The Exploratory Committee to Address Cut-Thru Traffic outlined this morning an ambitious proposal to eliminate all seasonal cut-thru traffic in Southern Shores by gating two main residential roads year-round and blocking entry at other access points on summertime weekends.

In presenting the plan, chairperson Tommy Karole, who lives near the intersection of South and East Dogwood trails, stressed that his committee was not criticizing the recommendations made by consultant J.M. Teague Engineering and Planning in the study/report it submitted to the Town on Feb. 12.

Rather, Mr. Karole said, J.M Teague’s report, which suggests erecting physical barriers to cut-thru traffic, including installing a temporary gate on northbound South Dogwood Trail, serves as a springboard to the cut-thru traffic committee’s plan, which, Mr. Karole said, sets a better “mouse trap” than the one set by the consultant.

“We have the advantage of being down in the trenches,” Mr. Karole said about himself and his committee members, whom he said “have studied at length” how to alleviate the seasonal congestion.

(J.M. Teague’s report, “Town of Southern Shores Congestion and Cut-Through Traffic Analysis,” is available on the Town website through the News tab on the home page, at https://www.southernshores-nc.gov.

(For background on the report, see The Beacon, 2/18/21.)

The cut-thru traffic committee’s final written report will be submitted to the Town Council next week, Mr. Karole said in response to a query by Mayor Pro Tem Elizabeth Morey, who, with Town Councilman Matt Neal, is a Council adviser/sponsor of the committee, which was authorized by the full Council in June 2019.

Ms. Morey, Mr. Neal, and Town Councilman Leo Holland attended this morning’s nearly two-hour-long meeting, as did Town Manager Cliff Ogburn. Town Councilman Jim Conners attended the first part of the meeting. Mayor Tom Bennett was not present.

Whereas J.M. Teague recommends placing a gate near Widgeon Court on South Dogwood Trail that would prohibit northbound traffic on summertime Saturdays, Mr. Karole and his committee suggest installing gates on South Dogwood Trail and Juniper Trail that would block non-local traffic in both directions year-round.

As Mr. Karole explained, bar codes placed on the windshields of residents’ vehicles—perhaps incorporated into Town parking permits—would open the unmanned gates, thus enabling local traffic to pass.

“The gates would be controlled by technology,” he said, specifically radio frequency technology. “There would be a transponder at the gate” receiving the radio signals from the bar codes, which Mr. Karole described as measuring one inch-by-two inches and costing less than a dollar each.

The two gates would operate year-round in order to be perceived by WAZE and other navigation apps that direct motorists to the cut-through route when traffic backs up on U.S. Hwy. 158 and N.C. Hwy. 12 as permanent roadblocks, and, thus, dead-ends.

“We must own the phone,” said committee member David Watson, in order for mitigation to be effective.

Each gate also would be “supported by signage” on U.S. Hwy. 158, Mr. Karole said, informing motorists where they are, so they would avoid them.

To prevent summertime weekend traffic from “jumping off” of Hwy. 12 on to, first, Ocean Boulevard, at the cell tower; then, going north, Porpoise Run, Dolphin Run, East Dogwood Trail, Hickory Trail, Hillcrest Drive, and Eleventh Avenue—in a futile attempt to evade the Duck Road backup—the committee recommends either barring entry to these roads or making their entry available to “local traffic only.” 

Only entry on to these roads would be prevented, as Mr. Karole explained the committee’s idea. The roads themselves would not become one-way.

(After considerable discussion of what committee members referred to as “seasonal no-entry points,” The Beacon still does not see how westbound East Dogwood Trail could be blocked. We believe the westbound roads at the two traffic-light-controlled intersections—East Dogwood Trail and Hillcrest Drive—are problematic.)

Mr. Karole, Mr. Watson, committee member Vicki Green, Ms. Morey, Mr. Neal, and members of the audience held a wide-ranging exchange at this morning’s meeting, much of it concerning how and precisely where the two gates would operate; whether sufficient turn-around space would be available for the gates; what inconveniences the gates would present; how residents would be able to come and go if entry streets are blocked; and the “education” and “outreach” that would need to be done to notify both locals in Southern Shores and elsewhere on the Outer Banks, as well as out-of-town visitors, about the changes.

