Newspapers / State Port Pilot (Southport, … / Jan. 29, 1992, edition 1 / Page 2
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__ The State Port Pilot __ OUR TOWN Southport Aldermen cancelled a planned budget retreat Saturday to attend the funeral of a family member of alderman Nelson Adams. City manager Rob Hites said the retreat, which was to be held on Bald Head Island, has not yet been rescheduled. Until the retreat is held, a citywide budget "freeze" remains in effect. Under terms of the freeze, city department heads must have any ex penditure of $100 or more approved by Hites or finance director Sylvia Butterworth. The freeze was necessitated as revenues flowing to the city from sales and other state-collected taxes are less than projected last June due to the current recession. Hites appeared before the property committee of the State Ports Authority on Monday to seek an easement through a portion of its property to the east of Southport Marina. The committee recommended the easement to the full SPA on Tuesday. The easement would allow the city to seek a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grant for construction of a scenic walkway along the waterfront and to a point on the Intracoastal Waterway where a gazebo will be built. The city manager is also to meet with.county manager David Clegg today (Wednesday) to iron-out details of the transfer of Southport’s in terests in the county library system. The city currently has a 50-percent interest in all property owned by the library system but, at the request of county residents, Brunswick County plans to take-over the entire li brary system as a county department. Caswell Beach Residents of Caswell Beach are reminded to take care to place refuse containers at roadside in the prescribed manner. The only authorized container for use in Caswell Beach is the 98 gallon Zam cart. Commissioner Bill Boyd says the Zam cart should be placed as close to the curb as possible on collection days. The arrows on the cart lid should be pointing toward the road. Caswell Beach refuse contractors recently switched collection ma chinery to employ a side-loading truck which is manned by a single at tendant. If the cart is placed improperly, the refuse cannot be collected in the prescribed manner. Commissioner Esten J. (Johnnie) Gillis will attend the N. C. Institute of Governments school for newly elected municipal officials February 11-13. Long Beach It will be a busy week for Long Beach commissioners. Today (Wed nesday), commissioners will conduct a public demonstration of an op erating grinder pump. A consulting engineer’s proposal for a public wastewater management system contains plans to install some 2,400 of these pumps. The equipment will go on display between 3 and 5 p.m. at the recrea tion center. At 7 o’clock, commissioners will conduct the fifth in a series of public hearings on the sewer system proposal itself. On Saturday, commissioners will hold a preliminary budget confer ence at the North Carolina Baptist Assembly Conference Center at Fort Caswell, beginning at 9 a.m. Town manager David Poston said the con ference will be very informal. Each department head will be called be fore the mayor and board to leam of commissioners’ priorities, goals and expected levels of service. Department heads will then be given the opportunity to present de partment needs to commissioners. "This will really help the staff when we go to make the budget," Poston said. Boiling Spring Lakes Boiling Spring Lakes commissioners will conduct citizens’ office hours tonight (Wednesday) at 7 o’clock at City Hall. This session has no agenda and is devoted solely to receiving citizens’ ideas, comments and complaints. The city planning board will conduct a workshop Thursday with con sulting planner T. Dale Holland. He has been hired to assist the city in preparation of the state-mandated land use plan update. This update is required every five years under the terms of the state’s Coastal Area Management Act Commissioners will conduct their next regular monthly meeting Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. Departmental reports will be received but as yet no other items of business have been placed on commissioners’ agenda. Past week's highs & lows HIGHS 80 70 60 50 40 30 LOWS WED THU FRI SAT SUN MON TUE 20 10 JANUARY Average High 48 degrees Average Low 34 degrees Data courtesy of Foxy Howard Graph by Debi McKellar Workers painting the Southport water tower have been touch and go with the weather since the pro ject commenced, but last week a fair day permitted Photo by Jim Harper two paint-rollers to operate at the same time and cover one of those hard-to-get-at-places — the shoulder. Strong patient servi Dosher get well in D By Richard Nubel to Dosher Memorial Hospital in De Municipal Editor cember than were in November, but they didn’t remain hospitalized as Two more patients were admitted long, hospital finance officer Jim Property values reported Property in Brunswick County was valued at nearly $4.2 billion in 1991, creating a tax levy of $28,675 million at 68.5 cents per $100 valuation, tax administrator Boyd Williamson told county com missioners last week. Late-list penalties of nearly $388,000 pushed the amount of money owned Brunswick County to just over $29 million, he said. According to a report filed by Williamson, individual property valua tion in Smithville Township (the Southport-Oak Island area) was just under $650 million and taxes levied here were just under $4.5 million. Corporations in Smithville Township were valued at $228 million and accounted for about $1.6 million of the total tax levy. Property valuation in the Dosher Hospital Tax District (Smithville Township) was $877.6 million and generated just over $351,000 in revenues at a rate of four cents per $100 of assessed valuation. Countywide, property valued at $34.5 million was discovered, or added to the tax scrolls this year. This accounted for an additional $223,505 of the grand total tax levy. Of that, property worth nearly $7 million was added to the tax scrolls in the Dosher Hospital Tax District and accounted for just under $2,800 of the total levy. BHI owners missed the vote By Jim Harper Staff Writer Chuck Pardee of Bald Head Island and Ken Miller of Whiteville were elected to the Bald Head Association board of directors Saturday and vice president Dick Lacy was selected as president for 1992. Sonny Mclver was named vice-president in the board’s late-aftemoon or ganizational session and Pardee was named secretary-treasurer. The association is the official property-owner group on the island and its board is authorized by legislation to appoint members