Long Senter
BY MAKJOKIK MKGIVKliN
After nbout 13 hours of deliberation, a jury decided
Monday that M-year-old Thomas l^ong was guilty of second
degree murder in the March shooting of his eslranged
wife, Annette, and guilty in the same incident of
assaulting former Brunswick County Commission Chairman
Cranky Thomas with a deadly weapon with intent to
kill, inflicting serious bodily injury.
Judge Coy Brewer, presiding m Brunswick County
Superior Court, sentenced Long to consecutive sentences
of 15 years for the murder offense, and six years for
assault. He has already served six and onc-luilf months of
that time in Brunswick County jail. His attorney, William
Shell of Wilmington, said the conviction will tie appealed
??*. WACON
x Volume 24, Number 49 S
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GREATER VAK1ETY, a change ol site, mure parking
This photograph was taken at mid-afternoon Saturday.
Festival Turn-Oi
BY SUSAN USHER about double that
South Brunswick Islands Chamber said, making this
of Commerce Director Anne Marie mast successful y<
Schettini was all smiles Monday With this year's
afternoon, just as she had been "I'm sure the N.(
throughout Saturday. takes its place ami
"I've just come back from the the state in promii:
bank," she said. "I'm real happy." ty."
Receipts from the 1986 N.C. Oyster She credited a
Festival?and attendance?were just with this year's
NO WELCOME CENTER IN PLAt
Highway 17 W<
Said On Schedt
BY SUSAN USHER
Work on the four-laning of U.S. 17 Preliminary er
from Winnabow to the South Carolina Sliallotte bypass
state line is proceeding on schedule, said,
according to the N.C. Department of Tlvcir actual con
Transportation. completed about t
"At this point, we don't anticipate Bolivia possibly i
any problems," said Frank Price, Sliallotte bypass,
long-range planning engineer with depends on the p
me ucpiiruiicm. we nope 10 nave n make once we gel
under contract by this time next tion. We're work
year." bypasses under c
At the Board of Transportation's possible."
meeting Friday, members approved Then, he addcc
additional funds for right-of-way ae- filled in.
quisition and for preliminary No decision to
engineering along the route. whether to begii
The latest cost estimates arc Bell Swamp or
slightly above the $32 million price Carolina line,
tag projected on the project last "We're still lo
year. most advantaged
The U.S. 17 project involves tern would be," s,
bypasses around Shallotte and The Shallotte to
Bolivia, then four-Inning of the rest area, but a
highway from N.C. 87 at Bell Swamp welcome center s
to the South Carolina state line. have been pushini
Advance acquisition funds have state-funded ccnti
been provided for acquiring ahead of "We have no
schedule land under development at welcome center tl
the north and south ends of the pro- for Welcome Cenl
jectcd Shallotte bypass route. Sizemore told the
"Whether it's been actually ac- She didn't rule
quired, I don't know," he said. that local group
At the north end, there arc some build their own l>e
relocatccs that will require the South Carolin
assistance and a period of time to If a welcome ce
relocate. "We may not get the entire vided, Price said
route under contract by the end of the them. If one is 1
fiscal year," he added. "They may would try to inc
hold us up." bypass for the Sli
iced To 21 Y<
The extenl of ling's guilt hung on the few seconds
just before his 1157 magnum discharged on the night ??f
March 25.1986, as he and Mrs. I ?ong?whom lie called (Jinny
t stood beside Thomas's Hroneo truck in Mrs Ixing's
driveway.
Otherwise, the story was clear. The Ixuigs. married
22 years, had been separated aliout three months. with
Mrs. Ixing moving into an apartment in the olde Towne
home of Barbara lx?wis in early January.
Ix>ng testified last week in a soft, halting voice tluit
he loved his wife deeply and hoped for a reconciliation
He drove by her place in Olde Towne frequently, he said,
just to see her car in the drive and know she was safe.
