After Kill Devil Hills became the fifth Dare County municipality to enact a balloon release ban on July 8, the focus shifts to unincorporated Dare County as the county commissioners take up a ban measure at their July 16 meeting.
Prior to taking any action on the measure, the commissioners will hold a public hearing on the issue at the 9 a.m. meeting.
While the board could decide to make changes, the proposed ordinance for the county’s unincorporated areas would apply to intentionally released balloons that are filled with “gas or fluid, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen, air, or water…within the limits of unincorporated Dare County, any waters within the zoning jurisdiction of Unincorporated Dare County, or the beach and/or dune areas within unincorporated Dare County.”
The penalty for violators would be $250, which is in line with what most of the Dare municipalities have enacted. The size of the fine was a subject of considerable discussion at the July 8 Kill Devil Hills Commissioners meeting, with the board deciding on a modest $25 fine, more closely in line with the Nags Head fine of $50.
The movement to ban the intentional release of balloons—which can cause harm to wildlife and the environment—picked up steam rapidly after Duck became the first Dare town to do so on April 3. The one municipality that has not yet enacted a balloon release ban is Manteo.
The tireless advocate for the bans is Southern Shores resident Debbie Swick, founder of Ban Balloon Release in North Carolina, who is active in a number of Outer Banks organizations and recently received the prestigious North Carolina Governor’s Medallion Award for Volunteer Service.
Swick spoke before the Dare Commissioners in May to advocate for the passage of a balloon ban ordinance, something that could come to fruition on July 16.
