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Officials Upset At Being Bypassed In Location Of Ash Transfer Site
BY SUSAN USHER
Upset at not bciiif> consulted regar
ding plans to locate a coal ash
transfer site in the Inland Industrial
Park, Brunswick County Commis
sioners were to meet with Resources
Development Commission Executive
Director Michael deSherbinin on
Wednesday (Sept. 23(to find out why
they were bypassed.
“I would iike to send him a letter
letting him know he bypassed the
board," District 2 Commissioner
Benny Ludlum first suggested.
County Manager .John T. Smith
told commissioners Monday night
that KBK Enterprises of Marietta.
Ga.. luis begun clearing four of the 15
acres it has obtained in the industrial
park in preparation to transfer ash
from the new Cogentrix steam co
generation plant in Southport. He
said the site had been approved by
the state.
“I think this board should have
been made aware of this." District 3
Commissioner Jim Poole said, going
on record against the plan.
The decision relieves Brunswick
County of its responsibility for help
ing Cogentrix dispose of its ash, a
commitment made when the com-
()any agreed to locate here. Smith
noted Monday.
KBK had first wanted to locate its
facility in the Mill Creek community,
but after residents of the rural area
complained to the commissioners in
July, the board a.sked KBK to look for
an alternate, industrial site.
At that time, KBK Vice President
Jerry Chumley told commissioners
his company didn't need the commi.s-
sioners' approval to loc-ate m the
county, that it was a courtesv.
However, a state regulation regar
ding transfer facilities notes that
state approval of such plans hinges
on receipt of an approval letter from
the unit of government living zoning
authority over the site where the
facility is to be located."
Chumley has .said the company
plans to store Uie ash in cells on the
transfer site on a temporary basis
until they are used as fill material.
The county manager said .Monday
that KBK engineer Richard
Woodliam thinks there is a great
market for the product in this area."
"But at this time," he added, "I
can't report that to lie the case."
Commissioners say they are con
cerned about the .safety of storing or
using the ash. a concern noted Mon
day by .Smith.
A report in August from Walter E.
.Marley, county soil scientist, noted
various uses for cod ash, usually in
the form of heavier bottom ash. not
as the mixed fly and bottom ash iiro-
diiced by (.'ogentnx.
"I don't tliink they'll be able to use
it. 1 think they will store it there and
then run off and i» will beciane our
problem." said District 3 Commis
sioner .Jim Poole
Poole said he considers the
transfer site "a waste" of the 15-acre
tract owned by the Brunswick County
Economic Development Council.
Marley's report also showed
several potential problems: the ash
(See OFFICIAI.S. p.ige 2-A i
THE
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xPRlMGPOfvT
Twenty-fifth Year, Number 46
190; THE BRUr4SWlCK BIACON
Shallotte, North Carolina, Thursday. September 24. 1987
25c Per Copy
38 Pages
Three Escapees Back
But The Jailer Is Gone
Cathy's Off To Ireland
SIA»f PHOTO B» OOUC PUItlP
National Oyster Shueking Champion Cathy Carlisle
(right center) and her mother, Norma Light (left
center), waited nervously at New Hanover County Air
port Monday before heading to Ireland via New York
City. Ms. Carlisle will compete in the World Oyster
Opening Cliampioiiship in Galway, Ireland, on Sept. 26.
She was sent off by her husband. Gary (right), best
friend Tara Fulrh (left), and several South Brunswick
Islands Chamber of Commerce officials.
Utilities Operation Board
Bucks Proposed Policy
BY RAHN ADAMS
Brunswick County Utilities Opera
tion Board members Friday rejected
a proposal by the Brunswick County
Commissioners to, in effect, under
write the cost of extending water
lines to a major golf course/residen
tial development.
In a policy that if adopted would
also be applied to similar projects in
the future, the commissioners had
proposed that the county and the
developer of Ixxjkwood Folly each
pay half the cost of water lines to the
road near the entrance of the Holden
Beach-Varnumtown area subdivi
sion. In turn, the county would allow
Lockwood Folly the equivalent sum
in free connections to the water
system.
But Friday the UOB rejected that
idea. Instead members agreed to
propose to conunissioners that the
developer pay a sum equivalent to
the cost of a six-inch line along the
way—the assessment that would
have been paid by property owners
along 'the water lines if an asse.ss-
ment district liad been created as
first recommended by the UOB.
Bruaswick County Commissioners,
meeting Monday night, did not
discuss the draft policy or the UOB
recommendation. However, at the
request of the UOB, commissioners
agreed to a joint meeting on Sept. 23
at 7 p.m. in their chambers to di.scuss
basic relationships and means of
operation of the UOB.
