Town mayors Cahoon and Smith challenged
The filing period for November’s municipal elections in North Carolina ended at noon Friday, and two of Dare County’s six towns will have contests for mayor that are likely to draw heavy voter turnouts.
In Nags Head, Commissioner Bob Oakes, whose term runs through 2011, has filed to challenge the town’s incumbent veteran, Mayor Renee Cahoon. If Oakes loses, which he doesn’t plan on, he could return to his seat on the commission. That could make Nags Head politics further interesting.
In once peaceful Southern Shores, which has become a political cauldron of late over the way town affairs are being conducted, former mayor Hal Denny will attempt to oust Don Smith as mayor. Look for a hot contest there, too.
Otherwise, the mayors of Manteo, Kill Devil Hills, Kitty Hawk and Duck will run unopposed for reelection, though Duck is the odd duck. It’s the only Dare County town where the council still decides who will be mayor. Besides, unlike other towns that have staggered terms for its board members, Duck elects all five of its council members every two years.
Duck is also the only town that will have a board race this year. Six candidates filed for five seats on the council: four of the five current members (all but Bart Smith) plus Don Kingston and Chuck Burdick.
Kill Devil Hills commission: incumbents Paul Buske and Bob Woodard seeking reelection without opposition.
Kitty Hawk council: incumbent Gary Perry and Richard Reid unopposed.
Manteo commission: Richie Burke, David Farrow and Christine Walker unopposed.
Southern Shores council: Brian McDonald unopposed for reelection.
Your comments on this or any other story are welcomed at the bottom of this page in the Comments section.
State jobless rate was 11% in June
It dipped slightly from 11.1 percent in May, according to the N.C. Employment Security Commission. Still, 11% was eighth highest in the nation. Michigan had the highest unemployment rate last month, 15.2%. The last state to have 15% or higher was West Virginia in 1984.
Auto insurance refund due 1 million in N.C.
An out of court settlement on a rate hike request by insurance companies is expected to mean refunds averaging about $50 each for some one million North Carolina policyholders.
Auto insurers will reduce this year's rates slightly, foregoing their prior request for a rate hike, and they'll freeze premiums until at least 2011, according to an announcement Wednesday. The settlement was signed by state Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin, who rejected proposed increases, and the N.C. Rate Bureau, which represents 144 auto insurers.
"This settlement is a great deal and is terrific news for North Carolina consumers," said Goodwin (left), who noted that the settlement makes premiums slightly lower than they were in 2006.
A spokesman for AAA Carolinas said, "We applaud Commissioner Goodwin for trying to save North Carolina motorists money during these difficult economic times."
(From the News & Observer of Raleigh)
State legislators stretch budget deadline to July 31
A tax on golf course greens fees?
State legislators are discussing it as part of a new tax on "recreation and entertainment" proposed by Gov. Beverly Perdue that would include golf, rafting trips and amusement park admissions.
No surprise that the N.C. Golf Course Owners Association, for one, is opposed to the idea. Rep. Pryor Gibson of Wadesboro adds that golf is punishing enough without taxing the game. "The tax on golf,” he says, “is the cost of shanking a golf ball into the water."
The game is big business in North Carolina. It has a $5.3 billion annual impact on the state and about 70,000 people have jobs related to the sport, according to a 2007 study funded by golf course owners.
Beach Plan insurance ‘fix’ approved
The North Carolina House of Representatives on Tuesday tentatively approved changes in Beach Plan insurance for coastal homeowners should a “catastrophic” hurricane hit the Outer Banks. Supporters say the revisions would spread the risk statewide.
Yet the so-called fix would also permit the ever increasing premiums for homeowners in 18 coastal counties who have seen the cost of their insurance double and even triple in the past five years. More...
Soundside swimming okay in Southern Shores
The state Division of Environmental Health has lifted Tuesday's 'no swimming' advisory reporting that bacteria levels are no longer unacceptable in the water at a popular swimming and picnic area off North Dogwood Trail.
Modern version of CCC Corps
These young people (click to enlarge photo) are members of what the National Park Service calls its YCC – Youth Conversation Corps – a reminder of the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) of the Great Depression that built sand dunes to protect Cape Hatteras National Seashore and many other projects throughout the country.