“We think this is a strong idea,” Mr. Watson said, but it is one that “needs to grow.”

Professional engineers, he emphasized, would have to tell the Town what can feasibly be done and how much it would cost.

Mr. Karole said he believes the committee’s plan “inconveniences the least number of people in Southern Shores. . . . It also takes the Chief [of Police] and his staff out of the loop.”

The Southern Shores police have monitored the U.S. Hwy. 158-South Dogwood Trail intersection during no-left-turn summer weekends.      

Both Ms. Morey and Mr. Neal—speaking for themselves, not for the Town Council—expressed an interest in taking some action to curtail cut-through traffic this summer, as well as in “exploring,” as Mr. Neal said, the mitigation suggestions made by the cut-thru traffic committee and J.M. Teague.

Mr. Neal said he would like to “tiptoe into the solution,” to “start experimenting and see where we’re going.”

Ms. Morey also spoke about using a “phased-in” approach.

Mr. Neal left little doubt that he is “committed to doing something this season,” while he also identified some of the issues—the Town’s potential liability, access for emergency services, for example—that would need exploring if features of the committee’s proposal were tried.

“I have plans for this summer,” he said. “. . . I will be campaigning hard for [cut-through traffic] mitigation. . . . I would like to try something.”

The Councilman pointed out that the committee’s plan represents “total mitigation,” and it may be that “less mitigation”—in whatever form it takes—is where the Town ends up.

Residents will get an idea of what the Town Council has in mind for this summer and in the near future when members meet next Tuesday at 9 a.m. in the Pitts Center for a fiscal 2021-22 budget workshop.

Mr. Ogburn told The Beacon this morning that he will be presenting a preliminary budget that shows a gap between expenditures and revenues, with the former exceeding the latter. Cut-through traffic mitigation is on the list of projects and plans that the Council will be prioritizing as it considers how to allocate revenues and balance the budget.

The agenda for the Tuesday morning workshop, as well as the agenda for the 5:30 p.m. Tuesday public hearing concerning the creation of municipal service districts to fund beach nourishment, were posted to the Town website while we were writing this article. You may access:

The workshop agenda here: https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/WORKSHOP-2021.03.16.pdf

The meeting packet for the workshop here: https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/wp-content/uploads/minutes-agendas-newsletters/Meeting-Packet_2021-03-16.pdf

The public hearing agenda here: https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Special-Meeting-March-16-2020.pdf

We will post a preview about the workshop and the public hearing as soon as we can.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 3/11/21

The Dare County Dept. of Health and Human Services is now accepting COVID-19 vaccine registrations from anyone 18 or older who has one or more high-risk medical conditions and other individuals in the State of North Carolina’s vaccine priority Group 4, according to an online announcement yesterday by the DCDHHS.

North Carolina will not move statewide into Group 4 until March 23, so DCDHHS is advising registrants to expect to wait “a couple of weeks” before they receive a call from one of its staff members about making a vaccine appointment.

You may register at www.darenc.com/covidvaccine by filling out a request form.

According to the N.C. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Group 4 includes individuals over age 16 who have a medical condition that puts them at high risk of exposure to COVID-19 and/or severe illness if they are exposed; people experiencing homelessness and incarcerated people who have not yet been vaccinated; and essential workers who did not meet the Group 3 criteria for frontline essential workers.

The DCDHHS is not able to vaccinate 16- and 17-year-olds yet because it has been receiving only the Moderna vaccine in its state allocations, and that vaccine—unlike the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine—has not been approved for use in the younger age group.

[UPDATE 3/10/21: A reader reports he was given the choice of getting the Moderna or the Johnson & Johnson vaccine when he registered with DCDHHS last week. The J&J vaccine has not been cleared for 16- and 17-year-olds, either.]

