THE STATE PORT PILOT
A Good Newspaper In A Good Community
• VOL UME 46 NUMBER 19 18 PAGES TOD A Y SOUTHPOR T, NOR TH CA ROL IN A NO VEMBER 27, 1974 10 CENTS A COPY PUBLISHED E VER Y WEDNESDA Y
Second Body Missing
Drowning In
Bridge Mishap
By BILL ALLEN
One man was killed and
another is missing after their
car ran off the narrow Oak
Island bridge early Tuesday
morning.
Cau Chyen Fey, 30, of San
Jose, Calif., drowned in the
Intracoastal Waterway after
the car hit the water and
sank.
Choi Kee-Heng, 30, of Long
Beach was pulled from the
cold waters and taken to
Dosher Memorial Hospital in
Southport. Hospital officials
said he was treated for ex
posure. He is being held for
observation.
The body of a third man,
believed to be H.S. Hsia, had
not been recovered at
presstime. Dragging
operations were being con
ducted to find the body.
The three men were from
Taiwan and reported for
work at the Carolina Power
and Light Company nuclear
plant outside Southport Oct.
30. They lived at Long Beach
and commuted to work
At Bald Head
Injunction Off,
Channel Open
Construction of the marina
access channel at Bald Head
Island was commenced
Thursday after the lifting of
the injunction.
U.S. Federal Judge John D.
Larkins, Jr., dissolved the
injunction blocking the
marina access channel in a
ruling announced Thursday.
But another issue in the
lawsuit will not be decided
until next month.
The ruling means that
Carolina Cape Fear Cor
poration, developers of the
island, can construct the
access channel from the 10
acre marina, which has been
under construction since
summer, to the Cape Fear
River. The work to construct
the channel and a basic
marina is expected to take
about three months to
complete.
John A. Messick, cor*
poration genral manager,
said the elimination of the
injunction will free more
capital for the development
of Bald Head Island. “This
does make it easier for us,”
he added.
Judge Larkins announced
his ruling one day after
holding a short 30 - minute
hearing on the question last
Wednesday in New Bern.
Attorneys representing the
corporation, the en
vironmental groups and the
government were present.
(Continued On Page 18)
Medical Care Report
Official Claims
Dual Hospitals
Not Appropriate
Brunswick County has no
“appropriate need for two
general hospitals,” a state
official has reported.
“Accordingly,” continued
I.O. Wilkerson of the
Department of Facility
Services, “resources of the
Medical Care Commission,
the state and the county can
best be utilized in the
development of a proposal
that would result in a single,
modern, well • equipped and
staffed hospital for Brun
swick County.”
Wilkerson said the county
does not need two hospitals
because of the Brunswick
population, other surroun
ding hospitals and the
adequacy of rescue squads,
highways and other factors.
“Based on an acute
awareness of exceedingly
high costs of construction and
operation of hospitals and the
scarcity of medical and
paramedical manpower, it is
the continued opinion of the
commission that duplication
should be avoided whenever
possible,” he stated.
Wilkerson’s remarks were
contained in a letter he wrote
Chairman Mason Anderson of
the Brunswick County
Hospital Authority, Chair
man William Kopp, Jr., of the
Brunswick Board of Com
missioners, Southport Mayor
E.B. Tomlinson, Jr., and
Larry Burwell of the Health
Planning Division. The
remarks were made con
cerning a meeting held in
Raleigh Nov. 11 to discuss
hospital needs in Brunswick
Coimty.
He said he had been in
structed by the executive
committee of the Medical
Care Commission to “outline
conclusions reached at the
meeting for your in
formation.”
Wilkerson said there is a
limited potential for financial
assistance through the Hill -
Burton program for the
construction of an adequate
facility.
“Hopefully the leadership
of the county will develop a
proposal embodying a one -
hospital concept that would
be eligible for community
participation,” he stated in
the letter. “Because of trying
constraint upon the
availability of funds, such a
proposal must be in the hands
(Continued On Page 2)
Happy Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving will be for staying at home,
because almost nobody in Brunswick County will
be open for business Thursday.
All banks and savings institutions will be
closed that day, along with the clerk of court’s
office and the post office, which will offer only
box service.
Brunswick County schools and all county
offices will be closed Thursday and Friday.
Happy Thanksgiving from The State Port
together in the same car.
