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April 10–16, 2014
Lumina News — Your Coastal Community Newspaper since May 2002
Chamber cottage ownership up for discussion By Kelly Corbett Staff Writer
The ownership of the historic cottage that houses the Wrightsville Beach Visitor’s Center and Chamber of Commerce could change with the ending of the 10-year ground lease. The chamber foundation, which is currently within the town’s municipal complex, was created specifically to hold ownership of the historic Howell cottage. It leases the footprint underneath the cottage from the town for $1 per year. But that could change. The Wrightsville Beach Board of Aldermen will discuss the ownership during the Thursday, April 10 meeting as the ending of the ground lease on July 22, 2014 approaches. Town attorney John Wessell, who wrote the 10-year ground lease in 2004, interprets the lease wording as saying the lease must be allowed to lapse, at which point
the town takes ownership of the cottage. The discussion opens up the possibility for other uses if the board desires. “They don’t have to re-up the lease,” town manager Tim Owens said. “I anticipate that they probably will, but as far as I know it could be used for other purposes.” Town staff is recommending either the chamber foundation maintain ownership or the town assumes ownership for consistency with other neighboring historic cottages. “It’s more of a board decision, it doesn’t impact how we operate,” Owens said. Sue Bulluck, chamber chairwoman, would like the chamber to retain ownership of the cottage. “My board, who are all business people on the beach, have maintained for the community the visitor’s center and in fact solicited true contributions from its donation at the onset,” Bulluck said. She said the initial contract was
Building Wrightsville’s new ad budget By Cole Dittmer Staff Writer
The majority of the Wrightsville Beach Marketing Advisory Committee’s Tuesday, April 8 meeting was consumed by new or different marketing ideas for the fiscal year 2014-15 budget. Tom Hickey, media lead for Clean Design branding and design agency, said the proposal his team would present to the committee this year would not be radically different than last year’s. However, Hickey talked about certain new marketing strategies Clean Design is considering. Those ideas included designing outdoor billboard advertising, using Wrightsville Beach’s own hashtag for social media, creating customizable playlists on Internet music sources like Pandora Radio and Spotify to be matched with Wrightsville Beach activities, like walking the John Nesbitt Loop, and filming a stunt video branded for Wrightsville Beach. Hickey said the video would include some sort of gag or stunt designed to attract a large number of views on websites like YouTube and Hulu. Another change Clean Design would like to implement for the beach’s marketing with the new budget is featuring less about the accessibility of Wrightsville Beach and more about its active culture. “Vibrant and alive,” were the buzzwords mentioned by Clean Design brand strategist Travis Conte. Hickey said his agency will likely recommend the same levels of funding for each of the advertising platforms with digital media representing around 40 percent and print media the next closest at 15 percent. Shawn Braden, executive vice president of marketing of the Wilmington and Beaches Convention and Visitors Bureau, said she would present the committee with a closer look at what the costs of the new marketing ideas would be during its May meeting. The ideas presented during Tuesday’s meeting represented a list of new options that could work but Braden said she tries to keep Clean Design focused on the few marketing outlets proven to work best for Wrightsville Beach. “The available channels for marketing keep growing and growing, but our budget is not,” Braden said. “Clean Design came to us with a lot more ideas than this.” As for Wrightsville Beach’s official tourism website, Pete DiMaio, director of business strategy for website design and branding agency Fuel Interactive, said the site is continuously becoming more accessible for mobile devices. The site’s new location-based interactive map for mobile devices is now operational, he said. With online search engines like Google offering more varied information when destinations are searched, like hotel and restaurant reviews, DiMaio said the website also needs to become the ultimate information tool for all things Wrightsville Beach to control the content disseminated on the Internet. email cole@luminanews.com
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The Wrightsville Beach Board of Aldermen will discuss ownership of the Wrightsville Beach Visitor’s Center and Chamber of Commerce during its meeting Thursday, April 10.
set up differently than the neighboring cottage contracts. The chamber pays about $850 per month in operating costs, including insurance, power, cable, waste and water. In addition to operating costs, the chamber is required in its lease of the lot to pay for maintenance and repairs. The neighboring Wrightsville Beach Museum pays $1 per year in rent like the chamber, but the museum’s cottage was donated
to the town. Both cottages are not required to pay flood insurance, but the chamber foundation is also responsible for its own liability, wind and hail and property insurance. In March, the aldermen denied a chamber request for $3,000 in room occupancy tax funds to assist with maintenance costs, citing the terms of the lease. “Hopefully they will see the ownership in the same light,”
Bulluck said. Despite the current wording of the ground lease, Owens said the board can choose to restructure the lease to allow the chamber foundation to retain ownership; it is totally up to the town’s elected officials.
