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Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Town of Duck Town Council July 1st, 2026 meeting here at the Paul Keller Meeting Hall. Welcome to everybody here in the room. It's great to see so many people and anybody listening out there. Um, uh, kind of a special week for us all, um, in many ways. And so we'll start and I'll ask our town manager, Dru Havens, to join us. Uh, lead us in the pledge. Thank you.

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I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

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Thank you. And now we'll have a moment of silence.

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Thank you. Moving on to item two public comments. This is an opportunity for anybody in the audience to join up. Come up to the podium and speak. If you have anything you'd like to say. And do we have any public comments on email? No. Okay. On seeing none from the audience, we'll move forward to item three, which is our consent agenda. And today's consent agenda includes the minutes from the June 3rd, 2026 regular meeting service agreement between the town of Duc and Coastal Protection Engineering for pre-construction services for the 2027 Beach Nourishment Project, authorizing the Town Manager to sign that agreement. A correction to our 2020 627 position classification list and our fiscal year 2025 2026 budget amendment. the budget amendment number 13. So that's our consent agenda. And I'm hoping everyone had a chance to look that over.

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I'd like to make a motion that we approve the consent agenda as presented.

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Thank you. Thank you. So we have a motion and any discussion. All all in favor, please say aye.

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Aye.

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Motion carries 4 to 0. I should also mention that Councilman Kevin Lingard has an excused absence. Thank you. He's a visiting family way far away, and we miss him. Okay. Moving on to item four, special presentations. Um, this will I'll ask, um, Fire Chief Dudek to join us at the podium. And thank you.

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Mayor and council staff and.

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Good afternoon again. Madam mayor, members of the council, town staff and members of the public in attendance. Thank you for coming today. This is a great day for the Duck Fire Department. Um, it's always a good day to hire and promote. And also today this is, uh, brings us to our full staffing levels and kind of completed a reorganization that's been in progress for about a year and a half. Now. We're going to start out with the introduction of our newest firefighter, Luke Berry. Luke, would you come on, please?

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So one of the benefits of having a staff that is so engaged with local training events and with, um, with the Dare County Fire Academy is we're able to get our eyes on people early and we can see how people perform in in a training environment, see how they progress. And it gives us the opportunity to kind of get some people that we start keeping our eye on. And when the time comes up, invite them into our hiring process. Luke is from Manteo, born and raised. He graduated from Manual High School and then immediately joined the Roanoke Island Volunteer Fire Department. Where? Don't let the babyface fool you. He's already got several years of experience in the fire service. Um, his name had been thrown around as soon as we had an opening, and he performed exceptionally well in our hiring process. Completed the fire academy. That was fire one and two certification, and we're pleased to have him aboard. Starting on shift today, actually. Now Luke is joined by his, uh, you got your girlfriend? His girlfriend. He's also has his parents and grandparents here, and we'd like to present him with his badge.

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Welcome.

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Is a.

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Oh, yeah. We gotta get a photo.

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Looking great.

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Must be any left on good terms. Now. We're glad to have. We're glad to have Luke aboard. Thank you very much. All right, so the next item on the agenda. Unfortunately Kevin Smith, please come up. So part of the reorganization has been, um, the creation and development of the fire marshal role. Now, the fire marshal is a position that is is going to oversee the enforcement of the fire ordinances, fire code inspection program, and also fire investigations. Now, Jared started this process last year, finished his education up and is going to now be overseeing those programs, as well as continuing to serve operationally in a supervisory role with the department. Unfortunately, the family was caught in traffic. Right now, as this is a sworn position, he'll need to take the oath of office. So with the mayor's consent, we're going to wait until his wife and daughter show up. Thank you. Lori, but I just wanted to I just I just wanted to introduce him to everybody at this point in the in the proceedings and say congratulations. He's done a lot of work, both in the the educational process to get more training as far as, uh, fire inspections go. Code enforcement also completed his fire investigator training last year. Hopefully we don't have to put that into play on Saturday, but we'll see. Anyway, Jerry, congratulations.

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Congratulations.

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Thank you.

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Okay.

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Gotcha. Okay. And finally, with Fire Marshal Smith moving off his shift role that now created a captain's vacancy. And through another difficult process, as I've often cried on the shoulder, my colleagues, they remind me how lucky I am to have a work environment with so many well-suited, well-trained, and capable personnel. But really, through the last year, uh, engineer Matt Munden has shown an incredible amount of hard work perseverance. He's helped develop our water rescue program. He's also head of our EMS program, in charge of training and ordering supplies and everything. And probably everybody in this room has taken a CPR course from them, which is an important aspect of our community risk reduction program. So, Matt, come on up, please. That's going to be joined by his wife, Wendy, and his daughters, Cami and Gwen, as we present him with his captain's badge.

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Of honor.

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For this family.

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Hmm.

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He goes.

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Oh, congratulations.

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Oh. That's great. We're looking good.

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Wait a minute.

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I just want to thank everybody that's here and recognize the amazing Public safety office departments that we have in the town. I couldn't be more proud, and it's just wonderful to see so many of the family members here to celebrate as well. And thank you all for the work that you do to keep our town so safe and and feeling in such good hands. So thank you all and congratulations to everybody and welcome Luke. And it's great. So thank you. I'm happy for everyone. Let's give them one more round.

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Okay. Next I'll be coming to the podium.

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In addition to all the wonderful public safety folks we have, we have other wonderful employees and we love to have we have a program where we like to recognize longevity here at the town. And so today, it's my honor to ask him, Pittman, to join me up at the podium and and present him with a certificate in recognition of five years of service. I can't believe how fast the time goes. It has it all too quick when I hear about all the decades, the town and time that goes by. But Kim, thank you for your work and congratulations.

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Thank you.

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And we we give a little gift certificate to a local business so you can enjoy anything that your heart desires and don't. Oh, pizza. Okay. All right. Thank you. Kim. We we really are happy and really grateful for all your work. Thank you.

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Next on the agenda, I'd like to ask our town clerk, Lori Ackerman, to come up and read a very important resolution.

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This is a resolution of the town council of the Town of North Carolina, in appreciation to Stephen McMurray upon his retirement from the town of duck. Resolution 2613. Whereas the Town of Duck desires to recognize and honor employees of the town for dedicated and distinguished contributions to the community, and Whereas, after serving The Home Depot for nine years, Steve McMurray began his career with the town of Duck on September 18th, 2017 as the building Inspector slash maintenance Coordinator, and Whereas, Mr. McMurray faithfully served as the building inspector for the Town of Duck for eight and a half years with professionalism, Integrity and dedication. Did you? Okay.

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Sounds good.

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Okay. And whereas, throughout his career, Mr. McMurray has demonstrated exceptional knowledge of building codes, public safety standards and construction practices, ensuring the safety and well-being of the community. And Whereas Mr. McMurray has earned the respect and appreciation of colleagues, contractors, elected officials and citizens through his fairness, attention to detail and commitment to the public service. And Whereas, during his tenure, Mr. McMurray contributed significantly to the growth and development of the community by helping maintain high standards in construction and code enforcement. And Whereas Mr. McMurray is, dedication, leadership and years of service have left a lasting positive impact on the department and community as a whole. And whereas Mr. McMurray has decided to retire from the town of duck today after eight and a half years of service to the town. Now therefore, be it resolved by the town council of the town of duck, North Carolina, that the Town Council hereby thanks Mr. Stephen McMurray for his service to the town of duck, North Carolina. And be it further resolved, that the Town Council has sincere appreciation for Mr. McMurray service to the community, and is held in the utmost esteem by the Town Council, who, along with management and staff, wishes him a long and healthy retirement. May I have a motion, please?

