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esignating restricted funds to a road repair fund, a financial health report from the auditor and an alert from Officer Bill Wichrowski on a potential real estate scam were among the highlights of the November 2025 Town Board meeting.

Present at the meeting were Mayor Sally Belangia, Commissioners Breena Litzenberger, Charlie Overcash, and Sandy Winfrey. Commissioners Bonnie Crosser and Allen Price were absent. The meeting was 70 minutes.

Present at the back of the room were Commissioners elect Paul Jordan, Iris Cooper, Lou Ostendorff, Dan McGuire, and Chris Moffat.

Also in attendance: Town Manager Diane Miller, and Officer Bill Wichrowski and his dog, Spanky. Finance Officer Lisa Millington was at finance officer school.

Meeting Recap:

• Motion approved to designate $100,000 surplus from the 2024-25 budget as a restricted fund for road repair in the 2025-26 calendar year
• Motion approved to utilize unused storm prep funds to provide School of Government training to educate the newly elected commissioners
• Dinghy dock seawall to the road is failing; motion approved to review replacement bids
• Manager Miller states she knows who’s been overflowing green waste bins, tampering with water meters and other ordinance violations
• “Decorate Broad Street with reckless abandon” is the request from the Town Board as much of Broad Street’s electrical poles will not be lit for Christmas
• Motion approved to recognize Kathy Walters as a new member of the Planning Board.
• Oriental town government will be closed November 27 and 28 for Thanksgiving and December 24, 25 and 26 for Christmas

Public Comments:

Larry Summers made the only public comment.

Summers, a former Town commissioner, said Robert’s Rules of Order does not cover everything. Regarding the recording of minutes, he said “Roberts Rules of Order is not meant for a group that meets once a month.” Summers also shared that to have “nice, friendly, open debates” Robert’s Rules require two sessions of ten minutes of debate which he said is way too long a time to debate. He suggested one session of five minutes or less.

Summers also reminded the Town Board although there is no problem with setting up and funding a road repair fund, Oriental will not be able to do anything about road repairs until the Water Valve Replacement project is finished because the ditches and roads will be torn up.

Larry Summers has suggestions on Robert’s Rules of Order.

Manager Miller responded to Summers regarding using Robert’s Rules of Order: she said the attorney created “a nice, simple set of rules” for the incoming board to review and adopt if they chose. Mayor Sally said: “sounds good—although I just memorized the current Roberts Rules of Order and burned this one” (she held up the ‘Purple Book’, voted out at October’s meeting).

Restricting Funds for Road Repair

Miller told the board there is already $153,415 designated to a road repair fund and another $30,000 from the State’s Powell Fund will be added by the end of the year. She said the fund will have $180,000 before any additional funds are restricted.

Commissioner Overcash provided context about the proposal: “Commissioner Litzenberger proposed over a year and half ago the need for a restricted fund for road repairs, however at that time some of our existing commissioners were opposed.”

He continued, “recently, one of our commissioners brought up the proposal again—but I wanted everyone to know it was Commissioner Litzenberger who first proposed the restricted funds for road repairs.”

Overcash proposed to put in $100,000 for the 2025-26 fiscal year from the 2024-25 surplus into a restricted fund for road repair, a change from the motion’s earlier wording of 50% of the 2024-25 surplus. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Litzenberger and passed unanimously.

Combined with the existing funds, the road repair fund will have $280,000 available in January 2026. Miller said the incoming board can decide to add more, but added this is a good adjustment. She said, “this is our first step.”

New Town Board Commissioner Training Set in Wilmington

All newly elected commissioners across the state must attend courses in ethics and government management.

Commissioner Litzenberger requested a budget amendment to utilize $3,550 in unused storm preparation funds to provide training from the School of Government in Wilmington for the new Town Board commissioners. It was approved unanimously.

Miller said the storm prep fund has $15,664. The commissioners elect asked Miller to join them and help “translate.” The two-day training session was offered with a 20% discount per commissioner because there is a whole new board. Commissioner elect Moffat will stay at his own lodging.

Auditor’s Health Report: “Oriental is Right on Target”

“Oriental had a very good year,” according to CPA Cindy Randolph, who reported to the Town Board the results of the 2025 audit. Randolph said she has been conducting audits of local governments for 30 years and indicated it is her second year working with Oriental.

Auditor Cindy Randolph delivers a summary of the Year End June 30, 2025 audit.

She submitted the audit to the Local Government Commission which is still in the process of reviewing. Randolph noted the Commission has a new process this year everyone is getting used to.

Commissioner Overcash asked Randolph for a health report. Randolph replied, “compared to the previous year, Oriental is looking very good, for a government of your size. They (Local Government Commission) have a huge spreadsheet (which is used to) compare to other towns our size—Oriental is right on target where we need to be.”

