Lynn Usher of 121 Ocean Blvd. took this photograph of the house fire at 150 Ocean Blvd. from the upper deck of his home just as the explosion described last night by witnesses apparently occurred.
(See The Beacon, 6/18/25, for background.)
According to Mr. Usher, who gave The Beacon permission to publish his photo, that was at 7:03 p.m. yesterday.
Mr. Usher and his wife observed a “substantial” increase, he said, in the flames shooting upward from the house and in the amount of black smoke filling the air.
His photo captures a view looking northward, with adjacent houses on Bluefin Lane in the foreground.
Kirsten Saylor of Frederick, Md., who spoke with The Beacon last night, said she heard the explosion about 7 p.m., when firefighters were already on the scene battling the fire. Mr. Usher’s photograph confirms her account.
We thank Mr. Usher for contacting The Beacon and allowing us to publish his photograph.
Fire consumes the house at 150 Ocean Blvd. in Southern Shores, while renters look on. (Photo courtesy of Len Schmitz)
An oceanfront vacation rental home in Southern Shores was destroyed this evening after bursting into flames, according to witnesses, who also reported hearing an explosion.
The rental home, located at 150 Ocean Blvd., was unoccupied at the time, the renters having departed before the fire broke out, The Beacon learned on the scene.
The Southern Shores Fire Dept. and the Kitty Hawk and Duck fire departments responded to the fire around 6:30 p.m. and quickly assessed that the three-story structure could not be saved, according to first responders who spoke with The Beacon.
Firefighters immediately took steps to prevent the spread of the fire by hosing down nearby homes and were able to contain it—although some flames shot out along what appeared to be the beach dunes to the south after crews had been battling the fire for more than an hour and a half.
“We’ll stay until it’s completely out,” David Sanders, a volunteer firefighter, told The Beacon.
Vacationer Kirsten Saylor of Frederick, Md., said she was returning by car from dinner out with family when she saw smoke and flames rising from the Southern Shores oceanfront and then heard a loud explosion when she got closer, possibly of a propane tank. The fire definitely preceded the explosion, said Ms. Saylor, who is an emergency medical technician in Frederick.
According to Dare County GIS, the house at 150 Ocean Blvd. was originally built in 1978 and is owned by Southern Shores Realty Co. Dare County recently assessed the value of the house, which has six bedrooms, four full bathrooms and two half-baths, an attached garage, 3,548 square feet of finished space, and a private pool at just $172,000.
The County assessed the land at $1.8 million.
Known as Sunz Up in the Southern Shores Realty rental catalog, the house appears in photographs online to have been beautifully remodeled and appointed. It has an occupancy limit of 12 people (See https://www.southernshores.com/outer-banks-rentals/0041-sunz-up.)
Earlier in the day, the Southern Shores Fire Dept. responded to a devastating fire in a Colington house, which the Colington Fire Dept. reported in The Outer Banks Voice was occupied at the time. The father and daughter who were inside the three-story structure were able to escape safely, but damage was extensive.
The cause of each fire is under investigation.
By Ann G. Sjoerdsma, The Southern Shores Beacon, 6/18/25
Preparation is already under way for a 2027 beach re-nourishment project. Pictured above is construction on the Southern Shores shoreline during the 2022-23 project, the first-ever for the town.
The Southern Shores Town Council unanimously approved last Tuesday the Town Manager’s recommended FY 2025-26 budget; two service contracts with the Town’s coastal engineering consultant, one of which lays the groundwork for a 2027 beach nourishment project; and a zoning text amendment that restores guiding standards to decision-making on special use permit applications, which were removed by the Council just last year*—all in less than an hour, with little discussion, and with no comment by any members of the public.
The Town Council’s June 3 meeting was sparsely attended, and one Council member, Rob Neilson, was absent.
Also missing in action was Southern Shores Fire Chief Ed Limbacher, whose July report to the Council will likely cover both May and June.
Police Chief David Kole, however, gave an amusing account, illustrated with photographs, of how officers were able to track a scofflaw motorcyclist from Southern Shores down the beach as he eluded police, using Flock long-range LPR cameras.
The Flock technology read the bike’s license plate and showed the driver abandoning it on the roadside—evidence to dispute his claim later that he didn’t own it.
Flock is watching, folks!
Chief Kole also plugged a first-ever “Coffee With A Cop” event at Shore Coffee Roasters in the Southern Shores Crossing shopping center, on Friday, June 27, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Maybe the officer(s) can fill you in about Flock in Southern Shores over their morning coffee.
BUDGET HEARING REVIEW
Although no one spoke during the budget public hearing, Town Councilwoman Paula Sherlock, who was absent for the May 6 meeting when Town Manager Cliff Ogburn presented the FY 2025-26 budget to Council, inquired about how much taxes would increase for property owners with the 4-cent tax rate hike.
The Councilwoman said homeowners had been asking her about the bottom-line difference the increase would make to them, and she had conferred the previous day with Town Finance Officer Bonnie Swain about this issue.
