BUXTON, N.C. — It's about to be beach nourishment season in the Outer Banks, with Avon, Buxton and Nags Head all having upcoming projects this summer. In Buxton, News 3 learned Thursday that Dare County is in the process of purchasing and removing two oceanfront properties that are located where the dune needs to go for the upcoming project.
"Relieved, you know?" said Scott Dawson, owner of The Lost Colony Museum and Gifts.
It's no secret what the Buxton community has gone through over the last nine months and 19 home collapses into the ocean. But upcoming beach nourishment and expected jetty repair projects here have longtime neighbors like Dawson feeling a breath of fresh air.
"Now we're finally getting what we need," said Dawson.
Thursday, News 3 learned that Dare County is in the process of purchasing and removing two properties for the upcoming project in Buxton.
"One of the permit conditions is that we have to remove all the debris and structures that are in the permitted area and these two houses are in those areas. So we have to remove them in order to put the sand where we want to put it and so we're working to do that," said Dare County Manager Bobby Outten.
Outten preferred not to share what it will cost the county, saying that the discussions with the property owners are still ongoing. Another big update that happened this week is that commissioners approved the plan to bring 2 million cubic yards of sand to Buxton.
In April, commissioners approved the base plan for 1.3 million cubic yards of sand in Buxton. Commissioners also approved the 2 million cubic yard sand plan if FEMA funding ended up coming through. But Outten shared that the county was actually able to come up with the money for the bigger project on its own.
"We've also bid out the financing on these projects, and our financing rate came in a little bit lower than what we anticipated and so that created some excess money. On top of that, we have a fund balance in the beach nourishment fund that that grew during covid, but won't grow at that rating anymore. Long and short of it is, we have enough money, with or without the FEMA money because of those two things, to do the 2 million cubic yard project," said Outten.
Outten shared they also received promising news about the FEMA funding, and if it does come through, it will go toward future beach nourishment projects.
"If we get the FEMA money, then we can reimburse ourselves in the fund balance, and that helps us in the future with future projects and things that we need to do down the road," said Outten.
Avon's beach nourishment project will remain at 300,000 cubic yards of sand and is expected to begin this month. The project will be everything south of the Avon Pier. In Buxton, the beach nourishment project is expected to start the second week of June. The Buxton project will start on the oceanfront equal to where the Haulover day use area is on the sound side and go about midway through the formerly used defense site.
For neighbors like Dawson, with everything the community has gone through, he couldn't be happier about what the future of Buxton looks like with these projects.
"I think it does make the community stronger as we know we've dealt with it before. It's just going to be such a relief," said Dawson.
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