Ocracoke’s polling place this year was inside the main area of the Ocracoke Volunteer Fire Department. Photo: C. Leinbach
By Peter Vankevich
While the country awaits the results of the presidential election, here’s a look at some of the local and still unofficial voting results, and more mail-in ballots may be counted.
Out of the 3, 171 Hyde County’s registered voters, a total of of 2,484 casts ballot, a stunning and record 78%. Of Ocracoke’s 827 voters, a total of 540 ballots were cast, or 65%.
Hyde County voted solidly Republican from the presidential level on down. County-wide Trump defeated Biden 1,408 to 1,035. Only the Ocracoke precinct voted blue with Biden getting 348 to Trump’s 176.
Statewide, Gov. Roy Cooper (D) was reelected, defeating Dan Forrest (R) 2.8 million to 2.56 million. For Hyde, Forrest got 1,343 votes to Cooper’s 1,100.
NC General Assembly regional reps were reelected.
District 1 State Senator Bob Steinburg (R-Chowan) beat back challenger Democrat Tess Judge (Kitty Hawk), 57,913 to 46,862.
District 6 House Rep Incumbent Bobby Hanig (R-Powells Point) will continue, having defeated Democrat Tommy Fulcher 30,843 to 17,071.
Both Steinburg and Hanig carried Hyde County.
In the only contested Hyde County commissioner election, Earl Pugh Jr (R-Lake Landing) won reelection beating challenger Thomas Midgette (D), 1,671 to 991.
Randal Mathews will be sworn in at the Dec. 7 Hyde County commissioners meeting to represent Ocracoke, replacing Tom Pahl who did not seek reelection. Mathews was unopposed.
Also unopposed county commissioners Ben Simmons (R-Fairfield) and Goldie Topping (D-Swan Quarter) will continue to represent their townships.
For the Ocracoke Sanitary District, which manages the water plant on Ocracoke, Scott Bradley will continue.
There was an opening for a second candidate. Incumbent Regina O’Neal Boor did not file for reelection but indicated she would continue if selected as a write-in candidate. There were 284 names added but the results will not be known until next week according to Elections Director Viola Williams.
For the other Hyde County sanitary districts, the unopposed incumbents will continue: Jo Ann Spencer (Engelhard) and Wayne Hodges (Swan Quarter).
Incumbents Randy Etheridge and Thomas Whitaker will continue on the Hyde Board of Education.
Chad Spencer will continue as Hyde Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor.
Heading back to Washington for House District 3 will be Greg Murphy (R-Greenville), who easily beat Democrat Daryl Farrow, 227,462 to 131,011.
Republican incumbent Thom Tillis narrowly defeated Cal Cunningham, Democrat, 2.64 million to 2.54 million for the U.S. Senate. Two other candidates, Shannon W. Bray (Libertarian) received 167,968 votes and Kevin E. Hayes (Constitution Party), 66,668.
Voting location on Ocracoke, the OVFD station. Photo: P. Vankevich
By Peter Vankevich
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Living up to expectations as the election of the century, national voter turnout for the General Election tomorrow (Nov. 3) is projected to be the highest percentage since 1908 and may end up being the highest of all time.
Ocracoke’s polling place at the Ocracoke Volunteer Fire Department, 822 Irvin Garrish Hwy., will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., which are the polling hours statewide.
In this election, emotions on both sides are running high.
As of Sunday afternoon, Americans have cast a record-breaking 93 million early ballots.
That’s almost twice as many pre-election votes as were cast in the 2016 election, according to the U.S. Elections Project.
In North Carolina, the North Carolina Board of Elections website today reports that when combining the early in-person votes of 3.61 million with mail in/absentee ballots of 947,421, the total number that have already voted is 4.66 million, which is 62% of the registered voters.
According to Hyde Elections Director Viola Williams, 1,232 ballots have been cast representing 38.8 percent of Hyde’s registered voters. Hyde is one of the state’s counties with the lowest percentage of early votes. In 2016, only 23.6% early votes were cast.
