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Hatteras Library will be closed for move to new quarters



The Hatteras Library, located in the Community Building in Hatteras village, will be closed to the public from Thursday, May 15, through Wednesday, May 28.  This closure is necessary to allow library operations and collections to be moved from the temporary location to the new permanent location at the front of the Community Building.  
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Fireman’s Ball will have Ocracoke rockin’ on May 24


On Saturday, May 24, the Ocracoke Community Center will be rockin’ for the third annual Fireman’s Ball. A fundraiser for the Ocracoke Fire Protection Association, the event includes a pig pickin’ and live auction, followed by a night of great music with the Ocracoke Rockers and the Dune Dogs.
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New family medical practice is opening in Frisco


Alex Hodges, a nurse practitioner, is opening Hatteras Island Family Medicine. The grand opening is Saturday, May 17, from 2 until 5 p.m. at the office, located at the corner of Highway 12 and Water Association Road.  
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The  Ocracoke Community Store has a grand reopening


After being closed for more than two years, the Community Store was open for business on the first day of May. Recently leased by Ocracoke residents Susan and James Paul, the historic waterfront building is once again stocked with groceries, produce, beer, wine, and sundries.  ....Read more





Students’ video brings home the Bonner Bridge controversy


Students’ video brings home the Bonner Bridge controversy
First Flight High School civics students make the replacement of the Bonner Bridge a class project and have produced their own video documentary about the controversy.  
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New book on Blackbeard aims to dispel myths about the pirate

In a pirate-worthy broadside on conventional history, a Raleigh author claims that Blackbeard and many of his henchmen weren't rogue Englishmen, but sons of North Carolina landowners.

Most historical accounts contend that the notorious pirate known as Edward Teach or Thatch was from Bristol, England. But Kevin P. Duffus said his review of archives and genealogical research indicates that Blackbeard was probably Edward Beard, son of a landowner in Bath in Beaufort County.

A story by Jerry Allegood in The Raleigh News & Observer.

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1051707.html





Dare and Hyde counties make plans for re-entry after evacuation


Both Dare and Hyde counties are making plans for re-entry to the area after an evacuation.  Dare re-entry permits are in the mail, and Hyde will distribute them during two days in June.  
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Hatteras Island’s Board of Education seat is only one contested in primary


Only one seat on the Dare County Board of Education is contested in the upcoming election, making it a smooth sail to a seat on the board for two newcomers. Anthony Fletcher, a Buxton newcomer, is challenging two-term incumbent Joseph G. Farrow Jr. for a seat in District 4.

A story by Catherine Kozak in The Virginian-Pilot.

http://hamptonroads.com/node/462723




Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station Historic Site is open for 2008

The Chicamacomico Life-Saving Station Historic Site is once again open to the public for visitation.  This historic site, on the National Register of Historic Places, was one of the stations of the United States Life-Saving Service (USLSS), predecessor of the U.S. Coast Guard.  Both services’ histories are celebrated there. 
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Homecoming….A return to Portsmouth Island….WITH SLIDE SHOW

Surviving former residents of Portsmouth Island and descendants of those who once inhabited the island returned to their homeland on Saturday, April 19, to remember and honor the island’s history and heritage. About 500 people made their way across the shallow waters of Ocracoke Inlet for this biennial celebration.  
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Coastguardsman gets medal for ocean rescue in Frisco

Chief Boatswain Mate Erik J. Watson today was awarded a Coast Guard Meritorious Service Medal for a rescue that he conducted last June.
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ISLAND PEOPLE….Todd Phillips is the man who envisions island-wide recycling by 2009

Todd Phillips began Hatteras Recycle in 2007 with a grant from the state. His goal was to develop a small business to collect recyclable products through a curbside service to local rental houses. He did that last summer with his partner, Midgett Realty, in Rodanthe, Waves, and Salvo, and plans to expand to Avon this summer.  He sees island-wide recycling by 2009.  
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Cape Hatteras Lighthouse opens for climbing on April 18


The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse will open to the public for climbing on Friday, April 18, and will be open through Columbus Day, Oct. 13.  Climbing fees for the lighthouse will be $7 per adult, and $3.50 for children under 12 and senior citizens. The opening day of the lighthouse will continue to be a fee-free day, as it has been in the past, for local community members to climb the lighthouse.
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The highway is open, and life is back to normal on Ocracoke

Ocracoke had a good reason to celebrate this week.  The detour off Highway 12 onto the Ocracoke beach ended on March 5 at 5 p.m. Ten days ahead of schedule, Highway 12 opened up to public traffic and has already seen its share of vehicles in 24 hours.
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Students and parents succeed in a scientific treasure hunt


Science and serendipity came together on Feb. 14 at Cape Hatteras Secondary School of coastal studies as science students and their parents hunted for a special and valuable satellite tag that popped off a bluefin tuna and washed up on a Hatteras beach.  
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ISLAND PEOPLE….Nicholas Bibbey’s Journey

It has been said that it takes a village to raise a child, and two people who would agree enthusiastically with that are Analee and Tom Bibbey of Hatteras village, whose son, Nicky, was diagnosed with autism as a toddler and who will graduate from the Cape Hatteras School of Coastal Studies in June.  
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10 On Your Side Investigates: What's being done to improve the Bonner Bridge?

