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Early voting underway
Burgaw raises funds for flood relief
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Beach open in Surf City State of Emergency ends
By Andy Pettigrew Post & Voice Publisher
Staff photo by Andy Pettigrew
Candidates signs are a common sight across Pender County with One-Stop early voting underway. One-Stop early voting will run Monday-Friday through Nov. 2 from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. daily, and Saturday Nov. 3 from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. Voting sites are the Hampstead Pender Government Annex, Long Creek Volunteer Fire Dept., CFCC in Surf City, Shiloh Volunteer Fire Department, and the Board of Elections OfďŹ ce in Burgaw. These signs are located at the Board of Elections OfďŹ ce in Burgaw.
Pender receives FEMA emergency housing trailers Emergency housing for county residents displaced from their homes by Hurricane Florence is arriving in Pender County. According to Pender County Emergency Management Director Tom Collins, FEMA is providing two types of temporary housing – travel trailers and mobile home type housing. The RV travel trailers will be located at the resident’s home to be used while houses are under renovation. “FEMA comes in and sets everything up with the travel trailers. They will set it up, level it, inspect
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Volunteers raised more than $4.000 for flood relief in Burgaw last week as the Johnsonville Big Grill was at Piggly Wiggly. Johnsonville provided free brats and donations to flood relief were received. “We had a lot of volunteers, donations, and it was a beautiful day,� said Mayor Pete Cowan. “We plan to find out which groups are rebuilding homes here and make donations to them,� said Cowan. The money will go through the Blueberry Festival non-profit for accountability in the funds. Burgaw recovery Cowan says about 40 people are still in the town’s shelter as of last week. “I think Burgaw is recovering well. What is not recovering is downtown. We have to get the business owners to repair their buildings,� Cowan said. “I see a number of roofs being repaired and there was significant damage to the Courthouse. The work is ongoing there.� With the Courthouse repairs underway, court is being held at the Courthouse Annex and at the Pender County Government Center on S. Walker St. “Overall I think Burgaw was blessed if you look at the damage in outlying areas,� said Cowan. “It pales in comparison to the damage in the Whitestocking and Currie areas.� Cowan says he is seeing an outpouring of donations, supplies from Burgaw residents. “What helped us most is the town was proactive in getting ditches cleaned out before the storm so the water was able to flow out quickly,� Cowan said.
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it, make sure everything is working properly with power and water,� Collins said. “The homeowner doesn’t have to do anything. If the home is close to the river or on a floodplain, they get the travel trailers.� Collins says the travel trailers are being installed now. Residents have to apply with FEMA for the housing. About 300 applications have been received so far. Debris collection The massive job of storm debris collection continues across the county. Collins says the biggest problem is where to put the debris.
From Staff Reports Surf City Mayor Doug Medlin announced Surf City was lifting the State of Emergency declaration that had been in effect since Hurricane Florence. The announcement was made at a town council workshop Oct. 19. Vacation rentals would now be allowed, the beach is now open, and the curfew has been eliminated. Medlin said there were few safe crossovers, though the area from the Greensboro beach access to the Kinston access has been cleared of debris, but debris may remain hidden in the surf or sand and that use of the beach would be at your own risk. The workshop attracted more than 200 residents and business owners, largely out of concern over the Hurricane Florence recovery efforts, and the town’s communication throughout this disaster. In possibly an effort to preempt criticism, the town posted a letter signed by the mayor the evening prior to the meeting. Mayor Doug Medlin opened the meeting by reading this letter aloud to the attendees. The letter explained in some detail the chronology of the storm response to this point, and some of the difficulties encountered in allowing people onto the island, cleaning debris, and opening the beaches. While residents appreciated this information, it was clear from public comments that this information should have been communicated in a timely fashion throughout the storm and
“We are running out to a landfill. of room for the vegetative “We are running out debris. We are prepping of places to put all the demore land along N.C 53 bris. We are opening up where we can take con- more space. It is going to struction and demolition take some time to get ev(C&D) debris to store it. erything picked up,â€? said Hopefully we will be able Collins. to begin picking up C&D Collins says Pender along N.C. 53,â€? said Col- County had contracts for debris pickup that were lins. Collins says the veg- in place long before the etative debris is ground storm. “We already had pre up into mulch to reduce its volume. Much is being positioned contracts in deposited in Holly Ridge place. All we had to do is along U.S. 17 in a growing call them in. When the mountain of mulch. storm was coming and we The C&D debris is knew we were going to get crushed to reduce its vol- hit, we were already talkMowers Tractors • ZerotoTurn Mowers ume. Push The C&D debris • is Lawn ing to our contractors hauled to Sampson County gear up,â€?& Collins said. Trimmers Chainsaws Continued on page 6A
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