All county customers must conserve water

All water customers served by the New Hanover County Water and Sewer District are now being asked to conserve water.

The county commissioners on Monday passed a resolution to expand voluntary restrictions to all county systems. Voluntary restrictions already were imposed on customers in the North System, which serves most of the county's water customers.

Now customers in the Kings Grant, Flemington and Monterey Heights systems are being asked to conserve water. Customers served in the Airport System are already under mandatory restrictions because they receive their water from the city of Wilmington, which imposed mandatory restrictions on many outdoor uses in October.

Commissioner Bill Kopp, who also is chairman of the water and sewer district, said the new restrictions will offer a clear and consistent approach across the county.

The increased water restrictions come as North Carolina, and much of the U.S. Southeast, is facing long-term drought conditions. Forecasters predict the drought to continue through the winter.

While the Cape Fear River - which supplies water to Wilmington and parts of Brunswick County - is lower than it should be, the area's aquifers have, so far, not been heavily affected by the drought. They still contain billions of gallons of water, officials say.

The county uses well water drawn from aquifers such as the Castle Hayne, Peedee and near-surface aquifers.

But it's still important to save water, which is why the county is asking residents to cut back even though pumping rates from county wells have been steadily decreasing, said Dennis Ihnat, the county's interim engineering director.

County officials ask residents to follow an alternate-day irrigation schedule. Residents with even-numbered addresses should irrigate from 1 to 4 a.m. on Mondays and Thursdays. Customers with odd-numbered addresses should water from 1 to 4 a.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Customers also should use only hand-held hoses or watering containers to water their lawns and gardens, and should refrain from washing cars and driveways.

The restrictions do not apply to private wells, county officials said.

Erosion threatens west Ocean Isle Beach

Ocean Isle Beach | Tom and Barbara Myers, who own a house near the west end of Ocean Isle Beach, were surprised during a recent walk to find that a big part of the beach is missing.

Yellow caution tape surrounded a home Thursday at the tip of the peninsula, where Tubbs Inlet meets the ocean, and contractors worked to secure a wooden walkway that was in danger of being knocked down by water.

This was not the west end of Ocean Isle Beach that the Myerses knew when they visited their vacation home in the spring.

"It was all sand dunes," Barbara Myers said, pointing to an area now covered by the inlet.

She said she was told by contractors working on the private walkway that about 280 feet of dunes had washed away.

Ocean Isle Beach town officials are accustomed to dealing with beach erosion, but mostly on the eastern end of the resort island.

"The only thing that we know that's caused this is some lunar tides," said Planning Director Justin Whiteside.

He said lunar tides bring high tides that are a foot and a half higher than normal.

High winds and Hurricane Noel, which was closest to the state's coast Nov. 2, also could have contributed to high tides and beach erosion, said Mark Bacon, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Wilmington.

He said higher-than-normal tides combined with large breaking waves are top contributors to beach erosion.

Whiteside said the owners of the house at 149 Ocean Isle West Blvd. received a Coastal Area Management Act permit to place sandbags near their home as an emergency protection step.

But the town doesn't have any relief plans for that end of the island, Mayor Debbie Smith said.

Beach nourishment projects are costly and require permits and long-range planning, she said.

"It takes time if you want to do anything like that," Smith said. "We don't do things that protect individual private property."

The town paid for beach nourishment earlier this year that provided temporary relief for residents on the eastern end of the island. But the sand that was pumped there washed away within a few months.

The erosion problems on both ends of the island are related to the unpredictable patterns of the inlets, said Jeff Warren, coastal hazards specialist for the state's Division of Coastal Management.

Tubbs Inlet, which artificially was moved in 1970, has recently migrated east toward the west end banks of Ocean Isle Beach.

"Erosion could increase," Warren said. "Inlets are very complicated areas."

Warren said the town could consider dredging the inlet. Other options include moving homes away from the water.

