Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Good morning everyone. This the Wednesday December 17th recess session of the Nags Head Board of Commissioners is hereby call to order. First item on the agenda is the adoption of the agenda and the motion would be in order. So move. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. All those in favor signify by saying I I opposed. Thank you. That brings us now to public comment and I'll turn it over to Mr. Lighty.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. At this time, the board of commissioners welcomes members of the public to comment on matters of interest uh to anybody who wishes to comment. This is not an opportunity for dialogue and the board rarely responds, but anyone who's interested in commenting uh on matters of uh interest to them is welcome to do so. Please go to the podium, tell us your name and where you live and uh and then I will let you know when your time is just about up. Do we have anybody here for public comment? If not, we can conclude the public comment session, Mr. Mayor. All right. Great. Thank you, John. Uh that brings us to the consent agenda, which being midmon is short, only has two items. Uh you have that before you. A motion would be in order. So move. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second.

I have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda. All those in favor signify by saying I. I I opposed. Thank you. That brings us to new business and the primary business of the day. Uh starting with a discussion of the timing of the next beach nourishment project and David I think is going to take the lead. I was just going to introduce the item real quick. Sure.

Um so basically we've been talking to the board about this um for several months now. A few months ago, we gave you a schedule on what to expect for the upcoming project. And so, here we are at the big workshop that we had planned to to go over the project. Um, we it's sort of a two-part discussion today. Uh, we have Mafet and Nickel here to talk about the engineering and the the fall survey that was done the board is aware of. We also have Andrew Carter with DEEC Associates here to talk about how we're going to fund the next project. Um so hopefully uh by the end of the day we'll have a better sense of the timing of the project uh essentially which year the board would would choose to do it based on the bids and um whether or not we would select any of the ad alternates that were bid for the project. So I think those are the two primary decisions that we'd be looking for today. So with that um turn it over to David.

Yes. Good morning mayor and commissioners. Um so for this uh discussion we're going to um talk about three separate things. One is the results of the fall survey. Um two we're going to talk a little bit more about the bid structure and project design. And then lastly um at the last board meeting uh the mayor had requested some information on the sand relocation permits. Um so we'll go ahead and we'll cover that at at the back end. Um but uh let's go ahead and get right into the results of the fall survey. And I'm going to introduce uh Beth Shidone from Maf and Nickel um who's our consulting um coastal engineer on the project. Um and um you know the intent was to go ahead and provide the board all the relevant information in order to go ahead and make the decision on whether we move forward with a 26 or a 27 project. So I'll go ahead and bring Beth up to the podium. Thank you.

Thanks very much, David. Um board, mayor, board of commissioners. Um it's a pleasure to be here this morning. Um as David said, um we are going to cover a lot of information regarding um the beach nourishment master plan and the upcoming project as well as results of the fall survey. This is an outline of the presentation. Um, first I'm going to just give you kind of a very brief overview refresher of um the multi-deal beach nourishment master plan that the town adopted in 2024. Uh we're going to talk about the fall survey results. As many of you have probably personally observed, there's been widespread dune scarping. We'll talk about some of the losses above the minus14t NAVD88 contour. And the reason that's important is that's the sand that we think really helps protect the town's infrastructure from um storm impacts. We're going to talk about the general movement of sand offshore. Briefly go over the town's beach nourishment history, talk also about the project design of the upcoming project, the bids received, and allow some time for technical Q&A. Um, the beach nourishment master plan is a long-term strategy that the town has adopted to permit, schedule, and finance all of the ongoing beach nourishment efforts. As part of the plan, the town um looked at in conjunction with Moffet Nickel, uh, a number of different alternatives, looked at the cost of those alternatives, figured out um, typical scheduling for projects, etc. Um, right now the town's operating under an approximately six-year um, renourishment cycle depending upon the survey data and how the beach has evolved. Uh, one of the the other

primary goals is to ensure the viability of a viable sand source. Um, we estimated the approximate potential sand need um, considering storms, potential sea level rise, etc. as approximately 58.6 6 million cubic yards. There is a borrow area that was initially identified by the Army Corps of Engineers. Um the town did considerable geohysical and geological investigations to characterize that material, ensure it's compatible. Um in that borrow area, there's about 67.9 million cubic yards. So the town right now is in very good shape in terms of a sand source. Um we also established volutric triggers uh for equivalent level protection across the town shoreline and that was based on a numerical modeling of a 25-year storm to determine the volutric triggers which we're going to talk also more about later in this presentation um or the design level of protection for each reach. So that design level protection is kind of your beach and dune that you always want to be there in case you have a 25-year storm. it would resist those conditions. Um we also um continued to update um the town's beach maintenance and monitoring plan um which could potentially provide a basis to continue to qualify for FEMA reimbursement for sand loss during a federally declared disaster as a town has done previously in the past. Um you have this in your um memo. Uh this is just kind of an orientation for when we start talking about all the different reaches where those are located. Um the Nag North Reach has not historically been nourished. Um and that is from 8th to Bonnet. Reach one extends from Bonnet down to Governor Street. Reach two from Governor's to James Street. And then reach three north from

James Street to Limulus Drive. Um reach three south from Limulus to Lon. and then reach for at the very southern end of town um down to McCall Court. So again um this won't surprise you but um the town has had a pretty active fall in terms of the wave events that were observed. Um there were actually four events that had wave heights greater than 15 feet. Um, typically the town would normally in this time frame see maybe one event, but this fall there were four. Um, there was Hurricane Aaron um, in October. I mean, not October, in August. Then that combination of Alberto and Alda that actually probably benefited by kind of pulling Alda offshore, but still impacted um, with relatively high waves. Later in October, there was a noraster that occurred during high water level or king tides. And then at towards the very end of October, a coastal low that actually had waves over 18 feet. So this was a very active atypically active fall season. Um this slide shows you some of the field observations. Um, one of Moffett Nickel staff came out actually on um, right after the Humbo and Alda event and took these photos. Um, there was extensive dune scarping anywhere from three to almost 10 feet of scarping depending on the location you see these photos. um were taken at Soundside Road um then Forest Street, Limulus, and then all the way down at Lon on the southern end of town. And those plots at the top are the comparisons um between the summer and the fall surveys. And all of

that red you see up there is erosion. Basically, this shows above the zero foot um contour. So that's basically your dune escarment and loss of dry beach shoreline recession that was observed in this field visit. Just wanted to take a few minutes um to just to generally talk about typical seasonal profile changes. These kinds of changes are fairly typical although they happen more quickly this year and they were a little more severe and also impacted the dune. Um but typically um in the summer or the calm weather on the bottom you see there's more sand stored on the beach during the winter fall seasons when the weather is um rougher there's higher waves then that some of that sand moves offshore the bar may grow larger be breaking those waves a little further offshore but these are kind of typical typical changes um it just occurred quicker this year and um maybe a little bit more effects in the dune than generally um happen each year. As David mentioned, um the town elected to do a fall survey. Um there were 109 transexs surveyed. Those were all within the what we call the nourished oceanfront. So those are reaches one through four, the reaches that have historically been nourished. So that's a subset of the monitoring transexs that um were monitored in the summer, but mainly just focusing kind of on what has happened within that nourished ocean front to inform this decision making process. Um as a reminder and for those who are new to the board and may not be familiar, um we do these volume calculations at uh above different elevations which we call like calculation lenses.

