Holden E
BY DOUG RUTTE
State election law has struck aj
A Holden Beach referendum ori
February and later postponed unt
rescheduled for a second time. Tue,
tentative new date.
Town commissioners learn
timetables set forth in state statute
ments to town charters will not allov
approved election date of March 7.1
ing for yet another month the reteri
a proposed change in the operation c
Residents will vote on a propo
town charter whereby the form of
TH
Twenty-seventh Year, Numl
INVESTIGATORS WERE PUZZU
no body.
Holden Beo
BY DOUG RUTTKR
Although annexation is still more
than 16 months away, Holden Beach
Commissioners this week cleared a
major hurdle in bringing the first
mainland property into the town
limits.
During a special Monday morning
i??i ?* -j a - x
meeting, uit- tuwii uutzvn vuieu 4-1 10
adopt a resolution of intent to annex
about 67 acres of mainland property
including and surrounding the commercial
causeway.
Citing concerns that mainland
residents might take control of the
town, Commissioner Georgia
Langley was the only board member
to oppose the resolution, which was
introduced by Bob Buck.
Pointing to figures contained in the
town's annexation feasibility report,
Mrs. Langley said she has concerns
about the potential voting power contained
in the 114 developed residential
lots in the mainland section as
well as undeveloped land the town
plans to annex.
The report estimates the populaTelephone
C
Demonstrate
BY RAHN ADAMS
Emergency Management Coordinator
Cecil Logan hopes questions
about a proposed 911 emergency
telephone system will be answered
this afternoon (Thursday) in Bolivia,
during an information session for
Brunswick County Commissioners
and the public.
Southern Bell engineers Bob Fuller
and Jeff Ritz, and Atlantic Telephone
Membership Corporation officials
Russell Price and Doug Huddle are
scheduled to demonstrate the 911
system today at 2 p.m. at the Public
Assembly Building.
Logan said the telephone company
representatives' presentation probably
will last about an hour.
However, the length of the meeting
"just depends on the depth of questions
people want to get into," he added.
And I,ogan indicated that the
general public has plenty of questions
about 911. "People who understand
it want it," he said, "but the people
who don't understand it have mixed
emotions-"
At least some of those mixed feelings
apparently have resulted from a
recent state study that recommended
changes in Brunswick County's allvolunteer
emergency medical services
system.
"They (people with mixed feely]
i:
- - i i . -
leach Elect
IU switch from
;ain. council/mana
iginally planned for to hire a tov
il March has been ministrative
sday, April 4, is the ministrator a
their current
ed Monday that Holden E
: governing amend- strong in thei
v for the previously- discussed son
'hat meant postpon- resolution of
endum deaiing with town charter,
if town government. ing on the issi
sed revision in the Plans are
government would at the next n<
ir nm
I hOAGi h SONS BOOK
riri 7 nl i~. A T T
.-it- n, ?. F\j\nr l i**i 4
bei l A. IVUV IHk BRUNSWICK BEAC
ED last week when they responded to
ch Moves Towc
tion in those residential lots at abc
320, although many of the homes a
used on a seasonal basis.
"We're putting the island in jeop;
dy," she said, adding that there a
only about 350 voters on the islan
"It concerns me that we may
opening ourselves up to more conti
on that side than this side, and th
scares me."
Although not opposed to annex
tion, the commissioner said s
feared that mainland control of t
town would lead to a lack of conce
for specific problems on the island
Following the vote, Commission
Langley added, "I'm for taking t
causeway, but I'm not for bringing
more residential areas."
Despite the objections raised I
Langley, commissioners took th(
first major step toward annexati
since Jan. 5, 1987, when a previo
town board adopted a resolution
consideration to annex.
Since then, there has been an effc
to incorporate as a separate town
mainland area north of the island ai
Officials To
3 911 Systerr
ings) are thinking that if we get 9:
it's going to put a paid ambulan
service in (at the same time), a
that's not true," Logan said, addi
that 911?or some type of centraliz
communications?must be in pla
before changes in the EMS syste
are made.
At present, each of the county's
volunteer rescue squads receive a
dispatch their own emergency cal
As a result, an individual who open;
local telephone directory in .
emergency situation finds not one fc
11 different numbers for the vario
rescue squads.
Even though many local squa
continue to experience daytime pi
sonnel shortages, lx>gan told t
Beacon Monday he doesn't expect
see any type of paid EMS here for
least two years?the time it woi
take to install a 911 system if coi
rnissioners were to give an ii
mediate go-ahead.
