Lynn,
Kathi and I were so saddened to hear of Bill’s passing. We know how much you and the rest of his family will miss him. The obituary that was published the essence of his life, but we’ll like to share with you and your family a few other items of his friendship and community service.
After moving to Corolla to the community of Ocean Hill, both you and Bill were strong supporters of our community association with you serving as a Board member and Bill as a legal advisor. Back then our paved roads were more than twenty years old and falling apart in places. The association owned the roads on behalf of the owners but had no authority to assess owners for repaving. Further many owners were not anxious to fix the roads because state law said they were open to the public, even though we owned the land and were responsible for their repair. Our beaches were crowded enough. Our sixty-foot-wide road rights-of-way could provide on street parking for day trippers to the beach.
Working with others in the community Bill helped lead the effort to pass a law in the state legislature and then convince our county commissioners to agree that if we paved the roads, they would become fully private. You, Bill and others then led a campaign to get more than two-thirds of the property owners to agree to give the association the authority assess owners for maintenance and repair of the roads and beach accesses.
Later, Bill worked as a board member of the Corolla Civic Association (CCA) to lobby the county commissioners to make more sensible use of the occupancy tax (OT) collections. More than 80% of the homes in Corolla were summer beach rentals and generated more than ten million a year in OT. The legal authorization for the county to collect the tax was only if it were used for projects that would grow tourism. But the county was using a significant percentage of the money collected just for general services in the non-tourist areas.
Meanwhile the tourist’s beaches were eroding, and tourism infrastructure was in disrepair. This led to declining beach property values and stagnant rental rates. But the county would not listen to Bill’s reasonable legal argument that they were violating the law using the funds as they were. Nor would they listen to reasonable economic arguments that keeping beach property values high by investing in beach tourism would not only generate more OT income but also would generate more general property tax income keeping general property tax rates low.
While on the CCA board Bill spent months analyzing court cases and judicial decisions to strengthen the legal arguments. Bill was instrumental in guiding the CCA to hire a seasoned North Carolina litigator to assess the situation. With her advice a consortium of Corolla property owners, including you and Bill, agreed to be plaintiffs and a lawsuit was filed. Bill even did first drafts of some of the legal filings. Now, almost a decade later the matter the North Carolina Court of Appeals has ruled in our favor, and the Supreme Court has heard the county’s appeal.
Bill was also a great friend on the golf course or around the dinner table. It was clear how much Bill loved you and your families. He spoke often of the accomplishments of your children and grandchildren. We missed your company when you moved to Connecticut, but we understood the growing need to be closer to family, especially as the grandkids are growing up.
We wish the best for you and your family, Lynn, and hope that time will lessen your great sorrow, leaving only the best memories. He was a great guy, and we will all miss him.
Love
Kathi and Ed Cornet
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