| VOLUME 64/NUMBER 14 SOUTHPORT, N.C. 50 CENTS |
November 30,1994
Sports
Preston McGriff, former
South Brunswick standout,
is starting for UNCW — 13B
' - •-•X-' " V.W
Our Town
Dosher hospital sets sights
on non-traditional health
care of the future - Page 2
Neighbors
Oak Island Tour of Homes
is among holiday activities
planned this weekend — IB
FISHERIES
Pogy rule:
Fishermen
won't bite
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Negotiations between Brunswick
County beach towns and three men
haden fishing companies regularly
working off the county’s shore are
beginning to resemble a high-stakes
poker game.
N. C. Fisheries Association ex
ecutive director Jerry Schill said
this week county beach towns had
raised the stakes too high and the
fishing interests were calling the
bluff.
"If this is what the offer is -- put
up or shut up — we're going to shut
up," said Schill, whose organiza
tion represents the three menhaden
fishing firms, including Beaufort
Fisheries Inc. of North Carolina
and two Virginia-based firms.
Last week, fishermen were faxed
a copy of new agreement provi
sions representatives of the towns
had written in a meeting without
fishermen present on November 8.
Three key provisions not in a draft
to which the fishing interests had
agreed on September 21 caught the
fishing interests by surprise.
-The towns now will require pogy
fishermen to keep their boats one
mile off Brunswick County beaches
at all times. Another provision re
quires the pogy companies to pay
twice the cost of clean-up of a fish
spill. A third new provision holds
See Pogy, page 10
Fish license
fee is before
commission
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Virtually all municipal govern
ments in the Southport-Oak Island
area have been asked to formally
respond to a proposal that would
require saltwater fishing licensing
in North Carolina.
The N. C. Marine Fisheries Com
mission will review that propqsal
while meeting in Smithfield Friday
and Saturday.
City of Southport officials de
layed action on a request from Surf
City to join that town in a resolu
tion of opposition to the state's plan,
and Long Beach Town Council di
rected mayor Joan Altman to write
a letter to the area's legislative del
egation opposing the plan.
Yaupon Beach resident Buddy
Rudd was a member of the Coastal
Recreational Fishing License Com
mittee charged with drafting the
saltwater fishing license proposal.
He said many of the objections
raised by Southport-Oak Island
municipal government officials
were the same as those voiced by
attendees at public hearings the
committee conducted statewide in
October.
"People were afraid it was sim
ply another tax and the money
would be there for the General As
sembly to grab and use," Rudd said.
"The majority of people were re
ceptive to the idea as long as the
money (from license fees) went
back to fisheries - to the resource -
- and couldn't be allocated some
where else.”
Locally, alderman Bill Delaney
of Southport and councilman Bill
Easley of Long Beach, both avid
outdoorsmen, said they could sup
port a saltwater fishing license pro
gram if monies from license fees
See License, page 10
Habitat law may shoot down industry
Regulation would limit development along Cape Fear River
nv ierry rope
County Editor
Some fear a rule aimed at protecting critical habitats may also
endanger industrial development along Brunswick County
waterways.
V. A. Creech Jr. of Belville says if the rule is allowed to take
effect, then thousands of acres of prime industrial property in the
county will be lost to potential development.
"The rule will have a severe economic impact on this county,"
said Creech, a Brunswick County Economic Development
Commission membei who also owns industrial sites near
Navassa.
"It will reflect negatively on the possibility of bringing
industry in along the Cape Fear River," he said.
In an effort to protect species, in July the N. C. Wildlife
Resources Commission approved the new rules by an 8-5 vote.
The proposal is pending before the N. C. Rules Review Com
mission but faces a tide of opposition.
Business and industry interests have passed resolutions ask
ing the N. C. General Assembly to defeat the measure. The
Wildlife Commission intends to limit new or expanded sewer
discharges, development and further activities near water
sources which might have an adverse impact on local down
stream endangered species.
The area considered closed to new industry would cover
one-sixth of the state, said Tom Monks, executive director of
Brunswick County's EDC.
"A fourth of all counties would be affected if the ruling
comes into effect," said Monks. "Virtually every site along the
Cape Fear River could be affected.",
Upstream from Southport, the Cape Fear wanders along the
See Habitat, page 6
A coordinated effort between county government and the
community this Thanksgiving brought volunteers together to
help Navassa resident Ann Johnson protect her home from
Photo by Terry Pope
the rain. "Most every one of the guys you see around here, aD
of them, have been touched by her in some way," said Navassa
commissioner Eulis Willis.
