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Saturday Is The Last Time To Register For School Bond Election
The Pilot Covers
Brunswick County
THE STATE PORT PILOT
VOLUME 40
No. 4 / ^
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A Good Newspaper In A Good Community
Most of the News
All The Time
10 Pages Today
SOUTHPORT, N. C. WEDNESDAY, APRtf. 2? 1969 5* COPY
PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY
Costumed Guides At Brunswick Town
Visitors to Brunswick Town during the Easter weekend saw ladies costumed in
period dresses serving as guides at this historic site. This is a project of the South
port Junior Woman’s Club. Over 3,000 persons visited this place during the three
day period. Shown above, left to right, are Mrs. Beth Sell, Mrs. Ellen Sherrod, Mrs.
Connie Young and Mrs. Mary McHose. (Brunswick Town photo)
Board Sets DuPont Valuation
Members of the Brunswick
County Board of Commissioners
reached an agreement Tuesday
to list the DuPont plant in
Northwest township at
$6,103,910, which is the
amount on which this company
will pay advalorum taxes. This
valuation will be effective for
%: this year’s taxes.
This is a non-depreciation
base, which means that it is a
figure below which the valuation
will not go barring unusual and
p unforseen circumstances.
Members of the board passed a < ■
resolution recommending that
the membership of this body be
increased to six members with
the next election. No provision
was made for staggered terms.
L. T. Yaskell was reappointed
a member of the Southport
Harbor Commission.
Gene Watts, proprietor of
Ocean Trail Rest Home appeared
before the board and asked for
their decision on his request for
an additional allowance of
88-cents per day for inmates
who are recipients of public
welfare assistance. This would
bring them up from $5.60 per
day at present to $6.48 per day,
and Watts explained that this
compares to the $8.20 charge
per day for private patients. He
said that this additional charge
must be made to provide services
for which there has been a
steadily advance in cost.
After deliberation and
discussion, Chairman Rourk said
that the board does not have the
necessary authority to go
beyond the present payment for
welfare cases. Watts then asked
that arrangements be made as
quickly as possible to move
these patients into other rest
homes and declared that he and
his family cannot continue to
care for them at a daily loss in
operating expenses. Watts said
that this is a decision he hates to
make since he and members of
his family have been engaged in
caring for some of these patients
for more than twenty years.
& Brief Bite Of%
NEWS
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COMMISSIONER ILL
D. B. Frink, member of the
board of county commissioners,
has suffered a heart attack and is
a patient at his home.
FLAG PROJECT
Mrs. Irma Caroon is heading a
project for the Southport
Woman’s Club for the sale of
U.S. Hag decals, which are
suitable for display on store
windows, automobile windows
or doors at home. Sales will
begin this week.
MUST REGISTER
Voting in the Special School
Bond Election on April 26 will
be done on the basis of the new
loose leaf registration, according
to H. Foster Mintz, chairman of
the Brunswick County Board of
Elections, and Saturday is the
last day to register.
sovthymu
In Festival Parade
Southport’s Miss Fourth of July, Helen Faulk, will
be seen in the Celebraties Division of the Azalea Festival
Parade Saturday, in Wilmington. The car, driven by
Harold Aldridge, is provided by Frank Hardy through the
courtesy of Elmore Motors.
Calabash Is Mecca
For Seafood Eaters
By ARNOLD KIRK
State Travel Editor
It’s one of those places people
talk about when they say,
“Don’t blink your eyes or you’ll
miss it”
You could, very easily.
Its few dozen frame houses, its
one beauty parlor and
combination mercantile
store-filling station give little
hint that Calabash,
Unincorporated, population
160, is one of the most famous
and unique centers of seafood
dining on the Atlantic coast.
For along the quarter-mile
road which leads through the
town proper, if it can be called
that, down to the rickety fishing
docks along Calabash Creek, are
no less than a dozen seafood
restaurants which serve more
than a quarter million people
during the peak travel months of
summer.
Except for the fact that its
restaurants serve incredibly
delicious seafood dinners,
Calabash’s growing prominence
as a mecca for seafood
connoisseurs is something of a
phenomenon. At best, its
location in lower Brunswick
County—its nearest neighbor a
small farming community named
Grissettown—could be described
as remote. None of the
restaurants advertise to any great
extent, and there are no
billboards or other such signs to
capture the attention of
motorists on nearby U.S.
Highway 17.
Its restaurants are not owned
by a syndicate, but rather
individually by local residents,
mostly descendants of seafaring
men who settled there in the
mid-19th Century.
But there is a certain quality
about the place—perhaps it’s the
very nearness of the sea—that
gives most travelers cause to
rejoice. There are no crowded
streets here, no policeman’s
whistle shrilling above the din of
the rush-hour. In fact, the town
has only one stop sign (no light)
and even the names of the
streets are unknown except to
those who live there.
In late afternoon, when ocean
breezes always seem to calm,
cooking smells from a dozen
kitchens cling to the stillness and
stir the appetite. It is then that
the invasion of Calabash begins.
