Village’s Voice

In this issue:

• Recap of Village Council regular meeting
• A reminder about bulk item pick-up
• Furniture donations
• How do packages get to the IPC? (video)
• An update from Duke Energy

REMINDERS: Reduce waste while barge service is suspended, Wilmington Harbor Maintenance Dredging Project, Comprehensive Transportation Plan (CTP) survey, golf cart registration enforcement, Village offices will be closed on April 2, 2021, in observance of Good Friday, Village Hall remains closed to the public until further notice

COVID-19:

• NC remains under an executive order including a mask mandate through March 26, 2021
• Vaccinations are being given to Groups 1 through 3 and a portion of 4, all of Group 4 can be vaccinated starting April 7.
• Brunswick County Case Numbers

Regular Council Meeting – The Village Council conducted its regular meeting on Friday, March 19, 2021, at 2:00 p.m.  Here is a summary of the information shared and the actions that were taken at this meeting:

Under New Business (there was no Old Business) the Village Council received a presentation on the Brunswick County Comprehensive Transportation Plan, the Council adopted a resolution to adopt the Southeastern Regional Hazard Mitigation Plan, and the Council approved an updated FedEx contract for the IPC which will increase the amount of the per-package rate the IPC receives from $6.35 per package to $7.20 (a .85 increase).  The new contract is effective from April 29, 2021, through June 30, 2022.

The Village Manager updated the Council on several projects to include the Wilmington Harbor Maintenance Dredging project, the new Village Hall, IPC/PO upgrades, stormwater management, and Contractor Services. He announced that Don Eisele, a longtime part-time employee at the IPC/PO, will be fully retiring at the end of the month.  This Saturday, March 27 will be his last day. Public Services Director presented data regarding the resources used to manage the donations that are dropped off at the public works yard.  The Village Council will continue the discussion on this topic during the budget process. 

Councilor Quinn indicated that he had followed up with Witt Works to determine how they dispose of recyclables from commercial entities on the island.  Quinn said that the items are not separated and therefore a glass crusher to handle the commercial glass waste would not be feasible.

Mayor Sayre made the following statement on behalf of the Village Council, “After much consideration and public input, the Village Council is unanimously committed to pursuing the Village’s acquisition of the transportation system.  The Village will send a letter to the State Treasurer stating its position.”  The Village Council’s letter to the State Treasurer was sent today and can be viewed HERE.

A Reminder About Bulk Item Pick-Up – Since it is the time of year that folks are doing their spring cleaning and preparation for peak season, the Public Works Department would like to remind you that bulk item pick-ups are now limited to two items.  This change went into effect in December 2020.  Items must also be left outside for pick-up. If you need more than two items hauled away or assistance moving items out of your home, please contact a local mover. The BHA has a list of local movers on their website under “Life on BHI” and “Island Service Providers.”

When the Village originally started providing this service in the early days of the development of BHI (circa ‘80’s) there were far fewer folks on the island and some of the residents were elderly and unable to move the items themselves. The recent increase in home sales and service impacts related to COVID-19 demand has surpassed the Village’s currently available resources.

If you need to schedule a pick-up call the Village’s Customer Service Representative at 910-457-9700 ext. 1000. The representative will take your payment over the phone along with your contact information which is then given to Public Works to contact you to schedule the pick-up. Please provide the Village with enough notice so that Public Works can schedule your pick-up. Special pickups are $50.00. Mattresses are $80.00 each.

Furniture Donations – Like bulk pick-ups, the collection of furniture suitable for donations was started to serve a smaller island population.  It was not set-up to facilitate multiple households’ entire furniture replacements.  Recently, the donation Conex box has been on numerous occasions filled up within a few days.   What used to be an occasional haul off-island has become a Village-subsidized effort taking several hours per week to manage when staff could be taking care of routine services like maintaining roads.  To keep this service to a manageable level, the Village would like folks to utilize your furniture delivery company to haul away the items being replaced or to call a local mover.

How Do Packages Get to the IPC? – The Village has produced a short video that shows Island Package Center customers how FedEx and UPS packages are transported from the mainland to the IPC.  The Village is working on another video for US Postal Service mail and packages.  HERE is a link to the latest video.  Enjoy!

Duke Energy Update (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’re adding new underground switches, like the new installations along Federal Road. We’re currently engineering backup power supply for the clubhouse. This equipment is important for isolating outages and creating new options to reroute power.

