V
THE STATE POSIT PILOT
A Good Newspaper In A Good Community
VOLUME 45 NUMBER 19 16 PAGES TODAY SOUTHPORT, NORTH CAROLINA NOVEMBER 28,1973 10 CENTS A COPYPUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY
Third-Quarter Funding
More Than $200,000
' ’ V ' • ’ -• • ■■■ ; . - . - ■, ; 'V •
Derived From Sales Tax
Funds derived from third
quarter collection of the local
option one cent sales tax total
more than $200,000 for
Brunswick County and nine
municipalities, according to a
report received this week
from the N.C. Department of
Revenue.
A total of $200,987.87 is to be
distributed here after the
Department of Revenue
withheld its customary 1.003
percent, a fee charged for
collection of the tax along
with the state’s three-percent
levy. The $200,000-plus
distribution is the highest
received here since the local
tax was approved two years
ago.
Also this week, the county
received word that October
collection of the one-percent
levy here was $57,615—down
from the $61,214 recorded the
previous month. A collection
of $76,762 was noted in
August, the highest collection
ever in Brunswick County
and a primary reason the
third-quarter distribution is
so high.
The third-quarter funds are
derived from the September
and August collection, plus
the July collection of $65,047.
Greatest beneficiary of the
third-quarter funding is Long '
Beach, which will receive
$11,293 from the tax. South
port will get $6,876, Yaupon
New School Will Provide
‘Total Education Program
By BOBBY HILL
A report on the educational
specifications for Southport’s
future primary school has
been released by the Board of
Education, and the volume
should serve principally as an
architectural guide for the
facility which is projected to
be ready for use in the fall of
1975.
The 26-page volume calls
for space to accommodate 600
pupils, stating that the
present enrollment of 525 for
grades kindergarten
through four is expected to
grow to 700. This overflow is
planned to be handled by
assigning pupils in grade four
to Southport Middle School.
The preface of the report,
signed by Supt. Ralph C. King
and Assistant Supt. for
Facilities John J. Hicks,
gives special credit to “the
principal and teachers of the
Southport Primary School,
the central office staff, and
the clerical staff of the school
and central office.”
Activities considered in
planning for the school in
clude both educational
processes and community
use of the facility for such
things as civic meetings.
Flexibility is one of the
main requirements seen in
the report, which says, “It is
our desire that the design of
the facility will be such that
whenever teaching-learning
concepts are changed totally
or modified in part the
facility will lend itself to the
program.”
“Team teaching,” in
dividualized instruction and
open classrooms are methods
presently planned to be used
in the school, and the report
calls for a “pod design” to be
used for flexibility. The
school will have four “pods.”
The school will have
electric heating and air
conditioning, a 350-seat
cafeteria and educational
television facilities in all
rooms.
Personnel at the new
facility will include one
principal, one assistant
principal, 26 state-allotted
teachers, a secretary, a
librarian, a parttime nurse,
two reading teachers, two
custodians, five cafeteria
workers, a music and an art
teacher in the future, a
special education teacher in
the future and three in
Leland Phone
System Ready
Southern Bell has an
nounced that a $160,000.
project for the Leland area is
almost complete. Final tests
on the 900-circuit cable are
being completed and the
additional facilities provided
by the project will be put into
service by the service by the
first of December.
George Harmon, district
manager for the company’s
Wilmington operations,
explained that the project
became necessary in order to
meet the increased demand
for telphone service along
Highway 74-76 between
Leland and Wilmington.
Approximately 2 miles of 9
duct concrete conduit was
placed underground late last
year at a cost of nearly
$83,000. The new 900-circuit
underground cable is housed
in one duct of the conduit.
“The additional space
available in the conduit
should enable us to install
cable needed for future
growth in this area quite
easily,” said Harmon. “In
stalling conduit reduces the i
risk of cutting existing cables
when it becomes necessary to
place additional cable along
the same route,” he added.
“With the completion of
this project, over $300,000 will
have been spent in the Leland
area for new telephone
facilities during 1973,”
Harmon concluded.
(Continued on page 2)
Beach $2,124 and Boiling
Spring Lakes $1,203. Other
Brunswick County
municipalities and the
amounts they receive from
the third-quarter funding are
Shallotte $3,275, Bolivia $87,
Holden Beach $2,226, Ocean
Isle Beach $1,505 and Sunset
Beach $1,091. Calabash, the
county’s tenth municipality,
was not incorporated in time
to benefit from this year’s
sales tax funding.
The greatest single fun
ding, of course, is for the
county itself. Of the $200,000
total Brunswick County will
get $171,302. The tax is
distributed among the county
and the towns oh the basis of
ad valorem taxes paid. Long
Beach ranks highest in the
county in this respect; South
port has the greatest
population and Shallotte has
the highest retail sales.
The tax is collected in 92 of
the state’s 100 counties. Levy
of the tax is optional in each
county, and was approved
here in the fall of ’71 by a vote
of the county commissioners.
The local receipts are far out
of proportion with county
“sales,” but the tax is also
applicable to materials
bought out of state and
brought to Brunswick County
for use. The greatest in
fluence on the sides and use
tax receipts is Brown and
Root’s construction of the
Carolina Power and Light
Company nuclear power
plant near Southport. The
usual $60,000 monthly
collection throughout
Brunswick is approximately
three times what the amount
would be were it not for the
materials brought here for
construction.
