Two more people associated with the Peak Resources nursing/rehab facility in Nags Head have tested positive for COVID-19, according to today’s Dare Emergency Management bulletin.

Both of these people are asymptomatic, the bulletin states, but that does not mean that they are not infectious. Bulletin No. 40 gives no other details about the individuals’ situations, however.

Of the 15 Dare County residents who have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, Bulletin No. 40 recaps, eight have recovered or been asymptomatically cleared; five are asymptomatic; one is recovering at home; and one has died

See COVID-19 Bulletin No. 40 at https://www.darenc.com/Home/Components/News/News/6121/1483

Test results from the state lab for the mass testing last week of staff and residents at Peak Resources were sent to the Dare County Division of Public Health earlier than anticipated. Family members of Peak residents were told to expect results tomorrow.

Bulletin No. 40 does indicate, however, that the Division of Public Health has received “the majority” of these results, not all.

For the first time in its COVID-19 case-reporting process, Dare County did not lead off a daily bulletin with breaking news of more positive test results. Today’s Bulletin No. 40 buries the report of the two additional Peak Resources cases beneath Easter greetings, a reminder about the guidelines in place for slowing the spread of COVID-19, and an updated accounting of cases and fatalities statewide.

AROUND TOWN

While out earlier today on my essential once-a-week spin through Southern Shores, I received greetings on Ocean Boulevard at the Chicahauk Trail intersection from the Easter Bunny and a female companion, who looked like Little Bo Peep with a face mask. They waved feverishly at all passersby.

I regret that I did not immediately pull over and take their photograph because about 12 minutes later when I drove past again, they were gone. An opportunity missed.

Little else caught my eye:

The unleaded regular gas at Han-Dee Hugo’s BP (and the Mobil station down the bypass in Kitty Hawk) is selling for $1.95.99 per gallon—about 50 cents less than it would be if vacationers were here, I would imagine.

The Home Depot and Walmart were doing a brisk business, but Harris Teeter and Food Lion were relatively quiet.

The Governor’s rules on maximum occupancy in retail establishments take effect tomorrow at 5 p.m.

All retailers who have permission to continue operating during the statewide stay-at-home order must observe an “emergency maximum occupancy” of either 20 percent of the state fire capacity or five persons per 1,000 square feet of building space, whichever is less.

Whatever the maximum number of occupants is, retailers must post it “in a conspicuous place,” according to the Governor’s Executive Order No. 131.

The majority of the customers in area stores are not wearing face masks, nor are the store employees. I would attribute this differential to a perceived lack of risk of COVID-19 transmission in Dare County, not to partisan politics, as a recent ABC/Ipsos poll would seem to suggest. (The message: More Democrats than Republicans and Independents wear face masks–apparently true among the 512 adults who were “randomly” sampled and self-reported their political-party affiliation.)

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Protection recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings when other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain, such as a grocery store or pharmacy, especially in areas of significant community-based transmission of the virus. That is not Dare County.

See CDC’s use of cloth face coverings: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/DIY-cloth-face-covering-instructions.pdf

I wear a cotton face covering, as well as gloves, mostly out of respect and concern for other customers and store employees–although I do have a nearly 96-year-old mother whom I would not wish to infect with the coronavirus nor stop seeing. If my wearing a mask makes other people more comfortable, I figure it is a small price to pay.

There will be more hard news developments next week about the COVID-19 spread in this county and the state and national response to it. (How and when does the country “reopen”?) I welcome a respite today.

It is a beautiful day in Southern Shores. Enjoy the springtime. It will be a stormy Monday.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 4/12/20

 

COVID-19 test results for nearly half of the staff and residents at Peak Resources nursing facility in Nags Head were received last week, and a “round of mass testing” of that population was completed Thursday afternoon, according to today’s Dare County Emergency Management bulletin.

A source/acquaintance of The Beacon’s who has a family member residing at Peak Resources told us she was informed by the facility that the test results of the latest specimens should be available Monday. The DCEM bulletin says only that “Those specimens arrived at the state lab Friday morning for processing and testing” and that another update on Peak “will be provided as soon as the test results are received.”

See Bulletin No. 39: https://www.darenc.com/Home/Components/News/News/6117/1483

Peak Resources, which is located at the end of Barnes Street in Nags Head, has 126 skilled nursing beds, according to its website. See http://peakresourcesinc.com/our-locations/outer-banks/.

Dare County previously announced three positive test results associated with Peak Resources and said all three persons are asymptomatic.

