The American Red Cross and Ocracoke School Beta Club and community blood drive scheduled for this week in the Community Center was canceled due to high winds and rough seas that suspended ferry operations Tuesday and part of Wednesday.
Bryson Schmidt, the drive coordinator for the Red Cross, said the new dates are from noon to 6 p.m. Nov. 30 and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dec. 1.
November ushers in the season in which we give thanks and reflect.
The weather is cooler, and the glare of summer has given way to wonderful late afternoon fall lighting and award-winning sunset photos.
It’s a time for calming down and lessening stress.
We can give thanks for another great year in which our livelihood – tourism – has held in the waning COVID-19 pandemic and that no major hurricanes aimed for our island since Hurricane Dorian hit Sept. 6, 2019.
For the most part, the village is faring well while trying to address the challenges of living on an island – transportation issues, affordable housing issues, not enough help.
Some islanders have moved on and newcomers have purchased homes and relocated to this place which they may have fantasized about for years.
But to get to a sense of peacefulness and gratefulness, there is a major speed bump to cross. Will we truly have a season of thanks?
These new families bring new energy and, we hope, willingness to contribute to the community.
So, we are thankful that Ocracoke continues to rebound, that new energy continues to flow.
But to get to a sense of peacefulness and gratefulness, there is a major speed bump to cross — the Nov. 8 election.
All indications are that many are concerned and worried about our future as demonstrated by unusually high early voter turnouts in a nonpresidential election.
There is much uncertainty over what will happen on election day and afterwards and whether the political losers and their supporters will accept the results.
Many of us would prefer politics be just one of many issues in our lives and not the obsession of news cycles and barrage from social media that it has become.
The reaction to the election and the aftermath will determine how we as a nation will have that spirit of gratefulness come Thanksgiving.
Then there is the sound of distant thunder — the Russian invasion of Ukraine, now dragging on for nine months.
It is heart wrenching to watch the destruction of a country by drone missiles. On top of that is the threat of nuclear war there and from North Korea.
Those of us “of a certain age” can recall the great worry of nuclear war in the early 1960s and it is disheartening to have that worry return.
To play off John Donne, yes, Ocracoke is an “island entire of itself”; but it also is linked to the continent, “a part of the main.”
What happens elsewhere happens to us.
“Any man’s death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind. And therefore, never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
Prong Road, adjacent to the north end ferry terminal (South Dock) will be closed to the public Nov. 7 through the end of the month while NCDOT trucks use it to transport dredge spoil to vulnerable parts of N.C. 12. Photo: C. Leinbach
Prong Road at the north end of Ocracoke Island will be closed from 6 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 7, through the end of the month, as part of a North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) project to protect a vulnerable stretch of N.C. Highway 12 from flooding.
Prong Road is an ORV-accessible soundside beach that is next to the Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry terminal.
The closure of Prong Road will allow the NCDOT to safely access the existing spoil pile and more efficiently haul sand to the sandbag area of N.C. Highway 12, as large dump trucks will be able to avoid areas of erosion and soft sand through the temporary use of Prong Road during the project, according to an NPS beach access notice.
If Prong Road reopens prior to the end of November, it will be announced on the Cape Hatteras National Seashore’s beach access table at: http://go.nps.gov/beachaccess.
The Albemarle Commission Area Agency on Aging is partnering with Hyde County and Hyde County Health Department to host a three-week series on various aging related topics for residents living on Ocracoke Island.
The workshops will be held in the Ocracoke Community Center and pre-registration is required for all four events since lunch will be provided to all attendees.
Individuals can register by calling Teresa Adams at 252-921-0053 or emailing tadams@hydecountync.gov.
Tuesday, Nov. 1, 10 am to noon: Advance Care Planning. A session about the importance of planning for your future medical needs. Attendees will learn more about living wills and Health Care Power of Attorney documents. Participants will receive a FREE Toolkit to assist with future planning.
Tuesday, Nov. 15, 10 am to 1 pm: Healthy Aging 101. Learn more about healthy aging and managing chronic conditions. The Hyde County Health Department will be on site to provide FREE Health Screenings & FREE Flu Shots!
Tuesday, Nov. 22, 10 am to 1 pm: Prepare to Care: Learn more about the Family Caregiver Support Program and services available to family caregivers on Ocracoke Island. Learn the importance of emergency planning and managing caregiver stress.
