It seems that all the media do it this time of year ? the top 10 news stories of the year, the top 10 singers, actors, or athletes of the year or the decade or whatever.
So I thought I would close out the year with what I think were the top 10 stories on our islands.
Here they are:
1. The Negotiated Rulemaking process ended with no consensus from the committee on Feb. 26 ? after more than a year of meetings. So the National Park Service will take over the rulemaking for ORV access to the seashore. The park?s preferred alternative is due after the first of the year, as part of a Draft Environmental Impact Statement.
2. The consent decree continues to dictate beach access until the Park Service finishes its rulemaking process. Closures of popular fishing and recreational areas to protect nesting birds and sea turtles were widespread again this summer, and many islanders and businesses owners think that the closures contributed to the economic problems of the recession. You can go to The Island Free Press Archives (at the bottom of the front page) and look under the Beach Access and Park Issues Page to review all of the year?s access information.
3. Legislation to overturn consent decree went nowhere ? again. For the second year in a row, U.S. Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., and both of the state’s senators introduced legislation to overturn the consent decree. Jones introduced his bill into the House in January. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., introduced a bill in August, which was co-sponsored by Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C. In 2008, the legislation at least got committee or subcommittee hearings. This year it fell into a black hole. Legislation is apparently not going to be the answer to the problems with the consent decree.
4. Fireworks explosion on Ocracoke killed four and injured one. Four people working for Melrose South Pyrotechnics of Catawba, S.C., were killed and another was seriously burned when a truck loaded with fireworks for a July 4 celebration on Ocracoke exploded near the ferry docks in the village.
5. Nor’Ida tore up Highway 12 at Mirlo Beach and the S-curves. Hurricane Ida came ashore along Alabama?s Gulf Coast, moved over the southeast and back out into the Atlantic, and formed a wicked coastal storm that pounded Hatteras and Ocracoke with high seas and big waves for days. The storm tore up about one-third mile of Highway 12, which was replaced and moved about 23 feet to the west. During the storm, the state?s Ferry Division ran a ferry from Stumpy Point to Rodanthe for the first time ? for one day only.
6. Serendipity sold and to be moved away from the ocean. After the Nor?Ida storm, Dare County declared Serendipity a public nuisance and told the owners to move it or tear it down. The house, the northernmost cottage on Hatteras Island is in Rodanthe in the Mirlo Beach subdivision. It is both famous and infamous on the island. It is one, but not the only one, of the Mirlo Beach oceanfront homes that contribute to flooding on Highway 12 in storms, which has made its removal a cause for some residents and visitors. However, it became famous in the feature film, ?Nights in Rodanthe,? released in 2008. The owners say there were not financially able to move it and have sold it to a western North Carolina bail bondsman and his wife, who intend to move it and restore it to its glory as the ?Inn at Rodanthe? in the film.
7. A new group, the Hatteras Connection, was formed to support local watermen. Susan West, a journalist and wife of a commercial fisherman, took the lead in bringing together a loosely organized group of concerned individuals aiming to drum up community support for the island?s working watermen. West sees Hatteras Connection as a community-driven organization that helps support and promote the island?s fishing industries and ensures that the island watermen can adjust and adapt to regulatory changes. The broad goal, she said, is to enhance benefits that commercial and charter fishermen bring to the island, and at the same time, forge a structure that ensures that we always have them on the island. The group?s first community function, a December seafood dinner, raised almost $3,000, and collected truckloads of food for the island?s food pantry and home-delivered meals program.
8. No bay scallop season in 2010. After several years of no scalloping in the winter, the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries opened the season last year for a little more than two months to recreational and commercial fishermen, who were overjoyed. For commercial fishermen, it added to their income during the winter season, and locals were thrilled to be able to put them back on the table. This year DMF says there will be no scallop season because the population has dwindled. Some dispute that view and all are disappointed.
