Chamber statement
On February 25, 2010 the Outer Banks Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors
voted unanimously to support shoreline restoration in Dare County. The full
text of the resolution can be found online.
“When the Chamber recently announced that we were going to take
responsibility for the economic well being of our region, we immediately
realized that beach renourishment is a critical issue that we needed to
weigh in on. Our beaches are the life blood of our community and we need to
treat them as an infrastructure resource that needs periodic maintenance,”
said Paul Tine, Chairman of the Board of Directors.
In the resolution, the Board of Directors clearly states their position that
two fundamental issues need to be addressed as quickly as possible. The
first is that we have critical areas of beach erosion that need to be
renourished immediately, utilizing the available resources. Second, a
longer term erosion management plan that addresses several concerns needs to
be established.
In the short term, Nags Head has offered a proposal that would address 10
miles of beach in a dramatically affected area. The idea is to take care of
a critical need while demonstrating how a successful project can operate.
Over the past two weeks the plan has been amended to include dropping the
sales tax and seeking a formula for the future spending of monies collected
from the current and increased occupancy taxes in the county. Combined with
an assessment on beach front property owners to pay for the ongoing
maintenance, this plan shows that the tourism industry and Nags Head
property owners are willing to share the brunt of the investment.
In the long term, Hatteras, Kill Devil Hills, Kitty Hawk and Roanoke Island
all have some erosion issues that need to be addressed. Each of these
entities are in various stages of development for their project and a plan
needs to be established to insure that future projects can be enabled.
Unfortunately, some of our political leaders have chosen to perpetuate the
self centered view of “town first and community later,” that has often
crippled community wide enhancements in Dare County. They continually
forget that most of Dare County’s visitors think of our area as a single
destination. The negative publicity of Nags Head’s erosion problems affects
all Outer Banks communities. Some of our town leaders’ short sighted
opposition to a plan that would fix a glaringly substandard part of our
beach under the banner of “not till I get mine” is unconscionable. It is
time we stopped operating as 6 municipalities and started acting like one
Outer Banks.
“We are met with a critical situation in South Nags Head, with major
problems to follow in some of our other towns. Instead of finding ways to
work together to meet this immediate need, while building the foundation for
future projects, we have leaders who are reverting back to the ugliest
phrase of politics; ‘what’s in it for me?’” said Chairman Tine. “Our
businesses are sick and tired of this approach and want our leaders to start
finding ways to work together and get things done.”
The Chamber of Commerce has reached out to each community to share this
message and desires to be part of the solution. Already one meeting between
the mayors of Nags Head and Kill Devil Hills, and the Chairman of the Board
of Commissioners, has been facilitated by the organization. The Chamber
firmly believes that we can find the common ground to move forward quickly
and is open to comments and suggestions from the community.