Volume 61/ Number 44 Southport, N.C. June 17,1992 / 50 cents Nothing final yet on budget Poston will leave Long Beach post By Jim Harper Staff Writer Saying he was approaching the end of a two-year trial period and "it’s time to move on,” Long Beach town manager David Poston Tuesday night announced he’ll be leaving the position with a target date of August 6. Poston, who came to the Long Beach job on September 17, 1990, revealed his plans after informing the council in an executive session during Tuesday’s long evening of governmental considerations. Starting with a budget workshop, moving into two pub lic hearings and the regular monthly council meeting, then on to a second sitting of the workshop group, the council recessed until June 25, and went home with an empty manager’s post foremost in their minds. Poston went home, as he noted while packing his papers after the meeting, "happy to be the first town manager to leave Long Beach not being fired or resign ing under pressure." In his announcement Poston said his two-year contract was coming up for renewal, and he was asking for no renewal. "My decision is a result of a two-year evaluation," he said. "When I came down (from an assistant manager’s post in High Point) I made an agreement with myself to try it for two years. Now the two years are up. We’ve made lots of progress, done lots of good things. "My decision not to seek a renewal of my contract is not because of politics, not because of personnel matters or individuals in the audience or members of the board. It’s the perfect time to leave — everything is going good." Mayor Joan Altman said Poston surprised her with his decision earlier Tuesday. "I feel he’s done a very fine job for Long Beach," she said. "We’ll miss him and his talents. And I appreciate his efforts to make as smooth as transition as possible." While the 26-year-old Poston identified August 6 as his proposed date of departure, he said he would be available to stay longer to aid in the transition to new management. Apparently ready to take a new job but unwilling to discuss it, Poston said after the session he was "not at liberty to say" where he might work next, and at other moments said he had "plenty of options to consider" and that he was "very well taken care of." The council budget session which started at 6 p.m. was recessed for intervening matters and finally ended around 11:30 p.m. with the group in accord over the cuts and ad ditions they’d made, but not precisely sure what they See Poston leaves, page 6 Long Beach town manager David Poston packs his papers after Tuesday night’s council session. Wayne Strickland is one of many volunteers preparing the South port Maritime Museum for opening on June 27. The display of model rnoio Dy jim narpcr ships and array of flags were donated to the museum by the late Her bert Franck. City ‘holds line’ with budget By Holly Edwards County Editor "This budget is basically a hold the-line budget," Southport city manager Rob Hites said Thursday night during a public hearing on the proposed budget for fiscal year 1992-93. "The board’s priority was to get through the recession and then look at expansion.... We’re pretty much stuck with the budget we’ve got" The board will approve the final version of the budget on Tuesday, June 23, at 7:30 p.m. This year’s proposed $5,788,395 budget is about $500,000 less than last year’s total, Hites said, and there are no recommended increases in taxes, utility fees, water fees, sewer fees or sanitary disposal rates. In fact, he said, the sanitary rates will decrease from $9.60 to $9.05 monthly, and a new curbside recy cling program would be added. The tax rate would be maintained at 58 cents per $100 of assessed property value. "Sanitation pick-up is recom mended to be made mandatory," Hites said. "Everyone will have to pay for loose trash and recycling pick-up whether they use the service or not" Some residents who don’t receive city sanitation services have been putting their trash in local dumpsters, he said. During the public hearing, one Southport resident complained that people from out of town were driv ing into Southport early in the mom ing or late at night and depositing their trash in residents’ garbage cans. "Is the board aware that people outside the City of Southport are bringing in their trash and putting it in my containers?" asked Leila Pigott. "It’s alarming. I was just stunned." Another resident said she wouldn’t mind paying more taxes if it would mean improved operation of the city. Ruth Law said she fell down on an unrepaired city sidewalk for the second time at the same place. "I called Rob Hites out of a meet ing to see my bloody elbow," said Law. "If I had been a tourist, I could have sued the city up and down and sideways. Is there some golden calf that says we can’t raise taxes so the city can operate better?... If there’s a need to raise funds, go ahead and raise taxes; I’m ready for it." Southport resident John Angermayer asked the board why the city has to pay for all of its fire and rescue services when the largest percentage of calls comes from out of town. "We were hoping that the county commissioners this year would go with fire and rescue districts," said mayor Norman Holden. "A majority of citizens voted in favor of them in last year’s referendum, but the