So we calculate the volume change above the elevation plus six. That's basically your burm elevation. So that will the volume changes above the plus six is kind of evaluating really what's happening in the dune. Um we also do the calculation above mean high water which is kind of your dune plus your suberial or your dry beach. Then to what we call waiting depth which is really kind of more like swimming depth the minus six foot. Um so that's kind of your recreational area and then out to the outer bar elevation minus4 feet NAVD88. Um those are kind of highlighted there in the shading because again that's the elevation above which we consider that material to be providing the protection for the town's infrastructure. Um, we also compute all the way out to the approximate depth of closure at minus9 ft NAVD88 and all the way out to the minus30 to try to capture what's been moving more offshore. These two photos, I mean these two images show um some of the changes that are kind of typically have been happening and were observed over the these two um the survey time frame. Um the top one is at Dune Street near Sersside Plaza transct 605 and that's in reach one. But a lot of these changes were very typical all across all of the reaches. There was dune scarping and removal of that material in the dry beach and then some of that was deposited in the nearshore where the green you see is. Then the bar has kind of um you see the red the initial bar that was there in the summer has kind of shifted offshore with material moving out into deeper waters. Um very similar looking profile at Seagull Street in reach three south. Although in that area

and it's kind of hard to see on the scale but there were kind of two dunes like a smaller dune in front of a larger dune and that entire kind of first dune was removed down in that area. Um and again not as much deposition in the nearshore and then the sandbar and the material moving offshore. So these are kind of the typical processes that we saw throughout the um nourished ocean front. This is a table that's in your um fall survey memo. I just wanted to highlight some of the numbers. um the left column that says that. So you've got the reaches listed, what transexs those span, how long each of the reaches are, and then the average shoreline change at the plus 1.18 foot mean NAV88 contour. That's basically mean high water. um when it highlight those. So you'll see all the way down at the bottom where it says nourished oceanfront, that's the average AC, it's a weighted average across the whole nourished oceanfront. So on average, the town saw about 27 feet of shoreline recession over this time period. And then if you really want to um look at reach three south and reach four, those numbers start looking more like 50 feet of shoreline recession. that was observed in those two areas in the southern part of town between these surveys. Um if you go over two rows to the I mean two columns to the change above 1.18 um feet NAV88. So that's the volumetric change on a crosssection basis. So the cubic yards per foot. Um what you see there is the change in the dry beach. So we um saw an average

of about 10 cubic yards per foot loss in the dry beach across the entire nourished oceanfront. These numbers are start are going to start also giving giving some perspective when we start talking about the unit fill from the nourishment project. So in the dry beach about 10 cubic yards per foot um were lost over this time frame. And if you go over then to the change above the minus14 foot NAVD88 contour which again is that material that is providing the infrastructure protection across the nourished oceanfront that averages about 16 cubic yards per foot with higher losses seen in reach three south and reach four 35.1 and three south and 31.5 in reach four. some of those numbers um th some of that most of that material is captured a little farther out. But what um what happens then is that it's a lot harder for that material to kind of naturally recover once it moves further offshore. These are kind of the same numbers but just multiplied by how long each of the reaches are. So, you know, if you have 10 cubic yards of foot across the whole 53 um,000 ft of the nourished oceanfront, then you kind of come up with these numbers um or each reach correspondingly. And I just wanted to highlight here um the change above that minus4T NAVD88 contour of 877 um 419 877,419 cubic yards. So that's just this 16.4 multiplied by the extent of the nourished ocean front. But that just gives you kind of a quantity perspective.

Okay. So I mentioned at the beginning that there were these um volutric triggers developed as part of the master plan um using numerical modeling to see kind of what that necessary volume was above the minus19 um to provide that protection. And what we've done here is you'll see the volumetric triggers are marked with the um dashed line and then the average across the entire town is the red line of 464 cubic yards per foot. And so what we've done here is average out the cross-sectional area or the unit volume across each of the reaches through time for all the surveys that the town has done historically. So, I just want to call your attention. I don't know if my m if the mouse will work, but um if you see the the green bars all the way on the left, those are from 2011, that was the condition of the beach before the first nourishment project. Um so, you see, and again, these triggers weren't even developed at that time, but these these were pretty low um across the beach. And then after that first project, you get to this darker red bar and you'll see that. So that increase and then if you come and then you sort of can see how everything evolved until 2018 which is the blue one which is before the 2019 project. Um so those numbers decreased here. Do I have a pointer? Okay. Um thank you. Um I should have brought a pointer, but the blue the blue bar kind of in the middle um is the conditions before the 2019 project. So you can kind of see where you are there.

Um and then the um post Dorian project was in 2022 and that's reflected within the increase from this dark purple to the yellow here. Um and so where we're currently at, um summer 2025 is this green bar. And if you'll remember, um in the summer we were like, "Hey, we're we're, you know, things look good. We're we're doing pretty well." Um when you look above the minus 19, it really hasn't changed that much into the orange or the fall survey. Um, but then that doesn't really tell the whole story because a lot of that material that's above minus14 is still there above minus19 but it's not providing that protection. So I wanted to show this which is the um a trigger. It's basically the same cross-section but just considering the necessary volume above the minus14. And if we start looking at it like that then you see that there is a bigger difference between the green which was summer and this fall which is the orange particularly down here in reaches three south and reach four aggregate. And again I know many of you have probably observed um yourselves you know some of that loss down in the southern part of town. Again, that's the most um dramatic from this perspective, but we can also look at it individually by every single survey transct across the town, which starts providing a little bit more insight into how individual hotspot areas may be developing um in in certain locations where other other areas kind of when you average everything out looks okay, but

there are some hot spot areas. Uh so here um oops here we look at um in reach one um couple of areas are already um below the trigger for the minus14 elevation at the Naget fishing pier near southside road. There are some other ones that are getting close to the triggers in reach 2. Some of those locations are Harvest Street, um, Outer Banks Fishing Pier and down by Eagle Street, and then pretty widespread areas that are below or very close to the triggers down in reach three south and reach four. Um, so this kind of provides a a more granular look at what's going on and to provide even more kind of insight on a to localized hotspot kind of things that may be going on. And um we ran the cross-sectional seashore model which is a numerical model that will take um storm conditions and you know estimate the erosion that would be happening during that particular storm. Um, and so we ran that with the winter storm that I mean the coastal low I guess they called it that happened towards the end of October with about the 18 foot wave height which was kind of the worst event that happened over this fall period just to see um what what may happen if another similar event came. And so the um green transexs are protected didn't see over topping or undermine foundations. The blue transexs did see some over topping and I know there was actually some over topping observed during some of these events this past fall in some of these areas like Southside Road. Um there's uh also uh the red transsects are undermined which indicates that the

