Members of the Blowing Rock Town Council greet one another and prepare just before Mayor Charlie Sellers pounded his gavel to open the Feb. 8 meeting.
BLOWING ROCK — Compromise was the order of the night. Blowing Rock’s Board of Commissioners tabled one discussion after deciding they needed more information and then “half” approved a request.
There was only one speaker from the public, Rick Parsons of 1577 Green Hill Road, who spoke to council members about the speed of traffic on Green Hill Road. He opened by saying that it was the 5-year anniversary of the time he first started addressing the town council about the speeding problem, which he has done every year since. He acknowledged the recent Green Hill Road traffic study and had town manager Fox display on the screen some of the data gleaned from that and apparently other studies. The data shows that southbound traffic on Green Hill Road, while it doesn’t happen all of the time, often reaches from 20 to as much as 40 miles per hour over the posted speed limit. He stated his belief that enforcement of the speed limit is not enough since it is impractical to have an officer patrolling all of the time. He added that while nobody likes speed bumps, that might be the best way to slow drivers down.
Pete Gherini, center, is sworn into office as a member of the Blowing Rock Board of Commissioners, Feb. 8, with Town Clerk Hilari Hubner administering the oath of office.
The regular business portion of the meeting started out on two happy notes, including the first with the swearing in of the fifth and final member of town council, Commissioner Pete Gherini, whose return from a European vacation after Thanksgiving was unavoidably extended until last weekend, causing him to miss the December and January meetings.
Dr. John Davis received a standing ovation as he accepted the Blowing Rock town council’s resolution honoring him for his 40 years of service to the community at Blowing Rock Medical Clinic, from which he recently retired.
The second happy note was the passing of a resolution presented to Dr. John Davis, who served the Blowing Rock community as a physician at Blowing Rock Medical Clinic for some 40 years.
Then the council members got down to the more serious business of the meeting. First, was the board’s appointment of Gherini as the Blowing Rock town council representative on the Blowing Rock Tourism Development Authority Board, an assignment that the former chairman of the Blowing Rock Planning Board welcomed.
The next business item was a proposal to make Maple Street a one-way street from the parking lot behind First Citizens Bank all the way around the Maple Street public parking lot to where it empties onto Sunset Dr., next to the Ragged Gardens and Best Cellar property.
After Town Manager Shane Fox reminded the council members that consultant Roger Brooks had recommended that making it a one-way street, pointing out how narrow it was in places that created bottlenecks for traffic trying to go in opposite directions at the same time, Blowing Rock Police Chief Aaron Miller confessed that what he at first thought might be an easy change, wasn’t.
Miller reported his research of why Maple Street had been changed from a one-way street to accommodate two-way traffic several years ago, as well as his interviews with neighboring residents and businesses, such as Ragged Gardens and Best Cellar and the needs of various delivery trucks serving them.
Miller and the board members exchanged ideas about what the various options might be, but ultimately decided that the discussion should be tabled until more information is obtained.
Mayor Charlie Sellers, far left, looks to Albert Yount, David Harwood, Melissa Pickett and the other (not pictured) commissioners for comments and questions about the Chetola Resort request for $19,431.60 from the town to help pay for the removal of silt from the cofferdam leading to Chetola Lake at the Feb. 8 town council meeting.
The longest discussion item on the agenda turned out to be whether or not to subsidize Chetola Resort’s clearing of the cofferdam as the Middle Ford South Fork of the New River empties into Chetola Lake. Owner Kent Tarbutton spoke via Zoom, requesting $19,431,60 to help offset the cost of dredging the cofferdam and the purchase of a micro-filtering bag. In his written request, Tarbutton explained, “Since September 2020, it has overflowed and dumped many cubic feet of soil into the lake, and we sure would appreciate some help from our town. Charles Taylor bid that at $15 per cubic foot (today we charge $18) and would remove one thousand cubic yards and put it into a large micro-filtering bag.”
Tarbutton had at first requested help from the town for the cofferdam remedy in September 2020, at which point the then sitting commissioners eventually tabled a decision after much discussion. In his most recent request, Tarbutton said that he was requesting the same amount of money as his original submission, although the actual costs were somewhat higher.
The primary justifications for requesting the town’s financial assistance is because the lake has previously been used as a backup water supply for the town, Chetola pumping water out of the lake at little or no cost to the town and the town subsequently selling the water to users, and also because an environmental engineering study had determined that more than 84 percent of the stormwater runoff flowing into the lake via the river was from properties within the town limits, from the area east of Main Street to as far away as Green Hill Road to the east.
Tarbutton also pointed out that the substantial amount of silt that had filled up the cofferdam, which was intended to catch it before it entered the lake, also resulted from loose dirt related to the road construction that widened Valley Boulevard through town. He also reported that many towns charge new developments a stormwater management fee to help offset these sorts of costs, a fee that Blowing Rock apparently does not charge.
While several of the commissioners questioned whether the town has either a legal or moral responsibility to pay for silt and other stormwater runoff driven material when it comes off of private property owned by residents and businesses and not owned by the town, Commissioner David Harwood opined that the more than $200,000 paid to Chetola to assist with their lake dredging expenses in 2014, allegedly to recognize Chetola’s past water contributions, was payment enough. Harwood stated that as far as he was concerned the lake is an amenity for Chetola’s guests and not really essential, especially since Blowing Rock signed a water interconnect agreement with the Town of Boone several years ago in the event of water shortages.
Commissioner Albert Yount stated that he was inclined to vote for approval of the full amount requested, but took great pains to point out United Community Bank’s significant expense to remedy a stormwater issue behind the bank, and at no cost to the town.
Harwood also asked his fellow commissioners if approval of this outlay sets a precedent, wondering whether the town would be responsible for costs required for dredging the lake at Twig’s Restaurant, the Blowing Rock Country Club, or other bodies of water that receive stormwater runoff, should those needs arise.
In the end, Commissioner Doug Matheson moved to award Chetola a payment of $10,000, seconded by Commissioner Melissa Pickett. After considerable discussion, the motion passed, 4-1. Yount, Pickett, Matheson and Gherini voted in favor, Harwood the lone dissenter.
At one point during the discussion, Gherini stated that while in principle he could support $10,000 payment, he asked town manager Fox and Tarbutton whether there were any long-term remedies to better manage the stormwater runoff problem. Both Tarbutton and town engineer Doug Chapman stated that the cofferdam’s intended purpose was to be the more cost effective solution, to catch the silt and any other material before it goes into the lake.
Tarbutton also indicated that the material dredged out of the lake and cofferdam makes for a nutrient rich soil amendment and hoped that many residents would come and pick up some, which would reduce their hauling and dumping expenses.
The council members went into closed session at approximately 7:30 p.m. No decisions were anticipated when they came back into open session to adjourn.
