THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 3, 1994 TAG: 9408030435
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CURRITUCK LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
Currituck County officials are trying to do a better job of informing visitors what they can and cannot do on the northern beaches of the Outer Banks.
The Board of Commissioners agreed Monday night that a lot of tourists don't know about an ordinance regulating travel and activity on the beaches, and agreed to launch a campaign to spread the word.
Property owners have complained that tourists are blocking the beach accessway and plowing through private residences to get to and from the oceanfront. And, they say, nobody's doing anything about it.
The ordinance says beach motorists cannot block the foreshore with a vehicle or any other property, including coolers, umbrellas, chairs or fishing lines. The rule is designed to allow commuters and delivery services a way to travel along the oceanfront to the north after the paved road ends.
Representatives of the Currituck County sheriff's office told the commissioners that it is difficult to enforce the ordinance.
Currituck has four full-time sheriff's deputies patrolling the county's barrier island areas during 12-hour shifts. A fifth officer was recently hired and is undergoing training, said Sgt. Ken Kuykendall.
``With one officer, he can't be everywhere at one time,'' Kuykendall told the board Monday.
And, he said, most visitors don't even realize they are violating the rules.
``Ninety-eight percent of them say they don't even know what a foreshore is,'' Kuykendall said. It's the beach between the high and low water marks. ``A lot of them don't realize that by having a fishing line across the foreshore that they are blocking it.''
Apparently a lot of beach travelers, particularly those riding the popular all-terrain vehicles, also are not abiding by the 15 mph speed limit when driving within 300 feet of people.
``I think the time will come - in fact, the time may be here - that we have some regulation of these vehicles,'' Commissioner Ernie Bowden said.
Bowden brought the issue up last month after he drove through tourists' fishing lines while transporting two solid-waste containers from Carova.
``In the nine years that I have been transporting that stuff up and down the beach, this is the first time I have had any problem at all with anybody's property,'' the commissioner said Monday.
County officials agreed to launch a multimedia publicity campaign to promote beach driving regulations.
Plans include airing the ordinance, with a definition of a foreshore, on local cable access channel 12 and distributing one-page brochures at popular tourist sites and rental agencies.
``I don't think it's going to be a solution,'' County Manager Bill Richardson said, ``but I think it's a right step to helping get the message out in layman's terms.''
Richardson also said a couple of Carova citizens had suggested a permit system for county residents only.
``It's gonna really be a nightmare to enforce that sticker or whatever you've got on your windshield with one deputy, two deputies or even a half dozen,'' Kuykendall replied. by CNB