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Happy fall, everyone. It is a pleasure to be
moving beyond 90-degree days.
Next dinner with the mayor. The next dinner
with Mayor Ken Jones will be on Saturday,
February 20, somewhere in the greater Raleigh
PI area. This will allow our second-home owners
to meet with Mayor Jones in mid-winter close
to home and receive an update on our early
February annual planning meeting.
Installation of smart water meters. By the
time you are reading this we will have started installing our smart meters. You
'vill see a worker preparing the meter pit, followed several days later by Sonny
Cunningham and his co-worker Mike installing the meters. The September
nieter reading and billing cycle will occur as we have done since 2008. Once we
install a meter at your home, you will receive a final bill from Pine Knoll Shores
'vith information on how new billing procedures with Carteret-Craven Electric
Cooperative will work. You may contact Connie Shelton at 247-4353, ext. 12,
or cshelton@townofpks.com with questions. The installation period will be
approximately four months.
Audit of town finances. At the October Board of Commissioners meeting we
"^ill 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. This will take place on Wednesday, October 14, at 6 p.m.
town hall. If you cannot make it to the meeting, it will be broadcast via webinar,
all board meetings are. Contact Town Clerk Scott Sherrill at admin@townofpks.
com to sign up for this webinar.
State money for sidewalks? The town has requested that the state provide
binding assistance through the new NCDOT grant process for the following four
sidewalk segments:
• The red light west to the Clamdigger, north side of the road
• The red light north to Roosevelt Boulevard, west side of the road, then west to
the aquarium, north side of the road
• From Roosevelt Boulevard north to town hall, west side of the road
• From Mimosa Boulevard to Arborvitae on Salter Path Road, north side of
the road
The cost estimate for design and construction of all four segments is $1,003,000.
The state’s share would cover $859,800, and Pine Knoll Shores would be responsible
for $143,200. The new NCDOT grant process is a state-wide competitive process,
^nd we are not sure if one or all segments will be competitive. To date the town’s
position has been to proceed with sidewalks only with state financial assistance,
'vhich is consistent with town policy in our Pedestrian Master Plan, and as has been
the case with previous sidewalk construction. The result of the grant application
'vill not be known until late 2016, and if any of the segments are selected by the
®tate, funding will be provided some time in the 2017-2022 time frame.
Design of a future sidewalk from Mimosa to Arborvitae on the north side
Salter Path Road. The town recently approved a plan to design this segment
Salter Path Road, one of the four segments mentioned above. Though we have
*^ot yet secured any state funding for construction, our,objective now is to have
HcdoT and other state and federal approvals on the shelf should funding become
^'^ailable in the future. This segment has repeatedly been identified as a high-
Priority area, as it will allow pedestrians to move from the east side of town to the
library, the Public Safety Building, the aquarium, and town hall without having to
''^alk on the asphalt on Salter Path Road.
Coyotes in Pine Knoll Shores. On September 15, Evin Sanford and Deanna
Hoble of the NC Wildlife Resources Commission, Division of Wildlife Management,
*Poke to residents and town staff regarding coyotes in Pine Knoll Shores. There
have been sightings of coyotes in town and, sadly, several families have lost roaming
'-^ts. There had been some chatter of shooting (which is not permitted in Pine Knoll
^bores), trapping and poisoning these animals, so we decided to bring in experts to
l^arn more about our options. Some of their major points:
• Coyotes exist in every county in North Carolina, and those in the eastern part of
the US move as family units rather than roaming in packs.
• Based on GPS tracking studies done here in North Carolina, coyotes can roam
200 miles or more.
• They adapt to mortality as a species, meaning that killing coyotes that are here
would likely invite others, possibly some more aggressive than those we already
have.
• Coyotes have mixed impacts to the ecosystem; they prey on things we like such
as rabbits and squirrels (and loose small pets), but they also eat other predators.
• They learn to adapt to an area when not harassed, and where there is an easily
accessible food source.
• Attacks on people are very rare; there have been no reported cases of
unprovoked attacks on humans in NC.
• Non-lethal methods of dealing with coyotes include public education, tolerance,
and modifying human behavior, specifically keeping pets inside and leashed, not
leaving out food meant for other animals and properly securing trash cans.
• Lethal methods involve trapping and hiring properly credentialed Wildlife
Damage Control Agents.
• Rabies in coyotes does exist, but it is a tiny portion of the group of animals that
are rabies vector species; we should be much more concerned about rabies in
raccoons.
• We are not permitted to relocate coyotes.
The message we heard from the experts was that coyotes are here, and they are
likely here to stay. We could take measures to capture/kill the ones that have been
seen in the Pine Knoll Boulevard/Live Oak Court/Arborvitae area, but they would
likely be replaced with others. Repeatedly mentioned was removing food sources
and safeguarding cats by keeping them inside.
Annual Pine Knoll Shores community yard sale. This year’s annual
community yard sale will be on Saturday, October 10, from 8 a.m.-noon, at the
Public Safety Building. By the time you are reading this it will be close to October
10, but if you are reading this a few days prior, contact Natalie Gibble at 247-2268
to reserve a space.
Sign up for town emails for weather 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@towno^ks.com if you wish to be on the list.
October Sudoku
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October 2015 I The Shoreline
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