Happy
independence
Day!
| sounds Of Freedom
The 'Volunteers in Blue'
perform in open-air concert
Sunday at Sunset Beach. 4-B
12/31/99 **P0
HOAG & SONS BOOK BINDERY
F'O BOX 162
SPRINGPORT MI 49284
Thuiy Second Ycqi N'unibei -3
SKcfllotte, North CcnoJinq, Thursday June 30. 1994 50- Ppi Copy. TOO Page*. Includitfja Suppiemeril b Sections, Ply, inserts,
A Motley Crew
SWf PHOTO 91 DOUG BUTTBt
This pirate ship was on* of four outstanding entries in the Lippincott Family Reunion sand-sculpture
contest last week at Ocean Isle Beach. Paul Lippincott headed up the young band of buccaneers. Crew
members (from left) are Sean Williams, Kenneth Williams, Andrew Williams, Brennan Brooker, Erin
Brooker and Joshua Williams. The Lippincottx get together every three years at Ocean Isle, and 60
people attended bat week's reunion. Family members came in from Fayetteville, New Jersey,
Pennsylvania, California, Florida and Oklahoma.
Police Say Little,
Seek Help In Murder
Of Shallotte Teenager
BY ERIC CARLSON
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Thursday mnrnjno aft? <thg telephoned htf sister tC iS)'
she was on the way to Cherry Grove, S.C?
What happened to her between the time she made the
call at 2:49 a.m and the discovery of her bloodstained
1988 Subaru off Shingletree Road 12 hours later?
Why was she brutally murdered on a remote hunting
club road just south of the iUte line?
How will investigator- 'r..m Brunswick County,
Horry County, S.C., the South Carolina State Law
Enforcement Division (SLED) and the N.C. State
Bureau of Investigation (SBI) find the person or persons
who murdered tne 18-year-old Shallotte woman?
Those were some of the questions being asked after
Frink's body was found Friday afternoon near the
Brooksville community, a small cluster of houses and
mobile homes on the South Carolina extension of
Hickman Road between the state line and S.C. 9.
Two SBI agents, who were part of a massive multi
agency search effort, discovered the body of a young
woman at about 2 p.m. on a dirt road off Cemetery
Road, near S.C. 111. Determining that they had found
the murder scene. North Carolina authorities turned the
investigation over to the Horry County Police Depart
ment, which is working closely with Brunswick County
to develop leads in the case.
"Our solicitor is adamant that we make no comment
about the evidence gathered so far," said Horry County
Police LL Bill Knowles, who is heading the investiga
tion.
No one except law enforcement officers and the per
son or persons who killed Frink saw her body. No one
else has intimate knowledge of the murder scene. So in
vestigators are trying to keep a tight lid on the informs
tion found there, hoping to identify
suspects by tieir fust-hand knowl
edge uf the case.
The investigation began innocent
ly enough Thursday afternoon at
about 3:15, when Brunswick Deputy
Sgt. Charles Wilson found Frink's
silver 1988 Subaru in the brush be
side Shingletree Road, which con
nects Hickman Road and U.S. 17
near Hickman's Crossroads. A li
cense check indicated that the car
had not been reported stolen, so Wilson instructed the
911 center to contact the owners.
That's when Barry and Birdie Frink realized that
something might have happened to their daughter. Mrs.
Frink and Amy had been up late talking the night before
when the teenager decided to visit her sister Jill, who
was visiting friends in Cherry Grove. She left their home
in River Heights at about 2:30 a.m. with plans to call Jill
after she crossed the state line.
Nineteen minutes later, a message was left on Jill's
answering machine indicating that Amy was on her way.
She never made it
That afternoon, after calling in the report of his find,
Sgt. Wilson took a closer look at the silver Subaru. He
noticed that the car's radio bad been removed from the
dash board. Then he found blood on the front and rear
bumpers. He immediately secured the area and called
for a detectivc.
After deriding that Frink might have met with foul
play, Brunswick authorities and the SBI worked late into
the night, checking the roads, questioning residents and
stopping traffic in and out of the area.
(See INVESTIGATORS, Page 2-A)
BEAiH TOWNS Ci 1 1 FiRE HAZARuS
Fireworks : You
Can Buy 'Em Here > Suf
Don't Light ' Em Here
BY SUSAN USHER
Fireworks are legal this Fourth of
July in North Carolina ? but not all
fireworks and not everywhere.
Local stores are selling hand-held
sparklers and other so-called "safe
and sane" fireworks, but in the three
South Brunswick Island beach com
munities it's still against the law to
discharge them.
"It's not because we're not patri
otic, it's because of the danger," says
Ocean Isle Police Chief Curt
Pritchard.
Ditto at Sunset Beach.
Ditto at Holden Beach.
"I hope it will stay this way," said
Robert Cook, chief of police at
Koioen Beach, where the town's or
dinance prohibits discharge of any
pyrotechnics except the caps used in
cap pistols. "Fireworks can definite
ly cause some fires. "
What may be a boon for local
merchants may become the bane of
fire and law enforcement officials.
With beach homes packed so
tightly together and a constant
breeze, officials of all three resort
communities are concerned about
the danger of fire and how difficult
it would be to contain a house foe
and keep it from spreading to other
homes.
