Calabash Commissioner
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Explains Opposition To Sewer Authority Vote
To the editor:
At the Jan. 3 meeting of the Town
of Calabash, I addressed my fellow
commissioners on what I felt were
the four major issues/flaws in the
proposed South West Brunswick
Water and Sewer Authority.
Since immediately after I voiced
these concerns, the board voted 5-2
to fund, with Calabash town tax
money, another $150,000 toward the
authority planning, I ask that your
newspaper allow me to reiterate my
remarks in hope that the public hear
ing on the sewer authority revenue
bond financing on Thursday. Feb.
17, will lie attended by many in
formed and involved citizens of
Calabash.
There are four major flaws in the
S. B. Water and Sewer Authority
Plans. They are finance, environ
ment. time anil politics:
Financially, ilic cost of the entire
project has increased from $2l> mil
lion to S33 million. To date our
planning cost, using Calabash town
tax money, has been $53,2707.
(Note: with the vote of Jan. 3. this
figure is now $203,270).
The expected planning costs are
presently estimated to go to
$500,0<>b.
With the recent turn-down bv
Farmers Home Administration of
(he hoped-for S4 million in grants
(money which does not have to be
repaid), and the turther turn-down of
$5 million in very low-interest,
long-term FmHA loans, the cost of
borrowing has increased greatly.
There is a further possible loss of
state-government-assisted loans af
ter a thorough review of the state
mandated environmental impact
statement is done by at least nine
agencies of the state and federal
government concerned with the en
vironment Which brings me to the
second flaw.
The complete denial of any finan
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PHOTO BY BILL FAVER
TURKEY WINGS, found along our coast, arc a/.v0 known as zebra arks.
Turkey Wings Along The Shore
BY BILL FAVER
Turkey wings are one of our local representatives of
the worldwide group of ark shells.
Sixteen of the 200 worldwide
species appear on the Atlantic
coast, and most of them are
strong-box-like clams living in
warm and shallow water. Turkey
wings are also known as zebra
arks anil have the scientific name
Area zebra Swainson,
Turkey wings range from North
Carolina to Brazil and Texas and
are common in the Bahamas and
FAVER West Indies.
Our turkey wings are smaller
than the 3.5-inch maximum size and are sturdy, box
like bivalves that are yellowish-white, or cream,
streaked with reddish-brown zebra-like stripes. A gape
appears at both ends of the valve for the siphon and
the threads that tie it to rocks, shells or roots in shal
low water.
The shell if twice as long as it U wide, and the hinge
where it is connected consists of a long, even row of
about 50 comb-like teeth. The shell interior is pale
lavendar and the exterior is covered with a thick
brown periostracum when the shell is alive.
The foot, or body of the animal, is pointed and large
and contains all the vital organs and two hearts. The
animal has eyespots along the middle fold of the foot,
but has poorly developed eyes. Like the other arks,
turkey wings bring in water by their siphon and feed
on plankton strained out by a mucous net.
Turkey wings are among our most common shells.
A walk along the beaches at almost any time of year
will lead to discovery of several specimens. Find some
and then investigate their names: Do they look like
turkey wings? Can you see the zebra stripes?
A Duck A/1 ay Be Somebody's Mother
O: Mow do you make an elephant
float?
A: Half a glass of soda, two
scoops of ice cream and one ele
phant.
Q: Where does a 2,000-pound
elephant sleep?
A: Anywhere it wants.
Q: What do you do when a herd
of 50 elephants is stampeding
straight for a city of 10 million peo
ple?
That's what folks in Calcutta,
India, are trying to decide, according
to a recent Associated Press article
by Dilip Ganguly in New Delhi.
(Which is to assure you that I am not
making this up.)
Dilip reported that six people had
been trampled to death in less than a
week after a bush fire panicked the
pugnacious pachyderms into fleeing
the Jaldapara wildlife preserve.
Since then, they have covered about
IKU miies, flattened several villages
u ud were last reported about 60
miles from the nation's largest city.
Calcuttans are understandably
concerned. Photographs of the ele
phants appeared on the front page of
Calcutta newspapers last week,
along with handy tips on what to do
if an elephant approaches. The state
run television station has been
broadcasting updates on the herd's
movement and urging viewers "not
to be mean to the elephants."
