The Village Thrift is now inside the former Community Store. Photo: C. Leinbach
The Village Thrift Shop is again accepting non-clothing items for donations.
Now housed in the former Community Store in Community Square, the island “department store” is open Thursday, Friday and Saturday from noon to 4 p.m.
Gael Hawkins, one of the managers, said the store has a lot of clothing and no place to store new clothing donations, but other household items can be donated.
“We’ve moved a lot of it but more has to sell,” she said. The clothing now is mostly transitional season items, and they have to make room for summer clothing.
Hawkins stressed that no donations are to be left on the porch.
Since the shop reopened in March it has done well.
“Everyone’s been great in supporting us – locals and tourists,” Hawkins said.
On the Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry. Photo: C. Leinbach
HATTERAS – The N.C. Department of Transportation’s Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry route will adopt its full spring schedule on Tuesday (April 12), but motorists should expect longer-than-usual wait times due to ongoing shoaling in the Hatteras Inlet.
While the change means that the number of scheduled runs will increase from 18 to 26 daily departures from each side, critical shoaling issues in Sloop Channel outside the Ocracoke ferry terminal have limited the size of ferries that can safely operate on the route, the N.C. Ferry division said in a press release.
This has reduced the number of vehicles that can be carried on each departure and has led to longer-than-usual wait times.
“We understand and sympathize with the recent frustrations travelers are experiencing on the Hatteras route,” Ferry Division Director Harold Thomas said in a statement. “However, safety is our number one priority, and until water depths reach an adequate level in Sloop Channel, our smallest boats are the only option.”
The Ferry Division is working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to have the area dredged as soon as possible. Until then, passengers on the Hatteras route may experience wait times as long as two hours or more.
Motorists can avoid lengthy wait times by considering the following options:
Avoid peak travel times. At the Hatteras terminal, peak congestion occurs on weekdays between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., and at the Ocracoke terminal between 4 p.m. and midnight.
Consider accessing Ocracoke via the Cedar Island or Swan Quarter routes. Those routes accept reservations and vessels have larger carrying capacities.
The schedule will be as follows starting April 12:
Tammy Zetka with her record-breaking scotch bonnet, the N.C. state shell, and a rare find of a top snail. Photo: C. Leinbach
By Connie Leinbach
It’s almost as good as finding pirate treasure when one finds a whole scotch bonnet on the beach.
And Tammy Zetka was the queen of shells recently when she found the new state record for a scotch bonnet on Portsmouth Island during the N.C. Shell Club’s spring meeting.
This was the first time since 2019 that the club has been able to hold their spring meeting on Ocracoke and they always comb the Ocracoke and Portsmouth Island beaches while they are here.
Zetka of Durham was walking on Portsmouth near where the inlet converges with the ocean when something in the high tide area of the beach caught her eye.
“I saw the scotch bonnet marks,” she said about the item that was buried and almost flat against the sand.
It just looked like a piece of the prized shell, but she uncovered it anyway
“So, I grabbed it and it was a big one,” she said.
Unusual shells are always auctioned at the N.C. Shell Club meetings. Photo: C. Leinbach
That night, the shell was measured and found to be 87 mm long, surpassing the previous state record of 86.4 mm.
Zetka will take the honored scotch bonnet, which also happens to be the North Carolina state shell, to the NC Shell Show May 6 – 8 in the Crystal Coast Civic Center in Morehead City.
Along with her scotch bonnet, Zetka found the “find of the day” with a small top snail shell. Ocracoke and Portsmouth are the farthest northern areas of their range.
“They’re not commonly found here,” she said.
This was her second “find of the day,” which the shell club bestows after all of the members bring in what they’ve gathered for display at Saturday night’s meeting.
She also captured “find of the day” honors in 2019 with a tiny scotch bonnet.
Zetka has loved shells since her aunt, whom she often visited in Melbourne, Fla., introduced her to shelling and with whom she collected coquinas, or “butterfly shells. They’re very colorful.”
She began shelling in earnest in 2012 and when she posted a shell on Facebook, Susan O’Connor of the shell club noticed and suggested she join.
