OCBA Draft Minutes from December Meeting
Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013 Minutes DRAFT
The meeting was called to order at 7:02 p.m. by president Rudy Austin. Board members attending: Rudy Austin, Clayton Gaskill, vice-president, Connie Leinbach, secretary, Jim Borland and Justin LeBlanc, members-at-large. Carol Pahl, treasurer, was absent.
Minutes: A motion to approve the minutes as submitted was made by Justin and seconded by Jim. Motion approved and carried.
No Tresurer’s report.
Officers’ reports: Connie reported that she attended the November Ocracoke Planning Board meeting. That group did not want to get into amending the Ocracoke Development Ordinance and noted that any issue with business signage is a business community issue and the OCBA should handle it.
Rudy reported that the holiday light decorations that hang on the Tideland poles have been installed. Of the 500 bulbs on all of the decorations, 400 were replaced. He said that as the old decorations are rusty, we need to convene about them and get some volunteers together to clean possibly rewire the lights. We may have to purchase a few new ones at $400+ each.
Nominating Committee: Rudy announced that Kenny Ballance has agreed to be the board treasurer. All other officers and positions are remaining unchanged. A copy of the by-laws was not on hand to consult. A motion to elect Kenny as treasurer, and retain all of the other board members, was made by Justin and seconded by Jim. Motion approved and carried.
Travel & Tourism Director report: Sundae Horn reported that 75 tickets for the Historic Home Tour on Howard Street were sold. The last one done in 2003 saw 200 in attendance and the Ocracoke Preservation Society hopes this revived event will again see that number attending.
Most tourist questions these days are about what is open. She’s getting a lot of inquiries about next year. Feedback from Sundae’s personal visits to businesses is that they would like to see the return of July 4 fireworks. Sundae said she is looking into the possibility of a laser light show.
The Advertising committee met and decided to spend more money to get day-trippers to the island, who can later translate their initial visit into longer stays. Money will be spent to boost our Facebook presence and Twitter feeds. We’re looking into buying “likes” on Facebook but need to wait until after the Bonner Bridge is open. Another thing businesses want are more events. An Ocracoke Alive suggestion is a food-related week. Justin noted that a fund raiser the Ocracoke Community Park is looking into is a one-day “Taste of Ocracoke” food event.
New Business:
5K/10K: Gregg Honeycutt presented his request for OCBA to be a platinum $1,500 sponsor of the 2014 5K/10K race on April 26, which is a fundraiser for WOVV, the Ocracoke School Boosters and Ocracoke Community Park. It will be the same day as the bi-annual Portsmouth Homecoming. After a discussion, a motion to approve this first request was made by Jim Borland and seconded by Justin LeBlanc. Motion approved and carried. As per the by-laws, any grant request over $500 has to be voted on twice.
Blackbeard’s Pirate Jamboree: Daphne Bennink asked the OCBA to be the financial conduit for this event, which had a successful debut Oct. 25 to 27, featuring several groups of authentic pirate re-enactors and hundreds of attendees. The event would do all of the bookkeeping but the OCBA would have to write about 20 checks for next year’s event. This is
not a financial request. However, if it’s necessary to pay some bills (i.e., performer contracts) before the Occupancy Tax request is released in July, the Jamboree may ask the OCBA to float it until their funds come in.
Daphne explained that the Ocracoke Foundation helped launch the Jamboree, but the latter is not ready to obtain its own 501 (c) 3 status. Since the concept of the Jamboree is all about providing a financial boost and opportunities for any and all businesses on the island, the OCBA is better suited to this kind of activity. The Jamboree is hoping that Occupancy Tax will fund almost all of the approximately $20,000 price tag, although the event is trying to make earned revenue from merchandise and alcohol sales. Moreover, the event hopes to garner national attention in 2018 with the 300th anniversary of Blackbeard’s demise around which this event is designed. “The purpose of this event is not to make money but to bring businesses to the island,” she said.
Robin Payne noted that this is a good thing for the OCBA to do. Some chambers of commerce have a revolving fund for this kind of event, which helps cut down on the number of nonprofit boards in a community.
A motion to approve the OCBA being a conduit for Blackbeard’s Pirate Jamboree for one year provided the event indemnifies the OCBA was made by Justin and seconded by Jim. Motion approved and carried.
NPS proposal to eliminate lifeguards on Ocracoke in 2014: The group agreed to send a letter protesting this to the Cape Hatteras National Seashore superintendent, with CCs to Senators Walter Jones, Richard Burr, and Kay Hagan, State Rep. Paul Tine and County Manager Bill Rich. There has never been a drowning where there haven’t been lifeguards.
Storm water: After a community meeting with the NC Coastal Federation, and after Erin Fleckstein of the Federation, presented the meeting report to the Hyde County Commissioners, the commissioners decided not to appoint a governmental committee to address this issue, but to ask the OCBA to handle it. Darlene Styron, a former county commissioner, noted that the county has already done a lot of this work. Both she and Bill Rich have said that the county staff will help as much as they can. Several community members were identified at the meeting who want to be on the committee, including Justin. The work of the committee would be to determine: 1. What’s the goal? 2. Problems to address 3. Expectations of county government and 4. The Benefits to Hyde County and Ocracoke. A motion for the OCBA to set up a Task Force to implement storm water solutions, with Justin LeBlanc being the OCBA representative, was made by Connie Leinbach and seconded by Fred Westervelt. Motion approved and carried.
A motion to earmark the remainder of the $5,000 set aside for storm water solutions pending the Task Force’s needs was made by Darlene and seconded by Janey Jacoby. Motion approved and carried.
The meeting adjourned at 8:49 p.m. Respectfully submitted,
Connie Leinbach, secretary