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I'd like to make a motion that we adopt resolution number 2613 as presented.

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We have a resolution. I have a motion for adopting this resolution honoring Steve McMurray. All those in favor? Aye, aye. Motion carries unanimously. And again, thank you for your service. You'll be missed.

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Tough act to follow, that's for sure. And thank you again. Okay, um. Moving on. We are at item number five, which would be any quasi judicial public hearings. And there are none at this time. Item six would be legislative public hearings. And we have none at this time. So that brings us to item number seven. Old business items deferred from previous meetings. And we would like to welcome Ken Wilson from Coastal Protection Engineering to give us a presentation and update us on his findings. So welcome Ken.

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Thank you mayor. So I guess I get to follow that act.

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Yes.

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Um, all right. So we are just going to try to give kind of a brief update today. Usually every every year at the council retreat, we give a pretty thorough update on everything that is beach nourishment. But last month we finished up our annual monitoring. You guys just approved through the consent agenda, the next step in the process towards 2027 to start moving forward in the bidding process. So we've got the last kind of look at the volumes before we bid this project out. And drew and I have been talking a little bit, and we wanted to bring those numbers to you all just so that you understand where the you know, how the project is performing the last project. And then there's a few decision points in terms of moving forward. So try to get a little bit of feedback from you all today. So we've tried to keep this kind of similar to the format that you guys are used to seeing this. We'll go over, you know, just quick goals of the project. We'll talk about those results from the 26 monitoring. We'll talk a little bit just to kind of refresher of the design efforts that have taken place so far for the next project slated for 2027. And then we can talk about those those decision points. Um, so the beach management goals, again, you know, the overarching idea here is, um, long term to to maintain this long term program, to sustain the beaches that support a significant portion of the local economy and maintains the tax base. We do that by providing a reasonable level of storm damage, or maintaining the beach to provide that reasonable level of storm damage. Um, to reduce to to the public and private development, mitigate long term erosion, and maintain a generally healthy beach. All right. And again, you know, just this graphic, this idea that we kind of beat home over and over, that those that, you know, when you look at when you think of the beach and you think of these volume numbers that we're going to present today, we always kind of want to think about, um, what that pre-construction condition look like that we've come in and we've placed sand, we've built this dune, we've built this dry sand beach in front of the dune that is there in a certain volume. Certain size to provide a design level of protection. But we also know that from time to time, storms and natural processes are going to erode away some of that storm or some of that sand. So we want to make sure that we have a good enough reserve that advance fill in front of the design so that we can maintain that design, fill all the time. All right. So those surveys I mentioned, I think they were wrapped up right around the 1st of June. Um, our crews do all four of the northern towns, and then they also continue up through Currituck County all the way to the Virginia border. But in terms of duck, we split the areas up in terms of how we report these results into three segments. So in the middle there you have the central reach project. Um, so that is the area that that historically sand has been placed since 2017. Starts just north of the core research facility goes up to around oystercatcher and then everything north of that area. We call the north monitoring area, and then south of the, you know, which south of the project area, which includes the core field research facility that stretch we refer to as the South monitoring area. So I'll give you some results in terms of the beach project area. And then we'll touch real briefly on how the northern and southern areas are doing. Okay. So a couple of bullets here. Um, some some things to keep in mind. Just frame of reference, um, between December 2017 and January 2023, which is basically the period between the first project and the second project. So that's kind of our test bed of how well that first project performed. During that time, there was a loss of about 521,800yd³

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off the Central Reach project, and that represented about 54% of what was actually placed in 2017. But if you go back to that graphic, you kind of understand the goal is not for 100% of it to erode away. The goal is that that design volume would stay in place and you're only losing that advanced fill. We'll get to it in just the next graphic. But essentially what happened during that project is we did lose all the advanced fill, but we lost some of that design as well. And we've been trying to catch up since that point in time. The second bullet there, the five year post construction volumetric change rate. So we were losing in that time about 12.3yd³/ft per year. Obviously, that's kind of hard to translate, but in relative terms, if you think of that 12.3 number, that is what we are planning for for the next project. We're assuming that on average, we could lose around 12.3yd³/ft per year. That's what the last project was designed for. And so we want to kind of gut check that on what has occurred since we built the second project in 2023. Um, the third bullet, the 2023 beach project, added um, 576,800yd³.

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So that was more than we had lost during that period, um, from from 2017 to 2023. And those red numbers are new numbers that we have based on this 2026 data. So over the first three years of the 2023 project being in place, um, we've measured a loss of about 323,800yd³.

