Holden Beach Manager To Retire
BY DOUG R UTTER
Holdcn Bcach Town Manager Gus I' Inch said
Monday he plans to retire at the end of the year, giving
town commissioners about five
months to find his replacement.
Ulrich, 62. announced his retire
ment plans at the close of Monday
night's town board meeting. He is
serving his second stint as town
manager and also was interim man
ager twice.
Ulrich vowed when he leaves
town hall this time it will be "ab
solutely for good."
"I hope by planning and looking li^CH
that far down the road there should be plenty of time to
Find a good candidate to replace me." he said.
However. Ulrich indicated he would be willing to stay
past the end of the year if the town board is unable to
hire a new manager by then.
"It's realiv kind of an ideal situation." Mayor Gay
Atkins said Tuesday. "He'll stay until we find some
body. I know there's a limit to how long he'll stay."
Atkins said Ulrich will help find his replacement by
advertising the position vacancy and reviewing applica
tions and conducting interviews with town commission
ers.
"We're in a position where we can really look and not
just get somebody," Atkins said. "This puts us in a good
position that we don't have to rush. We've always been
in the position of not having a town manager "
Ulrich was Holden Beach's first manager, serving
from January 1989 through August 1990 before resign
ing for "personal" reasons. He served two stints as inter
im town manager before being hired for his second term
as town manager last October.
Before moving to Holden Beach five years ago,
Ulrich had worked for 17 years as the town manager in
Gamer.
"I don't know what I'll be doing." Ulrich said of his
retirement.
Ulrich was involved in real estate appraisal business
before returning to town hall last ye?r and said he may
get back into that line of work.
Swimming Hole Causing Problems
(Continued From Page 1-A)
Mason said.
Also seriously injured was Ricky
Clemmons, 30, of Shallottc, who
suffered a broken leg from being
struck with a baseball bat and had to
undergo surgery, said Mason. Gary
Wayne Clemmons, 32, of N.C. 130,
Supply, was also clubbed in the fight
and had to be treated for cuts, bruis
es and a concussion.
All three victims were accused of
engaging in an affray, along with
seven other suspects arrested last
week as a result of Mason's investi
gation.
In all, six men were charged with
assault with a deadly weapon inflict
ing serious injury. Mason said. They
include Smith. Lee Maxwell Hewett
Jr.. also known as "Junior" Hewett,
38. of Holden Beach Road.
Shallottc; Anthony Alex Smith. 19,
of Route 2. Bolivia; Mitchell Wayne
Griffith, 41, of Randolphville Road,
Bolivia; and Charles Evans, 22, of
Anthony Road. Route 2, Bolivia.
A warrant has been issued for the
arrest of another Bolivia man on
charges of assault with a deadly
weapon inflicting serious injury.
Mason said.
Others charged with affray in
clude William Randall Clemmons,
28, of Lula Trail, Supply; George
Ernie Clemmons, 26, of Shallotte
and Chuckie Ale Thompson, age 25,
of Bolivia. Mason said.
Junior Hcwctt was again charged
with assault with a deadly weapon
inflicting serious injury in a July 16
incident at the pond that sent a
Kannapolis construction worker to
the hospital with two slashes across
his abdomen. Mason said. One of
the cuts was about IK inches long
and the other about 12 inches in
length.
The victim, James Eugene
Carpenter. 29, was dating a girl from
the Holden Beach area who suggest
ed that they go to the pond that
evening. Mason said. Like other
people who were already there.
Carpenter was drinking alcohol
when he accidentally stumbled into
a parked pickup truck, damaging its
"bug screen," said Mason.
Carpenter asked others at the
pond who the truck belonged to.
Finding Hewett to be the owner, he
offered to pay him for the damage at
a later date.
"Supposedly Hewett toid him to
'either pay now or we're going to
get it on.'" Mason said. "Next thing
he knew, Hcwctt was beating the
heck out of him."
As Carpenter tried to get away.
