THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 31, 1996 TAG: 9607310465
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 64 lines
Should another winter ice storm hit the area on the last day of election filings, the people of Pasquotank County will get a bit of a reprieve.
A bill recently passed in the General Assembly allows Pasquotank County to extend the filing deadline an extra day in the event of a severe winter storm.
Other North Carolina localities won't be as fortunate.
``Pasquotank now has a provision no other county in the state has,'' said state Rep. W.C. ``Bill'' Owens Jr., the Democratic legislator who introduced the bill on behalf of his home county.
The bill grew out of concern for what happened this year, when a winter storm kept everyone home - except local boards of elections and several determined candidates.
``They had to open the courthouse up, even when it was dangerous to do so,'' Owens said from his Raleigh office during a telephone interview Tuesday.
The state Board of Elections opposed the bill, believing it should be a statewide rule rather than a local one, Owens said.
Owens also was successful in getting an amended fox-hunting regulation passed in Currituck County, but he wasn't able to extend duck-hunting hours, as some had hoped.
Fox hunters in Currituck will now follow the state regulations governing when and where foxes can be hunted, rather than be guided by a local ordinance that some found too restrictive.
Some residents had complained that Currituck's law made it difficult for property owners to defend domestic animals from a growing fox population.
The Currituck County Board of Commissioners also had asked state legislators to consider easing the duck-hunting deadline from 4:20 p.m. to sunset.
The 4:20 rule has been in effect since the 1950s to protect resting waterfowl and hunting guides and parties on slow-moving boats.
After a resolution requesting the change was passed on to Owens, however, opponents to a sunset provision began to speak up.
They argued that extended hours could deplete already diminished waterfowl populations.
Commissioners agreed to continue with the request, but the bill was doomed when legislators learned it had opposition from several county residents who called lawmakers to complain.
``You're not supposed to bring up controversial bills in the short session, and when people objected in Currituck County, it became controversial,'' Owens said.
Owens said he is willing to resubmit the bill during the next General Assembly session, if asked. ``If Currituck wants it, I'll do all I can to pass it,'' he said.
Billy Rose, chairman of the Currituck County Game Commission that had made the recommendation to commissioners, said Tuesday his board will wait for some direction from commissioners.``I'm hoping we'll be able to find some sort of compromise and send it up next year,'' Rose said.
Another local bill approved by the General Assembly will allow Albemarle Hospital to appoint trustees outside Pasquotank County.
The bill will allow residents from areas served by the regional, county-owned hospital - such as Camden, Currituck, Gates and Dare - to serve on its board.
A similar request to allow College of The Albemarle to expand its board's membership did not clear both chambers of the legislature.
The House agreed to allow people from outside Pasquotank, Dare and Chowan counties to sit on the community college's board of directors. Those three areas each contain a COA campus or satellite. by CNB