Key information:
- Arbor Day is tomorrow, sneak peak of the Village’s virtual celebration
- Doorbell installed at Public Safety Building for after-hours use
- New cell tower update
- Village officials meet with D.C. delegation members
- Village Hall will be closed from 11-2 on Wednesday, May 5, 2021
- Drone flights for beach vitex starting mid-May
- An update from Duke Energy
REMINDERS: Applications for Bald Head Reserve volunteers, CTP survey, budget workshop
COVID-19:
- NC’s next Executive Order will go into effect tomorrow (April 30, 2021) at 5:00 p.m. and is set to expire on June 1, 2021. It removes the mask mandate for outdoors,
- Vaccinations are now available to anyone 16 and older in North Carolina.
- Brunswick County case numbers.
- Village Hall has reopened, Public Safety office remains closed to the public until further notice.
Arbor Day Celebration – 2021 will be the 9th year that the Village of Bald Head Island has participated in the Arbor Day Foundation’s Tree City USA program. BHI is one of the more than 3,400 communities that have achieved Tree City USA status by meeting four core standards of sound urban forestry management: maintaining a tree board or department, having a community tree ordinance, spending at least $2 per capita on urban forestry, and celebrating Arbor Day.
This year, the Village chose to celebrate the Timmons Oak for Arbor Day and has created a video which is now available on YouTube and will be posted tomorrow on the Village’s other social sites (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram).
Click HERE to view the video on YouTube and please consider subscribing to our YouTube so you can see future videos from the Village.
Doorbell at Public Safety – Yesterday, a new doorbell was installed on the front door of the Public Safety Building. Public Safety Officers may not hear the landline phones ringing, so the doorbell was installed to assist those who come to the Public Safety Building for assistance. The ring can be heard throughout the upstairs area and is intended for AFTER HOURS needs only. Golf cart registrations, ICE permits, and burn permits shall be handled during regular business hours with Elizabeth Gray, the Administrative Assistant for Public Safety. The front door is still locked during business hours (due to reopen May 17) and Ms. Gray can let folks in to do business when it is necessary. Please do not ring the bell between 9:00 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. As always, please call 911 if there is an emergency, and let the operator know you are on Bald Head Island.
Cell Tower – Crown Castle’s contractors have placed the cell tower base pole in position. They expect to start stacking it tomorrow morning and indicated that it should be up by the end of the day. Please note that the installation of the service provider equipment (AT&T, US Cellular, Verizon) will be phased over from the old tower to the new one. The timing of the installation for each provider is yet to be determined.
Delegation Meetings – Village officials conducted several meetings this week. The primary focus of the meetings was a follow-up to the Mayor’s meeting with the Director of Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (Amanda Lefton) last week to (1) emphasize the Village’s long-standing position on the location of the Wind Energy Areas (WEA’s) be located offshore of BHI at minimum 24-nautical miles for the protection of the island’s viewshed (including Old Baldy Lighthouse) along south beach, (2) that there is some concern as to the location of the required land-based infrastructure needed to come ashore, and that these requests are in a similar fashion as to what was approved for the WEA’s to the north offshore of Kitty Hawk and the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.
Other items discussed included the NC State Port Authority project and potential grant funding for several long-term needs for the Village including the EMT vessel, new fire engine ladder truck, and the future wastewater treatment plan (WWTP) expansion project.
Attendees over the last two days included: Lucas Agnew, Professional Staff Member, Senate Interior Appropriations Sub-Committee (Majority), staff from Senator Burr’s Office, John McDonald (BOEM issue) and Josh Bowlen (Port issue), staff from Senator Tillis’ Office, Kyle Sanders, and Corey Weber (both BOEM and Port issues), Representative Rouzer, Ian Whitson (BOEM issue) and Perry Chappell (Port issue).
Village Hall Closed – Village Hall will be closed from 11-2 on Wednesday, May 5, 2021 for the annual employee appreciation season kick-off barbeque.
Drone Flights – The Bald Head Island Conservancy will be conducting drone flights to image beach vitex during the growing season (when it’s green). Their timeline is to start mid-May and to have the imaging complete by the first day of June. They will be starting on the west side of the island and will work their way east. Flights will be conducted around mid-day. For more information, please view THIS information sheet.
Update from Duke Energy (submitted by Duke Energy) – Duke Energy is working hard to make sure the energy infrastructure serving the Bald Head Island community can reliably serve customers now and in the future. Improvements will help harden our system to storms and allow for isolation of outages and remote automatic repairs.
