County 911 System Silently
Pushing Toward 1 992 Debut
BY TKRRY POPE
Next New Year's Day Brunswick
County residents will have two rea
sons to eelebrate as they also wel
come in a new 9 1 1 emergency tele
phone system, one which appears to
be on schedule with just 12 months
to go.
"We're still looking at a projected
date, barring any unforeseen prob
lems, of Jan. 1, 1992," said Lee
Hitchcock, the county's 911 pro
gram planner. 'That is our target
date."
Hitchcock was hired by the coun
ty in October and began work im
mcdiatcdly. He most recently had
been working with Horry County's
911 program in South Carolina, dis
patching as well as laying out of the
grid system.
In Brunswick County, Hitchcock
is responsible for working with the
telephone companies and Bruns
wick County Planning Department
in building an accurate database for
the 911 system.
Planners arc now checking lists of
street names and will be actually
driving through the entire county to
assign names to soads that have not
been given one already by the county
"We have a lot of duplicate
names in Brunswick County," Hitch
cock said. "The rule of thumb there
will be to try to have no duplicates
within the same postal zip code
area."
Some street names will have to
be changed to meet this require
ment. The exact number is not
known, he added. Changes to state
road names will be done through
the legal process while the county
can assign names to other streets.
State and rural paved road numbers
will be dropped.
Residents most affected by the
switch will be those living on rural
routes. Addresses will be changed
to numbered houses and street
names which will also give better
directions for fire and emergency
personnel.
Getting rid of the postal rural
routes will be the most noticeable
change for county residents in the
next 12 months, Hitchcock said.
However, the maps lining the walls
of his workspace at the Planning
Department show that a lot of work
has already silently taken place.
Those maps have divided the
county into four quadrants using
U.S. 17. N.C. 211 and the Lock
wood Folly River as boundaries.
Supply serves as a center point of
the four quadrants: the northwest,
northeast, southwest and southeast.
Those names may appear in the new
addresses assigned to rural routes.
Once the road names have boen
squared away throughout the entire
county, the Planning Department
will next begin working on house
numbering in coordination with the
17 county municipalities. Some
towns have house numbering sys
tems already in place, such as
Soulhport, Shallotte and the beach
towns.
"Where these are already in
place, we will use their existing
numbering system," Hitchcock said.
All of the work is aimed toward
one goal, to develop an automatic
location identification feature of the
enhanced 911 system. This feature
automatically displays the address
of the location from where the call
is made on the dispatcher's monitor.
Residential callers arc also identi
fied by name. The 911 monitor will
also display the three agencies
which have jurisdiction over the ad
dress for law enforcement, fire pro
tection and medical emergencies.
"Forty-three different numbers
apply," Hitchcock said. That is the
number of different fire, police and
rescue squads there are in the coun
ty
"Some are really small, such as
the Sandy Creek or Caswell Beach
police departments where you may
have only one car on duty," he
added.
In recent months, Hitchcock and
county planners have been meeting
with representatives from Southern
Bell to share information. Southern
Bell is the primary installer ol the
911 system. The company was a
warded the contract to provide the
communications equipment. In
1991, the county will build a new
911 communications center and
emergency mcdical services build
ing at the county government com
plex in Bolivia. The $1.1 million
building doesn't include the cost of
the 911 equipment.
AUantic Telephone Membership
Corporation, which has roughly
19,000 subscribers in Brunswick
County stretching from Winnabow
to the South Carolina state line,
isn't actually involved in the plan
ning phase but has served as a
friendly ally of the 911 project.
'The biggest changes that will be
noticed before the end of the year
will be in the rural areas," Hitch
cock said. "The RFDs, routes and
box numbers will have to be
changed to a street name and num
ber over a given period of time.
That has to be done by the end of
the year."
Hitchcock said all of the changes
are being made "with a specific pur
pose in mind. When a person dials
9U, we will know that ihc responsi
ble agency will be dispatched to the
call."
Even when 911 begins operating
next January, the planners' work will
not be finished. Once the system
goes online, it must undergo further
refinement. A back-up system must
be made to record hard copies of
names and addresses for each tele
phone number in the county.
Among the concerns at this point
is how to number the homes along
U.S. 17, which stretches through the
entire county, close to 60 miles.
