__The State Port Pilot _
OUR TOWN
Southport
The board of aldermen will meet Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in City
Hall. Members are expected to approve tax releases submitted by
the tax collector and a budget amendment to pay for repair work on
a collapsed sewer on Herring Drive. Aldermen also will receive an
update on Southport's application for the All-American City
competition, as well as reports from the waterfront development
and beautification committees.
Public works director Ed Honeycutt will report on the transplant
ing of oak trees by the N. C. Department of Transportation last
week and on repair projects along the waterfront.
Work on relining the water tank has started and likely will be
completed within two weeks. Work will be in progress until
midnight each day so it can be completed as soon as possible.
Honeycutt has warned there might be rapid fluctuations in the
water supply during the length of the project. He has also said that
water could appear dirty because of disturbed sediment in water
lines.
Caswell Beach
The town will present a check for $10,607.19 to Brunswick
Electric Membership Corporation this week to help pay for the first
phase of undergrounding utility lines, town clerk Linda Bethune
said.
The amount is an estimated eight percent of the cost of the
project. The town will recoup the cost from property owners
through assessment after the project is completed, Bethune said.
The project is due to start next month, Bethune noted. Property
owners will be assessed $3.45 per front-foot if they own property
on both sides of the road. Otherwise, the cost will be divided
between property owners on either side.
The first phase of the project extends from the western boundary
of the town to the western boundary of the Caswell Dunes develop
ment. The project involves the undergrounding of 2,985 feet of
utility lines.
Bethune has reminded taxpayers that the last date for paying tax
bills without penalty is January 5.1993, after which time interest
will be levied.
Yaupon Beach
The board of commissioners will meet Monday, December 14, at
7 p.m. in Town Hall. The board will hold a public hearing on a
proposed accommodations tax levy, which is a three-percent room
occupancy tax proposed to be used for tourism-related expenses.
After the hearing, the board will consider a resolution making the
tax effective January 1.
The board will also discuss renewal of the cable TV franchise for
Vision Cable and designation of building inspector David Kelly as
community rating system coordinator to enable the town to apply
to FEMA for a community rating discount of five percent on flood
insurance policies for homewoners.
Homeowners who are getting sewer taps installed, or their
plumbers, should come by Town Hall and obtain a plumbing
permit before installation, Kelly said this week. The permit is free,
but is mandatory.
A reception at Town Hall Saturday before the start of the
Christmas-By-the-Sea parade was attended by Congressman
Charlie Rose and county manager David Clegg. Finance officer
Jean Yates said she would like to thank all the merchants who
helped with the decorations and the food for the reception.
Long Beach
The town council will meet on Tuesday, December 15, at 7 p.m.
at the Town Hall. There will be a public hearing on a proposed
change to the town ordinance that deals with auction signs. The
present ordinance does not address the issue.
The board will also consider resolutions on Poly-carts and on the
first phase of undergrounding of electric cables in the town.
In an October workshop the council agreed it should be manda
tory for rental units to have two Poly-carts each and that Poly-carts
be prohibited in rights-of-way except for a 24-hour period begin
ning 7 p.m. the day before pickup.
Undergrounding of Beach Drive cable lines has been proposed
by Brunswick Electric Membership Corporation from 58th Street
SE to 46th Place East, 16th Place East to Middleton Street, and
Middleton Street to 17th Place West. A public hearing on the
proposal was held at the last council meeting.
The board will also study a comprehensive cash management
policy prepared by town manager Tim Johnson. The council
authorized setting up such a policy at its last meeting.
Johnson said he expects paving of NE 8th, NE 14th, NE 36th and
SE 42nd streets and resurfacing of 28 other streets to be completed
this week.
Boiling Spring Lakes
The board of commissioners agreed Tuesday to consider at its next
meeting a planning board recommendation for a six-month time limit
for implementing variances granted in zoning.
Planning board chairman Elmer Schorzman also recommended the
board consider changing the zoning ordinance to mandate construction
of houses that can withstand 120-mile-per-hour winds, instead of the
110 mph currently stipulated.
Schorzman also recommended the zoning ordinance be made avail
able to any citizen at cost and that a city logo be designed to in
corporate elements of three designs submitted by students at South
Brunswick Middle School.
The board agreed to allow Atlantic Telephone Membership Corpora
tion to take down four telephone boxes on Fifty Lakes Drive and set up
a centralized cabinet instead.
The board also accepted a recommendation from Tony Aweeky on
behalf of the appearance commission that the city assign an employee
to clean up around City Hall on a part-time basis. It agreed to assign the
task to Donald Crocker, the recycling operator, and formalize the ex
tension of his work hours at budget time.
The board also will ask the state to stop using the junction of N. C.
133 and N. C. 87 as a dump site for cement cisterns.
MEMBER
. MW?
I UUUA. S'*ct 'Ml
NATIONAL NEWSPAPER
ASSOCIATION
For QMlhoL &USML Carson
'Joshua's Dream' comes true
By Marybeth Bianchi
Feature Editor
Susie Carson had been collecting
information on Southport since her
lather took her around to historic sites
as a child.
