Island meets on tram funding, second public meeting for March 9

March 2, 2017

The meeting on tram funding Feb. 22 in the Ocracoke Community Center.

For Ocracoke news, click here.

By Connie Leinbach

A public discussion Tuesday night on proposed tram service on Ocracoke in conjunction with the passenger ferry in 2018 yielded more comments and questions from islanders.

The meeting, scheduled by Ocracoke’s County Commissioner Tom Pahl and held in the Ocracoke Community Center, was the first of two such meetings to obtain more community input about Hyde County’s request for $146,000 from occupancy tax funds (half this year and half next) to cover the operating costs of three 23-passenger, open-air trams.

A second public meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 9 in the same location and the Occupancy Tax Board will consider Hyde’s request at a public meeting April 4 along with all the other island nonprofits.

“Everything we talked about tonight is on the table,” Pahl said in his opening remarks about the project. “We are willing to drastically change the proposal based on your feedback and consider all options.”

While some of the 30 islanders attending said that tram service is a great idea, others said the island should see how it goes first and let the private sector handle transportation rather than take money from occupancy tax that island nonprofits count on.

Some also said that an influx of hundreds of people from the passenger ferry throughout the day will further clog the already crowded streets in the summer.

“Since I was elected commissioner, the most powerful complaint I’ve had is that the long route is killing us,” Pahl said. “I’ve heard this over and over and over. Another group of people are saying, ‘Wait a minute. Enough is enough.’”

Hyde County Manager Bill Rich, attending along with Ed Timoney, passenger ferry project manager, and Hyde County Commissioner Board Chairman Earl Pugh Jr., all on speaker phone from Swan Quarter, said the county was asked to get more people to Ocracoke.

“We were asked four years ago how to get ridership back to 2010 levels and a passenger ferry was the only option,” Rich said. “How we got the $9 million dollars was a miracle in itself to those that thought it was a good idea. Then the issue arose on how to move the folks around. We thought that the tram would be an eco-friendly way to get people around the village and reduce traffic.”

Hyde County’s latest proposal of $146,000 is a $70,000 reduction from their first proposal of $216,000, which they presented to the Occupancy Tax Board in a special meeting Feb. 22.

Ocracoke County Commissioner Tom Pahl. Photo: P. Vankevich

Pahl said there is a strong feeling among the planning group that if you drop pedestrians onto Ocracoke, you need some way to get them around.

“One of the big questions is does the tram system plus private enterprise provide enough service to meet the need,” he said.

Moreover, he said the money from a $7 million Federal Lands Access Program grant for this project includes purchasing the trams.

“If we decide not to have a tram system we may lose the opportunity to even have that money,” he said.

Sundae Horn, owner of the Ocracoke Current, who said she believes the private sector would be adequate, asked if the trams could be purchased but mothballed the first year of passenger ferry service (in 2018) to see how it works first with the private sector.

Rich replied that if the private sector could handle it, that would be the answer.

However, no one really knows at this point.

“We just can’t know until we try it,” Pahl said, adding that there have been 100,000 fewer visitors in 2015 than in 2008.

B.J. Oelschlegel, a realtor and proprietor of the Slushy Stand, asked how many years will people put up with long lines at the Hatteras Ferry.

“If we had relief valve (in the passenger ferry), it ought to work,” she said. “It’s worth a try.”

Sue and Vince O’Neal, who own the Pony Island Restaurant, said the majority of islanders are against the tram.

“We do not want to look like every other beach town, we are unique. We are not Key West.” Sue said. “The quiet older people not on social media are against it.”

“A lot of us remember the trolley and that was a boondoggle,” Vince said, “and we didn’t have nowhere near the traffic we have today.”

He also asked why, if the state is putting in a passenger ferry and tram service does Ocracoke occupancy tax have to pay for tram operations.

“Why wouldn’t the state have the foresight to include that?” he said. “We have little (occupancy tax) to use in the community.”