According to The Beacon’s source, whom we gave anonymity at her request, the facility told family members of residents that the three people were staff members and that they are in isolation. The source also reported her understanding that the person who died as a result of a COVID-19 infection was a resident of the facility who may have contracted the virus when he was treated at a hospital. She had no knowledge of the hospital to which the resident might have been taken.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 4/11/20

“To date, Dare County has reported 13 positive test results for COVID-19,” today’s Dare County Emergency Management bulletin tells us.

See Bulletin No. 38: https://www.darenc.com/Home/Components/News/News/6111/398

Of the 13 confirmed COVID-19 cases, the bulletin states, eight have recovered or have been “asymptomatically cleared”; three are asymptomatic (with no COVID-19 symptoms); one is recovering at home; and one has died. To be asymptomatically cleared is to exhibit no symptoms seven days after testing.

In the remainder of the bulletin, the County repeats the guidelines that are in effect during the Stay Home-Stay Healthy order for “slowing” the spread of the virus and the resources that are available through the N.C. Dept. of Health and Human Services’ website.

(The Beacon apologizes for the false start to this post that we originally published. Please delete.)

GOVERNOR LIMITS MAXIMUM STORE OCCUPANCY . . .

Retail establishments that have permission to continue operating during the statewide stay-at-home order will be required to observe an “emergency maximum occupancy,” starting Monday at 5 p.m., according to an executive order issued yesterday by Governor Roy Cooper.

The order specifies that all such retailers must limit their maximum occupancy to “no more than”:

*Twenty percent of the state fire capacity; OR

*Five customers for every 1,000 square feet of the “retail location’s total square footage, including non-customer-facing portions.”

The five-customers-per-1,000-square feet restriction will have a profound effect on how Outer Banks supermarkets do business.

Executive Order No. 131 further requires retailers to post this emergency maximum occupancy “in a conspicuous place,” and to assign “sufficient” staff members to monitor the store entrances and exits in order to enforce the limit.

See Executive Order No. 131: https://files.nc.gov/governor/documents/files/EO131-Retail-Long-Term-Care-Unemployment-Insurance.pdf

The retail establishments that are covered by the order are described as including “any business in which customers enter to purchase goods or services, including but not limited to grocery stores, convenience stores, large-format retail stores, pharmacies, banks, ABC stores, hardware stores, and vehicle dealerships.”

The new order also requires retailers to observe the minimum social/physical distancing recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by clearly marking six feet of spacing “in lines at cash registers” and “in other high-traffic areas for customers, such as at deli counters and near high-volume products,” inside their stores.

If a retailer reaches or expects to reach its “Emergency Maximum Occupancy” at any time, it must “clearly mark six feet of spacing in a designated line outside the establishment,” according to the order.

Further, all operating retail establishments must “perform frequent and routine environmental cleaning and disinfection of high touch areas” with a disinfectant approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for SARS-CoV-2.

Executive Order 131 encourages retailers to take voluntary steps, as well, including:

*to reduce viral transmission among employees (through suggested means);

*to place hand sanitizer prominently at entry and exit points and to have disinfecting EPA-approved wipes and/or sprays available for shopping carts and baskets;

*to post signage that reminds customers and employees about required six-foot physical distancing; and

*to designate exclusive shopping times for “seniors and other at-risk groups as defined by the CDC.”

The Kitty Hawk Harris Teeter has set aside exclusive shopping times for customers age 60 and older on Monday and Thursday, from 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. It also will accept online orders from the same age group, and deliver the groceries, on Thursday between 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Walmart has an exclusive shopping hour for customers age 60 and older every Tuesday from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m.—which is an hour before it opens to all customers.

See Walmart: https://corporate.walmart.com/newsroom/2020/03/18/latest-walmart-store-changes-to-support-associates-and-customers

Food Lion in the Marketplace has online shopping and on-site pickup of orders available, but it has not set aside exclusive shopping hours for customers viewed as more vulnerable to the COVID-19 threat.

Although Governor Cooper considered requiring one-way aisles in retail establishments in order to reduce interpersonal contact, the order only recommends that retailers “provide assistance with routing through aisles in the store.”

The new occupancy controls will remain in effect for 30 days after their April 13 imposition, unless they are repealed, replaced, or rescinded.

