THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 4, 1994 TAG: 9410040398
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DeGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: MANTEO LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines
Senior citizens have spent six years trying to get a multi-purpose center built for the southern end of Hatteras Island.
Their campaign paid off Monday, when the Dare County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved plans for the center, and authorized spending up to $862,000 on the project.
``Now we'll have a place to go,'' one elated elderly lady said as she hugged a friend during the regular, bimonthly commissioners' meeting. ``I can't believe I've lived to see this day.''
The 12,288 square-foot ``Fessenden Center'' will be built in Buxton, off N.C. Route 12.
Blueprints show the facility will include a 104- by 75-foot main, multi-purpose room that could be used for indoor basketball games, evening fish fries or community theater productions; a second, 2,800-square-foot multi-use room designed for senior activities and crafts; a meeting room to be staffed by employees of the Dare County Parks and Recreation Department and the Older Adult Services Department, and additional space for adult and youth recreational activities.
Outdoor basketball and tennis courts also are in the plans. The entire facility is to be handicapped-accessible. It is scheduled to include its own wastewater treatment system.
``I think it's absolutely beautiful,'' said W. Myrtle Burrus, 81, who drove more than an hour from her Hatteras Village house Monday to help support the center. ``We'll have a real home now. We've all worked so hard for this. Now, we're sure it's going to happen.''
Named for Reginald A. Fessenden, who made the first wireless broadcast of musical notes in 1902 from an antenna near Buxton to Roanoke Island, the center will take about a year to build.
Engineer Joseph S. Lassiter, whose Southern Shores firm designed the project, said construction bids will go out by January.
``I want them to have a facsimile of the Thomas Baum Center,'' Board of Commissioners Chairman Robert V. ``Bobby'' Owens Jr. said, referring to the county's senior citizen center in Kill Devil Hills.
``Couches, televisions, places they can read, socialize, knit - I'd even like them to be able to catch a bus from Buxton to the northern beaches,'' Owens said of his desires for Hatteras Island's older adults. ``Whatever they want and need to stay young and active - I want them to have it.''
Originally, commissioners had planned to finance the project with a combination of tax revenue and no-interest loans. But County Manager Terry Wheeler said Monday that the loans he had been pursuing were not really interest free. So commissioners decided to pay for the project with a private bank loan.
About $50,000 for the center is projected to come from a federal resource conservation grant; $22,500 more is expected to come from a state water resources grant; $325,000 has been budgeted fromthe county's capital reserve fund; $52,500 more already is earmarked in the county's 1994-95 budget. County officials will have to borrow the balance of the project's cost - about $400,000 plus interest.
``Today, we're going to say, `Let's go,' Owens told the senior citizens after his board unanimously approved the project. ``Today, we're finally going to turn this thing loose.''
In other action Monday, the Dare County Board of Commissioners:
Approved plans to sell 22 pieces of property that the county owns on the Outer Banks and Dare County mainland. The parcels, which range in size from 1.3 to 27 acres, are located in Buxton, Colington, Frisco, Kill Devil Hills, Kitty Hawk, Manteo, Nags Head, Wanchese and Stumpy Point. Most land was foreclosed on by the county after owners did not pay taxes. Other acres were deeded to the county or acquired through individual transactions. Total value of the 22 sites is estimated at about $429,500. Copies of all offered parcels - and descriptions of the land - are available from County Attorney H. Al Cole. Land will be sold by sealed bids. No deadline has yet been set to receive the bids. For more information, call the county attorney (919) 473-1101, ext. 308.
Voted 5-2 to support plans for a $5.5 million welcome center for the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. The center, which will include a live red wolf exhibit, indoor and outdoor classroom space, a gift shop and other amenities, is designed to be built on a 35-acre parcel that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service owns on the north end of Roanoke Island. Commissioners Clarence Skinner and Mac Midgett opposed the project.
``You all've got 150,000 acres on the Dare County mainland already. That's where your refuge is. Why not put the welcome center there?'' Skinner asked. ``We don't want people to trample everything in sight,'' U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service spokeswoman Bonnie Strawser replied. ``We're trying to find a way for people to enjoy the wild and learn about the refuge - without negatively impacting it.'' The nonprofit Coastal Wildlife Refuge Society is trying to raise funds for the proposed project.
Heard that the Hatteras Island Adult Care group is sponsoring a pig-picking at 4 p.m. Saturday at the Frisco Woods Campground. The day-long event, which begins at 10 a.m. with a bake sale, will raise funds to support a free-meals program for the area's older citizens. In the past five years, Hatteras Island Adult Care has served more than 20,000 meals to shut-ins and other needy individuals. All funds for the program are privately donated. Rep. Martin Lancaster, D-N.C., will speak at the annual October Fest at 4 p.m. A kite show is planned for 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. Mo Jo Collins and his band will perform during the pig-picking. Tickets are $5 each for the festival.
Welcomed former Nags Head Fire Chief Doug Remaley as Dare County's new fire marshall. Remaley began work at his new post Monday. by CNB