1 VOLUME 64/NUMBER 13 SOUTHPORT, N.C.50 CENTS \
South Brunswick is well
represented on the all
county football team — 10B
Our Town
The county airport, like the
area, is ready to soar toward
broader horizons - Page 2
Neighbors
World’s largest supplier of
police equipment operating
at Highway 211 site - IB
Pogy Wars
headed for
commission
There will likely be no end to the Brun
swick County pogy wars before a Decem
ber 2 meeting of the N. C. Marine Fisher
ies Commission.
Menhaden fishermen and representa
tives of Brunswick County beach towns
did not meet Monday as planned. The
towns and the fishermen were to have
executed an agreement to govern menha
den fishing off Brunswick County beaches.
The schedule for agreement execution
was thrown off course last week when
beach towns amended a draft agreement
forged in October to contain provisions
that would force menhaden fishermen to
stay one mile offshore at all times of the
year.
The new provisions sought by the towns
would also require menhaden companies
to pay twice the cost of fish spill clean-ups
and pay a $1,000 penalty for failure to
notify towns in advance of fishing off
Brunswick shores.
Executive director Jerry Schill of the N.
C. Fisheries Association, which repre
sents three menhaden companies to be
party to the agreement, said he was only
presented with the towns' final draft Mon
day morning. Menhaden companies were
reviewing the draft Monday.
"We really haven't decided anything,"
Schill said Monday. "We won't get to
meet prior to the (Marine Fisheries) com
mission meeting. That's only a little over
a week away.". ~,
The Marine Fisheries Commission was
to ratify the agreement between the towns
and the menhaden operators. But, mayor
Joan Altman of Long Beach has said it
may take longer than expected for all
parties to the pact to come to terms.
Schill said the fishing interests would
See Pogy wars, page 6
Offices close
for holiday
Banks, post offices, all municipal town
halls and the Brunswick County Govern
ment Center will close Thursday, Novem
ber 24, for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Banks and the postal service will re
sume operations on Friday.
Bald Head Island town hall also will re
open on Friday, but other municipal town
halls will not re-open until Monday.
The Brunswick County Government
Center also will remain closed until Mon
day.
The G. V. Barbee Sr. library branch on
Oak Island will close Thursday through
Sunday and will re-open for business on
Monday.
The State Port Pilot office will close
Thursday and Friday and will re-open on
Monday. Pilot Line news updates also
will be out of service until Monday.
- Photo by Jim Harper
Pipewelder Tim Ehling found both light and shelter on a murky, misty morning
recently to get his work accomplished. He was welding on the bridge of a new sports
yacht in the Southport yacht basin.
Road request first
step to cooperation
By Holly Edwards
Feature Editor ■
For the first time Brunswick County, local
municipalities and the Brunswick County
Airport will submit a collective request to
the N. C. Department of Transportation
board asking that a number of priority
projects be included in the 1996 Transporta
tion Improvement Plan.
Topping the list of priority projects are the
Wilmington Bypass and a second bridge to
Oak Island. (See related story, this page.)
The request was submitted to the DOT last
week and Brunswick County commissioners
gave their official support Monday night.
Planning director Wade Home said he
hopes that compiling proposed TIP projects
throughout the county into one request will
encourage the DOT to give the request more
attention. He said the collective request
could serve to enhance county and
municipal cooperation.
"At some point we have to begin to get the
towns and the county together," Home said.
"We want to start acting as a county, as one
unified body."
In other business discussed Monday night:
•The board recessed to reconvene Wed
nesday, November 23, 6 p.m., to make a
number of board appointments and to review
proposals from five banks on financing con
struction of the new Leland Elementary
School.
Commissioners have agreed to finance
construction of the school through certifi
cates of participation. The school board will
See Roadwork, page 8
Highway projects
County TIPs
in our favor
on road work
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
A second Oak Island bridge, improvement
of Midway Road to provide better access to a
second bridge to western Long Beach, and a
new connector road between N. C. 211 and N.
C. 133 north of Southport take a backseat only
to a Wilmington bypass on Brunswick County's
transportation wish-list for coming years.
These four priorities top a list of seven sent
the N. C. Department of Transportation. The
list was consolidated from all transportation
needs identified by county and municipal gov
ernments recently. Brunswick's priorities will
be incorporated in formulation of DOTs an
nual Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP)
for 1996.
In an accompanying narrative,-Brunswick
‘(A second Oak Island)
bridge would relieve
significant traffic con
gestion and provide a
much-needed evacua
tion route in case of a
major storm or industri
al incident.’
County asks state officials to expedite its num
ber-two transportation priority — the planning
See TIPs, page 6
Bond rating may change
/ ‘ ' ... • ' . • •
City may face
shock of new
rate increase
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Electric customers of the City of Southport
-- still smarting from a two-percent rate in
crease in October — may face another increase
of up to 4.1 percent next fall.
Alderman Paul Fisher, Southport's liaison to
the consortium of municipal power buyers to
which the city belongs, said N. C. Eastern
Municipal Power Agency's budget plan for
next fiscal year anticipates that rate increase.
"This is the assumption in the budget for
cities which get their power from Carolina
Power and Light Co.," Fisher said.
All but a few of the 31 cities which are
members of NCEMPA are supplied power by
CP&L through the agency. The power agency
The proposed 4.1
percent rate increase
for NCEMPA cities
comes as investors react
to a threat to the
agency*s bond rating
was established about 12 years ago to purchase
ownership interests in CP&L and other power
generators in an attempt to control consumer
costs and have a say in utility management and
See Increase, page 13
Like comparingapplesandoranges
1
By Terry Pope
County Editor
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Descendants of 82-year-old Alice Crockett find their seven
acre homestead along the Cape Fear River just north of South
port a tiny islandsurroundedby 20,000acres of heavy industry.
When one family member applied for a septic tank permit
recently, he was told a home can't be built on the scenic
property off Sheppard Road because it has been zoned for
industrial use by the county zoning ordinance which took effect
January 1.
"It seems like the manufacturers want us out of there,” said
Robert Nichols. "It's like die Indians having their land taken
away from them. Because that's what's happening to us right
now. ifs ridiculous.”
Ms. Crockett's wish is to have her children and their families
come back to the 738-acre homestead and to build homes there
isilrnii*
‘I understand, and Vm very I
sympathetic... but it could be looked I
upon as spot zoning and not hold up I
in court.... It’s basically an island I
when you look at the 20,000 acres as a I •
whole,* I
during the last years of her life. The first home was built at the small
Applegate Subdivision in 1970. And four more have been built since
1990, but that was before the county zoning ordinance labeled the tract;
as heavy manufacturing (H-M), which excludes residential homes
and designates those already there as non-conforming.
That means residents can't rebuild the homes, add to them or
sell the property for residential use unless the zoning is changed.
Last week, the Brunswick County Planning Board, followings
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unanimously to recommend county commissioners rezone the
land to R-7500, medium-density residential use for mostly stick
built homes.
But the Brunswick County Planning Department says that may
create "spot zoning” which could be challenged in court The
foe Pfizer Corp. purchased as apfriication fields for by-products
die chemical plant produces. Pfizer has since been purchased by '••'^*4
the Archcr-Daniels-Midland Corp.
Other manufacturers in the area are Carolina Power and Light
Sc* Tract, page 6
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