because the material they're using doesn't allow those fish to be cut into the cut into the the planks going forward. Commissioner Sanders.

Um I think staff pretty well covered the uh Esther and Shoreline committee report, but I am excited after what a couple years to see this finally getting off the ground and and and looks like it's going to happen. So good news.

Very good. All right. Thank you. Uh that brings us to consideration of appointments and reappointments to uh boards or committees. Um we have a the arts and culture committee. We have three people whose terms are have expired and are interested in being reappointed. They are Shelley Gates, Jeremy Russ Russell, and Peggy Sapper. Um we have a vacancy that we have previously discussed and you also have a candidate chart um uh attached u to to this in your in your packet. Um so let's let's deal with uh let's deal with those two separately and a motion to reappoint those who are interested in being reappointed uh first.

Mayor, do we need to do those individually or can we make a motion to reappoint all three? John, you can you can do it as a group as as long as you can get a vote on on that slate. You can do that. Yeah. I'd like to make a motion to reappoint all three. Okay. Second. All right. That would be Showy Gates, Jeremy, and Peggy Sapper. Is there Did I get a second? All right. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor signify by saying I I opposed. All right. Thank you. worked and then uh we uh need an appointment to fill the seat um for Carrie Oakmith Sanders.

Well, I'd like to make a motion to uh appoint Melanie Lafante. Okay. Very very good. Is there a second? Second. There's a motion and a second. Um and uh she's not only is she a member of arts and culture and a a vendor at the market, but she's also an accent business person uh with a with a going and growing business. Um so I I support that as well. Um so all in favor signify by saying I

I opposed. Great. Thank you very much. Um that brings us to consideration of the fall beach condition survey. David, you thought you were gonna go to sleep back there, but you got to got to do something today.

Good morning, mayor and commissioners. Um, we've and I think everybody's been aware of the recent storm activity that we've had offshore um that has resulted in noticeable conditions to portions of our beaches. Um we have contacted our uh engineering consultant Maf and Nickel as well as uh supporting surveying services with McKim and Creed um in order to move forward with a fall beach condition survey. Um this survey and analysis um will deliver critical data uh and um and and just give the board a sense of the existing beach condition um after these recent uh storms. um to be able to aid in the decision- makingaking project for the upcoming beach nourishment project uh which is currently out to bid. Uh we've uh received proposals from McKim and Creed in the amount of $44,228 for landbased and water-based surveys as well as a separate proposal from Maf Nickel um in the amount of $26,350 for the analysis. Um so um the the request is for the adoption of the beach nourishment maintenance capital project ordinance amendment number 17 and that will cover not only this fall survey but also next summer's um beach condition survey as well. And so, um, staff recommends adoption of the beach ordinance in support of the, uh, fall beach conditions survey to evaluate, uh, recent storm related impacts. Um, and as noted, this will cover both this current fall survey as well as the summer survey. And so the specific action

requested is uh for board to consider the adoption of the capital uh project ordinance amendment number 17 uh to move forward with the beach condition survey uh which totals 16 thou 16 million57195 I'll bring that up which you're increasing which increases to that number that he's talking about. Yeah. Okay. Yes. Although I'm looking at all the modified numbers. So Yes. So that that total modified number would be 16,571,95 with with the new surveying and monitoring $230,991.

That is correct. Okay. Very good. All right. A motion would be in order. So moved. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion, a second. Any discussion? All right, great. Thank you. Hearing none, all in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. Great. Thank you, David. Uh, thank you. And I just want to mention that the results of those surveys should be ready for the board for your mid December workshop. Very good. Did they complete the survey yet?

Um, they have partially completed the survey. Um, they started this past weekend. They ran into some weather on Monday and so they had to pull off. Um but they had completed all the way from the north end down to about Indigo Street. Um and then they were going to go ahead and uh try to remobilize and finish the survey this week. Okay, great. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Um that brings us to items referred to and presentations from the town attorney. Do you have anything other than the closed session?

I do have one thing, Mr. Mayor. I just want to comment on the uh the crowd gathering um ordinance and the which also deals with group demonstrations. And just something I want you all to um to keep in mind which you may all be completely familiar with, but I think it bears noting and that is that the um this is an ordinance that's designed to regulate activity that's protected by the US Constitution. And um you know, absent an ordinance, there's very little that the town can do to control or impose any kinds of uh regulation on these events. The law does allow the town to to adopt an ordinance like this to impose uh time, place, and manner restraints and regulations on these kinds of activities. And that's about what you can do. And so the ordinance is is is lengthy and it's complicated in order to try to comply with um what your limitations are as well as to impose clear and enforcable restrictions. So I just wanted to to mention that um so that y'all could keep that in mind as you were considering that ordinance. But other than that, I I I just have the close session.