More information about who qualifies for Group 4 is available at the NCDHHS website at “Deeper Drive, Group 4”: https://covid19.ncdhhs.gov/vaccines/find-your-sport-take-your-shot/deeper-dive-group-4#essential-workers-not-yet-vaccinated.

The “Deeper Dive” page has a link to a list of high-risk medical conditions that the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Protection has identified for priority vaccine status.

IN OTHER COVID-19 NEWS . . .

On Monday, the CDC announced updated recommendations for how fully vaccinated individuals may interact with other people and go about their business. The CDC’s list of recommendations can be found at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated-guidance.html.

The CDC advises fully vaccinated people to continue to wear masks and practice physical distancing when they are in public settings, but says they may go without masks and distancing when they are indoors in the company of other fully vaccinated people.

Governor Roy Cooper and NCDHHS Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen reported yesterday during a short press briefing that North Carolina has received its anticipated 80,000 doses of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, but they gave no indication about how NCDHHS has allocated those doses to vaccine providers across the state.

Dr. Cohen, who is considered a frontline essential worker, said she has received a Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which, like the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, is fully effective two weeks after its administration.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 3/10/21    

The citizens’ Exploratory Committee to Address Cut-Thru Traffic will meet Thursday at 10 a.m. to discuss the report submitted last month by traffic engineering consultant, J.M. Teague Engineering and Planning, as well as its own potential remedies for summertime congestion in Southern Shores.

The meeting will take place in the Pitts Center and will be open to the public. All attendees must wear face coverings and observe six-foot physical distancing. The meeting will not be live-streamed.

J.M. Teague’s report, “Town of Southern Shores Congestion and Cut-Through Traffic Analysis,” is available on the Town website through the News tab on the home page, which is https://www.southernshores-nc.gov.

For background on the report, see The Beacon, 2/18/21.

The Beacon, 3/9/21

My father always said that when you dig yourself a hole, you have to stop digging and figure out how to crawl out.

Last night the Southern Shores Town Council stopped digging in the hole known as the CodeWright Town Code of Ordinances “update” project, but it may not have figured out yet the best way to crawl out.

That is OK. As Dad knew, the most important thing to do, once you find yourself in a hole, is to stop digging. Your way out may not be immediately apparent without some trial and error.

For those of you who are new to town or otherwise unfamiliar with “CodeWright,” it is a reference to CodeWright Planners, a Durham-based company with which the Town of Southern Shores contracted in September 2015 to prepare an “updated” Town Code of Ordinances.

The Town Code codifies all of the Town’s legal regulations (ordinances) and also contains the Town Charter. It is a vitally important document that governs, among other things, how land is to be used and development is to occur and how we coexist amicably and safely in Southern Shores.

According to the 2015 contract, CodeWright principal Chad Meadows anticipated delivery of the Town Code “update” in 14 months.

See the CodeWright contract at https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/9-8-15-Signed-Town-Code-Update-Contract.pdf.

Last night, after nearly 5 ½ years, the Town Council unanimously voted at its regular monthly meeting (essentially) not to accept delivery of CodeWright’s product, because, frankly, folks, it is a big, bloated, confusing, user-unfriendly, distracting mess.

Of course, Councilman Matt Neal, who made the awkwardly worded motion to abandon CodeWright’s latest version of its Code rewrite, known as the Adoption Draft, did not actually say that. He is too diplomatic, polite, and friendly to be so blunt, but that is what he meant.

Instead, Mr. Neal said he likes the Town Code of Ordinances the way it is now, not the way Mr. Meadows has reinvented it, and he is concerned about what may have been left out of, or included in, the new Code that should or should not be there.

How did Mr. Neal propose in his unanimously approved motion that the Town “crawl out” of the CodeWright hole?

He instructed Town staff to “pull” from the Adoption Draft any “valuable elements” that they believe should be included in the current Town Code.

It will be up to Town Manager Cliff Ogburn and Town Planning Director/Deputy Town Manager Wes Haskett to decide what “to take out of the Adoption Draft and include in the existing code,” as Mr. Haskett stated—to the relief of anyone watching the livestream of the meeting, who may have been confused about Mr. Neal’s meaning.

