THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 26, 1995 TAG: 9507260373
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY AND PAUL SOUTH, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: MANTEO LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines
A Roanoke Island marina restaurant's hopes to serve liquor may be all dried up.
Tuesday, the North Carolina Senate killed a bill that had given Pirate's Cove Restaurant the right to apply for a state liquor license. The state House is expected to follow suit Thursday.
Unpublicized legislation allowing liquor at Pirate's Cove was passed into law last Friday and was to take effect Oct. 1.
But after The Virginian-Pilot reported the action Saturday, Manteo officials called an emergency meeting.
On Monday night the town board unanimously passed a resolution asking the legislature to rescind the Pirate's Cove provision. Less than 12 hours later, state Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight introduced an amendment to quash the authorization.
By noon, the North Carolina Senate had unanimously voted to overturn the legislation that Basnight had supported just five days earlier. And the original sponsor of the bill promised that the House would kill it, too.
``I don't make many guarantees. But I can guarantee you this law will be repealed before the week is over,'' state Rep. William T. Culpepper III, D-Edenton, said from his Raleigh office Tuesday.
``The Senate did it today. And I'll try to get it on the House calendar for Thursday. I predict there won't even be any discussion about this in the House,'' said Culpepper. ``It will just pass.
``There was never any intent on our part to violate the Democratic process or subvert the will of the Manteo citizens. . . . But now that the town board has taken a specific position on this issue, it is our duty as legislators to uphold the position the local government has adopted.''
An upscale marina and housing community on a pile of dredge spoil in the Roanoke Sound, Pirate's Cove includes hundreds of homes and townhouses, 100 deep-draft boat slips that each are 40 feet long, a store, tennis courts, swimming pool and a restaurant with 15 bar seats.
Pirate's Cove is officially part of the town of Manteo. The development's property taxes account for 43 percent of the municipality's income.
Manteo residents have rejected a liquor by the drink referendum four times in the past 13 years. The most recent provision, put to the voters in 1994, lost by only 10 votes. A new referendum cannot be introduced to local voters until 1997.
Culpepper and Basnight said they were aware Manteo residents had rejected liquor by the drink several times already. But they thought Pirate's Cove deserved special consideration because it was not physically connected to the rest of Manteo - and because so many other state liquor exemptions already existed.``Under all the circumstances, I thought it was fair for Pirate's Cove to have a separate provision,'' Culpepper said. ``But as soon as I heard of the Manteo board's resolution, I contacted Basnight to determine how we could repeal this thing.''
Culpepper tacked the initial amendment allowing Pirate's Cove to apply for a liquor license onto Senate Bill 57 - legislation that contains special liquor provisions for three counties other than Dare.
Basnight enacted legislation to repeal that law through similar mechanisms. Although the period for introducing new legislation is long over, the senator added the repeal provision onto an existing bill, House Bill 458. That legislation deals with Driving While Impaired assessment enhancement activities.
``It's very heartwarming that not only did the legislature reverse the bill, but the people who initiated the original legislation participated in the reversal of it,'' Manteo Town Commissioner Edward Greene said Tuesday. ``I feel that Thomas Jefferson would be proud.''
Ann McArthur, co-owner of Manteo's Courthouse Cafe, said she was pleased with the General Assembly's rapid response to the town's concerns.
``This was not an issue of liquor by the drink. It's an issue of fair play in politics,'' McArthur said Tuesday. ``I think all of us should have to abide by the same rules. It was nice to see everybody in the community get together so quickly to do something about what they thought was unfair.
``I think they (the General Assembly) will think twice before trying to slip something in.'' ILLUSTRATION: PIRATE'S COVE
Pirate's Cove development is two miles across a salt marsh from the
town of Manteo. But the upscale marina and resort community is
officially part of the town. In 1994, municipal taxes at Pirate's
Cove accounted for 43 percent of Manteo's income.
Assessed value of all Manteo properties: $133,750,000
Assessed value of Pirate's Cove properties: $57,910,000
Manteo's income from municipal taxes: $494,887
Manteo's income from Pirate's Cove taxes: $214,268
Source: Town of Manteo
by CNB