THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 18, 1996 TAG: 9605180292
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
Jackie Simmons, a teacher who commutes from Moyock to Chesapeake, rarely gets a chance during the week for a favorite pastime - duck hunting.
A local law prohibits waterfowl hunting after 4:20 p.m. on Currituck County's open waters. Private ponds and open fields are exempt.
``It's a law that's archaic. It should have been changed a long time ago,'' Simmons said this week. It also appears to favor some landowners and hunt club operators, he added.
Simmons and about 40 other hunters who successfully sought to extend duck hunting until sunset - which falls within federal guidelines - thought such a change was coming.
But a resolution by the Board of Commissioners requesting legislative authorization to change the quitting time is on hold.
Several Currituck County residents want commissioners to revisit the issue, saying they were unaware until recently that the law was in jeopardy.
A work session between the commissioners and the local game board is planned for 7:30 p.m. Monday, followed by a formal discussion during a regular commissioners' meeting at 8.
``It's all been against the duck, and right now I don't see, if we extend the period that we can kill something, how that's going to help the situation,'' said Walton Carter.
Carter is among those who have gotten involved in the duck-hunting issue since the resolution was passed on to Raleigh.
A former county game board chairman, Carter said he was responsible for turning the longstanding 4:20 p.m. policy into law several years ago.
The rule was created in the 1950s to let ducks rest undisturbed in the evening and to help provide slow-moving boats a safe passage through the shallow Currituck Sound.
Some in the county still believe those concerns are valid.
``They still feel that is a viable rationale, and they would like it to continue,'' said Ernie Bowden, a county commissioner who has received numerous phone calls in recent days.
Bowden said callers from Corolla, home to three hunt clubs, and Knotts Island want to keep the 4:20 law. Only one of eight calls in the past couple of days supported a change; that person lived in Elizabeth City, he said.
Carter believes the 4:20 rule should stay in place to help conserve a depleting natural resource.
``If we really, truly are honest and sincere about preserving something for our kids, then we've got to put something back. We can't take away,'' he said. ``I just see hunting till dark as taking away.''
Currituck County, dubbed a sportsmen's paradise because of its abundant waterfowl, has seen its duck population decline for a number of years.
Development along the Currituck Sound shoreline has destroyed nesting areas. A change in the sound's water has produced less natural feed.
Carter is himself a duck hunter. ``But I've got two children also, and I'd like for them to experience at least some of what I've seen,'' he said.
Game board member Jim Hilton of Moyock believes the extended hours would not drastically reduce the duck supply or create more unsafe situations, which is another of Carter's concerns.
Hilton said his vote, and those of other game board members, was based on the overwhelming support to eliminate the 4:20 law that was displayed at a meeting.
A public forum on the issue was advertised at least twice in a local newspaper, he said. ``At that meeting nobody there expressed any opposition to it,'' Hilton added, referring to the change.
Private newspaper ads also were published on the meeting, several citizens said.
Carter said he, and possibly others, missed the notices, perhaps because they were not advertised as a public hearing but rather as a board meeting.
While worried about the fate of the 4:20 law, people like Simmons and Hilton also are concerned with the way the delay has been handled.
``We voted to have a change, and they can't stop it in the middle of the street,'' Simmons said.
Said Hilton, ``It just doesn't seem right now that they're going in a back door to get the county commissioners to waylay it.''
``We haven't taken a formal vote on it one way or the other,'' said Commissioner Owen Etheridge. ``This coming Monday night it's on the agenda, and we'll just take it from there.'' by CNB