THE STATE PORT PILOT
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A Good Newspaper In A Good Community
VOLUME 46 NUMBER 24 20 PAGES TODAY
SOUTHPORT, NORTH CAROLINA
JANUARY 1, 1975
10 CENTS A COPY
PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY
AMONG THE TOP 10 stories of the year in Brunswick few months, ending three years of headache for the Oak Island
County is the Oak Island Bridge, which last week passed a communities. In the foreground is the one - lane bridge that has
milestone when the segments north and south of the waterway seen numerous traffic jams, and finally two fatalities,
were joined. The opening to vehicular traffic is expected in a
$$ Per Student Tops
Brunswick County ranks number one in the
state in appraised property valuation per
student, Supt. Ralph King has announced.
The county’s appraised property valuation per
student in 1973 - 74 is $77,441.00, according to a
recent survey.
Brunswick ranks number one in the state
because the county has an appraised valuation of
$556,415,240 and 7,185 students in grades 1
through 12.
- The Chapel Hill - Carrboro city school unit
ranks second in the state with an appraised pa*
student of $69,800.
“The survey reflects the relative ability of a
governing unit to provide financial support for
public education,” Supt. King pointed out.
Shot Through Walls
Freak Mishap
Claims Woman
A Winnabow man ac
cidentally discharged his
rifle while cleaning it Monday
night and the bullet killed his
wife in the next room, Sheriff
Herman Strong has reported.
Mrs. Elaine Sullivan
Lanier, about 40, was killed
instantly after being hit in the
head with a bullet from a rifle
her husband, George Henry
Lanier, about 40, was
cleaning in the next room.
Sheriff Strong said a
preliminary investigation
indicated that Lanier was
trying to dislodge a bullet
from the 30-30 rifle when the
accident happened at their
Winnabow area hon.j about 9
p.m. Monday.
ine snerui said reports
indicate that the bullet ex*
ploded and fragments hit
Lanier in the right shoulder
and left arm. Powder burns
were left on Lanier’s chest.
RDC MEETING
The regular monthly
meeting of the Resources
Development Commission for
Brunswick County will be
held Monday at 7:30 pm. in
the office of the Commission.
AIRPORT MEETING
There will be a special
called meeting of the
Brunswick County Airport
Commission on Friday at
12:30 p.m. in the office of the
Resources ( Development
Commission.
Lanier was taken to a
Wilmington hospital after the
accident. He was in “good”
condition Tuesday morning.
Sheriff Strong said the head
of the bullet passed through
two walls and hit Mrs.
Lanier, who was in the next
room, in the head. The bullet
passed through Mrs. Lanier’s
head, he reported.
According to unofficial
reports, Lanier got up and
walked to the bathroom after
the bullet exploded. He called
out to his wife, but she did not
answer. When he went
looking for her, he found her
dead.
Sunken Boat
Towed Home
The boat that sank with two
Southport area youths aboard
was pulled into the Southport
Boat Harbor early Tuesday
morning.
Tommy McGlamery,
Randy Stuart and others
r>pent about two or three days
working to bring the Blue
Claw to the harbor, it was
reported. Air bags were used
to help float the vessel.
The boat sank outside
Southport Dec. 17.
McGlamery and Stuart spent
more than 16 hours floating in
a fishbox before being
rescued.
Early Development Failed
Former Island Owner
Doesn’t Like Project
By BILL ALLEN
A son of the first man who
tried to develop Bald Head
said he would like to own the
island again and live on it —
alone.
“I don’t think Bald Head
should be developed because
I like the peaceful at
mosphere it had when we
owned it,” said Dick Boyd of
Hamlet. “If I still owned Bald
Head — and I would not mind
the prospect one bit—I would
just have one house on the
entire island. Mine.”
Boyd, however, admitted
his views concerning
development of the island
might be prejudicial because
of his family’s association
with Bald Head. “I found it
could not have been a better
place to live when I spent the
summers of my boyhood on
the island,” he pointed out. “I
know I can’t go back to my
boyhood again, but I would
like to try by livLng on the
island once more.”
