Beach mayors: County needs to help pay for re-nourishment

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — Beach towns are asking for the county to help with beach re-nourishment.

Kure Beach Mayor Dean Lambeth said since federal funding was cut, they’ve been asking the county to chip in with their 17.5% portion of the bill. At a meeting last night, Lambeth said the topic got heated because their funding agreement expires June 30th and the county won’t help.

New Hanover County Commission Chair Jonathan Barfield disagrees.

“When we go to Raleigh and when we go to Washington, the first thing our representatives ask us is, ‘What’s the county doing?’ And the county’s not doing anything,” Lambeth said. “So it’s county beaches, state beaches, but they’re not helping us a bit.”

“The county has always been at the table to help our communities with beach re-nourishment,” Barfield said. “And at the end of the day, as I mentioned before, all of beach towns is going to have to have skin in the game which means that Kure Beach, Carolina Beach and Wrightsville Beach will have to put resources to the table along with the county funds to make things work.”

Lambeth said they do not plan to re-sign the original funding agreement on June 30, so he said the county has requested a six-month extension to figure out a new plan.