Posted on December 15, 2021
MOREHEAD CITY — The N.C. General Assembly earmarked $2 million in the recently adopted state budget for a shoreline stabilization project on Sugarloaf Island designed to protect the island from the damaging environmental effects of shoreline erosion.
The proposed project is a collaboration between the N.C. Coastal Federation and Florida-based aquatic restoration firm Sea & Shoreline. According to a proposal letter sent to Rep. Pat McElraft, R-Carteret, and Sen. Norm Sanderson, R-Pamlico, – who Mayor Jerry Jones said were key to helping secure the state funds – the goal of the project is to “diminish shoreline erosion, improve water quality, recover lost critical habitat, provide food, shelter, and protection for sea life, sequester carbon, and increase coastal resiliency.”
To do that, researchers wrote they intend to utilize three different techniques on Sugarloaf: wave attenuation devices, oyster reefs and living shoreline. The estimated cost of the project is around $2 million over two years, and city manager Ryan Eggleston said there would be no local match required if Morehead City chooses to proceed with the proposal.
During a discussion about the state earmark at a city council workshop Dec. 8, council members David Horton and George Ballou expressed some hesitancy over accepting the funds without having reviewed the proposal for work first. To that end, the council plans to host a workshop sometime in January with the NCCF and Sea & Shoreline to learn more.
“It just puts us in a dangerous situation where we’ve got money that’s earmarked for a project for Sugarloaf that the council has not seen and approved,” Mr. Horton cautioned.
Mayor Jones, on the other hand, believes the city has no time to spare when it comes preserving Sugarloaf Island, which he said essentially acts as a protective barrier island for Morehead City’s waterfront. As a lifelong resident, he said he’s watched the island shrink over the years, with erosion accelerating recently.
“Back in the 60s when I was growing up, we used to swim over to Sugarloaf from 12th Street, the Walter Lewis Landing in Promise Land, and now it’s to about 9th Street, and it’s eroding away more,” he said. “…If we don’t do this, the future of the Morehead City waterfront is gone. Timing is everything and now it’s the opportunity. The iron’s hot and we need to strike.”
Mayor Jones said the project, to him, was a “no brainer.”
“We need to push it on through, it’s got to happen,” he said. “…Sugarloaf is an outer bank for Morehead City, if we lose that, it would like us losing Bogue Banks.”
In addition to the $2 million earmark in the state budget, Morehead City is in the process of applying for a Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities, or BRIC, grant through the Federal Emergency Management Agency to study erosion on Sugarloaf Island. A multi-stepped application process, the full proposal is not due to FEMA until February, so Mr. Eggleston said the city still has time to decide whether to proceed with the BRIC grant.
“That will probably also be discussed at the workshop in January,” he said Monday.
If selected, the BRIC grant would give the city about $150,000 – including a required local match – to study shoreline erosion on Sugarloaf and recommend possible solutions. Later rounds of the grant could then fund a project, but that would be several years out, if it happens at all. With the earmark from the NCGA already secured, it’s possible the city could choose not to proceed with the BRIC grant.
