Southport, N.C. \ % Volume 62/ Number 52 August 18,1993/ 50 cents INSIDE Sports, page IB Classifieds, p. 1C complete Long Beach may purchase „ tract of land By Holly Edwards Municipal Editor Following an executive session Tuesday night, the Long Beach Town Council called for a special meeting to authorize the mayor, town clerk and town manager to en ter into contract for the purchase of land for the town’s "long-range in frastructure needs". The meeting will be held Tuesday, August 24, at 7 p.m. in the recrea tion center. The contract is said to involve the purchase of about 100 acres of land owned by International Paper Com pany located on the north side of the Intracoastal Waterway. The town is said to be purchasing the land for potential future use as a sewage treatment plant site. Town officials would not com* ment on the proposed land acquisi tion Tuesday because they said they feared it would damage the contract negotiations, which are still in prog ress. The price of the land has not yet been set, as well as a number of other details, said council member David Durr. Mayor Joan Altman indicated that the price and all of the contractual details will be ready for settlement by Tuesday, and that more informa tion would be available at that time. The town reportedly intends to spend approximately $180,000 for the land, but the final cost will depend upon results of the land sur vey. In other business discussed by the Long Beach Town Council Tues day: •Carlton (Gene) Frazier, Joseph Edwards and Horace Duncan were appointed to the planning board, and Donald Meyers and Donald McNeill were appointed to the board of ad justments. •A public information meeting on the proposed land use plan update was scheduled for Tuesday, Septem See Long Beach, page 6 Manager Mike Sapp stands before the Odell Wil liamson Auditorium at Brunswick Community Col lege which will be used for Friday’s graduation ceremonies. Construction is not yet complete, but the college trustees agreed last week to take posses 1'hoto by Jim Harper sion of the building for two days to hold graduation exercises. It will then be turned back over to Hatcher Construction for completion, which originally had been scheduled for October, 1,992. City trying to clear-up water problem Old pump in Franklin Square could be source By Holly Edwards Municipal Editor Southport's oldest and most heavily used well will be overhauled during the next two weeks in an attempt by city officials to solve a recurring wa ter problem for some city residents - sand- and silt-ridden tap water. City manager Rob Gandy told the board of aldermen Thursday night that the estimated cost of having the Franklin Square Park well cleaned and putting in a screen to filter out contaminants would be about $12.500. The contractor hired to pertorm these tasks. Skipper Well Drilling of Leland. is expected to install the stain less steel screen this week and clean the well next week. The well should then be back in service later thismonth, said public services director Ed Honeycutt. The Franklin Square Park well was built in 1957, when screens were not a requirement. The Leonard Street well also does not have a screen, Honeycutt said, but it is newer and not as heavily used as the Franklin Square Park well. However, he added that someday it too will need to have a screen installed. The screen will be placed between the water source and the pump to filter out sand and rock. Gandy said he hopes the screen will also extend the life of the well and the pump by de creasing the amount of water flow through them. In the past, the well has pumped an average of 350 gallons per minute, Gandy said, while the other wells pumped about 250 gallons per minute. He said he believes the larger amount of water pressure has been one of the reasons tne hranknn square t-’ark wen has been a problem. The county is providing the city with water during peak hours of de mand while the well is out of service. Gandy said he hopes screening the well will solve most of the water problems in the downtown area, but conceded that the well is not the only cause of water problems in Southport. Honeyctt explained that minerals found in the water source can cause a rotten-egg smell and discoloration in tap water that spends too much time in See Water, page 6 Town official blames fishery Dead menhaden wash ashore m By Hotly Edwards Municipal Editor About 45,000 menhaden washed ashore in Long Beach Friday between die 1600Mockof East Beach Drive and 58th Street SE, ten days after an estimated 2,000 menhaden washed ashore cm the west end of the strand. Town managerTim Johnson said he intends to send a $1,300bill to Beaufort Fisheries, the company that owns tire menhaden boms operating inthe areaonboth occasions, tocompensate the town for its costs of burying tire fish. However, Beaufort Fisheries president and manager JtdeWheaily said his company is not responsible for the fish kill, and has not received any reports of broken nets. He also said that what menhaden boats have a fish spill, the dead fish are “knee-deep“ on store. "All I can teH you is if it was us we would have had it all cleaned up by now,” Wheatly said. "We get blamed for every damned thing dial happens, even when we