THE STATE PORT PILOT
A Good Newspaper In A Good Community
VOL. UME 46 NUMBE R 4 18 PA GES TO DA Y SOUTHPORT, NORTH CA ROL IN A A UGUST14, 1974 /Q CENTS A COPY
PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDA Y
Linton Speaks
On Coastal Act
Officers and realtors
throughout Brunswick
County met Tuesday night to
hear Coastal Area
Management Act sponsor Dr.
Thomas Linton ask for local
cooperation in implementing
the law.
Linton, Director of the
Office of Marine Affairs,
asked the local officials to
become involved in a two -
year planning process before
the law goes into final effect.
“This is the time to get in
there and make your input,”
he said. “Things are not cut
and dried.”
The meeting held at Long
Beach was sponsored by the
Brunswick County Board of
Realtors. An audience of
about 60 included
representatives from the
county commissioners and
municipal governments
throughout the county.
County Commissioner
Chairman William A. Kopp,
Jr., a member of the Coastal
Resources Commission, was
present.
Linton and Institute of
Government attorney Melton
Heath said the county and
municipalities must make a
decision by October 29
whether or not to make out a
development plan required
by the law. If the local
governments do not do their
own planning, the state will
complete the task, they said.
Heath said the local
governments will be allowed
17 months to complete their
development plan. Linton
said the state has ap
propriated $500,000 for this
planning. He said other aid
would come from the plan
ning section of the Depart
ment of Natural and
Economic Resources.
(DNER).
A 15- man Coastal
Resources Commission, the
body responsible for en
(Continued on page 2)
Governor’s Committee
Willetts Gets
Second Ter]
IT
Brunswick County Sheriff
Harold Willetts has been
renamed to serve a second
one - year term on the
Governor’s Committee on
Law and Order.
Sheriff Wiiietts. who is the
only sheriff in North Carolina
on the committee, was re -
appointed by Gov. James
Holshouser, Jr. He will
represent the sheriffs in
North Carolina on the
committee.
Hearing Set
Monday Night
The Southport Board of
Aldermen will hold a public
hearing Monday night at 7:30
to discuss changing the
zoning ordinance on Howe
Street between Bay and 10th
streets.
The board, meeting in
special session July 31,
decided to call the public
hearing to obtain views from
citizens about changing the
zoning in the business district
on Howe Street from “C-2” to
“C-l”.
The zoning change to “C-l”
would eliminate the con
troversial 75-foot setback
requirement for buildings
constructed beside Howe
Street, city officials pointe
dout.
Under the zoning ordinance
approved about two years
ago, new buildings facing
Howe Street have to be set
back 75 feet from the front
property line.
“I have done my best to do a
good job on the committee,”
Willetts said. “I have been
working hard to help law
enforcement in Brunswick
County while serving on the
committee. It has been a
pleasure to work to help
surrounding counties receive
aid from the committee. •
While a member of the
committee, Sheriff Willetts
said he has been able to ob
tain equipment and ad
ditional personnel for the
Brunswick County sheriff’s
department and for some
police departments in
Brunswick County. He said
he is working to obtain grants
for other police departments
in the county at the present
time.
Since being re - appointed,
Sheriff Willetts has received
letters of congratulations
from Gov. Holshouser and
from Phillip J. Kirk, Jr., the
governor’s administrative
assistant.
“We know we can count on
you to do your part to help
make our state a better place
to live,” Kirk said in a letter
to the Brunswick County
sheriff.
The 14 - member Gover
nor’s Committee on Law and
Order channels federal and
state grants to state and local
agencies for activities or
research related to law en
forcement improvement.
Last year, the committee
awarded more than $23
million in federal funds and
more than $2 million in
special state funds to law
enforcement agencies within
North Carolina.
Allotment Cut Coming
Feed Gain Sign-Up
Has Few Weeks Left
The time has been extended
to certify acreage and sign-up
for feed grain program
benefits, said Manager Ralph
L. Price of the Agricultural
Stabilization and Con
servation Service in
Shallotte.
Feed grain growers will
have until August 30 to visit
the office, certify their
acreage and sign-up for
program benefits.
Price said that about 200 of
the 1,500 feed grain farmers
in Brunswick County had not
been to the ASCS office this
year.
“After September 1, we will
proceed to reduce the
allotments of every feed
grain grower who has not
certified and signed-up for
program benefits,” Price
declared.
The first year a farmer
fails to visit the office, his
•allotment is cut 20 percent,
the ASCS manager said. The
allotment is reduced another
20 percent if he fails to come
to the office two years in a
row. If a grower does not
come to the office in three
years his entire allotment
will be cancelled.
ASCS officials had to cancel
about 200 allotments last year
because growers failed to
visit the office in Shallotte in
three years.
"A grower has everything
to gain and nothing to lose if
he certified his acreage and
signs up for program
benefits,” Price declared.
“He can do all the needed
paperwork in less than three
minutes."
Benefits received by far
mers who participate in the
program, Price said, include
payments in case of diasters
and low market prices. In
addition, participants are
eligible for loans for both
price supports and equip
ment.
DP A i tr\ n
GUEST SPEAKER at Tuesday night’s Brunswick County Board of Realtors
meeting was Thomas Linton, (right) executive director of the Coastal
Resources Commission. With Linton at the Long Beach gathering is Wink
King, president of the county Realtors organization. The meeting was well
ittended by local government officials, who heard the director explain the
•ecently-enacted Coastal Management Act.
|
Officials In *Ivory Towers9
Water, Sewer System
Plan Rejected By HUD
By BOBBY HILL
Southport aldermen heard
Thursday that the water and
sewer system has again been
delayed by failure of the
plans to meet approval of the
Department of Housing and
Urban Development.
