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anuary’s Town Board meeting was rolled into the Board’s quarterly workshop at the end of the month, January 29 at 9a. The town attorney was present to answer questions. The Board discussed adopting rules of procedure and revisions to ordinances. Officer Bill Wichrowski was promoted to Chief of Police of Oriental.

In attendance were Mayor Sally Belangia, Commissioners Paul Jordan, Chris Moffat, Iris Cooper, Lou Ostendorff, and Don McGuire. Also attending were town attorney Scott Davis, Deputy Finance Officer Lisa Millington, and Officer Bill Wichrowski.

The crowd was sparse and no one signed up to speak during Public Comments.

Meeting Recap:

• Officer Bill Wichrowski named Chief of Police
• Rules of Procedure discussed, delayed for further research
• Changes to two Town Ordinances discussed, one tabled and the other to be approved at the February meeting

Officer Bill Wichrowski thanks Town Manager Diane Miller. He will be sworn in as Chief at the February meeting.

Chief of Police

After a closed session at the end of January’s meeting, Commissioners returned to announce that Officer Bill Wichrowski would be promoted to Chief of Police of Oriental. Wichrowski showed surprise at the announcement and was congratulated by the Mayor, Board, and Town Manager.

The role had been filled by Town Manager Diane Miller since the departure of Duane Moore.

Commissioners also voted to start the search for a new second police officer.

Manager’s Report

Town Manager Diane Miller gave a rundown of items the Town was working towards.

• A bid is out for the replacement of the Town’s water valves
• Harbor Waterfronts Board asked Commissioners to reject the current bid for the dinghy dock. “It was budgeted by them at $8,000. The estimate came in at $20k, the bids came in at $33k,” said Miller.
Harbor Waterfronts is reviewing the proposal.
• Police report Officer Wichrowski was out on a call. Manager Miller said there wasn’t anything to report, but asked Commissioners to be aware that the police are “required to touch every road in town. So if you don’t see him and you need him, feel free to call him.”
• The Planning Board requests Commissioners set a public hearing for a short term rental SUP. It is set for the March 10 meeting.

County Leadership Meeting
Town Manager Miller and Commissioner Iris Cooper attended the County Leadership Meeting, and reported back to the Board.

The County is discussing combining this year’s Croaker Festival with the celebration of the 250th Anniversary of signing the Declaration of Independence. The Croaker Festival group meets in the back room at Brantley’s on Saturday morning.

County leadership also discussed “an economic development incentive that is working through the County to try to bring in something new and it is tied to the tax rate.” There was no mention in the Town Board meeting or in the paperwork as to what the development might be.

Pickleball Proposal
The Oriental Pickleball group has a proposal to expand the courts in Lupton Park.

Barbara Miller, chair of the Parks and Recreations department, read from a statement asking Commissioners to consider the Recreation Park on Straight Road for Pickleball courts rather than expanding the courts at Lupton Park.

“While we understand the necessity to expand, our committee unanimously feels that this is not the place. There is not adequate parking or facilities and numerous healthy, mature trees would need to be destroyed.” Barbara Miller said Commissioners should not approve the proposal without considering the “impact on the surrounding community.”

Town Manager Miller said Town is in the information gathering stage at this point. “I would like for you to remember that one thing is existing [the Lupton Park courts], one thing’s gonna take years to make happen out at the Rec Park.” She added that John Deaton’s, chair of the Tree Board, estimation of the trees that would need to be removed did not line up with the Parks and Recreation Board’s estimation.

“We need to get a lot more information together before we make any kind of decision,” she said.

Financials
Manager Miller reported, “Finances look good.” Water revenues are up, partly due to $20,000 received from a class-action lawsuit regarding PFAS in the water wells, she said.

A budget amendment will be needed in the future for sanitation costs. “ The previous board pulled that number down. That’s not gonna be enough to cover it.”

Occupancy tax is up from this time last year, “from $25,000k to $27,000.”

“It’s all good news. I don’t really have anything bad to report,” she said.

Rules of Procedure

Boards use rules of procedure to determine how their meetings will be conducted. This includes determining how tie votes are broken, who gets to vote in a motion, how long public comments can be, how long debates among Commissioners can be, how to fill vacancies.

There are several existing formats like “Robert’s Rules of Order” and Trey Allen’s “Suggested Rules of Order for City Councils,” also known as the Purple Book. Boards and councils can also create their own rules of procedure from these rules, and tailor them to the needs of their municipality. “You can do whatever you like with your rules,” said Attorney Davis, “as long as it’s legal.