Finley Austin echoed others when she said she was concerned that money taken from occupancy tax funds would be taken away from projects tourists enjoy, such as the fireworks last year. She also asked if any traffic studies had been done on Highway 12, Hatteras and Ocracoke.

Leslie Lanier, owner of Books To Be Red, said businesses want both visitors who come for the day and those who stay longer.

“Businesses depend on day trippers,” she said. “Business owners have to make a living and employ the people who live here.”

Rudy Austin, who owns Portsmouth Boat Tours and is president of the Ocracoke Civic & Business Association, said the passenger ferry will change the way visitors get to the island and suggested that with the advent of the passenger ferry more vehicles ferries would be cut from service.

He also asked how well a for-fee passenger ferry will work if people can stay in their cars and get on the free ferry.

But Pahl said the passenger ferry feasibility study (done in June 2015) surveyed 3,000 people in the line at Hatteras and found that those who said they would choose the passenger ferry were primarily couples without children who know they can make reservations before heading down to Hatteras.

“We’re selling convenience,” said Kris Noble, Hyde County assistant manager, who also attended along with Beverly Paul, director of Hyde County Transit, a mainland nonprofit identified to manage the tram system.

Discussion also covered having the tram simply travel back and forth along Irvin Garrish Highway, from the village ferry docks to Howard’s Pub, instead of throughout the village, as a way to reduce the total cost. But Paul said the meandering route was chosen because of Americans with Disabilities Act requirements. If a tram just traveled the main route, Hyde Transit would need to have handicap-accessible vans on call.

Pahl said that after the March 9 meeting, the planning committee will come back with a modified proposal. He again said he would not support a vote of the commissioners to override the Occupancy Tax Board’s decision.

Sue Dayton, owner of Roxy’s Antiques, noted that the island’s vast, undeveloped beaches are our treasure, and passenger ferry riders need access to those.

“The scariest thing is if the current (presidential) administration takes away our beach and drills off the coast,” she said. “We have the loveliest beach on the Outer Banks and it would be beneficial to get people out to the beach to see it for themselves.”

Property revaluation professionals to visit island to discuss recent notices

March 2, 2017

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For Ocracoke news, click here.

Pearson’s Appraisal Services Inc. of Swan Quarter will be available from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. March 13 to 16 in the Ocracoke Community Center, to discuss property owners’ property revaluation notices recently sent by Hyde County.

The sessions are on a walk-in basis and property owners are asked to bring their 2017 revaluation notices.

Performing duo to return to Ocracoke library

March 1, 2017

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For Ocracoke news, click here.

The Ocracoke Library will present “Sanctuary Reflections in Story & Song” by Vermont thespians Diana Bigelow and Jim Stapleton at 7 p.m. Friday, March 3.

Last year, the husband and wife team performed Mark Twain’s “Diaries of Adam & Eve” at the library.

In the 1980s, Jim was resident naturalist at the John Burroughs Sanctuary in West Park, N.Y. While there, he picked up a lot of lore about the natural history of the place and organized these observations into an almanac of stories and meditations.

The evening’s program will feature selections from these writings as well as Diana’s songs, which, though written a decade later on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, share with the stories a reverence and resonance with the natural world.

The program is free to the public and will last about an hour.

The N.C. DOT should look for a ‘Level 5’ leader for the Ferry Division

February 28, 2017

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Editorial

There’s a lot of discussion these days about leadership in all areas of our lives as leadership defines the success of every team, organization, government agency or nation.

Jim Collins, in his book “Good to Great,” (2001) identified several key items that lift a company or team from competent to truly great, and the first–and most important–trait is what Collins identified as “Level 5 leadership.”

The levels of leadership below Level 5 are, from lowest to highest, “highly capable individual,” “contributing team member,” “competent manager,” “effective leader.”

Collins’ findings are still relevant as we assess leadership, from the highest in the nation to the manager of a small company or team.

