By Connie Leinbach

There will be no professional fireworks on Ocracoke July 4, but maybe next.

Ocracoke has not forgotten the horrific explosion the morning of July 4, 2009, when, while unpacking the truck for the evening show, the fireworks suddenly exploded.

Four of the five fireworks crew were killed and a few locals barely missed the same fate when, just before the explosion, they walked around to the other side of one of the OVFD trucks already parked at the scene.

The pain of that event has not quite gone away.

The community remains almost equally divided on the issue of professional fireworks, with some advocating for them (what’s Fourth of July without fireworks?) and others still wary even with the recent discovery of a way to do low-level fireworks in Silver Lake Harbor.

Ocracoke Civic and Business Association sponsors and organizes the day-long schedule of events every July 4. (See page 22 for the schedule.)

Any kind of fireworks—from sparklers to bottle rockets—have been banned since 2003 on Ocracoke after some fireworks brought by visitors accidentally caught the marsh on fire near Jackson Dunes.

Dick Jacoby, president of the Ocracoke Volunteer Fire Department, has said that had the volunteers not contained it, the entire village could have caught fire.

Fireworks danger is because of the ever-constant island wind that in the summer blows predominantly southwest, or from the ocean inward.

Wind blew embers from those personal fireworks into the marsh grasses.

In 2007, fireworks debris from a professional display held on the beach blew onto the grass near the airport also causing a fire.

In April, Clayton Gaskill, vice president of the OCBA, went to a Durham Bulls game in Durham.

At the end of the game, a vehicle came onto the diamond and shot off fireworks that went up about 200 feet.  Perhaps Ocracoke could do the same on a barge out in Silver Lake?

The logistics would involve a barge big enough to house the fireworks and enough clearance around it, also approvals from the Coast Guard and others.

And while a low-level display might work in Silver Lake, what if it’s windy and embers blow onto boats moored at the docks?

Rudy Austin, OCBA president, said at a recent meeting that islander Darren Burrus has a raft barge that would be big enough for the fireworks and small enough for the harbor.

However, Austin said that he as president of the OCBA will never sign off on fireworks again.

The OCBA and Austin personally were named in a lawsuit following the 2009 explosion, and both recently were taken off that lawsuit.

“We hired an upstanding, professional group to do those fireworks,” Austin said, and still, the OCBA got sued.

Sundae Horn, the OCBA travel and tourism director, contacted the company that does the low-level fireworks who have indicated they could do it.

While the OCBA does not want to be the entity that contracts with this company, someone else in the community could do so. No one has contacted the county about this, said Bill Rich, Hyde County manager.

The Occupancy Tax Board has said they would entertain funding professional fireworks (at a cost of $15,000 to $20,000), but they are not an organization and could not coordinate it.

2011 was the last year the OCBA investigated having fireworks on the island.

Fred Westervelt looked into having fireworks on a barge in the Pamlico Sound.  While Burrus has several barges none are large enough.

“A barge (out in the sound) would need 2,400 square feet of surface area plus a bomb shelter for the workers to dive into while setting the fireworks off,” Westervelt said.

While there are some barges in Morehead City large enough for this, it would take a day or two of towing to get here at $10,000 a day.

He looked into having them launched on Big Foot Island out in the Sound, but that belongs to the Department of the Interior and would also need Audubon Society approval, both of whom declined.

Westervelt looked into the area where Community Park is being built, but Fire Chief Albert O’Neal nixed that because of the marsh grasses.

He looked at several other sites,

but none were feasible.

For the schedule of July 4th events from morning into the evening, see page 22.

August 2011

By Connie Leinbach

Ocracoke islander Karmen “the Arm” Laton, won the 2013 Women’s Arm Wrestling in June, a benefit for Ocracoke’s radio station WOVV 90.1 FM and the Ocracoke Volunteer Fire Department.  Local Jenny Klein as “Miss Merica” won second place.  The event grew this year to the largest group of contestants yet with 32 participants.

“We also had more participation from visitors this year,” said Jenny Scarborough, one of the event organizers.

Although all the numbers have not been tallied, the radio station will receive about $3,500, and the fire department received $1,000.

Sponsors included Angie’s Gym with prizes for the winners and Outer Banks Brewing Station, which donated the beer.  About 24 volunteers also helped.

“We sold about 360 in admission tickets,” said Clayton Gaskill, WOVV station manager. “That’s a pretty good crowd for anything on Ocracoke. I talked to people who had been here the week before and came back just for this event.”

Contestants don costumes and announcers David Allewalt and Bill Cole, with their enthusiastic and colorful play-by-play, create a major-event atmosphere.  Among the contestants were such characters as “Paula Mean,” “The Librawnian,” “Princess Slaya,” “Mind Game,” “Catron,” “Marie Ann Toilet” and “The Ringmaster.”

Islander Heather Johnson won best costume as “La Cooch Adora.”

“I had a lot of fun,” said winner Laton after the event.  “I love the creativity of the costumes and it’s for a good cause.”

Laton, the reigning champion of this event, sat out last year, but this year returned to the ring to reclaim her title, besting all of her opponents in seconds flat. Klein also won second place last year.  Professional arm wrestler Giles Russell and his brother were the referees.

Gaskill said video footage of past events and this year’s events are on www.Youtube.com if you search for Ocracoke Women’s Arm Wrestling.

It doesn’t hurt one’s career by graduating summa cum laude from a prestigious University such as Wake Forest by following up immediately with a “Fulbright” and heading off to a foreign country. Anmargaret Warner is doing just that having been accepted into the Fulbright English Teaching Assistant program. She will teach English at the Balvantra

y Mehta Vidya Bhawan Anguridevi Shersingh Memorial Academy in New Delhi, India. This assignment will be her third visit to India. She previously participated in work-study programs in high school and college. Her teaching assignment beginning in late July will be at the Balvantray Mehta Vidya Bhawan Anguridevi Shersingh Memorial Academy in New Delhi, India.

With more than 1.2 billion citizens, India is second only to the People’s Republic of China in population. Several hundred languages are spoken there and Hindi is the most widespread native language. Due to its colonial history, English is widely used throughout the continent.

“I’m attracted to India by its many contradictions – the country’s timelessness, but also relevance as a political and economic player in the world today,” she said. “I’m looking forward to soaking in as much as I can about Indian culture in New Delhi, from learning Hindi to Northern Indian cooking. I think that how many people around the world view the U.S. is shaped by what they see in movies and on TV, so I’m excited to share a wider range of American experiences with my students, colleagues, and neighbors.”

Anmargaret attended Ocracoke School till the eighth grade and graduated from Mercersburg Academy (PA).She made the Dean’s List at Wake Forrest and her degree is in English Literature and with minors in journalism and communications. She is the daughter of Howard’s Pub owner Ann Warner and the late George “Buffy” Warner and sister of Blackburn, currently an East Carolina University student and Ocracoke volunteer firefighter. How is this for a contrast from her early years as a student on Ocracoke? The size of the classes she will be teaching will be between 40 to 90 students. Ocracoke’s graduating class this year was ten students, and six graduates are projected for the class of 2015.

In 1945, Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright introduced a bill in the United States Congress that called for the use of surplus war property to fund the ‘promotion of international goodwill through the exchange of students in the fields of education, culture, and science.’ The following year, President Truman signed the bill into law and the Fulbright Program has since become U.S. Government’s flagship international educational exchange program.

You can follow Anmargaret by logging into her blog at: http://anmargaretwarner.wordpress.com/.