Newspapers / The Brunswick beacon. / Dec. 2, 1993, edition 1 / Page 2
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ck lyyj D.A. ASKED TO INVESTIGATE 'CONCERNED CITIZENS' State Elections Board Orders New Leland Sanitary District Vote BY SUSAN USHER A new election must be held to choose the five mem bers of the Leland Sanitary District, and District Attorney Rex Gore will be asked by the N.C. Board of [?lections to look into possible campaign improprieties in the Long Beach municipal election. Results of the Nov. 2 Leland Sanitary District election were thrown out by the state elections board last week because ballots were given to voters at Leland precinct whether they lived in the sanitary district or not. Of its own initiative, not in response to any inquiry from the local board, the N.C. Board of Elections direct ed the Brunswick County Board of Elections to hold a hearing to determine the continued employment of Iceland precinct registrar Helen Best. Lynda Britt, supervisor of elections with the Bruns wick County Board of Elections, expressed surprise at the state board's directive. "There's probably enough fault to go around to every body, including this office," she said. Britt said the county elections board will wait until it receives official word from the state board to act on New Inspector Is On Job At Holden Beach Bill Goodman, a former self-em ployed architect in Hickory, started his new job as building inspector at Holden Beach Tuesday. Goodman, president and owner of Goodman & Associates since Nov ember 1983, will replace inspector Jim McSwain, who is resigning to go into the construction business. Town Manager Gus Ulrich said McSwain will continue working on a part-time basis for a short while to help with the transition in the town inspections department. "Bill was the most qualified can didate," Ulrich said. "He has not worked as a building inspector be fore. but most architects have to do quite a bit of inspecting." Goodman will be paid an annual salary of $25,875, Ulrich said. Before starting his own architec ture firm, Goodman W'?-ked as a draftsman and designer for two companies in Hickory. He also was a designer, job captain and estimator for Hickory Construction Company. Goodman said he received "a lit tle taste of coastal development" several years ago when he worked for a developer who built condo miniums in the Carolinas and Vi rginia. Goodman received a bachelor of arts degree in business administra tion from Lenoir Rhyne College in 1971 and a bachelor of science de gree in architecture from the Uni versity of North Carolina at Char lotte in 1976. He also received training as a wastewater treatment plant operator, planner and inspector at the Uni versity of North Carolina. Goodman said he applied for the building inspector's position at Hol den Beach for a change of pace. He and his wife, Sherry, have four chil dren. "My wife and I both love the coast," Goodman said. "We had been wanting to move to the coast and this was a good time to do it." In Th is Issue... Business News 8A Calendar IOC Church News .... ?...11C Classified 1-8C Crime Report 12A Court Docket 9C Golf lie Obituaries 11C Opinion 4-5A People In The News 9A Plant Doctor..- 5B Sports 8-12B Television 6-7B THE BRUNSWICKfeffiACON Established Nov. 1, 1962 Telephone 754-6890 Published Every Thursday At 4709 Main Street Shallotte, N.C. 28459 SUBSCRIPTION RATES IN BRUNSWICK COUNTY One Year $10.36 Six Months $5.55 ELSEWHERE IN NORTH CAROLINA One Year $14.86 Six Months $7.90 ELSEWHERE IN U.S.A. One Year $15.95 Six Months $8.35 Second class postage paid at Shallotte, N.C. 28459. USPS 777 780. Postmaster, send address changes to: P.O. Box 2558, Shallotte, N.C 28459-2558 scheduling that hearing or a new sanitary district election. Previously she had said the earliest a vote could prob ably be scheduled would be February. Sanitary district residents vote at three different poliing places: Woodburn, Leland and Woodburn. In Leland precinct 65 votes were cast in the sanitary dis trict election by people who didn't live in the district. Only four votes separated two of the six candidates. John Harvey, county planning director, received 398 votes to incumbent Julius Adams' 394 votes. Harvey had offered to withdraw if that would eliminate the need for another election. During its business session last week the slate elec tions board also directed either its executive secretary or deputy director to "report to the local district attorney the anonymous status of the Concerned Citizens of Long Beach." The district attorney will be asked to investigate the group to determine what, if any, violations of election law occurred before and during the election. That in cludes whether the group used money from businesses for political purposes or whether its funds came from in dividuals. "We have not been able to find officers or information about the Concerned Citizens," said Deputy Director Yvonne Southerland. "They held meetings, placed ads and even held a raffle." "We couldn't find individuals," said Southerland. "There's nothing wrong with political activity. The prob lem is that it cannot be anonymous." Before the Nov. 2, election Concerned Citizens of Long Beach was allied with four candidates who later lost the election ? mayoral candidate Rupert Riley, and commissioner candidates David Drummond, Helen Cashwell and Frances Allen. In interviewing candidates for town office. Southerland said, not one claimed to have received any money from the Concerned Citizens. Her office asked for financial records from the group, but received a letter from Eileen Kellagher saying that while she had attend ed meetings of the Concerned Citizens, the group didn't have any officers. "As far as we know it could be the name of one or more of the candidates themselves, but it didn't show up," said Soulherland. In investigating another complaint stemming from the Long Beach elections, the hoard found that four proper ty managers had used company resources to raise money for four candidates who won election ? Mayor Joan Alt man. incumbent commissioners Jeffrie Ensminger and Danny Leonard, and commissioner-elect Kevin Bell. However, the property managers have all repaid their companies and the violations no longer exist, said Soulherland. Southerland said it would be sometime this week at the earliest before the Brunswick County Board of Elections or the district attorney's office would receive their notification letters from the state board. Meanwhile, the county elections board has disposed of most of the challenges filed in advance of Nov. 2 against 53 potential voters in the Long Beach municipal elections. Twenty-eight of the challenges have been withdrawn, eight were overruled and seven have been tabled until the board obtains more information, said Britt. Ten chal lenges were upheld. STAFF PHOTO BY ERIC CARLSON Shell-Seekers' Delight Something about cooler weather seems to bring out the shell-seek er in South Brunswick Islands visitors and residents. Bundled up against a cool north wind, these strollers hunted for treasures on a recent Sunday afternoon. Murder Charges Filed Against 3 Bolivia Men; More Arrests Possible (Continued From Page I -A) dismissed by the state when evi dence indicated that he may have acted in self defense. Smith was scheduled to appear in court Wednesday (Dec. 1) on a charge of bringing a seven-inch folding "hawk bill" knife to South Brunswick High School Nov. 12. Ford is currently on two years' probation imposed after a March 26, 1992, conviction for carrying a se mi-automatic handgun into the G.FB. Club in Ash. An assault charge brought against Ford in that incident was dismissed after the al leged victim, Aldridge Reed, did not show up to testify. In July, a warrant was issued for Ford's arrest on a charge of selling a rock of crack cocaine to an under cover police officer last February. The warrant was not served and the charge was dismissed when the dis trict attorney's office learned that the officer was no longer available to testify. In May 1990, Davis also had a brush with the law over drugs. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor pos session of marijuana and was given a 30-day suspended sentence and probation. None of which explains what hap pened Sunday night, when Davis was allegedly shot at least once out side his home with a ,380-caliber se mi-automatic handgun. A neighbor told investigators he heard two gunshots at about 9 p.m., but Perry said the noise may have been cause by hunters. At about 6:30 Monday morning, the victim's brother-in-law was dri ving by and found Davis's car par tially blocking the roadway. The glass had been broken out of the dri ver's side window. The brother-in-law told police he found the body lying face-up in the driveway about 15 feet away. He went to the nearby home of the vic tim's father, who called 91 1 . Investigators feel that Davis had been dead for several hours when his body was discovered. They found no sign of forced entry to the victim's home. Perry said. Davis's body was sent to Jacksonville for an autopsy. The re sults of the examination had not been released Tuesday night. The three suspects were scheduled to make a first appearance in District Court Wednesday morning. Cooler Weather Is In Forecast Unseasonably mild weather on Thanksgiving and throughout the holiday weekend has given way to cooler temperatures this week. Shallotte Point meteorologist Jackson Canady said residents can expect temperatures ranging from 40 degrees at night to the lower 60s during the day for the next week. He expects about one-half inch of rain. "In the long haul we may yet con tinue to have temperatures above av erage," Canady said. Both the 30 and 90-day outlooks call for warmer weather than normal. For the period Nov. 23-29, Can ady said the daily average tempera ture was 59 degrees, which is 8 de grees above normal. The maximum high temperature during the period was 75 degrees on Nov. 24 and the minimum low was 35 degrees on the 29th. Canady recorded 1.42 inches of rain during the period. I New Test Grades 'No Surprise' (Continued From Page 1-A) above the state mean average per centile: In reading, grades 4 and 5 at Southport Elementary, grade 6 at Shallotte Middle, grade seven at Waccamaw and grade 8 at Leland and to a lesser extent, eighth grade students countywide. No schools scored above the state average per centile in grade 3 for reading. In math, grades 3 and S at Bolivia, grades 3 and 4 at Southport, grade seven at Waccamaw and grade 8 at Leland and to a lesser extent, county eighth graders in general. No schools scored above the state aver age percentile for grade 6 in math. The results released so far are those for answers to multiple choice questions; scores for open-ended questions won't be released until some time in December. Even the multiple-choice ques tions aren't like those students have seen on previous standardized tests. said Jan Calhoun, assistant superin tendent for instruction. "These are not concrete simple re call multiple choice test items," he said. "They require a lot of thinking and problem solving to answer." Student performance on end-of grade tests will gradually become a part of future "report cards" for the school system issued by the state, with scores for three-year periods averaged and school systems ex pected to meet a minimum standard and show steady improvement. The school system plans to use state-provided test data to begin iden tifying students' strengths and weak nesses. While schools are generally set up more along a "factory" model for mass education, Calhoun said teachers are going to have to take such information into account in make appropriate decisions in their classrooms. They also must look at why students perform p<x)rly try to address those concerns as well. "It's never just one thing for everybody." he said. "It may be one thing for one child and something else for another. Usually it's a com bination ? the quality of teaching, the support the student receives at home, the experiences the child brings to school or doesn't