I I did mean to ask about the firearm clauses. Um we're clear constitutionally that on public land we can

Yes. And in fact, there's a specific state statute that prohibits them from being uh involved in certain crowd gathering activities. So uh this is actually not just in and that was something that is important because absent state law the state statute on that we might have had some difficulty in terms of how we regulated that but as it is this is in compliance with a North Carolina state law provision. Okay. Very very good. Thank you. Uh that brings us to items referred to in presentations from the town manager and we have something from Roberta delay on the screen there. I'm here to update you on I better be sure I pay attention to what I tell everybody else to do,

right?

I'm here to update you on a historical on a request for a historical marker at the site of the former Knacks Head Life Saving Station near where our u Epstein public beach access is currently located just down the beach road from here. Several months ago, Mr. Ralph Buckton asked you to consider installing a marker to commemor commemorate the life-saving station and its com its subsequent uses. After much research and a lot of help from Mr. Buckston and assistance from town clerk Britney Phillips, we're following up on that request and with a proposed marker. I won't read the text on the marker because it's part of the packet and it's online, but I just want to provide a little background very quickly. Um, just as a reminder, it's it's it's an amazing story and I appreciate Mr. Buckton for for bringing it to us and uh reminding us of how important this site is. The original Nags Head Life- Saving Station constructed in 1874 was one of the earliest stations uh built to safeguard the mariners as part of the US life-saving service. The facility served as a base for many heroic rescues carried out as uh both its time as a US life-saving station and then later as a station for the US Coast Guard. It also played a critical role in defending our coast during World War I and World War II. Uh think about the stories of all the submarines that were off the coast here during World War II. And that's that that's a pretty heavy legacy that the station just right down the road from us had. Sadly, both this the original station and the its 1912 replacement were lost over time. Uh the final structure, which served as a critical army radar defense site, helped to monitor and protect nearby military assets such as those up in Norolk that

suffered severe damage during the Ash Wednesday storm in 1962 and was later demolished. Um, sorry, here's a plug for our video. If you don't know a lot about the Ash Wednesday Storm, uh, go to YouTube.com, town of Nagad, and there's a fascinating, fantastic video there for you. Um, so there's nothing there at at at there's nothing um at the site right now to commemorate the courage and the service of those who work there. So, we ask you to uh consider this consider this information and the installation of a marker at this site.

Uh the cost put a marker at the site. Sorry. Excuse me. Go ahead. I thought you were done. I I know. I thought I was too. Sorry. I said I'd like to make a motion to approve the marker at this site. Yeah. Let me go ahead and take a second, then we'll let Robera finish. I was just going to Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. Is there a second to that? Okay. All right, Roberta. Um, the cost will be about $1,300. Okay. That's I love this. I have always wondered where this station was, and I'm really glad to to see this history, and thank you, Ralph, for bringing this to us. I think this is going to be a nice addition to the to the town.

All right, so we have a motion and a second. Um, any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor signify by saying I. I opposed. Great. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. All right. Uh that brings us to the board of commissioners agenda. I'll start. Commissioner Lambert, you have anything today? I do not. Commissioner Sears, I'd like to congratulate the two winners of yesterday's election and thank the town and its staff for having me serve on this board for the last eight years. Thank you. And we appreciate your service very much, Mike. More to be said on that, another time. Commissioner Sanders. Yeah. Thank you. No, I don't have anything.

Okay. All right. Very good. Um I did not have anything on the mayor's agenda. Um but um in light of Commissioner Muller's request, I do want to have a little bit of discussion about uh where we are um and whether uh the town might uh do something in the short term. The thing is, we don't know how long this this situation's going to last. There are agencies and resources dedicated to feeding folks. Um there are mechanisms like the the food distribution that um that was earlier this week at uh at the clinic. Um and so I'm wondering if there are um uh things we might do um either including uh financial contribution or uh otherwise. I will say um I have some reservations about um dedicating tax funds to that purpose on an open-ended basis. Um, and um, and depending on what y'all think, I may have a I may have another suggestion, but um, I also talked to the manager yesterday a little bit about, if you don't mind, Andy, um, about, you know, possibly having a collection site here, that would make it a little more convenient for people to drop off uh, food and, uh, the town to provide the transportation up the beach to to the to the food pantry, which I think would be a nice gesture for the for the town.

Yes. So, Kelly suggested something to me the other day. Um, as I said, she's very compassionate and well aware of what's going on. And so, she asked if we could have a collection site um for people to drop off food items. And knowing that there's the food bank that distributes these items, we could we could certainly do something like that. and then just staff could deliver the items, you know, routinely up to the food bank and they could distribute the items. That's one thing we could do. Um, so that that would be in keeping with what the mayor former mayor suggested. Um, I mean, we could also set up some sort of donation, okay,

as well. Well, if you're talking about a donation, I one of the things and I I suggested this to um to to the mayor and he was amanable to this um is that um I would he and I would pin a letter together uh and we would challenge um the new elected uh the sitting and past board members to donate uh at this critical time. um with a substantial goal of um u perhaps raising as much as $5,000 uh through that resource to show I think our leadership as a as a group of people and our our concern especially at this particular time. Um, so I don't know that that's necessarily something that requires a board action, but I I would um uh um be happy to to work on such a letter uh to get some signes to get that out promptly and u and to contribute and just does the board have any thoughts on on that?