At Ms. Sherlock’s request, Ms. Swain explained at the meeting that the tax on a $1 million property would increase by about $400.
During his May 6 presentation, Cliff Ogburn gave three examples of how much property taxes would increase with the tax-rate hike versus the revenue-neutral tax rate. He assessed the taxes on homes valued at $602,100, $1,097,700, and $1,620,100.
We published these figures on 5/27/25, and informed readers that the percentage increase in taxes with the 4-cent hike over the revenue-neutral tax rate would be about 27 percent.
This information was also in Mr. Ogburn’s budget report to the Town Council, which Ms. Sherlock should have received, but was not included with the budget that was accessible through the Town website. (It was available at https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/media/12096, but it’s already gone.)
We do not understand this omission. A budget without a narrative, an explanation, is just a mass of line-item figures. Every property owner should be able to go to the Town website and easily find on the home page a link to an explanation of the next fiscal year budget.
The Town did post a property tax formula to assist homeowners with calculating their new increase, and it is still online. You will find it at https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/media/12036. The formula shows a step-by-step calculation of the revenue-neutral tax (14.81 cents per $100 value) and the 4-cent-hike tax (18.81 cents per $100) on a property valued at $544,300. Beach nourishment taxes are additional.
MUCH DISCUSSION, BUT IS THE PUBLIC INFORMED?
Mayor Elizabeth Morey noted last Tuesday that the FY 2025-26 budget has been discussed multiple times during the current fiscal year, so there really was little left for the Council to say. She specifically mentioned the March 5 Council retreat as one such forum, but that meeting, although public, was not live-streamed, and minutes have yet to be posted for it.
Mr. Ogburn updates the Town Council during regular business meetings with “quarterly financials,” and he did so on Oct. 1, 2024, and Jan. 7, 2025. (The 2025-26 budget is the second year of a two-year budget prepared by the Town Manager with input from department heads.)
PDFs of these detailed financials are available on the Town website, but you have to know where to look to find them. You cannot search for “quarterly financial report” or something similar and be rewarded.
The PDFs—which you can locate by highlighting the “Government” heading on the home page, clicking on “Financial/Public Documents” under the “Documents” subheading, then clicking “Manager’s Quarterly Report” on the new page—are polished Powerpoint presentations with prominent visuals.
We find the summary of Fiscal Year 2024 on the first page of the First Quarter report, which Mr. Ogburn submitted in October, to be the most informative. In general, however, the Town Manager’s explanations of his reports at Council meetings are much easier to digest than the PDFs.
Quarterly reports are an excellent idea, but we believe the Town Council should do more. We believe it should hold ONE budget meeting strictly FOR the public, explaining revenues, expenses, investments, fund balances, infrastructure and equipment costs, and its decision-making about any tax-rate increase.
If property owners do not attend this meeting, or view the videotape, at least they’ve had an opportunity to educate themselves.
The Town Council particularly needs to explain why it did not dip into the $1,787,326 surplus in the Undesignated Fund Balance that Mr. Ogburn said exists, instead of raising taxes. What is the Town Council’s thinking about the UFB surplus? (See The Beacon, 5/27/25.)
One of the purposes of the UFB, which must maintain $3.5 million in reserve for emergencies, is to balance the budget when there is a revenue shortfall. Why wasn’t more of the surplus applied in the FY 2025-26 budget?
COMMUNICATION IS LACKING
We believe the Town could do a better job of informing residents and property owners about Town Hall events and issues and engaging the public in government affairs.
It has never done a bang-up job, but with its reliance on email (chiefly the newsletter, which provides meeting and hearing notices, but little else) and multi-click website links, the Town has not bridged the communication gap.
In her conclusory comments at last Tuesday’s meeting, Mayor Elizabeth Morey spoke discouragingly about the turnout for her May 14 Mayor’s Chat: Only two people showed up.
One homeowner wanted to understand better how the fire department will change when it becomes a municipal department, and the other had a question about street improvements. If the Town were to summarize such concerns in articles published in the newsletter, or posted on the home page of the website, it would be doing a public service.
Mayor Pro Tem Matt Neal also reported at the meeting that 30 citizens attended the open house May 27 to learn about the ideas and vision of the Entry Corridor Enhancement Committee, and the committee has received more than 500 responses to its survey, which has now closed.
How many of you knew about the Mayor’s Chat? If you did know, how did you learn about it?
How many of you saw the signs around town about the open house and knew what they were about?
The Town has appropriated money in the FY 2025-26 budget to hire a full-time Public Information Officer in January. We applaud this move. This professional needs to do much more than just respond to inquiries, or promote tourism. He or she needs to be proactive and issue updates and reports about what is going on in town—write a blog, perhaps. And these reports need to be easily accessible to anyone who looks for them.
The Town website is in dire need of a makeover. Too much content on the Southern Shores website is hidden. Homeowners go to Next Door to find out information that should be readily discernible on the home page of the Town website.