Should it be given its state name,
"Ocean Highway"? And should
U.S. 74-76 in the northern part of
the county be referred to by its giv
en state name, "Andrew Jackson
Highway"?
"Once people see the system in
placc, I've yet to find anyone who
hasn't liked the system," Hitchcock
said.
Slockett Says Candidate Refused To Deal
(Continued From Page 1-A)
County District Attorney's officc to
investigate the proccss by which the
superintendent was selected. "Ixt's
put it this way ? I'm not going
away. I'm going to make something
happen. A rigged election is illegal
and invalid."
According to Ken Rogers, Mrs.
Worth had told Barbara Rogers
"from the first day, 'I want you'.
"Then she started talking about
firing Bill Turner and replacing him
with her husband or hiring her hus
band as a consultant. Barbara told
Mrs. Worth she didn't do that kind
of thing," he continued. "In the end
she worked some kind of deal with
someone. Somebody promised her
something and she went the other
way."
Slockeu said Mrs. Worth person
ally told him a deal had been struck.
"She didn't try to hide that," he
said. Slockett said he understood
from Mrs. Worth that black political
leaders had agreed to pressure
Hankins to fire Turner and hire
Randy Worth, who had resigned
from the school system in 1985.
Worth began work for the school
system in August 1980 as director
of plant operations. At the time of
his resignation in September 1985,
he was central purchasing officer.
However, apparently Hankins
would have no part of such a deal.
At that point, Slockelt maintains,
Mrs. Worth was willing to overturn
Hankins' selection on the technical
grounds that he had failed to college
transcripts as required.
Slockctt said he first raised con
cerns about the hiring process at an
OcL 15 meeting at Southport Ele
mentary School, after Ken Rogers
questioned the credentials of super
intendent-elect P. R. Hankins.
"They wanted to sweep it under the
rug," he said.
When he shared those concerns,
said Slockctt, "the board turned me
down; they didn't want to deal with
it I fell like the board had made a
mistake and should take steps to
correct it."
While the advertisement for the
position required that transcripts be
attached to the application, Hankins
had noted on his application that
Expect Near-Normal Weather
Near-normal temperatures and
rainfall aie in the forecast for the
first days of 1991.
Shallotte Point meteorologist said
lie expects temperatures to range
from around die mid-30s at night
into the mid-50s during the day,
with about a half-inch of rainfall.
For the period of Dec. 24-30,
temperatures spread across a 44-dc
gree range. Canady recorded a max
imum high of 74 degrees, which oc
curred on the 24th and 30th. The
minimum low of 30 degrees oc
curred on the 25th.
An average daily high of 60 de
grees combined with an average
nightly low of 46 degrees for a daily
average temperature of 53 degrees,
which Canady said was about seven
degrees above average.
HOW TO SUBSCRIBE TO
THE BRUNSWICK&ffiACON
POST OFFICE BOX 2558
SHALLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA 28459
TC, START THE NEW YEAR OFF RIGHT!
ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY MAIL: Sr. Citizen
In Brunswick County 06.30 Q5.30
N.C. Sales Tax .32 .27
Postage Charge 3.68 3.68
TAT A 1
TOTAL 1Q.30
TOTAL 14.80
Outside North Carolina 36.30 35 30
Postage Charge 9.65 9 6?5
total TTqI
City, State .
Zip
9.25
Elsewhere In North Carolina Q6.30 05.30
N.C. Sales Tax .32 .27
Postage Charge 8 18 8.18
TATA I " " - "
13.75
14.95
Ccriipi?'%a And Return To Above Address
Name ^.^..^....,1^ />.?*??**? ? m^wwn..
Address
transcripts were not available.
Slockcti said and Ms. Baxter con
firmed.
Then acting superintendent and a
longtime admin istrator in the local
school system, Hankins had at first
stated he did not plan to apply for
the position. Then, shortly before
the deadline, he did apply, at the
urging of friends.
SlockeU acknowledged he had
not noticed the transcripts were not
included when he reviewed
Hankins' application. Still, he said
the application should never have
been consiuercd, but should have
been discarded as were other in
complete applications.