According to Collins, Level 5 leaders are ambitious for the company’s success rather than their own riches and personal renown. They blend “extreme humility with intense professional will.”

They channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company.

Level 5 leaders are incredibly ambitious, but their ambition is first and foremost for the institution, not themselves.

Interestingly, Collins’ research showed that these Level 5 leaders were most often promoted from within the companies.

“The evidence does not support the idea that you need an outside leader to come in and shake up the place to go from good to great,” Collins writes. “In fact, going for a high-profile outside change agent is negatively correlated with a sustained transformation from good to great.”

David E. Hallac, who in 2015 became superintendent of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore of which Ocracoke is a part, is this kind of leader.

His humility but passion for the job has been evident since he first set foot on Ocracoke and basically said, unlike his predecessor, “How can I help?”

Hallac has been a relief to islanders and a breath of fresh air. He has listened to islanders’ concerns about beach access and was instrumental in Ocracoke’s success in getting back professional fireworks last year as he and his staff visited the island to figure this out.

His predecessor did not want to tackle this.

Hallac is no stranger to tackling tough issues during his career with the National Park Service. While working in the Everglades, he confronted an exploding population of invasive Burmese pythons and wandering bison in Yellowstone National Park.

He was selected, according to a press release, because has a proven track record of working with other land management agencies and he has extensive experience working collaboratively with local community groups and friends’ associations…. and also understands the value of both preserving the resources and enjoying the recreational opportunities they offer.

Ed Goodwin, who recently departed as director of the Ferry Division, was not a Level 5 leader. When Goodwin assumed the position in 2014, he visited Ocracoke and seemed to be interested in helping the island, but his subsequent actions seemed to belie this.

At that time, the short ferry route between Hatteras and Ocracoke, deteriorated further due to excessive shoaling and was closed down. He then strongly supported using a passenger ferry between the islands as a means to help move people out of the long lines at Hatteras. But he also supported a toll on the Hatteras ferry as a means to get revenue to run the system, something islanders and others had been fighting for years.

In October of 2015, Goodwin attended a meeting on Ocracoke about a toll and the possibility of islanders paying for an all-ferry pass, both of which islanders attending said they did not want. At that meeting he said, essentially, OK. I’ll fight for whatever you all want. On the same day, his then-deputy director Jed Dixon made a presentation to the Dare County board of commissioners which ended with the commissioners voting to authorize their representative to vote for a toll, should this come up. Goodwin should have told the islanders about the Dare presentation, rather than having them read it in the press.

After that, Goodwin’s actions and demeanor changed on his infrequent visits to Ocracoke, and many here have questioned the success with which he ran the ferry operation.

A former-Gov. McCrory appointee, Goodwin’s career included chairman of the Chowan County Board of Commissioners and a 21-year stint as a special agent with the Naval Criminal Investigation Services (NCIS).

Many islanders still believe that not all of the options of reviving the short route between the islands have been studied or exhausted, but there are serious challenges brought on by nature, bureaucracy and finding dredging money.

We hope the NCDOT carefully considers these Level 5 qualities for the next leader of the Ferry Division.

Public hearing scheduled on proposed shellfish leases in Hyde County

February 28, 2017

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Devil Shoals Road — Out on the horizon of the Pamlico Sound are the Devil Shoals where some islanders have leases to raise oysters. Photo: C. Leinbach

MOREHEAD CITY – The N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries will hold a public hearing on proposed shellfish leases in Hyde County at 6 p.m. March 1 in the Ocracoke Waterman’s Exhibit, Community Square dock, 278 Irvin Garrish Highway.

Steve Wilson, representative of Woccocon Oyster Company, has applied to lease 4.817 acres of water bottom and water column in the Pamlico Sound. A map of the proposed leases can be found here.

Arleen Burley of Ocracoke has applied to lease an additional 1.02 acres of water column to existing bottom lease Number 9802, in Pamlico Sound. A map of the proposed lease can be found here.

