After being diverted for emergency dredging in the Hatteras ferry channel, the dredge Merritt was finally back at work Thursday morning at the Connecting Channel in Hatteras Inlet. To the dismay of charter boat captains and village business owners who had been waiting many anxious months for dredging to begin, the sidecaster dredge had been […]
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Coastal Towns Brace For Beach Funding Cuts
Coastal North Carolina could be looking into a budgetary abyss if local and state entities don’t adapt quickly to new funding realities. “With this new administration, it’s not going to be business as usual,” Kathleen Riely, executive director of North Carolina Beach, Inlet and Waterways Association, said at the nonprofit’s annual meeting held last week. […]
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Dredge work awaits signed Hatteras Inlet agreement
The final agreement everybody on the Dare County Waterways Commission has been waiting months for may, or may not, allow dredging in Hatteras Inlet to begin this month. In fact, the memorandum of agreement between the state, the county and the Corps has seemed stuck on its own kind of bureaucratic shoal. At the March […]
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Remembering Irene, the voice of Hatteras Island
BY CATHERINE KOZAK Irene Nolan, the dedicated co-founder and editor of The Island Free Press, covered the news on Hatteras and Ocracoke islands as thoroughly and as professionally as if it were a big-city newspaper. It was never just her job; it was her mission and her passion. Nolan died Friday, March 3, at a […]
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Rodanthe Bridge Lawsuit Raises Concerns About Bonner Project
BY CATHERINE KOZAK It is unclear whether a recent lawsuit challenging construction of the “jug-handle” bridge in Rodanthe could potentially delay replacement of the Bonner Bridge. According to an attorney representing plaintiffs Save Our Sound OBX Inc., the complaint filed on Feb. 2 against the state Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration would […]
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Petition calls for more limits on shrimp trawling
Shrimpers in North Carolina had a great year in 2016, likely because of unseasonably warm inshore waters into the winter. But a proposed tightening of shrimp trawling regulations could dash hopes of future such windfalls. On Tuesday, Jan. 17, the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission will hear public comments about a petition presented last month […]
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County, state closing in on interim solution to Hatteras Inlet shoaling By CATHERINE KOZAK
By CATHERINE KOZAK By CATHERINE KOZAK The long-sought interim solution to shoaling in Hatteras Inlet is close to happening, but members of the Dare County Waterways Commission are anxiously aware of the looming close of the window of opportunity. An agreement between the county and the state is approaching approval, meaning that a persistent navigation […]
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Concerns raised about management at Dare Social Services
In the tight-knit and unique community on Hatteras Island, a number of people say veteran social worker Jonna Midgette has been missed since her abrupt departure this summer from the county’s Division of Social Services (DSS). “This girl knew every one of her people personally,” said new Dare County Commissioner Danny Couch, who represents Hatteras. […]
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Matthew did little to change conditions in Hatteras Inlet
While much of Hatteras village suffered losses from Hurricane Matthew, the storm did remarkably little to change conditions in Hatteras Inlet for the charter fleet. “The inlet has moved a little bit, and the channel has moved a little bit,” said Steve “Creature” Coulter, a Hatteras charter boat captain. “I wouldn’t say anything has changed. […]
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Conflicts and ill will threaten red wolf recovery
By CATHERINE KOZAK Coastal Review Online Not so long ago, in the swampy forests of this part of the state, rare red wolves made their home in dens hidden among wax myrtle bushes and pine trees. Females had pups. When people would come by, the mother would hide, waiting. When the people left, she would […]
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