The commissioners’ policy pro
posal apparently was discussed in ex
ecutive session, in an apparent viola
tion of the N.C. Open .Meetings I.aw.
According to approved minutes of
the UOB’s Sept. H meeting. Commis
sioner Frankie Rabon, an ex-officio
member of the UOB, gave UOB
Director John Harvey a proposed
policy draft dealing with the
Lockwood Folly water project. The
draft was given to Har\’ey “in mid
afternoon (Sept. 14) from a County
Commission meeting,” the minutes
said.
(See UTILITIES. Page 2-A)
BY SUSAN USHER
Three inmates who e.scaped early
Saturday from the Brunswick County
Jail went back behind bars I'lie.sday
and the jailer on duty at the time of
their escape resigned.
Deputies recaptured Daniel Wayne
Briles, 21, of Shallotte, about 2 p.m.
Tuesday in the Seaside area, .said
Sheriff John Davis.
Shortly after 9:30 p.m., Riley Brad
ford Ridgeway, 17, of Shallotte, and
Jimmy Dean Nolan, 28, of I.eland,
were arrested by sheriff's deputies
and Shallotte police officers near the
end of Mulberry Road just outside
the tow n limits.
All three will be charged with
escape, an offense punishable by up
to two years imprisonment.
Davis also said officers expocied to
file additional charges against one or
lioUi of the nien arrested Tuesday
night .iftcr furtlier questioning, m
eluding possession of a fireann and
possession of burglary tools.
Officers do not know how the three
escaped, but Davis said they ap
parently liad help, that someone had
been waiting for them outside of the
jail.
.Also on Tuesday, Davis accepted
the resignation of 23-year-old Chris
Farmer, the jailer on duty Saturday
morning when the men escaped.
Davis said he had given Farmer
the option of resigning or getting
fired because he failed to follow jail
procedures. The sheriff said the
jailer apparently either left a jail
door unlocked or had left a key expos
ed to the prisoners.
"The jailer .said he doesn’t know
how it happened," added the sheriff.
“If he had followed procedures, it
would never have occurred.’’ added
Davis of the first escape from the jail
since he became sheriff and only the
third since the facility opened.
He was referring to procedures,
adopted in July, that prohibit in
mates from being outside the locked
cellblock door after 5 p.m. Only
jailers, officers, magistrates and
bondsmen are to be in the booking
area inside the jail after that hour.
The procedure also limits inmate
visits after 5 p.m. to only ministers
and attorneys, and then only in the
visiting booth.
Violation of the policy is grounds
for immediate dismissal, according
to Davis.
Farmer discovered the three miss
ing from their cells at breakfast
•Saturday about (>:30 a.m. They liad
apiiarently escaped sometime since
7:30 a.ni. llml vlay.
liu. *.licory, he .said, Dial *'’e in
mates escaped through a rear door to
a walled outdoor exercise area, a
door he said “is never unlocked" and
also not checked during rounds that
an inmate could have unlocked
earlier in the day. When he made
rounds during the night, he said, the
beds in their cells looked like people
were sleeping in them, with shoes at
the foot of each.
.All three inmates had been charg
ed with breaking and entering and
larceny charges.
Tuesday Briles was also charged
with escape, which Sheriff Davis said
is an offense punishable by up to two
years imprisonment.
.Monday afternoon Sheriff Davis
said the office learned that Ridgeway
and Nolan may have fled to Florida.
While not denying blame. Farmer
Two Claim Interests In Seized Shopping Plaza
Two Injured When
Building Collapses
BY SUSAN USHER
At least two workers were injured
last Wednesday afternoon when a
golf cart storage building under con
struction at Brick I,anding Planta
tion suddenly collapsed.
A construction crew had ju.st .set
the trusses for the 52-foot by 110-foot
building in place atop the framing.
“They were going back to straighten
them up when it came up," .said Con
struction Supervisor Gene Shelley of
Brick landing Associates Ltd., who
had just left the building site at the
time of the accident. “A storm was
coming up to the cast and the wind
just gusted up and just laid it down."
Ronnie Dunn, of Best Golf carts,
said he was assembling new
golfcarts on the adjacent vacant lot
when the trus.scs toppled over.
“We didn’t see it, but we heard it,"
he said. “It started at one end and
went to the other, sort of like
dominoes: clank, clank, clank. There
was no time to do nothing.”
.Several employees were in the
framework when the accident occur
red, he said, but most were clustered
at the end that fell last and e.scaped
.serious injury.
by
One employee. Jay Thomas, in
jured his wrist. Shelley .said shortly
after the accident. Another
employee, who had fallen face down,
was struck by collapsing trusses.
Several of the trusses broke as they
fell and the side framing had broken
at one place on its north side.
