It doesn’t take much wind to blow free-standing bikes down. Photo: P. Vankevich
Exercise is good. Moving around without relying on fossil fuels is also good.
It has been said that Ocracoke is an island where things are either very close or very far.
For example, in a recent telephone conversation with Geek Squad helpers about a computer problem , the technician said, “I’m sorry, but it looks like you are going to have to bring this into a Best Buy store to have them look at it.”
“Close-by” Best Buy stores are in Greenville or Chesapeake, Va., and would require a full day excursion to either, not to mention the cost of gas. Similarly, for islanders to see a new feature movie in a theater requires a trip to Nags Head, another all-day trip.
On the other hand, a variety of shops, good restaurants, musical entertainments, food stores, and now ball games, are within walking distance, or are easily reached via golf cart or bike.
Lots of Ocracokers and visitors alike move around the village on bikes. A basket can accommodate mail, small packages and bags.
The Community Center. Photo: P. Vankevich
Many locations, such as the post office, school and businesses, have bike racks. These racks keep locations organized and bicyclists don’t have to remember on what bush they left their bikes. We could use a few more.
Events such as the recent Firemen’s Ball at the Community Center brought out hundreds of people. Many arrived by bike, but there are no bike racks at the Center. So folks had to find a place to park their bikes. In our “dark sky” part of the world, it can be a challenge to find one’s bike after the sun sets if it is not in a rack.
Our Community Ball Park which can draw lots of baseballs fans is another location currently without one.
Bike racks are relatively inexpensive. The Ocracoke School’s shop class has successfully accomplished some projects that have benefited the community. Perhaps they could build some.
Traveling around the village by bike is a wonderful experience and a healthy one at that.
Let’s provide a few more racks for bikes, avoid the plague of two-wheel sprawl and spread the (perhaps impossible to document) word that Ocracoke has more bike racks per capita than any other community in the state.
Contestants face off at last year’s annual Women’s Arm Wrestling Tournament benefiting local radio station WOVV.
The Seventh Annual Women’s Arm Wrestling Tournament, one of Ocracoke’s most unusual and fun fundraisers, has been moved to the Community Center at 6:30 p.m. Thursday (June 16) because of recent and forecast rains.
Originally scheduled to take place behind the Village Thrift, across from the Community Square, the deluge Wednesday morning and with more rain forecast, event organizer Tommy Hutcherson decided to move the event indoors.
Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for children 12 and under.
Nationally-ranked arm wrestler Giles Russell will once again referee the competition and Bill Cole (the Voice of the Ocracoke Dolphin basketball games) will announce the contestants.
While the contestants dress-up in campy cosstumes and have clever names, this is also a serious competition.
Last year’s winner Melessa Owsley, right, tries her luck with Giles Russell, an arm wrestling champion in his own right and the event referee. Photo: P. Vankevich
Some of the monikers over the years include: Karm the Arm, ARM-erican Psycho, Hanna-Belle Lector, Wench Press, Rotator Cuff Reaper, Bobby Knocks Your Socks Off, Nurse Ratchet, The Lawbrawnian, Dorothy the Dominator, Demolition Dolly, Crystal River Bone Crusher, The Baker and Banana Slug.
Last year, Melessa Owsley from Rittmann, Ohio, also known as “Fat Jesus,” was the winner. The name comes from a “Not You, Fat Jesus” Zach Gallifinakis t-shirt she wore when registering for her first tournament.
Second place went to The Baker (Lauren Strohl), proprietor of Graceful Bakery and third place went to Salvador Dalia (Katy Mitchell) proprietor of the Magic Bean.
Ocracoke’s nonprofit community radio station WOVV 90.1 FM organizes it and is the beneficiary of proceeds.
Prizes totaling more than $1,000 in value generously donated by several island businesses will be awarded to the top two wrestlers and the top three costumes.
Contestants can still register between 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the radio station now located on Back Road across from Ocracoke Coffee, or onsite up to an hour before the event.
