THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 17, 1995 TAG: 9512140178
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
I recently picked up a local paper and there was a letter that caught my attention: ``Team Parents Rude.'' I read this not knowing it was a downgrading letter about the Beach people and their kids.
It talked about how we on the Beach are trying to divide ourselves from Manteo.
To divide means to separate something into equal parts. First of all, we were shown how equal we are when it came to this year's soccer deal.
The Beach teams were made to split up, and Parks and Recreation created new teams at a meeting that no one knew about. Manteo people threw a big fuss, and everything went back to normal for them. The Beach was made to suffer.
The problem is, here on the Beach we always get the short end of the stick.
Our Beach Parks and Recreation office is way understaffed, and we have a bigger percentage of the kids. Is this right? Is this system correct? No, it isn't correct. Rules that are made tend not to be across the board.
The rules are made for friends or even for such a small group as Manteo. Furthermore, they always hold meetings about rules for an elite few and tend to change rules at these meetings, leaving the Beach out.
So now it's time to take a stand. The Beach has been the doormat, so to speak, for a long time. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm tired of getting walked on.
The most recent idea by Parks and Recreation is a lottery system for basketball.
Just think, your kid is gonna have to wear a number and then get picked on skill level.
Only a few coaches know all the players, and one or two teams will dominate, and you're gonna have to like it.
Is this America? Do we have a say in what goes on? Certainly not this year. All of this is pushing Manteo and the Beach further apart. Something has to change.
We pay Terry Wheeler and the Parks and Recreation heads' salaries. These people never back what they say.
It is time we started calling our commissioners and saying, ``Look, something must change, because we are tired of hearing, `This is how it will be, like it or not.' ''
Isn't it about time the Beach started to count like everyone else?
Ray A. Wright Jr.
Kill Devil Hills Saving the Lighthouse
My grandson asked me if I had seen a recent article that the Corps of Engineers are going to sink some barges in front of the Cape Hatteras lighthouse.
I had written the Corps of Engineers and the National Park Service in 1981: ``to sink two or three long high barges in front of the lighthouse. . . . Ask any old-timer in Hatteras Island and he will say, `Yes, any time a ship sinks, the beach will build right out to it.' ''
But the article says, ``They plan to build another sheet-steel groin out and south of the lighthouse to catch sand in front of the lighthouse.''
Well, yes, it will catch some sand there. But it will erode like the others have on the back side of the groins, terribly! So why don't they use lattice-type groins - at a much-lower cost and without having to go out beyond the low-tide line - and the first storm will build the beach out north and south, many feet, and save the lighthouse! Then, it won't have to be moved - at a cost of millions.
Let those in charge see the light and smarten up!
David H. Lawrence, G.R.I.
Kitty Hawk by CNB