It seems that on New Year's Eve,
hundreds of people armed with iron
rods, burning torches and rocks tried
to stop the herd and ended up dri
ving the elephants through several
villages, with disastrous results.
Since iiien, Indians have been irying
other methods to halt the stampede.
Trucks have been lined up in
close formation for miles on main
highways to block the elephants.
Hundreds of drummers were recruit
ed to try to turn the herd back.
Police with tranquilizer guns have
followed "in case the elephants'
nerves get so frayed they go on a
rampage," the article said.
"We are trying everything to send
the ptwir elephants back to their
sanctuary," said Hanamali Roy, the
forest anil environmental minister o'
the West Bengal stale government.
Now imagine this happening in
Eric
Carlson
4%.
A
America. What if those "poor ele
phants" were threatening to trample
the citizenry of South Central Los
Angeles or Northeast Washington
D.C., or even C'heyenne, Wyoming.
I can assure you those folks
would not he lighting torches and
banging on drums. They'd he load
ing magnum revolvers with Black
Talon ammo, shoving rifled slugs in
to shotguns and converting their
AK-47s to full-automatic.
You can be bet that the first
pCtiMu! munching, c!u!iv footed, hose
n?i?i('(t *?h**r-inothed leatherbag that
wandered onto those mean streets
would be one dead Dumbo.
Because we Westerners have a
different relationship with animals.
Kor us, any critter that tastes good is
fair game. If it can pull a plow or a
wagon, we harness it. If it runs fast,
we ride it. If it has nice fur or hide or
feathers, we skin it.
We come by this attitude honestly,
being the cultural descendants of pi
oneers who hunted game for sur
vival and sometimes found them
selves in kil!-or-bc-ki!icd encounters
with large, toothy beasts who had
their own ideas about who was
hunter and who was prey.
Unfortunately for the buffalo, the
passenger pigeon, the prairie chick
en, the red wolf, the bald eagle, the
gray whale and other species.
European settlers didn't relate to
their new home place in the same
way as the original hunters who had
been living with those creatures for
centuries.
European Americans treated their
"new world" like an all-you-can-cat
buffet, killing hundreds of animals
in a day, just for sport, destroying
habitats, eradicating natural preda
?*??'* iiflii iiilv ?? hwiv .?|>vcSv!i !
the name of progress or merely to
satisfy some whim of fashion.
American Indians were more like
the India Indians. They saw Ihe nat
ural world as a nurturing mother,
mysterious and deserving ot respect
and reverence. They lived by hunt
ing, hut only for food, clothing and
other necessities of life. Animals
were considered to be equal, and in
many ways superior, to humans.
Likewise, those folks in India
wouldn't think of killing an elephant
any more than they would eat a cow.
The more devout Hindus won't eat
flesh of any sort, won't wear animal
hides and wouldn't slap ;< mosquito
in the act of drawing blood.
For them, animals may serve hu
mans, but they are not subservient to
us. They are beings exactly like our
selves, who have taken different
forms this time around on a revolv
ing wheel of births and deaths. So
for a Hindu to hurt an animal would
be the same as hurting an ancestor
or a loved one or themsf Ives
American naturalist and author
Henry Beston came to a similar real
ization during a winter he s|ient
alone in a remote seaside cottage,
making daily explorations of nearby
beaches and salt marshes. As he
wrote in his masterwork. The
Outermost House:
"We need another and a wiser arid
perhaps a more mystical concept of
animals.
"Remote from universal nature,
and living by complicated artifice,
man in civilization surveys the crea
ture through the glass of his knowl
edge and sees thereby a feather mag
nified and the whole image in distor
tion.
"Wc patronize them for their in
completeness. for their tragic fate of
having taken torm so far below our
selves. And therein we err, and
greatly err. For the animal shaii not
be measured by man.
"In a world older and more com
plete than ours, they move finished
and complete, gifted with extensions
of the senses we have lost or never
attained, living by voices we shall
never hear.
"They are not brethren. They are
not underlings. They are other na
tionc oiijoht %vifh oMrwIvfv in lh?
*
net of life anil time, tellow prisoners
of the splendor and travail of earth."
cial assistance by Fm HA, on
grounds that this plan is environ
mentally unsound, raises serious
doubt about two important things:
? Can any of the other state and
federal agencies ultimately approve
this pl.'tn''
? Who is this plan really de
signed to assist, large landholding
developers who get a sewer system
cheap and can then build condos.
hotels and motels ala Myrtle Beach
up and down our fragile waterways,
or small landowners, especially
those who already live here and. for
the most part, have working septic
systems'.'
