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10. The ends of several streets in Oriental provide public access to the water. What’s your position on preserving the rights-of-way for public use at Wall, King, Neuse, Hodges and Church Streets?

Allen Price: I would be glad to discuss and listen to the different options. I have rarely seen anyone using the property on Wall, King, or Neuse Streets.

Larry Summers: I recently proposed purchasing park benches for several of the street ends. They are on order. For some that is the right answer. All have value to our community and can help our citizens enjoy more of our town water views and access. Unfortunately our newer neighborhoods do not have such street ends. We must preserve what we do have.

Barbara Venturi: All rights of way that serve the public interest should be preserved for public use, as the street ends mentioned in the question currently do.

If a right of way takes the public where it should be allowed to go, for instance to the water. Regardless of property ownership, the public’s interest in having access to the water would keep the right of way in place, such as we have on a number of streets that terminate at the river or some creeks.

Rights of way are not ownership of land. The land under a right of way is in essence “lent” to a town to provide for the public good. Most rights of way in town are roads. If the same person owned all the land the road serviced, that person could petition the State that it no longer served a public good, that the thoroughfare was not needed for public access in which case the land would revert to the owner. I find there is more misunderstanding about what a right-of-way is among the public than any other municipal concept. The town doesn’t “own” a right of way. So, if circumstances change and the public no longer needs it, you just can’t keep a right of way because you want to, the state has rules about such things. If a right of way no longer serves a public function, you can’t keep it. State law allows any resident directly served by a right of way that might be closed by a government the right to sue to have it reconsidered.

David White: All right-of-ways for public access should be preserved for the public to use whether for the ones mentioned above or other properties. These are valuable assets that the Town needs to keep and support. A better job needs to be done promoting and delineating these assets. Where possible, picnic tables, chairs, benches, etc. should be added and signs should be installed letting people know these properties are open to the public. The more we can do to support these areas, the better experiences the public will have.

Sandy Winfrey: They need to stay.

Gwendolyn Gibbs: I would love for these areas to be preserved so that all of our waterfronts are not entirely PRIVATE, these should be kept accessible, available to the public with appropriate signage.

Charlie Overcash: I am for preserving these right of ways.

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11. Hodges Street at the harbor floods often, and becomes impassable. The asphalt near the culverts shows signs of cracks. Should the Town be making plans to make Hodges Street higher?

Larry Summers: Hodges Street is both a major problem and opportunity. There has been some research and study about raising the street. This is also a Powell Bill Issue and it would be difficult to ever fund such a change. Several years ago we raised Main Street and that was successful. I suspect that raising Hodges Street would probably cost more than our entire annual budget. Unless we could find a way to get substantial state or federal funding for such a project our primary actions will have to be just maintaining what we have.

Barbara Venturi: Yes, at least a plan should be made.
The town gets approximately $40,000 dollars from the Powell Bill Funds (state funds for roads) each year. We have to do all our road work with that, or take money from savings to add to it.

Hodges street is another place with grant monies might be necessary and we should look into possible sources. Of course the NC/DOT would most likely be our source, but it might be an easier sell than the Bike Trail. The project would most likely involve CAMA and NC/DWQ (department of water quality) too.

I think the best thing to do with Hodges Street and make downtown more interesting would be to replace some of the lowest part of the road with a bridge so that the culvert could be removed. That would make drainage far better and open up the duck pond to kayak and small boats. I suggested this years ago, and still think it would add to the charm of the town, and it would finally get Hodges Street traffic to slow down. Then get the very lowest area (from Village Gallery driveway to the base of the new bridge) repaved to bring it up about six inches, similar to what was done between the two duck ponds about three years ago. (That road was always awash, and now, most nor’easters don’t get it wet now).

David White: Hodges Street has been flooding since I first came to Oriental in the early ‘90s. The Town has taken a look at the prospect of raising the street in past planning sessions, but it has not been a priority. The cost to raise the street will be very high and additional work needs to be done on the flow of water through the Duck Pond and beyond. With all the Town has on its plate, I am not in favor of raising Hodges Street at the present.

Sandy Winfrey: Making Hodges higher would be nice, but astronomically expensive. Right now, the best we can do is to keep patching. This is not a detriment that needs to be fixed now….there are more important issues that need to be addressed first.

Gwendolyn Gibbs: As a long range project as I am sure that this would be very costly.

Charlie Overcash: We can plan all we like, but the fact is, there is no money for
such a project. We cannot afford to maintain the streets we have now. We
have to do maintenance in bits and pieces. I am open to any avenues that
we can realistically achieve.

Allen Price: While it would be beneficial to the town to prevent flooding on Hodges Street, I do question the feasibility of raising the street due to the cost and effectiveness of doing so. Also of concern is the impact raising the street might have on properties along Hodges Street. If research has been done on this, I would be happy to listen and discuss our options.

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Posted Monday October 26, 2015 by Melinda Penkava