THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 9, 1997 TAG: 9702060168
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letters
LENGTH: 96 lines
Once again the people and children of Hatteras Island have been short-changed by the politicians of Dare County.
The school board's refusal to include an elementary school in the proposed bond issue is an insult to all the children of our island. Our children deserve to be able to learn in the same environment as the rest of the children in Dare County.
They should not have to walk the halls with high school students or share learning areas with them. Nowhere else in the county does this situation exist.
The children of Hatteras Island are not second-class citizens. They are our future and should be treated as such. They should have the same learning opportunities of the rest of the children in our county. Currently, that is not the case. All the parents of Hatteras Island want is for our children to have access to the same assets as children in the rest of the county.
What is going to happen to our children when they tear down the current school and start the proposed renovations? Where are they going to have classes? What will happen to their middle school sports programs? When they tear down the little gym, where are they going to have physical education classes?
These are some of the questions I asked Dare County Board of Education Chairwoman Donna Buxton. But she could not give me answers - probably because the school board never gave any thought to our children and what will happen to them during the renovations.
These are questions that should have been thought of and answered before the school board decided on the current proposals. How will our young children be able to learn under the hardships that the school board is proposing for them? We, the parents of Hatteras Island, want to hear your answers. Going to school in mobile trailers is not the answer.
The only answer is a new elementary school for our children.
And as we all know, when politicians say we may have to look into changing to two administrative factions for the elementary and high school, more than likely that will never happen. Or when they say they are committed to building an elementary school on Hatteras Island in the future - how far in the future are they talking about? Twenty years from now? Thirty years from now? In the meantime the children are being deprived of what they need and deserve now!
The children and people of Hatteras Island have been getting short-changed for far too long now! It is time that we make a stand and fight for what we deserve. We deserve an elementary school for our children. They deserve the best learning opportunities we can provide. This current proposal from the Board of Education does not provide those opportunities. Therefore, I urge everybody on Hatteras Island and the rest of Dare County to vote ``NO'' on the bond issue as it is currently proposed!
Joseph Farrow, Jr.
Buxton Regulations endanger commercial fisherman
It seems that with each passing day there is a new battle for the commercial fisherman. Today, Jan. 31, about 20 days after the closure of the flounder fishery, North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries Director Bruce Freeman talks of a proclamation to close shrimping in a task designed to keep fishermen from using shrimp nets for fishing. He says fishermen are catching small fish on the stressed-fish list, with laws on the books that allow only 5,000 pounds of bycatch.
Why hasn't the Division of Marine Fisheries ticketed these catches if, in fact, this has happened at all? It's the same old story. Freeman and the Division of Marine Fisheries - with no facts, no data, no tickets, just rumors - close yet another fishery.
Commercial fishermen, wise up. Fly-netters, trawlers, sink-netters, long-haulers, no matter what you do from clamming to pound-netting, this is the time for all of you to come together as one commercial fishing entity. They are after all of you, one at a time or all together, with a net ban or by passing the Moratorium Steering Committee's package, or by premature closure piece by piece - both in inside and outside waters. They continue to make the water areas smaller than you can fish, the minimum sizes of the fish you can catch larger, the amount you can catch less, the fishing time shorter and more and more gear restrictions.
Commercial fishermen, you have to unite as one industry to stop this! If you continue to let them divide you as individual fisheries, they will continue to shut you down one by one. The plan from the beginning is to do away with all nets, all forms of net fishing, both in inside and outside waters, the ocean, sounds, rivers, bays, lakes - all the waters of North Carolina.
By causing conflict within the commercial fishing industry, they divide and conquer! There is room in this state for all of us. Don't stand by and let them turn North Carolina into a no-net state for recreational hook and line fishing only!
Stand up and be heard.
Commercial fishermen and their families, join together in Raleigh on Feb. 10 at the meeting of the Legislature's joint committee on seafood and agriculture - or help send someone to stand up for you. Call your governor, senators, representatives and members of the seafood and aquaculture committee. Tell them to stop the madness and save the commercial fishing industry of North Carolina.
You can make a difference!
Elaine Davis
Davis, N.C.