Croatan Beach updates

As you may have seen, Croatan beach incurred significant damage during the week of May 9th's storm. On behalf of our community, Mike Kelly, CCL President, contacted (including photos) our District #6 current and future council representatives, Guy Tower and Rosemary Wilson, along with the Public Works Director LJ Hansen and two of the city engineers to alert them of the damage and ask for assistance. Since then Mike has received a number of inquires from concerned residents so in an effort to keep our community updated on the latest communications regarding the public beach at Croatan we will periodically post updates on the is page.

Should you have any questions please feel free to contact us at president@croatanbeach.org or support@croatanbeach.org.

May 14, 2022 - from Mike to a concerned resident...

The primary purpose in putting the sand down is to build up the berm front of the dunes.  When we get 
storms like we had, the berm is sacrificed to protect the dunes.  The additional effect is that it 
widens the beach and enhances the natural accretion cycle. I have pasted the “profile” that 
was part of the study done in April 2017.  I have been working this since early 2016.  
That effort has taken six years to get the sand just put down and it was only 38% of what the 
study stated was needed.  Why so long?  The effort required the study, permits, and 3 solicitations.  
By the time the project was started, it was inadequately funded.  $1.76 M was allocated in 2016 
through the efforts of then Councilman John Uhrin. In spite of known rising costs, no additional 
funds were allocated.

With the sand put down three weeks ago, the berms did their job.  Starting approximately 75 yards 
north of your property the dunes were not significantly impacted, and the structures build are fine.  
However, there was not enough sand put down in the Croatan Rd. area and none going further to the
south.  With no berm to protect the dunes, the resultant damage is predictable.

So, to answer your question, it wasn’t what the city did, it was what they didn’t do.  Simply 
stated, they didn’t put enough sand down to cover the entire beach and create the profile that 
the conceptual plan recommended.

Much of the sand put down is right offshore of the beach.  I believe that it will come back ashore 
with the natural accretion cycle. There was recent repair to the weir which “may” help a little bit 
and have a cascading effect.  I am not sure how far south that will go. Hopefully, we won’t get 
another storm in the next several weeks like the one we just had.

I think that there is a solution, and it involves the weir structure.  My dialog over the years 
is that the city engineers are resistant to any changes to the weir.  That said, there is $4.98 M 
in the FY 23-24 budget to study and replace the weir. Whether that amount is enough, I don’t know.  
The Director of Public Works sent me an email in which he stated, “We are very much aware that the 
residents of Croatan would like to see a more developed beach, but this will likely not be a project 
that would, or could, further that aim.”  I will not put my thoughts into this note and only say that 
we need to change his approach and ensure that any replacement of the weir will have 
a positive effect for the Croatan Public Beach.

May 14, 2022 -

pictures of the beach by Anne Mannarino

May 13, 2022 -

email to the Croatan community regarding the beach