We were not sure ourselves at first, and we have been in the trenches on the CodeWright fiasco from the beginning.

Considering how much Mr. Haskett and Mr. Ogburn have to do, this may not be the best use of their time. But it is one way to crawl out.

***

Former Town Manager Peter Rascoe defined and spearheaded the Code “update” project, starting with its introduction at the April, 21, 2015, fiscal year 2015-16 budget meeting, at which we first spoke out.

Mr. Rascoe, who resigned in August 2019, had the full support of Mayor Tom Bennett and Mr. Haskett, who identified CodeWright Planners as the contractor for the project.   

We opposed the project when it was introduced because of concern that it shifted legislative authority away from the Town Council and the Town Planning Board to an outside planner and the Town Manager. We also thought it was a waste of money: A Town staff member or a local college student could do the Code “cleanup” that Mr. Rascoe was proposing. The “update” seemed an unnecessary and politically motivated undertaking.

In all of his public statements, including in Town newsletters, Mr. Rascoe described the purpose of the CodeWright project as the elimination of “confusion,” “ambiguity,” and “obsolescence” in the Code’s language and the update of ordinances so that they conformed with the latest federal and state law changes. He always spoke of clarification and consistency, not new substantive changes.

But a few other homeowners, including future Council member Fred Newberry, and I feared that ordinances—in particular, those related to zoning—would be rewritten, and that the existing Town Council majority would rubberstamp them. (Mr. Newberry served on the Town Council from December 2015 to December 2019.)

The 23 questions on CodeWright’s “Town of Southern Shores Code Update Project Citizen Survey,” conducted in December 2015-January 2016, convinced us that we were on the right track. At the same time, SAGA Realty & Construction was banging at the Town gates, wanting to build a 16-bedroom wedding-destination venue on the Southern Shores oceanfront.

Whether house size in town should be limited was one of the many zoning questions on the survey. See https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/TOSS-Citizen-Survey-Report-2-18-16.pdf. (The Town Council passed the current 6,000-square foot maximum house size ordinance in January 2016 by a 3-2 majority. Mayor Bennett and former Town Councilman Chris Nason opposed it.)  

In his May 5, 2015 summary for the proposed fiscal year 2015-16 operating budget—which few members of the public read—Mr. Rascoe unequivocally wrote: “The projected budget recommends an expenditure this year for the updating and rewriting of the entire Town Code, including it’s [sic] zoning provisions. The current Code has retained ambiguous and duplicating provisions that have become irrelevant and difficult to administer and enforce as modern circumstances and conditions have evolved since the Town’s incorporation in 1979. This effort will be conducted by an outside firm, with input from the Town Planner, the Town Attorney, and the public.”

Please read the thorough account we wrote 7/30/20 about the CodeWright project history, so we do not have to repeat ourselves any further here: https://southernshoresbeacon.com/2020/07/30/7-30-20-the-making- of-a-fiasco-codewrights-update-of-the-southern-shores-code-of-ordinances-a-tainted-project-from-its-conception/.

We weighed in on CodeWright’s work (“big, bloated”) in a 1/30/19 critique of its December 2018 Town Code final draft and in a 7/29/20 analysis titled “The Making of a Fiasco: Codewright’s ‘Update’ of the Southern Shores Code of Ordinances: A Tainted Project From its Conception.”

Mr. Meadows’s new Code reformats, reorganizes, pictorializes, and footnotes the current Code without making it easier to use or understand.

Last year we called for the Town Council to cut its losses before Town Attorney Ben Gallop, who “sat” on his legal review of the December 2018 final draft for nearly two years, took it up. Ironically, Mr. Gallop’s delay may have proved beneficial.

During the past five-plus years, the Planning Board, whose recommendations have been enacted into law by the Town Council, has protected property owners on a number of zoning matters (building height and fill requirements, maximum vacation home occupancy, regulation of nonconforming lots, permissible lot coverage, etc.) that might have been settled differently by CodeWright.