She came to her first shell club meeting in 2016 on Ocracoke. Since then, she has taken trips to South Africa to shell and goes to Florida when she can to look for those rare finds, because shelling is an adventure.
“It’s the hunt!” she said. “It’s a lot of fun.”
Here is a story on a “super find,” a sub-fossil of a junonia, on one of the adventures to Portsmouth Island, a few years ago.
Easter observances by both the Ocracoke Life Saving Church and the Ocracoke United Methodist Church begin on Sunday, April 10, with Palm Sunday services in the Methodist Church at 10 a.m. and inside the Life Saving Church at 11 a.m.
Originally, the Life Saving Church planned to do an outdoor service on the Pony Island Inn lawn but because temperatures are forecast to be in the upper 50s with winds blowing 20 to 25 mph, the Life Saving Church decided to move their service indoors.
The “praise procession” around the village will still begin at 12:30 p.m. at the Pony Island Inn (formerly motel).
The community Easter service will be at 6:30 a.m. Sunday, April 17, at the Lifeguard Beach and both churches after that will have their own services.
The Ocracoke United Methodist Church also has some events Easter week. See the Easter Week flyer below for details.
Where Main Street meets Route 264 in Swan Quarter. Photo: C. Leinbach
From our news services
A Hyde County Sheriff deputy killed an armed suspect in Swan Quarter on Tuesday following a standoff at a home in the 1400 block of Main Street.
A press release issued by Hyde County said that sheriff’s deputies responded to a 911 call at 2:50 p.m. in which the caller stated her ex-husband had kicked in her door and was armed with a gun.
When deputies arrived, they encountered 67-year-old Willie Blount standing on the front porch of the house armed with a .22 rifle.
Blount ignored numerous verbal commands to drop his weapon and refused to surrender. After an approximately 10-minute standoff, Blount pointed his rifle at the deputies on scene and was subsequently shot by Deputy William Waters, a 10-year veteran of the sheriff’s office.
Blount died at the scene. No one else was injured.
Hyde County Public Information Officer Donnie Shumate said the roads at Route 264 and Main Street were roped off for several hours after the incident.
At the request of Sheriff Guire Cahoon, the State Bureau of Investigation will investigate the officer-involved shooting, and the Hyde County District Attorney will review all investigative findings.
Per standard protocol, the deputy will be placed on administrative leave with pay pending the outcome of the investigation.
For the Ocracoke School third nine-week grading period, 28 students made the honor roll, 22 made the principal’s list along with 32 who were award a Dolphin Award in a ceremony in the school gym on March 31.
Recipients of Dolphin Awards are chosen by their teachers for their enthusiasm, special interests and contributions to their classes.
Principal’s List. Photo provided by Ocracoke School
Kindergarten: Melissa Suazo Lopez Genesis Perez Gabriel Rodriguez Nico Gonzalez Stevie Wilson Antonio Lopez Castanon
First grade: Paxton O’Neal Mary Carmen
Second grade: Pierce Bryan Natalia Trejo Isaac Rosales-Trejo Dafne Mendez-Amador Daleyza Resendiz Espinoza
Third grade: Nadia Rodriguez Alcocer
Fourth grade: Jordan Suazo-Dominguez
Fifth grade: Kai King
Middle School English Language Arts: J.J. Ibarra Middle School Social Studies: Jonah Daniels Middle School Math: Ammy Ortiz-Flores High School History: Sonia Voitenko High School Science: Alexis Villanueva Elementary Art: Adrian Gonzalez Middle School Art: Zoe Modlin High School Technology, Design & Engineering: Rene Ramirez Rodriguez High School Art: Uriel Guerrero Perez PreK-2 Phys Ed: Evelyn Contreras 3-5 Phys Ed: Ange Suazo Paz 6-8 Phys Ed: Aidan Mason 9-12 Phys Ed: Yazmin Ramirez Rodriguez
Monday, April 4 Hyde County Commissioners meet at 6 pm. Ocracoke Community Center and on Facebook at Hyde County Public Information. See agenda below.
