No More Dithering on the Duck Pond

It looked for awhile like the town of Oriental might once again dither on the restoration of Raccoon Creek, affectionately known as the Duck Pond. Early Monday morning, though, Mayor Bill Sage is reported to have signed the Authorization Document to seek funds from the state for project planning.

This process has been dragging out for years. Neighbors have pleaded with the town to close Main Street at the Duck Pond, perhaps replacing it with a footbridge or bicycle bridge, high enough to paddle a small boat under. The street is flooded and impassible often enough that the neighbors want it closed.

Two years ago a Duck Pond Committee was formed. They worked with an engineering firm to develop a plan, which was presented to the public. When completed, the Duck Pond restoration would result in an attractive park-like setting in the heart of the old village, attracting residents and visitors alike.

To complete the project, the town needs grant money. The first grant submission ran into problems, and it was withdrawn. But it is important to keep the project alive. In particular, we need to remind the North Carolina Clean Water Trust Fund that we are serious about pursuing the project.

Last Thursday at the Oriental Town Board agenda meeting, Commissioner Bohmert briefed the board on a grant opportunity requiring the original proposal to be split into more manageable chunks. The first chunk would be a planning grant, which would require NO matching funds from the town. The engineering firm is preparing the grant application, and needed a signed authorization document no later than Monday, February 1.

The ensuing discussion was disappointing. Mayor Sage refused to sign the authorization on the grounds he does not understand the "functions and obligations" the town must "proceed with diligence to perform" if the grant is made.

From where I was sitting, the functions and obligations seemed pretty obvious. We would be requesting a grant to perform planning. The obligation pretty clearly is to spend the money and manage the effort to insure a plan is delivered.

The mayor has since relented and signed the document. It is on its way.

If this document had not been signed, in the normal course of events, it could be another year before a grant opportunity occurs. And the town would have no plan.

That is why it sometimes takes so long for the town to do things.


P.S. Main street was impassible this weekend.

Another Take on Adulthood

Rudyard Kipling lived until 1936, but was a nineteenth century man. He set down his take on leadership and adulthood in a poem reflecting what we may think of as traditional values. It also reflected the unthinking misogyny of his time. It never occurs to him that leadership qualities might apply to women as well as men.

Still, it is worth reflecting on his thoughts.

If

by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Adult Supervision?

In yesterday's New York Times, columnist Thomas L. Friedman asked, rhetorically: "Aren't there any adults here?"

He was talking about the economy and referring to the Congress and other political and financial elites, but the question has broader application.

Friedman quotes Dov Seidman, C.E.O. of LRN, talking about two kinds of values: "situational values" and "sustainable values."

Leaders guided by situational values act however the situation allows, regardless of the wider or longer term interests of their communities. The governing thought:"I'll be gone when the bill comes due." A variation of this attitude in my naval experience was "it won't happen on my watch, and I don't care what happens on the next guy's watch."

Those guided by sustainable values say, instead, "I will never be gone. I will always be here. I must behave in ways that sustain - my employees, my customers, my suppliers, my environment, my country and future generations."

Those guided by sustainable values are the adults in society. They are the nonagenarians who plant trees. They exhibit what we used to call (in the Navy) "forehandedness." They look ahead. They build for the future. We need more adults.

North Carolina's ICW: Neglected Economic Engine

What would you think of an infrastructure project that reduces petroleum imports, reduces congestion on I-95 and 17 without expensive and disruptive construction, and brings sustainable jobs to thirteen counties in Eastern North Carolina? How could that be done? Improve and expand the North Carolina portion of the Atlantic Section of the Intracoastal Waterway as an integral part of the North Carolina and national transportation system.

Advantages:

• Water transport of cargo is the most fuel efficient and lowest cost method. A gallon of fuel moves a ton of cargo eight times as far on water as on land;
• Water transport is by far the least costly and safest of all transportation modes and has the lowest environmental impact;
• A single barge carries as much cargo as 58 trucks; typical tows are from four to fifteen barges – a single tug and fifteen barge tow replaces 870 trucks;
• USDOT projects truck traffic on I-95 will double by 2030 increasing an average of 10,000 trucks per day, equivalent to a dozen fifteen barge tows;
• Increased ICW traffic would offer the opportunity for steel barge and tug construction and maintenance, barge cleaning and storage operations and related economic development opportunities in Eastern North Carolina.