However, he said he thought the
discrepancy should have been
caught by either the board attorney,
who received all the applications, or
then fellow board member James
Clemmoris, who w?s assigned the
task of investigating Hankins' back
ground.
Slockett said he would like to see
the board "face up to it, deal with it,
study it and reach a conclusion as to
what should be done."
Crime Prevention
Projects Slated
Two upcoming activities spon
sored by the Shallotte Police De
partment are aimed at prcveniing or
deterring crime.
Crime Prevention Officer Rhea
(Ray) Altizer said the department
v/ill photograph children and take
their fingerprints in a screening
scheduled Thursday, Jan. 10 at 12
noon at the police station on Wall
SfeeL
Also the department plans to of
fer two-hour briefings on armed
robbery to employees of local busi
nesses.
Information on the child identifi
cation program and appointments
for the. course can be obtained by
contacting Altizer at the depart
ment, 754-6008.
EVEN SMALL ADS GET
RESULTS IN THF BEACON
* ^ GVFTS
'All Hand T*Wc
ju Local Craft per son 3
0 Xxcdlciit Sdcction
? All 'Reasonably 'Pricrd
1 G13MG'E'RT3'R'EJaT)l
1 " >COXlS'E |
Hotdcn Brack "Road
' T4ext to JR'a StcakKous* o
i SKallottc. "NC 754-S970 \
STAFF PHOTO BY TTRRY fOn
COUNTY 911 PI^ANNER Lee Hitchcock has mapped Brunswick County into districts for fire, police
and rescue response teams, getting ready for the 1992 debut of the emergency communications pro
gram.
Money, Redistricting To Dominate
(Continued From Page 1-A)
budget period. While legislators
will be scrambling to identify new
sources of revenues for state and lo
cal governments, they also will be
looking hard at existing programs,
said Rcdwinc.
In an era where the state is no
longer "flush" with money, we (state
legislators) can no longer afford to
be sugar daddy to everybody."
In short, he said iocai govern
ments arc not going to be able to re
ly on the state to continue picking
up cuts in federal funding as the
"new federalism" philosophy of the
1980s trickles down. And state
funded programs and agencies are
going to be called on to justify what
they're doing or face cuts.
"I expect some major surgery
plus some new t ? no I'd better not
use the 'T-word' ? some sort of rev
enue enhancement package," he
said. One possibility is an additional
half-cent to one-cent sales lax. A
penny of tax is expected to yield
about $500 million in annual rev
enues, at current spending levels.
Legislators will be looking at,
among other things, a proposed
"menu" of local option taxes that
the state could approve and make
available to local governments.
These include a real estate transfer
tax, which several counties already
have in place.
Redwine would like to add anoth
er tax to the list, the manufacturer's
inventory tax. Worth an estimated
$350 million a year to the state in in
come, the tax was eliminated at the
governor's icqucst several years ago.
But the state continues to send to
counties the money they would have
made from that tax. "The slate, not
the counties, lost," said Redwine.
"We can't afford that anymore."
"If they arc interested in providing
a service they (local governments)
will have to find a way to Finance it."
At the same time, he says the
state should also back away from
mandating programs while not pro
viding die funds to provide them, as
is now the case in some areas, such
as social services.
He also expects the governor to
seek legislators' approval to put to
use immediately a $141 million
"rainy day" fund Redwinc said he
and other legislators "fought hard"
to create.
Some legislators will also be eye
ing the Highway Trust Fund as a
source of general operating rev
enues, but not Redwine. He said he
doesn't want to sec existing highway
projects scheduled for construction
using Trust Fund monies to be de
layed. "I would like to stay in office
long enough to see Highway 17 four
laned all the way through Brunswick
County," he said. That would be
around 1995-19% unless schedules
and budgets arc altered
Redrawing The Lines
State legislators must also come
up with electoral rcdistricting plans
that meet the one-man, one-vote
standard, trying to avoid legal chal
lenges wherever possible.
While border areas in the west and
northeast and inland eastern counties
appear to be losing seats, the south
eastern North Carolina coastal area
should gain a scat, along with the
greater Mecklenburg and Triangle
Triad areas in the Piedmont
House spcakcr-elect Rep. Dan
Blue has not announced his plans
for the session. However, Redwine
said the term may be split so thai re
districting will be handled separate
ly from other business ? an option
he would prefer. The General As
sembly could complete its routine
work by late June, then reconvene
in September, after final figures are
available from the U.S. Census.
