THE STATE PORT PILOT
A Good Newspaper In A Good Community
VOLUME 46 NUMBER 9 18 PAGES TODAY SOUTHPORT, NORTH CAROLINA ' SEPTEMBER 18, 1974 10 CENTS A COPY PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY
Well-Prepared 6Speech9
‘Surprise’ Dosher
Meeting Held; City
Planning In j unction
By BILL ALLEN
Southport Aldermen,
refusing “to roll over and
play dead,” made plans to
intensify efforts to save
Dosher Memorial Hospital
during their regular monthly
meeting Thursday night at
City Hall,
Aldermen decided to seek a
meeting with state officials in
Raleigh this week, to con
tinue the threatened in
junction and to adopt a new
hospital district petition to be
used if needed.
The action was taken after
Aldermen Robert Howard
and Harold Aldridge
reported on a surprise
meeting with state and
county officials at Wright
sville Beach last Wednesday
night.
The two aldermen said they
LEE ALDRIDGE has
been promoted from
cashier to Assistant
Vice-President, South
port operations, of
Waccamaw Bank and
Trust Company. Ac
cording to Senior Vice
President Robert
Howard, Aldridge will
remain branch
manager of the Oak
Island office.
went to Wrightsville Beach to
talk about a meeting,
proposed by Chairman
William Kopp, Jr., of the
Board of Commissioners,
with Secretary David
Flaharty of the Department
of Human Resources.
Instead, Howard and
Aldridge said they found
themselves attending the
Kopp meeting and listening to
decisions already made.
Chairman Kopp earlier had
called for a meeting to work
out the hospital situation in
the county.
During the meeting,
Aldridge and Howard said in
a written report submitted to
the board, Secretary
Flaharty suggested that
Smithville “settle for an
emergency room out-patient
type clinic as an arm under
the Brunswick County
Memorial Hospital.” (See
related story in this edition of
the Pilot).
Mayor E.B. Tomlinson
reported that he - received a
letter from Secretary
Flaharty last Saturday. He
said the secretary wanted to
meet him at the Blockade
Runner at Wrightsville Beach
to receive “input” about the
hospital situation in the
county.
Mayor Tomlinson, who had
to be in California last week,
said he asked Aldridge and
(Continued On Page 2)
Petitions Returned
Kopp, Officials
Meet Tuesday
A 45 - minute meeting between County Com
mission Chairman Bill Kopp and Aldermen
representatives Gene Tomlinson and Robert
Howard was held in Southport Tuesday evening.
Only the three men and a secretary were
present.
Purpose of the meeting, Tomlinson stated, was
for Kopp to return the 2,500 - signature Dosher
Hospital petition to Southport officials. The
petition does not fulfill appropriate state
requirements, and Kopp said he wanted to return
the document without waiting for the next county
board meeting.
“We thanked Mr. Kopp,” Tomlinson said,
“and told the chairman we would keep him
informed of any further developments.”
The meeting was called by Chairman Kopp.
Tomlinson said the aldermen had known the
petition would not meet state requirements, but
was intended as “a show of strength” of local
interest in keeping Dosher Memorial Hospital in
operation.
Howard and Tomlinson said that a Thursday
morning meeting between Dosher Hospital
Retention Committee members and Department
of Human Resources Secretary David Flaharty
has been called.
No Funds For Festival
Wood Gets Yaupon Seat
After Petition ‘Ignored’
By BILL ALLEN
Heated words were ex
changed after a new member
of the Yaupon Beach Board of
Commissioners was selected
during a special meeting
Tuesday morning.
The board voted 3-to-l to
select Ted Wood to replace
Commissioner Jack Allen,
who resigned his seat at the
regular meeting last week.
Commissioner Gib Barbee
nominated Wood after Ralph
Cammack had been turned
down. Commissioner Marvin
Watson seconded the Wood
nomination. Barbee, Watson
and W.E. McDougle, who
waited a long time before
announcing his vote, sup
ported Wood. Commissioner
Bill Smalley voted in op
position.
Mayor C.E. Murphy, who
cast the deciding ballot
against Cammack, first voted
for Wood. But he withdrew
his vote after McDougle said
he was supporting Wood.
“It is with genuine dismay
that I observe today that the
majority of the Yaupon
Beach town council has again
seen fit to ignore the signed
petition of a huge percentage
of the residents of this town,"
Smalley said in a statement
read after the vote. “It is
beyond my comprehension
that these officials have
forgotten that they serve here
at the pleasure of the voting
citizens.
“To ignore their moral
obligations to appoint Ralph
Cammack, the next highest
vote getter in the election
held less than 11 months ago,
can only mean to me that
they sit here to serve their
own self interests and not the
citizens of Yaupon Beach,”
Smalley continued.
When Murphy called for
nominations, Smalley
nominated Cammack. He
presented the board with
petitions signed by 131 per
sons calling for Cammack’s
selection to fill Allen’s seat.
Smalley pointed out that
Cammack was almost
elected to the board in the last
town election. He said
Cammack polled 89 votes
while Watson, who won the
(Continued On Page 5)
+
Flaharty: Cut Dosher Services
State officials want to convert
Dosher Memorial Hospital into an
“out-patient facility” or an
“emergency room out-patient type
clinic,” it was reported at two
meetings held in Brunswick County
this week.
County Commission Chairman
William Kopp, Jr., and Southport
Aldermen Robert Howard and Harold
Aldridge reported to their boards about
a meeting with Secretary David
Flaharty of the Department of Human
Resources and other officials.