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That's about 56% of what was placed, um, in 2023. But when you think in terms of um, because that 23 project was, was, uh, delayed about a year, it was supposed to go into place in 22. It was built in 23. Now we only have to go four years until the next event to line up with the other three towns. Um, we've lost 56% of the volume in, apparently in approximately 75% of the time that that fill is going to need to last. So we're ahead of the game there. Um, the post 2023 construction volumetric change is 12.2yd³/ft per year. So we are running right around the pace of where that first project was running at and what this project was designed for, that 12.312.2 number. All right. If you keep that 12.312.2 number in, in the back of your mind, this is a graphic that we show from time to time. It basically shows cumulatively the volume on the beach over time. So all the way to the left we set the initial survey that was done, the first one that our firm did. Back in September 2013. That becomes our zero point. And what I want you to focus on right here is the blue line. The blue line represents the gain or loss of sand over this 13 year period. Um, based on those surveys that we do every year. So, um, you go two years down the road at the bottom of that first spike. I don't know where my pointer is here. Uh, okay. On the far screen. So we've got we're tracking this blue line fairly stable. We see this big jump. This is the placement of the sand during the 2017 project. And then you see this kind of, um, you know, nonlinear trend line going down that represents the volume on each subsequent survey until we get right before the 2023 project where the volume jumps up again. But if you if you measured that rate from this point Up to this peak after the project was built. That's where we come up with that 12.3yd³/ft per year rate. Okay. So we're basing it on this trend here. That's a smoothed out line of all those survey points. So then 23 comes along. We build it back up. Um over that first year there was very little loss. That was kind of consistent with the other projects as well. I think it was favorable wave conditions offshore just kind of benefited us there. And then over the last two years we have seen, um, volumetric losses. But if you look at this point from where we were after the 23 project to where we are currently or where we were in last month when the surveys were done, that is that 12.2yd³/ft rate. So it is tracking similar to that first project. Mm. Okay. Um, I told you I'd give you a little bit of a snapshot in terms of what's going on in the north monitoring area and the south monitoring area as well. So here we are. North of that project. So here we go all the way back to September 2013, because we have not placed material up in that area. So since we started monitoring over this 13 year period, we've actually seen a gain of volume of about 2.4yd³/ft per year. So compared to that loss of 12.3, we're seeing a slight gain of volume over that long term. It's resulted in a gain of about 267,000yd³. And then if we look at a snapshot of just what's occurred over the last 12 months from 2025 to 2026, that average is a little higher, gaining about 8yd³/ft per year over that last year, which equates to about 70,900. So if we go back to that same rate, instead of or that same chart, instead of looking at the blue line here, you can see that same trend. If you look at this red line, This represents the northern area. So before the project ever went in, we saw some losses when the 2017 project was built. We were actually at a net loss from where we where we started in September 2013. But over the course of those two projects, we have seen benefits, what looks like they correlate with benefits to the northern area from that beach nourishment project. So you see that steady trend up. If this was only a couple of years, you might hold off making two conclusive of a judgement. But seeing that, seeing that gain rate over what equates to 8 or 9 years, it does seem reasonable that there there is some benefit to the northern area from the beach nourishment project. All right. Let's go through the same thing in the South. So all the way back to 2013 to 2026, over 13 years, we're seeing a gain of about 5yd³/ft per year in the south area. That area is larger, so it equates to almost over 600,000yd³. And then if we look for just over the last 12 months, that rate is about five cubic yards in the plus and equates to about 70,000yd³. So again, now we're looking at the green trend line. Um, but again, during that, during that period between the first project and the second project, we did see some trade offs of some gains and some losses. I think this is between 2020 and 2021. There was a pretty big loss, but since 2021 we have seen a steady increase. Um, maybe there's a correlation with what's going on south of the south area in southern shores. There was no sand placed south of duck. Um, in the northern part of Southern Shores back in 2017, but there was sand placed as part of the beach nourishment project in 2022. So it's possible that some of those positive gains that we're seeing in the South area may be due to some of the actions down in the town of Southern Shores. Might hold off on being super conclusive there with with only a few years there with a trend line. Okay. Um, in the past, we've always talked about the initial project was built because when we looked at storm vulnerability, we found that there was a considerable amount of storm vulnerability in the project area. But outside the project area, there were a few houses here and there, but it didn't really warrant a full fledged project the way it did in the central area. So from time to time we've gone back and we've rerun some models to see if there is a gain or loss of vulnerability in those southern or northern sections. Um, and so this graphic here, this graphic here, uh, shows the last two times we ran this analysis. So we ran it in May 2019. And essentially these are segments of the shoreline. And these show where there were impacted structures or impacted oceanfront pools based on these model simulations. But when we reran it in May 2023, the number of of of potential structures had gone down quite a bit. So in the south area, you can see when we ran it in 2019, we found there were 28 oceanfront structures potentially impacted in 40 oceanfront pools. When we ran that analysis again in 2023, we found zero oceanfront structures and nine oceanfront pools. You can see in the north. There was never really a huge potential vulnerability up there in the northern section. Um, but what we've found since then, we haven't rerun that analysis. But what the volume numbers show us is that between 2023 and 2026, we've gained almost 300,000yd³ in that southern area. So without running the model, you know, just kind of looking at some, some, some general data points, we'd say, you know, we're probably in a better position than we were in 2023 because we've gained sand down there. We could always rerun that analysis. But this is just kind of the conclusion drawn quickly from some of those, some of those initial numbers. Um, so in terms of tracking what's going on everywhere now we'll get back to the beach, the beach ville design area. So for the upcoming 2027 project, um, we're looking at the same lateral extent, especially in duck of what was built in in the last two projects. Um, we are looking at some changes in the, in the density of how much sand is going to be placed out there. So we may not place the exact same density all the way down the central beach area. There may be areas in the south that get a higher fill density than the areas in the north, but we're working that out in our in our engineering analysis. Um, we are still considering the potential of designing this next project for a six year or a seven year maintenance interval. And I'll show you a graphic here just in a minute. That'll show what those look like. Um, right now we're projecting that the combined four town project is going to range somewhere between 2.4 and 2 point 8,000,000yd³. Uh, that's compared with the original project was close to 4,000,000yd³. The last project done in 23 was about 3,000,000yd³. So we are getting into this maintenance event status now where all the projects have been initially constructed, and we see that the volumes are a little less than those initial constructions, which is expected. Um, we are maintaining the potential for dune repair, especially in Duc. So who knows what's going to happen between now and then if the if the beach looks similar to what it looks like right now? I don't think we would do anything or propose to do anything to the dunes. It's just going to be a wide, um, additional dry sand beach in front of the dunes. If there was some kind of storm that came through during hurricane season or in the winter, you know, maybe we would propose to to slightly modify that and fix areas that were more heavily damaged. But right now it would probably just be a dry sand beach that would be constructed. And we are still talking about additional borrow areas, and we've expanded that original borrow area. A so just a reminder, I'm going to talk a little bit about this design beach versus the advanced fill. I wanted to show that graphic one more time. So on this graphic here, this is a graphic that I showed back in February when I was up here at the retreat. If you think in terms of that last graphic with the red and the green arrows, the design and the advance fill, as long as our cumulative curve is above this upper dotted line. That means we are tracking that we have. We have all of our design fill in place, and as long as we're above that, we still have a little bit of the advanced fill when that cumulative volume curve falls below that upper dashed line. That means we're now starting to chew into the advanced fill that we are into the design fill. Excuse me. So I'm going to click forward. And I'm going to show you the updated version of this slide with the 2026 data. So basically what you see is this is now actually measured. It's no longer projected. We're projecting more years of loss at that same 12.3yd³/ft per year that I talked about earlier. And that would that would tell us that in 2023 or in 2027, we should track somewhere around here. We are below where we are, where we were in the original design. But it's interesting to point out that we would be well above where we were in 2023 when we built when we rebuilt the last project. That's important because when we were when we were at this point in the last project we were talking about, we only there had only been money budgeted and the projections of sand loss was only really planning to place a certain amount of volume out there, and that volume was not going to get us high enough above this design line to be able to last five years and still end up right at this design line. It was going to put us above the design line, but over, you know, two years essentially, we would start going back into the negative. And if everything tracked the way we were projecting this time in 2022 or in 2021, we would have ended up at that lower line. But in reality, what happened Was the erosion rate over that two year period wasn't quite as. As high as what was projected. We were able to place additional volume during that project in 23 because of some of the relations. You know, the things with weeks marine, the delay, and then that first year after the project was constructed really didn't take anything from us. So with those three sort of stars falling into alignment, we ended up in a stronger position to where? Now it looks like in 2027, we're going to cap out somewhere between these two lines. All right. So if I go to the next line, change the colors on you a little bit. But where we left off was right here at this point. And we were tracking this 2027 point. So now we're looking at how much volume to place out there in 2027 to last us for five years. Well, one of the things that we've built into the planning since the 23 project was constructed was We? We wanted to make up for this loss, this, this gap of where we end up right before the project and try to finish the next cycle in line with the actual original design. So this delta here is about 130,000yd³. But we've been programming that volume into what we want to build in 2027 so that we so that we have planning funding for that. So the goal is to to to make up for that gap, build this project up to last either 5 or 6 years and at the end of the next cycle end up back where we we set out to be originally with that design intact. Okay. Um, all right, so we've updated these numbers, um, what we see here all the way over in the left hand side, you've got your towns over here listed. This is the volume of sand that's being projected for the 2027 project for each of the towns. This is that total number. Okay. This is the total cost for each town's project. And we've talked a little bit about cost per year over the last few years of looking at this in terms of there's always a cost to be paid on these projects. If we could extend the time out 6 or 7 years, there is some cost savings to be had. So this upper panel shows the difference between building to a five year and a six year maintenance period. This bottom one talks about building from a five year to a seven year maintenance period, and it compares those potential annual cost savings over here on the right hand side. One thing that you'll note is we've updated these volumes because we have the same data for the other three towns. If you look at all of the volumes for the other three towns Southern Shores, Kittyhawk, Kill Devil Hills, You see these three numbers here? You come over and you look at the six year number. They're the same as what they are in the five year. And if you come down here and look at the seven year, they're also the same as what they are in the seven year for the five year. Now you scratch your head and you're like, Ken, what kind of witchcraft are you playing here with us? But the fact is, is that when you look at that same curve for the other towns, they are high enough above the design line that that even if we place what we were planning for originally for five years, that volume projects out that it will last them all the way out to up to seven years. Um, and so really, duck is the one town where we need to make up that Delta. We've always talked about the fact that this this project erodes a little bit faster because it's kind of out on its own up there sitting by itself. The other three towns are all contiguous. But, um, point being here is, you know, we believe that, you know, if we can go to that 5 or 6 years. I don't know if seven years is is in the cards, but I whatever we do, if we place the same amount with the other three towns, I think those projects will be able to sustain either a six or even a seven year maintenance cycle. So that's as you're looking at those slides. That's what that's what you're seeing there. All right. About to wrap it up here. Um I think I. Oh, yeah. All right. Um, there were three things that we wanted to kind of make sure was kind of driven home. Um, one, in terms of planning costs. Um, there is a decision to be made about that 130,000 cubic yard gap to try to get us back up to the design level when we end this next cycle. Um, I mean, it is up to your discretion. We've done some rough calculations that 130,000 is probably close to $2 million worth of what the total town project is going to cost. Um, So, you know, last time we'd kind of conceded that we knew that there was going to be a little bit of a reduction of the overall design. You know, to add that 130,000, which all those numbers I just showed you on the last page include that 130,000. Okay. So those numbers would come down if there was a decision made about that. But that's one thing the town could could consider which future maintenance interval to plan for the five, the 6 to 7. I'm sure Drew's got some thoughts about that, but all those all the costs are there and how they line up with the other towns as well. And then the use of borrow area eight E8. So I'll just flip forward real quick for those that aren't following this as closely as I am. Uh, this is the this this large green area which is offshore. This is the town of the southern end of the town of Kill Devil Hills. Here. This is the borrow area that's been used mostly for the last two projects, and we've actually expanded it a little bit. Based on some new data that was collected a few years ago. So we have even more volume in this large green area than we did after the last project ended. We also designed another borrow site, two other borrow sites that are still off of Kill Devil Hills, but they're slightly closer to Kittyhawks, slightly closer to Southern shores, slightly closer to Duc. Um, but we also designed this borrow area that's just north of of the Dare County line, north of the town of Duc, much closer than these other borrow sites. There's about 2,000,000yd³ of sand in that borrow site. Plenty enough to do at least one event for this upcoming project. All of the costs that we've estimated thus far assume that the sand is going to come from this borrow area A, but we do have these other alternatives to potentially take from. And the thought is that given the decrease in the distance from EA to Duc, that if the project could be built from that source, the cost would come down based compared to what we've been, what we've been basing our estimates on. There was some discussion about, you know, potential concern from Kershaw County about, you know, their future sand plans. Um, we the analysis that we've done show that not only is this borrower exist. We also designed two other borrower areas that aren't even shown on this map because they weren't included in the permits for the next project, but there are some design level borrow sites that would work for current county in this area. There's also a couple of less investigated areas even further north in Currituck County that could potentially provide sources for them. So I know Drew's had some conversations with staff up at Kershaw County, but that's a decision to be made as well. On. You'll have the permits to be able to use it. Is it something that we want to go ahead and include in the in the bid package that we'll be submitting sometime September or October. And let's see. That was just a step through. Oh. All right. Um, last slide. Just, um. Moving forward, we want to finalize these design recommendations for the 2027 project, probably sometime by next month or September, so that we can start the bidding process with the contractors. We plan to do that between September and October, and we're still anticipating construction next year, sometime between May and October of 2027.