The public may comment on the proposed leases at the meeting or in writing until 5 p.m. Feb. 28.

Written comments should be submitted to the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries, P.O. Box 769, Morehead City, N.C. 28557.

The application file and biologist report for the proposed leases are available for inspection weekdays between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. at the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries’ Headquarters Office at 3441 Arendell St. in Morehead City.

For more information, contact Mike Graven, Shellfish Lease Program manager, at 252-808-8048 or Michael.Graven@ncdenr.gov.

Fearing pushes to name new bridge for Richard Etheridge

February 28, 2017

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Capt. Richard Etheridge with the Pea Island life-saving crew in a painting by Outer Banks artist James Melvin.

This is a repost, courtesy of the Outer Banks Voice

By Russ Lay on February 21, 2017

Malcolm Fearing, the outgoing Division 1 representative on the North Carolina Board of Transportation, had one more act of official business, or at least, one official conversation he wanted to get started before his departure.

The Pea Island bridge crosses New Inlet, which was re-created by Hurricane Irene in 2011 and is currently served by a temporary metal span referred to by locals as the Lego bridge.

Construction on a half-mile, concrete replacement started in December 2015, and is scheduled to be completed later this spring.

NCDOT board member Malcolm Fearing addresses the Dare BOC and asks for support in naming the Pea Island bridge in honor of Capt. Richard Etheridge. (Russ Lay)

Fearing noted that the new bridge to replace it would likely be the first of the three spans to open as part of the more comprehensive Herbert C. Bonner Bridge replacement project.

About four weeks ago, Fearing began to quietly float the idea of naming the bridge in honor of Capt. Richard Etheridge, the first African-American to command a life-saving station when the United States Life-Saving Service appointed him as keeper of the Pea Island Life-Saving Station in 1880.

The station, which closed in 1947, was located within sight of the breach.

Etheridge was also a Civil War veteran of the Union Army and was the first African-American to serve on the Manteo Board of Commissioners as well as the local school board.

Born in Dare County as a slave in 1842, Etheridge learned to work the water, trained by his master, who also illegally taught Etheridge to read and write.

Dare County was one of the first Confederate areas invaded by the Union Army when the Civil War started, although the region held few slaves and even fewer plantations and did not resist the Union occupation to any great extent.

The county became home to thousands of refugee slaves during the Civil War, a group collectively known as the Freedmen’s Colony.

Etheridge left the area to join the Union Army, rising to the rank of sergeant and returned to Roanoke Island after the war, where he joined the Life-Saving Service. The service became a full-fledged government agency in 1878 and was eventually merged with the Revenue Cutter Service in 1915 to form the U.S. Coast Guard.

Bob Woodard, chairman of the Dare County Board of Commissioners, recited much of Captain Etheridge’s history as noted above and also noted the appropriateness of the resolution in light of February being Black History Month.

Fearing told the board there were some hoops and procedures to jump through in the NCDOT’s bridge-naming procedures, but Woodard held up some forms and said the documents were on their way.

He then introduced a resolution, passed unanimously, asking the NCDOT to name the the Pea Island bridge in honor of Capt. Richard Etheridge.

With the resolution complete, the naming application will move to the NCDOT chief engineer’s office with required documentation before it is placed on the Board of Transportation’s agenda for final approval.

If approved, the NCDOT and Dare County will share the cost of signs to be placed at each end of the bridge.

Public meetings scheduled to discuss tram funding proposal

February 27, 2017

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For Ocracoke news, click here.

Hyde County officials have scheduled two public meetings to discuss the county’s request for operating funds for a village tram in conjunction with passenger ferry service in 2018.

Both meetings will be at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday (Feb. 28) and Thursday, March 9, in the Community Center.

The county is seeking $146,000 from Ocracoke occupancy tax funds to pay for first-year operations for three 23-passenger trams proposed to help shuttle visitors and locals around the village, in addition to what’s offered through private enterprise.

