BEACH BRIEFS
Lee retires from county emergency management
New Hanover County honored Warren Lee, emergency management director, during the Dec. 19 board of commissioners meeting, where county manager Chris Coudriet pointed out the career highlights of the veteran emergency management professional.
Lee, who started as the county’s emergency management director in 2003 after serving the same role in Lee County for 10 years, led the transition of the county’s 911 system into the emergency management department in 2009. In 2011, Lee traveled to Washington, D.C., along with other state officials, including the governor, to brief President Barack Obama on hurricane preparedness. In addition to his emergency management duties, Lee has served as a volunteer firefighter and a junior high math and science teacher.
“He has kept us safe and helped restore normalcy to the lives of so many,” Coudriet said. “There’s a deep appreciation and gratitude from the community that he worked so hard to serve and protect and keep safe.”
Coudriet also said Lee served the county by helping prepare his deputy, Steven Still, for the role as emergency management director, which he will assume on Jan. 1, 2017. Still has been a county employee for more than a decade, including serving as the deputy emergency management director since 2012.
“He leaves knowing that he prepared everyone that follows him well for the tasks that lie ahead,” Coudriet said of Lee.
Town’s land use committee starts regular meetings
Wrightsville Beach has begun a comprehensive look at its land use planning as the town’s CAMA Land Use Steering Committee has begun holding meetings on the plan that stands to shape the town’s future commercial and residential development. The committee, which will spend the early months of 2017 developing the plan, held its second meeting on Dec. 15, during which members approved the first two sections of the plan, which included a comprehensive profile of the town. Aldermen Darryl Mills was elected chairman of the steering committee, while Bob O’Quinn was voted to be the vice chairman. Some member raised questions about whether the traffic numbers in the profile were accurate, as it listed the town’s peak population at 41,725, which some members thought might be too low an estimate. Updates on the plan are posted at
www.planwrightsvillebeach.com
Last-minute appearances by Santa
Kids who still want to see Santa Claus will have two opportunities in Wrightsville Beach before Christmas. Friday, Dec. 23, the Wrightsville Beach Museum of History, at 303 W. Salisbury St., will host Santa on its front porch during an open house scheduled from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., where visitors can enjoy cookies, apple juice and other refreshments. Kids can also visit with Santa on Christmas Eve, when the jolly man will be at Wrightsville Beach Park’s Christmas display to greet children at 5:30 p.m.