Last night Mr. Meadows, who appeared by Zoom to give the Town Council a superficial “overview” of the changes in his Adoption Draft, said he had received 16 zoning text amendments (ZTAs) to integrate into his draft. The number seems excessive to us, but, regardless, with many newly enacted changes already in the current Code, it makes sense to reverse the direction of integration, as the Town Council did, so that the current Code is the primary document and the Adoption Draft augments it.

Mr. Neal (as a private citizen), Mayor Pro Tem Elizabeth Morey (as a Planning Board member and chairperson), and Planning Board Chairman Andy Ward (as a private citizen and Planning Board member) all contributed to the good government-public exchange that led to some of these ZTAs, and all referred to this progress last night.

A meeting last Friday among these three and Mr. Haskett led, according to Mr. Neal, to their consensus about how to stop digging the CodeWright hole and crawl out. 

“We think our [current] Code is pretty good,” said Ms. Morey.

During her tenure on the Planning Board, Ms. Morey participated in the review of CodeWright’s December 2018 “final” draft, which she told The Beacon in a June 2018 interview was an “unacceptable work product.”

Then chaired by Sam Williams, the Planning Board spent more than a year reviewing the revised Code chapters that were under its legal purview.

This delay, like Mr. Gallop’s, was immensely helpful to legislative processes that resulted in both the enactment of beneficial zoning changes and in the defeat of detrimental changes, such as a new method for calculating the 30-percent lot coverage building restriction that former Councilman Nason, an architect, twice sought to pass.  

Mr. Ward, who complimented the Town Council last night after its vote for making “a wise decision,” has been struggling with his Board’s review of most of the same Code chapters in the Adoption Draft that the previous Board addressed in its review.

At the Planning Board’s February meeting, during which it critiqued the new definitions section, Mr. Ward understatedly said that the Adoption Draft “is not an easy read.”

He also said, “We don’t want to go looking for trouble if we don’t have to,” clearly recognizing that as the Board got into the Code zoning and subdivision chapters, it could encounter more than a few editing and rewrite woes. 

The Planning Board had been scheduled to take up the all-important zoning chapter, Chapter 22, at its March 15 meeting. Now Mr. Ward and the Planning Board are mercifully off the hook.

So is The Beacon.

We look forward to crawling out.

You may access the redline version of CodeWright’s Adoption Draft here: https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/TOSS-Town-Code-Adoption-Draft-11-24-20-REDLINE.pdf

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 3/3/21

All frontline essential workers may now register for COVID-19 vaccination in Dare County, according to a bulletin posted online today by the county’s Dept. of Health and Human Services—two hours before Governor Roy Cooper announced at a press briefing that all such essential workers, not just those in schools, will be “eligible” for vaccination statewide starting tomorrow.

Thanks to an increase in Dare County’s vaccine allocations from the State for the next three weeks, the DCDHHS has been able to offer appointments to all people age 65 or older who were on its waiting list and is ready to move into “Phase 3” of the rollout, the DCDHHS bulletin said, pre-empting the Governor’s announcement this afternoon about the vaccination eligibility of all remaining “Group 3” workers.

Vaccine administration in North Carolina has been “fast and fair,” Governor Cooper said during his COVID-19 update, and has been a model for the rest of the nation. More than 60 percent of “seniors” in North Carolina, he said, “have received a vaccine.”

The Governor permitted child-care and pre-K to grade 12 school workers—who constitute a subset of Group 3 frontline essential workers—to start receiving vaccines on Feb. 24, in order to accelerate a return to in-person learning in the public schools.

Remaining Group 3 frontline essential workers include people who work in the following fields, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: critical manufacturing, essential goods—including grocery stores, pharmacies, food service (restaurants, bars), and gas stations—government, community service organizations, churches, public health, public safety, and transportation.

For a list of workplaces and/or industries, see the N.C. Dept. of Health and Human Services’ website at https://covid19.ncdhhs.gov/vaccines/find-your-spot-take-your-shot/deeper-dive-group-3#frontline-essential-worker-frontline-essential-workers.

