rhe ' 80s In
Brunswick County
(Continued From Proceeding Page)
Diana came ashore at low tide with
winds from the land side and with
out the storm surge usually associat
es W{ tV atCg?ry"IV tunicaries.
a^arH Usher Pope provided
award-winning coverage of the
storm for the Beacon.
Meanwhile, the county was pre
occupied throughout most of the
year with completion of its new wa
?cr system. Also, Ocean Isle tow^.
people approved the sale of $2 8
million in general obligation bonds
for the First municipal sewer system
among fte c?u?,ys lsland J*3?
Construction also began simulta
neously on high-rise bridges at
Ocean Isle and Holden Beach to re
bridges'110 'S,andS' 0nC"lanc draw
1985
At Sunset Beach, where the on
going debate began over whether or
not to build a high-rise bridge, traf
fic was disrupted several times due
to problems with the island's pon
oon swing bridge. At one point, the
bndgc was closed for about a week
after ,t was rammed by a barge and
iSoiS.5"'?" brid?c ?
1985 was in several respccts the
high-water mark of the decade for
m k?,Uooy' Flgures released in
March 1985 by the county Planning
Department and the N.C. Depart
ment of Commerce showed that
Brunswick County was the fastest
growing county in the state in terms
or population and housing growth.
Several other plot lines that wo-ld
enthrall the county in later y^rs
also took shape in 1985. One was
institution of a county Building
Inspections Department, as mandat
? siaie Also, voters passed
an So million bond referendum to
.ir.ar.ec the current building pro
gram at Brunswick Community
College s main campus at Supply.
llie Odell Williamson Bridge
opened at Ocean Isle Beach in
November 1985, followed several
'alcr.by .cu,"P?euon of uie
Holden Beach high-rise span. Also
at Holden Beach, individuals pro
tested the closing of Ocean View
Boulevard West to the public and
eventually initiated legal action to
regain public access via the road to
uie island's west end through Hold
en Beach West subdivision. The
long-running lawsuit will be re
viewed in 1990 by the N.C. Su
preme Court.
out pwiiaps i],c IIlost iniporiaiii
happening m 1985 came in July
when then 21-year-old Shallotte
resident Allen Dale Brooks was ar
rested hy Inral authorities in what
county narcotics agent David
Crocker called "the largest under
cover cocainc bust in the history of
Brunswick County."
Crocker told the Beacon, "Lately
we ve been seeing more and more
cocaine on the streets." Brooks
who has yet to be sentenced on
moiyPle- stemming from that
1985 bust, became the focal point
o! an investigation that in two years
would again turn the county upside
down, as local and state law en
forcement agencies hunted down
not marijuana smugglers but co
caine traffickers.
1986
Keeping pace with a decade of
tremendous growth made the news
in Brunswick County during 1986.
Disputes over access to beaches
and the county's efforts to extend
water service were the top news
makers during the year , observed
Beacon writer Etta Smith.
Lawsuits over the Holden Beach
West dispute and ownership of an
oceanfrom lot? Lot l-A? at Sunset
Beach formally entered the courts.
In the Lot l-A suit, which also re
mains to be resolved, the Sunset
ueach Taxpayers Association
claimed the lot as a public right-of
way for bcach access.
County commissioners set up a
41. 5 million revolving fund to ex
tend water lines in developed sec
tions of the county through a new
special assessment district program
The Brunswick County Utility On
c rations Board was fonncd to ovS
see the SAD program. Also, the 24
mdhon gallon per day Northwest
Treatment Plant at Malmo was
completed.