The coordinator explained that t
two telephone companies have finis
ed preliminary work necessary to
stall the system. Installation c
begin as soon as eommissione
adopt a letter of intent to proce
with the project and decide where t
communications center will
located, Ixjgan said.
Installation costs alone range frc
(See 911, Page 2-A)
ion Delayed
the existing mayor/council format to a
iger format. The town would then be able
vn manager who would have more adpowers
than the current town adnd
could relieve town commissioners of
administrative responsibilities,
leach Commissioners, who have been
r support of the revision since it was first
ue five months ago, this week adopted a
intent to consider an amendment to the
The board aiso sei a second pubiic iiearue
for Monday, Feb. 6 at 10 a.m.
for commissioners to adopt an ordinance
;gu!ar town meeting amending the town
\i\lC\U
i H V.' 4on
onauorre, iNorth Carolina,
i
i the report of a death at this dwelling off O
ird First Mainianc
,ut appointment of and subsequent
re recommendations from an annexation
committee made up of mainland
ir. and island residents.
re The area included in the resolution
id. of intent contains 205 lots and tracts
be of which 166 are presently developed,
rol according to a preliminary feasibili,at
ty study compiled by the N.C. Division
of Community Assistance.
:a- Of the developed lots, 114 are
he residential, 51, commercial and one,
he industrial.
m Based on an estimated property
|. valuation of $7.67 million in the
er mainland area, annexation would inhe
crease town tax revenues by more
in than $10,000. Other additional
revenues would come from sales tax,
by franchise tax, Powell Bill monies and
>ir privilege license tax.
on Costs of the proposed annexation,
us according to the report, include
of water line extension and service, additional
sanitation costs, road
>rt maintenance and additional police
im t' - . v
- " - ?
11
nd *
ls- ?>,
5 a - .
an
tut EMERGENCY PERSONNEL INS
us day morning on U.S. 17 near Thor
? AAan Die
he
to An elderly Brunswick County man
at was killed Monday when his car collided
nearly head-on with a tractorrn"
trailer rig on U.S. 17 near
m" Thomasboro.
The victim was Louis James
Smith, 83, of Ash, according to
j'1* Highway Patrol spokesperson Ruby
ln" Oakley, who noted that Smith's death
an was *he second this year on local
:,a highways. No fatalities were recordc('
ed here in January 1988.
*ie The fatal accident occurred Monday
at 10:15 a.m., 9'.i miles south of
Shallotte on U.S. 17.
,m The two-lane highway was closed
to traffic for approximately four
f Again?Ti
charter, subject to voter approval
Also, they will officially call for the
be held April 4.
According to a memorandum fr<
Doug Ledgett, the previously-approv
March 7 had to be switched because
93 days after the town commissio
dinance calling for the town charter
In situations where an ordinal
charter is subject to a referendum,
that the special election be heid no
after the adoption of the ordinance.
Due to additional requiremenl
advertisement of elections before I
Thursday, January 26, 1989
' ' ' STAFF P^IOIO BV RAHN ADAMS
ccan Haven Road and found blood but
1 A +
i /-vi ii icr/vui iv-m i
protection.
Town Administrator Gus Ulrich
said this week that a tentative annexation
schedule calls for approval of
the annexation feasibility report on
March 6 and for a public hearing on
April 10.
He has recommended that the annexation
become effective on June
30,1990, so that it coincides with the
start of a new fiscal year and so the
town has more time to negotiate with
county officials concerning the extension
of water service to the annexed
areas.
A map of the area proposed for annexation
is posted at Holden Beach
Town Hall. It includes all of the commercial
property along the causeway
and residential areas on both sides of
the causeway.
If the annexation is approved,
Holden Beach will become the last of
the three barrier islands in the South
Brunswick Islands area to extend its
boundaries onto the mainland.
5PECT wreckage shortly after a head-i
nasboro.
js In Head-Oi
hours as a result of the wreck,
Trooper B.D. Barnhardt said. Traffic
was detoured through Calabash
while the accident investigation and
cleanup were underway.
Smith was traveling north in his
1975 Chevrolet when the car drifted
across the center line into the southbound
lane. Barnhardt said the truck
driver?Gary Randall Sikes, 32, of
Jacksonville, Fla.?locked the
brakes on his 1974 Peterbilt truck in
an unsuccessful attempt to avoid the
collision.