46
00:43:54,300 --> 00:44:43,210
Yeah, that's that's very insightful. We had similar conversations in house about whether whether or not we could do that. I think it can be done. The one thing we'd have to kind of think through would be, let's say contractor A bids on the project, and their project is lower if they use EA and contract B bids with and without EA, and their cost is lower if they do not use EA. How do we make the decision of which one is the is the lower cost? And there are ways that we can formulate that and make sure that it's understood. It's really a matter of letting the contractors know if that scenario arises. This is how we're going to make the decision on who the low bid was. So it can be done. And that might be something to to consider moving forward just in case something did did happen.

47
00:44:43,210 --> 00:46:00,650
Okay. Thank you. Another question I had was I saw from your data that the other projects the other towns have been their projects have been really fairly true to projection. I mean, they're really hanging in there, just as predicted. Some of that could be due to the fact that they're all together in a in a row and, you know, three towns and they're a lot more sand. And then we're out here, as you said, just in this. But it sounds to me I'll just and I'm no engineer, but that we're in a much more volatile area and always have been when we had our first need for the project, that particular project area was really vulnerable, and those high dunes were something that, you know, you nobody ever does that. You know what we did that first year with those big high dune construction. So I think I guess my question was really just reaffirming that their projects are way more stable and ours is a little more problematic for a couple of reasons, and but will probably be tied to what the other three towns do in terms of the longevity of the project. Or is that something that we'll decide later, or will we talk to the other towns about? I mean, how do we decide what how long to go? But we better plan for the worst.

48
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Yeah. I think the interval will be driven by what the other three towns want to do. Just economically. We can't go out on our own because then we bear the full cost of mobilization and demobilization. Right here we're sharing that and project management with the other three towns. No one is completely shown their hand yet.

49
00:46:50,679 --> 00:47:05,559
five years is enough of a window to kind of say, okay, we can make it another couple of years. I just adding another year on just gives me concern. Yeah. Based on the way that that area gets.

50
00:47:05,559 --> 00:47:05,880
Eroded.

51
00:47:05,880 --> 00:47:51,869
Especially where we get the second level of data that's showing that continual 12.2, 12.3 rate. It's it's it's a lot more than the other towns are dealing with as they kind of stay stable. Um, and then I guess I was just going to say in terms of the other, the north and south project areas, that's great data. The shows, we can show that there's been a curls, whether it be just from southern shores, sand, or maybe just, you know, Labrador versus Gulf Stream, whatever currents and all the stuff that's going on out there. But I just wanted to just clarify my own head. When you're doing the surveys, are you just surveying the dry beach so we don't really know what's going on in the wet, in the underneath? I mean, how could we unless we're doing those little, you know, submarine drones or whatever?

52
00:47:51,869 --> 00:48:49,619
Yeah, we we we do. I mean, it's more than just the it's more than just the drones or the helicopters and it's it is a profile on a on 1000 foot line spacing all the way down the beach. So the folks on the beach are surveying out to, you know, waist deep water, but the boat is coming in from, you know, 30ft. So we are tracking all the volume that goes all the way out to what we call the depth of closure. And that's that's how all of that volume is being factored in. It's it's all the sand in the active active system, not just.

53
00:48:49,619 --> 00:48:49,860
You know.

54
00:48:49,860 --> 00:49:28,659
The reports that the reports that we put out each year, um, you know, they have the individual like profile by profile graphics and they're always split up. Um, I think in the at least in the Central Reach project, we also divide that central reach into three sections. So we're looking at like the northern, the central and the southern part of the beach nourishment area. And that's where we came up with. You know, when we when we designed this, what will be placed in 2027. Like not every house is going to get the exact same amount of sand in front of it. It's going to be based on their particular erosion rate and, you know, trying to trying to adapt to that.

55
00:49:28,659 --> 00:49:33,219
Okay, great. Well, thank you so much for taking my questions. And Mayor Pro Tem.

