The New Hanover County Board of Commissioners held a special meeting on Nov. 30 to reconsider a request for funding to help pay for a dredging project in the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) near Carolina Beach.
Commissioner Bill Kopp requested the meeting to take another look at the issue, which was originally considered by the board at its Nov. 13 meeting.
The county was asked to contribute $781,250 to the project, matching a contribution from the state, to perform maintenance dredging of the waterway near the Carolina Beach Inlet, where the channel is only 4.5 feet deep at low tide. The funds would have come from the county’s room occupancy tax (ROT) fund.
North Carolina representative Danny McComas (R-New Hanover), who originally drafted the ROT legislation, which provides funding for beach renourishment projects, said that he did not feel that the project qualified under the current legislation, but said that he would be willing to work with local officials to find a way to fund the maintenance of the waterway.
“It is imperative to find a way to get this done,” McComas said.
Dredging of the ICW, which is supposed to be maintained at a low-tide depth of at least 12 feet, is the responsibility of the federal government, which has cut the funding for its maintenance in recent years.
Rick Catlin, chairman of the North Carolina Beach, Inlet and Waterway Association (NCBIWA), who also spoke at the meeting, stressed the importance of the waterway. He said that by denying the funding, the county would lose the opportunity to receive matching funds from the state, and that if the ICW becomes impassable, commercial and recreational boating and fishing will be jeopardized.
Commissioner Ted Davis reiterated concerns that taking over the responsibility of funding the project would set a dangerous precedent.
Despite the fact that the dredged sand would have been placed on the beach at the north end of Carolina Beach, the project was not considered a renourishment project under the current definition because there are no structures in the area to be protected.
In a split vote that mirrored the original decision, Commissioners Ted Davis, Bill Kopp and Bobby Greer voted against the funding request, while Commissioners Bill Caster and Nancy Pritchett voted for it.
