MINUTES OF CRYSTAL COAST TEA PARTY PATRIOTS
19 JULY 2011

Meeting held at Golden Corral, Morehead City, NC
Meeting called to order at 6:02pm by President BOB CAVANAUGH
Pledge of Allegiance led by WAYNE WILLIS
Invocation was given by SCOTT CARPENTER
Number of Attendees – 34

RUTH PARKER and PAT NALITZ reported that they had gotten some information on teacher count in Carteret County.  Ruth had looked up Croatan, West and East Carteret High Schools and PAT had gotten the others.  PAT is going to take them all and check for duplications, etc. and will report next week.

STEVE BEST showed a video on Agenda 21 – (the possibility and probability are very real and scary).  BOB asked that we keep an eye out for anything that appears to fall into this type of intrusion into our lives, especially here in Carteret County, and bring it to our attention.   Ken brought up about a report that BOB had read a few weeks ago about Carroll County, Maryland.  He said that he and Diane had lived in Montgomery County Maryland for a few years and saw all through that area some of what Agenda 21 was like.  Their consulting and planning committees did things like zoning out some areas for development.  It meant that farmers couldn’t sell their land or develop it into housing areas, which devalued the price of the land.  They also designated other areas into what they called farmettes, where you could sell them in five and ten acre plots, but this too devalued your personal property.  They also devalued your property and house by the way they routed the highways and other things through there; so they used a variety of ways to control certain areas and devalue property.  His son lived in Columbia, Maryland in a planned/gated community, that was started back in the 70’s, in Howard County, which is close to Baltimore and Washington, and is highly regulated; and a carbon copy of that is already here in North Carolina in Cary.  BOB said same in Pine Knoll Shores.  Cary is so planned out that certain areas are only for shopping centers; areas have to be screened from the road; a complete manipulation of the way they handle the property and what you can do on your own property.  This type of manipulation of property is spread all over the northeastern portion of the country, but Maryland is a prime example of what is going on.  BOB said he had seen a map where they had identified wilderness areas and wanted to connect these areas with corridors so wildlife could move from one area to another.  So, in order to do that, the government is going to have to take your land away from you.  These wilderness areas are going to be set up so that no human activity will be allowed and then they plan to set up large buffer areas around these wilderness and corridor areas (where very limited human activity is allowed).  The idea is to move people into smaller areas (termed ‘stack ‘em and pack ‘em), putting them in these high rise building units and keep the appropriated lands off-limits except to wildlife.  True, BOB said he hated to see dead foxes, rabbits, squirrels, ‘possums, even deer, etc., on the highway; but this, he felt was an overkill.  If they pull this thing off, while it may be decades in the completion, it will be like a cancer, unless stopped, will continue to grow and invade our lives significantly as time goes by.  It will certainly have a big influence on what our grandkids can do, where they can live, and other things like that.

BOB acknowledged WAYNE WILLIS and his guest Matthew McCastle to discuss the progress of the game he had originated.  WAYNE said before he got into the game, he wanted to bring up something he had read in the paper about renewable energy, wind, sun and biofuel.  Some of the stimulus money is paying for; and, in spite of the fact that Duke Energy had done a study on the windmills and determined that it would cost 25 cent a kilowatt instead of 10 cent, which we are now paying, the crowd up north said we are going to have it whether we want it or not.  They know best.  The pamphlet he was referring to was published by Coastal Federation.  HOWARD GARNER said that should tell us something right there.  Discussion on windmills with a couple of members under the impression that windmills had been built in Bettie.  Someone tried to get some built there but was stopped.  We may think this is just a pie in the sky right now, but it is a big possibility for the future.  WAYNE recommended we all read the pamphlet he had gotten from the library put out by the Coastal Federation.
WAYNE then introduced Matthew as the young man who was working to get WAYNE’s game up and running.  He informed us that Matthew almost had the software ready.  Matthew said it was pretty simple and easy to use; start out with a deck of cards with questions that it asks you to answer; every answer you answer right you get 10 points, and when you reach 100 you win.  You will be able to play it on pretty much any computer.  WAYNE said as soon as it was completed he will have copies made and bring them in to demonstrate it to us.  BOB wanted to know if WAYNE had a time line on that.  Matthew said he hated to say, because he was working two jobs right now and did not have the opportunity to work full time on finishing up the project.  SCOTT and SONYA CARPENTER said either they had missed the meetings where we had discussed this game or it was before their time, and would like to know the details.  WAYNE said, since history was not being taught in the schools, as in the past, many of our children today didn’t even know who our first president was; so he had come up with a game you could play on the computer, to help teach in an interesting way, history to our children of today.  It had started out as a board game, but had evolved into a computer game.  It is in two parts.  Ten years with 5 questions in each year.  There is a deck of information cards (as he calls them) of what happened world wide.  He calls the game ‘Patriots or Potentates’.  ‘Which are you’?  Questions will go back to Plato and Aristotle, the first great republic.  It is multiple choice questions, not discussion or essay type.   You get 4 choices; one the absolutely right answer, one that is almost right, one is ridiculously wrong if you know anything at all about the subject and the 4th one is a joke.  The question is what is the most important thing that happened during this period of time and the subject is in the questions; example. Castro…his name will be mentioned two or three times.  So, you know the answer is about Castro, and you just have to determine which answer is the correct one.  Last fall he had talked to the Assistant Superintendent of Schools about using something like this in the classroom and was told “Hurray, hurry up and get that on a computer disc so they can teach history again in the class rooms.”  He hopes the idea will spread all over the US.  His first idea was to market it through the TEA Party, because it was obvious we all wanted our kids to learn; so, he thought we would encourage others to try it.  The deal we had made (WAYNE and TEA Party) was an oral not written agreement; that said the TEA Party would get 10% of the sales generated as a fund raiser.  Another use that has come up is ….a friend of his who has written books about cancer,  people who have it and care givers, victims, survivors, etc., has a connection with Duke University and she wants to take this software and put in questions about cancer, and make it something to educate people about cancer.  This could be very beneficial because early treatment is most important in keeping people alive.  She thinks this could be a very important tool using his format.  He hopes to get the show on the road as soon as possible.