For more information, contact the station at info@wovv.org, or 252 928-9688
‘Salvador Dalia’ (Katy Mitchell) and ‘Shark Attack’ (Kelley Shinn) at last year’s event. Photo: C. LeinbachMelessa Owsley, “Fat Jesus” with her first-place trophy. Photo: C. Leinbach
Real life, Katy Mitchell, left and Lauren Strohl square off. Photo by P. Vankevich
‘Heat Wave,’ a painting by Sarah Searight, will be among the new works by the artist on view in Down Creek Gallery with an opening reception from 5 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, June 15.
Down Creek Gallery’s “Expose Yourself to Art” series of artists’ openings continues tonight (June 15) from 5 to 8 with new works by painter Sarah Searight.
Searight has been painting “plein air,” (or, in the open air) on Ocracoke since 1999 when she first moved to North Carolina from Port Aransas, Texas. H
Sarah Searight. Photo by P. Vankevich
She spends half of her time in Texas and the other in Ocracoke, painting both coasts year round.
She said her work is solely inspired by “being able to live on the beach, allowing me to witness the constant subtle changes in the colors of the dunes, marshes, and ocean as well as swimming and surfing during my time off.”
Sarah graduated from Southern Methodist University with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and studied watercolor painting under Michael Frary at the University of Texas in 1981. She extended her knowledge of movement and figure drawing at The University of New Hampshire, attending a formal muscle and bone structure series of classes in 1986.
She says most of her work is inspired by spending summers on the Gulf Coast of Texas and Florida as a child. Along with her shows on the Outer Banks, she shows her work along the Gulf Coast of Florida and in Austin, Texas.
Her scenes of the sea, beaches, and local surroundings are sought after by many who have come to appreciate the “flowing style” of painting and drawing for which she is well known.
Ferry officials, Chris Bock, front left, Hatteras Ferry terminal superintendent, and Jed Dixon, front right, deputy Ferry Division director, meet with Ocracoke islanders Monday in the Community Center. Photo: C. Leinbach
By Connie Leinbach
The Ocracoke community is buzzing over the firings Friday of 11 N.C. Ferry Division workers at the Silver Lake Ferry terminal operations.
Word was out over the weekend after seven career employees and four temporary employees were dismissed.
Among those fired are Albert O’Neal, 44, ferry operations manager II and 27-year employee, and Scotty Robinson, 54, a ferry master.
According to information sent Monday by Ferry Division Information Officer Tim Hass, the four temporary employees NCDOT were dismissed for “unacceptable personal conduct” as of June 10 were: Leland Yeomans, 66, security guard; James Gaskill, 24, general utility worker; Tyler Hamilton, 18, ferry crew member I; Alexander Chadwick, 23, ferry crew member II.
In addition to O’Neal and Robinson, the other career state employees fired from NCDOT as of June 10 are Robert Samson, Jr., 41, ferry crew member I; Kevin Styron, age 36, ferry chief engineer; Casey Tolson, 20, ferry crew member II; Rickey Tillett, 56, processing assistant III; and Michael Daniels, 20, ferry crew member II.
Hass did not give a reason for the termination of these career employees.
Although there is talk in the community about the reasons for the firings, the Ocracoke Observer did not receive any reasons from Hass nor if a less severe action was explored.
“There is an appeals process for all permanent state employees,” Hass said in an email. “NCDOT cannot release any additional information until these career state employees exhaust their state personnel appeal rights.”
As for the vacated positions, Hass said the Ferry Division is filling in from other shifts and other routes where necessary but he could provide no further information.
Monday (yesterday) was timely for more islanders to attend the monthly meeting in the Ocracoke Community Center with ferry officials to question the firings, but they did not get answers from Jed Dixon, deputy Ferry Division director, or Chris Bock, Hatteras operations superintendent, who attended for the ferry division.
Dixon told the more than two dozen attendees, including O’Neal and Robinson, that he could not comment on the action.
“There is an open-ended personnel matter we’re not going to discuss,” Dixon said before discussion began.
“This is our community,” said islander Cindy Gaskill. “Why didn’t Ed Goodwin come down to this meeting? This is a witch hunt.”
Goodwin is the Ferry Division chief who reportedly fired the 11 ferry workers.
When John Fletcher, the county commissioner representing Ocracoke, asked if the firings would affect any of the Hatteras runs, Dixon said they would not.