Randolph explained if there was an issue, the Commission would flag “a financial performance indicator” that would require action to remedy. She gave past examples of not reconciling financials on a monthly basis or being cited for not covering operating costs. Manager Miller noted that now financials are “on the money, to the penny every month.”

Commissioner Litzenberger queried the auditor regarding the increased water rates effect on revenues. Randolph and Miller explained the report included across the board increases from 2024 and “highest rate” increases applied in 2025. Miller said raising the rates allowed Oriental to cover our operating costs. Randolph said it addressed a “financial performance indicator.”

Randolph noted one of the required changes for all towns in North Carolina is to implement a statement for compensated absences which resulted in a $49,000 restatement. A restatement is a mandatory revision of a previous financial statement, in this case, to accommodate the new requirement for stating compensated absences.

Oriental Town General Fund Summary for the Year Ending June 30, 2025
Total Revenues: $ 1,260,842
Total Expenditures: $ 1,063,953
Excess of Revenue: $ 196,889

Source: Auditor’s Report for Year ending June 30, 2025, Exhibit 7, page 19

New Town Board’s First Duty? Judging the Light Up Oriental Contest

Newly elected Town Board members Paul Moffat, Iris Cooper, Paul Jordan, Don McGuire and Lou Ostendorff will be pressed into service immediately to judge the Spirit of Christmas Light Up Oriental Contest.

Miller reminded the new board they will need to start checking out the festive lighting decorations on Monday, December 8 and continue through December 10 as some residents get their lights up early and others late.

Decorate Broad Street

Commissioner Overcash requested TownDock to “get the word out to citizens who live on Broad Street encouraging them to decorate.” Miller asked for residents to “decorate Broad Street with reckless abandon” because most of Broad Street will not be lit.

Why is a section of Broad Street dark this Christmas? Last year a big tree branch came down at Nautical Wheelers and a truck struck at the corner of Church Street. Thus, both sides of a section of Broad Street are dark. Miller requested help from Duke Power, but they said they will not get to it until January 2026.

Tree Limb Removal was “by the Book”

Manager Miller arranged a meeting with the public, Duke Power and the tree clearing company hired by Duke to trim the limbs from the village trees in order to air complaints about overpruning. Miller said although the results look horrible—the tree clearing company must trim the tree with a clearance of 15 feet from the high power line.

She said the bigger problem is the trees should have been trimmed in a seven year rotation. Some trees did not get trimmed last time and got 14 years of pruning. Oriental had more than one arborist on hand to look at the health of trees.

Manager Miller confirmed, “everything was done according to spec.” Clean up is running behind, she said, because there are more people cutting than picking up. She asked residents, “if you see something sit for more than a week, please let us know.”

Budget Amendments Fund the Tree Board and the Merit Increase

The board approved two budget amendments utilizing portions of the unused salary in the police budget.

The first amendment approved funding the merit increases for town employees at a cost of $11,336. The second amendment supplements the donations in the Tree Board account to clean up the town trees. The Tree Board needs more funds because of the identified liability from bad trees: trees that need to be removed because they are becoming a danger and a liability.

The bad tree list keeps growing.

Commissioner Litzenberger was confused about the accounting machinations required to use the funds donated to the Tree Board. Miller explained all boards had not been set up similar to the Harbor Waterfront Board with both a cash account (1010) and an usable expense (1030) account.

The Tree Board, Parks & Rec, and the Tennis Court Board were only set up with a 1010 account and can only spend what they were allocated for the fiscal year. For example, the Tree Board was allocated $4,000 in 2025.

Tree Board Changes Ordinance to Protect Trees

The Tree Board is issuing an ordinance change to obtain more control over contractors damaging town trees. The penalties for cutting off roots or causing other damage on build sites is a fine up to $500 and the requirement to provide two new trees for every tree killed.

Tree Board Chair John Deaton or other board members go to every development site to ensure contractors know which trees are ours and encourage contractors to auger under roots and not chop them off. In the future, Deaton will send a building inspector out to stop the build until the town trees are protected.

The proposed new ordinance will be shared with the incoming Town Board. Miller said because it is a general ordinance it does not need a public hearing.

Dinghy Dock Replacement Bid Solicitation Approved

“The wooden seawall facing the road is failing,” said the Town Manager. “That means eventually the road will fail.” She continued, “we are asking for vinyl bulkhead sheet piling to go in landward behind the failing wooden seawall.”

She said the new bulkhead would not take up more space in the water, adding most of the decking would need to be replaced in to get to the failing “bits.” Miller assured the board“a good portion of this decking will be reused for repairs, because that is all marine treated wood put in 2019. We will save what we can.”

The project will require two rounds of bidding. Motion to get bids unanimously approved.

Don’t Put Barbie on Your Water Meter

Residents and visitors flouting ordinances kept town employees busy last month. Miller shared some of the highlights:

• One resident buried their water meter, put their own lock on the meter, placed a Barbie doll on the meter, and threatened an Oriental town employee when he came out to read the meter. The resident will soon receive a legal letter warning against further tampering will result in meter removal and the resident will have to dig a well or get water from Pamlico County.

