With federal funding for coastal storm damage reduction programs threatened, New Hanover County recently introduced the lobbying team that will be working on convincing both the federal and state government to maintain dedicated funding sources.
During a Friday, Feb. 12 meeting of the county’s beach communities, Ruth Smith, New Hanover County’s chief communications officer, said the county was expanding its lobbying efforts in order to try to ensure that federal funding continues for beach sand replenishment projects or that the state government steps in with more funding. Federal dollars pay for sand nourishment projects like the ones currently underway in Carolina Beach and Kure Beach.
The county’s lobbying effort is expanding to the federal level with the contract of Prime Policy, a Washington-based lobbying firm, where the firm’s associate Kevin Smith will be the county’s primary voice in meetings with influencers in the nation’s capital. Smith said he recently moved to the Wilmington area. The county will continue to work with Tom Fetzer, the former mayor of Raleigh who now lives in Landfall and was currently on contract to represent the county’s interest in the North Carolina General Assembly.
Smith said that his firm recently met the deadline for a crucial letter writing project for the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which oversees beach renourishment funding. Participants at the meeting also had a lengthy discussion about how to persuade state representatives to fund coastal storm damage reduction.
“We have to convince Raleigh to move into the space that the federal government will move out of,” Fetzer said.
One part of the discussion included the need to construct better data to take to Raleigh to show the impact of tourism on the state’s economy. Any presentation will also need to include information on how the local towns that receive funding for coastal storm damage reduction would also benefit inland communities, meeting participants said.
Local communities need to consider how they are setting aside money, Fetzer said, adding that the state would likely have to find $40 million – $50 million in funding.
“The more skin we can put in the game, the more likely we can get 170 legislators to invest with us,” Fetzer said.
New Hanover County commissioner Skip Watkins commended Carolina Beach for expanding its revenue stream through new paid parking spaces. The comments came the day after the Wrightsville Beach Board of Aldermen voted to add new parking meters in some areas, including the town’s park, and to expand parking fees and hours in some places.
“You need to look to your internal resources,” Watkins said, referring to the beach towns. “If parking can be expanded, I encourage you to do so.”
David Heglar, member of the Kure Beach town council, said it was difficult for his town to get the same type of parking revenue that Wrightsville Beach and Carolina Beach could raise through their meters.
“If that’s hurting or helping the message, we need to know that,” Heglar said.
From the federal angle, Chance Lambeth, aid to Rep. David Rouzer, said the congressman’s focus was educating the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee members on the value of the beaches and equating them with other infrastructure projects. Rouzer, the Republican representative of North Carolina’s 7th District, is a member of the committee.
“Your turnpikes in New Jersey are the same as our beaches,” Lambeth said.
Wrightsville Beach Town Manager Tim Owens said the county needs an economic impact study that can help show how the revenues generated from beach tourism benefits the larger regional economy. Owens said the study was necessary because he believed that the results of an ongoing cost-benefit study by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would be unfavorable in helping to secure more federal funding.
“We may need some tool to fight back” against the Corps cost-benefit calculations, Owens said.
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