INSIDE
Volume 61/ Number 26
Southport, N.C.
February 12,1992 / 50 cents
$4-million
funding for
island tract
By Jim Harper
Staff Writer
Nearly $4 million in federal funds
has been allocated to purchase and
preserve maritime forest on Bald
Head Island, but while agreement is
spoken of hopefully, precisely what
will be purchased is not clear.
In an announcement from Wash
ington on Monday, Sen. Terry San
ford lauded "the allocation of feder
al funds totaling $3,975 million for
‘Ocean to forest,
they want a samp
ling of the island.
They want a com
plete ecosystem....
but how much they
can buy will be
determined by how
much money they
have.’
David Smith
General manager
the purchase of 198 acres of
maritime forest on Bald Head Is
land."
But David Smith, general manager
of the Bald Head development, said
it wasn’t quite cut-and-dricd.
In negotiations with developer
Kent Mitchell, the N. C. Nature
Conservancy has identified "certain
areas they want more than others,"
Smith said. One of the most-desired
areas runs from South Beach to Bald
Head Creek.
"Ocean to forest, they want a
sampling of the island," Smith said.
"They want a complete ecosystem.
There’s a strip like that just this side
of Captain Charlie’s (three former
Coast Guard houses, the site of the
old Cape Fear Light), but how much
they can buy will be determined by
how much money they have."
However, Smith said, "Now that
there is public knowledge that the
money is allocated, I think negotia
tions will proceed post-haste and in
the next 90 days we could have a
contract."
Negotiations to purchase land on
Bald Head are an outgrowth of a
movement by the Coastal Resources
Commission to generally protect the
state’s dwindling maritime forests.
Several areas in Dare and Carteret
counties as well as three locations in
the Bald Head complex were desig
nated as areas of environmental con
cern several years ago, and some
have since been protected by legisla
See Maritime, page 22
jr
Mayor Norman Holden accepted the city’s 200th
birthday flag Monday from Bicentennial chairman
Eleanor Smith and Southport 2000 chairman Mike
Agner, then presented it to the South Brunswick
ROTC Color Guard for display on the City Hall
Photo by Jim Harper
lawn. The city’s first Bicentennial event will be a
11:30 a.m. luncheon Friday in the Community
Building, sponsored by the Southport Historical
Society.
Beach renourishment
poll appears stranded
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
In early returns of a non-binding
survey, Long Beach property
owners are overwhelmingly saying
"no" to a nearly $6-million beach
renourishment project.
In fact, after the first week of poll
ing, about 89 percent of respondents
have voted against the erosion con
trol project and the assessment that
would pay for it, town manager
David Poston said Tuesday.
Property owners across town and
See Renourishment, page 6
Will it wash? ^
Long Beach renourishment proposal
/
FIRST-YEAR
ANNUAL
'a. /// ASSESSMENTS MAINTENANCE^
' feanfront $10
Second Row "" / $5
Third Row S' $15 $3
Fourth Row and all $10 $2
other properties in ECD
All other properties $5 \ $0
in town not in ECD per front-foot
Can they improve ‘Report Card” ?
•Parents are ready for the test
By Marybeth Bianchi
Feature Editor '
According to the state’s latest
"Report Card", Brunswick County
schools are floundering in the bot
tom of the barrel, but some local
parents are anxious to change that.
More than 200 persons crowded in
the chapel of Southport Baptist
Church Monday night to hear Mike
Occhipinti’s ideas for changing the
attitudes of educators and the ways
they teach students.
And by the next morning, Dorothy
Essey of Yaupon Beach already had
organized teams to visit five schools
across the stale where the "compre
hensive concept management sys
tem" has been implemented.
"We want it in place, the full first-;
year program, by the beginning of
the school year next year. That’s our
commitment," an enthusiastic Essey
said Tuesday. After the teams of
parents, teachers, principals and
school board members visit the
model schools next week, they will
meet February 24 to share the in
formation they’ve gathered and
prepare to go before the full board
of education on March 2.
Parents were not the only ones in
terested in hearing what Occhipinti,
of the N. C. Department of Public
Instruction, had to say Monday
night. The audience included school
administrators, teachers and support
personnel including three South
Brunswick area principals -• Don
McNeill, Les Tubb and Sue Sellers
~ and principals from Bolivia
Elementary, Lincoln Primary and
West Brunswick High schools.
The philosophy Occhipinti was
advocating is "not a big deal. It is
just common sense,” he told his at
tentive listeners. "It’s a different at
titude."