They were engineers here
in a training program under
contract with the General
Electric Service Company.
They were to have worked at
the plant outside Southport
for the next 18 months to gain
experience for similar duties
in their home country.
Highway Patrolman Larry
Davis, who is investigating
the accident, said
preliminary reports show
that the car hit an icy spot on
the narrow, one - lane bridge
and plunged into the water.
No signs warning about icy
conditions are located at the
two approaches to the tem
porary bridge. A 10 - mile -
per - an - hour speed limit is
posted on the bridge.
Observers said they
believed the . car was
traveling at a speed “much
(Continued On Page 14)
A VEHICLE THAT carried at least one person to his icy conditions caused the vehicle to go out of control off the
drowning Tuesday morning at the Oak Island bridge is hoisted narrow, one-lane bridge, which soon will be replaced by a high
from the water. Highway Patrolman Larry Davis stated that level structure leading to Oak Island.
What Kind Of Town, Long Beach ? §
What kind of town do Long
Beach residents want?
That is the question beach
folks should ask themselves
prior to formal land - use
planning, according to
representatives of Design
Cooperative of Raleigh.
Larry Chasak and Charles
Elam said Design
Cooperative would be ‘ ad
vocates of the residents” if
the firm were employed as
planner for the Oak Island
community.
“W; want to find out (what
residents want),” said Elam.
“We don't want to plan
something the people don’t
want.”
Elam, a planner, and
registered surveyor Chasak
met with the Long Beach
board of commissioners
during a special meeting
Thursday night. Other
business discussed during the
2Vi • hour meeting inckided
calling a public hearing on
adoption of a subdivision
ordinance, applying for
LEAA grants for street
lighting and additional
personnel, and considering a
grant application for a
community swimming pool
Commissioners — except
Mayor Ed Morgan who was
absent for the second meeting
in a row — Joined the small
audience for the presentation
by Design Cooperative.
Mayor Pro - Tern Ellis
Dudley presided in Morgan’s
absence; all other board
members were present.
The Raleigh firm was
called for a preliminary
presentation after the town
council voted unanimously to
do its own land - use planning
as required by the Coastal
Management Act. Southport
also will do its own planning,
while all other Brunswick
municipalities will use county
services.
Elam noted his firm has
“investigated the history of
Long Beach” and found
“touchy environmental
situations.” “All of these can
be lived with” in land - use
planning, he said.
Elam said there is “some
good and some bad” at Long
Beach, and that the com
munity must re • evaluate
itself prior to land - use
planning. “What do we
want?” he asked members of
the audience. “What are the
goals and objectives” of the
beach community?
He stressed the in
volvement of the public in
community planning.
Elam, suggesting alter
natives in question form,
asked, “Can you exist as a
bedroom community? Do you
need industry? Do you need
offices?” And about the
tourist trade: “Do you want
summer only? Or what?”
Using slides and wall -
maps, Elam reviewed
previous Design Cooperative
work in the Cary, N.C., area.
He spoke favorably of “Open
Space” owned by the people
— “an oldtime cooperative."
He also favored clustered
development (“less utilities,
less linear feet of streets”) as
an innovative way to arrange
a neighborhood. But spec
tator Lucy Ford saw a
problem.
“You’re too late,” she said,
repeating the same later and
citing street after street of
lots cut up and sold. Elam
suggested it may not be too
late: if certain areas are not
suited for what they now are
zoned, then changes can be
made in the Master Plan of
land - use.
He noted that all lots in the
Tranquil Harbour area have
utility easements in the rear,
a plus factor. Referring to the
problem of zoning, Elam
said, “Towns couldn’t say
‘no’ before because they
didn’t have good reasons.”
Spot zoning, he added,
“kills land - use.” He
suggested taking requests for
rezoning once a year as “an
update to the Master Plan.”
Elam said the burden would
be on the individual to show
why the rezoning would be an
improvement.
The Design Cooperative
planner also advocated a
master recreation plan for
Long Beach, again based on
what the residents want. But
recreation, planning just as
redevelopment, would take
time.
“It is virtually impossible
to do something like this all at
once,” Elam said. “You don’t
need to.” A five - or six - year
program was mentioned.
He suggested a “very
thorough study — en
vironmentally and socially —
to see what Long Beach can
support and what the geople
want to support.”