Problems:

• Decades of neglect of the ICW, lack of funding for maintenance dredging, postponed modernization projects, lack of official advocacy by the State of North Carolina;
• Failure to view the ICW as part of an integrated transportation system: the State agency that interfaces with US Corps of Engineers is Fish and Wildlife, not DOT;
• Failure to involve counties and regional councils of government (COGs): the only NC commission with ICW responsibility is the Morehead City Navigation and Pilotage Commission, with responsibility as far as Aurora, but whose membership is required to be from Carteret County (ICW transits 13 counties);
• Shortage of intermodal transshipment facilities at railheads and ocean ports;
• Failure to adapt highway asset management strategies to waterway infrastructure analysis

Recommendations:

• Create a North Carolina ICW Commission with membership from each of the 13 bordering counties, regional COGs and rural transportation planning organizations (RPOs) to develop a comprehensive, coordinated plan for water transport, integrated with land transportation planning and economic development planning;
• Investigate opportunities for intermodal transshipment facilities at Washington, New Bern, Morehead City, Jacksonville, Wilmington, Southport and other locations along the ICW with rail and truck facilities;
• Charge NCDOT with task of ICW transportation planning;
• Assign a cabinet level official to interface with US Army Corps of Engineers

For more information, consult the following:

Waterways Council, Inc., (WCI), the national public policy organization that advocates for a properly funded and well-maintained system of inland waterways and ports.
Bluewater Charts & Books Newsletter -Following the Intracoastal Folly: What is happening to keep the waterway running
NC State Ports Authority - 21stCentury Transportation Intermodal Committee - February 21, 2008 Report

North Carolina Coastal Federation
US Army Corps of Engineers: Inland Navigation - Value to the Nation
North Carolina Beach, Inlet & Waterway Association

STEP: Does it Have a Theme?

It may be unfair, but when I read the plan attributed to the Pamlico County STEP (Small Town Economic Prosperity) plan unveiled at a meeting at Pamlico Community College January 6, I was reminded of Winston Churchill's reaction to a particular dessert. "Madame," he said, "this pudding has no theme."

It is probably unfair to comment, since I didn't attend any of the meetings or do any of the work. A fair assessment of the proposals might be, "they can't hurt."

There may, in fact, be a unifying theme: tourism.

I don't object to tourism. It has the potential to entice visitors to come spend money in the county. That's good.

What the proposed activities don't seem to do is provide a sustained base of economic activity. A sustainable effort creates jobs. The measure of success should be jobs and payroll, preferably year-in and year-out, month-in and month-out.

I don't think a flea market, a revived Blue Crab festival, or a set of marketing materials are likely to accomplish that.

The county needs a more ambitious plan.

Town of Oriental Audit - Some Lessons Learned

I'm glad to note what seems a growing consensus among the Board of Commissioners that the audit of the Town's finances for fiscal year 2009 was competent and thorough.

I believe it likely that the town will continue to use the services of Pittard, Perry and Crone for the next audit. That's good news.

"Big Picture" Lessons from the 2009 audit report:

I think there are a number of lessons to be learned from the most recent audit, including:

1. When the auditor comes, it should be an "all hands on deck" event;

2. The auditor can be expected to investigate and report how things stand as of the day of the audit (June 30), and not what was corrected later;

3. The town gets a better and more thorough audit when the auditor comes to the town instead of doing the job remotely;

4. The purpose of listing deficiencies is to make the Board and the public aware of problems requiring attention - an audit does no good if it fails to spell out specific issues that fall short of good business and accounting practices;

5. The Board of Commissioners, and the Oriental taxpayers, need to be aware not only of the deficiencies reported in audit reports, but also of the auditors' recommended "fixes."

The Nitty-Gritty Details of the 2009 audit report:

I am working on a detailed analysis of the audit's reported Control and Material deficiencies, which I may share. Comments made at the January 5th Town Board meeting concerning the audit shed more heat than light on the subject.

Most of the listed deficiencies have already been corrected.

The major remaining deficiency is in the water system - the apparent discrepancy between the amount of water the town pumps from its wells and the amount billed to its customers.

