College is
looking to
the future
By Marybeth Bianchi
Feature Editor
What does the future hold for.
■ Brunswick Community College?
According to a preliminary analy
sis made by Boney Architects, the
future could include about a dozen
new buildings, a nine-hole golf course
and three acres of fish ponds.
Architect Kenneth Phelps presented
the first draft of a master plan to the
college's board of trustees last
Wednesday night. He stressed that
the plan is "a tool for getting feedback
from the board,” and will be changed
as the college trustees and staff make
recommendations.
"There's a lot of guess workin here,"
Phelps admitted. "It's a beginning."
The board has scheduled a work
shop meeting to discuss the master
plan at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, March
25, at the college.
The first draft reviews the college's
need for new facilities through the
year 2000. No dollar amounts were
attached to the initial plan, Phelps
said, but they will be added when the
final report is compiled.
Twelve projects were listed accord
ing to priority. At the top of the list
were facilities for the recreation
grounds management program that is
slated for implementation in the 1992
fall quarter. They include a 3,500
square-foot addition to the vocational
education building, an equipment shed
and a nine-hole golf course, to be
completed in 1993.
Also on the list, in descending or
der of priority and project year of
completion, are: A 20,000-square-foot
building for allied health programs
(1994); a greenhouse for the
Brunswick Interagency Program
(1992); scenery shop and auditorium
storage building (1993); day care fa
cility (1993); aquaculture technology
ponds, equipment shed and class
rooms (1994); business laboratory for
See College future, page 7
t
The N. C. Department of Transportation, the City
of Southport and its Economic Development Com
mittee and Southport 2000 have teamed with a pri
vate benefactor to transplant trees along Howe and
at 'iwanwiMiMniTiifr ran
Moore streets this week. Between 30 and 50 live
oaks will be relocated to create a shade canopy
along the city’s major thoroughfares.
Airport FBO may take flight
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Officers of Resort Aviation, Inc., Brunswick County Airport's fixed base
operator, will decide by Friday whether or not that firm will seek to vacate
its contract.
"Yes, we're having second thoughts," said Brunswick County Airport
general manager Bob Tisdale. He is employed by the FBO, Resort Avia
tion, Inc., a firm which also contracts to provide FBO services to an airport
in Hilton Head Island, S. C. The firm contracted with the Brunswick
County Airport about a year ago.
Tisdale said Tuesday that corporate officers Doug Carmody and Ernest
Manicotta were discussing a possible pull-out from the Brunswick County
Airport facility. A final decision may be reached as early as Friday, he said.
"As far as a firm decision having been made, I can't answer that now,"
Tisdale said. "Perhaps by Friday."
Tisdale's revelation comes on the heels of airport commission chairman
Commission chairman steps down, page 2
John Walters' decision to quit his post. In poor health. Walters announced
he would leave the commission June 1. He does so after auditors criticized
the spending habits of Walters' clpsest ally, Grover Gore, who served
concurrently as attorney to the commission and commission treasurer.
But Tisdale said Resort Aviation's problems were tied to an absence of
support from the airport commission. An airport commissioner said the
firm's problems were both political and financial.
"We’ve had no support from the board," Tisdale said Tuesday. "There is
a member of the board that wishes to run a business out of here. That's a
damn conflict of interest."
Airport commissioner Jim Young, of Long Beach, once said he wished
to operate a flying school at Brunswick County Airport. Young is now the
commission's treasurer.
Tisdale also complained of political in-fighting between board members
and the FBO. "There's a lot of sniping and underhanded things," Tisdale
said.
He said a member of the airport commission had called the Federal
Aviation Authority and lodged a fallacious report about Resort Aviation.
See Airport FBO, page 6
County has got to have a plan
By Holly Edwards
County Editor
The population of retirees is in
creasing, the population of minorities
is decreasing, the unemployment rate
is going up, agricultural income is
going down, and Brunswick County
acquired more mobile homes in the
past decade than any other county in
the United States.
These are some of the statistics
presented by planning consultant
Glenn Harbeck during last
Wednesday's planning board meet
ing. Harbeck presented board mem
bers a large document of county
growth issues and statistics, and asked
them to review the information for
accuracy. The board has begun evalu
‘The possibility of an additional bridge
to Oak Island toward the west central
end of the beach is another infrastructure
improvement which could radically alter
development patterns in this part of the ,
county.’
Glenn Harbeck
Consulting planner
adng the data in preparation for de
veloping policies for the county's
Coastal Area Management Act
(CAMA) land use plan update.
On Thursday, April 9, beginning at
8 a.m., the planning board is sched
uled to begin discussion on policies
regulating land use and land classifi
cation. The board will meet in the,
conference room of the new Emer
gency Medical Services building, lo
cated next to the county government
center near Bolivia.
"The land use plan is built on a
foundation of public input and factual
research,'' said Harbeck, who will draft
the county's land use plan update later
this year.