According to her children. Sherry DuBois and Brace
hallotte, North Carolina, Thursday, Oc
51 jCW' ?
and better weather helped boost festival attendance to np
s + Drm/tr Crv^ll/>r A
II LJI II lyo Ol IIIIC70 r~
of a year ago, she iliancc: a new, improved site; bettei
year's festival the weather; better organkatiun; ex
it. cellent volunteer leadership fron
s event, she said. Festival Chairman David Batten am
Oyster Festival committee members; and the ful
ony the festivals of cooperation from all chambei
icnee and populari- members.
'in the past we've always hat
variety of factors some chamber members we coulc
festival perfor- always count on," she said. "But this
plans for a state '^Eag^11 jfrtk)
Lcrs Director I. ynnc . >*;)*'* *J V.
out the possibility ,
s mip.lit decide to
twcciiShallotteand /^V cU..^
a state line. Oyster SnUC
nter were to t>c pro- I Jisl year's runner-up for the title n
I, "We'd work wiUi Carlisle (left), Is this year's champ
to be provided, we president of the South Brunswick
corporate it in the coverage of the shucking contest a
allntte area." this issue.
i
9ars For Mure
Ixmg, who had been raised by l/>lig, the marriage had
been good. "I wanted to ({row up and have one like it."
Sherry said. In late 19116. as she was frequently with her
mother and stepfather. Sherry said she saw nothing
amiss between them, and was shocked to learn a week
after the fact that licr mother had moved out.
Then her stepfather began to seem quieter, lonely,
and needing to talk, she testified. The testimony of
several witnesses indicated he was depressed over the
separation. Indeed, Peggy Dyson, his former secretary,
now working for Thomas, said he told her a few weeks
tiefore the shooting, "I can't live without (Jinny."
Hut his step-children and others contended there was
never any anger directed at their mother. He had never
tobt?r 16, 1906 25c Pe
Calat
''? " '1? i Shou
; j
proximately double that of a vear aeo ,f Carol,na 5
porate and ever v
would be to the
plained.
_ _ Commissioner
vt Chamber SiS
Calabash is so dii
why was our ma
p year support from our members was when hc tried to .
terrific Almost everyone had Kn.ipp ]icd
i somebody there or else nave us stuff was ca||cd stri*
i tn ll?n It llritf inw* ?i l-iinllo Ilrnit * '
? .. j ?- Shores members
I fort. Our cliairman did a ureal job." **Wc found we
Several chamber members wenl so mont to incorpor*
far as to hire workers for tlie day whose property
1 when they could not provide workers went on. "1 don't
! otherwise. members will v
(See FESTIYAU Page 11-A) when they meet t
you to know w
^ neighbors and
to mwnHu^ ?
firmed this tre
A total of 2'
A of Ui cse descr
pared with 198J
" Dcinocrnti
v' sr! ' ' ? registered befo
"S i ^ 7,247, compare
y at , voters lie fore f
4&T. J i J \ J i ?, Percentagi
?/ t-*?T ? Early this yet
jj voters, while I
si * n FHciioottipit wm ah Republican pei
king Champion "TS
f N.C. Oyster .Shucking Champion, Cathy Republican vo
inn. She is congratulated by Alan Iloldeit, lias been in pro
Islands Chamber of Commerce. More whelming Dcit
nd other Oyster Festival events is inside change.
H
a
ier, Assault
during Uw marriage behaved toward her in a threatening
or violent manner.
In fact. I/rng was described by a half-dozen friends
and business associates as the kindest, most easy-going
of men, who earned among co-workers the nickname
"Teddy Bear."
But he admitted that on the night of March 20 he was
uf?set about his wife's actions and those of her companion.
Franky Thomas.
Thomas was a longtime friend of the couple, ami had
recently loaned I/mg $1,000 to assist hirn with his
biisinoKK nrnhlorii^ wliieh lu?r! il<?l?>ri?r:itofl ?n that I ?nu
was filing for bankruptcy.
