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Southport, N.C.
August 4,1993/ 50 cents
Sports
page 6B
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most complete
Itate properties
Volume 62/ Number 50
Developer Homer Wright (left) and Steve Barfield
watch the advancing forest fire in the woodland
west of St. James Plantation on Sunday. Wright, co
Photo by Jim Harper
owner of the property, said it was projected for de
velopment similar to St. James. On Tuesday he had
not been able to assess damage to his holdings.
Dosher begins
plan for future
By Marybeth Bianchi
Feature Editor
Unlike many rural hospitals in North
Carolina, Dosher Memorial Hospital
is financially sound.
That's one reason why the N. C.
Office of Rural Health wants to help
the facility develop its long-range stra
tegic business plan.
"What we see is unique in many
ways,” Serge Dihoff told the planning
committee at lunch Tuesday. There's
a good working relationship between
the hospital's board, administration
and clinicians.
"In some hospitals it’s three differ
ent ball games, no one's working to
gether and everything’s falling apart,"
he observed.
By studying what’s right about
Dosher and designing a plan for the
future, Dihoff and his associates ex
pect to gain valuable information.
"We thought in the process we could
learn something to help other com
munities," he said.
Dosher will also benefit from the
process by saving thousands of dol
lars which private firms often charge
for the expert consultation. The hos
pital expects to spend $12,000, but
three times that amount had been bud
geted, administrator Edgar Haywood
III had said earlier.
The planning committee assisting
the Office of Rural Health includes
representatives of the hospital's ad
ministration, board of trustees and
See Dosher, page 6
Blaze 1
remains
a threat
By Jim Harper
Staff Writer
A forest fire thought twice to
be under control jumped High*
way 211 Tuesday afternoon and
burned an additional 400 to 500
acres before a thunderstorm
quelled the flame-driving south
west winds.
The wind shift to the north
and rain that fell gave N. C.
Forest Service personnel a
chance to plow new fire lanes
through the night in preparation
for more strong southwest
See Woods fire, page 8
We're going to bring it up'
Budget action
might be tardy
By Terry Pope
County Editor
Did the school board wait too late
to ask for more money?
According to state law, it may have.
But county officials won’t rely on
that issue alone as a defense when the
dispute heads to mediation Tuesday.
"We're going to bring it up," said
county attorney Michael Ramos.
The July 23 joint meeting of the
Brunswick County Board of Com
missioners and the BrunswickCounty
Board of Education should have taken
place weeks earlier.
According to state statutes, if the
county appropriation is found insuffi
County would have
preferred school bond,
page 9
cient the appeal should come as early
as possible to minimize any upheaval
of the county's budget.
The first step is to request a joint
meeting of the two boards, which
must occur within seven days after
commissioners decide on an amount
of school funding.
Commissioners adopted the county
budget June 21 and awarded the same
amount as recommended in the draft
proposed May 15, a five-percent in
crease. The school board voted to ask
for more money on July 12. three
weeks after the budget was adopted.
"The mediator won't decide on this
issue," said Ramos. "He'll just try to
get the two parties together and reach
an agreement."
If no agreement is reached, the
school board can appeal the case to
Brunswick County Superior Court at
the next session. August 16. By law.
all other cases on the court docket that
week must be placed on hold until the
funding dispute is settled.
The case may be tried before a
judge or jury. Judge Orlando Hudson
is scheduled to hear the August 16
See School, page 9
Shareholders pay $25 million
CP&L claim reduced
by public staff review
By Jim Harper
Staff Writer
The N. C. Utilities Commission
public staff last week forced Carolina
Power and Light Co. to abandon a
request to have customers pay $25.5
million of the expense of the
Brunswick nuclear plant shutdown
that began in April, 1992.
Unit 2 of the plant resumed power
production in May, and CP&L plans
to put Unit 1 back in production in
November. Since last summer the
company has purchased electricity
outside its system to make up for the
lost Brunswick production, and had
requested permission to have its
865,000customers pick up $31.2 mil
lion in excess fuel charges.