Downtown camera system replacement
The Wrightsville Beach Police Department is requesting slightly more than $65,000 to replace the
downtown camera system. The money could be allocated from the department’s drug fund or current budget. The original estimate was $45,000, but the need for additional nodes to increase the line of sight, allowing the cameras to communicate with each other, increased the cost by about $20,000. The extra cost could be made up with cost savings from reducing the number of camera Internet connections, projected to save $24,000 throughout a fiveyear period. Cameras were first approved during the 2007-08 budgeting process, with six cameras between downtown Wrightsville Beach and Salisbury Street. The current cameras do not have zoom capabilities, and when hit with headlights create washed-out images, hindering detective work. One notable image example is of the hit and run fatality suspect’s vehicle on June 13, 2013. Police chief Dan House requested the funds for replacement cameras during the board’s January annual retreat. Also on Thursday, board members will schedule the remaining workshops for the 2014-15 budget. email kelly@luminanews.com
Housing assistance program closes last grant By Miriah Hamrick Staff Writer
A New Hanover County program that assists low-income homeowners with needed housing improvements faces an uncertain future after closing out its last grant. The $500,000 Community Development Block Grant, awarded in 2010, was closed following a public hearing during an April 7 New Hanover County Board of Commissioners meeting. “The CDBG housing program has been eliminated [statewide] so this most likely will be the county’s last housing assistance project,” said Wanda Coston, county community development planner. Coston explained in a presentation to commissioners how the funds were used to reconstruct and rehabilitate five low-income, owner-occupied houses. The grant funded rehabilitation of two houses, relocation and construction for one house, and reconstruction of two houses. Both rehabilitated houses needed new roofs. In one rehabilitated house, the homeowner was living without any heat prior to receiving assistance. Cape Fear Community College partnered with the county for one of the reconstruction projects, in which landscaping students completed a rain garden for the homeowners. Vice Chairwoman Beth Dawson commended Coston on work completed with the grant. She attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the house completed in partnership with the community college and said the homeowner and students were
proud of their work. Commissioner Jonathan Barfield Jr. expressed disappointment for the program’s likely termination. “It’s a sad thing to know we have people in our county living in third-world conditions. … I’m sorry this grant program is going away, because I know it’s helped so many people,” Barfield said. Coston noted the housing assistance program could continue with another funding source. The cost to complete the five projects amounted to $443,743. Coston said the remaining funds will be returned to the state. The planning and inspections department’s community
development program offers other services reliant upon grant funding, like disaster relief and water and sewage connection. Another request from the planning and inspections department was heard during the April 7 meeting. Ken Vafier, planning and zoning supervisor, requested amendments to the county subdivision ordinance to ensure confirmed and approved conservation resource lines are valid for regulatory purposes in conservation overlay districts (COD). COD delineations are drawn to protect environmental and cultural resources. COD lines are considered in addition to other
zoning laws. Vafier said conflicts have arisen from discrepancy between recorded COD lines and the actual lines on property being developed. The amendments were unanimously approved by commissioners. The commissioners also unanimously approved a proclamation recognizing April 2014 as Sexual Assault Activism Month. The proposal was submitted by the Rape Crisis Center at Coastal Horizons Center. The center served more than 500 new sexual violence victims in the past year. email miriah@luminanews.com
Water main project
Crews contracted by the Town of Wrightsville Beach replace the Shearwater Street water main on Wednesday, April 9. The project also consists of replacing the water mains on Seagull and Meier streets, with the work on Seagull Street already completed. ~ Cole Dittmer
Farmers’ market boasts repeat vendors By Kelly Corbett Staff Writer
The Wrightsville Beach Farmers’ Market will see several repeat vendors when it opens Monday, May 5. Out of the 16 vendors signed up for the 2014 season, the only new vendor so far is Sea Love Sea Salt, said Katie Ryan, parks and recreation program supervisor during the Monday, April 7 Wrightsville Beach Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee meeting. Created by Wrightsville Beach resident Amanda Jacobs, Sea
Love Sea Salt features natural sea salt and sea salt body scrub varieties. “That’s the only new one so far,” Ryan said. “… It’s packaged very nicely.” One substantial change for this season will be that all vendors, except those growing produce in the ground, must register with the North Carolina Department of Revenue and pay sales tax. The market manager must also keep track of certificates with registration numbers. “It’s going to apply to [N.C.] Holiday Flotilla too,” Ryan said. As soon as the new American
Red Cross Babysitter Training course, scheduled for May 17, was announced, two students signed up for the class. Since then no more students have registered, Ryan said. The class is open to ages 11-15, and will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Fran Russ Recreation Center. The day before the babysitter training, May 16, the parks and recreation department is offering the first standup paddleboard, kayak and standup paddleboard yoga workshop free of charge. The workshop, scheduled for
7-8:30 p.m., at the Fran Russ Recreation Center, will be an introduction to the sports before actually going out in the water. About 35 participants have already signed up. “It’s just a nice introduction,” Ryan said. There was no new business during the April 7 meeting, but members also discussed the previously proposed dog park location now being used for a commercial parking lot. See related story on the front page. Chairman Greg Files was absent from the meeting. email kelly@luminanews.com