(Sic I.ONI.. Page 2-A)
r Copy 30 Poges ,
>ash Gives Cold
Ider To Carolina
3s incorporation
E MEGI\'ERN Calabash board members. Cominisihores
Association sioner and former mayor Sonia
turn-down Monday Stevens said slate law prohibits
ih Town Hoard on Brunswick County towns from growrequest
for ap- ing by annexation unless the town is
iible incorporation petitioned to annex <i particular area
by residents of that area,
spokesman for Town Attorney Mike Ramos said
which met Sept. 25 that law had been repealed in 1983
oration, submitted He said if Calabash wanted to annex
brief, handwritten Carolina Shores, the only requireoard
at its monthly ment was lliat one-eighth of the exolulion
stated that ternal boundary of the subdivision
- *-v 1,'rtnl.l knua I., lu, fiAAtirtiiAui* t n fkn
C1>V III' Ulljl I llllll IU "??"? "?** "C LKIIU^UUUS KKI klic
arolina Shores to Calabash boundary>rovided
the new "My concern with the resolution is
Id never annex pro- lhat it binvls future Calabash town
e extra-territorial boards as to what they could do with
ubash. their town," he said,
ihoros docs ineor- "The league of Municipalities
wanted to expand, it doesn't favor incorporation, because
west," Knapp ex- if doesn't want little towns all over
the place next to each other," Ramos
Rati 1 x;wellyn ask- went on. "But 1 don't know of any revasn't
our board in- quircment that an area needs a
. 25) meeting, since resolution like this from an adjoining
ectly affected, and town in order to incorporate."
yor asked to leave Knapp said he understood that if
itlend?" Calabash did not adopt the resolutliat
the meeting ticn. Carolina Shores has only one
ctly for Carolina alternative. "At least 50 percent of
and guests. our property owners would have to
needed an agree- sign a petition to be annexed, and if
ition from the town Calabash didn't act on that within a
adjoins ours,' he year, we could petition for incorpora*
know whether the lion," he said. There was disagree*
ote to incorporate mcnt over the percentage, with Town
let. 29, but we want Clerk Janet Thomas saying it was 100
i? u."miId h?? uiwl nercent. Ramos later nkurvpd hn
want to work thought it was 15 percent.
laura Kranifeld of the league of
cover 400 houses in Municipalities later confirmed
with an assessed Thomas's understanding that all promillion.
pertv owners in a petitioning area
"I can see why must sign the petition for annexation,
ncorporate, but it The board voted unanimously to
idlv, partly because disallow the petition, but 1-ewellyn
is. Our income from cautioned. "We need to look into tliis.
s for more of our and find out more about incorporates,
and we draw tion and annexation, because it's gona
Shores." ing to come up again."
ed to the resolution . ...
. .. . . land tjse Plan
se s le sail u ore The board also heard from Haskell
f t aro ma Shores KheU of the wilmi?gt0n o(flce o( the
ind by the promise N c Dcpartment of Natura,
f, . Resources and Community Developscussion
of laws at- . .. . . . . , . , .
ment. He had been asked to advise
lion and annexation
conception among (SeeCALABASH, Page2-A)
ilican Trend Continues
v Reaistration Fiaures
V-/
is continue to inch upward in the percentage of their
itcrcd to vote in Brunswick County.
ported by the county board of elections Tuesday, followregistration
deadline for the November elections, connd.
1,572 people had registered to vote as of Monday, with 741
Ibing themselves as unaffiliated with any party, com>
figures of 716.
c registrations numbered 16,584, compared with 16,775
re the primaries in May. Republicans registered totalled
d with 6,748 before the primaries. The total of registered
day, 1986, was 24,239.
:s tell the story of the gains Republicans have made,
ir registered Democrats made up 09.2 percent of the
hat has now slipped to 67.57 percent. Meanwhile, the
contage has risen from 27.9 percent before the primaries
29.43 percent of registered voters in the county,
ual trend toward greater numbers of registered
tcrs and decreasing numbers of registered Democrats
cess over the past scverul years. Wliat was once an ovcrlocratic
stronghold is undergoing gradual but persistent