They come dressed in business
suits and blue jeans, driving
pickup trucks and Cadillacs.
They come from as nearby as
Southport and Myrtle Beach,
just across the state line in South
Carolina, to as far away as Maine
and California.
They sit in ladder-back chairs
and rest their elbows on vinyl
tablecloths while devouring
mounds of crisp, succulent
shrimp, oysters, fish, clams,
crabs and french-fried potatoes.
They munch on hush-puppies
(Ooaduued On Page Fbur)
Letter Tells
Of Plans To
Move Vessel
An exchange of letters
between Congressman Alton
Lennon and Admiral W. J.
Smith, Commandant of the
Coast Guard, ir dicates there is a
serious plan in the making to
transfer the Cape Upright,
59-foot Patrol Boat, from
Southport to Wrightsville Beach,
with this change slated to take
place this faiL
Following is a copy of
Congressman Lennons letter of
January 22,1969:
“I have been informed that the
Coast Guard plans to move the
“95 footer”, Cape Upright, from
Southport to Wrightsville Beach
when the new Coast Guard
facility is completed there.
“As you know, if the Coast
Guard does not have an ocean
rescue capability at Southport, it
will mean a run of over thirty
miles to reach a craft in distress
west of the treacherous Frying
Pan Shoals. Coupled with this
fact is the rapidly increasing
number of commercial and
pleasure craft operating in an
area subject to unpredictable
southw esters.
“There may be very good
reason for moving the Cape
Upright, but the distances
involved from Wrightsville Beach
to the area west of Frying Pan
Shoals would seem to justify the
retention of this rescue
capability at Southport.
“Please give this question your
consideration and advise me of
your plans regarding maintain an
ocean rescue capability at
Southport.”
Following is a copy of Admiral
Smith’s letter of reply, dated
February 3,1969:
(Continued On Page Pour)
Magistrate Pay
Bill Introduced
Township constables of
Columbus and Brunswick soon
may be on the payrolls of their
counties.
Although the constables were
elected in 1968, the reformed
court system failed to specify
any means of compensating
them.
Rep. R. C. Soles Jr. and Rep.
Arthur W. Williamson
introduced a bill Thursday
which, if enacted into law,
would give the commissioners of
Columbus and Brunswick
authority to set the amount of
compensation for the constables,
and to pay them for
performance of their duties.
Rep. Soles of Tabor City
explained, “At the present time,
constables are elected and given
authority to arrest and serve
certain documents, however,
(Continued On Page Pour)
Reach Decision
CP&L Canal To Empty In Ocean
Airsiream Caravan Rally
The Long Beach Campground looked like it had been descended upon by visitors
from outer space during the Easter weekend when over one hundred of these luxury
camping trailer units took part in the Wally Bryan Airstream Caravan. This added
more than 300 hundred visitors to the weekend population at Long Beach, the larg
est pre-season crowd in history.
Women Guides
Aid Tourists p
The Junior Woman’s Club of
Southport has adopted, for the
second year, the “Hostess”
project at Brunswick Town State
Historic Site.
Arrangements and details for
the project, which was very
successful last year, are under
the direction of the Fine Arts
Committee, Mrs. Connie Young,
chairman, and the Conservation
Committee, Mrs. Jean Kenney,
chairman.
Each Sunday afternoon and on
certain special days some of the
members attired in colonial
costumes, some of which were
made especially for the project
by the lad>es, visit the site and
circulate around the pounds
talking with visitors, answering
questions, passing out guide
maps and generally promoting
good will and public relations
for the site, the club, and the
area in general.
Quite often they are
photographed by visitors along
the scenic Nature Trail or with
the historic excavated
foundations of this once
prominent seaport in the
background.
Prior to the beginning of the
project this year many visitors
have inquired when the pretty
costumed ladies would be at the
site and commented how much
they enjoyed seeing them last
year.
Time And Tide
It was April 5,1939, and The Leland High School debating team
was to represent this section in the annual state competition in
Chapel Hill. The Southport boxing commission had announced a
return bout featuring all the community’s pugilists, and this time the
program was to include four wrestling matches and one “battle
royal”. A Southport man, inspired by stories of Theodosia Burr and
her mysterious appearance, had planned a film play centered
around Bald Head Island, and had already sent rough drafts of the
work to Hollywood. A group of students from Marietta College in
Ohio were planning a trip to Bald Head, ghost or no; Frank Sherrill
had plans of making the island into a summer-winter resort; and
Southport men were off for the Southern menhaden season.
This was the time of the pre-war price, and a Wilmington cercern
was selling men’s dress shoes for $2.95, Easter dresses for $1.95-up.
A new exhibit—shadow boxes—was to be added to the Southport
Flower Show this year; up-state fishermen were booking dates on
the local charter boats; and our editorial writer had joined with the
community in calling for pavement on the River Road.