Today’s YCC is funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and on the Outer Banks is composed of area teenagers who the Park Service says “will be performing a variety of ‘hands on’ field work for eight weeks this summer
including work in park campgrounds, assembling new picnic tables, installing grills, site markers and other improvements.”
A New Record – for skinny dipping
Over the weekend 249 men and women (one report said 317) supposedly set a Guinness world record for mass skinny dipping in a pool at a nudist resort in the Ocean Isle Beach area. They shed their inhibitions and everything else as part of a national event billed as “The Largest Skinny Dip Across North America.”
Maybe they can get this state to issue a special license plate that instead of “First in Flight” proclaims North Carolina “First in Nudity.” More...
$25 million for Nags Head pier draws protests
Critics are calling it North Carolina’s version of “the bridge to nowhere” and have mounted television and e-mail campaigns complaining that the project is a luxury the state can't afford when teachers are losing their jobs and public health services are being cut back.
“The fact that the pier sits in the district of powerful Senate leader Marc Basnight, a Manteo Democrat, adds fuel to the political fire,” according to Raleigh’s News & Observer.
Governor Perdue sends Basnight a plastic bag
Beverly Perdue and Senate president pro tem Marc Basnight shared a good laugh last November when she was elected governor. And recently Perdue, whose favorability rating has been slipping, did something she thought was funny.
After signing a ban on plastic shopping bags in Dare, Currituck and Hyde counties, effective Sept. 1, the governor sent the new law to Basnight – its originator – in a plastic bag.
Not everyone was amused, if a Civitas Institute poll of 600 voters in the affected counties is any indication: 58% were opposed to the ban, 31% supported it and 11% were unsure if it’s a good idea.
What does the ban involve? You can read the legislation here. (We have marked some key points in blue.)
Dare’s Unaffiliated voters now rank second
Voters registered in Dare County as Unaffiliated – what other states classify as Independent – now outnumber Republicans and have closed the gap with Democrats, the county’s traditional majority.
The current breakdown of the county’s 25,786 registered voters is 40% Democratic, 31% Unaffiliated and 29% Republican.
Ten years ago, Democrats were almost 52% of the electorate; Republicans 31%; Unaffiliated, Liberals and all others combined were just 17%.
Statewide in North Carolina the current breakdown is 46% Democratic, 32% Republican, and 22% Unaffiliated.
Bobby in Charge
Quietly, without fanfare, Bobby Outten became Dare County manager on the first of July, succeeding Terry Wheeler’s 18 years on the job. No big surprise because It was announced in December of last year that Outten would take over upon Wheeler’s retirement.
Obviously, county commissioners agreed with words attributed to Outten in a county press release Thursday: “With complex issues facing our county such as the Beach Plan insurance issue and the beach closures at the Cape Hatteras National Seashore Recreational Area, it seems ideal to have a person making decisions as a county Manager who is fully aware of all legal implications.’’
And not only that but an experienced hand, such as Outten, who has demonstrated the ability to explain the legal implications of complicated issues to county residents in layman’s terminology.
State DOT to take over Turnpike Authority
It’s intended as a cost-cutting move but Senate president Marc Basnight of Manteo, who favored creation of the Authority, says it won’t affect plans to construct a mid Currituck Sound bridge. More...
Anti-tax Hatteras Tea Party draws a crowd
Some 80 to 100 Hatteras Island residents and summertime visitors gathered at the Fessenden Center in Buxton on the Fourth of July to celebrate the holiday and display signs and banners saying they have been “Taxed Enough Already.” An Island Free Press report.
The Lone Survivor
(Click photo to enlarge)
The only survivor of the Fourth of July explosion at Ocracoke spoke a few words Tuesday from his bed at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill. “Everything was going fine in the first couple hours” Saturday morning, he said, as he and four workmates unloaded their 18-wheeler, laden with as much as five tons of fireworks for that evening’s display.
“Next thing you know, there was a big explosion.” That’s about all Martez Holland, 27, remembers. “I'm getting through this one day at a time,” he said shortly before undergoing more surgery for third-degree burns during what will be a lengthy recovery and rehabilitation period.