Miller reminded everyone only town employees and certified plumbers can touch the town water meters. “It is a state and federal statute to keep the water supply safe,” Miller and the town attorney are preparing a draft for the board to review.

Ordinance violator caught on camera throwing trash in the green waste dumpsters. (photo provided by the Town of Oriental)

• Two residents who “piled both dumpsters four feet over the top when it clearly says do not fill above this line,” says the Town Manager. One person has come forward and apologized to Manager Miller for the overfill.

Another person threw household trash into the dumpsters.

Miller acknowledged: “I get that you have done all of the work and are tired, however, we had to have guys take two hours to take stuff out and we only have three employees.”

• Transient sailors were also in violation of town ordinances. A catamaran docked on the Hodges Street Free dock, blocking entrance to slips at Oriental Harbor Marina and covering the bulkhead that serves as emergency egress into the harbor (it is painted red on the water side).

“Oriental has other spots for larger boats,” Miller said, “and will happily help sailors find a more suitable slip.”

Real Estate Scams on the Rise

Officer Wichrowski, accompanied by his canine sidekick Spanky, devoted his comments to alerting the Town Board to what he considers “six incidents of attempted real estate fraud” he has encountered in the past month.

Officer Bill and Spanky warn the town of rising real estate scams.

The scam, as he described it, involves fraudsters who represent themselves as owners of local property—usually vacant lots—presenting fake identification (names, DOB, addresses, license or passport numbers) to real estate agents. Officer Wichrowski said he talked to the FBI and local authorities and he said they told him the only way to protect your property is to be vigilant.

One way to stay vigilant, Officer Bill recommended, was to go to the Register of Deeds tab on the Pamlico County web site and check the deeds registered in your name. Officer Bill implored those in attendance to “tell everyone you know.”

Pamlico County Register of Deeds Property Check

Notes from the Manager’s Report

There were no updates from Auxiliary Board Members.

In Tourism Board Chair Marsha Paplham’s absence, Miller reported preparations for the Spirit of Christmas were proceeding well and that Paplham is seeking volunteers to help to fill, light and distribute the luminaries for the “Night of Lights.”

Miller said donations are steadily coming in for the Tree of Lights celebration. The tree in Lou Mac Park will be lit Thursday December 11 at 5p.

New Planning Board Member Unanimously Approved
Kathy Walters takes the seat of Carl Crothers. Miller said the Planning Board thanked Carl for his thoughtful work and his calming presence in difficult discussions.

Replacing the Water Tank Mixer
The mixer in a water tank stirs water to prevent a biofilm from forming on top. Miller said Oriental may need to replace theirs because in the winter, the town uses less water and may only dip into one tank.

Commissioner Overcash asked Miller for an update on the greensand filtration system. Miller said it was working well for Oriental, however Pamlico County has had mixed success using the system.

Greensand filters use a specially formulated filter media made from a naturally mined form of glauconite greensand. The greensand filter media has a special coating of manganese oxide, which oxidizes iron, manganese, and iron in the water upon contact with the filter media.

Request for NC DEQ to Drop Fines
The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NC DEQ) told Town Manager Miller that Oriental was late to submit a request for the dismissal of fines. Miller is formally disputing that claim and says she literally has the receipts from the post office, DEQ and town hall to prove it.

Miller is also waiting for DEQ to approve the bid for the Valve Replacement Project and for a cost/benefit analysis comparing rehab versus using a prefabricated building for the water plant upgrades.

Holiday Closings

Oriental town hall will be closed December 24, 25 and 26 and January 1, 2026. Open on December 30 and New Year’s Eve (December 31).

Members of the 2023-2025 Board of Commissioners congratulate incoming Commissioners elect.

Current Town Board’s Farewell

The December town board meeting will be opened by the current board and closed by the newly elected board.

Regarding the recent election, Commissioner Overcash said: “I want to thank the town for showing up. It was a great turnout. We are going to have a new board that is going to do a great job.”

On that note, Commissioner Winfrey proclaimed: “With a heavy heart, I am going to make a motion, which is possibly my last motion—to adjourn.”

Officer Bill’s canine companion Spanky.

Dates to Know

The next Town Board Meeting will be Tuesday, December 9 at 6p.

Related Information

• Pamlico County Register of Deeds Property Check
• November Meeting Agenda
• Consent Agenda
• Manager’s Report
• Auxiliary Board Reports
• Budget Audit
• Road Repair Fund Capital Reserve
• Budget Amendments
• Updated Tree Ordinance
• Dinghy Dock Bid
• Planning Board Appointment
• Police Report

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Story & photos by Laurie Stahlmann

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Posted Thursday December 4, 2025 by Allison DeWeese