act the physical dune erosion or the beach erosion actually made it all the way back to the location of the structures in some of those areas. So, this is generally just to provide perspective on, you know, if similar events occur over this winter season, these conditions may worsen. Um, just when you're thinking about whether to wait two more winter seasons or just one um on the beach nourishment project. So, some of the key takeaways from this fall monitoring, there were a typically frequent high wave events in this fall. Um, we observe visible dun escarments, loss of the dry beach, and offshore migration of the bar. The losses above the minus14 foot NAVD88 elevation indicate that there's less sand available to provide that appropriate level of protection to the town's infrastructure. Um, there are multiple transsects along the ned oceanfront that are at or nearing those triggers. The minus14 foot triggers modeling with the seashore shows that if a similar coastal low happens, there may be some localized over topping in those hot spots. And the typical winter wave climate, which is generally higher, may cause additional transexs to fall below or approach those triggers. So before I move on to the beach reourishment project, does anyone have questions regarding the fall monitoring survey? this one. Okay. All right. So, for the beach reourishment project, um just wanted to refresh everyone's memory on the historical projects that the town has conducted. Um from 24 2004 to 2005. Um there were a number of different um post hurricane Isabel emergency dune restoration efforts. as a total of 320,066

cubic yards and the bar source from that was actually an upland bar pit in Kuruck County. Um the asterisk there means that there was at least some FEMA funding associated with the project. So that's all of the projects actually except for the 2011 initial project. Um the first project that was conducted along the entire nourished oceanfront was in 2011 and that was about 4.6 6 million cubic yards and that was from an offshore borrow source. Um adjacent to the borrow source that's prop proposed for this upcoming project. Um the 2019 project um also had some FEMA funding from Post Matthew I believe. Um and that was a total of 4 million cubic yards also planned also taken from offshore borrow area. And the Post Dorian project occurred in 2022 um with 614,000 cubic yards also from that same similar offshore bar area. Um the proposed upcoming project um is planned to extend again along the entire nourished oceanfront from reach one all the way to reach four. Uh the borrow area is a slightly different borrow area than what has been used before, although it's within the same. That big um shape that you see on the map is the S1 borrow area that was initially identified by the Army Corps. Um as I mentioned, the town has characterized all the material within that entire polygon. Uh but a subset of that was chosen for this upcoming project and um the town permitted up to 3.3 million cubic yards of placement um just to allow for changing conditions were there to be a storm additional FEMA funding or something um made available. So just to um allow for those changing conditions. The permit volume was 3.3 million cubic yards and available in this proposed borrow area was about 7.6

million cubic yards. Um this is kind of a busy table um but it drills down all of the information um that was provided to contractors for the bid. Um the stationing for each reach. Um and I will mention and I know the board has discussed this before that this will be the first time that the town incorporates a taper into the National Park Service property. Um the park service worked with the town on a special use permit um which was a nice process and that and that enables um the town to kind of place a full beach nourishment section at the southern part of town and then taper that off into this into the park service property um which hasn't been done before. So previously the taper would have to end at the end of the town's property. So that's something that's a little bit different from past projects. Um, so when I was talking before about the cubic yards per foot, um, just want to kind of draw your, um, attention to the reach one and reach two, um, fill densities are about 30 cubic yards per foot. Um, and then it kind of increases from there. Um, reach three north is about 51.5 extending out to 111.9 for reach three south. Then reach um reach three south with a dune construction and then reach four which also has dune construction and then the taper obviously uh is a smaller volume. So the total base bid volume was about 2.2 million cubic yards. There were two additive alternates of 100,000 cubic yards each. Um the town retained the flexibility to place those wherever they choose along the nourished oceanfront at the time of construction. So, that's kind of um I guess a a tool that the board and the town can use to kind of address

something that things that may pop up between now and the time of construction or enhance the recreational beach if desired in certain areas. Um I wanted to go through real quickly the typical cross-sections for each reach. Um this is for reach one. uh from bonnet to governor there is a burm proposed. The width does kind of vary. Again the the typical um the typical field density is on the order of 30 cubic yards a foot a little bit less for reach one. Um similarly reach two um has also a burm with approximately a 30 cubic yards per foot fill density. um reach three north that increases just over 50 um and it's so that's a little bit wider BM I should also mention the offshore slope is approximately um 15 to one 15 horizontal to one vertical as we move into reach three south um from Pelican to seagull it's a burm a wider burm there um and that is a higher fill density and then once you get south of seagull And that's where the dune restoration project begins. Um, and you can see there's a dune reconstruction with a 40ft crest. There's a 4onone slope on the ocean side and then a burm with a the width of that burm varies and the offshore slope of 15 to1. And there's a pretty similar cross-section with a little bit wider burm down in reach four where that dune is restored and the additional berm is there. Um just just uh really quick um and I know many of you have have already been through a number of these products and are familiar with this process. This is just a slide to kind of talk about the profile equilibration process or the

equilibration process of a nourishment project. The left hand side is like a top view. Um if you'll imagine this is the whole town shoreline and then you see this is kind of an exaggerated taper. Um but there will be some you know along shore spreading uh at to the north and to the south on either end of the project and there will be some movement of the place material offshore to restore a more natural slope. So this right hand side is a um cross-section. So if you look it they generally place a um kind of steeper than the natural although the the natural here is not that much different for one on 15 but it'll be a generally a little bit steeper than natural slope and then that material will move offshore and create the bar and a more natural looking profile. And depending on this, this graph actually shows um if you have a coarser material, less of that material will move offshore than if you have a finer sand with that's this kind of dotted line. If you have a finer sand, then more of that will move offshore. Um the sand that's available in the borrow area for town of Nagsad is very compatible. It's almost identical to the beach sand. So, we wouldn't expect there to be extra equilibration due to placing finer sand. Um, okay. So, that's the design. Um, and I know y'all have already reviewed um the bids. There were two different apparent low biders um for each of bid A or bid B where bid A is 2026 construction. Um the parent low bidder for 26 was weeks marine with the total base bid um being about 34.9 million uh with each additive alternate being just under a

