Newspapers / The Shore Line (Pine … / Oct. 1, 2019, edition 1 / Page 10
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Its a cliche to say we dodged a bullet with Hurricane Dorian. That is actually the understatement of the year: we dodged a second straight September hurricane that would have been really tough to deal with given the still ongoing recovery from Florence. We are all hoping for the best for our friends on Ocracoke Island and, of course, praying for those in the Bahamas. Life is short—use it right. Next dinner with the mayor. Our next dinner with Mayor Jones will be on Friday, October 11, at 5:30 p.m. at a place to be determined. Watch for a town wide email for further information. Hurricane Dorian. We experienced 100-plus mph winds and had about six inches of rain in Pine Knoll Shores. Storm surge did not breach our primary frontal dune, and no properties on the sound or canal had surge waters under homes. The beach faired remarkably well, and loss was insignificant. There were minimal impacts in town for two main reasons. First, the storm sped past us. The staff that was at town hall and the public safety building reported that the really vicious winds started at about 3 a.m. on Friday, September 6. By that afternoon the worst of it was over. The rain was hurricane-typical— exceptionally heavy, but only for a period of 6-8 hours. All of this is easily compared to Hurricane Florence, only 12 months earlier, when nearly 30 inches of rain fell over 48 hours, and the winds sat on us for nearly as long. The takeaway that all of us should grasp is that the National Weather Service is right: a hurricanes category is meaningless. Its all about duration and direction. You can all be proud of the work of the four town department heads regarding the town’s readiness for this event. Fire Chief/Emergency Manager Jason Baker and Police Chief Ryan Thompson had 11 first responders at the public safety building ready to do what was needed. Public Services Director Sonny Cunningham did a fantastic job with pumping operations as well as readying the town’s water system, and Julie Anderson again did an outstanding job with public information, pushing out messages with emails and Facebook. Thanks also to the town’s Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) folks. Tom King and crew once again stood up the Hurricane Good Neighbor Program, and we had approximately 150 households signed up. As I write this article, the CERT folks are again organizing teams to monitor vegetative debris removal from our streets. Good news for the 2019-2020 beach project. On September 10 we were formally notified by Senator Burr’s office that Pine Knoll Shores has been awarded a FEMA grant to renourish the beach following the significant erosion we saw following Hurricane Florence. The heavy lifting to make this happen was done by Greg “Rudi” Rudolph of the Carteret County Shore Protection Office. This award culminates a full year of work by Rudi and the island beach towns—and allows us to proceed with the bidding, contract award and actual construction of the project. This project will see approximately 1,000,000 cubic yards of sand placed along all 4.5 miles of the Pine Knoll Shores beach strand. This will be the town’s largest renourishment project since our first such event in 2001-2002. The design was done by Moffat & Nichol, the firm that has been working with Rudi and the Bogue Banks beach towns for nearly a decade. By the time you are reading this, we will have the plans posted at town hall. The best way to see what our renourished beach will look like is to drive a few miles west into Indian Beach and take a look at their project completed this past winter. Bids have gone out, and we hope that a contract will have been awarded by late September, Once this is accomplished, federal environmental regulation constraints require us to dredge between November 15 and April 30. This is mainly to protect sea turtles. Colder weather and cooler water temperatures give us the best chance to avoid turtle issues and keep the project on track. It is in the best interest of everyone who owns on the oceanfront to hold off on stairs, decks or fencing until after the project is complete. Audit of town finances. We have completed our state-mandated independent audit of our finances. At the October or November Board of Commissioners meeting we will have our annual briefing by Martin Starnes and Associates of Hickory, NC. Here you will hear about the status of our reserves and other key indicators of the town’s financial position. Phase II stormwater project. Our grant application to the NC Clean Water Management Trust Fund to design and build this project was approved for the full requested amount, which was in excess of $259,000. We believe we saw some benefits during Dorian from drawing down the water table in the East End of town. Our project was the #1 rated innovative project among the various applicants for innovative stormwater projects. Disposable bags for yard debris. We sell disposable yard waste bags at the front desk at town hall. Many citizens in town are already using these bags, and we would like to encourage more to do so. They are enviro-friendly, easy to work with and cheap. These bags were purchased tax-free from a local vendor, and we are selling them at cost. Sign up for town emails for storm alerts (and everything else). We send email alerts during all storm emergencies as well as all year on everything from lost pets to local events. This is a good way to keep apprised of all things town related. We have migrated to Constant Contact, a web-based email delivery service. Visit the town’s website at townofpks.com and scroll down on the homepage to click on a link to add yourself to this email list. oke cak saves ekougU eker9M l:o ruk a TV for Z hours, RecMcle. Sp&;ialm hi CleaniM^ Orienpa! &( Ar&j Fugs NEW LOCATION Area Rug Cleaning Facility CALL^'/'FREE . PICK-UP 1 0( DELIVERY! i 7A7-7mi / 638-7020 800-560-7807 Professional Service For Over 18 Years An nCRC Certified Firm 4I-|I 24 Hour Emergency Flood VVater Removal Service 10 The Shoreline I October 2019
The Shore Line (Pine Knoll Shores, N.C.)
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Oct. 1, 2019, edition 1
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