All posts by : Mike Hoffer

Budget 101 Most, if not all, municipalities operate with an annual budget that runs from July 1 to June 30 of the following year. It’s called a "fiscal year.” A fiscal year is a period of time lasting one year but not necessarily starting at t ...

A temporary committee was formed to study the parking issues. The Committee was made up of the Chair of each standing town committee. So these people have not only been serving the town, but they’ve also been selected by their peers to be leaders. T ...

** Blue text = Mike's opinion ** Consent Agenda This is where we approve a bunch of administrative things all in one go. The biggest here being the 2023 budget calendar. Here we go with the 2023/24 Budget process… Open House, Wednesday, Jan ...

The Current Sitch Last Tuesday (10/11) Council voted 4-1 to approve a set of new parking rules for 2023. I was the dissenting vote. Not that I’m opposed to all of the changes, but I felt that we weren’t ready to vote on a complete policy for 2023 ...

At a recent Town Council Workshop (8/25) our town attorney updated us on the current legal status of Short Term Rentals (STRs) in North Carolina. She told us about decisions made in courts in North Carolina regarding what we can and cannot do in reg ...

The deal is done. Carolina Beach officially purchased the 9 properties making up Freeman Park (or the North End as many refer to it) on April 11. I take no credit here. Previous councils worked long and hard to put this together. The credit belon ...

Let’s try again shall we? Yes, Town Council has approved funding to complete the CB Lake dredge after a 5-year delay. First a little history. CB Lake has been there forever. It was part of a salt marsh, the southernmost part of Myrtle Sound. It w ...

Well, the budget has passed by a 4-1 vote. I was the one who voted against it. Here’s why: First and foremost, I’m uncomfortable growing the budget by 20% (from $16.6 million to $19.8 million.) It’s great that our revenues are growing, but I’d li ...

Hello there, here is my 5-year plan to improve the bike & pedestrian experience in Carolina Beach. Read it here.

Let me start by reminding everyone that I didn’t devise this plan and I didn’t vote for it. While I knew we were interviewing parking companies, I was never aware that such a drastic change was coming. It never came up in the campaign. We talked ...