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Sports, page 16
Fairmont ends Cougars’ winning streak
Classifieds, IB
.y->^ A.' ^ IL^> i t:r' -
Volume 61/ Number 24
Southport, N.C.
\ i£3feggl
January 29,1992 / 50 cents
Excellence
award goes
to the Pilot
For the second time in three years,
The State Port Pilot has won first
place awards in both General Ex
cellence and Best News Coverage
from the North Carolina Press Asso
ciation.
The Pilot was recognized for its
achievement Thursday night at the
Friday Center at the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Also
honored was municipal editor
Richard Nubel, who won first place
in News Enterprise Reporting for a
series on the impact of a proposed
hog processing plant on the Cape
Fear River upstream from South
port.
Nubel, feature editor Marybeth
Bianchi and county editor Holly Ed
wards accepted the award for Best
xvews coverage.
The same General Excellence and
Best News Coverage honors were
received in 1989. Last year, the
Pilot was awarded second place in
the General Excellence category
among all North Carolina weekly
newspapers. This year, weeklies
were divided into two categories:
Circulation under 3,500, and larger
newspapers with circulations over
3,500, which includes the Pilot.
"These awards reflect a dedication
among staff members to provide the
best possible newspaper for our
readers, both local residents and
those who live elsewhere and rely
on the Pilot for lively and depend
able coverage of this area,” said Ed
Harper, editor. "It is especially
gratifying that the General Ex
cellence awards - two firsts and a
second the past three years - have
been determined by judges from
across the United States - Oregon,
Minnesota and New Jersey."
In addition to the first-place
awards, the Pilot received third
place in Best Use of Photographs in
the over-3,500 category,
Judges Donald Eldridge and San
ford Jacobs of The Montclair Times
in Montclair, N. J., said Nubel’s
hog-plant series "shows first-rate en
terprise" and provides a good
breadth and depth of information
about a proposed facility that could
have a major impact on the com
munity, yet avoids sensationalism....
Good job of writing, simplifying
and explaining technical informa
tion...."
Other newspapers honored at
Thursday’s awards ceremony in
cluded The Brunswick Beacon of
Shallotte, which won second place
in Appearance and Design and third
place in Best News Coverage in the
over-3,500 category. Staff member
Terry Pope received a third-place
award in Editorials.
Photo by Richard Nubel
Southport’s Quinton McCracken is a student- McCracken is set to graduate from Duke Univer
athlete in every sense of the term. As a standout sity this May with a double major in political
on the gridiron and the baseball diamond, science and history.
Baseballs and books: ‘Q’
hits ’em both hard at Duke
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Walk across the Duke University campus with him
and just about everybody nods, offers a friendly and
knowing smile and usually some sort of verbal
greeting or another.
"What’re you up to, ‘Q’?"
Two coeds giggle as they pass him and wave, un
willing to interrupt his conversation with a stranger.
"Q", Quinton McCracken of Southport, is deser
vedly well-known on the Duke University campus.
For the last four years he’s been a standout on the
gridiron at comerback each fall and at second base
on the baseball diamond in spring.
But, McCracken is more than a college jock with
pro potential. He is the best student-athlete ever to
come out of South Brunswick High School, where
he starred in both football and baseball, including
the state championship baseball season of 1988, his.
senior year.
And when you speak of McCracken, put the em
phasis on "student" in that much-abused and often
See McCracken, page 6
Town continues sewer talks
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
In the fourth of a series of work
shops concerning a proposal to con
struct a public wastewater manage
ment system Wednesday night,
Long Beach commissioners tenta
tively agreed to impose a $6-per
front-foot assessment of all property
owners and set single-family tap
fees at $350.
Commissioners reached "con
sensus" on these matters, though the
decisions were not put to a formal
vote. The board is to meet again
tonight (Wednesday) to further
refine system finance proposals. The
meeting is to begin at 7 p.m. with a
public hearing on a bond order com
missioners received Tuesday. After
that hearing, commissioners will be
gin their fifth workshop on the
sewer proposal.
Long Beach voters looked on as
commissioners kept the discussion
to themselves. Taxpayers have now
had three opportunities to challenge
commissioners and consulting
‘We showed the
state we could
repay the $15.5
million debt with a
$16 (user) bill. It
gives the property
owners a longer
term to pay. It's got
a lot of positives/
Finley Boney
Consulting engineer
engineers on the proposed project. A
referendum on a $15.5-million bond
referendum has been set for March
31.
If that referendum is passed, Long
Beach will apply for two grants — in
1992-93 and in 1993-94 -- totalling
$9 million. The remaining $6.2 mil
lion for the project is expected to
come from assessments and tap fees.
