\ 'v
| VOLUME 64/ NUMBER 26SOUTHPORT, N.C. 50 CENTS |
V
j February 22,1995
Sports
Big-hands people played
Monday when two former
South stars collided -- 9B
Neighbors
An 88-page history of Oak
Island is included in this is
sue of The State Port Pilot
Our Town
Caswell Beach will sample
water quality to determine
long-range needs -- Page 2
Between county, schools
Funding compromise reached
The schools get their share...
Brunswick County New Hanover County
8,623 Enrollment (1994) 19,630 Enrollment (1994)
94-95 29.5%* - $9.4** million
Next Year 36%* - $13.3** million
•Percentage of County Revenues
••■fetal from General Fund
94-95 22.2%*-$22** million
Columbus County
7,506 Enrollment (1994)
94-95 45%*-$5.8** million
By Terry Pope
County Editor
Does Monday's budget settlement with the
schools represent a tax increase for county resi
dents in June?
No one can say for sure.
"If the county continues to run like it's been
running it may result in a tax increase," warns
District 5 Brunswick County commissioner
Bill Sue. "We're going to have to tighten our
belts."
County officials formally accepted a settle
ment offer Monday that will give the schools
$4 million more next year and avert a faceoff
in court.
The agreement ends a two-year battle over
school funding that resulted in a jury award of
$14 million last fall, an amount opposed by
county leaders who filed for a review with the
N. C. Court of Appeals.
The final offer includes an additional $1.35
million now to finish the school year and 23
cents of the county tax rate each of the next
two fiscal years. That amounts to $ 13,267,872,
a jump from the $9.4 million the schools re
ceived in June, 1994.
It took weeks to hammer out a proposal that
both sides were willing to accept. A liaison
committee of school and county officials ne
gotiated the plan that ends the guessing game -
- at least for the next two years — of what
amount schools can budget on programs. It
includes a gentleman's agreement to prioritize
the school capital outlay needs along with the
county's five-year building plan it is now com
piling.
"Our proposal offered them was fair," said
commissioner Sue of Leland. "Our differences
were about $800,000 per year. That's about
$100 a year per kid. I think we ought to invest
that in our kids, so we can enable them to com
pete in the marketplace."
The original proposal was rejected by the
school board, which last week submitted a
counterproposal that would add the estimated
$800,000 per year. Lithia Hahn, county finance
See Funding, page 6
Schools response:
Higher scores
are the goal, but
how to get there?
By Holly Edwards
Feature Editor
The funding settlement between Brunswick
County commissioners and the board of education
will provide the newly elected school board mem
bers what they have claimed to need since coming
to office — the assurance of adequate local fund
ing for the next two years.
School board members also acknowledge that
the settlement calls upon them to translate more
money into higher test scores.
Exactly how that will be accomplished is not
yet clear to anyone.
But, school board member Bud Thorsen said he's
glad the friction between the two boards is over.
"We've finally got the heated arguments behind
us, and now the two boards can sit down and start
to work together," Thorsen said. "It's a challenge
by all ten of us, but we chose to be in this predica
te Schools, page 6
Garbage
contract
approved
By Terry Pope
County Editor
It may cost slightly more, but ship
ping county garbage to an incinera
tor rather than burying it in a landfill
is the route Brunswick County will
take for maybe the next 25 years.
A contract approved with BCH
Limited Partnership Inc., the opera
tors of an incinerator built by the
Vedco Energy Corp. adjacent to the
DuPont Co. near Fayetteville, will
turn trash into electrical energy and
help boost county recycling efforts.
"I see this as a way to move
Brunswick County into the 21st cen
tury with waste management," said
District 3 county commissioner Leslie
Collier of Long Beach.
"I would still like to see the county
look into the purchase of some adja
cent property at the Supply site as
something for us to fall back on."
The $2.3-million-per-year Vedco
offer has been on the table since De
cember. An independent study per
formed by David M. Griffith and As
sociates of Raleigh, a consulting firm
specializing in public contracts, esti
mated the costs for 25 years.
Project manager Bill Strickland
told the county last week his study
concluded it would cost an average
of $36.40 per ton to dispose of trash
‘It will cost more
money, but I know
it is worth it. It will
be converting
something that has
never been worth
anything to anyone
into energy.’
Wyman Yelton
County manager
with Vedco and $35.17 per ton to con
tinue to operate the Supply landfill
site for the duration of the contract.
The $1.23-per-ton difference is be
cause the capital costs for a landfill
will be retired in ten years, versus 20
years for the Vedco offer.
The contract will begin January,
1996, with an option to end it after
ten years if the county isn't pleased
See Garbage, page 6
The fishing vessel Marion Francis was towed to its berth by a crew
from U. S. Coast Guard Station Oak Island Thursday morning. Oak
Island station took over tow from the Coast Guard vessel Metompkin
r
i
Photo by Jim Harper
at sea buoy #2 at 5 a.m. that day for the remainder of the trip to the
Southport Fish Co. dock.
Murder
remains
mystery
By Terry Pope
County Editor
The small gray-and-white
house across the street from the
Leland Town Hall is where
Lucille Blake was reared.
It is also where her grand
daughter was brutally murdered
eight years ago.
When February 23 arrives
Thursday, it will serve as a re
minder for the family of
Beverly Jaye Potter Mintz.
They would rather have this
incident behind them with an
arrest of a suspect, but that day
has never come. Her death has
kept state and local officials
puzzled for nearly a decade. It
has tormented a family that has
no answers.
"It's like he dropped down
from the sky, and went back up
that way," said Ms. Blake, who
now serves as a Leland town
councilman.
Noted as an adept local his
torian, there is very little about
Leland that she does not know
See Murder, page 6
Lease agreement approved
Airport hangs future
on expanded services
By Holly Edwards
Feature Editor
In a "precedent-setting decision,"
the Brunswick County Airport Com
mission voted 3-2 last week to lease
a portion of airport property to Ocean
Aire Aviation for hangar construction.
Ocean Aire Aviation owns four
planes and provides sightseeing
flights and flight lessons.
Hangar construction is planned for
mid-March.
A similar land lease and hangar
construction arrangement is pending
with Westward International, a manu
facturing company based in
Loveland, CO, said airport manager
Howie Franklin.
The president of that company,
Gunter Hafer, owns "a considerable
amount of property" and vacations in
the Southport-Oak Island area,
Franklin said.
Hafer usually flies here on a twin
engine aircraft but would like to use
his Cessna Citation jet. However,
Franklin said, Hafer does not want his
$5-million jet left exposed to sun, salt
and wind.
Ocean Aire Aviation plans to build
a 3,600-square-foot hangar; Hefer
wants to construct a 3,000-square
foot hangar, Franklin said.
Franklin said both projects would
benefit the airport and the county.
"Activity begets activity," he said.
See Airport, page 12
Pilot Line extended
Beginning March 1, South Brunswick High and South
Brunswick Middle school students who live outside the 457
calling area can reach Pilot line without charge by dialing >
253-8427.
The original number, 457-5084, will still be available to those
who live within the Southport-Oak Island calling area. Each
number provides access to all Pilot Line services.
Until now, students and parents in the Bolivia and Boiling
Spring Lakes area could not readily access Pilot line, which /,
provides homework assignments and announcements for all
classrooms at each school.
The free calling will be of great assistance to students and .
parents in the 253- exchange, said South Brunswick High
School principal Sue Sellers.
"Wve had a lot of parents say they’ve used Pilot line, es- v
pecially with the rash of flu weVe had," Sellers said. "But one
mother said she had to call back six times to get ah of the, |
assignments - and she had to pay each time."
Teachers are encouraged to update their assignments regu
larly, Sellers said.
Long Beach
Manager
gets raise
and praise
By Richard Nubel
Municipal Editor
Mayor Joan Altman Tuesday night
broke a 3-3 tie of council to award
town manager Jerry Walters a two
year contract extension and a five
percent salary increase.
But council likes the manager bet
ter than that vote indicates.
Commissioners Jeff Ensminger,
Danny Leonard and Bill Easley ob
jected to a public evaluation of the
manager and votes against Kevin
Bell’s motion to extend the contract
and raise the manager’s pay
reflected that dissatisfaction with
procedure.
In two separate actions, council
voted unanimously to finance con
struction of a 500,000-gallon over
head water storage tank and the pro
posed new fire station on Oak Island
Drive at 2nd Street SE at Southern
National Bank and voted, also unan
imously, to finance the $300,000
cost of purchasing a two-block sec
See Long Beach, page 7
* orecast
We can look forward to slightly
wanner weather with daily tempera
tures 55 to 60 for the period Thurs
day through Sunday. Partly cloudy
skies will also be a part of our week
end forecast.
Tide tables
HIGH . LOW
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23
2:10 am. 8:28 a.m.
227 p.m. 8:43 pm.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24
3:18 a.m. 9:35 a.m.
3:36p.m. _ 9:51pm.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25
*23 am. 10:37 am.
4:41 pm. 1053 pm.
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 26
523 am. 11:33 a.m.
5:41pm. 11:50 pm.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27
6:18 am. —— an,
6:35 p.m. 1234 pm.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28
Z** am. 12:42 am.
724 pm. 1:11pm.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1
7:54 a.m. 130 am.
W9pm. 1:54 pm.
Tne following adjustment* should be made:
Bald Head Island, high -10, km -7; Caswell
Beach, high -5, low -1; Southport, high +7,
low +15; Lockwood Folly, high -22, low -8.