By Miles Layton

COLUMBIA — Tyrrell County commissioners signaled Tuesday that they want any proposed school project to be reached from Main Street rather than Road Street, citing flooding and traffic safety on U.S. 64. They also agreed to look into the cost of bringing water to Davis Lane, a six-house road where residents have asked for service, and took steps on a multimillion-dollar public water access at Buckridge Coastal Reserve on Grapevine Landing.

Commissioners discussed how the school project should connect to the road network, with most favoring an entrance on Main Street over Road Street.

County Manager David Clegg handed the board materials from a scoping process that began weeks ago, including an initial site plan and an alternative. The work centers mainly on access, he said, and the options on the table include Road Street, Main Street and a school maintenance road. Clegg said he has pressed safety concerns throughout.

A consultant had indicated Road Street, rather than Main Street, could serve as a main access point, Clegg said. School officials responded that they wanted the study to include both, and the state Department of Transportation agreed. Clegg urged commissioners to take the choice seriously. “You’re making a generational decision,” he said.

Chairman Jordan Davis said his biggest worry with Road Street is where it meets U.S. 64, citing poor visibility at a curve and flooding at the intersection. “Coming out Road Street to me is a nightmare without some sufficient improvements,” he said. He said the best outcome would be a state-installed stoplight on the highway, but the state is unlikely to agree. He said the state resists more signals on U.S. 64 because it is a federal highway.

Davis said he likes the traffic pattern a Main Street entrance would allow, since most vehicles would wait in a parking lot until leaving, which would keep traffic from backing up onto the road.

Commissioner Darryl Liverman said a safety group he attended last week reached a similar conclusion. Road Street is too narrow and floods often, he said, and an entrance off Main Street between the auditorium and the current main building made the most sense. He cautioned that what works locally and what the state will approve are “two different things.”

Commissioner Nathan Everett said flooding on Road Street is a long-standing problem. He said he has seen water cover the road “from Green Street all the way to Main Street,” and that the stoplight at Main Street has sat underwater with traffic backed up to the old fire station. The town commissioned an engineering study of the drainage problem, he said, but lacks money to build the fix. He said the county will eventually need to press the state for improvements, whichever route the school takes.

Everett said he would like to see the county, school and state cooperate to rebuild Road Street. “That’s a bridge too far,” he said.

No vote was taken. “I think we have a pretty good consensus here,” Davis said, adding that Main Street would be the first option.

Davis Lane

Anna Liverman, who lives on Davis Lane, asked the board during the other-business portion of the meeting to reconsider a past decision not to extend water to the road. Story’s feature photo is of Liverman addressing the commission.

Everett asked how many homes were involved. “Six, six houses, and five of those houses do want water,” Liverman said. She said she had been collecting signatures and named neighbors who wanted both water and sewer.

Everett said the county was weighing a sewer project in the area and that the timing could help. “It’d be you know might be possible to run water and sewer at the same time,” he said. He pressed Liverman on whether residents had signed up for the sewer program, saying the county needed enough participation for the work to be viable. He urged her neighbors to contact the county and warned that the price of connecting would change once the current program ends.

“It’s a situation where we have a free installation, and after this is over, it won’t be,” Everett said. “It’ll be expensive.”

Davis said money was the obstacle. “It’s not something that is right-now-can-be-done because it’s not necessarily in our funding,” Davis said. “But it is something we can look into and just see how much it costs. We can do some studies.”

Everett added, “We’ll look into it.” Liverman was told to leave her contact information with the clerk.

Sewer deadline nears

The Davis Lane discussion led into a broader update from Clegg on the county’s water and sewer work. He focused on the Alligator sewer project, which is paid for with American Rescue Plan Act money rather than the income-based Community Development Block Grants that funded earlier phases there.

Clegg said that difference is why residents were never asked to sign up in the same way. “It is to build capacity in your system, and that’s exactly what we’re doing,” he said of the federal money. The project would create room for roughly 63 to 65 residential hookups, he said.

Connecting is not required, Clegg said, but he urged property owners to do so while it is free. The county is putting about $25,000 worth of equipment in each participating yard. Roughly half of eligible property owners have signed up, he said, and the county must give its contractor a final list after Nov. 1 so crews can schedule the work. Federal ARPA money expires Dec. 31.

Those who wait will pay. “Come January, if you want it, it’s going to cost you $20,000 plus an engineering bill to get it,” Clegg said.

Everett said development pressure is already visible along the county’s waterfront. He recalled that the River Neck area where he lives once held fishing camps and trailers used for weekends, and now has expensive houses. “What is occupying Davis Lane today is not necessarily what will be there tomorrow,” he said.

Clegg also told commissioners that membranes at the county’s reverse osmosis water plant are being replaced this week. The membranes are nearly 30 years old, he said. Once the work is finished, the system will go through 72 hours of testing before it returns to full service. Clegg said the plant is currently supplying water to the county.

Resolution on state loan or grant

Commissioners also approved a resolution authorizing the county to apply for a loan or grant through the North Carolina Clean Water State Revolving Fund. Clegg said the fund had money left over for counties to examine unconventional sewer options, such as package plants, where traditional systems do not fit. Work under the Coastal Community Program has given the county mapping help and professional assistance, he said, and an engineering firm will help prepare the application.

“We’re never going to know if we get anything unless we do,” Clegg said. The motion carried.

Earlier in the meeting, the board confirmed two resolutions that had been circulated by email and sent off after a majority agreed to them. One came through the coastal counties fisheries coalition and concerns a lawsuit that Davis said seeks to stop commercial shrimping in the sound. The other asks that public hearings be held properly on planned ferry tolls.

Buckridge

On the Buckridge project, Clegg said work is starting on a public water access at the reserve on Grapevine Landing, built by the state Division of Coastal Management after years of lobbying.

“This is millions of dollars, and will completely change the opportunities for utilization with a wonderful pier, parking, picnic,” he said.

The project already has a stormwater management permit and a coastal permit, Clegg said, and staff and design engineers from the state transportation and environmental quality departments have met with the county. The site will have a larger footprint than first planned, he said, a result of a long-sought land purchase from the last remaining heirs of the property.

That larger footprint requires closing part of the road. Commissioners voted to ask the N.C. Department of Transportation to abandon a 200-foot section of Grapevine Landing Road at the end of the route. Clegg said the transportation department picked the best location for the abandonment and that the stretch is bounded entirely by state-owned land. The Division of Coastal Management will manage both sides of the road, he said, so no private property owners will be affected. Commissioners approved the request unanimously, which starts the process.

Everett wanted to know what size vessels the new ramp could handle.

“We’re talking about commercial boats as well,” Clegg said. He added that boats are already backed into that spot, and that use “is not going away.” Another commissioner said he hoped the waterway would be cleared, noting that good-sized crab boats work the area.

Davis said a new ramp and pier would draw visitors. “I think just just having another boat ramp and a fishing pier there would just be oh yeah great,” he said.

Clegg said the project would boost ecotourism and open parts of the county to visitors who have had little chance to see them from the water.

Other business

In other action, commissioners approved a budget amendment creating an account for repair and maintenance of a bus donated through N.C. State’s 4-H program. The university keeps the title while the county operates and maintains the vehicle. They also approved an amendment for $24,306 tied to a federal Department of Justice program for law enforcement officers, and a consent agenda naming the county’s voting delegate for the state association’s legislative goals conference.