The
July 2008 • Vol. 5, No. 1 A Shoreline Community, Pine Knoll Shores, N.C.
Town Hall 247-4^^3
In her kayak Lori Balch gets an up-close view.
Rare Right Whale Sightings
By Phyllis Makuck
Sunday morning on May 25 Pine Knoll
Shores' residents and visitors were
greeted with blue skies, aflat blue ocean
and a pair of right whales swimming
less than a mile offshore. Excited by
the rare sighting, many of those with
sea kayaks headed down to the beach
and paddled in the direction of the
whales. Beacon's Reach residents Dave
and Barbara Prutzman, Ed and Eddie
NOTICE
In an effort to reduce the cost of
postage The Shoreline mailing list is
being examined for duplicate names,
as well as names of people who have
moved away or are deceased If you need
to update or correct your information, or
know of somebody who is not receiving
copy anymore, contact me at shoreline#
townofpks.com.
The Shoreline is also available on the
internet at the town's website www.
townofpks.com. It can be found under
"newsletter" in the left hand column on
the opening page. This is updated around
the first of the month.
Thank you. Yvette Batmen, Circulation Manager
Janosko, David and Lori Balch, Richard
Taft and Jeff Viscardi were among the
kayakers.
Approaching the whales, they
discovered what appeared to be a mother
whale and her calf. "I got close enough
to pet its tail," said eight year-old Eddie
Janosko. In all the excitement Barbara
Prutzman unknowingly paddled over
the baby whale. She and her kayak were
lifted aloft when the whale rose beneath
her. "I screamed," she said, "and my
husband yelled back: "Stay calm and
hold on!" In less than a minute, the whale
submerged and the kayak was back in
the water. A thrilling moment! David
Balch had brought a video camera out
on his kayak and got some great footage
but unfortunately missed the moment
Barbara was airborne.
The right whale (Eubalaena glacialis)
probably got its common name from
being the "right whale" to hunt because
it has large amounts of blubber. Arotimd
body, a large head with curved jaw line
and absence of a dorsal fin help identify
the right whale. Generally black, right
(Whale Sightings) Continued on Page 4
Budget Business Ended
By Charlie McBriarty
It is over! The long thorny process
of rebuilding the current budget and
developing a new one for the fiscal
year beginning on July 1, 2008 has
finally ended. The bottom line is most
PKS citizens will find their taxes have
increased. All tax bills will find the
charges for waste collection services have
increased by $15 from $145 to $160. The
ad valorem tax rate that impacts all PKS
property owners has increased from 8.5(C
to ll.Sd: per $100 of assessed property
value. However, the beach tax also levied
in PKS has been cut by 40% from 17.27t
to 10.5(t for beach property and from
2.64t to 1.6t for all other property. The
following chart is a two year comparison
of the property taxes per $100 assessed
valuation.
Ad Valorem Tax
Sand Tax
Total
TWO YEAR TM* COMPARISON
2007-2008
Oceaa Front Non-Ocean Front
8.5^
11.5^
11.5^
17,27^
mi
10,5^
25.77f
11.1#
22D0?
13.10^
The result of these changes is the non-
oceanfront owner of property assessed
at $250,000 will find the tax bill has
increased by approximately $64, whereas
the owner of oceanfront property
assessed at $750,000 will see a $267.75
tax reduction.
The budget building process, always a
complicated, time consuming and often
contentious procedure, was exacerbated
this year when it was discovered that the
town's current reserve fund had dropped
below acceptable levels. This problem
tracked back to 2002 when the sand
tax was levied and the town's overall
income was increased accordingly. A
decision made at that time required funds
to be transferred to the Beach Escrow
Account, designed to accumulate funds
to pay-off the beach renourishment loan.
However, this transfer was not accurately
accounted for when building subsequent
annual budgets. As a conseqdence, the
budgeted deficits were masked since
the annual shortfall was covered by the
town's reserves. This
revelation stimulated
immediate and extensive
exploration into how this
situation was allowed
to happen and what
cost-saving measures
could be immediately
implemented. A series
of departmental reviews,
commissioner workshops, and special
public meetings eventually resulted in
the implementation of a series of cost-
savings within the 07-08 town budget.
In addition accounting measures were
implemented to address the cause of
(Budget) Continued on Page 3
2008-2MB
Ocean Front Non-Ocean Front
Standard
Pre-Sort
Permit #35
Beach, NC 28512
Deadline for August issue is Monday, July 21 Deadline for Sept.
JH.J g
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. ays welcome!