OT Board Finalizes Recommendations
The OT board faced some hard choices this year in trying to keep their allocations around $350,000.
The board met on April 7th to hear the annual funding requests from Ocracoke non-profits. The meeting starts with the smallest requests (the easiest to say yes to!), and progresses with the amounts getting bigger and bigger. Topping the list this year was Hyde County’s tourism and marketing proposal to fund a county position and start an Ocracoke Visitor Bureau using $100,000 of OT money. Next in line for big handouts were the fire department (85K) and Ocracoke Civic and Business Association (82K).
After an hour of deliberations last week, the board tabled the requests from OCBA, Ocracoke Child Care, OVFD, and Hyde County until the 15th.
On the evening of Tax Day, Frank led his board (and the small audience who came to hear the results) to make the final decisions in just 48 minutes. (Frank likes a short and sweet meeting.)
Ocracoke Child Care received their request of $43,000 for start-up costs for a summer program for visiting children that will provide an income stream for the struggling daycare center. Although the price tag was hefty, and OCC received large grants last year, the board did not want to leave them hanging.
“They’ve come a long way since last year,” Frank said. “They’ve got a good board, a good accountant. It would be an extreme hardship for families if they had to fold.”
The rest of the board agreed that supporting the island’s only licensed childcare center was necessary. They hope that this proposed summer program will make the center better able to support itself eventually.
The OT board also unanimously approved the funding for OCBA. The $82,174 will pay for events (British Cemetery Ceremony, 4th of July, Fig Festival, Blackbeard’s Pirate Jamboree), the salary for the OCBA tourism director (full disclosure: me!), rent and supplies for the visitor center at the Community Square, and provide up to $10,000 to revamp the ocracokevillage.com website.
The most controversial item on the agenda was the Hyde County request, which was the subject of much discussion at the April 7th meeting and many meetings before that. The OT board did not even bring it to a vote on the 15th.
“We can talk about your proposal – we can talk it to death,” Frank said frankly to Hyde County planner Kris Noble, “but it’s not going to pass.”
He is concerned, he said, about transportation issues.
“Marketing doesn’t make sense when people can’t get here. It’s a waste of money,” he said. Frank does not want to waste OT money, and feels strongly that the board needs to spend conservatively and re-build the reserve funds.
After some more discussion, Frank suggested that OCBA and Kris Noble get together to work out any further requests for funding. “The door is open,” he said. “Come back to us.”
Here’s the complete list of requests and recommendations. These recommendations will need to be approved by the Hyde County Board of Commissioners at their May 4th meeting before they are official. Don’t count your chickens before they hatch!
Ocracoke Brownie Girl Scouts:
Request: $650 for supplies and fees to create and paint murals for OCC and Ocracoke Community Park.
All approved $650.
Ocracoke Friends of the Library:
Request: $2165 to pay for Summer Reading Program, 12 weeks of summer janitorial services at the library, and a new sign for the library’s exterior.
All approved $2165.
Greater Hyde County Chamber of Commerce:
Request: $2500 for two new programs: Love Hyde and Buy Local
All approved $2500
Ocracoke Alive:
Request: $6000 for the Ocrafolk Festival (which is about 10% of the festival’s budget). Proceeds from the festival support community programming
All approved $6000.
Hyde County:
Request: $10,000 for fees for McClees lobbyists. Fees are 25K total this year; county and mainland OT board is covering the rest.
All approved the $10,000.
Ocracoke Preservation Society:
Request: $10,500 for software and staffing to crate virtual tours with the newly-digitized library (thanks to previous OT funds.)
All approved $10,500.
Ocracoke Health Center:
Request: $22,000 (15K for improvements to EMS building when EMS vacates it and 7K for website design)
All approved granting ½ the request for a total of $11,000.
Ocracoke School:
Request: $23,381.56 for playground equipment and re-sodding the playground
All approved a rounded amount of $23,382.
Ocracoke Child Care:
Request: $43,000 to start new summer program to provide income for the center’s operations.
All approved $43,000.
Ocracoke Youth Center:
Request: $48,000 to make payments on land purchased for Ocracoke Community Park.
All approved $48,000.
Ocracoke Community Center:
Request: $60,983 ($18,250 for operating expenses; $30,500 for improvements including floor, acoustic panels, sign, tables and chairs; $12,233 for cabinets and landscaping)
All approved $32,500 to be spent: $18,250 for operating expenses; $10,000 for improvements except for floor; $4250 for exterior improvements.
Ocracoke Civic and Business Association:
Request: $82,174 for events, tourism promotion, website upgrade, and visitor center
All approved $82,174.
Ocracoke Fire and Protection Association:
Request: $85,000 (35K for equipment; 50K for mortgage)
All approved $85,000.
Hyde County Tourism and Marketing:
Request: $60,000 (30K for the partial support of a fulltime county emplyee; 30K to hire a professional marketing team). This was revised from the county's original request of $100,000 (40K for a fulltime county employee; 60K for marketing)
No motion was made. No funds were granted.
Total requested: $456,354.
Total recommended: $356,871.
Last year, the board recommended and the commissioners appropriated $441,000 in OT funds.
The 5-member OT board is appointed by the the board of commissioners. The current board is Frank Brown, Trudy Austin, Clayton Gaskill, Marlene Mathews, and David Styron.
