Newspapers / State Port Pilot (Southport, … / March 11, 1992, edition 1 / Page 2
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: The State Port Pilot : OUR TOWN Southport Waste receptacles, commonly known as garbage cans, will be on the agenda for debate when Southport aldermen convene Thursday night. Although a committee has recommended expensive concrete public receptacles, “Southportable” owner Mark Robinson has designed a less costly wooden receptacle for public use. “Southportable” now manufac tures fold-up wooden chairs. Attractive receptacles were among a number of recommendations made for downtown in Southport’s master development plan ratified in February, 1991. Also, aldermen will hear a proposal to form a Southport Youth Council from city parks and recreation director Joe Medlin, who will also advise on bids for a sprinkler system designed for Northwood Cemetery. Aldermen will receive a newly codified set of ordinances from city attorney Michael Isenberg and will address a restructuring of the city's utility service department. The restructuring was brought on by the recent resignation of utility services technician Jesse Liddle. Attorney Henry Foy will present a request to be released from interest and penalty on 1990 taxes, and aldermen will be asked to rule on a request to place a streetlight in an alley behind Red Caipet Inn on Caswell Avenue. Property owners in the 1000 block of Caswell Avenue have said the streetlight would discourage late-night congregants who drink and make noise. City manager Rob Hites says the light may “encourage that activity.” Aldermen also will be asked to name a new member to the city’s planning board and to receive a report on lighting the name “Southport" on the city’s newly painted water tower. Long Beach Property owners in Long Beach may continue to qualify for a five percent reduction in National Flood Insurance Program costs as residents of a verified Class 9-rated town, Federal Emergency Management Agency officials announced in a letter this week. The five-percent federal flood insurance premium reduction is avail able to all new and renewed policyholders, program administrator C. M. (Bud) Schauerte said in a February 28 letter. The reduction and rating come as the result of voluntary flood control activities Long Beach has implemented through its planning and building inspection departments. The verified rate becomes effective October 1,1992, and will continue through September, 1993, but. “the rating will be automatically renewed yearly, as long as your community continues the activities certified in your application,’ Schauerte wrote town manager David Poston. Two volunteers are needed to serve the Long Beach Recreation Advi sory Committee. The group does just what its name implies, advising commissioners on parks and recreation policy. Applications for the post or letters of interest will be received at Town Hall through Thursday. Three local personal references must accompany resumes or letters of interest. Caswell Beach Caswell Beach commissioners will begin their 5 p.m. meeting Thurs day with a public hearing on a proposed ordinance which will spell-out vested rights in property owned in the town. The ordinance has been in development for several months. Moving into the town’s regular business, town attorney Elva Jess will report on a Yaupon Beach request for an easement to facilitate develop ment of that town’s proposed wastewater management system. Town officials have also received a letter from officers of the Oak Island Villas condominiums informing the town that villas owners have entered an agreement with Yaupon Beach to connect to the neighboring town’s public wastewater management system. Caswell Beach officials have warned villas owners that they will have to pay a tap fee to Yaupon Beach for service and may have to pay a second tap fee if Caswell Beach ever decides to construct a public wastewater collection system. Tax collector Linda Bethune repeats 97 percent of 1990-91 taxes have been collected as of now. She hopes the town will reach a 100-percent collection rate by June 30. If it does, that will mark the fourth consecutive year of 100-percent tax collections. Commissioner Bill Boyd says Caswell Beach will keep collecting recyclables, even though they must now be trucked to the county convenience center on N. C. 87 north of Southport. Materials still accepted include aluminum cans; brown, white and green glass; number one and number-two plastics; newsprint — no glossy advertising mate rial; and cardboard. The Caswell Beach recycling center is located adjacent to Town Hall. Boiling Spring Lakes Planning, street maintenance and a personnel matter will dominate a special meeting of the board of commissioners of the City of Boiling Spring Lakes tonight (Wednesday). When commissioners convene, they will be asked to endorse a resolu tion recognizing a change in the status of a contractor with which the city does business. T. Dale Holland, of Wilmington, has recently changed his business from a sole proprietorship to a corporation. Because Boiling Spring Lakes has hired his fiim toconsult on the city’s upcoming land use plan update, it must formally recognize this business change. In discussion of street matters, commissioners will be asked to present a resolution to the N. C. Department of Transportation asking it to take maintenance responsibilities for Fifty Lakes Drive, Alton Lennon Drive, Lisa Drive and Eden Drive. Finally, commissioners will be asked to hire an operator I for the city’s streets department. The position opening has been advertised several times and candidates have been identified. Yaupon Beach Community service workers devoted 116 hours of work to planting traffic islands along Yaupon Drive, commissioner Joe Broyles reported Monday night as commissioners met in regular session. Nine traffic islands were planted at a total cost of $900. Additional islands have been planted by residential and commercial owners since the N. C. Department of Transportation completed three laning and traffic channelization of the town’s major thoroughfare last year. Broyles also said he had met with a Southport-Oak Island committee to address special legislation which bans Bmnswick County from establish ing an ABC store within seven miles of an existing municipal ABC operation. That bill is scheduled to “sunset” on July 1 of this year. More meetings are scheduled and a report will be made to state Rep. E. David Redwine, sponsor of the initial bill. Steps from beach cottages no longer reach the beachface in some areas, but no public commitment is likely to be made to renourishment at Long Beach. Property owners there — resident and non-resident alike -- said a forceful "no" to a beach renourishment proposal recent ly. More than 89 percent of those surveyed said the town