Crowds were brisk and cold refreshments popular as the annual Croaker Festival got under way along the waterfront in Oriental on Friday afternoon. Most available parking was taken throughout the core Old Village section of town on opening day, with the largest crowds expected Saturday. Oriental resident Lori Wagoner won first place in the festival's popular baking contest for her organic apple pie, made from apples grown at her home on a tree she sprouted from a parent tree about 12 years ago. Croaker Festival website >

Kelly Hooker (left) Rhonda Breed (center) and Linda Potter, behind the mask, make plans for a Mardi Gras-style event to be held July 11 at the Ned Everett Delamar Center. The festivities, which will feature helicopter rides, food, music from the Glitzy Chicks and more, is a fund-raiser for Senior Services of Pamlico county. Read More >>>

Pamlico County, N.C.'s garden and yard flowers are showing their colors as the calendar swings toward July and, eventually, August. How many more meals they may hold for the butterflys and bees who are fortunate enough to escape the municipal mosquito spraying going on in many of our communities – including Oriental – is, of course, unknown. But there's no reason to suspect they will give up their posts until the last, lone petal has fallen to the sun and wind. Photographer Larry Zimm captured this image at his home in the Bayboro area.

JUNE 2 , 2009 – Oriental town officials strangled their no-tax-hike budget into near final form Tuesday night, taking advantage of a recently resigned police sergeant to, effectively, signal they may cut the police force by half – from two officers to one.

Pay raises for town staff were choked back to 1.5 percent, and a recently acquired, lightly admired police boat fell further from favor with a sentiment summed up by Commissioner Candy Bohmert during a debate on the boat's future, "Is there any way we could return it?"

Police Chief Jeff Casassa said he would check into it. As for the size of the Police Department, Casassa acknowledged it was a board decision, but nonetheless cautioned, "things are changing in Oriental."

"I just want you to realize there are going to be times I need someone else," he said during a discussion of whether the board should replace recently resigned Sgt. Bill Careway with a full time officer, a part-time officer, or no officer at all. "I would ask the board make sure I have access to somebody . . ." he said, fearing they may be times when he "can't get any backup."

The debate was prompted, in part, when Commissioner Sherrill Styron said the recent police department vacancy might be a "blessing in disguise" in allowing the town to balance its budget by eliminating the position.

"I think this is what we need to try to look at," Styron said, adding that state cuts to the town has forced it to make difficult decisions. "We may decide in the future we need a part-time officer (but let's) leave it like it is now" but coordinate with the Sheriff's Department or take other steps to ensure Casassa could have time off, he said.

Another budget-tightening move also focused on the Police Department: The board discussed a new policy setting restrictions and guidelines for police on their use of town-owned police cars for personal business. Since the chief is now a one-man department and might be called out at any time, the discussion covered the cost of outfitting his personal car with police gear such as emergency lights. Casassa's estimated was "$300, maybe a little more."

The town set a public hearing on its budget for June 11 at 5 p.m.

In other action during a two-hour meeting Tuesday, Oriental town officials:

• Reinforced an informal decision from last week's "agenda" meeting to put off until some indefinite future time any serious or in-depth discussion on whether to adopt an ethics policy that might guide town board and committee members on conflicts of interest and other ethical dilemmas.

One remark from last night's gathering seems to indicate a hesitation on the board's part to claim any ownership of the ethics issue – though that may engage in too much mind-reading to satisfy more exacting readers. In any case, an ethics policy was mentioned by Town Manager Randy Cahoon in his report somewhat early in Tuesday's meeting, but commissioners let the suggestion pass with virtually no response until near the end of the two-hour get-together, when Commissioner Nancy Inger mentioned the North Carolina League of Municipalities' Conflict of Interest Statement, adding with a glance toward Cahoon that the statement might, "go along with your ethics thing."

• Heard from Bohmert that minutes given to board members from a recent Tourism Board meeting were "drafts" that are likely to undergo revision at the Tourism Board's upcoming meeting on June 24 (though Chairman Cathy McIlhenny had already approved them). Bohmert, who is the commission representative on the Tourism Board, apparently objects to the draft minutes because they reflect a discussion that took place at the last Tourism Board meeting on the issue of about $1,300 in Tourism Board funds being diverted to a failed dragon-boat festival. There is confusion among Tourism Board members themselves as to whether the failed festival was a project of a private events-management company owned by Tourism Board member Flora Moorman, Down East Destinations, a Tourism Board event, or something in between.

The minutes also note that occasional payments of $75 that used to be paid to the Oriental Museum each time a vessel from American Cruise Lines docked in the town now goes at times to Moorman's Down East Destinations.

It's unclear whether Tourism Board members authorized diverting the museum payments and underwriting the dragon-boat festival. The only known vote on the $1,300 payment for the failed dragon-boat event came after the fact – after former Tourism Board President Katy Pugh submitted an invoice to Town Hall for payment.

The money is owned to a Tennessee events-management company that Moorman's Down East Destinations apparently sub-contracted with in some fashion to help put on the one-time event. Moorman has said the Tourism Board asked her to "look into" the dragon-boat event.

• Voted without objection to cut the Tourism Board back to five members. The board, at its request, was expanded to seven members but has had trouble getting a quorum. Like all town boards, the tourism group is made up of volunteers.

• Approved a resolution to the state asking that one side of North Street within town limits be converted to a no-parking zone. The lane along Cape Lookout Yachts within the town is just 11 feet and is too narrow for auto use and parking, officials said.

• Heard from Inger, the town's representative on the Bay River Sewer board, that the sewer agency is negotiating with Sea Horse Landing on White Farm Road to use part of its property as a waste-water lagoon. Before the real estate bust, the area was envisioned as a common area to be used as pasture for the horse-friendly development.

The information touched off a short debate on the Sea Horse project, with Mayor Bill Sage saying there were problems with the plat for the development. "It seems to show lots that do not exist," he said. "there are deeds on file (for lots) that are not on the plat."

Sea Horse Landing was formed in 2005 by a Wilmington lawyer who has been involved in chartering several developments.

• Informally rejected a proposal by Commissioner David Cox that the town's job aplication form be revised to ask for a military separation document known as a DD-214, which he said would be useful in providing information about a candidate and might provide insights not available eslewhere.

The form is officially the "DD Form 214 Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty." The DD-214 is a paper document issued by the U.S. Department of Defense when a military member leaves service.

Cox said the document isn't a public one but job candidates "should be willing" to provide it.

The following exchange took place:

INGER: How would we justify asking for that? I'm not so sure we have the right.

SAGE: It feels like we are putting the military person to a different standard.

STYRON: I don't see what that has to do with employment.

• Discussed buried utility lines at the site of a planned bicycle path at or near the Sea Horse development-of-the-future. Planning documents show the lines are to be buried, but don't make it clear who is going to pay to have it done, Cahoon said.

That being the case, the town manager continued, the more expensive buried utility lines may be, essentially, a pipe dream.

• Approved a policy on records retention that sets specific guidelines for maintaining public records the town is entrusted with safeguarding.

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