million. Um and then I also included the unit prices for uh for the fill uh for the base bid it was $11.40 and then $9.50 per cubic yard for each of the additive alternates. And those are just generally a little bit um more affordable because just adding additional sand to a place where they're already placing is more cost effect cost efficient for the contractor. So they're able to offer that at a lower price. Um so and in 2027 um the apparent low bidder was Great Legs Dredge and Doc with a total base bid of about 37.3 million and each of the alternates at just over a million. just some of the factors um that we have seen recently affecting beach nourishment pricing. Um there have been some of the larger companies um some of the ones bidding on this project um selling some of their older smaller ho hopper dredges or decommissioning them giving less market capacity and then constructing new larger hopper dredges which will require a higher return on that investment. Um there's also increasing demand um across the US and general inflationary pressures. Um our our estimating team has also noticed um increases in the mobilization and demobilization costs due to reduction in market capacity. I did want to note, and I know um y'all have also discussed this, that pricing for both seasons was actually lower than the engineers estimate, indicating pretty favorable pricing for the town. So, some of the things to consider when making this decision. Um, again, there was average um recession of the

shoreline on the order of about 27 feet between the summer and the fall survey. There was volutric losses above the minus14 indicating loss of material available to protect the town's infrastructure. And there are these localized hotspot areas in all of the reaches that are at or nearing the triggers for the minus14 in AVD88. And there is an upcoming typical winter season which generally does have higher wave events that could potentially worsen conditions. Um there's also the financial considerations. Uh the base bid for for bid a 2026 construction was about 2.3 million less than the base bid for 2027 construction. Um the town could actually place the all of the sand in the base bid and both additive alternates in 26 for less than just the base bid price for 27. Um the pricing for those adults as I mentioned is is lower per cubic yard because they'll just increase the placement density and that's more costefficient for the contractor. And again those additive alternates do allow the town the flexibility to respond to localized hotspots at the time of construction. So, the town will do a pre-construction survey, make sure um to identify any areas that aren't that aren't sufficiently being addressed to provide the adequate level of protection, address those areas that may need additional protection. And then if all of those needs are met, the town would have the flexibility then if they choose to um award the additive alternates to enhance recreational beach in some of the areas. um if all of those level protection needs are met initially and that is all I have. Thank you very much. a couple. So we have as long as until notice to proceed or

even the actual mobilization to decide whether we want to proceed with alternates and where the alternates the the where yes the the award of the alternates um needs to be taking place at the same time as the award of the of the project because they'll need to factor that into their schedule and That's what my my question really meant was was placement. Oh, okay. Yeah. Where Yes, you can. Yes. That that there's that flexibility to make those changes. Um, is there any argument? Has any has anyone come up with an argument for waiting? I mean, we we have not um we have not.

Okay. All right. Thank you. That's all. Board, any questions? No questions. No questions. Thank you. No questions. Okay, thank you very much.

All right. All right. Um what I wanted to cover was the sand relocation um and then go ahead and associate that with the project reaches. Um just to go ahead and give the board a sense of what we're seeing on the ground with our sand relocation uh program. Um the map that I have up on the screen right now shows the um the sand relocation permits that we've received uh over the past several years. In 2023, we received 279 permit applications. In 2024, 281, and in 2025, um to this point, 210. Um to go ahead and correlate this this season is uh to date um we have received uh and this is by uh the project reaches for the beach nourishment. Um in reach one we've received 44 permit applications. In reach two we've received 31 uh project or 31 applications. reach three north only two applications uh as well as reach 3s and reach for only one. Um and I in speaking with some of the staff and what they've seen on the ground um with the storms that we've had late summer, early fall, the primary wind direction has been easterly and so there's been a lot of blowing sand back onto the properties. This year we've seen a lot of applications earlier than we typically do. Uh these applications

are typically filed um more in the March time frame so they can go ahead and try to clear off the sand at the last possible moment so they can get the biggest bang for their buck. Uh but this year um I think we can relate it to the holiday season. I think we're going to see a lot more rentals and a lot more occupancy along the ocean front. So some of these permits are really focused on going ahead and clearing those access ways to the ocean front uh for these properties that are going to be occupied. And lastly, um, one other thing I wanted to to mention because we've talked about this internally through staff is, um, from the FEMA perspective, what does it look like in the future. Um, at this point, it's somewhat of an unknown. Um, because the current administration has talked about restructuring FEMA and how we may be impacted by that. Um, there's a FEMA review council. They were supposed to have a meeting last week that was cancelled. Um from that meeting there was supposed to be a draft report to kind of give some recommendations on what um the future of public assistance would look like. Um some of the memos um that have circulated have indicated that the thresholds at both the state and local level may quadruple from what they currently are making it more difficult um for states uh and local municipalities to be able to be eligible for public assistance. But the more disturbing thing is um for recreational facilities um recreational facilities are categorized as category G and beaches fall under that and uh there was at least one memo that was circulated this past spring about the elimination of that category. Um putting the entire burden on the state to be able to

resolve beach restoration and and that's very important to us. Um, as as Beth had covered in her presentation, um, the town has benefited from public assistance um, for both the 2019 project and the 2022 project um, totaling about $28 million. So, that's been very important to us in being able not only to um, restore our beach, but also preserve our beach for the future. So, um, we'll be keeping an eye on that. Nothing formally has been released as of yet. U but that will be something that we'll be paying attention to.

So regardless of the fact that much of what we do here is is um infrastructure preservation, not not for the recreational purpose. I mean we we also achieve the recreational purpose, but we're doing this to protect our infrastructure and and um the structures that people live in. And so, um, you it' be nice if they had a separate category and didn't didn't necessarily have to lump us into the recreational category. Um, but this, um, do keep an eye on that. Let us know. I mean, it's I mean, that would be worth a march on Washington to sort of defend that future capability to to make those claims.

Yes, sir. It's something that we probably want to look at when we start developing our legislative and advocacy goals for the year. We'll probably be doing that pretty soon. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Just let this computer.

Okay. Good morning, mayor and commissioners. Um, the second part of the meeting today is figuring out how to pay for some things. I know there's some decisions that still need to be made, but um I wanted to introduce Andrew Carter. Like um Andy had mentioned earlier, um they're our financial adviserss. They've been advising us through all our beach nourishment projects. So they're very familiar, you know, with the town and um our financial position and I've worked with him to give them some updated numbers. So he's going to he has a PowerPoint presentation, but he's also going to be modeling some different scenarios. Um and we're kind of assuming the for just for the basis of conversation, we're just kind of assuming the highest interest rate, a 5% interest rate, and hoping it will be low. So we have to kind of plan for the worst and hope for the best. Um so you know we we have uh an estimate project and and that project number that you'll be seeing again includes like a contingency um and it does not include the soft cost that we've already incurred the engineering to date. So um again these are kind of just the worst case scenarios just because we have to plan for that. Um, but he will be modeling using, you know, our fund balance, uh, different combinations of fund balance and, you know, what our debt payments might be based on how much cash we put down, um, and things like that. So, it's it's kind of a plug plugandplay and it's it's an active model, but he does have three different scenarios that he modeled um, you know, and I think two of them do not have tax increases and one just models a small tax increase. and and and the other part of this conversation is the health of our fund balance, not just for this project, but how it's going to impact us looking into

our next project. So, you know, kind of planning ahead and not just kind of it's a long-term project this is. So, not just thinking in a short term. So anyway, with that, we appreciate Andrew coming from Charlotte. And you might remember his f Oh, some of you might remember his father Doug that isn't with us today. He's is enjoying the Christmas holiday. So Andrew, thank you so much for coming. And um Andy said that here's your presentation, but you'll be able to toggle back that you can use that mouse right there in front of you.

Awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you very much for having me today. I know y'all are used to probably seeing my large head on the screen in here. So, thank you for having me. It's always a pleasure to come down here and enjoy the wonderful coastline. Um, I want to start quickly with just uh piggybacking on what the mayor and some others have said. Uh, you know, I call this shoreline protection. Um, you know, beach nourishment is another great word. protection is really what you're doing here. It's an engineered beach. It's not a recreational beach, which has a much different doom, uh, profile and such. And so, uh, that's really what you're doing here with these projects is protecting your assets, not only properties, but also pipes in the ground, electrical, roads, making sure people can get in and out during storms and such. So, um, just wanted to start with that. I think was a very good, uh, observation. Um, quickly, you know, we were kind of here talking how do we get to this point? What has happened as y'all started many years ago? The the planning with us really started back in 2009 for that first project in 2011. Um, so we'll talk about kind of how we've gotten here, how the county um interacts with you all to help fund your projects as well. Uh, as well as what's coming up. You know, last time I presented here was in April of 2024. uh and we were still talking about the project upcoming and talking about funding levels, but uh as you've heard, we've taken bids and somewhat surprisingly to me, the 2026 project ended up being cheaper than the 27 project. Oftentimes, you'll see a Ford project being slightly cheaper because they can plan better possibly with where everyone's going to be. But to our great surprise, the 26 project is the cheaper

option. And so we are kind of looking at at doing that project. So we'll talk about that. Then of course question and concerns as we get to the end. Um again the town really kind of started in earnest in 2009 knowing that they needed a project coming up. You are really kind of the first town here in Der County to really get this started. Um, and of course the engineered project of a beach and that provides the maximum protection and qualifies for storm damage replacement which y'all have had the great benefit of having and I will uh kind of cosign what David was saying about you know who knows what the future of this uh holds. I think that piggybacks into our discussion on you all looking towards the future of the next projects and how we deal if there aren't FEMA monies as there are not FEMA monies in the current project uh which was different than the project we had a few years ago. Um we were brought in around 2010 as y'all started the process because to be quite honest besides general obligation bonds there there wasn't really much of a path forward that people had found um uh you can imagine, you know, trying to collateralize sand, right? And so that's not really an asset that the banks want or want to come get. And so in North Carolina, there's only a couple other methods we have available to us. You could either put up some other piece of real property. So you could lean up some buildings in town. Um or uh the special obligation bond uh method under state law allows you to essentially pledge occupancy tax. You pledge a revenue as your collateral that you can continue to use in your budget as you plan to do just like your house is your collateral uh for your mortgage. But if you stop paying the bills, they're going to come

after those particular um revenues. So, it's a an ability to pledge some revenues and not real property in order to get this done. And uh in order to do so, we have to have what are called municipal service districts under state law. And so, some municipal service districts, MSDS, were created at the beginning of the projects in order to fund these projects. and also it gives the ability to be able to raise revenues in those particular MSDs to help raise the funds for the projects. Um, you know, how is Dare County involved with this? As of now, it started with 1 cent, but two cents now of Alex Cap tax collected in the county is dedicated for beach nourishment purposes. it's set aside into a fund that uh they have to use to leverage for projects. And so they're leveraging this money on all the projects in the county of course um your projects as well as Nagat um Kittyhawk killed Elva Hills southern shores and projects in Duck and also in the unincorporated areas they have in Avon and uh Rodance and some other areas like that. Um so at the time um whenever you all were first to do the projects and so at the time there was a kind of skin in the game that each municipality had to come up with in order to raise uh funds for the project. Uh and so that was an equivalent of of about at that time about 7.82 cents. And uh it's an interesting number of 7.82 82. Not a very round number in a certain sense, but uh in conjunction with the county and Bobby, that was kind of where it was landed on kind of the the town skin in the game. So, everyone started with that. So, as as Kittyhog and Kill Devil Hills and Southern Shores and Doug all

came online to do their first projects many years ago, everyone raised that equivalent revenue to get them started within this. So, DARE continues to leverage that 2% into a fund. they have their own model and such and so they're also looking forward to multiple projects not only that they have that they will help you all fund as well. So this current project we're talking about does have funding from the county in it. Andrew just to clarify the 7.82 cents was was a number that was created back when these projects first started. Correct. We're talking about the value of a penny was different.

Value of the penny was different. So yes, as as people has reval and such that has typically remained revenue neutral. Uh uh I think in maybe some of the places they did not revenue neutral that part of the budget but did the rest of it and so but that was yes a number set. So that is not a current number technically but y'all are generating that same equivalent 7.82 cents that was set many years ago. But yeah, great clarification. Um so you know initial projects in 2011 it was about $36 million. Um and a had borrowed approximately 18 ter county put $18 million into it and then also gave you some interlocal annual funds to help your debt service at the time because the 7.82 cents didn't cover the debt service of project that you were borrowing. um later the project in 2019. So approximately seven or eight years between the first uh two projects, it was approximately $42.4 million total project that included the FEMA portion of the uh what they were paying for from the namerms. I believe it was a couple of names uh Matthews uh grants put together. And so we did it in conjunction with borrowing your project. And so at that time you borrowed approximately 11.4 million and used about $5.2 million and what you had in fund balance with cash. I think that's very important because when we first got started there wasn't really a cash position you had because the tax just come on board and so we had to borrow more. Here we're able to leverage some some cash that's building into the fund and I I'll explain why there's some cash building into the fund here in a second. Uh and so you're able to borrow less and have less stress on the amount of hard funds you have. Derek County also

