Our readers ? at least a few of them ? have weighed in on what to call the inlet and the new temporary bridge on the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge.
The number of voters was not overwhelming, but they did prefer Pea Island Bridge by a narrow margin.
Forty-five commented on this blog page, another 20 or so commented on Facebook, and another dozen sent me e-mails.
Although the Island Free Press panel had narrowed the name to two choices ? Pea Island Bridge or New New Inlet Bridge ? some readers continued to make other suggestions. And the name Split Pea Bridge had a small surge of support.
However, most who commented thought that Pea Island Inlet and Pea Island Bridge really described the inlet, the bridge, the location, and everything else in terms that most people could understand and relate to.
I am personally disappointed. I really, really like New New Inlet and New New Inlet Bridge.
It?s historical, it?s catchy, and it?s kind of funny ? and my spell checker hates it.
However, as more than a few readers commented, ?Some people just won?t get it.?
When I counted those who actually weighed in for one of the two choices, the margin of victory for Pea Island Bridge was indeed narrow.
Thirty readers preferred Pea Island Bridge, and 23 liked New New Inlet Bridge.
But fair is fair, so from now on in Island Free Press stories, we will refer to the inlet as Pea Island Inlet and the bridge as Pea Island Bridge.
It really isn?t one of the great issues of this time of hurricane Irene response, but it was fun to play around with for a week or two after all the really serious and often depressing storm recovery news.
The North Carolina Department of Transportation isn?t likely to rush out here to erect a sign with the IFP readers? choice of a name.
But it is our name. It is our bridge. And there really is not a whole lot temporary about it.
As far as I can tell by going back over the comments on my Oct. 14 blog proposing that we name the new bridge, the first person to suggest Pea Island Bridge was Christy Rager.
Christy, we will be in touch about your framed printed of Pea Island Bridge by IFP photographer Don Bowers.
THE ISLAND FREE PRESS SURVEY UPDATE
We took The Island Free Press Survey: Hurricane Irene Response offline Monday morning. More than 2,200 readers filled out a survey, which we think is a great result. About 25 percent of them were residents, 25 percent were off-island property owners, and 50 percent were visitors.
We are beginning the process of looking at the results and will be reporting on various aspects of the survey for some weeks or months to come.
We hope to have the first article — a look at the overall responses next week.
