THE STATE PORT PILOT
A Good Newspaper In A Good Community
County Feelings Sought
On Two-Hospital System
Tomlinson Sees “Dire Need” Of
Shallotte Facility; Southport, Also
The Brunswick County
Board of Commissioner
should not seek additional
funds for the proposed
Brunswick County hospital
“at the expense of trying to
close Dosher Memorial
Hospital,” Southport Mayor
Eugene B. Tomlinson, Jr.,
said Tuesday.
“The time is far past when
the official parties involved in
this controversy should
forget any and all divisional
aspects and meet together as
men of good faith to move on
with an action that will
provide the best medical
services for the most people
—such services to include the
ancilliary facilities that
hospital users will require,
Mayor Tomlinson said in a
letter to Commission
Chairman William A. Kopp.
“Short of such a positive
result meeting, any
unilateral effort made to
close Dosher or to obtain
additional funds for the new
hospital by phasing out
services at Dosher will result
in our taking such measures
as may be necessary, in
cluding court action, to halt
such effort,” Mayor
Tomlinson declared.
Mayor Tomlinson told
Chairman Kopp that he was
writing the letter because
four of the county’s ap
pointees to the Dosher
hospital board voted to phase
out acute care service upon
completion and opening of the
new Brunswick County
hospital. He also expressed
concern about the matter in a
letter to Trustee Chairman
W.B. McDougle.
In addition, he said he was
concerned because a local
newspaper reported that
commissioners were in
formed at a recent meeting
that grant funds in the
amount of some $1,000,000
additional required for the
new hospital construction
could be obtained contingent
upon closing Dosher.
“This avenue of approach
(closing Dosher to obtain
funds for the new hospital) is
not keeping good faith with -
those interests, corporate and
individual, that have located
and are locating in the
southeastern part of the
county,” he said in the letter.
“In fact, some of these who
have added so tremendously
Coastal Management Board
Lewis And Kopp, Others
Selected For Nomination
By BILL ALLEN
The Brunswick County
Board of Commissioners
nominated four residents to
serve on the State Coastal
Resources Commission and
heard that the company
making the $100,000 error on
the water tank bid had ac
cepted the contract during a
special meeting Tuesday
night.
Bill Tripp of Shallotte,
County Commission Chair
man William Kopp, Mason
Anderson of Shallotte and
Jerry Lewis of Yaupon Beach
were nominated by the
commissioners to serve on
the commission. After all
nominations have been
received from the coastal
areas in the state, the
Governor’s office in Raleigh
will select the members of the
commission.
Incidentally, Lewis, a
former county manager and
an engineer, has also been
nominated by the town
boards of Yaupon Beach and
Long Beach to serve on the
commission.
Before nominating the four
men in public session, the
board held a closed executive
meeting to consider names to
be nominated to the com
mission. It was the third and
longest closed door session
the board has held to consider
the matter.
Chairman Kopp, claiming
that nominating candidates
to serve on the commission
was a “personnel” matter,
covered by law, said the
board should meet in
executive session. The board
unanimously voted to eject
the public and the press and
discuss the business of
nominating members to the
commission in private.
The board met behind
closed doors from about 9:08
p.m. until 10:20 p.m. to
discuss names to be
nominated. After the doors
were open to the public and
the press again, the board
quickly voted unanimously to
(Continued On Page 20)
, ■mr 1 I * .. * _ ; J. .
to the county-wide tax base
would not have located in
Brunswick County at all had
there not been services
available such as are ren
dered now at Dosher hospital
in Southport.”
The mayor said he and the
Board of Aldermen realize
the need for acute care
medical services in the
Shallotte area.
“We totally support this
concept within the funds
authorized in the recent bond
election ($2,500,000) and the
recognized continuance of
acute medical care services
at Dosher in Southport, he
stated. “We believe serious
consideration should be given
to scaling down the new
hospital size to stay within
what the voters approved
rather than seeking ad
ditional funds at the expense
of trying to close Dosher.”
Mayor Tomlinson said the
Southport Board of Aldermen
is interested in what is best
for everyone in Brunswick
County.
“We are not narrow
minded in this matter,” he
noted. “One larger hospital
located in a central point in a
county the size of Brunswick
is no more practical that was
a single consolidated high
school concept that was
proposed by some interests a
few years back — such
concept now proven to have
been entirely wrong.”
In the other matter, Mayor
Tomlinson told Chairman
Kopp that the Dosher trustees
acted improperly when they
voted to phase out acute care
services upon the opening of
the new hospital.
