CYAN MAGENTA YELLOW BLACK

was even better than his resume in his interview,” the mayor said. “As soon as he sat down with us and talked, pretty much everyone knew he was the one.”

Mr. Steffey said he was happy to have the opportunity, and looks forward to working with the com-missioners and town employees

Town hires administratorBY BRAD RICH

NEWS-TIMES

CAPE CARTERET — Mayor Dave Fowler is looking forward to the rest of 2017, as the town recently hired its first full-time town admin-istrator and may change its charter to reduce the size of the governing board from five commissioners and a mayor to four and a mayor.

The board hired the adminis-trator – 24-year-old Wrightsville Beach Planning Director Zach Stef-fey – after a closed-session special meeting on Feb. 24, and was set to discuss, and maybe set, a public hearing on the charter change, dur-ing its Saturday work session on Monday.

Mr. Steffey, who graduated from UNC-Wilmington with a degree in political science and a minor

in public administration, is due to earn his master’s degree in public administration from UNC-Chapel Hill in August, and got a one-year probationary salary of $56,147. In addition, he received a $2,250 relo-cation allowance. He was expected to start work on Tuesday in time to participate in the Saturday, March 18, budget retreat.

Commissioner Doreen Saunders made the motion to hire Mr. Stef-fey, and was joined in the affirma-tive by Charlie Evans, Don Miller and George Phillips.

Minnie Truax cast the dissent-ing vote, and said after the meeting that she was concerned Mr. Steffey did not have enough administra-tive experience to the town’s first administrator.

“It’s a big step for him,” she

said, but she added that she wants Mr. Steffey to succeed and will work with him.

Mayor Fowler said Mr. Steffey stood out from the other applicants because of his enthusiasm and the knowledge of Cape Carteret he dis-played during his job interview.

The mayor also noted that Mr. Steffey’s experience as a planner in Wrightsville Beach – a coastal bar-rier island town with close to 3,000 permanent residents and thousands more visitors in the summer months – also was appealing, as the town does not plan to hire a planning director. He also said that Mr. Stef-fey has experience as a grant writer, and Cape Carteret has struggled to obtain grants for what many view as needed projects.

“He had a terrific resume, and

BY JACKIE STARKEYNEWS-TIMES

BEAUFORT — With a new county garage underway at the Crystal Coast Industrial Park in Morehead City, county officials say there are no immediate plans to move on further construction projects this year.

“Other than the General Services building, we won’t have any major capital in the next year,” new county manger Tommy Burns confirmed in late January. “We are going to do some maintenance work that’s been deferred … that’s really it.”

On Feb. 16, commission-ers, county staff and construc-tion officials broke ground on the new $2.5 million General Services Operations Facility – the first recommended major building upgrade executed from the county’s 2015 Facilities Master Plan.

“Work by the contractor is underway, they’re pouring foot-ers, doing that sort of thing,” County Planning Director Gene Foxworth said of the prelimi-nary work, which began after the county issued the notice to proceed in early January.

The 14,735-square-foot facil-ity will replace the existing garage and impound lot at 521 Hedrick St., and be home to pub-lic buildings, general services, public works and the Carteret County Area Transport System (CCATS).

The facility, designed by Oakley Collier Architects PA of Rocky Mount – the company who conducted the FMP study for the county – includes office space, training and work rooms, storage areas and a four-bay garage to maintain the county fleet.

Last July, commissioners approved a $2.6 million project budget for the building, before letting the contract to Thomas Simpson Construction of

BY ANNA HARVEYNEWS-TIMES

MOREHEAD CITY — Open waterways are a vital part of Carteret County, which require various dredging opera-tions in order to maintain them.

In 2017, there are five dif-ferent dredging operations anticipated, although not every project has a specific timeline associated with it yet.

County Shore Protection Manager Gregory “Rudi” Rudolph briefly highlighted each

of these five projects recently.The current dredging items

that are anticipated include:• The Morehead City Outer Harbor: Dredge pipeline was being staged at Fort Macon in early March, near the termi-nal groin, in preparation of this project.

