The Ocracoke Express, newly built and launched in May, pulls into Ocracoke’s Silver Lake harbor. Photo: C. Leinbach
The Ocracoke Express passenger ferry departures between Hatteras and Ocracoke are cancelled until further notice owing to mechanical issue the North Carolina Ferry Division reported on July 27.
It remains cancelled today (July 28). Pre-paid passengers are being notified and refunded.
For updates, contact the Hatteras Ferry office: 252-996-6000
The regular summer Ocracoke/Hatteras Ferry Schedule is running for July 28.
The new “Ocracoke Express” was inaugurated on May 16 and made its maiden voyage to Ocracoke the next day.
This is the original $4.15 million ferry built in Hubert by the former US Workboats that was expected to begin service between Hatteras and Ocracoke Village in the spring of 2018.
After construction delays, NCDOT set a new date for the spring of 2019, but the boat under construction flunked the U.S. Coast Guard inspection.
After that, the Ferry Division rented a catamaran-style boat from Seastreak out of New Jersey for the 2019, 2020 and 2021 tourist seasons.
Meanwhile, US Workboats, the former boatbuilder, sued the Ferry Division claiming breach of contract and defamation.
“All that was dismissed,” Tim Hass, Ferry Division spokesman, said on May 16 after a ceremony to launch the real “Ocracoke Express” at the Hatteras terminal. Hyde County Manager Kris Noble broke the champagne bottle on it.
Hass said the boat was completed by Waterline Systems, who took over for US Workboats (formerly known as Armstrong Marine Inc.) in Hubert, near Swansboro.
Ferry Division Deputy Director Jed Dixon greets visitors on the first run of the new boat to Ocracoke. Photo: C. Leinbach
The Hyde County Board of Commissioners will hold a special meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday, July 28, in the Hyde County Government Center, Multi-Use Room, Swan Quarter, and virtually via electronic telecommunications equipment.
The purpose of the meeting is to consider amendments to the FY 22-23 Hyde County Budget Ordinance.
Donnie Shumate, Hyde County public information officer, said the board of education will not be a part of the meeting. He said the meeting is just to discuss budget amendments and he didn’t have anything more than that.
A Facebook Live video stream of the meeting will be available on the Hyde County Public Information Facebook page for those not able to attend in person.
The Ocracoke lighthouse will be the subject of an Ocracoke Preservation Society talk at 1 p.m. Tuesday, July 26, and a Kids Kraft at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, July 27. Photo: C. Leinbach
Wednesday, July 27 Ocracoke Preservation Society: Kids Kraft: Ocracoke lighthouse, 1 pm Ocracoke Community Library. Temporarily in the Deepwater Theater, School Road. Storytime for babies, toddlers & preschoolers: 10 am. Ocracoke Oyster Company: Bryan Mayer, 7 pm DAJIO: Christina Chandler, 7-10 pm 1718 Brewing Ocracoke: Brian Hill, 7-9 pm
Thursday, July 28 Ocracoke Preservation Society: , 1 pm Bingo: Ocracoke Community Center, 6:30 pm; doors open at 6 pm. Benefits Ocracoke Youth Center Ocracoke Oyster Company: Mike Norris, 7 pm 1718 Brewing Ocracoke: Barefoot Wade Band, 7-9 pm
Friday, July 29 Ocracoke Community Library. Temporarily in the Deepwater Theater, School Road. Stories & More for rising K students and up: 1 p.m. Ocracoke Coffee Company/Mini Bar:Live music, 6-8pm. Ocracoke Oyster Company: Kate McNally, 7 pm The Breeze: AMEND, 9:30 pm 1718 Brewing Ocracoke: Kill Devil Disco DJ, 6-9 pm
Saturday, July 30 The Breeze: AMEND, 9:30 pm
NPS weekly programs
Ocracoke Lighthouse base open daily: 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Twenty-minute talks are at 11 a.m. Monday to Thursday Shaping these Barrier Islands Monday to Thursday at 2:30 p.m. Wars, hurricanes, winds and ocean currents have all had impacts on the shores of Cape Hatteras. Talk given outside the Ocracoke Discovery Center at Pilot Town Road by the south end ferry docks. Banker Ponies Monday, Wednesday & Friday at 9:30 a.m. at the pony pen. Meet the ponies who once roamed as a wild herd and learn about their living history on Ocracoke Island.
Late fall walk on Ocracoke Beach. Photo by P. Vankevich
While living on and even visiting Ocracoke, one realizes things are either very close or very far.
Students on the island can walk or ride their bikes home for lunch and be back in time for the afternoon bell.