About the Hatteras ferry operations, Dixon said they are using seven boats now: five smaller ferries and two larger ones. Last year they used four large ones and two small boats.
A third larger boat will be ready for service at the end of June, Bock said.
Dixon also said that although the ferry division was contracted recently by Dare County to do a dredge project in the Hatteras Inlet, that area has already filled in.
“They requested us to do it again,” Dixon said, but the worst shoaling is in a section of the channel the state is not responsible for.
Dixon and other officials have said repeatedly that the worst area of shoaling in the inlet is controlled by the federal government and managed by the Army Corps of Engineers.
That part of the channel can only be dredged to 100 feet wide. It would take federal legislation passed to double the size of that dredgable area.
As for the return of the short route directly across the inlet to Ocracoke, Dixon said the ferry division did a study on that and determined that 100 million cubic yards of sand would have to be removed to accomplish that, not to mention environmental concerns.
Although Dixon said there is no official ferry division liaison to the Waterways Commission, he attends those meetings on his own..
As for the passenger feasibility study, Dixon reported that he hopes he can release it at the July 11 meeting that study director Will Letchworth will attend.
“We haven’t been able to get it in front of the Transportation Board,” he said about the study. “It keeps getting pushed back. I can’t bring it to you until they approve it.”
Last year, Ferry Division officials said the feasibility study would be done by December.
Darlene Styron, owner of the Sweet Tooth, said that passenger ferries are not the long term solution.
“Can we survive with four passenger ferries and four vehicle ferries?” she asked.
Last week, that traffic was backed up badly last week at the ferry dock—all the way to the Liberty gas station, Styron continued.
“This is a bad situation,” she said. “It’s crippling Ocracoke and it’s a hardship. With a noticeable difference in the number of cars here in a day, (business owners) can see it.”
“Passenger ferries don’t help the residents who need to go up the beach three or four times a week,” said islander Stephanie O’Neal, sister of Albert O’Neal. “This has been going on for so long and there’s no solution. There’s no short route. There’s not enough boats. Nothing’s been done and nobody’s coming to the public to tell them.”
Now, instead of dredging the Hatteras Inlet or refurbishing the ferries, the NC DOT is working on the Bonner Bridge, the Rodanthe Bridge, the Morehead City bridge, Styron said.
“We’re still in this crisis mode,” she said. “We’ve been fighting this ferry crap for five years.”
She also urged a more positive approach.
“There’s a lot of ‘we can’t,'” she said. “We need to think about what we ‘can’ do.”
Incumbent Walter Jones of Greenville, Pitt County, handily won the Republican contest in a special primary June 7 for his Congressional District 3 seat, which includes Ocracoke.
District-wide, Jones captured nearly 65 percent of the vote against Republican challengers, Phil Law (20 percent) and Taylor Griffin (15 percent).
Walter Jones
Jones, who has been in Congress since 1995, will vie in the general election Nov. 8 with Democratic challenger Ernest T. Reeves, also of Greenville, who beat David Allan Hurst. Reeves received 55 percent of the vote and Hurst garnered 45 percent.
District 3 includes Currituck, Canderr, Tyrell, Dare, Hyde, Beaufort, Pitt, Pamlico, Craven, Jones, Lenoir, Carteret, Onslow, Wayne and Duplin counties.
Ernest Reeves
In February, the General Assembly enacted S.L. 2016-01 and S.L. 2016-02, which redrew districts for the U.S. House of Representatives and established a primary for U.S. House of Representatives on June 7. Those district lines were under review by a federal court and were not final at the time of the March 15 primary, which necessitated another primary.
For the N.C. Supreme Court Associate Justice position, incumbent Robert H. (Bob) Edmunds will face off against Michael R. (Mike) Morgan in the November election.
Those on Ocracoke who voted in this specially scheduled primary braved high winds and rain to make it to the voting site in the Ocracoke Volunteer Fire Department building.
Only 75 of the 788 registered voters on the island turned out to vote, which included the early voting day on June 2.
Of those 75 island voters, Morgan received 42 votes; Sabra Jean Faires, 15; Edmunds, 10 and Daniel Robertson, 5.