Of Ocracoke’s 827 registered voters, a total of 452 have returned ballots, giving this precinct 54.6% of votes already cast.
For local comparisons, Dare County has had 62.6% votes already cast, Beaufort 59.7, Carteret 65.5 and Washington 59.1
In the 2016 election, on Ocracoke Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump two to one: 318 votes to 158. But countywide, Trump was the winner with1,275 votes to 956.
Election day weather is expected to be warmer than today, sunny and in the low 60s. The high winds of today (Monday) that suspended ferry service on Ocracoke will be much lower.
Voters are urged to show up with masks and follow the socially distance signs to diminish the spread of COVID-19.
Here are the Hyde County voting locations:
Burgess Mill: Ponzer Ruritan Building, 39911 E US Hwy 264, Belhaven
Engelhard: Engelhard Community Building, 34545 US Hwy 264
Fairfield: Mattamuskeet Opportunities, 69 Church St.
Lake Landing: St. Georges Parrish House 31655 US Hwy 264, Engelhard
Ocracoke: Ocracoke Volunteer Fire Dept., 822 Irvin Garrish Hwy.
Sladesville: Sladesville Fire Dept. Mtg Room 123 Sladesville-Credle Rd., Scranton
Swan Quarter: Swan Quarter Volunteer Fire Dept., 25 Oyster Creek Rd.
The Hyde County commissioners meetings are held via Facebook.
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Update, Monday, 4 p.m.Tonight’s commissioners meeting is postponed until next Thursday, Nov. 12, at 6 p.m. This is due to a lack of a quorum.
Due to COVID-19 safety precautions, public attendance at Hyde County Board of Commissioners Meetings will be provided electronically. The meeting will be available to watch via Facebook Live or listen to via a phone dial in for those without reliable internet access. Video of the meeting will also be posted to our website, http://www.hydecountync.gov as soon as possible following the meeting.
We are accepting public comments for all meetings and hearings via a web submission at https://forms.gle/qWzxU8EXfaQDahWp6, by sending an email to lstotesberry@hydecountync.gov, or by leaving a voicemail at 252-926-5288. Submissions must be received at least one hour prior to the start of the meeting.
Public comments are a time for the public to make comments to the County Commissioners. Comments should be kept to three minutes or less and be directed to the entire board and not to individual members, the staff, or to other members of the public.
The live stream will begin when the meeting is called to order. You do not need to be a Facebook member to view the live stream. You can access our Facebook page by going to the following website https://www.facebook.com/HydeCountyNC. You can also watch via Facebook any time after the meeting is over.
To use the dial in option, call 605-562-0400 or 717-275-8940, enter the following access code 882 1001, and press #. These are not toll-free numbers, but you are typically not charged for long distance when using a cellular phone.
For information on agenda items, visit the Hyde County website here.
The Baptists on Mission mobile dental van will be on Ocracoke Nov. 18 to 20.
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The original Rotary Club of Morehead City and Rotary District 7730 will bring the Baptists on Mission Dental Ministry van to Ocracoke for a free clinic Wednesday, Nov. 18, to Friday, Nov. 20.
Paid for by the Rotary groups, islanders seeking dental care are asked to call the Ocracoke Health Center at 252-928-1511 for a pre-exam to assess your need and to make appointments.
“We shall see adults and cooperative children for simple dental problems and make appropriate referrals as necessary,” said Dr. Stephen Smith of Morehead City, who is organizing the event.
They will give priority to patients in pain or with swelling and can do most extractions and fillings at the clinic. Depending on the response, they may be able to expand clinic hours, he said, but they will not take walk-ins.
The only charge to islanders will be for prescriptions.
The self-contained mobile clinic has two operatories, an X-ray, room air sanitizers and standard COVID-19 protective gear. The medical history form is in Spanish and Spanish speakers will be available.
All of the medical professionals are volunteering their time and expertise, Smith said.
While the group will include one hygienist and two dental assistants, Smith said the operation still needs one hygienist on Friday.
Qualified professionals are asked to call Smith at 252-241-2594.
