The Dare County Board of Elections certified the results of the 2025 municipal election in its Friday, Nov. 14, canvass meeting, including a Kitty Hawk mayoral race decided by three votes.

Voters in the towns of Kitty Hawk and Manteo have selected new mayors, with the Kitty Hawk mayoral race decided by two votes, according to unofficial North Carolina State Board of Elections results published Tuesday night. The 2025 municipal election cycle included a total of 20 local governing board seats across the six towns in Dare County.

In this year’s municipal election, two incumbent leaders in the Town of Kill Devil Hills and two incumbent leaders in the Town of Southern Shores are all running unopposed for reelection.

Community members concerned with an expected rise in food insecurity amid an ongoing federal government shutdown and in the face of the first-ever anticipated federal pause on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program have been seeking and creating ways to help their neighbors.

In this year’s municipal election for the Town of Manteo, two candidates are running for the contested mayor seat, while three other candidates are running unopposed for three open town council seats.

In this year’s municipal election for the Town of Nags Head, three candidates are running for two open commissioner seats, another three candidates are running for one open unexpired term commissioner seat and the mayor’s race is uncontested.

In this year’s municipal election for the Town of Kitty Hawk, two candidates are running for the contested mayor seat, while two others are running unopposed for open town council seats.

Six candidates are running for the five available town council seats in the Town of Duck. The town’s next mayor will be selected from among the incoming council members.

Dare County has a Wednesday deadline for homeowners to apply for a federal grant program that would potentially purchase threatened homes or raise homes in several years. Interested homeowners can fill out an ongoing county survey to be contacted about future grant opportunities.

Voters residing within the town limits of Duck, Kill Devil Hills, Kitty Hawk, Nags Head, Manteo and Southern Shores are eligible to cast ballots in the upcoming election.

The Dare County Board of Commissioners at its Wednesday meeting in Manteo unanimously approved a zoning map amendment to increase the density on a group of Colington lots.

The long-awaited new Dare County license plate agency will open in Kitty Hawk on Thursday, according to the North Carolina Department of Transportation.

The General Assembly voted “The Power Bill Reduction Act,” sponsored by 10 Republican senators including the two representing the Outer Banks, into law over Gov. Josh Stein’s veto. Independent analyses claim the legislation will do the opposite of its short title, increasing household bills.

Last-minute changes made to legislation in the state Senate in June would have banned all shrimp trawling in the state’s inshore waters and within a half-mile of the shoreline for four years. After a hastily organized lobbying campaign from shrimpers and their allies, the legislature put the trawling ban on ice—for now.

North Carolina leaders announced Friday afternoon that the Trump administration reversed course and will release the nearly $7 billion in public school funding across the nation it had frozen indefinitely the day before its scheduled July 1 release.

The webpage of all elected officials in Dare County lists an address for a county commissioner that is outside of the district in which he’s required to live to represent, but he said his “primary” address is within the district.

The Trump administration’s recent freeze of federal public school funding totals over $750,000 across Outer Banks area public school districts.

Over $1 million in Opportunity Scholarship funding was distributed to 195 Outer Banks students attending private schools during the recently concluded 2024-25 school year, state records show.

A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesperson confirmed to Outer Banks Insider that all five of Dare County’s formerly suspended dredging permits have been reinstated.

Mayors of the six towns in Dare County co-signed a letter addressed to all the members of the North Carolina General Assembly “regarding S205 and similar bills,” sharing concerns over proposals they see as restricting local authority.