57° OVERCAST, Oak Island Council votes to buy Yaupon Beach pier
Last Modified: Tuesday, October 14, 2008 at 9:53 p.m.
A divided Oak Island Town Council voted Tuesday to buy the threatened Yaupon Beach Fishing Pier.
Click to enlarge
The council voted 3-2, with Dara Royal and Bob Seidel dissenting, to buy the pier from Cooperative Bank for $1.5 million, paying in part with a $500,000 grant and financing the rest.
The purchase also includes the town’s plans to pay the balance with more grant money and to lease the pier and restaurant to a private entity. The pier closed a year ago after going into foreclosure.
Royal said she would have preferred the town seek other avenues to save the pier.
“It’s not that I don’t want to save the pier or have it open for use,” she said, noting she did not feel comfortable with the town owning the pier.
Councilman John Ramsey and Councilwoman Mary Snead said the closing of Yaupon has hurt tourism on the island.
“The pier brings people here,” Ramsey said.
Town Manager Jerry Walters said he feels confident the town will obtain more grant money. He would not comment on where the town plans to obtain its financing.
Mayor Johnie Vereen said earlier Tuesday he is excited the town has a chance to buy the pier for $700,000 less than when it first tried last year. The town council bid $2.2 million but failed to finance it. The pier has been appraised at $1.6 million and $1.8 million.
“We need to save it,” Vereen said.
But the decision came after several members of the public voiced their opposition to the pier purchase.
Angry audience
For more than an hour and a half during the comments period, the public aired its grievance over the town’s pier purchase as well as the town’s overall budget decisions in these tough economic times.
Residents pleaded with the council not to buy the pier and to be fiscally responsible.
“This is a terrible mistake,” Jack Moore said, urging the town to look to the future.
The public members said they were concerned their taxes would continue to rise to pay for the town’s spending.
“There is no limit to the arrogance and the ego of this council,” former mayor Helen Cashwell said.
After a few public comments referenced the town’s financial status, Walters asked to make a public statement to set the record straight. He said the town’s finances are “sound” and the funds invested as of September total $8.9 million.
As the comments continued, tensions between council and the audience flared.
When Earl Wallace compared town staff to the chief executives of major national banks who failed and didn’t see it coming, Walters snapped back. He said he was offended to be put in the same category and that the town, unlike a private financial institution, has oversight from the Local Government Commission.
“If I insult you, I apologize,” Wallace said.
“Well, you did,” Walters responded.
One woman applauded the pursuit of the pier purchase.
“I want my tax money to buy Yaupon Pier,” Vanessa Martin said, adding she moved to Oak Island for the piers.
Her comments drew criticism from the already heated audience and Vereen had to call for order at one point.
“This is a circus,” Martin said at the end of her statement. Her comments and the council’s decision were applauded by some members of the audience.
Dave Cooper, manager of the only open pier on the island, Ocean Crest, said the town’s purchase is unfair to his business.
“We’ve earned the right not to be in a competitive situation with the town of Oak Island,” he said.
Shelby Sebens: 264-8005
Events Calendar More Events Submit Event
- Wilmington officer charged with assault, sexual battery while on duty
- Man's truck stolen after encounter with prostitute
- Two arrested after break-in at James Place home
- Missing 15-year-old found in Wilmington
- Juvenile intruder at Country Club Drive residence fires shot, flees
- Planners green light development annexation along River Road
- Some in Carolinas without power after high winds, rain
- Wilmington resident's quilt on display for inauguration
- Digging for 67-year-old remains yields only dirt
- Brunswick school board releases redistricting proposals
- Compassion 365 9 min ago
- Short Takes Dec. 29, 2009 1 hr ago
- Short Takes 1/5/2009 1 hr ago
- Get Healthy: Free program helps kick smoking habit 3 hrs ago
- N.C. teen birth rate above national average 3 hrs ago
- Eat Well: Squash soup with peppers and fresh lime 3 hrs ago
- Disease Invades a Body, and Endorphins Kick In 3 hrs ago
- Making Connections, Gadget to Gadget 3 hrs ago
- China Losing Taste for Debt From the U.S. 5 hrs ago
- A Time Warner Deal That Keeps Going Downhill 5 hrs ago
Comments
Only moderator-approved comments are shown on this page. To see all comments, please visit the forum.Post a comment | View all comments on this topic.
October 14, 2008 10:51:14 am
RE: Link
The Town buying and operating the Yaupon Pier in competition with the Ocean Crest Pier is a very bad idea. It will threaten the financial viability of the Ocean Crest Pier as the Town operation of the Yaupon Pier will necessarily include significant taxpayer subsides not available to the Ocean Crest Pier owners. The Town of Oak Island is also in serious financial difficulty and adding this additional multi year expense to the Towns budget is simply reckless. Had the Town of Oak Island not offered a premium price for the pier a year ago it may very well have been sold months ago to a private buyer and in operation today. Once the bankers saw the Towns willingness to pay a premium it was no longer interested in a private buyer.
October 14, 2008 4:42:13 pm
Mr Bunce, I have read your comments on this and other issues, But I must ask if you do not mind, Do you have a personal interest or stake in the ocean crest pier? Your sceptisism of public ownership is well warranted but after the loss of Long Beach pier, A pier that so many people in this state were raised to love and remember, It is widely said that losing
Yaupon would be a tragedy even greater. I personally believe the town has no business in the the pier business, But it does not appear that anyone else is willing, and it is not worth the loss. While the good folks at Ocean Crest now have the monopoly on pier access now on OKI, Many people would be saddened by the loss, Of which by law, appears to be a non renewable resource. If it is such an issue, perhaps The good folks at Ocean Crest should purchase it, then everybody wins... I, like yourself, am real ill with the town councils decisions and behavior in many instances, And I will be voting.
