Washington City Council member Bobby Roberson wants to know if the city is making hurricane preparations.

Although the Atlantic hurricane season runs from June through November, eastern North Carolina has a history of hurricanes coming through the area mostly in August, September and October.

“I don’t want the city manager — even though he’s been in the western part (of the state), he’s now in the eastern part — I just want to be sure — and I’m sure he does — that we’ve got everything up to date about hurricane preparedness and sort of give us an update about where we are in the process and be sure we’ve got all the fuel and that kind of stuff. I just sort of need to drill about where we are in terms of the (emergency) operations center, what we’re going to do in case of a hurricane,” Roberson said during the council’s meeting Monday.

Roberson also expressed concerns with the appearance and water quality of Jack’s Creek, a major drainage component of the eastern area of the city.

“There’s got to be something we can do to eliminate the problem at Jack’s Creek in terms of the water, the way it looks. I feel sorry for those ducks. I know we’re not feeding them now, but I don’t even want them to drink water out of Jack’s Creek,” Roberson said. “Can you give me some sort of hope about Jack’s Creek, about how we can do it? Personally, I’ve said this before, I think we ought to take pumps out and let Mother Nature take its course. I know that’s met with opposition. … I think it needs to be revisited because that’s definitely something I think everybody in Washington is not proud off. It’s something we need to address. I think we need to take care of that.”

Roberson contends the pumps at the lower end of Jack’s Creek serve as sort of a dam, hindering the creek’s natural flow to the Pamlico River. That hindrance causes trash to build up in the creek and along its banks, he has said before.

Mayor Archie Jennings asked city staff to make recommendations concerning hurricane preparedness and Jack’s Creek at the council’s Aug. 26 meeting.