The meeting, called by Chairman
Kopp last month, was held without
notice at the Blockade Runner at
Wrightsville Beach last Wednesday
night. Because of the way the meeting
was set up, some people have called it
the “Wednesday night ambush.”
Aldermen Aldridge and Howard,
who represented Mayor E.B.
Tomlinson, told the Southport Board of
Aldermen Thursday night that they did
not know they were going to the Kopp
meeting when they went to the
Blockade Runner. They said they
understood they were going to make
preliminary arrangements with
Secretary Flaharty for the meeting
Chairman Kopp had proposed.
Aldermen Howard and Aldridge
reported to the Southport board that
Secretary Flaharty made four opening
comments about the hospital situation
in Brunswick County. The reported
comments follow:
“1. Dosher Memorial Hospital was
operating under a temporary license.
“2. The Department of Social Ser
vices has been turning its head during
the examinations in order to keep
Dosher Memorial Hospital opened on a
temporary license until the new county
hospital could be built.
“3. Secretary Flaharty made it clear
that his department could not justify a
two-hospital concept in Brunswick
County.
“4. The department saw no other
choice but to work with the new
hospital till completed and in operation
and at that time his department would
take away the certification of Dosher
Memorial Hospital.”
The two aldermen reported that
Secretary Flaharty said he made the
four comments because of the con
dition of the existing main part of
Dosher excluding the new modular
units. Secretary Flaharty said that in
order for Dosher to meet the minimum
standards for a 30-bed unit, ap
proximately $1 million would have to
(Continued On Page 15)
- - m aw*fshhi
GROUNDBREAKING CEREMONIES for the Brunswick
County Water System were held Monday at the intersection of
the old and new river roads near Southport. Doing the honors
were, left to right, Commissioners Robert Simmons, James
i mmmm ‘mmm'am kwmr^im ~ ""
Smith, J.T. Clemmons, Vardell Hughes and Bill Kopp, and
James Johnson, state director of Farmers Home Ad
ministration. Initial construction is adjacent to the Pfizer, Inc.,
plant site.
Commissioners Set Planning Board Hearing
BSL Wants Single Township;
Varied Tax Rates Introduced
By BILL ALLEN
The town of Boiling Spring
Lakes wants to be placed in
one township, the Brunswick
County Board of Com
missioners was informed at
its regular meeting Monday
in Southport.
Mayor Alfred J. Switzer
said in a letter to the board
that Boiling Spring Lakes
wants to be placed in Town
Creek Township and have its
own voting precinct. The
town board lias adopted a
resolution calling for the two
changes.
Boiling Spring Lakes is
currently in both Smithville
and Town Creek townships.
Voters must go to either
Bolivia or Southport to cast
ballots.
Chairman William Kopp,
Jr., asked County Attorney
Tom Horne and Chairman
Lester Babson of the Board of
Elections to look into the
matters and report back to
the board.
The commissioners
decided to hold a public
hearing to establish a
planning board October 3 at 9
a.m.
The board actually voted
unanimously to adopt a
planning board ordinance
after being told by Horne that
a public hearing was not
Highest Tax Ever
The highest collection of the one - percent sales
and use tax since the levy was initiated here
three years ago was recorded in August.
According to the N.C. Department of Revenue,
$82,998.53 was accrued from the tax, which is
applied to materials and services otherwise
subject to the North Carolina three - percent tax.
Almost 99 percent of the total will be returned to
the county and Brunswick municipalities.
needed.
After the ordinance was
adopted and Horne left the
room, commissioners started
nominating the nine citizens
who would serve on the
board. Horne rushed back
into the room and told the
commissioners that a public
hearng must be held on the
matter. The board receded
the ordinance and set the
public hearing.
President Phillip King, III,
and John Barbee of the
county Board of Realtors
urged the board “to speed
up” the process of
establishing flood insurance
in the entire county.
They told commissioners
that builders were having a
hard time obtaining loan
money in flood - prone areas
because the county does not
have flood insurance.
Chairman Kopp said the
board is working to have
flood insurance in the county
by July 1, 1975. He said the
county hopes to submit an
application after the first of
the year.
Under the law, the chair
man pointed out, loans cannot
be made to builders in areas
without flood insurance after
July 1, 1975.
County Manager Neil
Mallory said Brunswick
plans to hire a county planner
in late October or early
November. The 35 ap
plications for the new
positions are being reviewed
at the present time.
“The first assignment the
planner will have will be to
qualify the county for flood
(Continued On Page 3)
Local Milestone
Water System J
Ground Broken
Members of the Brunswick
County Board of Com
missioners broke ground for
the multi - million dollar
water system Monday.
Chairman William Kopp,
Jr., Vice - Chairman J.T.
Clemmons, and Com
missioners James W.
(Bubba) Smith, Vardell
Hughes and Robert Simmons
and Farmers Home Ad
ministration State Director
Jimmy Johnson broke ground
at the intersection of SR 1527
and 1528 between Carolina
Power and Light Company’s
plant and the Pfizer, Inc.,
plant.
The new water system,
which has been in the plan
ning stage for almost three
years, will provide treated
water for Long Beach,
Yaupon Beach, Southport,
Pfizer and rural residents
living along the line. County
officials hope to start pum
ping water in July of 1975.
County Manager Neil
Mallory, who presided over
(Continued On Page 2)