county commissioners let it die on the table." In other business discussed fol lowing the public hearing: •The board approved a 15-year See City budget, page 6 Waterfront will be focal point By Ed Harper Pilot Editor - Waterfront activity will come both by land and by sea this Fourth of July, according to 1992 festival president Mike Reaves. New to the festival this year is a windsurfing regatta, scheduled from 2 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, July 4. That will be followed immediately by the tradi tional flotilla, a parade of watercraft decorated for the occasion. Add those events to the military exhibits and entertainment that will be underway at Waterfront Park, and the western bank of the Cape Fear River becomes the most popular spot in North Carolina this Independence Day. The windsurfing competition will be conducted from the foot of Lord Street, one block west of Howe, and will follow a slalom course west of the shipping channel. A skippers meeting will be held at 1 p.m. and races will commence at 2 o’clock. The entry fee is $5 and includes a T-shirt; door prizes and trophies will be awarded. For information, persons should contact Neil Worden at 278-3472 or Rex Bowen, 278-6559. The flotilla will make two passes along the Southport waterfront between 4 and 5 o’clock on the afternoon of the Fourth. Participants will assemble at Southport Marina, proceed upriver to the Bald Head Island mainland dock, and return. Prizes will be awarded in sailboat and powerboat categories. Boats will be judged on the basis of patriotic theme, creativity and originality, decora tions and crew spirit. A captains meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. July 3 at Southport Marina. There is no entry fee. For information, persons should contact Lionel Todd at 457-6766 (work) or 278-4223 (home). That’s the "by sea" part The "by land” part begins at 1:30 p.m. when en tertainment gets underway on the waterfront stage at the foot of Howe Street Witness, a Christian music group, will alternate with Wild Heart un til 5 p.m., when the Embers take the stage to perform until 9 o’clock. The waterfront activity will climax with a fireworks extravaganza ovei See Waterfront, page 6 Yaupon wins $ite approval By Jim Harper Staff Writer The long-awaited Yaupon Beach sewer project got a major boost Fri day with state approval of plans to construct a treatment facility on Fish Factory Road. The site on the mainland had been proposed as a disposal site for treated wastewater for over a year, but permitting was held up in a three-cornered bureaucratic hassle that was finally resolved when the district’s planning engineers said they could arrange for groundwater runoff beneath a marsh rather than on it. However, that site approval does not mean an early commencement of sewerage service for Yaupon Beach. Cdnstruction bids will be sought around July 1, said Finley Boncy, the town’s consultant. Bids will be received in August, and construction The state House approved a bill this week requiring Yaupon Beach to hold a referendum before any change in the height re quirements in its building code could start by October, he said. In that case, the system could be operating by October, 1993, Boney said. Yaupon Beach mayor May Moore, who last week lamented that "we’re See Yaupon wins, page 6 ‘Sunset’ clause may light way for ABCs The N. C. House of Representatives passed a bill last week that would remove the "sunset" from a law preventing Brunswick County ABC stores from opening within seven miles of an existing municipal ABC store. The Senate ABC Committee will review the bill and probably will reach a decision on it next week, said Rep. David Redwine (D-B runs wick). Con currence with the House bill would make permanent the ban on county ABC stores within the seven-mile radius. The county ABC board has been trying to convince local ABC boards that a consolidated ABC system would be in the best interest of all parties, but municipal ABC board members say the county simply wants to en croach upon their established businesses. Local ABC boards asked Redwine to introduce the legislation last year after the county board announced plans to build an ABC store at River Run Shopping Center near Southport. A "sunset clause" stipulating that the bill would expire in July, 1992, was added to give the county and municipal boards time to discuss possible compromises, Redwine said. ■Binara*. Forecast The extended forecast" calls for partly cloudy skies Thursday and Friday, fol lowed by variably cloudy conditions on Saturday. Highs during the period will be in the 90s, lows in the 70s. Tide table HIGH LOW THURSDAY, JUNE 18 10:48 a.m. 4:49 am. 11:13 p.m. 4:46 pm. FRIDAY, JUNE 19 11:28 a.m. 5:28 a.m. 11:47 p.m. 5:27 pm. SATURDAY, JUNE 20 -a.m. 6:08 am. 12:08 pm. 6:09 pm. SUNDAY, JUNE 21 12:24 am. 6:48 am. 12:51pm. 7:56 pm. MONDAY, JUNE 22 1:03 a.m. 7:31a.m. 1:40 p.m. 7:49 pm. TUESDAY, JUNE 23 1:49 a.m. 8:18 am. 231p.m. 8:49 pm. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24 2:41a.m. 9:09 a.m. 3:27 p.m. 930 pm. The following adjuttmcnU should be made: Bald Head Island, high -10, low -7; Caswell Beach, huh -5, low -1; Southport, high +7, low +15, Yaupon Beach, high -32, low -45; Lockwood Folly, high -22, low -8.

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