This painting of a ferry ride is one of many island scenes captured by the late artist Doug Hoover.
MANTEO–The N.C. Ferry Division will co-host with N.C. Works a career fair from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the College of the Albemarle’s Dare County Campus, 205 U.S. 64 South, Manteo.
Applications will be accepted for all positions at all experience levels, including entry-level parking lot attendants, office staff, shipyard tradespeople and experienced boat captains. Temporary and full-time permanent positions are available.
Among the benefits of Ferry Division employment are:
Competitive salaries
Year-round, full-time permanent employment
Shift housing available at some locations
Health insurance
Recruitment bonuses
Retirement benefits
Paid vacation, holidays and sick leave
Those interested in attending the job fair should bring resumes, references and supporting documents. Representatives from the Ferry Division will be on hand to explain the various positions available and opportunities for advancement.
To see jobs available with the Ferry Division, visit the state jobs website and search “Ferry.” Please continue to visit the site, as new ferry jobs are added regularly.
Monday, March 4 Hyde County Board of Commissioners, 6 pm. Community Center. See agenda below.
Tuesday, March 5 Primary election, Ocracoke Fire Department, 822 Irvin Garrish Hwy. 6:30 am to 7:30 pm.
Red Cross Blood Drive, noon to 6 pm. Community Center.
To schedule an appointment, go online to http://www.redcrossblood.org and type in Ocracoke or the zip code 27960 to find this blood drive, or text BLOODAPP to 90999.
Hyde County Schools Board of Education meeting, 5 pm. O.A. Peay Building, Swan Quarter.
Wednesday, March 6 Red Cross Blood Drive, 8 am to 1 pm. Community Center. Native plants talk with Heather Johnson, 6 pm. Ocracoke Community Library
To schedule an appointment, go online to http://www.redcrossblood.org and type in Ocracoke or the zip code 27960 to find this blood drive, or text BLOODAPP to 90999.
Ocracoke Advisory Planning Board meeting, 5:30 pm. Community Center
Thursday, March 7 Ocracoke Decoy Carver’s Guild meeting, 7 pm. Community Center
Friday, March 8 Ocracoke School varsity baseball, 4 pm, vs TEACH.
Hutch and Julia Hutcherson in an undated photo. Photo courtesy of the Hutcherson family.
Julia Ann Covington Hutcherson, 90, of Ocracoke Island, North Carolina, went to heaven on Tuesday, February 27, 2024. Julia was born in Crystal Hill, Virginia on November 19, 1933, to the late John William Covington and Arye Holmes Crews Covington. She and her sister, Jo, worked on their family’s tobacco farm growing up which she remembered as being very hard work.
Julia left Crystal Hill after graduating from high school with the love of her life and husband, Cecil Thomas Hutcherson, called Hutch by Julia and all that knew him. Julia and Hutch moved to Emporia, Virginia where she worked as a bookkeeper and Hutch in a local A&P Supermarket. Years later, Julia and Hutch moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia.
In Virginia Beach, Julia and Hutch started their family with the birth of their children, Sharon and Tommy. Julia worked in Virginia Beach as a bookkeeper and office manager while Hutch continued to work for the A&P Supermarket chain. Both worked hard and raised their children lovingly in Virginia Beach with a common goal of owning their own grocery store one day. Julia enjoyed bowling when she wasn’t working and was an avid college basketball fan.
In 1983, Julia and Hutch purchased the Ocracoke Variety Store on Ocracoke Island, North Carolina, and moved with their children to the island to realize their dreams. Julia and Hutch worked side by side with their children growing the local grocery store until Hutch passed in 2006. Julia continued to run the store with her children and worked in the office nearly every day until the last several years.
Julia was a familiar and friendly face to so many who visited her at the Variety Store. When you walked into the office her beautiful smile always greeted you coupled with a quick wit and a sincere interest in those she spoke with. She held the hand and the heart of nearly everyone that entered into her life and those that met her walked away with a full heart and a warm hug.
Julia’s heart was filled with pure goodness and love towards all people. Her life is a true inspiration to all who knew her given her generosity, compassion, and ability to make all of those around her laugh and feel the joy that radiated from her sweet soul.
A celebration of life will be held for Julia on Saturday, March 16 at 11 a.m. on the grounds of Berkeley Manor, Ocracoke. Pastor Tim Lynch will be officiating. The family will receive friends and loved ones immediately following the service.
Julia is survived by her daughter Sharon Hutcherson Ballance of Virginia Beach and Thomas John Hutcherson (Tommy) of Ocracoke as well as a sister Josephine (Jo) Tyler of Richmond and many beloved nephews, nieces and great nephews and nieces. She considered everyone at the Variety Store as her family as well and leaves behind a community of those that she held dear and held her in the same regard. She will be deeply missed.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in Julia’s name to Ocracoke Community Lunches, Ocracoke United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 278, Ocracoke, N.C. 27960 and/or the Ocracoke Preservation Society’s Community Garden Project – Care of Julia Hutcherson, P.O. Box 1240, Ocracoke, N.C. 27960.