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Stratmon Gives
Mlo 17 Gifts
David L. Stratmon, Sr.,
Public Affairs Officer for the
U.S. Embassy in Tunisia,
recently wrote a letter to the
editor and readers of The
State Port Pilot, relating a
visit he and Ambassador
Talcott Seelye made on
President Bourguiba of
(Continued on page 2)
SOUTHPORT NATIVE David Stratmon, left,
Public Affairs Officer at the U.S. Embassy In
Tunisia, recently presented to President
Bourguiba of Tunisia (right) a moon rock and a
Tunisian flag that had been carried on the space
odyessy of Apollo 17 crew members Schmidt,
Evans and Cernan. President Bourgulba said he
was pleased to have these gifts from his "good
friend, President Nixon."
SEDC Report Shows Population
Up, Tobacco Down, Units Vacant
"ii - P
ByBOBBY HILL
A recent study of Brun
swick County by the
Southeastern Economic
Development Commission
gives an up-to-date survey of
local livilng conditions,
population and labor, in
dustrial information, etc., in
an effort to provide in
formation “useful to an in
dustrial or business prospect
who may be considering the
expansion of existing
facilities or is looking for a
new location.”
The 44-page booklet lists
the area as “basically a
resort county with limited
industrial employment for its
people.” Major employers
are listed as the tourist trade
and commercial fishing or
related service activities.
Although agriculture is
termed “important” as an
employment factor, the study
finds that “major increases”
A SHRIMP BOAT DRYING Its nets In the Cape Fear River Is
framed by mooring ropes of the Frying Pan Lightship on the
Southport waterfront. The river Is a suitable haven for boats
from the lower part of Brunswick County that shrimp off Cape
Fear and choose not to return to home port via the I ntracoastal
Waterway each night.
have occurred in stevedoring
and construction activities.
With a county-wide
population of 24,223 by a 1970
census, the study states that,
“the populations figures for
the county if plotted would
show an upward trend. It is
anticipated that this trend
will continue for some time.”
Stating that the growth rate
has recently been “in
creasing at a faster than
anticipated rate,” the study
projects county population
for 1980 at 28,386.
The county has had a ten
year growth rate of 19.45
percent, with only Wac
camaw Township showing a
negative growth factor of
11.15 percent.
Northwest Township, with
a 54.73 percent growth rate, is
the fastest-growing area
listed by the study, and
Smithville comes in second in
this category with a 29.54
percent growth rate.
With 873.0 square miles of
land, Brunswick County has a
density of population of 27.75
people per square mile,
although the study states that
this figure does not reflect
“the outlaying fact of certain
areas being non
inhabi table.”
The study lists the median
age in the county at 26.4
years.
Stating that “in excess of
100,000 people reside within 25
miles of Southport,” the
(Continued on page 2)
At Sub-Committee Hearing
County RDC Director
Voices Farmer Support
The old National Guard
Armory in Lumberton was
the site last Monday for the
first of a series of public
hearings on the tobacco
marketing problem facing
the flue-cured region.
Congressman Rose of
North Carolina’s 7th
Congressional District, which
includes Brunswick County,
fulfilled his promise to “bring
the sub-committee on tobacco
on the U.S. House Agriculture
Committee to North Carolina
to get a first-hand view of the
marketing situation.”
The sub-committee is
chaired by Congressman
Walter B. Jones of the North
Carolina 1st District. Other
members include
Congressman Rose,
Congressmen Wilmer Mizell
of the N.C. 5th District,
Dawson Mathis of Georgia,
Edward' Young of South
Carolina, and William C.
Warmpler of Virginia.
Approximately 25 wit
nesses appeared before the
subcommittee presenting
Market System
Of Tobacco Hit
Sharply criticizing the
“atrocious manner in which
we are now being forced to
market” tobacco. Director of
the Brunswick County
Resources Development
Commission Jackie
Stephenson last Monday
made several suggestions for
changes in tobacco
marketing at a public hearing
on this topic at Lumberton.
Stephenson called on the
tobacco subcommittee of the
House Committee on
Agriculture to either make
substantial changes in the
existing system or “do away
with the belt system
altogether and open markets
according to need dictated by
weather conditions and
producer preparation.”
Charging that bad weather
and restrictive marketing
hours have kept 20 percent of
Brunswick County’s yearly
five million pounds of tobacco
from buyers, Stephenson
said, “The time has come
that we must all band
together in a cooperative
effort, or I greatly fear we
shall before too many more
years pass see the entire
tobacco industry crumble
and fall.”
Other changes in the
marketing system
Stephenson suggested in
clude: (1) legislative action
giving the Flue-Cured
Tobacco Marketing Com
mittee “broader represen
tation” and “stronger en
(Continued on page 2)
their views of causes for the
marketing problem and
possible solutions. Officials
from several agricultural
organizations including the
Farm Bureau, the North
Carolina Grange Association,
and the National Farm
Organization, farmers,
merchants, and other
businessmen, discussed the
problem with the
Congressmen.
The situation that has
brought about the marketing
problem centers around the
inability of farmers to place
their tobacco on warehouse
market floors and sell it due
to over-crowded conditions.
Several witnesses testified
that on numerous occasions
heavy losses have been ex
perienced from rotting and
insects due to delays in
marketing.
The consensus of opinions
was that most of the
marketing delay is being
caused by the failure of the
companies to provide
adequate labor and facilities
to move the leaf from ’
warehouse floors after it is
purchased. It was noted that |
several processing houses
have closed in recent years
although the companies^
contend that fari^J
mechanization and newij
preparation methods ar$j
forcing overflows which thfe>;
companies cannot handle.
Brunswick County was
represented at the hearings
by Jackie Stephenson,
director of the Resources
Development Commission for
(Continued on page 2) '