Hewett allegedly grabbed him
around the neck from behind,
stabbed him in the side, then slashed
him twice across the chest and lower
abdomen. Mason said.
In the most recent incidence of vi
olence at the pond. Mason said a
Laurinburg man reported having his
head slashed with a knife after an
evening of drinking ended with an
other assault. The man refused to
prosecute a man that Mason de
scribed as "a known assailant from
the Holden Beach area."
There are no signs, fences or
gates controlling access to the pri
vately owned swimming area at the
end of a dirt road off Frontage Road,
which parallels U.S. 17 Bypass and
ends at the northern traffic light
leading to downtown Shallottc. The
largest of two ponds is L-shaped and
surrounded by shallow cliffs rimmed
by a pine forest.
"It looks like ? nice place to
swim," Mason sa? "*It's about 15
feet deep in the ir?Vlle. There aren't
any snakes or alligators. But there
can be a rough crowd out there
sometimes. If you g > there or swim
there, you do so at your own peril. I
would cncourage people to stay
away."
Mason said the ponds have been
the scene of other fights and at least
one shooting. He has asked patrol
deputies to make regular checks of
the area and said the district attor
ney's office is aware of the problems
there.
He said the property is owned by
"at least two" people whom he has
so far been unable to contact.
"They need to understand that
they could be civilly liable for things
that could happen out there," Mason
said.
Tax Hike Likely, Commissioners Say
(Continued From Page 1-A)
find out if it has any chance of suc
ceeding," Jones said. "There's no
point spending all that more money
if we don't think we can win."
Warren agreed, saying he has "no
regrets" about the commissioners'
decision to go to court over the
school budget.
"We had two professional people
look at their budget and inform us
that they thought we had provided
adequate funds," Warren said. "We
offered them a million dollars (to
settle the case out of court). We ne
gotiated in good faith. But every
time we came up with a Figure, they
came up with a higher one.
"By far the vast majority of peo
ple in my area of the county were
surprised at the decision and sup
portive of the board of commission
ers," Warren said. "I have no re
grets."
Commissioners say the board will
wait to Thompson's ruling on the
dismissal motion before discussing
whether or not to appeal the case.
The Trial
In Superior Court last week.
Judge Thompson advised jurors that
the only issue for them to consider
was the question of how much mon
ey is needed to maintain a reason
ably adequate system of public
schools in Brunswick County.
Board of Education attorney Glen
Peterson called a series of school
system employees who testified
abcut problems with outdated equip
ment, aging facilities and Brunswick
County's notoriously poor student
performance levels, all of which
were blamed on a lack of money
from the county.
Beginning with School Super
intendent Ralph Johnston, the wit
nesses described a first-time effort
this year to draft a school budget
"from the bottom up" by asking
teachers and principals to come up
with lists of genuine needs for each
county school. The resulting budget
request totalled Si 4,063,041.
Peterson told the jury it would
have to consider "two starkly differ
ent visions of two different futures"
for Brunswick County school chil
dren. He said that for many years
past, the county commissioners have
failed to address the question of how
much is required to "adequately"
run the schools.
He suggested that th<* commis
sioners' plan for school spending is
DON WARREN, chairman of the Brunswick County Board of
Commissioners, testifies in superior court about the process used to
arrive at the county education budget, which was successfully chal
lenged by the school board in a civil suit last week.
nothing more than last year's budget
with a percentage increase tacked
on. He said the commissioners did
not make a sincere effort to investi
gate the system's needs.
They want to give the schools a
sum of money and say, 'Make it
do,'" Peterson said. "The board of
education started at the bottom, as
sessed the needs and came up with a
budget, not just to run it like it's
been run before, but to run it ade
quately.
"The commissioners have no idea
what's in it. No idea where to cut."
Peterson said. "They didn't say, 'We
need this. We don't need that. We
can put this off.' They just passed it
off to the county manager and said.
'We'll just apply a formula and add
four percent.'"
Peterson warned that maintaining
what he called the current "level of
underfunding" would result in the
"continuation of a tide of medioc
rity" in future student performance
"We have in this room two sym
bols of that future ? this blackboard
and that computer," Peterson said.