"The only thing sandbags do is buy you some time," Warren said.

Opportunity is knocking... Throughout

Opportunity is knocking... Throughout the financial history of our country, it is the people that have had the foresight to act as others retreat that have reaped the benefits of our monetary system. Yes it is true, that in certain parts of the United States, real estate may not be the most prudent investment at this time. However in places like Wilmington N.C and the Wrightsville beach there is a once in a lifetime situation to purchase the home you have always dreamed of at a price that you may never see again and will most certainly change much sooner than later. The federal government has finally started reacting to restore the one part of our economy that has driven our financial growth, Real Estate! The rate cut that has recently taken place, the correction in pricing, and the availability of prime locations have created an almost ÒPerfect StormÓ for the savvy investor. Over the past hundred years, real estate on the East End of Wilmington N.C has always been a solid performer. Since the growth of charlotte into the financial center , this oasis, just a short trip away, has been a Mecca for vacationers, year round residents and of course the WhoÕs who of American culture. Artists, movie stars, authors, directors, and prominent personalities of all kinds have made the Wrightsville Beach and Wilmington their playground. The quaint small towns and of course some of the worlds most beautiful beaches make this one of the most unique areas in the southeast. The next few months will be some of the most exciting we have seen in many years, ripe with great investments. Call one of the real estate professionals listed to the left and let them help you find your dream. The time is now , opportunity is knocking. Will you answer?

City OKs money for convention center

The convention center is coming.The Wilmington City Council voted Wednesday to appropriate $55 million for construction of a riverside convention center, a climax to years of discussion, revision and litigation about the downtown project.Though it passed easily, the vote seemed headed for drama. Councilwoman Laura Padgett said that without an accompanying first-rate hotel, as once planned, the center was only half a project, far from the dream she envisioned for many years and from what meeting planners want. She proposed postponing the vote.In May developer Armada Hoffler backed out of a deal to build a 270-room Marriott high rise next to the center, saying it was no longer economically feasible to develop a hotel in conjunction with the convention center.Councilwoman Pat Delair followed up on Padgett's remarks by saying that the project was far from the original vision.Those comments drew a passionate plea by Councilman Jim Quinn, who said supporters had been working for more than six years, through numerous administrations, to make it a reality. To stop now was foolish, he said, anticipating that a hotel developer would soon follow to take advantage of neighboring space reserved for that purpose."If we build it, a hotel will come, " he said. "We've had enough vacillating and arguing. It's time to make a decision and do something."He said the center would be an economic engine for downtown Wilmington.Quinn's response apparently had its intended effect. Padgett voted "yes" with Delair the sole vote against the center.Padgett, however, did join Delair to vote against waiving a second reading, which means the matter must come up for another vote. That prevented the council from awarding a pair of contracts Wednesday for work on the pilings and parking deck.It was unclear how that delay will affect the project time line. City officials had earlier said they hoped to start work before Christmas with the entire project anticipated to be completed by early 2010.The construction and operation of the convention center is to be paid for by a tax on guests at the city's hotels. Since 2003, revenues from the tax have been building, reaching close to $10 million. The city must break ground on the project by June 30, 2008, or it will lose the money.City officials say that even in their most conservative estimates the money from the tax should easily pay for the center, even though the center is never expected to make a profit. According to the city's 30-year projections, the lowest the hotel-room fund balance will go is about $5 million.

Open House Tours Help You See for Yourself

It's no secret: There's no shortage of homes for sale. Navigating the many online listings can be overwhelming. Attending open houses is a great way to cut down your search time and get a firsthand feel for how properties compare. Create a fun Saturday afternoon out of your open house tour, and promise your companions breaks for lunch and ice cream! Online listings are a great start, yet visiting a property is the best way to see its unique characteristics. Seeing it for yourself allows you to get a true sense of the scale of the home and the lot, as well as the surrounding neighborhood. Create a loose itinerary for your tour and include four to eight properties within reasonable driving distance of one another. Be sure to allow at least 30 minutes for each stop. Bring copies of each property's online listing, taking time before your stop to note specific questions you have for the Realtor. Take notes during the open house for later reference.