The system must meet
HUD approval to receive
almost $550,000 in state and
federal grants.
Mayor Eugene B.
Tomlinson said HUD of
ficials, while reviewing the
water and sewer plans,
“found more items ineligible
for grants than eligible.”
Tomlinson termed the HUD
refusal to approve the plans
“bureaucracy at the grass
roots level.”
He said HUD officials live
in “ivory towers” and that
they “need to be down in the
fieid.”
City Manager Alvin
Kornegay said he would go to
Raleigh next week to work on
approval of the plans.
The $925,000 water, sewer
and drain system has been in
the planning stages for over
four years. Bud Davis has
acted as planning engineer
for Henry Von Oesen of
Wilmington. He recently
predicted to the aldermen
that the “target date” for
ground-breaking ceremonies
for the system will be after
the first of October.
Funds for the project would
come from federal grants,
$282,500; state grants,
$263,159; and bonds, which
were approved by city voters
two years ago, $379,341.
Tomlinson called the HUD
objections to the plans “a
volume of corrections.”
The aldermen recently
instructed the engineers to
include bids in the system for
both underground and above
ground pumping stations.
They expressed concern
about the appearance of five
Island Voters
May Register
The Oak Island precinct
will hold two special voter
registration sessions in the
Long Beach town hall August
27 and September 4.
The move is intended to
raise the number of
registered voters for the
upcoming fall elections. The
county voter registration
books were purged after the
spring primaries.
From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., the
sessions will be held Tuesday,
August 27 and Wednesday,
September 4.
Registrar James Douglas
will be in charge.
of the pumping stations that
might mar residential areas.
Davis told the group that
most of the project will be
underground. He said,
however, that the five
pumping stations and
generators will be located in
neighborhoods in Southport.
The stations will be between
75’ x 75’ and 50’ x 50’. Davis
(Continued on page 2)
BEGINNING ITS DOWNWARD slope towards Oak Island is the new
bridge, work on which has progressed at an amazing rate the past two
months. Earlier this week, a concrete beam was placed directly above the
Intracoastal Waterway.
Restraining Order Sought
Township Moves
To Keep Hospital
By BOBBY HILL
Southport Mayor Eugene B. Tomlinson Thursday directed the city attorney
to seek a restraining order to stop county hospital construction until
assurances are received thatDosher Memorial Hospital will remain open.
Tomlinson directed the legal action against the county commissioners and
the hospital authority “until we are assured of the county commissioners’
support” to maintain a facility here.
Only moments before, aldermen had received from Mrs. Leila Pigott 2,333
signatures petitioning the county commissioners for a new hospital district in
Smithville Township and a tax to keep Dosher open. Tomlinson said the
petitions were proof of support for the legal action.
“We have no other alternative at this point,” he said. “The people of Smith
ville Township have spoken on these petitions.”
Subject To Lawsuit
State Accepts
Island Acres
The Council of State
Monday accepted a deed to
Bald Head Island property
for a nature conservancy,
subject to the outcome of a
lawsuit against development
of the island,
Carolina Cape Fear Cor
poration, developers of a
resort complex on the island,
gave the state about 10,000
acres as part of an agreement
with the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers. The agreement
gave Carolina Cape Fear a
permit for construction of a
marina on the west side of the
island.
The engineer and Cape
Fear accord has been
challenged by the Con
servation Council of North
Carolina. The council’s suit
was rejected by a US.
District Court judge on
grounds that it did not show a
direct effect on the
agreement.
In appealing the ruling, the
council maintains that it is
representing the public in
terest.
If the court settles in Cape
(Continued on page 2)
The aldermen then voted to
publish the petition blank in
local newspapers in an effort
to sign on still more Dosher
supporters.
Attorney E.J. Prevatte was
reportedly on vacation and
unavailable for comment
until Monday.
Mrs. Pigott and the petition
signees were thanked in a
motion passed unanimously
by the aldermen. Mrs. Pigott
said she would “screen” the
signatures to prevent any
possible duplication.
Alderman Pierce Horne
emphasized that the attorney
should seek “just a
reurendum” and move for a
restraining order only “until
Smithville has a referen
dum.”
Prior to the legal direc
tives, both Tomlinson and
Alderman Robert Howard
blasted reported newspaper
statements by county
hospital authority chairman
Mason H. Anderson of
(Continued on page 2)
Injunction Is Sought
Yaupon Hearing Monday
For District Court Here
A hearing will be held in
Southport Monday in District
Court on a lawsuit by John
Thompson against Yaupon
Beach and zoning for a
condominium.
Thompson, Yaupon
planning chairman, filed the
suit against the town, town
council and planning board
for alleged illegal passing of a
Residential Apartment (RA)
zone for a condominium
complex. The $5 million
condominium is proposed to
be located on a triangle of
land east of Yaupon Beach
and south of the Oak Island
Golf Club.
Venture Management, Inc.,
the condominium developers,
is among the list of defen
dants in the request for
several injunctions. Also
named as defendants are
several owners of the land
proposed to be sold to the
condominium developers.
In the hearing Monday,
Thompson will be asking for a
preliminary injunction
against further plans for the
development, according to
town attorney David Whitten
Whitten said he will “try to
get into the case as much as
we can and the judge will let
us.”
Thompson has claimed that
the town did not follow the
proper legal order of adop
ting the RA zone.
Specifically, he has charged
the town council and planning
board did not follow the
proper notice procedures.
The town defendants
maintain that notices were
given and public hearings
were held legally.
Whitten said the Monday
hearing will at least “narrow
the issues." If Thompson
does not get the preliminary
injunction, he said, “for all
practical purposes, the suit
will be dead.”
According to Whitten and
Thompson’s complaint, the
(Continued on page 2)