Sports, page 18
South Cougars host West this Friday
Classifieds, p. IB
most complete
Ifett&Droperties
——i-swgaiisn
INSIDE
Volume 61/ Number 28
Southport, N.C.
f r*f*
February 26, 1992 / 50 cents
★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
ELECTION '92
Easley,
Redwine
join race
Where does it stand?
For whom will we vote?
Bruns wick County’s registered vot
ers are asking themselves these ques
tions with increasing regularity as the
March 2 deadline for filing notices of
candidacy draws near.
The easy way to answer those ques
tionsis: Most Republicans and Demo
crats are going to have to make initial
decisions in primary races. Virtually
all offices to be decided are subject to
primary contention with a little more
than a week remaining in the declara
tion period. Final decisions will be
made Election Day. November 3.
Among the important election year
decisions made this week were those
by Southport’s Mike Easley,41, who
announced he would run for the office
of North Carolina Attorney General.
Easley, a Democrat who took Harvey
Gantt of Charlotte to a close primary
election contest for the right to run
against Republican Sen. Jesse Helms
in 1990, told the Pj'/ctf Tuesday he was
confident of a primary election win
over challenger Henson Barnes, the
president pro-tem of the state Senate.
■Easley and Barnes have debated ^
before the N. C. League of Women
Voters already, but fund-raising con
tinues to be a factor in this high-pro
file race.
In announcing his candidacy Fri
day, Easley said he would, as attorney
general, continue his on-going effort
to expose the N. C. Fair Sentencing
Law for the “fraud” he believes it to
be. Easley spent eight years as an
elected district attorney in Bruns wick,
Columbus and Bladen counties and
was an assistant prosecutor for three
See Election, page 6
Nobody knows better than Charles Keller that
whittling can be an end in itself. Though he has
carved several of these conversation pieces for sale,
Photo by Jim Harper
he intends to keep this one, fashioned from a
centuries-old cypress log "probably cut down by
Cornwallis’ troops," for himself.
Same school goal, but process different
By Marybeth Bianchi
Feature Editor
The goals of Parents in Action and Brunswick County schools are the
same: Creating effective schools for learning.
But the two may soon bd clashing on how quickly that common goal can
be accomplished.
Parents in Action, headed by Dorothy Essey of Yaupon Beach, would like
to see the first 12 steps of the Comprehensive Concept Management System
in place at South Brunswick High School by August.
However, local school system and state department of public instruction
officials, as well as those who already have instituted the plan, say time is
needed for planning.
“You can’t go back and put this in place,” Thomas Salter, principal of
South Lenoir High School in Kinston warned a group of Brunswick County
visitors on Thursday. “You have to go back and do some homework.... If you
plan and do your homework it can be successful.”
Salter and his assistant principal, Sheila Walker, told their visitors that the
comprehensive management system was the means they chose to carry out
the effective school concept. That concept consists of seven correlates: A
clear and focused mission shared by the staff, instructional leadership, a
climate of high expectations of success, a safe and orderly environment,
frequent monitoring of student progress, an opportunity to learn and time on
task, and home/school relations.
Salter said the effective schools training must come first, before a plan of
action is developed.
“How are you going to choose a plan if you don’t know what you want to
do?” he asked, but added, “If you’re dealing with effective schools this
(comprehensive management program) ties right in."
Brunswick County schools recently embarked on a three-year school
improvement plan, which incorporates the seven correlates of effective
schools. Central office staff, school administrators, teachers, counselors and
board members participated in a weekend retreat to assess where the school
system is, where it wants to be. the obstacles it faces getting there and how
they can be overcome, said Gloria Yount, staff development director.
She said Tuesday that the goal of an effective school system may be
achieved by the comprehensive management program.
“It’s exactly what we’re trying to do with the effective school," Y ount said.
Each school is setting up committees to review the seven correlates and
See Same school, page 9
County learns
its ABCs again
Towns: too many would
drink from same trough
By Richard Nubel
News Editor
Area municipalities may again this
year be rallying to protect their inter
ests in the ABC stores they operate, as
a law barring Brunswick County’s
two-year-old ABC system from es
tablishing proximal liquor stores is
soon to expire.
Long tseacn mayor Joan Altman tms
week contacted other area political
leaders in an effort to promote discus
sion of the relative interests of the
municipal and county ABC systems.
Altman said the goal of local mu
nicipalities is to check competition
from a proposed county ABC store.
“We want at least a cooperative
agreement whereby the county ABC
board would not place a store in an
area which would threaten another
ABC store," Altman said Monday.
An argument between area munici
pal ABC store operators and the fledg
ling county ABC system — autho
rized at referendum in 1989 — arose
in late February last year when the
county ABC board proposed to estab
lish a liquor store in the River Run
Shopping Center, at the intersection
of N. C. 211 and Beach Road.
Southport, Long Beach; Yaupon
Beach and Boiling Spring Lakes offi
cials said the proposed county store
would steal business from them and
deplete funds on which each of the
municipalities is dependent.
County officials countered that ar
gument, saying there should be only
one ABC system — a consolidated
ABC system—in Brunswick County.