Stressing the importance of attending the meetings, Tom Pahl, Ocracoke’s county commissioner, urged all community members to attend one or both meetings.

“If you think the tram proposal is a bad idea or if you think it’s a good idea that needs tweaking, we want to hear your voice,” he said. “We are prepared to significantly modify the plan based on the input at these next two meetings, so please come and let’s talk.”

At an OT board meeting Feb. 9, the county had asked for $216,000 for first-year operations costs, but after that meeting, attended by about 80 islanders, revised its request by $70,000.

The OT board had a working session Feb. 22 about this project with Pahl, Kris Noble, assistant county manager, and Beverly Paul, director of Hyde County Transit, a nonprofit on the mainland that has been identified by the county to manage the proposed tram system, and Hyde County Manager Bill Rich.

At this meeting, where some OT board members said the community needs more information and buy-in, Pahl suggested there be some public meetings to get feedback.

The Occupancy Tax Board (OTB) will consider Hyde’s request at their April 4 meeting along with all of the other grant proposals from island nonprofits.

Outbound to Ocracoke

February 26, 2017

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ocracoke-village-ps-0613161158a — Photo by Ocracoke Observer during a flight in June 2016. Photo: P. Vankevich

Editor’s note: This is a reprint of a story on the AOPA (Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association) website. Please also note that in the story, the couple, who arrived here by private aircraft, got around on foot, bicycle or golf cart. Cars and other vehicles do access the island via three ferry routes.
To view the original article, click here.

THIS BARRIER ISLAND IS FLIGHT-WORTHY—EVEN IN THE OFF-SEASON

By Julie Summers Walker

It’s a beautiful October morning and Conor Dancy and his wife, Sam, are flying the coast of North Carolina.

The slender strip of land that comprises the state’s famed Outer Banks and the Cape Hatteras National Seashore is below. In the high season of tourists and sunbathers and fishermen, this coastline would be filled with families, SUVs, and fishing poles. Today it’s just the hum of the Cessna Skylane’s engine. For the 25-year-old Dancys (they were high school sweethearts), this is a getaway the hardworking young couple could not imagine in the heat and high prices of July. They are bound for the farthest tip of these Outer Banks, to a barrier island accessible only by water or air.

Flying to Ocracoke in their rented Sklyane are Conor and Sam Dancy. Photo: Chris Rose

Conor and Sam’s three-day vacation takes advantage of reduced rates and few tourists in the off-season. Conor is a corporate pilot who, while on the road quite a bit, rarely gets to enjoy flying just for fun. Sam is a human resources professional who also works long hours. They’ve rented a Skylane from Conor’s former employer, a flight school in Leesburg, Virginia.

There are just six airports granting access to the 200-mile stretch that is the Outer Banks, beginning at Sandbridge, Virginia, and ending just past Ocracoke Island, North Carolina. Fuel is only available at mainland airports Currituck County Regional Airport in Currituck (ONX) and Dare County Regional Airport in Manteo (MQI) so GA pilots plan accordingly. The string of peninsulas and islands separate three sounds—ocean inlets—from the mighty Atlantic Ocean. This stretch of ocean has claimed many ships, from seventeenth-century pirates to German U-boats, in what is rightly called the “Graveyard of the Atlantic.”

The trip is in hurricane season, falling a week after Hurricane Matthew caused flooding and damage in the Outer Banks. “In the days leading up to our departure I kept a close eye on the National Hurricane Center’s forecast,” Conor says. “Thankfully the atmosphere was quiet during our trip, and nothing materialized.”

Flying from the Washington, D.C., area, the Skylane skirts the no-fly zones around the nation’s capital and later the massive military installation at Norfolk, Virginia. How inspiring the United States armada looks from here, peering down at the aircraft carriers and other U.S. Navy ships in port. The couple tries to identify the ships and talks about the amazing engineering marvel that is the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, a 20-mile-long four-lane bridge and tunnel structure first constructed in the late 1950s. Between its suspension bridges are two two-mile-long underwater tunnels so that from the air, it looks as if the bridges simply disappear.

