Good Morning Everyone! Actually slept in a little this morning, but stayed up a little later last night after the Visions and Views Forum for Carolina Beach Candidates. I thought the forum had a great turnout, and all the candidates were on their best behavior. ;-) The Star News thinks that gangs were a hot topic last night, but I didnt remember it that way at all, of course I am not trying to sell papers by sensationalizing a headline either, but please SN, dont make a hot topic headline out of something that sheds a negative light on our town and at our expense. The headline reads Gangs Hot Topic at CB Candidate Forum and while gangs were brought up, they werent a hot topic at all. Here is what I got out of the forum, and what I feel are hot topics for voters: *Beach/Inlet* I actually learned something last night about how this works (re-nourishment) and what we are facing. Re-nourishment costs $5-6MM every 3yrs, ROT funds (hotel/motel/vacation rentals tax) pays most of that, the federal government pays the rest (17%), and that is what we are possibly losing. Currently, we dont contribute to it at all if I understand it correctly (correct me if I am wrong please). So, if I am understanding that correctly, we need to make up for $300k-$400k per year if we cant get federal/state/county assistance. One of the candidates put it about as simply as you can by saying we need to just make it a line item in the budget. I would rather see us fight for an additional 1% ROT tax on vacationers than that, but that may not be an option. Bottom line, we need to cover our asses on this, period. I think all the candidates agree on that. One part I am unclear on, is where the inlet dredging falls into that, is that already included in the $5-6MM budget? Also, what compromise could we come up with to make our inlet safer? Personally I plan to get more involved in learning about our inlet and will most likely join the CBIA (Carolina Beach Inlet Association) in order to educate myself and help where I can. *Transparency* There appeared to be some tension about transparency in our Town Hall. I will say I would like to see us try to get most of the Towns business completed during council meetings, one way to do that would be to limit public comment times to a set number of minutes. And I say that not to limit public comments, but to limit the same two people that get up and say the same things every week. We get that you dont think Town Council should have health insurance and car allowances, you have spoken about it at every council meeting since May, and have written the paper numerous times about it, getting up and saying the same thing you said last month, is really just wasting valuable time that could be used discussing town issues and making decisions that should be made in this meeting, not a meeting the next week during the day. I do think some of the processes can be made more public, but at the same time I believe this current council has done plenty to get the public involved in different things like the streetscape, the pool, the boardwalk, etc... So the effort is there, we just need to improve it and build off that. *Pool* I felt like this was even more of a topic than the gangs (which I have never seen here, but was told they have been seen on our boardwalk area). Several times I heard the term quality of life. And I will say, when my daughter was 3yrs old, I took her to a community pool in Wake Forest, where we lived at the time, so she could have swimming lessons. We continued to use that pool as it was close to home. Season Passes were only $40 per person ( wakeforestnc.gov/holding-park-pool.aspx ) and they struggle to sell them. So, I was thankful to have that in my community, of course it had been there for decades when I moved there, so I dont know the details of how it was paid for, or how it operates. Having said all that, I am still concerned about how this pool would operate after it was built, and spending $1-$1.2M for it isnt chump change either. Not saying we cant do both, but I believe water quality is more important to me at this time. And before I get yelled at, I know we are starting it, but lets get the water treatment part in place too. You can replace all those lines you want, if we dont treat the water it wont matter. I was told my end of CBAN has new water lines, my water sucks! Anyway, these are just some of my thoughts. Good luck to all the candidates, and most importantly get out and vote! I already did :-) PS: If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me if I would be running next term, I could pay for the beach nourishment myself! Ill be honest here, voters/citizens are jerks sometimes (including myself), and I dont know if I have the right temperament for being a public servant, so at this time, I have no plans. I have my eye on another committee I would like to serve on (P&Z), and I would like to get involved in the CBIA, that along with being vice chair on MAC and a Director on the Chamber would be all I think I could handle. Bottom line, I give these elected officials an earful, I am sure you do too, and at this time, I think I would rather stay on this side of that conversation, if you know what I mean :-)
Posted on: Thu, 31 Oct 2013 11:55:02 +0000
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