BOB then asked ERIC BROYLES to report on his attendance to the Board of Commissioners meeting last night and his reading up on the Sulfur Plant that has been proposed to be built in Morehead near the Port.
Eric said he had also attended the Morehead City Council meeting which was last Tuesday.  Both meetings were packed, standing room only.  At both of those sessions there were about 20 speakers, scientists, doctors, chemists, etc.  The bottom line is ‘this project is not fit for Morehead City and Beaufort’.  It represents health risks, economical risks (tourists, our major source of income), and environmental risks.  This company is a foreign based company.  They bring nothing to the table except maybe 15 to 20 jobs.  Other than that they are not paying us any taxes or any other contribution except damage to our community.  Up until now they were only transporting not processing, which was fine.  The risk for that was a lot lower than what they are now proposing to do.  They want to build two 150 foot (higher than the bridge) smoke stacks with scrubbers to help alleviate the odors, two big domes to hold all this sulfur in.  By changing the status of the sulfur it becomes very explosive.  All this is going to be done right up against a highly populated residential area.   In fact, not far (only a mile and a half) from where he, ERIC, lives.  He would hate to see an accident occur.  A short while ago the Port had an accident occur and they had to clear out a area of about 10 blocks of Morehead City, and an accident with this sulfur product will be far greater.  They will be processing 10 times what they have been processing but now it will be in molten form, which is highly volatile.  He said a doctor had spoken at the meeting last night about the increase in breathing/lung problems here that have quadrupled from the smoke from the Onslow county fire and this could be even worse.  ERIC said he did not see how, even with the scrubbers in the smoke stacks, it would alleviate the odor of rotten eggs, which is what processed sulfur smells like.  If you have ever smelled a propane tank, you know how it smells like rotten eggs; well that is what this is going to smell like except it will be 10 to 12 worse.  It will destroy property values, may as well consider your property value 50% less than now.  If you think your taxes will go down, don’t bet on it, since they will need to raise them to keep things going, but you won’t be able to sell your house for what you might have thought you would.  He had talked to the second in command with Air Quality Control and since this person owned property here in the county it was kinda hard for him to make any straight comments about the problem.  He does understand our concerns though, but ERIC still wants to know who is going to monitor our air quality.   Air Quality Control won’t.  They said their monitoring is “sniff, sniff” the sniff test.  Well, ERIC, as far as he is concerned feels we could be in pretty bad shape by the time they sniff things out.  CLAYTON GILLIKIN said he had worked down to the Port and the Air Traffic Control group was forever coming to check out the wood chip shed.  All kinds of chemicals were used and during hot weather especially, the odor was horrendous.  He said they would come directly into the shaker house and do an air quality check.  If he got a bad reading, he would go outside the building, 50 feet or so, and take another reading.  Then he would throw the first reading in the trash can.  CLAYTON saw what was going on, so he started retrieving the discarded readings for about 6 months.  He put them in a plastic bag and hid them right there on the Port.  He told someone what he had been doing and said one of these days he was going to turn them in.  Apparently someone overheard him and they disappeared that night.  ERIC said he was told each municipality received an air quality control form from the Environmental agency back in December.  The comment period ended about the end of January.  As far as he could tell no comments were entered.  They were not required by law to publish it anywhere, except on the Environmental web site, which 99.99% of the public has never heard about.  They said they had complied with the law and nothing can be done now to stop it.  He asked the question last night with the commissioners if an economic impact study had been done; or an overall health impact study done.  It did not seem right that they could just come into a community and destroy it without the public being more informed.  We would not have found out yet if the permit requested by CAMA had not come to light.  All these town and county officials were asleep at the wheel and now with all the mail being sent to them in opposition, they are having to backtrack.

