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riental now has regulations making it difficult for internet sweepstakes parlours, tattoo shops, electronic gambling and other adult businesses to set up shop in much of town. On Tuesday night, the Town Board voted 4-0 to put those restrictions into the Town’s General ordinance and the Growth Management Ordinance.

1,000 Feet From Homes Among The Restrictions

The new regs state that such businesses may not set up within 1,000 feet of a residence or a house of worship, daycare center, library, public park, public building and public recreational area, which effectively rules out much of town. Further, they’d be limited to Oriental’s MU District (Mixed Use — the red bits on the zoning map), and would require a Special Use Permit and a public hearing before opening up.

Another restriction: establishments serving food and alcohol may not set up as internet sweepstakes parlours. The regulations prevent bars or restaurants from having any electronic gaming.

Hours of operation would be limited to 10a-10p Sunday through Thursday and 9a-11p Friday and Saturday.

The Town’s Planning Board worked for months in the fall to draw up the restrictions; initially they were tasked with limiting only the internet sweepstakes parlours — where patrons “buy” internet access time on a computer where they can then see if they’ve won money. In time, the Planning Board decided to have other “adult entertainment” come under the same restrictions.

To Restrict Or Not To Restrict At The Town Level

But then, for a moment Tuesday night, there was a suggestion to not place restrictions on the Internet Sweepstakes operations.

At the beginning of Tuesday’s sparsely attended public hearing on the issue, Mayor Bill Sage relayed advice from the Town Attorney, Scott Davis. Davis, said the Mayor, advised him that because of a NC Supreme Court ruling last month that lets the state restrict internet sweepstakes, the Town didn’t have to make its own regulations on the matter. (The NC Supreme Court’s take was that the NC Legislature’s restrictions on such parlours did not violate the First Amendment as the industry had claimed.)

In his comments to the Board, David White, a member of the Town Planning Board, persuaded the Commissioners not to follow the attorney’s advice. The internet sweepstakes industry has deep pockets, White told the Board and he noted that published reports have stated that the gaming industry would try to find legal loopholes in the state’s restrictions. As such, White said, the Town would be better off to have its own limitations in place, just in case the state’s rules on such parlours didn’t hold.

That is what the Town Board then did, after several Commissioners said they strongly agreed with White. The vote was unanimous.

Audit Not Presented

The Board did not hear the results of the audit performed on the Town’s bookkeeping. The Auditor did not attend the meeting as had been anticipated. Mayor Sage said it was a “clean audit” though he immediately followed that by saying that “small staff segregation of duties and responsibilities is a perennial problem with any small town that has limited personnel.” There were no numbers cited.

The South Avenue lawsuit, a second police car, the Town Hall renovation and its financing, and the fire siren, were just some of the other topics that came up at Tuesday night’s meeting.

For more on those stories, see the next page.

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South Avenue Update From Attorney Via Mayor

Mayor Bill Sage reported that attorneys are looking at court dates for the “amorphous discovery period” in a citizen’s lawsuit over the Town’s land swap with Chris Fulcher. Mayor Sage relayed that from the Town Attorney, Scott Davis, who couldn’t attend the Board’s meeting.

(The lawsuit, filed by resident Dave Cox, challenges the Town Board’s July 2012 vote to give up the 6,000 square feet of Avenue A and challenges the legality of abandoning that right of way land as part of the deal. Cox’s legal challenge also argues that the right of way/public access now in the public trust at South Avenue on the harbor cannot be swapped for land that is not dedicated to be in public trust for perpetuity.)

Query: Can Chris Fulcher Help Pay For Legal Fees?

Commissioner Warren Johnson asked if the Town would have a “pier” built on the harbor by this summer. (The Town Manager and Mayor last year had touted the land swap as a way to gain a second Town Dock instead of building from scratch off as previously planned.) In answer to Johnson’s question, the Mayor said he did not know because it depended on what rulings and appeals there might be.

Johnson then asked if the Town Manager could talk to Chris Fulcher – who stands to gain from the land swap – and ask if Fulcher would pay a share of share the Town’s legal expenses, which Johnson estimates to be $20,000. Johnson did not get a direct answer to that question.

Talk of Financing For Town Hall Put Off Til Board’s February Retreat

The Board barely discussed the cost and financing for the Town Hall renovation. Commissioner Warren Johnson noted that of the $288,000 estimated cost, about $20,000 remained unspent as of Tuesday night. Mayor Sage joked that in the end there might be “enough for a hamburger left.” Town Manager and the project’s General Contractor, Bob Maxbauer, asked that discussion of financing — a loan of between $150,000-250,000 — be put off until a Town Board retreat at a date (yet to be set) in February.

(After the meeting, Commissioner Barbara Venturi said the Town was waiting to hear if the state would be releasing about $75,000 in FEMA money to go towards the renovation costs. If not, the cost would be borne fully by the Town.)

Fire Siren Not Up; Fire Department Says It Will Install

The Town Manager told the Board that the fire siren is not on a pole behind the Town Hall yet because County Building Inspector Skip Lee wants to see some details. Maxbauer stated that when Skip Lee “was making his walkthrough for the Certificate of Occupancy” for the building, he would not let the siren apparatus be considered part of the building installation. The Town has had the CO since at least last week.

