THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 20, 1995 TAG: 9505200326
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY CHRIS KIDDER, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: SANDERLING LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
As a thunderstorm rumbled noisily across the northern Outer Banks on Friday morning, Southern Shores Mayor Kern Pitts praised a conference that launched Project Blue Sky, aimed at making coastal construction more hazard-resistant.
Thirteen corporate sponsors, a research team from Clemson University and federal and state officials spent three days discussing how they could work together.
The unprecedented partnership of public agencies with private business and academia produced ``a hugely successful exchange of ideas,'' said Pitts.
Project Blue Sky was designed to find acceptable alternative methods and materials for building and retrofitting residential construction to resist wind and flood damage.
The results will be used in several local building projects, including a national training center next to the Southern Shores Town Hall.
Project Blue Sky will ``change forever how single-family homes are built,'' says Cay Cross, Southern Shores town manager, who suggested the program. It will focus on training architects, engineers, builders, homeowners and code officials to encourage voluntary compliance rather than mandatory building code changes.
Project plans include a national clearinghouse to make information and expertise on hazard-resistant construction available to anyone calling an 800 number.
The partners in the project have backed their words with money. NationsBank, Weyerhauser, Home Depot, State Farm Fire and Casualty Co., Andersen Windows, North Carolina Power, IndependentInsurance Agents of North Carolina, and others have committed more than $800,000 in cash and in-kind donations to the project.
Although not a formal partner, Kitty Hawk Land Company, developer of Southern Shores, donated land near the town hall for Project Blue Sky construction. The company's newest development - The Currituck Club, under construction near Corolla - will be a model community for the project.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency announced earlier this week that $1 million in federal funds has been allocated for the project, providing matching funds are raised. Most of the matching funds already have been pledged.
``Project Blue Sky . . . is building a dynamic public-private partnership with the goal of becoming a national center for training to protect communities from the wind and water damages of hurricanes and coastal storms,'' said FEMA official Richard T. Moore when he announced the federal grant.
``Ultimately, we will all benefit,'' said Robert F. Shea Jr., FEMA director of program implementation. ``We believe this will be an extremely successful project.
``FEMA will be here for you,'' said Shea, ``but we hope that through this kind of partnership you'll need FEMA less.''
At the state level, Rep. William T. Culpepper III has asked the General Assembly to give the project approximately $375,000 over the next two years.
At Friday's conference, Culpepper called on corporate sponsors to bring others on board, saying that ``one way to downsize government is to get private enterprise involved.''
Design work on the training center will start immediately, project architect Ben Cahoon announced, and construction will begin in the fall.
The project's acceptable methods and materials standards should be available within six weeks, said Cross. She plans to hold the first builder training classes in early August to meet Hayes' projected building schedule at The Currituck Club.
The planning is done, says Cross, acknowledging the enormity of the project this little coastal town of 1,400 year-round residents has taken on. ``Now we have to do something.'' by CNB