56
00:49:33,219 --> 00:49:41,219
Uh, can you send in that price range? There was no reason to. The dunes. Is that correct?

57
00:49:41,219 --> 00:49:41,940
Correct.

58
00:49:41,940 --> 00:49:42,460
Okay.

59
00:49:42,460 --> 00:50:20,460
Correct. Um, correct. Right now, I mean, we don't we we believe and we can even go back and compare the profiles of what the original design Dune was, was what it is supposed to look like. And we can compare that to the existing, uh, survey data to see if, in fact, we do have a bigger dune now than what was actually designed for. And I'd say along the vast majority of the area that's that is the case that the dune that's there now is as big or bigger than what was originally proposed when the 2017 project was built.

60
00:50:20,460 --> 00:50:22,650
Thank you.

61
00:50:22,650 --> 00:50:27,250
Councilman. Okay. No question. Any questions? Mark?

62
00:50:27,250 --> 00:50:39,610
No. You asked. My main question was about the maintenance interval with. We'd have to negotiate that with the other towns.

63
00:50:39,610 --> 00:50:40,929
Yeah, it definitely could.

64
00:50:40,929 --> 00:50:42,289
Definitely could.

65
00:50:42,289 --> 00:51:29,119
And the I mean, the gains to the north and south. I mean, typically what you see in these projects is that when you first build it, there is this, you know, you're off of equilibrium and you've got higher erosion rates. But as you add sand to the system, you know, event after event, you see this slowing down. Now, you know, tracking at that 12.2 versus the 12.3. You know we're still kind of in that range. But with gains, you know, being measured in the north and gains being measured in the south, you know, the PHRF properties, you know, pretty wide as well down there that it's some at some point in time you're going to hit this equilibrium where you do see those erosion rates start to slack off. So, um, you know, nature throws us a lot of curveballs. And, you know, we get out there and try to monitor it and make sense of it. So that's what we.

66
00:51:29,119 --> 00:51:34,280
See what Mother Nature has in store. Right. That's great. I really appreciate, um, this great.

67
00:51:34,280 --> 00:51:35,400
And glad to be up here.

68
00:51:35,400 --> 00:51:39,199
Thank you. Do we need to make any any. This is just information.

69
00:51:39,199 --> 00:51:55,639
No, I think I'm. I want to hear from my colleagues in the other towns, and then it'll depend on the timing we need. But we can either cover it at the August meeting. But if we need a mid-month in July, I'll. I'll get in touch with you, mayor, and see if you want to do that.

70
00:51:55,639 --> 00:51:57,000
Yeah. It's hard to believe we really.

71
00:51:57,000 --> 00:51:57,480
I mean.

72
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Figure it out now.

73
00:52:20,320 --> 00:52:51,320
And I mean, it's also worth considering that we are planning for that 12.3, but that that 12.3 is the rate that was measured the first time, which did go six years. So that is a six year number that that even with the first project it held at that 12.3. So if we're if everything is budgeted for that 12.3, um, you know, and we're kind of tracking along that line, that gives me a little bit more comfort to say that, you know, I think the six year might be, you know, not too risky.

74
00:52:51,320 --> 00:53:01,599
Exactly. And as time goes on, we are informed a little bit more by by the history. But also it's encouraging to know that there's a little bit more sand out there that we can borrow.

75
00:53:01,599 --> 00:53:02,679
Yes, yes.

76
00:53:02,679 --> 00:53:03,400
That was worrying.

77
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Hopefully that brings the cost down as well.

78
00:53:05,239 --> 00:53:44,070
So yeah thank you so much. Really appreciate it. And it is amazing that we have to plan now for something that's going to happen quite a few months ahead. Okay, great. Moving on to new business. This is a discussion. Consideration of resolution 2612. Resolution of the Town Council of the Town of Doc revising the personnel policies.

79
00:53:44,070 --> 00:56:54,849
Thank you. Thank you. Mayor. So you'll recall that when we went through your budget at the budget workshop, going through things kind of line by line, there were a couple of changes in related to the personnel policy that were budgeted for. Uh, but they don't happen until you change your policy, because I can't do that. Only you can. So there are two items that we want to talk to you about. The first is the longevity bonus. You'll recall that we talked during the budget workshop.

80
00:56:54,849 --> 00:56:57,489
Any questions? No.

81
00:56:57,489 --> 00:57:00,650
Okay.

82
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The other one. You recall we proposed to do a shift inferential. And this primarily is not primarily it will only be for the police department. So it's generally for in other towns here.

83
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For people that are working 12 hour shifts. So right now we have our police officers that are half of them work at night six now five A to £0.05 six 8 to 6, P six. I get confused because they're doing the shift change when I'm coming in around 5:00 in the morning. So they they tend to they tend to, I think help each other out a little bit. Um, so the idea is to try to give a little extra compensation for those folks that need to be here and awake during the the overnight hours. It's generally done for 12 hour departments, not 24. Like fire. Fire has hopefully occasionally be able to get a little bit of sleep during the overnight hours while they're at the fire station on their 24 hour shift. So the way that we structured this, I'm going the wrong way. Um, so between 6 and £0.06 a $2 an hour shift differential. Um, am I going to read all this to you?

84
00:58:24,480 --> 00:59:21,789
Regular schedule. And it's just for the the non-exempt. So if the chief works these overnight hours. Thank you for working the overnight hours. Um, and we'll thank him, but he won't get a shift differential. It's just for non-exempt people. And it's just it's basically just for the, the the scheduled work. So if there's an odd, an odd thing, odd thing that comes up, chances are they will not be eligible for that that shift differential. Were there any questions on this. The total. He's probably wondering what the total for this is as we budgeted for is about $32,000 as what it would work out to be. And again, if that's included in the budget. And it's really designed to recognize the fact that working and staying up those hours is really hard on. It's hard on the family. It's hard on the individual. And there are some studies regarding the health detriment to working rotating shifts like that.

85
00:59:21,789 --> 00:59:23,510
Right, right.

86
00:59:23,510 --> 00:59:27,309
I know it was a lot of fun when I was working rotating shifts.

87
00:59:27,309 --> 00:59:35,869
Any questions for drew on that particular? And I do see that, you know, to change any of these policies we have to do a resolution. So that's what you've laid out for us.

88
00:59:35,869 --> 00:59:36,349
Correct.

89
00:59:36,349 --> 00:59:36,989
Yes.

90
00:59:36,989 --> 00:59:45,030
Great. So, um, I think that given that, that we have no questions, that we would entertain a motion.

91
00:59:45,030 --> 00:59:58,349
I'd like to make a motion that we adopt resolution 2612, changing personnel policies, adding the shift differential and the longevity bonus, changing the rates on that.

92
00:59:58,349 --> 01:00:07,139
Thank you for that motion. Any further Or discussion. Okay. Seeing none. All those in favor say aye. Aye.

93
01:00:07,139 --> 01:00:09,900
Okay. Motion carries 4 to 0. Thank you very much.

94
01:00:09,900 --> 01:00:15,900
Thank you. Mayor.

95
01:00:15,900 --> 01:00:37,179
Yeah. We're going to do that now. Okay. So moving forward, we've got some very patient family members in the audience who are amazing behavior over there. I've been amazed at how well, uh, how patient everyone is. But we'd like to do the first. We'll go to presentations from the town attorney.

96
01:00:37,179 --> 01:01:08,699
Thank you. Mayor. Today, I would like to recognize Rick Reinke, who's here today. He's our one of our law clerks, uh, from stand up from, uh, he's a rising third year at William and Mary Law School in Williamsburg. And he's also a graduate of Western Washington University. He's a he's from Washington state and was a pleasure to have Rick with us this summer, and hopefully he'll get a chance to assist the town in some work while he's here. So thank.