Led by members John Ramsey of Long
Beach and Clyde Babson of Ash.
county ABC board members said they
would proceed with plans to build the
River Run store if municipal officials
did not engage in negotiations for a
consolidated county ABC system.
Municipalofficialscalled that threat
“blackmail," but reluctantly agreed.
In April. 1991, after the county ABC
board withdrew its request for site
approval for a River Run liquor store,
municipal and county ABC board
members met once with a former man
ager of the Forsyth County ABC sys
tem, a recently consolidated city
county system.
Since that meeting there has been no
formal discussion of the consolida
tion issue. Long Beach ABC board
member Rosetta Short said.
While discussions between munici
pal ABC operators and the county
ABC board were in progress, munici
pal leaders also sought protective leg
islation. In June. 1991, Rep. E. David
Redwine of Brunswick County won
approval of a bill that barred Brunswick
County’s ABC board from establish
ing any liquor store within seven miles
of an established, municipally oper
ated ABC store.
That protected ABC operations in
Long Beach. Southport. Yaupon
Beach and Boiling Spring Lakes.
But, the Redwine bill will "sunset"
on July 1 of this year. A law' that
“sunsets", in legislative parlance, is
‘Maybe we can
structure something
with the county and
municipalities
working together.
At least that's my
hope.'
Rep. E. David Redwine
one that has a set time to end. On J uly
1, Brunswick County will again be
free to pursue establishment of a store
at River Run Shopping Center, or at
other places in the county which might
place Brunswick County in directcom
petition with a municipal ABC opera
tion.
"At this time, until we determine the
attitude of the county ABC board, I
think this is very critical." said
Southport mayor Norman Holden.
Holden said he had conferred with
mayor Altman on the matter and plans
were in the works to establish a com
mittee of Southport-Oak Island and
Boiling Spring Lakes elected officials
and ABC board appointees.
Altman said Monday that Long
Beach ABC board chairman Ben Tho
See ABCs, page 6
LONG BEACH
RENOURISHMENT
SURVEY
O
PPOSE
4,306
Results through
February 24
OUTSIDE
| | | |
Forecast
The extended forecast for
the Southport-Oak Island
area, Thursday through
Saturday, calls for fair
skies and dry weather, with
highs in the SOs and lows
in the 30s.
Tide table
HIGH LOW
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27
3:23 a.m. 9:31 a.m.
3:32 p.m. 9:43 pjn.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28
4:16 a.m. 10:23 a.m.
4:27 p.m. 10:37 pjn..
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 29
5:09 a.m. 11:15 a.m.
5:20 p.m. 11:25 pjn.
SUNDAY, MARCH 1
5:55 a.m. 12:00 a.m.
6:06 p'.m. — p.m.
MONDAY, MARCH 2
6:37 a.m. 12:11a.m.
6:45 p.m. 12:40 pjn.
TUESDAY, MARCH 3
7:14a.m. 12:55 ajn.
7:24 p.m. 1:18 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 4
7:49 a.m. 1:35 a.m.
7:59 p.m. 1:55 p.m.
The following adjustment! should be made:
Bald Head Island, high >10, low -7; Caswell
Beach, high -5, low -1; South port, high +7,
low +15; Yaupon Beach, high -32, low -45;
Lockwood Folly, high -22, low -8.
Grinders may come to a halt
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Grinder pumps have been the great
bugaboo of the Long Beach pressure
wastewater management system pro
posed by consulting engineers last
April. But Monday night, consulting
engineer Finley Boney proposed an
alternative combination pressure and
gravity system that relies less heavily
on grinder pumps and will ring in at
about the same price tag.
Commissioners are to decide this
afternoon (Wednesday) which sys
tem — the all-pressure or the combi
nation pressure and gravity system—
will be put before the public at refer
endum on March 31.
“In the combination system, every
effort is going to be made to maxi
mize gravity,” Boney said Tuesday.
“We are going to make every effort to
eliminate grinder pumps, even on the
beach.”
Even proponents of a public sewer
system have been skeptical of the
4300 grinder pumps — ih combina
tions of single and duplex units —
which were part of the full-pressure
system originally proposed by Boney.
llie combination pressure and grav
ity system proposed Monday night
will cut the number of grinder pumps
in use to around 1,300, the engineer
said. The $301,000 originally bud
geted for annual replacement of
grinder pumps proposed for use in the
all-pressure system will also be re
duced to about $127,000.
But, the capital cost of the proposed*
system is somewhat higher overall.
To combat that and to keep the system
affordable, Boney has proposed Long
Beach increase its debt to finance the
system.
Initially it was believed an all-pres
sure system could be built for $ 15.185
million. That cost rose to about
$ 15.306 million when land costs were
more fully explored. Under the origi
nal plan, Long Beach was to assume
about $9.35 million in debt to con
struct the pressure system.
To construct the proposed $ 18.279
million combination gravity and pres
sure system, the town will assume an
approximate $ 12.5-million debt from
a combination of $9 million in four
See Grinder, page 7