borrowed uh funds at that time for you all and also gave about 600,000 in annuals support for your debt service. At that time, a master plan has been developed. And so, there's been a lot of work with these projects to get us to our now 2026 project, which has come approximately sevenish years after the last project that we've done. And there was the other FEMA project in 2022 that placed about 600 uh 600,000. The major projects have lasted uh as you said about six six or seven years, which is also important to another point I'll bring up a little later. Um, so the town continue to raise that technically approximate uh money every year. Um it's right around $3.3 million that comes into each fund itself directly into that. Um that's used to pay the debt service from previous projects which have now since fallen off and so that money is is going straight into fund balance. Um you pay annual maintenance. You know there's obviously projects that go on every year that you use to maintain the beach. um you doing repairs, spriggings, all kinds of of things that you do. There's engineering fees shall paid as part of the master plan over these years that you've been paid in cash. Legal she paid in cash and um also I believe most of the engineering for this project as we've talked about has already been paid from the fund and we're not technically looking to reimburse ourselves for that. that would increase borrowing, increase the the size of the uh of the project. And so we've already paid for it in cash and we have a great cash position now. So I'm not sure I see the need to borrow for any of the previous engineering fees that we have already incurred. Um we're projecting that approximately by the end of this year there'll be $14 million in the beach fund that we can leverage to help bring down our borrowing cost for

this current project. because as we have as we heard there are probably less sources for this project than we had for the last project considering we had some FEMA funding. Um these are highle numbers from what uh we just saw from the previous presentation. Uh as Amy said I am starting we are kind of starting from the highest point right so this is the the base bid that was taped plus the two alternates to get us to the 2.4 four million cubic yards. The base bid was at 2.2. Those alternates, as they said, allows you to kind of place sand as needed uh along the project, but the base project was about 2.2. But I just want to let you know we are looking at kind of highest cost here. Um similar hydraulic fills that we had in the past project. Um little less costly per per uh per cubic yards. Um, so what sources do we have to pay for it? We had a great presentation about why we need to sand it and where we're going to place it and what it looks like, which I'm always impressed with. I learn more and more about sand engineering every time I hear one of these, but I hope there's not a test later. Um, and so, you know, how are we going to pay for this? Uh, the county, uh, in talks with the the town manager and such, we've got just a little bit north of about $13 million we have coming from them. Uh currently grants have not received any grants towards this project. State has some some programs. Y'all have applied for them in the past. Some of your sister uh and brother cities uh or towns along the coast have gotten them, but unfortunately you have not. But they're always looking for other grant monies. So currently none identified for this. Um, with that amount of money you have in the bank, I I think we have a great potential of almost up to about $13.5 million we could use to place uh uh as

cash that still allows you to keep uh some fund balance and as since that would also decrease what the annual debt service payments are, which is is important as I've got to here in a second, allow you to continue to build some uh some fund balance in that fund as we move forward into the future. Um, So that leaves approximately between 11 and 12 and a.5 million depending on how much cash we might want to use from the beach fund that we might have to borrow. So very similar to the last project, that's about how much we borrowed. And that's essentially about what your capacity on your current revenues of about 3.3 million are. And I'll I'll explain that here a little bit before we move into the models. For special obligation bonds, the banks usually like to see a co what they call a coverage factor. They want to see more than the debt service payment coming into the fund to pay for it. Right? So it's not necessarily one to one. So what they would like to see is about 1.2 times. So if a payment's a million dollars, they would like to see revenues coming into the fund of about 1.2, right? gives them some coverage in case there's something that happens, in case there's a big storm that comes through and does take out some property, if there's a a revenue disruption, any kind of thing, they just want to be able to see you've got a little more than a one to one. And that's going to be important as we look here into the models themselves. So, the first model I'll show you is uh see is that see

Okay. Um, so you'll see we have approximately three three-ish million coming into the fund. We'll start on the revenue tab because essentially your capacity is somewhat dictated by the revenues, right? What you can do is it's about how much the funds going to come in and you're in your fund balance position. And so currently you are funded through a number of different sources of of property tax cut up in a number of different ways. And this was started many years ago when we did the first project. So there's kind of a townwide advalorum. The entire town has some skin in the game as far as these uh protection projects. And then we have uh a number of municipal service districts, MSDs that are set up. Some that are along the first um the the the first row uh probably north and south cut up. I believe one and two are first rows cut up between north and south. Then we have some uh districts in three and four that encompass the second and third rows. And then we have some other smaller districts that were set up to uh cover some others. Um we'd have to bring up a map of some sort if you really wanted to see how all of it's put together, but there are essentially six MSDS and the townwide advalorum. So currently two cents of your advorum tax comes into the beach nourishment and that produces right around a million dollars. Then you have nine cents in districts one and two, a half cent in district three, a full cent in district four, and currently five and six are not being uh taxed separately. MSDs don't have to be taxed. So just because you have one doesn't have to be taxed, but allows you to create special districts to pay for special projects. And so this is the current makeup. We also get uh some

funding uh based on how the sales tax is distributed in the county. And so as yours and other towns taxes move around from year to year, that number moves around slightly as well. And so we just project it pretty flat into the future. And that's what we've done here. We're not projecting any growth in your penny. We're just kind of keeping things flat as a very conservative view forward. But as your penny grows, some of this grows. And then at rebound time, y'all really kind of reset what this uh has done. And y'all have essentially kept this revenue neutral through your resets of um of your property tax. So, like I said, we're bringing in right around that 3.3 million dollars coming into this fund. Um and then, you know, we hadn't had interest earnings for 10 or 15 years since interest rates were so low. So, you're actually earning some interest. And so, but I don't put any of that in there. you know, interest earnings as gravy on top of the fund as Amy and I as we call tick and tie the model to the to the act for every year. Um, so as those revenues come in, we can project some future debt service as we uh do some other assumptions in the fund. we don't really have much of growth of anything on the revenue side to uh so any growth is also positive to the model. Um you know real quick here's kind of a breakdown of what we'll call our sources and uses. Um these are some of the buckets we took from the the bid and the alternates. Again this is the full four $2.4 million cubic yards here. You'll see that cost. You'll see mo and demob of course is another large section as we talked about those costs have been escalating but that's a just just the cost of doing business to get the the machines here

and uh um and then you'll see some of these other costs. Some of these are estimates and they're high estimates. Uh you know contingency is a place where we might be able to look at cutting some of this down. um you know, some of the some of the other costs are kind of somewhat high estimates. There's legal costs. There's going to be cost to getting the financing done. Those types of things um that are added in here. So, we're trying to kind of be, you know, worst case scenario. And so, if you didn't do some of the alternates, it would bring down uh some of the cost. And then we come down here to uh kind of where are our sources of funds? And like we said on the other slides, no outside funds or grants at this time. no FEMA funds or or monies that are added to this. And uh so we have just just over 13 million coming from Derek County. They'll contribute into the project fund. This particular model is looking to use approximately 13 million of the 14 million you have in the bank to bring you down to approximate borrowing of about 12.2 million. So similar to what you did last time, but a little bit more. And so we'll come over here. uh you know I have an estimate right now of a fiveyear borrowing at approximately 5% and that produces you'll see our total debt service and the last thing we'll talk about is on Saabs there are kind of two sides of the coin because Saabs pledge revenues we have to tell them what revenue we're pledging and we're going to be pledging your occupancy tax that has been doing kind of gang busters these past few years or whatever. So, the coverage there is is quite good. We don't need to add any other taxes or fees. I believe the first time we did this, we had to add the land transfer, you know, fees in here. Try to

