OCBA Minutes from 12/12/12

UNOFFICIAL DRAFT NOTES (not yet approved)

Ocracoke Civic and Business Meeting

12/12/12

Officers Present:  Rudy Austin, President; Clayton Gaskill, Vice President; Kati Wharton, Secretary; Carol Pahl, Treasurer

Rudy called the meeting to order at 7:08 PM.  November minutes have not yet been distributed and will be approved at the January meeting. 

Treasurer’s Report

Treasurer Carol Pahl provided an update.  OCBA has approximately $35,000 in CD, $68,500 in cash.  Last month expenses were:  $50 phone, $500 fulfillment, down payment of $7,000 for village map brochure, $40 for a 4th of July bill.  Another $2,700 in receipts for the map brochure is expected. Occupancy Tax also owes OCBA $7,200.

Unrestricted funds:  after expected income and subtraction of liabilities, remaining is $69,000.

Members:  18 Civic Members, 123 Business Members

Received a request for reimbursement of travel expenses (approx $300) for DeAnna Locke’s trip to the Historic Albemarle Tour (HAT) meeting.  Janey Jacoby said that DeAnna had said that she thought Robin had previously been reimbursed for traveling to a past HAT meeting.  Rudy will check with Robin re: whether she has previously been reimbursed and, if so, by whom (what organization).  This will be discussed further during the January OCBA meeting. 

Historic Albemarle Tour (HAT) membership dues for 2013 ($500) are due.  OCBA has been a member of this organization in the past.  Rudy and Janey Jacoby provided a summary of the purpose of the HAT organization:  highlighting historic areas in the Albemarle area to attempt to increase tourism to the area.  They produce a tour map of all the locations on the tour, road signs, etc.  Janey Jacoby moved to fund the membership for 2013, seconded by Connie Leinbach, motion carried with none opposed.

 

Officer’s Reports

Rudy had the opportunity last week to fly up the beach (up to Nags Head).  The beach looks bad near Buxton, but after that it looks better all the way up to Rodanthe.  At Rodanthe, the beach makes a 20 degree turn – this is likely why storms hit this area harder (more “head on”).  Something needs to be done to address this in order to ensure a reliable road through the area. 

Christmas decorations have been completed around the island, except for at the Community Square.  Over 100 bows and seven 75-foot rolls of garland have been used.  Help was received from Jennifer Rich, Chester Lynn, Tideland, and others.  Several of the lighted angels and snowflakes need work done on them (re-string lights, etc.) – this should be done after they are taken down after Christmas.  The wire is available to do this work.  Rudy also suggested considering putting the lights on timers so they will only be on after dark.  If you know of someone who would be interested in helping repair these, please let Rudy know.

The dredge which is here at Ocracoke will be delivering the pipe, etc. which is needed to dredge Hatteras Inlet, but another dredge will be brought in to do the Hatteras Inlet work itself.

 

Committee Reports

There were no committee reports during the meeting.

 

NPS Updates

District Ranger Ed Fuller was not at the meeting.

 

County Commissioners Update

County Commissioner John Fletcher was not at the meeting.

 

County Manager Update

There is currently no County Manager.  Barry Swindell is acting as the interim County Manager (this was decided during the December 12 Commissioners meeting).  Concern was expressed that this presents a potential conflict of interest with his duties as Commissioner.

 

Old Business

Water Quality Pre-Plan Funding

  • Carol provided information on behalf of Robin Payne.
  • During the November meeting, OCBA discussed a request for up to $5,000 for a preliminary engineering plan needed to apply for a grant to address drainage issues. Three areas will be studied to potentially be addressed first:  near Blackbeard’s Lodge, the intersection of Creek and Silver Lake, and the intersection of Howard Street and Highway 12.  If one of these areas doesn’t meet the criteria, other areas will be studied instead.
  • An engineering organization can be hired to do the study at a cost of $100/hour.  OCBA needs to identify which funding source (general funds or restricted funds) will be used to pay for this.  (Restricted funds are earmarked for restrooms, but it may be possible to use these funds because water quality is related, and the resolution of these drainage issues may impact placement locations for the restrooms.)
  • The grant application needs to be submitted by February 1, 2013 so the study needs to be done soon to provide the information needed for the application.
  • Clayton asked whether there was any possibility of receiving the $5,000 back if the grant is received.  Carol said that this would not be reimbursed, and it is likely that OCBA will be asked for additional funding to continue this project.
  • Janey Jacoby moved that OCBA approve spending up to $5,000 for the engineering study; the motion was seconded by Fred Westervelt.  After some additional discussion, the motion passed.

 

New Business

Officer Elections

The Secretary position is up for new election (Kati Wharton has resigned).  Connie Leinbach is willing to serve in this position.

The Bylaws allow for up to 9 board members, so the nominating committee proposes 2 new board member positions and two candidates to fill these positions:  Jim Borland and Justin LeBlanc.

There were no new nominations from the floor.

Fred Westervelt moved the nominations be closed and the slate approved; seconded by Sundae Horn, passed with none opposed. 

Part time travel-tourism position funding

Robin Payne, Melinda Sutton, Sundae Horn, Clayton Gaskill, Carol Pahl, and Connie Leinbach met to discuss hiring a part time (initially) tourism and travel resource person.  The position may become full time in the future (dependent on grant and/or Occupancy Tax funding). 