"We can either respond to Ihe needs
for tomorrow or be relegated to the
mediocrity of the past."
County Attorney Michael Ramos
argued that the case before the jury
was "not about wish lists and all
sorts of programs we don't have the
money for. It's about financial pru
dcncc."
Ramos said the county's alloca
tion to schools is only a small part of
the total S43 million the board of ed
ucation gets from federal, state and
local appropriations. He accused the
school board of leaving $4 million
"lying around" instead of spending
it on the needs alleged in its budget.
"You heard from an administra
tive assistant about smelly carpets
and a leaky roof and a smokestack
that doesn't work," Ramos said.
"Yet when they got $1.8 million
in surplus funding, what did they do
with it? They gave people raises.
They voted themselves a raise. They
gave the central office a raise. Is that
what you would want the board of
commissioners to do?"
Ramos criticized the school board
for not tying salary increases to job
performance and accused it of
adopting a "typical bureaucratic an
swer" to educational deficiencies.
"Throw money at the problem
and it's going to go away," he said.
"Where's it going to end? If we give
them four and a half million dollars
this year, what are we going to have
to give them next year?
"We can't give them ail the mon
ey they want or we'd be broke.
What you have is one governing
body with a gold MasterCard and
there's the man who gets the bill,"
Ramos said, pointing at Warren.
PETITIONS signed by more than 900 Ash residents opposed to a liquor store in their community
are handed to Brunswick County ABC system manager Dot Kelly by Benny King of Ash at a public
meeting last week. Local businessman James L. Smith (below) was one of the few who spoke in fa
vor of the proposal as a skeptical Lucas Marie Simmons looks on.
Ash ABC Store Proposal Blasted
(Con'taued From Page 1-A)
proposed site and also supported the idea of building
an ABC store there. He accused liquor store opponents
of "putting down something you don't really under
stand." He said the 900 petitions do not represent the
majority of opinion among the "2,400 people" living
in the area.
"A lot of you people are tobacco farmers," Smith
said. "How many of you here deny that tobacco kills
more people than anything else we put in our bodies."
Several people spoke out to refute Smith's charge,
saying alcoholism and drunk driving are more serious
health problem than smoking.
"You can put a cigarette in someone's hands and
you won't see them change," said Tony Inman.
"Smoking doesn't lead to all the shooting and cutting
and fighting that goes on with alcohol."
Marion Warren, an assistant district attorney, said he
had seen "many a young man" plead guilty to charges
related to drinking and later regret that they ever came
in contact with alcohol. He asserted that the plan to
build an ABC store in Ash had nothing to do with
serving the community, but was merely a way of steal
ing liquor business from municipal ABC systems.
"You're not going to sell a drop of liquor to any one
of these people." Warren said, waving an outstretched
hand toward the crowd. "You are trying to snag people
going to the beach. You're not going to do anything to
benefit Ash. All you're going to do is take someone
else's market share away.
"If you want to take business from the beaches,
build your store down by the fire tower, because we
don't need it." Warren said. "Please don't bring it to
us. Please don't do it."
Ramsey told the group that the ABC board never
makes an important decision without alt three or its
members in attendance. Member Paul Gainey Jr. was
absent last week.
The board's next meeting is Aug. 24 at 5 p.m. in the
Brunswick County Board of Commissioners meeting
room in Bolivia.
Typical
Weather
Expected
Typical August weather is
ahead in the South Brunswick
Shallotte Point meteorologist
Jackson Canady said Tuesday he
cxpccts temperatures to
from the lower 70s at night to
around 90 degrees during the
daytime, with approximately one
inch of rainfall over the next few
days.
For the period at July 26
throogb Aug. 1, he tecorded nine
ty-three -hundredths of m inch of
rainfall.
The daily average high was a
relatively oool 86 degrees, while
the average nightly low was a
The two cooMaed far seasonally
normal avenge daily temperature
of 80 degreea.
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