Mayor Jack Tarr talks about Chincotegue and his history with the island: he says; "I was born and raised here, left for school for a few years came back in 1982, ran for city council in 94, been mayor since 1999". The Mayor thinks Chincoteague has a lot to offer during a hard economy, more than other places, as we are family oriented. He also discusses the main street project, and the bridge.
Mayor Tarr recently welcomed the public and thanked Lou Hines, Director of Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge (CNWR) and Scott Bentley, of the Assateague National Seashore (ANS) and their staff members for preparing and presenting the public briefing.
Highlights of the presentation follow.
Parking
• 961 parking spaces spread out through four parking areas will be ready for the public by Memorial Day weekend. This is the same number of spaces that were available last summer.
• Some temporary closings of portions of lots will be required after Memorial Day weekend to complete restoration work on the lots.
• Storm damage to the parking lots during the past year cost $587,000 to repair. This figure does not include any permanent salaries or equipment expenses from the budgets of The Park Service or Fish and Wildlife Service. Most of the expense paid for seasonal labor costs to do the repair work.
• The average annual cost for beach restoration is approximately $165,000.
• Surveys show that 87% of visitors to the refuge are non-local and stay an average of 4.6 days. Both the Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service acknowledge how vital access to, parking at and programs on Assateague are to the economy of Chincoteague.