. . . AND IMPOSES RULES ON SKILLED NURSING FACILITIES (SNFs)

In light of the numerous COVID-19 outbreaks in nursing homes in North Carolina, Governor Cooper also ordered yesterday that so-called skilled nursing facilities take mandatory mitigation actions, including:

*screening all staff at the beginning of their shifts for fever and respiratory symptoms, which means actively taking staff members’ temperatures and documenting the absence or presence of shortness of breath (aka dyspnea), a cough, and sore throat;

*canceling “communal dining and all group activities, including internal and external activities”;

*implementing “universal” use of facemasks for all staff members while they are in the facility, “assuming supplies are available”;

*actively monitoring all residents upon admission, and at least daily, for fever and respiratory symptoms (dyspnea, cough, sore throat), and continued monitoring during their stay; and

*notifying the local health department immediately about 1) any resident with new, confirmed, or suspected COVID-19; or 2) a “cluster” of residents or staff with symptoms of respiratory illness.

A cluster is defined as three or more people with new-onset respiratory symptoms in a period of 72 hours.

Executive Order 131 stops short of requiring adult-care homes, family-care homes, mental health-group homes, and intermediate-care facilities for individuals with intellectual disability to observe the same mitigation rules. It only encourages them to do so.

The new restrictions on skilled nursing facilities take effect today at 5 p.m.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 4/10/20

 

(Please note: While writing this blog, we received notice of three more positive COVID-19 test results in Dare County, all of them linked to Peak Resources, a nursing and rehabilitation facility in Nags Head. We will post a story about DCEM Bulletin No. 17 soon. Thank you.)

Four non-resident Southern Shores homeowners spoke out in public comments at the Town Council’s meeting Tuesday, protesting the March 20 order prohibiting their access to Dare County and/or questioning the prohibition’s continued logic and effect.

The Beacon has learned in informal conversations with Town Council members that, not surprisingly, other non-resident property owners have complained to the Town about the County’s order via email, and we have heard from disgruntled non-resident homeowners, as well.

COVID-19 Bulletin No. 10, which was issued at 6:20 p.m. on March 20, barred non-resident property owners from accessing Dare County as of 10 p.m. that day. See https://www.darenc.com/Home/Components/News/News/5994/17

The Dare County Control Group has said nothing further to, or about, non-resident property owners since its emergency order, although members of the County’s healthcare community have encouraged people in bulletins and videos to be kind to each other.

The Beacon is aware that the tension and ill will generated by the County’s decision to prohibit non-resident homeowners from accessing their properties during the COVID-19 emergency have been expressed in many social-media forums and in local media. We do not intend to give voice here to various sides and opinions in the debate/argument.

(See yesterday’s Beacon for a report of a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday by non-resident Dare County property owners against the County.)

Instead, our intent is to give an overview of important matters that came up at the Town Council’s meeting, and we believe the ban on non-resident property owners, and how the Town Council responded to homeowners disadvantaged by it, is important.

“WRONG AND UNFAIR”

Calling the restriction “very, very unfair, and discriminatory,” Bill Schreiner, who appeared at the meeting by Zoom videoconferencing, said the “travel ban” has “sown a deep division among different members of the tax base of Southern Shores.”

Mr. Schreiner described the Dare County Control Group’s decision that led to Bulletin No. 10 as “driven by fear” and said “it has caused a great deal of unhappiness.”

Mr. Schreiner, whose family has owned properties in Southern Shores since the early 1960s, said he felt like he had been “treated as a second-class citizen.” (Full disclosure: The Schreiners owned a home next door to my family’s 50-year-old beach cottage for decades.)

Mr. Schreiner further criticized the ban—which is principally enforced at the Wright Brothers Memorial Bridge checkpoint—for not being “airtight.” He described workers and locals coming and going across the bridge, daily and indiscriminately, without any oversight.

There is no question that a Dare County local who travels to Hampton Roads for any reason could return with a COVID-19 infection as easily as a non-resident property owner who lives in Norfolk could transport one to Dare County.

Mr. Schreiner also cited the presumed community spread of COVID-19 in Dare County as both a failure of the allegedly discriminatory travel ban and as reason to loosen the restriction. He questioned why the County and Town are not imposing/enforcing rules on face masks and physical distancing.

Robert Garver, who said he had “retired and moved to Southern Shores in mid-January,” related in written public comments a compelling story of having left Southern Shores on Tuesday, March 17, “for a short trip out of town” and being “shocked” to learn on the next Saturday morning, when he prepared to return home, that he was “barred from entry.”

He had “no reasonable time to respond,” he said, claiming that Bulletin No. 10 was not distributed by email.

He and his wife, Mr. Garver said, “had planned a stay-healthy-in-place strategy [for the pandemic] long before the town or county announced any actions.” They had purchased supplies and groceries in Southern Shores, to which they intended to return. According to Mr. Garver, he and his wife have suffered a “financial impact, worry, and uncertainty” from their inability to do so.