(Fire Chief Alan Arnfast of the Southeast Pamlico Volunteer Fire District says he learned of this from the Town Manager only yesterday. Arnfast says he’d stopped by Town Hall to see about the delay in re-erecting the siren and pole behind Town Hall, where it had been for 50 years until it was taken down last summer for the buiding’s renovations. Arnfast says that he will see to getting the permit from the County Building Inspector and that the Fire Department will pay for the install in order to expedite things. He hopes that could be as soon as next week.)

(The Town Manager last fall had tried to move the siren to another location in town, on the grounds that it marred the “aesthetics” of the renovated Town Hall. The Fire Department fought that. The Town Board voted two months ago, on November 6, that the siren should be re-erected at Town Hall.)

Parks & Rec Board and Residency

The Town Board approved appointing Pat Stockwell to the Town’s Parks and Recreation Board after changing that Board’s rules so that those who live out of Town can serve on the panel. The rules before this were that board members had to be residents or business owners in Oriental. Three of the five members will still have to be Oriental residents. Commissioner Barbara Venturi, the Board’s liaison to the Parks and Rec Board also asked that the rules change so that the liaison can cast a tie-breaking vote at Parks and Rec meetings. The Town Board approved that change as well.

Bay River Sewer Official: Repairs Started on Sewer Line

An official with Bay River Metropolitan Sewer Authority provided an overview of the moratorium on building while four miles of sewer line between Oriental and Bayboro is repaired. Chris Venters of BRMSA said the repairs began last week and could — he stressed could — be finished within 3 months. In meantime, he said those who want to build could borrow holding tanks that BRMSA has or install one and then integrate that with a “step system” to tap on to the sewer system (once the repairs are finished.) (TownDock.net has learned that the couple planning to build their home in town has decided to hold off until the sewer line issue is resolved.)

$21,500 Police Car & $3,500 Lettering and Lights

The Town Manager reported that a second police vehicle, a Dodge Charger, has been purchased for $21,500. Bob Maxbauer said it had a “small engine but all of the trappings that go with a police car” such as its braking system, and cooling. Its exterior is a dark shade of blue. The Town Board had previously approved spending up to $25,000 to purchase the second police vehicle. Maxbauer signalled that all of it would be spent. He told the Board Tuesday that the Town will pay $3,500 to someone to “letter it and put the lights on it” which will “bring that in at the $25,000 cap.”

The Town has one police officer, Lt. Dwaine Moore. (There was no discussion on when a second police officer might come on staff.)

Tools Bought For Town Hall Renovation

Commissioner Warren Johnson asked about the tools the Town had purchased for the construction project at Town Hall. “Stuff can disappear so quickly,” said Johnson. Heidi Artley who works in the Town Hall office said that identification stickers would be applied to them clearly marking them as Town property. She said an inventory list was being prepared.

Whittaker Creek Marina Neighbors Questioning Boatyard, Campground

The Board was briefed by the Town Manager about a neighborhood conflict concerning the Whittaker Creek Yacht Harbor, where some neighbors have questioned the camping and boatyard work happening on the land there. Town Manager Bob Maxbauer told the Board that “what the Manager has done at this point in time is communicated with 2 of the 3 known correspondences” from neighbors.

Maxbauer said he’d taken “taken a series of photographs of the alleged things” and “contacted the county environmental department to help assess some of the allegations of pollution or boat scraping or whatever. I have also spoken to the county building inspector to see if there is any violations or infractions there. The most important thing I would like to communicate to the board is that I am addressing this situation. I will come back with a full report to this Board and make recommendations as to actions that give the Board options we could take and make down in this area.”

Commissioner Warren Johnson said he’d seen 15-16 boats on the hard at Whittaker Creek but added, “I don’t know how much you can do about that” since the GMO allows marinas to store 10 boats on the nearby land. However, Johnson said, the marina’s owner (Knute Bysheim) “needs a Special Use Permit for that campground he’s got. That’s a blatant violation.”

The Town Manager was less blunt than Johnson as he told the Board about a “conversation” he had with the marina’s owner 2-3 months ago. Maxbauer described it as “let’s say, an inquiry in to what he would have to do to make having campers or the occupancy use of that type there. I did tell him what the process was.” Two weeks ago, says Maxbauer, the owner of Whittaker Creek Yacht Harbor contacted him to say the marina would not seek an SUP and planned to no longer allow the camping. Maxbauer said the marina owner “asked for the support of the Town as he was going to send notices to the people… saying that it wasn’t him per se telling them to get off but that an action of the Town does not allow that and so his hands were tied and they’ve got to go. I said ‘of course, but we do need to see something happen.‘” Maxbauer told the Board, “We’ll be monitoring it.”

Mayor Bill Sage suggested Maxbauer “follow up with that in writing” that the Whittaker Creek owner agreed to no longer allow the camping and that “we expect that done within 30 days or whatever. “

Posted Wednesday January 9, 2013 by Melinda Penkava