Tuesday, April 5 Hyde County Board of Education meets10 to 11 am. Ocracoke Community Center. Rescheduled to April 8
Ocracoke Decoy Carvers Guild meets 7 pm. Ocracoke Community Center
Wednesday, April 6 Red Cross Blood Drive, noon to 6 pm. Ocracoke Community Center. Appointments highly encouraged. Online visit redcrossblood.org. and enter Sponsor Code: OCRACOKE.
Thursday, April 7 Red Cross Blood Drive, 8 am to 2 pm. Ocracoke Community Center. Appointments highly encouraged. Online visit redcrossblood.org. and enter Sponsor Code: OCRACOKE.
Friday, April 8 Hyde County Board of Education meets at 5 p.m. in the O.A. Peay, 1430 Main St., Swan Quarter. It also can be viewed electronically via Zoom using the following live stream for public access on the Hyde County Schools Facebook page linkedhere: https://www.facebook.com/HydeCountySchools
Occupancy Tax Board meets to review grants requests 6 pm. Community Center.
Saturday, April 9 March to support Ukraine. 10 am. Meets at Books To Be Red yard. Park at Methodist Church or Deepwater Theater.
Jason Daniels, left, on his last day as captain, with Joe Smith outside the sheriff’s office on Ocracoke. Photo: C. Leinbach/Ocracoke Observer
By Connie Leinbach
As Captain Jason Daniels retires from the Hyde County Sheriff’s Department after 19 years, he sees the work he has done on Ocracoke as preventative medicine, if you will.
The police scene here is different from that of big city, adrenaline-pumping action.
On Ocracoke, a law officer is more truly like a peace officer because in a small community like this, the local deputies aren’t just in the blue brotherhood. They’re part of the community.
Because he cares, Daniels and his deputies have done things the rest of the community never hears about.
“Nobody sees me riding somebody around at two in the morning because someone is having a bad night,” he said on his last day as the captain of the deputies. “They can’t sleep; they pick the phone up and they call, and I go pick ‘em up and I ride ‘em around to try to help get it off their chest and clear their minds. Then I take them back home. People don’t see that.”
Daniels described policing on Ocracoke to the man who will take his place, Joe Smith, a longtime member of the mainland deputy force.
“Little things like that might save us a whole lot of trouble,” Smith added.
Smith is looking forward to a different pace on Ocracoke and understands Daniels’ philosophy: It’s all about prevention and de-escalation of conflicts.
“We always try to prevent (something worse) from happening, because here it takes up so many resources,” such as would be deployed in dealing with a head injury from someone falling off a golf cart, Daniels said. “We’re trying to prevent crime. We’re all likeminded. We all think that way.”
As emergency personnel, the deputies respond to every incident and stay for its aftermath.
“The community doesn’t see the times that we’re called out to deal with a suicide,” Daniels said. “They don’t see the times that we go out and we’re helping the EMS and we’re doing CPR on someone. After that, we’re still trying to help them. So, there’s a lot of dynamics that people don’t see here.”
Smith is no newcomer to Ocracoke since he has visited the island over the last two decades while his parents, Joe and Holly Smith, lived here when Joe Sr. worked for Tideland. They have since moved back to the mainland where the younger Smith’s family also lives and where he and his wife breed Labrador retrievers.
His son just graduated from Beaufort County Community College and his daughter attends ECU in Greenville.
Smith, who is a sergeant now, will become captain at the new fiscal year July 1. He realizes that the cultures on the mainland and Ocracoke are different.
The Hyde County Sheriff’s office on Ocracoke has a lot of unclaimed lost items, such as purses, cell phones and wallets. If you’ve lost something, check with them first by calling the nonemergency number: 252-028-7301. Photo: C. Leinbach
“But I’ve done this long enough and been working with Hyde County, I can walk right in here,” he said.
He knows it will take him some time to get to know everyone on the island.
“My time here has been wonderful,” Daniels said. “I’m gonna keep staying here and live here a little longer.”
One important reason Daniels is retiring now is because his son, Jacob, is living with his grandparents while attending Washington High School.
