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CALVIN R. PECK, JR.
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Tab 9
Star-News (Wilmington, NC)
April 30, 1999
Carolina Beach sand plan stirs up storm
Author: Victoria Cherrie
A dune repair project at Carolina Beach has at least one property owner on edge, but town
officials say the work came just in time for a spring storm expected to cause erosion along the
coast.
"It's a good thing the sand is there," Town Manager Calvin Peck said. "The berm is doing
exactly what it's supposed to do."
Contractors this week finished putting 30,000 cubic yards of sand along a wall of rip-rap - large
rocks - at the town's northern tip. The rip-rap was placed by the Army Corps of Engineers in the
1970s, before North Carolina banned hard beach-protection structures such as seawalls. The sand
berm that covers the rocks is soon to be lined with sand fences and signs directing beachgoers to
areas where they can cross over.
Mr. Peck said the Federal Emergency Management Agency paid for the sand to be scraped from
streets and yards after Hurricane Bonnie and then sifted of debris so it could be reused.
The sand was put in areas that suffered the most erosion during Hurricane Bonnie as a
maintenance measure until the next Corps of Engineers beach renourishment project.
The town recently agreed to pay contractors $90,000 for the work and will be reimbursed at least
95 percent of the expense through an occupancy tax intended to pay for beach renourishment,
Mr. Peck said.
But some property owners say the town has wasted money and created a mess.
"The mess they made down here is just crazy," said Freddie Phelps Jr., whose family owns the
Carolina Beach Fishing Pier.
Putting sand on top of the rock berm doesn't seem wise, Mr. Phelps said. He said he has already
had to remove sand from his parking lot as a result of the town's work.
"Those rocks aren't going nowhere," he said. "That sand is just going to blow off and into the
streets again."
Mr. Phelps said adding sand might also be dangerous for people walking on the dune, not
realizing there are jagged boulders below.
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