Topsail Island would be a better site for a new aquarium
Published November 23, 2017
Editorial by Jacksonville Daily News, November 18, 2017.
We’re not opposed to the idea of building a satellite state aquarium in Pender County to focus on aquaculture and shellfish habitats. But we don’t like the way this proposal was unveiled – seemingly as a fait accompli. And we wonder whether private land in Scotts Hill is the best place to put it.
Raiford Trask III, president of Trask Land Co., is developing the 1,300-acre Blake Farm mixed-use development. In October, we learned that the GOP-dominated General Assembly was allocating $300,000 to develop a blueprint for a satellite aquarium in Blake Farm, on Trask’s land. That was the first we’d heard of it, and seemingly also the first the public had heard of it.
Not so for the local delegation.
Back in June, former N.C. Rep. Chris Millis, a Republican from Pender County who unexpectedly resigned in September, had inserted language into the budget proposal calling for a feasibility study.
N.C. Rep. Holly Grange, R-New Hanover, and N.C. Sen. Bill Rabon, R-Brunswick, changed it to pay architects to “collaborate with Blake Farms to design and permit the building.” This would be the first time a state aquarium was built on private land.
Grange had changed the feasibility study into a plan for action. She said later that the new language “makes it clearer” the facility is going to be built. That’s apparently whether it’s feasible or not.
All this was done behind the scenes, without any public notice or comment. It sure looked like a backroom deal to benefit a local developer.
Since then, the plan has drawn scorn from some legislators and the public and sparked an ethics complaint from the New Hanover County Democratic Party chairman.
Trask says he’s surprised at the controversy his idea sparked, but we think the secrecy almost ensured it would make a splash when it was finally revealed.
We would like to have seen the idea get an early public airing. An announcement followed by a public meeting to explain the costs and benefits might have given the public a chance to weigh in, and perhaps get comfortable with the proposal.
We would like to have seen that feasibility study go forward. Scotts Hill is home to another popular tourist attraction, Poplar Grove Plantation, but it still seems a rather remote place to put a state-run aquarium.
The Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center welcomes visitors to its site on the mainland in Surf City on Thursday and Saturday afternoons. We think putting a new aquarium facility near there would create a nice synergy, and far more tourists visit Topsail Island beaches than vacation in Scotts Hill.
We give Trask the benefit of the doubt. He admits the facility would help his development, but says it wouldn’t be an anchor for it. The Trask family has a long history of generosity and service to the area, having been, among many other things, major benefactors of UNCW.
We have no reason to believe he’s trying to pull a fast one on the taxpayers. We’ve carefully examined his political donations and see no pattern favoring the lawmakers who seem so determined to ram this project through.
The idea might have merit, but the optics have been bad from the outset. And the way it was pushed through a legislature intent on cutting costs elsewhere makes the whole deal smell like yesterday’s shrimp.
Maybe we should simply start over.
- GateHouse Media
