UPDATE: Channel dredging has helped ferries and boat captains in Hatteras Village Offshore Open By IRENE NOLAN

By IRENE NOLAN By IRENE NOLAN The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers side-caster dredge Merritt arrived at Hatteras last Friday, May 11, and began dredging the shoaled-up Rollinson Channel in Hatteras Inlet early Saturday morning. The Merritt is working on dredging a new channel and is down to a water depth of 5 feet.  The […]

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UPDATE: Dredge working in Hatteras Inlet channel; ferries are running again By IRENE NOLAN

By IRENE NOLAN By IRENE NOLAN The side-caster dredge Merritt arrived at Hatteras Friday evening and went to work on the shoaled up Rollinson Channel in Hatteras Inlet early Saturday morning. By late afternoon, the Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry, shut down for most of the week by the narrow and shallow channel, was running again.  Today, ferries […]

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Ferry tales

We all love to hate earmarks. Those funds allocated in the federal budget by individual legislators for special projects or purposes in their districts are a waste of taxpayer money, right? Some of the more infamous examples of egregious earmarks over the years include funding for a teapot museum in western North Carolina and an […]

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Hyde County voters went with the rest of the state in the 2012 Primary Election yesterday to add an amendment to the Constitution that defines marriage as between one man and one woman. However, Dare voters narrowly defeated the measure. Statewide, the vote was 61 percent for and 39 against.  In Hyde County the amendment passed by a vote of 64 to 36 percent. In Dare,the amendment just barely failed by a vote of 50.97 percent against and 49.03 in favor.  The vote total was 3,845 for and 3,698 against. At first, county officials reported incorrect numbers. In a surprise in Hyde County, incumbent Ocracoke Township commissioner lost the Democratic primary to John S. Fletcher II.  Even though Styron won the vote in Ocracoke, she lost countywide. The vote was 55 percent for Fletcher and 45 percent for Styron.  In Ocracoke Township, Styron won with a vote of 131-110. Fletcher is unopposed in the November general election. In Dare County’s only contested primary for commissioner, which was in District 1, Richard Johnson won the Republican nod and Alfred Lee Jackson took the Democratic race. Johnson beat Francis D’Ambra with 57 percent of the vote. Jackson beat John Lee Booth by a margin of 59 to 41 percent. Incumbents handily won in all of Dare County’s non-partisan races for the Board of Education. David Oaksmith retained his at-large seat with 43 percent of the vote. In District 2, Ben Sproul prevailed with 69 percent of the vote, and in District 4, incumbent Anthony Fletcher beat challenger Dave Conley of Frisco by a vote of 55 to 45 percent.  In District 2, Bea Basnight was unopposed. U.S. Rep. Walter Jones easily won his Republican primary against Frank Palombo with 69 percent of the vote.  Jones won 65 percent in Dare County and 83 percent in Hyde County. In one other hotly contested race – the Republican primary for N.C. House of Representatives in District 1, Mattie Lawson narrowly beat Arthur Williams.  Lawson had 2,643 votes for 37 percent, while Williams garnered 2,577 votes and 36 percent. Jeremy D. Adams came in third in that race with 27 percent. Voter turnout statewide was 34 percent of registered votes.  In Dare County, the turnout was 33 percent, while in Hyde it was 40 percent. FOR MORE INFORMATION For statewide 2012 Primary Election results: http://results.enr.clarityelections.com/NC/36596/80741/en/summary.html For Dare County Primary Election results: http://results.enr.clarityelections.com/NC/Dare/36632/80716/en/summary.html For Hyde County Primary Election results: http://results.enr.clarityelections.com/NC/Hyde/36644/80706/en/summary.html

By IRENE NOLAN By IRENE NOLAN Hyde County voters went with the rest of the state in the 2012 Primary Election yesterday to add an amendment to the Constitution that defines marriage as between one man and one woman. However, Dare voters narrowly defeated the measure. Statewide, the vote was 61 percent for and 39 […]

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