Barnhardt said both vehicles were
total losses, with damages estimated
at $800 to Smith's car and $15,000 to
lis Time Un1
in a referendum. registration, Ledge
special election to could not be met ai
to be adopted and I
am Town Attorney State law reqi
ed election date of twice within a 20
it would have been registration. Voter
n adopted an or- date will close on V
amendment. election,
ice amending the
state law requires Under the orig
iater man uu days been held Feb. 7. II
March 7 when towr
s concerning the uble to meet state i
the close of voter tisement of olectior
BEACl
25c Per Copy
Lawmei
Victim li
Death I
BY KAHN ADAMS
Local and state investigators Monday
had a witness and questionable
evidence that a South Carolina
woman might have died at a Seaside
area house last week. What they
didn't have was the woman's body to
prove she was dead.
Det. Lindsay Walton said Monday
the Brunswick County Sheriff's
Department and SBI had spent the
weekend unsuccessfully attempting
to locate the woman whose body
reportedly was found by a local man
last Thursday inside a dwelling off
Ocean Haven Road.
Authorities Monday withheld the
names of the alleged victim?a Myrtle
Beach, S.C., area resident?and
the Ocean Haven Road man who initially
reported the matter to Ocean
Isle Beach Police last Thursday.
: ? j.
Tianuu dctiu mvesugaiors were aitempting
to locate the woman's family,
"to let them know what's going
on."
According to Walton, the man went
to the Ocean Isle Beach Police
Department last Thursday around 4
p.m. and told officers he had seen the
woman's body and a large quantity of
blood in the bedroom of the residence
that day around noon. The man apparently
had been drinking, Walton
said.
When county lawmen went to the
dwelling, they found a "moderate to
heavy" amount of blood on bed
sheets and the bedroom floor, Walton
said, but no body. There also was no
evidence that a body had been
? i
in collision that claimed the life of 83-yea
i Collision Or
the truck. The flatbed rig, owned by
Cypress Truck Lines of Jacksonville,
was not loaded at the time of the accident.
Sikes suffered cracked ribs and
was taken by ambulance to The
Brunswick Hospital near Supply,
where he was treated and released,
the trooper said.
No charges were filed. Barnhardt
said he was unable to determine why
Smith's car crossed the center line
prior to the collision.
He indicated that Smith had turned
left onto U.S. 17 from nearby
Hickman Road seconds before the
crash. The car's left turn signal was
:il April 4
:tt wrote that the proper timeframe
rid that a new ordinance would have
he entire procedure repeated,
jires advertisement of an election
-day period prior to the close of
registration for the April 4 election
larch G?21 working days prior to the
;inal plan, the election was to have
ioWcVci , it ttda Iciici pusipuueu until
i officials realized they would not be
requirements concerning the adver1
I
ON
30 Pages, 2 Sections
i Lack
i
Vobe
removed from the room.
"We have nothing to show if this
blood is human or animal," Walton
said, later adding, "It ( the case) is at
a point at this time where we can't
even say there's been a crime committed."
Blood samples were sent Monday
to the SBI laboratory in Raleigh, to
identify the blood and determine if
any other body fluids were present in
it, which would possibly give lawmen
a clue as to the nature of the incident,
Walton indicated. Test results could
be available this week, he said.
The detective explained that the
residence?a mobile home with
rooms built on?had r.ot been occupied
for about a month. The
Charlotte residents who own the
home had the electrical service
disconnected several weeks ago.
Walton said the alleged victim had
never rented the dwelling, although
she apparently had stayed with a
former occupant in the past. The
man who reported the matter was acquainted
with the woman and knew
she was staying there. He said he
went inside the residence last Thursday
morning because he saw an outside
door standing open, Walton
noted.
With neither a body nor lab results
to go on, Walton said investigators
could do nothing but interview the
woman's acquaintances both here
and in the Myrtle Beach area. He
said Monday morning that no one had
seen the woman since the incident
was reported last Thursday.
' t; -i*?^7Csv rl
^a,W?,^?-? tSS^^GtsA
STAFF PHOTO BY RAHN ADAMS
r-old Louis James Smith of Ash, Moni
U.S. 17
still in the "on" position when Barnhardt
inspected the wreckage.
In another local traffic accident,
three Shallotte motorists suffered
minor injuries in a two-car collision
near Shallotte.
Ms. Oakley said the wreck happened
Friday at 1:45 p.m., nine-tenths of
a mile east of Shallotte on N.C. 130 at
its intersection with Gray Bridge
Road.
A 1980 Nissan driven by Tina
Louise Evans, 25, of Shallotte, was
headed east on N.C. 130 when a 1978
Mercury driven by Frank Jasper
Carty Jr., 0-1, of Brown Summit at(Scc
AUTO, Page 2-A)
1