create a uh what I call capital bucket we track the banks with. So, here they've got plenty of coverage here. Great collateral package. And then we have what's called the repayment side of it. So, you know, you have the what we're pledging for collateral, but we don't expect to pay from them those sources. We're going to pay from these other sources and that includes the townwide the MSD taxes and of course the restricted sales taxes we get coming into that fund. Again, that approximate 3.3 million. As we come down here and look, our total debt service is less than what we're bringing in. But I talked about coverage and so to get our best rates from banks, we'd like that to be more like a 120. Remember that 120, 1.2 number I've hit. So currently with the way this is kind of rolling out, highest cost, 5% interest rate on a loan, a fiveyear loan and stuff, we're pretty close. you know, we're we're we're right on the edge. As you'll see there to the right, 1.2 times is about 3.6. You know, it's a couple hundred,000 a year. Little less than one penny on your tax rate would get us in kind of the prime position as I market this to banks when we're ready to go. Um, you know, what could change this? You know, our estimates are high a little bit right now, right? Um, we could the contingency could come down a little bit as we hone in on some prices. Um, my interest rates a little bit high, but the interest rates probably not going to move the needle a whole lot in our in our annual um, uh, uh, debt service. Um, those are a couple places we can look. I'm getting ready to show you a model of what if we use 3.5

million and kind of, you know, almost take all the money out of the of the fund knowing that we have monies coming in next year that will be less than the debt service. So, I I can show that one to you real quick. So, you'll see we use about, you know, and a half million, we'll still have some fund balance. It hovers and we look back at our coverage calculations and you know, we're even better. And so, you know, every little bit, every couple hundred thousand we can shave off on X, Y, and Z. Whether it be interest savings cost, whether it be choosing which alternate that you would like, um whether it be changing possibly changing up the mix of funds that are coming. You know, I think we're we're right. I think we're right there. Um to to to get hopefully our most attractive rates. Um the last one I'm going to show you is what if we did add that $300ish,000 that we're talking about to get to that 120 into the fund. One of the last things I I wanted to before I go over there uh is I want you know look here kind of towards the tail end as we get farther out during the period that we're paying debt service. You know the fund balance is going to somewhat hover. It's going to grow just a little bit. So by the time we're getting to our next project we're only projecting to have about five or eight million dollars in the fund by the time we get to our next project. if things, you know, go as I'm projecting into the future, we're now at a position where we have about $14 million into the fund and that cash is really helping us drive down what we have to borrow and what we possibly have to generate on an annual basis. The more we have to borrow, the

more we'd have to generate on an annual basis to pay that debt service. So um I think it may be as we look here uh if we are looking towards the next projects and such. So if we look at the the C model, you know, you'll see these fund balances are in a little bit better position. Um if we can garner about 3.7 million coming into the fund and of course every dollar that comes in could help us out. our debt service might be lower, you know, and that will help us build the fund a little bit. But you'll see we'll be in a better position later to have more cash to be able to put onto the next project, which as we're always looking, not only this project, but the next one, and that positions the town better in case there aren't any FEMA funds that are coming anymore or uh you know, the the two cent occupancy tax isn't performing as well and the county can't support the next project as much. There's a good number of ways to look at how we're looking at the next uh project, but I think for now it doesn't have to be done probably next year necessarily, but I think it's probably a good idea to start thinking about not only this project, but the next one as it's coming up and what our positions might be. Um, so currently, uh, I think I think that's about what I had. U, I know I went through a lot of numbers. You've been through showing a lot of numbers and graphs today, actually. But uh I think for now there's there's a good amount of cash going to be put on the project. We still be in nice position and u I think we're very close on this one as y'all continue to look at which projects you want to do.

Any questions?

I I want to thank you and our engineering team for um really pretty clear presentations on complex topics this morning. I mean, you you really have both gone sort of to the root of what we're what we what we have to do and how we're going to pay for it here and and I appreciate that. Um I I guess you know it's it's a question we can't really really answer, but we all know what inflation t tends to do and we've seen inflation in these projects. um we're not going to see these projects get less expensive. Um and so we have to consider that and I'm I'm thinking more about the next project than the than the current project when as I'm as I'm saying this. I mean we're we're fortunately thanks to um some great financial work by our folks um by you and and internally the the the great work that our team does. We're in very good financial condition here. We have a very healthy town and so we're we're very fortunate to be able to do this. But thinking about the the next project um it's going to be more expensive. Um and um we are at the risk if we have a storm of not getting FEMA support. Um I don't have much faith in the federal government right now to step forward and help us. And um we know that that the county is under pressure to do projects outside the municipalities. I mean that's we've watched it, you know, we watched it all fall um summer and fall and um it it's it's um it's bigger for them actually than just what's was happening in Buckton that was so visible. I mean, the the risk to the infrastructure, the

entire NC12 along the entire length of Hatteris Island is um is is problematic and and you know, who knows what the state is going to going to do about that. Um and so some of that cost falls to the county. So, um I I I appreciate um the conservatism of looking forward and um and I I know we don't have to make some of those decisions today that we'll be making those come budget time, but um and Nagshead has been really pretty good about being conservative and forwardlooking and I hope that we'll continue to do that and and again, it'll be about the next project more than the current project. Um, I also really appreciate the detail that you guys went to. I know a lot of it was for mine and Megan's benefit and um, it's hugely helpful. So, thank you very much. And um I do have one clarification maybe and you may have covered it and I'm sorry if I missed it, but um with paying off the debt, if we did have a storm and we weren't getting the occupancy tax that we were expecting, how do we pay the debt?

So yeah, if if ay tax dropped, now luckily y'all aren't paying technically your bill out of oamy tax. Okay, you you have pledged those funds. So If it drop, they're looking at like four and five year averages. Usually like rolling averages. So the obviously tax part of your special obligation financing only triggers if you don't pay your bills. Okay?

And so essentially what you're saying is if you don't pay just like your mortgage, you don't pay your mortgage or coming after your house. If you don't pay the bills, they're going to they're going to come after those occupancy taxes that y'all programmed somewhere else in the budget. And so that would be the danger is essentially you would have to nonappropriate for that special obligation bond or you know at at that particular point we've got probably very big problems if if you're unable to appropriate you know that kind of stuff but yes that would be the trigger okay of that but no it wouldn't be a yearly test or anything okay

that's No questions. Just thank you for the presentation both. It made sense. So, it was great. That really helped. Thank you. Yep.