aren’t there." N. C. Marine Fisheries representative Pete Rivenbark said this week that wider tests in the area have shown no indication of an algae bloom, and he has therefore ruled ml the possibility of something in die water killing the fish. The only possible cause of the problem is therefore scant sort of fishing vessel, he said, but unless someone witnesses die spill there is not much marine fisheries can do. "Right now we have no ideahow it happened," Rivenbark said. "Ifsjnstone of those things." Johnson expressed frustration at the marine fisheries’ lack of action, and atWheatly's unwillingness to admit responsibility for i Board tightens 'purse strings' on school fund By Terry Pope County Editor Action taken by county officials Monday places tighter control over the funds spent to make repairs at schools. Such expenditures were loosely accounted for in the past, but the po litical fallout from last week's budget mediation prompted county commis sioners to watch the wallet more closely. Don Warren, chairman of the Brunswick County Board of Com missioners, said county employees who perform work at the schools don't always document the expense. Often the small projects are done to help out a neighbor. County officials now want work orders submitted for every job, to show actual costs and a running total of money spent for education. "Now, they will have to pay fbr it." said Warren, whose motion passed unanimously. It was one of two motions approved as a measure to tighten the reins on school spending and to determine just how much tax money is spent on county schools. Commissioners believe some ex penses. the county incurs to keep schools operating and to get high school athletic fields ready for games are lost in the budgets. A resolution approved Monday also prevents the school board from in creasing or decreasing any county funded line item by more than ten percent without prior approval of com missioners. State law gives counties authority to place clamps on school budget transfers or amendments from ten to 25 percent. Following a marathon 14-hour mediation process last Tuesday, com missioners and school officials reached an out-of-court settlement that will provide up to S865.000 this fiscal year for a new elementary school in the Leland area. That money will come from the county's fund balance with no tax increase expected. Also. S556.672 was transferred within the school budget to current expenses. The Category II and Cat egory III funds are normally used for school supplies and transportation. The Brunswick County Board of Education had asked for $4.2 million to build the school and an additional See Fund, page 6 School officials say session a learning experience for some By Marybeth Bianchi Feature Editor After the effects of last week's mara thon session between the Brunswick County Board of Education and the county board of commissioners had worn off. school officials said they were pleased that lines of communi cation had been opened. "What I'm hearing across the county is,' We're pleased the two boards were able to come together ," Supt. Ralph Johnston said. "The biggest thing that emerged... 1 think these boards dem onstrated we re building trust." School and county leaders met for 14 hours last week to hammer out a funding compromise. The school sys tem had requested more money than the county was willing to give. But after hours of negotiation, they worked out a solution: the county would allo cate funds to buy land and plan for construction of a Leland area elemen tary school, and the school system would transfer money budgeted for equipment and vehicles to current expense where it will be used for pay for instruction and support programs. In addition the two boards agreed they, as well as county and school See Session, page 6 CP&L, NRC meet Thursday Of fic i als of Carolina Power and Light Co. and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will meet at 1 p.m, Thursday to discuss progress in getting Brunswick nudearplant Unit 1 ready for restart. Unit 2 restarted in April af ter more than a year's shut down for repairs and mainte nance. Unit 1 has also been undergoing repairs and main ( tenance under NRC supervi sion since April, 1992. The meeting is open the ; public, and will be held in the assembly building at the CP&L visitor center. OUTSIDE Forecast The extended forecast Thursday through Sat urday calls for partly cloudy skies with a chance of thunder storms. Highs will be in the lower 9,0s, lows in the 70s. Tide table HIGH LOW THURSDAY, AUGUST 19 9:51 a.m. 3:38 a.m. 10:09 p.m. 3:59 p.m. FRIDAY, AUGUST 20 10:44 a.m. 4:24 am. 11:39 p.m. 4:51p.m. SATURDAY, AUGUST 21 11:39 a.m. 5:13 a.m. 11:51p.m. 5:44 p.m. SUNDAY, AUGUST 22 -a.m. 6:03 am. 12:34 p.m. 6:42 p.m. MONDAY, AUGUST 23 12:45 a.m. 6:56 am. 1:35 p.m. 7:41p.m. TUESDAY, AUGUST 24 1:45 am. 7:54 am. 2 36 p.m. 8:45 pjn. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25 2:48 am. 8:57 am. 3:40 p.m. 9:50 p.m. The following adjustments should be made: Bald Head Island, high -10, low -7; Caswell Beach, high -5, tow -1; Southport, high +7, low -t 15; Yaupon Beach, high -32, low -45; Lockwood Folly Inlet, high -22, low -8.

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