Help for sand roads picks up speed in Carova Beach

CURRITUCK COUNTY

Carova Beach's sand roads, cratered with pond-size holes, could get improvements soon after years of resistance by locals who wanted the community to remain mostly undeveloped.

A public hearing is set for Tuesday to create a road service district in Carova Beach, a neighborhood in Currituck County's northern Outer Banks.

The plan includes using occupancy taxes charged on beach rentals to pay for filling and leveling unpaved roads there and in some cases clearing ditches to aid drainage, said Currituck County Commissioner Vance Aydlett.

"From what I've seen, 75 percent of the people in Carova Beach support it," Aydlett said. "They're tired of their vehicles being torn up, wheel bearings and stuff like that."

In the past, locals have resisted a new tax and preferred the rough roads to help deter development. Former Commissioner Ernie Bowden tried several times over nearly 20 years to get a road improvement district.

This time the district would only include Carova Beach, would be paid for with occupancy taxes and would include a local advisory board, Aydlett said.

Residents and county officials have held at least four meetings at the fire station, he said.

An advisory board of locals and emergency personnel would first assess the roads, make a report to commissioners and then work could begin, Aydlett said.

Initial efforts are expected to cost about $300,000. Currituck County raises around $9 million annually in occupancy taxes.

"I have not received any phone calls opposing it from members of the Fruitville Beach Civic Association or from the locals," said Tom Hudak, president of the association. "To me, it looks fine."

In the summer, hundreds of visitors a week stay in beach rental homes in the communities of Carova Beach, Swan Beach, North Swan Beach and others along 11 miles of the narrow beach strand. About 150 people live in the area year-round.

Emergency vehicles and construction trucks struggle to navigate the roads after normal rain.

Dozens of renters were stranded in 2006 after Tropical Storm Ernesto. Along some roads, underground phone lines had surfaced and were crushed by big tires, knocking out service to several homes. Mud holes also tend to be breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

But in the past even some tourists lamented that improvements could take away some of the untamed appeal of Carova Beach.

On Wednesday, Travis Moretti of Virginia Beach stalled his Jeep trying to pass through a mud hole more than 3-feet deep that spanned the width of Ocean Pearl Road, one of the most traveled roads there. It is also the address of the only fire station.

Water rose to his door handles and flooded the engine. An older Jeep pulled him free while his friends pushed. The hole was one of several similar in size on Ocean Pearl.

Even so, Moretti did not support fixing the roads. He liked the unpredictability and wildness of it. Not far away from where he stalled, wild horses grazed and a feral pig scampered across the road.

"It was my Jeep and I still wouldn't support it," he said of the road improvement plan. "It's kind of cool like it is."

Jeff Hampton, (252) 338-0159, jeff.hampton@pilotonline.com