Immediate flow of cash to the pro
ject is expected to come from bond
anticipation notes, short-term instru
ments sold on the strength of a
referendum allowing bond issuance.
Consulting engineer Finley Boney
of Raleigh has said about $9 million
in actual bond sales may be needed.
Operating and maintenance costs
would be paid through estimated
$16-to-$22 monthly user fees, which
are based on an average use of 6,000
gallons of water. If the town
received the under-four-percent
financing it expects from the state’s
Clean Water Act revolving fund, the
cost for the average user would be
closer to $16 per month. If the cost
of money runs to eight percent, the
monthly average user cost would es
calate to $22.
Mayor Joan Altman called the pro
posed $6-per-front-foot assessment
a "working figure" to be used as a
"method of payment," but said there
was no formal "agreement at this
time." Under the law, com
missioners said, assessments must
be applied uniformly. The same $6
per-front-foot fee would be charged
both residential and commercial
property owners.
By the time the proposal is ad
vertised in advance of the
referendum, commissioners will for
malize all financing data
Left unsettled was the matter of a
proposed impact fee for owners who
develop their property after the
sewer system is built Boney has
proposed a $3,000 impact fee for
See Sewer talks, page 8
Schools flunk
most areas of
‘report card’
By Marybeth Bianchi
Feature Editor
For the second year in a row,
Brunswick County schools received
a "below par" rating on the state’s
report card.
"I feel badly, but I’m not surprised
because we have been attacking this
problem all year," said Mose Lewis,
assistant superintendent for instruc
tion.
The 1992 Report Card issued by
the N. C. Department of Public In
struction this week compares the
state’s 133 school systems accord
ing to overall student performance
and in four areas of study, all ad
justed for social and economic ad
vantages and disadvantages within
the school district.
Brunswick County schools were
expected to fall within the state
average range, but came up short in
overall achievement, as well as in
reading/language, science, social
studies and math. The only area
which showed improvement over
last year, but still falling below the
state’s expectations, was social
‘The way to do bet
ter is to return to
the basic elements,
make sure you have
competent people
up and down the
ladder and have a
reward-and
punishment system
that is in place and
respected.’
Mose Lewis
Assistant superintendent
studies. The other three areas con
tinued a three-year decline, with
See Achievement, page 6
1991 overall achievement
State average
range
r
Director’s assault
charge is dismissed
A charge of assault on a female
filed against Brunswick County’s
mental health director was dis
missed last week in Brunswick
County District Court after the al
leged victim filed a request for dis
missal of charges arising from a
domestic dispute, according to court
records.
"We prefer to try to accommodate
the victims in an assault case," said
Lee Bollinger, the assistant district
attorney who signed the request for
dismissal of charges. "I spoke with
her at great length in my office, and
assured myself that she was not
being threatened, and no one was
pressuring her.... A man is innocent
until proven guilty, and as far as the
state’s concerned, (Walz) is in
nocent."
Long Beach police sergeant Sam
Massey charged William Allen
Walz with assault on a female on
November 18 after Massey alleged
ly witnessed Walz sitting on top of a
woman and holding her down. Po
lice records described the woman,
Linda Burton McNamee, as Walz’s
"girlfriend".
"When I arrived (at Walz’s
residence), I saw the defendant sit
ting on top of a woman and holding
down her arms,” Massey reported.
"She was screaming for him to get
off of her. I told him to get off her,
and then I arrested him."
Burton suffered a broken tooth, a
broken toe, a scraped back and
bruises, according to records on file
at the Brunswick County Court
house. She was treated at Doshcr
Memorial Hospital and released.
OUTSIDE
I
Forecast
The extended forecast
calls for partly cloudy skies
Thursday with a high in the
60s. Fair skies are expected
Friday and Saturday with
highs continuing in the 60s
and lows in the 40s. Cooler
weather by Sunday, with
highs in the SOs and lows
in the 30s.
Tide table
HIGH LOW
THURSDAY, JANUARY 30
4:53 am. 10:59 i.m.
4:59 p.m. 11:04 p.m.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 31
5:41 ».m. 11:48 am.
5:49 pm 11:54 pm
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1
6:26 am. — am.
6:31 p.m. 12:31 pm
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 2
7:08 am 12:37 am.
7:13 p.m. 1:14 pm.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 3
7:45 a.m. 1:17 a.m.
7:51 p.m. 1:50 pm.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4
8:20 a.m. 1:56 a.m.
8:25 p.m. 2:26 pm.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5
8:52 am 2:35 am.
9:00p.m. 3:01 pm
The following adjustments ihould be made:
Bald Head Islmd, high -10, low -7; Caswell
Beach, high -5, low -1; Southport, high +7,
low 4-15; Yaupcn Beach, high -32, low -45;
Lockwood Folly, high -22, low -8.