"It only takes a couple of sparks
from even a sparkler," said
PritchanL "We've already had a
couple of small fires, possibly from
fireworks. With winds at IS mph to
25 mph, we're not going to allow
anyone to shoot fireworks. We just
can't allow that here, Cor everyone's
safety."
Since the new state law went into
effect last Dec. 1, allowing sale, use
and possession of some Class C py
rotechnics, "nothing has changed at
Sunset Beach," said Town
Administrator Linda Fluegel.
It's against the law to discharge
any type of fireworks, and police
and the town's new code enforce
ment officers are serious about it
At Ocean Isle Pritchard is also
keeping at an eye out on local mer
chants' fireworks displays to make
sure they understand what can be
legally sold. A vendor set up a dis
play for one local merchant that fea
tured some heavy-duty pyrotechnics
that remain illegal in North
Carolina.
"I told him they had to go," said
Pritchard.
Each year Cook said officers at
Hoi den Beach confiscate a barrel
full of pyrotechnics, mainly around
the Fourth of July holiday.
The only time we do it is when
we get a call that someone's shoot
ing off fireworks."
Until this year, the goods confis
cated have mainly been "big fire
works," the kind that are still illegal
to sell in North Carolina ? cherry
bombs, Roman candles, M-80s. So
far this year, that hasn't changed,
even with the "safe and sane" fire
works available locally.
"People go to South Carolina and
buy them and go out on the beach
and shoot them," said Cook.
Over the past several years fire
works have been responsible for
several grass fires that required calls
to Tri-Beach Volunteer Fire
Department
Holden Beach commissioners
share the chief's concern regarding
fire. At a meeting last week
Commissioner Jim Fournier ques
tioned the introduction of the origi
nal bill by Rep. E. David Redwine
(D- Brunswick).
"You'd think a state representa
tive introducing a bill like that
would check with the people affect
ed most, but I don't remember any
body asking us," he said.
Redwine said he introduced the
bill because he thought it was time
(See BEACHES, Pace 2- A )
County Adopts 58.5-Cent Tax Rate
Said Equivalent To Pre-Revaluation
cents per $100 valuation and a 10
cent hike in water rates.
According to Interim County
Manager Charles McGinnis, the tax
levy was set at rale equivalent to
what it was before the recent coun
ty-wide property revaluation.
Despite numerous public pleas for
an increase in the recommended
school budget, the final amount allo
cated remained more than $4 J mil
lion lower than the spending figure
rcqutted by the bond of education.
The schools funding request was
not overlooked, however. At a bud
get workshop Wednesday, the com
missioners agreed to double the
$15,000 allocation recommended by
the manager for material needs at
each of the county's 12 schools.
Then on Thursday, with a
$190,000 surplus remaining, the
board gave $110,000 to Brunswick
County Community College to fund
operations at the new Odell
Williamson Auditorium. Another
$20,000 was given to the Brunswick
County Sheriff's Department for
new radios.
Finally, the remaining $60,000
was added to the school budget to
BY ERIC CARLSON
After two nights of trimming fat
from its proposed county budget, the
Brunswick Board of Commissioners
nude a flew concessions to local
schools last week before adopting a
$42.7 million spending package
calling for a property tax rate of 58J
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help fund the system's new comput
er technology programs.
The overall spending package
was approved Thursday night in a
split vole along party lines with
Democrats Ibm Rabon, Wayland
Vereen and Chairman Don Warren
voting yea and Republicans Jerry
Jones and Donald Shaw dissenting.
Both Jones and Shaw said after
the meeting that tbey feh more could
have oeen allocated to education if
the Democrat board members had
gone along with cuts in personnel
endorsed by the Republicans.
In the first round of budget talks
last week, board members of both
parties expressed support for
McGinnii's call for a reduction in
force for the register of deeds office.
He called the department "over
staffed" at 13 full-time workers and
said that only five such offices in tfcc
state have as many employees.
The board seemed ready to ap
prove the manager's recommenda
tion to cut two job slots that have re
mained vacant for a year as well as
an additional half-time position re
quested in this year's register of
deeds budget. McGinnis said the
cuts would save the county $48,7QS
a year.
Register of Deeds Robert Robin
son appeared at the Wednesday
workshop to tell the commissioners
he had been "advised by counsel"
that, as an elected official, he has the
sole right to hire and fire his em
ployees.
"According to the advice that
counsel gave me today, I am putting
you on notice that I do not consent
to this action," Robinson told the
board.
McGinnis immediately responded
by passing out copies of the state
law that specifically grants that au
thority to the commissioners. He al
so produced written opinions from
the county attorney and the N.C.
Institute of Government assuring the
board that it has the right to reduce
the number of employees in the reg
ister of deeds office.
Even so, the commissioners
backed off on the manager's propos
al Thursday night after Robinson ap
peared at the workshop and sat in
the audience with several members
of his staff. Without a vote or cont
(See BUDGET, Page 2-A)
K-9 Boat Training
Drug-stiffing dogs "Rocko" (lift) and " Colour relax with their
Brunswick County Sheriff* Department handlers Grady Sittings,
who is sx nt.rfftcry dspxty, sxd ssfcsftk "
aboard the US. Coast Gi
training session last week. Dogs and K-9 officers
from six arm law enforcement agencies took part in the exercises,
? ? ? * nt ma'*u i /i- ? ? * * * to searching boats for il
legal drugs. Rocko and Colonel are both Belgian Makmnois, a
breed highly valued for police work.