By Mark Darrough - January 30, 2020
Update (12:50 P.M. Thursday) — Town Manager Kyle Breuer said Council approved the $2-million budget to continue construction of the FEMA emergency berm from the Surf City Ocean Pier north to the town’s boundary with North Topsail Beach.
“CM Mitchell Construction is expected to begin in upcoming weeks,” Breuer said.
SURF CITY — Oceanfront property owners in Surf City who didn’t originally receive sand to reconstruct damaged berms after Hurricane Florence may soon breathe a collective sigh of relief.
Council will vote next week to appropriate $2 million toward a sand-haul project that until now has only rebuilt emergency berms on properties deemed “imminent critical” in the months after Florence.
RELATED: Army Corps to award Surf City, North Topsail Beach $237 million for storm mitigation
Additionally, town officials will meet with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers representatives on Thursday to discuss details of a $237-million flood and storm damage mitigation project that will be in partnership with North Topsail Beach.
Town aims to build continuous berm
Council will vote on a budget amendment on Tuesday to provide a continuous berm for the remainder of the town’s oceanfront properties north of Charlotte Avenue that have not already received sand for the berm reconstruction project, according to Town Manager Kyle Breuer, who began his position on January 15.
The FEMA-reimbursed project is now being completed on the south end of the town, from Charlotte Avenue to the Bumblebee Tower near the town boundary, according to Breuer. If approved, the project would be labeled ‘Charlotte Avenue North 2020.’
CM Mitchell has been contracted by the town’s coastal engineering firm, TI Coastal, to perform the sand-haul work.
TI Coastal geologist Jamie Pratt told Council in early December that the designation of “imminent critical areas” — where damaged dunes existed in front of at least four adjacent homes — was a product of less-than-expected FEMA funding. This had created some backlash from property owners who were not included on the project because their properties did not fit that designation.
“The funding mechanism from FEMA came back less than desirable,” Pratt said. “We had to truncate the project down to a much, much smaller area than what we initially wanted to do.”
Since the start of the sand-haul project, the town has debated how much of its own taxpayer funds should be used on the project amid concerns of how much will be reimbursed by FEMA.
If approved, the $2 million would come from the town’s Beach Nourishment Fund and will cover costs to haul sand from the S.T. Wooten sand mine off Highway 421 in northern Wilmington to various access points along the Surf City beach, where it will be used to create the berm.
READ MORE: Recap of Surf City’s fight with FEMA, state regulations to repair sand dunes
Town to meet with Corps to outline long-sought federal project
The pending vote comes after U.S. Senators Richard Burr and Thom Tillis announced on January 13 that Surf City and North Topsail Beach will receive $237 million for a federally funded beach nourishment project. Breuer said the town is holding a formal meeting with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Thursday to discuss a partnership agreement — with both the Corps and North Topsail Beach — and what steps are needed to execute the project in light of the town’s current needs.
“We have been working toward obtaining this funding for a significant amount of time and with persistence have now been approved federally … We are thrilled to have this highly sought-after project coming to our beach,” Breuer said in a government update sent out Friday.
He thanked local residents, town officials, the Topsail Island Shoreline Protection Committee, and state and federal legislatures for their work in helping secure the funds.
Town officials and councilmembers also met with a Corps representative on January 23 to discuss preliminary details of the project. The town will need to obtain roughly 600 easements from oceanfront property owners in order to complete the project, according to the town’s summary of the meeting. This will require the collection of each owner’s deed, then communicating with the owner the details of the easement.
“We will be making decisions around the timeline and how to best coordinate this with our private project to maximize the benefit for our town in the coming weeks,” Breuer said.
It is unclear how much of the $237 million in federal funds will be allocated to Surf City and how much to North Topsail Beach, although it was stated that the project is a collaboration between the two adjacent towns and the Corps.
Meanwhile, the town’s private beach nourishment project is awaiting final state permit approvals and expects a November start date. Once permits are delivered to TI Coastal, the engineering firm will assist the town in putting out a bid for contracts, according to Breuer.
The project is designed to carry on the Banks Channel dredging work that TI Coastal is currently performing for Topsail Beach, just south of Surf City, to deepen the channel for boat traffic while using the sand to re-slope the town’s frontal dunes.
Breuer said the delayed start was due to the sea turtle moratorium that lasts from May to November, during which time the state does not permit beach nourishment work.
On Monday tragedy struck the island when an out-of-state contractor was killed in Topsail Beach after a large pipe fell on top of him. The pipes were being delivered to the beach access at Drum Avenue and Ocean Boulevard, to be used for pumping sand from the dredging operation in Banks Channel across the southern tip of Topsail Island and onto the beach.
[Read the story as published here.]