I I like that idea. Um, I would support it and I uh I would definitely like to discuss this in December to look at all options and maybe not necessarily choose one, maybe choose multiple. Okay. But I I really appreciate Mayor Mhler coming this morning. Um, and I hope that we can do a lot of stuff with that. Okay. All right. Very good. If you wrote a you wrote a check out and brought it to the town as a donation, who would you make the check out to? Well, what what I would suggest uh I'm sorry. Are you thinking

what I what I would suggest is that and I don't want to I don't want to get into scorekeeping. Um what I would suggest is that we send the letter out. We ask for a specific donation uh within a specific time period which you know it's it's a holiday month um that involves food. And so I would suggest we get a letter out. We ask for a specific amount um and per person um that they uh have a deadline to make that contribution and that they simply put Nags Head Challenge on the memo line of their contribution and that go to the food pantry directly. uh rather than sort of put it in a position where the town has to collect uh the money, we we make the challenge try to get the money quick as quickly as we can directly to the resource. The the the food pantry does use a service that you can contribute online. Uh that service collects 10% of the contribution. It's pretty significant. Um uh at least that's that's the one my wife found. And so we are writing a check just so that all of the money gets to the to the food pantry. Um

sounds good. I like it. Thinking in my head different. Yeah. I I know it's a it's a it's an it's an and and obviously if this is not resolved by the time we get back here next month it will be profoundly disappointing and we will have a better sense of the need and I think so in the short term I I think you know um uh we sort of get uh our electeds to put their money where their mouth is and then we follow up with uh a greater consideration if this thing is still dragging on. Okay. All right. I mean, we could also encourage kind of do a campaign and encourage people to donate directly to those organizations.

I I think so, too. I I I am

like a community drive. So, what what comes to mind for me and we we've done this and and I'm I'm also a little sensitive to precedents like uh we we do the annual resolution for the diaper um need in the community, but we don't give them any money. But we do a resolution that says that we do we recognize the need and we encourage the giving. This is a little bit different circumstance, but I am concerned a little bit about okay well what is the what is the town's policy about what we give to and when and how much and all that kind of thing. Um because we have um room at the end and we have you know the folks who come to us every year for the toys for tots and talk about or the or the motorcycle uh run you know and and so I just I don't I don't want to I don't want to open a situation. I don't want to create something that's open-ended. I don't want to put us in a in a bind where we haven't developed policy. Um, I do want us to do something immediately that addresses the issue for the holidays and then let's see how things are going and then let's give it some some deeper consideration. So that that that's all I'm saying and I I think to encourage to have a drop off which I think we could probably create pretty easily, let people know it's here. Um, and then and then this other effort that I'm talking about to raise some funds and then and then we go from there.

And maybe between now and the next meeting, the town staff can work on different ideas to kind of flush out. Yeah.

Do that. and how that actually gets set up and if we do it for more than a short term, how is it maintained and you know who picks it up and when and where is it sit and what kind of container is and all I mean there's a lot to be thought I mean thought about in that so that it's a it's done as well as Nagad does everything else. So I just I want us to to think about it and do it right. If this would be a question for this board um and for the future board. Uh if the commissioners were agreeable to say I remember during COVID um the commissioners and the planning board I remember offered to donate their salary or their stipen

um would the board be amunable to thinking about maybe the town matching that donation that the commissioners do? Uh I would I think that's a possibility that could Yeah, the same taxpayer money he just said he didn't want to spend, but it's not as much. But it's

Well, the other thing I thought about was was also uh giving the employees an opportunity also to to match. So, let's take it a step at a time. I don't I don't want to. Yeah. Again, if it's going on a month from now, we will not have completely lost the opportunity to do something more significant. Um, is there other business to come before the board before we go into close session so that we can let folks go? All right. If there is not, then um I move that uh the board go into close session to consider a personnel matter pursuant to 143-318.11a6 and to consult with the town attorney regarding matters protected by attorney client privilege and to preserve that privilege to include the cherry incorporated litigate litigation pursuant to general statute 143-318.11a3. So moved. Is there a second? Second.

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

All right. Board has returned to open session. Mr. Lighty, will you report? Uh, yes, sir. Mr. Mayor, the board did uh discuss um a personnel matter with the um uh that that's a confidential personnel matter and uh gave instructions to the um town attorney regarding the litigation matter, but no other actions were taken. Okay. All right. We addressed other business uh before um before we went into close session. So a motion to adjurnn would be in order. So move second. I have a motion and a second. Um with thanks for your service. Thank you, Commissioner Sears. Pleasure. Um and uh we are ajourned.