THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 27, 1995 TAG: 9508250374
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 54 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Long : 176 lines
Applause! Applause! Applause! Your article by staff writer Anne Saita, featured in the Sunday, July 23 issue of The Virginian-Pilot & The Ledger-Star, deserves a standing ovation!
Living in needy rural communities across the nation is challenging. Many times, critical leadership within those communities is not featured unless there is controversy or scandal. I am so grateful to The Virginian-Pilot that you allowed Anne Saita to spotlight my county, Bertie County, a few weeks ago.
Her sensitiviy to rural communities was demonstrated throughout the article. She did not lead the reader to believe that we were a hopelessly poor community entrenched with tradition, but a needy county with strong leadership and vision destined to be a model for other rural communities.
Although the article focused on my leadership within the county, there are many others who give of their time and energy and expertise to improve the area. It is my hope that this article will inspire ``native daughters, native sons'' to return home and invest in the community that invested in them.
Again, I applaud The Virginian-Pilot for allowing Anne Saita to spotlight Bertie County.
Patricia D. Ferguson
Commissioner Bertie County
Colerain Another fishing view
I am writing in reference to Mr. Randy Foster's Aug. 20 letter. Mr. Foster's letter appears to advance the view that tourist dollars are more important than fishing dollars and that commercial fishing and tourism are economically mutually exclusive.
Mr. Foster wrote that the resource belongs to all the people of North Carolina and not ``just to those who fish them commercially.'' Captain Douglas and I agree with that statement. If Mr. Foster had read The Virginian-Pilot article of Aug. 8, he would realize that Captain Douglas was asking for a ``balanced'' approach in fisheries management to protect both commercial and sport fisheries. Captain Douglas and other involved watermen are trying to avoid what happened in Florida with the ban on commercial nets. The ``public trust resource'' that Mr. Foster is so concerned with no longer exists in Florida, where the resource has been totally allocated to the sportsfishing business. If you live in or visit Florida and don't have the time or the resources or simply the inclination to sportsfish, you don't have the opportunity to eat local, inshore fish.
The idea that support of our commercial fishing industry by our county commissioners will hurt our tourism business is ludicrous. The latest figures available (1994) show an increase in sportsfishermen and sportsfishing trips. That's not really news; everyone on our coast knows that sportsfishing is big business and growing. The real news, conspicuously absent in media reports, is that those sportsfishermen caught more fish, in numbers, in weight, and on a per-angler basis. Even as the numbers of sportsfishermen increase, the number of tourists who don't fish, but do eat fish, increases faster.
Most, if not all, economists would agree that a mixed economy is the strongest economy. I recognize the value of tourism to our county, but the fact remains that the jobs created by tourism are responsible for Dare County ranking 87th out of the 100 North Carolina counties in wages, while our county also consistently ranks in the top five in cost of living. Commercial fishing is one of the few callings that provides some semblance of a living wage, both for owner-operators and their employees in Dare County.
The restaurant owners I speak to are, of course, concerned with visitor numbers, but with those numbers growing consistently by double digits annually, the concerns of restaurant owners have shifted to the supply, quality and cost of the seafood customrs demand. If inshore species become harder to obtain, the cost of all seafood will rise accordingly. Margins that are quite high now will shrink and, in many customers' eyes, restaurant retail costs in Dare County are about at maximum. Increased seafood costs will, by necessity, have to come from the bottom line of the restaurants.
Both elements of the economy, tourism and commercial fishing, can co-exist as they have in the past, complementing each other. But not if people like Mr. Foster take every attempt at survival by watermen, such as Capt. Douglas, as an affront to the resource or to the tourism business.
Robert A. West
Buxton Shellfish woes
It was a crime what happened to the shoreline of the Northeast, and now I have to watch the same thing happen to the lower Outer Banks of North Carolina!
Acres and acres of shellfish areas closed due to pollution.
Come on, people - smarten up! Who's paying off who?