We’re continuing to work on the southeast end of the island upgrading and replacing the underground system. We’ve begun important construction to create backup power supply for the clubhouse.
We continue to appreciate your patience as we’re working hard to upgrade the island’s energy grid. We’re committed to restoring work locations and managing impacts to the island’s natural environment. We’ll keep you informed of our final phases of the improvements. We plan to have this multi-year project on the island completed by the end of the year.
If you have questions or feedback, you are welcome to contact Danielle Peoples at Danielle.Peoples@duke-energy.com.
REMINDERS:
- CTP Survey – Brunswick County, its municipalities (including Bald Head Island), Cape Fear Rural Planning Organization, Grand Strand Area Transportation Study Metropolitan Planning Organization, and NCDOT have created a steering committee to start the Brunswick County Comprehensive Transportation Plan (CTP). The CTP is a 25–30-year long-range multimodal transportation plan that will assess Brunswick County’s existing and future transportation needs including roadways, bicycle, pedestrian, transit, and rail facilities and services. The goals of a CTP are to assist with identifying transportation deficiencies, setting short and long-term transportation priorities, establishing a relationship between local and regional expectations, and to reinforce and support other local and regional planning and funding initiatives.
The CTP steering committee wants feedback from residents and visitors of the county to help create the Vision, Goals, and Objectives as well as to guide the entire CTP process. Your input will help guide this plan. Please participate in THIS SURVEY or pick up a paper copy in the IPC/PO. The survey will be open from March 11 to June 9.
A big THANK YOU to all who have participated thus far, the survey has received a significant number of responses (almost 3,700!) which is unique for a survey of this type!
- Volunteer Opportunity with Bald Head Woods Reserve – New members are needed for each of the NC Coastal Reserve’s ten sites, including Bald Head Woods Reserve. Community members with knowledge and experience in the topical areas as related to a reserve site and an interest in serving as a Local Advisory Committee member are encouraged to consider applying. Effective committee members present and review information impartially, listen to and understand various points of view, and offer unique perspectives. The LAC Operating Procedures document further outlines the roles and responsibilities of members and the selection process.
If you are interested in applying for a vacancy, please fill out the member application form and send it to the appropriate site manager via email or mail by May 5, 2021. More information about the application process can be found HERE.
- Village Council Special Meeting/Budget Workshop – It was previously reported that the Village Council will be holding its first budget workshop on May 4th, this meeting has been moved to May 17, 2021 at 10:00 a.m. This is an open meeting, so the public is welcome to attend (masks will be required). It will be held in the multi-purpose room in the Public Safety Building.
COVID-19 UPDATE
Yesterday Governor Cooper signed a new Executive Order which will take effect on Friday, April 30, 2021 at 5:00 p.m. Under the new Executive Order, masks will still be required indoors but are no longer mandated outdoors. Masks are still strongly recommended outdoors by NC DHHS in crowded areas and higher risk settings where social distancing is difficult.
The new Executive Order will also increase mass gathering capacity limits. The number of people who may gather indoors will increase from 50 to 100 and the number of people who may gather outdoors will increase from 100 to 200. Occupancy limits currently in place will remain the same. This order will expire on June 1, 2021. As more North Carolinians get vaccinated and adhere to safety protocols over the course of the next month, the state anticipates lifting more restrictions on June 1.
Read Executive Order No. 209.
Read Frequently Asked Questions.
View the slides from yesterday’s briefing.
Vaccines – As of April 7, 2021, anyone 16 and older in North Carolina will be eligible to get a COVID-19 vaccine. The State’s vaccine finder at myspot.nc.gov provides information on where folks can receive a shot. More information about vaccines can be found at YourSpotYourShot.nc.gov.
Brunswick County Case Numbers – The latest NC County Alert System report indicated that 1 out of the 100 counties in North Carolina are “red” 20 are “orange”, 48 are “yellow”, 31 are “light yellow”, and 1 is “green.” Brunswick County is currently yellow. Yellow means there is significant spread in the community.
Case numbers were typically updated daily on Brunswick County’s dashboard on THIS WEBSITE. The County experienced technical issues and this site will direct citizens to the State’s COVID-19 dashboard until the County dashboard is up and running.
Village Hall – Village Hall reopened to the public on Monday, April 26, 2021. Please remember to wear a mask while you are in this public building. The administrative office at Public Safety is not yet open, the expected date for reopening is May 17, 2021.