Boyd, who is 67-years old
and retired, reminisced about
Bald Head Island while in
Southport to pay taxes on a
summer cottage in the
Shallotte Point area.
Boyd’s father, the late T.F.
Boyd, Sr., of Hamlet, pur
chased the Bald Head Island
complex in 1913 from heirs
who were delinquent on the
taxes.
Boyd, Sr., who paid bet
ween $40,000 and $60,000 for
the island, spent the next 20
yers trying to develop Bald
Head before he died. His
family sold their last
remaining interest in the
complex to Frank Sherill in
1938 after deeding Bald Head
to the county.
Boyd estimated that his
father spent over $100,000
trying to develop the island -
without much success until
the Big Depression starting in
1931-32 ended the dream.
Boyd’s mother and eight
brothers and sisters inherited
Bald Head when his father
died in 1934. “We were not
interested in developing the
island because money was
tight during the depression,”
he stated. “Besides, there
were too many A us to agree
on anything concerning the
development my father
started.”
Unable to find a buyer, the
family deeded most of the
Bald Head Island complex to
Brunswick County in 1936
because of unpaid taxes.
Under the arrangement, the
family kept one of the small
islands tax-free.
“The deal with the county
was a mistake," Boyd stated.
“The large taxes were being
charged to Bald Head Island
itself. But what could we do
since money was tight? We
were getting out of it the best
way we could under the
circumstances.”
The family sold its last
interest in the Bald Head
complex to Sherill for about
$12,000. All improvements
made by his father were left
on the island when it was
sold.
After purchasing the
complex in 1913, Boyd said
his father planned to turn
Bald Head into a resort
development. The old Coast
Guard station and lighthouse
were the only facilities on the
island at the time of pur
continued On Page 6)
DICK BOYD—Father owned Bald Head Island
The Year In Review
f 74’s Top News
Hospital, Election
• •
What were the biggest news
stories in Brunswick County
during the year 1974?
The question is a matter of
opinion, and to undertake to
select any number of stories
from the action - packed year
is a,difficult task at best. It
goes without saying that
some readers will not agree
with the selections and will
have some of their own to
add.
State Port Pilot staff
members sat down earlier
this week and selected their
top ten news stories in
Brunswick County during
1974. The votes were tallied to
determine the top ten stories.
HOSPITAL STORY
Without a doubt, the
hospital story, consisting of
both Dosher Memorial and
Brunswick County Memoiral,
dominated the news in
Brunswick County during the
entire year. It made
headlines from January until
December.
The story involved efforts
to build the proposed
Brunswick County Memorial
Hospital in the Supply area
and to close (town Dosher
Memorial Hospital in South
port—but not without a fight.
After numerous meetings
on the hospital question in the
county, in Raleigh and even
in Wrightsville Beach, state
officials ruled in late
November that Brunswick
needed only “a single modern
well-equipped and staffed
hospital.”
Newly-elected members of
the board of commissioners
held a hearing in December
to hear the Smithville
Township side of the hospital
issue. Commissioners in
dicated later that they hope to
resolve the question early in
the new year.
DEMOCRATIC SWEEP
The Democratic party
sweep of the general election
in November ranked as the
second most important news
story in Brunswick County.
After being out of most
major offices in the county
for almost four years, the
Democrats bounced back to
win all five seats on the board
of commissioners, elect
Sheriff Herman Strong and
Rep. Allen Ward, and re-elect
Clerk of Court Jack Brown
Drowning Victim
Second Body
Found Friday
The body of the second man
killed when a car ran off the
narrow Oak Island bridge
last month was recovered
Friday, according to Sheriff
Herman Strong.
The body of H.S. Hsia of
Long Beach and San Jose,
Calif., was found in the
marshes near Standard
Products Company on the
Intracoastal Waterway
around 4:30 p.m. Friday.
It was first spotted by
Freddie Joseph of La ur in
burg, who was fishing from
his boat at the time. He
contacted the Sheriff’s
Department.
