Carolina Beach leaders look to put cameras on Boardwalk

CAROLINA BEACH, NC (WWAY) — Carolina Beach leaders are looking to buy and install cameras on the Boardwalk after they say it’s been vandalized.

Leaders say since it reopened just before Memorial Day, there have been issues with people carving things into benches and breaking lights at accesses. But the list doesn’t end there.

The swings have been the main target of vandals according to Town Manager Michael Cramer. He says when they were first built there wasn’t a limit on how far you could swing back in them. Cramer says this was a safety hazard because folks walking by while others were swinging would be hit.

To limit the mobility of the swings crews put bungee cords underneath the bed of the seat.

“All the bungee cords would be cut and then we’d replace them again,” said Cramer.

After the problems with the chords, leaders decided to try something more sturdy, steel cables. Cramer says those didn’t work either because someone pulled the cables out from the bolts.

“It really has been a constant difficulty trying to keep these swings in good working order,” he said.

Cramer is not the only one frustrated by these senseless actions.

Courtney McCaffrey works at Fuzz Love and although she hadn’t seen or heard of any of this happening, she agreed with the town’s decision to try to prevent it from reoccurring.

“All this brand new stuff has really helped our business, so it’s too bad,” said McCaffrey.

Richard Pfeilmeier has lived in Carolina Beach for nearly 30 years. He says he thinks kids are to blame for the vandalism.

“There’s a handful of us that would like to catch them,” said Pfeilmeier.

Leaders don’t know who is responsible for these crimes but hope to catch the culprits by installing about six cameras on the Boardwalk to monitor the area.

“It’s just sad that we have to go to these lengths to go and protect those things,” said Cramer.

He says the town wants to put three cameras on the wooden boardwalk and three more on the concrete strip closest to the ocean.

“We really didn’t consider this one of the things we had to do, so we didn’t put it into our budget,” he said.

Cramer hopes council members will be able to readjust the budget next month to accommodate the cost of the cameras. He says the town is in the process of getting quotes from vendors, so he didn’t know how much this would cost at this point.

Eventually leaders would like to expand the surveillance program.