THE STATE PORT PILOT
A Good Newspaper In A Good Community
VOLUME 45 NUMBER 49 18 PAGES TODAY
SOUTHPORT, NORTH CAROLINA
JUNE 26, 1974
10 CENTS A COPY
PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY
Beach Council
Okays Budget
The Town of Long Beach
budget for fiscal year 1974-75
passed a public hearing
Thursday night with no
comment.
In a brief special meeting
called primarily to hear
public opinion of the town
budget, the Long Beach
council also sold two town
vehicles for $325 apiece to
Johnny Wheeler of High
Point. There were three other
bids submitted.
Town Manager Frank
Kivett was given permission
to take a police car out of
service. Maintenance cost, he
said, had made the vehicle a
“financial burden” on the
town.
A charge for removing out
of-the-ordinary garbage —
such as old stoves, tree limbs,
etc. — was considered by the
council, with some action
possible at the next scheduled
meeting July 11. The cost of
picking up ordinary refuse is
included in the town tax rate.
The regular first Thursday
meeting for July was post
poned because of the conflict
with Independence Day.
The board discussed a
(Continued On Page 2)
City Bills Due
For Increases
The City of Southport
August billings will reflect
higher rates for both electric
and sewer service, City
Manager Alvin Kornegay
said this week.
Electric bills for August
will show about a ten percent
increase because Carolina
Power and Light Company
has upped cost to city about
ten percent, Manager Kor
negay said.
The August sewer bills will
be up 50 percent because of
construction and main
tenance operation costs, he
noted.
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR Jim Hunt (center) was guest speaker at
Saturday night’s Patriot Dinner, a Fourth of July fund-raising effort that
drew 160 local residents. During the day Hunt toured points of interest in the
area, including the Carolina Power and Light Company plant and here, Bald
Head Island with hosts Mrs. Margaret Harper and Lee Aldridge, chairman of
this year’s Fourth of July celebration, (photo by Geof Nessosis)
Saturday At Ft. Caswell
Annual July 4 Fete
Starts With Pageant
Pulchritude and pageantry
willmark the beginning of the
North Carolina Fourth of July
Festival Saturday.
The pulchritude will be
seen in broad daylight when
reigning beauty queens of the
Carolinas tour downtown
Southport in a motorcade in
which will be riding South
port’s own queen, Mary
Tomlinson, Miss Fourth of
July.
The pageantry will come
that evening at 8 p.m. with
the North Carolina Fourth of
July Pageant at Hatch
Memorial Auditorium at Fort
Caswell, where a new Fourth
of July Queen will be chosen
to reign until the 1975 festival.
Those are just for openers.
The festival will get down to
business next Tuesday, July
2, with the opening of at least
15 historical, educational and
otherwise interesting
exhibits. Most will open at 9
a.m. and continue until 5 p.m.
and will be throughout
the festival, ending Thursday
night.
Tuesday also marks the
opening of the second annual
Fourth of July tennis tour
nament on the courts off East
Moore Street.
Tuesday evening from 8 to
midnight there will be a
street dance at the Whittlers’
Bench, foot of Howe Street.
Music will be furnished by
“The Spontanes,” a Charlotte
group adept at everything
from rock to classic.
Eye-catchers among the
exhibits will include the
Army’s 338-foot beach
discharge lighter, the Lt. Col.
John U.D. Page, one of the
most unique ships afloat. On
Early Pilot Edition
Next week’s edition of The State Port Pilot will
be printed a day early, on Tuesday, so that
newspapers can be distributed before In
dependence Day.
Advertisers are requested to have material
ready no later than Monday noon, preferably on
Saturday. News items will be accepted until 5 p.m.
nn Monday, but those received before noon on
Monday will have priority in next week’s Pilot.
deck, she has a third of an
acre of cargo space.
Equipped with what
technically are known as
vertical axis propulsion units,
she is regarded as the most
maneuverable vessel of her
size and type in the world.
Not to be outdone, the Navy
will exhibit a PTF (fast
power torpedo boat), a 95-foot
craft capable of speeds in
excess of 35 miles an hour,
which will participate in
demonstrations by a Navy
underwater demolition team,
members of which popularly
are known as “frogmen.”
Both vessels will be docked
at the Southport Municipal
Pier throughout the festival.
Other exhibits will include:
The Fourth of July slide
program at the library.
The 14th annual Junior
(Continued On Page 2)
Some Cuts, Some Increases
County Budget Advances f
Towards Final Approval!