Tuesday, Nov. 29 (postponed from Oct. 18): 10 am to 1 pm, Medicare: Learn more about various Medicare plans and benefits. Beneficiaries will also have the opportunity to explore and sign up for 2023 Part D plans during open enrollment.
Danny Halzworth is ‘Count Blackbeard, the vampirate.’ Photo by Debbie Leonard
By Connie Leinbach
In a scary turn of events, the Haunted Howard Street on Halloween night netted $2,700 to go towards smoothing out the unpaved road that, like most unpaved roads on Ocracoke, is beset by potholes.
The fundraiser (Oct. 31) was a series of scary vignettes all along Howard Street. While a private road, this much-photographed road has become iconic on Ocracoke.
Howard Street representatives requested money to smooth out the road from the Ocracoke Tourism Development Authority, but were declined with the board saying if they financed one private road they’d get requests from all of the other private road residents.
William Howard, who has lived on Howard Street all his life, said he’s seen the potholes come and go and is working on a road improvement plan.
‘Death Comes to Dinner,’ and what’s under that lid? Photo: C. Leinbach
Katy Mitchell, one of the organizers, said Jennifer Kidwell came up with the event idea, and then 40 cast members came together in two days to create 13 vignettes.
Mitchell herself was part of the “Witches Three” scene, boiling up something sinister in a cauldron in Kate McNally’s yard.
Susie Scott O’Neal, another organizer and the treasurer, said the proceeds and some pledges by neighbors should raise enough to start some work this winter.
O’Neal’s vignette was one where she could be seen on her porch dispatching trick-or-treaters.
“I was a babbadook,” she said
She noted how much fun the actors had putting it on.
“If you tell people they can get dressed up and play a role, they’ll show,” she said.
Mitchell said other scenes were “Choose or Die,” “The Gravedigger,” “Camping Slasher,” “Babba Yaga’s Bake House,” “Vampirate’s Lair,” “The Holy Man,” “Adrift Sailors and Sirens,” “A wedding Funeral,” “Graveyard of the Atlantic,” “When Death Comes to Dinner” and “The Narrowing.”
“It was such a fun event,” Mitchell said, echoing many who participated. “We were all lit from within by terrifying excitement. The community pulled together beautifully to make it happen.”
Earlier, along Lighthouse Road, costumed youngsters fanned out to gather treats from street residents and other community members who don’t live on the street.
Thing 1 and Thing 2 arrive to hand out candy. Photo: C. Leinbach
Trick or treating along Lighthouse Road on Halloween is an island tradition. Photo: C. Leinbach
Adults love to get in costume and join the trick-or-treaters. Above are Ben O’Neal with Scott Bradley, a mad scientist, and a robot woman, Kelley Shinn. Photo: C. Leinbach
Alien hunters Robert Chestnut and Rachael Pulwers. Photo: C. Leinbach
Gangsters Austin and Rachel O’Neal. Photo: C. Leinbach
Following a trend throughout the country, Ocracoke had a high early-voting turnout with 173 ballots cast in last week’s two-day early voting.
According to Hyde County Elections Office Director Viola Williams, as of closing on Wednesday, 199 had opted for early voting on the mainland and 40 absentee ballots have been received.
The Ocracoke voting location is at the Ocracoke Volunteer Fire Department on Irvin Garrish Hwy.
The general election is Tuesday, Nov. 8, and the Ocracoke polling place in the Ocracoke Volunteer Fire Department on Irvin Garrish Highway will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Ocracoke residents can travel to Swan Quarter during this early voting period and either vote early or register and immediately vote in the Hyde County Elections Office, 1223 Main St., Swan Quarter, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Saturday, Nov. 5, from 8 am to 3 p.m.
Ocracoke has 832 voters with 372 registered Democrats, 132 Republicans, 6 Libertarians and 331 unaffiliated.
All of Hyde County, including Ocracoke, has 3,106 registered voters–1,386 Democrats, 637 Republicans, 17 Libertarian and 1,066 unaffiliated.
Democrats led the way in early voting with 93 on Ocracoke and 91 on the mainland. Unaffiliated voters were second with 54 Ocracoke and 69 mainland. A total of 58 Republicans voted, 21 on Ocracoke and 38 on the mainland.
