THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 22, 1995 TAG: 9503220535
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RALEIGH LENGTH: Short : 50 lines
A bill that would add Run Hill, a 70-foot sand dune that borders Nags Head Woods, to the state park system has been approved by the Senate.
After no debate, the Senate approved the measure 42-2 Monday night.
The bill now goes to the House.
During preliminary debate Thursday night, some Republican members of the Senate questioned why the Natural Heritage Trust Fund would devote so much of its resources to buy the sand dune. They questioned whether the measure wasn't simply a way to bail the Dare County Board of Education out of a bad real estate deal.
But on Monday, Senate Minority Leader Betsy Cochrane, a Davie County Republican, said most of her questions about the project had been answered.
The property has been valued at $530,000.
Proponents of the measure said the move will help preserve the sand dune, a valuable Outer Banks natural area, and will protect Nags Head Woods, one of the few remaining maritime forests on the state's coast, from intrusion from saltwater.
Under the measure approved by the Senate, the Natural Heritage Trust Fund will buy the property, which will then be added to the state parks system.
Besides protecting Run Hill, the agreement clears the way for the school board to plan for a new high school on another site it has identified as ideal.
In other legislative highlights: Eastern North Carolina residents will be able to expand their assault on red wolves under a bill filed in the legislature Tuesday. The bill would add Beaufort County to the list of eastern North Carolina counties where residents can trap and kill red wolves that wander from the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge onto private land. The bill's sponsor, Rep. Zeno Edwards, R-Beaufort, said he doesn't expect the measure to generate the same debate as a similar bill approved last year by the legislature.
A House subcommittee resolved an impasse Tuesday over a bill that would give the General Assembly the authority to approve any administrative rules before they become law.
A subcommittee of the House Judiciary I Committee voted 2-1 to approve a version of the bill that would give a 16-member committee of legislators oversight authority on a wide variety of measures - including coastal fishing regulations, drinking-water protection, coastal development and sewage disposal. by CNB