Beach nourishment study team bites the sand

NORTH TOPSAIL BEACH - Another beach nourishment study team bites the sand.

In a 3-2 vote, with town aldermen Richard Farley, Robert Swantek and Mayor Pro tem Larry Hardison in favor, the Beach Erosion Study Team was released of its duties at this month's board meeting.

This is the second beach committee to receive the axe - the previous beach preservation committee was dismissed in March of 2008.

Farley introduced the resolution at the beginning of the meeting, added it to the agenda and passed out copies to the board. He read the resolution, "Thank you from the board to BEST team and Disband BEST," aloud then made the motion to adopt, said Carin Faulkner, the town clerk.

Aldermen Dan Tuman and Dick Peters would not support the resolution because they both believe the board should respond to the BEST team's request for a meeting to discuss the report's recommendations before disbanding it.

"They prepared a substantial report and made specific recommendations and requested that we respond ... We both agreed it is a discourtesy, in light of their repeated requests, not to respond to their report and recommendations," Tuman said, after the meeting.

On Feb. 5, BEST submitted an extensive report of more than 100 pages, the result of its 12-member committee studying North Topsail Beach's erosion issues for nine months.

After the vote to dismiss the team, there was a discussion about the board having a joint meeting with the ex-BEST members. Farley, Swantek and Hardison voted against Tuman's motion for a joint meeting.

"I was really disappointed considering the committee's time, effort and sincerity ...  It is very frustrating to be a volunteer in this town and have elected officials not have the courtesy to sit down and discuss the report and our five recommendations," said Tom Leonard, the vice chairman of BEST, after the meeting. "They wonder why they are short on volunteer committee members? The way they treated us is a travesty."

BEST Chairman Ed Doherty said for the aldermen to all but ignore the very report that it asked for does a great disservice to property owners.

"Disbanding (the committee) that has the most knowledge about North Topsail Beach beach erosion seems foolish to me," he said. "But if the (aldermen) has concluded that no more information is needed from BEST, then I have no quarrel with disbanding the committee. What does greatly trouble me is the refusal of the (aldermen) to have a meaningful discussion about BEST's five recommendations."

The report's recommendations were to approve Coastal Planning and Engineering's five-phase implementation of beach nourishment, implement beach nourishment on a pay-as-you-go basis, use a cost-sharing method with oceanfront property owners paying 90 percent and non-oceanfront paying 10 percent of the costs of beach nourishment, send a fact sheet to property owners identifying costs and funding required and implement a long-range plan for beach nourishment.

Contact Topsail area reporter Suzanne Ulbrich at sulbrich@freedomenc.com or 910-219-8454.