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The Pender-Topsail
The Rocky Point Harvest Festival and Parade is Saturday. The parade begins at 9:30 a.m. along N.C. 210 west from Cheshire Road to the community center. Read more about the festival on page 3A.
Volume 45, No. 1
513 Roland Ave Surf City, NC (910) 328-2105 www.shopthebee.com
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Thursday, October 8, 2015
Pender County football teams battled the rain instead of other teams as games were postponed due to the weather. But volleyball teams were on the court. Read more in sports beginning on 8A.
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Coastal storm brings heavy rain, beach damage By Andy Pettigrew Post & Voice Publisher It wasn’t a hurricane – but it might as well have been. A coastal low pressure system that stalled across the eastern United States brought heavy rain to Pender County and the region last weekend. The system brought devastating rain to South Carolina, causing flooding that many are comparing to Hurricane Floyd’s 1999 hit in eastern
Report on Penderlea expected Oct. 20
North Carolina. The low pressure system combined with Hurricane Joaquin, which was hundreds of miles off the coast, to pump in Atlantic moisture and feed the continuous heavy rain over South Carolina. According to Pender County Emergency Management Director Tom Collins, Pender County had minor flooding and damage from a storm that could have been much worse. Had the heavy rain line that
set up across the middle of South Carolina moved north, Pender County would be under water. “We really dodged the bullet,” Collins said. “The stalled front pulled energy off the Hurricane and the Atlantic. It’s the same thing that happened to us during Floyd. It came within about 50 miles of doing it to us again.” Collins says Pender County experienced minor flooding and beach erosion. The Northeast Cape Fear
River is expected to crest later this week at about two feet above flood stage and begin to fall Saturday. Some flooding is expected in lowlying area of subdivisions along the river. Pender County remains under a declaration of emergency. Collins says that condition will remain until the river flooding is over. Surf City Mayor Zander Guy says town crews had the beaches cleared of debris by late Tuesday.
Storm tough on the beach
By Andy Pettigrew Post & Voice Publisher School officials expect a report on Penderlea School renovations at the next board meeting, scheduled for Oct. 20. Project architects have been reviewing plans for the project and inspecting the existing school building to determine the direction of the project. “At our October meeting we should start getting some feedback as far as the recommendations from the architects on the Penderlea project,” said School Board member Tom Roper. “They had a 60-day window to get back to us and we are getting close to that. We should be hearing from them this month.” Roper says the Penderlea renovation is the one project among the school bond projects that the board is expecting to hear from architects. “We pretty much know what we are doing on the other projects. Penderlea was the question as to how much of the building we can salvage and we are at a crossroads. This will give us the answers as to which direction we take with that project,” Roper said.
Candidates forums planned for Oct. 28,29
Candidates forums for the local municipal elections are planned for Burgaw and the Surf City area. The Burgaw forum will be held at the Depot Oct. 29. The forum for Surf City and Topsail Beach candidates will be Oct. 28 at the Surf City Welcome Center. All candidates are invited to participate in the forums, which will give voters the opportunity to meet and hear the candidates.
Staff photo by Katie H. Pettigrew
A young visitor to the Surf City beach examines debris left Saturday morning by the rough surf. The combination of the supermoon high tide Sept. 27-28 and this weekends high surf from Hurricane Joaquin left Pender beaches damaged.
Operation Stop Arm targets school zones, buses By Andy Pettigrew Post & Voice Publisher North Carolina State Highway Patrol troopers in Pender County will be closely watching school zones and buses the week of Oct. 18-22 during the state-wide Operation Stop Arm. Each day, more than 2,300 drivers in North Carolina violate the state’s school bus stop arm law. On Mar. 18, 2015, a special day of monitoring stop arm violations, 12 were recorded in Pender County. Troopers will be working school zones and other officers will be following the buses. Troopers will be driving marked and unmarked patrol cars during the operation. “We will be monitoring the areas around the different schools to make sure everyone is driving safely and watching the buses in the mornings and afternoons,” said Sgt. Michael Collier. “We will be looking for stop arm violations. We may even have troopers riding buses. We are trying to do some different things to make sure people are getting around safely.” Collier says stop arm violations is not a big problem in Pender County. But all it takes is one violation to injure or kill a child leaving a stopped school bus. “We have seen incidents where children were almost
hit. We don’t need that,” said Collier. School bus drivers give information to Troopers about stop arm violations. The Troopers then investigate the incident, and give give citations for the violation if
Continued on page 3A
“The beach took a hard hit. We are going to have a challenge in trying to restore it, but we will get it done,” said Guy. “We are looking at doing a sand push sometime in the next 30 days. Right now, there is not a lot of sand available on the beach. All of our public accesses are closed and have sustained damage. We have a beach nourishment fund, but we are trying to save that money for our big projects. We have a lot of work to do.
Surf City flood zone meeting From staff reports A public meeting will be held Oct. 27 to present changes to the flood insurance rate maps for the Pender County portion of Surf City. The preliminary maps for the Onslow County portion of Surf City have not been released yet. Surf City is working with FEMA and the state NFIP to expedite the completion of the maps for that area of town. The open house will be from 4-6 p.m. at the Surf City Town Hall in the council room. There will be no formal presentation, but staff will be on hand to answer questions and help determine what changes there are that affect local property. Should the flood zone and or the required base flood elevation change on property, flood insurance premium rates may be effected. The Surf City staff is not qualified to calculate what adjusted premiums might be. Insurance companies that are members of the Topsail Island Chamber of Commerce have been invited to send representatives that may be able to answer questions about rate changes. There is a 90-day appeal period that begins on Oct. 29 and runs until Jan. 26. FEMA will accept appeals during this period from property owners who believe their property is not correctly mapped. For more information, visit the Surf City Community Development Department at 214 North New River Drive Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. until 5 p.m.
Staff photo by Andy Pettigrew
Although Hurricane Joaquin was hundreds of miles off the coast, the storm still kicked up strong waves. This is the Surf City Pier about noon on Saturday.
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