The first stop is to see the Wright Brothers National Memorial at Kitty Hawk. Touching down at First Flight Airport (FFA) after overflying the monument, the site is more imposing than expected for the uninitiated. Visitors feel a certain sense of history and inspiration here, the brothers’ copper busts and the 60-foot granite monument towering above. The couple walks the memorial grounds to the locations where the brothers flew, visit the 9,900-square-foot visitors center, tour the reconstructed camp buildings. There’s a pilot lounge here, accessible by access code, as are others at the unattended airstrips on the Outer Banks. It’s hard to believe this well-maintained 3,000-foot-long airstrip was built in 1963.

Heading farther south, the couple stop at Hatteras Airport (HSE). It’s a lonely spot on this fall day but the perfect weather beckons them to walk to “town” for lunch. The walk is longer than expected and they begin to notice that things aren’t quite right here; television sets and washers and dryers and mattresses and toys and broken pieces of furniture are on the roadside, haphazardly piled up and strewn about. Hurricane Matthew cut a nasty swath through here just a week before and cleanup had not yet begun. Other than some chips and sodas from the bait and tackle store near the airport, they don’t find much. Such are the challenges of traveling in the off-season.

Back in the air again and headed for the prize: Ocracoke Island. This barrier island has been called “enchanted” and like Brigadoon, that mystical Scottish village that only appears once every 100 years, Ocracoke appears off the right wing like a vision. There are 16 miles of windswept beach here and a tiny village just one mile square. Visitors can easily walk into town from the airport (W95) and more easily walk straight to the beach, but the hotel has a van and a driver waiting. The van rattles and thumps toward the village (the van has seen better days) and arrives just in time to see the moment visitors have been rhapsodizing about for years—sunset over Silver Lake, the small hidden harbor inside the village.

The Anchorage Inn is modest, although its views are not. Balconies overlook Silver Lake and the marina, where anglers have been bringing in their catch since the early eighteenth century. It’s romantic, peaceful, tranquil: three words that doubtful could be used at the height of the season, when the thousands of tourists who arrive here on one of the three ferries to the island disembark. There are waterfront bars and restaurants, bicycle rental shops, gift stores, and wine and cheese shops. Tonight? It’s bedtime at 8 p.m. Or read a book by a bedside lamp. Or sit on the balcony and sip wine and trade flying stories. There’s a 10 p.m. noise ordinance in the village always, so even when the tourists are here, it’s a quiet place. Good sleeping town.

Ocracoke Island Airport (W95)
2,998 feet by 60 feet, no fuel, RNAV approaches, day-use only, local hotels and restaurants will pick you up, beach within walking distance

Transportation around the village is on foot, by bicycle, or by golf cart. Conor and Sam are avid bicyclists and have an app on their phones they are anxious to use and record their miles. It’s an easy loop around the village when you’re moving at their pace. To start the day, they have breakfast at The Pony Island Restaurant. “The Pony,” as the locals call it, is the oldest restaurant on the island and is owned by Vince O’Neal, whose family are original settlers on the island. The restaurant is famous for its big Southern breakfasts, but small plates for this sporty couple are very reasonable. It won’t win awards for décor, but its simple furnishings and remarkable old photographs from the restaurant’s beginnings in 1959 are charming.

Ocracoke is known for its wild ponies, believed to have washed up here from shipwrecks. They don’t wander quite like they used to; picket fences around the original old homes were to keep them out because they once roamed free. Now they’re protected on the national seashore. The Ocracoke Lighthouse was built in 1823. There are 90 family cemeteries on the island, some very old, some more modern. There’s a historic one that commemorates British sailors who were killed by a German submarine and whose bodies washed ashore during World War II. It’s actually a little piece of Britain and the British flag flies there all the time.