Twiford Funeral Homes, 405 E. Church Street, Elizabeth City, NC 27909 is serving the Hutcherson family. Condolences and memories may be shared at www.TwifordFH.com.
In the primary election on Tuesday, March 5, only the Lake Landing Township has an election for a Hyde County Commissioner.
Randal Mathews, Ocracoke’s county commissioner, has filed as a Democrat to run again in the November election. Because he does not have anyone challenging him, his name does not appear on the primary ballot, but it will be on the Nov. 5 ballot.
Three candidates are running as Democrat candidates for the Lake Landing Township. Because the Hyde County Board of Commissioners vote for every action county-wide, the Ocracoke Observer has asked them to provide information on why they are seeking to be a county commissioner.
Below are their views in alphabetical order.
Tommy Loftus I am married to Floy Stafford Loftus for 39 years. We have two wonderful children, William and Bree.
Some of my experiences are: Three years with the Hyde County Sheriff’s office as a dispatcher /jailer.
Tommy Loftus
30 years with Hyde County EMS. 17 years with the Hyde County Schools starting as a substitute and currently working for the IT department. Approximately 22 years of helping with sports in the county, from Babe Ruth to all levels of school sports.
I would like to help end wasteful government spending while trying to promote growth in our county. We need a better infrastructure like high-speed internet, better cell service, housing, jobs and support for our future youth in our schools.
I believe our greatest challenges for Hyde County is our demographics and locations. We live in a very unique county that most counties cannot even fathom.
Let me start with Ocracoke Island. You have a very tightly knit community of great people that work hard for the betterment of the island. When it comes to the needs of the community, whether it is a fire station, a park for the youth, rebuilding a school or just helping a fellow citizen, you are there in force.
Challenges come in the form of the channels, weather and an aging fleet of ferries that allow islanders to get on and off the island for basic needs. For what the mainland takes for granted it is a well thought out game plan for a person to go to a routine doctor’s appointment. If you have to call 911 and possibly have to be transported off the island, that presents another issue: Is the ferry running, and when is the next one running? Is the weather clear to fly East Care or do we need the Coast Guard? All of which takes precious time when more care is needed than EMS can provide. Same with the fire department. You have a great group of volunteers, but what happens if they need mutual aid? How do you get them help as quickly as possible?
I feel that we as commissioners need to petition our representatives in Raleigh and send a representative from the county to ask that they dredge to closest route feasible between Hatteras and Ocracoke. Also to help fix the down time that we are seeing with our ferries, and lastly, coming up with a plan to help repair or reroute the washout areas of highway NC12. It does no good to have a ferry running if you cannot get to it because the road was just washed out.
For the mainland, due to our geographical location, the only real through traffic comes from the Swan Quarter ferry. So, most of the businesses have to rely on local residents for support other than the few months of hunting season. We need a way to keep the local business going with the amount of residents we have in the county. Our local population is shrinking. We need affordable housing to accommodate the needs of our residents. I know (that) when the school (wants) to hire a new teacher who is going to help our children, it has become more and more difficult on both sides to find housing.
I feel the commissioners need to stop with the buddy-buddy system, self-interests or vendettas. We need to work towards a common goal for the good of all the citizens of Hyde not just some special interests. There can be more than one vision for what Hyde County will look in the future. Most people are not looking for massive changes. They just want common amenities: jobs, housing, a bank, grocery store, and some type of entertainment for our families. They want their children to be able stay in this county and raise their family here. We can’t keep doing the same thing for Hyde. It is not working.
Thomas Midgette
Thomas Midgette I am married with adult children. My wife Theresa is a teaching assistant and bus driver at Mattamuskeet School. I am a retired educator and currently a substitute teacher at Mattamuskeet. I got my BA degree from Livingston College in Salisbury, NC, and my master’s in School Administration from East Carolina University. I grow and sell produce at Big Pompie’s Produce in Engelhard.
I am a member of the Hyde County NAACP and serve on the Davis Youth Center Board. I teach Sunday School at Mt. Pilgrim Baptist Church in Slocum, NC.
The greatest issues facing Hyde are lack of employment, lack of affordable housing and fewer educational opportunities for our students. I also feel that the relationship between the citizens and the local government is negatively impacted because of a lack of transparency. The biggest thing the commissioners can do is to be accessible to the people and be willing to advocate for the people and not put their own interests above the interests of the community.
James (Boo Boo) Topping I was raised in Hyde County and have lived here all my life. I work at the Hyde Correctional Institution and have been for 28 years. The reason I am running for commissioner is there are some things that we need to improve on, and to take care of the people who actually live in the county.