By BILL ALLEN
The Brunswick County
Board of Commissioners
moved the 1974-75 bduget
within one step of approval
during a work session
Monday morning.
The board scheduled a
public hearing on the budget
Wednesday morning at 10
o’clock. After the hearing, the
board expects to adopt the
new budget.
Following a brief public
hearing Wednesday morning,
the Brunswick County Board
of Commissioners voted 3-1 to
adopt the budget for fiscal
year 1974-75. J.T. Clemmons
cast the negative vote without
explanation.
Ed Liggett of Winnabow,
the only member of the public
at the hearing, thanked
commissioners for their
sizeable contribution to
county fire departments.
County Manager Neil
Mallory told the board that
the proposed $15,365,110.10
budget, with a 70-cent tax
rate, contains a total of
$63,197.36 in unbudgeted
funds.
After a long discussion, the
board decided to use the
money to hire an assistant
director of the Social Services
department, to increase
donations to fire departments
and rescue squads, to fund
estuary improvements and
to increase money for future
re-evaluation, which had
been cut.
Mallory said he arrived at
the figure after making the
various changes in the
original budget recom
mended by commissioners
during numerous work
sessions on the proposed
budget. He presented the
commissioners with a nine
page recap of the budget.
Chairman William Kopp,
Jr., recommended that an
assistant director of the
Social Services department
be hired. “This will be in
keeping with our policy of
having an assistant to the
director of each department
(Continued On Page 13)
Troy Doby Appointed
New State DOT Head
Has Folks Living Here
The son of a Southport
couple, who is familiar with
Brunswick County, has been
named secratary of the
Department of Tran
sportation by Gov. James
Holshouser.
Troy Doby of Raleigh, son
of Mr. Alvin I. Doby of 307
East Nash Street, will take
control over the Department
of Transportation on Monday,
July 1, as both secretary and
chairman of the Tran
sportation Board. It is one of
the most powerful appointive
positions in state govern
ment.
He will replace Bruce A.
Lentz, who has been named
Appeal Okay Sought
No action was taken Thursday on a request for a
county commissioner resolution to appeal the
injunction attained by two county newspapers
against the county board.
The resolution was requested by County At
torney Thomas Horne, who also asked that $4,000
be transferred to defray court costs. Board
Chairman William A. Kopp, Jr., said he was not
ready to act on the matter.
The injunction, granted June 7 by Superior Court
Judge E. Maurice Braswell, compels county
commissioners to obey the N.C. Open Meetings
Law.
secretary of administration.
Lentz succeeds William L.
Bondurant, who resigned to
return to the May Reynolds
Babcock Foundation in
Winston-Salem.
Doby, who has been
associated with the DOT
since 1973, will assume
control of the 14,800-employee
department, which spends
$534 million of federal and
state money in highway
funds. His salary is now
$30,975 with a IVz percent
raise coming July 1.
Doby’s father, who is
employed in the pipe
department at Brown and
Root at Southport, has lived
here about four years. His
wife, the former Agnes Russ,
has been living in Southport
for over 30 years. She is well
known here since she
operated the first kin
dergarten in Southport for
over 17 years.
In addition to their South
port home, they have a
cottage on 4th Street West at
Long Beach.
Doby, 40, who is a partner
in the Raleigh engineering
firm of Pierson and Whitman
Associates, has been involved
in a number of projects for
the Brunswick County board
of commissioners, the
Brunswick County board of
education and the Long
Beach town commissioners.
He has been the engineer in
(Continued On Page 2)
Patriots Gather
Lt. Gov. Hunt
Dinner Guest
Speaking at the Patriots
Dinner Saturday evening, Lt.
Gov. Jim Hunt told his
audience, “You have so much
to be proud of, your ancestors
OK Now, Says Willetts
Couple Blasts Sheriff
For Inaction On Crime
A Durham couple who
complained to members of
the board of commissioners
about the bad treatment
they allegedly received from
the sheriff’s department, said
they were “satisfied” after
meeting with Sheriff Harold
Willetts Tuesday.
“We are satisfied that
Sheriff Willetts will do
something about the break-in
at our home,” Mr. and Mrs.
C.H. Olive said after the two
hour meeting with Willetts.
Mr. and Mrs. Olive had
written each member of the
Brunswick County Board of
Commissioners about the
lack of cooperation they said
they had received from
Sheriff Willetts and his
department.
