BCA will share Buxton Beach presentation at Board of Commissioners meeting on Monday, Feb. 3

February 1, 2025 | Local News | By: Joy Crist

The four-member BCA panel at the NCBIWA Conference. From left to right: Harris, Jennette, Dawson, and Barley

Members of the Buxton Civic Association (BCA) will share a presentation and update on the organization’s ongoing efforts to remediate and stabilize Buxton Beach at the next Dare County Board of Commissioners (BOC) meeting on Monday, February 3, at 9:00 a.m.

Listed as Item 6 on the BOC agenda, the presentation is an edited version of the talk that the BCA gave at the annual North Carolina Beach, Inlet and Waterway Association (NCBIWA) Conference in November, which was held in Wilmington, N.C.

The NCBIWA is “dedicated to preserving, protecting and enhancing the North Carolina Coast,” according to its website, and the BCA joined the NCBIWA shortly after forming in April 2024, becoming the first Hatteras Island-based group to become a member.

Buxton Beach on Sunday, September 29, before the USACE response action. CHNS photo.

Dare County Manager and Attorney Bobby Outten is the current NCBIWA Chairman, and the organization includes dozens of local, state, and federal government agencies, engineers and consultants, legislators, and basically groups who have a stake in the state’s coastline.

The initial presentation, which was delivered to a crowd of 200 conference attendees, generated an enthusiastic response, and ushered in a wave of new contacts who wanted to help BCA members with their efforts to protect and enhance Buxton Beach.

“The response was overwhelming. I think most people were surprised, because they had never heard about Buxton Beach before,” said BCA President Heather Jennette shortly after the November conference. “This was the first time many of them were hearing about what’s happening, and we’ve just been living it for more than a year.”

“We were just flooded with people coming up to us with ideas, and asking how they could help,” said BCA Co-Vice President Brian Harris. “It was unbelievable.”

The revised February 3 presentation will include the original background information and timeline of the environmental and public safety issues at Buxton Beach, which first surfaced in September 2023, but it will also have updates on the progress that has been made since the Wilmington conference debut.

“We’re recapping and somewhat redoing what we presented in Wilmington, but we’re adding the contacts we made, and the conversations that we had, because of the Wilmington conference response,” said Harris. “So, it will be a lot more information, and it’s important for the Board of Commissioners and the [Hatteras Island] community to know what is happening now.

BCA Co-Vice President Dawson speaks at the Jan. 6 BOC meeting from the Fessenden Center. Dare County image.

“Basically, We’re pushing for beach stabilization. We want the jetties fixed ahead of the 2026 beach nourishment project, and we’re exploring all kinds of avenues to move forward,” he added. “We’ll bring all those options up on Monday.”

The BCA team hopes that Hatteras Islanders will show their support and their engagement by attending Monday’s BOC meeting, either in person at the at the Dare County Administration Building in Manteo, or at the Fessenden Center Annex in Buxton where the monthly BOC meetings are livestreamed.

“Buxton residents and everyone on the island needs to show up at the Annex Building or come to Manteo. We really need to pack the house,” said Harris. “We get more attention and a lot more done when we’re all involved, and we show that our community really cares about these issues, and that we want a solution.”

How to attend the Feb. 3 Board of Commissioners meeting

The February 3 BOC meeting will be held at 9:00 a.m. at the Dare County Administration Building located at 954 Marshall C. Collins Drive in Manteo.
The meeting will also be livestreamed at the Fessenden Center Annex at 47013 Buxton Back Road. Attendees can also comment from the Fessenden Center Annex during the public comments portion of the monthly meeting.

How to watch the Feb. 3 Board of Commissioners meeting

Meetings are livestreamed on Dare County’s YouTube channel and CurrentTV.org, and they are also available for streaming-on-demand on both platforms.
Videos of meetings are generally available the next day on the Dare County website, DareNC.gov.
Local Spectrum TV customers can watch the meetings live on Channel 191 (Current TV).

To view the full agenda packet for the board’s February 3 meeting, click here. For more information about the Dare County Board of Commissioners, visit DareNC.gov/BOC.