Posted on October 22, 2017
By Nate Belt, WCTI12
Efforts are underway to make sure county beaches get replenished.
While it’s not winter and we’re not out of hurricane season yet, the money from the state is coming to make sure when it’s time, everyone is ready to pitch in and help. A new fund created by the state will allow beach towns like Emerald Isle to bring in a lot more of the sand that’s needed.
The state established the Coastal Storm Damage Mitigation Fund. It allows for coastal towns across the state to fund beach renourishment programs. In Carteret County, the establishment of the fund is timely due to sand washing out after the hurricane season. The county hauls in a massive, and costly, amount of sand each year.
“Here in Carteret County since 2001 between the federal local and state governments, we’ve spent about $114 million on approximately 14 million cubic yards of sand,” said Gregoory Rudolph with Carteret County Shore Protection in Emerald Isle.
The fund was created when federal money for beach renourishment programs washed out, leaving towns to pay for the costly projects on their own. Since the fund was only created earlier this month, there is no money in it yet. Rudolph said they are on working on ways to relocate some tax money into it.
Source: WCTI12
