Volume 61/ Number 36__ Southport, N.C.
April 22,1992 /50 cents
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Sunbathers got a headstart on summer last weekend at Long Beach
ABC Controversy
Redwine still hoping
for town, county mix
By Holly Edwards
County Editor
"Tell me why you do not think it
would be in the municipalities' best
interest to have one consolidated sys
tem?" Rep. David Redwine (D
Brunswick) asked a group of repre
sentatives from local ABC boards last
Wednesday over lunch at the Ship's
Chandler Restaurant in Southport.
Redwine said he organized the
meeting with county, municipal and
state representatives to open up dia
logue between county and municipal
ABC boards and generate ideas on
consolidating the boards into a
countywide alcoholic beverage con
trol system.
"It all comes down to money, tax
dollars," replied Rosetta Short, a mem
ber of the Long Beach ABC board.
"The Long Beach store gave the town
about $46,000 last year. This is the
only revenue-producing board the
state has set aside for municipalities."
The conflict between the county
and municipal ABC boards began last
year when the county board an
nounced plans to build an ABC store
at River Run Shopping Center, lo
cated at the intersection of N. C. 211
and Beach Road. Soon after the an
nouncement, ABC boards from
Southport, Long Beach, Yaupon
Beach and Boiling Spring Lakes com
plained that a county store at this
location would take much of the busi
ness away from the local ABC stores.
The four towns asked Redwine for
help, and he subsequently pushed a
one-year ban on construction of any
county store within seven miles of an
See Redwine, page 7
Bald Head wants store
Bald Head Island applied foraliquorstore permit in a resolution
by the village council on Saturday.
The village, whose charter in 1985 was precipitated by the
developer's desire to have legal liquor sales in restaurants there,
has bare but is still without a package store. The resolution by the
council asks the local legislative delegation to change that in the
upcoming short session.
The resolution outlined how 415 living units, a club, a restau
rant, 2,500 visitors during peak vacation time and 76 permanent
residents would be benefited by an ABC Store.
’Village manager Wallace Martin said he did not know where a
liquor store would be located, if approved.
Long Beach funding
for library requested
By Jim Harper
Staff Writer
The Long Beach town council,
meeting for the first time under that
title, was urged Tuesday night to
budget $32,000 for a proposed new
Oak Island library.
Rebecca Malik, speaking for the
Oak Island Library Boosters, sug
gested the figure based on a per
capita municipal library contribution
CP&L shuts down both units
Carolina Power & Light Co. shut down both units at the Brunswick plant
Tuesday afternoon "for at least a week” to bring sections of walls in the diesel
generator building up to earthquake-resistant standards.
The specific problem is in metal connectors between sections of masonry
walls, a CP&L spokesman said. The problem was detected by CP&L
inspectors a week-and-a-half ago, and repairs had been underway.
The decision to shut down the plant during repairs was made in order to
"expedite" the modification process, said Elizabeth Bean, the CP&L spokes
man in Raleigh.
She said that an example of the discrepancies was that "metal brackets
may not be what they should be."
"We are checking to see that every bolt, bracket and angle iron in the
building is correct," Bean said. "We had inoperable bolts."
Dave Varelli, chief of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission project branch
one, who oversees CP&L activities from Atlanta, said the problem was
discovered by CP&L.
"They decided to come down on their own and notified us of that about
noon," Varelli said.
He said the shutdown had not been dictated by the NRC.
"When they called and said they were coming down, we had no basis to
say 'come down,'" Varelli said.
Bean said inspection and repairs might require "at least a week to
complete."
She said an outage had been planned for Brunswick Unit 2 beginning in
May, and said that unit will remain out of service, after inspection and repair
in the diesel generator building, "until the end of May to do work on the
turbines."
Bean said the shutdown was started at mid-aftemoon. Shortly after 4 p.m.
she said, "We are disconnected from the power grid. We are cooling down,
but not producing power."
County 911 system
Too far down road for change
By Holly Edwards
County Editor
As county planners rename roads
and reassign addresses in conjunction
with development of the 911 system,
some people are needlessly given ad
dresses that are "confusing" and sim
ply "too long," residents of Olde
Towne subdivision and River Croft
Estates complained to the Brunswick
County Board of Commissioners
Monday night.
Residents presented a petition con
taining 83 names, and requested an
exemption to keep their addresses
from being changed. Commissioners
took no action on the request.
"I understand the concept of the
911 system, but it's confusing for
people trying to find our house," said
Olde Towne resident Lynn Atkinson.
