Help!!!! Protect your right to drive on the beach!

by eastcoastsports Wed Nov 16, 2011 1:35 pm

http://www.mynewsletterbuilder.com/email/newsletter/1411116179

As most of you know I pushed to have the beaches in Surf City opened for driving at night after turtle season this past year and it was approved by the Town Council. There is now a movement to have it banned completely by some folks. One lady in particular (Judith Plaut) is petitioning the town in the name of the turtle hospital (whom she DOES NOT speak for, but claims to be). I spoke with Jean Beasley (the turtle lady) and she informed me that Mrs. Judy does not speak for the turtle hospital and the turtle hospital is fine with the driving as long as it is done responsibly, but she (Judy) is trying to use that as a reason to stop the driving on the beach. Jean Beasley will be at the next town meeting in support of driving on the beach. Judy will be there trying to get it stopped with a few others I am sure.

It pains me to no end that I will be at Disney World with my kids on December 1. The meeting starts at 7:00PM at the Surf City town hall. I do need people there in support of driving on the beach but your leader will be absent.

If we let this set precedent we are all in danger of losing our right to drive on beaches like they have to some degree in Hatteras and other places. Carolina beach could be next. I need your help and I need warm bodies there talking about why we need to keep the beach open at least in the fall. If you care about access to fishing I challenge you to come to the meeting and let your voice be heard.

#1 Beach driving allows parents and kids to fish together easily.

#2 Beach driving allows handicapped people better access to fishing.

#3 Beach Driving stimulates the local economy by bringing jobs to everyone in the community. The permit fee is just the tip of the iceberg.

Here is the e-mail she sent out

Hi to all,

Last night I testified as an individual (not just a turtle person) re my concerns about general safety issues with 4WD beach driving for fisherman on Surf City Beach and described the close call part of our group had with a truck at the 806 nest on October 8. Some of you may remember that after this incident I did consult with the Police Chief and the Town Manager and got them to move the Stop sign for beach driving to just north of that nest. Last night I asked the town to reconsider beach driving and asked for their guidance re what citizens who are opposed to beach driving needed to do to get this done. My concerns are three things: safety for people using the beach; financial risks/benefits for the town/taxpayers when we are spending tens of thousands of dollars to renourish the beach on one hand, then allowing driving which compacts the sand and contributes to beach erosion on the other, plus the liability issue s for a lawsuit if someone gets hurt, costs for signage at accesses to warn people there are vehicles driving on the beach; and lastly, the environmental harm to the beach habitat which includes birds, turtles and all those little invertebrates that live in the sand which are food to the birds & fish.

Scientific studies show that significant numbers of invertebrates are crushed when driven over by vehicles. These little burrowing guys are what helps to keep the beach sand healthy, loose and oxygenated, prevents compaction, help build dunes. Last year a nesting sea turtle was killed in Ocracoke at night by a 4WD vehicle illegally in a protected area of the beach. Current Surf City driving dates overlap with sea turtle nesting/hatching and we all know that at night it's hard to see them, plus even in daylight, how could you see a tiny hatchling in time to stop.

At this time we do not have any protected areas of the beach for people or for sea turtles in the driving region. Drivers are asked to "exercise extreme caution while driving on the beach" and to watch out for turtle nests. Ocracoke does have beach areas which ban driving from the lifeguarded swimming beach and does close areas of the beach for nests at hatching times and other endangered/threatened species.

Although my safety issues are far larger than turtles, naturally this is what this mornings papers have picked up on. We've all seen how many people, including families with kids, use the beach at night, many of them walking or running without flashlights in the intertidal zone where the 4WD trucks drive. This is inherently dangerous and unfortunately in some states there has been a long history of accidents, including deaths of both adults & children, serious injuries to folks who were simply walking, sunbathing or playing on beaches when hit by vehicles both in daytime and at night.

In most of these states, beach driving has now been banned except for Volusia County FL, a few areas in Texas, Cumberland Island, GA and in NC. However, NC has been slow to change and there have been huge fights in the national seashore areas in NC.

Surf City has allowed beach driving for fisherman since 1977 in the area from Dolphin Street (just south of the Surf Condos) to the 1300 block of S. Shore Drive (south of the S-curve), but only in the daytime from Sept 10-May 15. To my knowledge, this has never been seriously reconsidered. Last February, Chris Medlin who owns East Coast Tackle (along with his dad Doug who is the Town Council Mayor Pro Term) asked the council to add night driving starting Oct. 1, 2011- May 1,2012, ostensibly for the benefit of handicapped fisherman. This hearing met the technical requirements for advance notice, but was not widely publicized, and only one citizen happened to be there, who did object on safety grounds. Also, the Town Manager and Town Attorney did raise safety and liability concerns for the town. However, the council did agree to a one year trial and gave the police chief the option to nullify the change if there were safety concerns.

The council agreed to reconsider this issue and have invited the Police Chief and me to be there again next meeting for further discussion. I anticipate that the fishermen will also be there to argue their side. Surf City has excellent handicapped access for fisherman, which I pointed out in my testimony last night.

That is not the real issue, but "tradition" will be, even though this town has grown tremendously in the past eleven years and is no longer a sleepy fishing village.

I am asking for your support to attend this meeting, we need lots of bodies there who are calm, unemotional. It's likely that one wouldn't even have to speak, but Town Council does respond when numbers of local residents show up.

If you are willing to help support me, please let me know and I will keep you informed as this progresses. I have begun to do a lot of research on this topic and will try to be as factual as I can. Even if you don't live in Surf City, but use the beach here, you can attend the meeting which should be on Tuesday, December 1. It starts at 7:00PM and usually lasts just an hour or so.

The town officials have been good to the turtle project and hospital so we do not want to do anything that would alienate them. They do realize that the new hospital will be a real plus for the town and that there is huge public support for the turtle project. However, I'm sure some of you have seen some of the vehicles in town with their "People, not Turtles" stickers and that some fisherman are anti the environmental protection concerns.

The town earns very little money from the beach driving permits: 2009-2010 $1110, 2010-2011 $1203, as of 10/10 for 2011-2012 $660. Permits cost $30/season, so we've only had about forty regulars thus far. If the town needs this money, I offered to develop a fund-raiser to offset the loss if driving is banned. 4WD drivers are not the kind of tourism I would like to see grow, but the damage to the outer banks from Hurricane Irene have sent many more of their usual vacationers here this year. Our beach driving is being advertised on the fishing blogs and in the fishing newspapers. If we don't oppose this now there may be much bigger problems in our future.

Thanks,

Judy

We cannot let this happen.

Capt. Chris Medlin

(910) 358-4912

chris@eastcoastsports.com