Entire District 3 results:
Republican:
Walter B. Jones 15,722; 64.83 percent Phil Law 4,929; 20.33 percent Taylor Griffin 3,599; 14.84 percent
Democrat:
Ernest T. Reeves 6,402; 54.60 percent David Allan Hurst 5,323; 45.40 percent
Robert H. (Bob) Edmunds 234,142; 48.06 percent Michael R. (Mike) Morgan 167,222; 34.33 percent Sabra Jean Faires 58,588; 12.03 percent Daniel Robertson 27,220; 5.59 percent
Tabitha Brooks and Kelly Dunseath write down every sales transaction Sunday during a six-hour internet outage on Ocracoke.
By Irene Nolan, Island Free Press editor
with additional reporting by Connie Leinbach
A six-hour communication outage made life interesting, if not difficult, for Hatteras and Ocracoke island residents and visitors Sunday.
Shortly after 10 a.m., all forms of communications stopped — internet, all cell phone service, cable television, and some land lines.
Many of the islands’ land lines continued working, but both locals and visitors who rely on cell phones or the internet were out of luck. There was no email, texting, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram — all the means of communication upon which we have come to rely.
Communications returned about 4 p.m., though the reason for the outage is still not totally clear.
“(I) Don’t know what happened to cause the failure but it appears to have been a CenturyLink cable on the Bonner Bridge,” Dare County emergency manager Drew Pearson said in an e-mail when internet service returned.
“I have no indication it was the result of any construction activities,” he added.
Dare County Sheriff Doug Doughtie said that “a fastener holding the fiber optic cable to the bridge broke and when it broke, it compromised the cable.”
Doughtie said he sent extra deputy sheriffs to Hatteras during the outage.
Dare and Hyde county’s emergency radio system remained working, though people without a landline were unable to call 911. Many of Hatteras and Ocracoke first responders kept in touch via ham radio.
The outage made life difficult for some businesses that were open today and have Internet-based cash registers.
At the Ocracoke Campground and Gas Station, while the credit card machine are telephone line-based and worked, clerks Tabitha Brooks and Kelly Dunseath had to write down all of the sales transactions.
At about 2 p.m., they had four and a half full legal pad pages and 4 steno notebooks of transactions that they would have to enter into the registers when the internet was back on.
Leslie Lanier, owner of Books To Be Red, reported no problems since her register and credit card machine are telephone-line based.
The Ocracoke Variety Store has new internet-based credit card machines, but simply pulled out their old machines when the Net went down, said Trudy Austin, one of the clerks, toward evening closing time.
“Tommy is always prepared,” she about store owner Tommy Hutcherson.
She and Mandy Garrish Jones said the day had been busy and that many customers seemed to be lost without access to their social media.
“They were disconnected,” Austin said. “Everyone asked when (the Net) would go back on, but we didn’t know.”
“We told people to enjoy the day,” Austin said.
“We told everyone we planned this so everyone would have to talk to each other,” Jones added.
Neither Tideland EMC nor Cape Hatteras Electric Company’s power grid was affected.
troubadour Janie Meneely will perform at the Coyote Music Den this Sunday,8 to 10 p.m. She grew up in Annapolis and has been described as “The Voice of the Chesapeake.”
“I can remember when the City Dock was jammed with work boats,” she said. Nowadays recreational boaters have replaced the sleek working vessels that hauled crabs, fish and oysters to markets around the Bay.
Her songwriting spans more than 25 years chronicling her own Bay experiences and capturing the stories she’s heard over the years—either as a little girl hanging around her father’s boatyard, or during her professional stint as a journalist for Chesapeake Bay Magazine. These songs and stories include the local ghosts, colorful watermen and tragic shipwrecks of the Chesapeake Bay.
Meneely will be joined on stage with Dutch-born guitarist/balladeer Rob van Sante.
The magic of Ocracoke begins on the ferry ride. Photo: C. Leinbach
The following came in June 10 from Hyde County lobbyists Henri and Joe McClees:
The NC General Assembly is moving quickly toward resolve its 2016 budget.