to the village coun cil. Board members serve three-year terms. The election was marked by an unprecedented delivery of 602 proxy votes to the association board, and by the board’s decision to favor two candidates. Last year the board spread its proxy votes equally so they had no effect The large number of proxies came mainly from the bloc of444 votes (for 222 real estate parcels) controlled by developer Kent Mitchell. But a larger-than-usual number of proxies, for a total of 1S8 votes, were also granted by other property-owners, and the board chose to make its vote ef fective. After behind-closed-door deliberations (see editorial, page 4) in its regu lar business session Saturday morning the board announced it was voting for Pardee and Miller. The official tally at the end of the day was Pardee, 528; Miller, 425; Bill Leineweber of Bald Head Island, 246; and Bill Peacock of Raleigh, 115. In the afternoon session, when individuals showed up to vote, some were dismayed to hear that the election had been decided with the earlier an nouncement of the board’s decision, and comments from the floor were directed at how the board had handled the process. Outgoing president Tom Bradshaw suggested that dissatisfaction with the process be conveyed to the new nominating committee to perhaps in fluence modification of the system at some later time. The nominating committee named by Bradshaw includes chairman Sonny Mclver, Malcolm Fleming, Ron O’Keefe, Sylvia Timmons and for mer mayor Sam Bell. ces help ecember Shomaker told trustees Monday night. Although total admissions climbed to 95 in December the number of regular bed census days dropped from 490 in November to 386 in De cember. Swing bed census days rose, however, from 23 in Novem ber to 73 in December. "It’s a little slower in December, but that’s normal," Shomaker said. Dosher suffered a $9,341 loss from operations in December, but had projected a loss of over $63,000 in budget planning. Non-operating revenues of $33,340 landed the hos pital $23,999 in the black for the month, where a $29,500 loss had been projected overall. Shomaker credited out-patient ser vices for the stronger-than-expected performance last month. "Out-patient surgery and out patient revenue has more than made up tor m-pauent loss, ne said. There were 77 out-patient surgical procedures performed at Dosher in December, compared to 63 the month before. In a report of trustees’ finance committee, chairman Ben Blake said the State of North Carolina has asked hospitals to contract to extend a "one-time", 5.8-percent discount to all state employees in the next year to help offset state revenue losses. Administrator Arthur Pittman was clearly skeptical, saying he hadn’t, seen a proposed contract with the state and that any contract should be reviewed by hospital attorney Ed Hollowell before Dosher commits. "There’s a lot of information that’s not there," Pittman told the board. "We don’t know if we can cancel or not" Trustees authorized Pittman to send a letter to state officials ex pressing an initial willingness to participate in the cost reduction, which would cost Dosher an See Hospital, page 8 Town hall is planned for island By Jim Harper Staff Writer The Bald Head Island village council Saturday voted to proceed with construction of a new town hall adjacent to the post office, near the lighthouse, and approved a ten-year financing plan for a cost not to ex ceed $250,000. The council called for preparation of details and specifications by Feb ruary 15 with an eye toward consid ering bids at the March session. Vil lage manager Wallace Martin said construction time has been estimated at three months. The pro ject has been under study by a com mittee including former mayors Tom Storrs and Sam Bell and long range planning chairman’ Ken Cos grove. The architectural groundwork was laid by islander Dick Schnedl, and he was authorized to continue with drawing-up bid specifications. For years the village has operated out of a "temporary town hall" in a double-wide at the maintenance area. The village is being pressed to abandon that site as the Lighthouse Landing development expands. Manager Martin also reported Sat urday that beach renourishment has been completed, that 75,000 sprigs of bcachgrass have been planted to help rebuild dunes and that he ex pects a shipment of 5,000 Christmas trees from Cumberland County in about two weeks to help supplement the dune-building process along with sand fences. In other action, the village ac cepted roads in the recently devel oped portion of Stage,,Two and heard reports that only 87 of 1340 fire-protection assessments were un collected and that negotiations for the completion of the island cable TV system remain stymied. The council also voted resolutions of thanks to the state director of water resources and the U. S. Corps of Engineers for assistance in the recently completed beach renourish ment project, though it also heard reports that a final bill for the pro ject has yet to be computed by the corps. Mayor A. C. Sorrell noted that the council was meeting for the first time in the village public safety building and expressed thanks to former mayor Bell for suggesting - and then financing - a floor-heating system for the building and for later providing paneling to decorate the interior. Man victim of ‘hit-and-run’ A man found lying by the side of the road in Long Beach says he was the victim of a hit-and-run driver, major Johnny Freeman of the town police department reported. Robert Edge, 30, no known ad dress, was discovered in the 100 block of East Oak Island Drive Fri day at 11:53 p.m., Freeman said. The victim told police he had been struck by a red-and-white pickup truck with a Harley Davidson motorcycle sticker on it. Police have made no arrests in the case. Edge was taken to Dosher Memorial Hospital in Southport and later transferred to Cape Fear Memorial Hospital in Wilmington. Freeman said Edge suffered two breaks in one of his legs and three fractured ribs. Police say Long Beach has been the scene of several hit-and-run inci dents involving property lately. Lumber sales Starting next week, all lengths of used lumber will be sold Tuesdays through Fridays at the, Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point. The cost is $60 a cord. Monday sales will be limited to scrap pieces up to three feet long, at a cost of $1 a truckload. Used crossties are available Mon day through Friday for $3 each. y All sales are conducted between 8:30 a.m. and 1 p.m.
State Port Pilot (Southport, N.C.)
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Jan. 29, 1992, edition 1
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