Jarles Alberg: Taxpayers paid for beach rebuilding

Regarding the Aug. 27 Point of View “Public access in jeopardy”: Once again, North Carolina is being attacked by the righteous few wanting to fence off the ocean, much like Rehoboth Beach and Miami Beach. These oceanfront owners want to own and control the dunes and little bit of sand that the state taxpayers have paid to bulldoze up.

I expect most of these individuals have no idea that almost every beach and dune in North Carolina have been rebuilt with public money after storms and hurricanes.

As a former second-row beach house owner, I paid my share to build protective dunes to save ocean-front homes. Since state and federal taxpayer money is used to rebuild beach sand and create new dunes, I suggest that all dunes be taken by eminent domain for the protection of all houses on or near the beach. If oceanfront homeowners don’t agree, then tear down the dunes in front of their homes. And wish them luck.

As the sea level rises, or a hurricane ravishes their beach and dunes, these greedy few will be begging for taxpayer sand bags and new dunes. Eventually, this will not be a problem, as the dunes will become the high water mark boundary anyway.

This story was originally published September 3, 2016 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Jarles Alberg: Taxpayers paid for beach rebuilding."