Heidi Artley, who keeps careful track of water usage for individuals and alerts customers when she sees evidence of possible plumbing leaks, also checks each month to determine the difference between amount of water pumped from the wells and the amount billed. She informed me a few months ago that the percentage of wastage appeared to be increasing, beyond the expected loss from flushing the water system. She has some ideas as to what to look for. Fortunately, Commissioner Johnson has taken on the task of reactivating the town's Water Board, to make recommendations to the Town Board on water issues, including apparent wastage.

One Lesson from the 2008 audit - Look Beyond the Audit Report:

One additional lesson to be learned from the previous (FY 2008) audit is that the Board of Commissioners, and town citizens, need to be aware of and pay attention to communications from the auditor outside of the annual audit report.

For example, the 2008 auditor Seilor Singleton advised the town to make $500,000 in "adjusting journal entries" (AJEs) to the town books.

The auditor's recommended adjustments to the town's General Fund amounted to $250,000, or about one-third of the total amount of the General Fund budget. The adjustments to the Water Fund also amounted to $250,000, or about 125% of the amount of the Water Fund budget.

The auditor did not communicate these recommendations to the Board of Commissioners, and they were never brought to public attention. In the future, they should be.

While I am not an accountant, I do understand that "adjusting journal entries" do not necessarily indicate there have been any problems or accounting errors. AJEs are generally a part of normal accounting procedures. However, AJEs are sometimes used to correct accounting errors, and it appears that at least one of the 2008 AJE recommendations was made in order to reconcile a $3,500 shortfall in the town's cash-on-hand account.

Whether AJEs recommended by the town's outside auditor are made to correct accounting errors or as part of the normal allocation of income and expenditures, the auditor works for the Board of Commissioners and should report all findings and recommendations - including AJEs - directly to the Board.

The preliminary audit report for FY 2009 is not the last communication the town will receive - the town can expect at least one letter from the Local Government Commission approving the audit or directing actions to be taken. There may also be a communication from the auditor forwarding adjusting journal entries. The Board, and the public, should pay as much attention to any such communications as they have to the audit report itself.

Town Board Meeting: Audit

This week's Pamlico News printed an article about Oriental's Town Board meeting of January 5 concerning the town audit and other issues.

This completes the accounts available in Pamlico County news media to citizens who did not attend the meeting.

I did attend the meeting, and over the next few days I will offer some additional commentary.

Oriental's Future: a Vision

A little over a year ago, as the Long Range Planning Committee was nearing completion of its task, Dee Sage asked the members to each draft a vision of what the Town would be like in ten years. My response focused on how the town might grow, and what paths we might follow in economic development.

The final Long Range Plan didn't incorporate every element of my vision. I hope we can have a broader discussion about the future, including a discussion about the future of Pamlico County. To foster such a discussion, I thought it might be useful to share my vision. Over the next few weeks, I will flesh out the vision in more detail.

I would welcome comments.

Oriental in Ten Years

By David Cox

My vision of Oriental in ten years is as follows:

Population: increase to 1750, through a combination of migrants from elsewhere and annexation of neighboring developed land.

Principal economic activities: water dependent activities, including fishing, shrimping and crabbing, expansion of existing marinas to include more boat repair, maintenance and construction; marine trades in support of expanded use of ICW for commercial as well as recreational purposes; support for transiting recreational boats; provision of services in support of green power and improvement of water quality; tourism, with emphasis on outdoor activities associated with the water, including paddling, exploring of marshlands, birding and related activities; recreational fishing.

Public facilities: increased boating infrastructure facilities, including additional town dock at foot of South Avenue (after town wins its lawsuit), associated marine welcoming center, shower, laundry and head; municipal mooring fields in Smith Creek, Raccoon Creek, Neuse River, protected by additional breakwater, and with protected dinghy landing at one of our street ends – this has made Oriental a “must stop” for transiting boaters; additional wildlife boat ramp on Camp Creek in newly annexed part of town.

Businesses: increase in population and tourism and more frequent visits by transiting boaters provides expanded customer base for businesses, including a convenience store, pharmacy, car rental facility, boat rental, and one or more destination restaurants.

Housing: additional housing stock through infill (building on existing lots) in R-1 and R-2 areas and construction of multi family dwellings in R-3.

Demographics: Median age of population decreases due to influx of working age families.

Oriental will have developed greater cooperation with Pamlico County, especially in area of economic development.