INSIDE
Sports, page 20
Classifieds, p. IB
I's most complete
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Volume 62/ Number 9
Southport, N.C.
October 21,1992 / 50 cents
Angry citizens
About 59 angry wning opponents wanted to address the plan
ning board last Wednesday but board member Marion Warren
(right) told the crowd the planning board was inducting a
... ; , ' Phrttohv Rdvvvds
meeting-and >not a public hearing. Resident^.compJ^jined that,
their property rights were being taken away and they were not
given an opportunity to say anything about it.
Residents protest zoning plan
By Holly Edwards
County Editor
About 50 angry Brunswick County residents turned out for last
week’s planning board meeting to protest the county's proposed
zoning ordinance, but were toid
they would not be allowed to
address the board.
"This is a meeting, not a pub
lic hearing,” planning board
member Marion Warren told
the crowd Wednesday night.
"Like all public meetings, all
members of the public are in
vited to hear and listen, but we
will not be taking statements.”
This did not placate the
crowd, however, and seemed
toraake people more frustrated.
’’If the taxpayers can’t voice
their opinion, then the county
commissioners forgot who put
them there," declared Shallotte resident Herman Barry, Sr. "They're
taking the taxpayers in Brunswick County for something to play with.
I’m fed up with all of them. "
County commissioners have scheduled a joint workshop with the
planning board next Monday. October 26. at 6:30 p.m. in the public
‘A small group can make a lot of noise,
but l expected some anger over zoning in
general. I’m afraid we’re just going to
have gridlock because we’ll be so
paralyzed by fear, and paralyzed by a
small group. The people who are con
cerned about it should come forward....’
Kelly Holden
Commissioners chairman
assembly Duuamg, ana nave
agreed to hear specific com
plaints about the proposed ordi
nance. However, they will not
listen to rambling dissertations
on the evils of zoning in general,
said commissioners' chairman
Kelly Holden.
"We'll give people withlegiti
mate concerns another chance
to be heard," Holden said. "The
sad thing is. there's no way we're
going to please some of these
people,They're just against zon
ing,period.”
In fact, most of tire people at
See Protest, page 7
Commissioners discuss issue, page 7; will meet with planning board
Southport takes recycling lead
By Amitabh Pal
Municipal Editor
Southport residents received an
unexpected gift from the city this week
-• a recycling bin that is an integral
part of the city’s mandatory curbside
recycling program that starts Novem
ber 1.
Southport is the first municipality
in the county to start curbside recy
cling. Proposed to the board of aider
men in May by public wotks director
Ed Honeycutt, it was approved by the
board in June as part of the 1992-93
budget.
The program requires residents to
put recyclable materials like newspa
pers, certain types of plastic, glass
and aluminum in the bins, which will
be picked up according to a yet unde
termined schedule.
The binswere delivered with a bro
chure explaining the program.
Waste Industries, the firm which
picks up the garbage, has been given
the contract for the program at the rate
of S1.40 per household per month. All
households in the city are covered by
this program and it is mandatory for
all households to pay this charge. The
total cost works out to S 19,000 per
NationsBank to open
officenear Beach Road
Charlotte-based Nationsbank has announced plans to open a
brancjhtnear the intersection ofN.C. 211 and Beach Road by mkt
1993.
Construction on the 2,1 00-square-foot, four-teller, ATM
equipped facility, the fifth Nationsbank branch in Brunswick
County, is expected to begin in early 1993.
The branch will be under supervision of Dennis Crocker at the
Shallotte branch, Nationsbank, which was formed from the old
NCNB on January 1, also has branches in Seaside, Calabash and
Holden Beach.
Larry Jones, senior vice-president for the bank’s southeast North
Carolina region, said Nationsbank is "very excited" about coming
into the Southport-Oak Island area.
"It is a strategic move for us,” said Jones. "We'ie looking
forward to it."
year.
Honeycutt said that the schedule
has not been established, but that it
would probably be on the same day as
garbage pickup but during alternate
weeks. This would mean that the bins
would be picked up every other Mon
day on the west side ot the city and
every other Tuesday on the east side.
