Posted on June 28, 2018
By Alex Guarino, WECT
Carolina Beach Town Council considered four new options Tuesday for the future of the Carolina Beach Lake dredging project.
In February 2017, the Town of Carolina Beach started a capital improvement project to dredge Carolina Beach Lake. The purpose of the project was to make the lake deeper in order to reduce flooding of surrounding areas.
In August 2017, the project was put on hold and in December 2017, the town terminated the project contract.
The project stopped because of a conflict involving dumping the dredged materials at a property that belonged to the US Army Military Ocean Terminal at Sunny Point (MOTSU).
At Tuesday’s workshop, town council narrowed its options to the two it believes make the most sense financially and economically.
“The do nothing option doesn’t cost us much except maybe doing a little bit to the banks to treat erosion and treating the algae,” Carolina Beach Mayor Joe Benson said. “That’s one way to look at it. The other one is, there’s enough people who say or many people who say, ‘Finish the project you started.'”
Council seemed to agree that much of the community would like to see the project finished.
The town spent $1.4 million to dredge less 33,000 yards of the lake. Of the $2.9 million budget, $1.4 million is left to finish dredging a little over half the lake if council votes to do so.
Council will hold a public comment period for more input at its July 10 meeting. Council members are expected to vote on a plan of action then.
Despite the project not being finished in time for hurricane season, the mayor says new pumps and an emergency drain will provide flood protection if there is a storm.
“The previous pumps were a whole lot less efficient so three to four times faster counts for something,” Benson said. “We also have an emergency outflow pipe that goes from lake to ocean that requires only state notification to open it up so that would go a long way towards preparing for a storm.”
Source: WECT