The answer here may be in the
fact that FmllA offered an SIS mil
lion low-interest, long-term loan in
stead of the original S') million if the
plan would be modified to fit their
environmental criteria.
The well-informed, efficient and
active Sunset Beach Taxpayers
Association intends to pursue ap
peals for any and all permitting
processes by any of the aforemen
tioned agencies. Their odds are
good, and the delays these appeals
will cause may be very long
months certainly, years possibly.
Which brings me to my next
point, which is time. Chasing gov
ernment loans with short timelines
has encouraged the town's officials
to press on without perhaps deliber
ating carefully enough on alternative
solutions.
Which brings me to my next
point, which is politics. Distrust on
the part of Calabash District I peo
ple. who believe that District II peo
ple are not interested or concerned
about their problems, has led to the
rejection of the very viable option of
the town buying the sewer and water
utility which already serves 80 per
cent of the town.
The immediate goal would be ex
pansion of the plant and serving the
downtown. In this way, our town
works together to help all of us and
the town benefits by owning a prof
itable. excellent utility.
This proposal, to buy Carolina
Blythe Water and Sewer Company,
is being studied and weighed by a
dedicated, generous group of very
knowledgeable people who will pre
sent their findings at the town board
hearing on Tuesday, Jan. 25, at 7
p.m. We hope many of our town's
citizens will be there to hear them.
In any event, we urge our citizens to
attend the sewer authority revenue
bond public hearing on Thursday,
Feb. 17.
Commissioner Teddy Altreuter
Town of Calabash
The Wrong Paths
To the editor:
I here is a conscious/subconscious
fear in many of the "baby-boomer"
generation?the fear of doing what
constitutes a parent.
God forbid, according to them,
should this younger generation, our
so-called future, be taught respect,
decency, righteousness and consid
eration. it seems to be the consensus
to let them raise themselves, do
what they please and to overall be
come other people's problem?to
ensure these children are given
everything, no matter who it hurts;
to uphold them and help them find
excuses for their wrongdoings.
These parents watched these chil
dren running, not walking, down the
wrong paths of life, and they deliber
ately closed their eves After all. chil
dren will be children!
These same parents seem to be
saying, "So what if one night in
November l')93, these children al
legedly participated in or witnessed
a brutal murder. After all, they were
only being noisy, in the wrong place
at the wrong time, just joy-riding, or
should have been in jail for previous
reasons."
After all. according to these par
ents. there is no reason to punish
these children. They should be al
lowed to get on with their lives.
Hutch Davis was not allowed to
gel on with his life. He never again
w ill know the love of his family, feel
the sun. laugh, cry or watch his son
grow to become a man. We that
loved him will never see him in this
life again.
When we think of him. the fact
that he sutfered and died a horrible
death distorts other memories. Our
world stopped and a painful void in
our lives began when Butch was
found murdered.
When the day comes, let it be said,
loud and dear that in crimes sucli as
this, watching and saying nothing is
just as guilty as participating. If not
the children, then maybe the parents
should be held responsible.
Is it going to be said that human
life does not matter? Butch Davis
did matter, to everyone that loved
and knew him
Lynwood R. Davis Sr.
Linda Stevenson-Davis
Bolivia
Thanks, Officer
To the editor:
Hie staff of the Cooke's Inn
Motel of Ocean Isle Beach would
like to thank Officer Wayne Downer
of the Ocean Isle Beach Police
Department. Officer Downer has
been most helpful in cruising the
motel parking lot and making the
guests and employees feel secure
and knowing someone cares about
their well-being.
It certainly is commendable, and
we would like everyone to know
how fortunate we are to have such a
fine police officer among us.
Nancy Webster. Manager
Carol Herndon. Clerk
Pearl Osmore, Clerk
Peddling Fear
To the editor:
Bob Ouinn. would-be intrepid
protector of the public safety, com
menting on Commissioner Donald
Shaw's fear of a Martin Marietta
lawsuit against Brunswick County,
boomed. "The last thing we want in
a leader is fear. Leaders don't get
afraid. They act."