Ernie Dash, who appeared via Zoom and said he is “hunkered down” in Williamsburg, told the Town Council he would just like the opportunity to “come down for a day and check over [his] property,” which is a second home in Southern Shores.

The Beacon has empathy for all non-resident property owners in Southern Shores and in other Dare County beach towns and would have liked to have heard our Town Council express empathy to the people who submitted public comments.

Non-resident property owners are a big part of our town’s economy, character, welfare, appeal, and sense of community and neighborhood. They are the historical backbone of Southern Shores. Those who reached out to the Town Council deserved a response, even though the entry restriction was imposed by the County, not the Town.

We would say to the Town Council: You don’t have to take sides in order to relate to non-resident homeowners’ anger, distress, anxiety, and other emotions during this unusually stressful and uncertain time. But, please, listen to them and consider their interests, and tell them of your concern.

Only Mayor Pro Tem Elizabeth Morey addressed the conflict between residents and non-residents, but she did so in concluding remarks after people had already heard from Mayor Tom Bennett that the Town Council does not customarily respond to public comments.

INTERIM TOWN MANAGER’S REPORT

Otherwise, The Beacon finds only the following items, presented by Interim Town Manager Wes Haskett, of sufficient importance to cover now:

RECYCLING: First, some good news . . . Mr. Haskett has heard from the N.C. Dept. of Environmental Quality that Southern Shores now has the option of having its recyclables transported to a materials recovery facility (a so-called MRF, pronounced murf) in Portsmouth, Va., where they actually will be recycled, not burned.

Currently, Bay Disposal and Recycling is hauling all Outer Banks recycling, including Southern Shores’ curbside recycling, to an incinerator at Wheelabrator, a waste-to-energy facility in Portsmouth, not an MRF.

Recycling & Disposal Solutions (RSD), out of Roanoke, Va., operates the MRF in Portmouth, according to Mr. Haskett, who explained that NCDEQ had hoped to “secure a location in Elizabeth City,” but it was unsuccessful.

See RDS’s website: https://rds-virginia.com/locations/hampton-roads-locations/

RSD’s recycling processing fee is $95 per ton, Mr. Haskett said. The Town would have to pay Bay Disposal’s collection and hauling costs on top of that. The Interim Town Manager is waiting to receive a fee quote from Joshua Smaltz, Bay Disposal’s Outer Banks Site Manager.

NCDEQ regulators have authorized Southern Shores and other Outer Banks towns to continue to allow their recyclables to be transported to Wheelabrator, despite state laws against disposing of them by incineration. This extension of a regulatory exemption previously given the Outer Banks came “with no given time frame,” Mr. Haskett said.

BEACH NOURISHMENT GRANT MONEY: Mr. Haskett reported that grants of up to $2.5 million are available to N.C. towns for beach nourishment projects through the NCDEQ’s Coastal Storm Damage Mitigation Fund.

The grant money was authorized by the N.C. General Assembly last September for the 2019-2021 fiscal biennium, which runs from July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2021. Up to $11.5 million in grants is available to “units of local government” for coastal storm mitigation.

The application deadline for an NCDEQ grant is April 30.

Mr. Haskett mentioned the possibility of the Town requesting grant funding for anticipated “maintenance work in the Pelican Watch area” or for “one of the four options” for beach nourishment that APTIM, the Town’s coastal engineering consultant, has recommended.

“We will seek Council’s guidance at the April 21 budget session as to which, if any project, you prefer,” Mr. Haskett told the Council.

See the March 4, 2020 notice from the NCDEQ that it is accepting grant applications: https://deq.nc.gov/news/press-releases/2020/03/04/deq-accepting-applications-115-million-help-coastal-communities-storm

See North Carolina Session Law 2019-224, aka Senate Bill 429, Part II, sect. 2.1(3)(3) for grant authorization language: https://www.ncleg.gov/Sessions/2019/Bills/Senate/PDF/S429v4.pdf

See Coastal Storm Damage Mitigation Fund Guidelines, FY 2019-20: https://files.nc.gov/ncdeq/Water%20Resources/documents/2019-2020-CSDM-Fund-Guidelines.pdf

FY 2020-2021 BUDGET

Regarding next year’s fiscal-year budget Mr. Haskett told the Council that “work on the proposed budget continues, and all of the departments’ requested expenditures have been added.

“Due to the anticipated loss of revenue as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re working on options that would help offset that loss. We will present those options to you and seek guidance on projects to include or not include in the proposed budget at Council’s April 21 budget work session.”

That meeting will take place at 9 a.m. and will be managed by videoconferencing.

