BY MILES LAYTON

Edenton Town Council had a busy night Tuesday.  

During its regular meeting, Council unanimously approved Town Manager Corey Gooden’s pay increase, renewed a two-year contract with Bob Steinburg’s lobbying group, approved a Major Special Use Permit for Hotel Hinton, and more. 

Albemarle Observer was the only media present at the Town Council meeting.  

“We’re not perhaps not as competitive as some of our peers and some other interested parties in what we are, paying our town manager,” Mayor Hackney High said. “We have come up with a solution to that particular situation. It is a solution that involves entirely 100% of the town’s funds and it’s also a solution that does not adversely affect the budget nor does it require any budget amendments.”  

Flashback to mid November when Gooden was being courted with a substantial pay increase from another job offer elsewhere. Town Council met to see what they could do, but ultimately, the decision came down to Gooden, who decided to stay in Edenton.  

The total contract for WolfeStein is $1,500/month ($16,000/annual or $32,000/2-year contract term) and the same for Jones street and goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2025, and will terminate on Dec. 31, 2027.

A conservative Republican, Steinburg served as a state representative for three terms and about two terms as a senator. Since leaving the Senate in July of 2022, Steinburg has been a lobbyist, bringing home millions for northeastern North Carolina. WolfeStein Group also represents Camden County and Elizabeth City.   

When Steinburg addressed council about his lobbying efforts in Raleigh, he spoke of the $4.5 million awarded to the Town of Edenton for capital improvements at the Northeast Regional Airport, provided a $2.8 million grant to the Edenton Historical Foundation for capital improvements, and his advocacy in steering $2 million for improvements to the town dock and other items downtown for the Harbor Towns Project. 

“For us, Edenton over the last two years, we’ve had quite a bit of economic development project conversations that have been had with third parties as far as lines of communications directly to Raleigh for us to find the right individuals to work with or to find the right opportunities for us to try to plug some of the projects. And so, Bob and Mr. Stancil have both been a part of that,” Gooden said.   

Let’s talk about Hotel Hinton – Council unanimously approved a Major Special Use Permit (MSUP) for SAGA to develop the property on East King Street within one of the most historic and pretty parts of Edenton. 

Edenton folks know there have been issues for years with resurrecting the long-empty property. Indeed, this country editor walks past Hinton Hotel two or three times a day, so I can attest to some of the things I’ve seen over the years, but hopefully that is about to change.  

Council signed off on 13 conditions that SAGA must abide by when developing the property.    

“I wanted to thank the members of the community for their patience,” Mayor High said. “It did take us a while to listen to their comments and find out, determine what we legally could do and could not do. And it was very much a process and I know it did not happen as quickly as some people wanted it to, but we definitely needed that time to look through and consider all the legalities involved.”

Councilman Patrick Sellers asked, “If they are in violation of one of these conditions, they’ve got basically 60 days to rectify it. If they can’t rectify it, we have the ability at that time to pull the permit. Correct?”

High answered, ”That’s correct.”

According to the MSUP, “If any of the conditions set forth herein shall be found in violation, the Town Planning Director will send out a notice of a violation that will require a resolution to the violation within 60 days from the date this notice is received. If additional time is needed, the applicant can request additional time that is reasonably necessary to remedy the violation.”    

Among the conditions listed within the MSUP:

• No condominiums unless an additional Major Special Use Permit is applied for and granted
• Project will contain no less than two commercial spaces on the ground floor facing East King Street, and a combination of short-term rentals and rentals of less than one year. No other uses may be permitted without the express consent of the Town of Edenton. The permitted applicant can request review of the occupancy data with the Town Administration for consideration of an amendment to these conditions after one year from the opening.  
• All lodging units must comply with the Town of Edenton Unified Development Ordinance and all other local, state and federal ordinances, laws, rules and regulations applicable to hotels and extended stay lodging, including management. 
• Any variations, amendments, enforcement or modifications from the protective covenants, conditions and restriction for Hotel Hinton would require expressed written approval from Preservation North Carolina.  
• Upon issuance of a building permit for the project, owner must follow the National Park Service part 2 scheduled completion timeframe. Any variations, amendments, enforcement or modifications from the original scheduled completion timeframe would require expressed written approval from the National Park Service. 