That could help keep the highly po
litical rcdistricting process from
hogging down other issues, Red
wine suggested. "I've never been
through a rcdistricting, but I've
heard what it's like," he said.
Brunswick County and Shallotte
have written letters challenging
1990 U.S. Census figures, but pre
liminary data indicates Brunswick
County won't qualify to become a
self-contained state House district.
Redwine represents the 14th Dis
trict, which includes one township
in New Hanover County and one
township in Pender County as well
as Brunswick County, with a com
bined current population of about
70,000 to 75,000. While Brunswick
County showed one of the sharpest
rate growths of any spot in the state,
up from approximately 35,777 to
about 50,681, it still apparently fell
short of the 55,000 needed tc quali
fy for a single-seat district.
During the decade Brunswick
County gained approximately
15,000 residents, while adjacent
Columbus County lost about 1,000.
"That's mind-boggling," said Red
wine, noting the difference in activi
ty and revenues the numbers signify.
"That's going to be a real chal
lenge tor our county commissioners
and board of education over the
next 10 years," Redwine predicted.
The growth means, among other
things, that Brunswick County is
ranked by the state as one of the top
counties in terms of ability to pay,
especially in terms of support for
education. However, current educa
tion spending levels don't reflect
that ability, possibly because of the
county's large number of retirees,
who tend to oppose higher taxes,
Redwine suggested.
Few Local Bills In
With the start of the session only
a few weeks away, Redwine has re
ceived few requests to introduce lo
cal bills.
Last fall the Town of Calabash
asked Redwine to introduce a local
bill to annex several areas adjacent
to the town, rather than the town
following the usual annexation pro
cedures.
Redwine said he hopes to talk
with town commissioners at their
Jan. 8 meeting to reiterate his posi
tion. He has recommended the town
try the usual annexation methods
before seeking special legislation,
citing the problems that setting such
a precedent could create.
The Town of Long Beach wants
authorization to assess for under
ground utilities, as a number of oth
er local towns have done. The Town
of Holden Beach is asking that a
municipal taxing district be set up
for canal dredging.
Brunswick County commission
ers haven't presented any requests,
but have mentioned holding a
breakfast meeting with Redwine to
discuss legislative issues.
Municipal Leaders Share Goals
(Continued From Page 1-A)
house that it is renovating and turn
ing into the
community's
first town hall.
Several walls
already have
been torn
down, but there
is still work to
be done inside
and outside the
building.
Mayor Gal
loway said she also would like to
see the town put up some street
lights before the end of 1991.
"That's as far as I can go right
now," she said. "I'd like to get both
of those done in the near future."
HOLDEN BEACH
Holden Beach Mayor John Tandy
didn't have any projects in mind
when asked about the coming year.
But he said he would like to reverse
a trend having to do with the way
the town has been governing its
people.
TANDY
Tandy said he has received a lot
of phone calls
recently from
residents and
seasonal visi
tors who are
worried about
ordinances that
the town board
has already im
posed or is get
ting ready to
approve.
"When we absolutely need an or
dinance we should put it in," Tandy
said. "But we should be keeping the
beach a little free of needless ordi
nances."
Holdcn Beach Commissioners
arc presently considering several
ordinances, including one designed
to protect endangered sea tunics
from sources of artificial light on
the beach.
Tandy said some people oppose a
scction of that ordinance that would
prohibit people from walking on the
strand at night with flashlights. The
code would make it illcgaJ to chase
ghost crabs at night, which the may
or says has been going on for the
last 40 years.
THE BRUN$W1CK#fEAC0N
Established Nov. 1, 1962
Telephone 754-6830
Published Every Thursday
At 4709 Main Street
ShaMotte, N.C. 28459
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
IN BRUNSWICK COUNTY
One Year $10.30
Six Months $5.50
ELSEWHERE IN NORTH CAROLINA
One Year $14.80
Six Months $7.85
ELSEWHERE IN U.S.A.
One Year $15.95
Six Months $8.35
Second class postage paid at the
Post Office in Shallotte, N.C.
28459. USPS 777-780.