THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, January 10, 1995 TAG: 9501100319
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WANCHESE LENGTH: Long : 108 lines
In an effort to rent more space at their half-empty state facility, members of the North Carolina Seafood Industrial Park Authority voted unanimously Monday to allow a beer bottler to join their dockside operations.
Bavaria South Inc., parent company of the Weeping Radish Restaurant and Microbrewery of Manteo, plans to begin bottling beer at the Wanchese waterfront next month.
Company President Uli Bennewitz said he also will store food and restaurant supplies in the former King Crab Seafood building. Beer will be shipped in wholesale allotments from the park but will not be sold in Wanchese.
The contract with the Weeping Radish is the first issued by the authority to a business that is not directly related to seafood or marine industries.
Other tenants at the 38-acre, 14-year-old park include a fish packing and distribution company, a marine maintenance shop and a commercial fishing supply corporation.
``One of the things Uli's going to store in there is fish,'' said H. Russell Langley, a member of the industrial park authority. ``This is thin, I know. But our responsibility is to put this park on a paying basis.''
To attract even more income for the state's seafood park, Langley also suggested offering water and sewage treatment to Wanchese business and home owners. Park authority members cleared the way for that option on Monday by agreeing to allow Davis Yachts Inc. to tap into the park's water line. Davis Yachts is about a quarter-mile outside of the seafood park's gates and is the first nonpark business that will be allowed to use park water.
The seafood park has a 250,000-gallon water tower and a 270,000-gallon wastewater treatment plant. But the $1 million wastewater treatment plant has never operated because there has not been enough demand for that volume, park officials said. The industrial wells provide much more water than the seafood park businesses demand. The unincorporated village of Wanchese does not provide central water or sewage for any of its buildings. Businesses and homes run on private wells and septic tanks.
``We need to show people that their ratings for fire insurance would drop with central water. They're gonna run you out of here when you first mention it,'' Langley said. ``But we can help this community - help it in a big way. We can work with the state's new Economic Development Agency and set up some grants to pay for the lines. We can extend the water and sewer out until our capacity is met. With central water and sewer, we could even open up some of the areas in Wanchese which can't be built on now.
``Wanchese is a semidepressed area. We can get the funds to help it,'' Langley said.
Rondal K. Tillett, chairman of the seafood park authority, agreed that grants may be available to extend the park's water and sewer service. But he doubted whether residents would welcome such an offer. ``You'll be depressed if you try to convince these folks that they need central sewage,'' said Tillett, who lives in Wanchese.
``We've been losing money on that wastewater plant,'' Langley answered. ``We've been concentrating on getting the jetties for so long. Now we have a mission to concentrate on building up this seafood park.''
When state legislators created the $8.1 million Seafood Industrial Park in 1980, they envisioned a place where large-scale fish processing operations would have headquarters for nationwide businesses. They thought proposed jetties to stabilize Oregon Inlet would draw watermen - and seafood companies - to the Wanchese docks. But the jetties haven't materialized. The park has never turned a profit. And state funds are still subsidizing the Roanoke Island facility.
In 1993 alone, taxpayers poured $45,781 into the Wanchese seafood park.
``One of the uses for this park which was envisioned early on was a restaurant,'' seafood park Director Rodney W. Perry said Monday. ``Seafood warehouses, shipping and packaging all were approved for this place from the beginning. The Bavaria South business really falls into those same categories. I think it fits.''
Before Bennewitz begins bottling beer at the Wanchese waterfront, the N.C. Council of State has to approve the three-year lease. Perry said he will bring the rental proposal to that group the first week in February. Bennewitz will pay the park authority $5,536 annually for use of the land. He will rent the building from the North Carolina Rural Rehabilitation Corp., paying $8,550 the first year, $14,250 the next year and $19,950 in 1997. The building rental was scaled back, Perry said, because Bennewitz plans to spend about $14,000 in repairs for the property.
In other business Monday, the seafood park authority's nine members present (of 11) unanimously voted to:
Rent a 50-by-100-foot building to Wanchese resident Benny O'Neal. O'Neal plans to open a crab processing company in the former King Crab Seafood warehouse. If the Council of State approves the three-year lease, O'Neal said, he will move in by March. Rent will be $22,668 annually. State officials will pay about $20,000 to repair the property before O'Neal begins his lease.
Rent ``Lot 8,'' a nonwaterfront lot, to Mill Landing Marine Maintenance Center Inc. for $15,300 annually. Mill Landing currently leases a waterfront lot at the seafood park, and has not publicly disclosed plans for the additional space. The new lease will be issued after Mill Landing officials secure a Coastal Area Management Act permit, and will run for five years.
Rent a pie-shaped lot to Harbor Welding, which already leases adjacent property.
Harbor Welding owners had wanted to lease 20 feet of waterfront space for 26 cents a foot. But because most of the lot they were interested in is not waterfront, park authority members agreed to allow the owners to lease the entire area for 20 cents a foot, the nonwaterfront rate.
If the owners do not want to lease the entire 20-by-270-foot lot, Perry said, he will lease them the waterfront area only for $117 more monthly.
Ask the N.C. General Assembly to ``investigate the possibility of installing a rock breakwater at the entrance to Wanchese Harbor.''
Wind and waves have caused sediment to build up at the harbor's entrance, making it increasingly difficult for fishing vessels to get through, Perry said. Rock breakwaters would in no way affect the need for jetties, seafood park authority members said. by CNB