Food and hardware items are just moments away. Passenger ferry visitors can spend several hours walking around visiting the many businesses.
It’s amazing how so many shop owners remember their once-a-year shoppers who make an effort to come by and say hello. Friendships have built this way over the years.
With a good flashlight, one can walk to a restaurant or one of the music entertainment bars and return to where they are staying without having to drive.
And, of course, America’s No. 1 beach is just a few minutes’ drive from the village.
On the other side, there are many reasons to go off-island. Specialty medical care and dentistry are two reasons.
This is where the very far kicks in.
To go to the Nags Head area, requires driving about 13 miles from the village to the “South Dock,” which is at the northeast end of the island (the North Dock is Hatteras), board a ferry, usually on the hour, and drive 70-plus miles into the heart of Dare County.
One never drives to Nags Head for just one reason. Combined medical appointments when possible, multiple stops at a variety of stores and even catching a movie is the routine.
To the south, Morehead City has lots of stores with merchandise and medical services that do not exist on Ocracoke. But that requires a two-hour plus ferry ride and about an hour’s drive across Cedar Island. Taking the Swan Quarter ferry to “Little” Washington and Greenville for many of the same reasons also takes several hours.
The above observations are known to many, but it is worth noting in a breaking-news context.
We have a game changer in the works, and it is not known how it will play out in the foreseeable future. The price of gasoline has skyrocketed; food prices are way up.
Most folks are probably playing out their household budgets this month and maybe the next. Those who have reserved rentals this summer will fulfill them with their annual beloved visits.
But come this fall, the skyrocketing economic impact runs the risk of folks foregoing fall visits.
There are already a few anecdotal indications that this is actually beginning.
Some have said that despite the many visitors on the island, people are not buying their normal Ocracoke local items to take home.
Whether inflation, especially the high fuel costs, will result in a quieter fall and winter, remains to be seen.
When COVID-19 in its early stages in 2020 started to go out of control, many thought it would ruin the economy on the Outer Banks.
They were wrong. It was the opposite as folks decided to head to the Outer Banks to escape the pandemic.
Many could do so because they could telework from here and families could home school their kids just as easily here as in some big city.
Ocracoke living requires being a time traveler: Observing the present; looking nostalgically to our fascinating and colorful past with an eye on the future.
Since we are an island that happily and, for the most part, successfully co-exists with our native animals, we can grab an example from one of the Ocracoke Observer’s nature profiles from several years ago.
Many of us may be able to metaphorically identify at times in our lives with the Sanderling as it ekes out its living. It stays just ahead of rushing waters, taking advantages of the lulls to gain its sustenance, keeping its wits about it, wary of competitors and — perhaps just for them — the whooshing sound of a hungry Peregrine Falcon.
The Odd Fellows Lodge renovation begins with a new roof after recently removing dormers. Photo by Richard Taylor
Observer staff report
Renovation of the Odd Fellows Lodge, located at the corner of Irvin Garrish Highway and Lighthouse Road, most recently known as the Island Inn, has begun with the roof.
Ken DeBarth, president of the Ocracoke Preservation Society which owns the property, said that work has begun removing the dormers on the west side which will return the roof to its normal original configuration.
Workers also will check out upgrading all of the structural members and removing the old tar shingles and replacing it them with ice guard, a waterproof underlayment, until the OPS can get cedar shakes, which were the original roofing material.
“Part of the historic restoration is to make it look like it did originally,” DeBarth said.
Cedar shakes, while more expensive than shingles, conform to the historic accuracy of the renovation, which is critical for the OPS to get tax breaks.
This phase, which will take a couple of months, is being funded by a grant from the Cannon Foundation and by a grant from the Outer Banks Community Foundation, DeBarth said.
Scrub brush on the back side of the property will be removed and there are plans to plant a fig tree garden there with all the types of fig trees found on Ocracoke.
Also pending is the installation of a public restroom. The Ocracoke Civic & Business Association was awarded $201,900 for this project and expects to purchase a ready-made, unisex bathroom sometime this year.
The Hyde County Board of Commissioners and the Board of Education will resume their budget negotiation meeting at 1 p.m. Sunday in the Hyde County government building in Swan Quarter and in the Ocracoke Community Center.
The meeting on Wednesday was part of the mediation process over the county’s appropriation for school services for fiscal year 2022-2023, which began July 1.
The education board requested $1.712 million for this fiscal year, which was a little more than last year’s appropriation of $1.7 million, and the Hyde County commissioners appropriated them $1.3 million, or $400,000 less than last year, under the assumption that that sum would suffice.
Mediator Benjamin G. Alford, a retired judge for the Second Division of the Superior Court, said the matter must be resolved by Aug. 1.
