THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, July 25, 1995 TAG: 9507250275
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PAUL SOUTH AND LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: MANTEO LENGTH: Long : 119 lines
An angry Manteo Board of Commissioners voted unanimously Monday night to ask legislators to rescind a camouflaged amendment that would have allowed the sale of liquor by the drink at a restaurant at the sprawling Pirate's Cove development.
Earlier in the day, Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight - who helped turn the proposal into law - said he would sponsor legislation to kill the amendment if town officials asked.
For the commissioners, as well as opponents of the legislation, the issue centered on the democratic process, not the sale and consumption of alcohol.
``What I keep hearing tonight is that the democratic process has been skirted, and that representative government would be compromised,'' said Commissioner Lee Tugwell, a resident of Pirate's Cove. ``I feel we can restore faith in the process and in representative government through our action tonight.''
The firestorm was started in Manteo when Rep. Bill Culpepper, D-Edenton, sponsored an amendment to legislation which would allow owners of a restaurant at Pirate's Cove to apply for a liquor license.
About 50 Manteo residents attended an emergency meeting. Seventeen residents spoke, 14 against the licensing.
The issue unified restaurant owners, who support liquor by the drink, and residents and clergy opposed to the sale of mixed drinks.
The two groups had been at odds in the past, during four municipality-wide votes on the issue in the past 13 years.
``There's political mischief afoot here,'' said Bob Woody, owner of Manteo's White Doe Inn. ``The issue is whether or not the standards in the town of Manteo are going to be set by our locally elected representatives, or by people in Raleigh and big money interests.''
Don Just, owner of 1587 Restaurant and the Tranquil House Inn on the downtown Manteo waterfront, said the legislation was an attempt to usurp the authority of the town's elected leaders.
``The will of the people has been expressed,'' Just said. ``There is no lofty purpose, no environmental principle to enable the state to supersede the wishes of the town.''
Of Culpepper's bill, he said, ``A travesty has taken place.''
Ben Goldstein, one of the officers of the Pirate's Cove development, urged the commissioners to use caution in taking into consideration the ``will of the people.''
He pointed out that the issue had narrowly been defeated (by six votes) in the last liquor referendum. He added that while only about 5 percent of the people in the development are registered to vote in the town, the development pays about 43 percent of the community's tax revenue.
The General Assembly passed the bill last week. The legislation would take effect Oct. 1, and would allow the restaurant in the upscale marina development to sell liquor by the drink.
The governor has no veto power in North Carolina. The only way the legislation could be rescinded is through the passage of a separate bill repealing the action.
Basnight, who lives on Roanoke Island just across Shallowbag Bay from Pirate's Cove, helped push the bill through the General Assembly last week, and said he would listen to the Manteo board.
``I'd be happy to do that if the town council asked me to,'' Basnight said by phone from his Raleigh office. ``There would still be time in this session.''
Basnight said the new bill could be presented as separate legislation or as an amendment to pending legislation.
Last week, when a report of the license bill was published in The Virginian-Pilot, Basnight said he backed the bill because it would not affect the town of Manteo, and exceptions had been made in other parts of the state.
The disclosure of the action by the General Assembly angered many of Basnight's constituents.
The fight over the legislation has restaurant owners and church members on the same side for the first time in the long debate over liquor by the drink in this Roanoke Island community. Four times, voters in Manteo have rejected proposals to allow the sale of mixed drinks in this picturesque waterfront town.
Culpepper did not introduce the bill as separate legislation. Instead, the Pirate's Cove proposal was tacked on to Senate Bill 57, which regulates liquor sales in counties other than Dare.
The wording of the legislation is specific - intended only to include Pirate's Cove in the liquor-by-the drink exemption. Culpepper said he wrote the bill in that way so it would not affect other coastal communities.
Manteo restaurant owners say the action circumvents the democratic process. They also say it is unfair to other restaurant owners who have learned to live with the results of the four previous referendums.
However, the beach communities of Nags Head, Kill Devil Hills, Southern Shores and Kitty Hawk allow mixed-drink sales in restaurants.
``What Culpepper did, in my opinion, slapped the people of Manteo in the face, and said that the democratic process doesn't mean anything,'' Paige Beshens, owner of Dock of the Bay on the Manteo waterfront, said before Monday night's meeting. ``It's not fair to the people of the town who voted against liquor by the drink, and it's not fair to the owners of the other restaurants who aren't allowed to sell it. The rest of us learned to live with it. Why can't they?''
Beshens added that Pirate's Cove residents wanted to become part of the town to receive water and sewer service, and that as part of the town, the rules that apply to other businesses should apply to the upscale marina development.
``This is the slimiest thing I've ever seen,'' she said. ``They wanted to be part of Manteo to get water and sewer, and now they don't want the law to apply to them.''
Peaches Shannon, owner of Clara's Steam Bar and Grill on the waterfront, said, ``It's surprising and disappointing because of the manner in which the will of the voters has been ignored. The voters said they didn't want liquor by the drink.''
Shannon said she supported the liquor by the drink idea each time it came up for a city-wide vote in the eight years Clara's has been in business.
Pirate's Cove includes hundreds of homes and townhouses, 100 deep-draft boat slips that are at least 40 feet long, a store, tennis courts, swimming pool and a restaurant that opened in 1990. A fleet of charter boats and two head boats are moored at the development's docks.
Although the development is about two miles across a salt marsh from Manteo, Pirate's Cove is officially considered part of the town. Its owners asked to be annexed into the Roanoke Island community because it needed water and sewer service to keep building. by CNB