Shelley could not be reached later
for identification of the second in
jured worker or the nature of the two
men’s injuries. Both were
transported to the Brunswick
Hospital Emergency Room
Shallotte Volunteer Re.scuc .Squad.
Shelley estimated Wedne.sday
had lost a week’s worth of work on
the building with its collapse, clear
ing of debris and rebuilding
However, he was anticipating
completion by the end of this week.
He said he planned to
everybody look at it that needs to and
then .start putting it back."
The collapse was the first
coastruciion-reiated accidciu at the
golf cour.se-re.sidential development,
he noted, which is under construction
at Brick Ninding on a tract overlook
ing the IntracoasUd Waterway
.Sassapan Creek.
BY SUSAN USHER
Two parties have filed claims in
U.S. Federal Court in Wilmington
asserting interests in Resort Plaza, a
$1.5 million shopping center in
Shallotte seized and arrested by the
U.S. Marshals Service on Sept. 3 for
alleged involvement in felonious
drug transactioas.
On Sept. 14 a claim by Elizabeth L.
Willis of Shallotte was filed stating
that “she is now the sole and bona
fide owner” of the property and that
it .should be released to her.
On Sept. 11 North Carolina Na
tional Bank (NCNB), payee on a
$445,000, 10-year note from A.B.
Willis III dated Oct. 20,1986, also fil
ed claim to interests in the property.
The claim and answer, filed by
NCNB attorney Richard W. Evans of
Raleigh, indicates that, upon default,
its note is secured by assignment of
leases from all tenants of the proper
ty*
The note is identified as a loan to
A.B. “Al" Willis HI for construction
of Resort Plaza. As of Sept. 3
the
outstanding principal owed was
$420,686.
In its answei the bank, identified
as a lien holder in the civil suit, seeks
dismissal. It also asks the court to
remit the property to its po.ssession
and/ormitigatc the forfeiture to the
extent that its own interests to the
property would be forfeited. The
answer also asserts the bank had no
knowledge of any alleged illegal ac
tivity involving either Al Willis or
Resort Plaza.
.A “forfeiture in rem” complaint
filed Aug. 19 in federal district civil
court in Wilmington alleges portions
of the structure were u.sed to store
controlled controlled substances, to
hold drug transactions and to make
telephone calls relating to drug traf
ficking in violation of the Controlled
Substances .Act.
Pending the outcome of its civil
suit, the marshals ser\’ice has been
o))crating as landlord of the complex,
which has '23 tenants other than its
owner.
Dociunents relating to the .seizure
identify the owner as .Alvin Bryan
“Al" Willis III of Shallotte, who was
indicted in June by a special in
vestigative grand jury on 12 count-s
each of trafficking in cocaine am!
conspiracy to traffic. Released mi
$23,000 bond, he is awaiting trial
According to documents given mi
Sept. 3 to shopping center tenants by
marshals, on Jan. 15, 1987, five mou
ths before his indictment. Al Willis
transferred the Rc.sort Plaza proper
ty from his name to that of his
mother’s, Elizabeth L. Willis
However, District .Attoiney
(Sec TWO CI..\IM. Page 2-A i
he
its
•let
and
THIS GOLF CART storage shed under construction at Brick Landing Plantation collapsed Inst Wednesday afterntMin.
Sf.A*.
At least two persons were Inn l
told The Brunswick Beacon he was
following standard jail procedure the
night of the e.seape. if not the written
policy.
“I'm not .siiying it was not my fault
it happened," he said, but it couid
have happened any time"
When he came on duty at 9 p.m.. he
said, Ridgeway was already cleaning
the floors in the booking area outside
the locked cellbock and had alread\
had access to the keys.
While against written procedure,
he acknow ledged, it was standarfi for
trusties to do the floors after 5 pm.
“That’s the only time they can do it. "
he said, because of daytime traffic in
the area.
“They don't like it. but it happens."
he asserted.
However. Sheriff Davi -,ai*l
Ridgeway was a youthful oifiuider
w)m was Uol to l>e witli the n*sl ot ih.-
jail population and was 0c‘Einitc.> uc;
a
•A iu.sty If, an inmate entru.sted
with carrying out errands around tJie
jail, with a greater degree of freedom
of movement than other inmates.
However, Farmer said, the
jailers considered him i Riiigeway i a
trusty.”
Ridgeway had been in jail appro.x-
imately seven months, about the
same time Farmer had been
employed as a jailer.
As for Farmers' assertations that
jailers allow certain inmates to per
form chores outside the cellblock
after lock-up, Davis said Tuesday.
“If I catch other jailors doing it. I'll
do the same thing to them.
“They can get someone to do it dur
ing the day or they can do it at night
themselves."