Visitors can’t do the town justice if they don’t partake in some pirate lore and plunder some shops. Teach’s Hole is where Blackbeard the Pirate, aka Edward Teach, lost his head in 1718. On Pamlico Sound he fought and lost his last battle; it took five pistol shots and 27 cuts to his body to bring him down, and then the British sailors chopped off his head. You can find out all the gory details at the Teach’s Hole and Blackbeard Exhibit on Irvin Garrish Highway. However, every October the town is usually overrun with swashbucklers for the annual Blackbeard’s Pirate Jamboree. Sadly, Hurricane Matthew had put the kibosh on the 2016 jamboree and although Ocracoke has been cleaned up from the storm, measurements at buildings all throughout the island show the record water level the hurricane had caused.

This is a working waterfront, and at 4 p.m. the charter fishing boats bring in their catch. You can watch them unload, divvy up the catch, and clean the fish while enjoying a cocktail at Smacnally’s Bar & Grill.

Even budget weekends deserve a nice meal and the Flying Melon Café on Back Road did not disappoint. It was the word flying in the name that enticed the travelers, but the New Orleans-style cooking kept them there. Chef/owner Michael Schramel is not a pilot, but he has a big head, hence the “melon” in the restaurant’s name.

Charming, kitschy, romantic, relaxing—but all good things must end, so it is time to pre-flight and head back to the real world. At the airport is another couple who has flown their Cherokee in just for a stroll on the beach and lunch at Howard’s Pub (the restaurant had picked them up but they’d walked back). Stopping for fuel at Manteo, Conor and Sam discover another great flying destination on North Carolina’s Outer Banks—and make plans to return.

Julie Summers Walker is the AOPA senior features editor. She is a student pilot still working toward her solo.

Hyde County extends hazard mitigation assistance deadline

February 25, 2017

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Hyde County has extended the application deadline to March 3 from flooded homeowners on Ocracoke who wish to be considered for Hazard Mitigation Grant (HMGP) Funds to elevate, reconstruct or acquire flooded residential properties.

This outreach is an attempt to provide assistance to households that experienced major flood damage from Hurricane Matthew last October.

To receive an HMGP application, please contact Rosemary Johnson, Hyde County planning assistant, at 252-926-4178, or via email at rjohnson@hydecountync.gov.

Applications are available immediately and must be completed and returned to the Planning Office by March 3 to be considered.

Occupancy Tax Board further discusses village tram proposal

February 24, 2017

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Left Ocracoke County Commissioner Tom Pahl, Hyde County Assistant Manager Kris Noble and OTB directors Marlene Mathews and Bob Chestnut. Photo: P. Vankevich