Theodore E. Goodwin
Buxton Fix the traffic lights
Since November 1992, when the voters of Dare County notified me that my services were no longer desired, I have tried to keep my mouth shut. But The Virginian-Pilot story on Saturday, Aug. 19 regarding Gov. Hunt calling for immediate action on traffic problems that took place during evacuation for Hurricane Felix has goaded me to the point that I must now speak, not as a politician, but as a native citizen of Dare County.
I left my home in Salvo at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday. I encountered no problems until three miles south of Whalebone Junction. The next seven miles took more than three hours to travel. Normal movement started after passing the traffic light at the High School in Manteo. There were no slowdowns or stoppages from that point on. In spite of the 35 mph speed limit through Manns Harbor, traffic flow was normal.
This tells me the problem is not the two-lane bridge or Route 64. The problem is the Whalebone through Manteo unsynchronized traffic control. The traffic lights cause problems that would be alleviated if they were synchronized. Police presence was everywhere one looked, but not once did I see an officer directing traffic or attempting to facilitate speedier flow of traffic.
I think our governor is smart enough to know the true problem, but rather than address it, he seized the political opportunity to tout the widening of Route 64 and a new bridge, rather than the obvious but unpopular solution of highway/bridge bypass of the Manteo area. This, coupled with the elevation of Route 12 in the sandbag area of Pea Island, would ensure safe and rapid evacuations in the future.
This will only happen when the citizens of Dare County forget their political differences long enough to pull together and put the pressure on our government officials that we are capable of generating. High costs are always cited as reasons for not elevating the highway, but unless the constant work by DOT on that stretch of road though the years has been free, and the folly of the present road road relocation (the new road will be 200 yards or so to the west, and still covered with sand and water in storms). We could have elevated the road with these monies past spent and relieved a lot of stress and danger on residents and visitors alike.
Until the day our politicians stop saying what they think the ``important'' people want to hear, and start telling it like it is, the rest of us will continue to suffer the indignity of our ship of state being constantly aground.
Gaskill Austin
Salvo Proposal makes sense
In a recent letter to the editor, Mr. and Mrs. Ken Johnson outlined a creative plan to solve both the county complex dilemma and the new high school requirement.
Essentially, their proposal was for a single new centrally located high school that would serve the entire county except what is now served by Hatteras High School. They proposed that the current high school in Manteo be used to accommodate both the Manteo Middle School and the Alternative High School, and finally that the county use the Middle School and grounds for the county complex.
While I am confident that the ramifications surrounding this proposal are more complicated than it appears, it nevertheless strikes me as making a tremendous amount of sense.
As a taxpayer, I can see a lot of dollars saved with this plan. As a previous teacher at Manteo High School, I never have supported the two high school concept nor have I understood the reasoning for two. A single, centrally located high school as Mr. and Mrs. Johnson proposed would offer far more educational opportunities for our kids. By putting our tax dollars into one high school, we will be able to support a first-class high school rather than two mediocre small schools 15 miles apart.
I would encourage those of you who have not read Mr. and Mrs. Johnson's letter to do so. I would ask that you comment on their idea and join in the discussion. I would also encourage our elected officials to address this and any other proposals in a constructive manner, setting aside politics, and attempt to do what is in the best interest of all of our county residents - and, most importantly, in the best interest of education for our children (and grandchildren).
David Oaksmith
Nags Head Support Triathlon
I would like to convey my personal appreciation to all the businessmen and businesswomen throughout the Outer Banks and the adjacent areas who so willingly participated in the Triathlon Program Book for 1995.
It has been very gratifying to see so many of last year's business owners joining us again this year, and also the increased number of new supporters for this event.
The Triathlon has grown in intensity and has created a tremendous amount of interest throughout the Dare County communities. I urge all the citizens of our greater Outer Banks to take part in the support of the athletes in their efforts to meet the demands of the swim, the bike trip and the run.
We look forward to seeing a large turnout on Sept. 9 at the aquarium.
Clinton Spahn
Kitty Hawk by CNB