It was April 5,1944, and the rabies situation was, if nothing else,
getting serious. The Pilot that week announced that all dog owners
whose animals had not been recently innoculated were subject to
arrest. Lt. J. Lawrence Sprunt, USNR, was serving as commanding
officer of a Naval Minesweeper in Italian waters, and had received a
citation for a recent action in the Salarno invasion. And the flowers
of Orton were once again displaying their seasonal beauty.
Miss Josephine Moore had graduated from the University of
North Carolina; there was a new baseball diamond being constructed
near the yacht basin; and the WAVES were asking for volunteer
machine gun instructors.
It was April 6, 1949, and the front page of The Pilot that week
carried a picture of the new Girl Scout camp site at the Pretty Pbnd.
REA power had been extended there, and work on the buildings was
(Continued On Pt(i Vouij
Pageant Winner
Jean Ward, right, is the new Miss Brunswick Coun
ty. She was crowned by Pam Poindexter, left, last year’s
queen, after she was voted the winner in this years pag
eant, held last Saturday night at Shallotte. First runner
up was Dianne King; second runnerup was Elizabeth
Ann Baxley; Miss Congeniality was Myra Lynn Hewett;
and winner of, the title of most talented non-finalist was
Mary Sue Everett. (Beacon photo)
Board Unable To
Organize Tuesday
Members of the Brunswick
Cbunty Board of Education was
unable to organize at its first
meeting in April session here
Tuesday night because Joe
Gainey and Delmas Babson, who
were elected to the board, have
not been certified as members
by the omnibus bill in the State
Legislature.
This means that no action was
taken in the matter of hiring a
Superintendent of Schools and
his assistant to serve during the
next two years. Presumably
George Williams and Ralph King
will continue in these positions
until they are reappoined or
until their positions have been
declared vacant. Also it is
assumed that James Thompson
will continue to serve as a
member of the Board of
Education until Gainey has
qualified as his replacement
Babson already is a member of
the board.
Superintendent Williams and
Kirby Sullivan, attorney for the
board, are in Raleigh today
(Wednesday) to confer with the
Attorney General about the
prospects for obtaining a delay
(Continued On Page Ftour)
REV. TOM JONES
Baptists Plan
Revival Here
The Southport Baptist Church
will be engaged in a revival
meeting from April 13-20, with
the Rev. Tom M. Jones as guest
evangelist.
(Continued On Page Pour)
Carolina Power and Light Co.
plans to discharge cooling water
from its proposed Brunswick
Nuclear Electric Power Plant
into the ocean.
Paul S. Colby, senior vice
president of CP&L, says the
company has determined that
the ocean discharge is advisable
and desirable and that required
approvals for it will be sought
from governmental authorities.
Since plans for the Brunswick
plant were announced early last
year studies have been underway
to determine whether the
cooling water would be ■"
discharged into the Cape Fear
river or the ocean.
To get the water to the ocean
will require five or six miles of
canal, Colby pointed out. He
said the water will be piped
2,000 feet off shore and
discharged beneath the surface.
The anticipated discharge point
will be about 1.5-miles west of
Fort Caswell.
Colby estimated that the canal
and discharge facilities will cost
more than $10-million. When
the second generating unit is
completed in 1974 the
Brunswick plant is expected to
represent an investment of
nearly $300-million. It will have
generating capacity of more than
1.6-million kilowatts.
Colby also said that sand
removed in construction of the
canal and not required fear the
project will be made available
for restoration of eroded
beaches in the area.
Through George Pickett,
director of the State Department
of Water and Air Resources,
CP&L already has received -if
request from Mayor C. EL
Murphy of Yaupon Beach for
sand for use in erosion control ? &
on that beach. ,
Final Rites
For Soldier
Pfc. Ronnie R. White, 20, of
Ash, died March 21 while serving
on active duty in South
Vietnam. Pfc. White was a
machine gunner.
Born in Ash December 1949,
he was the son of Pink and
Lennie White, who survive. He
attended Waccamaw High
School and was graduated with
the class of 1967.
He was inducted in the Army
June 13, completed his basic
training and left for Vietnam on
November 21, 1968. He had
been in South Vietnam exactly
four months.
He was a member of the Mill
Branch Freewill Baptist Sunday
School.
Other survivors are a sister,
Mrs. Leona Farnside of
Richlands; and one brother.
Major White of Ash; and several
(Continued On Page Pour)
Tide Table
for Southport during’ the
week. These hours are ap
proximately correct and
.were furnished The State
Port Pilot through the
courtesy of the Cape Fear
Pilot’s Association.
. HIGH LOW
Thursday, April 10
9
Following is the tide table
2:15 AM
2:39 PM
8:46 AM
Friday, April 11
3:21 AM
3:51 PM
Saturday, April 12
4:21 AM
4:45 PM
10:46 Aff
11:10 7
Sunday, April is
5:15 AM
5:39 PM
0:09 AM
6:27 PM
Monday, April
6:51 AM
7:15 PM
Wednew'
7:39 AM
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