Unaffiliated voters surpassed the major parties earlier this year as the largest voting group in the state representing more than 35% of registered North Carolina voters.
A souvenir from the 2020 election. Photo: P. Vankevich
More than 1.1 million North Carolinians have already voted in the 2022 general election, according to the Raleigh News & Observer.
As of Oct.29, there are 7,404,580 registered voters, reported the N.C. Board of Elections.
For questions regarding Hyde County voting, contact the Board of Elections Office, 252-926-4194. Official voting information is on the North Carolina State Board of Elections website.
Pictured (left to right): Carl Woody (DCS Board of Education), Mary Ellon Ballance (DCS Board of Education), David Twiddy (DCS Board of Education Chair), Steve Basnight (DCS Superintendent), Margaret Lawler (DCS Board of Education), and Susan Bothwell (DCS Board of Education Vice-Chair).
Educator had previously spent 28 years in the district
Steve Basnight, a longtime Dare County educator and former Hyde County Schools superintendent, will return to Dare County Schools as its new superintendent following the unanimous approval of his contract by the Dare County Board of Education during a special meeting on Nov. 2.
Basnight will succeed interim Superintendent Steve Blackstock, who was appointed to that post in July after the sudden resignation of then Superintendent John Farrelly. Blackstock will continue to work as an assistant superintendent in the Dare County Schools.
Steve Basnight. Photo by Peter Vankevich
“This is more than a job,” Basnight, who was accompanied by his family, told board members following the vote. “Dare County Schools is, and always has been, precious to me. I want our school system to be…in Dare County terms, a lighthouse for the rest of the state for how we treat our staff and for the work that we are committed to doing for the students in our schools because they deserve no less.”
Basnight will be sworn in during the board’s Nov. 9 meeting and his contract will be effective Dec. 1. Basnight retired as superintendent of Hyde County Schools in April of this year, marking a brief pause in a distinguished career in education in Dare, Currituck and Hyde counties.
Speaking of Dare County Schools’ new top administrators, Basnight and Blackstock, Board of Education Member and Search Committee Chair Mary Ellon Ballance told the Voice that, “Dare County Schools, for the first time in a long time, have the right people in the right place to go in the right direction.”
Basnight worked alongside Blackstock in the Hyde County Schools where Blackstock was the director of Instructional Programs and Assessments. When Basnight retired from the Hyde post in April, Blackstock was sworn in as interim superintendent in that district until he returned to Dare County Schools this summer to take on his current role.
A graduate of East Carolina University, Basnight was an educator in Dare County Schools for 28 years. He was a classroom teacher and coach at Manteo High School for 20 years before moving into administration, where he served as an administrative intern and assistant principal at First Flight Middle School, interim principal at Cape Hatteras Secondary School of Coastal Studies, curriculum coordinator at the district level and principal at the Dare County Alternative School.
Basnight also served as principal of the J.P. Knapp Early College in Currituck before becoming superintendent of Hyde County Schools.
Basnight extended his appreciation to Blackstock during the meeting for the work he has done as interim superintendent. “I would be remiss if I didn’t take an opportunity to say thank you for the job you’ve done in not only getting the school year off to a phenomenal start, but in beginning to rebuild some of those relationships that are so very important to everything we want to do,” he said.
Basnight added, “I can’t wait to see some familiar faces and colleagues, meet some new people and get in the schools and work alongside our incredible staff to move Dare County Schools forward.”
In its search for the new superintendent, the board of education chose to conduct an in-house search as opposed to hiring an outside search firm. To that end, it named a superintendent search committee made up of three school board members, three principals representing the elementary, middle and high school levels and three central office staff members. Reportedly, 22 candidates had submitted applications for the superintendent position.
The FBI was on Ocracoke this morning to investigate a threat to Ocracoke School that was posted Tuesday night.
Captain Joe Smith of the Hyde County Sheriff’s Department on Ocracoke said that “Don’t go to school tomorrow” was posted on a texting app called Yik Yak, which is intended for sharing primarily with those in proximity to the user and allows users to post anonymously.
Deputy Jay Neal said he was awakened at 3 a.m. today when Yik Yak flagged the post and told them it had been posted by a teenaged boy on Ocracoke.
