nothing significant?

I live in a neighborhood in Elizabeth City, NC that is only a short walk from riverfront downtown.  More specifically I live on a small tributary creek of Charles Creek which is a tributary of the Pasquotank River.  The  city owns the property directly across the creek from my home on Dawson Street where they operate one of the city’s sewage pumping stations.  At the request of local citizens the city government recently began to clean out some of the waterways within the city.  

On the afternoon of Thursday, October 11, 2012 a city crew with a backhoe showed up at the pumping station and began clearing the area behind the pumping station.  As I sat on my deck watching I witnessed something truly shocking.  The backhoe operator, obviously thinking cypress knees were something that needed to be cleaned out from the creek,  draped the bucket over a group of beautiful bald cypress knees and began tearing them out.  I immediately walked toward him shouting, “Why are you doing this?  Please stop.”  But he kept on and I began filming him and called the mayor.  The mayor sent the city manager over and the city manager who upon inspecting the damage asked me what my problem was and said that the crew was just doing what they were told to do.  This was late in the work day however, and the crew left without damaging any more of the knees.  

At 8:00 AM the next morning I called Mr. Frank Jennings, The District Manager of the Division of Coastal Management of the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources.  I got his voice recording and requested he call me.  I then wrote and sent an email to the mayor pleading that he halt the cleaning project until I could get Mr. Jennings, or whoever the proper authority was, to inspect the damage.  I sent copies to Mr. Jennings and my two representatives on the city council.  The mayor wrote back to me saying that he was meeting with city manager that night.  

Soon after I sent this letter on Friday morning, the backhoe crew arrived and I pleaded with the operator not to damage any more knees until I could hear from Mr. Jennings.  He agreed and no more knees have been damaged as of now.

On Monday morning Mr. Jennings returned my call and I told him what happened.  He said he would have someone look at it that day.  As of today, Thursday, October 18, 2012 I have not heard from anyone from the Division of Coastal Management.

Sincerely,

Tommy Perkins