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Some recent visitors to Oriental’s harbor.

Friday May 9, 2008

It’s been threatening to rain here for a day now, and just may any minute. But the forecast for the weekend has that big Mister Sun smack in the middle of it. Saturday’s sunny. Good news for the Farmers’ Market, and Yoga Paddle, and Plant Exchange and the Youth Sailing Clinic (okay, well that last one is under the roof at the Village Club Pool, but still…) Lots going on and you can read about them all in What’s Happening.

Tonight’s show of Catherine Russell at the Old Theater sold out a few days ago. It’s the last show in the Pamlico Musical Society’s season. They’ll be back with more in the fall, including the Oriental Folk Fest.

Thursday May 8, 2008

Some sad and disturbing news from the Buccaneer Bay neighborhood just across the creek from Oriental. The county health director says 15 pets have taken ill or died there in the past half year. The extent of the deaths only came to light this weekend when two dogs died and neighbors compared notes. Tests are being run to determine if, as suspected, they were poisoned. Meantime, pet owners in that neighborhood are advised to keep the dogs and cats inside and before letting them out, to scan yards for plastic bags that might contain poison. More on the story, here.

This afternoon the Town Board continues its meeting from Tuesday night. The town’s attorney, Scott Davis is expected to be there for the 2pm session to explain what happened in the South Avenue case. He did not make the meeting the other night and some in the audience expressed that they wanted to hear what the town’s attorney had to say. As with all Town Board meetings, today’s continuation is open to the public — though the Board may go in to closed session for the narrow exception of discussing strategy in the case. One other note: the Town Board on Tuesday appointed a committee to look in to hiring a litigator to take the town’s case from here on.

Wednesday May 7, 2008

A no-show poll worker delayed the opening of Oriental’s polling station Tuesday morning which in turn caused Oriental’s polling place to stay open an hour later Tuesday. So, with the polls closing at 8:30 instead of 7:30 – our town probably had the last voter in NC on primary day. This also got Oriental a mention in the national news. If you’d like to get a sense of how Oriental and Pamlico voted, we have the story here

Tuesday May 6, 2008

Update 4:51pm The Oriental polling station will be open an hour later tonight — until 8:30pm — because of a delayed start this morning. Board of Election supervisor Lisa Bennett says that the chief judge for the precinct, did not show up this morning and as a result, the other poll workers did not have the supplies to get the voting machines up and running. Nor did they have the polling books. The other workers notified Bennett about 15 minutes before the scheduled 6:30am start time and Bennett says she started running off copies for another set of polling books. Those books and another key for the machines were delivered to Oriental, but it was 7:30am before the polls could open.

Around 11am, the county’s three member Board of Elections decided to keep Oriental’s precinct open until 8:30pm. That way, Bennett says, would-be voters who wanted to vote before work but couldn’t this morning, will still have a chance to cast their ballots today.

As for why the chief judge, Maquina Thomas didn’t open the polling place, Bennett could not offer an explanation. She says the chief judge had picked up the voting supplies last night, but had been temporarily living outside the precinct and that there was car trouble.

The delay has Oriental in the news. This story isn’t just on TownDock.net – with a tightly contested Democratic presidential primary, the story of the delayed poll opening here in the village was picked up the AP… which means it will get reported all over. We’re told the story has been on CNN.

8:04am It’s primary day. Polls are opened til 7:30pm. Voters in the Oriental precinct cast ballots over at the firehouse on Straight Road. Dems and Repubs are choosing candidates for the statewide elections this fall, and the Democrats also have that little matter of who their presidential candidate will be.

At a more local level of government, there’s a Town Board meeting tonight..and a couple of public hearings. One is specifically about a second attempt at a Special Use Permit for a condominium project near Whittaker Creek Marina (neighbors have not been enthused). The other public hearing of note is one that could affect every neighborhood in town: a proposed Conditional Zoning that would let the Town Board allow development that didn’t fit the zoning of a lot. You can read more about it at The Public Dock. The public may speak up about either of those issues at the hearings tonight and may hear more details about what went south in that South Avenue lawsuit. Also, there’s a proposal being floated to require all dogs in town to be leashed. The meeting starts at 7pm.

Coming up this week here at TownDock.net, the 19th Whortonsville Yacht and Tractor Club T-shirt is unveiled.. to go along with the upcoming WYTC Regatta in June.

Monday May 5, 2008

Some early morning rain falling on town right now. Which is fine, cos we needed it and it’d have been a drag if it happened over the weekend, which was another busy one, what with a town wide yard sale, crawfish and zydeco at Lou Mac…

And then, yesterday afternoon, there was the Circle Ten opening for Month-of-May artists, John Hanley and Marion Adams. Marion draws people — faces she finds all over the county, while John puts bright colors to some local scenes. The special exhibition at Circle Ten goes on thru the month. Definitely worth a stop. In the meantime, you can see some of the works here: