Last week I wrote — once again — about the continuing struggle to keep the sand-clogged channels in Hatteras Inlet open for the island’s commercial, charter, and recreational boats to transit from the Hatteras village docks to and from the Atlantic Ocean.
I wrote about the steps that the county and the state have taken to solve what is a very difficult and complicated problem with a profound effect on the island’s economy.
However, the boat captains are still unhappy with the status of the shoaled up inlet and have been vocal at meetings, including public comment during Board of Commissioner meetings, about their unhappiness.
I said that the captains are as tired of talking to the commissioners as the commissioners probably are of hearing them complain.
If you want more of the details of what got us to this point, you can read last week’s blog — and the interesting comments posted by readers.
At the end of the blog, I noted that there is not easy fix to the inlet issues, but that many who are involved think appearances and communications can count for a lot — and that both could be improved.
The Dare Board of Commissioners must have been listening because, even though Hatteras Inlet was not on the agenda at last Monday’s meeting, the inlet issues got a good deal of attention from both the board’s chairman and the vice-chairman.
“We’ve been working diligently for a number of weeks now to get (Hatteras) inlet open, and we’re closer than we have been in the past” said Commissioner Bob Woodard during his chairman’s remarks at the beginning of the meeting.
Woodard talked about the county citizens’ group that is charged with advising the commissioners on Hatteras Inlet issues — the Oregon Inlet and Waterways Commission.
As I noted in last week’s blog, there are problems on the commission. A member who was appointed in June has never been to a meeting and actually can’t serve because she no longer lives in Dare County. Also, there has not been a quorum of the eight-member committee for the past two meetings. And, finally, no representative from the county or state has attended the last two meetings.
Woodard said that the board did not want another meeting to come and go without a quorum.
He announced that the next Waterways Commission meeting, which had been scheduled for Monday, Aug. 8, has been moved to Tuesday, Aug. 16, at the usual time of 7 p.m. at the Fessenden Center in Buxton.
The meeting had been rescheduled, he said, so that the board could take some action at its meeting on Monday, Aug. 15. He said the board will appoint two new members to the Waterways Commission. One will replace the member appointed in June and a second will replace long-time member Arvin Midgett, who has resigned for health reasons.
Woodard said it is the board’s hope that the two new members will attend the rescheduled meeting on Aug. 16.
He also invited interested citizens and inlet users to apply for the open positions before the agenda is published for the Aug. 15 meeting, which will be about next Wednesday, Aug. 10. Anyone who is interested in applying can still do so by downloading a form on the county website, filling it out, and returning it ASAP. Go to http://www.darenc.com/gov/brdcomm.asp.
The Waterways Commission meetings are open to the public, so any interested citizens can attend. They alternate between the Fessenden Center and the Dare County Administrative Building in Manteo.
I also noted that the Board of Commissioners might reconsider the name of the citizens group that is charged with advising it on Hatteras Inlet.
The county now has two advisory panels with Oregon Inlet in their name — the Oregon Inlet Task Force and the Oregon Inlet and Waterways Commission.
The Oregon Inlet Task Force has done a fine job of addressing the issue of long-term dredging in that area and has the funds to get it done. However, the task force members have made it clear that they do not wish to expand their focus to Hatteras Inlet or any of the other waterways in the county.
So, I suggested that perhaps the name of the second advisory panel should be the Hatteras Inlet and Waterways Commission. There are other waterways besides the big two — Oregon and Hatteras inlets — in the county.
A reader and Hatteras Inlet stakeholder had what may be an even better idea — certainly a less politically charged idea.
Why not just call it the Dare County Waterways Commission?
Why do we need two panels looking out specifically for Oregon Inlet.
After all, as county commissioner Beverly Boswell noted last year in the discussion about funding Oregon Inlet dredging, “We are all one Dare County.”
Maybe the Board of Commissioners will address this issue at its next meeting — or maybe the newly constituted Waterways Commission would be interested in making a recommendation to the board on its name.
You can listen to the Board of Commissioners discuss these issues at its Monday, Aug. 15, meeting, which begins at 5 p.m.
Chairman Woodard wants to hear from more Hatteras islanders after he was instrumental in arranging for all of us to make comments via a remote hookup from the Fessenden Center in Buxton instead of having to travel to Manteo.
So if you want to comment on Hatteras Inlet or any other issue — on the agenda or not — the public comment period starts shortly after the beginning of the meeting at 5. You can comment from the Activity Room in the Fessenden Center.
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