There are no fines being imposed
for putting recyclables in the trash
and, in that sense, participation in the
program is voluntary.
The incentive for the program is a
law that North Carolina passed (SB
111) last year that mandated that gov
ernmental bodies in the state respon
sible for operating a landfill should
have a 25-percent reduction in refuse
by July, 1993.
The only government in Brunswick
County operating a landfill is the
county itself. However, the county
has to rely on municipal governments
to start active programs for trash re
See Recycling, page 5
Long Beach
adopts junk
vehicle rule
By Amitabh Pal
Municipal Editor
Long Beach councilmen Tuesday
night adopted a junk vehicle or
dinance and accepted a civil
preparedness program. At the same
time, they discussed the un
derground laying of utility wires and
postponed a discussion of a Poly
kart policy until a special workshop
later this month.
The junk vehicle ordinance
restricts open storage of junk
vehicles by their owners, forbidding
such vehicles in open spaces beyond
a certain length of time.
The ordinance also prohibits
storage of a junked vehicle on a
premises for more than ten days
after receipt of a notice by the town.
The owner would be liable to a fine
up to S250 and/or three months im
prisonment.
The council also adopted a com
prehensive civil preparedness pro
gram designed to deal with a variety
.of emergency and disaster situa
tions.
The council briefly discussed a
proposal by Brunswick Electric
Membership Corporation (BEMC)
to lay underground electric cables
See Long Beach, page 8
CP&L says worker
was contaminated
Bv Jim Harper
Staff Writer...
A CP&L worker was contaminated with alpha radiation in a spill of
radioactive material at the Brunswick nuclear plant September 22. but the
dosage was "far below an over-exposure.” a company spokesman said
Tuesday.
"The individual is a CP&L person with a health-physics background
and he is not alarmed." the CP&L spokesman said.
Six workers who might have been contaminated by the spill of ameri
cium beryllium in the spent fuel pool were examined in Erwin. Tenn.. on
October 5 and only one tested for alpha radiation "above background" -
- above normal - the spokesman said Tuesday.
That worker was reexamined in Erwin on Monday, along with three
additional workers who might have been affected, and again tested
"above background," though the other three did not.
"He showed some higher-than-background (contamination).” the com
pany spokesman said of the first examination, "but far below an over
exposure and very' far below regulatory limits. The amount he received
won’t impact on physical effects at all."
The spokesman said that both CP&L and the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission are investigating to determine how the incident occurred.
According to the company, a worker in the spent fuel pool cut into a tube
of the radioactive material while preparing it for removal to a disposal site
in South Carolina.
That worker, who was wearing protective gear, was apparently not
See CP&L, page 5
Utility will brief NRC
Carolina Power and Light Co. officials will brief Nuclear
and repairs at the stilled Brunswick nuclear plant here.
Both generating units at the plant have been out of commission
since April 21 for repairs and the company has been briefing the
NRC in monthly sessions, which are open to the public but are
not for public participation.
The Friday session will begin at 10 a.m. in the meeting room
at the CP&L visitor center.
OUTSIDE
Forecast
The extended forecast
calls for variably cloudy
skies Thursday through
Sunday, with highs in the
mid-70s and lows in the
mid-50s.
1 Tide table
HIGH LOW
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22
5:24 a.m. 11:37 a.m.
5:45 p.m. -p.m.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23
6:23 a.m. 12:01 a.m.
6:41 p.m. 12:34 p.m.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24
7:17 a.m. 12:54 a.m.
7:32 p.m. 1:27 p.m.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 25
7:08 a.m. 1:42 a.m.
7:22 p.m. 1:19 p.m.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 26
7:58 a.m. 1:28 a.m.
8:10 p.m. 2:07 p.m.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27
8:45 a.m. 2:14 a.m.
8:57 p.m. 2:55 pjn.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28
9:33 a.m. 2:59 a.m.
9:44 p.m. 3:41 p.m.
The following adjustments should be made:
Bald Head Island, high -10, low -7; Caswell
Beach, high -5, low -1; Southport, high +7,
low +15; Yaupon Beach, high -32, low -45;
Lockwood Folly, high -22, low -8.