The meeting also will be live streamed on the Hyde County Public Information Facebook page.
Hyde County’s Family and Consumer Sciences Extension agent, CatieJo Black, will teach two fresh fig cooking classes on Ocracoke Aug. 1 and 2 in anticipation of the upcoming Fig Festival Aug. 4 to 6.
Free classes on making fig bread and fig jam will be limited to 12 participants and registration is required.
Fig bread class will be held from 9:30 to noon on Aug. 1. While fig cakes are a common treat among those who have access to the fruit, those looking for something a little less sweet could try fig bread, which is made similarly to other fruit breads, with ripe figs.
Fig jam class will be held from 1 to 3:30 p.m. on Aug. 2.
While fig preserves are popular on Ocracoke, the figs must be boiled for a long time, they must set in the fridge and then warmed again before canning. Fig jam can be made in two to three hours and jam can be enjoyed year-round.
The classes are free thanks to a grant from the ECU Health Beaufort Hospital.
The Ocracoke community will celebrate the summer’s fig bounty at the Fig Festival Aug. 4 to 6 at the Berkley Barn and on the grounds of the Ocracoke Preservation Society Museum, who produces the festival.
Special guest Chef Ricky Moore, owner of the popular Saltbox Seafood Joints in Durham, will judge the Fig Cake Bake-off.
Moore recently won the Best Chef honors for the Southeast region from the James Beard Foundation.
Bingo returns as the Ocracoke Youth Center has gotten the popular game going again on Thursdays evenings into August in the Ocracoke Community Center. Photo: C. Leinbach
Updated
Monday, July 18 Equity Advisory Council Meeting, 6:30-8pm Community Center. Hyde County Health Director Luana Gibbs explained that during the COVID-19 epidemic, marginalized populations have not been getting access to care, not getting tested and not getting vaccines like they should. Money came to help health departments to provide training to our staff on how to be equitable in our health care. This council will brainstorm ways that we’re all sensitive to one another, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation, she said. Ocracoke Oyster Company: Kinnie Dye, 7 pm
Wednesday, July 20 Ocracoke Community Library. Temporarily in the Deepwater Theater, School Road. Storytime for babies, toddlers & preschoolers: 10 am. Ocracoke Preservation Society: Kids Kraft – Turtles, 1 pm Ocracoke Coffee Company: Team Trivia, 6-8 pm Ocracoke Oyster Company: Ray Murray, 7 pm The Breeze: Red Stapler Duo, 9:30 pm Canceled
Thursday, July 21 Ocracoke Preservation Society: Walt Wolfram and Jeffery Reaser discuss the Ocracoke Brogue, 1 pm Ocracoke Community Library presents “Wandering Nomads” program presented by the NC Aquarium, 1pm, Ocracoke Community Center. (Ms. Rhana always brings a live animal with her.) Bingo: Ocracoke Community Center, 6:30 pm; doors open at 6 pm. Benefits Ocracoke Youth Center Ocracoke Oyster Company: Brooke & Nick, 7 pm 1718 Brewing Ocracoke: Kinnie Dye, 7-9 pm DAJIO: Kate McNally, 7-10 pm The Breeze: Red Stapler Duo, 9:30 pm Canceled
Friday, July 22 Ocracoke Community Library. Temporarily in the Deepwater Theater, School Road. Stories & More for rising K students and up: 1 p.m. Ocracoke Coffee Company/Mini Bar:Live music, 6-8pm. Ocracoke Oyster Company: Kate McNally, 7 pm DAJIO: Ray McAllister Band, 8-11 The Breeze: Steel County Express, 9:30 pm 1718 Brewing Ocracoke: Kinnie Dye, 7-9 pm
Saturday, July 23 Ocracoke Oyster Company: Martin Garrish & Friends, 7 pm Latino Dances,7-9 pm, Ocracoke Community Center DAJIO: Ray Murray, 7-10 pm The Breeze: Steel County Express, 9:30 pm
NPS weekly programs
Bird Walk Tuesday, July 19 Meet outside at the beach access parking lot at the NPS Ocracoke Campground, 8:30 am. Ocracoke Lighthouse base open daily: 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Twenty-minute talks are at 11 a.m. Monday to Thursday Shaping these Barrier Islands Monday to Thursday at 2:30 p.m. Wars, hurricanes, winds and ocean currents have all had impacts on the shores of Cape Hatteras. Talk given outside the Ocracoke Discovery Center at Pilot Town Road by the south end ferry docks. Banker Ponies Monday, Wednesday & Friday at 9:30 a.m. at the pony pen. Meet the ponies who once roamed as a wild herd and learn about their living history on Ocracoke Island.