Davis did not recommend “Robert’s Rules of Order,” as it’s parliamentary procedure, meant for “a large body, hundreds or thousands of people.”

Davis recommended Commissioners start with the Purple Book that had been adopted with the prior board. He also said the book has “maybe half a dozen, five, ten rules where there’s an either / or. Which do you want?” Davis said there’s an accompanying digital document that helps Commissioners decide which way to go on those rules. If a choice isn’t made, then the rules don’t apply.

He said the previous Board was right to choose the Purple Book, but they “didn’t understand. They thought the Purple Book was a user manual.” They did not determine the either / or choices necessary for those rules to apply.

Commissioners discussed the rules of procedure for other municipalities, including New Bern and Atlantic Beach. They asked for the digital copy of the Purple Book’s either / or rules. No decision was made in the January meeting on what rules to adopt.

Update to the Town’s Charter
The Town’s charter, written in 1899, supersedes state statutes, and created an issue with quorum in the last year. “A lot of the older charters are contrary to the modern statutes,” said Scott Davis. Commissioners want to fix this issue and update the charter to modern standards.

Several state statutes have been adopted to “control how your local government should work,” Davis said. He recommended Commissioners use a free service through the State Legislature to help them update the Charter so as to not have any inconsistencies with state statutes.

Ordinance Revisions

Commissioners looked at revisions to two ordinances: Chapter E, Town of Oriental Docking Facilities and Chapter M, Town of Oriental Tree Ordinance.

Chapter E, Town of Oriental Docking Facilities
Currently, Chapter E “directs us to do things that we do not have jurisdiction to do,” said Manager Miller. Right now, Commissioners cannot change the ordinance in anyway because, “there is a bill in the General Assembly that is stuck, not moving one way or another,” Miller explained. The bill in question concerns abandoned and derelict vessels and the changes the Harbor and Waterfronts Committee want to make concern vessels in the harbor – where Town currently does not have jurisdiction.

Until it is resolved by the State legislature, the Town cannot make and enforce any changes to local laws. Miller explained, “if somebody comes after us, and we’re wrongfully enforcing that ordinance, it could cost you in the tens of thousands of dollars in attorney’s fees.”

The Town Manager explained Chapter E suggestions are for information only, and will not be adopted until the bill is resolved by the General Assembly.

Chapter M, Oriental Tree Ordinance
Chapter M is a general ordinance and has been redlined by the Tree Board for changes, Miller said, with the Attorney’s suggestions in blue.

Janet Chinea, Secretary for the Tree Board was present to answer Commissioners’ questions. She reported that the aim in changing the ordinance was to have greater penalties for damage done to Town trees by contractors.

“It’s thousands of dollars of investment that the town puts into a tree that’s a mature tree,” she said. “It may only cost maybe $200 to plant the tree, but over the course of the 15 years that it takes for it to mature we’ve invested a lot of time and energy into that tree.”

Commissioners agreed to the changes and said the ordinance would be added to the February agenda for final approval.

Board Appointments and Briefings

Commissioners appointed Wayne Riggs to the Bay River Metropolitan Sewer Board and Barbara Hong to the Tourism Board.

Commissioners Iris Cooper made a motion “for the Tourism Board to convene on February 19 to present a briefing to the two liaisons, Commissioner Jordan, and myself above what the plan is for 2026.” The motion passed and the meeting is set for 5p.

Invitation to Asphalt Maintenance

During Commissioner Comments, Commissioner Paul Jordan reported he, along with Commissioner Lou Ostendorff and Charlie Overcash, attended a ‘pavement preservation conference’.

While there, Jordan met with a gentleman from Greenville who, “told me a lot about what Greenville has been doing and what they have done over the years, and actually invited the Commissioners to come to Greenville and for him to take us on a little tour of pavement preservation projects that have worked and the ones that didn’t work.”

Dates to Know

The next Town Board Meeting is Tuesday, February 10 at 6p. Town hall will be closed Monday, February 9.

Related Information

• January Town Board Meeting & Workshop Agenda
• Consent Agenda and Auxiliary Board Reports
• Board Appointment Applications
• Manager’s Report
• Revised SUP Request
• Revised Rules of Procedure
• Revised Tree Ordinance
• Chapter E Revision – for information only

Posted Tuesday February 10, 2026 by Allison DeWeese