A videotape of the Town Council’s April 7 meeting is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JnhfT87RAY&feature=youtu.be.

Mr. Haskett’s report begins around 13 minutes into the tape. Public comments are read or voiced by Zoom participants after his report and end around the 41-minute mark.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 4/9/20

 

 

A Dare County resident died this morning from complications associated with the COVID-19 virus.

In a DCEM bulletin released today, the Dare County Dept. of Health and Human Services reports the COVID-19 related death of a person who was in her/his early 90s and had several underlying medical conditions. No other details were provided.

See Bulletin No. 36: https://www.darenc.com/Home/Components/News/News/6105/1483

“This is never the type of information we want to have to share,” said Dr. Sheila Davies, director of the Dare County Dept. of Health and Human Services. “We extend our heartfelt condolences to this individual’s family and loved ones and pray for peace and comfort.”

The Beacon also extends its sincere condolences to this person’s family and everyone affected by the loss of her/his life, just as we would with anyone who has lost a loved one.

We are especially sorry that the pain of this person’s death has been compounded by the inability of loved ones to be in close physical contact with her/him during the dying process. That we feel quite deeply. There is comfort at the bedside.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 4/9/20

Harris Teeter announced today that it would begin limiting the number of people in its grocery stores to 50 percent of building code capacity. At the Kitty Hawk Harris Teeter, that means 348 people will be allowed in the store at one time—quite a luxury compared to the few dozen shoppers allowed in Trader Joe’s food markets nationwide.

According to Becky Pugh, a manager at the Kitty Hawk Harris Teeter, her store’s building code capacity is 697 people.

The maximum number of people shopping in the Kitty Hawk store is usually about 100, Ms. Pugh told The Beacon, adding that the staff is prepared to control entry by lining up customers at the doors, if it has to.

Store associates are expected to monitor the number of customers to ensure that the limit is observed, according to the announcement by Harris Teeter, which is headquartered in Matthew, N.C.

Its new building capacity restriction took effect at 5 p.m. today.

Plexiglass protective shields have already been installed at checkout stands in all Harris Teeter stores, and signage has been placed throughout stores to promote social/physical distancing.

According to Ms. Pugh, many of the Kitty Hawk store’s customers already are wearing face masks and gloves.

Plexiglass shields have been installed at checkout counters at the Food Lion in the Marketplace, and it, too, is observing physical distancing in customer lines.

Food Lion also offers online shopping and drive-through pickup.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 4/8/20

[Breaking news: Today’s Dare County Emergency Management Bulletin addresses the County’s ongoing preparedness efforts and the medical “surge” capacity across the state. See https://www.darenc.com/Home/Components/News/News/6101/1483.]

Governor Roy Cooper announced plans yesterday to issue an executive order later this week to limit the number of people allowed in stores at one time.

“We are preparing an executive order to put more guardrails on social distancing at our essential retailers,” the Governor said at a news conference yesterday. “I know many stores have already put limits on how many people can be in stores at once, and this order will ensure those limits are mandatory across the state.”

[The Walmart in Kitty Hawk reportedly began controlling customer entry and space between customers inside the store last weekend. But when I drove past the Walmart last Saturday, I was shocked by the number of people in the parking lot. It might as well have been a summer Saturday. The nearby Harris Teeter parking lot was also teeming with traffic and people. People need to consider shopping at “off” times.]

The Governor also said that the current statewide stay-at-home order, which is in place until April 29, has been effective in limiting the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the respiratory disease COVID-19.

While Governor Cooper said the state must prepare to move gradually back toward re-opening society, he also deemed it too early to do so and would not project when such action might occur. The virus is not controlled enough yet to do so, he said.

A predictive model by scientists from the University of North Carolina and Duke University that was made public Monday projected that if the stay-at-home order is extended beyond April, the number of COVID-19 cases in North Carolina could be capped at 250,000. If the order is lifted at the end of April, however, the model forecasts that the case count could grow to 750,000.

The model is not the official product of either UNC-CH or Duke, but of individual scientists, who developed it with the help of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, NoviSci, and RTI International, in addition to the universities. You may read more about this forecast, and find a link to the report itself, on The Raleigh News & Observer website at

https://www.newsobserver.com/news/coronavirus/article241797076.html

Among the mandatory restrictions that Governor Cooper is considering for crowd control in supermarkets and other big retailers, such as Home Depot and Lowe’s, is making foot traffic in store aisles run like one-way streets to avoid interactions; marking floors with tape so people will stand at least six feet away from each other when they are waiting in lines; and adding plexiglass barriers to protect employees at check-out areas.