BOB asked ROY MUSSER if he went to the meeting tonight and he said yes.  Everything is done except the CAMA permit with two weeks before approval.  Then we have 20 days to oppose this.  They had their lawyers from Raleigh at the meeting.  The Realtors were there saying they were already getting people backing out of home buying agreements.  BOB said none of that impacts CAMA’s assessment.  They said that this sulfur’s site will not be on their perimeters, so they OK’ed their perimeter, as if the odors would stay right over the sulfur plant and not spread out over any other areas.  From all he could find out it is a done deal.  He heard of a project in Virginia along the same lines, but even though they fought, if finally became so expensive they had to drop their case and lost.  Our only hope is to keep fighting and holding them off as long as we can.  Maybe they will decide it’s not worth it and back away.  That’s all we can do, because we really can’t stop them.  Question was asked if anyone at the meeting spoke in favor of the sulfur plant and the answer was no; everyone was opposed.  ERIC said no one at the two meetings he had attended had anyone spoken in favor either.  He said he had seen one article in the paper by the State Port, and also the advertisement in the paper in favor.  HOWARD said he thought it was kind of strange that they could slip this through and gave the example that right beside our land on the Nine Foot Road is a bar pit for digging dirt.  To dig dirt the owner has to have a mining permit, and every time he wants to change that permit, he has to send us and all the adjoining property owners a registered letter, so we can comment.  It is strange that there is so much more permitting processes to dig dirt than to do this.  ERIC said the city council zoning does not address mining; therefore the zoning for this is not right.  ROY said he builds houses and anytime they need a CAMA permit it takes three months before they can start that house.  A man who spoke at the meeting ROY was at said he was trying to build a marina and it took him a year and a half to get a permit and they did this (got their approval) in three days!!!  BOB said from what he had seen the CAMA permit was normally the first one you get and with this project it was the last one gotten.  It appears they tried to get everything lined up and in place first.  He does not believe that the politicians (regardless of what they say) did not know about this until now.  ROY said they were all acting upset with each other that they had not been informed prior.  ERIC said he couldn’t find fault with the councilmen, because any information they receive is passed down by the mayor and manager.    If the councilmen were not kept informed; then the mayor, who is up for reelection, was not doing his job.  ERIC said the city council of Beaufort has voted against this sulfur project and the Town of Morehead City also has voted against.  The Economical Development Council has now voted against this.  Last night the county commissioners voted against this, also.  Messages are being sent to all levels of government throughout North Carolina that we are NOT in favor of this project.  BOB wanted to know if this was a state, county or town decision.  ERIC said state since this was state property (the port).  KEN said the Environment Impact Statement was a state document and they would have had to do that, in order to get it through, (sounds like an Easley thing, just like Cannons Gate where they told the regulators ‘there’s an EIS coming in; get it out as quickly as possible and get it approved).  EIS’s have to be published, public comment, and a follow up period where they address all these comments.  They cannot build that thing without an EIS.  Apparently they already have gotten that approved.  In order to slip that through, they had to have some high level state help.  It was asked why they had to ship the sulfur here for processing – why not keep the whole process in Aurora?  It looked like a waste of time, money and effort to ship it to Morehead, process and ship back to Aurora.  ERIC said it was apparently because they have had many problems with the town of Aurora and can not get anymore cooperation.  WAYNE said when the subject of windmills came up, the commissioners agreed that structures over a certain height were not allowed.  Why can’t they do something like that now with the 150’ smoke stacks.  Can’t because it belongs to the state.  State is probably exempt from county regulations.  CLAYTON questioned the 150’ smoke stacks right on the end of the Beaufort airport runway.  Looks like something could be done to stop it.  There was much discussion on the hazards of molten sulfur and the processing.  BOB said he would like to have a chemist come and talk to us about these hazards being bantered around.  Which of them are true and which are not.  ROY said he knew a lady who was a chemist and might agree to come and talk with us.  Since we have a resident chemist in KEN LANG, BOB asked him about some of the comments made here to night as to the volatility of molten sulfur.  He explained the difference in the two types of acid discussed.  Some mixed with water are highly volatile and others are not.  We should be aware of what we are talking about.  When you mix water with molten sulfur, it will be unpleasant, but not create a Chernoble.  We need to be careful about fear mongering.
BOB said while this is a subject of interest to citizens of Carteret County, it does not really address our core values, but it is a reason for the TEA Party to get involved in the upcoming election of this year 2011 (local government).  David Horton, (Morehead town commissioner) came and spoke to us a few weeks ago about the excessive spending on O’Neal Park.  Since he had decided he was not able to make a difference in stopping the problem, he had decided not to run for reelection.  According to the paper and conversations with ERIC, apparently Mr. Horton has now decided to challenge Mayor Jones in the mayoral race.  Mr. Horton has asked to come and speak to the TEA Party group again to try and enlist our support.   BOB said we can not openly support any candidate, but we can ‘recommend’, so going into the elections this year we need to again have a printed guide like we did last time and say “The following candidates support the TEA Party principles.”  He thinks this will sound better than ‘the TEA Party recommends’.   BOB wanted to know if anyone was opposed to David Horton coming and speaking to us.  ERIC would like to get Jerry Jones down also and have a debate.  Comments were ‘sounds good to me’ and ‘ought to be interesting’.  BOB said normally when you have a  debate, questions are asked; so we will need to formulate some very relative, Morehead City issue/interest type questions to ask.  LOU KUKULINSKI asked why the TEA Party would be doing this, since most of us do not live in Morehead anyway.  ERIC said this issue (sulfur) affects not only Morehead City but Carteret County also.  Maybe, if we didn’t think we should have a debate at our meeting, then perhaps we could have something like the League of Women Voters have, like at the court house and advertise it.  CLAYTON said he hoped we would ask legitimate questions, not stupid ones like the LWV usually ask.  Many members agreed.  The questions are stacked.  ERIC said if we are going to be the one to sponsor this, then the questions should come from us.  BOB said one of the problems with having this type of questionnaire, is who we are going to invite.  Just about every municipality is having an election.  In addition to mayoral races, there are city council member races.  To invite all the candidates would be overwhelming and time consuming.  It would be too big a production and he didn’t know of many people who would want to sit around for 4 hours listening to the candidates argue.  Discussed breaking the debates down into more than one event.  Maybe having the mayors debate and all be asked the same questions and at a later date have the city council debates.  Would there be enough interest by the public for such events?