97
01:01:08,699 --> 01:01:09,219
You.

98
01:01:09,219 --> 01:01:20,099
Thank you. Thank you and welcome. Great to have you here. Okay. Now we'll go on to items from the town manager and we'll start with.

99
01:01:20,099 --> 01:01:39,500
Yeah, we'll we'll change the order around a little bit and we'll start with, uh, Chief Dudek, then Mister Winstead, Miss Dickens, Chief Ackerman, and then Miss Creech.

100
01:01:39,500 --> 01:01:44,860
Okay. Thank you for, uh.

101
01:01:44,860 --> 01:01:46,699
Is she the cutest little thing?

102
01:01:46,699 --> 01:01:52,460
Oh my gosh.

103
01:01:52,460 --> 01:03:16,559
So good afternoon again, everybody. Good to see you again. Um, so once again, we have Kevin Smith come up. Piper is white. Piper and Hazel, thank you for waiting for us here. So I'll go out of order here. So this actually fits in with this slide I had here about growing our own. Right. So by by this part of this reorganization gives us another layer of, I guess, supervision that allows us to take some of our we have a very young department now, and now we can take our perspective. Acting company officer candidates who are will be competing for the engineer spots that were made open by this internal movement. But now we can kind of shadow them as they're working over the summer. And in addition to the fire marshal, that's one of the things Kevin Smith is going to be working on is allowing us to, you know, let some of our younger personnel operate independently, but not into, you know, giving them just enough rope to hang themselves with, as they say. But that's going to be, you know, so this is part of the this is part of a reorganization process. And it's really, um. I'm really happy with the direction we're going here. Now, as I said before, the fire marshal spot is a sworn position to the authority vested in that. So now we will, uh, the town clerk will administer the oath of office, and then he will receive his new badge.

104
01:03:16,559 --> 01:03:18,800
He wants to hold the Bible.

105
01:03:18,800 --> 01:03:26,760
You want to hold it?

106
01:03:26,760 --> 01:03:32,400
So cute.

107
01:03:32,400 --> 01:04:09,760
Raise your right hand. You can touch it. Then she can raise her right hand, too, if she wants. I, Richard J. Smith, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States, that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to the state of North Carolina, and to the constitutional powers and authorities which are, or maybe established for the government thereof that I will endeavor to support, maintain and defend the Constitution of said state, not inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States, to the best of my knowledge and ability, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of my office as fire marshal with the town of duck. So help me.

108
01:04:09,760 --> 01:04:10,559
God.

109
01:04:10,559 --> 01:04:14,760
Thank you. I just need your signature.

110
01:04:14,760 --> 01:04:19,360
Right there.

111
01:04:19,360 --> 01:04:26,719
Congratulations.

112
01:04:26,719 --> 01:04:36,800
I'll try not to stab you.

113
01:04:36,800 --> 01:04:42,880
I know this is always the scary part.

114
01:04:42,880 --> 01:04:59,750
I know EMTs.

115
01:04:59,750 --> 01:05:02,869
That's great.

116
01:05:02,869 --> 01:05:32,030
Thank you.

117
01:05:32,030 --> 01:05:34,510
All right.

118
01:05:34,510 --> 01:05:36,590
How's this go?

119
01:05:36,590 --> 01:05:37,230
And.

120
01:05:37,230 --> 01:05:38,150
Yeah, there you go.

121
01:05:38,150 --> 01:05:44,750
Thanks to the Smith family for being so patient. Yeah. Thank you. Beautiful family.

122
01:05:44,750 --> 01:06:50,139
Good afternoon. Mayor, Council. Happy fiscal new year. I doubt I'll be as entertaining as Chief Dudek. But let's give it a whirl, shall we? All right. Uh, a couple updates for you this afternoon from Department of Community Development. Uh, town Projects. Thank you for approving our request to update our zoning ordinance. We have issued the RFP for that. Uh, as a reminder, we are looking to eliminate redundancies and create consistency with policies and practices. And big thanks to the Planning board for their diligent work in reviewing our current, uh, zoning ordinance on that. Uh, proposals are due on Monday, July 27th. Um, in addition to publishing it, we have directly solicited and received acknowledgement, not responses yet, from four very qualified firms. So we're looking forward to that and making a decision or bringing a decision for you all to make on, uh, lowest. Responsive, responsible.

123
01:06:50,139 --> 01:07:17,980
Or Herron? As y'all are aware, Friesen Nichols has delivered the final deliverable. Um, based on feedback from you all at the February retreat, uh, creating the concept design based on the more nature based, less impactful approach. Uh, that has been published on the Our Heron page of the town website for public consumption.

124
01:07:17,980 --> 01:09:39,479
Beach plantings, bitter panicum and sea oats were planted in the nourishment area. We are excited to see them pop up later this year and thankful for Caribbean for that. Our Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee projects. Our pollinator garden is essentially complete. At this point. We just need to probably redo our plantings at this point for the pollinators themselves, but big kudos to Councilwoman Chaisson and local artist Colfax Stein for their artistic endeavors. And as you can see, our newly congratulated five year employee Kim Pittman, is spreading his wings in flight, as it were, to celebrate the installation. Yeah, we are also encouraging folks to snap a photo and share hashtag wings in duck when they post that to keep Kaye happy. Um, since we are in the fiscal New Year, we like to provide you an update on our annual permitting and inspections tallies. We're running about the same, um, for buildings and trades as we have been in the past couple of years. We're a little higher than we were last year. We have more trades than than building permits for 2026. Land disturbance. Is up ever so slightly. Inspections. We continue to trend upwards since 2022. Largely this is due to, uh, to us, better encapsulating or zoning inspections within our citizen serve tracking software. Um, but as you can see, the level of effort from community development and getting these inspections done on both building and zoning side is is pretty strong. Quick volunteer update. We are 11 duck sweeps in. We've collected £292 of trash, with an additional £189 from the Spring Sound Park cleanup as we are in parade mode on Friday. Ducks week this week is tomorrow at 8:00 and for the last time.

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01:09:39,479 --> 01:10:18,079
We thank you from the Department of Community development. We are terribly sad to see Steve go, but we wish him all the best in his well-deserved retirement. I hope to be able to share with you very soon. Um, who will be replacing him? We we did have to extend the application period for building inspector. That extended posting closes tomorrow, so I hope to have, uh, interviews scheduled within the next week or so. But some qualified candidates have applied for this round too. So looking forward to it. Any questions from me all?

126
01:10:18,079 --> 01:10:37,000
No thank you. That's great. Thank you so much.

127
01:10:37,000 --> 01:10:59,909
Thank you, Mr.