October 14, 2008 7:57:43 pm
I would take exception with your belief that there are any laws that would exclude anyone from purchasing property in North Carolina and building a Recreational Commercial Fishing pier on it. They only limitations would be the viability of a return on such a investment in the current marketplace.
Certainly they're valid reasons that the good folks at Ocean Crest Pier didn't consider the purchase of Yaupon Pier. The present state of the economy in addition to a mirad of other responsible business reasonings, those beyond the emotional arguements others have made that its worthy of saving a pier property no matter the realities of the current situations. Certainly Oak Islands Mayor Vereen hasn't shown he has any knowledge or experience with operating a successful business. Examples of his business ineptness and repeated failures on Oak Island and its market place do exsist, including his defunct contract Vehicle Licensing Agency and Cable Television Businesses. Taxpayers far and wide are left holding the bag. The Yaupon Pier purchase will prove to be his and cohort Ensingers demise from the local politics. Satisfaction in the end will be earned by those that have been most effected by their blind arrogance. Before you ask, I do solemly swear I do have a inherent and personal investment in the only currently successful operating pier business on Oak Island from which I can substanciate these observation and concerns. DK
October 15, 2008 6:03:19 am
The only real property that we own is our personal residence on Oak Island. We have no financial interest in the Ocean Crest Pier. We also had/have no interest in the Long Beach Pier or it's properties unlike Councilman Ensminger and/or his wife who participated in the redevelopment of the Long Beach Pier.
It is not just the other private pier that should be concerned. We learned last night that Council intends the Town to also operate a taxpayer subsidized restaurant at the Yaupon Pier as well. Every private restaurant in Town pays Town property tax which will now go to support a competing restaurant. There is no business in this Town for which the owners have placed their capital at risk that will be safe from Town subsidized competition according to this Council... Well maybe real estate if Mr. Ensminger has a say...
October 15, 2008 6:27:51 am
Town owned Yaupon Pier will not pay Town or County property taxes, Ocean Crest Pier owners will..
Town owned Yaupon Pier will use Town employees for maintenance, Ocean Crest Pier will have to perform their own maintenance or hire in the private sector...
Town owned Yaupon Pier will get favorable Municipal liability and casualty insurance, Ocean Crest Pier will have to purchase in the more expensive private market...
Town owned Yaupon Pier will use taxpayer money to fund repairs after hurricane, Ocean Crest Pier owners will use their own capital to fund hurricane repairs...
Town owned Yaupon Pier will be regulated by Town employees with a vested interest in favorable rulings leading to problems that for instance resulted in the demolition of the police station, Ocean Crest Pier will be regulated by Town employees with a vested interest in unfavorable rulings...
Town owned Yaupon Pier will receive subsidized advertising from for instance the Town Recreation department using taxpayers money, Ocean Crest pier owners pay for advertising in the private market...
Every point I just made about the Town owned Yaupon Pier and the Ocean Crest Pier can also be made about the Town owned Yaupon Pier restaurant and every other privately owned restaurant in the Southport/Oak Island area.
October 15, 2008 6:32:54 pm
Additionally...................
The Town of Oak Island's already over burdened, troubled Public Safety Department will have to provide Uniformed Officers for security for Yaupon Pier, whether or not it leases the facility. Additional Officers and their wage, benefit, and retirement plans will cost taxpayers countless other unneccesary dollars. Ocean Crest Pier doesn't recieve any taxpayer subsidies securing its facilities.
The Town of Oak Island's Yaupon pier will not have to raise additional gross revenues in order it afford the North Carolina Commercial Ocean Pier License that is required to simply operate nor the currently available North Carolina Ocean Pier Blanket Fishing License that requires production of an additional Fifteeen Thousand Dollars in Gross sales to cover its cost. The taxpayers of Oak Island including Ocean Crest Pier will help subsidise these reoccurring annual expense's.
The list is never ending.................
October 16, 2008 6:19:06 am
... and of course Council saying they are going to lease the pier does not automatically mean they can lease the pier. A willing participant must be found to lease the pier, assuming the PARTF grant even allows for such a lease, at terms and conditions agreeable to both parties...
October 16, 2008 7:03:46 pm
Oak Island Council member Jeff Ensminger was qouted in this weeks Wednesday's State Port Pilot Newspaper as stating
The irony is that during each open public Oak Island City Council Meetings regarding the towns desires to purchase Yaupon Pier. Numerious
(The Mathematical Ten to One Majority) Oak Island resident taxpayers spoke in opposition of the Yaupon Pier Purchase every time the subject has been placed on the respective agenda's. Each and every citizen who spoke in opposition presented a logical reasoning for their stances on the matter (Cost and risk verses benefit or return on the investment of their tax dollars). This leaves one to surmize either Ensminger is as arrognat as he presents himself and didn't care to listen to the majority opinion, that he already made up his mind disregardless of the over whelming facts presented, he has a personal distain of what the public desires were/are, that he or some cohort will profit in the future by the purchase, that he has a incurable hearing impairment or doesn't understand clearly spoken english.
Post a comment | View all comments