A place with a spectacular landscape and colorful history is bound to attract writers of all stripes and Ocracoke certainly does that.
During the height of the pandemic, I decided to tackle several recently published books about the island that have come to our attention.
These were sent to us except for one I found in the Village Craftsmen, though they are not technically in the book business. The Observer receives many unsolicited books and can’t review them all. These are a sampling of the fiction.
When one reads about one’s place of residence, it’s often with a curious eye toward getting the geography, history and culture correct, but I’ve noticed with these and other fiction books on Ocracoke that some details typically get thrown aside in favor of artistic license.
That’s OK, and “Love, Judie Kate,” by J.T. Allen, gets a lot of the geography right. It’s about a May-December romance on Ocracoke during an Ocrafolk Festival.
Allen, who is a professor of religion, history and humanities, is one of the sound men for the annual festival. So, his description of the festival is spot on. Allen created fictional names for the band Molasses Creek and the stores and restaurants on the island, but then, suddenly, there’s the name of a real person on Ocracoke. Why this one when all of the other names are fictional?
The character of Judie Kate has some image/confidence issues as an adolescent and this book is about her journey and finding love.
The festival is the scene of Judie Kate’s coming of age on Ocracoke amid the threat of an over-the-top Christian fundamentalist young man obsessed with her and the skimpy “rompers” many of the young women on Ocracoke are, apparently indecorously, wearing. Oh, and there’s a rapist on Howard Street.
Two of the books feature hurricanes.
One is “The Clock Struck Midnight,” by Sandra Wells, in which a young woman decides to buy a bar on Ocracoke.
One night, when the “town hall clock” strikes midnight, she accidentally conjures up the ghost of Blackbeard, the pirate who was killed off Ocracoke in 1718. In this tale, Blackbeard is a business adviser, confidant, protector and babysitter.
Setting aside some chuckle-inducing phrases (such as the above-mentioned town clock), numerous typos (such as “chocked” for “choked),” comma splices and more, it’s a short, entertaining read and describes an island hurricane pretty well.
“Egret’s Cove,” a mystery by Douglass Quinn, finds the protagonist, Webb Sawyer, coming to Ocracoke in the off season to fish with an old friend, Blythe, but discovers that she is missing.
Eventually, he determines that Blythe was kidnapped, and he sets out in a hurricane to retrieve her.
Sawyer is a jaded sleuth who on Ocracoke seems to encounter mostly unattractive women of all ages to whom he refers as “girls.” One uncharitable description of a woman’s laugh: “It was like a cross between a howler monkey with laryngitis and a dying hyena.”
Quinn, of Elizabeth City, is the author of four other Webb Sawyer books and numerous other suspense, historical fiction and children’s books.
The Ocracoke book that really gripped me, however, is “Aphrodite’s Whisper,” a historical fiction by William Charles Furney.
Furney is the author of “Black Hearts, White Bones,” about women pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read. I haven’t read that one, but I will after reading this excellently crafted period piece about the famous surf men lifesavers of the Outer Banks, who were later folded into the U.S. Coast Guard.
There’s a harrowing but propitious shipwreck and encounters with the Wright brothers in the first days of aviation and World War I.
Furney has created strong characters and an engaging plot.
His main character, Caelyn Canady, a beautiful New Yorker who in 1903 finds herself accidentally on Ocracoke and the Outer Banks, is a strong heroine who presages the women’s movement.
His other characters were equally well drawn, though I must take a bit of an issue with one — an “old Black woman,” who, like the “magical Negroes” in some American films, assists the white characters with her prophetic visions.
Furney kept me guessing with his plot twists, although there was one reveal towards the end which wasn’t further explained, and had it been explored might have changed the whole story.
Furney also includes author’s notes at the end explaining some of his fact alterations in service of the story.
Nevertheless, this book kept me turning the pages and I missed these characters after I finished the book, which, for me, is the hallmark of a good read.
The Hyde County Board of Education members on left and the Hyde County Board of Commissioners hash over the 2022-2023 budget appropriation for the school district.
By Connie Leinbach and Peter Vankevich
The Hyde County commissioners and the Hyde County Board of Education on Wednesday continued discussions over a shortfall in the county’s appropriation for school services and will resume the meeting at a later date to be determined.
The public meeting on Wednesday was part of a mediation process over the county’s appropriation for school services for fiscal year 2022-2023, which began July 1.
It was broadcast live on the Hyde County Public Information Facebook page and can be viewed there.
The public tipoff of the dispute began when Hyde County on July 1 issued an announcement of a special meeting between the two boards for the morning of July 4.
