Too heavy a toll for Ocracoke
Submitted by scharrison on Sun, 04/24/2011 - 2:45pm
Lost in the fog of bad legislation:
A reader reaches out to BlueNC via e-mail:
New budget with proposed ferry tolls will devastate Ocracoke Island's already fragile tourism-based economy.
The state proposes to also charge locals $1200 a year to ride the ferry, the only free way the leave their small village to go to the doctors, dentist, pharmacy, vets, grocery, visit friends in the next town. We will be the only NC citizens that will have to pay to leave
their homes while increasing the prices of all supplies coming to the island and making basic necessities more expensive by tolling supply trucks.The tolls will also decrease tourists traveling to the Island which makes up almost our whole economy. The ferry toll will devastate the Island. We are all small business owners, waitresses, cooks, cleaners, or fishermen.
Please help us.
The group has a Facebook page and a blog where you can learn more about efforts to stop this extremely bad idea.
Ocracoke on my mind
Back when my daughter was 13 going on 21, she argued me into taking her and a friend to the beach over the Easter weekend. Since no specific "beach" was mentioned, I decided to pull a trick on her by choosing the most family-friendly one I could find. So, Pony Island Motel, here we come.
Of course, I loved Ocracoke from the start, because turning off the car and hopping on the bike puts a smile on my face every time. But I was both surprised and pleased that the girls loved it just as much. So much so that for the next four years, that Easter Ocracoke trip was a much-looked-forward-to, hate-it-when-it's-over annual excursion.
We simply can't let that magic die from a few budget line items.
It's so easy to think of a
It's so easy to think of a few cynical suggestions:
1. Sell, or just give, Art Pope a house on Ocracoke.
2. Get our Senator Burr to sponsor a Bridge to Nowhere from Ocracoke to the mainland--hey, it worked in Republican Alaska.
3. Turn the whole ferry business over to Private Enterprise so DOT has competition on the run and let The Free Market (all bow down) determine the price.
4. To raise public awareness, put out little collection boxes at checkouts in stores all across Eastern NC, like they do for hungry children and such.
5. Hold religious services on the ferries and take up offerings. This would work especially well if the preachers condemn abortion and gay marriage in their sermons.
Sorry, I just had to put these down, please know I am only joking. This one is serious, though:
6. Next time, elect Democratic representatives to office.
brother doc
Don't worry, I caught the joke
I'm not sure if #1 would work, though. There's a small airstrip on the island, so rich people like Art Pope, the Asphalt King Fred Smith, or any other modern-day pirates, could make Ocracoke their own little haven. Just like Blackbeard did.