I hope everyone had a great summer. Here
is to a great fall and the start of football and duck
hunting seasons.
Next dinner with the mayor. The next
dinner with Mayor Ken Jones will be on Friday,
October 2, at 5:30 p.m. at The Country Club of
the Crystal Coast. This is one Friday prior to our
normal three-month rotation, which I’m sure
many of you have marked on your calendars.
Public briefing for introduction of
smart water meters. On September 30 at 6 p.m., we will have a briefing at town
hall on the roll-out of smart water meters in Pine Knoll Shores. Here is an initial
outline of what we will discuss: 1) what the new meter means to you (replacement,
new billing procedures and customer tracking of water usage/billing); 2) what this
means for the town (cost, modernization and what we hope to achieve with our
partnership with Carteret-Craven Electric Cooperative, CCEC); 3) the new water
meter (how it measures water, how data usage is transmitted and the test in 2013-
2014); 4) the transition schedule (start of replacing meters, how to pay your last bill
to the town and your first bill to CCEC, how auto draft will work and how water
deposits with the town will be handled; and 5) customer usage and billing tracking
(methods by which customers can track water usage at home, as well as their hilling
record).
Audit of town finances. We have started our state-mandated independent audit
of our finances. At the September or October 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
towns financial position.
Coyotes in Pine Knoll Shores. Recently we have received a number of calls
concerning the sighting of coyotes. Some residents have heard them as well. This
has particularly been the case along Pine Knoll Boulevard and several of the nearby
streets. This has come on top of reports that started this spring in other areas of the
town. While some folks who have been around this area for years say we have al
ways had coyotes, there has definitely been an increase in reports to us at town hall
recently. Sadly, there has also been an increase in reports of missing cats, mainly in
the Loblolly loop area. We have no proof that these two issues are related, but the
coincidence cannofbe ignored.
We contacted the NC Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC). They provided
us with a flyer with information to prevent conflicts with these animals. You can
find it on our website at www.townofpks.com/media/coexisting-with-coyotes.
As with most of these types of issues, the basic rule is to try to avoid interaction.
Eradication won’t work, nor will attempts at trapping/moving them. Living next to
a 275-acre natural area makes this pointless.
There are some very good and reasonable tips listed in the NCWRC flyer. Prob
ably the one that makes the most sense is removing food sources. Let’s secure our
trash, keep our pets on leash and take the other steps listed. Hopefully the coyotes
wiU go somewhere else to eat.
We are awaiting a call from an NCWRC biologist and will try to get him to come
in for a talk. We’ll get the word out on this and invite anyone interested to attend.
Discussion on the health of our fresh water aquifer, sea level rise and salt
water intrusion. Last year the Pine Knoll Shores Strategic Planning Committee did
a great job putting together the town’s Strategic Plan, which looks to the future and
addresses items of a long-term significance to the town. This group meets monthly
to discuss long-term issues facing Pine Knoll Shores, as well as potential revisions
to the plan.
One of the items of discussion has been the health of our fresh water aquifer, the
Castle Hayne. At the invitation of the Strategic Planning Committee, Dr. Richard
Spruill of the Department of Geological Sciences at ECU will be here on September
16 at 10 a.m. to talk about our water supply. Specifically, we have asked Dr. Spruill
to discuss the Castle Hayne Aquifer, salt water intrusion and the possible impacts
of sea level rise on the Pine Knoll Shores water system. Dr. Spruill is an Associate
Professor of Hydrology and has worked on water resource issues in our area for
Volunteer Recruiter Needed
The town of Pine Knoll Shores is looking for an enthusiastic individual to help
find volunteers for various town boards and town events. Several of our committees
are in need of board members and we need your help in finding qualified
individuals. To be a Volunteer Recruiter, you do not need to serve on any boards
or attend meetings. Some meetings with town staff may be required to provide
recruitment updates and ask for assistance. If you are interested, please contact
Sarah Williams at town hall at 247-4353, ext.l3.
Celebrating the Big Book Nook
By Sue Warren
The Friends of Bogue Banks Library want to thank all who provided publicity
for our Open House and Book Sale in August. We also appreciate the many
volunteers who assisted visitors in finding our new Big Book Nook on the second
level of the Pine Knoll Commercial Building above the Bogue Banks Library.
According to our sign-in sheets, over the course of two days Crystal Coast
visitors from Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Nebraska and Georgia as well as
many North Carolina counties came to purchase books.
Now we would appreciate the donation of gently used books to refill the shelves
of our Big Book Nook. In addition, we welcome your support of Bogue Banks
Library by renewing your Friends membership—or signing up as a new member.
All Friends proceeds go to library programs and purchases.
decades. This should be a very informative brief. All are invited. For those who can
not make it, we will broadcast this via webinar. Look for an email from Town Clerk
Scott Sherrill on registration details. If you are not on the town’s email distribution
list, please send an email to admin@townofpks.com and ask Scott to sign you up..
2015 Christmas parade. We have decided to simplify our annual Christmas
parade this year. We’ll still have a parade on the first Saturday in December, but we
will have a more local, smaller-scale event than in the past. In scope and scale it will
be similar to our annual Fourth of July parade. More on this later.
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. We send email alerts during all storm
emergencies. This is a good way to keep apprised of all things storm related. Send
an email to admin@townofpks.com if you wish to be on the list.