Check back this weekend for complete coverage of the Wrightsville Beach Board of Aldermen meeting, including spending measures on infrastructure and ocean rescue, talk on parking, and the latest on the pickleball grant application.
WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH — Town leaders granted the Cape Fear Habitat for Humanity Turkey Trot another year on the island, following concerns raised by staff about simmering growing pains associated with the annual event.
Leading up to the board of aldermen meeting Thursday evening, the parks and recreation department asked elected officials to deny the event permit application for the 2022 race. They cited past instances of communication issues, absent clean-up efforts, and the sheer size to which the Turkey Trot has grown (approaching 3,000 racers last year).
READ MORE: Turkey Trot could get booted out of Wrightsville Beach this year
Parks and recreation supervisor Katie Ryan told board members she had spoken with Cape Fear Habitat’s executive director Thursday: “And she has just asked that we would consider it for this year for 2022, holding the Turkey Trot, while they continue to look for another place to rebrand, because it’s always been at Wrightsville Beach.”
Additional stipulations for the race were discussed, like more parking enforcement and potentially asking Cape Fear Habitat to pay more, but staff assured that, at least for 2022, the beach can handle the Turkey Trot.
“We’ll manage it this year,” town manager Tim Owens said. “We’ll set some specifications and hold ‘em to them.”
Wrightsville Beach Parks and Recreation had also asked the board to deny an event application for the tenth Carolina Cup stand-up paddleboard race, planned at the Blockade Runner in late April.
In past years, according to documents included in the agenda packet, the race was disorganized and its safety plans lacked sufficient detail. Issues came to a head in the November 2021 race, when an experienced racer got lost. He reported a crucial turn was unmarked, leading him to paddle south, ultimately ending up at Carolina Beach Yacht Club where he phoned his wife for a pick-up.
“My wife was in a sheer panic over the fact that the race had been continued for several hours and none of the members of the Carolina cup staff could give her any indication of my whereabouts or safety,” the lost racer wrote in an email to town officials.
The board approved the event application for the paddleboard race, after Owens told them issues would be brought in line.
“We’ve talked to this coordinator, too. Some of the concerns we have remain, like the life safety type stuff is not up to par,” Owens said. “We’re going to sit down together and make sure we’ve got a good plan.”
In emails, the fire and police departments expressed concerns about both events. The director of ocean rescue told Ryan in 2018 he wanted the paddleboard race put on a one-year hiatus. The rescue plan submitted by race organizers was late and copy-pasted from the Boy Scouts of America manual, he wrote.
Captain Jason Bishop of the police department agreed with Ryan that both events should seek another venue. “The Turkey Trot has just gotten too big,” he wrote to her in November, according to emails in the agenda. “The officers that have to staff the event are lucky enough to be off duty, but have to be right back to work for the Flotilla. We have been extremely lucky that we have not experienced a critical incident during one of these events.”
The board unanimously approved both events: the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 24, and the Carolina Cup on Apr. 30 and May 1.
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