DATE: Thursday, June 5, 1997                TAG: 9706050481

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: RALEIGH                           LENGTH:   59 lines

RESTORE OREGON INLET PLAN, REP. JONES ASKS N.C. CONGRESSMAN WANTS THE STATE TO PROCEED WITH EROSION CONTROLS.

U.S. Rep. Walter Jones Jr. has urged his Republican colleagues in the state House to restore a provision that would force construction of erosion controls at Oregon Inlet.

The Senate had included a budget provision to condemn federal land on the north side of the Dare County inlet for a terminal groin that would keep the inlet from filling with sand. The provision ordered that permits be issued for the construction and that state agencies and courts not accept any challenges.

The House stripped that provision, along with dozens of other Senate proposals, from its version of the budget debated Wednesday.

``It is my hope that the House, in its wisdom and for the safety of persons who navigate those waters, will place the special provision for the Oregon Inlet in the House Budget,'' Jones wrote Republican House Speaker Harold Brubaker in a letter dated May 27.

``The citizens of our state will benefit economically and the safety of North Carolina fishermen and others who fish off our coast will be enhanced by the stabilization of the Oregon Inlet,'' wrote Jones, a Republican serving his second term in Congress from the 3rd District.

Jones said his late father, who represented Dare County for more than 20 years, and Sen. Jesse Helms tried for years to get the federal government to build a pair of milelong jetties.

``Obviously, they were not able to accomplish the goals desired by the citizens who navigate these waters,'' Jones wrote.

The House was lobbied extensively to restore the provision but does not intend to do so, Brubaker said.

``The Senate provision runs roughshod over the due process of law,'' Brubaker said. ``It is blatantly unconstitutional by revoking citizens' rights to appeal a state agency's decision.

``Our House majority is working to reduce the burden of state government on people's lives, but not at the expense of chucking the Bill of Rights into Oregon Inlet.''

Glen Downs, a spokesman for Jones in Washington, said Wednesday the congressman had no position on whether lawsuits or other challenges should be barred.

``My sense is that his weighing in wasn't a weighing in one side or the other on that constitutional question,'' Downs said. ``He just supports the project.

``If there is somebody out there trying to stabilize Oregon Inlet, Congressman Jones is willing to help with it.''

Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, D-Dare, said he was disappointed by the House's unwillingness to consider the provision.

``Stabilization of Oregon Inlet is crucial. We need action, not words,'' he said.

Although the Senate provision was removed from the House budget proposals, it could be restored by a special committee that will negotiate the differences between the two spending plans.

That committee also can change the wording of the provision if it is restored, to allow court challenges or public hearings on the project, for instance.

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