“We need to make [such restrictions] more uniform,” the Governor said.

To learn more about the reaction of Trader Joe’s employees nationwide to the restrictions, or lack thereof, taken by their employer to protect them during the COVID-19 crisis, see

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/trader-joe-s-employees-say-virus-response-was-haphazard-and-chaotic/ar-BB12jozJ?ocid=msedgdhp; and

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/06/supermarket-workers-deaths-coronavirus-/

There have been reports of deaths among supermarket workers, who have been veritable first responders, during the COVID-19 emergency.

DARE COUNTY SUED BY 6 NON-RESIDENT PROPERTY OWNERS

Six non-resident Dare County property owners reportedly sued Dare County yesterday in federal court, claiming their constitutional rights were violated when the County issued its March 20 emergency order preventing them from accessing their properties.

OBX Today first reported on the litigation yesterday. See https://www.obxtoday.com/top-stories/outer-banks-property-owners-file-federal-suit-challenging-restrictions-to-their-homes/?fbclid=IwAR07zYlNTqNo-BCnXtPXImMO-6MN8CG6Ktzwv3U9BxdbVRYMFZ6xGFen7So

The six plaintiffs—three from Virginia, one from South Carolina, and two from Maryland—do not seek monetary damages. They seek immediate access to their properties. Raleigh attorney S.C. Kitchen is reportedly representing all of the plaintiffs.

The two plaintiffs from Maryland are a married couple who, according to OBX Today, rent their properties–one of which, The Beacon discovered, is located in Southern Shores.

Research on the Dare County GIS website reveals that the Maryland couple own a multi-million-dollar oceanfront home on Second Avenue in Southern Shores, as well as two million-dollar homes in Duck.

According to the N.C. State Bar member directory, there is only one S.C. Kitchen practicing law in North Carolina, and he is Sidney C. Kitchen with the two-person law office of Kitchen & Turrentine, PLLC. See https://www.ktlawnc.com/

Mr. Kitchen, who is known as Chuck, served as county attorney for Durham and Alamance counties before he entered private practice. The Beacon wonders how he identified these six non-resident property owners, but not enough to probe the question further by calling him.

The Beacon ventured into constitutional law on 4/4/20 when we featured an opinion column written by two attorneys with doctorates in health policy that was published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

In their article, “Thinking Globally, Acting Locally—the U.S. Response to Covid-19,” the authors address “major weaknesses” in the United States’ “federalist system of public health governance, which divides powers among the federal, state and local governments.”

Because there has been no national strategy on responding to the COVID-19 threat, states and localities have been at the front lines of the response, the authors write, and—not surprisingly—they have exercised their public-health powers “unevenly.”

There is no question that in “extraordinary times,” such as we are experiencing now, states and the federal government can “activate emergency powers to expand their ability to act swiftly to protect human life and health,” they write, and these powers can infringe upon individuals’ civil liberties.

Usually the fear of emergency-activated restrictions, they continue, is that government officials—typically, at the federal and state levels, not at the county level—will over-react and impose unduly coercive measures.

The authors give as an example N.J. Governor Chris Christie’s decision to order a nurse returning from Sierra Leone into quarantine during the 2014 Ebola outbreak, even though her case did not merit it under the CDC’s guidelines.

Could the public-health and public-safety objectives that Dare County sought to achieve on March 20, and continues to seek to achieve today, be met through less restrictive means than a wholesale closure of the county to all nonresident property owners? That is a fair question to ask and for the Dare County Control Group to consider.

(The Beacon may write more about the continued exclusion of non-resident property owners during the COVID-19 emergency in an upcoming column.)

TOWN COUNCIL DELAYS CONSIDERATION OF BUDGET MATTERS 

The Southern Shores Town Council postponed its consideration of the budget workshop business it had scheduled to take up at its meeting yesterday afternoon until April 21, when the Council is expected to meet by electronic conferencing, exclusively.

While The Beacon agrees with this decision, we wish the Town had made it a week ago.

Yesterday, a quorum comprised of Mayor Tom Bennett and Councilmen Jim Conners and Leo Holland convened at the Pitts Center, while Mayor Pro Tem Elizabeth Morey and Councilman Matt Neal participated in the meeting by Zoom videoconferencing. (The Beacon enjoyed hearing Mr. Neal’s children’s voices in the background and seeing his empty chair on one occasion.)

Interim Town Manager/Planning Director Wes Haskett, Town Attorney Ben Gallop, Finance and Human Resources Director Bonnie Swain, and Town Clerk Sheila Kane attended the meeting in person. All participants observed six-foot physical distancing.

