How people lived in colo
nial days was the theme of
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VOLUME 64/ NUMBER 10
SOUTHPORT, N.C.
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MSB
Our Town
New law prohibits mining
companies for dragging out
their applications - Page 2
Sports
The Pilot Trophy is at
stake Friday when South
visits the Trojans — 10B
CANDIDATE INTERVIEWS INSIDE
Whole new boards, sheriff up for election
By I erry Pope
County Editor
Tuesday's election has the right ingredients for a big showdown.
But do county voters view it that way?
The ballot is loaded with ten candidates for school board and ten
competing for the county commission.
As a result of two-year terms, it's the first general election where all
five seats on the two county boards are up for grabs.
The polls will open at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m. One-stop
absentee voting will continue through Friday.
Yet, in the community it has been relatively quiet this campaign
season for seats on those two boards. What has grabbed the headlines is
the battle for sheriff between Democrat Ronald Hewett and Republican
James Brown.
"I can't even get a feel for what the turnout is going to be," said Lynda
Britt, Brunswick County supervisor of elections. "Probably about 45
percent."
An average number of voters has requested absentee ballots. The
usual number has one-stop voted at the elections office near Bolivia.
On paper, 32,815 county residents are registered to vote on Tuesday.
Of those, 18,841 are Democrats and 11,460 are Republicans. Twelve
are Libertarians and 2,502 unaffiliated with any political party.
The highest number that has voted in a Brunswick County election
was 68 percent. In the May primary this year, only 31 percent cast
ballots.
Five incumbents on the Brunswick County Board of Commissioners
are seeking re-election. Democrats Don Warren, Wayland Vereen and
Tom Rabon Sr. are trying for another two-year term. Republicans
Donald Shaw and Jerry Jones were elected to four-year terms in 1990.
Warren faces Republican Douglas Simmons in District 1. Vereen is
competing against Republican Leslie Collier in District 3, and Rabon
will try to hold off Republican Theron (Woody) Leonard in District 4.
Jones faces Democrat Alfonza Roach in District 2, and Shaw will
battle Democrat Bill Sue, a former board of education member, in
District 5.
Candidates represent the districts where they live, but they are seated
on local boards by countywide vote.
There will be at least four new faces on the board of education. Only
one incumbent, Yvonne Bright of District 5, is on the ballot. She will
face Democrat Glenda Browning.
Two incumbents were defeated in May, and two dropped out of the
race.
The other races are filled with newcomers — Democrat Olaf (Bud)
Thorsen and Republican Rozell Hewett in District 1; Democrat Clara
See Election, page 8
Forecast
The extended forecast calls for 'Fall
like' weather with cooler temperatures
prevailing each day. Highs will reach mid
60's with the low's in the 40's,
Caswell may
add to board
membership
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Should the Caswell Beach Board of
Commissioners grow in membership from
three to five?
That question will be put to registered
voters of the town Tuesday.
Since its incorporation in 1975 Caswell
Beach has elected a mayor every four
years and either one or two commission
ers in alternating odd-numbered years.
If voters wish to increase the size of the
board of commissioners to five members
from the current three, they must vote
"yes" to two questions posed on the ballot
presented them by election officials. Two
sections of the town charter must be
amended by two separate affirmative votes
to change the number of commissioners at
Caswell Beach.
Question 1 — on the left-hand side of the
ballot — speaks to the need to amend
Article III, Section 3.2 of the town charter.
By voting "yes" the voter simply agrees to
change the composition of the board of
commissioners to a body of five. A "no”
vote should be cast on this question by
those who wish to keep the board as it is - '
- composed of a mayor and three commis
See Caswell, page 8
Photo by Jim Harper
On Halloween day Southport Elementary School fourth graders dressed up in pump
kin colors and collected trash along Bay Street in Southport as part of their ecology
unit. The classes of Cindy Dishman and Sandy Kaufhold adopted Bay Street last year
and will return three or four times this year to collect trash.
$10,000 is spent
on city delegation
to league meeting
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
The City of Southport spent nearly $10,000
to send eight elected officials and staff plus
four spouses and friends to a meeting of the N.
C. League of Municipalities in Asheville Oc
tober 16-18.
