Carolina Beach leaders terminate lake dredging contract, plan to revisit project

CAROLINA BEACH, NC (WWAY) – In one of its final acts under Mayor Dan Wilcox, Carolina Beach leaders approved to terminate their contract with the company involved in dredging Carolina Beach lake.

The town manager thought it best to end the project completely, facing the option of losing more money and having an angry contractor. That’s something neighbors also think was the best choice to make.

“We need to stop, step back reorganize ourselves and start going forward in another pattern,” said Town Manager Mike Cramer.

The digging is done for now at Carolina Beach lake.

“Terminating the contract now makes sense because otherwise until we can move forward and find some place to put the dredge,” said resident Jerry Bagnell. “There’s no point in having all of the construction equipment just sitting there and us paying for it.”

The town was dumping soil at its treatment plant leased on Army owned land. They were told to stop and seeking other options did not work out when test results showed traces of arsenic was in the sludge. So the town has to end the project completely, losing more than a million dollars.

“That can’t happen again because we may not have another opportunity to do a project at this size and at this scope,” said Mayor Joe Benson.

A project that is needed to insure that future storms or tides do not cause increased flooding for homes and roads around the lake.

“The job still needs to be done,” said the Mayor.

Cramer and newly sworn in Mayor Benson do have it on their agendas. Cramer predicts they’ll come back to it and complete it by the next fiscal year. That’s something neighbors are okay with seeing done.

“I think the consensus in the community is lets stop the contract until we can make sure that we can do it effectively and efficiently,” said Bagnell.

Mayor Benson says he plans to contact the Colonel at the Army base where the town was leasing land to dump the soil. He hopes they can talk about solutions to either continue or move away from dumping at that buffer site.