StaHnitp" ?HC ?( lhe worst f,rcs ?n
onallotte s history, a pre-dawn blaze
n September gutted seven stores at
Lewis Shopping Center. Damages
were estimated at 52.45 million
1987
On the very first day of 1987
Brunswick County residents got a
taste of the year to come, in the
tnrm of a winter that hrnuoht
change through turbulence
The "January 1 storm," combined
with astronomical factors, lashed
the county's east-to-west aligned
beaches with gale-force winds and
unusually high tides, and caused is
land flooding and dune damage
That summer, a 5,000-foot ' col
umn of smoke from controlled
burning and stagnant air was mea
sured over much of western
Bnmswick County. The large stable
air mass and smoldering organic
combined to cause limited
visibility on local highways and res
piratory problems for some resi
dents.
The worst nautical disaster of the
decade happened in October. The
five-man crew and 56 passengers of
the Calabash-based charter boat
c apt. Jim were forced to abandon
ship about five miles east of Little
River Inlet, when the vessel caught
fire and sank. All were rescued, and
no one was seriously injured
The biggest news of the ycar
however, again revolved around
drug trafficking. The 13th District
Attorneys office used the state's
mnd iurV to in
ict 32 defendants for cocaine traf
ficking including two public fig
ures?former Holdcn Beach Com
missioner James D. Griffin Jr. and
Holden Beach Board of Adjust
ments member Virgil Roberts.
While hr^ was not indicted by the
special grand jury, Clerk of Court
Greg Bellamy also was implicated
in unig mvoivemem linked io iiic
same investigation and was forced
to resign in August 1987. after he
pleaded guilty to a cocaine posses
sion charge.
1988
1988l H 'OS a year of continued
growth in Brunswick County the
states second fastest-growing coun
ty. However, the year was marked
oy natural and manmade "tides"
inat respectively swept over positive
ospem of Brunei
with coun
2. "2; !?f?rmen ba,UinK a natu
re which threatened the
livelihoods they derived from once
abundant coastal waters. In August,
-h t? Loc'wood Folly River was
shut down because of manmade
pollution unrelated to the red tide
As a result, the local river preserva
?(^Jr?Up' Save Our Shellfish,
in the spring, "Operation White
Tide impacted another of the
tys lucrative 'industries"-- the drug
trade? as 48 more cocaine and mar
ijuana traffickers were indicted in
cluding former Ocean Isle B^ach
Commissioner DeCarol William
In the political arena. Republicans
swept the year's three county com
mission races and in December
gave the board the first GOP major
ity since the mid-1970s. The tum
our was attributed to a general dis
,ocal government, although
the decade-long influx of Northern
retirees with Republican l?j?
also apparently infiuenced the
change.
had ,a"en be
hind Dare County as the fastest
growing county in North Carolina.
However, Brunswick still led the
sate mat, least two categories: env?
ronmental health site evaluations
due to increasing development; and'
the number of municipalities in the
county Varnamtown1^ and Sanely
SS a"JC ** county's 15th and
16th towns. Leland became the 17th
town in 1989. m
LEWIS SHOPPING
CENTER of Shallotte sustained almost $2.5 million worth of damage in a September 1986 fire.
1989
In Brunswick County ? one of the
state's fastest-growing counties ?
the watchword is change. But with
change often comes unrest, and
with growth come growing pains,
stated the Beacon in a timeworn but
fitting epitaph for the 1980s.
Of course, the major story of
1989 was September's Hurricane
Hugo, which did an estimated S89
million in property damage here but
spared Brunswick County further
devastation by making landfall 140
miles to the south.
At year's end, the county was
"wet" in another respect, thanks to
the November passage of an ABC
referendum that cleared the way for
the first legal countywide alcohol
sales since 1949.
Other major stories were sewn to
gether as familiar patches in the
county's crazy quilt of the '80s: dis
cussion of countywide zoning,
monumental squabbling among
county officials, more drug traffick
ing indictments, waste disposal and
continuations of legal battles be
tween public and private interests
over beach access, to name a few of
the issues still facing the county at
the dawn of a new decade.
Will that quilt help keep the coun
ty warm in the 1990s? Or will we
find ourselves short-sheeted in the
long run? For answers' to these and
countless other questions about the
future, stay tuned.
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