128
01:10:59,909 --> 01:14:06,689
I'm going to be brief today. Council. Um, one thing I wanted to update you on is, after quite a bit of deliberation and research, we've decided to end our relationship with Ford. Um, the closest viable service center is in Virginia Beach now. And the cost to transport a vehicle up there by tow truck is extremely expensive. And then for warranty work, which I have to say that Ford. Um, in my opinion, the amount of recalls has become an unsustainable for us. Um, really disappointing, but the cost to send two officers, two vehicles every time we need to send a vehicle in for service. It just has gotten ridiculous. So after a lot of research, we've chosen the Dodge Durango as the new platform. Um, it's, uh, we have local service center that's reliable. Um, the county and Nags Head are currently using that platform. Have been happy with that as well as the service center. Um, it's about $1,800 less than we were paying for the Ford. And I've spoken with a number of departments all around the state and region and got very high recommendations. We'll say that we took a very serious look at EVs as an option. Um, there was no way I could bring that project in on budget this year. The infrastructure is just simply not there to support it. Um, so it is something we're going to carry forward as we talk about the public safety building and the ability to build the infrastructure into that that would support such a program. Also gives us a little more time to watch, um, other EV fleets around the state and see what their successes are. So I want to and and this is, uh, one thing I'll tell you. Dodge, in their infinite wisdom after making this decision, discontinued silver for this model year. So I don't know who made that decision at Stellantis, but, um, we're going with a battleship. Gray. Um, this is an AI mock up, and we're obviously going to make some tweaks, but we think it's going to look pretty sharp. Um, when we get it in, I want to give a huge thank you to Dare County Emergency Management. They saved the taxpayers well over $2,000 this year by providing message boards and a CCTV trailer to us for $10. Um, was a great savings, a great resource that we're able to take advantage of um, from, from Dare County. So I really appreciate that. And then lastly, um, besides me, this is my new, uh, uh, lieutenants, as of today, um, was one of our first, uh, after meeting lunches. Um, I'm happy to report that they're both doing phenomenal. Um, but again, it's I think it's about 3:00. So, um, technically, they've only been lieutenants since 9:00 this morning.

129
01:14:06,689 --> 01:14:09,409
And with that, I'll take any questions you might have.

130
01:14:09,409 --> 01:14:24,289
Thank you. Chief. Any questions? Thank you. Thank you so much. That's great. And, uh, how I just. How do you get to get that message board you just put in for it? And are there people vying for it, or how do we get lucky like that?

131
01:14:24,289 --> 01:15:13,520
Yeah. Real, uh, contacted Drew Pearson. So he far as I know, the county obtained those through a grant some years ago was a very simple application process. We do have to get, uh, um, ensure insurance coverage for the equipment, but that was a relatively straightforward process. Um, and then he, in fact delivered it for us. So, uh, it was very easy. And it also gave us an opportunity to see some of the other equipment that he's recently acquired. Um, well, we won't be able to use it for the parade. They've got a new compact command trailer, which will be phenomenal asset for the jazz festival. So, um, so some good stuff. And he's continuing to work towards grants to get more and more and really is pushing that towards the municipalities to take advantage of.

132
01:15:13,520 --> 01:15:14,359
So great.

133
01:15:14,359 --> 01:15:29,560
Thank you.

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All right. Good afternoon everybody. Good afternoon Council I'm going to be very brief. So we've had some events going on if you haven't noticed, and they've been extremely well attended. We've only had two cancellations and with that we've had just under 3000 in attendance. This morning, Betsy said that we had about 490 people at the first magic show. So that's great. Um, I'm excited to see that those numbers continue to rise, and people are attending these events and enjoying everything that struck such a great place. Um, the other night we had the Raising the Night mini musical, and that went off really well. Um, we're excited to welcome this production company back on August 10th for The Wreck of the dictator, which is about a Norwegian sailing ship that grounded in Virginia Beach. So, um, their little mini musicals. There will be two performances. All of those details are on our website. Uh, Friday we have our parade. As of now, this is the largest parade I think we've had in several several years, or if not the largest. We have 46 parade entries and just want to give a huge shout out to Waterfront Shops for being our presenting sponsor. Just Playing Dixieland will be performing at the community celebration, and of course we'll have watermelon and snow cones for everyone to enjoy. So parade takes place from about 9 to 10:00 and the community celebration follows immediately after. So make sure you stop by. That's where we will do the awards and have a few words and just community camaraderie, while also being hydrated and safe on my end of things. I'm hoping to have an update for you about the website overhaul project for Ada compliance. I'm looking at a few things with that, so next month I'll be able to keep you up to date with that information. Um, a new beach safety video was published right before the meeting with Outer Banks Water Safety that goes over beach tent regulations. Digging holes. Pack it in, pack it out and all those things. So this is a great video to highlight not only beach safety, but to also introduce Riley and Brea. So that will be shared on social media. And it's currently on our website. We're regularly scheduling out. Love the beach, respect the ocean post. This week we're focusing more on hot weather safety. Not just people, but also pets. Saw a lot of people walking their dogs in the middle of the day. And just remember, if the pavement is hot to you, it's hot to them. So just be mindful of everyone that is in the heat. And lastly, golf carts, LSV and e-bike messaging is an ongoing I don't want to say battle, but it's an ongoing effort. So continuing to push that information out and make sure people are educated. Lastly, with the Duck Jazz Festival, the brochure will be coming in the next few weeks. We do have sponsorship still available, and there is a targeted email campaign that will be geofence to particular areas that will be launching soon. And we have confirmed our Latin dance class and the children's music event with Barefoot Music Academy for the festival, so things are starting to really ramp up for that. And now that it's July 1st, I can go ahead and plan a festival. And I'm sorry, this is the last thing I really want to push. Heat. Safety. Making sure that you're staying hydrated and taking shade breaks. Um, a lot of people think that hydration starts the day of. And really, you should start hydrating, you know, a few days before. So if you're taking part in the parade or if you plan on watching, make sure you are drinking water and being ready to be outside. And again, don't leave kids or pets in a hot car. And if the sand, pavement or surface is hot to you, it's hot to your pits. And that's all I have. Any questions?

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No thank you K that's great. Lots to look forward to. Thank you.

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Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. I will be presenting the May financials, so we're still in May. Even though it's the fiscal new year, um, monthly cash investments in balancer at about 18 million. And this is the fund balances over the last six months. There's a slight decline from April to May. And this is all of the investments and funds showing the breakdown. At the close of May, we had about 2.4% in our operating account. We try to keep the majority in the NCC empty account since it's higher yielding. Um, here's the revenue snapshot. Um, we have collected about 90% year to date through May, compared to 70 about 77% last year. Here's our tax summary. Of course our tax collections looking great.

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And here's where we break out the sales tax for the month of May. We did see an increase of about 16% for the sales tax which is great news. And occupancy was up about 12%. And here's that same information as far as year to date. So still looking good. The sales tax is up about 12% and the occupancy is up about nine. So that's good news. I'm here is showing all of the revenues in a visual of where we are in the collection compared to the budget for the year. So looking good through May expenditures, we have expended about 78% of the budget through the month of May, compared to about 90% year to date last year. And here's that same information of the expenditures looking at it. Um, what has been expended through May, comparing it to the budget for the year? Um, expenditures outpaced revenues in May, but that is typical.

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Revenues remain on track at about 91%. Collection spending is in line at about 80%. And we are continuing to monitor expenses and revenues as we close the year out. Um, this is where the accrual part of the accounting comes in. Will be backdating any expenditures that were, um, the services or goods were provided in June. But we're getting the invoice in July. We'll backdate all of that into June. And we will actually get revenues up until August. That will be backdated into June. Um, and basically everything's looking good. And you.

