Kitty Hawk approves fiscal year 2022-23 budget

Published 8:25 am Sunday, June 12, 2022

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The Kitty Hawk Town Council, at its June 6 regular session meeting, approved a new budget, adopted an existing land use plan, set two public hearings and made several town board and committee appointments.

One of the first action items for the night included a brief summary and adoption of a $11,033,617 fiscal year 2022-23 budget.

According to town manager Andy Stewart, the budget as presented includes an eight percent increase in projected revenues over the previous year’s budget with no change in the tax rate.

Get the latest headlines sent to you

Stewart said there are some capital improvement projects included such as beach nourishment and a new police/fire/EMS station, as well as some park improvements, but no new positions are being added.

In accordance with state law that requires a regular land use plan review, council adopted an existing 2004 CAMA core land use plan update as a valid plan for Kitty Hawk until such time as a new updated plan is presented to council.

Planning director Rob Testerman explained that Monday’s action meets the review requirement, even though there were no changes made to the plan.

Council then scheduled two public hearings for the July 5 meeting. One is for a proposal to amend Sec. 42-250 to allow tattoo studios as a special use in the BC-1 district, the other is for a special use permit request to establish a tattoo studio in the BC-1 district at 3608 North Croatan Highway.

Taking up the first in a series of appointments, Bryan Parker and Dusty Rhodes were reappointed regular Planning Board members and Blair Meads reappointed as an alternate. In a separate motion, John Richeson was reappointed as Planning Board chair and Parker reappointed as Planning Board vice-chair.

For Board of Adjustment, members Timothy Fish and Abby Berquist were reappointed regular members and William Yetzer was reappointed as an alternate.

Then Paul Henriques was reappointed to a 2-year term on the Recreation Committee and Peter Mantz was named to fill a vacant seat previously held by Tom Heffner, who had asked not to be reappointed.

In other business for the night, Council approved council meeting minutes from March 28, April 5 and May 2, accepted a $154,000 grant from Streamflow Rehabilitation Assistance Program to pay for vegetative debris removal in the town’s canals, approved $27,200 received for the sale of the police department’s military surplus Ford 350 to purchase new firearms, firearms equipment and a radar trailer and recognized a $3,125 police department safety program grant that will be used to purchase knee and elbow protectors and gear bags.

Council also asked Testerman to review town restrictions on food truck vendors and present a summary at a future council meeting.

The evening ended with council entering a closed session to discuss a confidential matter with town attorney Casey C. Varnell.

The next Kitty Hawk Town Council Meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Tuesday, July 5.

READ ABOUT MORE NEWS HERE.