BOB said over the next couple of meetings we need to be thinking about the election this fall (2011) and how we can be an effective organization in bringing about electing people that think along the same lines as the TEA Party.  ‘Fiscally responsible, Limited Government, and Free Markets’.   This sulfur business is a good example of why we need some limited government intervention and regulation.  PAT said she did not think regulation was the problem here, but it appeared that instead we need to ‘follow the money’.  BOB said we need an investigative reporter to look into this, that he feels there is a good story here to be told.

It was reported that one of our members had heard on the radio on his way to the meeting that we were now back in District 3.  BOB said he understood that it had been requested that the county not be divided into 2 districts.  Understand that a couple of other counties would be split up and added to District 3 also.  Rumor is they are going to split up District 7, so McIntire will be totally redistricted out of his seat.  As BOB said, ‘none of it is a done deal yet’.

NANCY BOCK said she was missing a bag for covering and carrying a table that was used at the July 4th parade.  If anyone has any idea what happened to it, please let her know.  She would check with ROMA to see if he put it into his car.

Question was raised ‘were we going to have David Horton come and speak with us’?  HOWARD GARNER made the motion that we have Mr. Horton come and speak at one of our meetings and Mr. Jones attend another meeting rather that have a debate between the two.  That also will cut down on the length of our meetings.  And after both have spoken, we can make a decision as to what we will do in the election.  Decision was made not to have a debate
between Jones and Horton.  We can do the same with any other town official races if we would like.

GRACE GILLIKIN reported on talking with the lady in charge of the Morehead parade and that she had requested any information to be sent to her as soon as available.

EULA PARKIN asked “How many here tonight consider themselves a Christian?”  She read an article on the ‘Sad Solidarity of Christians’.  A recent study revealed that over 100,000 Christians are killed every year because of their faith.  That equates to one every 5 minutes 24/7.  As we have sat in here tonight talking for about an hour and a half, 12 to 18 Christians have been killed.  This is not just in Muslim countries, but they are being persecuted in other countries.  She said it was reported that at a Christian funeral in Holland, it was yelled “one dog less”.  Does this sound familiar?  How about the religious group that pickets military funerals here in the US?
Discussed Muslim mosques being built.  There is no separation of church and state in the Muslim religion.   It incorporates Sharia law into their religion.

BOB directed ERIC to contact David Horton to come and talk with us sometime in the next few weeks.  Asked that he also ask Jones, but schedule him on a different date.

Meeting adjourned at 7:30 pm.
Minutes submitted by PEGGY GARNER, Secretary