His uncle, who had recruited other members of the fireworks crew – in all, four men and a woman – from his small church in Goldsboro, succumbed to burns on 100 percent of his body.
The father of Charles Kirkland Jr., 49, who was killed instantly by the blast, said Terry Holland, 51, was hired by Melrose South Pyrotechnics of Catawba, South Carolina, to lead the crew for Ocracoke’s display and recruited members of The Lord's Table Church in Goldsboro, hoping to help them earn some extra money.
Lisa Simmons, 41, and Mark Hill, 21, died of their injuries.
North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin said Tuesday he was “shocked to find out there is no state law requiring any minimal training or licensing of (fireworks display) operators."
Safety was uppermost, however, and special arrangements were made to ferry the 18-wheeler and its combustible cargo to Okracoke. There were no passengers aboard and no other vehicles – other than the fireworks truck and two support vehicles with the Melrose crew of five – when the ferry left Hatteras for Ocracoke Island at 3:45 Friday afternoon.
“We wouldn’t allow any passengers on board for something like that,” said Lucy Wallace of the state Ferry Division at Mann’s Harbor, which was notified in advance of the truck’s arrival time from South Carolina.
“We followed regulations and protocol,” Wallace said, referring to Coast Guard rules for the transportation of fireworks, which must pass rigid federal government stress tests beforehand.
Federal agents have determined that the explosion was accidental. But the state is focused on the tragic church members who were hoping to earn a little extra money when hired to handle the fireworks that exploded prematurely at Ocracoke.
Dare County says ‘freedom at risk’ at Cape Hatteras National Seashore
Statement on the county website: “On July 4th when patriotic Americans will reflect upon freedom, the residents and visitors of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore Recreational Area will continue to be denied public access to key portions of the most popular area beaches because of a federal court-ordered consent decree.”
“The court order is the result of three environmental groups filing a damaging and expensive lawsuit against the National Park Service, which manages the recreational area. This lawsuit has had a devastating effect on the local, tourism-based economy.”
County commission chairman Warren Judge says, “The environmentalists are trying to fix something that wasn’t broken.” His statement and others are here.
Note: The area for comments on this story, or any others, is at the bottom of this page.
Junior Ranger aboard
National Park Service Ranger Liz Schilder tells Junior Ranger Julie Paris of Kill Devil Hills about Orville and Wilbur at the Wright Brothers National Memorial. The Park Service offers 78 free Junior Ranger programs throughout the summer for youngster, 5 to 13. Last week alone, 12,585 visitors attended 410 different programs at the National Memorial, Fort Raleigh and the Cape Hatteras National Seashore; and 483 children completed Junior Ranger programs. (NPS photo).
Daily Reports
Avalon Fishing Pier Reports
Cape Hatteras Fishing Reports
Oregon Inlet Fishing Reports
Golf Courses, Conditions
N.C. Lottery Results
Things to See and Do:
* Mondays in July, Old Nags Head Family Fish Fry, 5-8 p.m., rain or shine at Saint Andrews by the Sea Episcopal Church with games and family entertainment.
* Saturday and Sunday, July 18-19: Free Admission to the Wright Brothers National Memorial; also free admission August 15-16.
* Saturday Aug. 25: Purple Martin tour and viewing , also Aug. 1; to reserve seats visit http://www.purplemartinroost.com/.
* Tuesdays: Bingo, Kill Devil Hills, at the Lions Club starting at 6:30 p.m.
* Wednesdays: Bingo, Kill Devil Hills, at the Colington Fire Department, 6:30 p.m., doors open at 5:30.
Links:
Currituck County
- Carova Corner
Dare County
- Animal Shelter and Adoptable Pets
- Chicamacomico Lifesaving Station
- Confederate Fortification Markers
- Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum
- Lighthouses
- N.C. Aquarium on Roanoke Island
- Outer Banks History Center
- Outer Banks Visitors Bureau
- Roanoke Island Festival Park
- The Lost Colony
Hyde County
- Ocracoke Newsletter
N.C. Fishing and Hunting Licenses
OBX Alert documents
Outer Banks Free Press
Outer Banks Marinas
Preserve Beach Access Campaign
Russ's Outer Banks Journal
The Editor
