Countywide
(Continued From Page 1-A)
advertisements. Hewett's campaign
has spent more than SI 1.000 on ply
wood. lumber and printing for signs
and other campaign materials.
Among the other sheriff's candi
dates. Republican businessman
James Brown was the third place
fund-raiser with $8,084 taken in. He
has spent $3,086 of that so far.
Brown faces no opposition in the
May 3 primary.
Chief Deputy John Marlow has
collected $4,031 and spent $3,097
on his bid to be the Democratic
nominee for sheriff. Long Beach
Police Sgt. Bill Sisk has taken in
$ 1.300 and spent $1,117.
Hewett has collected most of his
campaign funds through individual
contributions of less than $100 each.
Nearly a hundred such donors are
listed by name on the candidate's re
port. Hewett also collected more
than $1,000 in unrecorded contribu
tions of less than Sl(K) each at rallies
in Shallotte, Town Creek and on
Oak Island.
Major contributors (of more than
$500) to Hewett's campaign since
he filed for election include Mr. and
Mrs. Emery Hewett of Supply,
$4,000; campaign manager Albert
Parker of Supply. $1,700: Connie
Powell, Copas Shores, SI.5(H); II
Mercer Johnson. Southport, SI.300;
Dr. Chris Moshoures, Shallotte.
$900; AI Parker Jr. Supply. $600;
Harry White. Supply, $6(M); and
B.L. 1 Kingston III. Shallotte, $600.
Dove's financing report lists no
individual contributions over $500.
His campaign picked up $3,550 in
unnamed small contributions at a
Southport fundraiser and $2,100 at a
similar event in Calabash.
The largest contribution to
Marlow's campaign was a $400 do
nation from Troy Price of Calabash.
Sisk donated S1,200 to his campaign
has collected only $100 in outside
contributions.
Brown lists campaign donations
of $4.(XK) from his wife and $2,474
from his son.
Other Races
Contributions and spending for
other primary campaigns have been
modest by comparison, with some
candidates listing their filing fee as
the only expense incurred thus far.
Several reports list the candidates
themselves as their biggest?and
sometimes only?campaign contrib
utor.
Democrat Hill Sue leads the pack
in spending for the county commis
sioners race with $2,225 taken in
and $ 1,985 spent so far.
Other commissioners candidates,
with their donations and spending
totals sincc filing include: Leslie
Collier, $2,170 contributed, $1.7(X)
spent; Tom Rabon, $1,514 con
tributed, $1,229 spent; Way land
Vereen, $1,306 contributed, $198
spent; Alfonza Roach (filed report
late), $1,039 contributed. $78 spent;
Michael Ballard, $1,011 contributed,
$ 1,011 spent; Frances Babson,
$ 1.000 contributed, $767 spent;
Bob Slockett, $873 contributed.
$853 spent; Don Warren. $664 con
tributed, $48l> spent; Doug
Simmons, $614 contributed, $539
spent; S.L. Doty, $600 contributed,
$479 spent; Randy Stanley, $275
contributed, $72 spent: Donald
Shaw, $139 contributed, $102 spent:
Tom Simmons, $89 contributed, $39
spent (on his filing fee); Jerry Jones,
$39 contributed, $39 spent; Pete
Barnctte. $39 contributed, $39
spent; Dan Davis, $39 contributed,
$39 spent.
Commissioner candidate l^ouie
Ixwis filed no report, stating that he
intends to spend less than $ 1 ,(KK) on
his campaign.
In the primary race for seats on
the Brunswick County Board of
Education, only four candidates- re
ported donations or spending in ex
cess of $5(X).
Incumbent Thurman Ciausc. who
filed his report late, listed $1,500 in
contributions and $1,460 in spend
ing. Pat Brown has taken in $1,200
and spent $406. Bud Thorsen has
Highway 17 South
Won't Be Ready For Summer Traffic
BY SUSAN USHER
There's good news and had news from the
state Department of Transportation for mo
torists who will be traveling U.S. 17 south of
Shallotte this summer.
The had news: The four-laning project is
running about a month to six weeks behind
schedule.