10 On Your Side Investigates: What's being done to improve the Bonner Bridge?
Instead of pylons -- stacks of paperwork continue to build. A new bridge needs to be built, but no one can agree on how to go about it. Read a report and view a video by WAVY, Channel 10, based in Portsmouth, Va., about the long struggle to replace the aging Bonner Bridge over Oregon Inlet.      Read more....




Plans for replacing the Bonner Bridge are moving forward - for now

A team of state officials agreed on Aug. 27 that the short bridge with a phased approach to Highway 12 problems should be the choice for replacing the aging Bonner Bridge.  But environmental groups threw the replacement efforts into a tailspin the very next day.  Read more....


Adrift on Bonner Bridge…State and federal governments try to agree on a replacement bridge

Everyone agrees that the Bonner Bridge needs to be replaced, but the state’s subsequent plan to replace parts of Highway 12 through a wildlife refuge with a series of bridge is still a point of contention.  From the News & Observer in Raleigh.   Read more....




Should these bridge pictures make you nervous?

 Pictures that are circulating on Hatteras might give you goose bumps about driving over the Bonner Bridge, but a DOT bridge engineer says there is nothing to worry about.  
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Kinnakeet vacations


Mark Augustson is a Hatteras Island native who now lives in Cary, N.C.  His family includes Grays from Avon, and he often returns there to vacation.  He says he misses the island and has shared some of his favorite photos with us.




Winter on Ocracoke

Ben Spain of Tarboro, N.C., a regular visitor to Hatteras and Ocracoke islands for many years, took these photographs on a weekend trip to Ocracoke in February.




Deer Go To School

Cape Hatteras Elementary School first-grade teacher Trish Dempsey took these photographs of  a doe and her fawn just outside her classroom window on Feb. 25.   "It was so cool," observed Dempsey, "they stayed around for a few minutes, giving students time to check them out!  How neat is this?"




Salvo Sunset

Jenny Hooper of Salvo sent us these photos of a January sunset at the National Park Service's Salvo Day Use Area.





A little piece of Heaven

Paul and Shirley Kelly of New Milford, Pa., have owned a unit at Hatteras Cabanas for 24 years.  Shirley says they have trouble thinking of another place that they want to vacation.  They already thought they had found their “little piece of heaven” when they came for a visit in late October.

“This beautiful rainbow happened on a gloomy week for us in Hatteras,” Shirley says, “but it reminded us how, even in the dreariness, we seem to always find something glorious to make our time there memorable.  

The photo were taken on Oct. 26 from the upper deck of Cabana 16.

The cabanas were totally destroyed in Hurricane Isabel in 2003.

“It is wonderful just to be back and part of our beautiful community again,” Shirley says.







A bagpiper on the beach

Only on Hatteras would you be riding your bicycle through the village on the day before Thanksgiving and hear a bagpipe rendition of “Amazing Grace” coming from the other side of the dunes, but that is what happened to Buddy and Anne Swain.

“Knowing that to be a bit unusual,” Buddy says, “we parked the bikes and did a little investigating.  As we crested the dunes, there, silhouetted by the sun, was the guy you see below playing his heart out.  Of course, I raced home, got my trusty camera, returned and clicked away.”

We’re sorry we don’t know the name of the bagpiper, but if you do, please let us send it along.


Fire in the Sky

Many of us believe that only on Hatteras and Ocracoke can you view winter's most spectacular sunsets.  These photos of the sun setting on the Pamlico Sound were taken by Lynne Murray of Frisco from her home in Brigand's Bay.  And they do, indeed, look like there is a fire on the horizon.
 

Taking a marlin for a walk

Only on Hatteras can you see a blue marlin being taken for a walk.  As renovation work progressed on the Hatteras Village Community building, the world record blue marlin had to be moved from the glass display case in the front of the building to safer quarters.  The marlin will reside at the Hatteras Marlin Club until the work is complete.  After a beauty treatment, the marlin will return to a refurbished showcase in the front of the building for all to admire. The original plan was for the men pictured to load the marlin in a truck for the trip to its temporary home.  However, the day was nice and the Marlin Club is only a short distance, so they decided to take the giant fish for a walk.


Fall on Ocracoke
 
Only on Hatteras and Ocracoke are the colors in the late afternoon sky so lovely.  These photos were taken on Ocracoke by Jo Anna Chrismon of Clayton, N.C., on Sept. 27 of last year. "Ocracoke is my piece of heaven, and I try to pay an annual homage trip there," Jo Anna says.


A white winter on Pea Island
 
Swans and white pelicans share the ponds at The Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge on Hatteras in this photo taken by Ed Rebstock on Jan. 8.  Ed says he thought all the birds on the pond were swans until he looked at his photos and noticed the white pelicans.


Send us your photos

We want your photos for this Only on Hatteras or Only on Ocracoke photo corner – photos of the things that make our islands special.  This could be the surprising sight of a bagpiper on the beach or a beautiful sunset or a really big fish caught after a good fight on the surf or from a boat, or an island dog going for a boat ride or frolicking in the water.

Send the photos (at 72 dpi) to editor@islandfreepress.org.






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