Thanks to good neighbors
she has new roof overhead
By Terry Pope
County Editor
Five-gallon paint buckets lined up inside a front bedroom were
used to help catch the water when it rained.
But this Thanksgiving Day became one Ann Johnson of
| Navassa says she will want to remember.
She watched from a neighbor’s as volunteers replaced the roof '
to her own home to make life a bit easier for the beloved widow.
"For as long as the day I live, Til remember this Thanksgiving,"
said Ms. Johnson. "I couldn’t even get in my bed to sleep."
It was a project that involved the entire community - both
volunteers and local businesses, said Thurman Everett, Brun
swick County's public housing director. Ms. Johnson applied for,
and received help from, the county's weatherization and urgent
relief repair programs.
But federal guidelines restrict amounts spent on any one home
to $3,400 for both assistance programs. It wasn't enough to even
cover the cost of a new roof. That's where the volunteers helped.
This is a coordinated effort by county government, facilitated
through community action," said Everett. There's not enough
money in weatherization and urgent repair to do this house.
However, they wanted to volunteer and to do the tabor, to maybe V
See Neighbors, page 6
Oak Island
request gets
lost in mail
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Chances of seeing a full-service U. S. Post
Office on Oak Island anytime soon appear
mired in the "snorkel shoot" of the federal
bureaucracy.
But Oak Island activists say they will keep
pushing for a first-class postal facility for their
rapidly growing communities.
Oak Island officials last week received cop
ies of a letter to U. S. Congressman Charles G.
Rose III (7th District) from John Hagarty, the
postal service's manager of legislative affairs.
He told Rose that Mid-Carolinas District
postal officials met with locals petitioning for a
full-service post office for the three Oak Island
communities and said USPS is sympathetic,
but out of money. He said a snorkel shoot on the
mailbox at the contract post office in Long
Beach is about the best improvement USPS can
make right now.
"While we understand the interest of the Oak
Island community," Hagarty wrote, "I must
advise that at this time there are no plans to
establish an independent post office on Oak
Island."
As for help right now, only the snorkel shoot
will help Oak Island postal customers keep
their heads above water.
"A new 'snorkel-type' collection box has
been installed which allows for motorists to
deposit mail for collection without leaving their
vehicles," Hagarty wrote Rose. "This should
help alleviate some of the traffic congestion,
which inevitably accompanies the summer
population increase."
Hagarty said USPS will also explore "the
possibility of stamps by consignment contracts
with local businesses" so area residents can
purchase them mdVe conveniently.
But as for a new building — a first-class post
office on Oak Island — forget it for now, Hagarty
notes.
"The Postal Service's capital funds are se
verely limited," Hagarty wrote Rose, adding
that requests for new facilities are prioritized as
See Request, page 11
Several found in county
Gypsy moth spraying to be repeated
By Terry Pope
Cbunty Editor
Three areas of the county will be
sprayed again in April to combat an
Asian variety of gypsy moth that ap
parently avoided a first dose of insec
ticide last spring.
But residents in the Southport-Oak !
Island community will be spared the
aerial treatments. Moths were found
near Holden Beach, Shallotte and at
Half Hell Swamp near Bolivia.
No stray moths with Asian DNA
' links were trapped in the primary tar
■ get area surrounding the Military Ocean
| Terminal Sunny Point depot north of
Southport
That’s where the Asian moths flew
‘We’re doing everything we can to keep
this pest in check. It’s important that we
take all reasonable steps to keep this moth
from becoming established and spreading
Jim Graham
Agriculture commissioner
from a military ammunitions ship in July,
1993, and now threaten) the United States
with a major infestation.
"It's a probability that the moths sur
vived in a treatment area," said Bill
Dickerson, plant pest administrator for the
N. C Department of Agriculture, "and
then wandered in an area left untreated.”
Planes sprayed two kinds of insecti
cide onto more than 130,000 acres in
Brunswick County and part of New
Hanover County last April, when moth
eggs hatch into larvae. Traps placed
throughout the county in 1993told pest
experts where to spray.
State agriculture officials announced •
last week the following proposed spray
areas for April, 1995:
*2^60 acres alongHalf Hell Swampy
four square miles between Winnabow
and Bolivia.
*640 acres near SbaDotte.
*640acres near Holden Beach, along
the Intracoastal Waterway. J | f§
In Little River, S. C, another 2^00
acres are targeted for treatment along
Set Spraying, page 6
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