“Many people in Carteret County have friends and relatives at Ocracoke,” Smith said about the service. “We asked the Ocracoke Health Center if there was a need to do this event. Their response was, ‘How soon could you make it happen?’”
The group decided to wait until after hurricane season to commit to this five-day operation.
“Ocracoke got hit by Dorian; we got hit with Hurricane Florence,” he said. “We know the people of Ocracoke are tough, but we want to make life a little easier for our neighbors.”
Last year after Hurricane Dorian, he said the club sponsored 10 children to receive $300 for whom to buy Christmas presents.
The Anchorage Inn where the group is staying is donating the rooms.
Overwash on NC 12 on Ocracoke. Photo courtesy of NCDOT
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NCDOT reported today that there is some sand and ocean overwash on Ocracoke Island between the NPS Pony Pens and the ferry terminal. However, the road is currently OPEN and passable.
Please drive carefully and slow down through areas of standing salt water.
Norman Gower of Elevated Environmental begins demolishing the administrative building and breezeway of Ocracoke School on Oct. 29. Photo by Richard Taylor
By Richard Taylor
She stood proudly as the symbol of island education for nearly 50 years, until Hurricane Dorian destroyed her beyond repair on Sept. 6, 2019. Now the main Ocracoke School building and its Commons lie in a pile of twisted wood and metal.
Inspectors first thought the extensive flood damage could be repaired. But the damage was too great for practical repair.
After state funds, grants and major donations brought in over $5 million, there was only one thing to do: start over with a new 21st-century building appropriate to the culture and heritage of Ocracoke.
A new building will incorporate the still standing elementary building and the gym.
Elevated Environmental Corp. of Reidsville, Rockingham County, won the $174,717 demolition contract. They trucked in a 105,000-pound excavator on a special ferry Wednesday night.
After two weeks of metal and wiring removal and other prep work, the steel jaws of the company’s big Kamatsu monster were ready to eat wooden beams and wall framing for breakfast Thursday morning.
Norman Gower, Elevated’s superintendent, began knocking down walls and roofs at 8:30 a.m. For seven hours, the sounds of wood breaking and joists crunching and popping filled the School Road air.
Teachers, administrators, students, curious villagers and visitors ambled by all day to gaze at the destruction of the building built in 1971. By 4:15, only a big pile of smashed wooden framing and concrete pilings remained of the administration and commons building.
Principal Leslie Cole and Hyde County Schools Superintendent Steve Basnight looked on at mid-day.
Ocracoke School Principal Leslie Cole films the work. Photo by Richard Taylor
Cole watched as the walls around her former office came crashing down.
“Well, it took a lot of years to get there,” she said. “Today was a hard day. It was the end of an era. Ocracoke School has had a lot of hard days since Sept. 6, 2019, but we are hoping for better days to come.”
The former social studies teacher was nostalgic remembering all the students who have passed through the school’s doors over the past half century.
“That’s the great thing about a pre-K to 12 school,” she said. “You see them when they’re little; you see them walk across the stage. There are lots of great teachers who have made Ocracoke School what it is. I have just really good memories.”
Watching the demolition in-person affected Basnight more than he had expected.
“It’s just a continuation of Sept. 6, 2019,” he said. “It’s necessary for where we want to get to, to improve what we have for the kids and the staff and the people on Ocracoke. It’s just one of those things that has to happen. It’s bittersweet, because we can see the progress, but at the same time, it’s hard to watch.”
His father had showed him this, what was then a one-room schoolhouse back in the 1970s.
“He thought it was a great concept,” Basnight continued. “I don’t think I was even a teenager yet. A lot of these people lived a lot of life in that building. Nevertheless, we’re going to move forward. We’re going to make it better.”
Basnight and high school English teacher Charles Temple noted that a large Blackbeard banner hanging in the commons had been saved for display in the new building, which won’t be the only salvaged items.
“There was some discussion at the first community meeting to save some of the wood from the old commons that we could use decoratively in the entrance space in the new school,” Ben Cahoon, architect for the new building, said. “They saved some really nice beams. It will be a great monument to the school and its history.”