We, the community, need to come together to be on one accord when solving these issues.
I visited Ocracoke and I saw the road conditions at the north end. If you have an emergency, you cannot get off the island with all the water on the road. So, definitely, something must be done about it. We need to get together and figure out how to fix it and look into getting some funding.
On the mainland, Lake Mattamuskeet is endangered at this time. I grew up on that lake fishing all my teenage years and it is nowhere near what it was in the past. It is the major attraction we have on the mainland, so we need to restore it.
I would greatly appreciate your vote on March 5, 2024.
The Army Corps of Engineers’ side caster dredge is scheduled to be dredging Sloop Channel in the Hatteras Inlet. Photo: C. Leinbah
By Connie Leinbach
Ocracoke received some good news recently when Catherine Peele, a planning developer with the NC Ferry Division, reported to the Ocracoke Waterways Commission that the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) has approved Sloop Channel in the Hatteras Inlet for dredging.
This is the area in the “horseshoe” where two ferries cannot pass and must make a series of S turns to traverse a shoaled spot. Those maneuvers typically add several minutes to the runs.
Ernie Doshier, chair of the commission, said that weather permitting, the ACE’s side caster dredge was set to head for that spot today (Feb. 28) to make a navigable cut through that area.
In the meantime, the Ferry Division has modified schedules on its routes between Feb. 6 and March 25 so that it can devote more resources to its spring and summer schedules.
However, the current schedule between Ocracoke and Hatteras will remain in place until March 5.
Because of the shoaling in the Barney Slough, a shallow area on the other side of the horseshoe at the tip of Hatteras Island, ferries to and from Hatteras have been using the Rollinson Channel to get to the deeper water in the Pamlico Sound. That is the same route the passenger ferry takes departing Hatteras.
Also, pending, the state pipeline dredge is supposed to clear out a shoaled area pinching the basin at South Dock, Doshier said, but the state is awaiting the arrival of a part and neither he nor Peele knew when that would arrive.
The dredge also will work on a shoaled area near the bulkhead, Doshier said.
The goal is to dredge out 37,000 cubic yards of sand from the basin area, which could be deposited on top of the sandbag area at the north end to repair the area from the recent overwash.
To help make room for more runs this spring and summer on the Hatteras ferry, Peele said the division will modify the passenger ferry schedule according to peak usage.
“We added a run on peak days of Tuesday through Friday and deleted some departures on Saturday to Monday,” she said. The passenger ferry typically runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
Spring and summer schedules for all ferries will be set and published after dredging in Hatteras Inlet is completed and they know how long the run time will be between islands, she said.
She said the cost to operate the passenger ferry for 116 days in 2023 (including personnel and fuel) was $249,000.
She also said that revenues from ferry tolls, for both the passenger and vehicle ferries, by law do not go back into operations but go into a capital fund for ferry replacement.
Clarification: The original posting of this story said the passenger ferry costs $249,000 per day, but that number is the total, not the daily rate, for last year’s passenger ferry costs.
SWAN LAKE ANYONE? The Ocracoke Dolphins vs. East Bladen in the first-round of the Atlantic 1A championship playoff in the Ocracoke School gym. Photo: C. Leinbach
Observer staff report
The Ocracoke Dolphins boys’ varsity basketball team lost the first-round of the East Division 1A state tournament on Feb. 27 to the East Bladen Eagles (Elizabethtown, Bladen County), 52-39 in a home game that concluded their season.
The Dolphins are the Atlantic 1A conference champions with a 9-1 win-loss in the conference and an overall 19-6 for the season.
Head Coach Frank Brown was happy with the team’s work.
“The whole season was fantastic,” he said afterwards. “They played hard; they played together. I couldn’t be prouder of them.”
He noted the difference in school populations from which teams can be formed.
“What’s awesome to me is the amount of kids we got,” he said. “They have 400 (in the high school) and the (Ocracoke) boys told me we got 30.”
Gavin Elicker is the leading scorer against Est Bladen with 11 points. Photo by Ben Knight
Gavin Elicker was the overall top point scorer with 11 points, followed by Danny Badillo with 8, Rahnier Lyons 6, Finn Kattenburg 6 and Noah O’Neal with 5.
Early in the game and to the roar of the packed gym, Badillo got the first score on the board swishing a three-pointer.
In the first two quarters, the teams traded baskets, running neck and neck to stand one point apart at halftime at 22 Dolphins, 23 Eagles.
But the Eagles, physically larger, were able to control the tempo in the second half and used a relentless defense that kept the Dolphins’ excellent three-point shooters outside of their shooting range.
Eagles coach Aking Elting said it was his first playoff win in his career.
“We played a good team tonight, and I’m proud of my boys,” he said.
Danny Badillo goes for it in a recent game against Hobgood. Photo by Ben Knight
A few of the Dolphins sat in their golf carts outside the school afterwards commiserating.