In other business, Town Hall received a clean annual audit of its finances. Without boring our readers with a bunch of numbers – see the photos – Edenton’s account books are balanced and the auditors didn’t see any red flags. 

Lastly, here are few bullet points that council approved that the Albemarle Observer will reach out to Town Hall for more information:

• Approved Mainstreet Edenton Economic Development Agreement
• Approved Mainstreet Edenton Parking Lease Agreement for a portion of the parking lot behind the old Sears/Gordman’s Store.  
• Approved police officer salary increase for new hires so as to attract not only new talent, but provide comparable salaries for the Town’s police. The increase was approved after a study showed the disparity between the Town’s wages and others in the region.

Lastly, here are a few nuggets from the Public Comment portion of the meeting:

Hal Murray asked about the Moseley Street extension because of questions he’s had about that property’s ownership. 

During the November council meeting as part of the Town Manager’s report, Murray was informed that the end of Moseley Street, perhaps as much as a quarter acre that’s between two houses and borders Edenton Bay, is actually something called a “paper street” and that other paper streets exist in town. 

What’s a paper street? A paper street is a street on paper that’s not really on the ground. Murray thus requested a list of other paper streets in Edenton. 

“I’d just like to see some of the other streets, the paper streets in town that were mentioned. So if they do exist, I’d like to see what they are,” Murray said.  

Murray asked about the status of the Harbor Towns cruises: Will there continue to be trips from town to town this spring and summer? Who will manage the cruises – wholly or in-part by a different organization?  Is the $2 million grant for upgrades to the participating harbors in jeopardy? Will Scotty’s Marina, the Edenton Marina, get a fueling dock upgrade? 

Murray’s wife, Karen Murray, asked for an update about the Town’s golf cart policy. Gooden said the policy is under review and there has been discussion about potentially requiring folks to use seat belts.  

Lastly, Michael Dean asked council to consider designating an area in town as a free-speech zone so folks can voice their views, no matter what they may be, without worry. A free-speech zone would protect speakers/protesters from being accosted by folks who may have a different view of an issue such as the placement of the Confederate Memorial in Edenton.  Recently, the Commissioners and Edenton Town Council each approved a Memorandum of Understanding which proposes moving the statue from South Broad Street to behind the county courthouse.

Dean noted that if North Carolina’s chapter of American Civil Liberties Union can support free-speech zones, then perhaps so could Edenton.  

“So if it’s okay with the ACLU being the most liberal group in the United States, then it should be just fine to create a free-speech zone,” he said. “But you have to have the courage to do this, and you also have to have the courage to have the police arrest people for the misdemeanor that they would be guilty of if they exercise this free speech outside these free-speech zones. I will be pursuing this a little bit further down the road, but I’m giving council the opportunity to do the right thing first before we take any other kind of action.”

Let’s end this story on a positive note from Councilman Sambo Dixon who talked about the good things that happened Dec. 7 – the annual Tree-Lighting ceremony and Santa. 

“Last weekend and this weekend, there’s so many different groups of volunteers that pour their heart into this community and do hours and hours of free work to make it a better place. They give them their time. They give them their money. They give them their spirit.” 

Dixon continued, “And I think sometimes, you know, we get caught up in what needs to get done and maybe don’t look at that. And I think if we look around and see what an amazing little town this is and how much, you know, love and kindness there is here, you’ll have a better Christmas. So I thank the town staff and really the citizens of Edenton for making this place just incredible.”

Edenton Town Council typically meets at 6 p.m. on the second Tuesday of the month in council chambers, 504 S. Broad St., Edenton.