North Carolina Closing Hotels and Gas Stations Along NC I-95?You won't ever read the above headline, but the analogy is starting to ring true along our ICW, our sounds and our inland waterways. As we "condo-ize" and otherwise remove boating ramps, fueling locations, hurricane holes, boatyards that provide "on hand" hurricane safety, and at-water / out-of-water repair and restoration businesses, we are creating the I-95 equivalent of the above headline for our important transient boating traffic. NC isn't alone with this problem, but we should be very concerned and start taking steps to identify solutions.
NC has started the process by setting up the NC Waterfront Access Study Committee which met September 26th in Raleigh. Although only one member (Robin Mann of Paul Mann Custom Boats) of the 21 member board represents the boating industry, the effort deserves industry support and involvement since the industry's impact is billions of dollars to the state with the NC boat building component alone selling over $500,000,000 annually [ See committee member list: www.ncseagrant.org/files/WASC_roster.pdf ].
NC Sea Grant is the lead agency for this committee and has a website with details and information at www.ncseagrant.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=page&filename
=waterfronts.html. Anyone having boating industry questions about this meeting or other matters related to the Committee purview may contact North Carolina Sea Grant at 919/515-2454 or send e-mail to waterfronts@ncsu.edu, and, if you will, copy me at Mike.Bradley@NCwaterways.com. The Waterfront Access Study Committee will conduct most of its future meetings along the coast. The committee plans to have a final report ready by mid-April 2007.
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