THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 1, 1995 TAG: 9507010488
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RALEIGH LENGTH: Short : 45 lines
When the state General Assembly decided to continue funding for the Blue Ribbon Advisory Council on Oysters for another two years and extend the panel's reporting deadline, its members and staff failed to inform one person crucial to the council's success - its chairman.
``I did not have any inkling about this,'' said University of North Carolina professor Dirk Frankenberg, when asked about the appropriation and the extended deadline. ``Nobody has mentioned that to me.''
Frankenberg, a member of the Marine Fisheries Commission, has chaired the oyster advisory council since it was formed about a year ago by the state legislature.
He is working on a book, to be published in August by the University of North Carolina Press, about the state's coast, its maritime forests, water quality and other environmental factors.
The oyster advisory council, which received a $100,000 appropriation from the General Assembly last year, has spent $23,025 , according to the Division of Marine Fisheries.
It was scheduled to make its final report to the legislature in October.
But in the fine print of the state's continuation budget approved last week, state lawmakers gave the council two more years to report its findings on how to improve the state's oyster stock and an additional $200,000 to continue its study.
The council's final report is now due June 30, 1997.
Frankenberg said the council will still report in October and under budget, as planned, and will probably then consider what its next step should be in light of its recent windfall.
The oyster advisory council could choose to oversee work to restore the state's natural oyster reefs, many of which have disappeared in recent years, and could study ways to make North Carolina more attractive to private enterprise seeking to cultivate oysters in state waters.
``We will respond to this appropriation as soon as we get over the shock,'' Frankenberg said.
``They didn't perhaps mention another chairman, did they?'' he asked. by CNB