INSIDE
Volume 62/ Number 48
Southport, N.C.
July 21,1993/ 50 cents
Brig. Gen. David Whaley hugs Col. Charles
Zakszeski, outgoing Sunny Point commander, who
will be retiring from the Army in September. A
Photo by Mary both Blanch
change of command ceremony was held Friday a
the terminal. (See Page 8.) . j *
Original request repeated
Schools say progress
must depend on funds
By Marybeth Bianchi
Feature Editor
How can the Brunswick County
school system raise its score on the
state report card, if it doesn’t get the
money it needs to get the job done?
That’s a question the board of edu
cation will be asking the board of
commissioners when the two meet
at 6 p.m. this Friday, July 23, at the
county government center public as
sembly building near Bolivia.
"How can you improve the report
card if the resources aren’t there?"
chairman Donna Baxter asked after
a special school board meeting
Monday night.
The county agreed to give the
school system S7.85 million for cur
rent expenses, which includes in
structional programs dealing directly
with the teaching of students and
\
‘Go back to the original budget. We’re
going to ask for that. We’re not trying to
be hard-core. To me we have the kids we
have to answer to.’
Donna Baxter
School board chairman
support services providing adminis
trative, technical and personal as
sistance to enhance instruction.
That, according to school board
figures is 5.33 percent, or $397,084,
more than the schools received last
year; however, it is $1.5 million less
than requested.
The second part of the budget is
capital outlay which covers building
and renovation of schools, equip
ment and vehicles. The county
agreed to fund $576,672 of the
pared-down $2.5 million budget.
In its original request, the school
See School funds, page 6
For Yaupon Beach tap-on
Long Beach approves
sewer use regulations
By Holly Edwards
Municipal Editor
An exhaustive, 24-page sewer use
ordinance detailing regulations for
the operation of all future sewer
lines owned by the Town of Long
Beach was unanimously approved
Tuesday night by the town council.
Town officials say the ordinance
was required by the state in order for
Long Beach residents to tap onto
Yaupon Beach’s sewer system,
which is expected to begin operation
in September.
The ordinance outlines a number
of regulations concerning the opera
tion of a sewer system, including
prohibited discharges, radioactive
waste limits, maximum permissible
levels of hazardous materials and
wastewater discharge permit re
quirements.
Turtle Creek-By-the-Sea devel
opers plan to construct 115 residen
tial units and 100 motel units in the
eastern portion of Long Beach, and
developer Homer Wright plans to
construct 22 residential units and a
clubhouse nearby. Both developers,
as well as a few residents of 79th
Street, have expressed an interest in
tapping onto Yaupon Beach’s sewer
system.
The developers or individual resi
dents would be responsible for hav
ing the sewer lines constructed, and
would then turn them over to the
Town of Long Beach for ownership
and maintenance, explained town
manager Tim Johnson. All sewer
lines would have to be designed to
match up with any future sewer
lines built by the town, he added.
Long Beach would then bill the
residents 1.25 times the user rate
charged in Yaupon Beach, plus an
administrative cost to cover the
added billings and any costs re
See Long Beach, page 6
Gypsy moths land
at MOTSU docks
By Terry Pope
County Editor
Illegal aliens who flew from an
ammunitions ship docked at Milita
ry Ocean Terminal Sunny Point near
Southport recently have state offi
cials worried.
Agriculture experts say the
stowaways, feared to be a hybrid
species of the Asian gypsy moth,
may pose a threat to hardwood trees,
.shrubbery and pines typically found
in southeastern North Carolina.
The answers may lie thousands of
miles away.
Researchers were sent scrambling
to Germany this week to learn more
about the enemy.
An European variety of the moth
is found in northeastern North Caro
lina but its females do not fly.
"The significance of this introduc
tion is that the females do fly," said
Howard Singletary Jr., director of
"See Gypsy moths, page 6
Looking for minorities
Schools to form recruitment
panel to find good candidates
By Marybeth Bianchi
Feature Editor
A minority recruitment task force
has been created by Brunswick
County schools in response to a
black community contention that the
school system doesn’t consider
qualified minority candidates for
vacancies.
Reading from a memo following a
two-hour executive session at Mon
day night’s board of education meet
ing, school Supt. Ralph Johnston ad
mitted "the percentage of minority
administrators and teaching staff
needs to be increased to meet ideal
ratios with the student population."
Of the county’s 8,583 students,
25.7 percent are black. However,
just 17.6 percent of the central of
fice, administrative and teaching
staffs are black. The largest percent
age of black representation is at the
assistant principal level, where five
of the 13 employed, or 38.5 percent,
are black.
"In an effort to be proactive and
clearly demonstrate our commitment
‘It just depends on
how soon they get
things done. This is
something we’ve
been asking for for
two years.’
Thurman Gause
to the effort, I am creating a minori
ty recruitment task force," Johnston
said Monday.
The task force "will work toward
assuring an equal percentage of
certified minority staff equal with
the student population" and establish
a leadership academy so school sys
tem employees can be trained for
administrative positions.
Assistant superintendent Jan Cal
houn was given the responsibility of
identifying and activating the task
force immediately.
Thurman Gause, the only black
member of the board of education,
said Tuesday he hopes the task force
does something before the school
year begins in August. He wants to
see more blacks hired for central of
fice positions, as well as principals
and teachers.
However, if nothing is done quick
ly, a planned boycott of schools by
the more than 2,000 black students
across the county will be carried out,
Gause said.
"It just depends on how soon they
get things done," said Gause. "This
is something we’ve been asking for
for two years.
"We’ve been promised so many
things. We’re not taking any more
lies," he said.
By keeping students home during
the first ten days of school, blacks
could keep the school system from
receiving more than S2 million from
the state, which allocates funds
based on the number of students en
See Recruitment, page 6
Schools want more money
Warren can’t believe request
By Terry Pope
County Editor ■ ■ '
Don Warren says he can’t believe the schools want more money.
Fighting over tax dollars in court irks the chairman of the Brunswick
County Board of Commissioners.
' He ran for office last fall as a friend to education.
7 believe I have four friends on this one," he said.
The three Democratic and two Republican commissioners frequently
vote along party lines. They have awarded the schools what amounts to
a 17-percent increase in total funding in the current budget
However, die Brunswick County Board of Education wane an addi
tional $4.3 million to build an elementary school near Leland and an
other $525,000 acfded to current expenses.
Does Warren think the schools deserve another $4.8 million?
"No, I do not” he said Monday. "Emphatically, no."
The two boards will meet Friday in the first step of a process some
commissioners predict will end up in court
"There's no money in the budget" said Warren. "It would have to
come from the general fund."
The schools will get $8,430,072 from the county for the 1993-94 fis
cal year. The school system will also get an additional $1 million to up
grade its computer technology program so computer systems can be
placed in each classroom.
"I feel like if expenses are over $1,100 per student through our county
appropriations, then we are doing a fair share," said Warren.
He has asked for the school system’s financial records so he can
review them before Friday’s meeting. School board chairman Donna
Baxter requested the joint meeting two weeks ago, he said.
Interim county attorney Michael Ramos also got a phone call from,
school board attorney Glen Peterson. That conversation included
reference to court action should commissioners deny the request, War
See More money, page 6
OUTSIDE
Forecast
The extended fore
cast Thursday through
Saturday calls for
partly cloudy skies.
Daytime highs will be
in the lower 90s while
nighttime lows will be
in the lower 70s.
Tide table
HIGH
LOW
THURSDAY, JULY 22
11:04 a.m.
11:18 p.m.
FRIDAY, JULY 23
11:57 a.m.
-p.m.
SATURDAY, JULY 24
12:08 a-m.
12:53 pjn.
SUNDAY, JULY 25
1:04 a.m.
1:54 p.m.
MONDAY, JULY 26
4:49 a.m.
5:07 p.m.
5:36 a.m.
6:00 p.m.
6:27 a.m.
6:59 p.m.
7:19 a.m.
7:59 p.m.
2:01 a.m. 8:17 a.m.
2:54 p.m. 9:05 pjn.
TUESDAY, JULY 27
3:03 ajn- 9:17 a.m.
3:57 p.m. 10:09 p.m.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 28
4:06a.m. 10:18 a.m.
5:00 p.m. 11:11 pjn.
The following adjustments should be made:
Bald Head Island, high -1.0, low -7; Caswell
Beach, high -5, low -1; Southport, high +7,
low +15; Yaupon Beach, high -32, low -45;
Lockwood Folly Inlet, high -22, low -8.