
DATE: Sunday, November 16, 1997             TAG: 9711160061

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY CATHERINE KOZAK, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: AVON                              LENGTH:  133 lines

PATH TO GRAVE LEADS TO INQUIRY DARE COMMISSIONER OK'D PRIVATE GRAVEL ROAD

For the first time in years, Ena and Erskin Scarborough will be able to personally bring flowers to their only son's grave on his birthday Wednesday.

But their daughter says that the simple rite has been clouded by an investigation into the legality of the gravel road that makes the visit possible.

``They don't deserve this,'' Linda Gray said while standing by the small cemetery near Avon village. ``It's so upsetting to them.''

Dare County Commissioner Joseph ``Mac'' Midgett, a Hatteras Island Democrat, admitted publicly that he asked the public works department to put in the 8-foot-wide path so the Scarboroughs could visit the small plot on their land where their son Erskin Jr. is buried. He also admitted he did not get the required approval from the county manager or the Board of Commissioners.

The younger Scarborough, a Kill Devil Hills police officer, was killed by a drunk driver Oct. 13, 1982, while directing traffic around a fire in Nags Head. He was 23. His wife gave birth to his son two months later.

Gray said her 75-year-old father has terminal cancer and heart problems. Her mother, 73, has Parkinson's disease and osteoporosis so severe that she can barely sit in a wheelchair. The distance across sand and briars between their trailer and the gravesite was insurmountable in their condition, Gray said.

With the gravel road in place, her parents can get into the car at their doorstep and drive to the grave. But her father's biggest reason for requesting Midgett's help, Gray said, was to ensure that the Scarboroughs would have access to the family cemetery after her father's death.

The road, about 500 feet long and one car-width wide, runs from the street between the back of the Scarboroughs' trailer and a campground. The tree-lined road turns off and ends in front of the fenced-in gravesite, decorated with flowers and seashells and sheltered by a large wax myrtle bush.

Republican Shirley Hassell made a motion at the commissioners' Oct. 20 meeting demanding that Midgett return the $2,712 cost to the county. The motion was voted down by the Democratic majority. Midgett also refused to resign, insisting that it is proper for the county to help people in need.

Republican Commissioner Cheryl Byrd, charging that Midgett broke his oath of office, subsequently turned the matter over to the district attorney to investigate. Byrd's written request was also signed by her husband, Republican Robert Byrd, and four others - Democrat Franklin Folb Sr. and Republicans Eugene L. Kennedy, Joseph G. Farrow Jr. and Douglas J. Price.

Price, an Avon resident, lost a bid for Midgett's seat in the last election.

``They can't tell me it's not politics,'' Gray said. ``If it wasn't anything but politics. . . . There's no need that it had to be blasted all over the place.''

County Republican Chairman George Embrey said he had no say in Byrd's action.

``Quite frankly, I see it as a matter of government process,'' he said. ``I don't see it as a political issue.''

The showdown between Midgett and Byrd dramatizes a political system wedged between its past and its future. Midgett, owner of Island Convenience in Rodanthe, comes from a centuries-old family rooted in the Outer Banks. Byrd, the commissioner from Southern Shores, a stickler for proper procedure and accountability, is a transplant from the Washington, D.C., area who is experienced in government planning and cost analysis.

Isolated and insulated for generations, Outer Bankers were eventually outnumbered by outsiders starting in the late `70s. What critics characterized as ``good ol' boy'' politics, many natives attributed to their can-do history of helping each other. Government was simply considered part of the circle.

Board Chairman Geneva Perry, a Kitty Hawk native, said she believes that Midgett was trying to help someone who needed help, and he did not intentionally violate the rules. Although she did not condone his failing to follow procedure, her perspective as a longtime observer of Dare County politics, she said, makes it understandable.

``It was informal in many respects . . . in doing small things to make people's lives better. It was done by members of both parties - it wasn't a party thing. If there was a need in the community, and if the county could assist in that need, it appears to me that past board members were willing to allow the county to assist,'' Perry said. ``No doubt small projects were done like that in the past, and there was not even a thought about it being improper.

``The influx of new people who have not seen this have no understanding of this isolation, the informality we have lived with all these years.''

The end result, Perry said, is that today's politics is mired in ``a presumption of bad intent.''

Midgett explains that he didn't think of going to the board or the county manager before asking department director Bernie Austin to lay the 8-inch-thick gravel road for the Scarboroughs.

``There's nobody to blame but me,'' Midgett said. ``If I've done the wrong thing, I'm sorry. . . . I know in my heart I done the right thing. I'm not saying I didn't do something wrong. I'm saying there was no intention to do something wrong.''

County Manager Terry Wheeler said that, knowing the circumstances and all the players involved, Midgett was being altruistic and did not mean to flout the rules. Wheeler said Midgett had nothing to gain politically.

``Knowing ``Mac'' like I do, I know he doesn't think he did anything improper,'' Wheeler said. ``He's straightforward. He doesn't lie.''

But Byrd, who had asked Midgett to resign, is not questioning Midgett's motives as much as his competency to hold office. She said a county representative should not be ``in all good conscience, someone who doesn't understand that you don't spend public money for private projects, no matter how good they are.''

Byrd said in such instances, commissioners should try to solicit funds from the community or church groups. ``The county government is not a charitable organization,'' she said.

The commissioner said it would not surprise her that, to Midgett, his actions were a reflection of the ways things have been done in the county.

``It makes it even more important that we don't have people like that in public office,'' Byrd said.

The risk, she said, is that unless people are helped in an above-board way, those in power often end up helping only friends and family - or political benefactors.

District Attorney Frank Parrish said Wednesday that he will appoint an investigator within a week. At that time, he said, he will have a better idea of what charges, if any, could be brought against Midgett.

In the meantime, Manteo resident Elmer Midgett, who is not related to ``Mac'' Midgett, is rounding up donations from the business community to pay the county for the road.

He said his effort has nothing to do with the county or the planning board he chairs, or ``Mac'' Midgett.

``This is just for Erskin Scarborough - to clear the Scarborough name. I'd just like to bring this to a close.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

CATHERINE KOZAK/The Virginian-Pilot

The unapproved paving of a 500-foot-long roadway...

Photo

Commissioner Joseph ``Mac'' Midgett said, ``I know in my heart I

done the right thing'' in seeking the road.

Map