"I'd like to see an exemption granted
to keep things the way they are now.
An area established (since 1976)
should be considered to remain the
same."
Other residents were more vehe
ment in their complaints.
"The folks paying for 911 are pay
ing you guys' salary. And, we were
not informed.... I think it's a poor
effort," declared Olde Towne resi
dent Frank James. "To take an estab
lished address and change it seems to
me to be reinventing the wheel."
Residents complained that the
changes would cause extra expense
for them to have their mailing ad
dresses, driver's licenses and checks
changed, and that the longer addresses
would lead to more addressing mis*
takes.
"You people have a right to be
upset. I would be too. It's a very con
fusing system," said commissioner
Donald Shaw, who represents that
northern Brunswick County area on
the county board.
However, emergency medical ser
vices director Doug Ledgett explained
that if an exemption were granted to
one subdivision, then exemptions
could potentially be granted to all
subdivisions.
"To initiate a change now would
void the last two years of work. You
have to look at the result of what a
change would do. Where would the
changes end?" Ledgett asked the
board. "The Olde Towne area was not
treated any differently than any other
area of the county. We've had public
hearings going on for the last two
years. There's more to the (address
ing) system than just uniquely identi
fying houses."
The county has spent millions of
dollars so far on developing the 911
system, including the house-number
ing and street-naming program, said
county manager/attorney David
Clegg. About 60 percent of the ad
dressing program has been completed
to date, and over 22,000 letters have
been sent to people notifying them of
address changes.
County planners used a quadrant
system to put the entire county on a
See 911 system, page 8
equal to Southport’s.
In her petition to the board Malik
cited a need for a local library based
on county illiteracy figures, the
dropout rate at South Brunswick
High School and the fact that 633 is
land students have no access to a
public library short of an 18-to-40
mile round-trip to Southport.
"Oak Island has a population of
4,725," Malik said. "Southport,
Shallotte and Leland each have a li
brary branch, and their combined
population is only 5,135."
Malik reported her group had
raised over $36,000 already, said
negotiations for a library site are
proceeding and said funding seemed
available for a building.
She reported Southport last year
gave $20,000 to its library branch, at
a rate of $8.44 for each of that city’s
2,369 residents, and suggested the
same $8.44 rate for each of Long
Beach’s 3,816 people - for a total
commitment of $32,207.
The council took the matter under
advisement. Later in the session the
council set a special meeting to
receive the budget from the town
staff on May 6 and docketed a pub
lic hearing on the budget for 7:30
p.m. May 19, the regular town meet
ing night.
In other citizen comments Tues
day, Jake Cornelius urged town sup
port for a plan to dredge the Lock
wood Folly River’s east channel in
an effort to alleviate pollution prob
lems there, and Helen Hollar asked
for the town to actively pursue recy
cling of trash.
Mayor Joan Altman responded
that when Long Beach stopped its
own recycling program "it was in
tended that we would work with the
county on recycling."
"We will continue to work with
the county to bring up their operat
ing standards and to establish more
See Long Beach, page 8
An $8.44 rate for
each of Long
Beach's 3,816
people was sug
gested as a library
contribution, for a
total commitment of
$32,207
Forecast
The extended forecast
calls for partly cloudy skies
Thursday with a high be
tween 80 and 85 degrees.
Continued partly cloudy on
Friday with a high in the
70s. Saturday and Sunday,
expect variable cloudiness
with a chance of showers.
High Sunday only in the
60s.
Tide table
HIGH LOW
THURSDAY, APRIL 23
12:06 a.m. 12:06 a.m.
12:23 p.m. 12:25 p.m.
FRIDAY, APRIL 24
12:37 a.m. 7:11 a.m.
1:18p.m. 7:20pm.
SATURDAY, APRIL 25
1:48 a.m. ' ) 8:05 am.
2:14p.m. ' 8:20 pm.
SUNDAY, APRIL 26
2:41 a.m. 8:58 am.
3:07 pm. 920 pm.
MONDAY, APRIL 27
3:34 am. 9 JO am.
4:00 p.m. 10:16 pm.
TUESDAY, APRIL 28
4:25 a.m. 10:36 am.
4:48 pm. 11.09 pm.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29
5:12 a.m. 1122 a.m.
5:36 p.m. 11:57 pm.
The following adjustments ihould be made:
Bald Head Island, high -10, low -7; Caswell
Beach, high -5, low -1; Southport, high +7,
low 4-15, Yaupon Beach, high -32, low -45;
Lockwood Folly, high -22, low -8.