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Know, I think everything looks great. Thank you. Lauren. Thank you. Okay, so moving on to item 11 is the mayor's agenda. And I just have a couple of notes. Um, we have a monthly mayor's lunch, and we enjoyed that at Nags Head this year, this last month. And it really is a nice opportunity to connect with whatever, whoever, whichever mayors can join us. And so we appreciate that. Next I believe next month they'll be in Southern shores. And my work on the volunteering on the Housing Foundation is progressing along. We've been, um, making some progress, still looking at some different ideas and different projects, keeping our eyes set on trying to work toward making, uh, workforce housing more accessible, attainable, and, um, Available to folks. So that's an ongoing, ongoing, uh, tall order. But we're not giving up a course. We're just getting started. And, uh, I'm encouraged. I think there's a lot of really good ideas out there. As I've said before, with the help of some universities and other very knowledgeable people that have worked, gone ahead of us on this task. So you'll continue to hear about that from me. And then I really wanted to take a moment to just recognize that that it's a very historic anniversary on July 4th. Uh, it's very meaningful. I remember the bicentennial in Washington, D.C. it was it's a lot easier to say than semi centennial, but I'm getting really good at it. It means one half of 500 years in case anybody isn't as, uh, following it as much as me. I have a patriotic duck that I brought in to help us get in the mood, as well as one that I want to donate to the town that I bought. I thought it was going to be a little bigger when I got it online, but it's very cute, so I want to donate it to the town. It's the semi centennial duck, and it sort of looks like Ben Franklin. You know, it's a little it's very patriotic and very, uh, just it just it's just a nice little reminder of the fact that we're in duck on such a historic anniversary of our country. And I think that what we do here in the town is very, you know, is the essence of, of our country. So I really feel we're so lucky to be in a town that has such a great community, even though we come from diverse backgrounds and we have diverse ideas and don't all even live here, but we all feel very much like a community, and I think that is representative of our entire country. And it's an honor to be able to live in a town like this and represent the folks here. You know, so I get a little choked up about about stuff like this. I know it's crazy, but I'm very proud of what we do here and duck. And why did I get emotional? I don't know, I had plenty of sleep last night, but anyway, I'm just very happy to be a part of the community and I'm part of this country and celebrating. 250. I want to encourage everybody to participate. We have an amazing group of volunteers that and we have an amazing staff that really work every day to make this town really special and, and by default, our entire country. I mean, I think that the enthusiasm and the civic strength that we show is, is really something special. So to that end, I'm going to be encouraging everybody to that's to participate in our in our government and vote in in November vote on every election. I in my mind, that's the simplest and most profound way that every citizen can get involved doesn't, you know, get get informed. Of course. But it's not really who you're voting for. It's just the fact that you're using that right to express your participation in our government. So sorry to get a little emotional there, but it just it does move me quite, quite a bit, as you can see. And so yeah, I encourage you to vote, I encourage you to and um, get everyone that you know to vote because I think that's really what we, we have to participate. And, and that's a really interesting, a good, good way to do it. Okay. So the only other one I had to say is that I also serve on the as a volunteer on the board for the Lost Colony. So I like to always put in a plug for everybody attending the Last Colony performance. It's really good this year and it's it's really fun to look back at that, um, that historical beginning that we that was right here and in our area. So I think.

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That's all I have for today.

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That's all I have. And I'll turn it over to our Mayor Pro tem.

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Mine will be shorter. I'd like to thank Betsy and Kaye for the mini musical they did the other night I attended. It was very nice, along with the mayor, and I'd like to congratulate the planning board to got far enough ahead that you can hire a consultant now to look at their ordinances. It was a long process.

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Great.

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Thank you. Um, I would like to thank everybody that worked on the wings and duck or the pollinator butterfly. Um, Jim Gould, Kim Pittman, Cole Ferguson, Scarlett Foreman, who is Matt Foreman's daughter and her friend Lauren came over to the house and painted. And so it was a real. And my husband Jeff also helped. But to be able to install it and get it up there. So it was a great community effort with that one as well. I'm very pleased that that's up. Great idea to see that come from our Parks and Rec committee, and we just did it. I mean, real short turnaround. So I'm real pleased with that as a community. We're able to do stuff like that so quickly. Um, things I wanted to share from the visitor bureau, um, for the May 2026 Travel and Leisure magazine, we were duck was mentioned in the 15 best Beaches in North Carolina, and the 12 most 12 best beach towns in East on the East Coast. So let's see, uh, features duck for a mix of adventure and relaxation. The author recommended this beach town in the Outer Banks with one of the best beaches in North Carolina. This is the type of town where you can really kick back and take it easy. So basically that goes into supporting all of this beach nourishment we're doing. We're keeping this town pristine the way it is and get real good results with that. Um, been real busy. Y'all keep safe and stay hydrated. And be careful at the parade tomorrow. It's going to be hot. Thank you, thank you.

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Brent and Mark.

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Um, so the.

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Albemarle Regional Transit Advisory Board had our local Dare County, um, planning session, and, uh, none of the projects directly affect duck. A lot of them are ferry related, but, um, the mid-career bridge is still a topic of conversation. And what I've learned being on this board is that the highway projects are extremely competitive. And the way that the law is written, it sort of pits communities against each other to fight for that money. And I just want to point out that this is our last opportunity. If we don't manage to fund this project during this, um, cycle, it's not going to happen because of the expense. So If you know anybody, uh, put a word in their ear. Twist some arms. But we need to raise some money. So, um, that's going to be something that we're working on moving forward, but. And then additionally, a thoughtful constituent asked me to bring up two items to staff. Um, one is if we could potentially send out a notice notifying businesses and, uh, homeowners associations that it's spring, there's new growth adjacent to Duck Road and the bike path. And, um, for older ladies that are smaller in stature, it's hard for them to see people on the bike path if if these folks don't trim their bushes and shrubs. So I don't know if staff can just send out sort of a blanket message. And that same thoughtful person, um, wanted me to ask. We have information kiosks along the bike path that are also adjacent to, um, crosswalks. Could staff look at potentially moving those away from crosswalks? It creates an opportunity for people to stop in the area of the crosswalk and read the informational placard, causing traffic to stop for them to cross the street. But they have no intention of crossing the street. They're just reading the placard. So if we could potentially move, I think there are three locations where that occurs. Um, there's an informational board directly adjacent to a crosswalk. I thought those were thoughtful suggestions, and I promised that I would bring them up, so I have.

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Great. Thank you. Those are. Those are good suggestions. Great. Um, okay. Super. Well, um, next we'll go on to, um, additional other business, which would be additional public comments. Anybody from the audience care to comment? Great to see you. Stay still with us. Thank you. Okay. Seeing none um, we'll be going in. Item 14 is a closed session. So, Mayor Pro Tem, could you make a motion?

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I'd like to make a motion that we enter into closed session in accordance with section 143-38.185

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of the North Carolina General Statutes to establish or instruct the public body, staff, or negotiating agents concerning the position to be taken by on behalf of the public body in negotiating I the price or the material terms of a contract or a proposed contract and acquisition of real property by purchase, option, exchange or lease.

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Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem, um, thank you for that motion. All those in favor?

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Aye, aye.

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Motion carries. We're now in closed session.

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Great. Thank you. We're back from closed session, and I'll ask our town attorney to give a brief summary.

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Thank you. Mayor. The. During the closed session, the counsel discussed the possible acquisition of real property and provided its staff and negotiating agents, um, positions relating to price and other material terms of a possible contract.

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Thank you. Um, okay, moving on to the final, uh, item 15, which is, uh, adjournment and a notice that our next regular meeting will be on Wednesday, August 5th, 2026 at 1 p.m.. And I'll wish everyone a very, very happy and safe, um, 250th anniversary of our country. Thank you. Meeting.

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I move that we end our meeting.

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All those in favor?

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Aye aye aye.

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Motion carries. Meeting is adjourned.

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Laura, you.