The Beacon knows of residents who were unable to access the meeting through Zoom and believes the Town staff could do a better job of explaining how to download the software and then maneuver within Zoom once a meeting has started. We hope step-by-step instructions will be posted on the Town website before the next videoconference.

We joined the meeting via Zoom, as well as by telephone, and can report that the entire 70-minute meeting was audible on the telephone–albeit at a long-distance charge.

It was quite clear to us that those people who spoke remotely—including two non-resident Southern Shores property owners who objected to the Dare County access restrictions—had previous experience with Zoom. We did not.

The Beacon will report in more detail tomorrow on a few of the items that came up at the meeting, but, generally speaking, we do not find yesterday’s Council business to merit much coverage in light of all that is happening. We also believe the Council should postpone its April 21 budget workshop until mid-May, at the earliest.

The budget workshop business that was delayed includes:

• Town pay study
• Beach nourishment
• SSVFD radios and possible budget amendment
• Potential no-left-turn weekends
• Capital street projects
• RFQ and/or extension-town engineer contract expires June 30, 2020

If the Town Council goes ahead with its electronic meeting, we would urge members to make only those decisions that are essential to make now and not try to predict the immediate or distant future of the town’s or the county’s economy.

A videotape of yesterday’s meeting is already online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JnhfT87RAY&feature=youtu.be.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 4/8/20

Ten people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Dare County, according to today’s 1 p.m. Dare County Emergency Management bulletin.

Three of the four new cases announced today, DCEM Bulletin No. 34 says, are “associated with direct contact with the individual whose positive test result was announced on April 4.”

The other new case is said to be a person who “likely acquired the virus through direct contact when out of the area,” according to the bulletin.

There actually were two positive test results announced on April 4: those of cases Nos. 4 and 5. (See The Beacon, 4/4/20.)

The fourth case was reported to be a resident who was tested in Dare County, but was receiving care at a hospital outside of the county. The fifth positive test case was the spouse of the person whose positive COVID-19 test was the second for Dare County.

Bulletin No. 34 reports that of the 10 people who have tested positive in Dare County, “five have completely recovered, three are asymptomatic (meaning they have not experienced any COVID-19 symptoms), one is recovering in isolation and one remains hospitalized out of the county.”

See the bulletin at https://www.darenc.com/Home/Components/News/News/6097/1483

On Sunday, after learning of the first COVID-19 case presumably caused by community spread, or what is known as silent transmission, The Beacon predicted more positive test results would ensue this week. We based this opinion, in part, on expert analyses of the state of an outbreak in a county that has reported a case of community spread.

According to a study recently released by the University of Texas at Austin, “[i]f a county has detected only one case of COVID-19, there is a 51 percent chance that there is already a growing outbreak underway.”

In their article, “Probability of Current COVID-19 Outbreaks in All U.S. Counties,” UT researchers Emily Javan, Dr. Spencer J. Fox, and Dr. Lauren Ancel Meyers state that “COVID-19 is largely spreading undetected, because of the high proportion of asymptomatic and mild infections and limited laboratory testing capacity.”

See https://cid.utexas.edu/sites/default/files/cid/files/covid-risk-maps_counties_4.3.2020.pdf?m=1585958755.

Dr. Fox and Dr. Meyers are Ph.D.s, not M.D.s, and their approach is a statistical one that is based on a tool they developed to estimate the risk of the “silent” Zika virus spreading to the United States in 2016.

The article reportedly will be published in Emerging Infectious Diseases and is online in early release.

Dare County COVID-19 case No. 6, which was announced Sunday, is the only confirmed case that has been attributed to community spread.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 4/7/20

The credibility of the financial consultant the Town of Southern Shores has hired to advise it about a potential $16 million beach nourishment project came into question at last night’s Kitty Hawk Town Council meeting.

In the course of discussing possible re-nourishment of Kitty Hawk’s beaches, Mayor Gary Perry said, “I am aware of a recent statement by the financial gurus advising the Town of Southern Shores, stating that once you nourish [the beaches], you never get out.

“That is not true,” Mayor Perry emphasized.” If a majority of Kitty Hawk property owners told this Council to stop taxing for re-nourishment, we must listen.”

Southern Shores has hired DEC Associates of Charlotte, whose principals are the father-son team of Doug and Andrew Carter, to provide it with financial advice.

Mayor Tom Bennett and other members of the Southern Shores Town Council are scheduled in a 3:30 p.m. meeting today to consider data prepared by those “gurus,” and, possibly, to approve a 2022 beach nourishment project based on their numbers.