Board of Education (BOE) attorney Richard Schwartz of Raleigh and Hyde County’s attorney Franz Holscher said the unusual timing of the meeting was for the mediation process to meet statutory requirements and once the mediation process begins, it must be concluded by Aug. 1.
The July 4 meeting was for the two boards to approve a resolution authorizing their attorneys to recommend a mediator on whom both boards would agree.
With the resolution passed, the two sides agreed on Benjamin G. Alford, a retired judge for the Second Division of the Superior Court, who chaired Wednesday’s session.
The dispute regards a funding gap of $400,000. The BOE requested $1.712 million for this fiscal year, which was a little more than last year’s appropriation of $1.7 million.
In North Carolina, although variable, the state covers approximately 66% of the statewide education funding, counties provide 23% and the federal government 10%.
The commissioners, facing their own revenue shortfalls, made cuts to this year’s budget, which included reducing the BOE appropriation to $1.3 million, said Hyde County Manager Kris Noble.
The education budget is for operating costs and does not include the rebuilding of Ocracoke School or the After School program, which are funded separately.
Commissioner Chairman Earl Pugh Jr. said that on June 6, Hyde County Manager Kris Nobel asked interim school superintendent, Steven Blackstock, if that amount was acceptable and, if not, why. Pugh said Blackstock replied that “basically we can do that.”
However, BOE Chair Angie Todd clarified that while Blackstock said the district would make it work with whatever the commissioners gave, he also said he couldn’t promise that would work without cutting services.
Pugh said there were no further discussions regarding the school funding and the budget was approved on June 27.
Then, he said, the commissioners were taken by surprise when on July 1 they received the mediation notice.
Schwartz conceded that BOE should have made their concerns much earlier.
“But I don’t believe the Board of Education realized the full implications of these cuts to the school budget until later and the impact the reductions would be to the school system, not only this year but going forward into decades from now,” he said.
He cited the morning’s inflation rate of 9.1% that would be added to a 25% reduction and gave examples of what the cuts would affect.
If the $1.3 stands, going into the future, it would be very difficult to get back up to the $1.7 million, he said. “Dr. (Melanie) Shaver was just appointed school superintendent and I assure you the last thing she wanted to do in her first week on the job was to have the Board of Education pass a resolution and starting this process,” he said, adding that she’s looking at reorganizing the schools primarily because of finances.
Shaver said that she started on July 1, “and 30 seconds later, the board made the motion to dispute the budget.”
Schwartz explained that a 2018 change in the school funding law took away the right of schools and county boards to a trial and substituted a formula for funding.
The formula considers the amount of money that was spent from the previous year, previous years budgets, the number of students, and a cost-of-living index. Using this formula, he said, the school board is entitled to $1.787 million.
Holscher said the statute says the local current expense fund shall include appropriations that are “sufficient” when added to the state appropriation in conformity with the educational goals and policies of the state and the local Board of Education and that are within the financial resources and consistent with the fiscal policies of the local county commissioners.
“I believe those are the two guiding lines that most boards need to use as they move forward towards the resolution,” he said. “If the money is increased to last year’s amount, it will require cuts in the current county budget, or some additional appropriation or some additional taxation.”
Noble provided Hyde County’s budget details.
“We have a shared goal that we’ve always communicated together, caring for our children and educating our children,” she said.
Citing figures from the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners, she said in 2020-2021 Hyde ranked seventh from the top in the state in per-pupil spending at $3,142.
As for taking the $400,000 from the fund balance, Pugh said the county’s unrestricted fund balance is $2.4 million.
“We used $1.5 million of it last year to balance the budget to keep from raising taxes,” he said. Noting that cleanup from Hurricane Dorian in 2019 cost the county $5 million, he said the fund balance would not be enough to cover costs before FEMA reimbursement would kick in.
“Hyde County’s fund balance is less than 8%,” Holscher added. “The state recommends that coastal counties with hurricane exposure have fund balances of 15 to 20%.”
During budget workshops in June, Noble said, the county department heads cut as much as they could, and she had exhausted her options for reinstating the $400,000.
Hyde County’s budget already is built on a 10-cent property tax increase, she said, and to add back the $400,000 would require either another 6 ½-cent increase or to cut non-mandated services, such as the Hyde County Senior Center and the Adult Day Program for adults with disabilities.
In North Carolina, the state is charged with funding operations, or instructional expense.
General Statute 115C-408(b) says counties are charged with building, equipping and maintaining school facilities, according to information on the N.C. Association of County Commissioners website. North Carolina counties are the local taxing authorities for independently elected school boards.
No one in Wednesday’s meeting stated the total school budget nor can it be found on the school district’s website.
