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CITY OF NEW BERN BOARD OF ALDERMEN MEETING FEBRUARY 27, 2018 – 6:00 P.M. CITY HALL COURTROOM 300 POLLOCK STREET 1.  Meeting opened by Mayor Dana E. Outlaw.  Prayer Coordinated by Alderman Harris.  Pledge of Allegiance. 2.  Roll Call. Consent Agenda 3.  Consider Adopting a Resolution Calling for a Public Hearing on the Initial Zoning of Property Located at the Intersection of Waterscape Way and West Thurman Road Identified as Tax Parcel 7-104-12002. (Ward 3) Kip Peregoy of Carolina Colours Association has submitted a request to have an approximately 1.77-acre of land zoned C-3 Commercial.  The parcel is located at the intersection of W. Thurman Road and WaterscapeRead More →

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Out (for now): Hotel and parking structure at Craven and Pollock   Policy wonks from the UNC School of Government are urging the City of New Bern to turn its attention from a possible parking structure and hotel across from City Hall, and return its attention to a vacant lot at the corner of Craven and South Front streets. UNC SoG special projects managers Marcia Perritt and Omar Kashef appeared before the Board of Aldermen on Tuesday to advise on behalf of the pivot. The Pollock and Craven parking structure/hotel SoG had been advocating has been put on hold while Craven County officials decide whether theyRead More →

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CITY OF NEW BERN BOARD OF ALDERMEN MEETING FEBRUARY 13, 2018 – 6:00 P.M. CITY HALL COURTROOM 300 POLLOCK STREET Meeting opened by Mayor Dana E. Outlaw.  Prayer Coordinated by Alderman Bengel.  Pledge of Allegiance. 2. Roll Call. 3. Request and Petition of Citizens. This section of the Agenda is titled Requests and Petitions of Citizens.  This is an opportunity for public comment, and we thank you for coming to the Board of Aldermen meeting tonight to share your views.  We value all citizen input. Speaker comments are limited to a maximum of 4 minutes during the public comment period.  At the conclusion of 4 minutes, eachRead More →

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So what did you do on Jan. 1? City workers spent the day rerouting sewer lines and stabilizing the sink hole in a round-the-clock operation that resulted in no interruption of service and no sewage leaked into the Neuse River just a hundred yards from it. Sometime between Christmas and New Year’s Day, a sewer pipe gave up its 56-year battle against erosion and the forces of hydrogen sulfide. It gave way and the ensuing damage left a 50-foot sinkhole near the National Guard Armory on Glenburnie Drive. This wasn’t any sewer pipe. It was the Grand Central Station of sewer pipes, channeling the entireRead More →

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Two gateways into downtown New Bern are going to look a lot different within the next year or so. First Street, which is also N.C. 55, is going to be reconfigured from four lanes (two in each direction) to two traffic lanes and a center turn lane. Sidewalks will be added as well as bike lanes on both sides of the street. City aldermen approved the plan at their meeting on Tuesday night. Meanwhile, a traffic circle is proposed to replace the Y-intersection at Neuse and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. boulevards. That project could begin in October. Both plans have controversial predecessors on BroadRead More →

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A plan called a “Road Diet” to reduce First Street from four to two lanes with a center turn lane was postponed on Tuesday by the two rookie aldermen in whose district the project is located. The subject will come up again at the board’s Jan. 23 meeting. Ward 3 Alderman Bobby Aster said he knew little about the project but was getting feedback from his constituents who were expressing reservations. The project, a team effort by the City of New Bern and N.C. Department of Transportation, which has jurisdiction over the street, would cost about $1 million, of which the city would be responsibleRead More →

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A tradition within the New Bern Fire Department and its ancestors since 1879, threatened by a row over former mayor Lee Bettis, is now no longer a habit, a tradition, or a whim — it’s city law. Aldermen passed a resolution on Tuesday making it official city policy to add the name of the mayor in office when a fire truck is authorized for purchase. The policy gives a mayor the option to decline the honor. The resolution passed on a vote of 5-2, with Mayor Dana Outlaw and Alderman Jeffrey Odham voting against the measure. The controversy arose when the previous Board of AldermenRead More →

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A plan that includes enforced two-hour parking in Downtown New Bern cleared a hurdle on Tuesday. Following a public hearing during which a committee’s recommendations went largely unchanged, the board asked its staff to prepare an ordinance and bring it back for a vote at the board’s first meeting in February. A committee met over several months in 2017 to come up with ways to solve a perceived problem with downtown parking, with any decisions on the committee’s recommendations put off until the Board of Aldermen’s first meeting in January to enable new aldermen to weigh in on the issue. Alderman Sabrina Bengel, whose wardRead More →

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Ward 1 Alderman Sabrina Bengel watches a television monitor on which former governor Pat McCrory was announcing he had named her to the Order of the Long Leaf Pine.   The Request and Petition portion of the Board of Aldermen meeting took an unusual twist on Tuesday evening when it was announced an alderman had been the recipient of the Order of the Long Leaf Pine. Following several citizens who spoke on subjects ranging from naming rights on fire engines to plans for First Street, downtown businessman Buddy Bengel took the microphone to announce that Sabrina Bengel, his mother, had received the award. The awardRead More →

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First off, the obvious Things are getting back to normal now that the holidays are behind us. Just kidding. With snow and ice blanketing the region, it’s like having an extra week off for the Christmas break. Schools have been closed since Wednesday. So much of New Bern was shut down on Thursday, it nearly felt like Christmas Day. Though we were well supplied with food, cabin fever drove us from the house and we thank the folks at Sonic and Piggly Wiggly for braving the weather and serving our needs. Other businesses were open, too … these are just the two we happened toRead More →