Local Government and their Lust For Property Taxes

The lust of government for your money is a known fact. They tax our income, our savings, our property, and our death. Nothing is sacred to these folks as long as they get their money. But one of the biggest cash cows for local governments has been the property tax. This allows the local governments to give generous salaries and exorbitant benefits to our public servants based upon increasing property values.
If there is not enough leeway to raise the taxes then all you have to do is reassess property values and the money will flow in. For example the home I live in has seen the taxes go up from $2,800 in 2001 when we bought the home to $4,600 when they are due on the 15th of this month. (Yes, I know, I am not in an unbiased and generous mood as I write this post anticipating writing the property tax check this week.)
Here is columnist Stephen Henderson’s analysis of what is happening in Detroit these days.
Let’s just put it this way: The yearly growth in government costs (from increases in school funding to expansion in retiree health care costs to negotiated raises for employees) has historically been covered by the inflationary real estate market yielding more tax revenue. Just a few years ago, growth of two or three times the rate of inflation was nothing.But wipe that out, as has apparently happened in Oakland County, and all of a sudden the ledger doesn’t add up anymore. Costs keep growing but government revenue stays flat, or even declines. Detroit Free Press
But with the property value downturn the government will not be able to raise the assessment to pay for their cousin to pick up a nice check and a nicer pension. Detroit is facing this scenario and they are loaded with unbudging unions. Parts of Phoenix, South Florida, and large swaths of California are facing shrinking property values.
I am sure that the assessors will not be lowering the property values as quickly as they raised them over the past five years of large increases. The projects and pork must be funded. But it is the right of every taxpayer to challenge their assessments and potentially lower their property tax.
So I strongly recommend when the local tax bills in your county come out, look them over correctly. And if the valuations are out of whack, make sure you appeal with your local tax office. Because I hate to say this, but I truly believe that the largest purveyor of tax fraud in the next couple of years will be the county assessors office and your local governments as they try to maintain their status quo on the back of your falling property values.

Grant to preserve wetlands

Another piece of the puzzle to preserve Eagles Island as a "green" buffer between Wilmington and the burgeoning suburbs in northern Brunswick County has fallen into place.The New Hanover Soil and Water Conservation District late last month was awarded a $302,000 state grant to purchase 258 acres of mostly wetlands along the western bank of the Cape Fear River.The parcel, like most of Eagles Island, serves as important habitat for migrating waterfowl and the state's only known population of the Rare Skipper butterfly.District Director Shelly Miller said she understands why some might question the need to spend scarce grant dollars on a property that's almost all wet and nearly impossible to access without a boat."But as we've seen with evidence locally, there's always the possibility that wetland regulations can change in the future and this is just too important of a habitat not to protect," she said.Citing the ongoing nature of the negotiations with the district, current property owner V.A. Creech declined to comment on the proposed deal Friday.The district, working with Leland and Cape Fear Resource, Conservation and Development, has already preserved 264 acres on the uninhabited and largely undeveloped island.Much of the rest of the island is already in public hands, with large tracts owned by the N.C. Department of Transportation, state ports and Army Corps of Engineers.But that doesn't mean those parcels couldn't be sold or developed in the future.According to the district's application to the N.C. Natural Heritage Trust Fund, Eagles Island represents the largest area of tidal freshwater marsh habitat in the state.Andy Wood, education director with Audubon North Carolina, said the island fills an important ecological niche in Southeastern North Carolina."It's a pretty spectacular network of marsh habitats interspersed with tidal creeks, so it contains a diverse array of habitat types," he said.Avian visitors to the island include herons, red-winged blackbirds, migrating waterfowl, ospreys, king rails and several songbird species. Other animals found on or around the island, squeezed between the Cape Fear and Brunswick rivers, include deer, alligator and even the occasional bear and bobcat.The marshes and creeks, some of which are old rice canals, also serve as important habitats for many spawning and juvenile fish.Along with its environmental significance, Mike Marsh said Eagles Island is important for another purpose."There's no place like that so near Wilmington that offers those types of hunting opportunities," said the full-time outdoors writer and contributor to the Star-News.Miller said the district has no plans to curtail any recreational or hunting access to the site.She added that the district's long-term vision for Eagles Island, in conjunction with other state and local environmental groups, is to create a protected area that could be a magnet for wildlife, sportsmen and, potentially, eco-tourists with a canoe or kayak trail network.

