‘Nights in Rodanthe’ Films Voters Reject Liquor By the Drink

After more than a decade of talking and planning, the University of North Carolina Coastal Studies Institute plans to start construction at a 34.4-acre site across from the North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island.

Earlier this year, Dare County contributed the land for the campus, and work on the $32.4 million project is expected to begin in the summer and be completed in about two years. It will operate as a free-standing unit within the state’s university system.

– Catherine Kozak

Scenes for the first full-length Hollywood movie to be shot on Hatteras Island were filmed in May.

“Nights in Rodanthe,” a tear-jerker based on the Nicholas Sparks novel, was filmed at a beach house in Rodanthe, at the Hatteras Island fishing pier, on the Hatteras-Ocracoke ferry and on Ocracoke Island.

There were also shoots in Manns Harbor and Manteo.

To the thrill of local residents, dozens were hired as extras, and there were sightings of the stars, Richard Gere and Diane Lane.

The film is expected to be in theaters in the summer.

– Catherine Kozak

Hatteras Island voters in November rejected, 855-657, authorization of the sale of mixed drinks in restaurants. Hatteras is one of the few Outer Banks communities that ban mixed beverage sales in restaurants. Proponents said the tourist clientele wanted to be able to have a drink with dinner. But island churches said the sale of liquor in restaurants would make the alcohol abuse and drunken driving problems on the island worse.

– Catherine Kozak

Sparked by incidents that included brush fires, flaming trash cans, charred porches and at least one couple who said they nearly lost their home when firecrackers were set off within feet of it in January, the Dare County Board of Commissioners outlawed all fireworks on Hatteras Island.

The ban began June 1. Anyone caught selling, using, igniting or possessing fireworks on Hatteras – even the kinds that are legal elsewhere in North Carolina – could face a $250 fine.

– Kristin Davis

On June 8, Ocracoke Island topped America’s Best Beaches list for the first time since Dr. Beach – aka Stephen Leatherman of Florida International University’s Laboratory for Coastal Research – began the yearly compilation in 1991. On July 5, the Hatteras/Ocracoke ferry set a one-day record, shuttling 10,231 people to and from the island. Through Dec. 1, overall passengers were up more than 12 percent over the same period last year.

– Kristin Davis

The historic U.S. Weather Bureau Station in Hatteras reopened to the public on July 1 after sitting empty for two years after $850,000 in renovations. The National Park Service, owner of the butter yellow, cupola-topped building, had lacked the money to staff it until partnering with the Outer Banks Visitors Bureau this year. The visitors bureau plans to operate it as a welcome center seven days a week, 10 months a year.

– Kristin Davis

Duck turned 5 years old in 2007, and the opening of a new park helped mark the milestone. Duck Town Park, just more than 10 acres at the heart of town, was home to a summer arts series that included music acts and performances from “The Lost Colony” and the North Carolina School of the Arts.

That land was once eyed for a big-box grocery store, a plan that spurred residents to incorporation.

On Oct. 7, nearly 3,000 people attended a jazz festival there.

– Kristin Davis

Eight months after the Southern Shores Town Council passed a resolution authorizing the condemnation of land owned by a neighborhood association for a canal dredging project, the council on Oct. 23 rescinded that decision.

The move in February to condemn 11 undeveloped acres in the neighborhood of Chicahauk led to months of acrimonious debate among townspeople and town officials.

Eventually, private property owners agreed to lease their land for the first phase of the project, which has not begun yet.

– Kristin Davis

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