bring to school. It's our job to meet those in dividual needs ? whether it's provid ing support, offering new experi ences or whatever." "Not to make excuses, but every day we face children in varying lev els of crisis. Our teachers are work ing on it and our principals were working on it." While recognizing those problems and not being insensitive to students, Calhoun said the one thing the school system needs to do county wide is "raise expectations, demand more, expect more." ; Senator, Representatives Voice Opposition To Quarry Proposal (Continued From Page 1-A) of Martin Marietta's plan to pump 10 million gallons of water per day from a limestone pit into the Cape Fear River. Legrand said the removal of that much ground water is "almost cer tain" to cause saltwater contamina tion of the Castle Hayne aquifer as brackish river water flows in to re place the fresh water. "Such contamination is almost al ways permanent," Legrand said. Depletion of the ground water may also dry up wetland ponds and form sinkholes that could endanger natural gas lines and railroad ship ments of hazardous materials to and from the Brunswick Nuclear Plant and the giant military ammunition terminal at Sunny Point, he said. Other statements were read into the record from geologists who claimed that the mine de-watering plan could lower the level of groundwater by up to 10 feet in a circular area extending several miles from the center of the quarry, includ ing land surrounding the nuclear plant and the Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point. Robert ? Quinn, a leader of the Brunswick Mining Awareness Com mittee, read excerpts from studies by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other government agencies re garding groundwater depletion and the formation of sinkholes. "The single most important factor for preventing or greatly reducing the undesirable occurrence of sink hole development and subsidence is management and maintenance of the existing groundwater table," Quinn read from a study by the N.C. Department of Transportation. Quinn and others also warned against the possible impact of fresh water and limestone dust on the nearby Walden Creek estuary, a nursery area for fish and crabs. Fritz Rohde of the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries called Walden Creek and its tributaries "a fragile estuarine system" and said his agency is currently studying the po tential effects of dewatering and limestone dust, which he said could alter Ihe salinity and acidity of the estuary. Chuck Roof and Dwayne Price raised new concerns about potential ly hazardous chemicals left behind on a portion of the proposed mine site by the old Pfizer fertilizer plant. The company used land applications to dispose of waste products. The material was said to be "verv high in nitrates and also contains some heavy metal products" including ar senic. "We recommend that permits not be issued to Martin Marietta," Price said in a prepared statement. "Their de-watering process will allow the solid waste material and associated chemicals applied by Pfizer to enter the aquifer. As a result, the drinking water used by multiple municipali ties would be contaminated." State Mining Specialist Beth Chesson said the l^and Quality Section will review the comments made at the public hearing for 30 days before considering whether or not to issue a mining permit. Agency representative Steve Reeve said an other public hearing will be sched uled before a final determination is made. Former MM Executive Scorns Opponents' Tactics, Arguments A Holden Beach official with 30 years' experience working with Martin Marietta quarries says he be lieves opponents' arguments against the proposed Brunswick County fa cility are not justified. "Whether they put (the quarry) in means nothing to me financially," Commissioner Jim Fournier said in a telephone interview following Tuesday's hearing. "But I'm violent ly opposed to the kind of scare tac tics that have been used against it." Fournier, who opened numerous quarries as a Martin Marietta divi sion manager, said, "Their so-called facts are not facts. The experts argu ing against this are the same experts you hire when you go to court ? ones you can count on to say what you want them to say." Though Fournier resigned from Martin Marietta before he retired, he says he "never lost my high opinion of the company. They're the class act of the industry nationwide." He called alarm about drawdown of the freshwater aquifer, the devel opment of sinkholes and blasting in the vicinity of the Brunswick Nuclear Plant and Sunny Point mu nitions terminal "a good scare pro gram based on opinion and very lit tle fact. I've seen these quarries all over the country, with no disastrous results." Fournier says the quarry would be "a good economic opportunity for Brunswick County, which desperate ly needs more industry" and criti cized local legislators who "showed up at the hearing campaigning." He said he did not express his views in the hearing because "I didn't think the climate was appro priate." HOW TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE BRUNSWICK&BEACON POST OFFICE BOX 2558 SHALLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA 28459 \NOTICE: Reliable or consistent delivery cannot be ^guaranteed since this newspaper must rely on the U.S . Postal Service for delivery. We can only guarantee that\ \your newspaper will be submitted to the post office in Shallotte on Wednesday of the week of publication, in time for dispatch to out-of-town addresses that day. ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION RATES BY MAIL: Sr. Citizen In Brunswick County 06.30 Q5.30 N.C. Sales Tax .38 .32 Postage Charge 3.68 3.68 TOTAL 10.36 9.30 Elsewhere in North Carolina 06.30 (J5.30 N.C. Sales Tax .38 .32 Postage Charge 8.18 8.18 TOTAL 14.86 13.80 Outside North Carolina U6.30 05.30 Postage Charge 9 fis 9 fis TOTAL 15,95 14.95 Complete And Return To Above Address Name Address City, State
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