“We should have played harder defense,” Gavin Elicker said. “Our defense fell apart in the second half.”
“We didn’t handle No. 2 very well,” Finn Kattenburg said.
He was referring to Dominick Collins, who scored 11 points, second to Rodney Lacewell, who scored 13 points. Lacewell was the big man on the court at 6’7.
“You guys were super fun to watch,” said one passerby, summing up the Dolphins’ season.
A few days earlier, the Dolphins beat Bear Grass Charter, avenging their only conference loss with a decisive 61-42 tournament victory over the Bears in Columbia.
The boys’ varsity team is already looking forward to having a successful next season losing just one player, senior Rahnier Lyons, who left the last game with a minute remaining to a standing ovation.
Rahnier Lyons takes the loss hard. As a senior, it was his last game of high school basketball. Photo by Ben Knight
Lady Dolphins This was a rebuilding season for Coach Meredith Wynn’s varsity Lady Dolphins. By the end of the season, the team had only seven suited players. In one game, Ocracoke was down to four players due to fouls and in a sign of good sportsmanship, the coach of the Mattamuskeet Lady Lakers pulled a player to even up the sides.
The girls won two non-conference games, while going 0-8 in the conference. But they never gave up. Senior Marilyn Monter and freshman Jami Martinez were the leading scorers.
Richard Taylor contributed to this story.
Finn Kattenburg goes for a shot. Photo by Ben Knight
Three points! Photo: C. Leinbach
Ocracoke students set up a mock ESPN table at the game. Photo by Ben Knight
Landon Fuller takes a shot. Photo: C. Leinbach
Cheerleaders bring pep to the Feb. 27 game. Photo by Ben Kinght
Rahnier Lyons tries to grab the ball. Photo by Ben Knight
The sandbag area of N.C.12 at the north end of Ocracoke Island. Photo: C. Leinbach
The N.C. Department of Transportation will begin sandbag replacement along N.C. 12 starting on Monday.
Single lane closures will be in effect while the sandbag replacement is taking place.
The work involves replacing approximately 800 sandbags that were damaged or displaced during recent storms and restoring the protective barrier between N.C. 12 and the Atlantic Ocean on the northern end of Ocracoke Island.
NCDOT awarded the emergency $489,000 contract to Barnhill Contracting of Rocky Mount,
The North Carolina Weather Forecast Office out of Newport has issued a warning that a strong cold front will move through the area Wednesday and Wednesday night. Strong southwest winds will develop ahead of the front bringing the threat for several hazards.
Wind advisories have been issued for all of eastern North Caroline with gusts forecast for 45 to 50 mph.
A Coastal Flood Advisory has been issued for the Outer Banks for possible inundation of one to two feet above ground level. Minor soundside flooding is expected along with potential for localized ocean overwash.
Basketball action continues tonight as conference champions the Ocracoke Dolphins play in the first round of state playoffs at 6 p.m. Feb. 27 in the Ocracoke School gym. Photo by Ben Knight
Tuesday, Feb. 27 The Ocracoke School Dolphins varsity boys team plays in the first round of state playoffs against East Bladen tonight at 6 in the Ocracoke School gym. Doors open at 5:30. All tickets cost $7 (adults and students). Season tickets do not apply to state playoff games. The student section will have a white-out…so bring out your white Dolphin gear. The game will be live streamed on NFHS Network and 90.1 WOVV will broadcast live as well.
If Ocracoke wins tonight (Tuesday, Feb. 27), a second-round game will be played at home (in the Tank) on Thursday, Feb. 29.
N.C. Ferry Division workers can see views like this just about every evening. Photo: C. Leinbach
MOREHEAD CITY – The N.C. Ferry Division will co-host with N.C. Works a career fair from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 28, at the Carteret County Career Center, 3813 Arendell St., Morehead City.
Applications will be accepted for all positions at all experience levels, including entry-level parking lot attendants, office staff, shipyard tradespeople and experienced boat captains. Temporary and full-time permanent positions are available.
Among the benefits of Ferry Division employment are:
Competitive salaries
Year-round, full-time permanent employment
Shift housing available at some locations
Health insurance
Recruitment bonuses
Retirement benefits
Paid vacation, holidays and sick leave
Those interested in attending the job fair should bring resumes, references and supporting documents. Representatives from the Ferry Division will be on hand to explain the various positions available and opportunities for advancement.
The Carteret County career fair is the fourth of five to be held across eastern North Carolina. Previous fairs were held in Shallotte Feb. 7, in Washington on Feb. 12 and in Wilmington Feb. 21.
The final event will be held at the College of the Albemarle in Manteo March 6. To see jobs available with the Ferry Division, visit the state jobs website and search “Ferry.” Please continue to visit the site, as new ferry jobs are added regularly.
