INSIDE
Sports, page IB
Classifieds, p. 1C
|s most complete
EMgteproperties
Volume 63/ Number 5
Southport, N.C.
September 22,1993/ 50 cents
Sewerage
’complete'
next week
By Holly Edwards
Municipal Editor
Due to a series of delays, substan
tial completion of the Yaupon Beach
sewage treatment plant will not be
announced today (Wednesday) as
originally expected, but will be an
nounced about a week late, engineer
ing consultant Finley Boney said.
Completion of the treatment plant,
collection system and electrical sys
tem is now expected to be announced
during a contractors' meeting sched
ule for Wednesday, September 29. at
4 p.m. in Town Hall.
Once the state Division of Environ
mental Management is notified of the
completion, Boney said, the sewer
system and treatment plant will be
activated within 48 hours, and town
residents will be able to tap onto the
system on October 1.
Residents will have 90 days from
October 1 to have their sewer access
lines installed and connected to the
system. Although citizens can install
their own access lines and sewer taps,
wastewater supervisor David, Kelly
must inspect and approve all work
before allowing citizens to discon
nect from their septic systems.
Boney said the three major causes
of the scheduling setbacks were
weather delays, equipment delays and
subcontractorproblems. For example,
he said the subcontractor hired to in
stall equipment at the treatment plant
abruptly walked off the job two
months ago after only two days of
work.
When contracts were signed on
October 12,1992, all of the contrac
tors estimated they would be com
pleted with their work by mid- to late
August. Since then, a number of time
extensions have been granted to al
low for what Boney terms "excusable
See Sewer, page 6
Hayes Baxley, Jo Betts Baxley and Tim Pinion
were among hundreds of Brunswick County
volunteers who participated in Beach Sweep ’93 on
Photo by Jim Harper
Saturday. Pinion, naturalist with the Bald Head Is
land Conservancy, coordinated beach clean-up ef
forts on the island.
'Valid' government island goal
By Jim Harper
Staff Writer
The committee studying the man
ner of governance of Bald Head Is
land told the village council Saturday
that it will recommend amending the
charter "to provide a representative,
constitutionally valid governing
body."
Presently the council is appointed
by the board of directors of the island
property-owner association and by
the island's primary developer.
Dissatisfaction among islanders
with this form of representation led to
appointment of the committee, which
is charged with periodically reporting
the method by which the council is
appointed stands a high probability of
conflicting with the federal and state con
stitutions and would probably fail if chal
lenged in court.1
Committee report
to the council and with producing a
recommendation in January.
The initial report Saturday, though,
indicates the group has found funda
mental flaws in the charter which
require remediation.
The committee includes three Bald
Head Island residents and three resi
dents of Raleigh, all of whom own
property on the island.
The report presented by chairman
Bob Mauney said the forthcoming
proposal for charter amendment "rec
ognizes that two problems exist with
the charter as it now stands:
" 1. That the island has now evolved
to the point where the representative
aspects of the charter need to be per
fected; and
"2. That the method by which the
council is appointed stands a high
probability of conflicting with the fed
eral and state constitutions and would
probably fail if challenged in court."
The village was chartered by the
See Goal, page 7
Smoking ban
hearing draws
mixed reviews
By Terry Pope
County Editor
Brad Kerr predicts a close vote
October 11 when his Brunswick
County Board of Health decides
whether to impose countywide no
smoking rules on area businesses.
He also chairs the committee that
wrote the rules which came under
fire from the public Tuesday.
Twenty people spoke at a hearing
— 12 opposed to the smoking rules
and eight in favor.
The 11 board members face an in
tense lobbying effort from both
sides of the hot issue.
"It looks almost evenly divided
See Smoking ban, page 10
‘It takes away the
right of the business
owners to operate
their business based
on the demand of
their customers. If s
an economic hazard
to our area.’