CP&L had said last summer it would
do just that.
Instead, last Thursday the company
said it would not raise rates to recover
$25.5 million of the $31.2-million
tab, and entered into an agreement
with the state agency that will permit
recovery of $5.7 million in fuel ex
penses only if certain performance
standards are met at Brunswick.
Simultaneously the commission's
public staff released a summary of an
850-page report which faulted CP&L
for mismanagement leading to the
‘Ultimately, in
adequate manage
ment communica
tions resulted in a
situation where the
approval of
temporary repairs
suggested to em
ployees that plant
availability was
more important
than plant
reliability
Public staff report
shutdown.
The fault-finding and requirement
that the $25.5 million be paid by com
pany shareholders is the second such
official determination and penalty
which CP&L has sustained because
of the shutdown.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commis
sion in February noted that the condi
tion that initiated the shutdown -
construction deficiencies in diesel
generator building walls - had been
known to CP&L for five years before
corrections were started, and fined
the power company a whopping (by
NRC standards) $225,000 for the
mismanagement.
A company spokesman said last
Thursday that the $25.5-million deci
sion by CP&L would cost stockhold
ers ten cents in earnings per share in
the third quarter.
Much of the information used in the
public staff summary originated with
the NRC, which closely watches
nuclear power operations and main
tains a staff at the Brunswick site.
The summary said, "The extended
outage at Brunswick can be attributed
primarily to management for allow
ing the plant to reach such a degraded
condition. The situation has direct
costs, such as the replacement power
CP&L had to purchase while
Brunswick was down, and tremen
dous indirect costs....
"An accurate quantification of all
the costs associated with problems at
Brunswick is virtually impossible.
See CP&L, page 6
Promised lawsuit is filed
Blacks want majority district
By Terry Pope
COuniy Editor
A group of black citizens has asked a federal judge to halt all
Brunswick County elections until residency district lines cat be
redrawn.
I They want the lines shifted so blacks will make up a majority of
voters in at least one district
Brunswick County Board of Education member Thurman Cause
and former county commissioner Wiliie Sloan are among the men
who filed suit InlJ. S. District Court in Wilmingtonon Friday. Cause
was elected to the school board in November.
II Other complainants are John R. Frink, Henry l Bryant Edward
Thomas, Roscoe Butler and Wiliie FuHwood.
5 • >v>i- 2 &&&$&:
The complaint claims current residency districts dilute minority
voting strength and deny the black community "an opportunity
equal to that of white citizens to elect representatives of their
choice." The present system violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965,
it chums.
County residents elect five members to the school board and
commission every two years. Although candidates represent a
certain district and must live within those boundaries, they are
chosenmanatdaxgeelecticmbytbeenlirepaptdattaninbathaMay
primary and November general election.
The group’s attorney, James J, Wall of Legal Services of the
Lower Cape Fear, is asking judge William Dupree for a permanent
injunction to prevent the county from holding further county elec
OUTSIDE
Forecast
The extended forecast
calls for partly cloudy
skies Thursday and Fri
day with highs between
90 and 95 and lows in
the 70s. Mostly sunny
skies are expected Sat
urday with high
temperatures near 90
degrees.
Tide table
HIGH
THURSDAY, AUGUST S
LOW
10:34 *.m. 5:02 a.m.
11:26 p.m. 5:15 p.m.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 6
11:10 a.m. 5:02 a.m.
11:26p.m. 5:15 p.m.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 7
11:47 a.m. 5:39 a.m.
11:58 p.m. 5:55 pjn.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 8
-a.m. 6:17 a.m.
12:27 p.m. 6:40 pjn.
MONDAY, AUGUST 9
12:35 a jn. \ 6:59 a.m.
1:12 p.m. 7:28 pjn.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 10
1:19 a.m. 7:45 a.m.
2K)5 p.m. 8:27 pjn.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 11
2:13 a.m. 8:40 a.m.
3:03 p.m. 9:31 p4n.
The following adjustment! 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 Inlet, high -22, low -8.