By Connie Leinbach
Following a working session of the Ocracoke Occupancy Tax Board meeting Wednesday about Hyde County’s request for operating money for a village tram in conjunction with passenger ferry service in 2018, county officials will schedule some community meetings in March about this proposal.
Hyde County is seeking $146,000 to pay for first-year operations for three 23-passenger trams proposed to help shuttle visitors and locals around the village, in addition to what’s offered through private enterprise.
The Occupancy Tax Board will consider Hyde’s request at their April 4 meeting along with all of the other grant proposals from island nonprofits.
Attendance this working session Wednesday, were Tom Pahl, Ocracoke’s county commissioner, Kris Noble, assistant county manager, and Beverly Paul, director of Hyde County Transit, a nonprofit on the mainland that has been identified by the county to manage the proposed tram system. Bill Rich, Hyde County manager, attended by speakerphone.
Several members of the community attended, but no comments or questions were allowed.
During this round-table session, board members noted that many in the community need more information about the whole project.
Bob Chestnut, board chair, said the group had gotten a lot of comments since the prior meeting and it wasn’t all negative.
“There’s a strong feeling that there’s not enough planning,” he said, for stops, shelters and more. There’s also a real fear that this proposal would take away from the needs of island nonprofits and resistance to enacting another 2 percent onto the current Occupancy tax of 3 percent to fund a tram system down the road.
A third theme was that the passenger ferry won’t work, he said.
“Fail safes for capacity and funding all have to be addressed,” he said.
The Ferry Division wants the passenger ferry to work as does the community, Pahl said.
“The ground transportation plan is really important and it’s critical (visitors) have lots of options. (The Ferry Division) care that we have a plan and they’re really flexible as to what that is.”
Several board members noted that to make this a successful venture, it needs community buy-in. “As much as you can get it,” said Stephanie O’Neal. “If you have public meetings you need the right people in place to answer questions. There weren’t enough answers.”
As for the capacity of a tram system, Pahl said the project is not interested in providing all the transportation needs of passenger ferry riders.
“The primary transportation has got to be private,” he said. “It’s got to be a partnership.”
What if passenger ferry riders miss their return trips for whatever reason? Paul said Hyde Transit has a van on the island it can press into service.
Chestnut suggested that there may be too many stops along the proposed route and that maybe a less expensive alternative was to simply have trams going up and down Irvin Garrish Highway.
But Paul said business owners off of the main drag wanted equal access.
Moreover, because this tram would be funded with public money, it would be subject to the Americans with Disabilities Act and would have to be a “deviated fixed route” in order to be within a quarter mile of anyone with a disability who wanted to ride it.
Chestnut mentioned islanders’ concerns for more public restrooms.
Pahl said that it was the planning group’s intent to revise the plan after year one. In year two, with an additional 2 percent of occupancy tax would generate more revenue so that two to three years down the road acquire land to build restrooms.

Hyde County had originally sought $216,000 be granted from Occupancy Tax funds for the first year, but after a meeting Feb. 9 with the OT board, attended by close to 80 islanders, some of whom suggested the county contribute, the county proposed to find $70,000 in its coffers toward in and lowered its request.

Ocracoke Occupancy Tax Board meets with the Hyde County the Passenger Ferry / Tram planning group. Photo: P. Vankevich

The passenger ferry idea came about from all the problems stemming from the long route, Pahl said, particularly cars waiting in line at Hatteras and 10 percent of those leaving the lines.
A longer route of about one hour was officially sanctioned in 2014 after hurricanes Irene (2011) and Sandy (2012) caused so much shoaling in the Hatteras Inlet to make it unnavigable.
Former Ferry Division Director Ed Goodwin floated the passenger ferry idea that year as an alternative for visitors wanting to come to Ocracoke.
The cost of building a passenger ferry is half the cost of a vehicle ferry, Ferry Division officials have said at meetings.
“There’s no magic solution to the problem we’re dealing with,” said Jed Dixon, acting Ferry Division director, at an island meeting Feb. 13 following the departure Jan. 31 of Ed Goodwin. “I understand it’s a change, but if we’re running more boats over here it’s more than what we have now.”
He stressed that he wants Ocracoke’s buy-in.
“I’m not happy with the status quo, but we need your participation and support,” he said. “I’m all in favor of more boats to Ocracoke. You should get behind (the passenger ferry) and get excited about it.”

Dave Hallac, superintendent of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, said in an email that the Seashore is working on accommodate certain aspects of the passenger ferry project that will occur on lands within the national park.

Specifically, they are working on the following:

1) The location of enhanced parking for passenger ferry vehicles on Hatteras Island,

2) A location for a shade/rain shelter for passenger ferry patrons at the Silver Lake/visitor center area,

3) A possible restroom capacity enhancement at Silver Lake or the visitor center area, and

4) A minor modification to the Silver Lake boat docks to accommodate passenger ferry docking and safe maneuverability

“We plan to visit with the Ocracoke community over the next month to receive public input on these small projects,” Hallac said.

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Editorial

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THIS BARRIER ISLAND IS FLIGHT-WORTHY—EVEN IN THE OFF-SEASON

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