Kure Beach chips in $15,000 for inlet dredging
Charter fishing captains and others gathered in a crowded town hall stood and cheered Tuesday night after the Kure Beach Town Council approved contributing $15,000 to dredge Carolina Beach Inlet.
Some confusion over whether the town could contribute money from its general fund to projects outside its jurisdiction led the council last week to decide not to donate funds at that time but to support the county’s mission to dredge the inlet.
The inlet, along with others in Southeastern North Carolina, is in danger of filling with sand because a federal earmark ban erased a funding stream to pay the Army Corps of Engineers to routinely dredge it. After pleas from county officials and fishermen, the state agreed to contribute $250,000 to dredge the inlet through June of next year if local governments also contributed the same amount.
Following a cost-sharing formula recommended by the Wilmington-New Hanover Port, Waterway and Beach Commission, each elected board in the county has considered contributing varying amounts to the project.
The Carolina Beach Town Council will pay $30,000 but approved spending up to $55,000 in the event other municipalities didn’t readily contribute. The county will provide $168,750, and Wilmington City Council members on Tuesday voted to spend $5,000, emphasizing it was a one-time contribution. Wrightsville Beach also has been asked to contribute $5,000. The beach commission will pay 1 percent.
But Kure Beach officials took longer than others to decide on ponying up funds. The town’s attorney said last week the town couldn’t contribute property tax revenues to a project outside its jurisdiction, but town officials then consulted the UNC School of Government and were told they could use funds from the town’s revenues on cell tower rentals.
Dozens of fishermen, Pleasure Island Chamber of Commerce representatives and others showed up Tuesday night to tell the council members why they should contribute.
David Heglar, a Kure Beach council candidate and member of the volunteer fire department, said the fire department purchased new vehicles because of donations from an annual fishing tournament that uses Carolina Beach Inlet to reach the ocean. Without the inlet, fishermen and other boaters would have to travel an extra 40 minutes or more to Wrightsville Beach or Southport to reach the ocean.
Carolina Beach Councilman Dan Wilcox, a liaison to the county’s beach commission, mentioned a 2005 economic impact study about Carolina Beach Inlet and said the tourism industry in both Carolina Beach and neighboring Kure Beach would suffer if the inlet closed.
“We love the fact that it’s called Carolina Beach Inlet, but it’s not in Carolina Beach,” he said. “We certainly benefit from it. We’re proud of that. But it benefits the entire island, Wilmington and the county.”
He said contributing funds this year was an emergency situation while stakeholders searched for a long-term funding formula in the event federal funding wasn’t restored. He said several groups and nonprofit organizations on the island donated a combined $13,000 for future funding and to educate people on the importance of dredging the inlet.
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