had no busi ness committing public funds to rebuilding the beachfront. Long Beach renourishment plan is sunk By Richard Nubel News Editor Let's face it, Long Beach commissioners reckoned, a beach renourishment proposal is dead in the water. Meeting briefly on Friday, commissioners shut the door on a $5.9-million proposal to build-up the nearly eight miles of beachfront in the town. The proposal came from engineering consultant Moffat and Nichols almost a year ago and was the product of that firm’s consultations with a special mayor's committee on erosion control appointed by former mayor John W. Vereen. Ill, in 1989. The proposal met its ultimate death on the motion of commissioner David Durr. Commissioners unanimously reached an easy decision on the renourishment plan’s fate after resident and non-resident property owners resoundingly trounced the proposal in a survey sent them several weeks ago by mail. About 89 percent of respondents voted “no” on the renourishment proposal, accord ing to town manager David Poston. In all, 5,090 property owners responded. Only 539 respondents voted in favor of the renourishment proposal. Although those surveyed were told no response would be interpreted as a “yes" vote,commissioners did not interpret the survey response in that manner. In the face of an overwhelmingly negative response to the proposition, commissioners chose to let actual responses stand on their own merit. “That is not to say (commissioners) are not open to other suggestions," town manager David Poston said. But, for now a comprehensive beach renourishment program appears to be far from high priority among elected officials. Some say the beach renourishment plan was ill-timed. Voters are set to go to the polls on March 31 to decide the fate of a proposed SI 5.5-million bond issue to fund construction of a public wastewater management system. The beach renourishment program appeared to confuse that issue and make it appear the town was on a wild spending spree, some said. Poston said in the next few weeks Long Beach will begin its annual program of bolstering existing frontal dunes. Earth-moving equipment will be placed on the beach and sand will be pushed from the beach profile into the dunes. The annual project is done with money collected from the town's three-percent accommodations tax. "That has nothing to do with the erosion control survey," Poston said. "This program is an annual program and it is done with accommodations tax money." Soil scientist on sewer: Both systems costly, can work By Holly Edwards County Editor Residents will have to invest a con siderable amount of money and man agement time in any wastewater sys tem they choose. Dr. Bob Rubin told a Long Beach audience in a special meeting arranged last Wednesday by town commissioners. “There’s no free lunch,” Rubin de clared. “Septic systems are not going to be free in the future. We can no longer put them in the ground and forget about them.... It is important to decide early on how you’re going to Cocaine bust made at motel in Southport By Richard Nubel Municipal Editor Three men — one a Southport resi dent —were arrested on drug charges at the Southport Motel Thursday night Two of them remain jailed under $15,000 bond. David Leon (Nut) Floyd, 24, of 310 W. 11th Street, Southport, is one of those facing the stiff bond. He was charged by Southport police with felony possession of cocaine and mis demeanor possession of marijuana. - Bond was set by magistrate Wylie Waters in all three cases. Also facing felony charges is Will iam Edward Bell, 21, of Mulberry Street Shallotte. He is charged with felony cocaine possession and is jailed See Cocaine, page ft monitor the systems.” Rubin’s comments come as Long Beach residents prepare to go to the polls March 31 to decide the fate of a proposed $ 15.5-million bond issue to construct a public wastewater man agement system. The public sewer system has been an on-and-off subject for the past decade and was debated by a special commit tee established by former mayor John Vereen in 1989. Long Beach commissioners have, in a series of ten public forums, refined preliminary engineering data and on j March 2 presented to voters a final “package” of financial and engineer ing proposals for a public sewer sys tem. Consulting engineers say about $9 million of system cost will come in the form of low-interest state loans. An other $6 million will come in tap fees and assessments. Most start-up costs will come from bond anticipation notes and actual bond sales will be minimal, engineers have said. Rubin, a professor of soil science at N. C. State University, and Dr. Mike Hoover, an NCSU professor of bio logical agricultural engineering, pre sented brief descriptions of how sep tic systems work and how they are best maintained. Following the pre sentations, the professors, along with county soil scientist Walt Marley, answered a list of questions posed by Long Beach citizens. While the scien tists presented the pros and cons of septic and sewer systems, they de clined to say which type system would best suit Oak Island. If Long Beach residents opt to con tinue with septic systems, said Hoover, they would eventually have to absorb the costs of monitoring the systems, and of checking the tanks to make sure they are operating properly. But, Hoover added, there are no state stan dards to determine if a septic system is operating properly. “How well a septic system func tions is how well it treats sewage ... but there is no standard a septic sys Past week’s highs & lows MARCH Average High 60 degrees Average Low 41 degrees Data courtesy of Foxy Howard I • I Graph by Debi McKellar tem issupposedtomeet .’’said Hoover. “One of the myths of septic systems is that if the toilet flushes, it's working. Failure points are defined as when sewage comes to the surface, or when ‘We have run into situations where we have a difficult time finding a place to put a replacement. Andy that’s going to get worse as more and more systems fail.’ Walt Marley Soil scientist sewage goes directly into the ground water. And, once germs get in the groundwater, they can travel long dis tances. The key is to get treatment before the sewage gets into the ground water.” The damage caused by any con tamination of soil or groundwater is exacerbated by the rapidly permeable soils found in Long Beach, said Rubin. And, he said, septic tank failure is “not an unusual phenomenon.” Thp standard for groundwater is that it must meet drinking water stan dards, but there is no accepted defini tion to determine if a septic system is functioning properly, other than it stayed in the ground,” explained See Both costly, page 6
State Port Pilot (Southport, N.C.)
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March 11, 1992, edition 1
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