Mayor's Notes

A Sense of Community

Mayor John Brodman

By the time you read this, our Independence Day celebrations will be in the books, and we will be on a long, slow downslide of the summer peak season. Back-toschool advertisements will soon start showing up in the papers as an impertinent reminder for all school-aged children that the lazy, hazy days of summer will soon be over. I grew up with two sisters and a brother, and we were all in school together. The back-toschool advertisements became an annual, ritual joke in our family, with our smiling parents leaving the newspapers around where we would be sure to see the ads and sulk. Back to the salt mines kiddies! They were evil.

In Pine Knoll Shores (PKS), we had a truly great 4th of July Parade, with everyone and everything, including dogs, bicycles and golf carts, decorated in red, white and blue. We didn’t have Ferris wheels or funnel cakes, but it was a spectacular, small town, family event, especially after the hiatus of last year. Our former Mayor (1991-1996), Mary Kanyha, showed up and rode in a police car at the front of the parade. Mary, who is 97 years young, lives in Texas now, but still has a home in Pine Knoll Shores that she and her family use. We also had a very successful post-July 4th weekend beach cleanup, with the help of the staff of the aquarium.

I want to thank everyone who came out and participated, as well as our citizen volunteers on the Parks and Recreation Committee who helped to organize these events.

Our town hall has re-opened, and everything has pretty much returned to a semblance of “normal,” whatever that is these days. Several people I know are less than enthusiastic about jumping right back into everything. They got used to the lockdown routine and took advantage of the slower pace of life, additional time at home, and opportunity to connect with their families. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised if the pandemic has a lasting effect on some people’s choice of lifestyle.

This year, 2021, is the 40th anniversary of the Bogue Banks branch of the Carteret County Public Library System. Prior to 1981, and for a time after, the island and other remote parts of the county, were being served by a series of bookmobiles that made regular rounds, stopping in each town. The first Bogue Banks Branch opened in a small room in the old aquarium building in 1981, and it moved to its present location in 1990. The Bogue Banks library is an extremely important part of our community, and many of its patrons suffered during the necessary loss of access to the library during the pandemic.

Three of the five library branches, Western Carteret, Beaufort and Newport, have re-opened on a full schedule, but Bogue Banks and Down East are only open 3 days a week. Residents, second homeowners and visitors on Bogue Banks would like to see the Bogue Banks Branch re-open to its full pre-pandemic schedule of 6 days per week.

We understand that the county is having difficulties hiring qualified library personnel, so we were especially heartened by Chairman Eddie Bo Wheatly’s proposal to re-open all the Branches to the same full-time schedule. This was subsequently endorsed by the Carteret County Board of Commissioners during their recent budget deliberations, and this is something we fully support. The library is an integral part of the fabric of our communities, and we want to thank the County and the Commissioners for their efforts to maintain and preserve this jewel of an institution.

This is a municipal election year in Pine Knoll Shores, and the mayor’s 2-year term is up, as is the 4-year term for 3 out of our 5 commissioner positions. At the time of the deadline for submitting copy for this issue of the Island Review, both the mayor (yours truly, John Brodman) and the 3 incumbent commissioners (Bill Knecht, Alicia Durham and Larry Corsello) had announced their intention to run for re-election to their posts, but the registration period for other potential candidates was just getting underway, so there is nothing to report on that front. I support all the candidates, I wish them the best of luck, and may the best persons win.

Stay safe and enjoy the summer.