SOUTHPORT, N.C 50 CENTS | VOLUME 64/ NUMBER 24 Well-rested Cougars return to the hardwood, but drop closes ones Tuesday - 12B Neighbors .-.■ • Blue ribbons, scholarships were among the prizes at annual arts festival - IB Our Town Bald Head Island will wait until fall to resume efforts at renourishment — Page 2 Schools to weigh options By Holly Edwards Feature Editor Two difficult decisions will con front the Brunswick County Board ol Education Monday at its monthly meeting. The first is whether to ac cept or reject an out-of-court settlement pro posed by county commissioners to resolve a longstanding budget dispute. The second is whether to abolish early dismissal on Wednesdays. To flesh out the complex web of issues ahead of time, the board will hold a special planning session Satur day, 9 a.m., in the board of education conference room. Parents and school officials were asked to state their opinions on the early dismissal policy in a written survey, and board members say they will consider results of the survey in making their decision. Supply drainage, Leland bids — page 7 While principals and teachers say they need the time, for planning and staff development, parents complain that early dismissal provides too much free time for their children, and places a financial burden on them to provide child care or babysitting service. The other major issue facing the board is the funding settlement ad vanced last week by county commis sioners Bill Sue and Leslie Collier during a liaison committee meeting with school board members Billy Carter and Pat Brown. Commissioners offered to give the school board an additional $ 1.35 mil lion for the current fiscal year, added to the $9.4-million interim budget the schools are currently operating un der. Commissioners also offered to al locate 21.5 cents of the county's tax rate for the school system for the next two years, which would amount to about $11 million per year with the current tax base. The county's tax rate is 58.5 cents per $100 property valuation. If the school board rejects the com missioners' offer, the fate of a $ 14 million jury award will be decided by the N. C. Court of Appeals. School board members must de cide if they want to settle for less money this year and have a guaran teed amount of funding for the next See Schools, page 7 Mac Construction earth-moving equipment opera tors began pushing sand at Long Beach Monday in Photo by Jim Harper an effort to restore dunes damaged in a series of recent winter storms. Long Beach begins big push to restore frontal dune line Work began Monday at Long Beach to restore frontal dunes lost to a recent series of winter storms. Crews from Mac Construction Co., under contract to the Town of Long Beach, are expected to pus!) sand for the next three to four weeks, public works director Charles Derrick said. The dune restoration work will begin at 39th Place West and equipment and operators will move eastward to 58th Street East. The cost of the project has been estimated at between $8,000 and $10,000. Derrick said the project was begun at the western extreme of the beach in order to allow sand to ecrete in more severely damaged eastern portions of the strand. "Some places just need a little trim work on the dunes," Derrick said. "Some must be rebuilt totally - and we've got everything in between." The most critically eroded portions of the beach lie in the area from the 3500 to the 3700 block of East Beach Drive and in the area of the 3200 block of East Beach. "We're sand-deficient there," Der See Dune line, page 8 Audit review City’s financial picture looking brighter in ’95 By Richard Nubel Municipal Editor If fiscal year 1993-94 was a bot toming out year financially for the City of Southport, 1994-95 shows signs of improvement, aldermen learned Saturday at a retreat session devoted to audit analysis. And, a strategy to restore Southport, the municipal corporation, to finan cial health began to emerge from that session. "It's ,going to behoove us all to be proactive rather than reactive," city manager Rob Gandy said Tuesday. "The board, at its retreat, made a com mitment to break that pattern." The Saturday retreat was sched uled after city officials received inde pendent auditor Menton Padgett's re view of fiscal year 1993-94 city ac counts. Among his findings were that Southport had expended virtually all available non-appropriated general fund, electric fund and solid waste fund balances by June 30, 1994. The city in 1993-94 had also spent some $112,000 more than its general fund took in that year. Additionally, it was discovered at audit, the city’s *... it’s not just my responsibility, it’s the board*s respon sibility and it’s the department head’s responsibility to be come involved in the planning pro cess. It’s imperative we do it that way.’ Rob Gandy City manager — ■1 —i electric fund and water and sewer fund experienced operating losses in that year. In short, all funds available to the city in the event of unforeseeable or emergency situations had been ex See Financial, page 6 SBSD orders system design changes made By Jim Harper Staff Writer Southeast Brunswick Sanitary District commissioners last week shelved plans for rapid-infiltration disposal in their projected wastewater system and directed their engineer to redesign the system for spray application on a golf course. Studies of the suitability of present and future St. James Plantation golf courses for irrigation disposal are expected to be completed before the SBSD March 2 meeting. The board last week also decided to abandon plans to provide sewer service to the Dutchman Acres subdivision outside the district boundaries, which had been added to the project at federal money-lender request. In the lengthy and intense February 1 session the board elicited an agreement from engineer Finley Boney to redesign the disposal system without charge See System, page 6 Oak Island Senior Citizens members Jim Barrett (left) and Ernest Jenkins are among the more than 20 volunteers helping refurbish the former Bob’s Pawn Shop for use as a seniors center. Volunteers lend a hand Seniors facility is now the center of attention By Holly Edwards Feature Editor The property at 5918 Oak Island Drive is being trans formed from a burglar-proof pawn shop housing thou sands of dollars worth of TVs, stereo equipment, jewelry and firearms, to a friendly senior center designed to help local residents over age 55 shake off feelings of loneliness and isolation. Bars have been removed from windows, new carpeting installed, a huge glass display case sawed in half and converted to a snack bar, walls erected to form a cozy lounge in the center of the building. The property, formerly home of Bob's Pawn Shop, was recently purchased by the Oak Island Senior Citizens group for $300,000. The group hopes to have the senior center open by J i. - ... i/j » March 1. Group president Helen Cashwell said the project has already inspired many local seniors, and that more than 20 volunteers have become involved in refurbishing the building. "There are guys here that until two weeks ago hadn't done anything physical in a long time," Cashwell said. "There have been days when you couldn't get in the parking lot because of all the volunteers. If we don't do anything but renovate the building, I'd say it's been a success." The group will continue to use the Long Beach Recre ation Center for its monthly dinners. TTiere are more than 200 members of the organization, while the senior center will be able to accommodate no more than 70 people. ’ Cashwell said she hopes the center will be a valuable See Facility, page 8 - - b v # v Forecast Continued cold weather Thurs day through Sunday. We can ex pect partly cloudly skies with tem perature reading in the 40's each day and 30's at night. Tide Table HIGH LOW THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9 9:15 a.m. 17 p.m. Q.90 _ __ , FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10 P 10:11 a.m. 4M4p.m. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11 P 11*4 un. J.Uop.m. 11*14 n m SUNDA Y, FEBRUARY 12 P 11:52 a.m. 3:55 p.m. r MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13 P 12.-01 ».m. TUESDAY, FEBRUARYI1436pnl 2"«* 12.-47a.rn. Wednesday, February ij pJ" Til***- 130 a.m. 8:02 p.m. , 1.57 nm gfeWiWtagSS!

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