I guess I'll be tanning south of Pleasure Island now: No Thongs on Kure Beach!

[from AP] A North Carolina town that the mayor called "Mayberry with a beach" has banned swimmers from wearing thongs. Kure Beach Mayor Dean Lambeth said "we're going to keep this as close to Mayberry with a beach as you can keep it," referring to the idyllic Southern community portrayed on the 1960s TV series "The Andy Griffith Show."

The Star-News of Wilmington reported that the town council voted Thursday to add a ban against the revealing swimwear to its existing ordinance against nudity.

The move came after the police chief received an e-mail earlier in the week asking if the town's existing nude bathing ordinance allowed thongs.

The ordinance bans nudity or "insufficient clothing," and the man wanted to know if thongs were allowed for both men and women.

"We try to do everything we can toward being a family oriented beach," Mayor Pro Tem Chuck Keener said.

Inappropriate swimwear on Kure Beach was a problem about five years ago, Lambeth said, but not in recent years. The ordinance applies to all of Kure Beach, though not to the three miles of federally owned beaches on the south end of Pleasure Island, Lambeth said.