THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 15, 1996 TAG: 9602150372
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MANTEO LENGTH: Medium: 98 lines
Dredging on four Outer Banks waterways could begin as early as next week if Dare County officials can get the state's permission to proceed with those projects.
Workers plan to clear the canal at Manns Harbor Ferry Dock Road, the boat ramp canal at the Kitty Hawk Railway, the channel leading into A&B Seafood on Colington Island and the nearby channel into the old Nunemaker Fish Company, also on Colington Island.
``We've been getting stuck out there for a while now. In some places, it's only a foot deep,'' A&B Seafood owner Carson Beasley said Wednesday. ``I can't even remember the last time that channel was cleared. But I'm sure glad they're going to dredge it now. That will help us a bunch.''
Last March, members of the Dare County Oregon Inlet Waterways Commission asked the county Board of Commissioners for $240,000 to dredge those four channels. Commissioners, however, did not appropriate a penny for the projects. On Wednesday, they made up for that mistake.
``We thought we could get by for another year without having to do those projects,'' Board Chairman Robert V. ``Bobby'' Owens Jr., said during an emergency commissioners' meeting Wednesday. ``But the filling of those channels and canals has speeded up. We don't know why. But we need to do something now.''
On Tuesday, Owens and other county officials met with North Carolina Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, D-Dare, in Raleigh to ask the state for dredging funds. Basnight expedited the request. And the North Carolina Division of Water Resources appropriated $177,840 in state money.
During the board's emergency meeting Wednesday, commissioners unanimously voted to use $44,460 of the county's money to finance the balance of the money needed for those dredging projects.
``We were hoping the state would give us 50 or 60 percent of the money. We came back with 80 percent,'' said Owens. ``Now, we'll be able to do all those projects.''
County officials called Wednesday's emergency meeting at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. State laws don't require any advance notification for emergency meetings. And Owens said it's the chairman's discretion to ``call emergency meetings because of unexpected circumstances that require immediate action.
``I've been a commissioner in this county for many years. And I've tried not to do anything illegal or wrong,'' Owens said while opening the emergency session. ``The public, to the best of our ability, has been informed.''
Only six people - including Oregon Inlet Waterways Commission spokesman Robert Williams - attended Wednesday's meeting.
``I appreciate your recognizing that our back's against the wall as far as a timeline for these projects is concerned,'' Williams said. ``We wanted to get the permits for these projects by mid-November. We only received the last one last week. And we were unable to bring a completed package for this funding request to the board until all those permits were approved.
``The people who have to use those channels to earn a living really wanted us to dredge them last spring,'' said Williams. ``We don't have a department of transportation that covers waterways out here. We have to take care of the watermen's transportation needs ourselves.''
Permits which the state's Coastal Resources Commission approved are valid until Dec. 31, 1999. But state rules prohibit dredging channels between Feb. 15 and Oct. 31 each year because that's when most of the young shrimp and fish begin to swim in the sounds. Williams said he didn't expect to get much leeway in terms of extending that moratorium. But since it's been so cold lately, he said, the tiny aquatic life probably has not yet begun to show up. He hopes workers can get state approval to dredge as soon as possible and, hopefully, finish clearing the channels before state officials shut-down dredging operations for the season.
``We've got the equipment ready to move,'' said Williams. ``Work will begin as soon as possible. We'll probably have until at least March 1 to finish up out there.''
Robert J. Stewart Jr., an engineer who is helping coordinate the dredging projects, said clearing all four channels will take about three weeks. Dredging could begin as early as next week, he said, if the state extends the moratorium.
``We need a week to prepare our disposal areas. And we have to bring one dredge up from Ocracoke,'' Stewart said. ``We could get an extension a few days at a time.''
Plans call for pumping up to 2,500 cubic yards of sediment from the Manns Harbor Ferry Dock Road Canal - and for clearing the waterway to six-feet-deep in some spots and seven-feet-deep in others. Material dredged from all the projects will be pumped into dikes alongside the channels.
At the High Bridge Creek to Kitty Hawk Bay, workers plan to dredge 14,500 cubic yards of material from the boat ramp canal and dig the waterway to five-feet-deep. That canal, Williams said, hasn't been cleared since 1956.
Off Colington Island, crews will remove up to 2,400 cubic yards of sediment from the A&B Seafood channel and about 900 cubic yards from the Nunemaker Seafood channel. The depth at both of those waterways will be increased from the current one- to three-feet to about five feet. Beasley said about 30 fishermen rely on those routes to bring their boats - and catches - to shore. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by DREW C. WILSON, The Virginian-Pilot
The canal at Manns Harbor at the old ferry dock is one of four
waterways designated for emergency dredging .
by CNB