Rush honored for leadership efforts

EMERALD ISLE — Emerald Isle Town Manager Frank Rush has been recognized for his leadership on a project that will provide significant water access for the town and eastern North Carolina.

Rush was honored with the Eastern Carolina Council Local Leadership Award for his efforts involving a planned new public boat launch facility on Bogue Banks. The award was presented during the Eastern Carolina Council of Government’s annual Leadership Awards Banquet on Dec. 10 in New Bern.

Emerald Isle Mayor Art Schools said the facility, which will be the largest boat launching facility in North Carolina, is expected to be ready by December 2010.

The town faced losing water access with the scheduled redevelopment of Island Harbor Marina, which will not have a boat launch for the public.

Rather than watch that happen, Rush took the lead to do something about it. Schools commended Rush for “extraordinary” efforts in making the project a reality.

“With Emerald Isle’s long history of water access, it is important to Emerald Isle residents and visitors to continue to have a ram from which to launch boats,” Schools said in his comments during the awards banquet. “The first problem was finding a suitable location at an affordable cost. As hard as that was, that probably was the easiest part of the project. The identified parcel was actually seven undeveloped residential lots owned by three different parties. The hard part was bringing together six different funding sources for a total of $4.25 million; the environmental agencies the Emerald Isle commissioners and mayor; the town attorney and the three sellers to an agreeable set of terms. That is a lot of people to get on the same page.”

Rush said he hasn’t acted alone and the project has been made possible by the cooperation and efforts of a team of partners.

“I was both humbled and honored to receive the Local Leadership Award for the new public boat launch facility project, but it was really a team effort with the mayor, Board of Commissioners, and our various funding partners,” Rush said. “We all worked very hard to make the project a reality over the past year and a half because public water access is so important for Emerald Isle and our entire region. We are pleased to be able to insure that the general public always has a place to launch a boat in Emerald Isle.”

The new boat launching facility will include four loading ramps, parking for about 120 vehicles and trailers, and sound-side access for recreational purposes.

Contact Jannette Pippin at 910-382-2557 or jpippin@freedomenc.com.