Dr. Mandy Cohen, Secretary of the N.C. Dept. of Health and Human Services, referred to such workers at today’s briefing as people who “cannot be home to do their jobs.” They not only must come into their workplaces to work, they also must come into contact with customers. 

To register for vaccination as a frontline essential worker in Dare County, go to the DCDHHS’s website at www.darenc.com/covidvaccine and complete a vaccination request form. You will be called by a health department staff person about scheduling an appointment.

According to the Governor, the State will move into Phase 4/Group 4 of the vaccine rollout, which includes people with medical conditions that put them at greater risk for serious illness if they are exposed to COVID-19, on March 24.

The Governor also announced that North Carolina will receive this week 80,000 doses of the newly FDA-approved one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which he described as “more easily stored” than the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines that have been in use in North Carolina.

Next week, according to Dr. Cohen, however, the State will not receive any more doses of the J&J vaccine. Its allotted supply will vary from week to week.

Dr. Cohen described the State’s supply of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines as “improving.” This week, she said she expects to receive a combined 300,000 doses of the J&J vaccine and first doses of the other two vaccines. These are in addition to the second doses that must be sent.

HATS OFF TO DARE COUNTY

Thanks to a question by Sam Walker of OBX Today, Michael A. Sprayberry, director of Emergency Management for the State of North Carolina, elaborated upon a visit he made to Dare County’s COVID-19 vaccination site in Kill Devil Hills last Friday.

Mr. Sprayberry explained that he has been visiting some of the better-run vaccination sites in order to pick up “some best practices” for a mass vaccination site that the State and the Federal Emergency Management Agency will be operating together in Greensboro for eight weeks.

According to the Governor, the FEMA site will administer 3,000 vaccines per day during its operation.

Mr. Sprayberry complimented the Dare County vaccination site as a “very efficient operation” with “a lot of volunteers” and said that the “attitude” of everyone involved, including vaccine recipients, “was phenomenal.”

The emergency director said he had met with Dr. Sheila Davies, director of the DCDHHS, and with County Manager Bobby Outten.

Mr. Sprayberry also said he recently visited a vaccination operation at Moorehead City, which is a port town in Carteret County near Beaufort.

“Hats off to the folks in Carteret and Dare counties!” he exclaimed.

Indeed. For the first time in six months–since Aug. 30, 2020–the DCDHHS dashboard reported no new COVID-19-positive tests.  

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 3/2/21

Consultant Chad Meadows of CodeWright Planners will present an overview of his update and revision of the Southern Shores Town Code of Ordinances to the Town Council at its regular meeting this Tuesday, March 2.

The Town Council will meet at 5:30 p.m. in the Pitts Center. In-person public attendance is permitted, subject to COVID-19 safety protocols. You may live-stream the meeting at https://www.youtube.com/user/TownofSouthernShores.

For the meeting agenda and packet, see https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/wp-content/uploads/minutes-agendas-newsletters/Meeting-Packet_2021-03-02.pdf.

There will be two public-comment periods during Tuesday’s meeting.

Mr. Meadows, who is based in Durham, will speak via Zoom for about 40 minutes about his “Adoption Draft” and then take questions and comments, according to a summary in the meeting packet by Planning Director/Deputy Town Manager Wes Haskett, who has been working with Mr. Meadows since the Town Code project began in September 2015.

You may access the Adoption Draft here: https://www.southernshores-nc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/TOSS-Town-Code-Adoption-Draft-11-24-20-REDLINE.pdf.

At the conclusion of Mr. Meadows’s presentation, the Town Council will “begin to discuss a review process and timeline for moving the project forward,” Mr. Haskett explains in his summary.

The Town Planning Board has already taken up for review and comment chapter 4 of the Code Adoption Draft, which is the definitions section. The Planning Board is also legally required to review revised Code chapter 22, which is the zoning chapter; chapter 26, about subdivisions; and chapter 28, about flood damage prevention, and to either recommend the chapters’ approval to the Town Council or not.