Janet Roberta Licka graduated with six Ocracoke classmates in 1980. The nurse traveled here from Johnston County to visit her mother, an Ocracoke native.
“I went to school in the Methodist Church while this school was being built,” she said Thursday. It’s sad to see it torn down. “Our class was the first one to have our Junior-Senior prom in the new gym (now the multipurpose room), which will be torn down. But you’ve got to move on. Hopefully, the kids will have something better.”
Senior Parker Gaskill was among the students who came by to watch for a bit.
“This is saddening after the hurricane. After all the devastation, this was bound to happen. Now to look at it being crushed. It’s real sad.”
His best memory from the building: “Drinking milk early in the morning and talking to others.”
Former teacher Kay Riddick watches the Ocracoke School demolition as Principal Leslie Cole, left, films it. Photo by Richard Taylor
Kay Riddick taught business and computers at Ocracoke for 29 years.
“I spent 25 years in this building,” she said, pointing toward the demolition.
She came from a high school in Virginia.
“Teaching K to 12 was my biggest impression in coming here,” she said.” I remember all the good people, teachers and students that have been in this building.”
Kelley Shinn watches the demolition. Photo by Richard Taylor
Temple watched the destruction with middle school social studies and health teacher Gwen Austin. “This is awesome,” he said, watching the carnage. “We spent a lot of time together in that building. We hired on together there in 2003.”
Austin noticed her classroom clock was still on the wall.
“I wonder if it still has the right time,” she pondered. The clock showed a few minutes past 9 a.m. Just about right.
Watching from behind the traffic circle, Kelley Shinn said a mural painted by her daughter Cecilia Carter in 2014 was on the backside of Austin’s classroom wall.
“I’m just waiting for them to tear it down,” she said.
The process will be repeated again until the old sections lie on the ground to be hauled to the Dare County Transfer Station in East Lake, or to metal recycling.
After all the debris is removed by the end of November, Cahoon said, the grounds would be “rake ready.”
Another view of the administration/commons being torn down. Photo by Richard Taylor
Charles Temple, Gwen Austin, Serina O’Neal, Leslie Cole and Steve Basnight watch the demolition work. Photo by Richard Taylor
Ben Cahoon, architect for the new building, talks with Jeff Lochrie and Jason Menser of Elevated Environmental.
The Ocracoke School Dolphin mascot carved by former islander Len Skinner is shielded from the demolition. Photo by Richard Taylor
Ocracoke School senior Parker Gaskill watches the demolition progress. Photo by Richard Taylor
Only a pile of rubble of the Ocracoke School remains. Photo by Richard Taylor
To view a video of the demolition, click this YouTube link:
On the Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry. Photo: C. Leinbach
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MANNS HARBOR – The N.C. Ferry System will adjust the Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry schedule on Tuesday, Nov. 3.
This route will change to its off-season schedule that reduces the number of daily departures on each side of the route from 26 to 18.
Motorists wishing to access Ocracoke can also use the Swan Quarter and Cedar Island routes, which accept reservations online at www.ncferry.org or by telephone at 1-800-BY-FERRY.
October afternoon at the beach on Ocracoke. Photo: C. Leinbach
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By Peter Vankevich
A cold front and the fast-moving remnants of Hurricane Zeta, which made landfall Wednesday in southwest Louisiana as a Category 2 storm, will bring strong winds to the Outer Banks this afternoon into Friday with the possibility of a severe thunderstorm overnight.
The storm’s now tropical storm high winds and heavy rain have caused considerable damage, downed trees, flash flooding and loss of power in western North Carolina.
The National Weather Service Forecast Office out of Newport/Morehead City also reported a high rip current risk is in effect from Cape Hatteras to Cape Lookout as well as a high surf advisory with breaking waves up to 9 feet.
The southwest winds will produce some minor coastal flooding issues on the sounds.
As winds shift into the northwest early Friday morning, some water level rises of one to two feet are expected on the sound sides of Ocracoke and southern Hatteras islands.