9. Who owns Bodie Island spit is still a mystery. Everyone assumes that Bodie Island spit is part of the Cape Hatteras National seashore, but a Dare County resident says he owns it and has paid county property taxes on it for years. The Dare County Tax Department information files confirm what he told The Island Free Press. So we asked Cape Hatteras Seashore Superintendent Mike Murray who asked the Park Service?s lands department to look into the ownership back in March. We still have not had an answer from this department, but we keep asking the question, ?Who does own Bodie Island spit??
10. The strange saga of the shipwrecked Gypsy Dane finally ended. The 50-foot ketch owned by a Frenchman, Yves Oger from Toronto, finally ended this year. Oger told his Coast Guard and Park Service rescuers that he went below deck on Nov. 15, 2008, to make a sandwich while he sailed past Hatteras, and the next thing he knew, the boat was in the surf off an Avon beach. The Gypsy Dane became the shipwreck that would not go away. After much work by many, the badly damaged boat was finally moved off the beach and sat in a Park Service parking area near Ramp 38 for weeks. Finally, it was moved by Steve Steiner, a licensed house mover and owner of Steiner and Daughters House Moving and Raising in Pantego, N.C., to the Buxton property of Crum Construction Co. Oger had no insurance and the boat ended up the property of the salvagers.
There is a postscript to the Gypsy Dane story that we have not reported. A young couple from Savannah, Ga., Andras and Hanmari Oliser, bought the boat through a broker and moved it in late spring and early summer to the property of a friend in rural Savannah. Andras Oliser said he figured it would take him three years to repair and rebuild the damage to the Gypsy Dane, which is now renamed the Providence.
Oliser said he paid $35,000 for the sailboat and, since he will do all the restoration himself, he will have about $100,000 invested when it?s finished. He said that is about half what a boat like the Gypsy Dane would cost.
Oliser is a fireman, and his wife is a nurse. He is originally from Hungary, and she is from South Africa. They have three young children, and when the Providence is ready to go into the water, the Olisers intend to go sailing on it.
Oliser sent some photos of the Gypsy Dane being moved from Buxton and arriving in Savannah. They are the last ones in the slide show.
?I would like to say again how grateful I am for the help and hospitality I received from the Crum family without which it is doubtful that I could have pulled off loading the boat,? he said in a recent telephone interview.
There were many good and interesting stories this year that didn?t make my list ? the new Dare County office building that opened in Frisco, the pathway on the Buxton Back Road, a proposed wind energy project for the Pamlico Sound, and even a two-day visit by weather stud Jim Cantore.
I?m interested to know what you, our readers, think about my top 10 stories. Do you agree with the choices or do think there were some that were left off the list?
I?m sure we will hear from you.
(Our thanks for all of the photographers who contributed to the slide show, especially Don Bowers, Alan Pitt, and Ken DeBarth.)
I have looked at the maps of the recent survey that NPS did of their boundaries. The survey was done in 2008 as I recall, maybe 2007. My main focus was the areas at the North ends of Buxton and Rodanthe where the land side boundaries are under water in some parts.
The interesting thing about Bodie Island, unlike the rest of the Seashore, is that boundaries were established down the ocean side of the spit, back along the inlet and then up the sound side.
So where sand comes and goes outside those boundaries is what is likely being referred to. In practicality such sand outside the boundaries would be useless and can only be accessed by crossing NPS land. At least that is the way I saw the maps.
The current survey maps can be viewed by anyone interested. As I recall I made arrangements thru Cyndy Holda and went to NPS hdqtrs in Manteo for the look see.
Clarification.
What NPS owns is inside the Bodie Island boundaries, not what is on the water sides, like in the rest of the Seashore. Again that is how I saw it on the maps.
Does anyone have any new info on how the NPS is progressing on their Draft Environmental Impact Statement and their preferred alternative for managing off-road vehicles?
Thanks in advance
JFunny you should ask?I am working on a blog on that topic even as we speak, so to speak. Should be posted by mid afternoon. (Hint: you can plan a trip to someplace warmer and you won?t miss anything here.)