Posted on March 29, 2023
The town council voted Monday night to apply for up to $150,000 in state grant money to help pay for maintenance dredging of several key boating waterways.
The action came as part of the consent agenda – a list of non-controversial items that can be approved with a single vote – during the council’s monthly meeting in the town hall on West Fort Macon Road and online via Zoom.
The town had previously submitted an application for funds from the state Department of Environmental Quality, but staff recently learned that the funding match changed, so a new application was needed.
The town plans to dredge portions of the Causeway, Money Island, New Causeway and Royal channels, as recommended by the town’s citizens’ committee on dredging after a survey.
The planned project is to remove between 2,473 and 3,193 cubic yards of material from key points in the channels, all of which are heavily used by boaters.
The resolution the council adopted Monday night authorizes Town Manager John O’Daniel, who recently replaced the retired David Walker, and staff to obtain appropriate easements, rights-of-way or suitable dredging material disposal areas as needed for the project “without cost or obligation to the state.”
Also under the consent agenda, the council approved a $16,000 contract with Thompson, Price, Scott, Adams & Co. of Wilmington for the town’s fiscal year 2022-23 audit.
