Posted on December 4, 2017
By Madeleine Overturf, WBOC
The town of Fenwick Island is working together to move potential dredging projects forward.
The town formed a Dredging Committee, and its first meeting was Friday afternoon. Their, Committee Chair Bernie Merritt–also a town councilman–underscored the bays’ importance to the area’s tourism.
“As strong as the beaches are, as such a jewel to us, our bays are also a critical part of the town and its economic footprint,” he says.
Merritt says the town is interested in dredging the two channels into and out of the Little Assawoman Bay, as they are currently too shallow for easy boating.
“It’s critical for us to continue to stay on top of it,” Merritt tells WBOC.
At Friday’s meeting, the committee planned to work with the Association of Coastal Towns to have a unified voice as they advocate for state and federal funding for dredging projects.
“I really think the only way this is going to be done is a combined effort,” Town Manager Terry Tieman says.
The committee plans to pursue both state and federal funding, although they do not meet the economic metric for receiving money from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The committee will not look into dredging the town’s canals at this point in time.
Source: WBOC
