Crowds were steady during Labor Day weekend and other than a few minor occurrences, town officials said the weekend went well.
“I thought the weekend crowds were robust but not overwhelming,” said Wrightsville Beach Mayor David Cignotti.
As a result of the busy summer, parking meter and room occupancy tax revenues both had their best year from fiscal year 2011-12, he said.
“Our challenge is to make sure we have a beach experience for both residents and visitors that is safe and enjoyable,” Cignotti said.
Police chief Dan House said there were a few loud parties held, but that nothing got out of hand.
“Other than that we wrote a lot of civil citations; it was virtually uneventful,” House said. “It went very smooth. The beach officers wrote somewhere just short of 100 civil citations on the beach this weekend, which has been about average for a weekend.”
The citations included glass on the beach, alcohol violations and a few noise violations.
One woman was reported missing Saturday, Sept. 1, at approximately 3 a.m. Wrightville Beach Police found out that Sheri Hoover, a 21-year-old Wilmington resident, was safe and staying somewhere in town at approximately 11 a.m.
“She was missing from the downtown area,” House said. “We kind of assumed that she probably got a ride from somebody else even though she called her friend to … come down and pick her up.”
Missing person reports are common in town, House said. And in many cases they are similar to the one on Sept. 1.
A neighbor reported someone breaking and entering on Pelican Drive, after which the suspect fled the area.
“Somebody tried to break in the front door and actually broke some stuff on the porch,” House said.
The call came in at 2:38 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 2. Police are still looking for the suspect.
“As far as from a police perspective, I think it was a fantastic weekend because we just didn’t have any issues,” he said. “We didn’t have problems; we didn’t have a bunch of fights.”
In addition to the congestion on the roads in town, there was a significant amount of boat traffic on the water. However, Petty Officer Josh Gilbert of the United States Coast Guard Station Wrightsville Beach said nothing remarkable happened.
One unconscious man was pulled out of the water near the Holiday Inn and resuscitated by Wrightsville Beach Ocean Rescue, but walked away unscathed. Another incident involved an intoxicated woman who suffered a spinal injury near Columbia Street after falling and hitting her head.
During the three-day weekend, there was a total of about a dozen rescues, said Ocean Rescue captain Jeremy Owens.
Owens said he was proud of the way the Ocean Rescue team has performed this past year.
“We are shorter staff now but we still keep patrols; we still can respond and we keep the guards at the busier areas of the beach so we will do the best we can with the limited manpower that we have,” Owens said.