Sewage plan heads to vote

New Hanover and Pender county commissioners are each expected to vote Monday to move forward on a joint sewage plant that will provide service to the U.S. 421 corridor.It's a mutually beneficial agreement for both counties, said New Hanover County Manager Bruce Shell.The plant will be built in Pender County, along with a water treatment plant that will provide water to both counties. New Hanover will supply the sewage treatment permit that allows up to 4 million gallons per day.The permit is expected to expire in November 2011, Shell said, and the state has indicated the county may not be able to renew it.While the plant will not need to be complete by that time, now is the time to move forward, Shell told the commissioners during a Thursday meeting."We're prepared to do what we need to do," he said. "Right now, we're simply trying to legally position ourselves to move forward."Supplying water and sewer infrastructure to the U.S. 421 corridor, which runs through both New Hanover and Pender counties, will likely lead to large-scale development of the area.Bill Caster, chairman of the New Hanover commissioners, said he expects commercial development will "ramp up" once those services are provided.In October, both boards voted to spend $112,500 each on an engineering analysis and environmental study for the sewage plant.Those studies will be completed by engineering firm McKim & Creed in about five months, Shell said.Early plans call for a plant with 1 million gallons of daily treatment capacity at an estimated cost of $23 million. The plant is expected to be complete in four or five years, Shell said.Both counties have been discussing ways to partner on the project for years.Former Pender County manager John Bauer and officials from both counties were negotiating a deal to build the plant more than a year ago, but those plans died down when Bauer was fired in September 2006.In March, the Pender commissioners decided to build a county water plant at the former BASF site off U.S. 421, and New Hanover and Pender officials have been huddling for months about building the joint sewage plant on the same land.The looming potential of handing over all county and city of Wilmington water and sewer assets to the fledgling Cape Fear Public Utility Authority should not affect the project, Deputy County Attorney Kemp Burpeau told the commissioners.The project will be added to the county's list of assets and liabilities and a provision will be added to the proposed interlocal agreement which states that the project is one of the county's priorities, Burpeau said.The commissioners will vote on the agreement during their Monday meeting, which is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at the New Hanover County Historic Courthouse on Third Street in Wilmington.

Finding the Silver Lining in the Foreclosure Statistics

While most pundits are wringing their hands over the latest foreclosure numbers, Emily Friedman is ahead of the curve and seeing the silver lining in the real estate market. The suffering of those that either made bad borrowing decisions (both lenders and buyers) in the past have created an opportunity for those that have shown some patience.
The foreclosure market of REO properties has to move and the volume that is coming due is tremendous. For those who are positioned correctly, the buying now will be a once in a lifetime opportunty.
And in 5 years time odds are you will run into someone on the golf course who made their fortune in this downturn.
And because lenders want to avoid the cost associated with holding on to an empty home for months, they are more willing to lower the asking price in order to sell it quickly. In turn, buyers are finding firesale prices at foreclosure auctions. “There is some positive in the whole doom and gloom of the housing market, in that buyers who have been shut out of the market in the last five years now have an opportunity to buy a home and realize the dream of ownership or upgrade to bigger homes,” Wright told ABCNEWS.com. “And nobody likes to see a home on their block sit empty.” via ABC News