Perhaps Mr. Ouinn would kindlv
tcii us on what basis all the opposi
tion to MM's proposed limestone
quarry, and indeed the commission
ers' vote approving a ban on mining,
w as based.' Confidence.'
The screaming of the mining op
ponents included all kinds of ploys
to invoke fear, language treating
Martin Marietta as an enemy not to
be trusted, and the obvious (back
stage, of course) political procure
ment of tearful potential damage as
sessments from the Brunswick Nu
clear Plant and the military terminal.
The validity of those scary reports
ought to be shaded by the rational
assumption that if such dire dangers
actually exist, the officials of both
installations would have said so
without equivocations many weeks
before the opposition heated up its
hysteria.
Nobody has explained why the ra
tional assumption might be wrong.
The idea that ammunition hauled
on pneumatic wheels might be deto
nated by earth or air tremors, but not
prone to detonation from a road col
lision, mocks one's common sense.
And if the threats to safety are in
deed real, then. as Commissioner
Jerry Jones reasons, the other govern
mental entities Martin Marietta must
ileal with will act accordingly and the
council's rash action was unneces
sary.
Fear is all Mr. Quinn's organiza
tion peddled. Why be such a hyp
ocrite?
Karl E. Brandt
Shallotte
Use Engineers
To the editor:
On Jan. 4, 1W4. Brunswick
County Commissioners put an ordi
nance in place to protect us from the
dangers posed by mining between
the Driiuswick Nucicar Power Plan!
and the Army ammunition depot at
Sunny Point. This was the result of
detailed studies by citizens' groups,
individual citizens, Carolina Power
and Light, the Army Corps of
Engineers, and local geologists.
Everybody BUT the county en
gineer's office participated. Was this
part of a bureaucratic bungle, or a
deliberate turning of the head to al
low unhindered processing of Mar
tin Marietta's application? It looks
like more of the same shortsighted
ness that left the health department
stating it did not have qualified engi
neers to evaluate Martin Marietta's
septic tank permit application.
On the one hand, the planning
board and planning department take
the position that any and all types of
activity should be allowed in the
county. On the other, we are embar
rassed to find out that the county
can't provide technical evaluations
to protect our health and safety and
welfare.
Our commissioners are not betng
supported or served well by this bu
reaucratic foolishness. We should
prohibit activities that are danger
ous and require extensive technical
expertise beyond our capability to
make evaluations. We should use
our skilled and qualified engineers
where their expertise would help the
commissioners understand danger
ous proposals. Most of all, we
should find out why they were not
used this time.
Chuck Roof
Southport
Liked Cartoon
To the editor:
I just wanted to thank (cartoonist)
David Barbour for his wonderful
drawing showing one of the true
meanings of Thanksgiving (Nov.
25).
In the past. I criticized some of
his work that used the Lord's name
in vain, but for now 1 feel I need to
thank him for the picture "Let Us
Ciive Thanks."
Olivia Ann Smith
Muiiins. S.C.
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BOB JOHNSON BRUNSWICK
FURNITURE DOCTOR WOODCRAFTER
"Quality Furniture Restoration"
Repairs ? Staining ? Refinishing
Custom Pieces ? Mirror Resilvering
6900 Ocean Hwy., Hwy. 17 S.
(North of 904 Crossroad) 579-0944 a
<4
The first baby of 19<M made his appearance Tues., Jan. 4 at 1:01 p m
Meet Hie son of James or id Jane Buffkin of Grisseltown.
Ho joins his 3-year-old brother, Jordan.
Name laylor Brett Buffkin
Weight: 8 lbs. Ooz ? Length: 21 inches
The following meichonts have graciously donated gills for our first baby ol
the new year Our entile hospital stolf loins these sponsors in congratulating
Mi and Mis Bulfkm on their new aadition
Tripp's Jewel Shop Gold Baby Ring
Joe's Photography Free Sitting
Carson Cards & Gifts Soby Rattle
Heilig-Meyers Stroller
Kirby's Steak House Dinner For Two
United Carolina Bank Savings Bond
Hospital Nursery Case Of Formula
Kerr Drugs Diapers and Pacifier
Little Friends Children's Clothing Gift Certificate
Just Lovely Gifts Baby Picture Frame
Holmes Florist Plush Teddy Bear
THE BRUNSWICK HwV., 7. supply
HOSPITAL 754-8191