The town of Wrightsville Beach is going through a rough patch. That can be messy.
Town leaders are doing their best to keep most of it behind closed doors, but as it always does, stuff leaks out.
Such is the case, again, this week.
As the police department struggled over the summer and fall amid a rash of resignations, the public works department — in particular the water and sewer division — was on the verge of imploding.
Water and sewer municipal personnel are some of the most overlooked worldwide. This is dirty, ugly work that no one gives any consideration to until a “boil water” notice is issued.
While South Carolina was flooded by Hurricane Joaquin, towns on North Carolina’s coast were not nearly as impacted. But we did experience a week-long, record-breaking rain that began to feel Biblical.
I didn’t give a thought to who was keeping my tap water safe. Until I watched news coverage from Columbia I hadn’t considered the flooding could shut down the sewer system and flood raw sewage into the streets and sounds as well as contaminate our water supply.
As the rains fell, public works personnel were out there manning pumps at sewer lift stations keeping the waste (or most of it) in the pipes flowing to the mainland.
Based on a copy of an email leaked this week, written by the second-in-command of the public works department to his direct boss, some in the eight-person water and sewer division gave up sleep and vacation time, some working nonstop for four days to prevent a sewage disaster.
Public works, which receives over 25 percent of the town’s $10.5 million budget, has been under scrutiny since the story broke earlier this year about the civil rights lawsuits filed against the town for allegations of racial discrimination by certain individuals in the public works department.
That alone would have left the department reeling.
But the legal action was preceded by the dismissal of one (or more) long-term popular public works employee for allegedly stealing the department’s equipment and pawning it. No charges were filed. If an inventory was done to determine the extent of the theft, it has been kept under wraps.
As one can imagine, as the ranks dwindled, the department’s workload fell on those remaining.
Frustration was evident two weeks ago as Steve Dellies, the former assistant director of public works, responded to an email from his boss, Mike Vukelich, who was responding to an email from his boss, town manager Tim Owens, requesting the water meter readings the day the billing typically went out.
Owens, also named in the civil rights lawsuit, was not a town employee during the time of the alleged offenses, and has since been dropped as a defendant. Steve Dellies has not.
Water meters in the town are not being read as diligently as they were in the past. The department, which once operated a robust enterprise fund, is in the red despite a doubling of the water rate last year. Alderman Hank Miller reportedly received a $50,000 water/sewer bill, while Mayor Bill Blair said he received just a $50 billing for water for the summer quarter. Then too, within the last year, the mayor says he personally stoked a $30,000-$40,000 refund check for a 2012 overbilling via automatic withdrawal of a property owner’s account.
So Dellies’ email response to the town manager’s request contained a well of defense, citing the amount of hours he and those he supervised work, how shorthanded they are, and the dedication they showed in protecting the town and kept things running in the recent flood event.
It also relayed disgust for those who sign his paycheck. And that proved terminal to his employment.
The 7:17 a.m. email was certainly not intended to be read by those disparaged — the town manager, the board of aldermen and residents — but someone dropped a copy in the mayor’s mailbox. Things unraveled from there.
Dellies’ boss is squarely in the hot seat. Those left to run public works must be pretty anxious: who will lead them out of this mess?
All eyes are on Tim Owens, who may be facing the challenge of his career. As he scrambles like a mother hen to try to keep details from slipping out from under him, his relationship with the board and his leadership itself could be tested.
Coming from an unopposed re-election, Mayor Blair has exhibited a low tolerance for junk. Rising from the ranks of the planning board, this unlikely mayor has his hands full with two departments in angst. While educator David Cignotti, attorney Bob O’Quinn and even Dr. Bill Sisson came from the professional work force, Blair is the only mayor in recent memory with his broad level of private sector business acumen. Word is a house cleaning may be underway.
There is more woe for the police as the department’s administrative support assistant tendered her resignation last week to take a position in Burgaw.
Last but not least, the town is poised to receive a proposal to turn its water and sewer over to the mainland’s Cape Fear Public Utility Authority.
Such a move could sound like a good option, especially with the mess the department is in. Owens and Blair will certainly be pressed to go this route, but my memory has the July 2008 switch in Wilmington as being quite bumpy, not to mention expensive for the new customers.
The ancient pipes running beneath the town are in appalling shape. Mayor Blair was quoted just last week describing the town’s water as “terrible.”
So grab a bag of popping corn and settle in to see how all this pans out. It wouldn’t hurt to send up a prayer or two, either.
