Shooting The Breeze

The December Dare County Board of Commissioners (BOC) meeting marked the beginning of a new era, as county commissioner Mary Ellon Ballance was sworn in as Hatteras Island’s District 4 representative after winning the November 5 General Election. Ballance is taking the reins from Danny Couch, who retired in 2024 after serving as the island’s [...] Editor's Blog |  Full Article

The last few weeks of 2024 marks the end of an era and the start of a new one when it comes to Hatteras Island representation on the Dare County Board of Commissioners (BOC). On November 4, Danny Couch attended his last BOC meeting as Hatteras Island’s County Commissioner after announcing his retirement a year [...] Editor's Blog |  Full Article

Some ideas to improve Hatteras Island tend to occasionally float to the surface over the years as attention ebbs and flows. The building of a new movie theater (or even a bowling alley), a new apartment housing complex, or a new hotel have all popped up sporadically into local conversations before disappearing due to languishing [...] Editor's Blog |  Full Article

On September 1, 2023, the Cape Hatteras National Seashore (CHNS) issued a temporary closure for a small stretch of Buxton Beach after two offshore hurricanes eroded the shoreline, and exposed leftover infrastructure from a 1956-2010 military base, as well as sporadic but strong petroleum smells. Since then, the closure has been expanded slightly, from two-tenths [...] Editor's Blog |  Full Article

Our co-founder and editor, Irene Nolan, had a tradition of posting an annual list of beach etiquette guidelines for new visitors around the first few weeks of summer. First published decades ago when she was the editor of the former Island Breeze, Irene’s guide was a smart and timely list of the dos and don’ts when [...] Editor's Blog |  Full Article

Back in March, the Island Free Press published an FAQ guide to explain the complicated background and current issues that were occurring at Buxton Beach. Nearly two months later, a lot has changed, and there has been a mild increase in progress and a major increase in community involvement. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers [...] Editor's Blog |  Full Article

On Sunday, March 24, the Cape Hatteras National Seashore sent out a widely-circulated press release after a closed section of Buxton Beach was expanded from two-tenths to three-tenths of a mile, due to reports of petroleum odors and sheen on the ocean waters. Though not a large increase, the expansion effectively closes the new-in-2019 Buxton [...] Editor's Blog |  Full Article

This is the second in a series of articles about the accelerating issue of fuel smells and exposed infrastructure at Buxton Beach. To read the first article, which covers the background of the issue, click here. It has been more than two weeks since a visible fuel slick was reported by local surfers at Old [...] Editor's Blog |  Full Article

Exposed infrastructure and a sporadic but persistent fuel smell have been reported at the popular Buxton Beach, but there is not an immediate solution in the works to address these environmental issues. Two days after a coastal storm impacted the Outer Banks in early February, local surfer Brett Barley headed to Old Lighthouse Beach in [...] Editor's Blog |  Full Article