|ry
INSIDE
Sports, page 16
Cougs make it four of five over 4A foes
Classifieds
IB
most complete
state properties
Volume 61/ Number 21
Southport, N.C.
January 8, 1992 / 50 cents
Crews from Utility Services Company began painting Southport’s
water tank this week. The preparation and painting project was
delayed before the Christmas holidays because of high winds and rain.
Photo by Jim Harper
The new paint job is to feature a darker blue background against
which the name "Southport" amid a field of white stars will be em
blazoned.
Library
County agrees to take
system responsibility
By Holly Edwards
County Editor
"County taxpayers arc going to
support the library system, and the
board of commissioners will run it,"
commissioner Gene Pinkerton said
Monday after the Brunswick County
Board of Commissioners voted un
animously to^tikc over the library
system that has been shared with
Southport since the 1950s.
The board agreed to begin im
mediate work on a county library
department, and turned the task of
organizing the new department over
to county manager David Clegg,
who also serves as county attorney.
"There will still have to be a num
ber of joint resolutions passed be
tween Brunswick County and the
City of Southport," Clegg said after
the meeting. "I’m not so sure there
won’t be problems." Not everyone
supports the idea of having a eotmty
library department, Clegg said, but
he suggested the main problems
would be with logistics rattier than
wiih conflicts of opinion.
The county should be in complete
control of the library system and all
library employees should be put on
county payroll by July 1, Clegg said.
"It’s not the intention of the board of
See Library, page 11
‘Southport is look
ing at their contri
bution to the library
and realizing that
the money would be
better spent on the
health and safety of
its citizens.’
David Clegg
County manager
More sewer meetings on tap in Long Beach
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
In the first of what commissioners
promise to be several workshops on
construction of a public wastewater
management system Thursday,
Long Beach property owners fired
questions at consulting engineers
who have prepared a preliminary
engineering report for the project.
Commissioners set a second work
shop session with the engineers
tomorrow (Thursday) at 7 p.m. at
the town recreation center.
Throughout discussion last Thurs
day, engineers held to the assertion a
public sewer system would cost
about $15.2 million to build and
monthly sewer bills for average
customers using 6,000 gallons of
water per month would be between
$15 and $16 if expected favorable
financing is obtained.
New facts emerging from the ses
sion include:
•The N. C. Local Government
Commission recently instructed the
town to underwrite the project by
seeking approval of a S15-million
bond issuance. Before, town offi
cials and their engineers had said it
would be possible to authorize sales
N. C. Fourth of July
No festival pageant;
cost is crowning blow
By Marybeth Bianclu
Feature Editor
With expenses outweighing the
benefits, the N. C. Fourth of July
Festival board of directors has voted
to abandon the 1992 queen’s
pageant, the chairman said Monday.
"This is the way a majority of the
board felt," chairman Wayne Berry
said. There was a considerable
amount of discussion about the
pageant, which has been held for the
past 27 years, but the directors’ de
cision to abandon this year’s
queen’s pageant "was unanimous
before we left the meeting," Berry
said.
"The board of directors (made up
af past festival presidents) decided
not to have the Fourth ot July
pageant based on the costs involved
with the event," he said.
That does not mean, however, that
there will never be another pageant.
Berry said the board voted not to
have the competition this year, but
left it open for the future.
"It’s not the final chapter because
the title itself was not retired," he
said. "They didn’t vote to retire the
title."
While directors recognize the long
tradition of the title and the fact that
the crown, studded with red, white
and blue stones, is the oldest in the
See Pageant, page 7
of as little as $1 million in general
obligation bonds and then only sell
bond anticipation notes while await
ing anticipated low-interest state
loans.
•A referendum on the authoriza
tion of the sale of $15 million in
general obligation bonds has been
tentatively set for March 31. Regis
tered voters only may participate in
the referendum to be conducted by
the Brunswick County Board of
Elections on the town’s behalf.
"Therefore, there is adequate time
for all your questions to be ans
wered and all the engineers’ work to
be done," mayor Joan Allman told a
standing-room-only crowd.
"... the town can
not advertise for
and let bids until it
has money in the
bank. The only way
we can have money
in the bank is to sell
bonds.’
Finley Boney
Consulting engineer
Supply fuels lower gas prices
By Marybeth Bianchi
Feature Editor
Unlike many other consumer goods, gasoline prices are falling.
Nationally, prices have dropped an average of 4.3 cents since mid
November, and a few places in Brunswick County are now selling gas for
less than a dollar a gallon.
Quentin Anderson of the AAA-Carolina Motor Club said the drop is due
to the reduced price of crude oil. Also, supplies have been above normal
because of the unusually mild winter experienced so far this year, allowing
more crude oil to be channeled into gasoline production rather than home
heating oil. It also helps that OPEC has continued to maintain a steady
flow of oil to the United States, he said.