Sheriff Strong, department
deputies, Coroner Lowell
Bennett and Gilbert Funeral
Home employees, using a
boat borrowed from Carolina
Cape Fear Corporation,
recovered the body. It was
taken to Gilbert’* funeral
home.
Coroner Bennett said he did
and Coroner Lowell Bennett. Arthur Knox, who did not run.
The Republican party was OPEN MEETINGS
left with only one county The granting of the Open
office, Register of Deeds (Continued On Page 4)
Year’s Top Stories
1. The year - long battle to establish a new1:
Brunswick County Memorial Hospital, and*
Smithville Township efforts to keep Dosher open.
2. Democrats sweep all available county and;
district offices, ending a four - year domination ■:
by Republicans. It was a landslide victory.
3. The N.C. Open Meetings law was applied to
the Brunswick County commissioners, calling
their hand on secret board meetings.
4. The Bald Head Island marina was okayed by
the state, then tied - up in court for months while
the developers lost money.
5. (tie) The county commissioners approved
the controversial purchase of 14 vehicles for the
Sheriff’s Department; numerous candidates who
won their party’s nomination to office dropped
out.
7. The Oak Island Bridge will soon be open to
vehicular traffic, ending the three - and - one
half - year headache of a one - lane bridge. • %
8. George McCracken was named Chief of
Police in Southport, the first black chief in a
predominantly white North Carolina city.
9. (tie) Two Taiwan engineers working at the
CP&L plant here drowned when their vehicle ran
off the bridge into the Intracoastal Waterway;
and a county - wide water system was funded,
bidded, and commenced. 1
Survey Shows
More Dentists
Needed Locally
Brunswick County has a
critical need for dentists,
according to a survey con
ducted by the National Health
Service Corps.
The survey shows that each
dentist in Brunswick County
serves 6,056 patients. The
county ranks 68th in the state
in the dentist • patient ratio.
Brunswick County is one of
59 counties in North Carolina
which have been designated
not believe the body had been
up to the surface for more
than 24 hours before it was
spotted. He said the body was
in “good” condition con
sidering it had been in the
water exactly one month.
Hsia and Cau Chyen Fey
_dr owned in the Intracoastal
Waterway after their car ran
off the bridge November 27.
Chen Kee-Heng, the other
man in the car at the time,
was pulled from the cold
waters and survived.
The three men, all from
Taiwan, worked at Carolina
Power and Light Company’s
nuclear plant outside South
port. They were engineers
here in a training program
under contract with the
General Electric Service
Company.
The car is believed to have
hit an icy spot on the narrow,
one-lane bridge and plunged
into the water.
as “critical shortage areas”
for dentists, a spokesman for
the NHSC reported.
The survey shows that
Brunswick County has a
much better doctor-patient
ratio, where it ranks 47th in
the state. Each doctor in the
county serves 3,028 patients,
according to the survey.
The survey is based on data
furnished by the N.C. Board
of Medical examiners, the
N.C. Board of Dental
Examiners and the N.C. Area
Health Education Center two
years ago and released last
week.
The spokesman said
counties designated as
critical have dentist-patient
or doctor-patient ratios of 1 to
4,000 or worst, or have areas
within them with such ratios.
He reported that the in
formation was compiled to
notify critical counties
throughout the nation that
they are eligible for medical
manpower help from the
NHSC.
The corps will help recruit
doctors and dentists at the
request of eligible areas. The
salaries begin at about
$17,500 and are paid
primarily through patient
fees. The main purpose of the
program is to encourage
doctors, dentists and other
health personnel to remain
permanently in the areas.
The NHSC helped recruit
six doctors to serve in
counties in the state last year,
the spokesman reported.
Jaime L. Monzano, interim
deputy director of the NHSC,
said requests for help can be
made by “any responsible
leadership, even a private
group.”
Although 12 states have
worse ratios than North
Carolina, only two have a
higher percentage of
“critical areas,” according to
the national survey.
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