The virtual Hyde County Board of Education meeting Oct. 27. Photo by Richard Taylor
By Richard Taylor
Upholding their decision from earlier this month, the Hyde County Board of Education voted unanimously at Tuesday’s special meeting to keep Ocracoke students in a hybrid remote learning plan through Jan. 15.
Virtual school continues as is and the board will allow limited (1 to 5 pupils) in-person tutoring groups to begin on the island soon.
Swayed by heavy pressure from mainland parents, the board voted 3-2 to return Mattamuskeet’s three schools to staggered in-person instruction under a modified Plan B design beginning Nov. 3.
Mattamuskeet Elementary will return to in-person on a Tuesday/Thursday schedule with other mainland schools following soon after. All schools will remain virtual on other days.
The board also voted 4-1 to make Oct. 28 and 30 mainland teacher workdays to help Mattamuskeet staff prepare for in-person learning.
In a mid-October Ocracoke School staff survey, 67% of elementary and middle school personnel preferred not to proceed with in-person instruction for now, while 100% of high school and multiple-grade level staff preferred not to proceed in-person at all.
Board Member Lindsey Mooney said he had received emails from several Ocracoke parents who were not satisfied with how their kids were progressing in remote learning.
“The parents know the students best and they need to get in touch with (Ocracoke Principal Leslie) Cole,” he said.
“If Ocracoke wants to stay virtual, I’d like to give them what they want,” said Board Chair Randy Etheridge. “I really would like to separate the Ocracoke and mainland schools.”
The board agreed to let Superintendent Stephen Basnight and Cole work out the details for Ocracoke’s transition to hybrid in-person learning and provide an update at the board’s Nov. 10 meeting.
The overwhelming sentiment among the numerous mainland parents who spoke during the three-hour-plus online meeting was to open the schools despite the dangers of COVID-19.
“My son says he needs a teacher,” said James Topping. “Virtual is not working for him. You need to give us a Plan B. We need to have a choice.”
“This has gone on too long,” said Bridget Melvin. “I’m not sure how the board came up with that (previous) decision. This one decision has ruined my kid’s education.”
Mooney questioned why the staff is so resistant to going back to face-to-face learning.
Considering all the infrastructure problems still unresolved from Hurricane Dorian, Ocracoke board member Angela Todd urged for the island to remain virtual to which board member Thomas Whitaker agreed.
Todd emphatically defended the board’s Oct. 6 decision to stay virtual.
“I’m not saying I’m not for in-person,” she said. “Every person I know is for in-person, but we have to be reasonable. We can’t risk people’s lives.”
She said she understands that people want “normal.”
“What parent is going to step up to sanitize the bathroom?” she asked. “Everybody is worried about their own family. I get that. I understand people want normal. What we can do is address the normal we have created.”
Basnight said there would be challenges for returning to in-person instruction in Ocracoke’s new modular classrooms, which have no furniture yet, and that reconstruction of the elementary building’s first floor and the ongoing demolition of other campus buildings pose problems.
A $17,400 contract was just awarded for drywall installation on the first floor of the elementary building and a $139,420 flood-proofing contract for the gym is also in the works.
The board also approved spending $31,511 for tablet-like devices to monitor students’ temperatures and mask wearing at the system’s nine buildings.
Ocracoke ninth grader Maren Donlon, a student athlete, said the local 11 to 17 age group was experiencing anxiety and separation.
“This is where sports can come in and reduce body weight and fight depression,” she said. “Many students who play sports do better in school.”
At Todd’s urging, the board voted to allow only individual student workouts on the island, while allowing team workouts on the mainland beginning in November.
Basnight noted that the state has asked local governments to increase restrictions to help slow the spread of COVID-19.
He said the county’s positive COVID-19 numbers spiked within two weeks after the board voted to go with Plan C (all remote) in August.
“Since our Oct. 6 meeting, the same thing has happened,” he said.
Hyde Health Director Luana Gibbs said in a recent press release that although Hyde had a spike in COVID-19 cases, those were mostly in the congregate living places of the Hyde Correctional Institute and the Cross Creek nursing home, but those outbreaks have quelled.