Although the convention began on Sunday,
October 16, the Southport delegation spent an
additional night — Saturday, October 15 — at
Asheville's opulent Grove Park Inn, a record of
expenditures at City Hall indicates. The con
vention adjourned late Tuesday, October 18,
and the Southport delegation stayed in
Asheville that night, traveling home Wednes
day, October 19.
The sizable general fund expenditure - equal
to 1.1 cents per $ 100 valuation in city property
taxes — comes in a year in which city officials
have said Southport is strapped for cash. At
budget formulation time last spring aldermen
denied police requests for additional person
nel and automobiles. Also denied were addi
tional funds for parks and recreation. Unap
propriated general fund balance dipped to about
$130,000 by the beginning of the fiscal year
and city officials said the cost of cleaning up
after a hurricane could have wiped out all
general fund reserves.
The estimated $9,611 for the eight official
delegates to spend four days at the convention
means the city spent an average of $1,200 per
attendee. Spouses and friends have reimbursed
the city for convention registration fees and
stayed without additional charge in rooms
occupied by the official delegates.
By contrast, the Town of Long Beach sent a
delegation of five to the league convention and
stayed at the less-expensive Radisson Hotel.
Total expenditures for the three days Long
Beach delegates spent at the convention were
$2,552 — about $510 per delegate.
Attending the convention from the City of - i
Southport were mayor Norman Holden and his
wife Janice, alderman Phil Joyner, alderman
Paul Fisher and his wife Karen, alderman Meezie
Childs and her husband Robert, alderman Jim
Brown, city manager Rob Gandy, secretary to
See League, page 12
frugal;
others didn't
send anyone
One elected official and two staff
members represented the City of Boil- -
ing Spring Lakes at the 1994 annual
convention of the N. C. League of
Municipalities in Asheville October
16-18.
!? Theentire trip for three cost Boiling V
Spring Lakes taxpayers about $1,249
fh’ not much more than the City of
Southport paid for each of its eight
elegates to the convention.
Neither Yaupon Beach nor Caswell
teach sent a delegation to the league v
? convention, town officials said. V
| i Boiling Spring Lakes city clerk Bar- ’
; bara Cumbee said she and her hus- ,
band, public works director Thurston
Cumbee, and commissioner Tom
Seel
•ms
By Holly Edwards
Feature Editor
-f . ' i'/ ” '
Much of the plant life in southeastern North
Carolina is not found anywhere else on Earth. Hus
area’s climate - dominated by hot sun, dry winds'
and salt spray ~ has led to the domination of a
select number of hardy plants.
While the uniqueness of coastal Carolina plants
has been a source of fascination for ecologists, it
has been a source of frustration for gardeners
trying to create a coforful landscape.
Whafs the solution?
' Learn to appreciate and work with the plants that
are native to this area, Brunswick County turfgrass ’
specialist Bruce Williams told a group of focal
residents attending a coastal plant workshop last i
week at. the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort
Usher.
"Forget about the plants you had in Pennsylva
* Forget about the plants
you had in Pennsylvania,
New York or Charlotte — or
anywhere else in the world
for that matter
Bruce Williams
Turfgrass specialist
nia, New York or Charlotte - or anywhere else nt
'the world forthatmatter,"Williams advised.You’D
be extremely frustrated if you try to mimic the type, t
of gardens you've seen elsewhere."
Apparently, many gardeners are extremely this
(rated. Williams said he receives numerous calls
from coastal residents trying to kill the plants
growing naturally in their yards, apd cultivate
plants foreign to the area. The result, he said, is
utter exasperation.
One of the most common questions Williams
said he receives is how to kill pennywort, the low*
growingweed with circular leaves that can quickly
eliminate all plants growing m its path
W illiams' response to these gardeners is to learn
to live with it
"If you have a pennywort problem, don't fight
it Just use pennywort as tire ground cover," he
said. "If you're trying to get rid of it completely,
you’ll spend a lot of money, and you'll only be
partially successful at best.” H
Because many coastal residents are transplants
from other areas, Williams said, they bring their %
concept of tire perfectyard from other areasMost
See Beachgnas, page*