For the public input phase of the
land use plan update, the Wilmington
consultant organized public informa
tion workshops and interviewed sev
eral local civic leaders.
Harbeck did not dwell on the growth
factors analysis he presented Wednes
day, but left it to planning board mem
bers to study the information on their
See County plan, page 6
Long Beach sewer vote
biggest in town history
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Mayor Joan Altman wants Long
Beach voters to approve construction
of a public sewer system - a system
investigated on her predecessor's
watch and fine-tuned into a proposal
to the public over the last several
months of her tenure in office.
"Installing a sewer system is a logi
cal, necessary improvement every
one agrees we will have to make some
day. I choose to do it now,” Altman
said. "This is an excellent system
which can be installed at a reasonable
cost. If we wait until the government
or serious environmental concerns
dictate the need for a sewer system
we, as a government, have failed in
our responsibility to provide for the
health and well-being of Long Beach
residents. We must accommodate the
needs of those who live here now and
those who will live here in the future.
It is our responsibility to protect the
environment and to protect our prop
erty values."
Long Beach voters — as many as
2,780 of them - will go to the polls
Tuesday to decide at referendum the
fate of a proposal to authorize the sale
of up to $ 15.5 million in general obli
gation bonds to finance a public waste
water management system.
All ballots for the referendum will
be cast at the Long Beach Recreation
Center between 6:30 a.m. and 7:30
p.m.
The vote comes after at least ten
years of contemplation by numerous
boards of commissioners and at least
four proposals by engineering firms.
This is it.
Long Beach commissioners have
decided to present to voters an option
to build a $19.179-million combina
tion pressure and gravity collection,
treatment and disposal sewage sys
tem. The proposal to voters comes
after nearly two years of engineering
research and after four months of in
tensive public debate coordinated by
commissioners.
An initial, less-expensive proposal
by consulting engineers would have
had Long Beach build a fully pressur
ized system involving some 2,400
grinder pumps. Commissioners re
jected that idea after the public ex
pressed concern for maintenance costs
of grinder pumps and opted for a
combination pressure and gravity sys
tem which will cut the number of
pumps to under 1,000. but will add
some 30 lift stations to system design
and will increase construction costs
by nearly $4 million.
That's S4 million well spent, com
missioners reckon. The public backed
up commissioners in a series of fo
rums over the last several months in
which the heavy reliance on grinder
pumps was decried, even by sewer
proponents.
"When the decision was made to go
with the combination system, this is
what happened." mayor Altman said.
"We have to use backhoes instead of
trenchers."
Commissioner Horace Collier said
the design change also necessitated
larger transmission lines. The origi
nal plan called for the installation of
six-inch lines and refinements require
eight-inch lines.
Some other design changes were
also necessitated. Instead of running
sewer lines down' utility rights-of
way behind homes in wooded sec
tionsof Long Beach, it is now planned
to run sewer lines down town street
rights-of-way opposite from water
lines.
But, in a nutshell, that's the pro
posal that is to be presented to Long
Beach voters Tuesday: A $19-million
combination pressure and gravity sys
tem, heavy on the gravity.
"We need to tell voters again and
again what it is, a combination sys
tem," Altman said. "Pressure is only
See Record turnout, page 3
Proposed
User Rates
Base Rale: $11.17/month
Per 1000 ga). rate: $1.89/1000 gal.
EXAMPLE
BILLINGS:
USE
(gallons)
0
1000
1500
2000
4000 («g.)
5000
7500
10,000
BILL
$11.17
$13.06
$13.96
$14.95
$18.73
$20.62
$25.30
$29.97
Forecast
The extended forecast
calls for a chance of
showers on Thursday, with
variable cloudiness both
Friday and Saturday. Highs
will be in the 60s each day,
with lows around SO de
grees.
Tide table
HIGH LOW
THURSDAY, MARCH 26
1:41a.m. 7:52 a.m.
1:57 p.m. 8:03 p.m.
FRIDAY, MARCH 27
2:38 am. 8:49 am.
2:54 p.m. 9:04 pm.
SATURDAY, MARCH 28
3:34 a.m. 9:44 a.m.
3:52 pm. 10:00 pjn.
SUNDAY, MARCH 29
425 a.m. 10:35 am.
4:43 pin. 10:53 pm.
MONDAY, MARCH 30
5:14 a.m. 11:20 a.m.
520pm. 11:41pm.
TUESDAY, MARCH 31
5:57 a.m. 1203 a.m.
6:13 pm. -pm.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1
6:39 am. 12:26 am.
622 p.m. 12:42 p.m.
The following adjustments should be made:
Bald Head Island, high -10, low -7; Caswell
Beach, high -5, low Southport, high +7,
low +15, Yaupon Beach, high -32, Vow -45;
Lockwood Folly, high -22, low -8.