Volume 61/ Number 36__ Southport, N.C. April 22,1992 /50 cents V ■ " iJmL 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.