The good news: Three out of four lanes
could be open to traffic by early July, unless
more delays occur.
The not-so-good news: During paving,
northbound traffic will be confined to one
lanc. with no passing for 11.5 miles.
The best news: When the project is finished
in July or August, four lanes of traffic will be
open from Wilmington to Myrtle Beach, S.C.
APAC Construction began work in late
1991 as prime contractor on the project, which
is expected to cost around $12 million.
DOT Resident Engineer Allen Pope esti
mates the widening project is 85 percent com
plete. and about 10 percent behind schedule.
He anticipates all work should lie completed
bv the end of July or in early August, barring
unanticipated delays. The original target date
was June 4.
Contractors encountered a major delay last
year in project scheduling. Installation of a
box culvert at a stream near the south end of
the project had to be delayed until fall, after
spawning season, because the stream is a nurs
ery area for fish.
Rehabilitation of the original U.S. 17 road
way?now the southbound lanes?couldn't
begin until the new northbound lanes were
paved and opened to traffic. Most of the
drainage work has been done.
"We've had some scheduling delays and
some weather problems," said Pope. "I feel
like we are hack on track."
Once the southbound lanes are ready for
traffic?possibly by early July?the north
bound lanes will be closed one at a time for a
final cap of pavement.
"While that's going on there will be no
passing for northbound traffic that total length
of the project," cautioned Pope. "We under
stand that will be an inconvenience and we
will try to pave it and get it fully open as
quickly as we can."
accumulated $963 and expended
$879. Clara Carter collected $5t)l
and spent $493.
Each candidate will he required to
submit a post-primary financing re
port on May 13.
Primary Vote
Set Tuesday
(Continued From Page 1-A)
ers, and choose a candidate to chal
lenge 7th District Congressman Cha
rlie Rose in the November election.
While candidates for the board of
commissioners and board of educa
tion run from and represent the dis
trict in which they live, they are
elected by and accountable to all
county voters.
Brief profiles of most candidates
involved in local or regional primary
races can be found elsewhere in this
issue. All candidates were given an
opportunity to respond to a Bruns
wick Beacon questionnaire regard
ing their background and qualifica
tions and what they hoped to accom
plish in office. Not all candidates re
sponded.
Mere is an index to candidate pro
files and other election information:
SherifT 91)
County Commissioners . .UB
School Board JOB
18th Dist. N.C. Senate ... .80
Polling Places 81)
Sample Ballots 6A
Warm, Dry Days To Continue
"More of the same" is Shallotte Point meteorologist Jackson
Canady's weather forecast for the next several days.
That translates into continued above-average temperatures and be
low-average rainfall.
Canady expects temperatures to average from the mid-60s at night to
the mid-80s during the daytime, with less than one-half inch of rainfali.
For the period of April 19-25, he recorded a high of 84 degrees on
April 25 and a low of 48 degrees in April 19. A daily average high of 80
degrees and a nightly average low of 56 degrees combined for a daily
average temperature of 68 degrees. That's about 3 degrees above the
longterm average, said Canady.
He recorded no measurable rainfall for the period.
Red Springs Man Suspect In
Ash Store Owner's Murder
(Continued From Page 1-A)
behind a row of stores in Clinton,
broke into a fabric shop and stole
some cash. They
said he took the
money to the
Family Dollar
Store next door
and bought some
green spray
paint, which he
used to paint
part of the van.
Hunter said he
ClIMMINGS wen, to ,he
Sampson County Jail, questioned
Cummings briefly and returned with
a photograph of the suspect. He
gathered several other photographs
of men who resembled Cummings
and showed the "photo line-up" to
witnesses in the Ash area. Each one
picked out Cummings as the man in
the white van?the one they saw
Friday evening. Hunter said.
He returned to Clinton with a
State Bureau of Investigation agent
and interviewed the suspect again
Sunday. Four and a half hours after
being advised of his rights.
Cummings signed a confession ad
mitting his involvement in the rob
bery and murder. Hunter said.
At first, the suspect reportedly
told Hunter that a man he called
"Joe" picked him up hitch-hiking
and offered him some crack cocaine.
I"hen he said they went to the
Bamboo Corners store, where "Joe"
went inside and shot Babson.