The House and Senate have each passed its own version ofHouse Bill #1030(the budget bill). TheHouse version(version 3) helps coastal transportation issues tremendously, providing for a stable funding source for ferry vessel purchases and removing ferry tolling. TheSenate version(version #6) leaves ferry tolling in place and provides no effective funding for ferry vessel replacement. This bill also reinstates the $150 priority pass fee that anyone could buy for any of the ferries.
Because the House & Senate did not agree, they each appointed “conferees” to work out their differences. The HB#1030 Conference Committee(21 senators and 44 representatives) was finalized yesterday, and has already begun work. One aspect of negotiations is to analyze the differences in spending in each major section of the Budget, including Education, Health and Human Services, Agriculture and Economic Resources, Justice and Public Safety, General Government, and Transportation. We need help in the Transportation Section of the Budget.
We are asking you to quickly contact the following Senators on the Conference Committee and politely ask them to protect coastal citizens and the coastal economy by providing for a stable funding source for ferry vessel replacements and by removing ferry tolling, specific including NO FERRY TAX for the Ocracoke Hatteras Ferry. Coastal citizens need help in the Transportation Section of this Budget!
Here are the Senators and their emails and Raleigh office telephone numbers. If you can only have time to contact a few, start at the top of the list and begin with Chairman Sen. Harry Brown.
Be brief, direct, and polite. Ask each Senator to provide (1) a stable funding source for ferry vessel replacement and (2) protect Ocracoke citizens from a ferry tax on the Ocracoke Hatteras ferry.
Email or call the Raleigh office of each Senator. If you cannot speak directly to the Senator, leave a polite voice message about the two (2) items in the above paragraph. Thank the Senator for his or her service to the citizens of North Carolina. Keep your message brief and focused.
Thank you for your help. We have been told the Senators have NOT heard from Ocracoke citizens this year as they have in past years on the ferry tax issue! They need to hear from you immediately. If you have any questions about the ferry tax issue, please do not hesitate to contact Joe or Henri. Call us on our mobiles phones. Best regards, Joe & Henri McClees
The ferry leaves Ocracoke in the early morning. Photo: C. Leinbach
From the N.C. Ferry Division June 11, 2016
Updated 6/13/16
Manns Harbor – Due to a mechanical issue on the M/V Swan Quarter, the North Carolina Ferry System’s Pamlico Sound routes will be on alternate schedules between Tuesday, June 14 and Friday, June 17.
The alternate schedules are as follows:
Tuesday, June 14:
Cedar Island to Ocracoke: 7 a.m., 10 a.m., 4 p.m.
Ocracoke to Cedar Island: 7:30 a.m., 1 p.m., 4 p.m.
Swan Quarter to Ocracoke: 7 a.m., 1 p.m., 4:30 p.m.
Ocracoke to Swan Quarter: 10 a.m., p.m.
Wednesday, June 15, to Friday, June 17:
Cedar Island to Ocracoke: 7 a.m., 10 a.m., 4 p.m.
Ocracoke to Cedar Island: 7:30 a.m., 1 p.m, 4 p.m.
Swan Quarter to Ocracoke: 10 a.m., 1 p.m., 4:30 p.m.
Ocracoke to Swan Quarter: 7 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 12:45 p.m.
The routes are scheduled to resume normal operations on Saturday, June 18.
Portsmouth Island’s ethereal beauty is captured in infrared photographs by Peter Aaslestad on view in the Ocracoke Preservation Society museum.
Photographs of Portsmouth Island in the infrared spectrum are on view through the summer at the Ocracoke Preservation Society Museum, and summer program have begun.
The images are by Peter Aaslestad, an architect from in Staunton, Va., who visited the island in 2014 to capture the conditions of the historic structures for a report commissioned by the Park Service.
While on Portsmouth, Aaslestad was struck by the shared beauty of the remaining buildings born of this harsh landscape and the incredible calm of the remote setting.
Infrared light is not in the natural visual spectrum for humans. It creates a ghostly sort of image of things that seems to go deeper into their essence. Water in particular is “seen” by infrared as a heavier presence. Living plant life is reflected as white, more transitory and ethereal.
In addition, the museum has begun its summer programs of museum walk-throughs Mondays and Fridays; Porch Talks on Tuesdays and Thursdays; and Children’s Crafts on Wednesdays.