Then he and Smith went to the boy’s house.
“We talked to him and searched the house,” Smith said. “We also searched the school.”
No weapons or anything was found in either location, Smith said.
An FBI agent from the Manteo office arrived on the island around 9:30 this morning to interview the youth and find out his intentions.
“The FBI had everything on this kid,” Neal said.
Neal said later in the morning that the youth told the FBI agent that he thought posting that phrase would be funny.
“But it isn’t,” Neal said.
No charges were filed, the FBI agent left and Neal said the youth’s mother took his phone away.
“When (the youth) gets it back it will be a flip phone (without social media apps),” he said.
Smith said this was the second or third time they have responded to possibly threatening Yik Yak posts.
One of those prior posts was lyrics to a song that Nikolas Cruz, who is set to be sentenced today to life in prison for killing 17 people on Feb. 14, 2018, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Senior High School in Parkland, Fla., just before he began his deadly assault.
According to the Yik Yak website, the app allows people to create and view discussion threads within a 5-mile radius. The website says it’s anonymous, but other published reports, Neal and Smith, say it’s not.
The app had flagged the post and contacted law enforcement.
According to vice.com, Yik Yak, launched in 2013, shut down in 2017 after it was accused of being a platform for bullying and harassment.
After addressing some flaws, it relaunched in 2021.
Give the gift of life – your blood – at the Red Cross blood drive Nov. 9 and 10 in the Community Center. Photo: C. Leinbach/Ocracoke Observer
The Ocracoke School Beta Club and the American Red Cross will host a community blood drive in November.
The two-day drive Nov. 9 and 10 will be held in the Ocracoke Community Center. Hours for Nov. 9 are from noon to 6 p.m. and Nov. 10, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“The need for blood is constant and only volunteer donors can fulfill that need for patients in our community,” said drive coordinator Bryson Schmidt. “Nationwide, someone needs a unit of blood every two to three seconds and most of us will need blood in our lifetime.”
Schmidt said the Beta Club is participating in the Red Cross High School Scholarship program, in which they recruit blood donors and help at the event. They earn a scholarship based on what is collected.
“Last year a student in the senior class was awarded a $1,000 scholarship because the island collected 157 units of blood,” she said, and this year, they hope to do the same. “If we hit 150+ again, a student will receive $1,000.”
To make an appointment online, visit http://www.redcrossblood.org and type in Ocracoke’s zip code, 27960, in the search bar.
Ghoulish display along Back Road, Ocracoke. Photo: C. Leinbach
Monday, Oct. 31 Haunted Howard Street: 6:30 to 9:30 pm. From 6:30 to 7:30 will be for small children (less scary); $5 for children under 12; $10 for adults. See story here.
Tuesday, Nov. 1 Medicare Advance Care Planning workshop, 10 am to noon: A session about the importance of planning for your future medical needs. Attendees will learn more about living wills and Health Care Power of Attorney documents. Participants will receive a FREE Toolkit to assist with future planning. Community Center. See story here for all Medicare workshops on Ocracoke.
Wednesday, Nov. 2 The NPS opens and staffs the base of the Ocracoke lighthouse from 1 to 3 pm Wednesday to Saturday October through January.
Thursday, Nov. 3 The NPS opens and staffs the base of the Ocracoke lighthouse from 1 to 3 pm
Ocracoke Decoy Carver’s Guild, 7 pm. Community Center Canceled
Friday, Nov. 4 Mobile mental health clinic, Community Center parking lot
Erik Heden will be the guest on WOVV ‘What’s Happening on Ocracoke’ at 11 a.m. Friday, Nov. 4.
Erik Heden, Warning Coordination Meteorologist for the National Weather Service out of Newport/Morehead City, will be a guest on What’s Happening on Ocracoke, WOVV 90.1 FM, at 11 am. Prior to that, at 10 am, he will be in the Green Room of the radio station to meet people and answer questions. The radio station is located on the second floor of the old firehouse, 215 Back Rd.
The NPS opens and staffs the base of the Ocracoke lighthouse from 1 to 3 pm
Ocracoke Oyster Company live music: Ray Murray, 7 pm
Saturday, Nov. 5 The NPS opens and staffs the base of the Ocracoke lighthouse from 1 to 3 pm