The Planning Board will meet at 4 p.m. on Monday, March 15, in the Pitts Center, to start its review of the zoning chapter. This meeting also will be available for live-streaming on the Town’s You Tube website. [3/1/21 UPDATE: The Town announced today that the meeting time has been changed from 5 p.m. to 4 p.m.]

The Town Council must decide Tuesday how to review the chapters that the Planning Board is not considering. Only after the Planning Board has made its recommendation and the Town Council has submitted its substantive revisions and comments to Mr. Haskett and they have been addressed can the Adoption Draft go forward for a public hearing, which is required before its approval. 

In Mr. Haskett’s suggested timeline, that hearing is scheduled May 4.

Town Manager Cliff Ogburn told The Beacon in an email that Mr. Meadows is expected to focus Tuesday “on the key changes between current and proposed chapters” of the Code, which are subject to the Town Council’s review.

(For background, see The Beacon, 2/15/21 and 2/18/21.)

Mr. Meadows’s presentation is the only business item on the Town Council’s meeting agenda.

As is customary with every first-Tuesday meeting of the Council, Town staff members will give their reports. We would expect Mr. Ogburn to address the Town’s followup to consultant J.M. Teague’s traffic study, which was submitted Feb. 12, in his report.  

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 2/28/21

Another Dare County resident has died of COVID-19, according to today’s Dare County Dept. of Health and Human Services’ dashboard, bringing the total number of local fatalities to 14. Seven of those deaths have occurred in this month alone.

(See The Beacon, 2/19/21, for background.)

The only information given by the DCDHHS about the deceased person was that he or she had been hospitalized.

Today’s DCDHHS dashboard also reported eight new COVID-19 cases, the most since Feb. 17, when the single-day total was 13. Since then cases have trended downward, averaging 3.7 per day during the past seven days.

All eight cases are local residents who are now in home isolation. Half of them are between the ages of 25 and 49; two are age 17 or younger; one is age 18 to 24, and one, age 50 to 64.

The Beacon, 2/25/21

North Carolina’s modified stay-at-home order, which includes a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew, will “be lifted,” and some COVID-19 restrictions on personal activities and businesses—notably, those affecting indoor bars and on-premises alcohol sales—will be “eased,” Friday at 5 p.m., but the state mask mandate and other “health and safety protocols” will remain in effect, Governor Roy Cooper announced at an afternoon briefing today.

In his new Executive Order 195, signed today, the Governor rescinds the modified-stay-at-home order, which is a Phase 3 order that was issued on Dec. 10 and twice extended, and allows indoor bars to reopen at 30 percent capacity, with a cap of 250 people, and on-premises alcohol sales to be extended two hours until 11 p.m.

Executive Order 195, which supersedes Executive Order 181 and its extensions, also increases the size of mass social gatherings from 10 people to 25 people for indoor gatherings and from 25 people to 50 people for outdoor gatherings, and loosens other restrictions currently in effect.

“Encouraged” by COVID-19 “metrics trends [that] have declined and stabilized,” as well as by the number of North Carolinians who have been vaccinated, Governor Cooper cautiously continued today the “dimmer switch” approach he has used in the state’s phased reopening since its early-pandemic shutdown.

More than 2.1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in North Carolina, according to the N.C. Dept. of Health and Human Services, and the Governor said today that more than half of all North Carolinians age 65 or older have been vaccinated.

Under EO 195, which expires at 5 p.m. on March 26, indoor businesses that have been operating at 30 percent capacity, such as movie theaters, certain indoor sports arenas, and indoor amusement parks, will continue to operate at this capacity, but there now will be a 250-person cap—rather than a 100-person cap—in effect, just as there will be with indoor bars.

Indoor sports arenas that seat up to 5,000 people will be permitted to operate at 15 percent capacity, subject to health and safety protocols. 

Outdoor businesses, such as sports venues and other high-capacity arenas that have been operating at 30 percent capacity, also will continue to do so, but they will not be subject to a cap in the number of people.

New COVID-19 cases statewide have been declining since they hit a peak on Jan. 10, according to Dr. Mandy Cohen, Secretary of the NCDHHS, who participated in the briefing, and, although “still high,” the numbers are back to those seen in November, before the holiday surge, she said.