Currently, OCBA employs a website administrator, and a fulfillment position (sending out brochures, etc.).  The amounts paid to these resources could be combined to fund the new travel-tourism resource position.  Ivy has agreed to turn over the passwords, etc. so a new resource can take over website administration.  Valerie would prefer to continue the fulfillment position.  OCBA would need to ensure that the storage of the walking maps and the asset brochure (which are currently stored at Village Print) is included in the contract for production of these items, and therefore could continue to be at Village Print.  Per Carol, there may not be a written contract with Valerie, so it is likely that not using Valerie for fulfillment would mean that OCBA would lose the use of Village Print space for storage.  There may be an opportunity to use part of the Williams house (most recently Live Oak Coffee) for office space for the travel-tourism resource, so there may be storage space available there as well.  OCBA could also ask Valerie what she would charge for storage at Village Print.

The position will be a contract position – anticipating approx. 8 hours/wk at $15/hour.  This comes out to approximately $3,000 from January until July.

The vision is for this position to act as a liaison between visitors and the island, provide support for local businesses, organize marketing and press releases, provide assistance in planning events, etc.  Carol provided copies of the job description document for this position.  Connie Leinbach suggested that proficiency in computer usage (website maintenance, etc.) be added to the list of qualifications.

Next steps would be to post the job opening, have an interviewing committee conduct interviews, and hire a person for the position.  If you are interested in joining the committee working on this, or know of someone who would be interested, please let Carol Pahl know.

Justin LeBlanc moved to empower the committee to move forward with posting, interviewing for and hiring for the position.  The motion was seconded by Jim Borland and passed with none opposed.

5K run – request from Greg Honeycutt

The second annual Ocracoke 5K event will be held April 7th 2013.

The event raised $12,000 in 2012 – this was donated to WOVV and Ocracoke School Boosters Club (divided between the two organizations).  The goal for 2013 is to raise $22,000 – of this, $10,000 would go to WOVV, $10,000 to the Ocracoke School Boosters Club, and, $2,000 to the proposed community park. 

In 2013, a 10K run will be added to the event (the 5K and the 1 mile fun run will continue to be a part of the event).  The goal is to register 400 runners.  (There were 200 runners last year, approximately 150 of whom were from off island).  Occupancy Tax funding is being used to advertise the event in running club newsletters, running stores, Running Journal, Raleigh running organizations, etc. to get the event on calendars specific to running.

OCBA was a Platinum sponsor in 2012 ($1,500 donation).  The run website has links to the OCBA website.  Sponsorship also includes a banner on the website, and being featured in press releases, on t-shirts and other materials, etc.

Greg requested that OCBA consider becoming a platinum sponsor for 2013.  Janey Jacoby moved that OCBA vote to approve a sponsorship of $1,500 at the January meeting; the motion was seconded by Ernie Westervelt and passed.

Community Christmas concert funding – request from Sundae Horn

The Concert was held Saturday Dec 8th.  Last year, Sundae requested $100 to pay Gary Mitchell for sound and $20 to pay Carol Pahl for posters.  This year, when Sundae contacted Lisa to book the Community Center, she learned that she would need to pay a $50 fee for annual use of the Community Center, and an additional $50 if food would be served (there was a bake sale).  Sundae asked if the Concert could be sponsored by OCBA, so that the $50 paid by OCBA for annual use of the Community Center could be applied to the concert.

Sundae requested $50 for the food fee, sponsorship to cover the $50 annual fee, and $50 to pay Lou Castro for the sound setup.  Connie Leinbach moved that OCBA sponsor the most recent Community Christmas concert, and all future concerts and cover the associated fees ($50 for sound and $50 for food); the motion was seconded by Fred Westervelt and passed with none opposed.

Inauguration parade lighthouse

A 6 ft lighthouse will be built for the inauguration parade in January in Raleigh.  The school shop class is building the lighthouse, Tom Payne has helped with parts, and Robin Payne will be purchasing flex board materials as well.  The lighthouse will be used for photo backdrops for prom, homecoming, etc.  Robin requested up to $150 reimbursement for materials.  Justin LeBlanc made a motion to provide up to this amount; the motion was seconded by Dick Jacoby, and passed with none opposed. 

Adopt a Highway program

Dolores Gilbert is starting a group to coordinate an Adopt a Highway program for Highway 12 on the island.  There is a group called Ocracoke Trash Troops which is working on this.  If you are interested in joining this group or know someone who might be interested, contact Dolores Gilbert or Jim Borland.

Fire break

Janey spoke with the new NPS Superintendent at the last Scenic Byway Committee meeting.  He inquired into the status of the equipment which had been purchased to be used in various areas to maintain fire breaks, and emailed Janey to let her know that the purchased equipment cannot be used on Ocracoke (it is not the right type of equipment to be used for wetlands).  Rudy will check on whether the equipment used by Tideland can be used for this, and, if so, will follow up to request permission from the NPS to provide someone to use it to cut the fire break.

New fire house – update from Dick Jacoby

Tideland moved the power pole on the lot.  Sand has been added to the lot, working to satisfy the height requirement.  Bids are being collected for the construction of the building.

Fred Westervelt moved the meeting be adjourned, the motion was seconded by Kari Styron and passed by common consent.

The meeting ended at 8:46 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Kati Wharton 

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