"I knew there wasn't any Joe. All
the witnesses who saw him said he
was alone in the van," Hunter said.
"He just couldn't admit what he had
done."
Having gained a rapport with the
suspect, Hunter said he and the SBI
agent interviewed Cummings again
on Monday. This time he wrote out
another confession?without Joe.
"He told me he went to the store
to get money to buy crack," Hunter
said. "He said he thought (Babson)
looked like someone who would be
easy to rob."
Cummings remained in Sampson
County Jail Tuesday night on
charges related to his arrest there.
Police in Red Springs believe he
may be the man who broke into the
home of an 84-year-old woman and
beat her to death during an attempt
ed burglary last Tuesday night
(April 19). '
An investigation into Babson's
murder is continuing. Detectives
hope to recover the murder weapon
and other physical evidence using
information supplied by Cummings
during the interviews with Hunter.
The Brunswick County District
Attorney's office has not yet deter
mined what additional charges
might be brought against Cum
mings. He had not been served with
the murder warrant when the Bcu
con went to press Tuesday night.
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YELTON IMPROVING
Temporary Manager May Be Hired Monday
BY ERIC CARLSON
The Brunswick County Commis
sioners have interviewed two candi
dates for the position of temporary
county manager and plan to choose
one of the two next week to fill in
for Wyman Yelton, who remains
hospitalized with injures suffered in
an automobile accident
One of the two applicants was in
terviewed in a closed meeting of the
hoard Tuesday night. Another man
met with the hoard in closed session
April 18. The commissioners would
not reveal the identity of either ap
plicant. Nor would they comment on
their qualifications.
The Beacon has learned that the
candidate interviewed Tuesday is
Greg Page, a former manager of
several counties in North and South
Carolina. He is currently unem
ployed and seeking a permanent po
sition in eastern North Carolina.
Commissioners Chairman Don
Warren said Tuesday that the board
intends to make a decision on which
one to hire at its next regular meet
ing May 2. He said the candidates
were selected from a list of
prospects suggested by the N.C.
Association of County Managers
and the Cape Fear Council of
Government.
Warren said he spoke with Yelton
Tuesday and reported that the coun
ty manager's condition continues to
improve. Yelton is expected to leave
Duke University Medical Center
next week and to enter a skilled
nursing facility in Wake County,
where his daughter lives.
Yclton suffered a crushed knee, a
crushed rib cage, a broken shoulder
and a fractured lower right arm in a
head-on collision on Interstate 40 in
Durham. His wife Kathrvn and a
University of North Carolina coed
were killed in the wreck.
Although doctors can't say for
sure. Warren said it seems likely that
Yclton will remain in rehabilitative
nursing care at least until mid-June.
He is not expected to be well
enough to return to work until "late
summer at the earliest," Warren said.
"I want to stress that whoever we
hire, it will be on a temporary ba
sis," Warren said. "We hope to see
Mr. Yelton back at work as soon as
he is ready to return."
In other business Tuesday, the
board:
? look a formal vote to approve
the creation of a new position of
special projects coordinator and
planning consultant and the hiring of
former county planning Director
John Harvey to fill the post at his
former salary of $49,028.
? agreed to direct Harvey to un
dertake a population study of
Brunswick County to help in plan
ning for future schools and other
county projects.
? decided to donate $10,()(X) to
the Southeast Brunswick Sanitary
District for improvements to their
treatment plant on N.C. 211.
? voted to have county parks and
recreation Director B J. Jones look
into complaints from parents about
the department's youth wrestling
program.
Sunny
Point Is Chosen To Receive Nuke Rods
(Continued From Page 1-A)
enriched fuels promoted by the U.S.
Because of the project's urgent
designation the decision cannot lie
appealed, said Debbie Crane, spoke
sman for the N.C. Department of
Environment, Health and Natural
Resources. The department, through
its Division of Radiation Protection,
is the lead state agency involved in
overseeing the movement of the fuel
elements through the state.
All the state can do now, she said,
is try to move the fuel through as
quickly and safely as possible.