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock is conducting this dredging, which comes with a $7.4 mil-lion price tag. As of presstime, a support vessel, the Columbia, was anchored along a western

berth of the harbor. Mr. Rudolph said he had

contacted the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and was waiting to see which particular dredge was expected to be doing the work here and when the work was expected to start. As of early February, the work was expected to begin the third week of March.• Morehead City Inner Harbor: This project will also consist of a pipeline dredge with upland dis-posal to Brandt Island, accord-

ing to Mr. Rudolph. As of presstime, a colorful

dredge could be seen while cross-ing the Newport River bridge. This is the Rockbridge, and belongs to Cottrell Contracting.

This contract price was set at $4,563,645. Information on this project can be found by visiting http://www.carteret-countync.gov/DocumentCenter/View/1394. • Wainwright Slough: This work will be completed with a pipeline dredge with concurrent

disposal to Wainwright Island, according to Mr. Rudolph.

A contract for this job was awarded, for a second time, on March 3, after the original com-pany withdrew.

Now, King Dredging Co. will finish the work for $487,500. With the permitting and engi-neering fees, the total project pricetag is around $670,000, which comes from a mix of local and state funds.

The work was set to begin immediately, according to a

statement given during the spe-cial commissioners meeting on March 3, and is expected to be complete around Saturday, April 1.

Previously, the contract was awarded to the original low-est bidder, TD Eure Marine Construction Co. in February. It was later pulled after the com-pany said it could not execute the terms. County officials did not give any additional

BY ANNA HARVEYNEWS-TIMES

BEAUFORT — Transportation projects will play a large role in the county this year, especially with the projected late-summer opening of the new Gallants Channel replacement bridge.

Work started on the bridge project in March 2014 and by the end of the year, drivers are expected to be using the new high-rise bridge and Highway 70 that will reroute traffic com-

ing to and from Beaufort. The new bridge has been

highly anticipated for years, as drivers have grown discouraged when the Grayden Paul draw-bridge is stuck and takes time to fix it.

The project is roughly $66.4 million and will conclude once the Grayden Paul Bridge, a 1957 drawbridge, is removed.

While last year’s Outlook proclaimed the new bridge was expected to be finished a year ahead of schedule, various fac-

tors pushed it back closer to the fall 2017 deadline, and N.C. Department of Transportation officials seem confident it will open in late summer.

Officials at Conti Enterprises Inc., the contractor that is con-structing the bridge, believe it could be finished this spring, but NCDOT says it should open around the same time the new Highway 70 is ready.

According to Rhett Gerald, an NCDOT engineer oversee-ing the project, the contract

stipulates that lanes must be open by mid-September.

Planning work toward a new bridge – or two bridges – to Harkers Island is also moving forward this year.

Four options were available for consideration at a public meeting in early March that allowed area residents and visi-tors to voice their opinion on which one they would like to see replace the existing bridge structures to and from the island.

Currently, a fixed-span bridge with a 14-foot vertical clear-ance and an aging drawbridge provide the means to get to and from Harkers Island, but in the coming year, work is expected to move forward to get a new system.

Two of the four proposed options would be two bridges that would touch down on an island in the middle of The Straits, while the other two options

The new Gallants Channel bridge is seen in the forefront, with the Newport River high-rise bridge and the Atlantic Beach high-rise seen behind it, show-ing the path drivers will soon take to reach Beaufort and Down East. (Dylan Ray photo)

MOVING ALONG

Transportation seeing key improvements in 2017 and beyond

County starts garage work

Several dredging projects set around area this year

See Town / Page 3C

Cape Carteret Mayor Dave Fowler, front, speaks to a crowd at the groundbreaking ceremony earlier this year for the Cape Carteret Trail, while public works supervisor Danny Taylor, center, and town attor-ney Mike Curtis stand with shovels along Taylor Notion Road. (Brad Rich photo)

See County / Page 3CSee Bridge / Page 2C

See Dredge / Page 3C

Outlook 2017A Community Progress Report

CARTERET COUNTY NEWS-TIMES SUNDAY, MARCH 12, 2017

INDUSTRY & GOVERNMENT

SECTION C