Mayor Perry sought last night in a prepared statement to clarify Kitty Hawk’s responsibilities in continuing the oceanfront/oceanside municipal service district it established in order to finance its beach nourishment project, which was completed in 2017.

(The Beacon is uncertain how much property was included in Kitty Hawk’s principal MSD, which was the Mayor’s focus. A second “town-wide” MSD was also designated.)

Earlier in the meeting, the Mayor said that the Kitty Hawk Town Council had previously informed property owners incorrectly that new public hearings and new property-owner notifications would be required to continue the MSDs.

Having subsequently learned from the University of North Carolina School of Government that MSDs remain in existence until they are abolished, the Mayor exhorted property owners that “The Council must hear from you this year in order to set the MSD tax rate.”

A budget hearing has been scheduled June 1.

Mayor Perry further stressed: “If majorities of property owners do not want beach re-nourishment to occur, you had better tell us. Otherwise, I would expect Council to continue the current MSD tax rate.”

In contrast to DEC Associates’ admonition that “once you nourish, you never get out”—which is an accurate statement of advice the Carters have given the Southern Shores Town Council—Mayor Perry said it was more accurate to state: “Once out, never back.”

Mayor Perry said he thought Dare County would “surely” allocate the limited funding it has available for beach nourishment “to other places,” if Kitty Hawk were to “back out.” After he said this, a slide was projected on an overhead screen reading:

“Once out, extremely unlikely to ever be able to nourish Kitty Hawk beaches again.”

The Beacon would strongly urge the Mayor and Town Manager Andy Stewart to consult with Dare County Manager/Attorney Bobby Outten before reaching such a conclusion.

Mr. Outten has informed The Beacon, as well as Southern Shores officials and residents at a public meeting, that the County preserves monies in its Beach Nourishment Fund to ensure that it can contribute to maintenance of completed beach nourishment projects—whether the maintenance is done at five-year intervals or not.

It is not in Dare County’s interests to let the Kitty Hawk beaches decline.

Eight years lapsed between the Town of Nags Head’s 2011 beach nourishment project and its first maintenance. The Town of Kitty Hawk is not required to re-nourish in 2022, if it chooses not to.

In fact, Mr. Outten told The Beacon last December that the Town of Kill Devil Hills was seeking to delay its re-nourishment past 2022. (See The Beacon, 12/14/20)

It has long been an expressed assumption by the Southern Shores Town Council that the considerable set-up costs for Southern Shores’ new beach nourishment project would be shared by the towns of Duck, Kitty Hawk, and Kill Devil Hills because they would be doing re-nourishment at the same time.

After last night’s meeting, The Beacon has to wonder if there has been any communication between Southern Shores and Kitty Hawk, either through town managers or mayors, that confirms this assumption. Or with Kill Devil Hills, for that matter.

The Kitty Hawk Town Council meeting lasted less than 15 minutes and is available for viewing through the Town’s website.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 4/7/20

 

Dare County residents are apparently inquiring about where the people who have tested positive locally for COVID-19 live and have traveled because today’s Dare Emergency Management bulletin stresses that it is “neither helpful nor productive” to seek such details.

Bulletin No. 33 also reminds residents of the State testing criteria that medical personnel are observing and that have not changed: “fever of 100.4 or greater, cough and difficulty breathing.” People who are experiencing mild or moderate symptoms are still being advised to self-isolate and not be tested.

“What we all must do to protect ourselves doesn’t change because of a positive test result,” said Dr. Sheila Davies, director of the Dare County Dept. of Health and Human Services.

“To protect yourself, your family and our community, everyone must stay at home other than for essential needs. Now that community spread is likely, it is important to act as if everyone you come in contact with may be COVID-19 positive and has the ability to spread the virus.”

See the bulletin at https://www.darenc.com/Home/Components/News/News/6091/1483

In the Dare County portion of the bulletin, the technical difficulties experienced with this morning’s meeting are acknowledged and a link to a video is provided: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZeMEIDdWqI&feature=youtu.be

KITTY HAWK MAYOR TO ADDRESS BEACH NOURISHMENT

We also would like to call your attention to the Kitty Hawk Town Council’s meeting today at 6 p.m., which will be held virtually. According to the agenda, Mayor Gary Perry will be giving a presentation on beach nourishment and municipal services districts. His presentation is the first order of business.

You may live stream the meeting at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpiX5q4vA8w&feature=youtu.be.

The Kill Devil Hills Board of Commissioners’ meeting, originally scheduled today at 6 p.m., also, has been canceled.

Ann G. Sjoerdsma, 4/5/20