Basnight said that the wearing of face coverings is the single most significant deterrent against COVID-19.
“If 95 to 99 % of staff and students wear masks, it significantly reduces the chances of transmission,” he said.
Volunteers with the Christian Aid Ministries build a new one-bedroom home for John Simpson. Photo: C. Leinbach
By Connie Leinbach
John Simpson is humbled that he is getting a brand new, hand-built house by volunteers with Christian Aid Ministries.
Simpson’s house along Irvin Garrish Highway was flooded when Hurricane Dorian inundated the island on Sept. 6, 2019, and had to be demolished. Since then, he’s stayed with friends on the island and earlier this year moved into a temporary trailer on his property to await his new home.
Christian Aid Ministries out of Berlin, Ohio, on Monday began building Simpson’s one-bedroom home thanks to a $850,000 grant that Hyde County obtained recently from the North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management and will be administered through Ocracoke Interfaith Relief & Recovery.
The Hyde County commissioners approved OIRRT’s management of the grant at their Oct. 5 meeting.
Simpson says he’s almost embarrassed at times about the charity shown him following the Dorian disaster.
“I greatly appreciate it—the whole thing, community-wise,” he said. “It’s very humbling. This whole community bands together to help.”
CAM, as it is known, is one of several Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters (VOADs) that have aided Ocracoke since Dorian on rebuild projects.
The first group of about 12 CAM workers and supervisors arrived on Ocracoke Island over the weekend and began building Simpson’s home on Monday.
Larry Strite is supervising the volunteer work crews for the Christian Aid Ministries. Photo: C. Leinbach
“We expect to get it under roof on Friday,” said Larry Strite, who is supervising the crews of young Mennonite men building or rebuilding homes lost or heavily damaged.
If you go by one of these projects and can’t understand what they men are saying, that’s because these young men from Illinois and Kentucky are speaking Pennsylvania Dutch, a dialect of German that’s spoken in the Mennonite and Amish communities.
Another crew was tearing out insulation at a nearby house in preparation for rebuilding the interior. As Strite watched the young men haul away the insulation damaged in the storm he noted that he was in one of the first group of volunteers to arrive on the island after the storm.
“I was here for 32 days as one of the rapid response teams,” he said, which did initial muck outs and tear outs of damaged buildings.
And the home where the crew was prepping was the first place where he helped.
“I cleaned this place,” he said. “I gutted it.”
So, he appreciates that he can take off from his own job to oversee rebuilding.
“This to me was a big thing,” he said about getting this particular house done. “I hope to have it done in four weeks.”
Strite, also a Mennonite from Pickens, South Carolina, said the young men working on the island for the next four weeks on four projects are volunteers with the Conservative Anabapists Service Program, which operates under CAM and provides alternative places of employment for conscientious objectors to serve should the U.S. government activate a military draft.
Strite was thankful to Blue Heron Vacations, which obtained houses for the crews.
“They went above and beyond,” he said.
Ivey Belch, chair of the OIRRT, stopped by Simpson’s to view the work.
“We’re glad they’re here,” he said about the volunteers. “We’re very thankful for their time and effort to be here.”
The OIRRT, which is the long-term recovery group formed after Dorian devastated the island, is in the process through casework of identifying client homeowners most in need of rebuild assistance.
“Our top priorities are those with homes which have been totally demolished, and who have not received adequate assistance from other disaster relief outlets such as NCIA, SBA, or rebuild partner groups/VOADs,” said Alicia Peel, OIRRT administrative assistant.
The process considers each individual homeowner’s financial situation, including fixed income, in addition to a multitude of other extenuating circumstances on a case-by-case basis with a seven-tiered system that prioritizes medical needs and the elderly as the top two tiers.
Over the last year, the OIRRT has participated in the management of over $2 million in recovery funds, has distributed truckloads of furniture and appliances, and has disbursed several truckloads of donated food and supplies to the community.
This has been done through casework to more than 380 island households impacted or displaced by Dorian.
Another view of what will be John Simpson’s new home. Photo: C. Leinbach