Today’s NCDHHS dashboard numbers show 3,346 new COVID-19 cases, a positivity rate of 6.0 percent, 1,530 hospitalizations, and 11,074 deaths. Yesterday, 1,514 new cases and 1,563 hospitalizations were reported, and the positivity rate was 6.2 percent. One hundred nine more people died of the coronavirus during the past 24 hours.

Governor Cooper did not increase the occupancy limits of gyms, restaurants, retail stores, museums, personal care providers, and many other businesses and recreation spaces. They continue to be restricted to 50 percent capacity with specific safety protocols in place, including six-foot distancing among patrons, the installation of signage to ensure distancing, the use of disinfectants, and COVID-19 monitoring of staff.

Today’s actions, the Governor said, are “a show of trust and confidence [in North Carolinians,] but we must remain cautious.”

“We are slowing the spread” of COVID-19, said Dr. Cohen, but the new COVID-19 variants, all of which are in North Carolina, “are a wild card.”

When asked by a reporter to characterize the presence of the variants in the state, Dr. Cohen did not directly respond.

Both state officials stressed the public’s continued observance of the “three W’s” and their own decision-making according to what the science shows.

“We’re making progress,” Governor Cooper said, “. . . but we’re far from the end of this pandemic.”

For FAQs about the changes implemented under Executive Order 195, see https://www.nc.gov/covid-19/current-restrictions/faqs-eased-restrictions-under-executive-order-195.

In other news, Dr. Cohen responded to a reporter’s question about the use of the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine in North Carolina by saying she is anticipating receiving from 30,000 to 60,000 doses of the one-dose vaccine as early as next week. She did not say how the vaccine might be distributed statewide.

According to Dr. Cohen, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration should decide this week to give the Johnson & Johnson vaccine Emergency Use Authorization, and a vaccine advisory committee of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will meet this weekend to discuss it.

Supply in North Carolina of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines continues to be “incredibly limited,” she said, hampered most recently by severe winter weather.

FLAGS AT HALF-STAFF: Governor Cooper ordered all U.S. and North Carolina flags at state facilities to be flown at half-staff this week, until sunset Friday, in honor and remembrance of the more than 500,000 people in this country who have died of COVID-19.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 2/24/21

Another Dare County resident has died of COVID-19, according to today’s Dare County Dept. of Health and Human Services’ dashboard. Other than reporting the death, the DCDHHS said only that the person had been hospitalized.

Since the DCDHHS began reporting COVID-19 deaths last March, 13 Dare County residents have died because of the coronavirus—eight of them in just the past seven weeks. Even more striking, six local residents have died of COVID-19 in February alone.

The DCDHHS has failed to give any explanation about why the number of COVID-19 fatalities locally have increased so dramatically since the new year began.

Between March 15 and Nov. 14, 2020, the DCDHHS reported just three COVID-19 deaths. Two deaths were reported in November during the start of the autumn case surge.

The Beacon appreciates that lives lost to COVID-19 are more than statistics, although they often may seem that way in news reports . We are saddened to learn of any death caused by this devastating disease.

Statewide, 10,820 individuals have lost their lives because of COVID-19, the N.C. Dept. of Health and Human Services reported today.

The Beacon, 2/19/21

J.M. Teague’s “Town of Southern Shores Congestion and Cut-Through Traffic Analysis” is now available on the Town website by clicking on the News tab on the home page, which is https://www.southernshores-nc.gov.

See The Beacon earlier today for a background article.

The Beacon thanks Town Manager Cliff Ogburn for his courtesy in keeping us informed about the status of the report and for his prompt posting of the report on the website for the public’s review and information.

As we reported earlier, the Town Council will discuss the traffic engineer’s report, as well as recommendations by the citizens’ cut-through traffic committee, at a meeting whose date is yet to be determined. We suggest that you hold your comments for the Council until that meeting. Until the committee files its report, all of the recommended cut-through traffic-mitigation and -prevention options will not be on the table.

The Beacon, 2/18/21