Can you uh clear something up for me? I mean, with all the variables that we're talking about, the grants and the FEMA and looking forward to the next project, mainly looking forward to the next project. You talk about the interest rate we might get and it seems better if we have a 1.2 to a 1.1. Does that actually affect the interest rate that we might get or you know it's all about kind of attracting the best credit posture when you're looking at banks. So that coverage factor is essentially upping your like your personal credit rating. So they would look at that as a more secure loan and be willing to offer you a lower rate just like the higher the credit get you a better rate on your car kind of thing. So, it's about creating a collateral package and a revenue package that's going to attract the best rates from the banks. And that's essentially the target we're looking at. That's why I'm saying we're probably close enough because as I'm estimating some cost high and interest rate high and some other things, by the end of the day, we'll probably meet there. But I will use that document to essentially market this to the banks and say this is their financial strength. Go look at their books. Y'all got some fund balance coverage. I usually argue as well like hey even if even if there's a problem there's some other monies they can use to make it up that year. And so these are all arguments I try to make to the banks on their marketing this financing

when we have a little time to look at because we may get a grant or Exactly. You have some I mean until y'all let the contract and and pass your actions for financing, you know, y'all will have all of us coming before you uh as we decide to move forward with the project. I assume, you know, we're looking at possibly April or May, you know, financing with the local government commission. So, starting in the new year, we'll have to start putting some not to exceed numbers in front of you. You know, how much are y'all willing to borrow? What's the project kind of not to exceeded your project ordinances and all the stuff that will come up. But that's why we're talking now and saying bids will come in. Here are your couple alternates. Y'all get to kind of decide what project and what cost. And then we'll we'll start putting together the the more clearer picture as y'all move through the process into the new year. So, this is not the last time you're going to see me between now and May. You're going to probably see me more than you ever have. And so, uh, you know, just get ready for for a lot of my face on the screen. Not person. Thank you.

Of course. Okay. Uh I echo my fellow board members as well and um focus on future projects. I think it's really important that we that we stay the course on all the good work that's been done over the years and I thank everybody for their time and efforts. Great. Can I add something just real quick? The Sure.

One of the things that we've been talking about, there's still some things we're trying to work out. Um, and so yesterday Amy and David and I talked about the timing of when you're going to need to approve things. Originally, we had thought that January would be the time to approve like the interlocal agreement with the county and the project ordinance. We think we probably have until February to to do that um, and not jeopardize any of our timing. And that we probably would recommend doing that just to give us some time to work some additional things out. And we're still talking to the county about their final number. And I know there's some other things that Amy and Andrew and David are trying to figure out. So at this point that that would be helpful and I I don't think it would there would be any harm in doing that.

Okay.

And then I just want to clarify one thing. Um you know when we talk about how we've um continued to raise money, you know, when we adopted our budget just this past year, uh we did not adopt a revenue neutral tax rate for beach nourishment. We increased our capacity. I think we added at least $200,000 a year, probably more like 250 to the townwide tax that we're collecting. And so it is we have continued to add skin to the game um from the town. And so, you know, the the next bucket that we would probably look at if we were going to add anything in the future or now would be the MSDS and most likely the new ones we created in 2021, which would be three and four,

right? So, just throwing that out there. Yep. Okay. Yes. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Andrew. Appreciate it.

All right. Thank you, Andy. Um, appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you, board. Um, we have, um, a lot of work ahead of us. Um, Andy, do we actually need to take the decision today to, um, I mean, formally to I mean, every indication is that we're proceeding with a project in in 2026. So, um, and and the the staff is clearly moving in that direction. Um, is there is there any reason why we need to formalize that? Maybe David. Okay. No,

David may be able to help with the language for this. I think one of the things he suggested is that we would do the notice of award to the contractor later on, but we could do a notice of intent to award now and then that may be good information to give to the public that we are officially looking at a direction so that we can announce it. And if the board is comfortable saying we we would like to do it in 2026, I think it would be good to make a motion to basically do a notice of intent to award. Is that correct? Or

that is correct. Um since we're moving forward or we're moving in that direction towards a 2026 project, we want to get that contractor locked in sooner rather than later. So we can do a notice of intent to award which gives them the confidence that we're moving forward in that direction. And then we can formalize that in February by ha issuing a notice of award and the authorization to uh move forward with the construction contract. Right. Okay. All right. What do you what do you think board? Okay with that. Okay with that.

Okay. All right then. Um, I'll attempt to make the motion then that that uh we that the board authorized the town manager to issue a notice of intent to award to Weeks Weeks Marine Weeks Marine um for the 2026 beach nourishment project. That appropriate or can we wait on saying anything about the ad alternates or do we need to add that? Typically, when you issue a notice of award or intent, you also add a value to that.

Okay. All right. Then I modify my motion to add the amount um for weeks marine of the base bid of the the notice of intent to award the base bid of $34,934,100 and alternates 1 A and 2 A each in the amount of $965,000. Yes, that is my motion. Is there a second?

Second. Have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Great. Thank you. Thank you, David and Andy, for for guiding us through that. Appreciate that. Thank you. All right. Very good. That brings us now to um items referred to and presentations from the town attorney. John, the only thing I would say is I would like to have a close session with the board at the January meeting uh to discuss potential litigation issues um connected with the beach nourishment project.

Okay. All right. Very good. Thank you. We will put that on the agenda. Um items referred to and presentations from the town manager. Any Andy, anything else today? I just wanted to publicly update the board on our discussions about the retreat. You know, after the last board meeting, the board discussed the retreat and potential dates and gave some suggested dates. We I think we've sort of finalized the dates for that now would be February 26th and 27th and those are Thursday, Friday,

correct? Okay. We have not determined the location, but at this point, we'll talk to the facilitator about getting a proposal and getting that approved. And then from there, I think the facilitator would reach out to each board member individually and and have an interview to ask you what you'd like to discuss at the retreat and that would help them formulate the agenda and then we can select a location and start working with you on on a draft agenda. All right. Great. All right. Thank you, Andy. appreciate that update. Um, board of commissioners agenda. I'll start with um, Commissioner Bond. Anything today? Nothing today. Commissioner Sanders? No. Commissioner Lambert?

Um, I just want to say merry Christmas to all of our staff. Um, we won't see you guys until Christmas. But also a special thank you to our staff that is working the holidays so everyone else can be with their families, our public works, our fire, our police. We really appreciate you guys, especially on the holidays when you're working away from your families. Yeah. Very good. Thank you, Commissioner. Yeah. Um, no, I uh I don't don't have anything, but I do um really appreciate how great the town looks right now. Very festive and happy and yeah, thanks to everyone who did that. Lot lots of compliments. Uh come out, enjoy Dowy Park tonight. 5:00 there is the flashlight. Um candy cane served I believe tonight.

Candy cane. Um I do not have anything today. Um, and so that brings us to adjournment. And a motion to adjurnn would be in order. I'll make a motion to adjurnn. Is there a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. I. Great. Thank you. You the board.