‘‘We are thoroughly
disgusted with the way we
have been treated and the
way Sheriff Willetts has
acted,” Mr. and Mrs. Olive
said in the letter to the
commissioners. “If we have
the kind of sheriff’s depart
ment we have found we have
in Brunswick County, then no
one’s property nor anyone in
the county is safe.”
Mr. and Mrs. Olive said in
the letter that they were
unhappy with the in
vestigation that the sheriff’s
department had conducted
following a break-in at their
home at Gause Landing on
March 23. They said they
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have been so much a part of
this nation” that every bit of
emphasis being placed upon
the observance of the Fourth
of July in Southport — is
more than justified.
He recounted the historical
events which took place in
North Carolina prior to the
Revolutionary War and had
particular praise for the
events that occurred at
Brunswick Town.
He recalled that the first
armed resistance to the
Stamp Act took place at this
Colonial town on the banks of
the Cape Fear and had words
of praise for the discipline of
the settlers who massed to
show their determination to
resist the collection of taxes
through the use of stamps.
“This was in 1765,” he said,
“a full nine years prior to the
more famous Boston Tea
Party.”
Hunt was talking to an
audience of about 200 persons
who had gathered at the
Lantern at Yaupon Beach at
(Continued On Page 2)
“Penny Saved” Concept Hurting Banks, Businesses
By BILL ALLEN
The nationwide penny
shortage, which experts
believe the average person
can correct, is critical in
Brunswick County, banking
official here report.
Waccamaw Bank and Trust
Company and First Citizens
Bank and Trust Company
have recently stopped sup
plying businesses and
commercial accounts with
pennies because they don’t
have many one-cent coins at
this time.
Edythe P. Smith and
Douglas Hawes, assistant
vice-presidents at Wac
cainaw in Southport, and Jim
Tyer, manager of First
Citizens in Southport, have
appealed to all Brunswick
County residents to turn in
their pennies to banks.
The three bank officials
believe, along wdth other
banking and Department of
Treasury officials, that there
are plenty of pennies in the
United States. But they
believe the pennies are in the
wrong place — out of cir
culation.
Treasury officials have
estimated that over 30 billion
pennies are in circulation at
the present time. But the
problem comes about
because over 30 billion other
pennies are out of circulation.
Most banking officials
believe the “hidden pennies”
are in dresser drawers, shoe
boxes, pickle jars, piggy
banks, etc. “They are most
anyplace you can think of
that will get them out of
pocket and out of sight,” it is
said. “They are unwanted,
unused and unappreciated.”
"We don't have a shortage
of pennies, since over half are
stored away in private
homes,” Tyer stated. "I know
this is true because I recently
found five to six dollars worth
of pennies in my house. 1
gathered them up and turned
them into the bank where
they are needed.”
In order to encourage
people to turn in the coins, the
federal government is issuing
a Treasury Department
certificate to anyone who
cashes $25 worth of pennies in
a bank. Waccamaw Bank in
Southport issued one such
certificate recently.
Since the problem hit the
county, some residents have
begun to return pennies to
banks. During a 15-minute
period last week, two
customers turned in $6.50
worth of pennies at First
Citizens. But pennies are not
being turned in fast enough to
make a dent in the shortage
at the present time.
Because of the shortage,
banks in the county are of
fering extra incentives to
people who turn in pennies.
When pennies were plentiful,
customers bringing the coins
to bank were “requested” to
have them rolled.
“If a person brings in
pennies loose, we will be glad
to roll them,” Mrs. Smith
said. “But we would rather
have them rolled.”
“We prefer the pennies be
rolled or at least counted,”
Tyer added. “We will be glad
to provide wrappers for
people with pennies.”
The penny shortage, which
started months ago in major
cities, has been spreading
like wildlife in recent weeks.
“This is not a countywide
or a statewide problem,”
Tyer declared. “It is all
across the nation.”
Last week, Mrs. Smith
recalled, Waccamaw in
Shallotte made an un
successful attempt to obtain
pennies from Waccamaw in
Sou^port. “We had called
the Shailotte bank earlier in
the day trying to find pen
nies,” she added.
Mi s. Smith said the last full
shipment of pennies her bank
received arrived in January.
The bank has received only
about $400 worth of pennies in
the last two months.
While banks are having a
hard time keeping the one
cent coins, the problem is
even more accute for
businesses in the county,
bankers report.
Hawes said one
businessman has visited the
bank every Monday for the
past two weeks and requested
$5 worth of pennies. But he
has yet to receive the pennies
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