THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 3, 1996 TAG: 9607030471
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: COROLLA LENGTH: 52 lines
Could Currituck County be ready to stamp out bonfires once and for all on its increasingly popular beaches?
Sheriff Glenn Brinkley didn't mince words at a work session Monday night.
``I'd like to go ahead and outlaw all bonfires on the beach since I don't have the manpower to enforce 'em,'' he told the Currituck County Board of Commissioners.
Last year, the county began a permit system to cut down on illegal items being used as bonfire kindling. Everything from residential fences and lawn furniture to lifeguard stands was used to keep flames alive.
Fires also were being built perilously close to dune lines and cottages, police said.
``The permit system that you have adopted has achieved its goal,'' said Marshall Cherry, the head of the Corolla Fire and Rescue Department.
Last year, Corolla officials issued 550 bonfire permits. Demand is up this year, Cherry said, with as many as 30 bonfire permits being issued nightly in the Corolla area.
And while the problem of property destruction appears to be under control, the bonfires are creating other concerns.
A party atmosphere that often surrounds bonfires lures teenagers who indulge in underage drinking, officials said. They also cited illegal drug use around beach blazes.
The sheriff's department does not have enough deputies to monitor bonfires and related beach activities, Brinkley said.
The sheriff noted a situation earlier this spring where a deputy was assaulted while investigating a large bonfire gathering.
Commissioner Ernie Bowden, who lives in the beach's northernmost village, Carova, is against a bonfire ban.
``The underage drinking is going to take place whether there's a bonfire or not,'' Bowden said Monday.
The commissioner has said earlier that bonfires provide one of the few recreational outlets in his township north of Corolla.
The commissioners decided to study to problem to see if they could ease the burden on the sheriff's department without banning bonfires.
Other topics discussed at Monday's work session included the problem of frequent home security alarm calls.
Residents and business owners with faulty alarm systems may have to pay a fee after a certain number of false calls each month, officials said.
Authorities hope this will prompt property owners with defective systems to get them fixed. Some alarms are tripped so frequently that even the owners no longer respond to the calls, Brinkley said.
Noise ordinance violations caused by ``boom boxes'' and car stereos also were discussed. by CNB