Currituck County Earns 2014 Jones Award

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Katie Mosher, 919-515-9069, katie_mosher@ncsu.edu

Posted Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2015

For the NOAA listing of all national winners, go to: http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/jone-noaawards-2014winners.html or see the NOAA news release. See also our news release on NC Sea Grant staff and students who received 2014 Jones Award.

Currituck County is a winner of a 2014 Walter B. Jones Sr. Award for Excellence in Local Government.

Presented by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration every other year, the awards honor the late Walter B. Jones Sr., who represented North Carolina in the U.S. House of Representative from 1966 to 1992. The program recognizes people and organizations for their dedication to maintain healthy coastal and ocean resources.

The awards note countless hours spent to conserve, protect, and improve the U.S. coasts, according to NOAA’s Office of Coastal Management. In particular, they recognize the application of innovative approaches, tools, or technology to advance the field.

Other winners of the 2014 awards included North Carolina Sea Grant extension staff members and several Sea Grant-funded graduate students.

The award for the Currituck County Goes Green Initiative is one of five presented to local governments from across the country that have inspired positive change in coastal management by developing or putting in place principles embodied by the Coastal Zone Management Act.

“Currituck County deserves recognition for their foresight in taking steps that will help preserve their valuable natural resources as the county’s local population and economy continue to grow,” says Gloria Putnam, Sea Grant’s coastal resources and communities specialist, who was among the partners in the initiative.

Located on North Carolina’s northern coast, Currituck County was established in 1668 as one of the state’s first counties and one of five original coastal ports.

The Currituck County Goes Green Initiative was established by county officials and residents in 2009 as a partnership that includes NC Cooperative Extension, North Carolina Sea Grant, North Carolina State University, East Carolina University, North Carolina Coastal Federation, the University of North Carolina Coastal Studies Institute and members of the community. The initiative has hosted water quality fairs, rain garden and wetlands restoration demonstrations, and workshops with topics including rain barrels, wildlife gardens and green development

In 2012, the county adopted a new Unified Development Ordinance containing many green policies including sustainability incentives, riparian buffers, wetland setbacks, and a requirement that stormwater management systems be treated as a site amenity instead of as a utilitarian structure.

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