Posted on October 31, 2017
By Tim Buckland, StarNews Online
A contracting firm hired to dredge Carolina Beach Lake is placing material back into the lake while town officials continue to look for a place to permanently store it.
The $2.7 million project has been in limbo since last month, when the town was told by the Army to stop depositing the material on undeveloped land owned by the Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point, also known as MOTSU. Although the terminal is across the Cape Fear River in Brunswick County, the base includes a buffer zone along the western side of Pleasure Island.
Cramer said the town had permission from MOTSU, but the terminal officials “later expressed concern about the exact location.”
Shelia Nicholson, administrative assistant to Town Manager Michael Cramer, said the contractor, Civil Works Contracting, is leaving the site. She said some of the material was being stored on barges used by the contractor.
In order to leave the site, “they have to get whatever is on the equipment off of it,” she said.
The idea behind the project is to provide more room for stormwater during heavy rains, reducing flooding. The project has proved tricky. As of earlier this year, the project was behind schedule because the contractor was having difficulty with just removing sediment from the lake bottom.
In a letter to the town council, Cramer said he has a meeting Monday with MOTSU officials to try to find a solution.
Source: StarNews