“To be specific,” Mayor
Tomlinson wrote Chairman
Kopp, “the charter em
powers the Board of Trustees
to establish, operate and
maintain Dosher hospital
(owned by the city and
(Continued On Page 2)
DRAWING ATTENTION to the Southport
waterfront last Wednesday through Friday was
the Greek tanker Marianna V, which lost steering
and ran aground between Southport and Fort
Caswell. Here, the small boat checks the depth of
water at high tide, reportedly six feet. The
marker on the ship’s bow registers 13 feet,
meaning that 7 feet of the Marianna V hull was in
the sandy river bottom. An aerial photo of the
vessel in on page 2; this photo is by Geof
Nesossis.
Dosher Gets $10,000
Million-Dollar Budget
Sought For Southport
The Southport Board of
Aldermen tentatively
adopted the city’s first
million-dollar budget, which
calls for about a 14-percent
increas in the tax rate, at a
special meeting Thursday
night.
After much discussion,
the board voted unanimously
to approve the $1,029,629.27
budget for 1974-75. Last year,
Southport operated on a
$728,149.56 budget.
The board set the tax rate
at $1.00 per $100 at 100
percent valuation. The rate
last year was $1.75 per $100 at
50-percent valuation.
BEST EVIDENCE yet that the Oak Island Bridge is doing
well is this aerial photograph taken Friday with pilot Jim
Smith. The pontoon - style swingbridge is closing after letting
an Intracoastal Waterway vessel pass, as long lines of cars
wait on both sides of the canal. In the upper left is the elevated
roadway north of the crossing, while in the lower right are
bases for future supports for the high - rise span. The new
bridge will not have to open for waterway traffic.
The difference in the rates
will mean that the average
taxpayer will pay about 14
percent more in taxes than
he did last year, a city official
said. This year the city ex
pects to collect $95,000 in
taxes while the figure last
year was about $78,750.
In addition to increasing
tax income, the board will
swell the electric rate 11
percent due to the fact power
costs to the city went 14) 11.4
percent in January. The
board also will increase the
electric service charge from
$3 to $5 and no longer fur
nished meter pans.
The board discussed in
creasing the sewer rate to
equal the water rate, but
rejected the proposal.
Revenues for the 1974-75
budget will include
$362,543.74, general govern
ment; $32,000, Powell BUI;
$534,548, electric bills; and
$100,537.53, water and sewer
bills.
General government ex
penditures, which will total
$362,543.74, will include ad
ministration, $88,071.94;
police, $97,767.86; fire
(Continued On Page 2)
For Bald Head Development
Federal Agency Approves
Permit For Island Marina
After revising and c
amending the initial request,
Carolina Cape Fear Cor- d
pcration has been granted a (
permit to construct a marina c
at Bald Head Island “in the p
public interest,” Co. Albert C. c
Costanzo, district engineer t
with Corps of Engineers, a
announced this week. t
“If the marina access canal
is viewed in the context of
Carolina Cape Fear Cor
poration’s total plan of
development, it is my con
clusion that granting a
permit would not be a major
federal action significantly
affecting the quality of the
human environment since, by
complying with the con
ditions imposed by interested
federal and state agencies,
the developer (Carolina Cape
Fear) went to extra ordinary
lengths to insure that the
development will not have an
adverse impact on the quality
of the environment,” Col.
Costanzo said in granting the
application.
During the study of the
application, several federal
agencies approved the
marina, subject to conditions
Carolina Cape Fear had to
satisfy in order to minimize
or eliminate any adverse
environmental consequences
arising as a result of the
development plans.
“Carolina Cape Fear has
agreed to satisfy all of these
anditions,” he pointed out.
The Corps of Engineers
etermined that Carolina
ape Fear has given proper
onsideration to the various
ublic resources in the area
f work, that the granting of
le permit does not constitute
major federal action and
lat the resulting work will
not have a significant effect
on the quality of hunan
environment before granting
the permit.
“Each factor was carefully
considered and, to the extent
of the jurisdiction of the
district engineer under the
permit program, revisions of
(Continued On Page 2)
To Transportation Board
Road Requests
Are Presented
Brunswick County officials
•eturned home Thursday
‘optimistic” after presenting
aighway plans at a Depart
ment of Transportation
oublic hearing in Raleigh,
bounty Commission Chair
man William Kopp has
-eported.
Chairman Kopp, Com
missioner Vardell Hughes
and County Manager Neil
Mallory presented plans to
upgrade two highways in
Brunswick County at the
hearing held to discuss the
Seven-Year Highway Con
struction program in the
state.
The county officials
recommended that US 17 be
made a four-lane highway
throughout Brunswick
County and Highway 133 be
modernized from Orton
Plantation to the intersection
of Highways 17 and 74-76.
“While Brunswick County
is most appreciative of the
road projects presently
planned for our county, we
would like the Board of
Transportation to give
serious consideration to our
request for additional im
provements to the primary
system within Brunswick
County,” the statement said.
“Our fir st request pertains
(Continued On Page 16)