20021932 Ver 1_More Info Received_20030305

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3129 Lakeside Commons Dr.
Southport, N. C. 28461
February 3, 2003
Mr. S. Kenneth Jolly
Wilmington Regulatory Field Office
US Army Corps of Engineers
P. O. Box 1890
Wilmington, N. C. 28402-1890
RE: Your 2-21-03 Letter re
James H. Bolin
USACE File No. 200300253
Dear Mr. Jolly:
Thank you for your letter. This letter is in reference to the violations on Lot 17,
to which you referred in the last paragraph of your letter. I want to thank you in
advance for taking the time to read this explanation of what happened there.
Since this involves issues as to my character, veracity, and assumed violation
of the law, I am sending copies to the parties whom you copied with your letter.
i do plan to redesign my house to, hopefully meet the requirements so i can
proceed. However, it appears that unless i can clear away the cloud of suspicion you
and Mr, Farrell understandably have, regarding my apparent involvement with the
violations on Lot 17, 1 may be wasting my time.
I don't know if you saw the letter I wrote to Mr. Farrell on February 3, outlining
essentially the same details I have addressed in this letter. In any case, I need to
know what (if anything?) else I can do to clear my name and reputation.
My reputation is much more important than the permit to build my house
(although that is pretty darned important to me, since it is intended to be my personal
residence!). I will be glad to sign an affidavit, that the statements below accurately
describe the events that took place.
1 am 100% sure that Mr. Hatcher, the owner of lot 17 will confirm, (and sign
an affidavit if you wish) stating that, although i was involved in the permitting
process, 1 resigned before the building permit was issued. More Importantly, that I
had absolutely nothing to do with the excavation, building, fill, or anything else
involving the actual construction of his house.
Although I had submitted the application, I called Steve Edwards, of the Oak
Island Inspections Office, BEFORE a building permit was issued, and informed him
that I had resigned from the project.
I needed to let Steve know, since we were still in the process of working
through some needed adjustments in the plans, in order to secure the permit. But at
that point the process had not been completed, no building permit had been issued
and no work had been started at the building site.
0" 1.
Although I have had a General Contractor's License for some three years, I
have never built a house in this area of the state. After the Nationwide 18
"verification", as you refer to it, was completed, I had contracted with a friend,
Southport General Contractor, Jim Stephens, to assist me in the securing of a
building permit and the actual building process.
1 did so in order to assure that the job would be done well. He was working
closely with me and received a copy of my resignation to Mr. Hatcher. Thus he can
also confirm my disassociation from the Lot 17 project.
Mr. Farrell pointed out that I should have also notified the USACE. I do not
deny that it may have been foolish on my part, not to notify everyone when I
resigned from that project. But it never occurred to me to notify everyone because
I had no reason to suspect that the permits would be violated.
I respectfully submit that, In the absence of evidence to the contrary, it is not
legally or otherwise required that one assume others are going to break the law.
I had no reason to assume such with the project on Lot 17.
First, I have known Mr. Hatcher for years as a former neighbor, and very
honest and reputable businessman. Of course I made no assumption that he was
knowledgeable regarding Wetlands rules, since he had no experience, to my
knowledge, in dealing with them.
In addition, shortly after i resigned from the situation, Mr. Hatcher told me that
he had hired Mr. Jeff Groce to build the house for him. I have never met Mr. Groce,
but I had heard only good things about him as a builder. Apparently he has a good
reputation in the community and I know he is an experienced builder in the coastal
area. Therefore, I had no reason to expect that the work would not be done in a legal
and professional manner.
Furthermore, I know Steve Edwards has an impeccable reputation for his
knowledge and the quality of his work. I don't think I gave it any conscious thought,
but never having built a house involving wetlands, and having furnished the Oak
Island Inspections Office with a copy of the Nationwide 18 permit, I would have
assumed one of their functions would be monitoring general compliance with the
USACE permit limits, as a part of the construction process.
Mr. Farrell mentioned that i did the permit work in my own name. As Mr.
Hatcher will confirm, for a number of financial reasons, he had initially asked me to
take title to that property. i did the initial permit work based on that intention. It is true
that I did not go back and change the paperwork when our plans changed.
In my February 3 letter 1 told Mr. Farrell that I did not secure the Nationwide
18 permit. It would have been rather silly of me to deny that I was involved in the
Nationwide permitting Afocess on Lot 17, and I certainly did not intend to do so. i
know that your files clearly show otherwise! As you pointed out, I did receive a
Nationwide 18 "verification".
So there is no misunderstanding regarding my statement to Mr. Farrell,
however, the permit _had been initially issued to another party in 1999, and an
extension was granted to that original holder on May 24, 2001, as your files will
confirm.
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When the house was essentially built, and the driveway had been installed,
asked Mr. Hatcher, about what appeared to be some changes from what the plans
called for when I had last seen them. He explained that some tradeoffs had been
made, expanding some areas while making others smaller, and using some
materials that did not constitute fill, according to Mr. Groce.
Please let me know what else I need to do in order to clear up this matter so
that it will make sense for me to spend the many hours needed to again revise my
house plans. Thank you kindly.
Sincerely,
James H. Bolin
Copies to:
Mr. Thomas Farrell
Wilmington Regulatory Field Office
US Army Corps of Engineers
P. 0. Box 1890
Wilmington, N. C. 28402-1890
I4r• John Dorney
Division of Water Quality
N. C. Department of
Environment and Natural Resources
1650 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, North Carolina 27699-1650
Mr. Steve Edwards
Town of Oak Island Inspections Office
518 Yaupon Drive
Oak Island, North Carolina 28465
Ms. Noelle Lutheran
Division of Water Quality
North Carolina Department of
Environment and Natural Resources
127 Cardinal Drive Extension
Wilmington, North Carolina 28405
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