With Iraq's invasion of Kuwait last year, gasoline prices rose substantial
ly. But for the past few months they have been dropping, and Anderson
foresees them going even lower - at least until Memorial Day. He
predicted last week that the national average cost of gasoline will be as low
asSl.OSagalloo.
Gasoline prices in North Carolina, which has one of the nation’s highest
gasoline taxes, arc slightly higher than their neighbor to the south, Ander
son said, but the Southeast as a whole has the lowest average in the nation:
S1.07, compared to $ 1.21 in New England.
"From the way I look at it we’re coming out better than anyone else," he
said.
Bob Patel of E-Z Way in Southport said it’s the overall economy that is
affecting gas prices. "No one’s consuming as much. People are cutting
back on driving," he said. He said he’s noticed fewer people not only at his
pumps, but also at his competitors’. One reason, Patel said, is a slowdown
in the construction and fishing industries.
In the Southport-Oak Island area, a gallon of unleaded regular gas costs
between $1,019 and S1.0S9 with some locations selling it as high as $1,189
a gallon. The price of super unleaded goes ranged from a low of SI.169 to
a high of SI.259.
In the Lcland area, regular unleaded gas is selling for 98 cents a gallon.
Sam Brothers, manager of the Scotchman store in Belville, said the price is
the same at the other gas stations in that area because they are all competi
ng against each other. Just across the river in Wilmington, some stations
are selling regular unleaded gas for 95.9 cents.
Will the prices drop further?
"I’ve heard rumors," Brothers said. "Everyone’s hoping they will."
Consulting engineers Finley
Boncy and Robert Graham, both of
Finley Boncy and Associates of
Raleigh, took turns presenting in
formation and fielding questions of
the property owners.
Graham outlined the preliminary
design of the sewer system that
would be advanced to state
regulatory and financing agencies.
The Boncy firm began working for
Long Beach in September, 1990,
and revised design plans and cost
estimates advanced by another firm
in 1984. Sewer construction in Long
See Beach sewer, page 11
Registration open
for Yaupon voters
Voter registration for the special Yaupon Beach election on February 18
will remain open until January 20 and prospective voters may register in a
number of ways, Brunswick County Board of Elections supervisor Lynda
Britt said this week.
It had been incorrectly reported that prospective voters may only register
at the Bolivia office of the Brunswick County Board of Elections. In fact,
those wishing to vote in the newly-ordered election may also register at
any branch of the Brunswick County Library system, or with any registrar
or judge of elections in the county on or before January 20.
The elections registrar in Yaupon Beach is Claire Rees. Judges, also able
to take new voter registrations, are Lyman Clark and Carlton Sligh. All
three have telephone numbers listed in the local Southern Bell telephone
directory. Ms. Rees’ number is the one listed under the name of her hus
band, Ernest W. Rees.
Yaupon Beach voters should also note that the polling place for the
newly-ordered election will be Yaupon Beach Town Hall and not the
county polling place in neighboring Caswell Beach.
On November 5, incorrect instructions were printed on ballots for
Yaupon Beach commissioners and county elections officials were not able
to certify the election.
Candidates for election arc incumbents May Moore, Joseph Broyles and
James L. Poole; challengers Darrell D. Posey, J. M. Warren and Rhett
Blackman.
OUTSIDE
Forecast
The extended forecast for
the Southport-Oak Island
area calls for mostly cloudy
skies Thursday with a high
between 60 and 65 degrees.
Skies will clear Friday,
with an expected high
temperature of 50 and low
of 40. Saturday’s high will
be about 50 degrees with a
low in the 30s, then on
Sunday expect a chance of
rain.
Tide table
HIGH LOW
THURSDAY, JANUARY 9
10:23 a.m. 4:11a.m.
10:39 p.m. 4:44 p.m.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 10
10:57 am. 4:50 a.m.
11:20 p.m. ' 5:21 p.m.
-SATURDAY, JANUARY 11
11:35 a.m. 5:35 a.m.
-p.m. 6:06 p.m.
SUNDAY, JANUARY 12
12:07 a.m. 6:30 a.m.
12:22 p.m.' 6:54 p.m.
MONDAY, JANUARY 13
1:06 a.m. 7:30 a.m.
1:21p.m. 7:50 p.m.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 14
2:09 a.m. 8:39 a.m.
2:27 p.m. 8:54 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 15
3:14 a.m. 9:47 a.m.
3:35 p.m. 9:58 p.m.
The following adjustments should be made:
Bald Head Island, high -10, low -7; Caswell
Beach, high -5, low -1; Southport, high +7,
low +15;Yaupon Beach, high -32, low -45;
Lockwood Folly, high -22, low -8.