Friends like former superintendent
of schools Annie May Woodside, fel
low historian Pill Reaves and descen
dants of Southport's important early
citizens added to her vast collection.
"It seemed everywhere I turned
somebody was giving me something
about Southport," Carson said. She
kept notes on chronologically ar
ranged 3x5-inch cards, and filled
boxes with them.
Compiling it all into a book was
one of Carson's long-held dreams,
something she thought could be her
gift to Southport during its Bicenten
nial celebration. So much had been
written about the town and how won
derful it and its breezes were that
Carson finally decided to "quit talk
ing about it and do it. It had been
Local historian Susie Carson points out a passage
in her new book Joshua’s Dream to her former boss
E. J. Prevatte and his wife Amaretta. The history of
Southport was a cooperative effort between Mrs.
Carson and Carolina Power and Light Co. in honor
of the city’s Bicentennial. Mrs. Carson was joined
by dozens of friends and dignitaries at a dinner
Monday night, when the book was officially
released.
forming in my mind for so long," she
said.
Her first thought was to take the
notes from her local history class,
make copies and finance the project
with money raised through the sale of
advertisements. Something like the
cookbook she did in the 1950s.
But when Dave Kelly of Carolina
Power and Light Co. told Carson of
CP&L's interest in publishing a book,
she said she cried. She made just two
stipulations: The book had to be thick
enough to sit on a library shelf and it
could not have a spiral binding.
With two historical chronologies
of the town already published (by her
friend Bill Reaves) Carson said she
believed a narrative of the town's his
tory was what was needed.
"I realized in the past no one had
written a complete story of the area,"
she said. That’s what she set out to do,
although she had to cut back on her
efforts.otherwise "it would have been
like War and Peace if I had used it
all."
Carson began to work on the book
in earnest after her discussion with
Kelly in March, 1991. Although re
lated to her efforts. Founders Day in
May, 1992, took time away from writ
ing, and as she neared the deadline
talkative friends kept her on the phone
longerthan she would have preferred.
But she did finish in time and handed
the work over to CP&L's Vicki Spen
cer in August to edit.
"I read it so many times 1 can't stand
to read it again," she said. "I guess I'll
never be satisfied."
Even though it is a narrative; the
See Jo$hu3, page 6' '
Book signing
Susie Carson, author of
Joshua's Dream; A Town with
Two Names, will be at the
Carolina Power and Light Co.
visitors center from 9 a.m. to 4
pm, Saturday, December 12,
signing paperback copies of
her book.
The book, a gift to the City
Of Southport from Carson and
CP&L in celebration of its Bi
centennial, covers the history
of Southport from the late
1700s to World War II.
Copies are available for $ 15
at the visitors center, which is
open from 9 a.m. to 4 p m.
Monday through Friday.
Water bacteria found; no longer problem
BHI users were not notified
By Jim Harper
Staff Writer
Bald Head Island Utilities, the developers private company, was
required to conduct special tests and notify customers after colifotm
bacteria were found in drinking water samples in October.
■; Subsequent testing has indicated no further presence of the bacte*
ria, which can be an indicator of contamination as well as a possible
health hazard, in the public water supply, and both utility company
representatives and state overseers feel no health hazard exists.
Presence ofcolifonnbacteriaimhe water system is unrelated to the
presence of these organ! sms m Bald Head Creek, where they caused
recent closure to shellfishing (see related story).
While Bald Head Island Utilities has 375 water customers, only
those whoare permanent residents of the island were notified by mail
of the contamination problem.
Although state regulations require general notification through
publication or specific notification of "people who are supplied by
your water system ” no publication was made, and the utility
company chose to notify only permanent residents, apparently with
concurrence of the state health department
Bald Head Island Utilities woriter Linda Britt said Monday she
was given peimission by a state official to notify only resident
customers by mail, and engineer Tommy Cross in the public water
supply section of the state Division of Environmental Health said, "I
See Bacteria, page 16
Dyes test Bald Head Creek pollution
State shellfish sanitation inspectors may seek to pinpoint the source
of pollution in Bald Head Creek soon with the aid of dyes in the waste
disposal systems.
The creek was closed to shellfishing recently on the basis of high
coliform bacteria counts detected in 1988 and 1990, and sewer systems
are one source of these indicator bacteria.
However, a state official said last week that runoff from the overall
island development may have led to the increased presence of the
bacteria in the creek. Waste from animals and birds that under natural
circumstances might filter down through the ground, rather than wash
across terrain, can also raise coliform bacteria counts, a state official
explained.
Bob Benton, chief of the shellfish sanitation branch of the state
Department of Environmental Health, said Monday that dye testing
might prove useful in finding the source of increased Bald Head Creek
pollution.
While the creek, acomponent of a larger Cape Fear River study area,
is tested on a three-year cycle Benton said there is a possibility that the’
stream could be reopened sooner than three years "if we started getting
good bacteria counts."
The counts that caused the shutdown were 49 per 100 milliliters
(three ounces) of water in 1988 and 1990. After theclosure.asampling
farther up the creek than the regular testing station disclosed a coliform
bacteria count of 130.