“And I’m missing everything,” Daniels said.
He will still operate his thriving sign-making business and he is a skilled artist who carves decoys and fish, which he will continue to do.
He also hopes to revive the highly successful archery program for Ocracoke School students that has been on hiatus since the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
As far as the crime in the last month, Daniels said they’ve been doing some calls but nothing that’s been overly glaring. He could not give specifics because the county is converting to a new computerized reporting system and reports are not ready.
In other departmental news, Daniels said Cpl. Blackburn Warner will leave to join a force in California around mid-May. But by then, Brian Uarte will have returned from police academy training to rejoin the other deputies in rotation, Rob King and Jay Neal.
Never missing an opportunity to inform the public, Daniels reminded all golf cart operators that children aged 16 and over can drive golf carts but 15-year-olds with a driver’s permit cannot operate a golf cart even while with a parent. The law specifically says age 16.
Daniels says he’s leaving the island deputies in good hands with Smith.
“As far as a fit goes, for here, with me leaving this is a best-case scenario,” Daniels said about Smith. “He’s just got an easy demeanor like I have, and he’ll do the job and he’ll care about Ocracoke.”
Correction: The original story misspelled “reins” in the headline. This one corrects it.
Ocracoke sheriff deputies have collected police department patches from all over the world. Photo: C. Leinbach
An example of Jason Daniels’ art seen here in an island home. Photo: C. Leinbach
It was a good time to visit the Ocracoke beach when phone and internet went down the afternoon of March 15. Photo: C. Leinbach
Editor’s note: Suddenly, on March 15, Ocracoke’s internet and cell phone service went out for the entire afternoon causing some on the island to scramble for communication while others welcomed a “rectangle free” afternoon. No official press release was issued at the time, but the Observer’s Richard Taylor tracked down the reason.
By Richard Taylor
CenturyLink’s fiber optic cable serving Hatteras and Ocracoke Islands was inadvertently damaged March 15 by Basnight Construction during replacement of a damaged fire hydrant in the Whalebone area of Nags Head.
This caused Ocracoke and parts of Hatteras Island to lose internet and cellular service. Landline service was not affected.
It took CenturyLink’s technicians until 6:30 that evening to repair their corrupted underground fiber along N.C. 12 near Jennette’s Pier.
Ocracoke gets all telephone, cellular and internet service through an extension fiber cable bundled with Tideland Electric’s submarine cable under Pamlico Sound between Hatteras and Ocracoke islands. CenturyLink maintains a low-capacity microwave link here from their Cedar Road central office to Cedar Island for limited backup service.
Before his election as Ocracoke’s county commissioner in November 2020, Randal Mathews was a CenturyLink network technician, working mostly on Hatteras Island. Mathews was able to get a cell signal that afternoon from the Verizon tower in Hatteras Village by climbing up a dune at the South Dock ferry terminal at the north end of the island.
”I’m not sure what exactly happened,” he said later. “Normally, if everything was cut, Hatteras would be down too. So it sounds like to me that everything wasn’t cut.”
Downeast Underground from Manteo, a CenturyLink contractor, that morning was coincidently boring under Irvin Garrish Highway at Cedar Road to install a short fiber extension to serve the Pony Island Inn.
Seeing underground workers along the road, some islanders figured the outage must be here on the island, when, actually, that work had nothing to do with the partial fiber cable cut in Whalebone.
However, Downeast did damage the phone company’s 600-pair local service copper cable under N.C.12 that morning, which CenturyLink repaired the next day at Downeast’s expense.
Nags Head Public works spokesperson Eric Claussen said, “There was fiber cable marked out there on South Virginia Dare Trail (NC 12), but not in the location of the hydrant. It was not picked on locate, so they didn’t know it was there. We called CenturyLink and they came out immediately.”
He said that since the fiber was not marked, neither the town, nor Basnight Construction would incur any cost for the repair.
For the record, some homes still have land lines and some businesses have them, for example, the Variety Store and the Ocracoke Community Library, currently housed in Deepwater Theater until June.