The fuel casks will be transported
by commercial or chartered ship
from Europe to the port on the Cape
Fear River just above Southport.
Containers will be transferred by
union longshoremen to rail cars,
then transported by rail to the U.S.
Department of Energy's Savannah
River Site near Aiken, S.C., for tem
porary storage in an underwater re
ceiving basin.
The hazardous cargo will travel
by U.S. Army train on the Sunny
Point railroad connector through
Boiling Spring luikes to the Davis
rail yard near Lcland, where the cars
will be switched to a CSX
Transportation train and continue on
through Navassa and Hamlet into
South Carolina. The train will travel
through Dillon and Florence, then
pass north of Charleston and on
through Yemassee to Aiken and the
Savannah River Site.
The foreign reactor operators will
work through a broker to contract a
shipper and make other arrange
ments for transport. Once those lo
gistics are worked out, a total of 40')
elements will be sent in two to three
shipments from eight reactors in
Austria, Denmark, Germany,
Greece, Netherlands. Sweden and
Switzerland.
The elements will travel in 15
stainless steel casks, each weighing
about 25 tons and holding approxi
mately 33 spent fuel elements. Each
element is like a small box, three
feet long by four inches wide and
four inches deep.
North Carolina officials have not
decided whether to require any mea
sures beyond those normally re
quired for domestic shipments of
spent nuclear fuel or other haz
ardous wastes.
Energy Department spokesman
Tim Harms said the agency is just
beginning to talk with state and local
officials about the shipments.
"We want to make sure all regula
tions arc followed," said Harms.
"We don't want any accidents and
we don't want people to think there
will be any accidents, and we don't
want to waste taxpayers' money."
Logan and his New Hanover
County counterpart, Dan Summers,
left Sunday for a four-day, all-ex
penses-paid transportation training
conference sponsored by the federal
government?a workshop they were
called and asked to attend several
weeks ago, before port selection was
announced.
Also before the announcement
Logan had begun putting together a
15-person radiological response
team similar to the team used by
Carolina Power & Light to monitor
its shipments from the Brunswick
Plant to its Shearon Harris Plant
near Raleigh. As of Friday, Logan
had "handpicked" the first six mem
bers.
"When I get back I'll know more
Police Worry For Safety Of Missing Woman
Brunswick Counly Sheriff's delectives suspcct that a
South Carolina woman who disap
peared from the parking lot of a
Seaside nightclub last week may
have met with foul play.
They have released a new photo
graph of the woman and are seeking
information from anyone who might
help them locate her.
Delores Shipp Melton, 3X, also
known as "Shorty," was with friends
at the High Tide club in Seaside
when she went outside with her MELTON
boyfriend at about 12:30 a.m. Saturday, April 17. He
went inside briefly and came back out to find her gone,
according to a report filed after the incident.
A bartender at the club told a deputy that he saw
Melton get into a vehicle and leave with another man.
She did not return to her home in North Myrtle Beach
that morning has not been seen since.
Melton is described as a white female about 4 feet 10
inches tall, with long reddish-blond hair, blue eyes and a
medium complexion. She was last seen wearing a blue
shirt over a black Harley-Davidson tank top, white
shorts and white tennis shoes.
Anyone with information about Melton's whereabouts
is asked to call detectives John Ingram or Charlie Miller
at (910) 253-4321 or 1-800-672-6379.
When you leave
the Brunswick shores?* A
ake the Beacon with you!
how to pick my team," said Logan.
"I would like to take the time to
handpick the rest of the people," he
said, with a preference for individu
als with experience handling or
working with radiological material.
Is This Just
A Beginning?
(Continued From Page I-A)
tors that could make affect its at
tractiveness as a port of entry.
On average 70 vessels per year
call at the terminal's three wharves
and move approximately 433.000
metric tons of cargo through the
port, primarily ammunition
"These two or three shipments
will not pose a problem with them
completing their military mission.
That military mission could change
one way or the other," said Harms.
"If it slows down, then the terminal
might welcome the increased activi
ty. If it speeds up, it may not he able
to handle the shipments.
"We might also select more than
one port, 1 don't know."
The Beacon Has The
Real Estate Listings
You're Looking ForI
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