Today’s schools are littered with
"bits and pieces” of programs that
don't support each other, he said. If
there's a problem, another program
is usually added to address it, and
that’s on top of all the other pro
grams that have been implemented
over the years, he said.
Teachers usually work in "solitary
confinement," inhibiting the creative
process which can develop through
collaboration, sharing ideas with fel
low educators. They’re bogged
down with paperwork and often feel
a lack of control, which they take
out of students, he said.
School policies are set-up for
punitive action, he pointed out Stu
See Parents ready, page 22
Will septic
tank claim
hold water?
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Q. How do you get a septic tank to
sink in an area with a high water
table?
A. You knock a hole in the bottom
of the tank and let it fill with water.
Q. How often has this been done
in Long Beach, and how many of
these broken tanks may be leeching
sewage into ground and surface
waters?
A. Nobody knows.
Long Beach residents continue to
ask: Where is the evidence that a
public wastewater management sys
tem is really needed? Where is there
evidence of massive septic tank fail
ure?
Thursday night, commissioner
Horace Collier, a building contractor
for 15 years and one who has been
involved in construction in Long
Beach the past 25 years, asserted
what residents can’t see may be
hurting them.
The practice of breaking out the
bottoms of prefabricated septic
tanks was widespread until the late
1970s when more rigid health
regulations were enacted and en
forced, Collier said.
Others echoed that observation.
Collier said it was the recom
mended practice to bury septic tanks
‘I'm sure that in
some of the older
tanks there is a
great possibility
that raw sewage is
seeping out. But, we
just don t know.
You can t see it.’
David Clemmons
Building inspector
deep, often below the water table.
The prefabricated units would float,
and holes in the bottom would allow
water to flow into the chamber and
sink it. Because these tanks were
sunk so low, it is impossible to tell
whether they are working or pollut
ing. They dre deep enough that pool
ing associated with septic failure
does not occur.
"It was not uncommon,” Collier
said. "I have seen it done."
Commissioner Danny Leonard’s
See Septic tank, page 6
Yaupon Beach vote
scheduled Tuesday
Yaupon Beach voters will go to the polls Tuesday to select three com
missioners to serve the town for the next two years.
The only polling place for the special municipal election will be Yaupon
Beach Town Hall. Voting will begin at 6:30 p.m. and the polling site will
remain open until 7:30 p.m.
The Yaupon Beach special election of February 18 is a do-over of the
Yaupon Beach election of November 5. That election was family flawed
when it was discovered printed ballots erroneously instructed voters to cast
their lots for only two candidates instead of casting the three votes to
which they were entitled.
Thirty-six voters had marked their printed ballots before the error in in
structions was detected. Upon canvass, county elections officials could not
determine the intentions of 23 voters.
While commissioners Joseph Broyles and May Moore, the incumbent
mayor, apparently would have won re-election regardless of the 23 ballots
in doubt, commissioner James Poole and challenger Darrell Posey were
only separated by five votes of those that could be considered to reflect
voters’ intent.
Upon the county elections board’s recommendation, the state board of
elections in December ordered a new election for Tuesday.
All six original candidates for election November 5 will appear on next
Tuesday’s ballot. The candidates are Moore, Broyles, Posey, Poole, former
commissioner J. M. Warren and Rhett Blackman.
Determinable vote totals in November showed this breakdown: Moore,
133; Broyles, 128; Posey, 99; Poole, 94; Warren, 71; Blackman, 52.

Forecast
The extended forecast
calls for cloudy skies
Thursday with a high in the
lower 50s, then partly
cloudy Friday with a high
in the 50s and low in the
30s. Saturday and Sunday
expect warmer tempera
tures, with highs in the 60s
and lows only in the 50s.
Tide table
HIGH LOW
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13
2:49 i.m. 9:21 a.m.
3:15 p.m. 9:34 p.m.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14
3:58 a.m. 10:27 a.m.
4:24 p.m. 10:40 pm.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15
5:01a.m. 11:28 a.m.
5:30 pm. 11:41p.m.
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 16
6:02 am. -am.
6:29 pm. 12:21 p.m.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 17
6:56 am. 12:37 a.m.
734 pjn. 1:12 p.m.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18
7:48 a.m. 1:30 a.m.
8:16 pjn. 2:00 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19
8:37 ajn. 2:21 a.m.
907 p.m. 2:27 pjn.
The following adjustments should be made:
Bald Head Island, high -10, low -7; Caswell
Beach, high -5, low -1; Soiuhpon, high +7,
low +15; Yaupon Beach, high -32, low -45;
Lockwood Folly, high -22, low -8.