Dudley asked Elam and
Chasak to use Coastal
Management Act guidelines
and inform the town how
much a land - use plan would
cost. The plan must be
finalized about one year from
now. “We can meet that
deadline,” Elam told the
commissioners.
Estimated cost would be
between $8,000 and $10,000.
SUBDIVISIONS
Part Two of the Thursday
night meeting was concerned
with “Subdivision
Regulations,” which will be
the subject of a public
hearing Dec. 5 at Town Hall
prior to the regular meeting
of that date. The 47 - page
document is taken “prac
tically verbatim” from the
N.C. model and is one of three
prerequisites for funding land
use planning (along with a
zoning ordinance and
building code regulations).
The hearing is advertised
in this issue of The State Port
Pilot and copies will be
available in the town hall.
STREET LIGHTS
An earlier LEAA grant
application, reportedly
turned down because of the
inclusion of “equipment,”
will be submitted. The ap
plication asks $10,452; local
share would be $522.
The street light request is
based on the theory that
lighted places are “less
subceptible to crime.” Town
Manager Frank Kivett has
prepared documentation of
where this year’s breaking
and enterings have occurred.
Of the 56 reported, 27 have
been between 40th and 77th
streets East. “But they are "
scattered,’' the town
manager noted.
Local matching funds
would be only 5 percent, and
Kivett anticipated a request
in the neighborhood of $2,500.
The town has budgeted $5,000
for street lighting; none has
been spent except for
replacement of damaged
lights.
An earlier request was
rejected Kivett said, because
of funds and priorities of
LEAA. “They now have more
funds and we think we can
document a need,” Kivett
said of the request being
resubmitted.
SWIMMING POOL
A swimming pool for the
Town of Long Beach was
discussed by the com
missioners Thursday night
but no action was taken. A
competition - size 45’ by 75’
pool would cost about $60,000,
Kivett told the board, and up
to 50 • percent funding is
possible. Approximately
(Continued On Page 2)
New Commissioners Briefed
Regional Water Plans j
Depending On County ? j
By BILL ALLEN
Commissioners - elect were
briefed on the water system
and other county programs
during two special meetings
last Wednesday.
Jimmy Wilson of Pierson
and Whitman, consulting
engineers from Raleigh, told
the commissioners-elect
about the county water
system during a dinner
meeting at Long Beach.
The system, Wilson said, is
designed to allow the county
to become wholesale supplier
of water in the county. The
county is expected to start
pumping water under Phase I
next summer.
He reported that Phase I —
involving Long Beach,
Yaupon Beach, Southport and
Pfizer Inc., is a $4.5 - million
project. A total of $2.1 million
in contracts already has been
awarded for the elevated
water tank foundation, the
million - gallon elevated tank,
and water main extensions.
Contracts for the second
part of Phase I of the water
system were awarded this
week. (See related story in
this edition of The Pilot.)
Wilson pointed out that the
present board will award the
contracts for the second part
of Phase I. But he said the
contracts wil have to be
signed by the new board since
the present board will be out
of office at the time.
The water system will have
a capability of providing 5
million gallons of water each
day. The water will come
from 15 wells pumping a half
million gallons a day.
Money to pay for the water
project will come from the
state Clean Water grant, an
Economic Development
grant and the Farmers Home
Administration, thanks to the
“generous cooperation” of
Pfizer, he noted.
The $2.5 million Phase II
system is expected to be in
operation within one to three
years. It will include waters
systems for the Shallotte •
Holden Beach • Ocean Isle
Beach area, the Calabash -
Sunset Beach area and the
Leland area.
“We can’t apply for funds
for the Leland system until
the people form a sanitary
district since there is no
municipality,” Wilson
pointed out. “If they don’t
form the district, the county
might have to go into the
retail water business to
supply the area.”
He said the county system
should serve the needs of
Brunswick for the next five to'
seven years. But he said the
county would need another
supply of water within seven
years, based on growth
projections.
Wilson suggested that the
county could obtain ad
ditional water in future years
from the Lower Cape Fear
Water Authority, which has
been making plans for seven
years to serve area counties.
He said the Authority has
run into problems obtaining
funds to finance the system
because of the nature of
customers served and the
type of water to be pumped.
Wilson said it was a
“golden opportunity” for
Brunswick County to help the
Authority on the county’s
term. “Brunswick County
can provide original input
(Continued On Page 18)