Mayor Pro Tem Elizabeth Morey filed her candidacy for mayor of Southern Shores yesterday, the first day of the Dare County Board of Elections’ two-week candidate filing period for the November municipal elections.
The four-year terms of two Southern Shores Town Council members are expiring this year: those of Mayor Tom Bennett and Town Councilman Jim Conners. Mr. Bennett has served two terms as mayor, first being elected in 2013.
All positions on the Town Council, as well as the election, are nonpartisan.
Ms. Morey, who lives on Ginguite Trail, was elected to the Town Council in 2019 and chosen by her Council peers to be the mayor pro tem.
When The Beacon interviewed Ms. Morey in 2018, she told us she was self-employed as a political campaign manager and counselor.
Ms. Morey’s biography on the Town of Southern Shores website indicates only that she “owns and manages a home-based business.”
The mayoral candidate has been active in local Democratic Party politics. Ms. Morey’s husband, Tommy Fulcher, ran unsuccessfully last year for the N.C. House of Representatives, losing to Bobby Hanig (R).
In the event Ms. Morey is elected mayor in November, N.C. municipal law specifies that her seat on the Town Council will be filled by appointment until such time as the next town election is held.
Previously, Ms. Morey served two three-year terms as a regular member of the Town Planning Board and two years as a Planning Board alternate.
At the time of her election to the Council, she was in the fifth month of a third three-year term and serving as the Board’s chairperson, a position she held first on an interim basis upon the death of Glenn Wyder in November 2018.
In our June 29, 2018 interview, Ms. Morey told The Beacon that she retired from the Dare County health department in 2014 and previously worked in Raleigh for a division of the N.C. Dept. of Environmental Quality. She started her political consulting business in 2016.
Ms. Morey is originally from Fulton County, Georgia.
Anyone wishing to run for one of the two expiring Southern Shores Town Council offices has until noon on July 16 to file his or her candidacy with the Board of Elections.
LONGER NO-LEFT-TURN HOURS, MORE ROAD CLOSURES THIS WEEKEND
Motorists will be prohibited from turning left from U.S. Hwy. 158 on to South Dogwood Trail today from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. and tomorrow from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., according to the Town of Southern Shores newsletter published yesterday.
The Town also announced in the newsletter the addition of three more “no local traffic” northbound road barriers, bringing the total number of such closures along the cut-thru route to eight: the original four at Hickory Trail, Hillcrest Drive, Sea Oats Trail, and Wax Myrtle Trail, off of East Dogwood Trail; three additional at Hillcrest Drive, Sea Oats Trail, and Wax Myrtle Trail, off of Hickory Trail; and the eighth at Hillcrest Drive and Sea Oats Trail.
According to the newsletter, the Town also “has been able to work with the travel app, Waze, to have [these] eight road closures indicated on their travel routes.”
People using the Waze app will not be directed through these closures. (Hooray!)
Please feel free to comment on The Beacon blog and Facebook page about the cut-thru traffic you witness during this height-of-the-season, holiday weekend.
Happy Fourth of July. Stay safe.
Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 7/3/21
The Southern Shores Beacon 
I’d be very interested in seeing Ms. Morey’s specific voting record while on Council.
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Thank you for your comment. We will definitely probe voting records and other details about candidates when the campaigns are in full swing.
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Another very busy cut-through being used by so many is at the Ocean Blvd/Duck Rd blinking light split. It took 1 hour and 27 minutes at 9:30am today to travel from the BP north to our driveway at 7th Ave (right around 4 miles). As we inched along Duck Rd, approaching the Hickory/Duck Rd intersection we counted 30+ cars making the right from Hickory on to Duck Rd. As we passed Hickory and looked east, the line of cars waiting to get up to the intersection was all the way down toward the beach. Don’t know if the town can stop the multitude of cars choosing Ocean Blvd at the split, but the merging in of all of these cars also greatly slows down the traffic heading north on Duck Rd.
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Thank you for your observations, Pam. The Town Council and Town Manager are indeed aware of this “cut through,” but have chosen not to address it yet. The citizens’ committee on the cut-through traffic recommended posting a local-traffic-only closure at the Duck Road/Ocean Blvd. split, and homeowners along this stretch of Ocean Blvd. have complained.
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There were a lot of people turning left on Dolphin Run, and then zooming up Wax Myrtle on Saturday. In addition to the “locals only” sign needed at the Ocean Blvd. -Duck rd. split, there should also be one at Dolphin. I’m not sure why they put one at Porpoise , but not Dolphin.
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Thanks for the report, Len. I don’t think anyone was happy yesterday about the traffic. People in Chicahauk took to social media to complain about backups there.
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We have backed up traffic on wax Myrtle since 3 or so
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Thanks, Jackie!
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Can someone explain to me why there was a sign on the barricade at East Dogwood & Hickory that said “No Outlet” when there clearly was an outlet. All day cars traveled north and south on Hickory without any impediment. If other streets were blocked, why was Hickory left open?
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Thanks for your comment, Yvonne. Keeping Hickory Trail open is both a convenience and a necessity for residents, among whom I include myself. That’s the problem with “spot” fixing: Some residents get relief, while others are burdened. As for posting a “No Outlet” sign instead of a “Local Traffic Only” sign, I would only speculate that the Town reasoned the former would be more effective at deterring cut-thru traffic than the latter, which clearly was not. Thanks.
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