Billy Nichols
Land use plan
update relaxes
sewer wording
By Holly Edwards
Municipal Editor
Long Beach’s proposed land use
plan update moved one step closer
to adoption Tuesday night when
town council officially accepted the
proposal and voted to forward it to
the state Division of Coastal Man
agement for review and comment.
The state is expected to return the
plan within 45 days along with a
number of comments, and the town
will then be required to respond to
each comment before the plan is
returned to the state for final ap
proval. A public hearing will be
scheduled before the plan is put into
effect.
Council member Danny Leonard,
who also served on the land use plan
advisory committee, said the
policies in the plan are a com
promise between protecting the en
vironment and maintaining the
town’s growth pattern. Committee
members repeatedly had to weigh
environmental concerns with the
need to promote controlled growth.
But in the end, he said, both sides
were equally compromised.
Council member Bill Easley
agreed.
"I think it’s a very well-balanced
plan,” he said. "Something that’s
very important to consider is we all
have to make it so growth is avail
able. It can get too much one way
than the other, and it can turn into a
situation where no one else is wel
come on the island."
The proposal states that given
See Land use plan, page 10
TB tests
show nine
as possible
By Marybeth Bianchi
Feature Editor
Of the nearly 700 people tested for
tuberculosis last week at South
Brunswick High School, nine turned
up with positive results.
That doesn't mean those nine have
TB, Brunswick County public health
nursing supervisor Victoria Smith said
Tuesday. What it does mean is they
have come in contact with the TB
bacteria and must undergo further test
ing. Specifically, each must have a
chest X-ray to determine if he or she
See Tests, page 6
Summertime, the living was easy
Area businesses report
increase over last year
By Marybeth Bianchi
Feature Editor
From all indications, the Southport-Oak Island area
no longer is North Carolina's "best-kept secret".
The 1993 summer season brought with it a growing
number of visitors and growing revenue for area busi
nesses. y
"We have had a very good season," said Karen Hope,
1
director of the Southport-Oak Island Chamberof Commerce. '*
Reports from some retailers and realtors indicate double
digit increases in business over last year, she said.
Last year, Brunswick County was ranked 11th in the state for tourism
revenue generated and Hope said, "This year I have a feeling we'll do as
good or even better."
/t Retail sales figures for the summer, months aren't available
yei, out ur. wiinam mu oi me center tor Business and
A Economics Services at the University of North Carolina
at wumingion saia ior tne tz-montn period ending in
^ May, retail sales were up 9.3 percent over the previ
ous year.
y "That's a pretty healthy increase," he said, and
„ much better than neighboring New Hanover County
and the state, which saw increases of 4.1 and 7.7
percent respectively.
| If May's figure of $40.7 million in retail sales is an
indication of what the summer months brought, it would
come as no surprise that area cash registers were ringing ud
profits.
Hope said promotions in the Northeast are drawing an increasing
See Summer, page 6

Forecast
The extended forecast
calls for partly cloudy
skies Thursday and Fri
day with a high of 90
and lows in-the 70s.
Cooler weather is ex
pected Saturday, with &
i daytime high in the low >■
80s and nighttime lows
in the 60s.
Tide table
HIGH LOW
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23
2*30 am. 8:34 am.
3:16 am. 9:25 pj*.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 24
3:33 am. 9:38 am.
4:16 pjn. 1024 pm.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25
433 am. 1039 am.
5:11 pm. 11:16 pjn.
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 26
538 am. 1133 am.
6:02 am. pm.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 27
6:17 am. 12;07 am.
6:46 p.m. 1223 pm
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28
7:02 am. 12:49 am.
739pm. lKWpjm.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29
7:42am. 139am,
8 06 pan. 1:49 pjn.
The fallowing adjunmema ihcald be node
Bald Head bund, high -10, low -7; Cm well
Beach, hick -5, low >1; Southport, high +7,
low +15; Yaupon Beach, high -32, low -45;
Lockwood PMy Inlet, high -221 low -8.