OCBA Monthly Meeting is Wednesday Night

AGENDA for May 11, 2016 OCBA meeting to be held at 7pm at the Community Center.

1. Call to Order

2. Approval of April and March meeting minutes.

3. Treasurer’s report OCBA budget

4. Travel & Tourism Director report (Sundae Horn)

6. Village ducks update (Carol Pahl)

7. As-needed reports: President’s report, County Manager’s report (Bill Rich) National Park Service, County Commissioner (John Fletcher)

8. Old Business

9. New business

10. Announcements

11. Adjourn
Note: Meetings are held the second Wednesdays of the month at 7 p.m. in the Ocracoke Community Center (unless otherwise stated). The next 2016 meetings will be: June 8, July 13, Aug. 10, Sept. 14, Oct. 12, Nov. 9, Dec. 14. 

DRAFT minutes from April, 13, 2016 OCBA meeting:

Board Members present: Board members present: Connie Leinbach, secretary; Teresa O’Neal. This constitutes no quorum for the board. Along with about 20 members, David Hallac, CHNS superintendent and two other staffers were present. Will Doerfer, special assistant Hyde County manager, attended via speaker phone. Also present: Teresa Adams, Hyde County information officer.

The minutes of the March meeting were not approved.

Travel & Tourism director’s report:Sundae Horn was not present but had drafted an OCBA response to the NC General Assembly’s HB2 bill that would be posted on the website and which businesses also can post on their websites and share. Connie passed out some copies of it and read it to the group. The group suggested a minor change to the wording. A motion to approve the statement was made by Philip Howard and seconded by Mickey Baker. Motion approved unanimously and carried. Statement is attached.

Ducks in the village: Doerfer explained how the wild mallard duck population in the heart of the village (Community Square and British Cemetery Road areas) has ballooned in recent years.

While the county had found a landowner in Mt. Olive willing to take the ducks, the state Fish and Wildlife Resources said “absolutely not,” and that they do not relocate ducks. State officials say the ducks could carry Avian flu, a fast-spreading decimator of fowl flocks.

Also, the very act of relocating ducks could kill upwards of 60 percent of the ducks being transported.

Despite the risk of spreading disease, Doerfer said the federal wildlife officials are willing to plead Ocracoke’s relocation case to the state, but relocation would have to be part of a larger, long-term plan.

That plan should include an ordinance against feeding the ducks, and while it should hold people accountable for feeding them does not have to be punitive.

Simultaneously, the county received a permit from the federal wildlife services to humanely euthanize up to 350 ducks. The group agreed that euthanizing ducks is not the answer.

Doerfer said wildlife officials stress that the village’s duck overpopulation is basically a people problem and that if they have a secure feeding source, they will stay and won’t migrate. He said we need to change the behavior of people in this regard. In addition, feeding them human food can harm them physically.

Hallac agreed, saying that their population control comes down to people not feeding them. A problem throughout the country, including national parks, involves people feeding wildlife.

The OCBA group agreed to the following actions:

• Continue to explore relocating them.
• Conduct a census of the population and eggs. This will occur from 7 to 9 a.m. Saturday, May 7. Anyone who can help count the ducks should contact Peter Vankevich, a birder, at info@ocracokevillage.com, who will lead the census-taking.
• Conduct an aggressive “Don’t Feed the Ducks” publicity campaign to include lodging and rental- house companies, social media and more. Talk to both islanders and visitorswhen they are seen feeding the ducks, especially human food-- about the harm that causes them.
• Determine the cost of either a wildlife professional come to the island to hunt for nests and addle/oil eggs, or have a wildlife expert conduct training for islanders to do this.

  (Secretary’s note: Since the meeting, Carol Pahl volunteered to take on this project as part of her environmental education certification training.)

  NPS Report: Dave Hallac updated the group on his agency’s work.
  Aug. 25 will be the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the national park system. For this they are thinking of a concert (or several) by the ferry docks at the south end of the island.
  He and his staff are working on providing more sound side access here. These potential sites include the roads of Bitter Wash and Devil Shoals that are near and beyond the maritime forest.
  The NPS is working on a Water Trails initiative that will provide more opportunities for people to engage in non-motorized water recreation—paddle boarding, kayaking, etc.
  The NPS is also looking into a way to promote the arts in the outdoors in a program called Arts Afire.
  A new beach ramp, No. 63, is almost done. He was pleased that no water breached this during the Super Bowl day storm.
  NPS parking lot: The NPS has cleaned out the many items (fishing nets, equipment, derelict vehicles) that had parked in the lot heretofore.
  Overnight parking with a trailer is OK, but long-term parking by anyone is not allowed. However, he said in the event of hurricanes, people may park their cars there.
  If they set aside a section of the lot for long-term parking how would they enforce that? Alan Sutton noted that there was no transition time for islanders to adjust to this new enforcement of no long-term parking. Hallac said he would think about it some more.
  Public boat launch: Hallac said they are seeking cost proposals to fix at least one side of the ramp but didn’t know when that would happen.
  Beach driving permits: These are now purchasable online at recreation.gov. All the purchaser needs is access to a printer where visitors could print a weekly permit they put in their windshield or a temporary yearly pass. The income from these permits is about $2.4 million, and half goes to pay for staff and the rest to pay for ramps and roads.
  They also are looking at other permit options, such as one day to 10 days.
  Beach buffers: These have been modified—tightened in closer to the nesting zones to provide a b it more beach access for both pedestrians and driving. For piping plovers, they have more flexibility. Before, the fencing was 1,000 meters out from a nest in all directions. Now it is not less than 200 meters.
  Early beach opening hours are being considered, but that depends on how early staff can get out to drive the beaches first and look for new nests.
  Zika virus: It was reported that the Mosquito Control board will be getting more chemicals this year and spray more aggressively. They put out larvacide in the marshes last year. Of the two mosquitos here, the primary one is the salt marsh mosquito and is not a carrier.
  Dave Hallac added that it’s not park policy to spray.

  Since there was no board quorum and the meeting was heading towards two hours, the meeting adjourned at 8:59 p.m.

  Respectfully submitted,

Connie Leinbach, secretary

OCBA Statement on HB2:

OCBA members at their regular monthly meeting April 13, 2016, approved the following in response to the recent action of the North Carolina General Assembly’s passage of House Bill 2:

Ocracoke takes great pride in being a community that welcomes all of its visitors without discrimination. Tourism has been the mainstay of our economy for over 100 years, and we depend on visitors choosing us again and again as their favorite vacation destination.

Unfortunately, the recent passage of House Bill 2 is already having a negative impact on tourism in North Carolina. This is a devastating blow to the economy of the state, and the Outer Banks is no exception. It is unfortunate that the decisions of a few in the NC legislature should be able to hurt the people and economy of the entire state.

Ocracoke has a diverse group of residents with a variety of views and opinions. However, the Ocracoke business community wants to make it clear that HB2 is not representative of the island.

We hope that the General Assembly will re-visit their decision soon and find the political will to repeal HB2 before it further damages the reputation of this great state.

Ocracoke Civic and Business Association extends an invitation to visitors of all races, religions, ethnicities, nationalities, genders, and orientations. We believe that what brings us together is stronger than what drives us apart.

Ocracoke is a world away.... ferry on over and experience the island-style welcome that will greet you!