WHITE LAKE — Commissioners were asked Tuesday to turn over “saving White Lake” to a nonprofit organization dedicated to the task.
Alan Pittman, of 141 Atkinson Drive, made the pitch in a presentation. He’s appeared before the board on multiple occasions previously.
His presentation was made with a reasoning “it appears nothing constructive has been done or planned since the initial treatment of the lake in May 2018,” a document with his presentation stated. Pittman made points about the uniqueness of the lake and its water clarity, the springs which once fed the lake and created a flow of water, and the level of the lake water.
Pittman told commissioners he wanted the nonprofit to identify problems and then take steps to remedy them. He asked that politics be taken out of restoring White Lake and wrote in his presentation that “keeping the status quo could result in property values decreasing, resulting in less tax revenues and adverse actions by property owners, especially lake front owners with piers and boats unable to use them.”
“Since May 2018, nothing has been done to decrease the amount of nutrients/pollutants/contaminates coming into the lake or treatment of those substances in the lake,” Pittman’s presentation said. “There is no plan. We will sometime have a ‘work shop’ is not acceptable.”
The latter reference is to the workshops that begin Thursday evening. The first two-hour session will be held at Town Hall starting at 6:30 p.m.
Mayor Goldston Womble responded to Pittman’s 15-minute presentation, pointing out things done, including since May 2018.
The board also heard from Eddie Madden, in his role as town manager in Elizabethtown. Madden, also a project manager for White Lake’s multi-use path, updated the commissioners on Elizabethtown’s hiring of Terri Dennison as a full-time director of communications and marketing. Her duties, which begin Oct. 28, include administrative support to the Elizabethtown/White Lake Area Chamber of Commerce.
Among other items, the board was considering adopting a resolution supporting the local office of the N.C. State Parks and Recreation to implement a system allowing for the retention of lake water in order to help raise the lake level while at the same time permitting outflow. The resolution died for lack of a motion; commissioners have stated they want to raise the lake level, but specifics for height and where measured are stumbling points.