IOHO, the design of every other beach town’s website is superior to the design of the Southern Shores website. As just two examples, take a look at Duck’s and Nags Head’s websites:
You can scroll down the home pages of these sites and find just about anything you need.
A WORD ABOUT BEACH NOURISHMENT
Mum is currently the word among Town Council members about a 2027 beach re-nourishment project, which would be in cooperation with other beach towns. Nonetheless, they unanimously approved at their meeting spending $22,635 to perform “pre-permitting” tasks and a “native beach sediment analysis” to determine the nature of the sand needed.
“There’s a chance that we have what we need” on the beach now, the Mayor said, declining to make a commitment on “greenlighting” a 2027 project.
In April, Ms. Morey told The Beacon that she is not committed to doing beach nourishment to the extent it was done in 2022-23 every five years just as a matter of course. She said she would not “do” beach nourishment “just to be doing it.”
Inasmuch as the preparation process is already under way, Dare County makes funding available to towns on a five-year maintenance schedule, and sharing mobilization costs with other towns makes financial sense, would the Town Council really consider opting out of the 2027 project?
Time will tell.
According to Mr. Ogburn, engineering consultant Coastal Protection Engineering (CPE) will be presenting its formal proposal for the 2027 project’s design in “late fall.” The Town Council will have to decide then whether Southern Shores is on board and to what extent.
Mr. Ogburn also said that CPE’s monitoring report for 2025—which will be based on shoreline data it collects in Southern Shores this month—should be submitted in October. This will be CPE’s third-year post-nourishment report of “how sand is performing on the beach,” he said.
The Council should have this report—which the mathematically inclined Mr. Neal enjoys reading in detail—before it “greenlights” re-nourishment in Southern Shores.
A ‘FLAT YEAR’ FOR TOURISM EXPECTED
Councilman Mark Batenic, who represents Southern Shores on the Dare County Tourism Board, reported that, judging from figures through March, this year is stacking up to be “flat” in terms of tourism revenues.
Occupancy collections are down 2½ percent from the same time last year, but meal expense collections are up 1½ percent, he said.
According to Mr. Batenic, visitors are not renting by the week (Saturday-to-Saturday or Sunday-to-Sunday) as often as they have in the past. More are favoring Thursday-to-Monday/Tuesday stays and avoiding weekend travel.
In light of this trend, both he and Mayor Morey are encouraging Friday-to-Friday cottage rentals, an idea that has had currency in the past. In fact, the Mayor has been a strong proponent of Friday rental turnovers since she first ran for the Town Council in 2019.
Having driven on a summer Friday on Interstate 95 from Washington to Richmond more times than we care to remember, we would say that Friday driving is no piece of cake. You have to hit the road early to avoid ghastly congestion.
If Friday-to-Friday rentals were to increase substantially, we have to wonder what effect they would have on Friday and weekend traffic in Southern Shores.
*(Please note: In the interest of article length, we have omitted an explanation of ZTA 25-03, which restores guiding standards to decisions about special permit applications (Town Code sec. 36-300) that the Town Council removed when it approved ZTA 24-01 last year. This is being done in accordance with the UNC School of Government’s guidance about relevant N.C. appellate court opinions.)
By Ann G. Sjoerdsma, The Southern Shores Beacon, 6/10/25
As we have previously reported, the mandatory public hearing on the Town Manager’s recommended Town budget for fiscal year 2025-26, which begins July 1, will be held at the Town Council’s meeting tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. in the Pitts Center.
(See articles published on The Beacon, 5/27/25, regarding expenses and revenues in the budget and the proposed 4-cent tax-rate increase.)
The Council also will hear public comments on Zoning Text Amendment 25-03, a legislative bill prepared by the Town staff to amend Town Code sec. 36-300, pertaining to special use permit applications and their approval, so that the guiding standards for the Town Council’s decision-making on such applications are clearly set forth.
The Town Council has until June 30 to approve a budget for FY 2025-26.
In other agenda business, the Council will consider proposals from Coastal Protection Engineering (CPE), the beach nourishment engineering consultant that managed the 2022-23 project for Southern Shores, Duck, Kitty Hawk, and Kill Devil Hills, for 1) monitoring the Southern Shores beaches in 2025 and 2) “pre-planning” the four towns’ 2027 nourishment project.
CPE monitored the Town’s beaches during the past two years and proposes to do so again for approximately the same price ($35,639). We see no reason why the Town Council should not unanimously approve CPE’s service contract for this purpose.
CPE will collect data that measures volumetric and shoreline changes and enables an evaluation of the performance of the beach nourishment project, i.e., how well it is holding up.
The pre-planning for a second beach nourishment project that has not yet been approved by the Town Council involves the performance of “pre-permitting” tasks and a “native beach sediment analysis.”
CPE explains in a letter to the Town, which is included in the meeting packet, how it will perform these services and prices them collectively at $22,635. This proposal also requires a signed contract.
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Regrettably, we are unable to attend or to live-stream tomorrow’s Town Council meeting. We will report on the meeting as soon as we can.
The Southern Shores Beacon 