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.

If you have questions or feedback, you are welcome to contact Danielle Peoples at Danielle.Peoples@duke-energy.com.

The Village will be receiving regular updates from Duke Energy which will be shared with our e-newsletter subscribers and posted on the Village’s “Village Projects” webpage HERE.

REMINDERS:

• Reduce Waste During Barge Shutdown – Required barge ramp maintenance is scheduled to take place from March 20, 2021, through March 28, 2021. With the expected uptick in island population for spring break and the upcoming Easter holiday, the Village would like Islanders to do what they can to limit household waste production during the barge service interruption. The Village is expecting to continue having its solid waste contractor perform regular trash pick-up service and to have extra containers on-hand to handle what would normally be transported off-island. The Village is concerned that the available containers will not be sufficient to hold all the hauled waste, so any reduction that can be made by Islanders could help ensure that the waste can be contained until the barge reopens.  The Village is also requesting that Islanders hold-off on dropping off recyclables and excess household trash at Public Works. For more information, view our previous announcement HERE.

• Wilmington Harbor Maintenance Dredging Project – Great Lakes Dredge and Dock continues to make great progress down South Beach, making it further east than previous WHMP projects. Sand placement is located near Dunedin Court and Inverness Court. Please follow the Village’s updates on THIS WEBPAGE. If you have property near the project area and will have renters, this page will give them an idea of what to expect during construction.

• 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.  

• Golf Cart Registration Enforcement – The Department of Public Safety has increased enforcement on golf cart registrations.  All carts are due to be registered by January 1^st each year. Unregistered vehicles are a safety concern and officers on patrol will take notice of a late or expired registrations and it may result in a citation.  If you have not registered your cart(s), please do so now, you can do it online HERE.

• Village Offices Closed 4/2/2021 – Village offices, including the IPC/PO will be closed on Good Friday, April 2, 2021.  Note:  ICE vehicles, other than those issued a special-use permit, are not permitted to drive on Village roads on Easter Friday per Chapter 28, Sec. 28-75(a)(3). 

• Village Hall – Out of an abundance of caution, due to exposure and increased positive COVID-19 cases in Brunswick County, Village Hall has been closed to the public until further notice due to minimal staffing with remote-flex work schedules.  If you have business with the Village, we ask that you please use our online options, e-mail, or call for an appointment.  Please call 910-457-9700 and the auto-attendant will direct you to the appropriate department.  General questions can be e-mailed directly to public.information@villagebhi.org. Utility payments are to be dropped off in the box on the porch at Village Hall. Notary services are available at the IPC/Post Office.

COVID-19 UPDATE

North Carolina continues to be under an executive order which will expire on March 26, 2021, at 5:00 p.m. The Executive Order includes a mask mandate and limits the number of people who may gather indoors at 25, 50 remains the limit for outdoors. Safety protocols such as masks, social distancing, and frequent handwashing will continue to be important to keep numbers down until folks are fully vaccinated.

Vaccinations – The State has moved to Group 3 for COVID-19 vaccinations. The NCDHHS has announced plans for how the state will move to  On March 17, 2021, the State moved to Group 4 for vaccinations.  This includes people with high-risk medical conditions, people experiencing homelessness, and incarcerated people who have not been vaccinated. North Carolina plans to move to other essential workers and other people in close group living settings under Group 4 on April 7, this is a week earlier than anticipated.  Some providers may not yet be ready to move into Group 4 if they are still experiencing high demand from Groups 1 through 3.  As of March 19, 2021, the state has administered over 3.5 million vaccines. More than 26% of adults have had at least one shot, and nearly 17% have been fully vaccinated.

The State has developed a tool to help you determine which vaccine group you are in.  You can access the “Find My Vaccine Group” tool HERE.  More vaccine information can be found on the NCDHHS website HERE and Brunswick County’s website HERE.   The State’s COVID-19 vaccine help center number is 888-675-4567.

Brunswick County Case Numbers – The latest NC County Alert System report indicated that 1 out of the 100 counties in North Carolina are “red” 34 are “orange”, and 60  are “yellow.”  Brunswick County has moved from orange to yellow since the last report.  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. View the latest COVID-19 snapshot posted by Brunswick County on March 19, 2021.